Hey Guys! Hope everyone is having a good weekend! Here is a new chapter, enjoy! :)
S/N: Words cannot begin to describe how excited I am that Fire, Med, and PD starts filming again this week!
"Listen, I have got to go home, anything happens call me, if you don't you will find yourself in the bottom of the canal." Voight said, walking out of the room.
With that Jay got up and moved to the semi-comfortable chair, 'at least it's cushioned' he thought to himself as he got comfortable.
He sat at Erins bedside, lost in his own train of thought, when an older nurse walked in.
"You know you can touch her, right? You will not hurt her." The nurse said as she checked Erin's vitals.
"Oh, I.. I actually didn't know."
"It's ok,' laughed the nurse as she inserted a vial of something into her IV 'most people don't. Oh! My name is Jessica by the way, I will be Ms. Lindsay's nurse for the night."
"Jay, Jay Halstead." He told her, putting his hand out.
"Well, Mr. Halstead, until Ms. Lindsay here wakes up, if you need anything you can press this button right here for the nurses station, and attached to this cord is the remote and speaker for the TV. Me or another nurse is just down the hall, and someone will be coming in periodically to check vitals and administer meds."
"Thank You."
"No problem, it's all a part of the job, now if you get really brave you can talk to her, she won't respond but you can always hope." The nurse finished saying as she moved across the hall, to the next patient.
Jay turned on the television, turning it on to SportsCenter staring at it blankly, listening to the rhythmic beeping of Erin's heartbeat as it was emitted throughout the room. He got to thinking about what the nurse said, and turned, taking Erin's hand into his, intertwining their fingers and he soon thereafter found himself dozing off.
The Next Morning...
"Awww. Look, I mean seriously guys, we're detectives, how could we have missed that?" Ruzek asked as him, Antonio, and Atwater stood outside the hospital room.
"I don't know, but they pulled it off, I guess going undercover as a couple a lot helped." Atwater spoke.
"Listen, I think what happens in their personal time is their business." Antonio voiced his opinion.
"You knew?" Ruzek questioned.
"Well, someone had to try and keep Voight away so that job was left for me and Nads, and it worked for almost three months. They were both happy, like genuinely happy, that was until they got a little to reckless and Voight picked up the scent, it wasn't but two days later when they called it off. I just hope they will be a little more careful this time." Atwater and Ruzek looked at Antonio, blank stares on their faces.
"What?" Dawson questioned.
"Wow, I never thought of you to be so… meticulous." Ruzek voiced.
"Lots of undercover cover work baby." Dawson said proudly.
"Don't ever call me baby again." Ruzek told him shaking his head, as they walked into the small room.
Erin was still sedated and stable, Jay was sound asleep, his hand entangled with hers, his head laying on the bed.
They tried to enter the room quietly but ultimately failed, Jays supersonic hearing that he inherited as a Ranger in Afghanistan, coming into play.
"Good Morning sleeping beauty." Ruzek joked as he leaned against the counter.
"Ha. Ha. Very Funny." Jay retorted as he popped his back and stretched his muscles.
"How is she? How are you?" Antonio asked as the father figure in the group.
"She is doing ok, they are slowly taking her off sedation, should be completely off and hopefully awake in a day or two. They wanted to keep her under for her to heal. I am.. I am doing ok." Jay said as he tried to wake himself up, looking around for a clock.
'Damn It! My watch is at the house, I am lucky to have even remembered my gun and badge.' He mentally chastised himself, before he seen the clock over the door. 10:54
"Shit!" he cursed as he quickly stood.
"Where's the fire Halstead?" Dawson asked, as they all looked on amused.
"I'm late for work, and Voight is going to kill me."
All three men, busted out laughing.
"Dude, relax. You're not late for work, when you didn't show, Voight expected it and so he sent us by to check on you guys as we headed out to check on a lead. He told us to tell you to stay with Lindsay, that she is the main priority of this unit."
Jay let out a sigh of relief.
"But I cannot make any promises about him not killing you." laughed Dawson.
"Thanks." Jay told him as he glared to Antonio.
"Listen, we have a few minutes to spare, why don't we go get some coffee, Antonio will stay with Erin." Ruzek asked as him and Atwater pushed Jay out the door, not allowing him to decline the offer.
Antonio felt alone and bored not long after they had left, so he did what he had seen on what little television he had watched over the past couple of years.
"Hey, Er. I know you can't hear me, but I know that they say talking to people in the hospital helps. Do you remember one of our first cases together? Man, what I wouldn't give to be back there. Just you, me, Al, Jules, Voight, and the new kid, Jay. I remember one of the times we had training, we had to clear a house, it was me and Jules in the back, you and Halstead took the front, Voight and Al were the bad guys; So the siren sounded, the lights dimmed, me and Jules bust in the back, clearing left and right, when we came upon the last room, I think it was the living room, there was you and Halstead in the center of the room, with a gun pointed at the other, demanding that the other one drop their weapon, and that was when you both pulled the trigger, the other unsure of where the paintball coming towards them was headed until you heard the fall behind you. As it turned out, Voight was standing behind you, and Olinsky behind Halstead, and you and Jay shot at each other to take out the targets, that was when I knew you were good police." Antonio recalled the fond memory, wiping a stray tear from his eye.
"So, if you can hear me, I need you covering my ass. Voight needs you, well because he is Voight, you are practically the man's daughter. Olinsky is practically family to you family too, hell, all of us. Ruzek needs you because who else will give him a hard time about everything? Atwater, well Atwater needs someone to learn from, and that person is you. Burgess is going to need a bridesmaid for her and Ruzek's wedding, you know they planned not to have it until you got back? Roman, well I think Roman helped save you from Bunny. Which lastly brings me to Halstead. Do you know how many temporary partners he went through after you quit? Eight. Eight people. Voight finally gave up and let him work alone. You know he will never admit this but every time I have looked up from my paperwork over the past eleven months I would catch him staring at your desk, and after a few minutes the biggest and dorkyist smile would appear on his face. I made fun of him a couple of times because of it, but you are that man's world. If me and Nads had been able to keep Voight away I would say you guys would be engaged by now. When Nadia told me that something had apparently happened between you and Jay, I blamed myself for not being able to keep him away for any longer than we did, but it was your fault, you guys were getting reckless." Antonio finished, as he realized he found himself rambling.
"But, as soon as you get the chance to wake-up take it, because I am tired of looking at the love-sick puppy." Antonio laughed.
Ten minutes later Adam, Kevin, and Jay returned, Jay looking refreshed and relaxed, they said their goodbyes, the boys promising to return after shift. And Jay found himself sitting in the green chair once again. Alone.
He turned the volume up on the TV, initially as background noise, a baseball game of the Chicago Cubs versus the Atlanta Braves. Chicago was down four to five in the top of the ninth, and Jay found himself hoping that David Ross would steal third, and that Dexter Fowler would hit a fly ball out into center field, but his hopes were soon crushed by the double play that Jace Peterson and Freddie Freeman impressively preformed.
'I miss baseball.' He thought to himself as he realized this was the first game he had caught all season. It used to be he would never miss a game, but then again he was a pitcher, and he did have one of the best arms on the team, but he gave it all up to fight for his country.
Jay did not realize how long he had been lost in his thoughts nor how long he had been sitting there again, when he felt the massive cramp in his calf muscle he figured he needed to move around. He got up and moved to the window, down onto the city of seemingly unaware people below. Unaware of what life had in store and where it would take them.
"You know, I don't know if you knew this or not but, I played baseball in high school, and football, and ran track. I guess I was one of 'those guys'. I never thought myself to become a cop, I always thought I would follow in my father's footsteps and become a doctor, but then one day he decided to up and leave us, leaving my mom to support me and Will. Will was off at college, partying day and night, he didn't care, but to see the hurt on my mom's face… Anyways, I had a full ride to practically any school I wanted and I was actually drafted to the minors, but then I woke-up one clear, fall day in 2001, and little did I know by the end of the day, my life would change drastically. I guess you can say the patriotic side came out, just like it did millions of other men and women that day. So there you have it, the reason as to why I joined the army." He told her as he paced the room, sitting back down as he finished telling the story.
Over the next few hours, Jay began telling Erin stories from his Childhood, for instance the time he broke his arm learning to ride a bike; or about the first girl he kissed, Melissa Patterson, in kindergarten and got kicked in the balls afterwards; about the time he almost got arrested for underage drinking at a party; the time he totaled his first car, a 1967 Chevy Camaro, because he tried to fly through the air using a dirt ramp, like they do in the movies.
"So, as I was flying over these hurdles, my legs aching, I was about fifteen feet from the finish line and I suddenly begin humming 'Eye of the Tiger' really loudly, apparently I thought I was Rocky Balboa or something, because as soon as I crossed that finish line-"he was telling his sedated partner.
"Good evening Mr. Halstead. How is she tonight?" Nurse Jessica asked as she walked in doing her normal routine.
"Evening Jessica, she is doing fine, no change, they did remove the breathing tube, which I guess is a good thing."
"Yes, it's very good, she's breathing on her own so she should be awake this time tomorrow." She told him as she inserted medications into the IV line.
"Really? That's awesome!" he said hopefully.
"It is isn't it? Well, I best be getting on to my other patients." She said as she walked out the door.
"Oh, wait Jess! Thank you for suggesting I talk to her, it has helped a lot." Jay told the older nurse, as he ran to the door to meet the woman.
"You're Welcome." She said as she walked away.
"so anyways, as I was crossing the finish line..." Jay continued telling some of his greatest memories and moments as he sat back down grabbing Erins hand and intertwining their fingers.
"and that is how I got dumped at my senior prom in front of the entire junior and senior class. " Jay finished telling as he felt his eyelids growing heavier, the sound of the rhythmic beeping throughout the room, lulling him to sleep.
The next few days seemed to pass by at the speed of light, the team had a new case on the desks allowing for little visitation time, trying to come by before or after shift. Jay's brother coming by when he could. None of Erin's family was notified of what had happened, she did not need that mess back in her life. Erin was completely off the sedation medicine, but was still not awake, the doctors saying 'she will wake-up in her own time.' Yeah, ok, that was three days ago.
The nurses were threatening to ban Jay from the hospital saying that 'his smell was compromising to the healing of the patients' until his brother took pity and snuck him into the hospital staff showers.
"Thank you for bringing me a change of clothes and for sneaking me into the doctor's showers, and for feeding me and for caring about me in general." Jay joked with Will as they headed back down towards Erin's hospital room. As Jay walked in, he was unable to believe what his eyes were seeing.
"What the hell?!" he voiced loudly as he noticed the new bracelet around his partners wrist attached to the bed railing.
"Detective Jay Halstead of Intelligence I presume? I am Detective Mark Sullivan with Narcotics, I suppose you are wondering as to what I am doing here? Well, I have been sent an anonymous surveillance video and circumstantial evidence of Miss Erin Lindsay, of her distributing and selling narcotics to an undercover federal agent, as well as attempted first degree murder and kidnapping."