Present Day

Just five more hours and his overnight would be done. It hadn't been a bad shift, he knew better than to say it out loud but it had actually been pretty quiet but that didn't change the fact that it had been long. He probably shouldn't have picked it up but overtime was gold and it helped to keep his mind busy. The fact that Natalie had also been scheduled on tonight's shift… Well that was part of the reason Will needed to keep busy.

He still didn't understand how things had gone so wrong so fast but he knew it was his fault. If he could go back he never would have lied to her about the gun, Jay had given him shit for it when he found out but truthfully he'd messed up way before that, before he'd gotten so paranoid in witness protection that he thought he needed one. Or could use it. The truth was he'd screwed up the minute he hadn't told Nat about getting involved with Ray Burke. It had been stupid but he'd just wanted to keep her safe, to keep her happy- she'd been so excited about their wedding, he hadn't wanted anything to put a damper on their special day. You know, like leaving her waiting at the altar and staining her wedding dress with blood. He'd only gotten a minute with her, less but he still remembered How relieved until she'd seen the blood on his hands and had panicked.

Even then she'd still looked beautiful.

"Will!"

The moment he heard someone shouting his name he knew he shouldn't have thought that about the shift being quiet but then it rang in his ears and he realized it wasn't just anyone calling for him.

It was Jay.

He threw himself out of the breakroom where he'd been resting his eyes, not hoping for a run-in with his ex-fiancé, his heart stopping in his chest when he saw his brother being ushered into a bay by Maggie. His disheveled appearance was one thing, he might've been in jeans but he wasn't wearing a shirt, just an open hoodie but what really scared him was that he was carrying Tess. Even from across the E.D Will could see the limpness in her limbs and the sight had him rushing towards them.

"What happened? What- you brought the cat?" He asked as a dark shadow cut him off to run under the bed. He'd heard about the feline but seriously?

But Jay made it clear she wasn't going anywhere.

"Yes and she's not going anywhere. And I don't know. She was fine and then she started throwing up and grabbing her side."

The panic in his brother's voice had him letting the sanitation hazard go, for now, focusing on his girlfriend. "Hey Tess? Can you tell me what's wrong?"

No.

She couldn't.

Her head was lolling so much Jay had to hold it still but she was awake, just blind with pain and by the roll of her body trying not to vomit. But if nothing had happened to bring this on-

"That's where she was impaled." Jay said tersely, his face tightly composed but his eyes… That wasn't just panic, that was real fear. "Seven months ago. One-millimeter-thick rebar."

The injury that had brought her back to his brother.

He had to make sure it wasn't the reason she left again.

"Alright, Maggie I need-"

"I got it."

Natalie.

For a second all Will could do was stare at her, floored by the relief that swept over him when she gave him that reassuring smile. Things might still be awkward between them but they always had each other's back, and they always worked well together, evident by how easily they moved around each other, Nat grabbing the ultrasound machine while he gave Tess a high dose of painkillers. She might be used to pain but that didn't mean he wanted her to sit in it.

"We're going to take good care of you Tess." Nat told her with that same kind smile and for the first time he realized that if everything had gone right with them, and with Jay and Tess, they might've been sisters.

They would've been good ones.

And he wasn't the only one who thought so.

"You would make a good sister-in-law." Tess said with a dopey smile while Jay snorted, shooting him a look before he took the hand she waved between them and brought it back to her chest. "Not that we're married, but you know what I mean. They need to be kept in line and you seem good at it."

"I don't think the drugs work that fast." He found himself mumbling, any embarrassment he might've felt overtaken by relief when she turned her smirk on him.

"Don't need drugs to speak the truth."

"Their stubbornness does seem to be genetic." Natalie joked, that familiar and missed teasing look in her eyes before she had to smother a laugh as Tess chuckled.

"Did you meet Pat?"

Jay made a noise he was pretty sure was some kind of laugh but by the way he buried his head in her hair Will knew he was barely holding it together. A quick glance at Nat told him she saw it too and they hurried to find out what was going on but even after the image came up on the ultrasound machine it took him a minute to understand what he was seeing, so different from what he'd been expecting. Tess had been impaled and that was part of what was causing her pain but she wasn't hurt because she'd been impaled.

Well, not entirely.

He had to look at Nat to confirm what he thought he was seeing and the sadness in her eyes told him he was, but he wasn't the only one who could see it.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Jay demanded, looking between them with a very quickly growing frustration.

"Jay, maybe you and I should-"

His brother shook his hand off his shoulder before he even put it down, the same anger in his gaze he'd seen the first time he'd come home from med school. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Jay-"

"He can stay." Tess said quietly and everyone's attention snapped back to her, the understanding in her eyes nearly taking the ground out from underneath him. "It's what I think it is, isn't it?"

"No one told you what to expect?" Natalie asked softly and Will let her do the talking- this wasn't his place, not by his sex and not by the state of his relationships either.

He'd never regretted that more than when he watched Tess shrug, composed now thanks to the pain meds but still keeping a death grip on Jay's hand. "They said it would happen less often, and that it would be more painful but… I didn't think…"

"What? What are you talking about, what is going on?" Jay demanded again but this time it was Tess he asked and Will didn't know if he would ever tell him but for a brief but very clear moment all he saw was his dad.

And his mom.

"It's my period." Tess told him quietly but while she seemed to have accepted what was happening to her his brother did not, immediately shaking his head.

"No. Look again."

"Jay-"

"No!"

He shouted so loudly he startled the cat they'd all forgotten about, Natalie giving him a stunned look as she jumped up between Tess's legs and started swatting her paw at them, trying to defend the owner she loved so much. Will hadn't really believed Jay when she told him she took the feline on operations with her but now he was second-guessing that.

"I know what her period looks like and this is not it, so you look again." Jay said firmly, in a tone he knew meant he wasn't going to be swayed but he was going to have to be because there wasn't anything they could do about this.

These were the moments he hated his profession.

"Jay-"

"I know this is scary-"

Tess cut him and Nat off, giving them a small but shaky smile. "Give us a minute."

He didn't want to, all Will wanted was to help his brother, help the woman who was his sister in everything but blood. But he couldn't. He had to walk out and watch his brother break in her arms before Natalie closed the curtain to give them privacy, giving him a look that made him want to lose himself in her arms.

But he couldn't do that either.

"Will-"

"I hate this."

"I know." She said quietly, squeezing his arm gently just for a second.

"Thank you."

Her smile gave him hope that maybe everything wasn't ruined between them, especially when she took his arm again. "Whenever you need."

You.

He didn't say that, but he thought she might've been able to see it as he followed her over to the nurses station to give his brother and Tess a bit more space, and to make sure they didn't overhear them as they discussed Tess's options. But there was only one. It made him want to scream, the two of them had been through enough and this…

It would change their lives forever.

Natalie offered to speak to both of them but he was firm that he be the one to tell Jay, though when he finally came out of her room ten minutes later he was still wishing that he didn't have to. He'd never looked more like a soldier than when he stood outside her room but he gave Natalie a grateful look when she slipped in past him, but the look his brother gave him was a horrible mix of wanting to be numb but feeling everything.

"I'm sorry Jay."

He just nodded but at least he didn't brush him off this time when he put his hand on his shoulder, but Will also didn't think it was providing him much comfort.

"I know… I wasn't there for you, what you two went through before. I can't imagine…" Except he could imagine it. He could imagine exactly how he would feel if their roles were reversed and he still had a very clear image of the help their father had given their mother that was burned into his brain. "I'm just really sorry."

Again Jay just nodded but he didn't take it personally.

What was there for him to say?

"We'll have pain medication ready when you take her home. And I'll come by to check on her tomorrow, every day until…"

Until her period was over.

Until it came back and they had to do this all over again.

If it came back.

"Thank you." Jay said hoarsely, reaching up and squeezing his hand tightly before he straightened and Will let it fall; Halstead's weren't good with vulnerability, or communication, but they did try. "Is there anything you can do?"

"You know how scar tissue works. The pain she's feeling will get worse over time and we have no way of knowing when she'll get them. The only option would be to remove one or both of the organs."

"A hysterectomy."

"Yes. I can talk to her-"

"Don't." He said quickly, shaking his head before he took a deep breath. "She's not… just don't. I'll do it."

"I'm really sorry Jay."

He went back to nodding but his eyes, their dads eyes filled with tears so Will gave him a gentle tug, offering comfort if he wanted it and after a brief waver Jay turned into him, his hug loose but his head buried tightly in his shoulder. He could feel his brother crying but he didn't say anything, just held on and glared at anyone who stared for too long, which thankfully wasn't many. Just Maggie and a few other nurses but he didn't dare glare at her. Jay only stayed there for a couple minutes, as long as it took him to get himself under control but he could see his appreciation when he pulled back and did his best to show that it was reciprocated.

And then he did what a big brother was meant to do.

"You feel like not distracting the nurses now?" He asked teasingly, pointing to Jay's bare chest when he looked at him in confusion and chuckling at his scowl as he zipped his hoodie up.

Will didn't blame him for rushing her here, Jay was a man of action but it had gotten his mind off his troubles for a minute and that was something.

At least until Nat walked out and he went right on the alert, though she calmed him down with a quick smile. "She's okay. I'm going to check on her medication."

"Thanks Nat." Jay said roughly, giving her a nod before he went back into Tess's room, though not without shooting him a look that said it was time for Will to get his own shit together.

He was working on it.

"Anytime." Natalie answered, giving him a worried look as he followed her back to the nurses station. "How is he?"

"He is in protective mode. How is she?"

"She seems okay, I just- I don't know what I would do in their case. Do they want kids?"

Will had to shrug because he didn't know, Jay had never seemed all that interested even before Tess had gone but he didn't think having the choice taken away from them would be easy even if they hadn't wanted any. And if they did…

"If there is anything I can do Will, please let me know."

He'd almost had kids with her.

Had almost become a father to Owen, and would have wanted more. He wanted to see his brother as an uncle and to know what it was to be one himself.

"Will?"

"Thanks Nat." He said quickly, staring at her hand on his arm and wishing it could stay there. "I may take you up on that."