Voight ditched him in the ambulance bay without speaking a word. He was glad, relieved really, that his boss wasn't going to stick around for a couple of reasons; they had two assholes from the bust to flip and with Voight out of the picture and his hoody to cover up the blood and bandage, he could keep his visit in the realm of a concussion check and leave the rest of his body out of it.
He hoped to God he could avoid Will. Any mother henning at this point would be irritating and on the other side of the coin, the lack of mother henning would just hurt.
X
After getting the lowdown from Maggie, Will looked in the waiting room expecting to see Hailey or someone from Intelligence but no one was there.
"Who came in with Jay?"
"No one. He walked in about 20 minutes ago. Didn't want us to page you, said it wasn't an emergency and could wait for another doctor."
As pissed as he was at his little brother, he couldn't believe his whole team dumped him and said as much to Jay when he entered the bay.
"All hands on deck. I don't need a babysitter."
"Could have fooled me."
It was kind of a joke, but not. This was the second time the idiot got injured in as many days. He hated it when Jay got hurt. It brought out the worst in him and he always ended up taking out his fear on his little brother.
For a brief moment Jay looked nothing less than defeated before he dipped his head for a second and sighed.
His stupid joke hit right where he aimed and Jay's reaction made him wish he'd missed. They were all stressed about these OD's but Jay seemed to be everyone's punching bag, his included.
Twenty uncomfortable minutes later, with a few convincing white lies and maybe a little guilt thrown in to seal the deal, 'I've got a headache Will and you and my team are the source of it,' Jay was cleared for active duty.
XXXXXXX
The next morning
With his truck already at the district, Jay came to work in an Uber with a Vicodin and two ibuprofen pumping through his system.
He arrived in his civvies but brought his blues and left them in his truck hoping he wouldn't need them. He wanted to talk to Voight and find out where they stood. Would this bullshit punishment go on another day, another week or was it permanent?
Trying to hide the pain he was in, he walked through the doors and up the steps with a nod to Platt. He hoped yesterday was just a slap on the wrist and things would be back to status quo today - everyone still angry with him but he could work the case from his desk not his couch.
Trudy watched it happen in disbelief. Halstead put his code in for the gate and it didn't work.
Hand on the scanner, Jay froze for a moment and then, not wanting to draw attention to himself, walked back down the stairs as if something fucking awful didn't just happen. And as much as the kid tried to keep his stoic façade, he failed miserably.
Trudy was caught off guard by Hank's callousness and at a loss for what to do in the moment. Jay belonged in Intelligence not on patrol. There was no way in hell she was going to send her detective out again and embarrass him.
Looking at his bruised face and sad eyes, she shook her head and sighed, "Go home Halstead."
He swallowed, gave her a dip of his chin, then averted his eyes and walked out the door. He probably thought he was out of her line of sight but she saw his shoulders drop and the hand run through his hair. She had never wanted to kick Hank's ass as much as she did right now.
Then she realized her mistake and wanted to kick her own ass. She sent Jay home because she didn't want to humiliate him. Working patrol for one day could be passed off as nothing, working two days when he should be upstairs working a high profile case was something and people would talk.
In her effort to protect Jay, she'd been unintentionally cruel. Sending him home was a message she hadn't intended - that she supported Hank's spiteful decision to keep him benched and the coldhearted way he informed the kid of it.
X
She stormed up the stairs to find all of Intelligence, well, except one, focused on the board but they all turned to her when she got to the top of the stairs.
"You want to tell me what that was all about?"
Everyone looked confused except Voight.
"What what was all about?"
"Why Halstead's code didn't work just now. He walked out the front door like a kicked puppy that didn't get invited to the party."
By the look on Hank's face, he knew exactly what his bullshit did to Jay.
"Halstead is no longer a member of Intelligence."
All heads snapped to Voight but only Hailey had the balls to question him.
"WHAT?!"
"I told him he went to see his CI he was out. He went anyway."
He could tell by the looks on their faces they didn't think he was serious and being sent to patrol was a one day punishment.
"But Sarge, the lead panned out…"
"You pulling pictures off the board, Burgess? … Didn't think so, case ain't over and kids are still dying."
Adam was pissed beyond belief at Jay but knew the guy was still working the case nonstop and grinding out leads, more leads than them…while, as it turns out, injured.
"Jay's lead netted us two members of Spencer's crew and pulled four bricks of Gemini off the streets."
Voight scanned all their faces and disregarded their indignation with a warning.
"I don't make empty threats."
He went to his office but was stopped by Hailey's, "Sarge?!"
"Why're you fighting for him now Upton? A good partner would have stopped him from going when I told him not to or at the very least talked to him. You did neither."
He pointed at all of them.
"You're just as angry at him as me. You've been punishing him and talking shit about him since he lost Spencer, so I don't know why you're so concerned now…Get back to work. Find the guy Halstead let get away."
"Sarge, pissed at him or not. You gotta let him work the case with us. He's gunna carry every kid that dies from here on out."
"Well, two more died since he walked down those steps to see his CI, Hailey, so you might want to stop bitching and solve the case so he doesn't suffocate."
Voight slammed his door putting a violent end to the discussion. Trudy was just as stunned as the rest of them. She knew Hank was being pressured by the Ivory Tower. They wanted Jay fired and had been harping on it multiple times a day.
There was no way in hell Hank would ever be cowed by the powers that be, so he benched the kid but told the white shirts Jay was suspended. 'Official paper work to come.'
Hank was defying the Ivory Tower by not firing the kid, but doing enough to placate them for the time being. His defiance also allowed him to discipline Jay - a member of his unit and he would punish his insubordinate detective as he saw fit.
She gave a final huff to the room and walked down the steps. If Jay didn't have the computer she gave him she would have fought harder. They needed everyone, especially Jay working this. He was great detective, they needed his expertise but even more than that, the case was eating the kid alive before his stupid mistake, she didn't want to imagine what was going on in his head now.
X
Kevin looked after his boss. He was mad at Jay too, but…
"Damn that was cold."
"Ya, like he's punished Jay and protecting him at the same time."
They all had whiplash from how they felt about Jay but no matter what feelings they strayed to; worry, or remorse for how they were treating him, the core emotion they always whipped back to was anger. They couldn't help it. They were this close to getting Spencer and Jay blew their chance.
Hailey gave Kevin and Kim a pointed a look, then Adam, "Guys, get to work. We've all rode Jay hard. We can feel bad for him or be mad at him later. Kids are dying. That's the priority."
She had mixed feelings. She was angry and disappointed her partner did something rash and it had dire circumstances. This would haunt Jay for the rest of his life. When you're a cop one mistake could do that. A mistake born out of recklessness even more so.
Kids, more kids would die if Spencer kept it up. If Jay had gotten him they wouldn't have cared about his rash actions. Well, Voight would have. He would have laid out the exact situation they were in as a 'what if.'
But Jay didn't get him.
And that spiked her anger all over again, pushing away any guilt for how she was treating Jay. Billy was dead. A good kid caught up with the wrong crowd. She needed to bring Spencer down and spinning about how he had slipped through their fingers, Jay's fingers, wouldn't get them anywhere.
XXXXXXX
Two hours after Jay was sent home, Dr. Halstead walked into the district. With a sigh, Trudy waved him on to follow her upstairs knowing he was there to update them on additional deaths.
As soon as Will's presence was known, Hailey asked the question with resignation.
"How many?"
They knew bodies would keep piling up, the question now was, how fast? Will was there to give them the answer they already knew…too fast.
It didn't cross Will's mind that any time he had shown up the last couple of weeks was to update them on the number of OD's in the ER and their status, which was either dead or near death with no hope for recovery.
Coming in person with the updates had also had a secondary reason; to check in on his brother which was the only reason he came by today.
"Oh, ah no. No more. I wanted to talk to Jay…see how he is doing."
"He's not here…probably at home…"
Even though it was late or really, very early this morning when he'd cleared Jay, his brother gave him the impression he would be going back to work…that was really the only reason he cleared him.
He didn't think Jay would step away from the case even for a minute. He thought Jay would be here, not alone…and given how protective Voight was of his people, whether he was pissed at them or not, he thought Voight would keep a stern eye on his brother and keep him from doing something stupid…doing something stupid again, keep an eye on his brother's health.
"I cleared him but…well, I only cleared him since he was coming back here."
"He have a concussion?"
"No, no…borderline. He had no symptoms just a killer headache…but still I wouldn't want him to be alone…he looked miserable."
He looked at the team, "I don't even know how he got home or wherever he went. There was no one with him."
It was a question and a dig. They were mad at his brother yes, and with reason, but they basically abandoned him at Med like an unwanted baby left on the steps of a church.
"We don't have the man power to…"
"That's what Jay said, but still…"
"Doc, kids are dying. We don't have the people or time to sit around waiting while he gets a bump on the head and a minor GSW checked out."
"WHAT?! HE WAS SHOT?! Where?"
They all had some version of the same thought. Of course Jay wouldn't say anything. That damn hoody covered it all up. Nothing was going to keep him from working the case short of getting thrown in the cage…which at this point, Voight might be considering.
"Upper arm, a through and through. Medics didn't seem overly concerned about it or his head…"
The fact that he was seen by the medics alleviated a little of his fear but he didn't really know what to think of any of it. Regardless of their feelings, this was…he didn't know what this was.
"…and he seemed fine, called the GSW a 'graze'."
"Any other injuries the idiot was hiding?"
Hailey sighed. "So he didn't tell you what happened?"
"No he was getting a concussion check…he had a bandage on his forehead…"
Kim spoke up in her gentle voice. Whether it was gentle to help Will calm down or gentle for Jay and what he was going through was hard to say.
"The day you saw him he had fallen down a flight of stairs. We didn't know until last night that he was more injured than he let on. He was covered in bruises and had taken one to the vest…didn't tell us."
"Didn't tell you? HE DIDN'T TELL YOU? What is wrong with you people?! It's Jay. He's going to downplay his injuries. A GSW to the vest? You're just going to ignore that because he made a mistake?"
"He knew what he was doing. That's more than a mistake…"
He glared at Voight. "You are his friends…he considers you family and you treat him like shit and…"
Voight interrupted and gave Will a pointed look, "We aren't the only 'family' that treated him 'like shit.'"
That stopped him. Will knew this. He knew he'd been an asshole, a colossal asshole. But they knew what happened and that Jay could be hurt, would have been hurt from a fall down stairs and did nothing. He thought Jay got in a fight, took a few blows to the face and that was the extent of it, they knew more.
The argument was between Will and Voight but it was hammering home to all of them that in their justified anger at Jay they disregarded his well being. They knew he fell down stairs and they brushed it his bruised and bloody face should have told them he might have a concussion.
They didn't ask him how he was once he got back to the district, didn't ask him what the medics said. They let Jay get away with being 'fine' without fighting him on it…at all…so they wouldn't have to deal with him because they were so angry.
And then last night, Voight drove Jay to the hospital, dumped him and showed up at the district a half hour after he left they scene.
Any other time, one of them, Hailey or Voight would have called to give Will a heads up on possible injuries because Jay would try to downplay them. And if there was ever a time Jay would downplay injuries it was with this case. They were all stressed, but that was no excuse…there was no excuse for disregarding Jay's injuries because they were angry at him, justified or not.
Will rubbed his face, thrown by the magnitude of his, their, shitty treatment of his brother.
"What the hell is this? What the hell."
"You know this Will, he didn't wait. He lied, went in without backup, lost an asshole responsible for countless deaths and more to come and got himself hurt in the process."
He did know it, but goddammit, hearing it said out loud again stoked the anger he thought he had put away, "Wait, he lied? About what?"
"Gave us an excuse for going in. Said there was a tender age kid in danger…there wasn't a kid…he just didn't want to wait the two minutes until we got there."
He was incredulous, "What? I mean, are you sure? Jay wouldn't…"
"Well he did. None of us saw a kid and we checked the pods. There's a lot of them in the area. We were able to track Spencer to a parking garage but lost him there…we would have seen a kid if there was one."
Adam added more insult to injury, "And this wasn't just an excuse he told after his fuck up Will, Jay said there was a kid before he even went in. He had the lie ready."
Will was already angry Jay went in alone, an idiotic thing to do. It resulted in Spencer getting away and Jay getting hurt. On top of that, to find out he lied to his team about his reason for going in filled him with profound disappointment. And even though he came to check on Jay's well being, in his dark cloud of anger and disappointment he unconsciously put his little brother's injuries on the back burner…again.
XXXXXXX
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Another BeMeanToJayDay is in the books. Hope you enjoyed it! See ya next Thursday. Stay safe peeps! Big smooch!