A/N: Ok I am back! I know it's been a long time since I have updated this story. I got busy working on other stories for Seal Team. I am hoping to have all of my stories completed by the end of the year. I will be working on one story at a time and getting the full story written/edited before I start to post. I have two chapters left of this one, but they will be done by the end of next week so I thought I would post this now instead of making you wait even longer. Posting will normally be done on Sundays.

Review please!

Chapter 2

It wasn't long before General Whilite and two other soldiers walked up the steps and into the bullpen. Everyone had been going over what they could so they would be able to hit the ground running once they had all of the information. The atmosphere in the room was tense to say the least. They were all anxious to get started, but they had to wait for the clearance. Jay stood up at the arrival of the General and his men.

"General Whilite." Jay said, as he held his hand out.

"It's good to see you again Jay. Though I wish it was under different circumstances." Whilite said, as he took Jay's offered hand.

"This is my Sergeant, Hank Voight and Sergeant Trudy Platt." Jay said, with a nod in their direction.

General Whilite shook both of their hands as he spoke.

"Sergeants."

"General." Voight said on their behalf.

"I am sure Jay has informed you all of the rules, but I will go over them again. This is the highest level of classification. All paperwork is shredded and then burned. Anything involving a computer is done on our secured laptops. You are not to discuss anything in a public place. Unless you are either Halstead or one of the Sargents, you are to not interrogate the suspects. Any breach of these regulations will result in your immediate arrest where you will be transported to a military holding facility until you are prosecuted and transferred to your final resting place. If you agree to the regulations then you agree to them from the moment you sign on the dotted line until you take your last breath. Any questions?" General Whilite asked.

When no one said anything Voight spoke. "We understand and we will respect the classification seal."

"Perfect. I have paperwork for everyone. I will walk you all through it." General Whilite said.

Jay didn't need to sign any paperwork so he helped get everyone sorted with it along with the General and his men. It was a good thirty minutes when all of the paperwork was signed and given back over to the General for him to file. His men placed down nine secured laptops onto the desk as the General spoke.

"Jay, I am sure you remember how to get onto them."

"Yes Sir." Jay confirmed.

"Given the seriousness of this situation, I have ordered Staff Sergeant Gerwitz to return to Chicago. He is already on a plane and will arrive tomorrow. He has been trying to locate the others. I would encourage you to do the same. We need to know who is in danger. If you need any help with relocating them to a safer place, don't hesitate to call me and I can arrange safe houses for everyone." General Whilite said to Jay.

"I appreciate that Sir. I'll start looking up the ones that are Stateside. Do you have any intel on the Ghosts Sir?" Jay asked.

"I do not. Much like yourself, I have always been told they are not real. They were protected by a higher ranking official than myself. Their military files are completely blacked out. You know their names, you can search for them outside of the military files. I am working on getting some of their files unredacted for you."

"I would appreciate that Sir. I'll see what I can dig up on them now that they are civilians." Jay said.

"I wish you all the luck and please don't hesitate to reach out." General Whilite said with a nod to the others.

"We appreciate it General." Voight said on their behalf.

The general and his men headed out and once they were all alone all eyes turned to Jay. Jay could tell they were all anxious to hear the story, to get the intel and discover what the hell was going on. This was not a story he wanted to tell though and he certainly never thought he would be telling it. It was something he had every intention of taking to his grave and now the people that he worked closely with every single day were going to know his deepest and darkest secret. This wasn't something that Jay was prepared for, not at all.

"Ok, so what's the story?" Rojas asked when Jay didn't say anything right away.

Jay knew he had to tell them, because there was no other way they would be able to work the case without this intel. The problem was, one of many, but the most pressing problem at this moment was Will. Jay couldn't allow for Will to find out, not like this. Not after everything Will had done to try and get him better when he first returned. Yes, Will had left after two weeks, but he had a career, a job, he had to get back to. He couldn't afford to take six months off to help him recover. Jay understood that and it was why he had Mouse with him. They had managed to get through it all together and Jay couldn't have asked for Will to uproot his life for him. They had been so close growing up when they were kids, but ever since Will moved to New York for medical school things got distant between them. There were some hard feelings when Jay had to care for their sick and dying mother. When Will almost never responded to his emails when he was overseas. But none of that mattered to Jay. because when he got off that plane the last time, Will was there.

Will had gotten him an apartment with furniture. Will had made sure there was proper medical supplies and food. Will had made sure to get the correct dosage of his anti-anxiety medication so he could keep his anxiety under control without feeling like he was in a constant state of fog. Will had been there for him when it truly mattered and Jay loved him for that. He didn't want Will finding out about what happened in a room full of people. Not to mention, there would be things that Jay could tell Will, but he couldn't tell the others. Letting out a soft sigh Jay pushed off from the desk he was leaning against as he spoke.

"Will."

Jay gave a nod to the break room and started to head that way. Khol easily followed Jay and Will looked at the others before he followed Jay into the breakroom. Jay closed the door and pulled the blinds down so they had complete privacy.

"What the hell was that? We need to know what happened." Rojas said, not impressed that Jay wasn't talking to them.

"He'll tell us. He has to tell Will first though." Hailey said in Jay's defense.

"Will isn't a cop. He shouldn't even be here for any of this." Rojas countered.

"Will is Jay's older brother. His life is at risk as long as these guys are after Jay. And whatever happened to Jay overseas it was bad enough that it ended his military career. He needs to tell Will first, because Will deserves to hear it from Jay one-on-one and not in front of a group of people." Hailey calmly explained.

"If Jay needs a minute, we can give him a minute. Start getting the laptops up and running and start looking around on them so you know how to use their system." Voight ordered.

Voight could tell most of the team were anxious to get started on their case and to hear what the story was. However, he could also understand Jay's need to tell his brother what happened in private. Allow them to have the moment to feel whatever they needed to feel so they could focus on the case. One thing Voight did know, whatever happened to Jay it had to be bad for him to develop PTSD and so much anxiety from it. One thing he did know, he was going to be there for Jay no matter what the story was. They would get through this together and come out the other end stronger.

XXX

Will knew his brother was very anxious and nervous about what he had to tell him. He wished he could have taken this away from him. He wished he could have taken this pain from his kid brother. He never wanted to see Jay in pain. It had been like that ever since Jay had been born. Will had always tried to keep him safe, keep him protected from the world. He knew he had failed him a few times growing up when the bullies would reach Jay. Will used to make sure Jay hung out with him and his friends at school as often as possible. Jay was a great kid, but he was awkward and different. He wasn't a jock, he was smart, but he didn't care for anime and comics so he wasn't nerdy. He was just this average kid that didn't care for fake friends. He was an easy target in their private school that was filled with rich kids. Will tried to look out for him, but Jay didn't really find his place until he started in ROTC.

Will could still remember how happy and alive Jay became when he was going to ROTC. He loved it and he loved the brotherhood of it. It really was no surprise to Will that Jay wanted to be in the Army when he graduated high school. It terrified him, because he would be going to war and seeing the worst that humanity had to offer. Will wasn't stupid, he knew the little brother that he loved and knew would slowly die as the years ticked by. And that was exactly what happened. Everytime he got to speak with him over video chat Will could see the baby brother he once knew and loved was slowly deteriorating right before his eyes. It got too painful to watch so when the video calls turned into emails, Will was thankful for it and then he slowly stopped answering the emails. By the time he realised he had made a huge mistake, he was getting a call from some German doctor letting him know that his baby brother was being sent home tomorrow after being honorably discharged. The doctor hadn't given Will much because Jay hadn't given him permission, but he had been told of the bulk of his injuries and Will's stomach had instantly turned.

Hearing that his brother was so injured and sick he had immediately gotten two weeks off of work and quickly found an apartment and furniture for him. When Jay joined the Army at eighteen, he never got an apartment in Chicago. Whenever he was in town he just stayed at a hotel. He had been gone so often on missions or tour, plus he lived in Georgia so it didn't make any sense for him to have an apartment in Chicago. He didn't even have a place in Georgia, he just lived within the dorms because he was gone so many days out of the year. Will could still picture exactly what Jay looked like when he first got his eyes on him after he got off the plane. Mouse had been pushing him in a wheelchair because his body was so weak and sick he couldn't even stand. Will had been a doctor for a good chunk of time at that point, but he was nowhere near prepared for the level of damage done to his little brother's body and mind.

Will had wanted to know the story. He wanted to know what the hell had happened to his baby brother, but he also knew that Jay wasn't ready to talk about it and that he most likely couldn't. He had to respect Jay's privacy and he had to go at Jay's pace, but that didn't mean it wasn't extremely hard for him to be kept in the dark. For those two weeks Will had taken care of Jay. Helped him get dressed, eat, go to the bathroom, he bathed him. He did everything he could to help Jay get through the initial pain and illness. Whenever Jay couldn't sleep, Will would crawl into bed with him and hold him all night until he was no longer too scared to close his eyes. Since moving back to Chicago, Will had seen his brother starting to come back to life and he was terrified that this case was going to break Jay all over again.

"Hey, come here." Will said, as he took Jay's hand and guided him over to the couch. Once they were both sitting Will continued. "There is nothing you could tell me that will ever change what I think or feel about you. You are my baby brother and I am always going to be on your side. I already know something horrible happened to you, I was there for part of the recovery, so you aren't going to shock me. Talk to me Jay."

Jay let out a shaky breath. He never expected to be talking about this. He never thought he would have to tell Will about what happened to him. Now that he was able to, not that he had to, he didn't even know where to start. He didn't talk about this, he wanted to forget that it even happened. Bury it deep down inside of him and never let it surface and now it was bubbling over and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"It was on our last tour. We were in a convoy when it was hit by a series of IEDs. I was in the lead humvee with Mouse and we flipped. Before we even registered what was happening gunshots rang out and we tried to get out to fire back. I don't know what happened exactly, that part is blurry. When I woke up I was in a cell with another man, Marcus. I didn't know him all that well. We were in a convoy with an infantry unit and he was one of the others in the humvees. We were both chained up. Our wrists were shackled and the chain was attached to the ceiling. They could use a pulley to make it tighter or loosen it. We were naked." Jay started, as the tears started to build up in his eyes.

Will took a hold of Jay's hand in both of his and he could feel them trembling as he spoke. "It's ok, you're ok. Take your time."

"They tortured us, almost nonstop for a hundred and seventy-two days. They um…they raped me, everyday." Jay managed to get out before he broke down.

Will was instantly wrapping his arms around him and Jay curled up into his big brother's chest and allowed the pain that he had been holding in for over a decade to finally come out. Will held onto Jay like his very life depended on it. He didn't tell him it would be ok, because he honestly didn't know if it ever would be. It wasn't that Jay had just been raped once, but to ensure almost two hundred times, plus being tortured to go with it. It was too much for one person to handle. It was too much to endure and bear. Will hated that he couldn't make Jay feel better. He hated that he couldn't take this pain away from him. He would have gladly taken it himself in a heartbeat if he could. Will continued to hold onto Jay as he cried his heart out for a good twenty minutes. Once his tears started to calm down and all that was left was a hitched breathing, Jay pulled back. Will instantly moved his hands to wipe away the tears from Jay's cheeks as he spoke.

"I'm so sorry. I wish I could take this pain from you. I'm always going to be here for you, no matter what."

"I don't want them knowing. I can't have them thinking less of me or seeing me as some victim." Jay instantly said, as he tried to get his emotions back under control.

"It's your story to tell and only you get to decide who you tell it to. If you want this to stay between us, then I will take it to my grave. But you listen to me little brother, you are not some victim or weak. You are still the strong warrior you have always been. This changes nothing."

"I don't feel that way."

"You have a lot of emotions and memories going through you right now. You are going to be feeling a lot of different things for a little while and that is fine. You don't have to feel strong. You don't have to feel ok. You don't have to feel calm. You get to feel whatever you need to feel right now. I will be strong for you. I will be fine and calm for you. I will be whatever you need me to be so you can just feel whichever emotions you need. The only thing you have to do is survive whatever battle is coming our way with this case. You come home, that is the only rule we have between us."

It was a very simple rule, but they both knew how hard it was somedays for Jay to keep it. It was a rule though that they had made when Will moved back to Chicago and saw just how dangerous Jay's job truly was.

"And you make it better. But there is no way for you to make this better." Jay said with deep pain to his voice.

"Not right now, but I will figure something out that will help you after this. We can get you healthy again. I promise you, I am not going to stop until you are healthy once again. You will make it through this." Will said with complete determination within his voice.

"What do I tell them?"

"You tell them what you are comfortable with. If you don't really want them to know the details, then don't tell them. Just give them what they need to know so they can help catch these guys. No one can make you talk about something that you are not ready to talk about. And if anyone gives you shit about holding back, then I'll handle them. This is your life, not theirs and they have no right to know any personal details about you that you are not ready to release."

There was no way in hell that Will was going to allow anyone to try and pry more details about what happened to Jay then he was ready to talk about. He was going to make sure everyone respected his brother's wishes.

"Ok." Jay said with a shaky voice before he got up.

He was not ready for this, not even the slightest bit, but he also knew there was no way he would be able to avoid this for much longer. The team had to know what was going on so they could help him find the Ghosts and make sure they pay for everything they have done to Bulldog and whoever else they might have come across since being out of the military. There was no doubt within Jay's mind that they had killed others before they decided to kill Bulldog. They were up to something and Jay was going to make sure to stop them once and for all. Will and Khol followed behind Jay as he walked out of the break room. He could see everyone's reactions within their eyes. Platt, Hailey and Voight were all concerned about his welfare. Kevin and Kim were concerned, but they were also curious about what was going on. Adam and Rojas seemed to be annoyed that he hadn't told them the second he was legally allowed to. They didn't seem to have appreciated his need to tell Will about it in private first. Jay didn't care though, because Will was right. He didn't owe it to any of them to give out the details. They only needed to know the basics and Jay knew Mouse would stay quiet and follow his lead.

Jay went and sat down on the edge of his desk while Will stood right beside him and it was very clear to everyone within the room that Will was ready to go to battle for Jay. If they pushed him too hard, he was going to block them and shut it down.

"About a decade ago my unit was doing a six month tour in the Korengal Valley. We had only been there for a week when our convoy was hit by a series of IEDs that had been recently buried. Mouse and I were in the lead humvee. According to Mouse out of the forty soldiers that had been a part of the convoy only ten survived, myself included. Mouse had been pretty badly injured. He told me he never lost consciousness, that after the humvee finished flipping he looked down and one of our good friend's head was severed and in Mouse's lap. Mouse had a broken right arm, five broken ribs on the right side, a bruised kidney, a sprained right knee and a skull fracture. He was pinned, I wanted to get him out, but there was gunfire and we both knew I had to go out and help whoever had survived to fight off the tangos until help arrived. I remember promising him I would be right back for him, after that it goes blank. According to the doctor I had a skull fracture, even though we both had our helmets on, the impact of the explosion was severe enough to go right through our helmets. He said the only reason we even survived was because the helmet took the blunt of the impact."

"Did the Ghost set it up?" Platt asked, gently.

"No, the terrorist cell that the Rangers had been eliminating finally got sick and tired of waiting for us to come to them. The Ranger unit that was deployed before we were, had been running them hard. They were trying to eliminate every head of the cell, we called it cleaning house. You take out the top and work your way down to the last standing family member. Any women and children that are left alive are taken into custody and placed within a facility until it can be determined if they are a potential threat to the world one day. Most get released and some of them do grow up to take their father's place. A lot of the mothers take their chance to run like hell and find a better land to call home."

"What does this have to do with the Ghosts then?" Rojas demanded.

"Why don't you stop talking and find out." Will instantly said, not even letting anyone else speak up. He really didn't like Rojas' tone.

"What's the next thing you remember?" Hailey asked, gently.

Jay couldn't help but look over at Will with uncertainty flooding his eyes. He had no idea what he was going to tell them, how he was going to avoid the questions when he didn't give them much information on his time in captivity. Will went and took Jay's hand in his as he moved in and spoke softly into his ear.

"You are in control of what information they know. If you aren't ready, keep it short and only tell them what they need for the case."

Will moved back and let go of Jay's hand as Khol went and whined. Jay started to pet him as he spoke. "The terrorist cell captured me. They most likely assumed everyone else was dead. I was there for a hundred and seventy-two days."

"My god." Voight said softly.

"Jay." Kim started, but Jay cut her off. He didn't want sympathy or pity. He just wanted to find whoever killed Bulldog.

"That last week we had all decided we were going to break out. We were all military, most of us special forces from all over the world. Some had been there for over a year and others just a few weeks. We had been watching them, mentally recording their schedule. No one was coming for us, at least that we knew. There were sixty-eight of us, myself included. We knew that most of us would die, but we were all willing to die if it meant that some of us would be able to live and escape. During our riot the rest of my unit and Bulldog's unit stormed into the location. According to Mouse, they had been searching the whole time, but the camp was completely underground and off every radar. No one even knew it existed. By the end of that day out of sixty-eight captives and thirty-two soldiers, only thirty-six of us survived. Mouse and Bulldog werfe the only ones that survived the raid and thirty-four captives, myself included."

"Thirty-five more to go. Ok, so why would the Ghosts be trying to kill all of us?" Hailey asked.

She had a lot she wanted to say, questions she wanted to ask. However, she knew that Jay was not going to open up about this around everyone. This wasn't the time nor the place. She would wait until later when they could be alone to speak with him about it.

"I have no idea." Jay said, sounding just as confused.

"Obviously it has to do with something that happened during those hundred and seventy-two days. You're gonna have to tell us everything that happened so we can try and find a connection." Rojas said.

"You have all the intel you need." Jay said guardedly.

"Obviously we don't. All you have said is that you were held captive. There's no clear connection to the Ghosts. Besides, we don't even know this is the Ghosts. It could be someone using their symbol to distract us. It could do one of the survivors that are now going after the other survivors. We need to know exactly what happened so we can narrow down a suspect list. So we have a motive." Rojas instantly argued.

"He gave you his answer." Will said, as he moved to stand more in front of Jay, as if he could somehow protect him from the emotional pain.

"And we have to investigate and find this killer. We have to treat him like every other witness. We can't narrow down our list if we have our hands tied behind our backs. He needs to be honest with us and start talking about what happened. That's how investigating works." Rojas countered.

"Ok, let's just take a beat here." Kim said, trying to calm everyone down.

"Rojas has a point. We need more information about what happened during those six months so we can try and narrow down who could be involved. We can't go off of the assumption that the Ghost are involved. There's no telling who could know that symbol and is using it to distract us. We need more intel Sarg." Adam said. He knew this was going to be a hard conversation, but Rojas was right they needed more.

"No." Jay simply said, as he moved and made his way down the hallway to reach the locker rooms.

"Is he going to keep doing that everytime he has to talk about something difficult? This is wasting time." Rojas said, annoyed.

"You weren't there, you don't get to judge him for how much or how little information he wishes to share. He doesn't have to tell you anything." Will instantly said.

"We need to know everything we can about what happened so we can properly investigate. You are a doctor, you are not a cop. You shouldn't even be here." Rojas countered.

"And you're a rookie officer that doesn't even have a year on the job. I might not wear the badge, but I see Jay after work four days a week and we are normally working a case that he's helping out on. I understand how investigations work. And I am here for my brother, because my brother wants and needs me here for this. I'm not going to let anyone badger him into talking about something he's not ready for."

"Enough, everyone." Voight ordered, before anyone else had the opportunity to jump in. "Jay knows how to work an investigation, he knows better than anyone what information is important and what isn't. If he says it's not relevant, then it's not relevant and everyone drops it. I shouldn't have to point out that a hundred and seventy-two days in a terrorist prison camp wouldn't have been easy. The last thing Jay needs is someone poking at old wounds. Jay knows the names of the Ghosts and of the rest of the survivors. We need to run their names and get the survivors somewhere safe. We have to assume they are all targets. Hailey, why don't you check in on Jay and the rest of us will keep running what we know."

"Sarg." Rojas started, but Platt shut her down.

"If you have an issue with your orders Officer, then I can place you on ticket duty out front of City Hall."

Rojas held her hands up before she turned and headed off towards the interrogation room. Everyone knew she wasn't happy about what was going on, but Will couldn't give a damn. He was going to protect Jay, no matter what and no matter who the person was. Hailey offered Will a warm smile before she headed off to see Jay. She knew he needed some time to breathe, but she also knew only he had the names of the vGhost and the other survivors. She walked into the locker room and saw Jay had his hands on the side of the sink with his head down. She could see the trembling within his body and she knew it was going to get worse before it got better. She didn't care though, because she was going to be there for him no matter how bad it got.

"Jay, you with me?" Hailey asked, gently as she got closer to him. She didn't want to scare him and she knew that touching him right now wouldn't be the best idea.

"It's not relevant."

"Even if it was relevant, you don't have to talk about it unless you want to. I know you are not going to like me saying the word victim, but Jay, you're a victim to what happened to you and we don't badger victims. You being a detective doesn't change that you obviously went through something horrific, traumatising, you don't have to talk about it unless you want to. I'm not going to let anyone force information out of you, no matter what or who it is." Hailey promised.

"It was so bad. Every day was Hell, just constant non-stop pain. It got so bad that we used to be upset when we didn't die when they finally left us alone. I told Will what happened, I can't do that again today. I can't go through it again." Jay said, as the tears started to build again.

Hailey spoke, as she placed her hand on Jay's back. "Hey, that's ok. You don't have to talk about it. I'm never going to pressure you to talk about it. I don't have to know, but I will always be there for you to listen whenever you are ready Jay. Voight and Platt put everyone in their place, no one is going to ask you any questions about it. He wants us to focus on the Ghosts and tracking down the other survivors. When you are ready we need the names."

Jay let out a long shaky breath as he gave a nod. He stood up and wiped at his cheeks to get the tears to stop. He had to focus on what needed to be done and not the memories that were threatening to swallow him whole. There could be other victims out there and he had to make sure the survivors that were still alive were safe. He had to focus on what he could do and what he could do was get justice for Bulldog. He owed him that much and Jay was not going to let him down, no matter how much this hurt.