Chicago PD: You Found Me

Chapter 6 - You're One of Us Now.

"Hey." Will said as he saw Jay and Hailey walk back through the entrance of med and into the ER. It was the day after the medicals which had both come back clear. They were coming back from showing the DCFS worker around their apartment for the home inspection. Things were going well and it looked like they'd be able to tell Gracie in a day or so.

"Hey how's Gracie?" Jay asked as they walked towards his brother.

"She's doing ok, seems a lot better. She did get moved into a bed upstairs but we put her in a wheelchair and she's in the break room down here. We just got an urgent trauma call so one of the orderlies was with her for the last few minutes." Will explained quickly not being able to stop for long, the pair nodded in response and made there way to the break room.

"Hey thanks for looking out for her. Where is she?" Jay asked as he knocked and opened the break room door seeing the orderly still sitting at the table and no Gracie.

"She needed the bathroom and insisted she didn't need any help so I let her go." The woman responded with a friendly smile. "She's only been gone for two minutes, she should be back soon."

"Oh alright thanks." Jay answered looking at Hailey not thinking much of it to begin with.

"I'll go check on her, just make sure she hasn't fallen." Hailey said after they had sat down for a few minutes and Gracie still hadn't reappeared.

As Hailey was walking towards the bathroom she noticed a wheelchair that had been left in a store room that's door was open. She wouldn't have thought much of it except it had Gracie's blanket that had been over her in it. She ran back to the break room where Jay had been waiting in a sudden realisation.

"Jay, I think she's gone." Hailey said quickly in a panic as she came back into the room where Jay was.

"What? Gone where? I thought she'd just gone to the bathroom." He responded in concern getting up and following Hailey out of the room.

"I found her wheelchair in a store room near the way out of the ER. She didn't go to the bathroom she saw the rush from that trauma call and knew it would act as a distraction so if she left it probably wouldn't be obvious." Hailey explained as they frantically began to search the ER floor of the hospital.

"How did you know it was her chair?" Jay asked as they looked around.

"It had this in it." Hailey said holding the blanket they had bought for her back when she said she couldn't get warm a day after the hypothermia and they knew she needed something to cheer her up.

"Will, Gracie's gone missing Hailey found her blanket and wheelchair in a store room." Jay relayed to his brother as they continued to look around the lower floor of the hospital.

"I told Earl and he's passed it on to the rest of security." Maggie said running back into the room from speaking to Earl.

"Why would she leave the hospital? She seemed ok, she was safe." Jay said in confusion as they made there way out of the med into the parking lot and began to look outside.

"She must have been worried that her social worker was gonna show, it was the last opportunity she had to run away without anyone noticing her. The rest of the time she was too injured and we were all here." Hailey explained.

"She was scared of going back into foster care because of what happened before." Jay continued in understanding.

"It's my fault I should have talked to her about DCFS earlier on, things just happened so fast and she's still recovering." Hailey said in response causing Jay to shake his head in disagreement straight away.

"No Hailey we both made the decision to avoid conversation about DCFS whilst all this was going on this is not just on you ok?" He answered and she nodded slightly still feeling some guilt. They were mid conversation still outdoors looking when Jay suddenly caught sight of a kid looking unsteady at a bus stop. "Hey that's her right?"

"Yeah come on, we don't wanna freak her out let's take it slow." Hailey said as they both walked towards her. Seconds later Gracie saw them and tried to run.

"Gracie! Stop it's ok." Jay said gently getting a hold of Gracie before she could run any further being mindful of her injuries.

"Get off me! Get off me Jay! Get off me!" Gracie yelled attempting to struggle out of his grip.

"Not until you calm down. Calm down kid, it's ok I promise you." Jay said speaking quietly and calmly, his head near hers in an effort to calm her down.

"No! It's not going to be ok! Nothings going to be ok! They're gonna send me off with some random foster parents I've never met before and they're gonna hurt me again! I can't do it anymore I'm not going! It was so bad last time I'm not going! Just let go of me!" Gracie yelled struggling more and more to try and run out of Jay's arms.

"Hey, hey Gracie look at me...look at me just for a second." Hailey said in a warm, gentle tone.

"You know the other day when Jay said to you, that that was never going to happen again. He was telling the truth honey I swear to you we both were..." Hailey said crouching a little and putting her hands on Gracie's upper arms whilst Jay still held her.

"You can't know that, you don't know where there gonna send me." Gracie said tears quickly falling down her face.

"We do, we do because they're gonna put you with us. Jay and I have been doing the training this week and we've left the hospital a couple of times for medical and home checks. We passed the last check today they put a rush on them." Hailey said with a slight reassuring smile trying to convince Gracie she could trust her and that she wasn't lying.

"You're coming to live with us kid if that's what you want?" Jay said in support of what Hailey had said rubbing her upper arm comfortingly, but still holding her in case she ran.

"For real, like you'd let me live with you?" Gracie asked like she had never expected anyone to want her to live with them before.

"You fit in with us Gracie, you just do. You're a special kid and we want you to be part of our family. Would that be ok with you?" Hailey explained and moved to stand by Jay looping her arm around him as they talked to her. Jay had loosened his grip on Gracie as they were talking, he was comfortable that she was ok and wasn't going to try and run away.

"Yeah...yeah I think that would be really cool." Gracie said in a quiet tone kinda choked up, she stood a chance at having a family again. She threw her arms around the pair who were stood together forming a kind of group hug. Hailey and Jay smiled at each other safe in the knowledge that she could be safe and happy with them.

"You're one of us now kiddo, we take care of our own." Jay said putting a hand on Gracie's back returning the hug with his family.

Hi everyone, hope you enjoyed that chapter. I'm so glad these three are starting to look more like a family and can't wait to write more updates about what Gracie's new life and her journey. I'll will try and update again as soon as possible. Thanks for reading :) EQ