Our Scars

Bright Lies

5

Bright Lies (Title by Giant Rooks)

It had been one hell of a crazy week for Chicago.

The whole city had been under threat of bioterrorism, because a desperate virologist had gone around infecting people on purpose with a flesh-eating bacteria causing several fatalities. Bodies had been dropping all over the city, at Chicago Med people had been taken into quarantine, Intelligence had been chasing a ghost for the greater part of the week.

In the end the offender had been upper-handed or rather shot by Hank Voight; Jay almost infecting himself with the deadly bacteria (even though he had hoped that his brother would come up with an antidote right in time) in order to defuse the stand-off with the offender long enough for his unit to move in.

Everybody was in a rush to celebrate life, being alive and making the most of it that weekend night, so it wasn't too hard for Rianne and Nate to gather a big crowd at Molly's that would gladly listen to their music.

At first Jay hadn't really been into the idea of spending the first night with the virus infection in check, case closed, at this gig. But he wanted to spend time with his unit, possibly his brother as he knew Will would show up once his shift was over. In the face of more dangerous and bigger things to care about than his on and off quarrels with a certain social worker, he guessed he could give it a try and start to warm up to her and the fact that their paths would inevitably cross from time to time.

Again he'd been facing possible death. Every time he thought it would loose some of its threat, but he found it really didn't. And even though Jay had been pretty reckless again by putting himself in the middle of an impossible situation, he was even surer now: He wasn't remotely finished living his life. Maybe he should start to enjoy a bit of it right now, today.

The place was packed, everybody in roaring spirits when he arrived later than most.

Jay quickly found the corner where his colleagues Kevin, Adam, Vanessa and Kim were already on their second round of beers and joined them, checking the location with a usual scan of his surroundings. It was a habit he couldn't get rid of even if he tried. Hailey was still at Med with the teenage girl she had gotten quite attached to while sharing quarantine with her. Jay knew his partner well enough to not expect her to come tonight. These last few days had asked a lot of her. He was extremely glad she was not in imminent danger anymore and doing okay as she had assured him just minutes ago over the phone.

In the far end of the room, near the doors to the restrooms, Stella, Hermann and Mouch had built a tiny little stage, decorated with a Persian rug and some old lampshades. Three people up there were already playing their music to the crowd. He recognized Nate Ruzek on the right hand corner of the stage, playing a blue electric guitar, concentrated and feeling his tunes.

In the back Matt Casey from 51 was at the piano, surprisingly so. Jay knew Matt played piano for fun, but he hadn't known he played in a band with Nate and Rianne.

He took a good look at her too: Instead of her usual flowing skirts and blouses and what-not, she wore a short tight fitted jumpsuit of a moss-green velvet fabric that hugged her curves just right, making him gulp down a sudden spark of physical attraction.

It was sexy and daring, but still decent where need be. Her dangling golden earrings and a single golden necklace reflected the twinkling overhead fairy-lights of the bar. But the thing that caught his eye most was her dark auburnish hair with the golden streaks and ends. It was down for once and fell in soft curly waves just below her almost bare shoulders.

Jay had never seen her wear her hair down like that. Normally it was hidden beneath a headscarf, up in a ponytail or even more frequently in a messy bun. More than once he'd seen her pull it up with a pencil. The shock of hair on full display changed her whole posture and put a softness and youth on her face. He knew she was 32, but tonight she didn't look older than in her mid-twenties.