jay halstead hurt a-z

occipital

O is for Occipital
J

ay opened his locker and quickly grabbed his vest, badge, and gun. Adam was next to him, trying to get his open. The team had just gotten word of a hostage situation, and the police needed all possible units within reach. Voight had volunteered their surfaces, and told the team to suit up as quickly as possible. Jay laughed at his friend next to him, who was still struggling to get the door open. He had finally gotten the lock off, but now it still wouldn't open. Jay stepped in because he could tell Adam was getting more and more frustrated.
"I got this. Sometimes they just need to be beaten into submission." Jay said. Adam raised his hands, and stepped back. Jay wound up, and kicked the locker as hard as he could. Adam rolled his eyes at Jay as the door swung open. He grabbed his stuff, shook his head, and walked out, not even bothering to replace the lock. Jay laughed, and followed. They all met back upstairs and made a plan. After strapping on his Kevlar, Jay and Erin made their way to their car.
Surprise crossed Jay's face as their line of cars rolled up to the scene. There was such a lack of police presence outside the building where the hostages were.
"Do we even have snipers?" Jay asked, searching the surrounding rooftops. There were two SWAT vans parked outside, and only a few police cars so far. The team parked the cars, walked to the command center under a tent.
"Hey, thanks for getting here so quickly." Sergeant Anderson said, shaking Voights hand.
"Of course. Theses are Detectives Erin Lindsay, Jay Halstead, Kevin Atwater, Adam Ruzek, Alvin Olinsky, and Kim Burgess. So what do we know?" Voight said, introducing his team.
"At least three hostage takers, all exits are rigged with explosives, except one. There's at least 15 hostages. Their all on the second floor." Sergeant Anderson said.
"You said there's one door that's not rigged? Where is it?" Al asked.
"Around back. I assume they don't know it's there." Anderson said. He pulled up the video of the heat signatures, showing the school students huddled in a circle in the middle of the room. There were three large men pacing the floor, all with large guns in hand.
"Have they made contact?" Voight asked.
"About 10 minutes ago. They threatened to start killing if we didn't pull out. Claimed they have snipers." Anderson said.
"Do we know where? Do we have counter snipers?" Jay asked, feeling the ever familiar itch to break out his rifle, and get comfy in his favorite snipers nest.
"We do. But we don't know how much longer their going to wait, so we need to go in." Anderson said. Voight nodded, and they were just getting ready to go in, when they heard a crash coming from the building. They looked up to see a boy flying through the window.
"That's a hostage! We're going in!" Voight yelled to his men after a look from Anderson. Jay and a group of cops who had just arrived rushed forward. They all split up, and Jay and Erin ran around the side of the building. They were going pastanother groups of officers, when he saw one of them going towards the wrong door. He looked at the officer in shock when he saw him reach for the handle.
"Wait! Didn't you hear?! The doors are rigged with explosives! We can't open those doors till Bomb squad disarms them!" Jay yelled, trying to grab the man's jacket to pull him off. It was no use. He didn't get Jay's warning in time, and yanked on the door as hard as he could. The fiery blast propelled them backwards, throwing Jay violently from the second story staircase they were on, to the cement sidewalk below.
Kevin shielded his eyes from the blast with an arm in front of his face. The two sergeants joined him, and looked in shock at the agents laying on the ground. They rushed over.
"Jay! Can you hear me?!" Kevin yelled, kneeling beside the limp body. Kevin looked worriedly at the pool of blood that was forming under his friends head, and pressed two fingers to the side of his neck, finding only a faint pulse. Jay had cuts and scrapes covering most of his face. His eyes were closed and unmoving.
"Where's Erin? She was with him!" Kim asked, joining them. Kim ran to where she spotted Erin, also unconscious on the ground. As for the officer who had opened the door, he had been closer to the blast, so he was thrown farther. Luckily for him, he landed in the schools newly plowed garden. The soft dirt had mostly cushioned his fall, and he stood up and pushed through the other cops who were trying to hold him down so he could be looked at.
"Oh my god! What happened?" He yelled, looking towards Erin and Jay.
"You opened a door rigged with explosives! Now you've injured two detectives! What the hell were you thinking?" Adam yelled, his concern for his friends coming out in anger.
"I...I thought we were going in!" He yelled back, still confused.
"We were, but through the door that won't blow us up! Maybe if you would've listened, you would've know this! But no! You were to busy talking to your girl! Yea. I heard your phone call! Now look what you did!" Adam yelled, charging at the man, fists clenched.
"Hey! Adam! It's not gonna help anything! Take a walk! NOW!" Al said, stepping in front of his enraged partner. Adam shot one last glare at the cop who was now receiving looks from his own partners, then walked away to cool off. The teams attention was drawn back to the fallen agents when Erin groaned, and opened her eyes. She tried to sit up, but was stopped by a sharp pain in her stomach.
"No no don't try to move. Take it easy Erin. Your gonna be ok, there's ambulances on the way." Voight said, guiding her back to the ground, knowing he'd probably have to hold her there. He moved slowly into her line of sight, knowing what she was looking at.
"JAY! Jay! Is he d...dead?! Come on Jay!" Erin screamed when she too saw the blood. There was to much blood.
"Erin look at me. ERIN! Look at me! He's alive ok? He has a pulse. It's weak, but it's there. He's gonna be ok. He's survived a bomb before, and he's going to do it again." Voight said, squeezing her hand and trying to reassure her, while also trying to keep her still. There was a small blood stain on her stomach that seemed to be growing since she moved. He looked up as the paramedics sprinted across the pavement. One came to Erin with a stretcher, and after much fighting and argument, which Voight expected, she was strapped to a backboard. What concerned him was the lack of argument from the other detective. In fact, the lack of any kind of movement or response coming from Jay had everyone worried. The amount of blood coming from the back of his head didn't help anything.
Later
Will splashed the cool water over his face, and stared at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. There were larger, dark circles under his slightly puffy, bloodshot eyes. He took a deep breath, dried his face off with a towel, and stood a few moments longer before pushing himself away from the counter and forcing himself to walk out of the bathroom and into the waiting room. He felt everyone jump at his presence, staring intently at him, searching his emotions for any answers. He forced a more optimistic expression to his face.
"How are they?" Adam asked, breaking the silence. Kevin was trying to comfort Kim, and Voight and Olinsky were thinking about the same thing. They had each lost a child in this hospital. Were they about to be told they had lost another family member.
"Their both stable. Erin has a lacerated spleen and kidney, and a few broken ribs, but we expect her to recover quickly. She should only need to stay about four days. Jay...he uh..he got it a bit worse. The blast smacked his head on the cement sidewalk, casing him to fracture his Occipital bone, sending a piece into his brain. We were able to retrieve it, but not without complications, of course. We lost...his brain function twice, but revived him. A piece of the skull had to be cut off to allow the brain swelling to heal. Then, after we closed him up, he stopped breathing due to trauma to his bad lung. He revived him again, but he's on a ventilator. It's...it's touch and go..." Will explained all the events of the last five hours to the people crowded around him. Hank put a strong hand on his shoulder. Will was trying to hide it, but Hank could see the pain in his eyes. Then Hank did something really out of character. He pulled Will into a hug. Will would usually have felt the urge to fight it, but he was mentally and physically exhausted. After pulling away, he took a deep breath and walked away. He was almost out of the waiting room, when a man walked up to him.
"Uh...hi. Your a doctor here right? So you know where all the patients are?" The man asked.
"Yea. Can I help you with something?" Will asked, looking the the discharge papers the man was holding, along with the badge around the man's neck.
"Yea I was wondering which room Jay Halstead is in? I'm officer Mason. I...I want to know his condition." The man asked. Will shook his head, slowly putting it together.
"You...you need to stay away from him." Will said, his voice starting to shake.
"Wh...why?" Mason asked, confused.
"Just...just get out of here ok!" Will said.
"Please, I just want to see him! I want to ask him if there's anything I can do for him!" Mason said, getting upset.
"Trust me, you've done enough! If it wasn't for you, he wouldn't be here at all. He wouldn't have a hole in his skull. He would be able to breath on his own! Tell me, Mason, do you have any younger siblings?" Will asked, his voice starting to raise. This drew the attention of Voight and the rest of the team, along with Dr. Choi and Dr. Charles.
"Wh...what? Uh...uh..yea...a sister. What does that have to do with it?" Mason asked.
"Have you ever watched your sister nearly bleed out in front of you? Have you ever had to see her cough up blood? Have you ever had to see brain matter coming from her ear? No! Of course not. But guess what? I had to see all of those things today! All because of YOU!" Will was now livid, screaming at the man. He was never one to just explode like this, but before Jay came in, he had already lost two other patients, one of which was a little boy, not more than 7 years old. It was just to much for him to handle. Ethan was the first one to reach him, putting a gentle hand in his shoulders, pushing him away from the other man. Dr. Charles joined them, and they walked a now shaking Will back to the break room.
"I...I'm sorry. That was really out of character for me. I just...I.." Will stuttered, obviously embarrassed, as he settled onto the couch. Ethan was needed in the ER, so he gave Will a quick pat on the shoulder, then walked out. Dr. Charles handed Will a drink, then sat down opposite of him.
"You don't need to apologize to me. You've had an extremely hard day today. If you don't let your emotions out, they eventually force themselves out, and most of the time it's in the form of anger. Its very unhealthy, but it is normal." Dr. Charles said, looking at his young colleague. Will nodded, and laid his head back. They talked for a while longer, then Will decided to go sit with Jay. He thanked him, and walked away feeling much better.
Later
Erin rolled her eyes when she heard the commotion coming from Jay's hospital room. Two weeks had passed since the incident, and Jay was finally ready to leave. He hadn't had any further complications from the surgery, and was getting back to his old stubborn self. This time around, Erin had had to have a "discussion about Jay's behavior" towards the nurses and other staff. He wasn't always impolite, but he absolutely hated all the poking and prodding and questions. He had a pretty short fuse as is, and the hospital always seemed to get rid of it all together. So when Maggie and Will kept getting complaints from the nurses, Will decided to call in reinforcements. Or "the big guns" as Maggie had called it. Now, Erin prepared herself for the usual argument that came every time Jay was about to be discharged. She let out a sigh, and turned the corner into his room. Jay was furiously fighting with his t-shirt, trying to yank it over his head, and yelling at Will every time he tried to help him. Erin couldn't help but laugh at the scene as she took it all in.
"Thank god your here. Maybe he'll stop being such a hard ass!" Will said with an annoyed look.
"I'm not being a hard ass, I just don't need help!" Jay yelled back, finally pulling his head through the top of the shirt.
"Oh really?! Not like you've been trying to get that on for the last 15 minutes or anything. And don't even get me started on the pants!" Will retorted.
"Well I can't help that she picked out the tightest pair of jeans I own!" Jay said.
"Hey! One more ungrateful comment from you and I'll take these clothes right back and leave you here another week!" Erin said with the slightest hint of laughter in her voice, as she stepped over to him, and carefully but quickly pulled his arms into the sleeves, and pulled the fabric the rest of the way down. At that, Jay threw his hands up in surrender. He sat back down on the bed and reluctantly let Will finish checking him over. Erin walked out to grab a wheelchair and the discharge papers, and pushed it back into the room where Will was checking the long, jagged row of staples in the back of his brothers head. He placed a new bandage over it, then stepped back.
"Jay I swear to god if the next words out of your mouth are anywhere near "I'm not using that thing" I will personally sedate you! Try me!" Erin said as Jay opened his mouth with a look of disgust on his face. He closed his mouth, but the look remained.
"I've already said this, but I need to say it again so maybe you'll listen: Your brain is still recovering from the surgery, so you will have some issues with balance at times, and you may be sensitive to bright lights. That means no jumping, running, fast walking, or any of the things your thinking of doing right now. Your on modified bed rest until we can be sure the fragment we pulled out didn't do any lasting damage. That also means not hats of any kind. We don't need you popping any stitches or staples. Also, limited time with screens, tv or otherwise. Take your medication twice a day, and come in right away if you have any dark spots in your vision, tunnel vision, extreme headaches, nausea, prolonged periods of dizziness, or if you pass out." Will said, making sure Jay was looking at him the entire time.
"Yea yea fine! Geez you sound like those commercials for medication on tv!" Jay said.
"How are you feeling Erin? No problems since your surgery right?" Will asked.
"Nope! All good and healed up! Ready to play nurse for a while. I think I'm getting pretty good at it!" Erin said with a laugh, tankful for Will's concern. He nodded, and she signed the discharge papers, then helped Jay into the chair, and pushed him out. The two were pleasantly surprised to find the rest of the intelligence crew waiting for them in the parking lot. They all told Jay how thankful they were he was alive, and then drove back to Erin and Jays apartment for pizza and the hockey game.