Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was a sharp jolt and then the earth started shaking. From one second to the next the lovely sunny day turned into chaos and destruction.
Jay Halstead had never experienced anything like it before! The shaking swept him off his feet, he dropped to the ground and covered his neck and head with his arms as well as he could. Next to him he could see Will and Connor do the same. There was no cover, no table or anything to hide under – they had been outside, in the middle of a road when the quake hit Los Angeles with all its power.
Yeah, he knew an earthquake was something that might happen in California, thanks to the San Andreas and Hayward faults – tectonic plates sliding past each other. But an earthquake sure as hell hadn’t been on Jay’s must-see list for LA! He had dreamed about escaping Chicago’s cold, wet and windy autumn weather for a bit of warmth, sunshine, palm trees, runs on the beach, maybe a Lakers game, good food and a lot of drinking in cool bars with his brother Will and their friend Connor who had moved to LA a year ago.

A big piece of debris crashed down between Jay and Will – Jay assumed it must have fallen from one of the high-rise buildings around them. “You ok?!” He screamed to his brother. “Yeah!” answered Will. Shards of glass were flying through the air, cutting Jay’s skin. It was crazy. The vehicles on the street were scooting about on the pavement like toy cars, they bumped into each other horns blaring, buildings swayed and made rumbling and moaning noises like hurt animals. People were screaming.
When the shaking stopped there was an eerie silence for a few seconds – then all hell broke loose! There was rubble and debris everywhere, cars were scattered all over the road, people were running and limping around, smoke and dust and screams and sirens wailing in the distance.
“Anybody hurt?” Will screamed. Connor and Jay looked themselves up and down to check for injuries.”
“I’m fine!”
“Me too!”
Forgotten were their plans to hang out on the beach this sunny afternoon. The first responders would be in over their heads with emergencies all over the city now. It could take 30 minutes or more until anybody would arrive here. All three men knew what they had to do. They had to do whatever was in their power to help!
Jay and the two doctors started running down the road, assessing the severity of the injuries of the people around them as they went. In their immediate surroundings the people seemed to be ok, mainly pumps and bruises, nothing major. But where were these screams coming from?
“Down there,” shouted Jay and they ran towards the commotion.

They ran a block down the road and when they looked round the next corner, they knew exactly where the screams were coming from! Half of a big building had collapsed, there was dust and debris everywhere, on the road a power pole had crashed half way down, electricity sparking. That was a death trap. Jay took out his phone and dialed 9-1-1 but the phone service was down. With a curse he stuffed his phone back into his jeans pocket.
Connor had been screening the scene and shouted “Jay, Will, that’s a school!”
Kids and teachers were streaming out of the collapsed building, gathering on the road. Many were injured, bleeding, crying. A man carried an about 10-year-old boy in his arms. The boy’s leg was clearly broken and he was unconscious.
“Fuck, there still must be hundreds of students in there!” Jay said. “I’m going in, see if I can help.”
“You go, I’ll stay here and see what I can do for the injured! Start triaging out here until the firefighters and paramedics arrive!” Connor replied and wiped blood from a scratch across his eyebrow.
Jay and Will nodded and made their way through the debris up to the main entrance of the building.
After only about 15 minutes they had brought about 20 children outside safely. Out there on the street Connor had started treating the wounded with a few other helpers. They hardly had any medical equipment, only a few first aid kits from cars, but it was better than nothing and they were improvising as well as they could.
A little girl was clinging to Jay’s neck with all her strength when he carried her out onto the street. “My teacher Mrs. Miller! And my class! They are still inside! I was in the bathroom when the earth started shaking. And when I wanted to go back… the hallway… back to my class… was just gone!”
“What’s your name?” Jay asked the scared girl.
“Emily.”
“Ok, Emily, I’ll get you out onto the street and a doctor will look at you. And me and my brother will go back inside and search for Mrs. Miller and the rest of your class.” Jay tried to comfort her and she nodded and cried “Ok.”

Jay wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Hey Will, let’s check out the collapsed part of the building. Emily said her whole class is still missing… I bet there are many people trapped under the debris or cut off from the exits.”
Will nodded, he was breathing hard from the exertion. “Ok, let’s see how far we get without any tools or gear. We need to be careful though, all this may collapse at any time.”
“We’ll be fine, come on, Will!”

They entered the building and tried to advance into the collapsed part of the school. It looked like a warzone. Debris and collapsed walls and ceilings everywhere.
“Jay, there’s a hallway behind here. I can see it through a gap! If we can move some of the debris we can go in and check all the classrooms down there!”
Together they started removing debris with their bare hands. It worked reasonably well, considering that they didn’t have any tools. They lifted big pieces of rubble together, both men sweating, panting and cursing. Jay’s fingers started bleeding from the sharp edges of the debris and he wished he had something to wrap his hands with.
As soon as the opening was big enough to squeeze through, they did and entered the hallway on the other side. At the first classroom they checked, the door wouldn’t open, it was jammed, but finally Will and Jay burst it open by first kicking it and then jumping into it together. Inside the classroom a group of children including a teacher were huddled under the tables obviously scared but nobody seemed seriously harmed. When they saw the two men enter the room they jumped up in relieve. “Are you Mrs. Miller?” Jay asked and the young woman nodded. “Emily sent us to get you.”
Will gestured towards the door and down the hallway “The way to the main entrance is clear. Take your class out of here. You’ll be ok.” The teacher drove her kids out towards the hallway like a flock of sheep, then she hugged Will tightly and gave him a kiss. “Thank you!” she muttered. Will’s freckled face blushed visibly.
“New girlfriend, Dr. Superhero?” Jay teased his brother and laughed.
“Just shut up, bro.” answered Will and laughed too.
The laughter ended abruptly when the earth started shaking again. Before Jay and Will could hide under the tables, the world came crushing down with a deafening rumble. And everything went black.

“Jay!”
“Nnnaaaaa…”
“Jay!”
What was going on? He had no idea where he was. But somebody was calling his name. Why?
“Jay! Where are you?”
“’m ‘ere…” he mumbled. He had no idea where here actually was, but maybe the person who was calling him could find out. With a flicker Jay opened his eyes. It was dark and he couldn’t see much.
“…da fuck” he muttered and tried to sit up to take a better look at his surroundings, but something was holding him back down. A sudden flash of excruciating pain shot through his abdomen. “Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrhhhh!”
“Hold on Jay, I’m coming to you.”
“Will?”
“Yeah, almost there, hold on.”
Jay couldn’t move to see where Will’s voice was coming from. He heard the scraping of rock against rock, concrete against concrete and something rumbling. At that moment everything came back to Jay: LA, the earthquake, the school, they were rescuing the kids from their classroom when… the whole building had collapsed on top of them during the second quake! There wasn’t a classroom anymore. He lay in between and covered by a huge pile of rubble and blocks of concrete and all kinds of debris… a former school house worth of debris!

Suddenly Will’s face appeared through a hole to his left. His face was covered in blood. There was a cut right at the top of Will’s forehead that was bleeding heavily.
“You ok, Will? You’re bleeding…” Jay asked his brother. “I’m fine, it’s nothing.” Will wiped his forehead unwittingly, smearing the blood all over his face. “I’m coming to you…”
While Will tried to squeeze the rest of his body through the narrow gap between the concrete fragments, the debris above them started to shift. A few football and fist sized pieces of rubble came crashing down with a load of dust that clouded Jay’s sight and made him cough. Instinctively he raised his arms to protect his head when something hit his right shoulder. “Gnaaaaahhh, fuck!”
Will dropped to the ground next to Jay and the clouds of dust started to settle down. He coughed “Sorry, bro, it wasn’t easy to find you and get through to you. We’re covered by tons of debris and --- Jay?!” Will’s eyes widened with shock.
“Wha’?” Jay asked confusedly.
His gaze followed Wills stare, down his chest and towards his aching belly. There was a long piece of rebar. And it stuck in his abdomen!
“Nnaaaaaaaaa” suddenly the pain hit him and he winced. As if his body hadn’t noticed the injury before, but as soon as his brain had registered it, his body screamed in agony. Jay started panting. “Get… it… out… get it… out… of me!”
“Jay, I can’t. It’s coming from that big piece of concrete above us, pinning right through you and down into the ground. And even if I could remove it, I wouldn’t – because that would make you bleed out.”
“Ok, that… sounds … bad.”
“Well, it’s not good. But I’ll take care of you, ok? I’ll check you out now and try to get the bleeding under control.”
“’m bleedin’?”
“Jay, you are impaled through your abdomen by a piece of rebar, so yes, you are bleeding.”
Suddenly Jay felt really tired. He just wanted to sleep. His eyes fluttered, but Will rubbed his sternum, it hurt and Jay opened his eyes again.
“You need to stay awake for me, Jay. Can you do that?”
“Mkay.”
Will took out his phone and dialed, but soon after shook his head in frustration. “No service – everybody in this fuckin’ city is calling 9-1-1 or their friends, family or loved ones right now… We’re on our own. For now.”

Will felt around Jay’s belly and around the entry and exit wound and it hurt so much that Jay gritted his teeth not to scream out loud. He exhaled through gritted teeth with a hiss and inhaled painful stuttering breaths in through his nose. Will seemed to be satisfied with what he found, because he stopped touching Jay and took off his t-shirt and pressed it on the wound around the rebar. Jay saw that his brother’s whole torso was covered in big bruises that were slowly growing darker…
“Wha’ happened to you, Will?”
“I got hit by some debris. But it’s nothing. Looks worse than it is.” Will looked down on himself, shrugged and continued working on Jay. “Bro, I need your t-shirt too. To use it on the wound on your back.”
When Jay made a move to take off his t-shirt, Will stopped him and held him down. “Don’t you dare move! It’s a miracle you’re still conscious anyway.” Will started ripping off Jay’s t-shirt. “That’s just because you won’t let me…” Jay moaned.

Ripping off the t-shirt without a knife or scissors was difficult and took some time. And it hurt. Every tiny movement, shot through his abdomen like a stab of a knife. Jay groaned and whimpered in pain and almost passed out twice, but Will kept him awake. “Stay with me. Talk to me, bro.”
“’m fucked, aren’t I?” Jay asked his big brother.
“No! I’m taking care of you. I’ll get you out of here, I promise.”
“How?”
“Not sure yet… Maybe… I have to find some metal to bang on. To alarm somebody… there must be firefighters on scene now and –“
“You’re not banging anything against m’ rebar.”
“Haha, very funny, little brother.”

For a while none of them spoke. Jay wondered if this was where he was going to die. Impaled by a rebar, buried by debris, bleeding out. When he was in Afghanistan with the Rangers, he had thought about death, accepted the possibility of dying. Death had been all around. And even as a police detective in Chicago Jay knew that he might one day die, shot by a drug lord or stabbed by a mass murderer or something. But this was supposed to be a fucking vacation! With sun and beach and fun and drinks. Not with rebars, piercing through his body!
“Will?”
“Hm?”
“You… should try to get out of here.”
“I’m not leaving you!”
“You’re no’ leaving… just go and get help.”
“No, I’m not leaving.”
“I can’t… move… but you can. Bring back… some firefighters… or at least an angle grinder… or something. Don’t be such… a… stubborn ass.”
Will didn’t reply. Jay took that as a “No, I’m staying here.”
“Do you think… Connor’s alright?”
“Yeah, I’m sure of that. He’s a lucky bastard anyway – he can survive anything, remember? I bet he’s still out there triaging and bossing everybody around.”

Will didn’t let his brother know how worried he really was. Jay was awake and responsive now, but that could change any time. Down here Will had no way of determining the internal damage the rebar had done to Jay. He couldn’t tell if vital organs had been damaged. And if so, he had absolutely no way of treating him here if there were complications. And then there was the danger of blood loss. Will had been able to slow the bleeding down, but Jay was still losing blood. And sooner or later he would go into hypovolemic shock.

They had to get out of here! Maybe Jay was right. He needed to go and get help. But Will had this fear that if he left his little brother alone now, he wouldn’t find him alive when he returned. That was his worst nightmare.
Will had tried to keep Jay awake for some time now, rubbing his sternum, slightly slapping his cheeks or trying to get him to talk, but it was getting more and more difficult. The pain and the blood loss were taking their toll on Jay and ever so often his eyes fluttered close.
In the beginning Jay moaned or gritted his teeth against the pain, but now he just lay there. Pale and impassive, cold sweat on his forehead and it freaked Will out.
Will took Jay’s hand and together they lay there in the twilight. The ground was cold and rough and uneven. It poked into Will’s back and the cold made him shiver. Whenever he felt Jay’s hand go limp in his, he squeezed it and talked to his little brother until he opened his eyes again. But it got more and more difficult to keep him awake.

Chapter Text

Outside on the street Connor was busy triaging patients. There were so many people in need of help! Kids and teachers, pedestrians, business men and women… Some medics from the fire departments had joined him, as well as a few civilians who wanted to help. The second wave of the earthquake had been fairly mild out here, but he had seen the school building collapse even more. And he knew his friends Will and Jay were still in there. And that worried him. It had been over 2 hours since the second quake, over 2 hours since his friends had disappeared into the debris and hadn’t come out. Every now and then firefighters led people out of the collapsed building or carried them out on backboards to load them into ambulances. And ever so often, Connor raised his head and looked at the injured, hoping to see familiar faces. But the Halstead brothers were gone. Swallowed by the earth. Or rather swallowed by tons of debris. Last time he heard from them was when a few kids talked about how two men had saved them from their classroom. That had been shortly before the second quake.
Connor felt the urge to do something. To run into the debris himself and start digging. But he knew it was a stupid and irrational idea. He was needed out here. That’s where he could really help, make a contribution, be useful. Not in there. The only thing he could do now was hope and pray that the firefighters would find them. And that they were still alive.

Will had hoped that somebody would find them. He had screamed and shouted for help for what seemed like hours. He had made as much noise as he could with banging pieces of debris against each other. And he heard rumbling from somewhere in this huge pile of debris, like somebody was working there, searching for survivors, but nobody had answered to his screams. He also tried his phone again and Jay’s too – but to no avail. They couldn’t call anybody for help.
Nobody had come to save them. For how long? He had lost track of time.

“Jay?”
“Hm?”
“I’m going to get help.”
“Good. Told ya before…”
“I know. Nobody is coming for us. I’m going to find a way out and bring the firefighters here. They’ll get you out.”
“Kay.” Jay nodded.
“Don’t you dare dying while I’m gone, you understand me!?”
“Copy that…”
“See you in a minute, ok…” Will ran his fingers through his baby brother’s hair, then turned around so Jay wouldn’t see the tears in his eyes.

Will scrambled up onto his knees and squeezed through the hole in the rubble he had initially come in to Jay. He tried to remember which way the main entrance was, but there was no way to orientate down here. Just rubble and pieces of concrete, broken furniture and all kinds of debris everywhere. Will made his way through this chaos slowly. His hands started bleeding again, ripped open by sharp-edged pieces of debris. But his bleeding hands, that left red stains on the stones he touched, weren’t what worried him. He had felt for some time that something was wrong. His abdomen was painful and his belly felt swollen and tender. Since he started walking and working on removing stones in his way, he felt lightheaded and dizzy. And, being a doctor, he was pretty sure he knew what that meant. He was losing blood - bleeding internally. He had played it down in front of Jay, because he didn’t want to worry him, but he knew that he had woken up after the second quake covered by a pile of debris. It must have crashed into his lower torso. Maybe internal bleeding from trauma to the liver or spleen. He didn’t know for sure. But he knew he didn’t have much time left before he would pass out and everything would be lost.

Jay just lay there and tried not to die. No way he could do that to his brother, right? He would just lay here and wait. For something to happen or somebody to come save him. So, he concentrated on breathing in and out, in and out. He didn’t feel the rebar anymore. It had all gone kind of numb some time ago. And he was glad about that, although it possibly wasn’t a very good sign. Sometimes he drifted off into unconsciousness – or was it sleep? He didn’t know. Didn’t matter as long as he still woke up from it, right?

Will was exhausted. He didn’t know how long he would be able to go on like this. His body hurt and he felt nauseous and like passing out any minute. But suddenly he heard voices, sounds of debris being moved, sounds of heavy tools screeching through stone and metal. So, he screamed. “Help! I need help! I’m here! Do you hear me?” He didn’t stop although his throat hurt “Help me, please! Help! My brother is dying!” He started to sob. When suddenly a wall of debris in front of him started to crumble and a face with a helmet peeked through. Oh, thank God! A firefighter!
“Sir, we’re coming for you, take a step back!” The fireman shouted through the debris.
Then, after a minute, two firefighters came towards Will, who had sunk onto his knees. “We’re here to help you! What’s your name?”
“Will.” He answered, panting.
The firefighters looked him up and down, looked at the huge dark bruises on his abdomen and chest and his blood smeared face. “Do you think you can walk, Will? We’ll get you out of here.” They tried to take him under his arms, lift him to a standing position and lead him outside, but Will shook them off.
“No! My brother Jay is still in there! He’s in bad shape. You need to help me get him out!”
“We’ll go and get him, Will. We need to get you to safety first though.”
“No way, I’m not leaving without my brother. I… I’m a doctor. But I couldn’t do anything to help him.” Will started sobbing “I… I’m afraid he’s dying and we’re too late. I need to show you where he is!”
“What can you tell us about his condition?”
“He’s impaled by a rebar, through the abdomen. Possible internal damage, possible internal bleeding. Definitely openly bleeding. In and out of consciousness since the second wave of the earthquake. I’m sure he’s gone into shock by now… Please, can we go now!?”
“John, get the tools for cutting the rebar, Pete and Bree, grab your bags and backboard and let’s go!”

Will led them back to where he had left Jay. It took some time because they had to open up some of the passages through the debris to get past with the firemen’s heavy gear, tools and equipment. Will stumbled and nearly fell several times, but Pete and Bree caught him and kept him upright. He walked slightly bent forward, hugging his abdomen, like he could prevent the blood from flowing inside his belly and the pain from getting stronger.
“He’s behind there!” Will panted and pointed at the last pile of debris that lay between them and Jay. The firefighters started working on making the opening bigger.
Will hesitated for a moment – what if… if… his little brother had died while he was away? What was he supposed to do then? How would he ever get over that… That his baby brother had died all alone and that he had left him? But he banned the thoughts to the back of his mind. There was no use in thinking about that. He needed to do – not to think! “Jay, I’m back! I brought help!” He shouted.
The four firefighters were still working on opening up the entrance to the cavity Jay lay in.
“The debris is very unstable here, Cap!” Big pieces were starting to shift and made horrible deep rumbling and grinding noises. Will could see the dust raising and rubble starting to fall. “Stop it! It’s all coming down, you’re killing him!” Will screamed and tried to pull back Jack, but he was in too much pain and his head was too dizzy. He just doubled over and tumbled.
“Jack, Pete, you go in, check on his condition and see how we can best deal with this rebar situation!”
“Copy that, Cap.”

Jay coughed and blinked. What was going on now? Another wave of the earthquake?
He heard people talking! Could that be? Or was he starting to hallucinate? But then he heard Will’s voice “Jay, I’m back! I brought help!” Oh, thank God.
But at that moment some of the debris above and next to him started to shift, one chunk crashed on his right leg and before he could scream out in pain, another big piece smashed in his chest and took his breath away. The scream turned into a stifled groan. His vision was blurry, but he could see the firefighters move through the opening in the debris and closer to him.
“Hey, Jay, right? How ya doin’?
“Not so great.” Jay answered, gasping for air. “Where’s my brother?... he safe?”
“He’s right here, behind those concrete blocks. He led us to you. My colleague is taking care of him now. Let’s take a look at that rebar, shall we.”
“But… Will’s fine… he’s no’ injured…”
“We’re taking care of both of you and…”
The firefighter said more but Jay didn’t listen anymore. Couldn’t listen anymore. His mind was getting fuzzy again and he felt he was drifting away. Why did they have to care for Will? Will wasn’t hurt, he was fine, he had been fine. What… Why?

Will was sitting on the ground, leaning his back against a piece of rubble. The pain was getting worse. He felt nauseous and dizzy and just wanted to curl up into a ball and sleep.
At that moment Pete shouted out to them “Cap, we need to move fast here. He just passed out, racing pulse, shallow breathing. I think he’s going into shock. We need to cut this rebar now and get him to a hospital!”
“Do it. Cut him loose, get him out.”
“I’m helping!” before they could stop him, Will got up in a stagger and ducked in next to Jay. It was a shock. Jay looked worse than how he had left him earlier. He was out like a light, pale, his lips bloodless, cold sweat on his face and a big piece of debris half across his chest. Will pushed it away and it left angry red scratches which would be followed by a big bruise soon. Will hoped it hadn’t broken any ribs. “Jay, stay with me, ok. We’re getting you out of here!” Will mumbled while checking Jay’s pulse. Usually he was calm around trauma patients. That was his job after all. But this was different. So different. That was his baby brother and he was beside himself with fear.

The t-shirts Will had used as dressing were completely soaked through and Will peeked under the top one to check on the wound. It had almost stopped bleeding, but that would change soon, considering what they were about to do.
“Ok, this is how it’s going to go down: I’m cutting the rebar above his body, then you’ll slightly lift him so that I can cut the rebar on his back.”
The firefighters and Will nodded.
Cutting the rebar above Jay was easy, but cutting the rebar under him was almost impossible. They couldn’t remove the piece of metal obviously, but had to lift unconscious Jay just enough for Jack to be able to cut below him without injuring him. And without moving Jay too much to avoid more internal damage and bleeding. It was living on the edge – or Jay dying if they messed up.
The space in this cavity was tiny and claustrophobic – not enough room for working with power tools and lifting an unconscious man with several people.
Jack fired up the angle grinder and started to work on the rebar. Jay’s eyes flew open with a start. The vibrations that ran through the long piece of metal into his pierced abdomen must be so painful! He started panting and flailing his arms in panic and pain. Will pushed his arms down to prevent Jay from hurting himself even more or losing a few fingers from the angle grinder! “Calm down Jay, please. They are helping! You’ll be out of here in a few minutes! I promise.”
It had taken less than a minute to cut the rebar and Jay lay still again, looking around wildly, panting. “Will…”
“Yeah, I’m here Jay, you’re doing great.” Will held both of Jay’s hands pinned to his chest.
The firefighters had used some tool to bend away the upper rebar that was still sticking out from the block of concrete above them. Will hadn’t payed attention, he was too concentrated on Jay.

“Ok, now for the tricky part. Jay, I need you to stay still and not move, ok?” Jay looked at the fireman and nodded. “You” he looked at Pete and Will “are going to lift him up by the shoulders and the hip a few inches so I can get the angle grinder under him and cut the rebar. It will only take a few seconds… and better not drop him…” Will continued the sentence in his mind “or the angle cutter will cut him in half” and he shivered.
“Ok, on three. One… two… three!” They lifted Jay up in the air. Just a few inches, but Jay was heavy and Will was exhausted and in pain and for a horrible second, he thought he might drop him. But he held tight. Jay screamed! And clenched his fists on his chest in agony. The pain must be excruciation when the rebar moved in his abdomen. His feet scraped along the dusty floor uselessly. The angle grinder screeched and sparked on the metal and a few seconds later, Jack stopped it and shouted “Done! Roll him!” And they lifted and rolled Jay onto his left side. Jay exhaled with a groan, whimpered and then his eyes rolled back and he lost consciousness again.

Will fell back on his butt, hugged himself round his hurting belly, hissing in pain. And suddenly he felt so dizzy and nauseous that he bent over and vomited on the dusty concrete.
“You ok, pal?” Pete touched Will lightly. “Let me check you out…”
“No, I’m ok…”
“Hey Bree, pass me the backboard! And Cap, you’d better order some reinforcements, we’re in need of another backboard and some more hands!”
“No, guys… I’m fine, I can walk, just give me a minute. Take care of Jay first…” Will mumbled, wiping the vomit from his mouth.
“I’m not sure what you are trying to prove here, man, but I can see you’re clearly not fine. You’re white as a sheet and I can see you’re in pain. And according to the bruises in all colors of the rainbow and all the other symptoms, I’d say you’re bleeding internally. So why don’t you just lay down, doc, and let us do our jobs?!”
“Jay… Jay…” Will stretched out his arm and lightly tapped his brother with his finger, trying to get his attention but he was clearly unconscious. The firefighters had put Jay on the backboard and secured him on it, laying on his side.
“We’ll take good care of him.” Said Pete in a softer voice than before.
Will nodded, then lay down on the cold ground and curled up on his side. The last thing he saw before everything turned black was that they carried Jay out of the hole in the debris carefully.

Connor had grown more and more anxious over time. Will and Jay must be somewhere! He just hoped they were ok! The firefighters and paramedics were still bringing out people. But… but many of them weren’t alive. He would never forgive himself if anything happened to the Halstead brothers. They were his only friends that had remained after his time in Chicago. They were here because of him, because they wanted to visit him, to see his new life and his new job at UCLA. They were here for some fun and sun, away from the cold and wet Chicago autumn – and look where it had got them!
Ok, enough was enough, he thought. He had helped so many people today, but hadn’t been able to help his friends. He wasn’t exactly sure what he could do, but if necessary he’d dig for them with his bare hands! He owed them his life after what happened in Chicago over a year ago. And he was going to repay it!

Connor was just marching towards the collapsed building, when he saw firefighters carrying a man out on a backboard. Jay!
He sprinted over to them and then saw the state Jay was in! The rebar stuck in his abdomen, sticking out a few inches on his front and back. He was bleeding heavily from the wounds. “Oh fuck, Jay! What happened?” But his friend was clearly unconscious.
“Where are you taking him?” Connor asked the firefighters who were just about to put Jay on a gurney and set him up with an IV and fluids. “I’m a doctor at UCLA and –“
“Hear that Bree? Another doctor? Does this guy know all the doctors in LA? Are you his brother too?”
“His brother? No -… Wait, have you seen his brother? Will? Is he ok?”
“Yeah, he’s just a few minutes behind us.”

Right on queue two more firefighters appeared with blood smeared and bruised Will on a backboard. He was conscious and looked like he’d rather have walked out here than be carried, but Connor could see that he was in a lot of pain.
“Will, are you ok? What happened?”
“So good to see you man. We were buried by debris. Well you saw what happened to Jay. And I’m pretty sure I’m bleeding internally so these gentlemen insisted on carrying me. Will rolled his eyes. “I’m glad they did,” answered Connor.
At that moment Jay opened his eyes and looked around disoriented and then down his belly at the piece of rebar. “Oh right, that’s still there…” he giggled. Connor looked at the paramedic questioningly and he just said “Morphine.”

Beep… Beep… Beep… The Beeping sound was the first thing Jay heard when he regained consciousness… There was… a pressure round his upper arm, smell of disinfectants, clip on his finger, itching under his nose, stiff cool cotton under his fingers. A hospital for sure! He hated hospitals! The Beep-Beep quickened and Jay ripped open his eyes. He looked around in alarm but then he saw Connor in scrubs sitting on a chair beside him and next to Connor another bed with another person – Will.
Jay calmed down a little and then remembered the rebar! Looked down his belly, touched his abdomen with his hands and sighed with relieve. And a little because of the pain that shot through his body when he touched the dressing over the wound in his abdomen.

“Hey Jay.” Connor smiled.
“Did… you do that?” Jay gestured towards his belly under the hospital gown.
“Yes. It’s not every day you get to remove a rebar from your friend’s abdomen, right?” He joked.
“Good for you.” Jay smirked.
“You got really lucky the rebar didn’t hit any vital organs. And they got you out of there just in time before you started to go into shock because of the blood loss. There was only minor internal bleeding which I could repair. You also have some other bumps and bruises, minor lacerations on your head and torso. And you lost a fair amount of blood. But fortunately, it looked worse than it was.”
“It definitely felt bad enough.”
“I know... We put you on strong antibiotics now to prevent infection and sepsis and we’re keeping a close eye on you for some days… But you’re going to be fine. And you’re going to have another scar and another story to impress the ladies with.”
Jay laughed. “Lucky me! How’s Will?”
“He actually worried us more. My colleague operated on him. When I had fixed you up I watched the rest of the surgery from the gallery. One of Will’s kidneys was ruptured, as well as his spleen, which caused intense internal bleeding. We weren’t sure if the spleen could be saved or had to be removed, but Dr. Newman was able to save both.”
Jay looked shocked. He looked over to his brother who lay motionless in the hospital bed and looked so pale and fragile. His face was covered with an oxygen mask and tubes, cables and IVs were attached to him everywhere.
“He’s going to be fine, Jay! He’s weak now because he lost a lot of blood. And his organs will need some time to heal. But we’re going to monitor him closely and I’m confident he’ll do just fine and be back on his feet in a few weeks.”
“I… I didn’t even know he was injured. Or in pain… He didn’t tell me! Why didn’t he tell me?”
“I guess he didn’t want to worry you.”
“Or… maybe he didn’t know he was injured?”
“That’s unlikely, Jay. He must have been in a lot of pain. And when the firefighters brought him out he even told me that he suspected he was bleeding internally.”
“Fuck. Why didn’t he tell me? Like I can’t be trusted… or like I’m still a child who can’t deal with the truth…”
“You’re still his little brother. Maybe he thinks he needs to protect you? But ask him yourself!”
They both turned their heads towards Will who had started to shift in bed slightly and opened his eyes.
“Will, how are you?” Jay asked worried.
Will slowly pulled down the oxygen mask. “I… I knew you couldn’t move.” Will had obviously heard their conversation… his voice was so weak they could hardly hear him. “So, I had to… be the one to… save us… No time to think… about injuries… pain… just had to… do it.”
Jay would have liked to hug Will now. He nodded. Yeah, he got that.
Will continued “And you’re… my baby brother…no matter how old you are… and I’ll protect you… “
“Oh, Will.” Jay’s mouth was dry and he swallowed hard.

“Well, on the bright side: Your vacation in LA just got extended by at least one week, two to be on the safe side. Full board and all!” Connor joked.
“Yeah, thanks Connor, that’s great. What an amazing trip. We should do that again sometime…” Jay answered.
And they laughed. Like three madmen. Glad to be alive.

THE END