Chapter Text
Each second felt like a lifetime as Jay and his team raced through the streets of Chicago toward the hospital. He listened to his brother's outgoing voicemail message again, before finally giving up and putting down his phone.
"He's not picking up."
"We're almost there." His boss said in his usual gruff voice, but Jay could tell he was concerned.
From the moment they had ID'd Seldon, a sick feeling had been growing in Jay's gut. The same one that he had the day his father's building went up in flames. His family was a magnet for trouble, and his gut was telling him that Will's odds of being targeted by Seldon were high. Guys like Seldon love inserting themselves into the police investigation, and Will was working in that lab with him right now. Jay knew his brother; he knew that if Will had a feeling something was off about Seldon that the hot-headed doctor was likely to do something stupid.
He flexed his fist on the door handle as the car lurched into the parking lot, barely waiting for Voight to slow down before popping the door and sprinting through the halls. One of the nurses - Doris? - sent him to the basement and he lost count of how many people he shoved out of his way to get there.
Finally reaching the lab, Jay pushed the door and his heart rate jumped through the roof.
"Will!" His brother's bright hair was a darker red than usual, and the metallic smell cutting through the sterile environment was a pretty obvious clue as to why. Even more concerning, Will hadn't responded when Jay called his name. The detective dropped to his knees and carefully rolled Will over, cradling his brother's head with his free hand.
The door swung open behind him; Voight and a woman came bursting through.
"What happened?" The doctor trailed behind Voight and looked wild-eyed at the sight of Will on the ground before getting distracted by some work on the bench. "What's wrong with our virus samples?"
"What do you mean?" Voight asked.
"Everything here looks sabotaged. When I left, we were onto something here, but without those samples it will take us awhile to create the cure again."
"It was Seldon. He's behind all of this." Jay choked out as he held his brother. "Please, help him. He's breathing but not conscious."
He needed somebody to help his brother now. Why did it seem like nobody cared that his brother was covered in blood laying on the floor?
Finding Seldon was less important than Jay's worry for his brother. The part of him that took his oath was ashamed that he wasn't thinking about the well-being of anyone but his brother right now. Finding Seldon meant preventing who knew how many deaths, but right now Jay would trade anything for his brother to open his eyes.
Voight left to get help while the doctor came to Will's aide.
She knelt on the other side of Will, checking his pupils for responsiveness. Whatever she saw, she clearly didn't like. The worry twisted Jay's insides as she continued her examination. Her eyes caught on the skin showing from where his scrub top was ridden up. Jay couldn't tell what she was looking at from his vantage point, but when she pulled it up further his vision blurred from rage.
The bruising along his brother's torso was unmistakable. They were the kinds of bruises that you got when someone stood over you, kicking you. Jay was going to kill Seldon when he got his hands on the bastard.
The door swung open again and Voight's hand rested on his shoulder. To anyone else, it probably would've seemed like a gesture of comfort, but Jay knew what his boss was telling him to do. Right now his duty was to the city, and that meant leaving his brother here to go fight a greater threat.
Jay scoffed and shook his head, "There are other detectives, Sarge - other people who can go get this guy."
"If this were any other case, I would be the first one to tell you that your place is here, with your brother. But you know that this isn't a normal case and I need my best. That's you, kid. Seldon is on the run now, and that means he's going to rush his endgame. We don't have time to waste."
Waste?
Making sure his brother was going to live was a waste? Staying here to fight for the last of his family was a waste?
It's not what Voight meant, but Jay couldn't do it. He couldn't get his legs to move or tear his eyes away from the bleeding wound on his brother's head. Even as more medical professionals arrived and moved Will onto a gurney, Jay couldn't bring himself to move away from his brother. He'd never felt so useless in his life.
"Detective Halstead," the woman - Dr. Holcomb, according to her white coat - spoke softly to Jay, "He's right. We all have to do our parts to bring this to an end. I will make sure that we do everything possible for your brother, but you have to make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else's loved ones today."
She gently moved him away from Will's unresponsive body and towards Voight, who mumbled a thanks in her direction.
He can't go. He can't. If he walked out that door and his brother died then Jay would never be able to forgive himself for leaving.
No. His brother wouldn't die. Will may not be awake, but he was stable and that had to count for something. Pull yourself together, Jay.
"Jay," the use of his first name softened the detective, "if Seldon makes a move and people die while you're here, that's not something you'll forget."
Jay put himself in the line of fire on a daily basis, but days like this were the hardest part of being a cop. Having to choose between the people you love and everybody else never got any easier. It killed him to step away from his unconscious brother. Jay backed out of the room, his eyes trained on Will until his red hair was out of sight. He followed his boss out of the hospital and did his best to listen to Voight's rundown of the situation, but Jay's mind was still in that lab, sitting with his brother.
Jay and his team were about to go face off with a killer who had the potential to wreak havoc with a deadly virus, but the possibility of losing his brother was the most terrifying thing Jay had ever faced. This was turning into the longest day of his life, and it was only going to get harder.