Chapter Text
Burning the Strings – Chapter 1 (Ties Broken)
For Will Halstead, it wasn’t completely clear on what he wanted to do with his life. Especially as a kid. He had always looked up to his older brother, Jay. He understood mom didn’t always feel the best. With dad, it was a little bit different. With his constantly pushing at them to get jobs. To join the work force like he had.
It wasn’t like Jay ever admitted on what he wanted to do. But he was always there. Even when the kids at school would push him around. Even got into a few fights, with him usually losing. Maybe that was when his interest was piqued. The nurse had been gentle as she treated the black eye he got. Even if it was to place ice over it and watch the bruise slowly fade over the next several days. Never stopped from everyone else finding out that he been in another fight and lost.
He lost count the number of fights he had been in. But he never failed to get back up, even if he had lost and had the marks for it.
Then Jay left when he turned eighteen. Enlisting into the Army and leaving everyone else behind. There wasn’t as much as a goodbye. Jay had his bag packed and was told that he was leaving for the Army
Will hated him for it.
He doubted he could have changed his older brother’s mind. Not when it was evident that it was made up. But it hurt that his own brother barely even looked at him. Then he was gone. He hadn’t even told him how long he would be gone. Would it be four years? Eight? He didn’t know and his brother certainly didn’t tell them. He was just… gone.
Perhaps Jay had been the mediator for their family because it only seemed to go downhill. His mom’s health was declining and suddenly he was having to care for his own wounds. Wounds that he didn’t receive from school and bullies. Jay was no longer his protector. But from his own father and it fueled his desire to want out. It wasn’t quite the black eyes that he would get from school, which was more frequent as he didn’t have his brother to protect him anymore.
His hate for his brother only grew with each passing day. Believing that Jay had abandoned him and left him to suffer. He had bruises and scars to show for it. He would now have to deal with this as the number of scars grew. Will refused to look at them, knowing what he would see. A reminder of just how pathetic his life really was. As most of them marked up his arms and torso.
Turning eighteen has been the best thing of his life. It was the day he had left Chicago and never looked back. He wound up moving to New York once he left. He knew what he wanted to study. Even with no support backing his decision, he wanted to study Medicine. He wanted nothing to do with his family. But he was going to do this for himself. Though he knew that his dad would never follow after him. He was finally free.
Majoring in Biology for his undergraduate had been the first step. That was when the student loans started to build up. Four years of a degree as he had skipped over Community College and applied for the school. He had no issues in being admitted there as a new student. But he had found he preferred to living off campus than on. Even if it was slower to get to his classes every morning. Since it had been a requirement to live on campus for their freshman year. Something about helping to ease the transition to life on campus. Will still preferred housing off campus, for one, it was cheaper on money and that was less he had to owe. His scholarships and aid had covered quite a bit. But that didn’t mean the entire degree had been free. It had been hard every step of the way. And he was sure that some of his classmates may have found it odd that he never talked about his family. There was nobody in that crowd the day he graduated, and he found it didn’t bother him.
The loans then multiplied when he applied for Medical School. But it certainly could have been worse.
It wasn’t like there weren’t a lot of Medical Schools in the state of New York. It was choosing one. In the end, he wound up picking Columbia University and he wasn’t sure on how he managed to get in as their acceptance rate was two percent. By then, he was considered a resident in the state, which certainly helped with tuition costs. As he had applied for a license in the State of New York when he first moved there for his undergraduate degree. Though the cost of Medical School wasn’t anything to laugh at. Scholarships and Financial Aid only covered so much of it. Education in New York did not come cheap.
Will stayed in New York even after four years of Medical School. Starting up his residence at Mount Sinai Hospital and even took up a temporary position in Sudan when it came available. Then returning back to New York after. Never once had it crossed his mind to ever go back to Chicago. It was the one place he had vowed never to return to after eight years.
But it had come to a point where he had to make a decision. He wasn’t doing what he originally went to Medical School for. Plastic Surgery had been an open position at the time. He had been there for three years and enough was enough. He had enjoyed Sudan a lot more than he had working in New York. It had even been better when he was still a Medical Student at Mount Sinai Hospital. But there weren’t any positions at the time.
The catch was… the only thing open was in Chicago and he had looked around New York and the surrounding states. The position was in the Emergency Department, and it was the change that he wanted. Whatever reservations he had were mostly gone. Will didn’t even pause to ponder the aftereffects of the decision before pressing apply. What it would mean to go back to Chicago after running for so long. Couldn’t be any worse than the cost of rent in New York.
Though he hadn’t hesitated when Sharon Goodwin had offered him the position at the hospital. He didn’t want to return to New York. He had even made the trip to Chicago by driving those long hours. The place hadn’t been home in years and he wasn’t sure what he felt by being back.
Will didn’t ever intend to tell his dad that he was back in Chicago. And he had lost touch with Jay since the moment he abandoned him. He had no intention of seeing if he had the same number. Or finding on how to reach him. He hadn’t done so in over ten years, and he wasn’t about to start now. Besides, he was probably halfway across the world right now. His feelings had only got worse over the years, and he wasn’t sure if he would punch Jay if he ever saw him again. Soon was too soon in his opinion.
That didn’t mean he was prepared for how his first day would go at Chicago Med. Dying was part of that list. Thankfully the attack on the hospital was unsuccessful. The grenade had been bad enough when he had blown himself up. But trying to infect the entire hospital… It had been found out that it was Marburg, a viral hemorrhagic fever. But it had never gone past the incubation period, nobody had been affected. They had been lucky. It wasn’t an ideal first day and yet he stayed. It gave him a taste of why he had become a doctor. He planned to finish his Residency here at Chicago Med. And perhaps come on fully as a physician for the hospital.
He was already becoming somewhat familiar with those that worked for the Chicago Fire Department, as the majority had been in Chicago Med that day. After all, they hadn’t thought that one of them would pull through since he had been hit by the shrapnel from the grenade that had been set off. If only he knew how familiar he would be with some of the Firefighters. Though he was aware of the presence of the Chicago Police Department that were just outside the doors while they had been on lockdown. But it was finally over and the doors were back open.
Will knew that the decision wouldn’t be made for a few years since he hadn’t even finished his residency yet. There was always time to decide on where he wanted to work and if that would be Chicago Med or not.
But he knew that he liked it better than New York.