Chicago (A Jay Halstead Story)

Chapter 10

*TRIGGER WARNING for the next two chapters. Infant loss*

Beep. Beep. Beep. My head is pounding. What is that noise? I tried to open my eyes, but they were so heavy. I squeezed them tight then opened them slowly, blinking several times trying to clear the blurriness.

"Cora?" I heard a faint voice. I groaned, every inch of my body hurting.

"Cora? Hey. Its Sierra. You're at Chicago Med."

I could finally see clearly so I slowly turned to the side and saw Sierra Callahan, psychologist and long term friend, sitting beside me.

"Sierra? How? What are you doing here?" I croaked out, my mouth and throat feeling dry.

She picked up a cup of water, sticking the straw in my mouth. "Drink slow. Erin called me. You know... if you wanted to talk again, you didn't have to be so dramatic about it."

I laughed, but stopped quickly, too much pain and effort to laugh. Sierra and I have been friends for most of our lives. Like most of my relationships, we kind of fell apart when Marco and I got engaged. I cut out anyone who didn't like my decision to stay with him. Which, clearly I made a huge mistake. But I was going to do my best to fix it now.

"I'm gonna go let everyone know you're awake. They'll need to take your statement too."

"Sierra?" She stopped at the door and turned around. "I'm really glad you're here. And I'm sorry about everything."

"Don't worry about it... everything's fine now. I promise."

She walked out and I laid my head back, trying to think of everything that happened. Oh my god. I looked down at my stomach, which was significantly smaller than it was before. I slowly lifted the sheet and the hospital gown, seeing a huge cut across my lower abdomen.

"We had to do an emergency c-section." A doctor with red hair walked in with a nurse.

"I'm Doctor Halstead. You can call me Will."

"Any relation to Jay?"

Will quirked his eyebrow. "He's my brother. You work at the precinct with him, right?"

"I did for a day. Now it's not looking too promising."

I stared at Will, hesitating to ask the dreaded question. "My baby?"

He shook his head quickly, a somber expression covering his face. "I'm so sorry. There was nothing we could do."

"Boy or girl?"

"It was a boy. We have him... downstairs. If you would like to see him when you're feeling able."

"How long have I been out?"

"Two days." The nurse said as she was checking my vitals. "You were messed up pretty bad. I'm April by the way."

There was a knock on the door, and Erin and Hank came inside the room. Erin had tears streaming down her face and Hank's eyes were bright red. Seeing them, I couldn't hold it together anymore. I just exploded. Tears pouring out, sobbing and shaking. They came to sit on the bed, holding me as I cried.

"We'll give you some time." I heard Will say as he and April walked out of the room.

"Shhhhh. It's okay. It's gonna be okay."

"He killed my baby." I wailed. I cried harder than I think I ever have in my life. "He killed my baby." I just kept saying over and over again.

There was another knock on the door. I tried to compose myself as Hank yelled "what?!" And the door opened. Jay stepped in.

"I'm sorry, Voight. But we need her statement. We need to know what happened."

"She just woke up. Can't you give her a damn minute?" Erin's voice was rough, I could tell she hadn't slept.

"I'm ready." The three of them looked at me, concerned. Hank grabbed my hand.

"They can wait. You need time to grasp everything."

I shook my head and waved Jay in here. "I want this taken care of once and for all."

Jay pulled a chair beside the bed, and pulled out a small notepad.

"Okay. Just walk me through everything you can remember."

I took a deep breath and told Jay everything. From the moment I woke up to the moment I passed out. Hank looked like he was going to commit murder. Erin had to walk out because she was crying again. I heard voices out in the hall when I finished.