Chicago (A Jay Halstead Story)

Chapter 12

After a few minutes, he came back in with a wheelchair and April. "You sure you want to do this now, sweetie?"

I nodded at her and slowly sat up as she unhooked me from the heart monitor and helped me get into the wheelchair. As he pushed me into the hall, he looked down towards the waiting room.

"There's a lot of people here to see you. Wanna go down there first?"

I shook my head. "I want to see my baby. Then I'll go see everyone, I promise."

The morgue was only one floor below us, but it felt like it took an eternity to get there. Jay knocked on the door and the medical examiner opened it.

"This is Coralie Hudson, here to see her... baby."

The ME looked at me with sad eyes and nodded, waving us in the room. He pulled out my baby from one of the doors in the freezer looking thing. Those always creeped me out. So small. So many bodies just hiding behind the doors. He stepped out of the way, giving me full view of a tiny lifeless body that had once been in my belly kicking and flipping day and night. Jay wheeled me over closer, and I picked up his little hand.

"Hey Bexley. It's mommy. I'm." I stopped when my breath hitched. His little face was swollen. "I'm so sorry. I was supposed to protect you and I failed. I'm so so sorry." I wheeled myself back and started sobbing.

Jay knelt down next to me and started rubbing my back. I fell into him and he wrapped his arms around me.

"Cora this isn't your fault. We are gonna get Marco. I promise. He's gonna pay for this."

After several minutes of crying into Jay's shoulder, I sat up, squeezing Bexley's hand one more time. I looked over at the ME and nodded. He slid him back in and closed the door.

"I'll make funeral arrangements today."

The ME simply nodded and smiled as best he could. Jay wheeled me back into the hall of the basement and stopped, kneeling back down in front of me.

"I know this is probably a stupid question, but are you okay?"

"I will be. I know what I said, but I'm really in a lot of pain right now. Can you just tell everyone I'll see them soon? They can go home if they want. They don't have to keep waiting around."

Jay stood up and pushed me to the elevator. "Yeah let's get you back to bed. And I'll tell them, but I get the feeling they won't be going anywhere. So whenever you're ready to see them, they'll be waiting."

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The next morning, Will came in while I was eating breakfast.

"As much as I'm sure you love this hospital, we really should work on getting you discharged."

I smiled and nodded. "Not that I have anywhere to go, but it is awful noisy here. And the food isn't that great."

He laughed and started unhooking the machine.

"Let's try to walk. If you want, we can walk down to the waiting room where everyone is waiting to see you. Visit with them for a bit then walk back. And later today we will walk around the floor. What do you say? The sooner you try to walk, the sooner we can release you."

I hesitated, not knowing if I was ready to see anyone else. Will picked up on my hesitation.

"Or we can just walk the floor. I'll tell your friends they'll just have to wait."

My stomach was in knots. "No, I've kept them waiting long enough. Let's go down there."

We slowly, and I mean snail pace slow, walked to the waiting room at the end of the hall. The sight was overwhelming. The room was full of people, and it looked like it was only people there for me. My firehouse family- Kelly, Matt, Gabby, Mouch, Hermann, Otis, Joe, Shay, Mills, Chief Boden, and Kacee Krieger, a candidate I had met a couple times. Sitting beside Kacee was Sierra, I remember they had become close friends from the firehouse. I was happy to see them here together. Mixed in with that was my 21st District family- Hank, Erin, Jay, Adam, Al, Antonio, even Sergeant Platt and two officers I had seen a lot, but hadn't been introduced to yet.

"Here she is! Look at you! Up and walking around!"

Matt jogged over to me, looking too scared to touch me.

"Matt, you can hug me, just be gentle."

This caused a crowd to form a line, each waiting to hug me and everyone being so kind and gentle.

"I've missed you, Cora. When Kelly said he saw you Friday, I had planned to get up with you. We miss you at the house."

"I've missed you too, Matt. And the house. Just with Marco.... I screwed up everything. And I was too embarrassed to show my face around, knowing how everyone felt about him. I'm sorry."

"Don't you dare apologize. Just promise me you'll start coming by again."

"I promise." I said sincerely.