More than expected...

Chapter 2

Jay had barely slept the previous night, a bad feeling working its way through his mind before he eventually just gave up trying and went for a run. It was currently 8:00am and he'd just arrived at the diner Mara and him were set to meet at. Choosing a booth by the window he sat down and started waiting, his fingers drumming out a rhythm on the table anxiously. Systematically, every time the entrance bell chimed, his eyes snapped up to examine the person walking in. Jay waited for what felt like a lifetime, slowly watching the numbers on his phone grow higher, before turning back to zero as a new hour began. He waited another half hour before deciding he'd been stood up. He gathered his jacket that he'd discarded beside him and made a move to get up when the buzzing of his phone once again stopped him. He'd added Mara's number to his contacts a few hours after his phone call with her, and the sight of her name on the caller ID made him scramble to pick it up.

"Mara? I've been waiting for almost two hours, are you co–"

"Jay!? Jay, I need help! She's been– She's been– NO!" Her voice faded, like she'd dropped the phone, but he could still hear her clearly, "No please, wake up! WAKE UP!" He'd heard enough. Jay quickly left the diner and practically ran towards his truck.

"Mara! Mara, pick up the phone! Mar–"

"Jay? She's not waking up, I– I don't think she's breathing," I sob ripped through the line and made Jay's heart ache, "Oh god, oh god." Her breathing was erratic,

"Mara? Where are you?" Jay asked calmly, acting the complete opposite of how he felt as he slammed his car door.

"Mara listen to me," He ordered and heard her whisper "okay."

"I need you to tell me where you are, can you do that?" He asked, turning the keys in the ignition, hearing the truck's engine roar to life. She told him she was at home and he pulled out into the street. He kept her talking on the phone as he drove, breaking a few road rules in order to get there in record time. He came to a stop outside the house and Jay informed her he was there before hanging up the phone and stepping out of his car. He ran up the porch stairs, pulling his gun when he spotted that the door had been forced open. The floorboards creaked underfoot as he slowly entered the residence, heart racing.

"Mara!?" He called, clearing the entranceway and living room.

"JAY!" Mara cried out. Her voice cracked and he could hear the fear in her yell. Throwing caution to the wind he hurried towards the sounds of her crying. His footsteps traveled through the house as he closed in on the first-floor bedroom; where Mara had called from. Opening the door Jay almost stepped back in alarm. In front of him, two people were in the room, Mara, and her mother Danielle. Both were covered in blood. Mara sat hunched over her mother, body heaving with heavy breaths and sobs. At his entrance she looked up at him, tears and blood smeared over her face. Her eyes were pleading, desperate,

"Jay..." He wanted to go to her, pull her into his arms and drag her away from this horror scene. She looked so different from when he had seen her last, so much bigger but still so small.

"Mara, are they still here?" He asked her gently. Jay was propped against the door frame, half in-half out, gun raised into the empty hallway.

"No, no they– they're gone. Jay is she– is she–" Her sentence trailed off into indecipherable sobs but Jay understood. Losing his protective stance he was next to Mara in an instant, on his knees, slowly peeling her back from her mothers body so he could see if there was anything to be done. The woman had two GSW's to her stomach, and one to her upper chest. There was blood everywhere. Jay knew she was gone, but felt for her pulse nonetheless, for Mara's sake.

"Mara..." Jay turned to her, "I'm sorry."

"NO!" He caught her as she threw herself at her mother, "No, no, no. She's not gone! You have to save her! Let me– let me do CPR! NO, please." All he could do was hold her as she broke down.

"LET ME GO! I have– I have to save her! LET ME GO!," She drove her fists against his chest over and over.

"Mara, MARA!" She looked at him, and his heart broke for her, "Mara she's gone. I'm sorry, she's gone," Mara stared at him, trying to understand, until finally she did. Jay hugged her to him as they sat on the ground, Danielle's body lifeless beside them, Mara repeating "No" like her life depended on it, begging for it not to be true. But it was.

"You're sure you're not hurt?" Jay asked Mara for the billionth time, the girl just nodded her head no. Jay had called patrol 30 minutes after arriving on the scene, finally convincing his sister to leave the bedroom where her mother had died. Jay refused to leave her side, sitting next to her on the couch in the living room. The house was bustling with cops, laying out tape, marking evidence, and bugging them for statements; Jay shooed them off each time they tried. Mara looked like hell, sitting beside him in blue jeans and a gray hoodie that would otherwise be very nice - if they weren't stained with blood. Her curly hair had grown out from the bob-cut he remembered, hanging just past her shoulders, strands of it stuck to her pale face with dried blood and wet tears that never ceased. Her blue eyes hadn't once left the ground since leaving her mother's side, but a movement in the hallway drew her attention. Jay looked up too, just in time to see two men hauling a black body-bag away.

"Mara?" Her head emotionlessly turned to face him, eyes following suit, empty.

"I'm not going to sit here and tell you everything's going to be okay, because I know it won't help you. What I am going to say is that you need to let yourself feel whatever you need to feel right now, and know that I am going to be right here for whatever that is. Whether you need to punch me, or yell at me, cry, or just talk, I'm here." Jay said. She gazed at him blankly, silently, before hugging him tightly.

"Thank-you," She sobbed into his shoulder, "Thank-you." So he held her as she cried, rubbing her back soothingly, whispering reassurances. The siblings sat on the couch for two hours before someone interrupted them.

"Jay," The man in question looked up from his sister's shoulder to see Hank Voight standing there. Hank motioned with his head that he wanted to go talk, so reluctantly he untangled himself from his sister who had fallen asleep quite a while ago.

"Why am I hearing that you called this whole thing in? And why am I not hearing it from you?" Voight questioned, crossing his arms in typical Voight fashion.

"I, uh, am sorry Sarge," Jay said, "But this doesn't have anything to do with work for me."

"Yeah?" Voight pressed. Jay gestured to Mara who'd he'd left asleep on the couch.

"She's my sister, and the DOA is her mother." He admitted. Hank furrowed his brows,

"Her mother?" Voight asked, "Half-sister?" Jay nodded in clarification.

"So?" Hank said, looking at Jay in expectation.

"So...?"

"So, what happened?" The sergeant asked, "This case is ours." Jay looked at him but wasn't all that surprised. When it came to family, Hank Voight didn't mess around. Jay proceeded to lay out, in detail, how he got involved and what he knew, which frankly, wasn't much.

"I still need to ask her about what happened. She was a wreck and I– I just didn't want to press." He explained.

"I get it," Hank assured, "Take her home, both of you get some rest, and we can chase this thing in the morning, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," He agreed. Hank patted him on the shoulder before leaving, letting Jay return to his sister.

"Hey, Mara?" He gently shook her awake, smiling as she opened her eyes to stare at him sadly.

"You're going to stay with me tonight, is that okay?" He confirmed. Mara agreed and they both went upstairs to pack her a bag before hopping into Jay's truck and setting off.

Thank you to everyone who's read this story so far, it means a lot!