"Hey." Hailey said going towards Jay who stood outside Gracie's hospital room.
"Hey how is she? Ruzek called, they put him in the cage. Voight wants to talk with him before he gets put in lockup." Jay explained.
"Good. She's terrified but honestly she's just so used to putting on a brave face." Hailey said moving the hair out of her face with a sigh.
"You ok?" Jay asked noticing the disheartened look on her face.
"It's just...it's not right Jay! This is just so messed up. It's just too similar. I was this kid! I remember the pain and I remember the cold..." It was one of the first times Jay had seen something really get to Hailey and seeing her like that hurt him too. "She's so young Jay and she's so scared."
"Hailey it's ok." Jay reassured and held her as she put her head against his chest trying to compose herself.
"I'm sorry." Hailey said and Jay immediately shook his head.
"Don't apologise, you have a right to feel like this Hailey it's tough. No kid deserves to be treated like that. But I'm right here by your side and we're gonna help her. OK?" Jay reassured and Hailey nodded looking up at him from the hug.
"I love you, you know that right?" Hailey said looking up at Jay.
"I love you too." Jay responded and kissed her.
"Hey I'm going to get some coffee, you want some?" Hailey asked when they had pulled apart.
"You sure? I don't mind getting it, if you wanna stay with Gracie." Jay asked. Hailey smiled and patted him gratefully on the shoulder as she went to walk back into Gracie's room.
"Thanks." Hailey said as she went to Gracie.
As she walked back towards her she noticed the teen was beginning to stir awake a little more conscious than she was before.
She woke up in shock and scared of what was going on around her. She moved back a little in fear not aware that Hailey was beside her.
"Hey, hey it's ok you're safe." Hailey said in a soothing tone, putting her hand on Gracie's hand comfortingly. "No one's gonna hurt you I promise."
Gracie's breathing was still a little panicked so Hailey thought she should call over Will.
"Will." Hailey said towards the nurses station where Will was charting. "She's struggling a little." Hailey said quietly whilst quickly walking back into the room with him.
"Hey Gracie, you remember who I am kiddo?" Will asked walking into the room slowly approaching Gracie's bed so he didn't scare her.
"Dr Halstead." She managed to get out in between struggling for breaths.
"Yeah that's right you're doing really great, you can call me Will ok?" He said with an encouraging smile and she nodded as much as she could.
"Now you're hyperventilating a little so I need you to try and slow your breathing down and take a few deep breaths for me alright? In and out." Will said demonstrating by exaggerating his breathing and putting his stethoscope to her chest to check her lungs and breathing.
"I...I can't." Gracie said fearfully.
"Hey listen to me, you're so strong. You're Dad tried to get to you, but here you are fighting. No one is going to hurt you like that ever again." Hailey responded in a confident tone to reassure her.
Will put his stethoscope back around his neck and put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Gracie, look at me for a second you're gonna be ok I promise alright. Deep breaths, in and out." Will carried on inhaling and exhaling slowly to demonstrate trying to calm her down.
After a couple of deep breaths with Will monitoring her vitals she calmed down again and her breathing began to be more normal.
"There you go." Will smiled and put an oxygen mask on her. "You're all good. You're gonna be ok." He reassured and put his hand on her shoulder. "I'll leave you guys alone, get some rest Gracie if you need me but can't find me then get a nurse to page me. Take it easy."
"Thanks." Gracie said quietly lifting up her mask.
"Thanks Will." Hailey said as he walked out.
"DCFS are gonna come and take me aren't they." Gracie said without any doubt.
"Don't worry about that now ok? Just concentrate on getting better. You scared us for a second back there." Hailey said squeezing her hand and staying sat beside her bed.
"Sorry, you had to deal with all of this. I would have dealt with it myself but I just..." Gracie said quietly in response.
"Sweetheart, you were injured badly. No one could have moved on the injuries you did for very far or even at all. You're so strong, you're gonna get through this and we're not ducking out on you i swear to you. You don't have anything to be sorry for." Hailey responded and Gracie nodded as much as she could completely exhausted."Ok honey try and get some rest now alright? Keep your Oxygen mask on don't worry I'll be right here with you."
Gracie nodded again and put the mask over her face gently breathing as she closed her eyes hesitantly to rest.
After an hour or so Jay entered the room. Gracie couldn't sleep anymore anyway so was awake enough to talk.
"Hey guys how are we doing in here?" Jay asked coming back in from getting their second cup of coffee since they had been in med. They were going to be up for hours. He passed Hailey hers and sat in with her to talk to Gracie.
"Gracie, earlier when you were unconscious they dressed the wounds on your back. They were pretty bad what happened?" Hailey asked thinking it may be a good place to start.
"His belt." Gracie responded looking down not being able to make eye contact whilst talking about it all.
Hailey looked at Jay with a sad expression on her face so sorry and upset for what Gracie had dealt with. "It's ok honey." She comforted, giving Gracie's hand a reassuring squeeze.
"It's ok Gracie you can tell us what happened, you're safe now." Jay reassured in a gentle tone, looking just as angry that this had happened to the poor kid.
"I don't really know how to start." Gracie said timidly wanting to explain everything to Jay and Hailey but so scared she couldn't even start to.
"Just take it slow, we'll go through it a little at a time and you can stop us whenever you want ok?" Jay reassured supportively with a small smile and Gracie nodded.
"So Gracie can you tell us what happened last night?" Hailey asked thinking that asking a question might make it easier for Gracie to explain.
"I got home, he said 'where are the goddamn groceries?', I couldn't go get them because he spends all our money on booze and pills. I couldn't take it anymore so I told him..." Gracie went to continue, but struggled with the painful memory of what happened. She closed her eyes trying to compose herself.
"It's alright honey, what did you tell him?" Hailey supported.
"I told him that that was the reason we had no money and uh...he didn't like it. He punched me in the face and told me I had five minutes to get my stuff and get out." Gracie explained.
"When did he hit you with the belt honey?" Hailey asked putting a hand on her upper arm.
"He wanted me to beg him to stay, I couldn't take it anymore. I told him I was never going to beg to stay somewhere I hated and it wasn't normal or ok for him to be beating me." She explained. "He just...snapped." Gracie said a small shiver running through her as she remembered what he did and how painful it was. "He told me he'd show me what his Father did to him if I didn't think it was normal and that's when he hit me with the belt."
"That's never gonna happen again ok? You hear me?" Jay asked remaining calm despite the fact he wanted nothing more than to go and knock this guy out. Gracie shrugged slightly and then gave a small nod half trusting what Jay had said. The truth was she knew she'd end up in another foster home because of this and god only knows what's gonna happen there.
"Then what happened Sweetie?"
I thought he'd never stop, but then he dragged me and my backpack out onto the porch. It's my fault..." Gracie said with a mixture of upset and anger.
"Hey listen to me, none of this is your fault you understand that?" Hailey said sitting beside her still holding her hand comfortingly.
"This is all on him." Jay added reassuringly, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"My friend Raff, he told me to tell the cops but I've been put into foster care before and some stuff happened...i can't go back there."
"It's ok, I totally get it alright? I promise you we're going to find you someplace safe to stay when the investigation is over and you're going nowhere till you're ready." Hailey said and Gracie nodded and began to cry.
Hailey sat on the edge of her bed and pulled her into a hug.
"It's ok sweetheart, we got you." Hailey said and held her comfortingly in the embrace. Jay held one of Gracie's hands rubbing over it with the pad of his thumb.
After a few minutes Jay had told Hailey and Gracie he would go and get some more of Gracie's stuff from her old house when he really had other ideas.
"Jay." Voight said standing in front of the younger detective as he saw him about to leave med with a look in his eye.
"What's up Sarge? Look, I gotta go grab some stuff." Jay said attempting to get past him in frustration. Voight put a hand on his chest and pushed him back a little to stop him from going any further.
"Jay you've got a look in you're eye one similar to the one you had with Lonnie and the other offenders from child abuse cases we've dealt with. Don't risk ruining your career over another son of a bitch like them." Voight said and Jay looked frustrated.
"Sarge, you should see that poor girl in there he's beat the crap out of her. Are we seriously gonna just let that guy act all smug in our holding cells for a few hours and then ship him off to some cosy white collar with people looking out for him. Nah I'm not doing that." Jay said trying to push past again.
"Hey, hey! Just quit talking for a second will ya! Outside." Voight said and walked with him outside to talk to him.
"Jay I'm not gonna let you go down the same path as I did you understand? I need you to be you and that is not this! I know how much you wanna get this guy, but I don't need one of my best cops getting caught out one day. I got it covered alright? He's not going to a white collar minimum restrictions jail and he's not got an army of security around him. It's covered Jay. The whole of the jail he gets sent to will know what he did. So just hang tight and don't do anything stupid." Voight warned and Jay waited a few seconds before nodding reluctantly and holding his hands up as he walked away.
"Where are you headed now?" Voight asked as Jay walked towards his car.
"Gracie's, have the team arrested him?"
"Yeah this morning."
"Well good he won't be in the way when I swing by their place, she still needs some stuff." Jay said and got into his car driving out of the parking lot and on the road towards Gracie's house.
Hope you enjoyed this update thanks for reading :) EQ