Macie's Story

5

(TW: mentions of blood)

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"I'll take him up, you tuck her in." Hailey tells Jay as she stands in the doorway to their daughter's room.

Jay nods and moves out of the way on the small kids bed, giving Hailey the room she needed to be able to transfer the youngest Halstead into her arms without waking him up while also not bumping into his sister, who was also on the verge of falling asleep. She picks up the limp blonde and slowly carries him into the hallway before disappearing out of Jay's sight.

Jay turns his attention to Macie as she struggles to keep her eyes open, the corners of his lips upturned into a soft smile as he rubbed her shoulder. He continues doing that until it appears she's lost the fight, her breaths becoming even under the sheet.

The brunette steadily got to his feet and all but tiptoed out of the room, turning off the light as he went past it. He was just leaving the room and closing the door when a loud call from inside the room pulled him to a halt.

"Daddy, wait!"

He lets out a little sigh before he goes back inside the room, kicking himself for being naive enough to think he'd gotten away with it. He then quickly opens the door enough to peer his head inside.

"Yes, Mae?"

Macie's now sat up in bed, blankets and sheets pooled over her legs. She throws her hands against her knees. "You didn't tell the rest of the story."

Jay tilts his head to one side. "Oh, Mace, it's late, you need to go to sleep."

"But you and Mommy promised!"

He sends a quick glance over his shoulder to see if Hailey was back yet, but she wasn't, so he looked back at the miniature version of his wife. "Do you promise to go right to sleep as soon as it's finished?"

Macie quickly nods, already unable to contain her excitement, letting out the energy by bouncing slightly in her spot. "I promise!"

Jay glances out into the hall before back at Macie. "Okay, fine," he opens the door all the way and turns back on the lamp, trekking over to Mae's bed. He sits down by her feet as he says, "I'll tell you the rest..."

xxx

(January 14th, 28 weeks)

Jay looked up when his name was called from the doors into the ED. He quickly meets his brother in the middle and instantly asks him about Hailey's status.

Will sighs and it brings Jay's heart into his throat. A sigh couldn't be good. "She's in surgery, she's stable at the minute." Will replies and he has his doctor voice on and Jay doesn't know how much he likes that, it reassures him that Will did know what he was talking about but right now Jay didn't need a doctor, he needed his brother.

Jay lets out a huff of air as he quickly glances around the room, wondering briefly about what was taking the unit so long to get here. The detective then snaps his eyes back to his older brother. "Is she gonna be okay? Did it hit anything?"

Again Will's face doesn't give him the hope he needs right now and when Will slowly shakes his head thinking about how to form the answer, Jay's heart drops from his throat and begins falling into an endless pit in his gut. "The bullet hit an artery in her arm and every time it moves, it increases the blood loss. They're gonna remove the bullet and repair the tear in the wall."

The brunette doesn't say another word, he paces around in a circle and when he sees clogs turning in his brother's head he comes to a stop, giving Will a look as if asking "what else?"