A Love Like Ours

7. The Case, Part 2

"Hailey, you good?"

She hears Adam call her name and she tries to respond, but the shooting pain in her chest holds in the words. She felt the wind get knocked out of her and as she tried to get it back she felt her chest get tighter, earning a harsh cough to escape, only making the pain worse. She groans loudly, the sensation of somebody sitting on top of her makes it harder for her to take in a breath.

"Hailey!"

With the second shout of her name, the detective tries to sit up, the movement not helping the pain at all but after a beat she's stopped as Adam comes into view, his hands falling on her shoulder and he pushes her back down to the pavement.

"You need to stay down, stay still."

She ignores the officer and tries to sit up once again, shaking her head as she attempts to fight off Ruzek. The officer wins, getting her to lie down again, but she still shakes her head, managing to get a whisper out.

"I'm okay, just check him." She says, turning her head to look at the civilian that had been hit by the first bullet.

Adam gets back to his feet and steps over the detective's legs, going over to the wounded pedestrian. He sits with the guy for a moment, helping him make a tourniquet for his arm that had been hit by the offender and shuffled him over to the sidewalk before going back over to Hailey, hovering back over her.

His hands quickly fumbled with her vest, getting the straps undone so that he could take it off, putting it to the side as he gently lifted her shirt up, swallowing thickly when he caught sight of the large red mark in the middle of her chest. There was no blood there, which allows the officer to let out a breath of relief as he shakes his head. "It didn't go through, it didn't go through." He repeats before he reaches for his radio on his vest.

"50-21 Ida, officer down! Repeat officer down! Send two ambos to the corner of-" he pauses quickly and looks up, finding a street sign. "South Clinton and West Van Buren. There's a civilian with GSW to the arm too."

"Copy that 50-21 Ida, ambos are on route." The response came back through.

Adam watches as Hailey still struggles to catch her breath and the way her face scrunches up in pain every time she does manage to.

Not two seconds later, another voice shouts from the corner of the street that makes Adam look up. He spots Jay running over and when the sergeant gets beside them he drops to his knees and his hands instantly fly to her shoulders, giving them a tight squeeze to let her know he was there.

"What happened?" He asks quickly.

Hailey still can't seem to find her words, just about managing to take fast, shallow breaths again and Adam beats her to the point before she could try and muster up the strength to push anything out.

"I don't know, she was trying to wrestle the gun out of his hand, it all happened so quickly." The officer replies.

By then, Hailey could add on to Ruzek's words with another breathless whisper.

"He was... gonna shoot s'one. I had to.. stop him."

Jay shook his head quickly. "Don't talk, just breathe, you're okay... you're okay."

xxx

"Oh my god, what happened?" A voice asked frantically when the gurney was wheeled through the ambulance doors into Med with a loud buzz. Jay didn't need to look up to recognize it as the voice of his older brother, who walked with the paramedics as they explained everything that they had been told about the incident.

Jay kept up with the EMTs, refusing to move away from Hailey's bedside until Maggie all but kicked him out to allow for more room for them to work.

He watched from the doorframe as Will and Maggie, as well as another couple of nurses, roll Hailey on to her side to remove the backboard from underneath her, handing it back over the paramedics, who left the room and carried on as if nothing had happened.