The backstory you don't know

Time will tell

Ellie had been rushed into the ER and she was being wheeled into a treatment room, dr Halstead was treating her quickly while hank was stood watching from the door feeling helpless. "Hank you gotta wait outside, dr Halstead will let you know as soon as they get an update" Maggie said while guiding him back to the waiting room. He nodded since he wasn't really in the mood for a debate, he trudged his way to a chair and joined the rest of the unit. Jay was still covered in her blood and he was nearly as worried as hank. "Uh she told me something before she closed her eyes..." jay started to explain not knowing if now was the time or not. Hank looked at jay with eager eyes, "what? What did she say?" He said practically reaching down jays throat.
Jay shot hailey a worried look, "she said that she didn't do anything, she said that it was 'them'. I don't know who 'them' is though..." jay left it at that. Hank grew big with anger, jay could sense his rage so he placed his hand on hanks shoulder, "you gotta tell us if you know, we're going to help" hailey said speaking for jay. Hank relaxed a bit and sighed, "bullies" he briefly told them. The whole unit just looked at each other in shock and confusion, "bullies? Who would want to bully Ellie?" Kim piped up trying to clear up her confusion. "I don't know, she's always had them. She doesn't talk to me much about who they are or what they do. She keeps herself to herself, I should've asked her more often..." hank said while looking to the floor. Jay shook his head, "no sarge, she didn't tell you because she didn't want you worrying. It's not your fault, it's not Ellie's fault. We'll find out who they are when she wakes up, she will wake up hank." He reassured him.
By now they were all pretty on edge, they had been waiting for about 2 hours and they hadn't heard anything. That was until Will came running out, "she's awake. Not stable yet, but awake" he said quickly before getting them all to follow him to her room. She was in a private room now since she was in pretty bad shape, hank walked in first and rushed over to her, "hey smelly. You're okay, you're okay..." he said unconvincingly while grabbing her hand. Jay walked around to the other side of her bed and sat down, "hey chuckles" he said while smiling at her. Jay was like a protective big brother to Ellie and that was her nickname, he called her chuckles junior and she called him detective chuckles. Ellie weakly smiled back with the little energy she had, hank knew she wasn't stable so he had to ask her straight away because in all honesty, there was a chance she still wouldn't make it. "Ellie sweetie, I have to ask. Who did this to you?" He said while rubbing her hand. She looked down remembering everything, "jake..." she whispered back. Hank knew this jake kid from previous encounters, he huffed and turned to look at jay. Jay nodded back knowing what he had to do, "Ellie, you told me that it was 'them'. It wasn't just jake was it?" Jay said while grabbing her other hand for support. She turned her head slowly with glassy eyes, she shook her head to let him know there was others. Hank squirmed in his seat, "how many others were there? 1, 2?" Hailey said while sitting down next to jay, she shook her head and looked down. "3?" Hailey said again hoping there wasn't any more than that. She nodded her head and hailey rubbed her leg. "You've done good honey, you rest up" Trudy said while planting a kiss on her hair before leaving along with the rest of the unit, it was just hailey, jay and hank sat with Ellie.
"Dad?" Ellie said breaking the silence. "Ellie?" Hank replied looking shocked since she hadn't spoke for around 30 minutes of them being there. Jay looked at hailey then nodded his head over to Will, hailey got up to go get Will and fetched him back into her room. "She's talking Will" hank said while letting him take his place to check her. There was a minute of silence as Will checked over her stats, "she's stable, she's gonna be okay" they all sighed in relief. "Thanks man" jay said while nudging his brothers arm as he left. The three sat back down to talk to Ellie, "dad, I'm sorry" she finished. The two partners and hank exchanged confused glances with each other, "what for honey?" Hank said while focusing on his daughter. Ellie sighed and motioned for hailey to get her smashed up phone from her bag. Hailey handed her it and Ellie stared at it for a second before unlocking it, "for not telling you..." she said as she handed him the phone, hank looked at the text message for a second then looked back up to her. "Ellie, you're scared. You don't have to be sorry, it's not your fault." He said while grabbing her hand again.
Jay looked at hank with the what is it eyes and hank noticed, he passed jay the phone so hailey and jay could read the message. They both frowned at how cruel kids can be, especially teenagers. "He's right Ellie, this isn't your fault. Is this why they done it?" Jay said while tilting the phone to her, expecting a nod of agreement. Hank and hailey looked at her for an answer, they were also expecting her to nod. She didn't, she shook her head with hesitation. "It's not?" Hank said sitting up in his chair a little confused. She shook her head again but this time with a sense of positivity to it, "no, it happened today. All of it did, oh god..." she said in realisation. She immediately slapped her hand over her mouth. "What is it? What's wrong Ellie?" Jay said getting slightly worried.
She shook her head vigorously remembering that jake had told her if she speaks she dies. Hank shot the partners a fearful look, something was going on in her tiny little brain. "Ellie?" He said while snapping her out of her daze. She flinched at his gesture and relaxed back into the bed, "I can't!" She said getting all flustered. She went to rip out the iv line in her arm and get out of bed but hailey and jay jumped up to push her back down gently, "hey hey hey, you gotta stay in bed Ellie. You're safe, you can tell us" hailey said in a soft tone. Ellie sunk back down and sighed, "he said that if I tell anyone, I die..." she said with tears coming down her face. Hank frowned and pulled her into a hug, jay and hailey got angry since she was only a kid. "Tell anyone what Ellie? It's just us in here, we can stop him. You just gotta be brave" hank said securely.
Ellie gave in and started to explain, "yeah fine, okay. I was putting my bag in my locker this morning before first period and I over heard jake and a big group of people talking about a party they were gonna hit to get some meth or something." The detectives had all sat up straight to listen. She sighed and continued, "i ugh-I turned to look at them and they saw me. That's when Jake..." she paused for a second. Hailey grabbed her hand, "what did he do Ellie?". "He uh, he grabbed my neck and told me if I told anyone I'd be dead. I believe him dad, he will kill me" she said while crying. Hank shook his head in disagreement, "no he won't, I won't let that happen. We won't let that happen" he said reassuringly while looking at jay and hailey. Ellie nodded slightly and finished her story, "well, I left quickly after school. I took some extra turns in case they were following but it didn't work. That's when uh, they got me in the alley way. I don't know the name of it but I remember it so well..." she said while looking down as the memories flooded back. "Ellie, we know they attacked you but did they..." hailey asked nervously. Ellie immediately shook her head as a definite no, "no, they didn't do that, if that's what you're asking" she said jumping to conclusions. Hailey nodded in approval and they all relaxed, hank smiled slightly. "He's never going to touch you again you hear me? Never" he said while planting a kiss on her head.
The trio went to get up to go get some coffee, "wait!" Ellie shouted before they shut the door, they all turned around slightly startled. "Jake stopped the boys from killing me, uh he said that they needed me alive...if that's anything important?" She said remembering that last detail. Hank smiled a little and nodded, "thanks smelly" he finished and they all left her to rest.
"Can you really stop him from touching her again?" Jay said not believing a word he told Ellie. "No, I can't promise anything, but if it means she'll sleep at night. Then I'll lie if have to" he said before adding sugar to his drink. The truth was time will tell, no one could promise anything because they couldn't prove that they done this, they couldn't prove anything about the party, the drugs...