Lost Souls (Agent Severide Serie Book 5)

Chapter 23

Chicago Med 

Zoey sat in her hospital bed scrolling through her phone since she couldn't sleep. Jay was sleeping in the chair next to her bed refusing to go home, "Hey, I kinda figured you'd still be awake," a voice said from the door causing the blonde to look up and find Reid in a hospital gown walking in with an IV in his arm. "What the Hell happened Spence?" She asked confused as to why he was in a hospital gown. 

"The unsub had a bomb rigged to his body when we showed up," Reid replied walking in the room and around the bed to the other empty chair. "How are you holding up?" the agent asked her as he sat down. "I should be asking you that," Zoey replied, "I'm okay. What about you?" he asked as the blonde shrugged. "Just another day at the office right?" she said more than asked, "Zo, Your mom's head was sent to you in a box, and you got shot in your own apartment and you acting like it's no big deal," Reid said his voice was quiet and full of concern as he spoke. "I wasn't really close to my mom growing up, believe it or not, my dad and eye saw eye to eye a lot more than Jen and I," Zoey replied softly. 

"So are you gonna go down to Texas for her funeral with Kelly?" Reid asked causing the blonde to let over to Jay who was still fast asleep snoring lightly next to her. The sight brought a small smile to her face. "I don't know Spence," she replied honestly. "Well if you decide to go, I'll be by your side and I know Jay would be there considering he hasn't left your side since you were brought in here, and I'm pretty sure Kelly would want you there," Reid said. 

Zoey sighed knowing he was right about one thing, she should at least be there for Kelly. Not for Jen and the perfect life she built for herself away from her kids. "I'd only go for Kelly, not because she was my mom. She never acted like a mom," Zoey said the last part softly. "Why do you resent her so much?" Spence asked her genuinely curious. 

 "It's not important, she's gone. It's done with now," The agent replied reminding herself what Shay and her dad told her. It's not her fault they were gone and that she can't let her fears stop her from doing what she loved. "It does matter if it's bothering you," Reid pushed her. "Jen wanted me to be a model, put me through so many stupid beauty pageants as a kid. While other 5-year-olds were eating cake and ice cream Jen had me on 500 calorie diet, she wanted me to marry some rich man and be a trophy wife and I started getting Antonio to teach me how to box steadily for years and got through the academy. You know what Jen said the day I graduated?" she asked Reid. "That wasn't gods will?" he said more than asked causing her to just nod her head. 

"500 calories a day? a 5-year-old should a least be eating 1,600 calories minimum per day, is that why when you get stressed you don't eat?" Spence asked. "Not exactly, but it's where it started I guess," Zoey said softly with a shrug. "You know there are- Spence I don't need therapy or programs it's not like I have an eating disorder. I just gotta remind myself to eat more often," The blonde said quietly as she looked over to her husband who was still fast asleep. 

When the blonde went to look back at the agent she noticed Will standing in the doorway with a look of disbelief across his face. Oh great, how much of that did he hear? she asked herself. "You were calorie counting at 5?!" he asked in disbelief. Zoey just shrugged not sure what to say now especially when her brother-in-law wasn't supposed to hear that. "I guess, I've gotten better over the years, up to a solid 600 cals" She joked earning a look of shock between the doctors. "That was supposed to be a joke, Look I can devour an entire deep dish pizza to myself without help and tequila is my favourite liquor. And a bottle of tequila is..." Zoey paused curiously about the answer as she started searching for something on her phone only to have the device taken from her. 

Zoey looked up to have her eyes met by her husband's, "It doesn't matter Zo," Jay said putting the phone in his pocket. "Why isn't any of that in your medical file?" Will asked her, "Because it's not something I like to brag about and people automatically assume you're a liability." Zoey replied. "Do you really think the academy would've accepted me if my file stated calorie counting pageant princess, Ha" the blonde laughed sarcastically. "That's not necessarily true Zo," Spence said. "Do I look like your average federal agent? No, I look like a 14-year-old boy still making his way through pubescence," the agent said. "You have an IQ of 187 Spence and you can read 20,000 words per minute and Einstein had an IQ of 160, it's easy to say the Bureau would've taken you on no matter what," Zoey replied to him. 

"The Bureau would've still taken you on- that's easy for you to say Spence people don't look at you like you're some young, dumb pretty face with a nice ass," The blonde said getting more irritated by this conversation. "You're not- Did everyone literally forget that the only reason I got sent undercover into a human trafficking, prostitution ring was because I refused to sleep with our section chief?!" Zoey was nearly yelling now. "That should have never happened- Ha but it did, you can't even imagine what that year was like," She said cutting Jay off from what he was saying. 

"I read the report and I remember every word," Reid said causing Zoey to shake her head and let out a shaky breath. "Theres things that didn't make it into the report..." Zoey said softly looking down at her hands, "Like what?" Will asked her pushing for the answers he'd been looking for, for nearly 2 years now. The blonde sat silently for a moment spacing out into the memories, "There was this girl in New Jersey that was forced to work for the trafficking ring, she was the one in charge of keeping the girls in check, all the same things I did but... I wasn't the first one they'd assaulted like that they made me watch... while they.." Zoey shook her head. "The gun went off and she just... stopped moving." The blonde said keeping her voice steady. "They just left her there did the same thing to me... the only difference was I lived and they made it a twisted game to see how much I could 'Handle before I broke' 

The three sat there horrified at her words, "Why didn't- because It's not exactly something I felt like sharing with anyone let alone my fiance's brother at the time," she replied. "You should talk to someone- I am," she replied bluntly looking towards Reid before she sighed.