Reassure (Jay Halstead x OC.)

14

As the game ended, Reign looked across Jay's body beside her con the couch, towards his father who was slowly getting up out of his chair and stumbling to grab the plates that had accumulated on the coffee table.

"Oh no Da. I'll do those-."
"Nonsense, you sit and relax it's your day off." The old man scolded pointing with his empty hand towards the sofa and then he looked at Jay, "that lazy ass should be up helping me, not his young lady."

"Cut it out pop she's not my-."

But his dad was already out of the room. "He's gotta stop that." Jay shuck his head with a sigh. "He's harmless, just wants one of you two to settle down." Reign joked and Jay shuck his head, "no, you're the daughter he always wanted- now he wants you to be his daughter-in-law."

"Your mom used to beg me to marry you when I came to visit." She joked, "even offered to pay me for damages." He chuckled along.
"That sounds like Ma. She loved you Rei.....uh I-."

An all mighty crash and a yelp of pain suddenly emanated from the kitchen.

"Dad!"
"Pat!"

The two first responders jolted up and both sprinted into the kitchen. On the floor lay Jay's father clutching his chest laying on his side.

"Son I-."

"Pat...Pat I need you to stay calm what do you feel." Reign pushed past Jay who stopped dead in his tracks in the doorway. She dropped to her knees beside his wheezing father.

She rolled him gently onto his back. "What is it?"

"My....heart....ah!" His eyes started to roll back and she shuck him gently, "Pat...Pat can you hear me?!.....Jay, Jay he's having a heart attack."

"Dad." Jay sounded like a terrified child. He stood, tears sprung in his eyes and panic written over his freckled face. She hated seeing him this terrified.

"Jay, get your phone call 911, come on I need you to focus....your dad needs you."

Your dad.......he needs you.

Jay moved out of his blackout state as Reign checked his father's purse and breathing, immediately launching into CPR.

"Tell them where you are..." she kept calling instructions to her friend like she was instructing a first responder novice, trying beyond herself to keep him calm and grounded. "Just do what you're trained to do Jay!"

"I have a 68 year old male, previous heart issues. Collapsed, unresponsive, reported chest pain, difficulty breathing....cpr is being administered....it's my dad! Hurry..."

She could hear him shouting but all she could focus on was counting.

25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30....two breaths. In, out, in, out.....1, 2, 3....

"Come on da."

-.-.-.-.-

"Maggie! Where's Will?"

Reign and Jay sprinted through Med's ER doors behind the gurney with Jay's father on. He was stable for now.

"Rei! He's with a patient what's.....is that Mr Halstead?!"

"Our dad collapsed, where's Will?!" Jay jumped in behind Reign, his hands gripped hard around the edges of the desk the senior nurse was stood behind.

"He's with a patient in bay three- Detective Halstead!-."

Jay was already storing towards the bay Maggie had pointed at. "Thanks Maggie."

"What happened?" Maggie asked resign who was shaking slightly. That man in there was all she had ever known to be a real Dad.

"He...he had a heart attack mags, I....I did what I could but-."

"Hey, he's a Halstead, they're stubborn as they come, he'll pull through."

-.-.-.-.-

"You two should eat something." Reign mumbled as she reentered Pat's hospital room later that evening. "Why are you still here, I told you to head home." Jay sighed.

"I went back and cleaned things up at your dads then I came back. I got him somethings and I got you a new set of clothes and a tooth brush." She shuck the duffel bag on her side.

"You don't need to stay and look after us, I'm fine and dad's gonna-."
"Jay you wouldn't leave me when I was in the hospital and if you think I'm leaving your dad here, you're wrong." She scowled at him.

"You should listen to her." Will nodded as he checked their father's vitals for the tenth time since he had reentered the room. He was hovering so close it was like he expected something to go wrong again.

"Will, he's okay he's sleeping." She whispered now to the older brother who shuck his head. "His heart needs to be constantly monitored until Connor can come and consult-."

"How about you go find him, speed him along." Jay snapped now at his brother who gave him a hard look back. "Don't start a fight, either of you! Your dad needs you both right now- so just stop." She cut straight in before either of them got a chance to so much as think about yelling.

"Keep an eye on him for me yeah?" Will asked pointing at his brother rather then his dad. Reign just nodded. Pushing away back until he collapsed onto the couch in the corner of the room.

"You need to calm down." She sighed sitting down beside him and tugging his thrice-cracked knuckles into her own hand. His fingers were warm and sweaty from where he'd been worriedly wringing his hands.

"He's old and frail and you saw him today, what if he-."
"He won't...you can't let yourself go there Jay."

"I'm always so rude and I never see him and when I do we fight or we snap at each other or he-."
"Jay, look at me." She forced his head to look her in the eye. "Your father is one of the toughest men I know. He loved your mom, fiercely and he loves you and Will fiercely too. You guys fight cause you're so alike you but heads and he snaps at you because he loves you but he worry's so it comes out angry rather then happy....he's proud of you Jay...and so am I. You're a good son and your dad is gonna pull through and you're gonna get to say sorry for all the stupid fights you have then you have another one and another and apologise for those because that's how you guys tell each other you love each other you fight because you both already know you're sorry. Trust me....he knows you are.....you're his son, Jay. He loves you."

"He loves you too, he asked me earlier if I had finally asked you out yet."
"I hope you didn't lie to him." She gave a teasing watery smile. "He knows us both too well, told me I need to hurry up and lock you down before you're gone." He told her and she smiled sweetly.

"Well then, guess your dad knows you better then you know yourself by the sound of that.....but he got one thing wrong-."
"I know you'd never go out with me-."

"No....I'm not going anywhere....who said I'd never."

He sighed before a wave of tears crashed through him again and he fell unceremoniously into her arms.

She just held him tighter.