Case by Case Love

Chapter 51: A Sick Halstead

After watching him throw-up at the district, Jay was instructed by pretty much every single member of the Intelligence Unit to head home and worry about the rest of his paperwork from the case tomorrow. Hank had even told Erin that she could do the same, in wanting her focused solely on taking care of Jay that night.

"I know you still aren't 100% no matter how much you won't admit it," Hank told her as she was leaving with Jay in the passenger seat. "If it gets too much to take care of him tonight, call me. I can come over no questions asked and be there for you both. You should also get a hold of Will." 

Erin took him directly home, helping him out of clothes and allowing him to lay in the bed just in his boxers. She then carefully placed a garbage pail beside the bed with a bag in it for easy cleaning should he need to throw up again. She also brought a bottle of water, and had gravel and Tylenol on hand for taking if the symptoms of everything got to be too much.

Against his request, she had also texted Will to tell him what had happened at the bust with the drug exposure and Jay now suffering the effects from that. 

You were drugged at the last bust, she read in response from the concerned brother. You knew this was possible. Preparations should have happened to protect him and the team. He should have wore a mask. This is crazy that this has happened. 

Despite his anger over the situation, he was the caring brother and ensured to stop by the condo once he got off work. He brought a couple medications of his own, similar to what Natalie had when Erin was in the hospital just over 24 hours ago. 

"I would have preferred to have you take him to Med and get fully checked out to see vitals, stats, everything," Will comments as he stands in the bedsroom doorway, arms crossed as he leans back against the wall watching his brother sleep. Per Erin's explanation, they had come home with his throwing up at least four times in a two hour period before falling asleep just 15 minutes before Will's arrival. "There's no way to tell if he's sleeping, or unconscious without waking him up. I don't want to wake him up, either, in knowing this will be hell for him to go through....." 

They then watch him stir a little in the bed, a grunt escaping as he rolled over and buried his head deeper into the pillows. Will was not there when Jay had come home from his second tour overseas and was popping pills while drinking and getting himself involved in bar fights. He was not there to see how poorly his brother reacted to everything. He was not there to witness the one-time over-dosage that helped change his ways. However, he had heard enough stories from Mouse in how bad it was at times to only guess what was going through Jay's mind right now as he tried to relax.

It was why he was not one bit surprised to hear a yell across the room, followed by Jay sitting straight up in an instant, sweat covering his body from head to toe as you could hear his fast paced breathes. Jay was a trained Army Ranger soldier. They were trained to have even calm breathing. You never heard this from him, no matter how severe the situation was. 

"Jay?" Erin says as she makes her way over to the bed and takes a seat alongside him. Was he awake? Was he still dreaming? Was this like the nightmares he would normally have? She had seen this before with him and it was because of a nightmare. What if that's all this was? 

"Take a deep breath, breathe...." Will comments in noticing the fast paced breathes hadn't slowed down as he makes his way closer to his brother. It only made his comment earlier that much more apparent, in knowing they would be monitoring his heart rate and oxygen levels. What if there were fast paced breathes because he couldn't get enough oxygen? What if the drugs were affecting his airway right now? "Take a deep breath...." 

Jay tries to focus on the words of Will, trying to erase the memories that had flashed through his mind. He was trying to forget about the shootout that happened underneath the bridge. He was trying to forget about the four-masked men shooting at him, Terry, and the driver at once. He tries to forget that Terry took a bullet, died, because he was trying to cover for them. 

He finally gets his breathing under control, a couple tears rolling down his cheeks before he reaches up and quickly wipes them away in not wanting them to be noticed. But his body took notice of the quick motion, with a wave of dizziness. It took all his strength and focus to grab the pail beside the bed, and throw up once again just like he had before.

"It's okay," Erin comments as she rubs his back as he gets it out of his system. Once he was done and pushing the bucket away, she takes it and places it back on the floor. She then takes the washcloth she had left on the night table, wiping his mouth clean, before wiping it across his forehead. She could see the beads of sweat, hoping the coldness would give him some sort of relief from everything he was feeling. "You are going to be okay, Jay." 

"You should try to settle your stomach with some gravel," Will suggests, popping one of the pink pills out of the package and grabbing the bottle of water that Erin had already brought into the room. "You've got to stop throwing up. It's going to make you feel worse, and you'll also eventually dehydrate. Make sure you drinking some water throughout the night....."

"Am I going to be okay?" Jay questions as he takes the bottle, swallowing the pill. He hated the thought of any pills entering his system. He hated the thought of having to take something to feel better. But it was better as a pill than getting a needle.

"Yeah, you should be okay based on what you probably ingested in your system. We just need to keep an eye on you for the next eight hours...."