Starting over is never easy. Jay Halstead is trying to start over in career by returning to CPD Intelligence Unit, and in his personal life by rekindling his relationship with Erin Lindsay. What he doesn't expect is a visit from someone else who is...
The waiting area at Chicago Med's ER was almost full to capacity, making it a frantic evening for the staff. That was why Jessica Sutton was given short shrift when she walked straight through the waiting area and approached the desk inside the ER itself.
"You'll need to sign in out there," said a black female nurse, barely bothering to look at her.
"Can you point me in the direction of Dr Will Halstead, please?" Jessica asked.
"I'd struggle with that, he doesn't work here anymore. Sign in outside," the nurse said and walked off.
Disappointed, Jessica turned and left the building. There was no reason to sign in – she hadn't come to the hospital for treatment.
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A busy day lay ahead for Jay Halstead when he arrived for work at Chicago's 21st District. Intelligence was backlogged on work despite Hank Voight's recent rebuilding of the team, returning the unit to its roots as much as possible.
After Hailey Upton had left, Hank had managed to contact Jay and talk him into returning. His wasn't the most surprising return though. Deciding to let Dante Torres go, Hank had convinced his foster daughter Erin to return to both Chicago and to the unit. Just seeing her again had rekindled in Jay something he had known deep down the whole time: He never should have married Hailey. Erin was the woman he loved. That had been the case years ago, and it was still the case now.
Knowing how he felt was one thing. Starting over with Erin and finding out if she felt the same way was quite another. In a way, it was their own rebuilding project and it was every bit as difficult as the one Hank was having to go through with Intelligence, not least because he was yet to formally divorce Hailey. But he and Erin were working on it, slowly. A dinner date was arranged for tonight for that reason.
"Morning, Jay," Trudy Platt said from behind the front desk when he walked in.
"Trudy," he pleasantly, heading for the stairs. He didn't have time to stop and chat.
"There's someone to see you," she said quickly before he could disappear, nodding towards the office across from the front desk.
Jay groaned. That was all he needed when his morning was already threatening to get out of control. "Five minutes," he called back, jogging up the stairs.
It was early fifteen minutes later when he came back down, hoping that he could deal with whoever it was quickly, or have Trudy offload them onto uniform.
He stepped into the office and saw a strikingly good looking light skinned black woman sitting at the table waiting for him. She had long, wavy dark hair, and a nervous look on her face.
"Can I help you? I'm Jay Halstead."
The woman stood up. "Hi. My name's Jessica Sutton. Jess. I'm, uh... not sure how to say this so I'm just going to come out with it. I'm your sister. Half sister, I mean."
Jay's brain didn't comprehend what he had just heard. "Sorry, you said what?"
"I'm your half sister. My dad was your dad, apparently."
He shook his head in confusion. "Apparently? What do you mean apparently? There must be some mistake."
Her demeanour showed that this wasn't going how she had wanted it to. "My mom passed recently. Three weeks ago. My whole life she had told me she didn't know who my dad was. On her death bed she decided to come clean. She told me who my dad was, that he has passed, and that I have two half brothers. She even told me your names and where I should be able to find you. I tried to make contact with Will last night but apparently he doesn't work at Chicago Med anymore."
Jay was not at all happy with what he was hearing. The thought of his dad not only cheating on his mom but also fathering a child with the other woman made him sick. Even worse, this Jess woman was obviously younger than him, so the alleged cheating would have happened after he and Will were born. Feeling disgusted, all he wanted was the woman out of his face.
"You need to leave," he said coldly. "My dad wouldn't have done that."
Jess looked saddened but not totally surprised by his reaction. She took a piece of paper out of her pocket and put it on the table. "There's my number. A bomb just got dropped on you, I understand that. But I can assure you my mom didn't spend her last day on Earth lying to me. Once you've had some time to think, please call me if you'd like to talk." With that, she walked past him and out of the office.
Shock and anger still building inside him, Jay went after her. "I don't want to talk to you. Don't come back here again."
At that moment, Kevin Atwater came down the stairs from Intelligence, joining Jay in watching Jess leave the building. "Who's that, Jay? Damn, she looked smoking hot."
Jay looked at him, a blank expression on his face. "My sister. Allegedly."
Kevin's mouth fell open for a couple of seconds. "Your sister? Holy shit."
"Half sister, yeah," Jay said vaguely. Looking back into the office, he saw the piece of paper still sitting on the table. He could hardly leave it there, he thought, so he went and picked it up, stuffing it into his pocket.
"This is for real? Not someone ribbing you?" Kevin asked, as if the latter seemed more likely to him.
One thing Jay knew for sure from Jess's behaviour was that it hadn't been a rib. Rightly or wrongly, she believed she was his half sister.
"No. Not a rib."
"Well, damn. I came to find you because Voight's about to start the briefing, but if you need to take some time I can cover for you?"
"No. Thanks though," Jay said, thinking that rather than trying to duck Voight, it might be a better idea to talk to him about what had just happened. And then he would have to tell Erin.
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A/N: Welcome to my latest Chicago PD/Linstead story. I've been playing around with ideas for this one for some time. Now it's a story that feels ready to be told.
How do you think Voight and Erin will react to what Jay has to tell them?
