Whispers After Dark: chicago fire

0.6~ mayhem

TW: strong language, mental health mentions, injury.

Music inspired chapter:
'nothing hurts when im alone'
Song• hostage
Artist• billie eilish

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Third person pov: present, Jay's apartment.

Sighing deeply, Stephanie finally makes her way out of her brothers' spare bedroom and into the kitchen only to see Jay trying to shove an entire piece of toast into his mouth whilst holding his phone up— the video he was watching on full volume. She wrinkles her nose in distaste before slowly slipping herself into the chair beside him. A muffled 'morning' is heard from his mouth as the girl rolls her eyes and starts reading her texts from last night; most of them from Hallie asking about their meet up this afternoon.

"You can stand now, surely that means your doing better." Jay states, now starting to collect his badge and gun for work. His firearm had always been kept in a safe under his bed and his badge with his car keys by the front door. When his sister doesn't reply, he watches her type quickly before letting out a low chuckle towards the gadget in her hand, "Earth to Stephanie..." He strains the syllables causing her to snap her head into his direction.

"What?" She asks, with Jay now laughing at her she recalls the previous conversation, "No, I can only stand for a number of seconds. Still hurts like a bitch, stupid broken kneecap."

Sliding over the prescription bottle of painkillers, Steph catches them holding the jar in her hands just staring at it nonchalantly. Jay tilts his head, "What's up?"

She sighs, taking a couple of the small pills in her hand before gulping them down with her brothers' half drunken glass of water. It reminded her of Kelly, the painkillers, the possible addiction and withdrawal she could face after this final prescription ends. However it also reminded her of Iraq, she remembered how lost she felt back at home in Chicago for the next year. She remembered the vivid hourly flashbacks and night terrors that almost made her take her own life.

She hated offloading her feelings on people, especially if she was close to said people. So instead of confiding in her caring brother, she made up another bullshit excuse, "Just something my mom said." Jay hummed as his little sister tried to confess what was on her mind, he knew that wasn't the only thing she was thinking about, but he knew not to push her over the edge. He'd learnt coping skills of how to deal with her heavy trauma over the years of knowing her, she had come a long way from the first time he had met her when she was eleven years old.

"Court's next week, how you feeling?" Jay questions, leaning against the back of his kitchen counter. He watches as she pushes the bottle of pills back into the centre of the table, "Antonio asked if he could be there. After the hearing you can tell him everything if you want, Hank has already bribed the jury so that's one last thing you have to worry about."

Jay portrays an amused smile as he thought of the dirty cop, maybe sometimes he was quite an asset. Steph sulks in her chair causing Jay to quickly remove the smile from his face— it really wasn't the time or the place to be joking around.

She leans her head on one of her hands, "I really don't want to see her, what if she tries something? Or she does actually do something? I can't do that again." Her fingers rub over the military-issue dog tags around her neck, the engagement ring was still hooked around the metal necklace. "I can't..."