A Chicago Story.

Chapter 8: Jay Halstead

Starting my car engine I was in a state of shock. 
How was she still functioning? 
Out of all my years of being a cop and a detective I have never experiences something so horrendous. 
Those poor children. 
And to be on the run like that, for that long, I couldn't even start to imagine. 

Pulling into an empty spot I walked into the hospital. 
I caught Will. "Hey man, whatcha got?" 
"You will never believe this. Follow me." 
We went down the hall to a room with microscopes. What the?
We went to one with four samples of blood squished between two plates of glass. 
"Okay so I have to show you something." Will said pushing one blood sample under the microscope. "Look at this." 
I put my eyes to the scope and studied the blood. 
Then Will took it out and put another one under it. They were the same. 
"They're identical." I told him my observation. 
"They are. Except a few molecules because we aren't the same person, our DNA is different. The first blood was yours, the second was mine." 
"Okay, what does that have to do with anything?" 
"Well we're full siblings. Same mother, same father."
"yea?" 
"This is a blood sample of a random person." Will said and slid another one under the microscope. 
"Completely different then the first two." I said. 
"Right. Now this is Jadeyn's blood sample we took last night." 
I must have been seeing this wrong. There's no way. 
"That's impossible." It had to be. 
"Science doesn't lie Jay." Will said. 
I took another look just to be one hundred percent sure of what I was seeing.
"That shows that she has the same blood as us. How is that possible?" 
"I don't know. You're the detective, you tell me." 
I thought through our past. Every little scrap of memory in my head. 
Then something came forth and made me bite my tongue. 
"We had a little sister." I blurted out. Will's eye bugged out of his head. 
"She's dead. She died when she was a baby. That's why mom left. Isn't it?" 
"I don't know man. When do you get off?" I asked. 
"Fifteen minutes ago. That's why I called you down." 
"Well then let's go pay a visit to our old man." 
"Good idea." 

We drove in silence as we made our way to our childhood home. 
Dad's car was in the driveway. 
We found him laying on the couch passed out with the football game on. 
I turned off the television and took the bag of chips plopping down on the recliner. 
He sprung awake. 
"Morning sunshine." I said humorlessly. 
"What the hell are you two doing here?" He asked sitting up. 
"We had a sister. Explain that." Will said leaning on the frame of the living room. 
"She died. That's why your mother left us to fend for ourselves." He spat. 
"You're lying." I said sitting up in the recliner. "I know you're lying. I am a detective remember." 
"Get out." He pointed to the door. 
"No, not until you tell us the truth." 
"No." 
"I will haul your ass out of this house and down to the station so fast your head will spin." I looked dead in his eyes. I wasn't messing around. He took a big huff in defeat, knowing he was out numbered. 
"You boys were in school and I came home from work and your mother and sister were gone.
All their stuff was gone. All I got was a note that said, 'I can't do this anymore.' That was it. I never heard from her again. So when you boys got home and asked where mom and your sister were I created this whole story so you wouldn't be looking for her. After a while you forgot about the ghost sister and just thought your mother had left us. That was the way I wanted it." 
I sat there, mouth open so far I swear it was going to hit the floor. How could he do that to Will and I? 
"How old would she be right now?" Will asked, clearly as shaken as I felt. 
"Oh god, um..." He counted on his fingers. "Turning eighteen this year. If she was still alive." 
That fit Jadeyn. 
"What was her name?" 
Dad buried his head in his hands. Obviously reliving the raw pain of losing his wife and only daughter. "Bree. Her name was Bree." After a moment he lifted his head and locked eyes with me. "Why do you want to know this now?" 
I debated telling him. He had kept this a secret for so long, but he was just trying to protect us from years of searching for her and he was the only one who knew all of these years. He had a right to know. "Cause we found a girl half beaten to death yesterday night. Will took her blood just to make sure she she was clean. And today when Will looked at it he called me in. She has the same blood as Will and I. Scary close. Like same mother, same father, close. And she is seventeen. It all fits. But she won't tell us her first name. She goes by Jadeyn. Jadeyn says she knows her given first name but not legal her last name. Then when Will explained the blood I remember a few memories of a little baby girl. One you said was dead, almost twenty years ago." 
Dad's face had bleached. "Beaten?" He asked. 
"She had a run in with a few gang members." 
"Is she okay?" He asked. 
"Concussion, fractured wrist, couple of cracked ribs. She'll be fine." Will said. 
"I have to see her." Dad stood up. 
"No. Not, yet. Not until we are one hundred percent sure she is our biological sister. We have to go. We'll be in touch." With that we left dad sitting on the couch. 
Will and I got back into the car when my phone went off. "Halstead." 
"Jay, it's Hank, are you with Will?" " 
"I am. I'll put you on speaker." I pressed the speaker button and connected the phone to the speakers in the car. 
"What's wrong?" I asked. 
"Nothing. Jadeyn and Rowen are fine. She's napping on the couch. It's just when she left the hospital this morning she took off her splint and her wrist is swollen and a nasty shade of purple. She has ice on it and on her ribs." 
"Say no more. I'll bring supplies." Will said. 
"Be there soon." I told Hank and hung up. 
"I thought you can't sleep with a concussion." I said to Will. 
"She only has a minor concussion. She's totally fine to sleep. It's only if it's a major concussion that she has to be woken every hour." 
"Oh."
"Go to my apartment, I have supplies there." 

Will grabbed what he needed from his apartment and joined me back in the car. 
Less than twenty minutes later I parked at the station and we made out way up to the Intelligence office. On the way I filled Will in on what Jadeyn and Rowen have been though. Just in case he accidentally said something to set them off. 
When we got up we filled in the rest of the group on our discovery. 
Will and I went into the room where Jadeyn was passed out cold on the leather couch. 
She looked so peaceful when she slept.