The Not-So-Secret Lovers Of Chicago

9) An Unwanted Week Off

Finally after an agonizing 37 hours in the hospital I was a free man again. Somehow it passed in a snap and dragged on forever. Either way I was happy to be free. Not so happy that I wasn't clear for work for another week and stuck in desk duty the week after that. Even so I was happy to be out of that hospital bed. Ethan had made the wise choice of staying away from my hospital room and instead transferring me over to the care of Dr Halstead. Thanks to probably Doris news of what had gone down was all over the hospital and at least everyone knew that Sarah had the police department backing her up, so with any luck people will be a touch more cautious about bullying Sarah. At some point Sarah had tossed her keys to Lindsay on the way out of the door requesting that Erin go get her car so Sarah could drive me home. The hospital staff looked baffled that not only did Reese have friends but she trusted them with her keys and car! It was nice to be free of that place. Jay and Sarah both came to take me home in Sarah's car that Erin had dropped off. She would be here but she is busy doing my job for me, despite my arguements that I was completely fit to work they were having none of it. Sarah kept an unusually close eye on the other cars whilst driving home, most likely in fear of another accident. I almost forgot that she was injured too. Almost as soon as I thought it Jay piped up saying,
"Hey aren't you not supposed to be driving? Ya know what with the whole 'only capable of using 1 hand' and 'concussed' thing?"
"Jay your brother just over reacted a bit I can drive."
"Well yeah you CAN drive. But the doesn't mean that you SHOULD be driving."
I decided to throw my 2 cents into the conversation,
"Sarah pull over and switch, I'll drive."
"No you won't. You just had surgery, if it were up to me you'd still be at the hospital. But either way I'm driving."
"I can drive too. They didn't do surgery on my arms."
"No, they did emergency surgery on a vital organ instead, thank god your liver can grow back. But you still aren't driving!"
"Stop bickering like an old married couple! We are literally 3 streets away so it doesn't matter who drives now!"
"Oh, we're here." I said completely ignoring the other thing Jay said before turning to get out of the car. Jay himself decided to be my crutch getting out even though I didn't need it at all. Then Sarah came over to help and as if she could sense my annoyance said
"At least Erin isn't here to force you into a wheelchair."
I suppose that was one upside to having her do my job, she wasn't around to mother me. 
15 minutes later I was in bed with a piping hot cuppa on the bedside and Sarah's promise to be back in the morning. 

Sarah POV

Alright. Now that Hank was sorted out I could finally go home and change my top! And probably get lost in an emotional crisis and feel pathetic the whole evening. Those were my plans until Jay said "Drink?" Yeah. A beer with a friend sounds really nice actually. 
"Sure, I just need to make a quick stop at my house and then we can head to Molly's?"
"Yep sounds good." He said whilst not so subtlety reaching for my car keys. I snatch them away whilst running for the door calling behind me "And I'm driving!"
"Why will no woman ever let me drive?!"
With that he followed me out to the car and begrudgingly got into the passengers seat beside me and we drove off to my house. About 10 minutes later we got to my house and I gave Jay a beer to sit with on my burgundy sofa whilst I changed. I came back to Jays overdramatic fake snoring and claiming that it had been a year since he had seen me last. 
"Its been a year and you still can't grow a beard. Race ya to the car." I said bolting off and catching him by surprise. When we arrived at the car a few moments later I asked where he had been, exclaiming that I had time to grow a beard. But in my taunting I had left my car keys unsupervised and Jay was quick enough to nab them and slide into the drivers seat. Laughing I slid into the passenger seat and begged him to not crash my car.
"Your'e more likely to crash the car miss 1 hand."
And we eventually made it to Molly's in one piece even as impossible as it seemed. We ordered 2 beers and sat down at the bar stools and just had a laugh. Lindsay joined us a short while later and just got a coffee so that she could drive us home. This felt fantastic. I didn't have anything weighing me down in this moment, no worries and I knew that I had 3 people in this world who cared about me and for me that's enough. Hours later Lindsay had dropped us both home and left my car with me to walk home as she only lived a short distance away. In this moment life was pretty good.

I woke up bright and early the next morning. Despite my early rise I felt refreshed and happy. I had almost forgotten what that felt like. I had also been given recovery time off and I hoped I could spend it with Hank helping him recover after all Ethan is right, it is my fault he got hurt in the first place. So I grabbed some cooking supplies, hopped into my car and drove to Hank's place to make him some bacon pancakes for breakfast. I made it over there with no problems at all and parked in front of his house. I knew that his spare key was hidden in a pot under one of the stones in the hedge, So I fished it out and went inside. Hank sounded like he was still asleep upstairs so I headed into the kitchen to get started on breakfast. I fried the bacon perfectly and made wonderful buttery pancakes with a cup of coffee. I also made a coffee for myself too. Then I placed everything on a tray and brought it upstairs. I was lucky that I was able to balance it without my other arm from my brief stint as a waitress. I entered quietly and saw Hank about to get out of bed so I put the tray down and went over to see if he needed help. 
"Sorry about your wasted trip upstairs, I was about to follow my nose and come downstairs."
"I doubt the bacon much cares where you eat it."
So I helped him downstairs and went back up for the tray. And for the next week this was how it went. It was strangely domestic. I came over every morning to make breakfast for him whilst I had a giant mug of coffee for breakfast. We chatted and learned about each other, we just had fun and we were very close friends by the end of it. I didn't want to go back to work but student loans weren't going to pay themselves. So as soon as I dropped Hank off at work I braced myself for my own work day in hell. I stepped through the doors and several things happened at once. Ethan who had been walking towards me turned the opposite direction, Doris and Maggie stalked towards me like vultures swooping in on their prey, Will walked towards me looking way too happy and Doctor Charles handed me an ipad and said that there was a patient who needed me in trauma 3. On my way Will gave me a side hug saying that he was happy I was back and asking if we could talk later. Because that isn't giving me any anxiety. I wasn't used to getting touched in any non-threatening way so I wasn't entirely comfortable with his hug. The moment he left the nurses descended upon me. April started first.
"So Reese, the hospital rumour mill has been grinding non-stop. What happened with Ethan." 
"It wasn't my fault that the van hit us and Ethan blamed me despite that. So my friends rightfully got annoyed and defended me."
Doris continued with "Well why were you in the car with Voight? And since when are you friends with Jay and Lindsay?"
"I was in the car with Hank because we were going to my house and I am allowed to have friends too. Please excuse me I have a patient too see."

~~~Time Skip~~~

Several patients and hours later there was only 10 minutes left of my shift and I was waiting it out in the break room when Will came in. I forgot that he had wanted to talk to me.
"Hey Sarah, sorry for stopping you leaving now, I tried to find you at lunch."
"Yeah sorry, I went to lunch with Erin."
"Well I promise I won't keep you long." 
Then he acted a bit weird. He sat down on the table in front of me, took both my hands and told me that no matter what the issue I could talk to him. I had thought it was about what went down with Ethan but he cut me off saying,
"Weather it's as trivial as wanting to talk about your day or wanting to talk about your brother I'm here."
"How did you know I have a brother, it's not on record."
"My brother told me." 

Sorry about leaving it there but is stupid AM and even I need sleep. So comment any suggestions and vote if you liked it.
See you later, love Lizzi