Can't Let Go || Upstead Oneshot

Can't Let Go

There had been this massive wash of relief that had gone over her when she had spotted Jay from the doorway. Hailey couldn't describe how happy that made her. Her partner was okay, he was alive. Jay was alive. From her angle though, he looked to be a little beaten up and his shirt a little bloody, however she couldn't be too sure because the lighting wasn't the best. She pushed that to the side, all she could focus on was the fact that he was there, right in front of her eyes. Jay was alive.

She shouts his name, moving across the room to where her partner was kneeling, what looked to be taking charge over one of the people who had held him hostage. "Jay! Are you okay?" She asks, repeating his name once more as she places her hand against his shoulder, as if trying to double check he was there, make sure she wasn't imagining his figure.

He turns his face to look at her, and that's when she can take a better look at him and his state. He had cuts on his forehead and nose, blood dripping down the side of his face and neck, and from here she could see the large blood stain that took over the top right of his shirt.

"Hey, are you okay?" Hailey asks again frantically when he doesn't respond the first time.

Jay lets out a couple very heavy breaths, not answering his partner's question. He watches her eyes change, filling with concern, but still doesn't respond. He then begins struggling to his feet. "I've got to go help Angela, she's downstairs." He says, panting the words out from his lips.

Hailey can't help her face drop subtly, she didn't want him to wander off again because she had only just gotten back with him after the struggle to find him. But she also knew deep down nothing she could say would convince him not to go back downstairs to Angela. So instead she watched as Jay got to his feet and wandered down the stairs behind her with a small limp.

As he passed by her, turning around the corner to take the first step down, he let out a quick and quiet instruction to Hailey. "Stay there." He mumbled, still seeming to be out of breath slightly.

While Jay was walking down the stairs, Hailey began speaking down her radio to help, to alert people outside the building of the situation inside. "5021 Henry, we've got an offender down and an officer injured." She explained before requesting two ambulances to be sent to their location.

She stayed in her place, following her partner's instructions as she waited for him to walk back up the stairs with Angela.  She watched the offender lying still against the column in the middle of the room.

However it couldn't have been more than fifteen seconds since she called for the ambulances, couldn't have been more than twenty seconds since she last saw Jay's face, before she heard the loud shot come from downstairs. It pierced through her eardrums as she's momentarily stuck in her spot with shock. It takes her a very brief second before she realizes that was the sound of a gunshot coming from downstairs - where Jay was - and she pounces up to her feet, almost tripping down the concrete stairs and just mere steps from crashing into the wall a few feet from the last stair.

When she tumbles carelessly through the open frame in the stone wall, her breath hitches roughly in the back of her throat, catching her off guard.

Jay was lying on the floor, wheezing and struggling to catch his breath even more than he did before. He let out multiple pain-filled coughs into the air as Hailey ran around to his side, kicking the gun away from Angela, who was also lying on the floor just beside Jay, to the other side of the room.

She quickly steps over her partner's legs, kneeling beside his left arm and placing her hand on top of the wound in his chest, calling Jay's name over and over again just to keep him somewhat lucid. Using one of her hands, now stained a light shade of crimson, she radios it in. "5021 Henry, we have an officer shot, we need an ambulance to my location now." She says, allowing the words to shout out loudly, her words ringing out and echoing in the room, as if yelling it would make the ambulance arrive quicker.