Sorry for the delay. If there's anybody out there who is still interested in this story, I finally found an inspiration to continue and now I'm welcoming you to follow this journey with me. Hehe. Hope you enjoy!

"This is the last time. But if there's a chance you could share a beer with me, it would be nice. I'm at the district and about to leave. So give me a hint yes or no or fuck off. It's Adam by the way."

He was pissed so he acted a bit agitated, leaving Charlie this message on her voicemail. The first and the last time, as he said. He didn't like the way he felt nor the situation he had dragged himself into. And the last thing he wanted to do is to sound desperate, especially to people he barely knew — Charlie for example. But out of all she was the least annoying to hang out with, so he made his call.

After Adam didn't get any answer, he grabbed some of his stuff upstairs and stormed out of the precinct to his truck. Was it sort of a cruel joke that every of few people he wanted to talk chose to ignore him?

The sound of incoming message on her phone woke up Marcus but not Charlie. She was finally asleep after restless 30 hours which she had spent in the hospital. But by the time he moved and sat up in his bed, she slowly opened her eyes and immediately threw herself to her brother's side.

"You alright? Need anything? Let's call a nurse. I'll call."

"Let's not make a fuss. You've got a message." Marcus nodded towards her phone on the chair where she just tried to have some rest, but she noticed nothing and kept busing herself around Marcus, making sure his pillow is comfortable enough and all that caring bullshit she used to do.

"Okay, okay, stop it. Stop for a sec. I'm fine. Charlie, I'm fine!" Marcus had to raise his voice to make her look at him at last.

She did stop but that sharp and serious stare she gave her brother spoke for itself.

"Fine, huh?" She spat out aggressively. "Fuck you, okay? What the hell was that?"

Marcus rolled his eyes and Charlie wanted nothing but to slap him and made a huge effort to restrain herself.

"Don't talk to me like it was nothing. I found you bleeding out on the floor. Remember? You don't want to go to the police, okay, I get it. I even agreed to silence, cause you asked. But don't you dare act like it's not a big deal. Or next time I'll walk in and stumble on your corpse!"

Marcus shushed her when Dr. Halstead came in and pulled on a smile. Charlie just scoffed in natural disgust of his behavior and it took her a second to finally face Will.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but I need to check on you, buddy." Will uttered in a friendly manner and put some antiseptic on his hands. "Give us a minute."

Charlie nodded, grabbed her phone and left the room.

"She's not in a good mood." Marcus added trying to be positive, which made Charlie shake her head, since she could still hear everything.

She looked through her phone and found a voicemail from Adam.

She groaned internally.

Charlie was never that type of person who ignored people and always tried to call back, but the past day was such a disaster that she skipped every call or message on purpose. She didn't feel sociable at all. And now she wasn't ready to talk to anybody either, though she felt a little guilty. Not for the ignoring, but for the promise she gave her brother, she really did want to tell someone what actually happened the other night in order to finally put Marcus in his place and to do the right thing for a change. Especially after this morning when he showed no interest in making some improvements in his miserable life.

She sighed and leaned on the wall behind her, torturing her own mind with an endless succession of thoughts.

Luckily, Dr. Halstead interrupted that torture by showing up in front of her, when he was done examining Marcus.

"So the good news, he will definitely survive." He tried to pull a joke and smiled sincerely from ear to ear, but it didn't lift her spirits at all. Will switched to seriousness the next moment and cleared his throat a bit.

"He has a slight brain concussion but I would recommend to leave it for some time under Dr. Rhodes observation. See if some side effects appear, his blood pressure still hasn't returned to normal, and Marcus still can't remember half of what happened to him. You know I have to report the case but given the state of your brother, I'll leave you to it, when he's ready."

Will put his hand on Charlie's shoulder and by his worried look he tried to assure her that everything was going back to normal. Will did not know then that this whole mess Marcus made himself, and now pretended that he had lost his memory just to get rid of everyone's attention so he wouldn't have to deal with cops. Marcus wanted to make it unnoticed. If it was his will, he would have never come to the hospital, but once arrived, he was trying to slip away as soon as possible.

Charlie smiled stiffly and silently nodded in appreciation for caring.

"You want coffee or something? I can ask Maggie to bring you something to eat."

"Oh, no. Don't worry. I'm fine. And thank you."

The nurse ran past them, called for Halstead to check another patient, so he briefly nodded and walked away.

Charlie didn't know what to do, but to go back to Marcus was a bad idea at the moment since anger was still bubbling inside, so she instinctively went to the vending machine and five minutes aimlessly staring at the glass surface not able to focus her sight on anything. She indeed wasn't hungry, and a pack of crisps she had finally chosen was just for not to leave empty-handed.

Returning to her brother's room, she took out her phone, unlocked the screen to check time and new notifications, and then again shoved it into the pocket of her jeans. When she pushed the shutter, obstructing the room, she found only an empty bed and teared off tubes on the crumpled sheets.

"You son of a bitch..." she cursed under her breath, and already raced in the ER straight to the exit, trying to catch his eye, but it was vainly. He left enough time ago to not get caught successfully.

"I need your help."

Now it was Adam's turn to ignore everyone, not that he did this purposely, but the moment he arrived at his apartment he barely remembered anything, drunk and numb. He crashed on the sofa and fell out of reality for good ten hours until someone woke him up with loud and heavy knocking on his door.

"The fuck you doing here?"

Not the welcome she was expected but considering Adam's state, mental and physical, it was some sort of nice one. She had to be thankful he didn't send her straight to hell.

"Jeez, you look like shit." Instead of saying sorry like she planned, Charlie blow a whistle and scanned him from head to toe.

"I'm not in the mood for your comments, okay? What do you want?"

Anger, hangover, nausea, the mix of bitter emotions and painful memories — all of those weren't helping, so the bark he threw at Charlie was a pretty perfect aftermath of everything he'd been through past few weeks, even months.

"I… well, probably I shouldn't have come. Sorry for disturbing."

He groaned and pulled her into his apartment. He wasn't ready for anybody's bullshit anymore.

"Ah, don't give me that. I asked you a question." Adam blurted out toughly, that made Charlie stop for a second and look at him in concern.

"You're alright?" He looked away with a touch of disgust in his eyes — this question was getting more and more irritating. When she didn't get an answer she caught a hint and filled the gap when she sighed and lowered herself on the couch.

"So what happened?" It took a moment for him to cool off, but once he did, he seemed sorry for his previous bluntness. Adam sat in front of Charlie and raised his eyebrows.

"It's Marcus. I found him yesterday at our place, nearly beaten to death. They took him to the hospital, but he ran away a couple hours ago and I have no idea where. I'd try to reach out to those guys if I had any leads."

Adam listened with all ears but silenced for a while processing the information. More than that he was trying to clear his foggy mind.

"Well, I have one and it's you. You can bring me to Voight. I guess he knows how to find his own son."