A/N: Thank you for all of the reviews on the last two chapters. I really appreciate that you all seem to want a quick update. Part of this next chapter is told through Jay's POV. Hence, I left our two mains unable to speak in the previous chapter. So he's filling in for them. But not to worry, there's Manstead as well.

Will groaned as he came around to the pervasive sound of someone knocking and shouting his name. He listened to the voice until a face formed in his mind. It was Detective Erin Lindsay.

"Dr. Halstead! Are you in there?"

"I'm here!" A throbbing sensation in his chest began as soon as he tried to move.

"I'm comin' in!" Will started at the slam of the door when Erin kicked it in leaving no doubt in his mind that his brother's girlfriend or former girlfriend was quite the bad ass.

"Are you okay?" Erin knelt beside him and helped him to sit up. Normally, he would had some snarky quip springing out from his lips but his world was still spinning.

"I'm fine," he said until he was met with a searing pain in the center of his sternum. His eyes followed Erin's and landed on the shards of glass that were splintered around him.

"You're not fine. You've been shot," Erin said, quickly working the buttons of his shirt to reveal the black Kevlar underneath. "Help! We need some help in here!"

Will twisted away as she tried to push the shirt from his shoulders, "I said, I'm fine. The bullet didn't penetrate." Painstakingly, his head spun as he tried to push to his feet, gravity keeping him down. His recovery time wasn't going to be as quick as what they preached on T.V. He needed another minute or two to collect his bearings before trying again.

"I need to get to Dr. Manning!" he hissed as reality hit him. The picture of Natalie lying on a morgue slab with her eyes closed and her hair slicked back was burned into his brain. For as long as he lived that vision would never leave him.

"Jay and the others went to find her. As soon as I hear anything-" Her words were cut short with the entrance of April and Doctor Charles.

April fell to her knees beside Erin.

"What happened?" Her big brown eyes were wide as she took a cue from the Kevlar. "We need to get him to the E.D!"

Again, Will jerked. He didn't need the E.D. All he needed was Natalie.

Jay met Clarke, Ruzek and Atwater at the entrance to the morgue. "You think this guy's telling the truth?" Ruzek asked as the two junior officer's each covered side of the double swinging doors.

"We'll find out. Cover me!" Jay took the center and kicked the door going in with his weapon trained, straight into a hail of gunfire. Jay fired his weapon and rolled, hoping that Atwater and Ruzek had done the same. Staying low he took a head count. The two intelligence officers were hunkered down low waiting for his order. There was only one person missing.

"Clarke!" He shouted firing off another round at the back of the fleeing gunman.

"I'm good!" The forty something fourth year medical student was huddled tight against the door.

"Go! Go!" Jay shouted to Atwater and Ruzek who both took off in a dead run following the black blur of a suspect.

Jay holstered his weapon and started for the morgue drawers where the dead lay. "We're looking for twenty-seven B."

"There is no twenty-seven B," Clarke rushed in, explaining that morgue drawers were categorized in a series of numbers containing four digits and the letter R or F. R for refrigeration and F for freezer.

Fuck! Jay swore, pulling out his phone. "Take a look at this text and tell me this is MED's morgue and not some photo shopped enhancement."

Clarke took the phone, studying the short video of Natalie being entombed into one of the morgue drawers and nodded. He recognized a piece of cracked tile on the wall that he'd seen from a recent visit to the pathology lab. "She's here. But all of the drawers have individual key codes."

What?

"How do we get the code?"

"Nina keeps them somewhere in her office."

Jay looked around in bewilderment, his blue eyes widening. There were at least thirty, maybe forty drawers if not more. It would take then forever to punch in the key code. "What's the average temperature in one of these drawers," he asked yanking on one of the handles for good measure. It didn't budge.

"Thirty-six degrees refrigerated, thirty-two freezing." Clarke followed suit, quickly pulling drawer after drawer. "It's not the cold that will kill her; it's the lack of oxygen."

The drawers were essentially horizontal air tight refrigerators and freezers.

"What's your best estimate of time?" Jay said, punching in the speed dial for Voight while Clarke made an estimated calculation. "The drawers are anywhere from twenty to forty feet long and about two feet high. So, probably an hour?"

"An hour," Jay repeated, his mouth going dry. "It might take Voight that long to track down Nina." Protective custody protocol dictated a need to know basis. The less people who knew which safe house she'd been taken to the better.

Is there anyone else who might have the code? Another pathologist on duty?

"Goodwin will know."

Sharon Goodwin kept her unflappable expression in place. But even to someone like Jay it was apparent that on the inside she was dying. "Dr. Rogers is off to the Bahama's for a week. His daughter is getting married. Budget cuts; allow us to only have two licensed pathologists on staff."

The other one being doctor Shore.

"Joey will know," the small voice of Sarah Reese brought a smile to Clarke's face. However, Goodwin's lips were turned down. Lab Techs weren't supposed to have that type of information.

"Well find him now!"

"If needed I can have a car pick him up," Jay said as Sarah reached into the pocket of her lab coat and pulled out her tablet.

"That shouldn't be necessary. I'll just FaceTime him." The curly haired millennial quickly went to her contacts and selected the icon with Joey's picture. Even though she was dating Clarke now, Joey Thomas was a still a good friend and a member of the Chicago Med family.

Jay had to admit even he felt old when the young lab tech's face appeared and he gave Sarah detailed instructions on how to locate the codes. The one code that would unlock them all simultaneously was located on the hard drive of Nina's computer under the password: $horestead81.

Once the code was entered the doors of the morgue drawers all popped and opened electronically revealing of a variety of heads: blonde, grey, black, bald, red, brown, and one bright blue.

Jay turned around to see Will with Erin.

"Jay! Where is she?" The sound of panic in Will's voice made Jay shudder.

"What the hell happened to you?" Will's shirt was hanging open with the Kevlar peeking out.

"I thought it would be fun to play you. Now where's Natalie?"

The younger Halstead stuttered as he started to speak. The thought of someone taking a shot at Will made him flustered. He held out a hand, "He-Here somewhere, I don't know. Clarke and the others are looking now."

Immediately, Will surged forward shouting out Natalie's name.

Natalie!

Frantic, he started to check all of the younger female bodies with dark brown heads. "Nat? Nat!" What if she wasn't here? What if Sick-O with the mechanical voice and mask had taken her somewhere else?

"Where is she?"

"I've got her! Over here!" Clarke shouted, waving on the two Halstead's. Jay and Erin hung back a bit letting Will take the lead.

Intense anxiety filled him. A pale blue tint around her lips made her look…

Dead.

"Is she breathing?" Will checked her respiration and watched for the rise and fall of her chest. Next, he pressed two fingers to her carotid artery. Her pulse was good and strong. As he moved his hand noticing the small puncture wound in her neck. Stretching the skin he carefully examined it.

"We may have an overdose! Somebody get a gurney over here right now!" Relying on his training to carry him emotionally, he did a once over checking every inch of exposed flesh. Despite being held captive in a refrigerated compartment, her skin was still warm to the touch. Beads of sweat were forming on her brow. Either her temperature was breaking or she was suffering from exposure.

Whoever said Sick-O was, he'd gone to great lengths to make her look like a real corpse. Will's blood began to boil at the thought that she'd been undressed and covered with white cloth about her waist so that the incision in her lower abdominal region and pelvic area were hidden. Another towel was draped over her breasts so that they were modestly covered.

Clarke appeared with a blanket and together they gently covered her before transferring her to the gurney. Together with Sarah's help, they moved in sync to the E.D. where Choi was waiting.

"I need blood labs, STAT, a I.V. and ultrasound so that I can check her abdomen," Will said as Ethan reached out to him.

"You look like you're in pretty rough shape. Why don't you let me take it from here?"

Vehemently, Will shook his head as he began attaching leads to Natalie's bare skin so they could perform an EKG. He wasn't going to leave her this time. From the corner of his eye he saw Choi frown at someone standing behind him.

Goodwin

"He's right Dr. Halstead. You're in no condition to be treating Dr. Manning."

He looked up for a brief second as one of the nurses' draped a sheet over Natalie's chest so that Will could check her abdominal wound before beginning the Ultrasound. "She's my patient. If you want me out you're going to have to drag me."

"That can be arranged you know," the voice of Conner Rhodes brought a slight smile to Halstead's face. It was nice to see that the super surgeon had cut his conference short so that could come back to support one of their own.

"Body temperature is 102.4, BP 97 over 70" one of the nurses said as Will squirted a large dollop of blue gel above Natalie's incision. He stared at the screen, running the wand over her lower stomach. "Damn, belly's filled with fluid," hence, the reason for the blue lips.

"That's my cue," Conner stepped up behind Will, clapping him on the shoulders. "You're welcome to assist me if you want. But the commando vest has to go." Will looked down. He'd almost forgotten about the Kevlar and the burn in his chest. Now that he stopped to think about it, he needed medical treatment for the doubtless cracked sternum and possible broken ribs. But it could wait.

"She's in the most capable hands of Chicago Med," Goodwin pleaded, making his brow furrow. Arrogance had always been his downfall. But this time it was more that. It was a desperate need to keep her safe and alive. And not just from a god complex point of view.

He loved her.

"I'll go scrub in."

A/N: Is this a cliff? I really didn't mean for it to be. This chapter was being problematic and I didn't want to keep you waiting. I promise, Nat pulls through and that the next chapter brings some much needed and earned TLC.