As Jay and Antonio were on their way back to Will's room, Jay was lost in thought. Out of nowhere it seemed to hit him how he had really believed he was doing fine on his own. But now that Will was unavailable, there was this uneasiness that he was having a hard time ignoring. He realized that he never had been any good on his own. When he was in the Rangers, he had developed a brotherhood. And then he lost them all. Even Mouse, the one that survived, left him to go back and do it all again. When he joined the CPD, he had his partners and eventually his units. But he didn't really feel that sense of wellbeing again until Erin. She became the person he could trust, and then she left without even saying goodbye. On his own, he felt vulnerable and scared. And as hard as he'd tried to hide it, Antonio had seen through him. He showed up and he stayed.

"You okay?" Antonio asked, pulling Jay out of his head and back into reality.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jay lied.

Antonio looked at him skeptically. "Try again."

Jay smiled. "I was just thinking about family and how I always felt so on my own. And then Will moved back, and we started working on our relationship. So I had him. And I thought that was it." Jay rubbed his hand through his hair, clearly uncomfortable with this level of vulnerability. "I don't know, man. I guess... I'm just really glad you came by."

Antonio put an arm around him and gave him a squeeze. "Anytime, man. I got your back. The whole unit does. I talked to Voight on my way here and he said that he's gonna come by at some point today. So if he comes, Al will probably come too. Burgess and Haley were trying to come earlier, but they had to finish some paperwork. You never know what Adam or Kevin will do, but I wouldn't be too surprised if they showed."

"I don't even know what to say. Honestly man... thank you." Jay said, pulling his friend into another hug. "So, did you want to come in and see Will? Or did you need to get going?"

"I do need to get back, but I'd love to pop in real quick to say hi if that's okay." Antonio replied.

Jay nodded and led the way back to his brother's room. When they walked in, it was just a nurse and Will. "Did Nat leave?" He asked the nurse.

"She went down to the ED to work, but we promised to page her if anything changed." The nurse explained.

"Oh..." Jay sounded almost a bit disappointed by this news. She was working? I mean, sure she's just downstairs but still. "Has anything changed?" He finally asked.

The nurse shook her head. "No, but he's still under heavy sedation. Dr. Abrams should be in shortly to evaluate him and start weaning him off of it."

Jay just nodded and watched as the nurse walked out of the room.

"What's wrong?" Antonio asked, noticing the different expression on Jay's face.

"Nothing." Jay said way too quickly. "I'm just sort of surprised that Natalie's working. It's fine, but I just figured she'd be here."

Antonio nodded that he understood. "Think of it this way though. What if Will wasn't sick? What if he was mugged? And he was at the hospital being treated, while our whole unit was looking for the guy who mugged him. Where would you choose to be?"

"I'd be with you guys looking for that asshole obviously, but that's different. I'm a detective, not a doctor. There's nothing I'd be able to do for him at the hospital, but plenty I could do for him at work. Natalie is a doctor..."

"Who can't do anything to help Will right now." Antonio interrupted. "But there's a whole waiting room downstairs full of people she can help. And she's still in the building. She can be back here in minutes if she had to."

Jay was quiet for a moment. "You're right. She's doing the right thing right now for herself, for her patients, and for Will. I just don't like sitting here in the silence I guess."

"I can call Voight and tell him you need me to stick around a bit longer." Antonio offered.

"No, it's okay. I'll be fine. Right now I need to be with my brother, but you need to be at work. Chicago needs you." Jay smiled, slapping his friend's shoulder.

"I'm just a text or phone call away." Antonio reminded him, and Jay nodded his understanding. "Hey Will," he continued, walking over to stand at the elder brother's bedside. "I'm gonna come back later this evening and I expect you to be breathing on your own by then. The sooner the better, really. You've got a little brother here that needs you."

Jay walked up beside Antonio and laid a hand on his brother's arm. Seeing him this way made him so uncomfortable, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was exactly where he needed to be.

Antonio and Jay said their goodbyes and Antonio took off back to work. Meanwhile, Jay returned back to his chair at his brother's bedside as he pulled out his phone and began to search for a movie to watch.

Quite a while later, Dr. Abrams entered the room. "Good morning, detective."

"Good morning." Jay replied, blinking a few times to adjust his eyes off of his phone screen and back to real life.

"How was the night?"

Jay shrugged, looking at his brother. "Basically the same as this."

Dr. Abrams nodded. "Believe it or not, that's good." He assured Jay. "He's under heavy sedation, so we wouldn't expect him to be waking up. And obviously we don't want things to get any worse."

Alarm raised in Jay's eyes. "Can it get worse?"

"As long as he follows the trajectory we expect him to follow, no. This would be as bad as he gets. But medicine is tricky, and sometimes we get surprises." Stopping to notice the alarm in his patient's brother's eyes he continued, "In this case, I'm not seeing any surprises. And I don't see any reason we can't move forward. I'm going to reduce the sedation just a little bit, and then I'll be back in about an hour to assess him. As long as he tolerates everything well, I would expect to get him off the vent by the end of the day."

Jay smiled. "That sounds great. Thank you, doctor."

Dr. Abrams nodded as he pressed a few buttons to lower the sedation before exiting the room.

This pattern continued a few more times throughout the day. Dr. Abrams would come in, do an assessment, state that the sedation was still too strong, lower it a bit more, leave, and repeat. Until finally in the third round when he got his first involuntary reflex. The sedation was set to a minimum and an hour later he was able to elicit a mild pain response by pricking Wills finger. It wasn't anything major, but it was all he needed to see in order to completely stop the sedation. He wasn't gone more than 30 minutes before Will opened his eyes.

Jay noticed and immediately stood, making sure his brother could clearly see him. "Hey bro." He said calmly. "Welcome back."

Will attempted to reply when he suddenly became aware of the breathing tube still in his throat. His first instinct was to reach for it and start trying to unfasten it from his face, but Jay caught his arms.

"Will, you gotta leave that alone. I'm so glad your arms are moving, but you can't pull the tube out yourself."

Will's eyes said otherwise though, and Jay knew he was going to need some help. He placed one hand over his brother's mouth, making sure he wouldn't be able to get ahold of the tube even if his arms were free. Then he used his other hand to press the call button before returning both his hands back to holding his brother still.

A voice came on the call system and Jay quickly explained the situation. The nurse immediately paged Dr. Abrams and Natalie, and they both arrived at roughly the same time.

"Welcome back, babe." Natalie said, gently kissing his forehead.

"Let me just check your stats really quick, and then we'll start working on getting you off this vent, okay?" Dr. Abrams added, looking mostly at the machine and only briefly making eye contact with Will.

"That means you have to stop trying to pull it out yourself." Jay chided, still keeping a hand on his brother's arms just as a precaution.

"He was trying to pull it himself?" Natalie asked Jay. "You were trying to extubate yourself? Will, you know how dangerous that can be."

Will looked at Jay in such a way that Jay could almost hear him calling him a snitch.

"Okay Will, I'm going to slowly turn the machine down. When I do that, you might feel some tightness in your chest. That's just your lungs trying to take their job back after having a bit of a break. Once we're sure your oxygen stats can hold their own, we'll get that out for you. Understand?" Dr. Abrams explained.

Will just nodded.

The process itself didn't take too long, but it certainly wasn't as easy as Abrams had made it seem or as Will had imagined it when explaining it to his own patients. As the machine was turned down, he started to feel like he was suffocating again. It was similar to how he felt right before they intubated him in the first place. He worried for a moment that this meant he wasn't going to get off the vent, but noticed that the monitors were remaining steady. Letting him know that his oxygen levels must still be okay. Before long, the machine was completely off and Will was having a hard time breathing around the tube. It almost felt like he was choking. Dr. Abrams disconnected the tube from the vent, and quickly suctioned out Wills lungs before finally deflating the balloon that had been holding the tube in place, and pulling it out.

This sent Will into a coughing fit, and Natalie immediately placed an oxygen mask over his face while a nurse held out a bin for him just in case anything needed to come up.

Jay looked at Natalie, concern all over his face.

"This is normal." She assured him, before focusing back on Will. "That's it. Slow deep breaths. You got this." She encouraged.

Dr. Abrams waited until Will had recovered from the extubation before moving on to his assessment. He started with his hands. "Will, can you squeeze both of my hands?"

Will did as he was told, no longer depending on the oxygen mask but still focusing on his breathing.

"Good, and can you feel this?" The doctor asked as he palpated around the young man's chest and abdomen.

Again Will nodded.

Dr. Abrams pulled back his blankets and lightly pricked his thigh like he had earlier, only this time Will flinched. He did the same down his calves, feet, and toes. "Can you press against my hand for me?" He asked, placing a hand under Wills foot.

Will did and then was also able to push up on his hand as well.

"Everything looks good from what I can see." Dr. Abrams commented, pride and relief clear in his voice. "How are you feeling?"

"Better." Will whispered, just starting to collect some air back into his lungs.

"Very good. I'll let you rest for a little bit, and then when you're feeling stronger we'll try to get you up and walking."

Will smiled. "Sounds good. Thanks, Sam."

The neurologist nodded and then exited the room leaving Will with a very relieved and thankful girlfriend and brother.

Word spread quickly around the hospital that Will was officially breathing on his own and on his way to a complete recovery. Everyone had stopped in to see him. Ethan, Conner, April, Maggie, Noah, Sarah, and even Dr. Charles had either poked their head in to say hello, or spent their entire break time just sitting with him.

Natalie was in and out seeing patients at Wills request. He had playfully told her that the ED was already short one of their top doctors, and there was no way they'd survive without another.

And by the latter part of the day, Jay's family all showed up just like Antonio had said they would. Burgess and Haley had been trying to get the detective to let them feed him and otherwise take care of him. Ruzek and Atwater were busy trying to lighten the mood, keeping everyone laughing. While Hank and Al stood in the background watching, just making sure everything was running smoothly.

Eventually though, everyone needed to get home and Will was exhausted. So Jay took that opportunity to step into the hallway just to catch his breath.

"Hey, you're Will's brother, right?" A young woman in a white coat asked as she stopped at Jays side.

Jay looked up, recognizing her from her brief visits with Will earlier. He wasn't sure they had officially met though, so he extended his hand. "Yeah, I'm Jay."

The young woman smiled as she shook his hand. "It's nice to officially meet you, Jay. I'm Sarah."

"So... you're a doctor here?" Jay was trying to make conversation, but after the last 48 hours everything was just coming out awkwardly.

"Yeah." Sarah replied. "I'm a psychiatry resident. I work under Dr. Charles."

Jay gave a small smirk. "Ah, psychiatry. So you're the one I need to be talking to?"

Sarah smiled, but didn't join Jay in his awkward laughter. "Is that right?" She asked. "What's going on?"

"Oh... Uhm... I mean nothing really." Jay was mentally slapping himself for saying anything at all. "I just meant that... I mean... things have just been..."

"Hard?" Sarah asked, trying to help ease some of his nerves.

"Yeah, I guess." Jay replied. "I mean, my partner who also happened to be my girlfriend, moved to New York without telling me. Now she won't talk to me at all. And then not too long ago I was on a case where I shot an armed suspect, but the bullet went through him and the wall hitting a young girl who ended up dying. And for some reason after that happened, I started having these nightmares." He suddenly realized he was disclosing way more than he had ever intended and shut his mouth.

"What kind of nightmares?" Sarah asked, shifting her stance to a more comfortable one. This let Jay know that she didn't intend to go anywhere right away.

"Ah it's no big deal. I used to be a ranger in the Army. I saw a lot of things. Lost a lot of friends. The dreams are usually about stuff like that."

"Have you ever talked to a psychiatrist about any of this?" Sarah asked.

Jay just shook his head. "I went to therapy for a little bit. It's mandatory anytime we shoot someone, even if it's a clean shot. It helped a little I guess."

Sarah just nodded. "Yeah, therapy can be very helpful in processing trauma. Have you ever had instances where you were awake and seemed to be having one of those nightmares?"

Jay smiled. "A flashback? You're trying to diagnose me with PTSD aren't you?"

Sarah smiled back. "I'm not trying to diagnose you. I was just wondering if anyone ever had."

Jay thought for a moment. "No, I don't think so. I mean, I've had friends mention it. But never a doctor. I don't think I saw anyone long enough for that."

"Is that something you'd be interested in exploring?" Sarah asked.

"I dunno..." Jay shrugged. "Would it just be more talking?"

"Not exactly." Sarah answered. "I mean, talking is involved, but there are a lot of other very effective treatment methods for PTSD. It may be worth looking into."

"Maybe." Jay shifted uncomfortably. "But I mean right now I kind of need to be..."

"Oh, no I didn't mean right now. Obviously you have other priorities right now. But, if you decide it's something you may be interested in hearing more about, feel free to give me a call or come by." Sarah said, handing him her business card.

Jay accepted the card. "Thank you, Sarah. I might do that."

"Good." And with that she walked away.

Jay looked down at the card and debated for a moment what to do with it before finally slipping it into his pants pocket and walking back into his brother's room to find him sitting up in bed.

"Whoa, getting started without me?" He teased.

"Ah yeah, I'm so strong." Will teased. I pushed this button all by myself and the bed just lifted me up."

Jay laughed.

"Where were you?" He asked.

"Me? Oh I was just outside your door." Jay answered.

"By yourself?" Will asked, skeptically.

"No, not by myself. One of your friends, she said her name was Sarah..."

"Dr. Reese" Will corrected before letting his brother continue.

"Dr. Reese stopped to check in. She seems nice." Jay said.

Will smiled slyly at his brother. "She is nice..."

Jay, getting where his brother was going with this, immediately corrected him. "It's not like that, Will! She was just asking how things were going and we started talking about some of what's been happening lately. That's all."

"Uh huh... sure..." Will replied, but before he could make another joke Natalie walked in with food.

"Oh my goodness my hero!" Will exclaimed as he reached for a bag of food, which Natalie quickly pulled away and handed to Jay. "Hey! I'm the one in the hospital bed. Where's my food?"

Natalie looked at her watch. "They should be bringing it by soon." She replied.

Will pouted, earning a laugh from both her and Jay.

"Oh, don't be a baby. I got you a milkshake. And you're more than welcome to have half my burger and fries, but I figured you'd have a bit of a sore throat."

Natalie handed Will his shake and slid some fries to him across his bedside table. Will took one small fry, but as he tried to swallow it, his eyes began to water involuntarily singling that Natalie had been right. "They're all yours." Will said as he mournfully slid them back towards her and took a sip of his milkshake. Unlike the fries, the cold smooth ice cream felt soothing on his raw throat.

"Don't worry, man." Jay said, taking a seat on the bed opposite Natalie. "I'll take you out for a burger in a few days when you're feeling better."

"Thanks man." Will replied, then got that mischievous smile back on his face. "You sure you want to take me and not another doctor in this hospital perhaps?"

This earned him a look from Natalie as well. "Are you into one of the doctors here? Is it someone I know? I could totally set you up!"

"No..." Jay started to speak, but Will interrupted.

"Oh, it's definitely someone you know." Will chuckled.

Jay smacked his brother's arm, partially upset but also partially relieved that he could finally feel it again. "It's not like that at all. There was no flirting going on and there will be no dates. Our conversation was strictly professional."

"Professional?" Now Natalie sounded concerned. "Are you sick?"

"Not that kind of doctor, Nat." Will gave a slight smile and laid a hand on his brother's bouncing knee. "Sorry, bro. It hadn't even crossed my mind that you were dealing with something she could potentially help with. I just assumed... well you know."

Jay nodded and forced a smile back on his face to try and act like the conversation hadn't just taken a turn that he was incredibly uncomfortable with.

"I'm proud of you, you know." Will added. "I know it's not easy for you to talk about all that stuff. And I do hope you'll take her up on her offer."

Natalie sat silently throughout the exchange, catching just enough information to get a very basic idea of what could be going on. She didn't know Jay that well yet, and she figured there was a lot she may never know about him. Yet she felt a need to protect him somehow. It was like...

"Knock knock." Dr. Abrams said as he walked into the room yet again, this time interrupting Natalie's thoughts. "How are you feeling, Will?"

"A lot better." Will answered.

"Better enough to try standing up?"

"Let's do it!" Will pushed the bedside table away, taking one more sip of his shake before setting it just out of reach. As he tried to scoot himself to the edge of the bed, he began to tangle himself in cords and wires. "Can we take all this stuff off now?"

"First let's make sure you can stand. If all goes well, we'll get rid of the majority of it. But if for whatever reason you couldn't stand, I imagine you wouldn't want to have to go through the whole process of having it all put back in place.

Will shook his head.

Natalie walked around to the other side of the bed and began either unplugging Will from the machines or attaching things to an IV pole that he could move along with him.

Once he was free enough, he carefully moved his legs, allowing them to hang over the side. He noticed then how weak they still felt, but was hoping that would improve once he got out of bed.

"Okay, now stand up slowly with me." Dr. Abrams said, helping Will to his feet and making sure he was balanced before letting go of him. "Very good. Now can you walk to Natalie?" He asked.

Will smiled. "Gladly."

Natalie took a few steps back, but held her arms out just in case he started to fall.

Though it was slow, Will walked to Natalie and immediately pulled her into a tight hug as soon as he reached her.

"You did it!" She exclaimed, clearly proud of her man.

"I had good motivation." Will replied, gently kissing her lips for the first time in what felt like far too long.

"Okay okay enough you two." Jay said as he walked over to the happy couple.

"Ah, come here little bro." Will said, letting go of Natalie and pulling Jay into a hug next.

Normally Jay would fight the embrace, but not right now. Right now he just needed a moment to hold on to his fully alive and functioning brother once again.

Dr. Abrams patted Will on the back. "Very good job. I'm happy with your progress. I would like to keep you here one more night just to be safe, but as long as nothing happens during the night you should be good to go by morning."

"Thank you so much, Sam. I really appreciate it." Will said, shaking the doctors hand gratefully.

"Of course." Dr. Abrams replied. "I'll let the nurse know that she can stop the IVs and remove the catheter. I want the heart monitor on as long as you're here, but there's no reason to be hooked up to all the rest of it anymore."

Once the doctor had left, Natalie and Jay helped Will back into his bed again. This was the news they had been waiting for.

The next morning, a nurse brought in the discharge paperwork and Will got started on it right away. Natalie had gone back down to work, so Jay offered to take Will home and hang out with him for the day. Will had tried to convince him it was unnecessary, but no one was listening to him anymore.

"You ready?" Maggie asked as she rolled a wheelchair in.

"Since when do you work outside of the ED?" Will asked, slipping his shoes on.

"Since you came up here." She replied, pushing the wheelchair closer.

"Maggie, I can walk now. I don't need that." Will objected.

Maggie just stared at him.

"I know it's hospital policy and all that, but I work here. It's been bad enough having my coworkers see me like this. What happens if you push me past one of my patients in that thing?" Will was adamant, but so was Maggie.

"Well first of all the chances of one of your patients even noticing you in it is slim to none. And second, who cares if they do? If anyone asks you about it later, just tell them that even doctors get sick sometimes. And as far as your coworkers go..." Maggie laid a hand on Will's shoulder as he took his seat in the chair. "No one thinks or will think any less of you because of this experience. It could've happened to anyone, and it just happened to be you. But we're all on your side, Will. Don't forget that."

Will squeezed her hand and allowed her to push him through the hospital, past his friends and coworkers who clapped and hugged him as he went by, until they made it to Jay's car. They were on his side. And that meant everything.

And with that, my first Chicago themed fanfiction is complete! It's been years since I even attempted to write fanfiction, and I forgot how much fun it can be! I have so many other ideas (some long, some short, and some episode extensions), so I'm thinking that maybe I'll pick one of the longer stories to start, and then plug in some of the shorter ones as the inspiration hits. I would love to hear what you guys would most like to read next in each category though! So without giving anything away, here's what I've got…

For the longer stories:

Severide is injured - he's with Kidd

Voight suddenly needs to be rescued for once

Jay and Will go on a boys weekend and things take a scary turn

Jay's PTSD gets out of control

For the shorter stories:

Antonio and Brett reconnecting after Antonio is injured

Will is injured - he's single in this story

Jay meets a new girl who works at Med…

Will hasn't yet moved back to Chicago, but shows up as a surprise when Jay needs him

For the episode extensions:

What happened to Jay after he was rescued from the kidnappers?

How did Will react when Jay was shot right after their dad died?

What happened to Casey in that gap between when he almost died in season 2 episode 10 to when he was suddenly (almost) fully recovered in episode 11?

Anna thanked Stella for taking care of Kelly after his accident/bone marrow donation, but we didn't get to see that. So what happened?