One Shot: Mass Casualties
Summary: What happens when the younger Halstead visits the park when there is a mass shooting. Based on Chicago Med S03E18. Characters: Will Halstead, Jay Halstead, Reader Halstead (sibling) Trigger Warnings: Mass shooting, death, blood, violence, injury, swearing.
Word Count: 2,558
Y/N = Your Name
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Chicago characters, those are owned by Dick Wolf.
It was a normal day for you, you had gone out to visit the block party at millennium park with some of your close friends. There was a band and concert playing in the distance, you hummed to the music as you felt the nippy breeze that touched your skin ever so softly.
“Y/N, we are going to get some food, do you want to come?” One of your best friends asked you as they started to walk in the opposite direction to you.
“No I’m ok, I’m just going to stay here.”
“Alright then” your other friend sighed, leaving you so that they could go seek out some kind of delicious snack.
You had already eaten before you came out as you were a bit short for money considering the predicament you had found yourself in, the predicament is the fact that you were living with your brothers.
You stood acknowledging your surroundings, breathing in the fresh air, listening to the ruckus and chatter around you. Everything was peaceful until a single shot rang out and everything around you went into slow motion. You froze unsure of what to do, your heart racing, your feet firmly planted on the ground as you looked around you. People began dropping like flies as the single-shot turned into a rapid-fire. All around you, everyone began to run pushing you out the way as they scrambled for their lives, leaving the less fortunate on the ground to fend for themselves.
Panic rose in you as all hell broke loose, still, you could not find yourself moving until you felt a firm hand grab you, you looked at the complete stranger who didn’t seem to be in as much shock as you were in. “We have to go” he shakily spoke as though he wasn’t just witnessing what you were. You nodded briefly noting the fact that pretty much everyone around you was on the ground or had cleared the scene, leaving you out in the open.
As your feet started to pick up off the ground one by one picking up your pace, you heard another shot fire and the man who was merely in his 20′s, just a bit older than you dropped to the ground. You bent down to the guy, wrapping your arms around his shoulders getting ready to drag him when another shot came flying your way. The warm feeling of blood oozing out of your shoulder made you whimper, but you weren’t going to let go of the complete stranger who had saved you.
You managed to drag him, with much difficulty, behind a petite concrete wall, tall enough so that you could crouch unseen, but not tall enough so that you could stand. Will being your brother had taught you all of the basics of how to keep someone alive if you ever encountered this situation. You pressed your two fingers against his neck searching for a pulse, nothing. Pulling up his t-shirt you saw the bullet wound that had pierced his chest, almost definitely nicking his heart in the process. You shook your head as you let out a small sniffle.
It had only been a mere two and a half minutes before the shooting had started and you had already managed to get someone killed. Where were the police you thought to yourself, thinking they should be responding quicker than they were. Just two and a half minutes could change someone's life completely. Before you had time to attend to your own wounds you heard a soft whimper and staggered crying coming from somewhere in front out you. Peeking your head above the wall you saw a small boy crying over a lifeless figure, he could be no more than six years old. You ran over to him as stealthy as you could trying to ignore the shots that were still being fired.
“Hey,” you said placing a hand on his little shoulder as he sobbed. “I’m Y/N, what’s your name.”
“Hunter” he whispered back through his sobs. You looked down at the women who he clung to life to, a singular bullet straight through her head, you knew she was gone.
Glancing down to her hand you saw her clutching a car key. “Hey Hunter I need you to be really brave for me, ok?” he nodded in response. “Do you know which one’s your mom’s car is?”
“The red one” he pointed to a truck around ten metres away from where they were.
“And do you know how to unlock it?” his red-rimmed eyes met yours as he slowly nodded again. “Can you take your mum’s keys and run and put yourself in the car?” you asked hoping that the little guy would be up to it.
“Ok. What about mommy?”
Your heart broke as he said this, “I will take care of your mom ok?” he nodded a little bit more full of life this time. “Now go!” you urged, placing the keys in his hand and urging him to run.
You were so close to running after him, but the adrenaline coursing through your veins was enough for you to keep pushing on, keep helping as many people as you could.
You stood up darting to the next person you could, you felt a pulse and quickly dragged them behind the concrete block before doing it, to the next person that you found who had a pulse. Before your mind had time to process what you were doing you found yourself in the middle of the park, you stood frozen for the second time today as you saw the back of the shooter.
You knelt down and felt for a pulse in a person, there were no signs of life so you stood up. “Fuck this” you muttered under your breath, as you ran full pelt at the guy who had already taken so many lives today. When you were just under a meter away he spun around the barrel of his gun facing at you, stupidly enough this didn’t stop you, instead, it just fuelled the burning anger building up inside of you.
“You bitch” he yelled, he fired three successive rounds into your stomach before you were clutching the gun in a battle to survive, you were a lot stronger than he had anticipated, you both fought to push the gun to point at the other. You let out a scream as you pressed the trigger, this action causes the bullet to puncture his neck causing him to yelp out in pain. He fired another round into your stomach before he fled, mingling into the wounded.
The blaring of sirens brought you back to your senses as you pressed a jacket you had found on the ground to your stomach. Police started to swarm the area and paramedics were beginning to attend the wounded.
You ran as fast as you could get the help from a bystander who helped you load the two people you had dragged behind the wall into the car, where Hunter was waiting. You were a tough person someone who could handle a lot of pain, but this time you were surprised you were still standing. The people that helped you scurried off into their own cars helping others whilst you got into the driving seat of the red truck.
“Hunter do you have the keys” he let out a whimper nodding his head in response. You saw the blood trickling from his shoulder, you hadn’t realised that he had been shot, how could you miss that?
You turned on the engine and stuck the car into reverse backing it out of the spot, before practically flooring it to Chicago med. The whole time you were doing this you were just praying to yourself that you didn’t lose consciousness as you could feel your forehead becoming clammy and your vision became more and more blurred.
You skidded to a halt outside of the hospital's entrance, where there were over a dozen ambulances, and nearly the same amount of police cars, as well as some random cars. Your stop wasn’t exactly graceful as you heard the people slump forward in the back of the car, realising that none of you had taken you time to put on seatbelts. Hunter climbed over onto your lap and you pulled him in tight, which helped to secure the jacket that you were using to apply pressure to your stomach with. You clambered ungracefully out of the car. “Can I get some help, please” you screamed using all your strength left.
Two nurses came over as you directed them into the back of the car you had driven, they shouted orders to get a gurney as you stumbled your way to the entrance. You walked into the ED, looking around, the floor was caked in blood and the iron smell became somewhat pungent.
You briefly stood there looking dazed before a familiar voice greeted you. “Y/N?” Maggie looked at you putting one hand on your shoulder, which so happened to be the one where you first of all got shot in.
You winced slightly at her touch, “He’s been shot” you bluntly stated practically shoving him into Maggie’s arms.
When you did this the jacket slipped to the floor as you picked it up before pressing it firmly against your stomach again.
Maggie’s eyes widened in horror at the situation before her. “Can I get some help over here” she yelled causing her fellow colleagues to become alarmed, Maggie always remained calm and practically never felt this panicked before.
You began to feel light-headed, as your legs felt wobbly beneath you, you grabbed onto the counter before trying to pull yourself up. As you squinted trying to keep your eyes open you saw Dr Manning approaching Maggie.
“He’s ok. It’s a through and through” Maggie said reassuring Natalie, “You need to check on Y/N, though”, Maggie quickly pointed in your direction to where you were slumped over.
“Y/N?” Nat questioned almost in disarray, before running over to you and wrapping your arm around her shoulder.
She helped you keep the pressure on your stomach, “It’s bad isn’t it.” She didn’t answer you, but at that point, you didn’t need an answer, you could see it in her eyes.
She guided you onto the bed and you stared blankly up at the ceiling, whilst medical jargon was being thrown around by the doctors. Trying to keep your eyes open you looked up at Nat who was just about to leave, “Nat” you whispered, the pain finally surging through your body. “I saw him.” Dr Manning looked at you with sympathetically, before rushing off into the ED.
The nurses had hooked you up to way too many machines to count, and they had started two IV lines, one that was giving you a blood transfusion and the other was a clear liquid, you couldn’t quite make out what it was, afterall you weren’t a doctor. At this point you found it very hard to stay awake, that was until a flash of red hair appeared above your face, you tried to focus your vision, “Will?”
“Hey it’s ok I’m here.” He brushed some of your hair out of your clammy face. “You’re going to be ok.” At this point it felt like more of a reassurance to him than to you. “You know three people wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for you” this time he clutched onto my hand squeezing it. He paused before speaking again, “I love you”, his voice became raspy like he was trying to hold back his tears.
Your heart sank as you realised the real reason behind this speech, they didn’t think you were going to make it. “I love you too Will”, a tear rolled down your cheek, was this your goodbye. “Tell Jay I love him too.”
You could see his body sag as he realised that you knew what was going on. “I will I promise.”
“Hey Will”, a worried Natalie commented, “We’ve got to do this now.”
Will hovered over you again, his eyes fixated on yours as he let a stray tear roll down his cheek. “It’s going to be ok” he promised clutching your hand, but you knew that there was a large chance that this could be an empty promise.
As Nat pushed the meds in you felt your body slowly start to shut down, “His neck….. I got his neck” you murmured before slipping unconscious.
Will looked at Nat with confusion as she inserted the tube into your throat before scurrying out of the room when he saw Jay.
“Jay” he piped up, bringing his brother into an unexpected hug.
He pats his back before pushing his brother away from his, “Will I’ve really got to go.”
Will placed a hand on Jay’s shoulder before he had a chance to walk away. “Jay its Y/N.”
His eyes widened at the mention of your name, “What do you mean?” Will shook his head before he had a chance to explain you were getting wheeled out of the room heading towards the makeshift OR which was in the doctor's lounge. “Y/N” Jay gasped, not knowing what to do. “How bad?”
“It’s touch and go,” Will said his voice straining to remain steady and professional, “Y/N got shot five times by him…” Will could see that Jay’s blood began to boil as his hands clenched into a tight fist, showing the whites of his knuckles. “Jay she said something” Will stuttered before continuing, “Y/N said something about the shooter, Y/N got him in the neck I think.”
Jay’s eyes perked at this, as he ran over to Maggie, “Have you got anyone matching the description of a white male, brown hair, dark pants with an injury to the neck?” The desperation in his voice was evident.
“Yeah over there” Maggie pointed, catching onto what he was saying, due to the sense of urgency in his voice.
Jay stormed over to the cubicle to find it empty, and that’s when he saw Dr Charles coming in with the shooter on a gurney, he looked down at him with hatred and anger in his eyes. He went over to Dr Choi as he went into the room, “He’s the guy” he stuttered, “Don’t you dare let him die, he doesn’t deserve to get off that easy.” Jay’s face was ridden with pain as he stepped back to embrace his brother into a love ridden brotherly hug.
The slow rhythmic beeping noise woke you up as your eyes fluttered open catching your two sleeping brothers on either side of your bed. So many questions moved through your mind. How long was I out for? What happened? But those questions didn’t matter anymore to you as both of your brothers startled awake at your movement. “Hey” you whispered in a husky voice.
The two of them erupted into smiles when they saw you awake. “Here take this”, Jay handed over a glass of water to which you gratefully accepted.
“Did you get him?” You asked. Despite the fact, you had so many other questions this was the one that had been pressing at the forefront of your mind for so long.
“Thanks to you” Jay smiled squeezing your hand.
“How are you feeling?” Will asked starting to reach over to the call button.
“I’m fine, I’m just glad I have you two here.” You all shared the classic Halstead grin with one another and you knew that it was going to be alright.