Chapter Text
Adam and Jay had been sent to St. Paul Minnesota for a sniper convention.
For Adam, it had actually been a cool chance to learn about new tech, and new techniques to hone his ability.
Jay had enjoyed the chance to chat with other snipers, to swap some stories and laugh about some of the new technology that has been designed in an attempt to replace training, experience, and instincts.
Though even he had found a few gadgets that had intrigued him.
And then he’d corrected an instructor who’d been teaching a low visibility sighting method incorrectly and ended up essentially teaching the man’s class for him.
He’d been swarmed for the rest of the conference by young officers looking for advice and stories.
They’d somehow even gotten the number for his and Adam’s hotel room and a fair few hadn’t understood the concept of sleep.
So Adam had volunteered to drive on the way home and Jay hadn’t argued, falling asleep slumped against the window soon after they’d gotten on the road.
They’d left in the evening, forgoing the option to stay one more night in Minnesota before driving directly to the precinct for a half day of work in favor of getting home in time to grab a few more hours of sleep before heading into work the next day.
The roads had been pretty empty and Adam hadn’t seen a car in over an hour when the headlights had appeared in the rearview mirror.
The car is driving pretty fast, rapidly closing the distance between them and Adam is trying to decide what to do if they pass him on a section of road designated a no-passing zone for a damn good reason when they accelerate further, bumping against the back of the jeep.
The jolt wakes Jay and he looks around, sleep in his eyes.
“Tailgater.” Adam grumbles, reaching over to flick on the red and blues. “I’m not going fast enough.”
Jay glances down at the speedometer, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
“Going eighty five.”
Adam’s response is cut off as the other car speeds up, not deterred by the flashing lights in the slightest as they swerve over and ram against the back corner of the jeep, sending them into a spin.
Adam is trained in PIT maneuvers as well as how to react if someone tries to do it to him but before he can correct out of the spin, they’re over the line at the edge of the road and tumbling down the sharp incline.
It’s like being tossed into a blender as they both just try to protect their heads while the jeep rolls down thirty or forty feet through trees and brush.
And then Adam’s head cracks hard against the window, sending him straight into the darkness.
“Adam!”
He groans as his eyes drift open, blinking to try to focus as something presses against the side of his head.
“Hmmm?”
“There you are. Starting to worry you were gonna make me do this by myself.”
The voice is familiar and he stares at Jay, trying to figure out what his friend is doing in his bedroom.
“Mountain road in Wisconsin.” Jay says. “Some asshole sent us tumbling down the hill.”
Adam sits up, the locked up seatbelt keeping him from moving much.
His jeep is pretty well destroyed, shattered glass and bent frame telling a story about the trip down that hill had gone.
Jay had managed to get out while he was unconscious and is standing next to his open door.
“Here.” he says, cutting away Adam’s seatbelt. “Don’t move just yet. I think your leg is broken.”
Adam looks down, instinctively trying to move said leg and yelping when pain slices through it.
“Like I’m talking to my damn self.” Jay grumbles as he puts his knife away. “I’m going to help you swing your left leg out, try to get your right leg on the ground and I’ll help you hop okay?”
Adam nods, gritting his teeth.
It’s one of the most painful things he’s done but with Jay’s help he manages to get out of the jeep and sitting against a tree about ten feet away.
“I wouldn’t normally do this.” Jay says, slicing a t-shirt that must have come from one of their bags into strips. “But neither of our phone are getting any signal so it looks like we’re hiking out of here and it will be slightly less painful if I do.”
“Do what?” Adam asks.
“I’m going to set your leg before I splint it.” Jay says matter-of-factly. “Don’t worry, I’ve done it before. I know what I’m doing. But it’s going to hurt and the best we’ve got is the extra-strength tylenol from the first aid kit.”
Adam swallows hard.
“But it will hurt less while we’re moving?” he asks.
“A little bit, yeah.” Jay says. “You need a minute?”
Adam shakes his head.
“Just do it.”
Jay nods, handing him a stick.
“Bite down on this.”
Adam gets it in his mouth, clenching his teeth around it and then leans his head back against the tree, closing his eyes.
Jay’s right.
It hurts like hell.
He nearly blacks out several times but somehow he’s still conscious when Jay’s hand lands on his shoulder.
“All done, buddy.” he says gently. “Just try to breathe for a minute, okay? I’ll get you some water and those pain meds.”
He sits there, head and leg throbbing, while Jay bustles around him.
When the man hands him a water bottle and the tablets, he is quick to swallow them back but otherwise doesn’t pay much attention to what his friend is doing until Jay is crouched in front of him.
“How ya doing?” he asks.
“S’better. I think.” he mutters.
“We should get going.” Jay says and Adam realizes that he’s got a backpack thrown over his shoulder.
“Wouldn’t it be better to stay put?” Adam asks. “At least until daylight?”
“It’s October.” Jay says, shaking his head. “That chill isn’t going to get any better. And nobody is likely to be out in these woods.”
“Do you even know where we are?” Adam asks. “You were asleep until about thirty seconds before we went off the road.”
“Your phone doesn’t have signal but your map is still up. I was able to get the gist of where we are and where we need to go. “ Jay says.
If it was anyone besides Jay, Adam would never trust that to guide them through the woods in the dark based on that but since it’s Jay he lets him drag him to his feet.
“I can’t carry you.” Jay says, looking away. “I think I bruised some ribs in the tumble so you’ll have to try to hop or limp. Sorry.”
“You okay?” Adam asks, a rush of guilt moving through him as he realizes he never checked if his friend was injured.
“Ribs hurt but otherwise I’m good.” Jay assures him. “You ready?”
“As I’m going to get.” he mumbles, trying to study his friend in the dark to decide if he’s lying.
Jay has a flashlight that they’ve been functioning with but it does have limits.
Adam is a little confused when they started moving, their direction away from the slope they’d come down.
“Shouldn’t we try to get back to the road?” he asks.
“We’d never make it back up that incline.” Jay says, shaking his head. “Especially not with your leg. There’s a rest stop to the south of us that’s our best bet. No climbing hills to get there and it will put us back on the road.”
Adam nods, deciding to trust Jay’s years as a ranger over his own two weeks in the boy scouts.
It’s quiet after that.
Neither of them has much to say and Adam is breathing in short, sharp pants from the pain of his leg.
Using Jay as a crutch, he can sort of hobble more than hop but it’s painful and slow going.
The uneven terrain doesn’t help matters and they have to take regular breaks.
Adam keeps a case of water in the jeep in case its needed and Jay had shoved several bottles into the backpack along with the first aid kit and who knows what else.
He’d mostly bought the bruised rib story at first but the more time they spend hobbling together through the dark, the more he’s convinced that it’s more than that.
It’s hard to tell in the dark but Adam thinks Jay might be more pale than usual and there’s definitely something deliberate about the way he’s breathing.
But every time he tries to ask, Jay just brushes him off, insisting that they need to get moving again.
When they finally stumble out of the woods, hitting pavement and seeing the buildings of the rest stop in the distance, he tries again.
“Hey, Jay. You okay, man?” he asks, “Your breathing doesn’t sound right.”
“I’ve been hauling your lame ass around with a cracked rib for how long and I’m not even allowed to be out of breath?” Jay jokes.
“Not this much.” Adam insists. “Your rib is worse than cracked isn’t it?”
When Jay doesn’t answer, he lets out a sigh.
“How bad is it?”
Jay let’s out a shaky sigh.
“It’s not good.” he admits.
“Dude, dragging me around can’t be helping.” Adam scolds, “Why don’t we take a break? We found the rest stop.”
“Adam..” Jay starts to argue.
“No way man.” Adam says, “Dude you are shaking like a leaf. And you’re practically translucent. You need to sit down.”
“Your head.” Jay argues, even as he reluctantly helps Adam ease to the ground, seeming to realize he won’t agree to keep walking, “You need a doctor.”
“My head will keep a while.” Adam tells him, grunting as he maneuvers his broken leg out in front of him, “But you’re going to be in real trouble if you put a rib through your lungs. If one of them isn’t already collapsing on you out of spite.”
“M’Fine.” Jay dismisses, kneeling in front of him, “Lemme check your eyes.”
“My eyes are fine.” Adam says, swatting his hands away, “I’m not dizzy, or nauseous and I only see one of you. Let’s get that jacket off, I want to see how bad it is.”
“It’s all internal shit.” Jay says, returning the gesture and standing up, “There’s nothing you can do out here. How’s your leg?”
“It hurts.” Adam growls. “Will you stop being a stubborn ass?”
“Nope.” Jay retorts, turning away, “I think I hear a car.”
Sure enough, a silver hatchback slides around a curve up ahead. Jay steps cautiously out onto the road, waving his arms. Adam feels the tension leeching from his shoulders. No matter how bad the guy looks, it can’t be too bad if he’s still up and moving.
The car starts to slow and Adam relaxes further just in time to fly into panic mode as Jay abruptly goes limp, dropping like a puppet with it’s strings cut. Ignoring the pain in his leg, he manages to awkwardly roll, dragging himself across the ground toward Jay.
The car comes to a stop and a middle aged couple jump out, beating him to Jay by only a few moments. The woman is already on her cellphone, talking to dispatch.
“One of them just collapsed and the other’s leg is clearly broken. We need an ambulance.” she insists.
“What happened?” the man asks as Adam rolls Jay to his back, unzipping his jacket.
“Car accident.” Adam gasps as he lifts Jay’s shirt, cussing up a storm. “We went into a ravine, had to hike to get back to road. He didn’t tell me he was hurt this bad.”
He pushes down the rising panic, letting his training take over.
“Airway.” he mutters, bending to tip Jay’s head back to check for obstructions.
Finding none, he directs his attention to Jay’s breathing, analyzing the uneven rise and fall of his chest. Unhappy with what he’s seeing but unable to do anything about it with the equipment he has on hand, he presses his fingers into Jay’s throat, relieved to find a somewhat steady if weak pulse.
“He’s probably in shock.” he mutters, turning back to the man, “Do you have anything I can use to elevate his feet?”
The man hurries to the back of the vehicle returning with a blanket that he rolls up, placing under Jay’s legs to help raise them.
They end up being life flighted between Jay’s condition and the distance between them and the nearest hospital.
Adam is treated quickly.
The doctor who x-rays his leg is surprised to discover that Jay had set it correctly but happy to only have to put a cast on it. He’s diagnosed with a low grade two concussion and told that he’ll have to stay the night for observation and then left alone, encouraged to try to sleep for a while.
His insistence on news on Jay’s condition pays off and a few hours later he’s being woken up by a surgeon.
“He’s going to be just fine.” the older man assures him. “He had some fairly serious internal injuries but we were able to get him taken care of. You can see him in the morning.”
“Damn.” Adam mutters. “I knew I should have pushed him harder on injuries before letting him drag me three miles through the woods.”
“Son.” the surgeon says condescendingly. “I can imagine it must have felt like three miles with your leg but there’s no way the young man I operated on would have been able to walk three miles with his injuries, and most certainly not while supporting a good chunk of your weight.”
Adam thinks the guy is missing the point, however long it was Adam shouldn’t have let Jay half carry him like that, but he doesn’t argue and the man disappears.
Voight arrives a little over an hour later having been Adam’s third call after his dad and Jay’s brother.
He asks Adam about what had happened, a certain predatory glint flashing through his eyes when he mentions that they’d been deliberately run off the road, and then suggests that Adam try to get some sleep.
“I could have sworn we walked something like three miles before we got to the rest stop but it must just be that it felt longer because of my leg. Dr. Gallagher says there’s no way in hell Jay could have walked that far much less half carried me that far.”
“Well Dr. Gallagher doesn’t know Jay fucking Halstead.” Voight says.
“What do you mean, boss?”
“The forest service found your jeep and it took them a while because they started with the good doctor’s guess. Turns out despite being incapable of walking three miles, Halstead managed to drag you almost six.”