0.5~ brotherly love

                                    

                                          
TW: strong language, brief talk of military background, talk of death, in-depth injury.

Music inspired chapter:
'here's to the things you love'
Song• hell to the liars
Artist• london grammar
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Third person pov: present, Chicago Med.
Antonio Dawson relaxes into the chair beside his best friends' hospital bed, he had gotten back to her room earlier this morning. Antonio was taking over from Jay; Will had ordered his brother to go back to his apartment to have a shower, something to eat and to get changed— Will had gone with him, leaving Toni here with Stephanie.
Briefly, she had woken up this morning as Hallie and a female nurse had come upstairs to check her vitals and change the saline drip over to a fresh one. Jay was beside her as quick as a flash of light, holding her hand tightly and telling her that everything was going to be okay. Since then, she had fallen asleep again, drifting in and out of consciousness again throughout the late morning.
Dawson was expecting to see Matthew Casey and Kelly Severide make another appearance today. He knew how dreadful they both felt about the situation, and to top it off they hardly knew anything about what had happened. Matt had texted him last night to make sure Jay was still alright with them coming today, Antonio agreed that he was fine with it.
A small groan leaves Stephanie Halsteads' lips, her breathing ragged for a moment as her eyes adjust to the sharp, neon-white light illuminating the corridor. It was barely seven o'clock in the morning, the night lights in the hospital were still on and blinding the patients. Her eyes flutter open and shut and then open again, she takes in the room— clearly forgetting from earlier— after instantly spotting Antonio she reaches her arms out for him in a grabbing motion.
"Hey, hey, hey..." Antonio hushes, taking her forearms in his hands and placing it back onto the bed. He leans closer to her quickly giving her forehead a kiss, their mutual sign of respect made her smile ever so slightly. "Just relax, breathe."
Steph squints, her body sways obscurely before Toni rests her head against his shoulder and pulls her close to his body. Her entire body tenses, her limbs locking up and curling away from his touch before completely relaxing into him. "That's it, it's just me. I've got you." Another kiss onto her forehead, Steph leans her forehead closer against his neck, she lets her arm to fall back onto the bed whilst he gently holds her waist and shoulders. His light touch brought her into an even tighter hug, just what she needed. The one thing she had needed for an entire month.
She would have started crying, sobbing tears of relief and despondency if her body wasn't this utterly exhausted. Her eyes were already threatening to close again after only a couple minutes of them being open. Steph hadn't spoken since the incident, not since she had screamed so loudly that her voice box could have launched itself from her own mouth and across the room.
"You rest up, no one's leaving. We're all here for you." When Antonio notices her looking around for her brother who was sat in the same chair just a couple of hours ago, he sighs, "Jay will be back soon, he's just gone home to get changed. Your brothers will be back soon." Then he says the most important thing anyone could ever say to this traumatised girl, "No one is angry at you, Steph. I promise you, no one is mad. Nothing is going to happen ever again."
He feels droplets of water trickle down his neck, he knew they weren't his own tears, as much as he could cry in this moment; they weren't his own. The desperation as her hands gripped his forearms made him shut his eyes in distaste, all she wanted was someone to be there for her. For someone to love her, for her mom and dad to love her again. Everyone else knew that it was never going to happen (everyone being Pat, Hank, Jay and Will). He wasn't disgusted at the girl, he was just repulsed at everyone who had ever hurt her. Why would someone want to harm such a sweet girl?