Later that evening, in Chicago, Avery arrives back at the motel she's staying at. She walks up the stairs to the hallway her room is on and sees three, very drunk, men standing near her door. Instead of turning around, she walks straight towards them.

'Excuse me.' She says quietly. The men turn to face her.

'What's a pretty girl like you doing out so late.' The first one smiles. She can hear a slight Russian accent in his voice. 'This motel is no place for a princess like you.'

'Look, dude, I just want to get to bed.' Avery sighs.

'Fiesty little princess aren't you.' The second one stumbles towards her. 'We like feisty girls.' He reaches out and strokes her hair. 'Such soft hair too.'

'Say, why don't we have a bit of fun tonight.' The third one wiggles his eyebrows. 'You have the body of someone who could go all night.' He strokes her upper arm with his forefinger.

'Hands off, jerks.' She snaps, standing back. The first one's eyes go dark as he stalks towards Avery. He walks closer and closer to her until her back is against the wall and wraps his hand around his neck, applying pressure.

'That's no way to treat some guys trying to show you a little appreciation.' He says, his face right in front of hers. 'We're just looking for a good time, something which, by the looks of it, you could use, and trust me devochka, the amount of pleasure we will bring you, will ruin you for life.'

'I'm gay, nothing you do will bring me pleasure.' Avery rasps.

'Even better,' the guy smirks, 'we love a little challenge.' Avery gathers all the saliva she can into her mouth and spits at him. 'Shlyukha, you're gonna wish you hadn't done that.' His head snaps to the two other guys. 'Get the door open. We're going to treat this girl a lesson.'

Hours have passed, Avery is pushed out of the room she was just in with the three guys, her clothes torn. She limps to her room, gets her key out, thanking god that they hadn't stolen it from her, and enters the room. She closes the door behind her and double-checks it locked before walking to the shower. She turns the water on as hot as it will go and peels the clothes from her skin. Blood trickles down her thighs as well as other evidence of what's just happened. She puts her hand under the stream of water and, satisfied with how hot it is, climbs in, sinks to the floor and brings her knees to her chest, tears flowing down her cheeks.

.

It's the next day, Owen, T.K., Carlos and Jason have arrived in Chicago and are standing outside of the 21st District.

'This is where Detective Halstead said to come when we arrived.' Carlos tells them. The four of them walk into the district and up to the desk where Sergeant Trudy Platt is.

'How can I help?' Trudy asks them.

'We're here about Avery Strand. We're her family. I spoke to Detective Jay Halstead on the phone yesterday.'

'Halstead said to expect you.' Trudy nods. 'Come with me.' She walks out from behind the desk and leads the group up the stairs and into Intelligence. 'Detective Halstead.' She states and Jay looks up from his desk. 'Avery Strand's family.'

'Thanks, Trudy.' Jay nods, standing up. Trudy walks back down the stairs as Jay approaches Carlos, Owen, T.K. and Jason.

'Carlos Reyes, I spoke to you on the phone yesterday.' Carlos extends his hand.

'Jay Halstead.' Jay shakes Carlos' hand.

'This is Owen, Avery's dad, T.K., Avery's brother and Jason, her best friend.' Carlos introduces the three of them as Jay shakes their hands also.

'It's nice to meet you guys, I wish it were under better circumstances.' Jay nods. 'I'll take you through to my boss, Sergeant Voight. Myself and a co-worker are about to go on patrol and give a description of Avery to places she might go to as well as hotels and motels.'

'Make sure you go to any bookstores.' Jason tells Jay. 'She loves reading and thinks of it as a safe haven. She might be hanging around near, or in, one.'

'We will.' Jay assures him. 'Follow me.' They all follow Jay to Voight's office. He knocks on the door and opens it. 'Avery Strand's family is here.'

'Thanks, Halstead.' Voight nods. Jay steps aside and lets them walk in before closing the door and returning to his desk. 'I'm Sergeant Voight.' Voight introduces himself and the four of them introduce themselves like they did with Jay. 'Whilst we take any missing person seriously, we're taking Avery's case very seriously, considering her background.' He informs them. 'Have any of you made contact with her since she ran away?'

'I tried.' Jason nods. 'She normally listens to me but her phone's been off, I can only assume she's using a burner phone.'

'We've been going to all motels in the area, some won't tell us if she's there or not so we're waiting on some warrants. That could be a few days.' Voight says. 'Chicago Med, where a psychiatrist saw her, is on standby for when we do eventually find her. We do have the authority to section her, so she'll be taken straight there and placed on a 72-hour hold.'

'We kinda guessed that would happen.' T.K. nods.

'I know you want Avery found and probably want to help, but given what I've read about her in the BOLO, she would probably freak out and go somewhere else if she spotted you.' Voight says.

'Yeah.' Jason sighs. 'It happened the last time she was in a state like this, well kinda.'

'She ran away to L.A. and stayed with you, right?' Voight asks, making sure he remembered correctly.

'Until she saw the breaking news alert about her being missing.' Jason nods.

'Which is why we've asked for this not to go out to the media.' Owen adds. 'We don't want to risk that happening again.'

'Why don't I see if Dr Charles, the psychiatrist that saw her, is available to meet with you today? That way you can have a discussion with him about what will happen.' Voight suggests. Owen and T.K. look at each and share a look briefly before turning back to Voight.

'We'd like that.' Owen nods gratefully.

'Give me a couple of minutes and I'll call him.' Voight says, picking up his phone. A few minutes later, he puts it down. 'He's available all day, so you can see him whenever. Would you like someone to take yous?'

'It's fine.' Owen shakes his head. 'We'll make our own way there.'

'The full name of the hospital is Gaffney Chicago Medical Centre. His office is on the third floor.' Voight informs them. 'In the meantime, if you see Avery, stay out of sight to not spook her and call 9-1-1 immediately. Tell them that you've found her and that they need to inform Sergeant Hank Voight with Intelligence.'

'We will.' T.K. replies.

.

An hour later, Owen and T.K. arrive at Chicago Med. Carlos and Jason have gone to their hotel to get them checked in properly. Owen and T.K. walk into Chicago Med and take the elevator to the third floor. Once they've reached it, they step out and walk up to the front desk where a nurse is sitting.

'Hi, we're here to see Dr Charles.' Owen starts. 'Sergeant Voight called ahead and said he was available to speak to us anytime today.' The nurse looks down at her computer and looks into Dr Charles' diary. She sees a note from him saying "Avery Strand family arriving today- bring them to my office when they get here". She looks back up at Owen and T.K.

'Follow me.' She says, standing up. Owen and T.K. follow her down a hallway and stop at an office. The nurse knocks on the door and opens it, letting T.K. and Owen in. Dr Charles looks up from his desk. 'Avery Strand's family.' The nurse informs Dr Charles before leaving, closing the door behind her.

'Take a seat.' Dr Charles motions to the sofa in his office as she stands up. Owen and T.K. do so and Dr Charles follows them and sits in his usual armchair. T.K. and Owen introduce themselves. 'I'm Dr Charles, I'm assuming Sergeant Voight already told you I tried to section Avery when she was here?'

'Yeah.' Owen and T.K. nod.

'Do you know why she might have come to the hospital if she didn't want to be found?' Dr Charles questions.

'According to Jason, her best friend, he's seen her like this more than we have, she knows that she needs help when she's in a heightened state so she tries to get it but then she'll freak out even more when the help is offered and either run or seclude herself even more.' Owen says.

'Since she's a vulnerable missing person, I was able to get files relating to her mental health sent over to me.' Dr Charles states. 'And I'm going to be honest, I'm sure you've already guessed it, but this is the worst that Avery's been. There is no skipping inpatient treatment this time.'

'We wanted her to go into inpatient anyway.' T.K. nods. 'We were advised to give her a couple of days to process she was going so that she'd didn't have to be sectioned, but then she ran away.'

'My recommendation is that she does a 72 hr hold here in Chicago and then be securely transported to a mental health inpatient facility in Austin for at least two months. A few weeks in one won't do much. She's been through too much in too short of a time.' Dr Charles says.

'Securely transported?' T.K. asks confused.

'We will sedate her and put her in some soft restraints before using MedEvac to transfer her to the facility in Austin she was originally going to be admitted to.' Dr Charles explains. 'It's the only way we can get her there safely.' He continues. 'I saw in her notes that she's diagnosed with PTSD. Given what's happened recently, I will be pursuing a diagnosis of complex PTSD. She's experienced so much trauma that her brain, nor her body, knows how to react.' He carries on. 'I assure you, we're going to get Avery the help she needs.'

.

At the motel Avery is staying at, Avery is packing her bags with her clothes. After what happened, she doesn't want to be there anymore. Once she's satisfied that she has packed everything she came with, she walks out of her room and to the front desk.

'I've been staying in room 48B. I want to check out early.' She states before the clerk can say anything.

'Okay.' The desk clerk nods. 'We can refund you for the amount left of your stay, but we do charge an early check-out fee.'

'Don't worry about the refund. I just want to be checked out.' Avery sighs. 'I wanna get outta here.'

'Sure.' The clerk nods. They look down at their computer and after a few moments, they look back up. 'All done.'

'Thanks.' Avery simply nods before spinning around and walking off. Once Avery is out of sight, the clerk looks down at the paper on the desk.

They pick up the phone and dial the number on the poster.

'Detective Hailey Upton. Intelligence.' Hailey is the one to answer the phone.

'Hi, my name's Martin. I've just started working at the Marigold Motel today. One of your officers delivered a poster to us about Avery Kate Strand?'

'Yes, but either yourself or one of your colleagues wouldn't divulge any information as to whether she's there or not.'

'That would have been one of my colleagues, I only started about a half hour ago.' Martin states. 'Avery has been staying here. She wanted to check out early, though. She didn't care about the refund we could offer and said that she just wanted to get of here.'

'We'll send someone to you now. Thank you, Martin.'

'No problem.' Martin replies. 'I didn't stop her though. I didn't want to spook her or anything.'

'That's fine. You did the right thing by calling us.' Hailey assures him. 'I'll send Detective Jay Halstead and Officer Adam Ruzek to you. They're currently out looking for her. When they get there, are you able to show CCTV footage?'

'Of course, anything I can do to help.'

Twenty minutes later, Jay and Adam are pulling up at the Marigold Motel. Jay turns to Adam.

'Hailey said the guy's name is Martin. It's his first day.' Jay tells him. 'When we were here last, the boss wouldn't give any information out.'

'Dude's risking his job so it's most definitely not a case of mistaken identity.' Adam nods.

'Let's hope it's not.' Jay raises an eyebrow. 'Let's go.' They both get out of the car and make their way to the front desk. Martin is still there. 'Detective Jay Halstead, this is Officer Adam Ruzek.' Jay flashes his badge.

'Martin.' Martin nods. 'Come on back.' He motions for them to walk behind the desk and the three of them enter the back office.

'Thank you for calling us.' Jay tells him appreciatively. 'Your boss wasn't so forthcoming.'

'The world is a scary place. I just want her to be safe.' Martin replies. 'Especially after what I just saw.'

'What do you mean?' Adam asks confused.

'The detective I spoke to on the phone asked to show you CCTV footage so I was going through it to find times she entered and exited the premises to make it easier for you. I also pulled the footage from the hallway from outside the room she was staying in.' Martin explains. He sees that Jay and Adam are looking at him, dumbfounded. 'I used to work in security, but I injured my back so I can't do it anymore.' He explains. 'Anyway, you might want to take a look at this.' He points to the computer and Jay and Adam stand in front of it. On the screen is a frozen image of when Avery bumped into the three guys.

'That's definitely Avery.' Jay nods. 'Who are these guys?'

'I don't know.' Martin shakes his head. 'I can't find their names on the system, but watch.' He presses play and they watch the events unfold. When they see Avery pushed into the room, Martin pauses the footage. 'She came out a few hours later, clothes torn. Then today, she wants to check out. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what they did to her.'

'We really appreciate you calling and showing us this.' Jay nods at Martin.

'How long has she been missing?' Martin asks.

'Just over a week.' Adam responds. 'Did you see what direction she went in?'

'No, sorry.' Martin shakes his head sadly. 'I hope you find her safe.' Jay's phone pings and he looks at it.

'I think we just might.' Jay looks back up. 'Hailey just received a call from Barnes and Noble. Avery's there. EMS has already been dispatched, Avery has her sleeves rolled up and they noticed fresh cuts. Security is going to try and keep her there.' Martin's eyes widen.

'If I'd known she was injured, I would've stalled and kept her here,' Martin tells them, 'but her sleeves were rolled down when she left.'

'Don't worry.' Jay shakes his head. 'You weren't to know. Thank you for helping.' He adds as Jay and Adam rush out the door and out to the car, hoping that by the time they get to the bookstore, Avery is still there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Will Jay and Adam get to Avery in time, or will she give them the slip?

Be sure to read DharmaWinter "Addicted" for Megan's story!

Let me know what you think of this chapter!

Much love