Whew Chile, Chicago P.D.'s Winter Premiere Tugged at All the Upstead Heartstrings

It's hard to imagine Chicago P.D. without Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer), but we were faced with the possibility of that devastating scenario after he was shot during a kidnapping in the fall finale. Picking up right where that episode left off, Wednesday's midseason premiere delivered a gripping, emotional hour that saw Jay's life hanging in the balance while the rest of Intelligence worked to track down stolen military-grade assault riffles threatening the civilians of Chicago.

Taking no chances, Voight (Jason Beghe) kicked off the episode by ordering a full police escort for Jay, who took a bullet to the stomach and lost quite a bit of blood. If seeing Jay on that stretcher was cause for an emotional spiral, Will (Nick Gehlfuss) getting choked up while briefing Intelligence on his brother's status felt like being hit by a dozen semi-trailers. This episode should have come with a warning to have a box of Kleenex and a brown paper bag on hand.

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Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) took Halstead's injury especially hard and remained at the hospital while the rest of the crew took on the high priority weapons case appointed to them by Superintendent Crawford (Paul Adelstein). Halstead may have been fighting for his life, but Intelligence still had a job to do. Even so, his presence was felt throughout the episode and in every single member of the crew.

In one of the hour's most heartbreaking moments, Upton nearly broke down while confiding in Rojas (Lisseth Chavez) about how difficult this experience has been for her. Rojas, resident Upstead shipper, aptly pointed out that Upton probably feels that way because she loves him.

"Of course, I love him. He's my partner," Upton said. Sis, we all know there's more to it than that.

Good news: Halstead pulled through in the end -- insert huge sigh of relief here -- and is expected to make a full recovery. Jay might be on the up and up but Upstead shippers were left painfully frustrated. While wrapping things up at the hospital, Upton revealed that seeing what happened to Halstead made her realize she wanted to tell him something. Before she could get to that very important piece of information, however, a phone call from the son of the woman who shot him interrupted their conversation. Rude.

Elsewhere, Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) and Burgess (Marina Squerciati) also experienced a huge scare when a suspect opened fire with a semi-automatic during a raid. For a brief moment, Ruzek wasn't sure if Burgess was hit and rushed to check on her through the large bullet holes in the wall. Burgess escaped unharmed but was visibly shaken up. To be fair, she has a lot on her mind after deciding to keep the baby.

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Things were equally tense for Atwater (LaRoyce Hawkins), who discovered that his brother Jordan (Kylen Davis) not only returned to town but had been involved with a woman suspected of selling those stolen military weapons. Jordan's predicament took a turn for the worse when said girlfriend murdered Intelligence's main suspect and he was caught on camera with the gun used in the crime. The woman's confession helped clear his name but at the end of the hour, Jordan was nowhere to be found. The episode wrapped with Atwater repeatedly calling his younger brother to no avail.

Something about this isn't right.

Chicago P.D. airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.

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