"Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave" - Henry Wandsworth Longellow

Serena McArthur hated funerals. Well nobody liked funerals as there was nothing to really like about them but Serena as she preferred to be known as hated funerals despite the fact she quite a lot of death in her line of work. But it didn't mean she liked it or was used to death. Serena really hated funerals of a firefighter. Serena had been to just over a dozen of these funerals given that two of her brothers were firefighters and her dad was a deputy district chief. Their family didn't just consist of Serena, her brothers and their father but also the entire Chicago fire department. So when a firefighter died in the line of duty it was personal especially when Serena knew the firefighter. Andy Durden, the two of them had known each for several years and met when Serena was in her final year of med school. As Serena watched the colour guard fold up the flag from Andy's coffin that was to be presented to his widow Heather and their children she couldn't help but remember when she got the call about Andy. Serena was in surgery and about to make the first incision on a guy who had a lacerated spleen when Linda the scrub nurse said she had a call from her father. Thinking nothing of it Serena told Linda to tell her father that she'd call him back but Linda just repeated that her father was on line and it was important. Taking a deep breath Serena told Linda to put her father on speaker, whatever it was he had to tell her she'd deal with it.

Growing up surrounded by firefighters Serena knew that there was a chance that one day she may get a call like this. But it turns out the call wasn't about her brothers, it was about Andy, there had been a fire and that's all Serena needed to know as that's what it always was. Weird thing about the entire thing was that there was an edge of relief in Serena's stomach that her father wasn't calling about her two eldest brother's Callum and Hayden despite the fact that she had just lost a friend. At the time Serena thanked her father for telling her and said she'd call him back later as she was in surgery because as much as she wanted to grief for her friend, she had a man on the table bleeding out from his spleen.

"You okay shrimp?"

"I'm fine…" Serena replied, her voice crackling ever so slight as she looked over at her brother Rory, one of her two brothers along with her who didn't go into a firefighting career. Whilst their father and two other brothers were standing in their dress uniforms with their fellow firefighters Serena was with her two other brothers Rory and Finley. The look that her brother Rory gave her suggested that he didn't believe her and Serena wasn't fine, she had gone through three tissues already and her dad made her take a swing from his flask before the service had even began. Which went a long way given that her emotions were all over the place, a part of Serena still couldn't believe that Andy was dead given that it was Andy, the major goofball who walked around wearing a stupid ass goofy grin on his face constantly. She never expected for him to end up this way.

The funeral eventually wound up and slowly people started making their way to the wake that was taking place at one of Andy's favourite haunts. Serena was catching a ride with her dad as her brothers all had to return to work but her dad was currently in the middle of a conversation with some colleagues so Serena was basically waiting around, looking around aimlessly until her eyes crossed someone who was very familiar to her. A man with short black hair that was beginning to be tinted with flecks of grey and blue eyes that were always capable of convincing her to do stupid things, dressed in his dress blues looking very stoic but despite that Serena still recognized him. There was no way she could ever forget Kelly Severide, not after everything the two of them had been through over the years and as soon as he saw her Serena immediately turned away from him.

"Rocket?"

Serena should have walked way but instead she paused. For years Serena had been known as 'Rocket' and people thought she was nicknamed that because how fast she responded to traumas which was only partially true. The nickname had originated from outside work by Kelly, who would constantly call her Rocket and it wasn't because of how fast she was on her feet. Serena didn't know why she turned away because she knew he was going to be here as after all he was one of Andy's best friends and Serena wouldn't have met Andy if it wasn't for him. Taking a deep breath Serena slowly turned around and mustered the biggest smile she could, which wasn't much considering what today was. "Hi Kelly…"

"I thought that was you, although I wasn't too sure at first…" Kelly replied as he took a few steps towards her.

"Yeah it's the red hair, it takes a while to get used to…" Serena wearily said as she fingered the ends of her french braid, naturally she was a brunette although she had a little habit of colouring her hair ever so often and for the last six months she had been a redhead and before that she had been blonde.

"Well it suits you Rocket, I mean Serena or can I not call you Rocket? I don't know whether people still call you that." Kelly asked and Serena was surprised about how nervous Kelly was being as the Kelly Severide she knew didn't know the meaning of the word nervous. He was the guy who raced into burning building without a second thought. But then again they hadn't seen each other in years and he had just lost his best friend.

"I'm still referred to as Rocket." Serena vaguely said, completely ignoring Kelly's question about whether or not he could still call her Rocket or not. Serena hadn't heard him call her that in years and for some reason it sounded weird now, probably because she was no longer used to it.

"It's good to see you." Kelly added and Serena nodded in agreement as she was glad to see him too, she had missed over the last couple of years. But things had happened then and it was in everyone's best interest that she left Chicago.

"You too Kelly, I just wish that it wasn't under these circumstances… I'm really sorry about Andy, I tried to leave you a message but I couldn't as I didn't exactly know what to say. It's been three years since we last saw each other…" Serena awkwardly said and the two of them fell into silence, neither sure of what to say but then Serena decided to move things along. "If only Andy was here… He'd probably stagger over to us–"

"–And ask who died." Kelly finished and the two of them wearily laughed.

"It wasn't your fault Kelly." Serena stated and Kelly just looked away and rubbed the back of his neck, she knew he was probably beating himself up about what happened, stuff like this happened all the time, it was a hazard of the job and every firefighter knew that when they responded to a call. Even though Serena knew Kelly wouldn't believe her, she said it anyway. Kelly needed to hear that it wasn't his fault.

"Hey... I've got to run and get back to the truck, but are you going to the wake? I figured we could catch up over a couple of drinks for old times sake, Andy would have wanted us to..." Kelly questioned in a rather hopeful manner and Serena slowly nodded her head. It probably wasn't the best thing for her to do but her and Kelly did need to talk as things had been left in a bad way. Not to mention Andy would have wanted them to have at least one drink together for his sake.

"I'm going, just waiting on my dad." Serena replied as she motioned to where her father was still talking to one of his colleagues.

"So I'll see you there?"

"Yeah."