JEALOUS
AUTHOR'S NOTE/DISCLAIMER
Just my idea of fixing things between Hadley and Mills because I didn't buy him being a racist/arsonist. Jealous, yes, but not anything else. CF belongs to Dick Wolf and NBC.
Something was up with Hadley, Mills could tell. He wasn't an idiot. He knew it was bugging him that Lieutenant Severide was helping him get onto Squad, he just didn't know why. And he wanted to know why. The guy had always been halfway decent to him before and now he was just up and treating him like this? It didn't make sense. Wish I knew what I did to make him so irritated with me, he thought to himself. Why would he be bugged about him trying to get onto Squad? It wasn't like he was looking to replace him. Wait a minute. Replace. Could Hadley think that he was trying to replace him? No, that was crazy! He was just a candidate and it wasn't really even guaranteed that he'd make it onto Squad. But he wanted the chance to prove himself. He sighed. Maybe I should talk to him, he thought to himself. The guy was pretty reasonable, so maybe he'd listen. Hearing footsteps, he turned a bit to see the firefighter in question.
"Hadley, could I talk to you?" he questioned.
"What about?" he wondered.
"What's going on between us," he responded and the older man gave him a funny look. "Okay, that may have come out weird. What I meant was the tension and hostility that's going on between us," he continued and Hadley scowled. Why was Mills doing this? He was looking to replace him and he wanted him to be okay with it? Hell no! That was not happening! "Look, I'm not trying to replace or one-up you or whatever it is you think I'm doing. I'm just trying to get onto Squad," he stated.
"So why do you need Severide's help? No one ever helped me when I was busting my ass to get here," he snarled. What was it about Mills that had Severide practically bending over backwards to get him onto their truck?
"Well, I can't comment on that because I wasn't here, but all I know is that he's been a big help even though he doesn't have to be. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have a chance in hell to make it on Squad because I hadn't realized so much was involved in the training," the younger man replied. At this, Hadley became silent. The kid was right: there was a lot of training and studying involved in trying to get onto Squad. "I'm not looking to replace you. I want to join you," he said. "That's it."
"You're really not trying to replace me?"
"Not at all." At this, Hadley nodded. I really thought he was. Even when the others told me that he wasn't. It just took me a long time to fit in around here and I didn't want to lose my family, he thought to himself.
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay. Just…cut me a little slack?"
"Sure."
"I mean, unless of course, I'm completely screwing something up. Then, by all means, let me have it."
"Oh, I will. You can count on it." They chuckled. Mills was about to say something more when the Claxxon Alarm blared. As one, Hadley and Mills ran to the Squad truck, grabbing and getting into their gear as dispatch relayed information about the fire. As they headed out, Mills grinned. He and Hadley had hashed things out and he was right where he wanted to be. Life was good.