1: The Call

"Truck 51, Squad 3, Ambulance 61—apartment complex fire, 1772 Crystal View Drive."

The familiar blare of the intercom rung out above me, and my whole Squad dropped our cards—face down of course, we would finish this game—and headed to our truck. We did the familiar drill of getting into our boots and suits, and the weight that used to make me groan now got my heart racing. The rush of going out on a call was partly the reason I loved this job so much. You never knew what was going to happen, and that could either be the best or most crushing thing about your day.

We all piled into the truck, with Vasquez following Cruz out of the hall, and we raced down the streets of Chicago, parting the sea of traffic in front of us. Sure enough, billowing clouds of smoke could be spotted blocks before the blazing building.

"Severide, top floors, we'll take the bottom levels." Casey called out to me, and my team nodded in agreement before we all entered the building. The haze of smoke hung like a veil as we located the stairs, and began our ascent. Vasquez and James brought out two small children who were on the couch, curled up against each other.

Mills and I continued, and spotting a dog cowering in the corner, I pointed him out to Mills. "Get the dog and get out!" I called, knowing this fire was going to get bad soon.

A door sat closed at the end of the hall. I clutched the handle, and turned. But the door was locked. I tried again, and again. Finally I opted to kick it in. It flew open, and I went into the bedroom, which held three beds obviously meant for the kids. The ceiling was beginning to cave in, and the floor beneath me was becoming questionable. I could hear my team on the radios, reporting on who or what they found in the flames.

Hearing coughing from behind one of the beds, I turned to see an older teenaged girl holding a blanket to her face as her eyes searched madly for something—someone.

I finally realized who she was looking for. The small boy looked to be maybe two years old, with a rubber giraffe in his mouth with scared blue eyes. He was sitting across the room near the window, and I could see the floor starting to sink in.

I rushed to the girl, moving her hair away so I could see her distraught face and talk to her. "Look I'm here to help but you need to get down—"

She cut me off. "No! No, we need to get him! Henry! We have to get Henry!" he voice told me she was not going anywhere without the boy.

"We'll get him, okay, we will. But I need you to look after yourself and get out of here." I explained as calmly as possible, looking back to see Henry break into wails, the giraffe falling out of his grasp.

"Don't worry about me, we need to get him." She said, and I shook my head internally. God was this girl stubborn. Why was it so hard to understand she needed to leave and let me do my job?

Suddenly her eyes flashed behind me, and hearing the tell-tale sign that the floor was going to give, I turned and looked in horror at the simple wood panelling disintegrating in a ring, encasing the toddler inside it.

"Henry no!" she cried out, and pushed me aside, and leaped across the deathtrap, snatching up the child and jumping to safety against the window. The floor collapsed, and now a good six feet stood between me and them. Feeling complete anger welling up at the stupidity of what she just did, I also felt a ton of shock and admiration for her bravery.

"I need someone up here! Top floor! Now!" I almost scream into my radio, and Chief's voice came back in reply.

"Kelly whatever the hell you're doing, stop doing it and get out!" he ordered, and seeing the tearful faces of the two children before me, I shook my head.

"Sorry Chief but I'm not letting two kids die in front of me today." I said, hoping they'd all realize how dire this was and how I would not knowingly walk out on two victims.

I glanced back up to the kids, and I reach my arms across the hole which opened up into the living room below. "You need to give me Henry. Right now his lungs are having the hardest time, so you need to pass him to me." I instruct to the girl carefully but clearly.

She looks to the boy curled into her embrace, and nods, kissing his soot-covered blonde hair before stretching out her arms to meet mine. We both strain to reach one another. Her arms were long, but she was nervous and scared of going too far and falling in.

"Just a little further!" I encourage through a grimace, reaching out as far as possible. Finally the little boy was in my hold. I sighed in relief as I took him into my arms, and feeling the tap of someone behind me, I saw Casey with a grave face.

We exchanged a message wordlessly, and as he took Henry I looked back to the girl. "We're almost out—" I started but I stopped as I see her slip on the edge of the scorched edge of the hole. I instinctively reached out but realized that we might both fall in which would do nothing but make it worse.

She screamed, and spun around, clutching the window frame—the only thing left to hold onto. Her blue eyes were full of terror, and her light brown hair was in tangled curls around her face. As I looked down to the hole, then back to her, an idea popped into my mind.

"Wait here!" I exclaimed, turning back to the stairs and racing down to the living room, and I kicked the remains of the flooring from above away. I looked up through the hole to see her looking down at me. I held out my arms.

"You need to jump!" I yelled up to her and even more fear filled her face.

"I can't—" she began but I shook my head and cut her short.

"My job is to get you out of here. You need to trust me to do that. I know it's scary, but please jump because if you don't then we're out of options!" I pleaded to her, and she looked around her, realizing I was right. This was one of the only things we could do. "Trust me." I repeated again, hoping it would be enough to get her down.

Then with another scream, her feet left the ground and she came flying down towards me. She landed in my arms, and I bent my knees on the impact. She coughed more and more, her lungs clearly fading with all the smoke she'd inhaled.

"Hold on." I murmured quickly, running to the nearest set of stairs to the bottom floor. I heard the heat before I felt it. That gut-wrenching whoosh which told you the fire was going to explode out of the building. And you'd better run like hell if you didn't want to wind up charred and dead.

I felt the blast of heat behind me, chasing me, licking at my ankles and forearms. But I had to keep going; I had to get this girl out of her alive. She was stubborn and somewhat reckless, but she had a good heart. Anyone could see that.

I reached the door, and jumped for dear life onto the lawn. We fell hard onto the ground, and I quickly rolled off of her to let Shay and Dawson whisk her away to the ambo. I stood up myself, and saw my squad and the truck coming over to me.

Casey slapped me on the back, and we exchanged nods. "You good?" he asked, and I just nodded once more.

I looked to the rest of the guys and we all nodded, silently saying we were all fine and glad none of us got trapped in there. It was a traditional routine, letting the people you worked with know you were happy they got out alive. It's something you can't find in any other normal job. Police force maybe, but other than that, the bond you share with your colleagues is so much more than mediocre.

I took off my helmet, brushing my hair away and wiping my forehead of the sweat and ash gathered there. I took a few deep breaths of the clean air—the feeling of it never gets old. I can't explain how much we take clean air for granted. Spending your whole adult life in smoke filled, sometimes chemical filled houses and buildings…You appreciate the air that isn't polluted so much more.

I walked over to the ambulance where the girl was being treated. Shay met me half-way.

"Hey, she's fine…a bit roughed up here and there. She took in a ton of smoke, we're taking her into the hospital so they can give her the all-clear." She explained and I nodded.

"Yeah, that room was full of smoke." I agreed. "Where's the little guy? Henry…Three years old, blonde hair…" I started to describe and shay nodded.

"Right, yeah he's hanging out with Boden until the mom arrives." She smiled a little as she looked over to where their Chief now stood with the cheerful baby in his arms.

"She almost died to get to him…" I shook my head as I glanced back to the girl at the back of the ambulance, taking in deep breaths from the ventilator. "The floor was going to fall through right where he was…She grabbed him right before it gave way. They both could have gone down and easily gotten killed because of it." I feel the annoyance rising up in me again, but supress it. People do crazy things when they're scared—I've seen it enough to understand they don't think logically in panicked situations.

"Wow. Brave kid." Shay replied, and I chuckled.

"Yeah, and stubborn as hell. She wouldn't let me do anything until I had the baby first." I told her, and Shay smiled and shrugged.

"Well, it paid off didn't it?" she asked me, and I looked back to Borden and the smiling toddler and nodded in agreement.

"I guess so." I said before looking over to the ambulance again. It looked like Gabby was wrapping things up with her patient, so I decided to take the chance to go and check up on her. "I'll see ya." I said, patting Shay on the shoulder before continuing over to the girl.

Her blue eyes looked up to me, and for the first time I was able to get a good look at her. She had fair skin, not freakishly pale but definitely in that region. Her eyes were big and curious as they gazed over me with blue intensity. Her hair was long and curly, a dark blonde kind of colour. I was sure on any other day it would have looked much better than it did now.

"Hey," I said in greeting. She gave a weak smile in response.

"Hi," she said softly in reply.

"Just wanted to see how you were…You know what you did in there was probably the stupidest and bravest thing I've seen anyone do in a long time." I grinned slightly and she gave a laugh of her own.

"I had to." She said simply, as if it were obvious the only option was to risk her own life. "He might not be my son, or my brother…but he belongs to someone. That's what's important." Her eyes darted over to where I knew Borden was standing.

"So you're not his family?" I asked, and she shook her head.

"No, I was babysitting…Playing with Henry then the next thing I know there's smoke and fire everywhere." Her eyes seemed to glaze over as she recalled the moments.

"We'll figure out what caused it. Don't worry." I assured her. "I'm Kelly by the way. Kelly Severide." I introduce myself, sticking out my hand which I realize is still gloved.

She looked down to the grimy thing with slight disgust, and I laughed before slipping it off.

"I'm Addison Hunter." She said, and something about the name struck a chord with me somewhere in the recesses of my mind. I tried to think if I'd met her before, maybe through a school program, but nothing came to me. "And thank you, Kelly." She smiled at me, and it lit up her whole face. Addison was really pretty for her age, beautiful really…She was probably around seventeen or so.

"Hey, I was doing my job…Nothing else." I said simply. Gabby and Shay both hopped into the passenger and driver seats. I smiled and jumped into the back with Addison. "Come on, I'll ride with you to the hospital. And stop talking, or Shay's gonna have a fit." I smirked while slamming the doors shut, Addison smiling a little as she sat on the gurney.

"I can hear you Kelly!" Shay yelled from the front and Addison and I both laughed as Shay made more comical threats against me.

I turned back to Addison. "So who's the family?" I asked, referring to Henry and the other children.

"The Mitchell's. I know Ms. Mitchell because we met at a coffee shop…It's a long story. Anyway, she saw how I was with kids and needed a babysitter short notice…Been going there every Saturday since." Addison explained, running a hand through her hair and trying to correct the snarled pieces. Her eyes started to brim with tears, and she looked down in shame. "She's going to be so devastated at the house…She's a single mom she can't afford to have this happen to her. I should have…" Tears fell and I felt my heart ache at the sight of this.

So I reached out, putting my hands on her shoulders. "Addison this is not your fault okay? This was an accident, pure and simple. Hopefully she's got good enough insurance to cover the damages…She'll realize that you never intended for this to happen. It was a combination of so many things, but none of it had to do with you." I tried to get her to understand what I meant.

"But I was supposed to—" she started to deny me again but I cut her off. I realized we had been doing that to each other a lot, cutting in and correcting.

"You were supposed to take care of her kids. And you did. I mean look at what you did for Henry. The little guy could be dead if you hadn't done what you did. Now I'm not encouraging you to leap over holes that could lead to death," she laughed and I cracked a smile. "But Ms. Mitchell will be thanking you endlessly for saving her little boy's life. You can trust me on that." I assured her, releasing her shoulders.

She took a shaky breath, nodding a little. "I guess so." She mumbled, and although she was acting like my pep talk had helped, something nagged at me that said she didn't believe me the whole way.

"Hey, we're here." Shay called back to us, and I felt the ambulance easing to a stop.

By the time Addison and I both looked over, Gabby was already swinging the doors open. She helped Addison down, brushing some soot off her shoulder as she did so.

Together we all walked in, and Addison was whisked away by some nurses as Leslie and Gabby filled them in on her condition. I looked around, taking in the emergency room. There were far too many people here, and I frowned. It wasn't good seeing the emergency so flooded like this—it meant bad news. Not for everyone, but for someone there would be. There always was.

Leslie came back over from where she was filling in charts. Addison was being examined, currently doing some deep breaths for the nurse. She looked like she had bad news, and I wondered if there was something else wrong with Addison.

"So here's the thing…The number Addison gave me checks out: you know a real house and all that. But no one is picking up. I mean it's five thirty on a Saturday. Parents should be home from work, cooking dinner or something. I've tried three times, and all I get is a machine. I can't leave them a message because they could get it tomorrow thinking something is seriously wrong." She let out a long sigh.

I shook my head, frowning. "Are you sure they're not home?" I asked and Shay just shrugged.

"I mean I could try again but it's weird Kelly…She told me her name is Addison Hunter. The message machine said 'you've reached the Gregson's'." she told me, and I furrowed my brows. She saw my expression and nodded. "Yeah, exactly what I thought. I mean, is she adopted maybe? Foster care…? Could just be a name from a previous marriage…" Shay listed off the possibilities, and looking back to Addison, now laying down as nurses fussed over her, I decided.

"I'll just take her back to her house once she's out of here." I said easily. Shay looked to me. "What? I'm not doing anything later, I got time. Guy can't do anything nice?" I shrug her look off.

Shay sighed, shaking her head. "Just…don't get too attached Kelly." She warned me before taking off after Dawson to the ambo bay.

I turn back to see Addison with an oxygen mask over her face as one of her nurses tends to her slight scrapes and burns from the fire—superficial wounds. I've had them myself many times.

"Excuse me," I grabbed the nurse's attention as she turned to leave Addison's bed. "How long do you think she'll be here for? I was one of the guys who brought her in." I looked to Addison again before meeting the nurse's eyes.

"Well, she inhaled a lot of smoke. She'll need the oxygen line for another hour at least. Everything else is all surface—it won't be a long recovery for her afterwards." She informs me and I nod, grateful.

"Great, thanks." I say before taking off for our truck. I have enough time to get back to the station and drop the guys off, change, and get back to the hospital before she has to be discharged.