Trying to find some motivation to get back to my Linseride stories. I don't think we'll get to see a big Sev/Grant showdown on CF so decided to write my own. Hope you like! And, yes, I know I promised a final installment to the Need series, so hopefully this will inspire me. Enjoy!

Kelly's eyes shut tightly as he blocked out the day's sad events. Jimmy's brother gone. And Borelli on the warpath. Severide had never seen the usually laid back young man so angry. All that anger boiling over on chief. Anytime they lost one of their own, he replayed his every move over and over in his mind. Could he have done more?

Now, all of that was looking farther and farther away as his hips moved rhythmically in tune with the beautiful woman beneath him. Stella.

He'd noticed the fiery brunette the minute he first laid eyes on her at the academy. His dreams of running his fingers through that wild hair squashed the night he snuck into her apartment only to discover it was "their" apartment… hers and her husband's.

Not his finest hour.

He'd retreated without an ass kicking and considered himself lucky. But damn, she'd never let on that she had a significant other. Or had she? All he'd noticed was that beautiful face and that mouth. Those full lips full of sass.

"So when I'm not available you make your move. Now that I'm free, you're nowhere to be found."

Kelly met that challenge with a resounding kiss. And a whole lot more on the floor of Molly's. It had been so long since he'd considered something other than a one night stand, more than a fling to release some tension. It had really been since before Shay's death that he'd had something real, a person he could think about tomorrow with. Maybe even beyond tomorrow.

Could there be happiness in his future? Real happiness? In recent days, he was considering the possibility that it could happen.

That too, was slipping into the land of a memory. What's his name was out, and he was in. that's all he cared about right now. Stella had told her dead-beat hubby to hit the road and instead he hit some drugs so hard he landed in the hospital, almost DOA.

"Grant was released," she told Kelly earlier in the day. "I really hope he gets his shit together this time."

"On his own," she added seeing the concerned look in the fireman's eyes. "We're done, Kelly. I am SO done."

Severide had taken her at her word.

He opened his eyes just long enough to find her mouth, pressing his lips into hers, his tongue brushing over hers as both hungrily escaped the world around them.

He needed this. Wanted this.

He sat in his chair listening to the sounds of one body landing on the bed and another body crashing on top.

He heard the soft moan he knew so well. He'd heard it many times. Stella. His Stella.

It was so quiet… he thought he could hear two heartbeats, louder, louder, faster.

He looked at the knife he held in his right hand, admiring how sharp it was. He tried to remember the last time he used it. Tomatoes. Yes, he'd sliced tomatoes. It was taco night. How long ago? A year? Two? A lifetime?

He sliced through the hospital id bracelet, the plastic snapping off freeing his wrist. His eyes were adjusting to the dark; he could make out the shadow of a man moving down the length of the bed, sounds of his mouth all over the woman underneath.

And those moans came again. Those sickening moans.

He smiled slightly, deadness in his eyes as he rose from his chair.

He was putting an end to one of those beating hearts. He needed to stop that incessant drum beating in his ears. Grant wanted to finish Kelly Severide.

Maybe it was instinct. Maybe Grant made the smallest of a sound as he glided over to the bed. Stella opened her eyes the second her husband raised his knife, her brain not accepting what she was seeing. She tried to let out a sound but nothing came. Her body stiffened as both hands tried to leverage Kelly over to her right side. She yanked as hard as she could but it barely moved the fireman as that knife plunged down. They say things happen in the blink of an eye. Stella would have to agree.

Kelly's back arched violently as ecstasy turned to agony.

Pain. Hot, searing pain shot through his back where the shoulder blade ends and the length of his body begins.

"Aaaaaaahhhh!" Severide screamed through gritted teeth. He pushed off of Stella who was scrambling beneath him. He flipped over just in time to see a flash of silver come at the front of his chest, slicing horizontally across his collarbone as he fell to the floor.

He was up as soon as he hit the floor, the darkness not allowing a good look at his attacker. His brain just beginning to register that he was under attack. Disbelief soon replaced with action. Kelly dove head first at the shadow with the knife, adrenalin giving him a surge of strength that should have never come.

Grant brought down the knife again and again even as his breath was sucked out of him, the fireman's head driving into his stomach, smashing him against the bedroom wall.

Kelly's face was pressed up next to Grant's with a brief second or recognition, but his eyes were immediately averted, searching for the knife. The fireman realized Stella's husband must have dropped it when it stopped connecting with his flesh. He knew this was a fight for his life, and he was fighting. He let out guttural sound, a primal scream of survival as his elbow connected with his attacker's face.

Severide didn't hear Stella screaming on the phone, begging the police to hurry, rambling about her ex, about a knife. He didn't feel the blood rushing from his body. Didn't feel any pain. He was scrambling on his knees, eyes seeking that knife, hands running blindly across the carpet. The seconds ticked by feeling like an eternity...Kelly knowing he was running out of time. He crawled frantically feeling around for where the knife had jumped to.

Grant was up now, rushing toward the fireman sprawled across the floor. He leapt at the dark mound, ready to end this man once and for all. Just die already, he thought as his body sprung into the air.

Kelly rolled over as the lights flipped on, a harsh brightness highlighting the look on Grant's face, going from elation to one of wide-eyed shock.

More soon. Let me know what you think. Hope I got my mojo back!