UNWELCOME MEMORIES

DISCLAIMER

Takes place at the end of "Foul Is Fair" and involves something about Kelly that's head canon for me, though I'm sure the writers will come up with something else entirely. Belongs to Dick Wolf and NBC. Discussion suicide so if this is something you have a hard time with, please back out now.

Kelly blew out a breath as he sat back down and watched Matt follow Gabby out the door. Damn…just…damn, he thought to himself. Matt had looked jealous, which was stupid, cause he didn't have an interest in Gabby like that. But that wasn't why he was quiet right now. No, he hadn't said anything, but their discussion had brought back some old memories. Memories that he had worked hard over the years to bury. And now, they were front and center in his brain. Terrific. Just what I needed, he thought grouchily. He wasn't going to be able to sleep at all tonight.

"Hey, you okay?" Hearing Herrmann's voice he turned to him.

"Yeah, Dawson just got some bad news and I was gonna go with her to check it out but Matt-" he started to say.

"I know things have been tense with the three of you lately but you'll work it out," Herrmann interrupted. "But that's not what I meant. Looks like the three of you were having a pretty serious discussion."

"Weren't you just-"

"I have five kids. I learned to multi-task a long time ago."

"Right."

"Now, what's up?"

"It's this girl that Dawson's worried about-Brie." At this, Herrmann nodded. Yeah, he was aware of that. He was also aware that Gabby had got invested with the girl emotionally, something that seemed to happen with kids more these days. Unfortunately, the only one who would be able to rein her back a bit had been dead for a few years now. But at least Severide was keeping an eye on her.

"What about her?"

"She may have been found dead."

"Damn."

"Yeah."

"What else?" At this, Kelly shot him a look of surprise. "Come on, Kelly. How long have we known each other?" he queried, causing the other man to chuckle. Fair point, he thought to himself.

"It turned out her mother committed suicide and…" Kelly's voice ended in a sigh as he shrugged his shoulders.

"It brought back your mother," Herrmann commented.

"Yeah," Kelly responded. Sixteen-year old Kelly walked into the house.

"Hey, I'm home," he called, putting his backpack on the kitchen counter. He then frowned when he didn't get an answer. "Mom?" he called. Where can she be? he wondered. It wasn't like her to be out. Then again, with the way she and Dad were fighting, maybe she had needed some time to herself, which would be perfectly understandable. Still, it was weird. Well, as long as she was here, he might as well clean the bathroom like she had been nagging him to. It'd be a nice surprise for her. He then headed for the bathroom, frowning in confusion when he saw that it was closed. That's weird, he thought to himself and then opened it.

"Kelly!" Kelly jumped when he heard Herrmann's voice broke through his reverie. "Hey, where'd you go, Kid?" he asked, his voice softening.

"I found her when I came home from school. I couldn't find her, the bathroom was closed, which I thought was weird. I thought she had gotten hurt and-" the younger man began to explain.

"And you wanted to help her out if you could," he finished. He doesn't talk about it much. Not that I blame him, he thought. Finding your mother dead had to be hard. Can't even imagine something like that, he thought to himself.

"Yeah," he answered. "I opened the bathroom door and-she was there-in the tub…wrist dangling, blood down the side, a broken Tequila bottle on the floor, a razor next to her."

"Aw, hell…Kelly…" Herrmann said softly.

"She was a moody drunk. Sometimes she'd get violent, and other times…." His voice trailed off and he shrugged.

"She got lost in her own head?" Herrmann asked.

"Yeah. And that's what happened that day. And then I came home."

"I'm sorry. If you ever need to talk I'm-"

"Here. I know. I'm uh…just gonna go home though." Flashing a quick and reassuring smile, Kelly stood up and walked out of Molly's, got the keys out, got into his car, and then drove home.

THE END