"You don't have to go if you don't want to Em, but you know chief and the other guys will be more than happy to see you." Christopher Herrmann stated looking at his youngest daughter laying on the brown leather sofa.
"I know daddy. I would love to see them too. It's just that I don't think I can handle running into Kelly again. You should've seen the way he looked at me. The look in his eyes, like he hated me."
"How about you just come down for a few minutes and if you don't wanna stay you don't have to. The guys from the district are coming and you know Antonio wants to see you." He tried one last time to get her to agree, knowing she always had a soft spot for Gabby's brother.
"Fine! Just let me go get ready." She answered with a huff shoving her 5 foot frame off the couch and walking down the hall to her bedroom.
After looking through her bags, she finally slipped on a white lace off the shoulder top, burgundy leggings, and brown ankle boots. She pulled her hair up into a messy bun and touched up her mascara and eyeliner.
"Okay, let's go get this over with." She told him as she grabbed her leather bag off the counter and headed out the front door.
"Oh Lord, this is going to be a long night." Herrmann whispered to himself walking to the car.
After sitting through what felt like the longest car ride of her life, they pulled up at Molly's.
"Come on Em, I'm right here with you. If Kelly does come tonight, you don't have to talk to him. You'll be too distracted listening to stories of things that have happened since you've been gone. Chief will probably try to talk you into coming to work with us." He told his daughter walking with her to the door. Emma gave him a small smile and a hug.
"Thanks daddy. I love you."
"I love you too baby." He responded tightening his arms around her curvy frame. When he thought she was ready, he released her and opened the door.
Walking into Molly's made Emma feel like she was completely back home. The lights, the smells, the sounds, all made her feel like she was almost completely whole again. The first thing she spotted as she made her way to Chief Boden was the back of Kelly's head. She was determined to keep it together and fall apart later when she was alone.
"Emma Herrmann! When the hell did you get back?" Emma felt every pair of eyes turn to her as she recognized the voice behind her.
"Antonio! I missed you!" She answered, throwing her arms around his neck as he picked her up and spun her around, not caring that he was getting death glares from Kelly.
"I missed you. I know everyone's probably wanting to talk to you, so just come by my table when you're done if you wanna catch up." He told her finally putting her back on the ground.
"I will, I need to talk to Chief first. I'll catch up with you in a bit." Kissing him on the cheek, she turned around and started to make her way to the Chief again.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Ms. Emma." Chief Boden grinned standing up to hug her.
"I missed you so much!" Emma said taking the seat beside him.
"We all missed you, some of us more than others." He told her looking over her head at who she assumed was Kelly.
"Cheif who's this?" Emma turned her attention to the man sitting at the other side of the table. He was smirking at her and she got an instant dislike for the guy.
"This is Captain Dallas Patterson." Boden said introducing the two.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Emma Herrmann." She responded kindly, shaking his outstretched hand.
"Pleasure is all mine." He responded, looking her up and down.
"I'm going to run to the bathroom and mingle a bit. I'll see you before I leave." She told Boden pushing her chair back, realizing she was going to have to walk by Kelly.
"Sounds good, come by 51 tomorrow, we need to discuss a job."
"Seriously?!" She asked her chocolate eyes going wide.
"Yes, seriously. You know I've wanted you on that station. Dawson might finally convince you to become a firefighter as well." He told his surrogate daughter.
"Yea, we'll see. Well it was nice to meet you again." She told Patterson, standing up and making her way to the back bathroom.
"I see you've moved on to detectives now. Destroying a firefighter wasn't enough for you?" Emma stopped in her tracks at the tone in Kelly's voice.
"What the hell are you talking about Severide?" She asked spinning around as brown met green.
"Were you seeing Dawson the whole time we were together? You sure it was my baby or was it his?" Kelly asked harshly not caring they were in a packed bar or that Antonio was headed towards them.
Before he knew it was happening, a small hand made contact to his cheek. He didn't even realized it happened until he felt the stinging and saw the tears in her eyes.