Title: Groceries & Guns
Chapter 2 – Express Lane to Disaster?

A shot rings out and a silent scream escapes her lips, her eyes widening in horror as she watches Kelly Severide's body jerks with the gunshot and he falters to his knees as a painful cry escapes his lips as he crashes to the ground.

Kelly!

"NO!"

Had it been anyone else who had gotten shot, she would have been able to rationalize it and keep herself hidden but when she was forced to watch in horrible slow motion as Kelly, who had been heroically trying to get help for another, something inside automatically reacted and she knows she's in trouble.

Get rid of your gun fast! Her brain commands as Severide's frame collapses to the floor and three black faces turn toward the back.

"HEY! GET HER! THOUGHT YOU SAID THE BACK WAS CLEAR!"

Erin rushes for the back door and can only curse her fate and back luck as it's still locked – Jay not returning from taking the older man to the medics. If they find out she's a cop she knows she's doomed. So just before they reach her, she quickly removes her gun and tosses it onto a nearby shelf and then watches as the armed man rushes toward her.

She lets out an automatic yelp as a gloved hand grabs a handful of hair and yanks her back, spinning her around and then pointing his gun in her face.

"Hands up!"

"Sure. Wha…"

"Shut up! Where were you?"

"Storage. I uh…the back doors locked and…" Erin forced a stammer and pretended to be scared and shaken. "What's…going on?"

"Bring her up here!"

"Move it!"

The masked man grabs Erin by the arm and starts to drag her toward the front of the store; her eyes quickly racing to find Kelly while at the same time looking up toward the front of the store where she hopes her partner is looking through the glass and seeing her current predicament.

Jay does but also knows with the attackers now escalating and her as a hostage, means the stakes are time is fast running out.

The attacker pulls Erin to the front and then pushes her down by the woman already bleeding, the one that Kelly Severide had been shot over trying to get help.

"She needs…help," Severide manages as his right hand clamps down on the gunshot wound on his left side.

Erin's breath instantly sucks in as she watches one of the masked men near him and deliver a hard kick to his injured side; making him cry out in pain even more. "Stop it!" She exclaims as one of them turns and glowers at her. "He's…shot."

"You'll be joining him if you don't shut it!"

"P-please…I don't ….want to die."

Erin hears the scared plea and looks down at the woman a few meters away from her and then up at the masked men. "Can I help her?"

"NO!"

"Aaron we have to move now!"

"No names!"

"The back door is locked. From the outside!"

"What?"

"Cops man! They trapped us in this damn place!"

Severide lifts his slightly watery eyes and looks at Erin, at first not actually believing it was but as his vision came into focus he locks eyes with hers and holds her worried gaze for a few seconds before his gaze drops to the injured woman a few meters away and his brow furrows.

He doesn't even have to say anything as she knows its's in his nature, the look in his tormented sapphire pools that he should be helping anyone injured despite his own personal injuries.

"She needs…medical attention."

"Listen firefighter…"

"We need to get out of here and fast! I think there's just a few little rent-a-cops out there! Let's shoot our way out the back and get the hell outta here! There's three of us! Anyone in our way, we mow them down!"

But just before another one of them can talk, the store phone rings and they know they are out of time.

"It's the cops calling from outside! We're wasting time! They'll want to negotiate but we have nothing!"

"Just shut up and let me think!"

"I say we go out the back!"

"H-help…me…" the woman pleads once more as her voice becomes weaker.

"David!"

"Shut up about the names!" The leader in charge growls before he realizes that time is running out for them. "Okay…check the back!"

"Pl-please…"

Unable to hear the pleading any longer, Erin quickly shuffles over on her knees and then presses down on the wound to stop the bleeding.

"I said…" one of them shouts as he grabs a handful of hair and tries to pull Erin back. This time, it's Severide's instincts that automatically kick in as he watches her being mistreated.

"Hey!" Severide shouts as he pushes past his own pain, swings his legs out which cause the masked man to let go of Erin and stumble into one of the grocery aisles.

Erin tries to pull one of them back as the other rushes toward Severide and yanks him back, while the other jerks himself free of Erin's grasp and stomps toward an already fallen Severide. But just before his large boot can connect with Severide's tender mid-section; the third man returns and then looks at them in surprise.

"I think I found a way out! What the hell is going on here?"

"I'm gonna finish him off first!" The man named David hisses as he points his gun at Severide's head and prepares to fire.

"You can't kill a damn firefighter!"

"Yeah David let's just get the hell outta here!" Aaron pleads as the store phone rings once more.

"Leave the damn phone! If the cops wanna come in, they'll just find a bunch of dead bodies!"

"So….what the hell do we do now?"

"We go out the back and take one of them with us! There's only two cars there!"

"Don't…be stupid…" Severide manages as he tries to get upright and stem the flow of his blood. Erin looks at Kelly in distress and remorse and prays that he stays quiet or else suffer further physical consequences. He doesn't. "There's more… on the way."

"Shut up!"

"Bring her and let's get the hell outta here!"

The one named Luke turns back toward Erin, grabs her arm and yanks her upward and then starts to drag her toward the back.

"Erin!" Severide gasps in pain as one of them stomps back toward him with a snarl. "No…leave her…alone," he offers with another painful hiss as his injured side already which instantly agitates Erin further.

"Kelly!" Erin shouts as she's pulled around the corner and out of view, her ears picking up a few painful grunts from his lips; her heart instantly aching and her stomach seizing. "This is a big mistake!" She tells David as she tries to yank her arm free.

"You're our insurance so stop fussing!" He hissed as he smacks her ion the cheek with the butt end of his gun, making her face instantly snap to the right and her cheek sting.

"Hope you said goodbye to your boyfriend!" Luke sneers as he looks at Severide who looks up with an angry glare.

"Let's move it!"

At the same time Voight had been watching from the front as the scene unfolded and ordered the rest of his team to take strategic positions in the alley behind the store and to wait for them to come out before trying to take them for fear of hurting Erin further.

"They're coming out the back!" Voight's gruff voice tells Jay, who is already in place. "Medics are a block out and on standby."

"It's open!"

"Cops did it! I tell you, they're waiting for us!"

"Aaron, check it out!" David, the one in charge angrily barks as Erin tries to pull herself free of Luke's grasp.

"I don't see anyone! Let's go now!"

Aaron is the first to push through the door with David gesturing to Luke to get Erin and himself outside while he'd bring up the rear.

But just as they step outside, another person enters the equation, one that no one accounted for or expected; one that had slipped through their perimeter. The half-drunk man stumbles toward the area where Jay is hiding and then stops and raises his bottle. At the same time Aaron hears the words but isn't able to turn back in time.

"Evening….offisher…" the man slurs with a grin before he offers a mock salute and then pulls the bottle back to his lips.

"Who the hell is that!" Voight's angry voice is heard.

"He just came out of the shadows!"

"We've been made!"

"It's a trap!" Aaron shouts as he fires in the direction Jay was hiding. Jay quickly steps from the shadows and fires back, taking out his mark with an expert shot. However, Antonio isn't able to get off a clean shot and only wounds the man holding Erin; David yanking her back inside a few seconds later.

Luke curses as he fires off a few shots in Antonio's direction; forcing him to take cover while he ducks back inside with a few angry curses.

However, as soon as Severide saw them all disappear from view, he wasted no time in biting back a painful gasp and making his way toward the injured woman, telling the younger teenage boy to run to the front door and open it.

"I…don't wanna…die," the injured woman pleads as Severide hears the shots and knows he's out of time. With a painful gasp he pulls her toward the door in the hopes that Voight's team will take her before the robbers come back.

"Take her!" He directs as his head starts to spin and his heart rate beat a bit faster and harder in his throbbing chest. He knows he has to give them all a chance to get outside to get help; his own personal comfort would come second.

"Severide!" Voight calls out.

"Take…them!" Severide ells Voight, who doesn't know badly he's injured.

At the same time Erin, hears the commotion, hears Severide's and Voight's voice and can only hope and pray that Voight has managed to get everyone outside and they'd only have to worry about her safety. But when she watches one of the displays topple down around them, she knows that Severide was still inside. Course he is! It's in his nature to help everyone else but himself first – he'd be last, it was his personal code.

However, David managed to free himself of the entanglement, push himself back up and rush toward Severide just as he tried to race toward the front entrance were Voight was rushing toward him to get him out. David flings himself at Severide's legs, taking them both down to the linoleum in a jumble of arms and legs.

"Kelly!" Erin shouts as she scrambles to get up and away from Luke's grasp.

"Drop it! You're surrounded!"

But instead of complying, David fires off a few shots at Voight, sending the angered police Sargent scrambling for cover! Voight fires off a few shots as Jay and Antonio carefully enter the back of the store.

"You're surrounded! No way out!"

"He's…my way out!" David hisses as he wraps his arm around Severide's neck and yanks him backward. Still losing blood and now having his oxygen supply starting to dry up, the grip from Severide's bloody hands on David's arm start to lessen. "He's going to die!"

"Drop your weapons!" Voight demands; hoping to buy some time for Jay and Antonio to take out Luke who still has Erin in his grasp.

"Mr. Fireman's blood will be on your hands if you don't let me out of here!"

"And what about your partner?" Voight shouts back, picking up on the solo request – me.

"David!" Luke snarls as he tries to keep Erin in his grasp. "I've been shot!"

"Shut up Luke!"

"Listen to your partner," Voight tries once more.

"No! YOU listen to me!" David shouts at Voight. "He's losing a lot of blood man! If you don't let me leave, I'll finish him for good!"

"Then you'll be charged with murder!" Voight counters as Jay and Antonio move in closer. "Right now it'll be lesser charges. Murder one is serious."

"Man I ain't going down for accessory to murder!" Luke calls out to David.

Erin spies Jay as he ducks behind a shelf and knows what she has to do.

"If he dies…"

"Shut…shut up," Luke chants.

"He's a firefighter. You're an accessory to murdering a firefighter!"

"No…no this can't…" he stammers as his grasp on her loosens. Now it was time to act. Jay moves in closer.

She gives her partner a nod as she tries to twist herself around in Luke's grasp. The heel of her boot comes down onto the top of his foot and her elbow flies backward into his groin which makes him cry out in pain and then turn around to get a better grasp on his prisoner. But in doing so he watches Jay and Antonio advancing toward him with large shotguns drawn and he instantly lets go of Erin.

Erin drops to her knees as both of them demand him to drop his gun or else.

"Do-don't shoot," Luke stammers as he Jay rushes toward him with his shotgun raised.

"Just you now!" Voight reminds David as Luke curses but instantly drops his weapon and allows himself to be pulled toward the back, cuffed and then taken away; Erin taking Jay's shotgun and trying to find a way behind David.

"Your surrounded David! Let him go!" Erin angrily demands as David's masked eyes turn to see where Luke had been and can only curse in frustration.

Erin looks at Kelly Severide's limp frame in David's grasp and feels her agitation starting to skyrocket. Please…please let him go…

"I want my passage. I'm gonna count to five."

"Yeah? Well, I'm gonna count to three!" Voight offers his final warning.

"Yeah? And then what?" David shouts back with a sneer.

"Then the detective behind you is gonna shoot."

David slightly turns to see Erin holding the gun in the air before she pumps it to get it ready to fire. "Give me a reason," she whispers angrily as his dark eyes narrow under the mask.

"Do it now!" Voight demands one last time.

For Erin, it can't come fast enough but when she finally sees David drop his gun and Voight rush toward him to cuff him, she tosses the shotgun to the floor and hurries to Kelly Severide's side; dropping to her knees and instantly feeling for a pulse.

"Kelly! Medic….we need…oh God there's so much blood. We need a medic in here NOW!"

Erin looks back down at Kelly's pale and placid expression as his pulse starts to fade and his breathing shallow and then….stop. "No…you can't….die. You can't die!"

"Kelly!"

A/N: uh oh….Love me some hurt Kelly but also love me some angry Voight hehe and of course angry and worried Erin *sigh* hope you all enjoyed this angsty little actiony update and please do review before you go and thanks so much!