Chapter 2

Water bottle in hand, Madison made her way into her Zumba class. She had missed the last two because she was doing overtime. She felt bad for missing because she enjoyed the class and the people taking it with her. She also liked the instructor. She had been to many Zumba classes where the instructors looked like they were anorexic. Her instructor was a guy, which was cool. He put the class through the workout and didn't care what his students looked like. He encouraged those who were overweight and trying to lose just the same as those taking the class who were just trying to maintain.

She opened her bag and dropped a towel around her neck. She greeted her classmates and took a big slug of water.

"Hey. Madison is it?" she heard from behind her.

She turned. It was the paramedic from Mills' house. "Yes, it's Madison."

"I thought that was what Peter said." She extended her hand. "Sylvie Brett. Firehouse 51."

"51 is a great house."

"Our instructor works at 51 too. Joe drives the engine."

Madison nodded. "Funny how we all wind up in the same Zumba class, huh?"

"It is. It's a good class. I've been coming for years."

"My second one. Love it."

She glanced toward the door. She seemed to get nervous when she noticed a bunch of guys walk through the door. What seemed like a good idea earlier that day suddenly became a bad idea the minute she noticed the class filling up.

"Hey, Brett," she heard someone greet.

She lit up like a Christmas tree. "Hey, Kelly, glad you could make it," she greeted.

"You think I would miss this? No way in hell," Severide said, blue eyes twinkling and his smile growing wider by the second.

Brett nodded.

"So aren't you going to introduce me?" he asked. He found it rude that Brett wouldn't introduce him to the woman she was talking with.

"Oh, yeah, sure," she said distractedly. "Kelly, this is Madison. She's PIC over at the 107. Madison, this is Lieutenant Kelly Severide. He's the Lieutenant on Squad 3."

"Nice to meet you, Madison."

"You too, Lieutenant."

"Kelly," he corrected. "You don't work in my house."

"It's a respect thing, Sir."

"Understand. But really, Kelly is fine."

Madison nodded. "I'll try. That's about the best I can do."

Before Severide could reply, Cruz jogged to the front of the class. "OK, Ladies, let's go!" he said as he took his place to start the class.

He looked at the class and saw the whole house standing there in workout gear. 'What the fuck?' he thought. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Brett had outed him. He was never going to live this down. He wondered if he and Taylor had enough money in the bank if she needed to post bail.

He took another deep breath. He'd not do anything to hurt Brett no matter how angry he got. He was embarrassed that now the whole house knew what his side job was. He wasn't handy with contracting like Casey was, and he didn't know shit about boats like Severide. Zumba paid well, and Taylor didn't seem to mind that he taught the classes. She had her side job working in the Emergency Room at Chicago Med when she wasn't flying with UCAN. He took another deep breath. He didn't want to have to cancel class, but he wanted the members of 51 out of the class.

"Ok, everyone, class is canceled."