Severide felt his eyes were closed and didn't try to open them yet, but for some reason he felt he needed to say something. He wasn't even sure what but he felt his dry lips part and heard himself murmuring something incoherent even to him. It sounded to him like he was trying to talk to someone, but he didn't know who, or what, but once his mouth opened he started rambling and didn't feel he could stop.

A soft hand touched his forehead, there was a familiar scent, and a voice he knew, but even that wasn't enough to bring him around right away.

"Wake up, Kelly."

That voice, he knew that voice, he knew that he knew that voice, but it escaped him. He forced his eyes open and saw his mom standing over him.

"Mo-o-m?" he croaked out.

He knew that look on her face. She was doing her best to pretend everything was fine, but underneath he could tell she was scared to death.

"How're you feeling, Kelly?" she asked, trying to be reassuring for his sake.

Severide tried to answer but it felt like his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. After a couple tries the one thing he was finally able to get out was, "Thirsty..."

"Okay, just hang on," she said as she moved to get him some water.

"Do you know what day it is?" another voice had him turning his head to look to the other side of the bed, where Benny was seated right beside him.

"Dad?" Kelly felt his eyes widen. He alternated looking at both of his parents and asked, "Wha's going on?"

"It's okay, Kelly, drink this," his mom said as she handed him a paper cup of water.

Kelly drank it faster than he should've and his stomach was already rebelling, but he emptied the cup and asked again, "What's going on? Mom, what're you..." he looked at them again, "what're either of you doing here?"

"You gave us a real scare, Kelly," Benny told him.

Kelly still didn't have any idea what they meant, but he looked at his mom, and his dad, and back again, and commented tiredly and lightly, "If I'd known getting hurt would get you two back together, I'd have jumped off the roof when I was 10."

Jennifer stroked over his head and calmly told him, "You did, Kelly."

"Oh..." he leaned back against the pillows and asked his folks, "What happened?"

"You were on a call," Benny explained, "there was a gas leak...and then there was an explosion...you were buried under the rubble for a while but they got you out."

Kelly shook his head. "I don't remember...why can't I remember?"

"It was a horrible thing, Kelly, you're better off if you don't remember," Jennifer told him.

"The docs said it'll come back gradually," Benny interjected, "just be patient."

Kelly's eyes shifted from one side to the other, looking at both of his parents, and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," both were too quick to reassure him.

"You're lying," Kelly accused as he sat up. "What's wrong? What happened? What aren't you telling me?"

His mom took in a small breath and started to talk, "Kelly-"

Benny raised a hand and took it from there, "When you're recovered enough to get out of here, we're going to talk about something, but it's nothing you need to worry about now."

Kelly looked at both of his parents with confused eyes. "Well you guys are already divorced, how much worse could it get?"

His mom got out a nervous laugh as she leaned over and hugged him.

"Nothing like that, Kelly...although..." Benny looked over at his ex.

"Not on your life, Benjamin Severide," she remarked, "I know better than to get burned twice."

Kelly knew that something was wrong, but he knew his parents weren't about to tell him, and though he knew there wasn't anything he could do but wait to find out what was going on, he still wasn't able to fully enjoy their company, knowing they were keeping something from him, and wondering what it was.

Jennifer had gotten a hotel room in the city and left when it started to get dark, promising she'd be back the next morning to see how Kelly was doing.

"Aren't you going too?" Kelly asked his dad, who was the only one still in the room.

Benny looked out the glass door and saw Casey pacing around aimlessly again. He motioned for the captain to come in, and Casey saw it, but he shook his head in silent response and just continued pacing.

"Nah, I'm gonna stay tonight," Benny answered as he turned around. "The guys from 51 would like to come in and see you when you're up to it."

"Where are they?"

"They've been rotating, some of them are here now."

"Send them in," Kelly said.

Benny turned towards his son and told him, "I'll go round them up."

Kelly closed his eyes, and the next thing he knew, the guys from Squad and Otis and Herrmann were standing over him.

"Hey," he said groggily.

"How you doing, Severide?" Herrmann asked.

"Fine..." he looked around the room and asked, "Where's Casey? And where's Stella? ...Where're the others?"

"They had to go home for a bit but they'll be back later," Herrmann said assuredly.

Severide confessed, "Head's still foggy, I still don't remember what happened."

"There's not much to remember," Herrmann said before anybody else could speak up, "just a typical day on 2nd Watch where nothing typical happens. Not the first gas explosion we've had."

"Yeah..." it still bothered Kelly that he couldn't remember. For that matter, he hadn't really thought about what the last thing he could remember was, and he wondered how much of his memory was being blocked.

"You're looking good, Kelly," Tony spoke up.

Severide looked at his men, not really sure what to make of that, but finally he said, "Well yeah, who doesn't look better off the damn ventilator?"

There was a small laugh among them, but Kelly could tell something was off. He had to give it to them, they were a little better prepped at acting natural than his parents had been. But he had a good idea they wouldn't tell him what was going on anymore than his mom and dad had either. But, Benny had said he'd been on the vent for 4 days...4 days? Holy crap, what day did that mean this was then? He couldn't think. Even Benny had said he gave them a hell of a scare, they must've thought he was going to die on that call. But that wasn't exactly a first either, so why...but 4 days? So he'd had to be in pretty bad shape for a while, well...no wonder everybody was so freaked out then...but he was better now, wasn't he? Or was he? For that matter, the doctor hadn't really told him what was wrong with him, just checked his injuries and vitals and said he'd check in again later. What was everyone keeping from him?

Kelly woke up screaming.

Benny had been half asleep in the chair next to the bed, he shot up and prepared himself for what he'd been expecting.

"What is it, Kelly? What's wrong?"

Kelly writhed and shook in the bed as he raised his hands to his face, trying to block out the memory of the dream.

"Tell Boden I had to go to Med. Benny had a stroke."

"I'm sorry, we did everything we could. Your father passed away 10 minutes ago."

"What?"

"Kelly! What is it?"

Kelly heard the voice and thought he was losing it. He lowered his hands and saw Benny standing over him.

"Pop?"

"That's right, Kelly," Benny nodded, "I'm here, what was it?"

"I..."

Kelly's eyes widened as an explosion ruptured in his ears.

"Truck 81, Squad 3, Ambo 61, possible gas leak-"

"Oh God..." now things were starting to come back.

"We've got six stories and nobody bothered to evacuate?" Kelly asked in disbelief as he stared up at the building that was in the center of the possible leak.

A neighbor who'd come out to see what the commotion was about explained. People in the other buildings on the block were in the process of running out though it looked like most of them had already gotten out before they arrived. "The landlord doesn't speak Spanish and most of the occupants don't know English, he comes around once a month to get the rent and that's about it."

"If this thing goes up we're looking at dozens of fatalities."

And Boden hadn't been there. Instead that idiot Gorsch had announced he would be supervising 51 on their calls while Boden had to wait it out back at the station house.

"Nobody goes in until we know if there's a leak or not," he'd told them.

"To hell with that, we need to get those people out now before something happens," Kelly defied him.

Everybody made quick work of ignoring anything Gorsch said and divided up into checking the gas main and going into the building and bringing people out. The building's own gas line was secure, but there was an overwhelming smell in the air and the rest of the block had to be checked to find the leak, and the apartment complex still had to be evacuated incase there was an explosion, and above all else the priority was to work fast, but not create a panic since that's how people died. Otis raised the aerial and Cruz went in on the top floor since he could communicate with the tenants and it'd be quicker to get them out the window one and two at a time than everybody running down the stairs at once in a panic and somebody getting trampled to death. Severide, Casey, Kidd and Mouch went in the front and pounded on doors, looking for anyone who knew English and who could translate to the tenants who didn't, they could evacuate far quicker if people left of their own volition instead of kicking and screaming as the firemen dragged them out by sheer force. They'd found a couple bilingual people who helped clear up the communication barrier with the residents of the first three floors while Cruz got everybody on the top three to go to the sixth floor with him and everybody climb down the ladder one at a time. In all, 36 tenants were evacuated, and the floors were swept to make sure nobody had been left behind, then the aerial had been lowered again and the firefighters proceeded to sweep the rest of the block, leaving no stone unturned.

And when Severide walked out the front door, Gorsch had been there looking like he'd been sucking on a lemon since birth.

"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded to know.

"Our job, saving people, remember that part of working in CFD?" Kelly sniped at him.

"Maybe your chief puts up with this kind of insubordination but I can promise you that I will-"

"We don't have time for this, get out of the way so we can do our jobs," Kelly told him as he headed over to the next lot to see if everybody had been evacuated from there as well.

"You seem to forget that it was your dad's friend Grissom who personally assigned me to 51 and I'm going to-"

"Get-out-of-the-way!" Kelly screamed at him, ready to knock the deputy commissioner flat on his ass with a Halligan.

Gorsch never shut up and continued on his tirade, "The commissioner is going to get a full report from me and when I'm done with 51, Wallace Boden won't even be able to-"

There was nothing after that, except a deafening explosion that knocked Severide on the ground and scattered debris blown off one corner of the building rained down on him.

Severide heard static on his radio but he couldn't hear anyone talking, he couldn't see anyone. The front yard he'd just been standing in looked like a war zone, above him all he saw was black smoke pouring up from somewhere, and bright orange flames that climbed higher and higher. A pile of rubble blocked his view of the street or any of the other firefighters, all he saw, as he turned around, was another body in turnout gear rolled on its side facing away from him.

"Gorsch!"

Kelly crawled over to the assistant deputy commissioner and turned him over. His helmet was gone, half of his face was covered in blood, part of his turnout gear looked like it had melted, or just been torn off by the blast, he wasn't breathing. Kelly pulled off his glove and felt Gorsch's neck, there was a pulse, barely. Kelly radioed for help and proceeded to perform CPR on Gorsch. His blood was pounding in his ears but he could hear Casey on the radio, "On my way, Severide, hang in there!"

He didn't know how long it took, but Casey didn't get there. There was another explosion, and Kelly felt his whole body bombarded with debris and rubble that was burying him, burying both of them, he realized, alive. He did the best he could to keep doing chest compressions as everything caved in on them, then something heavy hit him in the back of the neck, and everything went black.

Sometime during his flashback, Kelly started crying, now that the whole memory had played itself out, his whole body was shaking and he was sobbing in large heaving gulps for air.

Benny knew that the moment they'd dreaded had finally come.

"They dug you out in a few minutes, rushed you here," Benny told him, "we spent 4 days waiting for you to regain consciousness. Docs said you could go either way, of course I told them they were full of crap."

"Gorsch? What happened to him?" Kelly asked.

The look in his father's eyes told him everything he needed to know.

"I'm sorry, Kelly," Benny said after his son let out an anguished cry, one that every firefighter knew, the pain of the failure to save someone, no matter who it was. "He was in a coma and he died last night. I know how it sounds, but we were all hoping he'd pass before you woke up, it wouldn't be fair to give you any false hope."

"No...no..." Kelly groaned as he writhed on the bed in hopeless frustration.

"Kelly, look at me," Benny grabbed his wrists firmly, "you did everything you could to save him. You didn't fail, Kelly, this isn't on you."

"I didn't want him to die," Kelly tearfully tried to explain, "I hated him, but I didn't want him to die."

"I know that, Kelly, everybody knows it," Benny told him. "Kelly, you guys got everybody out of the building in time, they're all alive and safe because of what you did."

Kelly shook his head, sobbing, "It's not enough, it's not enough."

Benny gathered his grown son in his arms and held him tight and felt every tremor running through Kelly's body reverberate against his. "It's alright, son, everything's going to be alright."