Chapter Three
A couple weeks later the Riordans had gotten settled in and everyone…Kelly and Alyssa, Nicky and his wife Kathy, and Kyle and his wife Amy had become accustomed to seeing five boys running in and out of each other's houses. Sometimes Nick's middle son Aiden got in the game, but it was usually just the five.
Alyssa had just finished pulling a pan of brownies out of the oven. She knew she'd probably have a crowd after school…
Her phone went off… "Forever"…their wedding song…Kelly.
She hit the button to accept the call.
"Kelly?"
"Lyssa…"
His voice didn't sound right. And she could hear a siren in the background.
"Kelly, what's wrong? Where are you?"
She tried to curb the panic she felt building up inside her. Something was wrong…but at least it was Kelly calling her…not somebody else from the department.
"I'm on my way to Lakeshore…" he said. "It's my knee again…"
He had had surgery three years ago for a torn ACL…
"Oh…Baby…"
Alyssa could hear in his voice his frustration and a touch of anger…and pain.
"Can you come meet me?" he asked.
"Of course…let me just grab a few things."
She turned off the oven and headed toward the stairs.
"I'll be there as soon as I can…" she said.
"Lyssa…bring my crutches."
"Sure…I'll see you soon, Babe. I love you."
"Love you too…"
As soon as she hung up with Kelly, Alyssa made another call.
"Hello?"
"Benny…its Alyssa."
Benny Severide knew his daughter-in-law wasn't making a social call at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday morning.
"Is everything all right? Are the boys okay?" he asked.
"The little boys are fine…but I just got a call to meet Kelly over at Lakeshore."
"What happened? Is he okay?"
After twenty-five years with the department…he knew every little thing that could possibly happen to his only child.
"I don't have any details…" Alyssa told her father-in-law. "But Kelly's the one who called me, so that's saying something. He said it's his knee."
Benny breathed a sigh of relief. Sure, a knee injury could be serious…it could even be a career-ender, but at least Kelly wasn't burned, or suffered some other horrific injury.
"What do you need from me?" he asked.
"Can you throw a bag together and get down here. I'm going to need you to pick the boys up from school at three."
"Couldn't you get someone closer? Can't your mom do that?"
He'd rather go to the hospital. He wanted to see his son, to see with his own eyes that Kelly'd be okay.
"I don't need to be dealing with my mother right now. She'll just upset the boys…or Kelly when she starts in on how different my life could be if only I'd married Jonny DiNardo."
"I've never been to the boys' school before…" Benny protested.
"So listen…Come to our house first. I left the keys in an envelope in the mail box. The boys know which key goes to which lock. You need to go to St. Pasqual's about two-thirty…go to the office and tell them you need to pick up Andy and Jesse. I'll call there as soon as I hang up with you and set everything up. You'll have to show them your driver's license and they'll scan your finger print into their system. Then you're good to go. Take the boys home, give them a snack, let 'em play. I'll call you as soon as I have any information. I also left the pizza menu and some money on the kitchen table."
She'd covered all her bases…and Benny knew there was no room for arguing.
He was working on building a better relationship with Kelly and getting to know his grandsons…but old habits die hard. Truth be told…Alyssa made more of an effort than he did, inviting him over for dinners and to celebrate the holidays with them. But the rub was that they also celebrated with the guys from 51…including Peter Mills…and sometimes his mother. And sometimes Boden. Benny figured it was best not to go opening old wounds.
But this was different, he told himself. And if Alyssa was calling for his help it was serious.
"Okay." Benny told her. "I'll be there as soon as possible."
"Plan to stay a few days, Benny…please? If Kelly needs to stay in the hospital or if he needs surgery, I'm gonna need help with the twins."
There was an uncomfortable silence while Benny tried to decide whether or not he could handle two five year olds.
'Oh, stop it, Benny…' he thought. 'Man up. This is your son…and your grandsons.'
If there was ever a time to step up…this was it.
Besides…if he could run into burning buildings, he could look after his own grandchildren.
"Benny? Are you still there?"
His daughter-in-law's voice brought him back to the present.
"Yeah…I'm on my way, Alyssa. I'll be there soon. Don't worry. Just take care of Kelly."
Then he thought of something…
"Alyssa?"
"Yeah?"
"What do you want me to tell the boys? They're gonna ask why I'm picking them up instead of you or Kelly…"
"Just tell them the truth." She said.
"Alyssa…"
Benny's first instinct was to protect the children…
"They've been around the firehouse their whole lives, Benny. They know what can happen to a firefighter. Tell them the truth…that their dad hurt his knee and I went to be with him at the hospital. We'll be home as soon as we can."
Alyssa walked into Lakeshore's ER.
"Excuse me?" She said to the clerk sitting behind the desk. "My husband was brought in…he's a firefighter."
"Name?"
"Severide…Lieutenant Kelly Severide."
"Room 3." The clerk told her.
As soon as she stepped through the doors she saw Shay and Dawson. They saw her too and when Alyssa approached them, Leslie immediately wrapped her in a big hug.
"You got here fast…" Dawson observed.
"Yeah, I know. What are the chances that I'd just sail through every light?" She agreed. Then she took a deep breath and asked her friends… "Is he okay?"
"He fell on some steps…and landed on his knee. He's in a lot of pain." Gabby told her.
"Yeah…I gave him two shots of morphine on the way in." Leslie added. "They just finished taking x-rays."
Alyssa nodded.
"Thanks, guys…I'd better go to him."
She left the paramedics to finish their paperwork and hurried across the hall to Room 3.
Kelly was lying on the cot with his eyes closed. Alyssa leaned the crutches against the wall inside the door and set down the gym bag containing a change of clothes for him.
"Hey, you…"she said as she approached her husband.
He opened his eyes slowly.
"Hey…"
He sounded tired.
Alyssa came up beside him and gently laid her hand against his cheek. He leaned into the softness of her touch. Just her being there made him feel like everything was going to be okay.
She kissed him softly.
"What happened, Kelly?" she asked.
He sighed.
"Something hit me hard across the back of the legs and I fell forward onto some concrete steps. I landed right on my knee. It just blew up like a balloon…hurts like a bitch."
"They didn't give you anything?"
Leslie said they had…
"Shay gave me two shots…didn't help."
"Well, let's get someone in here."
She reached for the call button, but he took her hand.
"It's okay for right now…I'm sure someone's gonna come about the x-rays in a minute."
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"I just want a few minutes with you…"
He squeezed her hand in his and settled back against the pillows.
Sure enough…a few minutes later the doctor came in.
"Lieutenant Severide? I'm Dr. Thorne. I just had a look at your x-rays…"
"How bad is it?" Severide saw no point in beating around the bush.
"You fractured your patella. It looks fairly stable…but I've called Dr. Burda to come and see you."
Dr. Burda was the surgeon who had repaired Kelly's torn ACL three years ago.
"Why? Am I gonna need surgery again?" he asked.
"That'll be Dr. Burda's call…but with the amount of swelling and bruising you've got…and you said something hit you across the back of your knee…I'm concerned that the graft might have been injured. I'd rather be safe than sorry."
Kelly nodded. It made sense…
"He should be here soon. I'll try to get an ETA for you." The doctor told him.
"Hey, Doc? Can I have something for pain?"
"Sure. How bad is it? Can you give it a number…one to ten?" Dr. Thorne asked.
"About an eight…eight and a half…" Kelly answered.
He squeezed a little tighter on Alyssa's hand.
"I'll order something right away."
And the doctor left the room.
"Man, you must really rate around here…" Alyssa teased lightly.
"It's a firefighter thing…" Kelly told her with the slightest hint of a rueful grin. "Straight to the front of the line."
He must have been right, though. Because a minute later a nurse came in with the pain meds and something for nausea.
"Dr. Burda is on his way in to see you. He'll be here within the hour." She told them.
When Dr. Burda arrived he came in to examine Kelly…and when he took the ice off Alyssa was shocked by how swollen her husband's knee was. And despite having had two more shots of pain medicine, Kelly hissed and crushed her hand in his whenever Dr. Burda touched it.
It was heart-breaking…to see someone she loved in so much pain. But she kept her voice calm as she whispered soothingly to him, telling him to relax, to focus on her, to take slow deep breaths.
Dr. Burda wanted to do two things right away…the first was drain the blood that had collected in the joint capsule. He explained that there is bleeding in the joint when there is a tear or a fracture, and if the joint capsule is still intact the blood has no place to go, and it causes massive swelling. By draining it, that would help both the swelling and the pain.
The second thing was to get an MRI. That would allow him to assess whether or not the ACL graft had been damaged, and whether or not the extensor tendon had been injured as well.
They might need to get a CT scan as well to see how deep the fracture went, and better assess the degree of displacement…especially after the blood was evacuated.
He explained all this to Kelly and Alyssa. Kelly swallowed hard as he listened to what the surgeon had to say. He was terrified. He had visions of his career going up in smoke…no pun intended. If he needed more surgery…he'd have to go on long term disability for sure.
When Dr. Burda left the room to prepare for the procedure Kelly turned to Alyssa.
"You should go…it sounds like this is gonna take a while…and you need to get the kids."
She just stared at him incredulously for a moment.
"Kelly Severide…have you completely lost your mind? I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here till they tell me I can take you home or until you're settled in a room…fast asleep."
"What about Andy and Jesse?"
"I've already made arrangements for them. Your dad's on his way. He should be getting to the house soon and he's gonna pick them up from school."
"My dad? You called my dad?" Kelly wasn't sure he'd heard correctly. He thought he might be hallucinating from the pain meds.
"Well…all our regular "babysitters" are on shift till morning…would you have preferred I call my mother?"
"I just can't believe my dad would go for it. I mean…I can count on one hand all the times he's come when I needed him…" Kelly knew he was rambling… "He didn't even come when Andy…"
He stopped. Alyssa leaned down to kiss his forehead. She knew it was still painful for him to talk about Andy Darden…his childhood friend…a brother firefighter…the man he'd named his son after. Even though it had been eight years, Kelly still carried the scars from that horrible day…both physical and emotional.
"Kelly…Baby…your dad's trying. He loves you, and the boys. Let him do this for you…for us. Give him a chance to step up to the plate."
She was talking sense…he knew. And her holding his hand, gently rubbing circles across the back of it with her thumb…always helped calm him.
He looked at his wife.
"I love you…you know that, don't you?" he asked.
"There's no doubt in my mind." She replied, using a line from their wedding song.
