Chapter 8

Kelly walked past the "gym" just off the apparatus room...and he could hear someone grunting as they went to town on Boden's heavy bag. Curiosity got the better of him and he opened the door to see who was inside.

He found Wilson...and the Candidate was, indeed, whaling on the bag.

The Candidate fired off a series of punches and took a step back as the bag swung dizzily from the heavy-duty chain.

Impressive...Kelly thought, as he watched Trey pull his gloves off and catch his breath.

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"Not bad, Rookie..." he said.

"Thanks..." Wilson answered. "It's somethin' I picked up in the Navy."

Severide gave a short chuckle.

"Don't let Chief hear you say that. You might end up in the ring."

Wilson chuckled too.

"And it's prob'ly not a good career move to knock out the boss..."

"I wouldn't advise it." Severide replied.

The two men regarded one another for a moment then Severide tossed the kid a towel.

"Thanks, Lieutenant."

"No problem..." he replied. "Hey...in case I didn't mention it earlier...that was a good job at the apartment thing. You did good."

Wilson grinned.

"That's what I signed up for."

"That's what we all signed up for." Kelly told him.

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Veronica came into Helping Hands about every third day now...so Alyssa made it her business to be there in the mornings into the early afternoons with the girls. They were perfectly content. Lexi played in the port-a-crib they just kept behind the counter.

And Maggie thought she was helping Mommy. Lyssa found things for the little girl to count and on every donation receipt, she had anyone working circle the first letter of the last name and then Maggie put them in the big accordion file.

It was a good way to instill a strong work ethic in the children. Alyssa paid her in Monopoly money...and when they bought a book or a toy the little girl wanted, she and Kelly told Maggie she could "pay them back" when they got home.

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Even though she hadn't said anything, Lyssa was more than certain Veronica had some tie to the CFD. Not only that, but who ever that tie was worked Black watch. She only came on the days Kelly was on shift.

She also suspected that someone had hurt the girl very badly...maybe still was. She talked about herself in such a self-deprecating manner...and there was the thing with the long sleeves and long pants in the middle of the summer. Like wearing a suit of armor behind a brick wall.

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She opened the door at ten o'clock...and at ten after ten Veronica walked in. She didn't cringe when the bell rang anymore.

Maggie looked up from her "work".

"Hi Veronica!" she said with a big wave.

Veronica smiled at the little girl.

She made her usual round...she looked at a couple kitchen utensils. But then she passed them by.

She zeroed in on a cream colored throw...and she ran her hand over the soft cotton. She looked at the price...and picked it up, hugging it to her chest.

As she started toward the counter, the bookshelf must have called to her. She looked over the titles and she picked one up. She'd been looking at that same book for about two weeks...and she always put it back at the last second.

But today she carried it to the counter along with the blanket.

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Alyssa smiled.

"I was wondering if you were ever gonna buy that..." she said as she rang it up.

"It's always been one of my favorites." Veronica said with a shy smile.

"Same here."

"Are 'dere princesses in it?" Maggie piped up. "Me 'n Lexi like princesses."

The two women both smiled and Lyssa ruffled her daughter's curls.

"No...no princesses, Honey." she told her.

Maggie went back to her coloring.

If there were no princesses, then what was the point?

Lyssa turned back to Veronica.

"So you like to read?" she asked.

"Yeah...my boyfriend doesn't like it though."

"Kelly doesn't like to read either...unless he's reading to the kids." Lyssa said.

"Well he doesn't like it when I read..." Veronica said. "He says then I'm not concentrating on what's important...like cleaning the apartment and cooking and stuff."

Alyssa gave the girl a strange look.

"It takes maybe, a couple hours tops to clean an apartment. And unless you're cooking ten course meals..."

"My boyfriend likes everything a certain way...he was in the military...and he likes order."

It still sounded weird. Something wasn't right.

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"That's seven seventy-five..." Alyssa said.

Veronica pulled two crumpled fives from her front pocket.

While Lyssa was making the change, her cell phone rang.

The girl pulled it out of her pocket in a hurry and answered it on the second ring.

"Hello?" she said.

Pause...

"I'm at that little shop I told you about...I found a nice blanket for the couch..."

Another pause...

"Okay...I'm going right now..."

She ended the call.

"I have to go...he wants me to go home."

Something was definitely not right.

"Veronica?" she asked. "Is everything okay? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine...I just have to go home. I've been out too long."

She'd been in the store less than half an hour.

But Alyssa didn't want to push her...not when the girl was just starting to feel comfortable around her.

She just hoped and prayed that she'd be safe.

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The team was sitting down to dinner when Kelly's phone went off.

He looked at it and saw he had a text message.

It was from Alyssa...and when he opened it, he burst out laughing.

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"What's so funny?" Shay asked.

Kelly just handed her the phone...he was laughing too hard to answer.

Shay lost it...and she put her hand over her mouth.

"Okay...now I gotta see." Casey reached over and took it out of her hands.

He took a drink of water...and when he looked down at the phone...it went down the wrong way and he started to cough.

Mills came over and grabbed the phone...and soon he was laughing too.

One by one...all the firefighters erupted into hysterics as Severide's phone made its way around the table.

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Alyssa had snapped a picture of the girls out in the four seasons room. Maggie was "reading" to Lexi...but she had the book upside down, and Lexi was practically standing on her head to see it.

"Oh God..." Hermann gasped as he struggled to pull himself together. "That's priceless..."

"It's cute..." Wilson said.

He didn't get the big joke...a couple of kids?

"Who are they?" he asked.

Kelly wiped his hands down his face and tried to stifle the last of the chuckles.

"My daughters..." he told the Candidate. "Maggie and Lexi..."

"Hey..." Casey interrupted. "When's the adoption supposed to go through."

"Any day now..." Severide answered. "Greg says it could be any day now."

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Grigoriy Zvonecek...Otis's cousin...was the lawyer that had helped them when Lexi's birth mother wanted to have visitation with her at 26th and California. That was no place to take a baby.

But thankfully that hadn't happened. And thankfully once she knew she was going to spend the rest of her miserable life behind bars...Jaclyn Fisher had signed away her parental rights, allowing Kelly and Alyssa to officially adopt the baby girl they had fallen in love with the minute she came into their home.

So Cousin Greg had helped them again...this time with the mountains of paperwork that went with the adoption process.

"Hopefully...we'll be able to make Lexi's birthday a double celebration." Kelly added.

"Or you could just do two..." Cruz suggested.

Everyone looked down the table.

"What? Two parties equals two times we get Lyssa's cookin'." he said, like the reason was obvious. "With four kids, she doesn't have time to cook for a bunch 'a hungry firemen anymore."

"Are you sayin' you don't like my cookin'?" Mills asked in mock indignation.

"No...I'm sayin' I like Lyssa's better." Cruz retorted.

There were a few good natured groans and Casey, Kelly and one or two others balled up their paper napkins and threw them at Joe.

"I think maybe it's time we got a taste of the Candidate's cooking." Mills said. "How's next shift sound?"

"Sure..." Wilson said. "Just make sure you got plenty of Alka-Seltzer and Tums on hand."

"We can stock up at the ER..." Shay promised.

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Everyone turned back to their meal.

"Hey, Candidate..." Hermann said. "You hardly told us anything about yourself. You married?"

"No..." Wilson answered. "No...but I've got a girlfriend."

"What's her name?" Otis asked.

"Roni..."

"You should bring 'er 'round Molly's sometime." Hermann suggested. "We'd all love to meet 'er."

But Wilson shook his head.

"I don't think so...she's really shy. She doesn't like to go out."

"C'mon...we're all family." Hermann said.

But Trey Wilson just shrugged non-committally.

Shay took up the line of questioning next.

"How'd you meet her?"

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The rookie set his fork down. He seemed to be carefully considering his answer.

It wasn't a hard question though.

"She used to work in a law office downtown...and I met her when I was delivering for Fed Ex. I thought she was cute...and I asked her out."

He paused the wipe his mouth with his napkin.

"After we started seein' each other...she tells me her boss is a real scumbag. He was always lookin' at her...undressing her with his eyes...she told me she used to run around the desk 'cause he was always lookin' to play 'grab ass'..."

The team watched the new guy...waiting to see where the story went.

"Then one day she called me...crying hysterically...she was in the bathroom at the office, her boss had pushed her down on the couch and tried to rape her. He ripped her blouse...she kicked 'im in the nuts...and ran away. I went and got her...and she quit the next day. Just called 'im. I couldn't let her go back there."

Trey took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"That really scared her. She hasn't been the same since. She doesn't like to go out...she's just happy to play Susie Homemaker now."

There was an uncomfortable silence around the table.

"Well..." Casey finally said. "We get it...but whenever she's ready...tell Roni she's welcome here."