As promised, another little update. Happy Friday!
Kelly walked into the management class, immediately feeling like he didn't belong there. The rows of suits signing in, looked like an asshole convention. He turned to leave almost steamrolling over the woman behind him.
"Sorry," he said moving around the blonde, her face beautiful but wearing a scowl that must've rivaled his.
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked, hand resting on her hip. "If I have to sit through this shit, so do you."
The sass in her voice, that bossy attitude … yes, Kelly was stopped from his escape. He smiled and relented as she turned him around to get back in line. He turned back around, "I'm Kelly," he said extending a hand.
"Nice to meet you Fireman Kelly. I'm Nicole," she purred, taking his hand in a firm shake.
They took seats next to each other in the very back row.
"Gotta say, didn't think I'd be spendin' this class with someone in a pencil skirt," Severide whispered while the presenter blabbed on about different management styles.
"Pencil skirt, huh? Kind of impressed you even know what one is," Nicole giggled, her hand brushing his arm.
"Hey, I've been out of my cave for a while now," Kelly replied, drawing a warning look from the man in front.
"So fireman," Nicole purred, "you gonna rescue me from this hell?" She eyeballed his squad shirt, liking the way he filled it out.
Erin's text played through Kelly's mind as he pondered the invitation of the hot blonde sitting so close, touching him at every opportunity.
We need to keep our relationship about the baby.
She added words like friend and great dad to soften the blow. But that ending, that ending was what launched Kelly's phone to the ground.
Jay and I have a chance at something real.
So many responses rang through his brain … we've got a real shot … let's make us a real family. The little picture of picket fences and happily ever afters was dashed with that text.
She's probably with him right now, Kelly thought, a sick feeling developing in his stomach.
He grabbed Nicole's hand, leading her out the door, the nearest bar their destination. He was making his own reality. Right now.
"So what's your story? What'd you do to get yourself in there?" Kelly asked, ordering the pair another round.
"I like to think that what I call perfectionism, my firm calls difficult," Nicole complained. "Being a lawyer isn't all it's cracked up to be," she laughed.
"So you went to the class, or part of it. You paid your penance."
"If only it were that simple. I'm sure they're taking bets right now on when I'll get fired. My time's running out unless I land a big client," she sighed, gulping down another sip of the amber liquid, her throat burning.
"But," she said smiling, "we aren't going to talk about that right now. We're going to drink. Then drink some more. Then you're taking me to your place."
That's just what Kelly did.
The morning sun flooded into Severide's place with a brightness that anyone with a hangover considered hell.
Nicole rolled over in the strange bed, her hands immediately going to her head. She spied the empty space next to her, as if it were a puzzle piece she needed to complete a picture.
What did I get myself into, she thought, vaguely remembering drink after drink.
She got up, heading in the direction of what she thought would be the bathroom. There was a knock at the door. Kelly on the other side, wearing only a pair of boxers and a smile.
"You feel as shitty as me?" he asked, holding out a glass of water and two little white pills.
"Shittier," she answered, taking the offering. "Thanks for last night, fireman," she added. "You really saved me."
"Yeah, I get that a lot."
She laughed, taking in those blue eyes, a want coming through hers.
The curve of her neck caught Kelly's eye and for a second he wished he hadn't been such a gentleman last night, sleeping on the couch. Erin was with Jay, and he was living like a damn monk. He could hear Shay's laughter, could hear her voice saying something about karma being a bitch. God, he wanted her there right now. Needed her more than ever.
Nicole took Kelly's face in her hands, giving him the kiss she wanted to plant on him at the bar. The kiss that filled her dreams in his bed that night.
She gave him one more long look and was gone.
Erin's knuckles rapped on the heavy wooden door, again and again.
He was ignoring her. She imagined the hurt of her text was sending him into hiding … their most comfortable place. Her words had been impulsive, spur of the moment, fanned by a need to not lose another person - Jay.
Kelly opened his door, surprised at the woman behind it.
"You don't answer your phone now?" Erin demanded. "If something happens, I need to know that you'll be there, Kel."
"Phone died. Gettin' a new one today," he motioned her inside, doing everything in his power to keep a poker face.
"I was worried," Erin revealed, calming herself, deciding from his look that good cop was what he needed, so bad cop was put away.
"Sorry about that," Kelly said, softening also. "Had to go to some BS class, another hoop I gotta jump through."
Erin listened, laughing at Severide's description of the sea of suits and himself, sticking out like a beached whale.
She couldn't help but smile as he described the speaker as an unappealing combination of Mouch and Donald Trump.
She couldn't help that her hand touched his arm when he said he thought he might be getting his lieutenant rank back. The look of hope in his eyes.
She couldn't help enjoying herself in his company, laughing one minute at his silly jokes, serious the next as the room filled with his earnest desire to get his old job back. And not one word of it baby talk.
Erin was saying goodbye to the fireman outside of his place when a Mercedes with almost black windows pulled up, screeching to a halt right next to the pair.
Kelly insisted on walking the detective out, thinking about what to say, to confess, to maybe try to talk some sense into her when he saw Nicole saunter out of the expensive car, still in the same clothes from last night.
"Hey, fireman. Hi fireman's friend," the blonde giggled walking toward Erin and Kelly. "Forgot my belt. It's Saint Laurent and expensive as hell. You probably already know that Mr. Pencil Skirt." She let out another breathy laugh waiting for Severide to react.
"Uh, yeah, just go on up. It's unlocked," Kelly said studying Erin's face. It didn't take a PhD to figure out what she was thinking.
"Well, you sure don't waste any time," Erin uttered, turning toward her car.
"It's not what you think," Kelly said, matching her stride for stride.
"It doesn't matter what I think. It's your life. As long as your activities don't get in the way of being there for my baby, do what you want," Erin spat out, not bothering to turn around.
"I don't have any activities! And wait! Let me get this straight. You're pissed? You dump me in a text and now you're pissed?" Kelly was yelling now, wishing she would just stop and face him.
"You gotta be dating first to get dumped," Erin countered. "Gotta go. Jay's got lunch waiting for me." She knew it was a low blow, but oh, how it felt so good.
"Does he clean the house for you too? Maybe he's working on your ironing right now," Kelly was seething with fury, his words driven by a loathing for the man who currently held Erin's heart.
"He probably is! Ironing all my skirts! My pencil skirts!" With that Erin got in her car, slammed the door, and left.
Erin was getting back her detective sensibilities, not second guessing herself on every case, falling into an easy groove at work. IU ran like a well-oiled machine that needed each of its parts. She was one of the most integral parts.
Her life with Jay was comfortable and solid. She was safe with her partner at work and at home. Halstead was feeling good about the Kelly-less state their lives were in. He didn't know what had happened, but he was glad it had. The fireman was at all of Erin's appointments, or so he heard, but that was about it.
Avoiding Kelly. Piece of cake, Erin told herself. Easy as pie, she said. Pencil skirt, she reminded herself in times of weakness.
"Unit requested … Randolph and Morgan. Apartment fire. FD needs assistance."
Erin responded before Jay could argue that a patrol would catch the call.
The building looked more blaze than concrete and brick, a fire-breathing dragon attacking a group of knights. All knights from 51. Most of truck was rushing this way and that on the ground trying to get the thing to back down.
Erin let Halstead handle crowd control while she rushed to the man in charge - Chief Boden.
"Chief, what can we do?" Erin asked, scanning the scene for a sign of Severide.
"Keep the crowd back, out of our way," he barked, also looking for Kelly.
They both spotted him as he hopped on a ladder, Cruz right behind. Mouch was at the controls, raising the thing straight into the mouth of the beast, the second floor.
"Severide, where the hell are you going?" Boden radioed, furiously moving in the direction of the ladder.
"Capp and Tony didn't come out, Chief. The stairs were out. They gotta be trapped on two," Kelly was inches from an open window, shooting a line of fire at his mask-covered face.
"Hold up. Do not enter!" Boden barked, the new Captain by his side.
"It's suicide, Chief. You'll have four dead," Dallas said, his cool demeanor beginning to crack.
Boden ran his hand across his mouth, needing a few seconds of quiet.
"Get in, get out! Do it!" he yelled.
The captain hung his head, shaking it side to side. "You are making a huge mistake."
Getting through that wall of fire was nearly impossible, Kelly deciding to launch himself through, hoping the flames stopped at some point on the other side. It did.
He knew that if Tony and Capp weren't hanging out of a window, they had to be down. He crouched low, listening for the high pitched sound every firefighter dreaded.
Erin didn't help with the crowd, instead waiting by Boden, her eyes transfixed on the window her baby's father plowed through. She hadn't seen him in a week, keeping to Jay's wishes and her own anger. Now the pettiness of it all hit her like the smoke and heat hitting Severide on the second floor.
Erin couldn't breathe, didn't want to breathe until she saw Kelly.
"Severide, what do you see?" Chief asked. "Report! Report! Severide!"
Nothing.
The minutes ticked by so slowly, each one adding another weight on Erin's heart… a heart having a hard time healing. The pain of losing Nadia never completely gone. She could not lose anyone else.
"Can't you send someone in?" Erin blurted out at Chief. "Cruz!" She was yelling now, her hands shaking. Joe remained on the ladder, the words of Kelly echoing in his brain.
No. It couldn't end like this. Severide couldn't end like this, she thought.
Tony was suddenly propelled out of the window into Cruz almost knocking both of them off the ladder. Joe got his bearings, grabbing onto his fellow squad member's jacket and not letting go. Casey was up on the ladder now, helping to ease Tony down. Herrmann was next in line, taking the fireman the rest of the way.
Kelly! C'mon, Kelly! Erin was screaming his name in her head, hysterical, desperate. But to everyone around her, she was silent. All that noise reverberating in her skull, about to come out through her mouth.
Capp came crawling out a full five minutes after Tony. Five minutes of anguish for the detective. Thoughts of a baby who would never know daddy racing through her mind.
A pair of hands were pushing Capp through the thick billows of smoke and flame.
Erin let out a gasp, the sound so full of relief, nothing else could be heard or felt. Those fireman hands would hold their baby.
Kelly slowly came down the ladder, Cruz steadying his lieutenant.
Erin ran to the truck waiting for Severide to get his bearings, to finally place his feet on the ground.
"Jesus, Kelly," she whispered as he came to her, white teeth standing out against his black face.
He saw nothing but the woman standing in front of him. The world fell away as his smile grew wider. Someone offered him a water, some oxygen. Chili? Brett? He didn't know and didn't care.
"You weren't worried, Lindsay? Were you?" Kelly asked, his voice raspier than hers.
"Nah. You wouldn't leave without meeting this one," Erin answered, giving her stomach a quick pat.
"You got that right." Kelly gave the brunette a peck on the cheek and a wink, turning to grab that bottle of water. Brett pulled him by the arm, leading him to the ambo. Captain was yelling something in his face.
But the fireman could see one thing only … the beautiful woman watching him. He hopped up on the back of the ambulance, plopping next to Capp who was sucking in some oxygen greedily. Tony was doing the same.
Kelly took the mask that Capp offered, his eyes still locked on the detective.
Always locked on Erin.
On the mother of his child.
On his ex.
On the woman he loved.
A little hope? Yesss! Two more chapters in this one. What do you think?