Hi Everyone, here's another update! Thanks for all the favorites, follows, reviews and reads. I really appreciate all the support.
So Dani and Kelly have defined their relationship. They are going to try and be friends with a complicated history.
Please continue to read and find out how that works for them.
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Chapter 10- 3's Company
Bobby was right. She still loved him. She just didn't trust him. He could see the question in her eyes every time he told her he was going to be there for her. She was used to dealing with things on her own and he needed to change that.
"Same here princess, but I want you to promise me something" he started out.
She looked at him curious, "okay what?" she asked.
"Promise me that you won't leave me, even when I am acting like an ass because I can pretty much guarantee it's going to happen eventually" he teased.
She laughed, "I'm not going anywhere" she smiled with a reassuring nod.
"Good, now let's get you tucked into bed. I'll take the guest room" he helped her get settled into bed, propping a pillow on top of her chest and laying her arm over it. "You okay?" he asked.
She nodded, looking down shyly, "yeah, but I need you do something for me. Look this is already embarrassing, but can you stay with me tonight?" she replied.
He smiled and nodded, "yeah princess, I'll stay with you. No funny business though" he cracked a joke to make her feel better about the situation and lighten the mood a little.
She whacked his chest. "Don't be an ass" she replied as she cuddled into him and put her injured arm over his chest. He couldn't help but smile and hold her tight. This was going to be the best night's sleep he got in a while.
When Kelly woke up the next morning, it took him a minute to realize where he was, when the events of the night before hit him full force.
He looked down to see Dani wrapped around him. One of her legs was between his and her arm was thrown across his chest, her head resting on this shoulder.
He smiled and reached up to wipe some hair from her face before leaning forward to kiss her forehead. He was dreading the day and wished they could stay there in the moment forever because he was on shift and had to leave her.
Dani moaned and nuzzled further into Kelly. Normally she was a morning person, always awake before the rest of her family but with her raging headache and the meds they have her on, she just wanted to sleep more.
"Morning dimples" she greeted Kelly.
Kelly smiled at the use of his old nickname. She assigned it to him when they were still in high school. She thought he looked cute when he smiled and had great dimples that lit up his face, so she started calling him dimples.
"Morning dollface" he replied.
"Mhmm, I didn't think I would ever say this, but I really don't want to get out of bed" she stated.
Kelly laughed, "you shouldn't have to. It's only 9am on a Saturday. I am only getting up because I have a shift at 11. Otherwise, I would join you for a day in bed. There is no reason anyone should get up this early on a weekend" he reasoned.
Dani giggled, "go shower and get changed. I'll make us some breakfast after I take some ibuprofen, my head is killing me" she stated.
That caused Kelly to freeze in his spot. He was scared for her. "You have a headache? Is it bad? Do you want me to call Grace?" he asked all at once, getting up to grab his phone and start the panic calls.
She pushed herself into a sitting position at the side of the bed, trying to smile, although it came out more as a grimace, "no, I am not that bad. It's just a headache, don't worry, this is normal with the trauma I just went through" she tried to explain before putting her hand over her mouth and running to the bathroom.
She barely made it to the toilet before she started throwing up. Kelly ran in after her and held her hair up and out of the way. Rubbing her back, letting her get it all out. He was really worried about her.
When she was done vomiting, he helped her to the sink so she could wash her mouth out and brush her teeth before helping her back to bed. He sat next to her on the edge of the bed.
"Maybe I should call the chief and have someone cover for me. I really think that I should stay with you today. Or at least let me call Grace" he looked at her really worried.
"Kelly I am fine. It's all part of the headache. I just got up a little too fast and got dizzy. I'll be okay with some ibuprofen and sleep" she tried to reassure him.
She was a trauma doctor. She tells people this all the time. They are usually better after some sleep and something dry in their stomach.
"Dani come on, you are pale as a ghost. You can barely keep your eyes open and hold a conversation. Please, just let me stay with you today or at least call someone" he begged. He wasn't sued to seeing her so ragged.
She smiled tiredly, "Kelly, I promise I'll be okay. If you want to help then can you close the blinds, turn the lights off, tell everyone not call me and get me some dry toast to settle my stomach?" she asked.
"Yeah of course, I'll be right back" he got up and got into action doing what she told him to do. He was still scared for her. He told himself that he would call Grace when he got to the firehouse and tell her to come check on Dani.
Kelly got himself dressed, got her some toast and kept the room as dark as he could. "Okay, I took your phone off the hook and put your cell on vibrate here on your nightstand. I'll tell everyone to leave you alone for now, but I will call you later and you better answer or I am sending in the troops" he teased.
She smiled and nodded, snuggling deeper under the covers, "thanks Kelly" she replied.
He leaned over and kissed her temple, "call me if you need anything. I'll have my phone on me" he stated before leaving her to rest.
Once he got the firehouse, everyone came up to ask him about Dani. He told them that she was all fine and being stubborn as per usual. He excused himself and made his way to his office to call Grace.
Grace was getting out of a meeting with Connor and the rest of the heads. Really, Dani was supposed to be there to represent the ER, but since was sick, she had Grace cover for her.
She was walking back to the trauma offices when her phone rang. She got nervous when she saw it was Kelly. She knew he staid with Dani last night.
"Hey Kelly, what's going on?" she asked, causing Connor to pause and wait for more information. If it affected Dani, then he wanted to help.
"Hey Grace, listen, you know I staid with Dani last night and she was fine, but this morning was a different story. She woke up with a raging headache, she said she felt dizzy and started throwing up. She told me she was fine to be alone. I got her some toast and kept the room dark for her, but I am worried" he explained.
"Okay, um, did she have the headache all night or just this morning? How many times did she throw up?" Grace asked.
"No, I kept checking on her every couple hour last night and she was fine. The headache just came on when she woke up. I think she woke up because of it because she didn't want to get out of bed, and you know that's not Dani. She only threw up once when I was there. I told her to call me if she needed any help" he replied.
"Okay, if she is sleeping then she should be okay. I will call her to check on her after I hang up with you and go check on her on my lunch break" she informed him.
"No don't call her. She had me take her phone off the hook. Her cell is on vibrate and I told her that I would call her in a couple hours. She was sleeping when I left" he explained.
Grace took a breath and nodded, "don't worry Kelly, I'll head over there in a couple hours and keep an eye on her" she informed him.
"Thanks Grace, call me from Dani's" he asked.
Grace smiled and nodded, "yeah I will, promise" she replied before hanging up.
Hospital…
Connor was all over her when she hung up the phone with Kelly. He could only hear her part of the conversation and from what he heard, he was worried.
"What happened with Dani? What did Kelly say?" he asked.
"I don't know how to classify this. She felt fine all night, but this morning woke up with a raging headache, dizziness and vomiting. Kelly said he left her in a dark room with some toast and shut off the phone lines so she could sleep but am worried about lack of oxygen to the brain or intercranial pressure or…" she stopped when Connor put his hands on her arms interrupting her.
"Grace, you need to relax. If she felt fine last night then the possibility of a brain bleed or brain damage due to lack of oxygen is slim, but if you want, I will go check on her and sit with her for a little while" he said.
Grace let out a breath and nodded, "yeah okay. I told Kelly that I would go but I just remembered that Alex is coming in today for his preop appointment and I know that he is nervous. Call me when you get there and examine her okay? I am really worried. Tell her that I'll see her after work later" she said giving him a hug before running off to see her patient.
Connor didn't have any surgeries scheduled, so he told Ava that he was going to take a few hours for lunch and go check up on Dani.
Knowing that he was going during lunch, he stopped and got her some of her favorite clam chowder soup and some pasta and salad for himself.
When he got to her apartment, he dug under the loose brick in her porch for the spare key. He knocked and used the spare key to get into her apartment to find her cuddled on the couch with a fuzzy blanket, her glasses on, her hair up in a bun, drinking tea and watching Fifty Shades of Grey.
She looked up to see to see Connor at the doorway staring at her with a smirk on his face. She looked up at him with a smile. "Hi" she greeted.
Connor laughed before shutting the door and walking over to join her on the couch. He took off his coat and put the food on the table before leaning over her and kissing her cheek. "How are you feeling? I was told that you had a headache and threw up this morning" he said.
She smiled, "let me guess, Kelly called Grace. She had surgery today and so she called you" she assumed.
He smiled and shook his head, "as much as I hate to say this and as much as you may not believe it, but you are wrong my friend. I was already with Grace when she got the call, I didn't have to hear about it" he teased.
She burst out laughing, hiding her face under her blanket. "I still say that's a win" she replied.
"Whatever you say, now come on, I know you had some toast, but I brought you some soup and French bread. Let's catch up on Christian and Ana" he teased as he settled next to her on the couch.
She laughed as she took her soup coup, nodding at him as he dug into his own food, settling under the covers next to her.
Dani was exhausted by the middle of the movie. She had eaten her soup as settled against him as he ate his own lunch.
Kelly was worried about Dani. He called Grace in the morning and it as almost 1pm. He still hadn't heard from her. Instead of calling, he just made his way over to her house.
The door was open, so he just made his way in. "Dani" he called as he walked into the house. He stopped short when he saw her laying asleep with Connor Rhodes on her couch.
He slammed the door behind him, standing there as they both sprung awake.
Dani looked over at the door and smiled when she saw Kelly. Then she remembered where she was and who she was with before pulling away.
Connor followed her gaze and got off the couch, helping her up. "You good?" he asked.
She smiled and nodded before turning to face Kelly. She knew this was not going to go down real well. Especially with how they looked on the couch just then.
"Hey Severide, what are you doing here?" she tried to keep it light.
"I was worried when Grace didn't call me back. The hospital said she was really busy, so I decided to check up on you myself" he replied.
"Well, I am feeling much better thank you. The nap and toast this morning really helped" she stated.
Kelly scoffed and nodded to the scene before him, specifically Connor and the empty food boxes on the table. "I can see that" he said.
She closed her eyes and took a breath, hoping to turn the conversation around. "Yeah, um, Connor brought me some lunch. We were just catching up on the gossip of the hospital when I guess we just fell asleep" she stated.
He nodded and looked them over, "I am glad you're feeling better" he replied.
Before Dani could say anything else, Connor turned and grabbed his stuff. "I better get back to the hospital. I told Ava I was coming to see you for lunch, but she won't cover for me forever" he teased before leaning over and kissing her cheek.
Dani smiled and laughed at him, "you confronted Ava for me?" she teased. Knowing their relationship.
He smiled, "anything for you, you know that" he replied.
Dani blushed, "well, thank you for the soup and the company. I had fun" she gave him a hug bye.
He nodded, "I owed you a date remember. This is only part 1. If you had fun today, stay tuned for part 2" he said.
She didn't say anything, just shook her head at his antics and walked him out. She knew he was only saying stuff like that for Kelly's benefit. He was trying to make Kelly jealous. "I'll see you at your follow up" he called before he got in his car and left.
Dani took a breath and shut the door before facing Kelly. He was standing in her living room looking pissed. It looked like he wanted to say something and confront her, but he didn't at the same time.
"That was really nice of Dr. Rhodes" he said through clenched teeth.
Dani laughed, "yes it was. Apparently, he was worried about me after a 911 call from a certain firehouse lieutenant to Grace this morning" she gave him the 'I know what you did look.'
He had the sense to look ashamed, "I was worried about you and you wouldn't tell me what was going on, so I needed to call Grace for some back-up. I didn't know she was going to call that uptight asshole" he let his real feelings through.
Dani smirked, "uptight asshole huh?" she teased.
Kelly joined her on the couch, "I am sorry Dani, but I just don't like the guy. He wants to get your pants" he pointed out.
"Kelly, we are just friends. Just like me and you" she stated, trying to gauge his reaction to her statement. When he winced at the comparison, she smiled internally. She knew there was more to them.
"Yeah okay" he replied not believing her a bit.
Kelly a staid a little and watched some TV with her when her phone dinged indicating a message popped up. She opened her phone and saw that it was a text from an unknown number.
"Hope you are feeling better. You took a nasty fall. Will be seeing you soon" -C
Dani paled as she read the text. "Who's it from?" Kelly asked. He saw her face and knew it was nothing good.
She shook her head, trying to hide her phone. She was trying to play it down because she didn't want him to make this a big deal. "It's nothing, just something gross to a wrong number" she said.
"Oh no you don't" he grabbed her phone. He opened the message to see that it was a creepy message from someone named C. It was when he looked between her face and the phone did, he realize who the text was from.
"Is this from that guy at house 38? The one who followed you from Boston, from school? Did you tell Bobby? I told you to tell someone" he yelled at her.
"It's no big deal Kelly. He's just trying to get under my skin. If I just ignore him, he'll go away" she tried to reason as she grabbed her phone back from him.
"Not a big deal, Dani, the guy is obviously watching you. He knew you were in the hospital, knew that Rhodes was here. You need to tell someone about this, or I will" he threatened her knowing she wasn't going to tell anyone.
"Fine, I'll talk to Bobby on Sunday. Happy now?" she argued.
She knew he wasn't going to let this go. In Boston, after she ignored Cody and basically told him off in front of her entire resident class, he went away. She was hoping that this was the same situation.
A little while later, Kelly fell asleep on the couch. Dani knew she was supposed to be resting, but she couldn't get Cody off her mind. If Kelly was right, then he really was stalking her and watching her every move.
She took out her phone and called Connor. She wanted to know if he noticed anything while he was leaving.
"Miss me already?" Connor answered when he saw that it was Dani.
"You know it. I just wanted to thank you again for coming to check on me. I really appreciate the visit and the soup" she said.
"You are welcome but come on Dani. You already thanked me a million times. What's the real reason you called?" he asked.
"Did you happen to see anyone or anything weird when you left my house?" she replied.
Now Connor got worried, "No, was I supposed to? What's going on?" he asked.
"No nothing, it's just an ex-boyfriend from school that's now in Chicago and being weird" she replied vaguely.
"Let me know if you need me to do anything" he said.
She smiled, "yeah I will" she replied before hanging up.
The next couple of days were great for Dani. She was feeling better and better every day. She was still worried about Cody and what was going to happen with that. She wanted to get help, but she didn't want to get her brother involved because she knew he would freak out.
She couldn't drive yet, she wasn't feeling that great yet, so she had Grace take her to the police station. Her brother was out on an assignment, so she knew he wasn't going to be there.
Grace helped her out and into the station. Sgt. Platt was at the desk waiting for her. She called ahead and told her that she was coming.
When she saw the girls coming into the station, she rounded her desk and helped Dani into a chair. "Hi Trudy, can you call up to Intelligence and tell Jay that I am here" she asked.
Trudy nodded, "yeah you got it" she got back to the desk and called up to the detectives in Intelligence. She knew her brother was going to be pissed she didn't call him for help but even more pissed that she didn't go to Antonio.
It was a few minutes before Trudy came back to them and told them to go up to Intelligence and she would buzz them in. Grace helped Dani up the stairs and up to Intelligence.
Jay Halstead was the only one in the unit still at the station. Everyone else was out on a call. Once he saw them, he got up and met them at the stairs.
"Hey gorgeous, you're looking better" he greeted Dani with his melting smile.
Dani couldn't help but smile at him, "thanks Jay, you mind if I take a minute of your time?" she asked.
He looked at her concerned before nodding, "anything for you. Come on, let's go sit and get comfortable" he took her from Grace.
"I'll be a minute Grace. Jay will give me a ride when we are done" she said to her best friend.
Grace looked between the two and nodded, "I'll call you later" she said before pointing at Jay, "be careful with her" she warned him.
He saluted her with a smirk, "yes boss" he replied before leading Dani over to his desk.
Once they were alone, he got down to business. He's known Dani for a long time. Ever since she was a medical student and just starting out. He met her through his brother Will. They were in school together.
"Okay gorgeous, what's going on and how bad is Bobby going to kick my ass for dealing with this in secret?" he asked.
Dani laughed, wringing her hands in her lap. She was nervous. Internally she was scared but she was raised to be strong and not show emotion. "It's probably nothing. I am sorry for wasting your time" she moved to get up, when he grabbed her hands in his and stopped her.
"Dani, you are scared. I can see it. Tell me what's going on so I can help" he said.
Dani let out a big breath before nodding and pulling out her cell phone and handing it over, "okay, like I said it's probably nothing, but I need to talk to someone. Bobby and Kelly will just freak out and I need someone reasonable. Did Will ever tell you about this guy I was dating back in school? Cody Marks? We went out all together a couple times" she started.
Jay took a minute to think before nodding, "yeah a little. He's a firefighter, right?" he asked.
She nodded and pushed some hair behind her ear, "yeah, he ended up working in Boston. We only went on a couple dates, but I was still head over heels for Kelly and really messed up after Jessie, so I ended it. Told him it was better if we were just friends. He wouldn't let it go. I ignored him for a while, and he went away. Will was the only one who knew" she explained.
Jay nodded and looked at her through detective eyes, "okay, why are you freaked out now? Is he in Chicago? Has he contacted you?" he asked.
She swallowed hard and nodded, "he showed up a couple weeks ago to the firehouse. He said he was working at House 38 and had some paperwork for Chief Boden. He called me his girlfriend. Jay, we have been done for years but he still called me his girlfriend. Yesterday he sent me a text" she handed him the phone so he could see the message.
He looked over the message before looking back up at her, "Dani, he sounds like a stalker. How serious were you guys? Did he try anything with you in Boston?" he asked. He needed to know everything.
"No, we only went on 3 dates. I told him I had a lot going on in my life that I didn't have time for a relationship. Now I see him here at the firehouse. Even worse, Kelly confronted him when he wouldn't leave the firehouse. Jay, I don't know what to do? I don't want Bobby or my family to know. They are just going to freak and that's the last thing I need right now" she informed him.
He laughed and nodded in understanding, "okay, okay, let me look into things. In the meantime, I need you to be careful and call me if anything and I do mean anything happens" he pointed out to her.
She nodded and saluted, "yes sir, now will you take me home? I am getting tired" she asked.
He nodded and helped her up and out to the car. "You want to tell me why Kelly didn't bring you?" he asked.
"Kelly is jealous of Connor and I hanging out. He came over to check on me the other day last week and found Connor at my house. We are just friends, but he totally went green with jealousy. I can't deal with all the tension and the emotion. I need someone to deal with this who isn't bias. He told me that 3's company when it was just him, Connor and I. I can't deal with all that" she explained.
Jay couldn't help but burst out laughing while he drove her home. "3's Company, I like that" he laughed.
"I am glad you find my torment amusing" she teased.