Weeks later, with her black eye now completely gone, Allison trudged into the firehouse locker room to start the latest shift. While she had it marked on her calendar that Leslie would return to work in two weeks, every day that now passed seemed to be weighed down to a crawl with too much hope and anticipation. They hadn't seen each other since that dinner and it definitely felt too long.

As she opened her locker in the empty room, she sighed heavily to herself.

"Hey, PIC," a familiar voice from behind whispered into her ear, "Can I go for a ride-along. Like permanently?"

At Leslie's tease, Allison froze and turned around slowly to make sure she hadn't imagine that. She was then almost nose to nose with the grinning blond, who was in full uniform and without a cast. She immediately wrapped her in a grateful hug. "I don't care how or why you're here but you better not be kidding!"

Leslie laughed merrily as she hugged her back. "Wow, you've got the grip of a rescue victim!"

"Shay! You're back!" Herrmann declared as he walked in.

The women abruptly parted as Leslie then embraced him in a hug.

Getting her bearings, Allison asked, "Why are you here so soon? We weren't expecting you for another two weeks."

Leslie waved and flexed her recently freed arm demonstratively. "My doc determined I had healed quicker than expected. So I jumped at the chance to get back. I had already let Chief know a couple of days ago so Chout wouldn't be coming into work today. I'll wait for you guys in the common room."

Allison stifled her sigh of relief as she started to focus on changing into her work uniform. She felt a huge weight lift from her shoulders and she felt herself smile a little more readily than before.

Moments later she and Shay were sitting cross from each at the long table, where the latter was in a lively conversation with Herrmann and Mouch. Allison had a pleased smile as she had split her attention between them and her morning tea and paper.

"My fellow friends and comrades!" Otis declared as his trademark grand entrance with yet another large container of food, "And here we have Mamochka Zvonecek's - Shay!" he stopped into an abrupt squeak, "You're back so soon! Th-That's great!"

As all of the guys got to their feet in anticipation, she narrowed her eyes at him and asked, "Yeah, I am, Otis. What's that?"

"A little bit of Russian culinary love!" Mouch declared. "Just put the tray down, Otis, and back away like a good boy!"

Clearly a little thrown, Brian remained frozen for a moment but then under the hungry glare of many of his comrades, he stiffly put the tray of pierogies down in the usual spot before the two women.

Allison explained to her partner as she reluctantly grabbed the pastry. "It's been will-power torture. Brian's mamochka has apparently been on a cooking binge where we've been the fattening receivers of the excess."

Grabbing one herself through the swarm of firemen gathered around them, Leslie narrowed her eyes at Brian even more. "Oh really? How long has this been going on?"

"Oh, about-about two weeks or so," he tried to casually answer as the gathering of firemen started to subside. "So, you're back already! That's great! Really great!"

"Yes, it's great! And I hope your mom isn't feeling like a slave or something, you know to her darling son… and his co-workers," she said as she pushed the tray down the table, away from them and out of arm's reach.

As she munched herself, Allison sighed a little in relief that the food now required a little effort to get. Not much, but it would be enough to curb future temptation.

He nodded in anxious agreement. "I need to talk to Mama about see if she's, like, going to stop any time soon."

Cruz sat down with them and declared, "I'm torn about that. The only reason I'm not feeling guilty is that she seems thrilled to be doing it."

"I'll just bet she does," Leslie commented to Brian as she took a calculated bite of the food.

"Hey, Shay," Cruz suddenly added. "Your timing is perfect. We were talking about getting a group together to go to the fire academy dinner. Since there's a few of us who aren't dating and instead of scrambling for to fill our plus ones, we'd thought it'd be fun to go as a group so we can sit together."

"Like how we're doing right now?" Leslie asked.

"But with fancier threads, food and drinks. You going with Severide again this year?"

"No, I think he's planning to take Erin."

"Well, then you can join us! We were trying to convince Rafferty to come."

"Oh, you were, were you?" Leslie asked as she looked at Brian, who flashed a grin back. "So, Allison, are you going?"

She took a sip of tea and responded with a shrug, "I don't know. I had told the guys that it's not really my thing. It's been a couple years since I've worn serious heels… Would you go?"

Leslie looked at all of them, pausing the longest on Brian. "Well, this isn't an event that Devon would care about. And if I recall, last year's food was pretty good and we had a good time. So yeah, I'm game. And I think you should go too."

"… All right." Allison now felt a certain level of anticipation at the dinner that she didn't feel before. She smirked as she took a sip of tea, "But I'll have to see if any of my fancy dresses still fit. They may not after being fed by Mamochka Zvonecek for the past couple of weeks. And I'm certainly not going to buy a new expensive outfit for a group date."

"Oh, yeah, you've got a point," Brian declared as he thought about his own potential weight gain. "I'll definitely tell my mama that I won't bring anymore in. She'll understand. Luckily the dinner isn't until next month so we all have time to work it off."

"Well, there is a reason why the saying isn't a way to a woman's heart is through her stomach," Leslie remarked as she finished off her pierogi.

Allison laughed at that as Brian blushed.