Hey guys. I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated this. I haven't given up on it, I still have plenty of ideas. With the new seasons coming back soon I'm all inspired again. This is really just a filler chapter, to catch up on where all the characters are at and set up future events I have in mind, but I have the next few chapters planned out. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 13

Sylvie was startled awake by a crash and a curse. She opened her eyes to near darkness. "Antonio, what's going on?" Sylvie whispered.

Sylvie switched on the bedside lamp and blinked, squinting while her eyes adjusted to the light. Antonio picked up the dressing table chair that he had knocked over and turned around, the look on his face was one of mild horror mixed with guilt.

"I'm sorry baby, I didn't want to wake you."

"Well done" Sylvie replied. It sounded harsher than she meant it. "What time is it?"

"Almost 3. I've got to go to work."

"Now? But you only got home a couple of hours ago."

Antonio walked back over to the bed, half dressed in a crumpled shirt and black jeans. "I know, but there's been a shooting, it's connected to this case we're been working..." Antonio trailed off, realising that Sylvie didn't need to hear any of this now.

He sat down on Sylvie's side of the bed and sighed. Sylvie brought an arm out from underneath the covers and wrapped it around his middle. "Voight's got to let you sleep sometime." Antonio tried for a reassuring smile but he doubted that it was in any way convincing. He covered her hand with his and gave it a squeeze Sylvie sighed herself, knowing that she wouldn't be able to stop him going. "This happens too much" was all she said. "I know you love your job, but you need to take care of yourself."

Antonio kissed her, partly to say goodbye but mostly to stop her talking. "Don't worry about me" he said, but knew she did, and would until he came home. He felt guilty about that but he couldn't dwell on it now. "Go back to sleep."

Sylvie sank back into the bed sheets and smiled wistfully up at her husband. "Be safe." It had become their standard farewell every time one of them left for work, and it didn't get any easier each time.

"I'm sorry to leave you to deal with the boys alone in the morning."

"We'll be fine" Sylvie said softly. "Go." And with one more, quick kiss, Antonio was gone.

It's my own damn fault, Sylvie thought to herself as she paced the twins' bedroom 30 minutes later, a waiting Matteo in her arms, I jinxed it. Gabriel watched from his crib and looked distinctly fed up at being woken up by his brother. Sylvie caught sight of him as she paced. "I know how you feel, buddy."

Matteo sniffled and clung to his mother and she hugged him, unsure what was wrong. A couple of months from their second birthday, Sylvie thought that sleepless nights were a thing of the past. No longer needing to be fed through the night, Sylvie had dared to dream once again of regular, full night's sleep. But between Antonio's work, her own job, and Matty's apparent nightmare, that was too good to be true.

Sylvie sat down on the couch in the nursey. The glow from the nightlight cast a soft light across the white walled room. She sat Matty on her lap so he was facing her. "What's the matter hey?" she asked. Matty simply looked at Sylvie through teary eyes and cried some more.

Confident there was nothing seriously wrong with her son, Sylvie leant back and tentatively closed her eyes. She hoped Matteo would exhaust himself and fall back asleep before Gabriel decided he wanted to join in the night time fun and start crying as well. Sylvie was thankful she wasn't on shift in the morning. She had a whole 12 hours in which to recover before she had to be back out saving Chicago. She had been at Molly's until late, so had not been asleep long before Antonio left, and it looked as though she wasn't going to get much sleep now either. She had only had one drink at the bar. She could have done with more. Instead she had sat and watched as Gabby knocked back one whiskey after another.

"Should you be doing that with the medication you're on?" Sylvie asked hesitantly, somewhat worried about what Gabby's reaction would be while she was in this kind of mood.

Gabby had only shrugged. "Who cares?"

Sylvie sighed. She didn't answer Gabby's question, they both knew the answer. Gabby's husband cared. Her brother cared, her niece and nephews, Sylvie herself and two firehouses worth of CFD colleagues, but Gabby didn't want to hear any of that, not then. Sylvie had just let her vent.

The thing was, Gabby had failed her latest medical and was not cleared for duty. It had been more than half a year since Gabby's accident and she was not fully recovered, despite her protests to the contrary.

"I don't know who I am without CFD" Sylvie heard Gabby admit in her drunken haze, and had laid a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"You'll figure it out, I know you will. You've fought so hard in rehab…"

"… for all the good it did."

"So you can't be a firefighter at the moment. It doesn't mean you won't be again. You've got to stay positive."

"I've got to have another drink" Gabby counteracted and reached over the bar to swipe a bottle. "It's my bar, my booze. I can drink as much as I like" she added when she caught Sylvie's disapproving look.

In the end Sylvie had to leave Gabby in Stella's hands. She needed to get home to her family, even though she had already missed the twins' bedtime. In the cab, she messaged Stella and made her promise to call Matt to go and collect Gabby soon, and she hoped now that now that Gabby had let some of her frustrations out she would go back to being the fighter everyone knew her to be.

Tomorrow she would go and see Gabby, and get Antonio to do the same. She needed as many of her friends and family around her to help her through this as she could get.

Matty's cries had diminished into a quiet whimpering, and Sylvie risked standing up and placing him back in his crib. After putting him down she was still for a moment, fully expecting the wailing to start up again. When it didn't, she let out a sigh of relief. But to risk leaving the room and going back to her own bed, as much as she wanted to, was a mistake. Instead she stretched out on the couch and pulled a blanket over her body.

Jay wrapped his gloved hands protectively round his coffee cup and bounced a little on the spot to keep warm. He could see his breath leave his mouth and drift away into the night. He glanced over at Antonio standing beside him under the street lamp looking fed up and raised an eyebrow.

"I bet you wish you were warm and snug up in the State's Attorney's office right about now."

Antonio looked back. "No man, I wish I was warm and snug in bed with my wife."

Jay took a sip of his coffee. "Fair point."

After the adrenaline-filled last couple of hours which involved everything from a gang shoot-out to a briefly missing child, both men were trying to savour this break in the action before having to question suspects back at the station. But it was hard to savour anything when it was this damn cold.

"How's it been at home since you came back to intelligence?" Jay wasn't usually the nosy type, but he wanted to make small talk to distract from the temperature.

"It's good" Antonio smiled. "I mean, we're still trying to figure out the schedule with the boys. But yeah, me and Sylvie are better than ever."

Jay finished the last of his coffee and crushed the paper cup in his hand. "You should bring the boys by the station, I feel like I haven't seen them in forever."

Antonio turned to his friend and colleague and surprise. "Really?"

"Sure, I love kids." Jay went quiet then, Antonio could only imagine what thoughts were going through his head.

"Maybe we can go and do something, all of us. Me, Sylvie, the kids" Antonio paused. "You and Chelsea. How's that going?"

Jay sighed. "It's alright."

"You don't sound very enthusiastic about it."

"She's a great girl, it's just hard, you know? Since Erin left, I haven't really been able to commit."

Seeing the look on Jay's face, Antonio was sorry he'd brought it up, but when Jay turned to face him, he shook his head and forced a smile onto his face. "Don't worry about it, I'm fine. I'm just feeling sorry for myself because it's cold and I'm tired. I'll ask her when she's free."

Antonio pulled his glove aside to look at his watch. It was almost 6am and just about to get light. "I would kill for a bacon roll right about now" Antonio said wistfully. Jay just nodded, still lost in his thoughts.

Attwater walked past them and patted Antonio on the shoulder. "Voight wants us back at the district."

"Thank God" Jay said, and both men abandoned their post and walked towards their vehicle with a sigh of relief.

Sylvie opened her eyes slowly, naturally waking up for the first time in she didn't know how long, to find Diego standing in front of her with a mug of tea.

"Morning" he said, and Sylvie sat up, looking around to orientate herself. In the cribs, the twins were sleeping soundly. For once.

Sylvie took the mug gratefully. "What time is it?"

"7:30. Where's Dad?"

Sylvie took a sip. "He had to go to work in the night. You didn't hear him leave?" Diego shook his head, but Sylvie should have known. He could sleep through anything. "Do you need a ride to school?"

Diego grinned. "It's Saturday."

Sylvie blinked. "Right."

"I was going to ride my bike to the park with Max, is that cool?"

"Now?"

Diego looked down at his pyjamas and ran a hand through his messy hair. "No. At 10. Dad should be home then right?"

"I hope so. I'll call him in a little bit." Sylvie pulled the blanket aside to make room on the couch, and patted the cushion for Diego to sit down. "Thanks so much for the tea" she said, as he flopped down beside her. "Your brothers didn't let me sleep much last night." She paused. "Actually, just one brother."

"Gabe?"

Sylvie laughed. It was a sensible conclusion to make, Gabriel was usually the one causing problems, but on this occasion, the roles were reversed. "Actually, no, for once he was the easy one." Sylvie put her around her step son and took a moment to sip her tea and enjoy the quiet. "Is Eva up?"

"Yeah, she's up" Diego replied. "She went for a run. She's insane, do you know how cold it is out?"

"I hope she wrapped up warm."

"She looked like she was about to climb Everest the number of layers she had on. I snuck a picture. She's gonna flip when she sees it on Instagram later."

Diego smiled a mischievous smile and Sylvie laughed. Antonio's two older kids teased each other and wound each other up constantly, but it was mostly good natured and very rarely escalated into an argument. Despite everything they had both gone through, or maybe because of it, they were growing pretty close as they grew up. She didn't take for granted how fortunate she was to have such a well-adjusted family surrounding her, and such a loving environment in which to bring up her babies. And right now, it was perfect and peaceful. Too peaceful. Sylvie knew if she let the twins sleep much longer they'd be a nightmare come nap time. It took all the strength she had to heave herself off the sofa.

"Wakey wakey sleep head" she said, gently stroking Matteo's cheek. He groaned and stretched, awake but with his eyes firmly shut. She laughed at the scrunched up look of fury on his face. "Who's fault's that hey?" She lifted him up, blanket and all, and bounced him on her hip to wake him up.

Diego was at Gabriel's crib doing the same. It was touching for Sylvie to see how much Diego and Eva loved their little brothers and how willing they were to help out with them without even being asked. Most of the time.

"God, you're getting heavy" Diego said, and he lifted Gabriel over the bars. In response, Gabriel only groaned. "Who's hungry?" he asked, looking at his brother but also at Sylvie.

She didn't know about the boys, but she was starving.

Antonio unlocked his front door and stepped into his hallway, the rush of warmth soothing him instantly. "Hey hey" he said, to anybody within hearing distance. There was no response.

He found Eva lying on her belly on the living room rug with her back to him, headphones covering her ears. He reached down and lifted one side away from her head. She jumped and turned around, the tinny beats of her music filling the room. "God Dad, you scared me" she said, but she wasn't mad.

"You should dry your hair" he said, "you'll catch a cold."

Eva rolled her eyes. "With the heating cranked up this high?" But she sighed. "I will."

"Where is everyone?"

"Diego's out. Everyone else is in the kitchen."

Antonio bent down and kissed his daughter on the head and made his way through the house, flinging his jacket across the back of the sofa as he went. He found Sylvie with her head in the fridge, and both twins in their highchairs. They squealed with delight when they saw their father enter and Sylvie popped her head out of the fridge and closed the door, mirroring the smiles of her sons.

"Hey baby" Antonio said, embracing her.

She wrapped her arms around him too. "It's almost lunch time" she said, "what took so long? Was it a rough one?"

Sylvie asked with care, she knew Antonio didn't like to talk about the specifics of his job at him, especially around the kids. What he saw every day was often violent and upsetting and he wanted his home to be free of that. But at the same time, he knew that bottling up his feelings wouldn't be healthy and he appreciated Sylvie's concern.

"It was pretty bad" he said. "The other guys are still working on the case, but I had to come home."

Sylvie didn't speak for a moment, enjoying the sensation of being in her husband's arms. It didn't happen nearly as much as she'd like. "I've got to go to work in a couple of hours."

Antonio sighed. "I never see you."

Sylvie did her best to sound positive. She didn't want to make Antonio feel guilty. "Do you want some food? Some sleep?"

Antonio let go of Sylvie and sat down on one of the high stools at the breakfast bar between the high chairs. "I've drunk way too much caffeine to sleep. But a sandwich would be great. Thank you." Antonio reached out to stroke first Matteo's head and then Gabriel's by way of greeting. It calmed him instantly. Being around his family was all he needed to reset and relax after a difficult shift. "Halstead asked if we wanted to go out with him and his new girlfriend. I think we should, he's struggling at the moment and I want to be there for him."

Sylvie went back to the fridge and continued to speak as she got what she needed. "Sure. You know who else needs us right now? Gabby." She closed the refrigerator and dumped the food on the countertop. "She was in a bad state at Molly's last night. You know she failed her medical? She's taking it pretty hard."

Sylvie came up behind him and lay both hands on Antonio's shoulders. She kissed him once on the head then went back to the counter.

Antonio knocked on his sister's door later that afternoon. 'No way' Antonio had told his only daughter when she had demanded $50 for babysitting her brothers after Sylvie had gone to work, so now he was there with two toddlers in tow. He hoped that Gabby's hangover would have diminished enough that she would be pleased to see her nephews. He needn't have worried.

"Hey guys!" Gabby said when she opened the door. She took Matteo from Antonio's arms and smiled into his chubby little face. She turned back to Antonio. "You look like hell."

Antonio shifted Gabriel's weight and walked past Gabby into the apartment. "Yeah, well, I've been up all night at work. What's your excuse?"

"I don't need a lecture Tonio" Gabby said, sweeping her hair from her face and bouncing Matty distractedly on her hip.

"That's not why I'm here" he said, calmly. He knew Casey would be on shift as well, he needed to talk to his sister alone, he knew that was the only way to get through to her.

"Did Sylvie send you? I know I got a bit carried away last night but you can tell her I'm fine."

Antonio walked towards his sister, and took hold of her free arm gently but firmly. "Nobody needed to send me, Gabby. You're my little sister and you're going through a rough time, I want to be here for you."

Gabby seemed to deflate. Her shoulder's slumped forward and she looked at the floor. Antonio loosened his grip. It was unnerving for Antonio to see Gabby give in so easily. The twins chattered happily, just so the adults wouldn't forget they were here. Gabby walked to the couch and sat down, Antonio sat beside her.

"What can I do to help?"

"Fix my busted leg?" Gabby replied, her voice filled with sarcasm. "I don't think I'll ever be back on the job, Tonio."

"You don't know that."

"I need to be realistic. I'll accept it eventually, I will. I'll find something else to do too, but first I need to get drunk once in a while and let off steam."

Antonio nodded. Part of him was pleased his sister was being pragmatic, but part of him was still worried as it was unlike her. She was usually headstrong and bullish when it came to getting things she wanted. Perhaps she didn't want it as much as he thought. "How do you feel about it?" Antonio asked, testing the waters. "Not being a firefighter?"

Gabby looked down at the baby on her knee for a moment, trying to order her thoughts. "Surprisingly alright. Listen, I know what I was like last night and what I said, I don't blame Sylvie for being worried about me. I'm sorry about that. There are other jobs in CFD I can do, maybe one day I'll even enjoy one of them."

"Have you talked to Casey?"

Gabby smiled. "Of course. Honestly, I think he'd be relieved if I was out of danger." Gabby bent forward and kissed her nephew's soft, downy head. She hugged him close and took a deep breath. "This is what I want Antonio. I want what you and Sylvie have. A family."