Several days later, Tess ascends the subway stairs to find Harvey lingering at the top of the staircase. She is on night shift so this is not a random occurrence and quite honestly, Tess has kind of missed this little ritual. Harvey is waiting with her favorite coffee and that smile. "Hello Harvey." Tess returns the smile to Harvey as she is hit with rather bracing gust of wind which renders her eyelashes icy at its touch. Tess realizes that Harvey must be crazy to be waiting for her in this weather. It is freezing and the wind is brutal, he must really want to talk. "Hello Tess." Harvey's smile grows wider into a grin. Tess is still smarting from being his second choice but that smile of Harvey's never gets old especially since she is fairly convinced that Harvey's face must be frozen in that position with current conditions. As her grandmother always warned her... "There is nothing more dangerous than a boy with charm." Harvey is one of those rare creatures who oozes charm in spades. Sweet Harvey is hard to resist. Harvey offers the coffee to Tess . "Something for a cold night at the station."
Tess eyes Harvey closely as she accepts the offered coffee cup. To Tess' surprise the cup is actually still warm. "Thank you. So what brings you to my staircase on such a blustery day, Harvey. Something on your mind?" Harvey knows what he wants to say to Tess. The only problem is that he can't say the things he wants to say to Tess. He needs to go slow. Harvey knows that he needs to make amends and more importantly, Tess has to forgive him. "I had a nice time the other night." Is the only phrase that manages to fully form and make it's escape through Harvey's lips.
Tess hesitates for a moment before answering, she knows this is a peace offering and treads carefully into the conversation that may never actually start. "It was fun." Tess' voice is warm but controlled as she responds. Tess knows that this is dangerous. She liked Harvey. Hell, she was crazy about Harvey. It still hurts to think that she was Harvey's second choice. Tess thought that they really clicked in a special way. There is something about Harvey that sucks her in like a vortex.
"Tess, our lives are intertwined... and I am really sorry for what happened. I made a mistake... I..." Tess gauges Harvey's expression, he is being quite genuine and Harvey is not usually one to be at a lost for the right words to say. Knowing the right words is Harvey's job, he is after all the city's best closer but with Tess he is at a loss. Tess decides to put Harvey out of his misery because if she doesn't, she will be late for work. Tess stops him with the gentle gesture of placing her hand on his chest. "Harvey, we are good." Tess gives him a wink and a brush to his cheek with her free gloved hand. "I promise." Harvey smiles at the touch of Tess' hand. All Tess can think of is that damn smile should require a permit. It is a freaking concealed weapon. It definitely does not get old and not a bad parting memory for what will be a very long and chilly shift.
"Tess..." Tess does not let Harvey finish his statement, not because she did not want to hear what he was going to say but more because she is actually late. "Harvey, I have to go am sorry but I am late... The Captain will have my ass. We will talk soon." Tess gives him a smile and a wave as she scurries across the street which makes Harvey feel a bit better about being cut off. Perhaps that was a blessing in disguise. He was not entirely sure what was going to come out of his mouth at that moment. Tess may have saved him from himself.
It wasn't what Harvey wanted but it is a start. He has a path to interact with Tess and that is all he needs to woo her back into his life. Harvey heads back to the office to handle the rest of his day. The office is just not the same without Mike but life is at least starting to settle into the new normal. Tess walks into the station with Roxie instantly recognizes the smell of the coffee that the lawyer always brought her. Tess rolls her eyes, this lot is just too damn observant. The coffee is a welcome addition to her afternoon prep as Tess walks into the kitchen to find Sully at his appointed post at the kitchen table with the paper spread before him. Sully is coming off shift as Tess is coming on. Tess knows she is destined to be the officer of the truck tonight. She no sooner sets the cup down as the box comes in. Tess gives Sully a look as he gives her a huge grin. "I swear you call them in yourself, old man." Tess slides the cup towards Sully as she heads back to the bays to go to work. Sully lifts Tess cup to his lips. "I love it when the kid is early." Sully takes a long drag from the cup as the truck pulls out of the station. He too recognizes the coffee and wonders if Tess made a sentimental stop or if the lawyer showed up again.
Tess is on shift with the usual crew as they pull onto scene. Face and Roxie exchange the knowing look that this is the omen of a long, long day in the making. The calls seem to be an endless stream of nonsense throughout the night. The morning light brings no relief. Face and Tess are strung out across the chairs in the common room while the others are scattered about the station trying to capture a few moments of rest between the boxes.
The silence is broken all too soon as the box sounds again, this time they are dispatched on a full box for a multi alarm fire. The nonsense just got very real. All are trying to wake up and focus as they throw on their gear and head to the bays. From the radio calls and the additional box alarms, this shaping up to be a fire where they will all earn their pay.
The engine and truck arrive to see what no one wants to see, the beast is alive and well. Following Tess' lead, the truck company head to their assignment which is a search of the fire floor. The crews move through the apartments when they get word of entrapment over the radios. The words are what they never want to hear, missing kids on the fire floor. It is now time to earn their pay. After an exhaustive search, the crew finds the missing kids, quickly making their way to to a nearby window where the ladder company is waiting. Face and Oneski are handing off the last kid to the ladder crew outside when the unthinkable happens, an explosion rips through the building. Oneski is pulled onto the bucket by a quick thinking member of the ladder crew while Face was able to grab on to the edge of the bucket as the threshold of the window collapses away, a couple of firemen quick hoist Face into the bucket as they make a rapid decent to the ground
The structure of the building turned to rubble in what seems to be an instant. The scene turns to chaos as dozens of firefighters are now missing in the debris as the efforts turn frantic to find the missing and put out the burning debris pile. A number of Tess' crew along with Tess were on the fire floor at the time of the explosion and a number of them are among the missing hours later into the search. Face and Oneski are the only two accounted for with the rest are lost somewhere in the debris. The air is filed with sirens as other units are called in to help with the scene and the search.
The news is now highlighting the events of the fire streaming from the scene as breaking news. Word spreads quickly to Tess' father and brothers that Tess is among the missing. Nate was already on scene with his company when he heard from Face that Tess was in the building when it collapsed. Upon hearing the news, Nathan heads to downtown to hold his vigil. The news begins to spread throughout the family and outward to friends about Tess. Within an hour Daphne and Rose have heard from Tess' sisters that Tess is counted among the missing.
Max saw the fire on the news and he does now what he has done so many times when you have this many siblings in service to the city, he walks into the church for solace and prayer. It is all he can do and his faith tells him it is enough. Max knows in his heart Nate and Wes would walk through the fires of hell itself to find their baby sister.
Louis walks into Harvey's office. It is obvious that Harvey does not know about the fire. It has been hours and the search and rescue continues with no word on Tess. Both Louis and Donna have been tapping every back channel they have into Tess' world. The news is now steaming live from the scene with the tallies of the dead and injured being updated as some kind of twisted count as they are found. Harvey can tell that Louis has something on his mind from the lost expression on his face. The look on Louis face raises sufficient concern in Harvey. "Louis?"
"Harvey…" Louis hesitates stumbling on what words to actually say. Louis turns towards Donna as she enters Harvey's office on his heels. Donna walks in and opens the TV immediately tuning it onto the news. Harvey's attention is drawn to the screen at the first glimpse of smoke and fire. There would only be one reason for the expressions on Louis and Donna and only one reason that Donna would put on the news.
"Harvey, it's…" Louis cannot even get the words out. Harvey figures it out from the images flashing before his eyes. Harvey is out of his chair in a second as he is drawn closer to the screen. Harvey looks up at Donna hoping beyond hope that this is just curious breaking news and not what he knows in his heart is the reason that the news is on in his office. "Is…" Donna nods confirming that Tess is among those still missing. Donna can see the darkness sweep over Harvey's features. She too has a pit in her stomach. Harvey's world comes to a stand still as he sits in front of his TV motionless for hours staring at the screen. Donna will not allow him to be alone. She and Louis stand in vigil with him waiting for word of Tess' fate.
Face and Oneski instantly join the search. Roxie has been found and was a bit banged up but in one piece along with several other of the members of the house. The rescuers are digging by hand through the rubble to find the missing. No one is leaving the pile until all of the missing are found. Word gets back to them that Tess' helmet has been found nearby. Sully, who is now on scene with all the available men from the other shifts, rushes towards where the helmet was found.
They search in the vicinity of Tess' helmet for what seems to be an eternity when Face finds a glove among bricks and debris. He reaches down to retrieve the glove to have the glove reach back towards him. Face pulls the glove off to find a hand jutting upward from beneath the debris. From the tattoo on the wrist, Face knows that he has found Tess. Tess has a distinctive tattoo on her wrist that is in full view. Face frantically shouts for help as he begins to dig around with his free hand. Face holds Tess' hand within his own, now that he has found her, he is not letting her go. Face's cries for help are immediately answered as men flock to where Face is frantically digging. Sully and the others join in pulling the debris chunk by chunk off of Tess' body.
As they uncover Tess' body in a void created by part of the structure, they make enough room for Face to shimmy into the narrow void with Tess. Tess is covered in blood and caked with dust. There are scratches on her face where Face knows she ripped her mask off when she ran out of air. At least she was conscious when she ran out of air others were not so lucky. Tess' eyes flutter for a second at the sound of Face speaking her name to her over and over as the others keep digging away to remove the rest of the debris.
Tess is barely breathing and barely conscious as Face surveys Tess' condition. Face wraps himself around her body as a medic hands down an oxygen mask. The first pull on Tess' body sent her uncontrollably shaking from a combination of pain and the cold. She has been trapped for seemingly endless hours as Face holds her head in his hands as he pulls down her hood from her nose and mouth to hold the mask on her face. "Just breathe, Tess… just breathe." Face reaches around Tess trying to figure out what is holding her fast in the void.
Face can hear the rattle in her chest with each breath into the mask, Tess' eyes open and close as they manipulate her in the void to remove the debris. They know that the reaction is driven by pain. From what they pulled off of her, they know that Tess was pummeled by debris when the building fell in. The last move Face saw Tess make likely saved her life. Tess and Roxie both bolted towards the outer walls to get away from the fire when the explosion occurred. It likely saved them from being burned. It did not save them from being pummeled by the structure.
Face whispers in her ear as he rubs her face to keep Tess with him and at least a little responsive. Her leg is stuck and they cannot seem to free her despite some rather aggressive efforts. Sully shines is flashlight into shadows illuminating what is trapping Tess, Face can now see metal puncturing her bunker pants. The blood on the metal tells Face and Sully that the metal did not only puncture her pants. The crew quickly realizes after Face calls their attention to the bloody steel that Tess' leg is likely impaled by the rebar. They are going to have to cut the steel to free her from the void.
There is a frantic call for a saw as Nate comes up on where Tess is. Nate can see Face wrapped around Tess, holding her steady in the narrow void. Sully draws Nate's attention to the bloody steel as the saw arrives. Roxie and others are trying to hold Tess steady as Sully starts the saw to cut the steel with help from Nate. After a few moments of the saw rocking her body as they try to cut the steel bars, Tess goes limp in Face's arms which is likely a good thing for what they have to do to her to get her out of the void. Face is in silent prayer that Tess keeps breathing as they violent movements take their toll.
Nate can hear Face's words to Tess in breaks of he noise of the saw. Despite wanting to jump in, Nate controls his reaction enough to get the steel cut and free Tess. The medics told them cut the bar and leave it in Tess' leg any thing else would be too risky and take too much time. A short time later, Nate is joined by his brother Wes coming up from behind. Nate's reaction instantly tells Wes that the situation is not good.
Face hands Tess off to Nate and the others as the steel gives freeing Tess. Nate focuses on the job and the job is to get Tess to the medics. He knows that she is bad shape but she is alive and right now, alive is enough. There are others who have not survived this fire.
The vigil at the office had turned to a vigil at home for Harvey. He watches 4 different streaming reports for news of Tess. Harvey hears a knock on the door. He takes a breath knowing that it is likely Donna with news. Harvey opens the door as soon as Donna comes into view she blurts out that they have found Tess. Harvey braces for the second part of the news. Donna walks in as she moves in closer to Harvey. "Harvey she is badly hurt but she is alive."
Harvey releases the breath he had been holding in anticipation of the worst possible outcome. "Frannie told me that she critical but she is alive, Harvey." Donna can see the waves of emotion hit Harvey which is why she wanted to tell him in person. She reaches to embrace Harvey. She knows from Louis that Harvey was trying to reconnect with Tess and with what has happened in his life as of late, this is going to hit him hard. Karma is currently kicking Harvey's ass.