"So Otis, how's your brother doing?" Herrmann asked as everybody watched him on the computer screen.
"He's doing well, thanks for asking," Brian answered, "he's doing biologic therapy and so far he's responding well to the medication."
"Well we're all glad to hear that, tell him we're thinking about him," Herrmann said. "Hey, you called at the perfect time, I'm pleased to announce I found somebody to take over your share of Molly's."
"Who?"
"Mouch and Tony."
Brian made a strange face and replied, "How'd you come up with them?"
"Don't ask, it's a long story."
Otis looked around on the screen at everybody and said, "Is Kidd there?"
"Yeah, Otis, I'm here," Stella answered.
Otis leaned in towards the screen and about had his nose pressed against it and said, "We must have a bad connection, something looks off."
Stella smirked, "No, you're seeing it right, I cut my hair," she turned around, "what do you think?"
"I like it," Otis said.
"You do?"
"Yeah, looks like mine."
"Well you sure know how to hurt a guy," Stella remarked, which got everybody laughing.
Casey moved to the front to get Brian's attention and told him, "Hey Otis, I'm happy to announce we finally got somebody to take your spot on Truck."
"You're kidding, it took this long to get someone?" Otis asked.
"Yeah well the department was no help, actually Severide and I kind of stumbled on this guy ourselves on a call with another House..."
Everybody bustled to the side and Otis saw some young kid come to the front.
"Brian Zvonecek, this is Blake Gallo, our newest member of 51."
The young firefighter waved to the screen, "I've heard a lot about you, sir."
"Sir, I like that," Otis said, "Figures i had to quit CFD to finally get shown some respect."
There were jeers and gestures from several of the people in the bar in response to that comment.
"He's a weird one," Herrmann interjected, "Can't even go up stairs like a normal person, he climbs up the sides of fire escapes."
"Hey Herrmann," Otis said, "Did you ever get somebody new on Engine?"
"Still working on it, but the guys on First and Third Watch are happier they only have to rotate one guy per extra shift now instead of two to help us fill the slack," Christopher answered.
"Brian!" Sylvie waved her arms to get his attention, stood in front of the laptop and actually poked at the screen as if she could reach through and touch him, "I want to have a word with you."
Brian looked puzzled, "About what?"
"I saw this movie on TV a while back and it made me think of you."
"What was it?"
"The tall man."
It took a couple seconds for recognition to spark in Otis's eyes and he looked amused, "You saw 'Phantasm'?"
"Yes, and I still don't know why you ever invited me to it," she said, "I didn't like it, but it was interesting. Did you know it has sequels?"
"Four of them as I recall," Otis answered.
"They made another one?" Sylvie asked.
The conversation was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening and everybody turned and saw Chloe enter, and Cruz followed behind her, carrying something draped in a tarp that was about as big as he was.
"Make way, make way," he said, not even looking where he was going.
"Hey Cruz!" Herrmann hollered, "Put that down and get over here, Otis is on your computer!"
"What?!" Cruz about dropped what he was carrying and made a beeline to the bar. "Otis! How are you, man?"
"I'm doing fine, Joe, how about you guys?"
"We're doing just great, Brian," Chloe answered.
"I'm glad to hear it, I'm sorry I won't be there for the wedding," Otis told them.
Chloe bent down towards the screen and said to him, "Brian, I'm marrying an amazing man, you would not believe what this guy did for you."
"For me?" Otis was confused. "What do you mean?"
"I got something to show you, and everyone else," Cruz said. He stepped back to the thing he'd been carrying and cleared his throat, and said, "A question that's been on all our minds for weeks is 'Who will remember us when we're gone?' Now, Otis, you have to know, nobody at 51 has been able to stop talking about you...which I think is only fitting. It's been hard on all of us to lose you, as hard as that's been, everybody talks about you every day, but to be honest, and it sounds bad but, since the funeral, none of us have been able to even talk about Ritter much at all. It's just been too raw still, but he'll be remembered, because the chief had a memorial erected at the firehouse for him. But you, you were with us so much longer, we have so many more memories of you, but because you left CFD alive and years before a proper retirement, there's no memorial for that, and that bothered me, all the stuff you've done, as long as you were with us, as important as you are to all of us and as much as you were a part of our family, it just seemed like there should be something to commemorate who you are, and what you mean to us. So, without further ado, my memorial for you, brother."
Cruz whipped away the tarp and everybody saw what he'd carried in was a large framed painting of Otis behind the bar at Molly's with a smile on his face, a twinkle in his eyes that made it look almost alive, a bar rag in one hand, and his fire helmet on the counter beside him, with his name, the years he was in CFD, and his role as co-owner and creator of Molly's, neatly printed under the bar.
Everybody was in awe. Both in the bar, and the man sitting 5,000 miles away watching it on the computer.
Brian laughed in shock and told them, "I don't know what to say!"
Everybody gathered around the painting and murmured in awe as they looked it and felt along the fancy wooden frame for it.
"I told you he was amazing," Chloe addressed Brian. "This was all Joe's idea."
"I'm..." Otis was wide eyed and dumbstruck as he said, "I'm-I'm speechless, I'm flattered, I...Joe, how'd you do this?"
"Business has been going very well for the Slammigan," Cruz answered with a grin, "I couldn't think of a better addition for Molly's. Then everybody who comes in, they'll know about you, and they're gonna leave knowing what you accomplished here."
Otis blinked a few times, trying to stave back tears threatening to build up and burst loose, "I'm, I'm honored, Joe, I," he laughed, "I don't know what to say, I really don't...this is amazing, thank you. I love it, this is...this is the nicest thing anybody's ever done for me."
"Oh hey!" Herrmann said, "We almost forgot, Otis, we got another announcement, Severide and Kidd are getting hitched."
"Really?"
Stella stepped to the front and held up her ring for the webcam to see.
Otis whistled in approval, "Impressive, so when's the big date?"
"Eh we ain't decided on that yet," Stella answered.
"So I'm guessing you're not pregnant."
That got a laugh out of everybody, Stella made a choked sound of surprise at his comment.
"That's great, congratulations you guys. It's great to see all of you."
"It's great to see you too, Otis," Sylvie said, "we've all missed you."
"I miss you guys too, but I know I'm right where I need to be right now," Brian told them.
"Well that's all that matters," Herrmann said, "but you'll be keeping in touch now, right?"
"Oh yeah, definitely, after the last few weeks, I needed to check in with my family from 51," he answered, "even though I'm no longer a part of it."
"You'll always be a part of 51, Otis," Severide told him. "Don't ever think otherwise."
During the next shift, Casey was in his quarters seated at his desk filling out an incident report when he heard someone knocking at his door, he turned and called, "Come in."
The door opened and Brett walked in, "Hey Casey, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Sure, what's up?"
Sylvie closed the door and asked him, "Are you still thinking about that plan that we go in together on our own apartment?"
Casey shrugged, "Sure, if you want to. Why?"
He saw she had a newspaper tucked under her arm, she took it out and unfolded it, "My lease is going to be up soon and I was just browsing to see what's available right now."
"Uh huh."
She slapped the paper down on his desk and he saw an ad circled. "Three beds, one bath, utilities are covered in the rent and it's close to work."
"Hm," Casey looked over the ad, "might worth checking out after shift. Have you told anybody yet?"
The blonde paramedic shook her head, "Nobody, you?"
"Nope, the last thing I need is everybody's imagination running away with them," Matt answered, "they hear we're gonna move in together, can you imagine what they'd think?"
Sylvie laughed until she could hardly breathe, "Oh my, that would be amusing, wouldn't it?" Her voice cracked during the second half of the sentence as she busted out laughing even harder.
Casey leaned back in his chair and started laughing too. Sylvie just made it over to his bed and dropped on it before she collapsed, and she laughed at the idea until she couldn't breathe and her ribs were killing her, and she felt tears squeezing through the corners of her eyes and trailing down towards her ears. After a couple minutes they both managed to calm down though a few loose titters still escaped each of them, Sylvie absently kicked or rolled from one side to the other with each one until she was finally able to compose herself. Finally she sat up, and took in a huge sighing breath and said, "That was good..I needed that."
"Yeah," Casey agreed.
"Everything has just been so...upside down since Otis left, and Ritter died," Sylvie said.
Casey turned his head to look back at her. The fact that she could even mention Ritter's name without breaking down crying, told Casey they'd finally reached a turning point in the firehouse. Losing Otis had been just as painful as if he'd died on the job alongside Ritter, it was only because he was still alive that they were able to talk about him, because painful as it was, they knew he was still out there somewhere, and would hopefully hear from him again. The wounds of losing Ritter and having to bury another one of their brethren had struck too close to the bone for everybody, the fallout with his boyfriend hadn't helped matters any either. Everybody knew, when people lost a loved one they became irrational, they wanted somebody to blame, they lashed out, and they also knew there wasn't anything they could've done differently on that call, and they knew what happened to Ritter wasn't anybody's fault, but even though they all knew this, it didn't make it any easier to accept his death.
"Yeah," Casey said, in a slightly lower tone this time.
Brett got up from his bunk, went over to his desk and leaned against the corner of it and said, "We're going to be alright now, aren't we? I mean all of us."
Casey looked at her and nodded, "I think so. I think things are finally looking up for everyone."
Sylvie thought about it and said, "I just hate that it took Ritter dying and Otis leaving us for it to actually happen. I mean if it hadn't, do you think Severide would've proposed to Stella?"
"Probably not for a few more years," Casey answered.
"And Capp, can you believe-"
"No," Casey said bluntly and to the point.
"And, Mouch I can kind of see co-owning Molly's, but Tony?"
"Life's funny like that," Casey said, "sometimes it just grabs you by the neck and shakes you to get you moving."