A/N: There's an E rated version of this story on AO3, for publishing on FFN I'm gonna keep it to a T rating.
Sylvie cracked her eyes open, her phone alarm going off beside her. Her head was killing her, and the light really didn't help matters either. It was so much brighter in Vegas than Chicago. She managed to pick up her phone and turn off the alarm. It was nine am, their flight back to Chicago was at four that afternoon, and she had had plans to lie around the pool in a bikini and get a bit of sun before she went back to the snow. This whole 24 on 48 off idea was nice for these chances to get out of the cold.
Pulling the covers off her, she stood and stretched, looking for her bag. Sylvie pulled on her underwear and jeans, then rubbed her eyes with her palms, before staring at her left hand with terror. There were two rings there. Two really beautiful rings on her left ring finger, one of them with a diamond. They were platinum, and the diamond was the perfect size for work to not push through her gloves.
"What the actual hell?" She murmured, staring at the rings. She looked behind her, and realised that Kelly was in the bed she'd just vacated. She could see his ring finger, and he had a matching wedding ring on his hand. They were going to be in so much trouble when they got back to work. So much.
"Severide. Severide. Get up." Sylvie shook his arm once she was dressed. The firefighter in him woke quickly, even with the amount of alcohol they'd ingested the night before.
"Brett, what's up? Did we oversleep, do we need to check out?" He sat up, rubbing his eyes.
"What do you remember about last night?" She asked, sitting on the bed beside him. She hid her rings in her pocket, trying to get him to remember exactly what was going on.
"Eh, I'm not sure. We were at the poker table and you cleaned up at it. I was impressed! Then we got dinner, and we got drinks. I remember a lot of drinks. And then…" His voice trailed off as he squinted, his forehead creasing adorably as he tried to remember. Sylvie could see the exact moment when he remembered they'd gotten married.
"We got married. Fuck. Not that it'd be bad to marry you, Brett, but that was not my intention for it. Crap. I remember drinking, and kissing, and then we decided to get married because we get on. Right?" Kelly looked at the ring on his hand, and Sylvie showed him her matching ones.
"Yeah, we got married. What the hell, Sev? Not that it'd be bad to be married to you, but you're still grieving Shay, and I'm new in the House and I don't want people to think that I'm sleeping with a Lieutenant to increase my career prospects. I got warned off dating in house that it's a bad idea already I just don't want to give anyone a chance to say I did the wrong thing." She finished speaking for a moment, swallowed, but Severide spoke before she could.
"Look, we're married. It's not a bad thing really, you're a good person, I'm normally alright when I'm not grieving badly and on a self destruction bender. We can get divorced while we're back in Chicago, but in the mean time we can just go with it. It'll be ok, Sylvie." He smiled and made her look at him, where she smiled back while blinking back tears. "Plus, we're married now, you can call me Kelly. Probably should have gone through the official introduction, eh? No middle name, just Kelly."
"Sylvie Jean Brett, from Fowlerton Indiana. It's almost ten am, the hotel breakfast is till ten thirty, and I'm in the mood for pancakes before I go sit in the sun for a few hours. Want some breakfast and coffee?"
They went down for breakfast, and had a companionable chat while they ate. Sylvie filled him in on some of the details about her childhood, growing up in the countryside. For every story about being a farm kid, Kelly had a story about being a Chicago kid growing up with Matt Casey and Andy Darden.
It didn't take long to pack, and before long she'd gotten her wish, sitting on a sun lounger with a strawberry daquiri in her hand. The time passed too quickly before she had to get ready for the flight, but by three thirty she and Kelly were sitting at their gate, waiting for the flight to Chicago to board. He'd been really sweet to her since they realised they were married, holding her duffel and making sure she was ok while they waited. He even picked her up a hazelnut latte from the airport Starbucks while he got himself a coffee.
They made it back to Chicago just after nine, and Kelly offered to drop her home but she refused. She'd seen Gabby's look when Dawson had seen where she lived, and she figured any of the guys she worked with would freak out with the neighbourhood.
"I'll see you in work in the morning?" She asked, smiling at him as she pulled up her Uber app to get a ride home.
"Yeah. Come in a few minutes early? Even with the divorce plans, we still need to tell Boden what's going on. There's forms that need to be filled out, all that stuff. He'll help us do it and we'll be all set then."
"Is it going to affect my job? Am I gonna have to leave 51?" Sylvie felt her stomach lurch at the idea. She didn't want to have to leave the house, she'd finally gotten her feet under her and she and Mills were a good team.
"Nah, not at all. If you were on Squad you'd need to move shift or I'd need to, but we aren't in a command structure so it'll be fine. Be there for seven forty five?" She nodded, and went to move when Kelly grabbed her arm.
"I'm scared by this, and I still wonder what drunk us were thinking, but I'm glad it's you and I doing this, Brett. You deserve that seat in the ambo, and you deserve the place in this house. Remember that tomorrow." Kelly wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into an awkward hug, before letting go.
Sylvie didn't really sleep that night, tossing and turning while looking at her rings. They were beautiful, and they weren't cheap. She knew it wasn't going to be a big thing for her and Kelly, and they'd be divorced in a few weeks. It'd basically be like they hadn't ever been married, and hopefully the rest of the house wouldn't need to find out.
Her alarm went off at six, and she decided to just get out of bed and deal with being over tired and over caffeinated for the day. She showered, dressed and got ready, drinking half a pot of coffee before starting her walk to work. She normally left as late as possible, making sure it was bright before she left, but this morning she didn't have much of a choice. She held her keys between her fingers for the first part of the walk, but it was quiet.
Kelly was waiting for her outside the house, leaning against what she assumed was his car. He smiled seeing her, then looked behind her to see where her car was.
"I don't have a car at the moment, so I'm getting the El in every day. When Harrison left, he took his car back with him." She said, feeling embarrassed mentioning her ex-fiancé to her husband. She didn't want to admit exactly where she lived to him, so the white lie was acceptable she figured.
"Asshole. Let me know and I'll give you a ride in in the morning, it's safer than getting the train. You ready to talk to Boden?" He asked as they turned to walk into the house. Almost unconsciously their hands met as they walked, although they quickly let go when they arrived in and realised that Herrmann was already sitting in the common room.
"Look, it's the Vegas folks! Have a good trip?" He asked, smiling over at them.
"Hell yes we did! Brett made a killing at the poker table, I was impressed. Is Boden around? I wanna check something with him."
"Yeah, he's in his office. Brett, Mills got called in early, one of the paramedics on first shift had to go home at 3am, so he said he'd take the extra few hours overtime. They're on a call now, should be back soon." Herrmann smiled at her, and she smiled back. She followed Kelly to Boden's office, and he knocked, asking if they could come in.
"What can I do for both of you?" Boden asked, leaning back in his chair to stare at the two of them.
"Well Chief, Brett and I need relationship forms. While we were in Vegas, we got married. We're starting divorce proceedings soon, but we don't want the department to find out before the divorce is finalised. Can we fill them out now and get them filed asap?" Kelly blurted everything out, and Brett just nodded in the appropriate places. Her left hand was still in her pants pocket, and she thumbed off her rings before pulling it out to take the forms from Boden.
"If you need help with anything, let me know. Sounds like it'll be a simple divorce, you probably won't even need an attorney. Get these back to me by the end of shift and I can have it filed quickly." They both took the forms and walked out to the lockers, determined to just get the workday done.
It passed quickly, and she and Pete were called out multiple times. The rest of the house asked how the trip went, but Kelly stuck to the story of her winning at poker which kept everyone happy. By the time they finished, all Sylvie wanted was a hot shower and her bed, followed by the Zumba class she'd signed up for and a list of apartment viewings she had.
When she'd left the completed form on Boden's desk she walked onto the apparatus floor, fondly rubbing 61 goodbye before walking home.
She wasn't paying attention until she realised that Kelly was calling her name, and she'd nearly walked past him.
"Sorry, post shift tiredness. What's up, Kelly?" She asked, shifting her duffel strap to her other shoulder.
"I told you I'd drive you home, hop in." He stood aside and opened the passenger side door for her, but she sidestepped and kept walking.
"I'm going home, Kelly. I like keeping work and home separate, so I'm just gonna go to the El and head home. I don't want to show people where I live yet."
"Sylvie, I'm your husband for at least the next couple of weeks. Sue me if I wanna make sure my wife is home safe after having a dozen callouts in a shift. I don't even need to go in, or even see your block, just let me get you home safe." The idea of getting home quickly won out, and she gave Severide the directions.
"I thought you said you got the train in?" He asked, realising she was in walking distance of the house.
"I don't exactly like people knowing where I live, I got enough judgment off Dawson when she realised where I live, I didn't want anyone else to judge me on it. It's not like I had a lot of choice on where to live." Her tiredness beat her as she snapped at Severide.
"Hey, I'm not gonna argue! It's not the safest part of town, but do you have a good lock on the door?"
"I've got two, plus it's gorgeous. My main neighbour is Hector, who's homeless and lives in the Alley beside the house. He appreciates me being a paramedic and keeps an eye out for me."
"You don't hear me complaining. Want me to walk you in?" He asked as they arrived up to the house, eyeing the door.
"I'm fine, thanks Kelly. I'm gonna just crash for a couple of hours, I need a break from everything I think. I'll do some research about the divorce and text you what we need to do?" She waved goodbye as she walked in the front yard and up the steps, before entering her apartment and locking the door behind her.
Kelly waited till she'd gone inside before driving away to Dawson and Casey's apartment. Letting himself in, he saw Casey sitting on the sofa, staring at the wall.
"I know it's not work, but I need to talk. Rooftop?" Kelly grabbed two cigars from his case and pointed up, and the two of them grabbed jackets and went upstairs. Kelly leaned against the door, lit his cigar and inhaled slowly, blowing out a slow stream of smoke.
"I fucked up in Vegas," Kelly blurted out without thinking, staring at the surrounding buildings.
"What do you mean, dude? From what Brett said you guys had a good time and she won money, sounds like a win. Maybe she can move out of the crappy apartment she's in with the winnings." Casey spoke quietly, but waited for his best friend to speak again. It took a few minutes before he did.
"She won, and then she spent the money on us. We got married, Case. And I'm pretty sure she bought her engagement ring and both our wedding rings. I'm still not even sure why we did it, but I have a wedding license with both our signatures on it, and we shared a bed. I don't even know if we slept together. But we're married and we're trying to work out how to get divorced, but I don't even know if I want to divorce her? I don't know enough about her except she's just out of a bad relationship." Kelly never blurted his words out like this, but Casey could tell he was freaking out.
"Do the divorce. Do the divorce and then see if you want to date each other, but there's no point in trying to build a relationship around being married. It's not worth it. We both saw our parents be miserable and married, you don't deserve that. Neither does Brett."
The two men stood there, smoking silently for a few moments until Kelly came out with the one thing going through his head.
"I wish you and Dawson were there. At least that way you'd have been the ones to get married and not us. And I know that causes all issues for her being the candidate, but I just wish I didn't have to deal with this with Brett, she's too nice for it." Kelly stubbed out the quarter smoked cigar on the sole of his boot, making sure it was completely extinguished.
"Brett's not a kid, she's got a good head on her shoulders. Even if nothing happens between the two of you, I think this will be good for you as friends. Gabby liked riding with her, said she came up with some good methods for saving patients." Casey followed suit with stubbing out his own cigar, and stretched.
"I got basically no sleep last night cause of reports, so I'm going to bed for a few hours. If Gabby comes home while you're there, let her know where I am?" Kelly nodded, following his best friend down the stairs and into the apartment.