Moving in with Gabby was a relief for Sylvie, and having her own bed felt like a luxury after two weeks on Casey and Kelly's couch. She'd convinced Kelly to let Cruz bring her cases to the house, eager to stop any awkwardness between the two people she'd become closest to in the city.
Their friendship had been formed in the ambo, but kept going even with Gabby on the truck now. Sylvie could see how much her friend was hurting and tried to keep it together for the two of them. Their nights in with beers and takeout were becoming the night before shift regular programming and it made them both smile.
There was a rapid knocking on the door, so she went to open it to get their Thai food from the PostMates driver. Instead Kelly was standing at the door, and he grabbed her and twirled her around.
"It arrived! We're officially annulled and never were married, Syl," he crowed, putting her down and handing her annulment certificate form over.
"Oh thank God!" She said quickly while reading the certificate. Everything was in order, it was all perfect and they were officially no longer married and never had been as far as the law was concerned.
"C'mon, let's go to Mollys to celebrate. Shay's sister is coming into town tomorrow so I want to have a night out before seeing Megan." He went to reach for her coat, but Sylvie put a hand on his arm.
"I can't. Gabby and I have a pre shift routine that involves beers, Flip or Flop and takeout. I thought you were the PostMates guy with our Thai food. I'll see you on shift tomorrow, Kelly." She kissed his cheek goodbye as he opened the door to leave. Kelly walked out as the food arrived, so she handed over a tip and brought the two bags into the living room where Gabby sat on the couch. She was peeling the label off her beer bottle and smiled as Sylvie handed over her beef green curry.
"Kelly says hi, he came to drop some stuff off for me." Sylvie said, putting Flip or Flop on and opening her Pad Thai, inhaling the spicy sweet scent.
"Yeah? What did he want?" Gabby replied, trying and failing to make herself sound like she liked her ex's best friend.
"Our annulment came through, it arrived today. I'm officially a single woman at last. Now I just need to sell the rings and it'll be like it never happened."
"How do you feel about it all?"
"I have no idea. I'm glad it's annulled, I'm glad it's done with. But if we hadn't gotten super drunk and gone to Vegas, I wouldn't be friends with him. So it wasn't a nice thing, but I'm glad of the results if that makes sense?" She speared a prawn with her fork, popping it into her mouth with gusto.
"Yeah, it does. I'm glad Matt and I were together, I'm so glad we dated and got engaged and he was there for me. But I wish it could have ended differently." Gabby tried hiding her sob with shoving rice in her mouth, but it didn't work. She could feel her roommate's eyes staring at her until she looked up.
"You're forgetting one thing, Gabriela Dawson, and that's if there's anyone you know in Chicago who has gone through this, it's me. I know what it's like to think someone's the love of your life and realise that it's not right. And it sucks and it's awful, but bottling it all up isn't going to help matters for it either. You need to let yourself feel about it before it eats you whole." Sylvie put her food on the coffee table, turning to give Gabby her full attention.
"Tonight's a judgment free zone, just you and me. What's going on with you? How're you feeling about everything? Just talk about it, it'll help."
Gabby talked and talked and talked for over an hour, telling Sylvie the full story of her and Matt. How she'd nearly made a move when he and Hallie split up, how they got back together then split then together then split and it drove her insane to watch until Hallie was gone and Matt was a mess, and she helped him get picked up. By the end of it Gabby was crying and Sylvie had wrapped an arm around the older woman's shoulders, holding her tight to let her get through it.
They stayed like that for what could have been minutes, could have been hours, until Dawson shrugged her off and gave a watery smile. "Thanks, Sylvie. I didn't know how much I needed that."
"Consider it a roomie bonus. Did I ever tell you the story about my little brother?" Gabby shook her head, so Sylvie continued. "When he was three, Mom and Dad decided to do some work on the house, but it meant the entire back was unusable. I was seven, so it was decided we'd share a room for the few months his was out of commission. So I was annoyed, but I said ok and moved my Barbie mountain to make space for a second bed. The first night we shared he'd gone to bed at seven and I was going up at eight. I got into my PJs, into bed and he pops up, and turns to me grinning. Then he comes out with "Sylvie, we're MERMAIDS!" and gave me a giant hug. He meant to say roommates, but he was three and just couldn't get it out. There's nobody I'd rather be mermaids with than you, Gabby."
They separated and cleared up the now cold food, putting leftovers in the fridge. It didn't take long for them to go to bed, and Sylvie slept soundly for the first time in weeks, not worrying about anything in her personal life.
The next morning was busy for her, she and Mills were in and out of the house constantly. Gabby introduced her to Shay's sister, but she decided to keep her distance. Kelly had told her more than once that he kept mistaking her for Shay when she was in her uniform, and she wasn't going to do that to the poor woman. It had seemed to be going fine until she appeared on their couch the afternoon after their next shift, a glass of wine in her hand with Gabby when Sylvie arrived in from Zumba.
The three women talked, while Megan and Gabby traded stories about Shay at the station and as a child. They were past merry and well on their way to drunk when three firm knocks rattled on the front door. Sylvie stood to open it, and Kelly nearly bowled her over on the way to Gabby with papers in his hand.
"Megan, you wanna help me with the finishing touches on a pear tart?" Sylvie nearly cringed as she said the words, but she wanted to give the woman a chance to get out of the room instead of hearing about her sister's death.
"I need to hear this." She was to the point, and Sylvie picked up her glass and went into the kitchen. She pulled up the Seamless app, and put in a pizza order for the foursome, figuring Kelly probably wasn't eating while working out what happened with Shay. It didn't take long for the food to arrive, and Sylvie put it out on the coffee table for everyone to take slices as they wanted. She squeezed Kelly's arm as she stepped back with a slice of sausage and pepper for herself. He startled, spotting the food beside him and smiled at her.
He left soon after, brandishing the papers he'd brought with him. The three women settled down for more drinks, until Gabby came out with "Why don't you do a ride along with Sylvie and Mills tomorrow? It'll be fun, you can see what your sister did day to day." Sylvie stared at Gabby, but swallowed some wine.
"Yeah, come along. Mills won't mind, it'll be fun," she said, smiling and trying to be happy with the two of them.
The shift wasn't too bad, but they were called out to a mental health crisis and Sylvie's eyes widened. He seemed so scared and alone, and she nearly got him calmed down. Which was when he came at her with a knife to her throat. She closed her eyes and took as deep a breath as possible before speaking.
"I know you don't want to hurt me, do you?"
"No, but I have to." He loosened the knife slightly on her, but kept his arm wrapped around hers. "Tell them I'm armed and dangerous. Say it just like that, armed and dangerous." He swung her around towards Mills, who nodded once. He went to stab at Mills who'd moved closer, and Sylvie took her chance and got loose, watching as Mills put the man on his stomach and held his arms back. Burgess and Roman arrived and took him into custody, nodding at Sylvie.
"What'd he do?"
"Came at me with a knife." Sylvie replied, rubbing her throat.
"It's right there." Mills pointed at the switchblade now that Roman had the man in custody. "He's armed and dangerous."
"Thank you. It's a parole violation, I'm not cut out for the outside." The man's face lit up with joy at going back into jail, and Sylvie felt her stomach sink at the thought.
"Come on, let's go." Roman pulled the assailant to the car as Burgess waited to say goodbye.
"Mills, Brett. It'd be nice to not see you at a crime scene one of these days," she said, waving goodbye and following her partner.
"You ok?" Mills came running over, lifting up Sylvie's chin to check her throat. There was a small pink line that would fade within a day, but it was a terrifying thing to see.
"Yeah, you?"
"Yeah, of course." They went over to their ride along partner who was standing there, stone faced.
"Megan, you ok?" Sylvie asked, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
"I'm fine, really." She said, but neither paramedic bought it.
"That was par for the course. It's not even in the top ten of scary calls; trust me." Sylvie said, trying to inject some levity into her tone.
"That's what she did? She went through it everyday and she never said anything to me. I'd ask her how her day was, and she would just make some inappropriate joke to get me laughing. I had no idea." Tears started down Megan's cheeks, and Sylvie was at a loss of what to say.
"Listen…that is the way Shay was." Mills took up Sylvie's position supporting Megan. "I mean, she never wanted anyone to waste any time worrying about her. She just wanted to make everyone smile."
"Yeah, yeah she did." Megan replied through tears with a small smile forming on her face.
"Let's get back to the house and get some hot chocolate." Sylvie opened the passenger side door of the Ambo for Megan before getting into the back of the rig herself. She knew they were pulling it offline for an hour or two for whatever Kelly had planned for that afternoon, so she wanted them in before it was pulled.
The ceremony was the hardest thing she'd ever done. She was initially supposed to be Gabby's replacement for Gabby moving house and being a candidate, but instead took over from Shay. She'd never met the woman, but her talks with Kelly about his best friend had told her so much about the woman the entire house still held in very high esteem. She followed Boden's orders, saluting and standing to attention in her brand new dress blues. The one thing Sylvie could think during the entire event was that she wouldn't have to wear this uniform again for a very long time, this house couldn't handle losing anyone else.
By the time shift was over and they'd napped, the only thing Sylvie wanted was to spend time outside her apartment and outside the firehouse. So as always with her friends, she ended up in Molly's. Herrmann looked at her slightly funny for wanting a coke, but he handed it over without complaint. The Chief introduced her to his father, and they all shook the former cop's hand. The night was lovely, until a blonde woman had arrived and told them they couldn't prosecute Shay's murder. Gabby put her bottle down on the table, hard before walking out while the rest of them looked at her dumbstruck.
Sylvie could feel the tension rising from Kelly's body beside her, and she nudged his arm with her elbow, reminding him they were in public and he couldn't do what he wanted just then. The Captain left the remaining folks behind, who sat around the table in stunned silence.
"So that's it then? He gets away with killing my sister?" Megan broke the spell with her words. Nobody wanted to say a word, so Sylvie turned to the bar and flagged down Herrmann.
"We need shots, now. What did Shay drink?" She asked, looking at the bottles behind him.
"Cunningham did what I thought she would, didn't she? Spineless up there in OFI. I'll bring tequila for the table, give me a minute. This one's on me, Brett. Just don't tell them."
True to his word in two minutes there was a bottle of tequila there, with shot glasses for the six of them. Sylvie filled the glasses up as Gabby arrived back in, sliding her phone in her coat pocket.
"To Shay. I didn't know her, but I really, really wish I had." Sylvie lifted a shot and the others followed, downing them in one. She grimaced at the harsh liquor and clanked her glass back on the wooden table.
"I was on the phone to Antonio. Intelligence are gonna take a look and see what they can find out." Gabby let out her words as if she was exhaling, it all bundled up together.
"No offence Dawson, but do we really want Voight anywhere around this if we want an arrest to stick?" Kelly asked, his alcohol consumption lowering his already faulty filter.
"It's not just Voight, it's Antonio. I'd trust him with anything, but especially this." Her words were harsh as she spoke, and Kelly lifted his hands up.
"Ok, cool. Let me know what they need from us."
It didn't take long for Gabby and Sylvie to decide to go home. Megan had decided to get a hotel for a couple of nights to have her own space, and the two women just wanted to be alone for a while.
The next day dawned early for Sylvie, and she put on her music and started doing all the chores she kept meaning to get done. Despite living mainly in her uniform clothes needed to be washed and the apartment needed to be swept and mopped. After a few hours she decided to get some groceries to keep them going for the next few days while Gabby and Kelly were helping with the investigation.
There was a guy standing a little too close to her in the store, but she ignored him. It was a sad fact of life that so many men thought they could stand close to her and she'd fall madly in love with them. She kept her head forward, picking out produce and pasta for their dinner instead of ordering yet more takeout. Her budget couldn't cope with constant seamless deliveries.
Stepping back, she bumped into the guy and tripped, but he grabbed her arm and held her up.
"Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going," she said, nodding at him and stepping back. Even though he'd helped, she still felt freaked out. He nodded and let her go, and Sylvie made her way straight to the cashier to pay for everything. She'd paid and was about to leave when the guy ran up to her and and handed over her phone.
"You dropped this, I wanted to return it," he said, passing over her phone that fortunately hadn't cracked.
"Thanks so much, I'd be lost without it," Sylvie smiled, taking it. Looking into the guy's eyes her smile faded slightly. His green eyes looked dead, and he had a horrible combover on top of his head.
"I'm Ross McGowan, do you want to get a drink sometime?" He asked, stepping slightly closer to Sylvie. She stepped back, putting her phone in her jeans pocket and moving to turn.
"No thanks, I'm seeing someone. Thanks for the offer though." She left immediately, walking around the block the wrong way to throw him off the scent of her heading to Dawson's car. She felt safe after not seeing him for a few moments, so pulled out and drove home, keeping an eye out for him anyway.
The food was there on the table when Gabby arrived home, flopping onto the couch with a grunt. Sylvie arrived out with a plate of chicken Alfredo, handing it over to her roommate with one hand while using the other to put the two beers she'd brought out on the coffee table.
"Thanks, Sylvie. Gish is such an ass, we can't do anything and I don't know how we can't." Gabby started eating, and Sylvie waited for her to be ready to speak.
"We were basically able to confirm that Gish killed Shay, and he killed Peter Mills' dad and another firefighter in that fire twenty years ago. Boden's pissed, we don't know how or why this is happening, and we're just stuck waiting for more information. Chief's agreed to give me tomorrow off, I just can't cope with work while waiting to hear from Antonio with what's going on." She took a swallow of her beer and curled her feet under her thighs.
"I'll try take an hour tomorrow for us to get lunch. I can't promise that I won't get called away in the Ambo, but Mills won't mind me coming and meeting you for food. Sound good?"
"Thanks, Roomie. You've been amazing since I moved in, thank you." They sat in a companionable silence until Sylvie couldn't keep her eyes open at the episode of CSI that was on.
Their shift was quiet for once, not that Sylvie would have said that out loud. She knew better than to tempt fate than that, and spent the morning restocking the ambo and going over the notes that the PIC from first shift had left for her and Mills. There was annoyance from on high that there was no PIC on the shift, but Boden was happy with their performance so nothing was said.
Squad 3, Truck 81, Ambulance 61, stuck elevator, 6 South Loomis.
They swung into action, and went straight to the address. Sylvie and Mills pulled up first and grabbed the gurney out, getting it ready to go in. She looked around the abandoned cars, realising with a sinking feeling in her chest that every one of them belonged to Intelligence.
"Something's wrong, Mills," she said as gunshots erupted from the building. Squad pulled up as the shots ended, with Truck just behind them. Peter and Sylvie ran in first, and the stench of gasoline was all encompassing. It only took a moment before they spotted Gabby being led out of the building, held up by her brother. Her hair was wet and she looked drained but almost happy.
"Gabby!" Sylvie ran up and wrapped her arms around her friend, helping Antonio hold her up. "What happened?" Her question was directed to the older detective.
"Gish cornered her, pretended he was texting her from your phone. He set the elevator up to burn, but we got him before he did it. He's not going to hurt anyone else." Sylvie smiled at his words, hating to take comfort from it, but glad her friend was ok.
"Thanks, Antonio. We'll bring you to the ambo to make sure you're ok, Gabby. Gasoline fumes can have the same effect as smoke inhalation and we want to avoid it."
The two of them walked her out, Mills following behind with the gurney. Everyone from 51 was standing outside, and she spotted Kelly hold Matt back from running over to them.
"You ok, Candidate?" Herrmann called, and Gabby raised a thumbs up to them all. She willingly sat on the back of the ambo, and Mills and Brett gave her all the privacy from the rest of their colleagues they could. Her chest sounded clear, but Sylvie gave her strict instructions that if it hurt or she started feeling dizzy to call her and they'd bring her to med themselves. By the time they'd finished clearing her, Voight had come out and Boden and Kelly had come over to their small group.
"Sergeant, what happened?" Boden was first to speak.
"Trenton LaMont, AKA Adrian Gish, AKA Ross McGowan was killed so we could save the life of a civilian he was trying to kill in an arson attack. We were able to link him to at least seven arson events, including the ones that killed Leslie Shay, Henry Mills and Ross McGowan. We'll have our techs be in there to confirm everything, but it was a good shot and the right thing to do." Voight put his hand on Antonio's shoulder and squeezed.
"Wait, McGowan? I met him yesterday, he gave me back my phone," Sylvie pulled out her phone from her pocket, unlocking the screen and checking it.
"What do you mean?" Antonio asked.
"I was in the grocery store yesterday, we bumped into each other and my phone fell out of my hoodie pocket. I didn't realise, and he found me after I paid and gave it back."
"Fuck. That's how he cloned it. He was texting Gabby pretending to be you, said you were going to get lunch and to meet you here. Was it this guy?" Antonio held up a smartphone, a photo of McGowan or whatever his name was on it.
"Yeah, that's him. Crap. I had no idea, I didn't know what he looked like, I swear." Kelly wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
"That's our fault, we should have told you. You're ok and Gabby's safe, and that's the main thing for us now." He squeezed and let go, aware of the people around them.
"I'm going to pull our house out of service and get relief in," Boden cut across, making sure everyone heard him. "We've had enough for today, we need a break. I'll tell everyone when we get back. Dawson, do you want to come back with us or stay with your brother?"
Gabby shuddered at being spoken to, but stood up. "I'm going to stay here, Chief. Antonio'll bring me home, I can't face the house right now. I just want to shower and relax."
They made it back to 51 and it didn't take long for folks from first and third shift to arrive in for the overtime. Once two paramedics had arrived, Sylvie and Mills changed their clothes and went to Mollys which had been designated the official meeting point for second shift.
Arriving in, the one thing Sylvie noticed was there was no music playing. Normally someone would have music going, but the only noise was glasses and muffled conversation. She got a beer off Herrmann, and sat on a stool opposite the bar. Kelly and Matt arrived in soon after and joined her, Kelly sitting beside her and Matt opposite. She moved her beer to her left hand as Kelly kept his left hand on her arm, and she appreciated the warmth coming from him. They had stupid small talk until Matt broke through with a question.
"Is she actually ok, Sylvie?" Matt asked, running his finger through the condensation on his glass. Sylvie swallowed.
"Is this as Matt, or as Lieutenant Casey looking out for his candidate?" she asked, taking a sip before he answered.
"Lieutenant Casey wanting to know if he needs to call in relief for his candidate next shift," he said, but Sylvie didn't believe him. He still gave her the magic words, so she'd ease some of his conscience.
"She'll be fine. Some gas inhalation, nothing too serious. I told her to rest up and drink plenty of fluids, and stay away from smoke or anything that could irritate her lungs for a day or so." Sylvie couldn't help notice the smile that broke out on his face at her words.
"Thanks, Brett," he murmured, downing the rest of his drink. He pointed at their almost empty glasses and when he got a nod went over to order for them. As soon as he went, Sylvie nearly dropped into Kelly, but remembered their colleagues were around just in time.
"That was the scariest moment of my life, Kelly," she said, putting a lock of hair behind her ear. "I could smell the gas and I saw intelligence's cars and I heard the shot and I thought I was going to pull a friend's body out of there. Instead she's fine but I can't stop with the "what if" moments, you know?" He squeezed her wrist, the firm even pressure reminding her that she was ok.
"You should have been scared. It's natural and normal and exactly what any of us would have done. But now we do the thing where we remember that it's ok to be nervous and scared, and we got out alive. Everyone is fine so we let it go." He gave her a final squeeze before letting go of her wrist as Matt reappeared with two beers and what looked like a strawberry Margherita in his hand for her.
"Figured you could do with something sweet and nice," he said, pushing the cocktail over to her. Sylvie smiled and took a sip, smiling wider at the taste.
"Much appreciated, thanks. Next round's on me." They settled into conversations about everything and nothing, and stayed like that until Gabby and Antonio walked into the bar. Gabby smiled, raising her arm in triumph as the shift cheered her arrival. She looked nothing like the scared friend Sylvie had treated that day.
"I'm going to go spend time with her, ok?" Her question wasn't really a question, and Kelly squeezed her arm in approval. Matt nodded and understood, and she took her drink over to the table Antonio had procured for Gabby. She sat down, and was almost immediately met with Gabby's arms around her.
"I'm not a hugger, but I need this. Thanks, Sylvie. You're a damn good roommate." They held onto each other for a moment before separating, the look in each other's eyes enough to know they'd solidified their friendship.
Antonio arrived over with drinks for them, and Sylvie spent her evening with the siblings, chatting and relaxing and finally feeling the weight and stress leave them. She was pleasantly buzzed when they decided to leave, and Antonio agreed to get the cab with them to make sure they were home safe.
Once they got home, they put a very drunk Gabby into bed before sitting on the couch to unwind for a while. Sylvie made them both coffee, and they turned on the TV to watch a Blackhawks game. She didn't totally notice that they were moving closer, until Antonio did the incredibly teenage thing of stretching and wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Sylvie stilled for a moment before settling into his arms.
Their coffee mugs were left on the table, and Sylvie ended up on top of Antonio, kissing him deeply and straddling his hips. His lips were rough against hers, dragging against her soft skin. His hands went from her head to her waist, holding her steady as they made out like teenagers at a party. Time passed quickly and slowly at the same time until their lips separated, needing air more than kisses. Once they stopped kissing, Sylvie immediately felt awkward and went to get off him, but Antonio held her there.
"You don't need to move, Sylvie. I'm glad to keep you right there," he murmured, bucking his hips up to her and kissing at the spot on her neck that made her groan.
"Not here, and not now," she said, separating and standing up, running a hand through her hair and straightening her shirt. "We had an emotional day, and I'm not going to do a one night thing with my roommate's brother. I've moved twice in six months so I'm not moving again. We'd regret it."
Antonio stood too, adjusting himself as he did. "That's ok. I get it. Then can I take you for lunch tomorrow? Portillos at Clark and Ontario at one?"
Sylvie smiled at the offer. "Sounds good. I'll see you then." She walked the detective to the front door and opened it to let him out. Before he walked out the door, he turned and kissed Sylvie firmly on the mouth. It was chaste, and it was sweet, but it was hard enough that she knew he meant business.
"See you tomorrow," he said against her skin, giving her one quick kiss on the cheek before leaving. She closed and locked the door behind her, before going to the bathroom and smiling at her kiss swollen lips and the slight beard rash against her chin.