A/N: Hiiii, I'm back with a new installment of Chicago Fire: Back for Trouble, a Brettsey story!
That sounds epic, seriously. Anyways, the images above are Violet, Stella, and Sylvie's outfits for the CPD Gala.
Please read, follow, vote, comment, add this to your library and reading lists, an most of all:
Please. Enjoy!
P.S: In this story I'm pretending that Gabby never came to visit in season 8.
"Honestly, it's been such a long time since we've had an excuse to dress up fancy," Stella remarks.
"Ugh, I know right," Violet says, with bobby pins between her teeth, fixing my hair up into some elaborate hairdo. We are sitting in my apartment, getting ready for the gala, because I'm the only one that doesn't have roommates. We all sit and do out makeup and hair, with bottles of wine surrouding us.
"I'm glad, though, I've missed my dresses," I laugh. "Though, with all of my dresses, I really shouldn't be buying new ones, but all of my old ones don't feel like me anymore, you know?"
"Yeah, I get you," Violet nods, accidentally poking my scalp with a pin.
"Watch it," I growl at her, jokingly.
"What can I do? I poke needles into people for a living," she laughs. "Seriously though, I've gone through way too many style changes over the years. I wore a leather bodysuit to prom, and I wore something similar to Cinderella's dress plus extra tulle to my tenth birthday party.
"Ah, you should've seen my prom outfit. At least we had similar prom styles," Stella grins.
"I don't know what it is with wearing weird outfits to prom, I actually liked mine," I note.
"Yeah, but you're Sylvie Brett, the good girl. Even though I'm doing your hair for you," Violet retorts, smirking.
"Ah, stop bickering, you two. I'm doing my hair on my own, so shut up," Stella grins, poking me with one of her pins for good measure.
"That's because you're used to it, with the amount of date nights you have with Severide," Violet pokes Stella back in my defense.
"That's definitely true, Stell," I tell her laughing. "But get back to work, Violet, the pins are for my hair, not for Stella arms."
She beams at me, "Whoops."
We get ready, and put on our dresses.
I wear a thin, red, tulle dress, and Violet's matches her name - a traditional purple gown, while Stella's dress is just, plain badass with green slits and straps.
"Aimos Dawson is going to wish he never messed with us 51 women," Stella laughs.
"That's definitely true, although I think you're talking about yourself," Violet winks.
I laugh with Stella. "That's most definitely true," I say, while Stella just smirks and says "maybe".
"So Violet, are you and Gallo going together?" I inquire. She and Gallo have been having an on and off relationship for quite a while now. Often their pride gets the most of them, and Violet is hella hard on Gallo - always making everything a contest between them.
"Well, they say they aren't but I expect them to wake up together in the morning, becase they hooked up three minutes into the gala" Stella replies for Violet, smirking while Violet blushes like crazy.
"Alright, let's go," I say grinning at Violet. "You guys ready?"
"Yeah," they chorus. We head out of my apartment and into Stella's car, where we drive to The Golden Birch, a luxury hotel where the gala will be taking place.
We arrive, and step out of the car. I see Matt, Kelly, and Gallo near the entrance, Matt and Kelly smoking cigars. Kelly waves at us, motioning us to come over.
Gallo nods at Violet when we head over. "You look good."
She grins sassily, "Of course I do."
Stella and I laugh. She hugs Matt and Gallo and kisses Severide.
"Hey guys," I smile at Gallo and peck Matt on the cheek.
"Sylvie!" Kelly brings me in for a hug.
"Hey, Severide," I laugh at him. "It's good to see you."
"You too," Kelly releases me. "We haven't hung out in a while."
My eyes widen at the thought. "That's so true! We really need to get together sometime."
Kelly nods and pats my should going over to Stella. Stella, Kelly, Matt and I have become some sort of a tight-knit group since Dawson left. Now, occasionally, when we're on shift, and everyone is sleeping we hang out in Casey or Kelly's quarters. We just talk and eat chips, and it's very fun.
"Alright, so the Dawsons are going to be here any minute," Matt says. "Are you sure you're ready?" He asks, hugging me.
I blink at the thought of seeing Gabby so soon, taking a while to think over the prospect. It seems so weird; we stitched everything up after Dawson left, and now we have a happy group, albeit without Otis, but everything is just so serendipitous, and now Dawson coming back will just ruin everything.
I take a deep breath, "Never going to be ready, so let's go."
Matt nods. "And just for clarification, the Dawsons aren't to know about Sylvie and me, alright?"
"Got it," Stella, Gallo and Violet say in unison.
"Yep," Kelly nods.
I kiss Matt one last time and walk into the hotel lobby, where a hallway stretches into a ballroom-like expanse, decorated for the party. There is a string quartet in the right corner playing soft Schubert, and in the back is a podium for the speech which will come later. Lining the left wall are tables holding food, with a bar for purchasing drinks. I bet twenty dollars that that will be the first place that Stella drags Severide to.
Funnily enough, that's the spot I head to first, and I order a drink. I sip my white wine and I see Matt enter through the doorway. He spots me and heads over, resting his hand on my waist.
We walk around the ballroom, greeting some people that we recognize, including the ones from Intelligence. I see Trudy with Mouch stuck at her hip, and she mouths 'help' at me from a distance, tryin to get rid of him. I laugh at her, mouth 'nope', and wave goodbye, while she looks on, probably devastated.
We also greet some total strangers, including a Mr. and Mrs. Averyworth, and a Carrie, to name a few. Some are rich knuckleheads, here to flaunt their wealth and others are actual CPD officers and detectives.
I see Severide enter the hall out of the corner of my eye and he nods at Casey to come outside, waving some cigars over some poor lady's head.
Matt looks at me questioningly, and I nod at him. "Go ahead, I'll see you in a few minutes."
He smiles down at me and I push him towards the doorway. "Go ruin you lungs with your best friend," I say jokingly.
I head back to the bar once Matt leaves, to refill my glass, this time asking for red wine. From my spot on the left side of the hall, I scan the crowd from my position, not seeing any signs of the Dawsons. They must be waiting to make an entance fashionably late, or the Chicago cabs are just slow.
"It must be the former," A deep voice says from behind me. I blush realizing that I said that out loud. I turn around and see Gallo holding onto Violet's waist, nipping at her neck.
I roll and cover my eyes. "Guys! We're at a formal party, stop with the PDA, already!"
Violet laughs, throwing her hair onto the other side of her neck and tilts her head, teasing Gallo.
Gallo's head comes dangerously close to Violet's collarbone before he straightens up and pats down his hair while Violet laughs, kissing him on the lips. I giggle at their antics.
"Alright, seriously though, that's enough, they're here," Stella says apprehendingly. I turn around towards the entrance of the hall and catch a glimpse of Gabby Dawson in a long, brown dress, clutching Antonio's arm.
I immediately whip my head back towards Stella, Gallo, and Violet. Violet stares at Gabby in awe. "She's pretty," Violet notices blankly.
I know what she currently feels like. It was what I felt like when I first came to Firehouse 51. I was the replacement of a beloved family member.
Leslie Shay.
I saw pictures of her, and everyone constantly talked about her, and because of that it took me a while to bond with everyone, because it was almost as if they resented me for taking Shay's spot. Almost as if they thought that it was my fault she died.
Now, Violet seeing Dawson is similar. Although she replaced Mackey, who replaced Emily, who replaced Gabby, Violet thinks that she will be pushed away because Gabby is back, and Gabby is their family, not Violet. That's not true, but it certainly feels that way, I can say from experience.
Gabby Dawson has changed, though. Her once, short hair, she has grown out, having it sitting in a braid. Her once, filled in cheeks, are now more hollow, like all of her body. She has gotten much thinner, but also more muscular; the gown wrapped around her, only accentuating that.
I down my glass of wine and grab Violet's wrists, dragging her with me, marching to the bathroom, with Stella trailing behind us. I see Gabby try to follow us, how brow creased in confusion, as to who Violet is, but she is held back by the crowd. While half-running away, we pass Burgess and Upton, who wear dark blue and turqoise dresses, respectively.
They notice us and point us towards the ladies' room, knowing what caused this increase in frustration. They smartly decide to not follow us, because that would cause to much attention.
Instead, when we get close enough to them I nod in thanks, while Kim pats our shoulders.
Once we reach the empty hallway leading to the bathrooms, Violet stops stumbling on my heels, and I let go of her wrist. I sigh in relief when Stella opens the door to the bathrooms. These aren't stalls, but three separate rooms, with lots of space for three women to fit in.
Stella and Violet pick up the bottoms of their dresses, making sure to not get them wet or dirty, while I sit on the bench, locking the door, because my dress only reaches my ankles.
Once the door is locked, Stella perches on the toilet like a crow, while I motion to Violet to come sit next to me. She obliges and I put my arm around the younger girl.
"We both know how you feel," I tell her, reffering to Stella and myself. "It's hard being the newbie, especially being the replacement. I had that too. The paramedic that I replaced was dearly loved, and she was killed in the line of duty. As for Stella, she replaced some that had was unstable after his brother's death, and he blamed it on Boden.
After that, he was seriously injured, and couldn't return as a firefighter, and while he was bitter towards us, he was still family. We missed him.
Believe me when we say that we have experienced what you are right now."
She nods and hugs me tightly. "You were here before Stella?"
I nod. "Oh yeah, but the rest was here before me, except for Ritter and Gallo."
"Speaking about that," Stella pipes up, "Gallo also replaced a loved member. Otis."
I feel my eyes starting to fill up with tears, thinking about Otis. "He was an amazing guy. Funny, and he was my roommate. Cruz's best friend. Died in a factory fire."
"I'm sorry," Violet pats my back, "Factory fires are the worst."
I agree.
"But anyways, what we're trying to say, is that being in this job, you're not safe. People will get hurt and possibly die, and you will often their replacement," Stella jumps off of her perch and goes over to Violet and me, joining the hug.
I feel both Stella and Violet's tears on me, and I feel my own tears dripping onto their shoulders.
Stella releases us and says, "Let's get out of here," between sniffles. We agree and quickly wipe down our faces.
We walk out of the bathroom, crossing our fingers, hoping that Gabby didn't follow us here. She didn't luckily enough, but Gallo must have, bringing Severide and Casey with him.
Violet smiles sloppily. "Stalkers."
"Let's get out of here," Matt suggests.
We all agree.
I'm tired, slightly tipsy, feel like crying, and I'm sure that Violet and Stella feel the same way. Besides, we're on shift the next morning.
We sneak our way out, through the back entrance all heading back to our respective places, except for me, who comes back to Severide, Stella, and Matt's place.
Once we get to the loft I join Stella in the bathroom, wiping off our makeup.
We stay silent for a bit, trying to wrap our brains around all of the information from this evening, until Stella decides to break the silence. "Well... that was one hell of a night."
I nod my head drowsily. "Yeah, definitely. My head's still trying to process all of this," I laugh grumpily. "How do you think Violet's holding up?" I wonder.
"She'll be fine," Stella yawns. "She has us and Gallo."
I nod, and our conversation ends with that. Afterwards, when we strip out of our dresses and put on comfy sweatpants and tanktops, we head to the table where Severide and Casey sit, in their home clothes, gel combed out of their hair.
Matt heats up some leftover pasta, and we eat in silence, no one being in the mood to talk, or just being too exhausted to talk.
At around 11 o'clock we go to bed. I wash my face in the bathroom with Stella and hug her goodnight.
I head to Matt's bedroom, seeing him already under the blanket, leaving a gap on the left side of the bed for me. I smile weakly at him, thinking of what an evening it was. I slip under the covers, where he turns around and hugs me. I shrink into his embrace, where I feel warm and safe, and I close my eyes, as we fall asleep in total silence.
A/N: Yooo, that was 2000+ words! Longest chapter I've ever written! Woot woot!
Anyways, this is when the drama begins... *stunned silence*. I know, right, you can't wait for more! Luckily, next chapter will be even more drama, because this. Is. When. The. Dawsons. And. Everyone. Else. Talk.
Woahh.
Well, lots of love; the next update is coming!
-Brett