"Good morning everyone."
Boden walked into the meeting room and interrupted all the conversations by smashing his folder onto the first table.
"Let's get this shift started. I heard back from first shift, that another fire house called them to assist with a bigger house fire. It's under control now, but first shift said it was pretty bad. We should be prepared to be called in for support, all right?"
"Yes Chief."
"Dismissed."
They didn't even exit the meeting room when dispatch called them to a house fire. Severide and Casey looked at Chief Boden and then hurried to the vehicles.
It turned out to be a different fire than the big one that first shift talked about. Nonetheless it was quite a big fire, and two small children were trapped upstairs. Truck 81 evacuated the parents and the neighbors and Squad 3 tried to climb up the stairs.
"Herrmann, I need two distinguishers in here!", Severide called through his radio.
"Got it Severide!", Herrmann answered and turned to Ritter.
"Ritter, come on! Let's help Squad!"
Herrmann and Ritter ran inside, straight to the stairs.
"Hey Herrmann, I need you to clear the stairs, there are two little children trapped upstairs!"
"Got it!"
Herrmann and Ritter did their best to clear out the stairs, but the flames were everywhere. As soon as Severide saw a small gap, he jumped through.
"Lieutenant!", Cruz shouted, but he was too late.
"Herrmann, I need to help Severide."
Herrmann shook his head.
"Not a chance, the distinguishers are empty! You won't get through there without the risk of injury!"
"But…"
"Hey, I said you can't! You have a little boy at home who needs his father. Let's get out of here!"
Herrmann pushed Cruz down the stairs, and they emerged through the front door. Casey came over and looked at them.
"Where is Severide?"
"He jumped to the upper floor to get to the kids", Herrmann reported.
Casey's expression shifted from neutral to worried.
"Alone?!"
"It's my fault Captain, he saw a hole in the fire that I didn't see. I should've followed him, but I was too late. I'm sorry."
Casey eyed him top to bottom and spotted a burning mark on his neck.
"Get yourself checked out Cruz."
Then he turned to the house and spoke into his radio.
"Severide, can you hear me?"
"Casey, I'm upstairs! I have two little kids here, but the stairs are blocked! Can you tell Mouch to shift the arial?"
"What is your exact position?"
"I think it's one of the southern rooms. It's getting pretty hot in here!"
Casey's eyes widened. Severide was right above the kitchen and the father had just told them they had a gas stove. Casey ran over to the Chief.
"Chief, Severide is upstairs with the kids but they are trapped. He said he's in one of the southern rooms, that's right above the kitchen. Can we reach these windows with the ladder?"
Chief shook his head.
"No, the southern rooms are on the other side."
Casey looked at him in horror.
"We need to get them out of there! If the fire reaches the gas tank of the stove, it will blow up straight into the room where they are!"
"Casey, we need the arial now!", Severide called through the radio.
"Severide", Boden chimed in and looked to the house, "we can't reach the southern rooms with the arial. Can you cross the hall to the northern side?"
"Wait!"
A few moments, everyone was absolutely quiet. Casey and Stella exchanged a worried look, but they refused to think of the worst. Both of them knew, that Kelly would do everything in his power to get these kids out safely.
"I think we can! Is the ladder ready?"
"Mouch?!", Casey called.
"Ready Captain!"
After a few seconds, a window broke loudly and Severide held out his head. Everyone in front of the house let out a small sigh of relief.
"Alright kids, let's get you down to your parents, okay?"
Severide placed the little girl on the ladder.
"Do not let go of the ladder, okay? Hold on to it and don't look down. Look at your feet and place one in front of the other. Slowly", he ordered and placed the little boy onto it next.
Meanwhile, Casey started climbing up the ladder. The kids moved very slowly, as they were very scared, so he was almost at the top of the ladder when he reached the girl.
"Hey you, I'm Matt. What's your name?"
"Lydia", she answered with a shaky voice.
"Hey Lydia, you're doing great. Just keep moving slowly, okay? What's your brother's name?"
"Michael."
Casey smiled at them.
"You're doing so good. Keep going."
When he looked back up, he saw Severide struggling with climbing onto the ladder.
"Severide?", he said worried.
When Severide looked back up, Casey recognized his friend's pale face.
"Severide, you good?!"
The next second, it banged loudly.
"Cover your face!", Casey screamed at the kids and they turned their heads away.
When he looked back up, the roof of the house collapsed and Severide wasn't at the window anymore. But he wasn't on the ladder, he was gone.
"Severide!", Casey screamed, but he got no response.
The kids started to cry.
"Hey, come on, let's get you down", Casey tried to calm them while looking for his friend.
When they reached the end of the ladder, Mouch and Gallo took the kids and handed them to their parents. Casey walked over to the Chief who looked to the upper floor, desperately trying to find Severide.
"Where is he?"
Boden shot him an angsty look and turned his gaze back to the window.
"Severide report!"
Nothing.
"Severide report!"
Casey looked over to Stella. All color had drained from her face and her eyes were wide open. He saw her stumbling backwards and she hit the truck with her back. Brett was immediately at her side.
"Stella breath! Hey, I need you to take deep breaths for me. Come on, breath with me. In… out… and again. In… out… Good, keep going!"
She moved her to sit on the rig. Casey looked at Brett and she shot him a worried look as she started checking Stella's vitals. She went on with talking to Stella, trying to calm her while Stella only had eyes for the window upstairs.
"Severide report!"
Boden still tried to reach Severide over the radio, but he didn't answer.
"Chief, we need to go in and help him", Casey said and started looking for Cruz, Capp and Gallo.
"No one goes inside! It's not safe!"
"But Chief…"
"No one goes inside that house!"
Boden's voice almost made the earth tremble.
"We have to wait for the structural engineer to tell us where we can enter the house. If we go in there blindly, we risk making the situation worse."
Casey looked at him, helplessness and despair flickering in his eyes.
"Casey, go up to the window and try to get a look inside. Maybe he is close to the window and you can talk to him. Do not enter the house, do you understand?"
"Yes Chief."
Casey did as he was told. When he reached the top of the ladder, he leaned over to the house and tried to look inside the house.
"Kelly?", he called.
Then, he thought he heard a PASS device. He looked back to Gallo, who waited behind him on the ladder.
"Do you hear that Gallo", he asked.
"That's a PASS device."
"Chief, we hear his PASS device. I think he's unconscious, but I can't see him. He must be buried underneath the roof parts. How long does that engineer need?"
"He's two minutes out. Casey, do not go inside!"
"Chief, if his brain doesn't get enough oxygen, we risk a severe brain injury! I need to confirm that he's still breathing!"
"Casey!"
But he wasn't listening anymore. He entered the house carefully, despite Gallo's desperate calls to keep him from doing so. Once inside, he tried to spot Severide's jacket.
"Kelly?"
He knew that if Severide was unconscious, it would be useless to call his name, but Casey hoped that his friend regained consciousness by now.
When he was about to give up, he spotted the red patch that said Rescue Squad.
"Kelly!", he called out once more and crawled over to his friend.
The PASS device was still bleeping loudly. When he got eyes on Kelly's face, he saw that his eyes were closed.
"Come on buddy, not like this! You can't leave Kidd like that!"
Casey checked for a pulse and was more than relieved to find one. It was rather weak, but it was there.
"Kelly it's me, Casey! Please open your eyes!"
"Ugh…"
Kelly's voice was barely audible, but Casey heard it.
"Hey, there you are! Come on, let's get you out of here."
"Casey… Is everyone okay?"
Casey had to hold back a chuckle. Kelly was currently pinned underneath a pretty big roof piece, and he worried about everyone else.
"Yeah, everyone is good. Well besides Stella…"
"Why, what's wrong with her?"
"She's worried, very worried actually. We all are, but she's a little bit more than the rest of us. She'll be okay once we get you out of here."
"Casey…"
His voice broke.
"Will we make it out?"
"Sure. They have to wait for the structural engineer to tell them where they can enter the house without risking further damage. But he should be here by now, so they'll prepare to get you out."
Severide grunted and closed his eyes.
"Hey Kelly, you have to stay with me, okay? Come on, keep talking to me."
"Do you have your radio?"
Severide's voice was weaker than before, and Casey could see that he was losing the battle against unconsciousness.
"Yeah, it's here. Why?"
"I wanna talk to Stella."
"Okay. Here", Casey came closer to Severide's head and held his radio next to his mouth.
"Stella… can you hear me?"
"Yes, I'm here! Thank god, Kelly! Are you okay?"
"Hey babe, listen to me… I don't know how much time I've left so…"
Outside, Stella started to cry. Brett held back tears while she tried to comfort Stella, and everyone else looked at their feet. Gallo and Capp received instructions from the structural engineer.
"Just know… I, I love you. You're best thing that happened to me and… I hope that this ends well so I can… ugh… I can spend the rest of my life with you, because that's what I want. But if this goes wrong…"
"No it won't!", Stella shouted into her radio.
"Babe, listen… if this goes wrong, I want you to fulfill your dreams, do you hear me? You know… marry the man you love with all your heart, have children with him… and I'll be watching you. Do you promise me to do that?"
By now, every bystander had tears in his eyes. Stella was crying shamelessly, and her legs gave in. She sank to the ground and lowered her head.
"Can you promise me to do so, Stella?"
"Yes", was all she managed to reply.
A/N: Hey you!
I know it's been very long since the last update, so this chapter is a bit longer. I hope you still like the story. As I'm on vacation now, I have a bit more time to write so I'll probably update more regularly, but I won't promise anything.
Anyways, have a good day and I wish you all the best😊! ~ D.