"Hey, Easton. How were your days off?" She kept looking at the ground, and her hair made it hard for Otis and Cruz to see her face.
"Yo, you okay?" Cruz stopped her, and she sighed. She leaned her head up, and her hair fell back, exposing her split lip and a nasty cut on her cheek. "Oh, my God."
"What happened?" Otis carefully grabbed under her chin and turned her head so he could look at the injuries better.
"No big deal. Just a mishap with my front steps. Being a clumsy dork is kind of my thing." She gave Otis a small smile. "I'd just like to get inside to change."
She carefully pushed his hand down and walked toward the station. They followed behind but started whispering to each other. "Do you believe her?"
"We have no reason not to." They walked through the door.
Otis crossed his arms. "I think I'll ask Sylvie or Mills to check her out." He ran into Mills first and explained her injuries to him. "I think she's in the locker room right now."
Casey rounded the corner and looked at Otis. "I heard all of that. Mills, let's go talk to the candidate." They headed to the locker room together and found Easton shoving her bag into her locker. She was all changed and ready for work. "Mills will examine your injuries, and you will not say anything until he is done. Now sit." She kept her mouth shut and sat on the bench. Mills sat next to her and carefully looked at her. She tried her hardest not to flinch when he put a thumb on her cheek.
"So you fell on your front steps?" Mills asked carefully.
She nodded. "Yeah, I am such a klutz. When I first got to Chicago, I managed to slam a door on my head."
Mills shrugged and looked up at Casey. "She'll be okay."
"And do you really think she got those from a fall?"
Mills looked at Easton and saw her eyes quietly begging. "Yeah. She must've fallen at just the right angle, but I think she's telling the truth."
"Okay. Thanks, Mills." He nodded at Casey, who left the locker room.
"What happened?"
She laughed. "I'm not going to tell you. Just forget it, okay? I appreciate you helping me out, but you don't want to get involved."
She stood up, but he grabbed her arm and forced her to sit back down. "And why is that?"
"Because once you're in, there is no way out. Trust me when I say it is not something you want to be in. So drop it."
He nodded. "Okay. Just know that I will be there whenever you need to talk about whatever it is." He left her alone. She opened her locker door and stared at the picture of her with a young guy covered in tattoos with dark hair and a thick beard. They were smiling at the camera with her arms draped around his neck. She looked away and shut the door, getting up to go to the day room.
"Whoa, did our candidate get in a fight?" Herrmann shouted as soon as he saw her.
"Yeah, with my front porch steps." She grabbed the coffee pot. "Good morning Herrmann."
Severide watched her from the doorway. "Lis, come here." She put her coffee mug on the counter and walked over to Severide, shooting a confused look at the equally confused Otis. "Were you on a squad back in Seattle?"
"Well, not exactly. I was on an advanced rescue team."
He nodded. "Well, keep showing us what you can do. So far, I think squad would be the better fit for you." He left her without letting her respond. She carefully bit the corner of her lip before returning to the day room.
After a few more shifts, Severide officially offered Easton the job. She shook her head. "I don't know. I like being on Truck 81."
"But we could really use you on the squad. Most of us are pretty big guys, but being as small and talented as you are would be a huge asset."
She rubbed the back of her neck. "I don't know. Could I ride on the squad for this shift and then decide later?"
He nodded. "That is fine by me." He handed her a squad helmet. "Welcome to Squad 3."
"Thanks." He walked away with a satisfied smile on his face. "I guess." She walked to the ambulance to talk to Mills, whom she had bonded with since her incident. He was her closest friend at the station, besides Cruz and Otis, of course. "So, I'm on squad today." She threw Mills the helmet.
"Man, I miss being on a squad. It was such a rush."
"I was on something like squad back in Seattle. It was fun or whatever, but I think I prefer the truck."
"Man. Two weeks into your candidacy, you are ready to roll with the big dogs." He put the helmet on her head, and she laughed.
"You are ridiculous."
He nodded. "I know I am." They stopped talking when Otis stormed by them. "What's his deal?"
"I don't know. I'll talk to you later." She left him and followed Otis outside. "What's wrong, Batman?" Even in a bad mood, he managed to smile at her nickname for him.
"Well, the bartender that's supposed to help me tomorrow night just quit, so I'll be bartending alone on a Friday night."
"Don't sweat it. I've got you covered. I just happen to know a thing or two about alcohol, vodka being my specialty."
"Vodka?"
"It's just a thing. But seriously, I'd be happy to bartend with you tomorrow. I have nothing better planned anyways. I was probably going to watch Guardians of the Galaxy for the three hundredth time. "
"You are a lifesaver. If you could be at Molly's by six, that would be magnificent."
"No problem." The pager tones went off. "And here we go." She imitated the Joker's voice from the Dark Knight movie. He laughed as they ran inside. When she got into the squad instead of the truck, everyone on the crew except for Casey stared over at her.
"What the Hell is she doing?" Herrmann shouted.
"As of today, her candidacy is over. She's on squad today, and knowing that Severide will get who he wants on his squad, she'll be on squad from this day forward."
Herrmann frowned. "Man. This sucks."
Otis watched the squad disappear from his sight as they got to the scene, and the squad pulled up closest to the building. They all got out and stared up at the upper floors of the building. A car was lodged in the upper floors, rocking back and forth on the edge. "Oh wow. That's not something you see every day." The squad started heading up. They took the elevator to the 32nd floor, where the car was.
"How did this happen?" Kelly asked the man standing outside the conference room the car was in.
"They were trying to jump a car from roof to roof, but he must not have given it enough gas or something."
Severide entered the room carefully. "Okay, guys. The cable meant to keep him from falling straight down is caught. That's why he didn't come in farther. And right now, it's straining. If this car gives way at all, it's falling straight down 32 stories." They all nodded.
"So what do we do?"
"There is a woman trapped under the car, but none of us can fit. Lis, get under there to free her." Easton nodded, not hesitating to carefully army crawl under the car while Capp and Severide tied the car to metal posts in the walls.
The woman was bleeding and breathing heavily from fear. "Ma'am, please calm your breathing down. You are going to be okay as long as you follow my instructions. Where are you hurt?"
"Just my head and arm, I think."
"Can you move just a little bit?" She shifted a little, and the car groaned.
"Keep going, Lis. It's fine." Severide shouted at her as he kept tying lines.
"I'm going to need you to come this way. Just crawl on your elbows like I did earlier." The woman followed her instructions but didn't get far.
"My necklace is stuck. Oh, my God, I'm going to die under here." She started blindly grabbing at her necklace, trying to free it. The car began to rock from all the extra movement from the patient.
"Stop moving!" Lis crawled closer and grabbed her necklace, bravely pulling it down and getting it free. "Now go!" She crawled out to Severide and Capp. Somebody must've accidentally hit the car because it started to rock back. They pulled at the ropes as hard as they could, which made the car go flat onto the ground, nearly crushing Easton. "Guys, stop doing whatever the Hell it is you are doing!"
"Come on out, Easton!"
She tried to move but felt how much the car had moved. "Yeah, one snag, I can't. I don't have enough room."
Severide was standing next to the car, looking at the ropes. "If we try to relax these lines at all, the car could fall, and we still have the driver to get."
"Get him first. I can stay down here a little bit longer."
She felt the car get weighed down as they got on it, trying to open the door. This pushed it onto her further. Glass started falling from where it was stuck on the bottom of the car. She bit her lip and felt some of the shards cut her face. After a lot of shouting, she felt the car ease off. She crawled free, cutting her arms up even through her turnout jacket. When she was finally out, the squad and truck pulled the car onto more solid ground. Mills ran to his friend and looked at her injuries.
"So, first day on squad going well?"
She gave him an unimpressed look. "Just fix me up, you dork."
He smiled as he cleaned the blood and sterilized the wounds. "These won't need stitches, amazingly."
"So I'm good for the rest of shift?"
"Yeah. Just, maybe next time, you should stay out of the action. At least until you heal." She grabbed her turn-out gear, put it on along with her helmet, and went back downstairs with Mills.