Alex pulled up along side the curb outside Kelly's apartment. She turned off the car and sat there for a second. Her anxiety taking over, as she was afraid of the outcome of this conversation. She didn't want to lose Kelly but she needed him to not be so protective.

The sky was grey signaling rain was coming, you could smell it in the air. Just as Alex stepped out of her car, the sky opened up and poured down on her.

"Damnit!" She made a dash for the door to Kelly's building. Once in side she slowed down and walked to his apartment door. Her hand was shaking because she was so nervous and now cold.

Her knuckle lightly grazed the apartment door. She had to take a deep breath before knocking. She listened for the sound of Kelly coming to the door.

When Kelly opened the door he was happy to see Alex. She was soaking wet and shivering. "Lex? come in side."

Kelly placed his arm around her waist, guiding her into the apartment. "Let's get you out of these wet clothes." He guided her to his bedroom and then sat her down on his bed. "Let me find you something."

Kelly went to his closet and pulled out a basic black t-shirt, basketball shorts, and a pair of his boxers. He went back over to Alex and sat the clothes down next to her.

She hasn't said a word since he opened the apartment door. Kelly sat down next to her and grabbed one of her shaking hands. "Lex what's wrong?"

Alex took a deep breath before speaking. "I need you to back off a bit."

Kelly was confused. "What do you mean?"

"You have been protecting me since my father died and it's starting to become to much. I'm an adult Kelly. I'm not a child anymore."

"Oh. I'm sorry Alex, I didn't mean to upset you."

"You didn't upset me Kelly. But you can't put your life on hold because you're to busy protecting me. Like last night you could of gone with Stella. I would have been fine." Alex was trying to gauge Kelly's feelings but his face was made of stone.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You just got out of the hospital from some pretty serious injuries."

Alex felt like Kelly wasn't listening to her. He still just wanted to keep protecting her. She jumped to her feet, yanking her hand out of Kelly's. "They wouldn't of released me if I was still in danger!"

Kelly jumped up meeting her energy and staring each other down "You almost died Alex!"

She could see the tears that were forming in the corner of Kelly's eyes. "I don't want to lose you. You are my best friend. And if you died and I could of prevented it? I would hate myself for forever."

"I'm a big girl Kelly. I can take care of myself." Alex leaned into Kelly and embraced him in a hug. Kelly returned feeling and just held onto her. Not caring that his shirt was getting wet.

But the moment wasn't meant to last.

Both of there phones started going off, it was a text from the CFD. ALL FIREFIGHTERS AND PARAMEDICS REPORT TO HWY 90 AND 290 EAST CROSS-SECTION.

Kelly and Alex quickly ran to the living room to turn on the news. That's when they saw it, one of the bridges had collapsed on top of the other highway.

Alex brought he hand up to her mouth and gasped. "Get changed we need to go." Alex nodded and ran back to Kelly's room and he was right behind her.

"I believe I have one of Shay's old uniforms." Kelly started opening up drawers and rummaging through them. He finally pulled out a medics CFD uniform.

Kelly handed it to Alex and left the room to retrieve his uniform from the dryer. The two of them quickly changed and then ran out the door. "Lex just ride with me. No need to take two cars. It's already going to be crazy."

Alex jumped into the passenger seat of Kelly's mustang and the two of them headed towards the collapse. Alex grabbed the hair tie off her wrist and started to put her hair up.

"I didn't mean to suffocate you. It's just you got hurt not long after you got here. I just don't want to lose you Lex. Not again."

Alex sighed. "You won't lose me Kelly. I just need room to breath."

"You got it." Kelly picked up her hand and placed a kiss to the back of it. "Just let me know if I need to back off."

"I will."

They sat in silence the rest of the way to the scene. Both trying to get in the right head space for what they were about to see.

They arrived on scene and it was utter chaos. It was like a scene from a movie. People running around and screaming. There was also smoke and concrete dust in the air. Alex could already see some people who were trapped and people who didn't make it. They got out of Kelly's car and headed to find Chief.

Chief had spotted them first.

"Hermann! Severide!" The two of them spotted boden and headed over towards him.

"Where you need us Chief?"

"Severide I need you to go help people who are trapped. Hermann head over to triage and Brett will let you know what she needs."

"Yes Chief." They two of them snuck one more glance at each other before running off in their respectful direction.

Alex approached Brett who had a handful of cards with different colors. Green meant the person was fine, yellow was for needs assistance but not critical, red for critical, and black was for if someone was already gone or there was nothing they could do to save them.

"Hermann! Great here take some cards and go around check people out and see what you find. Also her is a jump bag filled with things you may need." Alex nodded and took the cards and bag from her.

Brett rushed off and Alex began assessing people. She hated how many black tags she had to use. This incident seemed more like a recovery and not a rescue.

Alex was walking but then felt something tugging on her shoe. She looked down to see a little hand covered is dust trying to get her attention. Alex quickly dropped to her knees and looked inside where the hand came from. "Hello?"

"Please help. My mom and me are being crushed." Alex saw a little boy and his mom. The little boy was terrified and mom didn't appear to be moving.

Alex jumped to her feet and looked around, her eyes landing on Kelly. "Severide!!"

Kelly looked in her direction and saw her waving him over. "Cruz follow me!" The two of them ran over to where Alex was. "What is it Lex?"

"A little boy and his mom are trapped under these rocks."

Kelly dropped to his stomach and peered into the small opening. He could see the little boy, who couldn't of been any older than 7. "Hey buddy. what's your name?"

"Austin."

"Hey Austin. I'm Kelly and I'm going to get you and your mom out of here."

The little boy nodded his head. Kelly stood back up. "Cruz go get some cribbing."

"yes Lieutenant." Cruz took off.

"Tony! Capp! I need those airbags over here!" The two men grab the bags and ran over to Kelly.

Cruz showed up with cribbing and they began to place the airbags and cribbing to help lift up the rubble.

"On 3 we air up the bags." Everyone nodded. "1...2...3." The bags began to inflate and the the rock slowly moved. Kelly was on the ground and pulled the little boy out the second he could.

Alex took the little boy in her arms and began looking him over. With all things expected the little boy looked perfectly fine. Alex placed a yellow tag around his neck. "This tells everyone that you are okay but need a doctor to look you over."

Alex gave Austin a comforting smile.

Kelly began to pull the boys mom out of the rubble but Alex could tell by how the women's body was moving. She was already gone.

"Hey buddy let's go over here. Let these men work on getting your mom." The boy nodded and they began to walk away. Alex handed Cruz a black tag as she passed by him.

Alex took the little boy over to CPD who was helping transfer non-emergency patients. She walked up to man who appeared to be about her age. She smiled and then so did he.

Alex felt her heart skip a beat. This man almost took her breath away. "Hi. I'm Jay Halstead." Jay stuck out his hand.

Alex graciously took his hand for a handshake. "Alexandra Hermann."

"And who do we have here?" Jay bent down so he was eye level with the little boy.

"This is Austin."

"Hey Austin. I'm Jay."

The little boy had attached himself to Alex because he felt safe with her. "Austin it's okay. Jay is a police officer and he's going to get you checked out. Okay?"

The little boy nodded and allowed Jay to lead him over to his truck. Jay got the little boy situated before closing the door. Alex was standing at the front of the truck waiting for Jay.

"His mom is gone. We didn't get to her in time."

Jay nodded his head. "I'll call DHS. Hopefully he has other family around."

Jay climbed into his truck and Alex took a couple steps back to allow them to leave. Jay rolled down his window to say something. "By the way Alex, I'm a detective."

He winked at her before pulling off for the hospital. Alex could feel her cheeks turning a bright read and her knees went a little week.

She quickly recovered and headed back to work.