Happy Sunday everyone! I wanted to give a big shout-out to my beta for this story Lex in the City for listening to my craziness about my vision for these characters! It's always hard to sometimes circle back when I'm writing 5 or 6 chapters ahead of what everyone is reading and I start second guessing what I've written especially since I've been using storylines from Chicago Fire and Chicago PD as the inspiration for this story. Thanks, friend! See ya'll next week!


While Tobias hadn't planned it, he was excited when he and Molly walked into Dauntless that night when Tris was there with Vega. Molly wanted to go for drinks after dinner and he suggested Dauntless hoping Zeke and Shauna would get off his back about staying away from the bar. He did miss hanging out there, but he'd been purposefully trying to avoid seeing Tris and Nita there. It was a little bit of revenge for him, and he had to stop himself from laughing when he saw her shooting daggers at him across the bar. He could feel her watching him across the bar while he and Molly enjoyed their drinks at a table closer to the door. Molly was making it very clear she wanted to go back to her place later, leaning in, whispering in his ear, leaving light touches on his arm. Things had been so stressful, this guy out there watching them, he needed to take the edge off. Hopefully having his way with Molly would do just that.

Things with Molly had been fine, she was nice, pretty. Normally he would have moved things along quickly, but he was taking his time. They had made time for about five dates over the past month, and he was impressed with himself that they hadn't had sex yet.

After dinner one evening that led to Tobias following Molly up to her apartment, Molly is grinding against Tobias while she straddled his lap on her couch. Tobias groaned as she leaned back to take her shirt off. His length hardened in his pants as she pressed closer. She eagerly goes back to kissing him as his hands roam across her body.

"I love the way your hands feel on me, Daddy," she tells him with a giggle against his lips.

Tobias freezes. Sure, it wasn't Papi exactly, but it might as well have been what Molly called him. For some reason, his mind instantly went to Tris. It was as if a switch went off in his brain, suddenly, the woman on top of him was all wrong. The wrong size, the wrong smell, and he felt his dick soften immediately.

"Why'd you stop?" Molly asks, pulling back breathless, noticing the energy had changed between them.

"I'm really sorry, Molly, but I can't do this," he says as he falls back against the couch looking up at the ceiling in frustration.

Tobias felt like an idiot, here he was kissing a beautiful woman who was half naked and he was thinking about Tris. Molly rolls off him frustrated and flops to the other side of the couch. She thought she was finally making progress with him. She could tell he was holding back but in the past week, he'd seemed more open to them moving forward.

"Who is she?" she asks after a moment of silence, having a feeling that another woman would have him second-guessing sleeping with her.

"She is the one I can't seem to let go of," he tells her honestly, wiping his hands down his face.

"And why are you here with me and not with her?"

"She's in love with someone else" Molly places a soft hand on his knee at his admission.

"If she doesn't realize what a great guy you are, she doesn't deserve you," she tells him with a soft smile.

Tobias gets up while Molly puts on her shirt and grabs his jacket. He apologizes to Molly again and she pulls him in for one last kiss at the front door.

"Well, if you decide to move on, you know where to find me," she tells him with a half-smile. She really liked him.

"You are an amazing woman Molly Royce," he tells her and leans in to give her a kiss on the cheek.

One thing was clear, he needed to decide if he wanted to move on from Tris because all he had been doing was pretending that he had. If he wasn't going to move on for her, he would have to decide to fight for her.


There was so much going on with looking for the arsonist and everyone looking over their shoulders, Harrison and Amar decide to enter 51 to Chicago Fire Department's annual Ladder Games. Each year houses across the district competed in firefighter drills in a large outdoor picnic. Amar knew everyone needed to let loose and have some fun, even if it was only for one day. The weather was breaking so it was warm outside since it was Spring now and there was only a slight chill in the air.

Tobias had won the ladder climb, Zeke and Marlene had come in second in the fire hose drag and Shauna placed second in the dummy drag. Max chuckled at how competitive the team was. He had seen how tense things had been with Prior and Eaton's romance falling apart. Everyone seemed to have put it behind them today.

"You got this Prior" Harrison yells. Tris was hanging on to a pole she had climbed. The winner of this event was the person who could hold on the longest. It was down to Tris and one of the firefighters from 33.

Tobias grins as he holds his hand over his eyes to shield his view from the sun. She was amazing, so tough and strong.

"Ahhhh" Tris screams as her arms were feeling like jelly but she wasn't going to let go.

"Hang on Mamma, you are going to win this" Christina yells while she claps her hands.

"Don't give up, Prior," Marlene calls as she assesses where the other guy is.

Just as Tris feels like she's done, the other guy gives up and slides down the pole. She follows and jumps up and down that she had won her event and she and Christina hug and Zeke, Fernando, and Harrison, all pat her on the back.

"Okay everyone, we are in second place, House 17 is in the lead by only 5 points. The last event is tug of war, it's 10 points. We win tug of war; we win the trophy" Amar tells everyone as 51 huddles up.

"We got this 51," Shauna tells everyone as they lean on close, and Zeke pops his head up to eyeball the other team. As much as Shauna had protested this, being out here had been fun. It was thought all the problems and tension had been left on the field.

"I'm not going in that muddy pit, y'all better pull like hell" Christina threatens all of them. Tris laughs and nudges her shoulder.

Zeke gets in front, pushes his sleeves up on his t-shirt, and digs his heels into the dirt. Edward, Fernando, Harrison, Marlene, Amar, Christina, and Shauna all scrambled to grab onto the giant rope. Tris doesn't notice that she's right in front of Tobias when she takes her place. Tobias grins when Max and Amar come in behind him to anchor their team. The crowd roared as Firehouse 17 locked in on the opposite side of the rope.

When the whistle blows both teams give it their all. For a second Zeke feels himself being pulled forward even though he was giving it all he had.

"Pull" Tobias yells loudly as he grunts, putting everything he had into it. Tris was in front of him, and she had a look of pure determination on her face. Suddenly someone on the other side of the rope slips. Cheers from the crowd erupt as House 17 tumbles into the muddy pit.

Tris tumbles backward into Tobias when the rope goes slack, and they fall awkwardly. Tobias braces her fall grabbing her as he hits the ground. Tris was laughing and flailed around trying to get up. Somehow, she ends up on top of him with her arms braced next to Tobias' head, and his arms were holding her sides as she lay on top of him. Tris bites her lip, her eyes locked on his, both of them still breathing heavily from the exertion of the tug of war game.

For just a second Tris thinks Tobias is going to lean up to kiss her, she flicks her eyes down to his lips. She felt like she was heating up being pressed against his body like this.

"Hey, Eaton" Zeke calls, snapping both out of the moment.

"Sorry" Tris apologizes quickly getting up. She brushes the grass off her and wipes her forehead with her wrist, still breathing a little heavily. Christina walks up beside her, looping her arm with Tris'.

Tobias grins as he gets up and Zeke gives him a look and then laughs as he punches him playfully in the shoulder after seeing the moment between Tobias and Tris.

"What was that?" Christina whispers to Tris as they head toward the stage to take a picture with the trophy.

"What?" Tris asks nervously, hoping no one else saw what happened.

"Tris…" Christina groans.

"Nothing, I just fell, he broke my fall and we kind of got tangled up"

Honestly, she was a bit unnerved at the feeling. She felt like there was a fire starting to brew between them. She wasn't a cheater; she would never do that to Nita, but it was getting harder and harder to keep her distance from Tobias.

"Uh huh…" Christina replies skeptically as she eyes her best friend. Eventually, Tris was going to break.


Lynn squares her shoulders as she walks into Dauntless preparing herself to deliver the update, she had to the members of 51. As she predicted, Marlene and Tobias were sitting at the bar with a few other members of 51 while Zeke poured a few beers for patrons. They were a tight-knit crew, and she knew this news was going to rock them.

"Seager, what's up?" Zeke greets her from behind the bar. Marlene's face falls when she sees the look on Lynn's face. She wasn't coming just to hang out for drinks.

"I have some bad news, OFI has decided to not pursue the case against Adrian Phelps." She tells them. Marlene clenches her jaw and Zeke slams his towel down in frustration.

"How is that possible? All the evidence points to Phelps, he practically admitted it!" Tobias argues still in disbelief.

"OFI seriously isn't going to do anything?" Shauna chokes out with her eyes wide.

"We just have to wait," Lynn tries to interject.

"Until he kills someone again" Marlene spits out tears of anger welling up in her eyes.

"Until he makes a mistake" Lynn clarifies.

Marlene didn't want to listen anymore. She gets up and walks out of the bar, pulling her cellphone out of her pocket. She thumbs through her recent calls and dials Caleb.

"Necesito tu ayuda (I need your help)"


Caleb had been livid when Marlene told him OFI was dropping the case against Adrian Phelps. He'd been frustrated all these months that he hadn't been able to find anything concrete. He was going to protect his sister and his girlfriend no matter what, even if that meant he had to step in to get CPD involved, that's what he was going to do.

Caleb and Tris walk up to the building where Adrian Phelps worked. When Marlene told him the name, he immediately ran his information to find out his address, where he worked, and any information he could find.

"That's the guy in the picture, Vega had from OFI" Tris points out to the man with the greasy black hair and glasses sitting on a computer in the middle of the cubicles. Caleb nods recognizing him from the photo as well.

"Excuse me, are you, Adrian Phelps," Caleb says standing in front of his desk.

Tris has an uneasy feeling looking at him.

"Caleb Prior, Chicago PD, do you mind if we go somewhere to have a conversation? I want to ask you a few questions" Caleb says while flashing his CPD badge with Tris right beside him.

"I already talked to CFD," Adrian tells him with a smirk.

"Well, now you get to talk to me" Caleb throws back. He doesn't miss how the room chatter dies down to whispers as the other people in the office watch the scene before them.

"You are embarrassing me," Adrian tells him in a low growl. "I'm going to go back to work now"

As he turns around to sit back down in front of his computer, Caleb decides to bend the truth a bit to jam up the scumbag before him. One thing he had learned from working under Jack Kang was that sometimes bending the rules was necessary when you wanted to catch the bad guy.

"Whoa…Did you just spit in my face?" Caleb scoffs, wiping his face for effect knowing that Adrian had done no such thing.

"I didn't do that' Adrian squeaks looking confused

"Why did you have to go and make this ugly? That's assaulting a police officer, did you see that?" Caleb states loudly as he turns to look at his sister.

"Oh, I saw him, yes he did" Tris confirms with a shrug catching on to what Caleb was doing.

"That's ridiculous" Adrian exclaims as he looks between Tris and Caleb, turns him around, and slams him against the wall of the cubicle to put handcuffs on him.

"Is everything okay Adrian?" one of his coworkers calls now as people were gathered around and all the chatter had stopped.

"Your employee is a murderer, how's that?" Tris yells back at his co-worker as Caleb escorts Adrian out in handcuffs.


Jack and Caleb look through the two-way mirror of the interrogation room at Precinct 21 at Adrian Phelps.

"Tell me what happened," Jack asks. Caleb was an excellent detective. He was loyal and followed the rules. For him to be keyed up about this guy, Jack knew something else was going on. He and Max Boden had mutual respect for each other. He'd put the arson concerns on the back burner because they were dealing with some big drug trafficking cases that had solid leads and evidence to follow.

"51 including my sister got called into a fire at a storage facility that had cases of brake fluid, kitty litter, and chlorine, classic arson materials"

"So, the guys a pyro, not our problem" Jack shrugs, still wanting to hear more.

"There were newspaper clippings about Will Foster dying in a fire"

"This is the guy, and we think we could be tied to other fires where there have been other deaths. One including Pedrad's husband"

Jack lifts his head up. He and Hana Pedrad had gone through the police academy together and helped each other through some tough spots when they patrolled together. He'd been with her when she got the call her husband died in a fire, and he supported her decision to move to desk sergeant for her boys. Even though she was only part-time at the precinct now, she was respected by everyone who came through those doors.

Jack nods his head and makes his way toward the interrogation room with Caleb following him. Adrian turns nervously as he sees the men enter.

"I hope this is being recorded, I have been physically harassed"

Jack nor Caleb says anything.

"I hear you like to start fires Phelps," Jack says

"Only when appropriate" He smirks with a sick grin and Caleb clenches his jaw. He was toying with them again.

"According to who…." Adrian doesn't reply as he looks Jack Kang up and down

"Fires that kill people" Jack watches him as he speaks. He was cocky, and his gut was telling him Prior was right. This was the guy, but he needed to get some hard-core evidence on him.

"You know I've heard about guys like that, they start fires that kill their families, wipe out city blocks with a single match" He yawns showing how bored he was with the conversation.

Caleb scoffs at his statement. "How challenging is it that a stupid cow burnt this city to the ground in 1875"

"Exactly the challenge would be to get away with it more than once" Adrian smirks again confident they had no evidence on him. All these questions were too simple.

"You know it would take a very special cow to do it over and over and over again for years," Adrian says cockily.

"Go ahead, show me how you do it," Jack tells him tossing a matchbook in front of him.

Adrian takes a deep breath through his nose while looking down at the matchbook. "Always underestimate," he sighs.

"You know you got away with it all these years out of sheer dumb luck, not because you're special. Thankfully the CFD turned us on to you. There's nothing we like better than to correct God's mistakes," Caleb was done with this guy's attitude and sickening smirk playing on his lips.

"Now I see it" Adrian nods as he eyes Caleb up and down again, still smiling.

"See what?" Caleb challenges

"The firefighter that came in my office, that's your sister, Tris Prior right? So, she dialed up a little police brutality"

"How do you know she's a firefighter?" Caleb moves his head and never takes his eyes off Adrian, not wanting to think that he was getting to him.

"I follow the news," Adrian tells him quickly. "That's the same fire where Will Foster died…Beatrice Prior" He continues to eye Caleb, challenging him.

"You're just going to tiptoe right to the edge now aren't you," Jack asks him as he sits forward in the chair leaning his elbows against the table while Adrian doesn't move his eyes from Caleb.

"I'll promise you I'll stand right behind you to give you the last push" Caleb's voice was deadly cold and now he stands up from his position where he was leaning against the wall.

"God's mistake…God's mistake" Adrian tells him, his voice getting louder. "You think I was made by God?"

Jack leans forward again watching the man in front of him, noticing how he was starting to unravel a bit as Caleb refused to back down.

Adrian scoffs again "Last time I checked fire was the devil's tool"

Jack was done playing with this guy. He had a reputation for pushing the envelope with his cases and interrogation methods. He grabs the matchbook he had tossed on the table earlier and lights a match. He holds it up as Adrian stares at him and then throws it toward him.

Adrian's eyes grow wide in disbelief, as Jack lights another match, this time throwing it closer to Adrian's clothing. Adrian hastily scoots into his chair to avoid the flame.

"I'm warning you detective, do not push me" he snarls.

"Or what Phelps, you gonna burn me up?" Caleb asks, stepping closer to him now.

Adrian rolls his tongue across his back teeth for a minute "When I'm done with you, you're going to burn yourself up" he whispers with a demented laugh.

Jack stands up, no one threatened his officers, he wasn't going to play this guy's demented game. They stare at each other; no words being exchanged until a knock comes from the door and an officer opens the door with a man bursting through.

"Alright not another word, I'm assuming he wasn't allowed to contact his attorney as was his right" The man states.

Jack gives a twisted smile of his own as he continues to stare at Adrian.

"Your client volunteered to talk to us" Jack states simply.

"Well, he's done volunteering, unless he's being arrested, we will be leaving now," the lawyer tells them, and Adrina gives them a satisfied smile as he stands up and exits the room.

Jack looks over at Caleb and nods. They were going after this guy, and they were going to take him down.

They head upstairs to the bullpen of the intelligence department and gather their team around for a department meeting. Caleb rolls over the whiteboard where they put up evidence showing how cases and suspects were linked.

Susan sits on her desk looking at the photo, she'd hung out at Dauntless with 51 several times, they were good people. Everyone in the intelligence until were pretty friendly with 51. She'd come in contact with Tris and Marlene more because of Caleb and sometimes they worked cases that were interrelated with Eaton and Pedrad. Caleb had been working so hard to figure out a link between the fires and she was glad there was finally some movement after months and months of dead ends.

"Adrian Phelps" Jack tells everyone as he places a picture on the board of Phelps. "CFD is sure he started the fire that killed Will Foster and I agree with them. Got the mother of all bad hits of this guy"

"Phelps works at Harold Mortgage Company as a proofreader, lives at 2934 W 21st street alone," Caleb explains, placing a map on the board next to the picture of Phelps on the Case board.

"What's his rush?" Eric Voight, another detective in the Intelligence Unit asks after taking in all the information.

"According to Tobias Eaton, he's an excitement arsonist. Lives in the shadows gets excited off the chaos of the act. It only adds to the chaos if someone dies. This guy started the fire that killed Will Foster, my girlfriend's best friend, and years ago he started a fire that killed Reggie Pedrad, Hana's husband, and burned Chief Boden and who knows how many others. As far as I'm concerned, we don't sleep until this lunatic roasts"

"I hear that," Bobby Ruzek tells him.

"So how do we do that?" Eric asks.

"We get under his skin, make him feel us everywhere he looks," Caleb explains. "Arson is hard to prove unless you catch them in the act, and that's what we're going to do. Pressure the volcano and be there when it erupts"

"Ruzek and Voight, roll out to his workplace, apparently Caleb caused a little stir there this morning. In my experience, the office gossip will be bursting to talk to us about this guy. Prior, Black, I want you to keep digging to find any evidence and link between those fires. I want a warrant for this home address ASAP." Jack tells everyone in a forceful tone. He wanted this lunatic off the streets.


Marlene snuggles closer to Caleb as they cuddle on her coach. She was happy that Caleb and his unit were taking the lead on getting Adrain Phelps off the streets since OFI wasn't doing anything, but she still had an uneasy feeling about it all.

"Promise me you'll be careful," she tells him when he tips her face up by the chin for a kiss.

"Siempre Mi amor (Always My Love)" She smiles as he leans down to kiss her again.

After a few more kisses Caleb pulls back to look at her.

"We all need to be careful, especially 51. This guy is more dangerous than we know. The psycho even called Tris by name. He's watching all of us"

"Que (What)?" Marlene asks with her eyes wide.

"Yeah, we are going to rattle him, so we need to be prepared when he might do something"

Marlene nods and a shiver rolls through her body. Caleb pulls her close. He was going to protect Marlene, Tris, and Christina no matter what he had to do.


"Do we have to watch TV in Spanish too? Isn't it bad enough you hardly ever speak English around here?" Edward groans as he walks past Fernando, Marlene, and Tris who were having an animated conversation in Spanish on the couch in the common room while watching a Spanish language TV show.

"What did you just say?" Fernando says standing up along with Tris and Marlene.

Tobias, who was in the kitchen fixing himself a cup of coffee, stops and places his coffee cup down.

"You know what, I'm sick and tired of your comments Mills," Tris tells Edward, her voice stone cold.

Marlene had a scowl on her face too. This wasn't the first time Mills had let a racist comment slip out in passing. At first Marlene, Tris and Fernando had chalked it up to him being young and naive, now his true colors were showing.

"I just made a comment and it's the truth" Edward defends as he turns around to glare at Tris.

"No, you made a racist ass statement, and it stops now" Tris raises her voice and steps toward him, hating the smug look on his face.

"Mutt" Edwards mutters loud enough for Marlene, Fernando, Tobias, and Tris to hear.

Tris feels venom in her veins but before she can open her mouth Tobias grabs Edward by the throat. Edwards gasps for breath and grabs at the hand around his throat.

"Shit" Marlene gasps with wide eyes.

"Tobias," Tris says calmly. "Let him go"

"You are going to apologize," Tobias tells him not letting his grip falter as Edward squirms and choking noises emerge from his throat.

Tobias rolls his tongue over the back of his teeth and then drops his hand leaving Edward gasping for breath holding his throat.

"I don't hear an apology" Tobias threatens as he gets in Edward's face.

"Pedrad!" Shauna yells as she steps into the common room and sees what's going down.

"I'm not fucking apologizing" Edward wheezed standing up and rubbing his hand around his throat that still had a red handprint.

Just as Zeke walks in with a confused look on his face Tobias slams Edward up against the wall knocking over several chairs in the process. He holds his forearm up against his throat while Edward scowls at him while clawing at his arm fighting for breath.

"What the fuck is your problem Candidate" Tobias growls.

"Eaton, back off" Zeke yells as he and Fernando move across the room.

"Tobias, please. He's not worth it," Tris pleads again, placing her hand on his shoulder. She had never seen him like this before and she did not want this to come back on him.

Tobias takes a deep breath through his nose and backs up. He wanted to pound this douche bag to pulp

"She must have fucked you good for all this" Edward sneers with a cold laugh.

He was sick of Tobias Eaton walking around like he was God's gift to the world. His brother had told him about how everyone kissed his ass around 51 and he was done with it. He'd heard all the chatter around 51 about the women who found themselves in bed with Eaton, and how Prior had been the one to break his heart.

And with that Tobias loses it. His fist connects with Edward's face several times before Zeke and Fernando can pull Tobias back.

"Eaton, Stand Down" Zeke yells as he pushes Tobias back and across the room.

Tris feels like her heart is going to beat out of her chest as the chaos goes on. The sad part was she wanted Tobias to give him a beating he would never forget. Zeke grabs Edward by his shirt and jacks him up.

"Get out of here, right now. You're done at 51" Zeke tells him looking him in the eye. When he lets go, Edward scowls at him while moving his jaw with his hand and then wiping the blood from his nose with his hand. This wasn't over.

"We'll see about that" He sneers as he turns to walk toward the locker room.


Tris climbs up the ladder on the side of the house. When she couldn't find Tobias in his quarters, she figured the only place he could be was on the roof.

"I brought you an ice pack," she says quietly, pulling it out of her jacket pocket.

"Thanks," he says in the same quiet tone as she had.

"Tobias, thank you, for stepping in…"

"It was the right thing to do" he finished cutting her off. He didn't do it to curry favor with her. Edward was a racist asshole, and he was sick of his shit. He'd take whatever fallout came from the situation.

"I don't want you to get in trouble because of this of me," she admits.

"Don't worry, I can handle myself."

She was so torn, being alone like this with him. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and hug him. She wanted him to comfort her and tell her everything was going to be okay. Tobias looks at her and sighs. Things had been so tense since she ended things between them. This was the first time they had been alone or had this much conversation in several months even after her apology letter.

"I miss you, Tobias, I miss my friend. I didn't mean to hurt you. I just. I don't know. I wasn't expecting any of this and I…I screwed up everything, but I didn't know what to do…" she tells him honestly after a minute.

Her eyes well up with tears as she lets her feelings out. All her emotions were jumbled together. She had been so sure about her and Nita. They were on stronger footing and things were going well between them but now she wasn't sure at all. All her feelings for Tobias were running together with how much she missed just spending time with him.

He opens his mouth, but he can't be that vulnerable with her right now. He does miss her, but he could admit to himself at that moment that he loved her, and it was too hard trying to be friends with her.

"I know Tris, I'll get over being hurt really…but…" He starts and then pauses. He wanted to make her feel better and he wanted to give her what she wanted but he was also still struggling to tell her how he felt. "Tris, I can't be just friends with you"

Tris feels the tears fall from her eyes and she nods her head in understanding but looks down at the roof. It was selfish of her to want to still be able to have him, but she couldn't give him what he wanted, not without breaking Nita's heart too.

Tobias reaches over and cups her face with one hand wiping her tears from one cheek with his thumb. He stares at her for a minute, and he's shocked by the look in her eyes. That intense feeling, they always had was swirling in the air between them. Despite everything she had just said about being friends, she looked like she was leaning in to kiss him. His heart was beating wildly but he leaned over and gave her a kiss on the forehead. He lingers there for a moment as she sniffles.

Ambulance 61, Truck 81 Car Accident 521 West Walcott Street

Tobias backs away and Tris goes to the ladder to load up on the truck. She turns to give Tobias one last look before going down the ladder.