Eddie is just getting home from shift when he sees Anna standing by the table with all her stuff packed.
"What's this?" Eddie asks, gesturing to the bags.
"Eddie, I'm so sorry. I can't do this anymore, I'm leaving." Anna explained with tears falling.
"What- what can't you do? I thought we were happy??" Eddie says, feeling deflated.
"I know. I just- between your job and you never being around cause you're doing stuff with just you and Chris or you're with Buck, it just doesn't feel like we are even in a relationship." Anna sighs, wiping the tears, then says "I feel like you're not truly in love with me, and I don't think I am with you either. I think we were together for all the wrong reasons." Anna explained
Eddie feels like she might be right. He knows he can't have Buck but he was wrapped up over him for quite some time, maybe he shouldn't settle, maybe he should find someone he truly loves and truly loves him and Chris.
"I understand, I think you might be right. I'm sorry Anna." Eddie says crossing the distance between them and kissing her check.
"I'll explain everything to Chris." Eddie says, sighing.
Anna nods then leaves.
—-
Eddie grabs a beer and thinks to himself, maybe it's time to start over again?
Maybe he should go to chicago?
His thoughts are all over the place when Athena texts him telling him to come for a goodbye cookout for buck and kelly that night.
—-
Kelly Evan:
Kelly pays the movers and goes over to Evan's jeep where his fiance is waiting.
They got invited to Bobby and Athenas for one last cook out so they are going there now.
Evan looks towards his apartment building and smiles, he's finally getting his next chapter, his happily ever after.
Kelly kisses Evan tenderly, then says "you ready, baby?"
"Absolutely!" The younger of the two says.
They head out to the Grant/Nash residence. They arrived 20 minutes later, and the traffic was surprisingly good.
They walk up to the door, before knocking, Kelly looks at Evan then asks "are you ready to say goodbye to everyone?" As he runs soothing circles on Evan's lower back.
"Yea, the hardest ones to say goodbye to though are Maddie, Eddie and Chris. They have been there for me while I've been out here, so it's gonna be hard without them. I know I have everyone at 51 but it's still gonna be hard." Evan explains.
"I can understand that. Just know that I love you and I'll be by your side no matter what." Kelly tells his fiance, then kisses him tenderly.
"Thanks, baby." Evan says, then they knock.
Athena opens the door greeting the two men with a hug.
"Welcome, come in guys." Athena says happily.
"Thanks Athena." Buck tells her.
Once inside, Maddie comes over and hugs her brother then her soon to be brother in law, saying "I'm gonna miss you guys, but I'm happy that you're happy Buck."
"Thanks Maddie, we are gonna miss you too, but you can always visit and we will too. I love you sis." Buck says embracing his sister yet again.
"Don't make me cry, I love you too."
The three chuckles then Evan looks at Kelly, "I'm going to get a beer you want one?" He asks, Kelly nods, saying "sure." Evan walks off towards the cooler, once out of ear Maddie says to Kelly "I'm happy for you both, I'm glad you make him happy, just watch out for him and keep him safe out there. He's prone to getting hurt."
Kelly chuckles softly, he puts a hand on Maddie's shoulder and says "I'll always watch out for Evan, I'll always protect and keep him safe. I love that man more than life itself." Kelly states, looking right into Maddies eyes.
"Thanks kelly, i'm glad he has you." Maddie says hugging the man again.
Meanwhile while Evan's getting the beer for himself and Kelly, he sees Chim.
"Hey chim." Buck says.
"Hey buck, are you excited to be leaving?" Chimney asks.
Buck sighs, rubbing the back of his neck, as he says "I'm happy to be having this next chapter with Kelly but sad to leave you all." Buck explained.
"That's understandable." Chim says grabbing a beer himself.
"So Chim, Kelly and I are getting married june 18th, Eddie is my best man but I was wondering if you would be a groomsman for me?" Buck asks, he can see the shock on chims face. Then chim nods and says "absolutely " Chim says happily clapping Evan on the back.
"Okay, great. Thank you. So you and maddie will walk up and down the aisle together and she's probably gonna be your plus one right? And all the groomsmen and best men will walk the aisle with their plus one." Evan explains.
"Kkay that's fine and yea she will be my plus one." Chim says with a shy smile.
"Okay, good." Buck says they end their conversation then Evan goes back over to kelly.
Evan walks over to Kelly and hands him his beer, kissing him on the cheek and says "here's your beer babe, do you wanna give everyone their invitations to the wedding now?" Evan asks
Putting his arm around his fiance's waist.
Kelly takes a swig of his beer thinking for a second, then nods saying "sure, saves us from sending them." He chuckles lightly, making Evan smile. Evan grabs the invitations from where he put them by the door when they came in then he gets everyone's attention.
"Hey everyone, I just wanted to say first off, thank you all for having my back while I've been here in L.A and supporting me on my next journey." Buck takes a deep breath as Kelly squeezes his hand reassuringly, buck continues. "Kelly and I have decided to get married june 18. It's exactly a month from today, and we would live for you all to be there." Buck pauses as there's a few gasps of shock at how soon they are getting married.
Athena is the first to speak up and asks, "That's soon, you sure you're ready buckaroo?"
Buck sighs but nods, saying "I. More ready than ever. I've been waiting for this moment since I was an over eager candidate at the age of 18 at firehouse 51."
Athena sighs, but nods her understanding. When it's right, you just know.
Buck then continues saying,
"We will be getting married at Millennium Park, and having the reception at a bar in Chicago that is owned by some firefighter at 51. We will book you all at a hotel close to the park and rent a minibus for you guys so you don't have to navigate the streets of Chicago."
Hen speaks next, smiling fondly at her buckaroo "I'm proud of you and congratulations, Karen, Denny and I will be there, children are allowed, correct? She asks
"Thanks Hen and yes the kids are more than welcome." Buck says smiling.
The conversation goes to how fun it'll be for all of them to visit Chicago and have a vacation.
Soon dinner is ready, over dinner Athena asks "Have you chosen a best man or groomsmen yet, Buck and Kelly?"
Kelly clears his throat then says "yes I have, my good friend Matt Casey is my best man, the guys from my squad team will be my groomsmen, Joe Cruz, Capp and Tony." Kelly explained, with Athena nodding her head, then Buck spoke up saying "Eddie's my best man and Chim is a groom's man-" before buck can say anything else Bobby says "Chim is?" Buck can see the hurt flash across Bobby's face.
"Yea he just asked me tonight." Chim explained.
"Yea, and then two good friends from 51 will be my other groomsmen. I texted them last night and asked them, Peter Mills and Otis will be my other two groomsmen." Buck says, taking a drink of his water.
"It's good that Chim and Eddie will be at the wedding." Athena says with a somewhat fake smile.
She's hurt that Bobby wasn't asked to be in Buck's wedding. She thought her husband meant more to him than that…
The conversation switches to the new member at the 118 then dinner is over and everyone goes out to the yard while Chim and Bobby clean up.
Eddie is sitting with buck and kelly by the fire pit, while Christopher is off with Harry and Denny in Harry's room.
"You look a million miles away there Eddie, what's up?" Buck asks
"Anna left me this morning." Eddie blurts out.
Buck is shocked, he thought they were happy.
"What? I'm so sorry man. You okay?"
Buck asks, as Kelly runs soothing circles on his back as they are cuddled together on a bench.
"Yea, I actually am. We were together for the wrong reasons. I've been thinking about starting over somewhere new anyways so now that I'm not tied down maybe I can.."Eddie says as he stares blankly at the fire.
Buck gets an idea. "Well I'm looking for people for my squad team, you should come to Chicago and Join squad." Buck says excitedly.
Eddie smiles at his best friend then says "you think? Would I be able to join the squad though? I have no certifications?" Eddie asks and states.
It's Kelly to speak up. "You could take the classes at the academy while working on squad, it takes you two months tops."
Eddie chews on this for a moment while he nurses his beer. He thinks it would be nice to have a fresh start. It would be nice to still be close to Buck even if they will never be more than friends. As he is starting to get over his feelings for Buck.
Yes he would have to start over with Chris in a new city but he did it once he can do it again. He would have to sell his house and find a new one, as well as a new caregiver for Chris.
Eddie finally answers as he says "okay, I think I might." Buck smiles and says "why don't you Chris and Carla come to chicago with us tomorrow and you can give it a two week trial?" He suggests it to his best friend.
Eddie thinks for a second, nodding. "Where would we stay though?" He asks
"Stay with us we have two spare rooms, one for you and Chris and one for Carla." Kelly offers to take both Eddie and Evan by surprise.
"You sure, I wouldn't want to intrude." Eddie says.
"I'm sure.. Kelly says matter of factly.
Eddie exhales in a breath then says "okay, I wonder if I could get seats on your flight?" Eddie wonders out loud.
"Already done." Buck says triumphantly as he pockets his phone then adds " just bought three tickets for all the seats next to us on the plane, by some miracle they weren't filled." Buck explains.
Eddie stares at Buck in shock, as Kelly chuckles at his fiance. Knowing that when Evan wants something he gets in, one way or another.
"Okay. I'll pay you back." Eddie says, still shocked.
"No you will not. Now we better get to the hotel kelly and check in and get some sleep before our flight in the morning and it's already 10pm." Evan says leaning his head on his fiance's shoulder, resulting in the older man to kiss his hair.
"Yes, we better go. We will see you at the airport at 8am, Eddie." Kelly says. Eddie nods and stands shaking Kelly's hand saying "thank you for letting us intrude for a few weeks." "Nonsense your family." Kelly says returning the hand shake. In that moment Eddie, despite all his efforts can not and will not ever hate Kelly Severide.
Buck says goodbye to everyone and then the coue heads to the hotel to check In for the night.
—--
After they checked in and showed, had a round of love making, they lay intertwined in each other.
Evan breaks the silence by asking
"Kel?"
"Yea baby?" Kelly responds.
"The night that we explained everything to 118, you said that you and shay picked out my ring, could you tell me the story if you don't mind?" Evan asks as he trances random patterns on the other man's bare chest.
Kelly chuckles at the memory, saying "of course baby.
—
Flashback.
—--
Kelly and Evan had been dating for four and a half years and Kelly wanted to make sure that they had forever together. So he enlisted his best friends' help to find the perfect, yet simple ring for Evan.
It was a rare Saturday morning that they were off shift and Kelly had asked Casey to get Evan out of the house for the morning so Kelly and Shay could go ring shopping.
"Shay, c'mon, we gotta go." Kelly yells up the stairs to his roommate and best friend as he grabs his keys, wallet and phone off the side table by the door.
"I'm coming, don't get your panties in a twist, Severide." Shay says with a smirk as she comes down the steps.
Kelly rolls his eyes playfully at the woman, then says "I want to be able to get home and hide the ring before Evan comes home." Kelly explained as he shifted nervously from foot to foot in front of shay.
Shay sights then says "your nervous? You know he will say yes, he's madly in love with you, you fool." She smacks his arm playfully earning herself an "ow" from kelly.
"Yes I'm nervous, and what if he doesn't want what I want? What if I'm not good enough for him? What if he's finally seen all my flaws?" Kelly asks as he locks their appartment door and they head towards Kelly's mustang.
"Oh my god kelly, he wants what you want, trust me, and he lives you flaws and all, you couldn't do anything to make him leave you." She says putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder as he puts the car in drive.
"I hope you're right as I want it all with him. Shay, God, I see it all with him, big house, three kids, a dog. Maybe even a cat and the white picket fence, even the minivan. That's life for us." Kelly admits
"You'll have it all, I'm positive of that. You both deserve that and so much more." Shay says smiling softly at her best friend, it's rare to see severide open up like this but it's happening a lot more over the last four and half years since a certain Evan Buckley came into the picture as Kelly's boyfriend.
"I hope so, thanks shay." Kelly says as he parks the mustang in front of a jewelry store. They enter, and go looking at the man's band. Lucky shat is sneaking and seized Evan's ring finger last week when he fell asleep on their couch.
"Hello, how can I help you?" The sales woman asked.
"Hi, I. Looking for a size twelve wedding band to ask my boyfriend to marry me with." Kelly says.
"Okay, any thoughts of what the band should have?" She asks
"It should be slim not bulky ashes a firefighter, I just want something simple yet unique to him." Kelly explained.
"Okay well here's our size twelve men's slim bands, you could add an engraving to make it unique." The sales woman suggests and kelly nods saying "yea that be a good idea"
just then Shay squeals, saying "I found it kelly!" Kelly rushes over to her to see a perfect, slim platinum band with a simple diamond in the middle. "That's the one." Kelly and shay say in unison to the sales woman making her chuckle.
"Okay what do you want engraved in it? The woman asks
"I want it to say……." Kelly says, the woman nods then goes in the back to engrave it, when shay turns to kelly and says "I'm beyond proud of you. You deserve all the happiness in the world, Kelly Severide." "Thanks Shay, so do you." He hugs her as the woman comes back and hands the ring to Kelly, he pays then they head home where Shay hides the ring for Kelly in her closet in a shoe box.
—
End of flashback
—-
Evan and Kelly have tears running down their faces by the end of the memory.
"Shay picked out my ring? God I miss her." Evan says softly then he says "wait there's an engraving?" He says Surprised.
Kelly chuckles wetly, nodding he says "yea she did, so do i everyman day. Also yes, take a look."
Evan nods, he slides the ring off and looks on the inside and it says "I choose you always. Love, K.S"
Evan has tears freely flowing down his cheeks. "I choose you too, always kelly. And I want that life too! The three kids, dog and even a cat. A big house, white picket fence and minivan. I want it all with you, forever and always, you are my soulmate Kelly, my true love." Evan says cupping Kelly's cheek in his hand, then kissing Kelly passinotaly.
"Go,do, I love you so much Evan.. " Kelly whispers against Evan's lips.
And they will have it all, because they deserve it and they have a guardian angel rooting for them…