A/N: Thank you for all of the new followers. Welcome! Hope you enjoy this update! This chapter centers on a 24 hours shift at Firehouse 51.


It was the week of Christmas and everyone went to work in high spirits, everyone but Chief Beene.

"Can I see the two of you in my office?" Cyrus points to his two lieutenants sitting amongst their colleagues in the communal area. All eyes were on Stephen and Fitz as they stood to follow the man in charge.

Walking down the corridor behind him, both men observes how worrisome their chief looked. This wasn't the cool, calm and collected guy they'd come to know.

"What's up chief?" Stephen never one to have patience asks as soon as they'd entered into his office.

"Ahh...have a seat please," he gestures to the two chairs in front of his desk but he kept standing.

Fitz and Stephen exchanged puzzled looks before taking his invitation to sit.

Cyrus looks at both men who were approximately twenty years younger than him, men he'd come to trust and care for like his own family. He hoped that what he's about to tell them won't change their views about him.

Taking a deep breath, he says, "A news cycle is breaking tonight about Chicago's first openly gay Fire Chief."

He watched their unfazed expression.

Finding the courage to continue, he says, "I'm the gay Fire Chief."

He watches as both men's eyes grew wide and then small.

Fitz being the first to regain his wit, utters, "Oh. Ok."

"So, how did all of this come to being?"

"Me turning gay?" Cyrus gives Fitz a befuddled expression.

"No... I meant the news cycle," he clarified with a shake of his head.

Cyrus finally takes a seat in his leather chair.

Stephen looks on with keen interest. Everyone thought the chief was divorced, no one ever saw his wife visiting the firehouse in years.

"Let's just say I received a tip that some scandalous photos of my partner and I were taken unbeknownst to us." He sighs deeply, "So instead of waiting for it to leak, I took it upon myself with the support of my partner to come out. To control the narrative and I did, I did an interview with CBS Chicago telling the world that I'm gay and I'm unashamed of it."

A moment passed and neither men spoke, Fitz slowly got up and proffers his right hand to his chief, "congratulations on living your truth in the open, sir," his voice rang with the same reverence he'd addressed him with before.

Stephen gets up and gives his chief another handshake, "we support your decision, chief."

Cyrus was awed, he thought that they would shun him and not find him fit to be the leader of this fine firehouse. He was almost brought to tears, he shakes each of the men's hand with heartfelt gratitude and new found love and respect.

"Thank you. I appreciate you standing with me," his voice sounding rough from the unshed tears.

"We're on your side." Fitz smiles reassuringly.

Before Cyrus was able to reply, the emergency speaker sounded.

EMERGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT: Man in the Kenwood area seen dangling a toddler by the arms over the rail of a local bridge. All units needed. Cops are also on their way.

The firefighters and paramedics of firehouse 51 quickly got in their emergency vehicles in pursuit of rescuing the little girl.

Arriving on the scene, the cops were already there trying to talk the man into bringing the little girl back over the rail but he won't budge.

Instead he shouted, "IF THE JUDGE CAN"T GIVE ME FULL CUSTODY THEN HER MOTHER DOESN"T GET IT EITHER. I RATHER KILL HER AND NO ONE WINS."

All emergency personnel on the scene masked their disgust by his selfishness as they tried to get the girl to safety.

After strategizing their moves, Fitz and his men quickly changed into wetsuits to wade the chilly waters from below in case the man actually drops his child, if so they can quickly extract her or if possible catch her from the six feet drop.

Olivia watches as her boyfriend and the other men on his rescue squad makes their way to the bottom of the bridge. It wasn't a huge artificial canal that passed underneath but it was still deep, from what the city hall's department of infrastructure reported, it's about ten feet deep. Plus the winter weather didn't help much when parts of it were frozen. Olivia would be lying if she said that she didn't worry constantly about his wellbeing. Since they'd made the decision to commit to each other a week ago, dynamics had surely shifted on the job.

She silently prayed for him and his men while they all gathered around waiting for the man to have a heart and puts his daughter back to safety.

When Fitz and his men got into the water, they formed a circle right underneath the dangling girl.

From the corner of her eyes, Olivia sees a police officer launching himself at the attempted murderer, successfully holding onto his hands and the child's.

Two other nearby police officers ran up to offer assistance and together they were able to pin the man down to the ground and recover the screaming child who was red in the face.

Olivia and Abby takes her and wraps a blanket to warm her up from the harsh Chicago weather. The child's hands were very cold, lacking no feelings and blood, a result of being held by the arms for close to thirty minutes. It was a miracle that her arms didn't slipped out of their sockets.

Without vocalizing their next move, Abby hops into the driver seat while Olivia sat at the back of the ambulance with the little girl as they drove off to the hospital. It was their unspoken rule whenever there was a child involved, Olivia would ride at the back because Abby hates kids. However, if it was an adult, Abby would have no problem dealing with them.

After dropping off the little girl, Olivia and Abby heads back to the firehouse.

On their way to the firehouse, Olivia takes a chance to speak to her former good friend. "How have you been?" She asks in a soft voice.

Abby takes her eyes off the road to watch her face, trying to read it before replying. "Fine," she voices evenly.

"Ok," Olivia plays with her fingers, a habit whenever she was in an awkward situation. "Where are you living now? Stephen says you didn't move back with him."

"That's none of your and Stephen's business. I'm fine, where I'm living is fine." Abby was getting upset by her questioning. She has no right to ask me where I'm living after kicking me out, her emotional mind tells her.

"Ok." If that's how she wants it then she'll leave her be, Olivia thinks. She was hurt that she chose to shut her out but Olivia couldn't force her to be open.

Silence once again consumes the atmosphere.

To kill time and busy herself, Olivia takes out her phone and texts Fitz.


When they'd arrived back at the firehouse, Olivia excused herself to go see Chief Beene in his office. They'd been back and forth on her request to visit Sarah for the past 5 minutes.

"Pope, you know in our field of work it's best to not get attached to the victims."

"Chief, I know that but I can't stop thinking about her. All I would love to do is visit her and make sure she's doing ok. That's all, please."

"Olivia," he sighs her name in defeat. "I'll see what I can do and I'll get back to you."

That was more than enough for her, she would be elated if he gets the contact information for the foster home Sarah was staying in.

"Thank you, chief," she smiles widely at him before exiting his office.

Olivia walks the corridor and heads towards their locker room for a stick of gum.

"Oh, I'm sorry... I didn't know anyone was in here," Olivia blocks her eyes from fully seeing the half-naked from the waist up man.

"Serious, Livvie? You can unblock your eyes now. I think we're pass the eye blocking stage."

Olivia removes her hands and playfully rolls her eyes at him, "Behave, we're at work," she warns.

"Right, no fraternizing at work. I think I remember that long lecture," he quips, folding his arms across his chest.

"A necessary long lecture," she retorts good natured. Squinting her eyes at his well-defined chest, she asks, "You have a tattoo? How come I never knew that?"

"Because you've never seen me fully naked," he smirks, enjoy taunting her.

Olivia blushes and shakes her head.

"What does it say?"

"Come close and you can read it. Promise I won't bite unless you ask me to." He laughs when she rolls her eyes at him again.

Olivia was becoming hot and bothered by his deep voice, bared chest and chiseled abs. What was this man doing to me? We're at work for goodness sake and I want to jump him.

Against better judgments, she closes the gap between them to better see the tattoo.

Standing a mere four inches in front of his body, she reads, "Fireproof doesn't mean that the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." It wasn't long before her index finger was tracing the stylish Mardian font, occupying his right chest area. Olivia felt the sturdiness of his pecks underneath her fingertip.

Fitz looks down at her, mesmerized by her simple enrapture with his tattoo. It was his first and only tattoo, he'd gotten it when he'd become a firefighter. The quote was from a movie called Fireproof that he happened to stumbled upon one day on Netflix. He had a habit of watching any firefighters related movies.

"I like it," she expresses after carefully examining his ink.

Movements from the other side of the door startles them apart. Olivia quickly moves to her locker on the opposite side of the room, leaving Fitz at his.

Shortly after, she hears Stephen entering the door, then him saying, "Grant, you have a visitor. Hot babe with cookies."

Olivia's face frowns at his words while she pretended to look through her locker. Who was bringing him cookies?

"Huh?" she hears Fitz answers.

"Hot… babe… with… cookies… here… for…you…" Stephen repeated slower for him to comprehend.

"Ok, I'll be out in a second."

Olivia listens as the door closes again.

"Olivia," he calls out.

"What?" her voice a little harsh.

Stephen pokes his head through the door again and yells, "Grant, hurry up, people don't have all day!"

She hears the slamming of his locker door then the main door, signaling his departure to the communal area.

She decides to wait a few minutes after they both left before following suit. It was her own fault that no one knew of their relationship. She didn't want to broadcast that the two of them are together, afraid that she would be treated differently.

About five minutes later, she leaves the dressing room and makes her way to the communal area. She scowls when she sees a blonde woman probably in her late twenties, standing next to Fitz with a tray of cookies in her hands. All of the other guys were around lapping up the scene in front of them. Olivia slips in a rear seat next to Harrison and asks, "What's going on?"

Harrison replied, "Brittany, over there came to drop off some thank you for saving my life cookies for Lt. Grant, which is a damn shame because we all helped saved her life. Plus she's asking him out on a date."

Her eyebrows shoots up at that revelation, her stomach queasy. She looks over to Fitz to read his body language but was surprised when she found his penetrative gaze looking back at her. She ignored his pleas to maintain eye contact, instead she returns her attention to Harrison.

"And what did he say? Did he say yes?"

Harrison chuckles and it irked Olivia because the question wasn't funny.

"The guys were all telling her that he's single and urging for him to go but he said that he couldn't. He had plans already."

"Mmm." She mumbles.

Harrison looks at her with curiosity, picking up on her attitude. "Mmm, indeed."

Olivia looked over at the two again, her blood boiling from the sight of the woman giving him a kiss on the cheek before slipping a piece of paper into his shirt pocket. "Bye boys," the blonde bids in a sultry tone before walking out of the fire station.

"Fitz, I hope you're going to contact her because if you won't. I will."

"Shut up, Stephen, you're getting married and I'm good."

"You'd be better with her on your..." Randy was about to explicitly say dick but the guys cut in with sound effects noises to wipe it out.

Olivia felt uncomfortable with the topic they were on, she got up from her seat in haste and went to the bathroom for some alone time. Of course women would be throwing their selves at his feet, Olivia. She tried to rationalize her jealousy.

She wasn't normally a jealous person but in that moment she was. She wanted to tell that heifer, to keep her number because he has a girlfriend, but she couldn't because no one knew of the two of them. She sighs as she reaches inside one of the bathroom stalls.

Olivia was quiet for a second, trying to calm her racing heart and anxious thoughts, but her concentration was broken suddenly. Coming from another bathroom stall she hears someone crying, she stood still debating with herself whether to go see who it was or leave them alone.

She decides to go see who it was. Exiting her stall, she makes her way to the one with the feet peeping out underneath, surprisingly the door was unlocked. The person she saw sitting on the floor was the last person she expected to see.

"Abby?" She hesitantly says her name. Abby was in a fetal position on the floor with her back against the wall crying her eyes out.

Abby ignored her and continued sobbing.

Olivia's heart broke for her friend, even though they had their fallout, she couldn't turn her back on her when she clearly looked like she needed someone. That wasn't the type of person she was and she wouldn't start being someone else today. She kneels down in front of her friend and opens her arms for her to come in.

Abby looks up and hesitantly moves into her arms. The minute she moved into her arms, she clings to Olivia and weeps all the more.

She soothingly strokes her friend's fiery red hair as she cried.

They stayed like that for a few minutes. Olivia ignores the pain forming in her knees from her knelt position as she continued to console her.

When she was able to calm down enough, Abby extracts herself from Olivia's arms.

"Thank you," she tells her in between wiping the tears from her face. "Thank you for being a friend to me when all I was, was ungrateful. Thank you for telling me about myself when I couldn't face the truth, but most of all thank you for treating me with kindness when I deserve nothing but your worst." Her voice became muffled by a fresh stream of tears. "Olivia, I'm sorry for the way I've treated you these past few weeks. You didn't deserve my disrespect of your home. I'm truly sorry," she openly cries again. "I'm so sorry that I pushed away the one person who truly cares about me." She stops talking and stares at Liv. "You know what I've learned since I moved out?"

"What's that?" Olivia's voice sounding hoarse from unshed tears. She was moved by Abby's heartfelt apology.

"I've learned that you're the only person who truly cares about me. I thought Stephen and I were best friends but I've come to know the truth that we aren't. Not once had he properly reached out to me. I know that probably has a lot to do with the way that I left but I left you worse and I saw you still looking out for me, trying to reach me but I was too far gone. If you can forgive me, Olivia, I would love for us to be friends again."

Olivia's own tears starts running down her face, "of course, I'll forgive you, Abby" she opens her arms again for them to embrace each other.

Abby hugs her tightly, finally feeling like human again instead of a robot without any feelings.

Pulling apart, Olivia asks, "So where are you living now?"

"I was actually staying with, Michael, for a while," she buries her hands in her face at Olivia's shock expression. "I know, I'm not proud of moving in with him. I was such a mess, moving from men to men." She says the last part regretfully.

Olivia rubs her hands soothingly with hers for her to continue, "Anyways, I moved into my own apartment last week. I'm still getting everything together but I'm happy."

"That's good to hear, I'm happy for you, Abby. I'm glad that you're doing things for yourself."

Abby grows eerie quiet before saying, "there's one more thing I need to do for myself."

Olivia gives her a questioning look.

Composing herself, she evenly states, "I need to have an abortion."

"Huh? You're pregnant?"

Abby nods her head sadly, "yes, but I'm not keeping it. I don't even know whose it is," she honestly confesses.

"Oh..." Olivia pauses for a minute to mask her shock expression. "How far along are you?"

"I don't know. I found out today, actually about ten minutes ago hence why I'm on the floor crying," she somberly laughs. "Would you go to the abortion clinic with me?"

"I—" her response was cut when an emergency message sounded through the speaker. Responding to the announcement, they both got up, putting their personal issues on pause before rushing through the bathroom door towards their ambulance.

EMERGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT: All units needed for a blazing fire at the Cookie Cutter Bakery off of East and Linwood Boulevard.


It was midnight and most people were taking cat naps in intervals while some stayed vigilant for any new calls.

Olivia was walking the long halls when she bumped into Fitz. "You're avoiding me," he evenly states.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, lieutenant," she keeps her head straight as she continued walking.

"Why haven't you replied to my text messages?"

"I was busy," she replies. She was indeed doing paperwork but it wasn't enough to keep her that busy, but she digress.

"Too busy or ignoring me? Which one is it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, lieutenant."

Sighing deeply, he tries to control his growing frustrations. "Stop saying that please. Can we talk in my office?"

"I don't think that's a good idea, lieut—" her words were caught off when he firmly grabbed onto one of her hands and pulls her into his office – which was a few steps away.

As soon as the door was closed, he braces her up to it and kisses her passionately. He was frustrated with her for ignoring him all shift, so he kissed out his frustrations. The two were a mass of deep moans and wet kisses until they pulled apart for air.

"Does that tell you that I only want you?" He asked, his eyes ablaze with carnal need.

Olivia licks her lower lips and the sight had Fitz reconnecting his lips to hers. He presses his body flush against hers, allowing her to feel his growing length as he devours her lips for the second, third and fourth time for the evening.

Olivia moans at the skillfulness of his tongue and the sinewy feel of his body. She was filled with so much lustful need.

Pulling apart their lips for the sixth time that night, he presses his forehead against hers, losing himself in her dreamy brown orbs. After a few minutes, he gives her a chaste kiss on her bee stung lips, "you're the only woman I'm interested in. Ok?" Another kiss takes place, one that makes their lips stick together as they tried to pull them apart.

"Ok," Olivia accepts.

They stayed like that for a moment before she says, "I think we should tell everyone we're dating. I don't ever want to feel like I did when she was here. You're mine and I want the world to know that."

Fitz smirks at her possessiveness, "whatever you want, sweet baby." He caresses her lips again with his.


The next morning at the end of their shift, Fitz and Olivia proudly walks towards his truck holding hands in front of their colleagues. They were confident that within the next hour that everyone would find out. Juicy news circles around quickly in the firehouse. Everyone had already found out about Chief Beene's sexuality, some had hang-ups while majority of the crew didn't care because it didn't change anything for them.

Harrison shouts after them, "I knew it!"

Olivia looks back at him and laughs; Fitz took it as an opportunity to press a soft kiss to her temple area. She squeezes his hands tightly, happy with her decision to be in the open. Love shouldn't be hidden; it should be displayed for all to see.


A/N: Hope you enjoyed this new update! So a few things happened here. Cyrus came out, I will expound more in an upcoming chapter. Abby is pregnant. Should Olivia go with her to the clinic? Do you think Abby is truly sorry for what she did?Jealous Olivia made an appearance. Nobody messes with her boo. Plus she's trying to get Sarah's contact information.

SN: Unfortunately, there was an actual incident in St. Petersburg, Florida, where a father threw his 5 years old daughter over a bridge which resulted in her death. So heart wrenching, I wrote it so that the little girl survived in my story. May Phoebe's little soul RIP. sighs...

Let me know your thoughts on this update. I appreciate each and every one of your reviews and critiques. Thank you for leaving them.

Until next time,

Xoxo

PS: Go read my other story, Family First :)