This is my first published fanfic for Chicago fire, so let me know what you think. I wasn't planning on this to be the first published for Chicago Fire, but it is an important topic to me. Please read the A/N at the end.
"Okay, I have a shift today, so I can ask," Gallo tells the person on the other end of the phone.
"Thank you, Blake, you don't know how much this means that you'd ask."
"No problem, I'll call when I have an answer."
"Blake, even if it doesn't work out, thank you for trying."
"Jenn, we don't know yet. But after everything you did for me, I owe you a lot."
They speak for a few more minutes before hanging up so Gallo can head to work.
Gallo makes it to the firehouse with just enough time to change before the morning briefing.
"Where were you?" Ritter whispers to him while everyone is getting settled for Boden to speak.
"I'll tell you later," Gallo whispers back, not wanting to get on Boden's bad side before he can ask.
The briefing goes on, most things on the list are pretty typical. The only added things are for several of the veteran firefighters to get their recertification in CPR.
"So, you gonna tell me where you were this morning?" Ritter asks.
"Yeah," Gallo answer, looking around before pulling Ritter into an empty conference room.
"What's up?" Ritter asks nodding his head to the now shut door.
"Nothing bad, just… I need to catch Boden in a good mood." Ritter raises an eyebrow, silently encouraging him to continue. "A former foster sister contacted me. She's volunteers at Make a Wish. There's a little boy, six years old, he wants to be a firefighter."
"Wow, I wasn't expecting that. Cancer?"
"Yeah, Leukemia. Needs a transplant, but is having a hard time finding a match."
"If Boden says yes, I think everybody here will be on board with helping," Ritter responds. "You should probably ask him before we get a call."
"Yeah," Gallo breaths.
"Good luck."
"Thanks," Gallo calls back. He walks out of the conference room and through the bullpen, seeing that Boden's door is open, the candidate walks up to it, stopping at the entrance. Gallo knocks on the doorframe.
Boden looks up, "Come in."
"Do you have a minute, Chief?"
"Yes. What can I help you with?"
"I wanted to ask… well," Gallo starts over. "You know that I lost my whole family in the house fire when I was twelve," he decides on, only continuing when Boden nods. "After that, I ended up in the foster care system and this morning one of my former foster siblings contacted me. She volunteers at Make a Wish. There's this little boy, six years old, he wants to be a firefighter. Everyone here always talks about how this house is for the community, I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask."
"You want 51 to give him that experience?"
"Jenn, my former foster sister, she knows I'm a candidate at a firehouse and wanted to see if I could ask. Or if I could get in contact with someone who could try to make it work."
"I see," Boden says after a moment. "I don't see why 51 can't do this. When would we be doing this?"
"We'd need to do it within the next month. It's bad, the kid needs a bone marrow transplant but, they're having a hard time finding a match."
"Okay. Do you think next Tuesday will work?"
"Yes," Gallo answers, shocked that the date is so soon.
"Well, gather everyone in the common room and we'll let them know what's happening,"
"Thank you so much, Chief."
Boden smiles remorsefully, "I'm just sorry we're losing a future firefighter."
"What's going on?" Cruz asks as he and the rest of Squad walk in from the apparatus floor.
"Why did Gallo say we needed to come in?" Severide adds, noting that the rest of the house also filing into the common room.
Boden looks around, making sure all his men and women are present before he starts. "It has been brought to my attention that we are in the position to do good for someone."
"Chief? We're firefighters, isn't doing good the description of firefighters?" Mouch questions.
"Yes, but to do good in a way that we normally don't."
All but Gallo and Ritter look around at each other, confused. "Can you explain more, Chief?" Stella asks for the group.
"We have been asked to fulfill a wish for a child."
"A wish?" Herrmann echoes.
"Yes, a wish. For Make a Wish Foundation."
Understanding the gravity of what is ahead, Casey speaks up, "What do we need to do?"
"On shift, next Tuesday, we will be having our guest. He is six years old and wants to be a firefighter. So, we will make him an honorary one for the day," Boden declares.
"How bad is it?" Severide asks, familiar with cancer.
"Needs a bone marrow transplant."
"So, leukemia?"
"Yes."
"You can count on us, Chief," Stella promises.
"I know I can, now back to work."
While most of the house goes back to work, the officers plus Stella, and the young trio stick around.
"Where should we start?" Gallo questions.
"We can take care of it," Casey tells his candidate.
"I was actually the one who brought it to Boden's attention, Captain," Gallo responds. "My former foster sister is the one who asked me if I could help out, so if it's okay with you guys, I'd like to help."
"I'm with him," Ritter adds.
"Okay, I have a guy," Stella answers. "I'll give him a call, see if we can get some kid-size gear."
"If you're the one with the contact," Casey looks to Gallo. "See how sick the kid is. That way we can plan around that."
"On it," Gallo quickly agrees, stepping away to make that phone call.
"Okay, so while he's doing that, what do we need to do?" Ritter asks.
"We can come up with a rough idea, but we are going to need to know what we're dealing with."
"Has 51 ever done this before?" Violet asks.
"No," Severide answers. "At least not while we were here."
"My old house in Auburn almost did," Stella mentions.
"Almost?" Violet echoes.
"Yeah," Stella sighs. "Nine-year-old girl. The week before it was supposed to happen, she got really sick. Wasn't allowed to leave the hospital."
"Couldn't you go to the hospital?"
"Flu season in the pediatric oncology wing?" Stella shakes her head. "Wasn't able to."
"Okay, go back to what you were doing, we can't do much more until Gallo finds out about this kid's situation."
The remaining members of 51 disperse, Violet and Ritter looking to see if Gallo finished his call, the officers to their offices with Stella following Severide.
"Hey, you going to be okay with this?" she asks hugging him from behind.
"Yeah."
"It's okay if you're not. I know you loved her."
"It's not about that. It's about this kid."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it's been almost five years."
"Gallo, did you find out what we're working with?" Casey asks as they're all around the table eating dinner after a call that required the presence of everyone at 51.
"Yeah, considering the situation he's doing okay. He's still getting around on his own power. And he's not lugging around any extra equipment. He just gets tired easily."
"So, what are we going to do?" Ritter asks
"We can set up some easy drills for him," Casey answers before looking to Stella. "Can we use some of the equipment for Girls on Fire?"
"Yeah, anything you need," she agrees.
"Ritter, Gallo, Violet, Stella, and Sev, my office before the end of shift, I want to go over what we're doing," Casey tells them.
All of the people he listed look up to him for a moment before agreeing.
"Why just them?" Capp looks to Casey.
"Because we don't need too many people until Tuesday."
"Why aren't Herrmann and I included?" Brett questions.
"We have someone from each rig."
"They're not the officers."
"Brett," Severide stops her.
"So, what's the plan?" Severide looks to Casey once they are all gathered in his office.
"We're going to get some stations set up. Each rig will have a different station."
"Sounds good," Severide agrees while the others nod in agreement.
"What do you need from Girls on Fire?" Kidd asks.
"Can you set up…" Casey starts to explain his plan to everyone in the room.
"This sounds really good, but what happens if we get a call?" Gallo questions.
"We can deal with that if it happens," Severide cuts in.
"Okay, if there are no more questions, we should get going. Get out of third shift's way," Casey looks to everyone, seeing that no one is about to speak.
The six of them walk out of the firehouse, the last of second shift to leave 51.
Tuesday morning, second shift arrives ready to help fulfill the young boy's wish. After morning briefing each company set out to start putting together their part of the "training".
So far, it has been a slow day with only one call for Ambo, so when a young, dirty-blonde woman, a few years older than Gallo pulls up about an hour after the start of shift with the six-year-old child and who looks to be his mother, they all stop what they're doing.
Gallo is the first one to greet the newcomers. "Hey, Jenn," he greets, pulling his former foster sister into a hug. "And you must be Andres," he turns to the boy.
"Yes," the boy- Andres- shyly smiles at the young firefighter.
"My name is Blake. Are you ready to be a firefighter for the day?"
Andres nods excitedly.
"Okay, come on. I want to introduce you to everyone," Gallo leads Andres into the firehouse with Jenn and the boy's mother following behind them. With almost everyone on the apparatus floor, Blake starts with Truck. "On Truck 81 we have Captain Matt Casey, Randy McHolland, Stella Kidd, and myself," he points to each truck member. "Then on Squad 3, there's Lieutenant Kelly Severide, Joe Cruz, Capp, and Tony. And on Engine 51 Lieutenant Christopher Herrmann, Darren Ritter- his dog Tuesday, Mike Doherty. Clarence Norwood, Kaufman, and Jesse. And our ambulance is out, but you'll meet our paramedics later."
"Cool," Andres is lost in his amazement.
"Why don't we start with a tour and then we can start on our plans," Casey suggests.
"Okay, but first," Stella moves to the truck and gets the hat and child-size turnout coat for Andres. Stella helps Andres get the jacket on, "There, you are now an official honorary member of the Chicago Fire Department.
"Ready for the tour?" Ritter asks.
"Yes!"
"Okay, follow me," he leads Andres, his mother, and Jenn inside. "Here is the common room and the kitchen is right behind it. Down this hall are the conference rooms," he tells them as he leads them through the halls. "This is the bunk room and those offices in the back are Captain Casey and Lieutenant Severide's."
Ritter then leads them to the bullpen, "This is where our chief's office is and everyone else who works in this part are civilians, that means they aren't firefighters."
Just as they are about to go back to the apparatus floor, Boden opens his office door, "Ritter, is this who I think it is?"
"Yes, Chief. This is Andres," he informs Boden. "Andres, this is Chief Boden. He's our boss."
"Hi," Andres waves.
"Hello, son. I heard you want to be a firefighter."
"Yes, firefighters are so cool." As Andres says this, he notices that his mother has a pained expression for a moment before looking back to her son.
"Are you ready to see what 51 has for you?" Boden questions Andres.
"Yes," he eagerly nods.
"Okay, let's go," he follows the group out to the apparatus floor.
"Ready Andres?" Casey asks.
"Yes!" he exclaims. "What are we doing?"
"We are going to put a blindfold on you and then you are going to crawl through this," Stella points to the same setup that she uses for Girls on Fire.
"Why am I blindfolded?" Andres asks.
"Because, normally when we do this drill, we use blackout masks that give us zero visibility, but you're too small to fit the mask, so a blindfold will have to do."
"Okay," he agrees as Stella turns him around to put the blindfold on him.
As Andres makes his way through the obstacle, he can hear the sound of the firefighters cheering him on.
"Good job, kiddo," Stella praises as he finishes.
"Hey, bud you can take the blindfold off now," Matt instructs him.
"Ready for the next one?" Herrmann asks.
"There's another one?" Andres looks at the Lieutenant.
"Yeah, Ritter is just setting it up for you."
Andres, his mother, and Jenn look around for the young firefighter, spotting him in the front of the firehouse near three large buckets that now had flames coming out of them.
"Andres, are you ready to put out a fire?" Ritter asks coming back to the group.
"Can I?" he looks to his mother.
"As long as you listen to the firefighters," she agrees.
"Yes!" Andres looks to Herrmann.
"Okay. Now on Engine, we normally put fires out with the hoses, but. They're a bit strong for you, so we're going to use this," holding out a fire extinguisher. "Do you know what this is?"
"Fire extinguisher!" he answers confidently.
"Very good, but here, we call them silver bullets," Herrmann responds.
"Silver bullets," Andres echoes.
"Yep, you're going to hold it like this," Ritter shows him. "Good, now squeeze that," foam coming out of the nozzle. "Now aim at the fires," Ritter instructs.
Andres does as he is told and is able to put out the fires with Ritter's supervision. Ritter makes sure the fires are out completely before leading Andres back into the firehouse.
"Squad, you're up," Matt announces.
Before they can start, Ambo arrives pulling into 51. "Actually, before we start, here are two more people you haven't met yet. These two here are our paramedics. This is Brett and Violet," Severide points out to each paramedic.
"Hi," Andres waves.
"Hi, what have the guys shown you so far?" Violet asks.
"What the Truck does and what the Engine does."
"Cool, Squad is next, right?"
"Yeah."
They are interrupted by the speakers going off, announcing a structure fire requiring all companies.
"We'll try to be back as soon as we can," Gallo tells the visitors as he and the others load into the rigs before pulling out.
Boden looks at the visitors, "Why don't you come with me. See them in action."
"Really?" Andres looks to him.
"Yes, really. If it's okay with you ladies," Boden looks to Jenn and Andres' mother.
"Okay."
"Climb in," Boden instructs them. "When we get there, you need to stay near my car and do not get in their way, understand?"
"Understood," both women agree.
"Yes, Chief," Andres answers at the same time.
The structure fire ends up taking several hours to put out, so by the time it is out Andres, his mother, and Jenn will have to leave when they get back to the house.
Severide notices their visitors are with Boden while packing up their gear, so he calls out to him, "Andres, do you want to ride back with us?"
Andres looks to his mom who nods her permission, "Yes," he answers before going over to Severide who is waving him over to the Squad truck.
"It looks like he enjoyed his day," Boden comments as they are getting into his buggy.
"He did, thank you so much for making this possible."
"It was our pleasure," Boden responds. "But I couldn't help but notice–"
"Yeah, he doesn't know yet. It's just the two of us. How do you tell your baby that he's dying?"
There is a silence, as the answer to that question should not exist. "He would have been a great firefighter… he has the heart," Boden comments.
"Lieutenant Kelly," Andres gets his attention.
"Yeah, Bud?"
"What does Squad do?"
"We do all the thing that truck does, but we also get to do cool things like water rescues."
"And a couple of weeks ago, these two," Capp points to Severide and Cruz, "helped pull a guy out of a helicopter that crashed into a building and was about to fall off the edge."
"How did you do that?"
"We have to go through a lot more specialized training to be able to do it safely," Severide answers.
"Can anybody be on Squad?"
"If they do the training and work hard," Severide answers.
The rest of the ride back to the house, Severide and the rest of the guys answer any of Andres' questions about Squad and firefighting in general.
Back at the firehouse, everyone sans Squad 3 is back. They are all gathered on the apparatus waiting for Squad to return with Andres.
"Is there anything we can do?" Ritter looks to Jenn and Andres' mom. "He isn't the first and there's going to be more after him."
"Bring awareness," Jenn responds. "Childhood cancer only receives four percent of all funding for cancer research. There're twelve main types and over one hundred sub-types. Four percent isn't enough."
"Think about joining the bone marrow donation registry and talk with people and see if it's something they would consider. There's not enough diversity within the donors. Finding a match is hard, but a child's best chance is if the donor is the same race as themselves. It's what makes it so hard my African-American and mixed children to find a match."
Before they can say more, Squad pulls up and Andres hops out once it is safe.
"Mama, Squad is so cool," he tells her excitedly.
"Yeah? Did you thank them for letting you ride with them?"
"Uh-huh," he nods.
"Good boy, we have to go now. Can you say thank you to them for letting you spend the day?"
"Thank you for letting me be a firefighter today."
"I think I speak for everyone when I say, you are very welcome," Boden beams at the child.
Andres goes up to Boden and hugs his legs. Boden pauses a moment before patting him on the back.
"Andres, it's time to go," his mother calls.
"Okay, Mama."
"Thank you again," she looks to all the firefighters and the two paramedics.
They all wave to the visitors, Jen hurries over to Gallo, "Thanks for making this happen Blake. We should catch up some time," she hugs him.
"Yeah, breakfast next week?"
"Sounds good, I'll text you."
Two and a half weeks after inviting Andres to the firehouse, second shift is sitting around the common room after breakfast. "Guys, look," Cruz grabs the attention of the others. "Andres died a couple of days ago," he tells them, moving the paper around so they can see the obituary. "The funeral's in a week."
"He looked good when he was here," Ritter comments.
"He was a Make a Wish kid and we knew he needed a bone marrow transplant that they were having trouble finding. Besides, they can go from being okay to being on death's door like that," Severide snaps his fingers, drawing from his own experience with Anna.
"Not all Make a Wish kids are terminal," Violet adds.
"No, but we knew part of his circumstances. The outlook wasn't good."
"I think we were all hoping he would beat the odds," Stella hugs him from behind.
"Guys, I have an idea," Matt thinks out loud. "Remember, maybe six months after Darden died? That kid in the laundry chute?" Matt looks to everyone, realizing that only six other people in this room besides himself and Boden, who is in his office, remember that tragic day.
"What happened?" Gallo asks tentatively for the benefit of the five new people since that day.
"Truck was cleaning out the hydrants and we looked up to this kid screaming for help," Herrmann starts. "Turns out these two brothers were playing hide and seek. The younger brother decided to hide in the laundry chute," his voice cracks.
"He fell down, landed on his head. His neck was twisted; he had a damaged windpipe, so his brain was without oxygen. He died at the hospital," Mouch finished for his long-time friend.
"He was here at the start of that school year with his class; he wanted to be a firefighter. After he died his mom brought a picture of him to us, it's actually that one," Casey points to the now semi-faded picture of Taye, that still hangs on their bulletin board. "Anyway, the funeral procession was going pass 51, so we gave him a firefighter's send-off."
"Can we do that for Andres?" Gallo asks.
"I'll clear it with Boden, but the precession should go past here, so I don't see why we can't."
A week later, that is how people passing by saw the members of Firehouse 51's second shift. All on their dress uniforms, standing at attention in a line going down the sidewalk, a United States flag hanging high by the ladder trucks. Once the precession starts to pass the firehouse, all immediately go from standing at attention to saluting.
As the hurst goes by each and every one of them thinks about what they can do in the future… because children are the future and they are worth more than four percent.
A/N: So September is "Childhood Cancer Awareness Month", which is why I felt it important that this story had a September publish date. Personally, I do not know any family who is affected by this horrible disease and do not wish to, but so many are affected, I hope I did it justice. The facts that are given in this story are true. All funds for Cancer research do go towards it, but it is divided up for each type of cancer. All pediatric cancer is lumped together in one group, receiving less than 4% for twelve main types of cancer with over a hundred subtypes. It is also true that the best chance to find a bone marrow match is if it comes from a donor of the same race. The Likelihood of a match being found by race: African-American or Black- 23%; Asian or Pacific Islander- 41%; Hispanic or Latino/a- 46%; American Indian or Alaska Native- 57%; White- 77%. The chance is so low for African-American recipients because only 4% of donors are African-American. This is also the reason that mixed children have a hard time finding a match- the best chance is the same race.
More Facts Unrelated to the story:
+ Cancer is diagnosed each year in about 400,000 children and adolescents ages 19 and under worldwide.
+ Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease past infancy for US children.
+ Five-year survival rates can range from almost 0% for cancers such as DIPG (2.2%), a type of brain cancer to as high as 90% for the most common type of childhood cancer known as Acute Lymphoma Leukemia (ALL).
+ While hundreds of cancer drugs have been developed and approved for adults, the FDA, through 2020 has approved a total of 34 drugs for use in the treatment of childhood cancers, 28 of the drugs were originally approved only for adult use. Today we have only six drugs that were approved in the first instance for use in cancer treatment for children.
+ 20% of children (or 1 in 5) with cancer in the US will NOT survive it.
+ Every day in the US, 43 children (ages 0-19) are diagnosed with cancer.
++ I will make a Tumblr post with links to more facts by Sunday, October 3.