Santa's Helpers

"One more item," Boden addressed the morning brief at 51, "After shift, everyone is requested to make an appearance at Chaplain Orlovsky's church, they are having a toy program for the underprivileged kids who attend, and need someone to help get them wrapped and ready."

"No offense, Chief," Herrmann raised his hand, "But why do they need us for that? I don't recall them asking us before."

"This is true, the reason is the volunteers have been overwhelmed by a sudden and rather large, anonymous donation of gifts that need to be wrapped before the end of the week. And firefighters are nothing if not happy to offer their services in any way needed, isn't that correct?"

Everybody got out a jumbled collection of agreements with the chief's statement. Everybody got up from the tables and got ready to start shift.

"What's the big deal?" Severide asked, "Wrapping a bunch of toys, how hard can it be?"

"I've seen the way you wrap," Casey commented. "I think we'll have our work cut out for us."

"Holy..." Otis said, and was all the further he could say given they were in a church.

"What's the big deal?" Casey parroted Severide's words from the other day, as the group of firemen stood in the room and gazed upon the boxes of toys stacked almost to the ceiling.

"We appreciate you guys coming down to help us out," Orlovsky told them. "This has been a genuine windfall for us, most years we're lucky to match one toy to each child, this time running out won't be a concern."

"How much...is here?" Otis asked.

"Oh we tallied it up," the chaplain explained, "50 board games, 30 play sets, 50 dolls, 50 action figures, 50 toy cars and trucks, 30 block sets, 30 stuffed animals, 10 toy trains, 10 oven sets, 10 archeological kits, and 10 piano dance pads."

"Feel sorry for those parents," Cruz murmured to Otis.

"This all came from one person?" Otis asked.

"It's anonymous, so we have no way of knowing," Orlovsky answered, "but, I think so."

"Man, what must all this have cost?" Mouch asked as he stared at the piles.

"About $5,000 give or take," Herrmann answered, being the only one in the group with consistent experience of buying toys at Christmas and having any idea what they cost.

Mouch whistled in astonishment.

"We've been working day and night to get them done in time but I'm afraid it's beyond our abilities," Orlovsky explained.

"Well, it's going to take a while," Casey said as he looked around at all the toys, "but with all of us here, we should be able to get you caught up."

"You have no idea how much we appreciate the help," the chaplain said, "There are the tables, all the paper and bows are in the corner."

"Well, let's get to work," Kelly said.

2 hours later-

"You're wrinkling the paper too much, it's gonna look crappy."

"Oh shut up."

"You're short on this end, you can see what's in the box."

"I'll short you."

"Hey, don't rip the paper."

"Capp, stop pushing the buttons on that tank, it'll run the batteries down."

"You can't put a red bow on red paper, give me a green one."

"You don't need that much paper on the side, cut it down so it'll fold up right."

"Shut up."

"You shut up."

Casey and Severide stood on opposite ends of a separate table, keeping their heads down and their lips pursed so tight together so they didn't bust out laughing at everybody else quickly losing it with the guys they were partnered up with and among the screams and threats, large crinkled balls of discarded wrapping paper got tossed back and forth, and every so often there was a 'bonk' of somebody getting hit with a cardboard tube. The two lieutenants knew it was their job to keep their men in line, but they knew ordering them to knock it off would be a massive exercise in futility. Besides, it was just too funny to watch them all about to lose it as they kept wrapping toys. It felt like they'd been at it forever and everybody's fuses were far past blown, and still there didn't seem to be any end in sight.

"How long do you think it'll be before they start going for each other's throats?" Severide murmured under his breath, trying his damnedest not to bust out laughing.

A disgruntled scream from behind them as somebody discovered the end of the roll of wrapping paper was just too short to actually work, had both of them ducking their heads down even lower so nobody could see they were about to lose it. After that two people started screaming at each other, ending with somebody threatening to choke the other with a roll of ribbon.

"Not long now," Casey responded. "Give me the scissors."

Severide handed them over and Casey spread the blades as far apart as they'd go to curl a ribbon through it. It took three tries and he cut his finger in the process, but he finally got the green ribbon curled in a bow. Somewhere behind them they heard another crumpled ball of paper fly through the air.

"Who threw that?" Herrmann demanded to know.

"I did!" Cruz replied.

"Knock it off."

"Bite me."

"Who said that?" Herrmann wanted to know.

"I did," Otis answered.

"My back is killing me," Mouch said an hour later when the last toy was finally wrapped and they were done.

"Me too," Herrmann said as he stretched and heard something pop.

Otis groaned for a moment before standing up straight, and telling the others, "I know this was for a good cause and it'll help a lot of people, but I've come to a conclusion. The Grinch was the hero of that story, the Whos were the villains. Wrappings, boxes, bags, ribbons, they're the devil!"

"That's probably why he hated them so much, they probably employed him as a gift wrapper," Mouch commented as he tried to get his back to pop.

"At least we're finally done," Kelly said.

"Hallelujah," Casey dryly commented.

"I'm going home and I'm sleeping until next shift," Cruz said.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Capp added.

"Yeah well, thanks for helping," Casey reached over and patted him on the back, "I know Orlovsky appreciates it."

Matt and Kelly stood back and tried their hardest not to laugh at the huge red bow Casey had slapped on the back of Capp's coat.

Otis groaned and wanted to know, "What kind of sadistic idiot would buy $5,000 worth of toys and dump them all on one church?"

Hank Voight pulled several long receipts out of the drawer to his desk, leaned back in his chair and chuckled to himself as he glanced over the bills of sale from last week.

There was a knock at his office door and Trudy Platt poked her head. "Hey, Hank, I'm getting ready to clock out."

"Been a good day," Hank replied, "see you tomorrow, Trudy."

"Yeah, see ya..." the desk sergeant paused at the numerous scraps of white printout paper the Intelligence sergeant was thumbing through and inquired, "What's that?"

"Oh..." Voight only half managed to suppress the grin on his face as he shook his head, "Nothing."