"And finally I'm very pleased to say that our very own Gabriela Dawson will be stepping back in as PIC on ambo now that Mills has made the decision to leave us."
The room erupted into cheers, with Shay patting Gabby on the back. She'd made the decision when she'd heard that Mills was defiantly going to be moving with his mum and sister, after speaking to both Casey and the chief it was agreed that she could take the spot and return to her previous post as the PIC.
Truck 81, squad 3, ambo 61, battalion 25, school fire at 10th and 14
Everyone stared at Hermann
"That's Luke's school!" He said running towards truck.
"Hermann, are you going to be ok?" Casey asked as he pulled himself up into the front seat.
"I'm good" Hermann said "Cruz just get there."
Pulling up they could see the entire east wing of the school was ablaze, kids were flittering out for all other areas but they could see some were trapped inside the main building.
"Otis, Mouch with me." Casey ordered "Hermann find Luke if he isn't out here radio me"
Hermann opened his mouth to argue but closed it again quickly.
"Squad 3 with me" Severide shouted entering the building behind Casey and his team. Two additional houses pulled up, truck 14, truck 90 and squad 4.
"Where do you want us" Lieutenant Bailey asked the chief.
"I've got two teams inside the east wing, the roof needs venting and the rest of the school needs searching. Squad 4, take the east side with my teams."
"Luke, Luke!" Hermann was searching the crowds. "Has anyone seen Luke Hermann?" He spotted some friends of Luke's "where is he?" He asked frantically.
"He was in Maths!" Josh said "east wing."
Hermann's breath caught in his throat as he called into his radio "Casey, Luke's inside. Maths department east wing."
"Do you know what room Hermann?"
Josh looked at his pals "forty"
"Room forty Lieutenant"
"Ok, Hermann we've got this. Stand down."
"What no Lieutenant I'm good please."
"Your heads not in the game Hermann. Stand down."
Hermann sunk to the ground, his sweet, kind Luke. He reached for his phone to call Cindy. "Hey hunni, I have some bad news." He started "Luke's school has a fire, Luke's inside. Casey's looking for him."
He could her Cindy sob down the end of the phone as she yelled to someone to watch the kids and he heard her start the engine of the car. Five minutes later she squealed into the driveway of Luke's school and ran to Hermann.
"Any news" she asked fear glazing her eyes.
"Casey's working on it. He'll get him." He placed an arm around her shoulders just as his radio crackled "Hermann you there?"
"I'm here Lieutenant"
"We're coming out, I've got him. Prepare yourself."
Hermann knew what he meant, Luke had been trapped inside for at least ten minutes and depending on where the fire had started could be in pretty bad shape. He turned to Cindy "let me go first." Cindy shook her head and grabbed his hand, they were doing this together.
Casey appeared out of the smoke with Luke in his arms, they could see he had some deep burns to his arms, but he was moving and seemed to be conscious.
"My baby, my baby boy!" Cindy screamed as her knees gave way and the chief caught her one handed.
"How bad?" Hermann asked not really sure he wanted to hear the answer.
"It's bad. The rest of the team have the rest of the kids, but Hermann it looks like arson in the boys toilets." He paused wondering whether to say where he'd found Luke or not. "Hermann. Luke was just outside there, there was no one else inside."
"Wait are you saying?" Hermann was furious at Casey "how dare you! Give me my son!"
"Hermann I'm not saying anything, but it looks bad."
"My son is NOT an arsonist!" He shouted.
Dawson made Luke comfortable before loading him onto ambo 61 and heading quickly towards Chicago med. It took four hours to completely put out the blaze and check everyone was out. They were all exhausted and everyone wanted to head to the hospital to make sure Luke was ok.
"I think I'll hang back" Casey said as they entered the burns unit. "Not sure I'm the person Hermann wants to see at the moment."
"It wasn't your fault" Cruz said, "you had to tell him before the police did."
"I know but he's angry and hurting, I'm going to wait here and give him some space." he sat down in one of the chairs in the waiting area as everyone else headed towards the side room the Hermann's were in.
"Hey dude, how you doing?" Gabby asked as she entered the room.
"He's ok." Cindy replied "where's Casey?"
"He thought maybe it was best he waited outside, you know after what happened."
"He was just doing his job. Christopher knows that, don't you."
Hermann nodded. "I'll go talk to him", he got up and kissed his sons forehead before exiting the room.
"Lieutenant?" He said rounding the corner "I'm sorry for how I was outside the school."
"That's ok Hermann, you were scared and angry." Matt leant in and gave him a hug. "How's Luke doing?"
"Ok, they've sedated him, and he's going to need a skin graft or two but he'll live." Hermann paused "anymore news on what started it?"
"It's looking more like arson, but we now believe it was a timed device so not Luke's doing, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Thank god" Hermann sat down "you know for a moment I thought. I mean I've told him stories he knows the trauma a fire can have. But you just never know if their friends have more influence."
Casey nodded, although he had no children of his own he'd witnessed it with his own niece and Gabby's niece and nephew. Diego was always getting in scraps because of friends.
Back at 51 everyone's moods were slightly less energetic than usual, all minds were at the hospital with the Hermann's. Gabby tried to lighten the mood slightly, "Lieutenant catch" she threw an egg at him, unfortunately he didn't turn quickly enough to catch it and it hit him splat in the face, everyone fell about laughing including Dawson, Casey stared at her.
"What the!" He yelled "Dawson seriously. Clean it up." Dawson stopped dead, was he actually mad she couldn't tell.
"Sorry Lieutenant just trying to ease the mood. Hermann would hate the house like this."
She bent down to start cleaning the splattered egg from the tables, walls and floors. Matt bent in close "you young lady will pay for that" he whispered seductively in her ear.
She smirked to herself, she loved how he played the serious Lieutenant in front of the guys.
"Oh really" she whispered back.
"Prepare yourself" he whispered "you thought I teased before!" She whimpered slightly as he spoke. His rough voice made every fibre in her ache, he got up and headed for the showers, he needed a cold one after her whispered, desperate voice.