AN: Hi guys! Just a quick one to get this story going towards its central conflict. With this chapter we are in the larger world outside these two and their heads and introducing the people who affect their choices and decisions. I got some really great feedback (Shout out to Ghostwriter!) and I am working to incorporate it into Kelly and Dawson's motivations. I already have a skeleton built out through Chapter 10 but wow did the extra insight help. So, thank you for all your reviews, good, bad and indifferent. It's always good to see what you are reacting to and how. It makes a difference. Til next time!
He tried to keep it professional at work. He really did. Shay helped. Her shock and have you lost your fucking minds?! still echoed in the back of his head from the tirade he and Dawson suffered through. Shay was still in a bit of a spiral about it. Looking between him and Dawson anytime they were all in a room together at the firehouse like they were a walking timebomb. It would have been amusing if it hadn't made Dawson so uncomfortable. He could tell she was relieved to no longer be hiding from her friend but it definitely put a damper on any thoughts to just be out there with everyone. Dawson talked a good game when she was angry and worked up but she didn't actively enjoy making people unhappy with her decisions. He figured he was too much of a bastard to care.
So he was staring and he knew it. D, he called her D at work because it was close enough to Bri to get him a smile but not into trouble, was checking supplies in the ambulance and he was sitting in the sun with a cigar relishing the cool warmth of mid-morning sun. Mills was playing with Pouch, also sneaking glances at Dawson. Severide never got the full story on that breakup. He wondered if it was too late to ask or if this was one of those things you found out when you felt safe and comfortable with someone. He really had no clue. She didn't push him and he didn't push her and there had been no words beyond her one quiet declaration and his own intent. And that was okay. He didn't feel like he was caught in a cutesy sugar overload of a thing but their line of work made fairy tales sort of pointless. He'd seen the way she wielded a scalpel. The woman was adorable, just not at work and why wasn't he feeling more suffocated?
A job came in. Truck. Squad. Ambulance. And they shuffled quickly into their gear and vehicles towards a scene that proved to be a disaster of a three alarm fire in the Chicago Loop district. Too many tourists. Too many people period. And just their luck it was a federal building near Printer's Row. Too much fucking paper. Chief was calling out orders as he received them from the other battalion chief on scene. D and Shay were setting up triage. Casey was looking at the fifth floor roof with a dubious eye towards venting. He agreed. The fire was burning too hot too fast for that to be a viable option but it ultimately wasn't his call. Nor Chief's. It wasn't a good feeling.
Chief called him over. According to employees who worked in the building, there were three people trapped on a staircase between the third and fourth floor. Two men and one pregnant woman who they were carrying down the stairs. His team was booking it.
"Stay on the comms" Chief ordered then turned quickly to Casey and his team to discuss hydrant access and opening the hoses. Severide was already walking briskly to the building with Tony and his boys as people streamed out, smelling of smoke and charred chemicals.
He called through to Chief that he was going to try and clear the north end of the building floor by floor to make sure there were no other people trapped while Tony and Capp checked on the three confirmed in the stairwell. He hoped they hadn't moved too far. Or if they had, further down the stairs so his crew could find them quickly. A pregnant woman in her third trimester inhaling smoke… stress could lead to early labour as Casey had discovered in that car incident awhile back. And he really did not want the day to be about recoveries.
"Fire Department! Fire Department! Call out!" Severide kicked in office doors on the second floor. The lick of heat and smoke heavy on his mask. So far he heard nothing and his scanner wasn't picking up anything. He knew another ladder company was checking from the south side of the building but they were not his priority at the moment. He had to be efficient and quick. Over the comms he heard Capp say they were carrying the woman down. Tony had a hold of one guy, Bobby while the other was fine to walk on his own but all three needed oxygen. A good piece of news.
Bobby said he was the warden for the fourth floor and he thought his end of the building was cleared out but had no idea about the fifth. Severide doubled back to meet them as they passed the second floor landing and signal his intention to check the third. He knew the hoses were going but it would take time for them to work and no one had a clue how the fire had started still.
"Kelly you can't go alone!" but Capp was yelling at his back while he scaled the stairs in fifty pounds of gear. He heard the upward surge of a fire squall through the air from below them. The fire was jumping. Finding fuel in the old fashioned floorboards of the fifties era building.
"Get those civilians out!" he retorted half aware that unless he made his way to the other side of this very unstable building, he might have to clear a window.
Severide kicked in an office door on the third floor and called out. He crossed to the window and broke the glass to peer out at the scene below. Three ladder companies, several hoses and three ground ladders with civilians and firefighters climbing slowly down to safety. All rescues and no recoveries. So far so good.
"Severide! Location! Now!" Chief barked.
"Third floor. North west corridor. The wind is picking up and giving this fire more oxygen sir"
"Clear the floor and get back down here. You have one minute"
It was, he thought, a good thing Chief trusted him enough to know he was not the slightest bit suicidal in his need to save others. "Fire Department! Call Out!"
He heard the weak cry but he almost didn't believe it. Turning a corner, he saw a boy trapped in a corner between the elevator bank and the wall by a smouldering piece of ceiling. The kid was cowering on the floor, coughing into a shirt and bright red with heat.
"Chief, I've got a kid trapped by the north elevator bank. Unstable ceiling. Where's the closest ground ladder?" he was already pushing debris out of his path.
"You have thirty seconds to get out of the building. You won't make it to a ladder. The fire has spread and that corridor has no vent. Do you understand?"
He did. Really he did. But the kid was close to passing out and over his shoulder. He could try and climb his way back over to the window he broke open but if what Chief said was true that didn't make sense. Severide examined the space he was in. He had his ax and his hook and it was only the third floor. He shifted the kid more onto his shoulder and made for the closest window.
"Coming out the back third floor. Fourth window down. Might want to grab a net…"
Severide swore he could hear Chief cursing over the comms but it didn't matter. He heard the fire moving and it was going to be a near thing. The snap and pop of the floor beneath him said it was going to give at any moment. He broke the window and looked out. Hermann and Cruz were running over.
"The bucket will take too long. I'm gonna drop him!"
"Are you crazy?!" Hermann was yelling but Cruz dipped into sight below the window arms raised to catch. Severide braced himself without preamble. He had to get the kid out before he could climb down.
On three the boy dropped into Cruz's arms already passed out and needing oxygen and evaluation more than anything else. Cruz immediately bolted to triage while Hermann called out for a ladder. Severide heard the fire pick up steam behind him. He didn't turn to look. One arm braced on the window frame, one hand around a pipe to scale down. He felt the explosion before he heard it spread out into every open space. His suit caught flame, his right hand slipped. He reached for his hook but the building was shifting and his body with it and then, there was the ground.