AN: Thank you to everyone who has followed and favourited my little fic! I appreciate each of you taking the time to show your interest in it. And now without further ado.

Dawson needed a call. She wasn't asinine enough to say so out loud but she needed to do something because the awkwardness with Shay was making her crazy. She had done enough stupid things. Never mind the fact that in the wake of Severide's fall Casey had suddenly realized what was important and had started being pleasant again. So she was down one friend but up another and Mills was prowling the halls like a damn cat waiting for someone to give him something to do while making sad eyes. She just knew those days working in the ambulance with him would stir things up. He didn't trust her but love had been more than abundant. Dawson figured she had about three more days before he tentatively reached out in some way, as a friend most likely. Hopefully. Fuuuuuck. He still had not confronted Boden with the truth which was smart in her opinion. No need for even more drama to hit Chief's plate with Kelly out on disability.

Otis wanted to make more headway on the bar after shift and she was more than keen to take her frustration out on the complete reno that needed to happen before they could get the space up and running. She was excited about that part of her life at least. With Hermann and Otis she was fine. Her normal self even, arguing and strong arming weaker men to her will. It was a nice change from the stilted tension with Shay and the loneliness of her own apartment. It was strange to think that Kelly had carved out a space for himself among her things so quickly but he had. And the void he'd left along with three t shirts one sock and several scorching memories suggested she might need to buy new furniture. Also paint her walls. Shay said he was doing fine when everyone asked but didn't offer more and Dawson made a point of not asking at all after that last phone call because there were so many ways to ruin a friendship and she'd already been a happy and active participant in one. She could now say with absolute certainty that the man had every right to be cocky. Being with him had been like stepping into the hot blue center of a fire and never burning. He wouldn't let her as the sweetest full body agony assailed her while he coaxed and persuaded and she scored the skin off his back with her nails. Sex with a sober Severide was downright addictive.

Dawson could accept that she missed him terribly around the firehouse. Capp looked miserable filling in as leader of Squad. It was no secret that Kelly lived for the job in earnest. Cut away everything else from him and the job could sustain him, with Shay of course. He didn't trust anyone else.

"Dawson!" she looked up to see Chief calling her and Shay over, a petite blonde woman at his side looking around the firehouse with eager expectation. "I'd like you to meet Tara Little. She's a candidate and she'll be riding with you both for the next few shifts" It was said with a note of finality that had Dawson glancing at Chief. Shay had never said what her meeting with him was about but the stunned look of embarrassment when she left his office before their first shift back together suggested it had not been pretty. And that Chief still hadn't forgiven her.

"It's nice to meet you Tara. Welcome to Firehouse 51. Let me show you aroun-"

Ambulance 61. 235 Racine Street. Possible head injury. came over the intercom and Shay was darting to the ambulance while Dawson grabbed a radio and gear for Tara and told her to come on. Chief waved them off and Dawson climbed into the back with Tara to familiarize her with the equipment before they got on site.

It turned out to be a fall. One drunk homeowner on a ladder checking the gutters of his second storey when he slipped and fell backwards. His wife had called it in, kneeling by his side and yelling at him not to move while he howled in pain. Dawson liked her immediately. There was blood on the back of his head the wife was holding a kitchen towel full of ice to, one dislocated shoulder and he was screaming about his leg.

Dawson talked Tara through everything. Splinting the leg while Shay placed a C collar around his neck and the three of them gently shifted him onto a backboard before leveraging him onto a stretcher. Then it was a smooth if screamy transport to Lakeshore with Tara cringing next to Dawson as she worked on the man's injuries, his wife looking on. Holding the slowly melting ice and tea towel in her hands.

It's funny what you hold onto in a crisis, Dawson thought; watching the wife's carefully calm expression while water puddled rapidly at her feet in the emergency room entrance. A nurse gently removed the ice and tea towel from her numb fingers and guided her to a seat while doctors descended on the husband. Dawson quickly finished up her field notes for the hospital records and looked around for Tara or Shay. Neither of them were in sight and Dawson groaned until she remembered which hospital they were at and knew exactly where Shay had run off to. Still didn't explain Tara but if she hadn't learned to stay close to her superiors by now then she never would so…

His door was open so she didn't go in. It wasn't logical but she could hear Shay fussing over him and Kelly making noncommittal responses and it was all she needed. To hear them being all that they usually were. Dawson leaned her head against the wall next to the doorjamb and closed her eyes. This was good. Shay and Kelly were back to normal. It meant she'd made the right choice. It meant-

"How's Dawson?"

Her eyes went wide immediately.

"She's fine. You're the one about to be released. To my care." Dawson heard Kelly make a snorting sound, maybe of impatience and she leaned in closer. He was talking about her. He was concerned and that meant something no matter how she tried to detach.

"Shay, I'm not asking you to betray her confidence. Stop dicking me around." Dawson heard the rustle of the sheets and a pained groan like he'd moved too quickly and she stood very very still. Wanting and not wanting to hear what Shay would say about her.

"I don't know Kel. We're not really talking like that. We've got a new candidate to train and Dawson's good with her. The chick's gonna wash out but Dawson is patient with her idiocy." He didn't say anything for a minute and Dawson could hear Shay moving around the room, checking his vitals, trying to work off her nervous energy. Kelly in investigative mode was a near impossible thing to shake. He didn't let go until he got an answer, usually the answer he wanted.

"All you two do is talk" Kelly finally said. "Why aren't you talking? Is it me? Why the fuck won't you tell me what happened?" It surprised Dawson to hear that Shay hadn't given Kelly some part of what she'd said the night she broke down. She'd assumed that Shay would, Kelly being her priority and all. It didn't make her feel any better. Shay was exactly where she didn't want to be. Caught between her best friend and her partner and getting harangued by one while the other ran away and hid behind door jambs letting her take all the heat. She was better than this.

"I thought I'd find you here." Dawson said as she leaned into the doorway, pretending a casual air while her heart jumped halfway up her throat. "Tara is missing. I hoped she was with you". Dawson said all of this while focusing on Shay whose face said she didn't care at all for their new trainee and maybe less about her sudden appearance. Dawson did not disagree with her for either opinion. Perhaps things would improve. Dawson turned her head to the man staring at her from his bed.

"Hi"

"Hi D"

She flushed at that. At his ability to make her feel warm and good with the use of one nickname despite disappearing on him. Shay was glaring back and forth at both of them and Dawson hadn't really left the doorway. She was looking him over greedily, the bruises were slowly healing to green and he wasn't so pale beneath them. She glanced down at his hands, the cuts and burns looked healthy. Like he'd have full range of motion when he was ready.

"Are you just gonna stand there?" he prodded.

Yes, yes I am. Dawson swallowed. Being held captive by a Severide stare was a heady thing. The way he could focus in and hook you close without you knowing it. "We really should find Tara." It was an excuse of a truth. Tara could and should have radioed in her location by now. That she had not was irritating and would definitely be in her final assessment.

"Come here D," and he gestured with his hand while Dawson gave a side glance to Shay who was looking at her like she was tired and frustrated and just give him this one damn thing Dawson. So she quietly moved to the side of his bed, the side she'd knelt at and cried her eyes out. She didn't sit down. She wouldn't get comfortable but Kelly took her right hand in his left and kissed the back of it while looking up at her. "You know I'm gonna make you talk eventually. Right?" Dawson nodded because she couldn't really speak around the knot in her throat. She'd left him without an explanation and instead of being mad he was being sweet and calm and so unlike what she would be in the same situation.

"I want you to get better first" she croaked out, bargaining for time and space. Kelly laughed quietly.

"Yeah no. I'm not waiting six months. I'm not Casey." She grimaced and Kelly frowned; squeezed the hand he still held in his own. Dawson watched him glance at Shay who was studiously watching them and how their hands were locked in. She made a move to pull away and he held on. Dragged her in closer, though she could see that it hurt him, to put their joined hands on his chest and his right hand on her left cheek. A shudder went through her. It reminded her of his bloody palm print and his eyes searching for hers, and him fading out.

Dawson shook her head. He was too much. He was being sweet and caring and he wasn't the problem at all. "I'm sorry." She had to say that because she was. No matter what happened she wouldn't let him think this was on him at all. She leaned in to kiss his forehead. "You did nothing. Absolutely nothing wrong". When she pulled back her eyes were stinging and he was gazing at her uncertainly. Like he didn't believe her and for a split second she wondered if letting go was the right decision.

But Shay made a coughing sound and a nurse walked in with Otis and Cruz, and Dawson saw her world become a series of corridors. She could only walk down the one she was standing in. She could only pull back and remind Otis to meet her at the bar. Tell Shay she was looking for Tara and mock glare at the boys like it didn't hurt to leave. Dawson told herself this was all she could do. But Kelly's face as she turned away, called her a liar.