AN: This chapter contains the last sex scenes (yes multiple) we might see in the entire story because i believe i've closed in on an ending. It shouldn't be more than 10 chapters left and we all want that happy ending.

Thank you as per usual for your kind and earnest responses to Chapter 29. Shay's moment of realisation is so key to how she navigates the way forward. She's as stubborn as both of her friends though. So expect some bumps in the road as she tries to be better with her loyalty to both Sev and Bri. She's been picking sides and nitpicking what could go wrong and she has finally got a window into what is right. She's seeing her friends be happy. Be better versions of themselves and she wasn't privy to their growth. That's going to hurt for a bit but she's so going to try guys!

And thank you for your continued dedication to this now not so small story about my two favourite characters. I'm going to be so sad when the story is over. I take one storyline in an interesting direction this chapter. Review at your leisure. I'll just be anxious in a corner.

Disclaimer: Property of Dick Wolf, NBC, et al.

Casey didn't want Heather. He was sure of that but he'd been so burnt out after fixing her kitchen window that he'd fallen asleep on her couch and slept through the night. And he was waking up to her mouth on his cock, his hand fisting in her hair to make her stop but it felt so good and oh God Andy. He was not a duplicitous person. He did not do this shit and he was close to coming but he moved her off and Casey, embarrassed and groggy, spilled in his boxer shorts. He was trying to block out the sound of her. She'd been making noise like she loved it and Casey leaned back, eyes closed, wanting to take several hundred decisions back over the last six months and feeling incapable. Shit. He was tired and pissed and didn't want to deal with this. He clenched his hands into fists at his sides. It'd been a long time since someone had touched his body against his will.

"What was that for?" he asked hoarsely. Though he knew. Had known for months and avoided it because Andy deserved better from Heather, from him. He finally opened his eyes to look at her, completely naked sitting back on her heels and defiant. He guessed the boys weren't home to witness their mother like this. He pulled the blanket off the back of the sofa to cover her. Heather tossed it at his face. Casey folded it over his lap, a barrier between his body and hers as he worked to fix himself.

"Because I wanted to and you needed it". She declared, her cheeks flushed red. She was unapologetic in her desire."I've wanted to for awhile Matt". Casey paused. He was zipping up his jeans under the blanket but he had to look at her again after such a statement. He didn't want to think that this was another of those long burning crushes that seemed to plague him. Heather had been married the entire time she knew him. Andy was her high school sweetheart. Severide was best man at the wedding. They'd all gone into the academy at the same time and found each other. Awhile could mean so many things that he didn't actually want to quantify but should. He really missed Hallie and how simple things were when she was still around. And as for him needing it...

"You're grieving Heather. We all are". It was true of course, if not the full story. At least, it didn't sound like it was the whole story on her end. Heather leaned back on her heels, knees spread and Casey was trying to have a rational conversation while she presented herself for the taking. He swallowed sharply and made certain to look her straight in the eye. He sat up on the couch and cleared his throat awkwardly while Heather shook her head sadly.

"He's gone Matt. Andy is gone and I'm still here. We're still here. The dead can only claim what we allow them and I'm not his anymore."

She wasn't wrong but it felt wrong and Casey was tired. So tired of taking care of too many things. And he knew if he did this, if he leaned into what Heather was offering, he would end up taking care of her and her sons and he couldn't. Not yet. Maybe not ever if this feeling of loyalty to Andy never faded. He hoped it wouldn't. He could not sleep with his friend's wife. He could not be mad at Kelly for Gabi and then turn around and do this. He didn't even want to do this. It would be out of loneliness, out of a need to blow up his own life even more than it already was. Boden was going to do something about them soon enough. Lieutenants fighting, even off shift, was bad for company morale. Casey spared Heather a glancing look as she waited for his response.

Heather was beautiful. She was pale and pink and soft but not who he wanted and she was putting herself out there boldly. Just like Gabi did, all the time, and then asking him on that date. Showing him how capable and loyal she was in all things. And he'd hurt Gabi. Watched the tears pool in her eyes when she said she wasn't good enough. How he'd tried to find the words to correct his mistake. Casey stifled a sigh. He couldn't hurt Heather like that. He wouldn't reject her outright but this literally could not go on like this anymore.

"Heather," he said softly. "This isn't the way to get over him. Not for me. I can't be the one to help you with this part". He didn't reach out. Did not touch her because mixed signals and his own body's weakness and it was time to get a move on but he would not leave this woman naked on her living room floor until she understood. Casey would help her in any number of ways but this.

"Why not?" Heather's voice was choked with tears. She leaned up into his face and Casey's head jerked back. A reflex, and Heather laughed sadly. "You don't think I feel guilty? You don't think I know wanting you. Wanting you even when Andy was alive and here makes me a bad wife?"

Her admission told Casey everything and crushed him just that little bit more. He leaned back on the couch with a sigh and a shake of his head. He didn't ask for this. It was a damn circle jerk of desire for the wrong person at the wrong time. Heather with him. Him with Gabi. Gabi with him and she was the only one who'd broken the loop by chasing the exact wrong guy for anyone. Kelly. And she was doubling down on him like nobody's business for whatever reason. Maybe she just got tired of waiting. He could understand that a little. Sometimes he was too patient. Too calm. Sitting here looking at Heather who apparently had wanted him while married to one of the funniest guys he'd ever known. It hurt. It truly hurt to think that while he was with Hallie and wanting Gabi, Heather was married and wanted him and what were the odds of any one person in the universe finding their other half anyway?

"Fucking me won't make you feel less guilty, Heather".

"No. It just makes the guilt matter. It makes it all not such a fucking waste."

Casey leaned forward to rest his face in his hands. He breathed in and out slowly. Heather wanted redemption. He wanted peace. A moment where the world wasn't tilting on its axis in the opposite direction of where he wanted to be going. He felt Heather move closer. Felt her hand on his back as he continued to hide in his hands. She climbed up into his lap as Casey breathed noisily. He just couldn't do this. He could not fucking do this. Who was he if he did this? Heather pulled his hands away, rested his head between her breasts. Eased closer to hug him. Casey kept breathing. In and out. In and out. He knew what and who he wanted. It wasn't this. It wasn't her. He was tired and he was lonely and he couldn't have what he wanted. Casey rested his hands on Heather's hips and looked up.

ʘ

Okay so maybe, just maybe he loved Bri. She made it so damn easy which made it so damn hard to wrap his head around after knowing her so long. She'd been there since the beginning. Since Renee Whaley and that whole epic disaster of announcing "I'm not engaged anymore" and they weren't really close then but she'd been sorry. She'd baked cookies even while everyone else was saying he couldn't commit to a car, let alone a girl. Assholes. He loved his classic car and Bri had been nice and sweet probably to prove she was a good girl to Casey which wasn't the point. Not to him. Not now because Bri was genuinely just that good. And years later when Shay was yelling at Eric Whaley about Renee cheating she'd come up to him after and been all Dude really and glared at Shay. But Shay was the keeper of both their secrets and he hadn't wanted anyone to know. He was good at being the bad guy. He could take it. He had that look about him.

Except these days Bri would give him a look, say shut up, kiss the daylights out of him, pull him out of his own thoughts by his hair and see straight through him. Say, you are not the only one who has damage and I'm here. Asshole. And she was. Here. Bri made mistakes and got anxious. She could freeze like a deer caught in oncoming headlights. And funny how her big brown eyes made him think of a deer just now, but on a good day, no on any day, great or terrible, Bri showed up looking like a glass of water in the worst sort of heatwave.

And he seriously didn't know how they'd gotten to this right here but he thanked god they had. Morning sleepy sex, slow slow slow with her hair falling all around him, her muttered throaty Spanish, he still pretended not to know. She said KellyCariñoSevvvvv drawled out like it was all one word. And he'd figured out she was calling him sweetheart, calling him sweetie, calling him hers without letting him know. Except he did and he liked it. A lot. He took his hands off her ass, rocking back and forth over him like a wave going out out out to pull her face close for a sweet kiss. She opened her eyes just a little to smile when he did it. He wanted more. He wanted to pull her in, beg her to fuck him harder but at the same time he reveled in her soft, light touches, the husky sound of her sleep-drugged voice before coffee. The way she made this one little half sound like a gasp when he pulsed deep inside her and how she went searching for the thing that made it happen. She was pressed all the way on top of him now. Touching him from tit to toe, her palms resting on his cheeks, like his were on hers. Their kiss a long protracted affair of breaths shared and unchecked groans. Kelly's thighs were trembling as he reached for an edge of control.

"Baby..."

"Lo se bebe lo se" Bri whimpered. "I know. Give me a minute. Give me..."

Her words petered out on an echoing gasp for air as Kelly turned them on their sides, angled his right thigh over her left hipbone and rolled his hips up to kneel over her, his hand tugging at Bri's hair while she continued to gasp.

"Stay with me Bri"

Bri's eyes blinked open with difficulty, her mouth a round soundless O of pained need that Kelly understood.

"You want slow yeah? Baby I will give you slow. I will give you whatever you want if you look. at. me." But she didn't. He punctuated his words with a drawn-out slip of his hips against hers. The sound in the back of her throat changed. Kelly kept going. Felt her nails scratch his back. Imagined his body like a slow-winding clock, the tick-tick constant and steady, exactly what Bri needed to get off as he dragged himself in and out, in and out. Kelly flinched as a sudden spasm shot through his tibia. He didn't make a sound but Bri stopped immediately.

"What's wrong? Is it your leg?"

Kelly clenched his teeth around the yes in his throat. He didn't want to break the moment. He didn't want to be weak right now. But his silence said enough to make Bri push him gently off and out, her thighs trembling viciously as she failed to suppress how close she'd been to coming. Her chest heaving as she gasped. Kelly stifled his own groan as Bri sat up. All business, she made him straighten out his right leg, her fingers trailing in precise lines along the fracture's ridge.

"Let me see," her voice still had that smoker's husk. Her hair was falling all over her shoulders, hiding her as she bent over. "When's your next follow-up appointment?"

"It's fine. PT said I was good."

"Doesn't mean you're not going to feel pain. You need to monitor how your leg feels. Don't overtax it." Kelly was about to protest when she pressed down on the bone and he yelped and kicked involuntarily. Bri dodged backwards. It would have been funny if Bri's face hadn't gone distant and thoughtful. Her hands slowly massaging his lower leg as she puzzled through why he would still be in pain.

"Were you completely honest with the doctor about your pain threshold?"

"You mean the pills?"

"No Sev, I mean did you tell him when exercises hurt during a PT session and how. Did you do that consistently?"

Kelly sat and thought about it for a minute before he accused Bri of lecturing him about not taking care of himself. She wasn't saying that. As her hands massaged him, the slow sleepy strokes growing purposeful, Bri woke up and she always woke up with even less of a filter than the usual. He recognized that she was worried. That she was trying to show she cared.

"You think I got rushed through medical clearance? I was out for three months!"

"For a complex medical situation that should have had you out for six. Sev you had three broken ribs, a fractured tibia that we are so so lucky wasn't compound or else you would have needed more surgeries, maybe metal pins, never mind the concussion. You can't tell me you don't still get headaches. I know you do."

Kelly decided that Bri watched him a little too closely for his liking. She sounded upset just reciting his list of injuries. He didn't know she'd still be watching like a hawk for his pain.

"I wanna be strong for you".

Fuck. That. That just slipped right out but apparently it was the right thing to say because Bri smiled softly and stopped focusing on his leg, one hand tapping his cheek lightly before it turned into a caress.

"Silly Sev. You are. But you're also human. I don't expect you to always be strong. I can take care of myself."

She could but this is where he figured he knew how he was feeling had deepened beyond his control. He needed to take care of Bri. He wanted to support and help her, not be a drag on her. Being injured was a drag. Depending on others to take care of him, even a little, had always been hard but he trusted Bri. Had reached out to her when the pills got out of hand. When she'd called him out. She'd never judged him. Had helped him. He didn't want their relationship, and he was calling it that because what the fuck else could you call something so intense, to be about Bri playing nursemaid. Hell to the fuck no. He didn't want something wrong with him to be the reason they always stopped midstream in whatever they were doing. He pulled her hand from his cheek to kiss her palm.

"I know you can. It's not about that. What do you need Bri? What do you want?"

He watched Bri's face crumble with confusion. She was still focused on his leg and he wanted to change the subject. He wanted it to be about her and what she needed. Kelly tried to explain, stumbling over his words as a rare blush heated his cheeks.

"I was injured most of Spring and you took care of me. Even when we weren't together, you cooked and couldn't stop hovering-" Bri went to interrupt but Kelly traced her lips with his thumb. "You took care of me. I want to return the favour. I want to give you what you want."

A slow smile creased her face under his thumb. Bri edged forward to kiss him, her hair enveloping them as she eased into Kelly's lap slowly, careful of his leg in that exaggerated way she sometimes did when she thought she was clumsy. He watched her take him into her with a small gulp as she sighed into the feel of him opening her up. She adjusted her position over him, hands braced on his shoulders while the only place he was touching her was still her face. Two breaths from their last kiss and she hadn't responded to his words but he widened his hips to accommodate her between his legs, her thighs draped over each of his as her shudders began anew. Bri gazed at him with this look. This sweet shy look he couldn't account for, neither of them moving as he throbbed and she quivered.

Finally Bri spoke, "I want you. All of you. Weak. Strong. This and everything beyond this. No favours. No turns."

She kissed his nose with a tremulous smile. "I need you. I told you but you weren't listening. You aren't a chore, Sev. You aren't a task I check off on a list and expect something in return. You are enough. You are the gift."

That was funny because he figured she was the gift. The chance he'd never seen coming. He wasn't the good guy. He was never going to be the sort of man, you brought home to your dad without a slew of questions and outright concern for your mental state. Bri kissed him lightly, her smile shaking against his lips and Kelly looked at her. Really looked at her. She was scared. Of him? Of being rejected? He responded to that thought by pulling her closer. By kissing her full on the mouth, then her nose, then her forehead, wrapping his arms all the way around her while she shook. But she gave him words and it was only right she received them. Awkward though he was. Kelly felt heat scale his neck like a slow burning fire in another room.

"I want all of you too. I am a selfish man. Greedy. And we'll have to disagree on who's the gift because you are. You're… do you really need me to remind you what I was thinking that first morning?" Bri nodded around her soft smile and Kelly groaned. He closed his eyes to picture it exactly as he remembered. Bri in the kitchen with a curly bobbing bun of riotous hair. Her boyshorts and her smile. Kelly peered into Bri's gaze. When he spoke his voice was hoarse.

"You were this damn gorgeous angel. Except I knew you. And you knew me and you'd let me into the sweetest part of you anyway." He rotated his hips to make his point and Bri gasped as she rocked into him. Kelly smiled, his hands still on her cheeks. "And you didn't expect anything but I wanted you to. I wanted everything you could give me. Immediately."

I just couldn't say it. Kelly still couldn't. Not really. They were sitting in the middle of his bed, naked, pulled flush against each other. Not not having sex while they talked but the talking was more important. Kelly gave one slow thrust and was rewarded with a soft moan.

"How do I take care of you Bri? You have to tell me. You need to use your words."

And he really needed to know. The impetus ravaged his subconscious like an illness. This vehement urge to do and give Bri more. Kelly slowly traced his fingers through her hair and down her back until his hands relaxed over the curves of her generous ass and he held Bri still as he thrust once, twice, watching her face for a reaction. She keened in full-throated abandon. He still wanted her to say what she needed. How he could take care of her. It was hard to explain how she filled a deep-seated ache in him. He didn't even know it was there until she discovered it, climbed inside and made it hers to soothe. She probably didn't even know she did it.

"Sev?"

Kelly blinked back into the moment with Bri's quiet voice. She was looking shy again and he wouldn't call it absurd because they were both working on things. On how to be in this together instead of floating through it and Bri being soft, being fragile was terrifying to her. He knew that. Kelly held her cheek in his hand and waited while she swallowed. "Can we stay like this? Can we just be here for awhile, you inside me while we kiss and hold on?" He nodded because he sensed she had more to say and didn't want to scare her off. He kissed her as a look of relief greeted his nod. When he pulled back Bri's eyes were glassy with tears and half of him wanted to panic and freak out. I never talked to Antonio. She held him still with her gaze and whispered:

"You are my favourite place. You make me feel found, like who I am makes sense. All of it. You calm me down and rile me up and you're there. You take care of me Sev. I'll find better words. I promise. But right now I want you inside of me just touching me, nothing else. I want you right here in my sweetest part until we can't take it anymore. Until we're starving. Until we have to move. There are a hundred different ways I need you cariño but this is the way I want right now."

Sex was easy for Kelly. They both knew this but Bri wasn't talking about sex. She was talking about that full feeling where he bottomed out in her, before he let go. Where they were still and quiet as he stretched her open and she relaxed into a clench around him. She wanted that for as long as possible and he shuddered just thinking about how much she wrecked his self-control. He bent to kiss her nipples until they tightened before he could respond. He was her favourite place to be. Him. He wanted to ask if she meant the sex but it would ruin the moment and he kind of thought maybe she was using it as an analogy for something else but couldn't share just yet. He was a person, not a place. She meant something different.

"How do you want it?" he croaked hoarsely. She was tight around him already, the wet pulsing heat of her begging him to move. He could literally feel her pulse beat in her clit. He wanted to touch it. He felt Bri move forward until she was skin to skin with him. Her stomach on his, her breasts against his chest and he felt her slight shiver as his chest hair rasped against her soft breasts. Her arms were around his neck, her legs around his waist. She kissed his throat where bruises were still fading.

"Like this. I want to see and touch all of you. I always want to see you." Bri whispered. She'd been whispering all along like she was afraid of her own voice which they both knew she wasn't. He would never mock her when she felt vulnerable. He brushed her hair out of her face and tucked it behind both ears. He kissed her forehead and her nose but paused over her lips, waiting for her mouth to open, breathing her in as she breathed out on a trembling quiver and he clenched his stomach to keep still.

"Is this okay?" he asked quietly.

Still not kissing her just breathing her air and letting her ride out the trembling wave instead of rocking with her. Bri's breath hitched and he caught it, her hands clutching at his back as she nodded. Eyes luminous in her heart shaped face, staring at him. He'd been forgetting this part lately. He'd been hurt by the confrontation with Casey and he'd punished her for it. They'd punished each other. He'd stopped holding her gaze while they fucked so he did it now. Searching for that feeling he always got when they did. There. In between her hitched breath and the slow moving shiver of her thighs that just would not quit, he was seen and known and worshiped just as he did the same for her. His right hand grabbed her ass to hold her still against him and she clenched around him hard. They both moaned. It was going to be a long fucking morning or rather a long morning not fucking but something else entirely. Kelly kissed Bri in earnest, letting his tongue explore the inside of her mouth for the secrets she wouldn't give him and more. Her face had that flush that only he could see, the slightest bit of pink as her thighs quivered over his hips and she clenched over his cock with a viciousness that stole his breath.

"Baby..."

"Don't. Move. Oh. Oh."

He listened to her trail off incoherently. Babbling insensible as she tried not to writhe on him. He was still as she requested, a sheen of sweat coating them both as they sat, their bodies pressed together, his cheek finally resting against her hair, listening for everything she did not say.

ʘ

It was 24 hours til second watch was on call again and Boden dreaded it. Two men he thought of as sons were fighting. Were actually physically fighting each other off shift and their subordinates were hiding it, protecting them. Trying to protect the firehouse because they were loyal to each other like all firefighters were to their company. No other fights had broken out for which he was thankful. Even if Truck and Squad had taken sides, the men themselves were staying out of it in favour of letting the lieutenants destroy each other at their leisure. Kelly was right though. Something had to change and it surprised Boden that the suggestion had come from him. A transfer. He was reluctant to do it. Didn't think it would solve anything and if things were the way he thought they were between Kelly and Dawson, she'd run riot if it did happen. The way she had torn out of his office when he'd asked Shay's opinion on the matter certainly suggested she'd be a terror to deal with. He'd never given his opinion on them because it wasn't his place. They worked together but were not in charge of each other so there was no direct professional conflict.

Even if Kelly did fuss over Dawson at a job sometimes and vice versa. He found them funny really. Cute in a funny way. Dawson had smacked Kelly upside the head a couple times for saying something stupid at a job before remembering his concussion and looking so chagrined Boden had to stifle a laugh. Kelly in turn, had practically smothered Dawson when she had a close call. All in all, the two hotheads played off each other well. He couldn't deny that they kept the job paramount in both their minds. He'd heard Kelly spew expletives aplenty when Dawson went off on her own to take care of an injured civilian but he'd never left his position. She always radioed in her location. Always let Kelly and by extension the rest of the crew, know where and what she was doing even if she was going rogue. He appreciated that Kelly had gotten her to do that at least. Boden wasn't going to separate his team, his family. They'd had a hell of a year so far and he wasn't about to penalize the firehouse because two of his men were grieving and angry and lashing out. But something still needed to change. He needed Kelly and Matt to either sit down in a room and talk or beat the living shit out of each other and call it square. Maybe…

Boden sighed. It was times like this he thought of all the drama he'd caused in his own halcyon days. Ingrid. He'd loved her deeply but his loyalty to her husband, his deep seated needed to do the so called right thing had torn them apart. It had ripped up their whole foundation so that not even a friendship was left. And so he'd lost not just his lover but a friend. And then Henry died and Benny scorched whatever was left with his rage and indignation. It was so deeply unfair. He had loved one woman while Benny had run out on wife after wife after wife, leaving broken hearts and homes like they were vacations he took before some other life called him back. Who was he to judge? How exactly was insulting the memory of a fallen firefighter supposed to help anyone and yet he did it time and time again. Waging war in Boden's firehouse while his own son looked on incredulous and not a little embarrassed. His son who, in the midst of his own drama, thought of the most uncomfortable solution, to remove himself from the equation. It made Boden want to smack Benny so hard. There was nothing of his father in Kelly, not to his mind. And his lieutenant's disbelief, his outright shock at being described as just like his mother...there was nothing he could do to convince the younger man but time. Time that would only occur if he kept his stubborn ass at Firehouse 51 with his family. There was no doubt in Boden's mind that Kelly thought of the house as family. If he left, only then would he be like Benny.

Boden had a plan forming in his mind. He needed a couple other people to weigh in on his idea. Definitely, he needed buy in from a couple other firehouses if not city departments. Summer was a tough time across the board for civil servants in Chicago. They were all due to let off some steam.

ʘ

Shay tried to contain her gasp but couldn't. All of Angie's glorious naked skin was glowing with sweat. Angie's dark hair suddenly looked deep auburn and Shay groaned loudly when her girlfriend held her clit between her lips and lightly sucked, her fingers curving inward on just the right spot, her other hand holding onto her hipbone, requesting stillness.

Which Shay just could not do as she rocked in a small circle, soundlessly pleading for more. Angie laughed against her pubic bone and her warm breath made Shay shiver. Made everything tighten and her fingers kept pushing in and out and Shay couldn't resist making a low noise until Angie leaned back and away, reaching for the lube. Shay closed her eyes, listened for the slicking noise of lube, gasped when Angie parted her thighs and slid the smooth bulb of a toy against her slit slowly before pushing it all the way in on a firm thrust. Shay heard a satisfied groan and opened her eyes.

Angie had inserted the other end of the dildo in her and was slicking her fingers over her clit just looking at Shay. Like Shay was the hottest thing she'd ever seen. She rearranged her thighs over Angie's splayed legs, fucking her backward onto the bed, seizing control and had the distinct pleasure of watching her mouth fall open and her thighs shake just a little and then they were both moving. Finding a rhythm that worked, all the while watching each other until Shay moved Angie's fingers out of the way to play with her clit and Angie said yes! Like that was all she'd wanted all day and Shay rocked into her, feet planted on either side of her rib-cage for leverage as she started moving more urgently, the flush of an orgasm starting slow but insistent in her toes. That full body heat feeling that climbs and climbs…

Suddenly Angie jerked, head thrown back, her hip tilting up over and over. Completely mindless in her ecstasy, and Shay, helpless in the throes. Dragged into the current with a jolt, and without warning a long loud scream.

A giggle had Shay opening her eyes.

"That was fun" She watched while Angie lost herself to the joy that was her orgasm. Sometimes she'd laugh through her aftershocks. Her body a delicious bundle of nerves sparking. Any sort of touch could set her going again and just then they were still connected so Shay felt everything, a shudder trembling through her.

"It was."

She gasped as Angie pulled away and the dildo fell out. Not more than thirty seconds later, she was cuddling Shay close, affectionate and sweet in a way that made Shay wary. She responded to Angie's kiss absent-minded and slightly worried. Shay was always worrying these days which was unfortunate. Angie was not oblivious to the tension that was slowly revisiting the blonde. She turned Shay around and lay on top of her, callused artist hands framing her face like a picture.

"Can't you just relax Leslie?"

Shay went to respond and stopped. She hadn't told Angie what she'd discovered about Kelly and Dawson. How she felt stupid and neglected and like she didn't have a place in their universe. She hadn't even told Angie about Dawson's love confession which would have had Angie squealing and asking for details. Truth was, as sweet and generous as Angie was, Shay didn't know if she could trust her as deeply as Dawson and Kelly did each other. She didn't want another lecture about how it wasn't her job to control things. How she had to accept that the people around her were going to do whatever they wanted. Shay looked up into Angie's inquisitive face and felt curiously afraid to say anything.

Thank you for reading!