AN: Hi Hi. Sorry sorry. I think this is the longest I've gone without posting an update but I'm back! Work got the best of me and then I was reworking a couple storylines because of what is shaking to come down the pike for Firehouse 51. But first of all:

THANK YOU for your reviews. Last I checked the site I had like 120 total and now there are 130 so to Clementine20, PilyMiriam, oldsoulsandhandsomedreams, curtis22 and all you guests, thank you. Seriously that jump was a delightful surprise and gave me the jumpstart I needed to tweak this chapter and get it out to you guys.

To all my readers, thank you for sticking with me! This thing is now 112,000 words in Word without author notes... I can't even process how I got here from chapter 1.

This chapter is building on a couple of themes from 30. Mostly fleshing out what Boden is plotting for his boys. One of you already guessed where I was taking this so without further ado...

Peter Mills was quietly looking at his mom, stirring a spoon in his morning coffee, as she began set up for the diner's breakfast rush before sunrise. They were still, for the most part, on strained terms. The affair with his boss rose between them in his quiet resentment for all the digs she took at his chosen profession. His desire to follow in his father's footsteps despite the cost to their small family. Peter still hadn't said a word to her about what Gabi finally confessed. Angry as he was, confronting his mother was not something he did lightly. At this point his knowledge was a cancer, eating at their bond. Just like it did with Gabi. It gave him some perspective on how she'd felt, carrying Boden's secrets. It didn't change his feelings about her deceit but he loved her enough to understand it now. How being privy to your boss's sordid history was as awkward as it was painful for him to look at his mother and know she'd been naked with that same boss.

There was no easy way to broach the matter and long arguments with his sister had helped nothing. She sympathized but wanted to keep the past buried. Didn't want him to dig at wounds that had never fully healed. And he wasn't stupid enough to think they were healed. His mother was beautiful and still single all these years later. It made him wonder. Was she still holding on to his father's memory or to Boden's? Either one was galling no matter how he looked at it. One was dead, incapable of coming back to her. The other…

He needed to know her side of the story before he said anything to Boden. He needed to know if she would lie and use more subterfuge, attempt to persuade him away from firefighting with her pain or finally get down to brass tacks and just say the damn thing. It was years too long for anything but the facts. Peter looked down at his coffee one last time, stirring the spoon. It was the colour of his skin, more milk than coffee. He didn't have to ask if he was his father's son at least. There was no way he could be Boden's looking like he did. He sighed.

"I know about you and Chief Boden ma,"

He glanced out of the corner of his eye as his mother's back stiffened behind the counter. She was setting out the day's pies one by one in their glass containers. She carefully placed the blueberry rhubarb right next to the cash register. She turned around slowly.

"You know what, exactly, Peter?"

And just like that Peter Mills knew his mother was going to lie.

ʘ

Shay was feeling a tad bit glum. Angie had picked a fight with her about being a control freak and why the fuck couldn't she just be for one second without plotting the next three hours of her life never mind theirs. She'd said theirs. Implying she wanted them to build a life together and Shay had been gobsmacked. She was basically a functional alcoholic with deep seated control issues who had wild crazy sex with women until it got needy and she felt like she was going to be eaten alive like what happened with Clarice. For fuck's sake what kind of name was that anyway? Didn't her parents see Silence of the Lambs?

And Kelly. Kelly was moving on! He was being functional and adult with Dawson of all people. How the hell had that even happened. At most she thought they'd be a spring fling when they started out. Silly and all hot sex with their hot tempers. If she squinted she could see the appeal but not really. Then Kelly got injured and Dawson ran scared and Kelly fought her over their connection and here it was, another season almost over and they were going strong. Dramatic as all get out but strong. Wilful even, which made complete sense for the personalities involved. And she was still on the outside looking in. Her friendship with each of them altered so fundamentally by their relationship that it was like she was the starter best friend until they got to each other. Because that was exactly what it felt like sometimes. Dawson was still telling her some things at least, like she loved Kelly but she never broached the topic of Casey anymore. Not even when it was clear that his ultimatum had forced her hand and hurt her deeply. Shay wondered if she had told Kelly. If theirs was a relationship that confessed everything to each other. She doubted it. Or else they would have gotten to the I love you part by now and Dawson wasn't ready yet. Not by a long shot after years of Casey yearning. You can't switch feelings off that fast. No matter how intense your new feelings were.

Kelly still checked in on Shay. Made sure she was okay but she could tell it still hurt that she was unflinchingly honest in her opinion about him and Dawson. He read it as unsupportive when she was trying to take care of him. She was admittedly, not the greatest at that all the time. She'd helped him get addicted to painkillers after all. Something that Dawson still didn't know thank god. She'd never asked who was supplying Kelly. Didn't know she'd jeopardized both their careers by stealing meds for his use. Had focused solely on getting him well while Shay hadn't been strong enough to get him to seek any help which really fucking sucked. She'd just enabled his injured ass. And that was before Kel and Dawson were an item.

Shay froze as she really thought about it. For fuck's sake she was so fucked on this wasn't she? Dawson had gotten Kel to seek help and treatment when they weren't even good friends. How much trouble was she in now they'd gotten so deep into each other that nothing else mattered but them? They couldn't leave 51, that just was not an option. Shay wracked her brains for a solution to the dilemma. She was painfully aware that it was doing and thinking things exactly like this which had resulted in her argument with Angie. She never said Angie was wrong per se. It just felt like Angie was judging her, not taking her side in the situation. She couldn't change who she was. Loyalty to her friends came with a side dose of overbearing maternal instinct handed down through at least three generations of Midwestern motherhood. Shay literally had no idea how to be any other way with the people she loved most. It was why she rarely called her own parents. It was suffocating and why she lived more than two hours away from any blood relative. She could see what she was doing. Shay really could and she hoped she wasn't half as bad as her own mother. She didn't think she was but Shay just didn't how to not be herself. It felt like that was what Angie was criticizing. Her. Who she really was.

Kel and Dawson were still upstairs. It was early yet and she was making enough coffee for all three of them before they headed into shift. Yesterday they'd been so weird and quiet. It was rare that they spent the entire of their off shift days together. She figured the weekend away had made them recognize some things maybe. Or they were still fighting about the possibility of leaving 51, and doing so together. Dawson was just irrational enough to do it. To follow where Kel led her because she gave props where they were due, Kelly had made Dawson a priority in his life. He sought her out, cosseted her as much as the big idiot could when they were out on a job and let her be her occasionally harebrained self without critique. He treated Dawson the way he would care for her but with the intensity notched upwards by a factor of… Shay couldn't even say and didn't want to.

After the waterfront building collapse he stopped heeding her words about Dawson altogether. He'd gone over there, crutches and all, and hadn't come back til the following afternoon, jaw clenched, hands in fists over the crutches, looking for a fight she hadn't given him. They had never discussed that particular job. How he'd heard it all on the scanner. How she came off-shift and back to a silent apartment and known exactly where he had gone. Kel was loyal. He was also way overprotective in his own way. He didn't hover but he definitely showed up when you were hurt or in pain. He'd cared enough about Dawson to show up and stick around and had silently told Shay it was none of her business.

Technically, it wasn't. You just couldn't pay Shay not to worry about family. Kelly was family. Not adopted. Just plain family. They'd moved in together right after her start at 51 and gelled so quickly it felt like fate. He'd been willing to help her have a baby before common sense knocked on the door of her brain and told her to be smarter. And Kelly would be an awesome dad. She just knew it. He'd been so nervous in the hospital with Clarice's newborn but smiled down at the kid anyway. He had loved her and supported her through every irrational bout with the hormone injections and beyond. Her best friend was an utter manwhore but such a good man into the bargain. She really couldn't begrudge him the heartfelt intensity that was his relationship with Dawson. She really couldn't. It just… she just wished it didn't impinge so much on their friendship. She didn't want them to change and they already had. Shay poured out a cup of coffee and sat at the kitchen counter with a yogurt cup. He didn't even steal her yogurt anymore. It was one of their things that was quickly not becoming a thing and she missed it. She missed a whole bunch of things and wasn't adjusting well.

She heard footfalls on the spiral staircase but didn't look up. Allowed herself a couple more moments of silent reflection on where they all were in their friendships with each other and Shay was very relieved that she and Dawson were on semi-easy footing. The weekend trip had helped. Away from the boys Dawson was carefree and silly and still her partner in paramedic crime. She'd mostly forgiven Shay for butting in with her opinions on dating Kelly and where that put her with Matt. She wasn't allowed to say the word backburner for a really long time she figured. Which was fine if she and Dawson were okay. It wasn't perfect. On some level, their trust was compromised. She'd told Dawson to break it off with Kelly and they'd both been miserable. Then she'd wheedled and prodded and suggested she was maybe treating Kelly the way Casey had treated her and that fight ended in a scorching retort the likes of which she never wanted to feel again. Dawson wasn't big on making people feel like shit, quite the opposite. But the way she'd lit into Shay about how dare she compare what Casey had done with anything approaching how she cared about Kelly. It had been eye opener. She was glad they had recovered. Mostly.

Dawson bounced off the last step and came swinging into the kitchen with the sort of dreamy look you found on Disney princesses. Her hair was floating in curly waves down her back. She was dressed in a tee shirt and jeans, grey ballet flats on her feet. She was smiling and soft and greeted Shay sleepily despite being fully dressed and by all accounts ready to head out the door.

"Kelly's still in the shower but he'll be down soon"

Shay responded with a nod, noting that hers and Kelly's go bags were already packed by the front door which meant Dawson was now keeping clothes in Kelly's closet to judge by what she was wearing. They were packing their go bags together. It was all so domestic. But then she'd heard them the other day in the kitchen, talking rationally while Dawson cooked lunch. While Dawson used her as leverage to keep Kelly at 51. Was she allowed to bring that up or not? It was eavesdropping of course but she'd been on the couch the whole time, not like she was being sneaky or anything. Shay watched Dawson grab bread to make toast, four slices as she pulled out the butter and grape jam she'd bought and put in their fridge. She and Kelly definitely ate better with Dawson around. There was no time for a full breakfast but Dawson liked at least one hot thing with her coffee. Even as she pulled out Kelly's cereal and shook it into a bowl. She wouldn't pour the milk until he was sitting down but Dawson didn't waste time in the mornings, especially since she wasn't a morning person and usually had to act fast.

"I hope it's a quiet shift," Dawson muttered as she finally reached for the coffee.

"Hrm? Why's that?"

"I need to get a haircut and I'd rather not fall asleep in Karen's chair," came Dawson's reply as she sipped slowly on the hot beverage.

Shay leaned back on her stool to look at Dawson's hair. It was gorgeous and insanely long. She hadn't cut it since before Christmas. She was due an overhaul and was curious what her usually practical friend would do this time. She'd never seen it get this far past her shoulders.

"What are you thinking?"

"I dunno. Need to trim the dead and split ends out so that's three inches at least off the bottom. I'll talk it out with Karen. I trust her to keep me relatively low maintenance".

It was an inane conversation. It was normal. No drama to it as Shay relaxed into her thoughts on the matter, trading suggestions with Dawson on what worked and didn't work given the high intensity of their job and how much they sweat etc. Dawson munched on her toast and sipped her coffee while Shay ate yogurt and it was good. She wasn't going to tell Dawson about her fight with Angie just yet. She wanted her opinion but wasn't sure what advice if any, she wanted. Dawson was in love with her best friend and currently in a spiral about his random change in career path trajectory. She was probably not going to give the most balanced advice on a fight where Shay came off as the control freak she totally was.

"Hey D!" Kelly called from his bedroom.

"Go bags are by the door Kelly," Dawson responded easily. Like she knew what Kel was thinking without explanation. She smiled around her mug of coffee. The dreamy look resurfaced briefly. Yeah… Shay wasn't saying one word about her fight with Angie this shift. Dawson was love-dumb and liable to say some go with the flow or just embrace the madness shit.

"Are you still going to-"

"Yeah! Come downstairs and have a normal conversation idiot!"

The loud sound of Kelly's footfalls pounding down the metal staircase reverberated through the apartment. He was pulling on his tee-shirt as he went, not looking where he was going which, given his most recent injury, Shay would have yelled at him about but Dawson beat her to it.

"Are you trying to have another fall?! Kelly! Where are your shoes?!"

Kelly grinned. Ignored Dawson's question in favor of striding over to take a bite of her toast and sip some of her coffee. She grumbled but poured the milk in his cereal and handed him a spoon. Shay watched Dawson hop off her stool to make Kelly coffee without him even asking. He took another bite of her toast while she did and Dawson mock glared as she presented him with his coffee black, two sugars. Kelly thanked her before coming back to their original conversation. The one Shay only half understood until Kelly ran a hand through Dawson's hair and said,

"Don't take too much off. Your hair's beautiful," and Dawson snorted. Rifled a hand through his hair in turn and tugged a little.

"You're due for a shape-up as well Severide. All this must get really hot under that helmet".

They bickered quietly for a few more seconds before Kelly turned to Shay and smiled.

"Are we all in the Mustang today?" and when Shay nodded he smiled again. "Great! I'll be dropping this one off to her salon post-shift. Wanna grab a drink at Molly's and make sure first watch isn't killing her profit margin in the meantime?"

It was sad how dumbstruck Kelly's offer made her. They hadn't hung out one on one in awhile. Both their faults. She wanted to press on the Dawson issue at first and he wanted to avoid it. Then he was just pissed off and she wasn't rated worthy of his notice. Her agreement was immediate and she felt more than saw Dawson relax at Kelly's side. He rubbed her shoulder and she bent her head to kiss his fingers and they were so adorably unpretentiously themselves it was enough to make Shay stop fretting for five minutes. It didn't matter if these two blew up ten minutes, ten months or ten years from now. They were solid. The real fucking deal despite how insanely explosive they could become. She'd just try to stay out of the blast radius...

ʘ

Okay there was no need to panic. Well, there was but Dawson didn't have space in her brain to let it in. A supposedly routine medical call on a diabetic had landed her and Shay in the middle of gang warfare, a shootout right outside the window with their patient bleeding out in her bedroom. Shots were being traded outside while she fumbled to get an oxygen mask on the elderly lady in front of her and soothe the ten year old who called 911 for his grandma. Shay was radioing for help. It was five minutes out, at least. And Dawson wasn't stupid enough to treat a GSW at a live scene. Nope not enough pre-med knowledge for that just yet. But she was tracking her patient's thready pulse. It was clear the bullet had clipped a lung when it had entered under her clavicle, no exit wound. It was lodged inside, doing more damage, blood pooling and she was busy speaking in low Spanish whispers to a terrified if silent child who would not come out from under the bed, phone clutched in his hands like a lifeline. They'd come to treat a patient with low blood sugar who was now low on blood and Dawson wanted time to speed up. For the cops to come and scare the shooters off, for the kid to hurry up and listen to her, for shift to be over so she could get a haircut and get all this damn hair off her face. She'd really left it too long and it was an inane thought to have in the middle of a gun fight but she was bullet free and flat on the ground next to her patient hoping to remain so, dust collecting in her hair. It was stupid but it was all she could think of besides saving her patient. Dawson flinched when she heard another set of shots ring out. She looked across at Shay. The blonde grimaced.

"So much for a quiet shift!"

Hours later, incident report given, one long shower and a short nap in, Boden sidled up to Dawson with a thoughtful look on his face. Asked if she was okay. She was. The patient was expected to live to see another glucose testing strip. Asked if she had a minute to speak with him about something he was working on and would she listen to him the whole way through before she gave her opinion. She did, but the fact that he had thrown that caveat in signaled it was going to a contentious conversation for Dawson. She loved Chief but she'd often fought him on rulings she thought unfair. They both knew that.

She followed him into his office with a feeling of trepidation. This could only be about Kelly or Casey or both of them. They'd been no formal reprimand for their fight at Molly's. No police report kind of made dodging that bit of career suicide easy but Boden cared enough about his men to want to help them, not just sweep issues under a rug. It was difficult and awkward and she cared about both men. Boden knew that much. She sat down and gave Boden a cautious smile, waiting for him to start.

"I want to host a fight" Boden began without preamble.

"Oh. Kay?" Dawson responded tentatively. "What kind of fight?"

"Boxing match maybe Squad versus Truck. Think of it as preliminary tryouts for Battle of the Badges. Your brother Antonio was a boxer, right?"

"Is a boxer and also the enemy if you're talking about the Battle of the Badges".

She knew where Boden's mind was headed as soon as he said Squad versus Truck. It wasn't exactly subtle. And she wasn't exactly stupid but watching her guys maul each other in her bar was bad enough. Sanctioned violence, even if it was boxing which she happened to love, wasn't going to be any easier to stomach. She pretended not to pick up what Boden was putting down for a few more minutes. Focused on her concern about Boden using Antonio for help.

"You know he'd sabotage any tryouts we had right? He'd check-in on the competition. Make sure whoever our team got matched up with outstripped us by ten pounds of muscle plus."

She really was an excellent cutman. Dawson had no problem with blood. What she did have a problem with right now was the idea of her very angry and hurt men wailing on each other with tacit permission from their supervisor. Casey had damn near choked Kelly out. And that was after bashing his head into a pint glass. Kelly nearly broke Casey's nose. Vicious, vicious creatures! They both were!

"Gabi. I think you know what I'm discussing."

Chief cut through her bullshit with ease. Her nostrils flared, she was ready to stage a long and loud protest beginning with Kelly's tibia and ending in the words concussion syndrome. The man still had headaches for crying out loud. The look on her face must have signaled her concerns because Boden hastily added.

"Of course they'll wear protective gear."

"Chief… you really think fighting it out is going to get them back to being good?"

"I don't know. That's what you're here for. I'm asking your opinion."

Dawson thought about it for a long minute. She didn't want to see them fight each other again. Didn't want to pick sides but duh of course it was going to be Kelly she chose. Kelly who she would wrap in cotton wool within an inch of his life if he started showing signs of even a mild concussion. And she knew how well that would go over. She sighed internally. It was what Boden wanted. His alternative to a transfer. Watch his men beat the shit out of each other to get rid of their spleen. Talking had done jackshit. Casey taunted Kelly until he hit a nerve, then Kelly lashed out and there they all were watching a bar fight on a Thursday morning. She glanced up at Boden whose solemn face watched her intently.

"You can't be obvious Chief. It can't be Squad versus Truck. It has to be regular tryouts or they'll know what's up. You're already having tryouts happen way too early when Battle of the Badges isn't until next March so how are you going to swing this?"

"That's where Antonio comes in..."

Dawson listened to Chief with a mild air of resignation. Whether she liked it or not, Casey and Kelly were going to end up in a boxing ring together to spar. She might as well control as many variables as possible. Like timing, she was going to give Kelly as much lead time to train as possible. Tell him she wanted to start back sparring and it was either him or some jock at the local boxing gym. She knew that would get his blood up right quick. He'd either say yes or suggest some crap kickboxing gym setup like footwork wasn't the most important thing about boxing. You never want to get tangled in your own feet. You had to be quick. She was quick.

"You sure you want to involve Antonio, Chief? Make this look that legit? Because if you do, it's going to involve the brass on both sides and some kind of fundraiser event at the end of it all so no one suspects. Something like a Thanksgiving brawl. Or Halloween. A Fall teaser to the big event in Spring..."

Boden's face looked tired just hearing what she proposed which almost made Dawson smile. Almost. She was just being helpful. Pragmatic even. And he'd sincerely asked for her opinion. It was what it was if he didn't want Casey and Kelly to know he was meddling, which she knew he didn't.

"Just call Antonio Chief. I'm sure you two will work something out. I'll let him know to expect you."

That thought made Dawson want to grimace a little. She'd never exactly told Antonio what the bar fight was about or with whom. When she called him she was going to have to explain a lot of things she didn't want to...

ʘ

Meanwhile, Kelly was waiting for Bri to come out of Boden's office so he could check-in with her about the gunfight call. He'd been on a separate job to a suspected fire without ambulance backup. It was rare but it happened sometimes when they were spread thin, like the summer months. Some kid with a firecracker had set fire to a bush and run-off. He just hoped the kid wasn't a firebug. That was the last thing any of them needed. So he was talking to Connie, asking after her family, not looking in at Boden with Bri or worrying that she was in trouble. Nope. He just wanted to go over her with a fine-toothed comb for shell fragments and stray blood splatter because, well, he wasn't there. He needed to know what happened.

"She's fine you know."

"What?"

Connie gave Kelly the kindest smile he'd seen on her face since the hospital. The woman had brought him cake. Chocolate cake. Kelly sat down in the chair next to her desk instead of hovering. Connie patted his hand before she started to type again.

"Dawson. She's okay. Patient caught a stray bullet. 9mm. It wasn't a through and through so that made things difficult on her end but the cops showed up and she got the patient to Lakeshore in time."

That was more information than he'd had ten minutes ago. Shay was asleep so he couldn't ask her and the only reason he knew anything at all was Charles, one of the dispatchers sent him a text because they were kind of cool like that and he'd had his heart in his throat in the squad truck all the way back to the station house. Apparently his protective impulses toward Dawson now garnered him inside intel from dispatch and he was both grateful and exhausted with concern for her.

"Thank you Connie," Kelly gave the secretary a relieved smile as he slumped in the chair a little. "I needed to know that."

"I figured. You don't hover outside Chief's door when you are in trouble. Never mind when you're not."

Kelly gave Connie his Severide grin. The one that said who me? and was all charm and wide-eyed mischievous innocence. Connie chuckled and gave Kelly a long appraising look.

"She's good for you. That much I can tell. Ignore the idiots."

And with that bit of unsolicited advice, Connie turned back to her computer and let Kelly sit quietly waiting for Bri to be done in Boden's office. He thought about what Connie said. He had been ignoring everyone. Mostly. Bri wasn't wrong about Casey getting into his head sometimes. It was hard. He got compared to the other lieutenant a lot. Mostly it didn't bug him. He was great at his job, content to lead Squad 3 and take care of his men the best way he knew how. He didn't know how to be anyone else so he wouldn't even try. But Casey knew his history. There wasn't much you could hide at the fire academy. All the comments about his fire captain dad, the jabs that he must have gotten in easy. How he squared off with anyone who suggested he didn't have the balls to actually be a firefighter. Then he'd gone off and made Squad, youngest ever because fuck it. He could so he did and there was no way you could get that job by pulling strings. It shut most of the naysayers up.

Then he'd met Renee. And well, Casey was around for all of that. Mostly he'd been relying on Andy back then though. Andy who he'd never told the full story but who knew something was up anyway and took him out for several pints several off shift nights in a row and made him laugh until he fell off a stool crying and never ever thought less of him. Andy…

Bri came out of Boden's office just then and saw Kelly waiting. To both their credits, Kelly did not fall all over her immediately checking for scratches; Dawson did not collapse into his arms for a hug. Dawson smiled softly and Kelly stood up, thanking Connie briefly for letting him bug her. The secretary brushed him off with a slight smile that made Dawson kick up an eyebrow. Kelly could tell she was curious what that was about but not enough to linger. And he led her away from the Chief's office without another word.

He didn't take her to officer's quarters or to her cot beside Shay or to the break room. He sat her down on the trunk of his Mustang in the warm Chicago night and performed what had become his ritual every time he heard about a dangerous altercation on one of her calls. Dawson didn't protest at all and Kelly was glad. She just closed her eyes while his fingers ranged through her hair to her skull, looking for cuts, bruises, any debris she may have forgotten. Then his hands were over her face and neck, twisting left and right for any muscle strains or marks. Down over her shoulders and arms. Dawson endured it all patiently, quietly. He'd done this after the building collapse despite seeing for himself the fact that she was walking on her own power, had driven herself home and all.

Kelly didn't care. It didn't matter that she looked okay on the outside. This was how he checked in. Without words. He was never going to start by asking if she was alright. The answer would always be yes. Especially when the patient grabbed a bullet and she didn't. The question was pointless. She was alive. And Kelly had learned that asking that question, especially on shift at the firehouse wouldn't get him anything besides the rote response. Kelly's hands brushed over her knees as he knelt on the ground before her. He checked her ankles before standing back up and kissing her forehead and asking what happened while Dawson finally fell into his arms.

"She was less than a foot in front of me. I was just reaching to check her glucose. Shay was bent over pulling something from the bag. If either of us had been standing up..."

Kelly didn't say anything. He didn't shush her or say it was okay. He simply held her for a long minute and kissed her hair and reassured them both that she was alive and not okay which was okay. She was allowed to feel a little fried after watching a patient grab a bullet. He was allowed to want to hold and soothe her. She'd told him not more than two days prior that he was her favourite place to be so he let her fall into it. Into him as she breathed deeply into his dark blue uniform shirt. Some days he wanted to wrap her in his arms and never let go, like today. A bullet wasn't a fire. Wasn't something you could be strategic and wait for like a building collapse when you need the electricity to be shut off before you attempt entering. He'd only been anxious for an hour but her call had happened at least three hours ago. Charles snuck him a text when he could and he was grateful for even that heads up. She was further along in processing it than he was and Kelly kissed her hair again. Drew her forward on the trunk so he stood between her knees, surrounded by her warmth, comforted as much as he was comforting. He needed to take care of her and this was one of those little ways he did, by giving her a moment to feel what had happened. By giving her the respite to feel shaken even if he was rattled by hearing it in her voice.

"I've got you Bri," he murmured and listened for a mumbled affirmative. She wasn't crying. She was tired. Numb. Hungry. She wanted mac and cheese. Wanted pizza and he smiled at all the comfort foods she listed one after another as she snuggled into his chest, breath puffing out on his shirt. Kelly figured if he didn't love her yet, he was close and a bullet could have taken her. Just another day in a Chicago summer. He didn't really want to know the body count. It was August and it wouldn't be good.

Thank you for reading!