The Heart of This House

Follow the story of Andy Darden's younger sister and her relationship with Firehouse 51 and a certain Lieutenant. Naomi Darden is a surgical intern at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center (Chicago Med) but her heart is at Chicago's infamous Firehouse 51 where her family risks their lives every day. This is set across the entire Chicago franchise (so may turn into a PD/Med crossover)

Chapter 1 – A Beautiful Day

Between her surgical residency, studying for the boards and her extra voluntary shifts at the clinic in the South Side, Naomi had very little time to relax, let alone visit her favourite boys. So when her study group postponed their session, there was no doubt in her mind about how she was spending her morning. She whipped up a batch of her famous salted caramel brownies and drove herself down to the firehouse.

"Hot Stuff in the house!" Naomi smiled as Hermann's voice echoed around the firehouse, announcing her arrival.

"Morning Christopher! You know one day Andy is going to kick your ass with all these nicknames."

"We can't help that Andy's baby sister is a bombshell." Casey appeared from behind the truck and pulled her into a hug, kissing the top of her head.

She inhaled the familiar smoky scent that followed her brother's co-workers, her heart doing the usual skip as she watched the team wipe sweat off their brows and reached up to rub a patch of soot from Matt's cheek.
"You guys just get back in?" Her surrogate brother nodded, and then pulled her hand back from his cheek, raising his eyebrow and inspecting her new bling. She tapped the side of her nose, wanting to make a big announcement. Although, with her brother and his mouth, the entire Firehouse probably knew, including the first watch idiots.

"Hey look! It's my Nimbob!"

"Andrew, I thought we agreed that you weren't going to call me that anymore."

"No, you agreed that I wasn't going to call you that anymore."

"You are such a child." The team watched the two glared at one another, each one staring the other down. Almost thirty years of practice meant that these two knew exactly how to push the right buttons. Naomi had her jaw set, watching her brother's face for any sign of weakness. They both cracked at the same moment, Naomi breaking into her signature dazzling smile and crashing into her brother for a hug. He reached up and she grabbed his hand, "Touch my hair and I end you."

Naomi held up a container, "I brought provisions."

The team swarmed around her; her brownies were legendary.

Joe asked through a mouthful of chocolate, "So Naomi, are you bringing the boyfriend to the gala this weekend?"

She tried to keep her smile from turning into a grin but failed, "Actually, that's why I'm here… I've got some news." She held up her hand, twitching her finger and flashing the obnoxiously large rose gold ring that Harrison had presented to her a month before.

A stunned silence washed over the group who were glancing between her hand, her face and searching for a reaction from her brother behind her. Naomi knew that they didn't like Harrison; they really weren't very good at hiding their true feelings. They'd always tolerated him though, because they knew how Naomi felt about him. She knew that the reception to this news would be a little frosty, she wasn't expecting a full ten seconds of silence.

"Oh my god, congratulations Naomi sweetheart!" "Let me see that diamond!" "Congratulations Naomi." Naomi presented her hand to Hermann, who drew his breath at the very expensive piece of metal adorning her finger. She had been putting off showing everyone the ring, especially since most of the people that she actually cared about were on public servant salaries and the ring probably cost more than their rent for a year. She looked back at her brother, who she expected had shot the signature Darden Death glare at his team to kick off the buzzing around her news. She was passed around the group, receiving hugs and kisses from Truck 81 and from Chief Boden and Connie who had come out onto the apparatus floor as word spread through the Firehouse that Naomi was here. Just as the initial buzz of 'excitement' had died down, Squad 3 rolled up.

"There's my favourite girl!" Severide was out of the truck before Tony had completely brought it to a stop and Naomi stifled a giggle as her friend stumbled slightly across the floor towards her.

"Hey Kelly!" He engulfed her in a hug in three strides and she struggled slightly against his very strong grip. She laughed out loud and looked up at the guy who released his hold slightly, "You stink. Will you let me go please?"

He did so reluctantly but kept an arm over her shoulder as they joined the Truck group and as Squad noticed Naomi's batch of brownies. Naomi had been regretting this conversation with Kelly the most. He'd been stupidly protective of her growing up, even more so than her brother and Matt, mostly because he was the biggest of the trio and had a reputation for beating up the boys who even so much looked sideways at Naomi. This had continued into adulthood and Kelly had been sure to wear a very tight t-shirt when he met Harrison, just to emphasise that he could crush him in less than a heartbeat. Naomi had pretended not to notice Andy and Matt holding him back when Harrison had made a show of kissing her. Hermann smiled at the pair, "So, Kelly…. have you heard Naomi's big news?"

Naomi sucked air in through her teeth, "Um…. it's about Harrison"

"Did you guys finally end things? Thank god, that guy was a serious tool… I'm pretty sure that he was only with you because…"

Kelly became aware of Andy making violent neck cutting motions behind his sister's back and he watched her expression become thunderous.

"You know what, forget it… I will see you all this weekend." She turned on her heel, and as she did the newly placed ring glinted on her finger.

"Ah, shit."

Casey hit Kelly on the back, "Nice job, Severide."

"Go fix things with my sister, you jackass." Andy shook his head; it was almost comical how Kelly Severide never failed to piss off Naomi.

xxx

"Is she really going to marry him though?" Gabby had already seen the ring, when they'd had their last girls' night.

Shay frowned from the back of her ambo, "I sincerely hope not. She deserves better."

"What? Like Severide?" They too were watching the interaction between the Squad Lieutenant and the pretty blonde, while restocking their rig.

Leslie laughed and threw a pack at her partner, "Yeah I am not getting in on that bet."

xxx

Naomi was fuming. She knew that the conversation with Kelly was going to be unpleasant, but she had not expected it to go that badly. Kelly had always been an ass, but for him this was a new low. She could hear him running behind her to catch up.

"Wait. Naomi! Please wait." She ignored him. "Pixie, please."

The old nickname made her stop in her tracks and she rounded on him, "Why do you still call me that?"

"You'll always be my Pixie, Naomi." He grabbed her hand and ran his finger over the ring, "Congratulations."

"You don't need to pretend to be happy for me; you've made it perfectly clear that you don't like Harrison."

"It's not that I don't like him Naomi; I just think you could do better… I mean, the guy is an ass! Do you really see yourself smiling and waving and being a trophy wife, soccer mom…?"

"Trophy wife? Jeez, Kelly….He's your age!" She interrupted, and Kelly grimaced as he realised how much of a hole he was digging himself.

"You know what I mean Pixie, he's only with you because you'll look great on his arm when he runs for senator."

"Gee thanks. Okay, you know what, I take that all back… Pretend to be happy for me… I don't want to hear what you have to say anymore." She turned to walk away, feeling her temper boiling over.

"Naomi, please…"

"No, Kelly! Enough!" She turned back to him, and jabbed him in the chest with her finger, "You think that you can just waltz around with your stupid squad jacket and walk all over everyone. Now I get that you don't like Harrison… hell I get that you all don't like Harrison… but I love him, okay? So you're just going to have to deal with that… and now I need to go to work."

Severide watched as Naomi stormed over to her car and, as she swung the door open, looking back at him, he was sure he saw tears streak down her cheeks. Cursing himself, he wandered back into the firehouse where Casey and Darden leant against the side of Truck 81 watching the exchange between him and Naomi.

"Great job there, Severide."

"Shut up, Casey."

The Truck lieutenant responded by holding out the box of brownies.

"Truck 81, Squad 3, Engine 51, Ambulance 61. Multiple Vehicle Accident…"

"Let's go! I'll deal with you later!" Darden poked at his friend, who laughed and headed towards the Squad rig.

xxxx

Naomi was still muttering under her breath when she pulled into the staff parking lot at Chicago Med. She was early for her shift, but it meant that she could grab a cup of coffee before she started her rounds. It also meant that she could get in a look at the patient notes and nab all the good cases. Even though she was a fourth year resident and had picked her specialty (Trauma - she loved working in the ER; she handled herself well under pressure), the environment at Chicago Med was still cut throat and she had to do rotations in all the departments. Today she was in cardiology, which wasn't all bad because Dr Downey was an amazing surgeon, albeit, a pain in the ass.

"Morning Maggie!" Naomi had grabbed some coffees from the cart outside the entrance to the hospital and was taking her usual route through the ER so that she could drop the caffeine off for Maggie, April and Nat.
The charge nurse smiled as the blonde handed over the paper cup, "There is my ray of sunshine! How are you this morning?"

Naomi shot her a withering look and left the remaining coffees on the nurse's station, "I stopped at the Firehouse this morning to tell the boys about this stupid sparkly thing and it did not go too well."

"I'm sorry Naomi. Get yourself up to cardiology; I heard that Downey has a surgery scheduled for this afternoon that he wants you to assist on."

"Ohhh, exciting." The blonde nodded, almost running into April as she was updating her patient files, "Hey babe! I got you coffee!"

"You're an angel! Drinks later?"

Naomi smiled, "I'm sure it's time for another girl's night."

"That's true, we haven't had one since you put a ring on it…" April danced her hand about, laughing.

"Alright Beyoncé, I'll see you later." Naomi was almost at the door, preparing herself for a day with Downey.

"Hold on, Naomi!" Maggie called after her, putting down the phone, "I need you today! Alright everybody, listen up! We've got a massive trauma coming in; multiple casualties from a car pile-up! I need you to clear as many beds as possible, move them up to the other wards!"

Naomi was used to days like this in the ER; the number of traumas that she'd walked in on at the start of her shift meant that she was in her scrubs and ready to work, including tipping the scalding cup of caffeine down her throat, in less than a minute. Then the casualties started rolling in. It was going to be a long shift. It's what she needed to get the Firehouse fiasco out of her head. "It's a beautiful day to save lives…" Naomi muttered sarcastically, pulling her wind swept hair out of her face and meeting Gabby and Leslie at the door with a casualty.

A.N. Thank you so much for the amazing response to this story, I'm a little overwhelmed with how lovely everyone is being in the reviews. It's been a while since I've written anything that wasn't for my degree and this story has been kicking around for a while.

In all honesty, I'm not super happy with this chapter, but I just want to get into the exciting bits of this story so I'm posting it anyway.

Please review (I'd love some honest feedback, and any suggestions you may have especially about how this story can cross over into PD).

All my love,

~ C.I

xxx