Chapter 13 – Flashback to When We Said Forever and Always…

It rains when you're here and it rains when you're gone
'Cause I was there when you said forever and always

(Taylor Swift – Forever and Always)

It was her sophomore year of college and Naomi was missing Chicago. The semester had been tough and while she had been able to sneak back for Thanksgiving and Christmas, she was really missing her family. She missed being able to pop into Firehouse 51 and she even missed Andy's terrible cooking. To take her mind off of looming deadlines and mid-terms, Naomi and her roommate Sadie were getting ready for the infamous Lambda Fraternity Valentine's Day party. Sadie had caught the attention of a number of frat boys and insisted that it was only because they wanted to know Naomi. The Lambda boys were typical trust fund brats and Naomi had been unfortunate enough to date a few, much to the disappointment of her friends who were sorority sister wannabes. If she was being honest, Naomi didn't really want to go out but the thought of spending Valentine's Day alone with her pathology textbook was too depressing to consider. So instead of learning about rare skin diseases, she was selecting skimpy outfits and dealing with her mop of hair that did not agree with the New Haven climate. She didn't hear the door over her hairdryer until Sadie's screech pierced the air.

"Naomi! There's someone here for you!"

"Who is it?" she yelled back, sweeping her wet hair up into a clip and pulling a sweatshirt over her shoulders.

Her roommate appeared in her doorway, "I dunno – old guy, kinda hot. Please tell me he's your brother." Although Sadie wouldn't admit it, she was always jealous of being the slightly less attractive friend and how Naomi commanded attention the minute she walked in the room. Even now, in a sweatshirt, pyjama shorts and with wet hair, the guy at the door would be breathless when she walked in the room.

Naomi swung on the doorframe and found Kelly standing uncomfortably in their living room and broke into a smile, "He's not my brother…"

Sadie grimaced and muttered something under her breath which Naomi could only assume was, "Of course he isn't,"

"You hear that, Severide. You're old." Naomi taunted and Kelly laughed sarcastically, his smile getting bigger as Naomi walked towards him, "What are you doing here, Kelly? Got some furlough you didn't tell me about?"

"Nah, I just missed you…" Kelly shrugged, "I wanted to surprise you."

"Consider me surprised… I just don't understand why?"

"What do you want me to say, Pixie?"

"I want you to tell me why you're being so irresponsible?" Naomi could've laughed; this had to be a new record for them, less than a minute before they were arguing.

"Irresponsible? I thought you'd be happy to see me." Kelly also smiled, knowing that their argument was in jest although there was a smattering of true concern behind Naomi's jibes.

"Kelly, are you telling me that you worked a 24-hour shift, got in your car and drove 13 hours to New Haven only to drive back and work another 24-hour shift?"

"You missed the part about spending time with you, but that pretty much sums up the situation." Naomi stood a few feet away from him, arms folded and face set in her signature Darden Glare. He waited for her face to crack, for a smile to sneak through so that he could gather her in his arms and squeeze the life out of her.

"You look like hell; are you sleeping?"

"Are you sleeping?" Kelly shot back, knowing that he did, in fact, look like hell.

"You know I can't sleep when you're on shift…Even when I'm 900 miles and a time zone away," College had been extremely difficult for Naomi's sleep schedule. From the age of sixteen, she'd been crawling in next to Kelly most nights he was off-shift and lying awake panicked when the boys were at the Firehouse. Before the accident, sleep had been uneasy but the insomnia had been debilitating before Naomi realised that sleeping next to one of the boys made it possible for her to get some rest, although Kelly was the only one who didn't ask questions.

"And apparently, I can't sleep when you're not next to me." Naomi stopped dead, taken aback by Kelly's honesty. He wasn't known for being the most forthcoming guy and even though he was more open with Naomi than anyone else, he still kept her at arm's length.

"…What?"

"I haven't slept a day since you left for college."

For a moment, they stood in silence a few feet apart an unspoken electricity sending tingles across their skin. Throwing her arms around his neck, she felt him lift her slightly off the ground and she buried her head in his shoulder not wanting to let go. "I missed you too Kelly." When she kicked her dangling feet and he finally put her down, she could feel his eyes wandering over her, taking in what had changed since Christmas. "Do you wanna go take a nap?"

He broke into a smile, eyes still inspecting her "No, I want to spend time with you and you look like you're getting ready to go out." Naomi looked down at her sweatshirt and pyjama shorts combo, semi dried hair and half done make up and laughed; she must've looked a state.

"There may or may not be a frat party that Sadie and I were going to go to…"

"Frat party? Sounds like fun…"

"Well that's only because you're an overgrown frat boy yourself."

"How long have you been holding on to that one?" Kelly chuckled and followed her into her room and eyed the pile of revealing clothing that was spread out across her bed, "Well you've certainly matured…"

He held up a black dress with cut outs at the hips and a plunging neckline, "Oh come on Kelly, it's college! Besides, that was a Halloween costume." She reached into the wardrobe and pulled out a combo that she knew would tease him, "I was thinking something more along the lines of this…it's Valentine's Day after all."

She held out two coat hangers, one adorned with a red lace bodysuit and the other holding a tight black leather skirt.

"Please tell me you're kidding…" Kelly stammered, although he never told Naomi how he imagined her in that ensemble frequently. Some of his inner thoughts about his best friend's baby sister had taken a distinct turn in the recent years and he often had to stop himself from inevitably breaking her heart – like he did with every woman in his life.

"Oh my god, who do you think I am Kelly?" She returned the outfit to the wardrobe and took her hair out of the clip that held it on top of her head, "Calm down and go get yourself a beer."

"Oh you buy your own beer now? I don't remember you turning 21…" Kelly joked, as Naomi sat back down at her vanity table.

"It's amazing what a low cut top and a fake ID can do when I don't have you to buy wine coolers for me," she called after him before turning back to getting ready. She laughed at the disapproving grumbles that came from the kitchen.

Xxx

"Jheeze, Naomi what's with the Sandy pre-leather getup? It's Valentine's Day, show some skin!" The group of girls chuckled at the Grease reference and then turned to inspect Naomi's outfit choice for the party had been the topic of discussion in their flat for the last hour, Kelly disapproving of anything revealing and Sadie insisting that she be more daring. She eventually gave up and resorted to her trusty pink tea dress and some ankle boots, knowing that her friends would give their two-cents as well.

"I'd prefer they were interested in me for my brain instead of my ass!"

"It's a frat party; they're only interested in your ass!" Naomi rolled her eyes and pulled Kelly forward into her circle of friends.

"Girls, this is my brother's friend Kelly!" She pointed at each girl, watching as Kelly charmed each one of her friends with his signature smoulder, "Kelly, this is Serena, Elle, Margot, Lacey and you've already met Sadie,"

"Ladies,"

"So Kelly, what do you do?" Lacey inspected Kelly's bulging biceps and Naomi had to laugh as her friends turned the flirting up.

"I'm going to go get a beer…" She muttered to him, extracting herself from the group of giggling girls.

She interlinked her arm with Sadie's, "Alcohol. Now"

They weaved their way through the hordes of frat boys and managed to extract a few beers from the overcrowded kitchen, before being cornered by the fraternity's president, Logan.

"Naomi, so glad you could make it." Naomi felt her friend puff out her chest and tried to hide the reflex of her eyes rolling.

Eventually, Naomi managed to direct the attentions of Logan towards Sadie and she made her way back to where she'd left Kelly. She was intercepted by Lacey, who seemed flustered and grabbed Naomi's hand excitedly.

"What is the deal with your brother's cute firefighter friend? Are you two…"

"No, go right ahead, Lacey… we're just friends. Be careful though, Kelly is a bit of a slut."

Her friend's eyes lit up at the news that Naomi wasn't involved with 'her brother's cute firefighter friend' and disregarded the warning that followed, before darting to the kitchen to get her own drink.

"Finally," Kelly laughed as Naomi placed the beer in his hand, "I thought you'd gotten lost… or kidnapped by frat boys."

"You've made quite the impression on our Lacey… Don't break her heart!" Naomi gave Kelly the same speech every time he met one of her friends and turned on the charm.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Pixie… Now which one of these pretty boys do I need to intimidate?"

xxx

When Naomi woke up sometime the next afternoon, she found herself intertwined with Kelly. Her legs threaded themselves through his, his chest pressed closely against her back and his arm resting on her hip, slowly and absent-mindedly caressing the skin above the fabric of her shorts. She could feel his breath against the back of her neck and for a moment she sank into him, forgetting who was lying beside her. They'd left the party in the early hours of the morning and taken a very slow walk across campus, watching the sun rise and stopping for breakfast at Naomi's favourite diner in New Haven. They eventually made it back to Naomi's apartment just before noon and had crawled into bed so that Kelly could get a few hours of sleep before having to drive back to Chicago.

Naomi squinted at the sliver of light that broke through her curtains and as Kelly wrapped his arm around her waist, she thought about how unconventional their situation was. Andy would probably kill one or both of them if he ever found out. There were nights that Naomi fell asleep on Kelly's chest, him stroking her hair until she drifted off; there were also nights where they'd barely touch, but just being that warmth in the bed beside one another would be enough to comfort them both. There were the nights that they remembered, a deep meaningful conversation or the nights that they'd rather forget – like the night that they'd argued about Naomi going to college in New Haven. There were the nights that they agreed never to talk about… and there were occasions like this one where they'd shared an intimate embrace and couldn't remember how they ended up so intertwined.

Feeling him stir behind her, she ran her hand over his arm and he hugged her tightly.

"How long until you need to leave?" she murmured, not wanting to break their little bubble.

"A few minutes,"

Naomi groaned, rolling over and nuzzling into his chest, "I hate this…"

"What?" Kelly found a strand of Naomi's hair and twirled it around his finger, surprised at how long she'd let it get.

She kept her eyes shut, pretending that she wasn't miles away from home, "I miss Chicago."

"It's definitely a little less bright without your sunshiny face around all the time…" He smiled down at her, her face so serious, little lines forming around her eyes as she kept them squeezed closed – savouring their last few moments together.

It was moments like these that Kelly clung to. Stolen embraces in their own world; a world where anything was possible. Moment like these kept him safe and ensured that one day, he would be going home, not to an empty apartment, but to Naomi and the life they could have together. A life in their own little world that would probably never come to pass in reality, but Kelly could only hope that one day he might be good enough for the angel he currently held in his arms. He held on as long as possible.

xxx

"I got you something…" Kelly routed around in his bag while Naomi sat up in the bed, pulling the covers up to her chin. She smiled as she knew what came next, catching the Squad T-shirt that he threw at her.

She brought it to her nose and gagged, "What you couldn't even wash it for me?"

"I thought you liked it when they smelt of us…"

Naomi sniffed it again in disgust, "This one smells like your high school gym locker,"

"I could always take it back…" Kelly threatened and Naomi clutched it protectively.

"Never…" Clambering out of bed, Naomi grabbed a pair of jeans that had been discarded over the back of a chair and slithered out of her pyjama shorts. She tucked the Squad shirt in around her waist, ignoring Kelly's tuts behind her at her new confidence and comfort around him.

"Shut up, Kelly… how many times have I seen you naked?"

He grumbled something under his breath that sounded like, "This is different..." before turning his back and putting his own clothes on.

Naomi hadn't considered where her friend's had ended up the night before so when she and Kelly emerged from her bedroom, she wished that she'd checked that the coast was clear first.

Her friends were all sat in her living room, nursing hangovers and their dull half-hearted conversations came to a halt as Kelly followed Naomi out of her room, slightly sheepishly which didn't help the situation.

"I'm going to walk you to your car…" Naomi said slowly, as he made gestures of saying goodbye. She wanted to delay the inquisition as long as possible.

"Ladies, it was lovely meeting you all…"

There were mumbles of shocked agreement and Naomi ushered Kelly out of her apartment, hearing the girls burst to life in excitement as she closed the door.

Naomi followed sadly behind Kelly as they walked to his car, her arms folded, wishing for more time.

"Stop pouting, Pixie. You'll be home for the summer soon."

She let out a deep sigh, glaring at his Camaro with a deep mistrust.

"Okay, come on. Give me a hug." She kept her arms folded for a moment as he smothered her, before giving up and wrapping her arms around his middle. He pulled away reluctantly, cupping his face in his hands and planting a kiss on the top of her head.

"I love you, Kel." She whispered, as his lips lingered.

He smiled, rubbing his thumb along her cheek, "I love you too, Naomi."

Tears were threatening the corner of Naomi's eyes so Kelly quickly got into his car and threw his bag in the back seat, winding down his window.

Naomi leant in and kissed his cheek, "Keep that badge off the wall."

"Always, Pixie."

She watched his car drive away and waited until she hadn't heard the distinct splutter for a few minutes before returning to her apartment. She was far too tired to deal with the excited shrieks of her gossiping friends and the endless assumptions they'd probably made in the five minutes that she'd been gone.

"Oh my…"

"… GOD!"

"Spill"

"Tell us everything…"

"You said you were just friends!"

Naomi groaned, "I need coffee…"

A.N. Hello my darlings, apologies for the delay in getting this little flashback chapter up. It's been a hectic couple of weeks. I started a new job on Monday and have been absolutely exhausted. I really wanted to get this chapter and the next one up last weekend but I just wasn't happy with how they turned out so I've been editing like a mad woman. I've got a few more edits to do on chapter 14 but fingers crossed I'll get it up tomorrow.

I'm hoping to do a few more flashbacks, possibly a little montage of the memorable nights in the story of Kelly and Naomi. As for now, I need to get a wriggle on with my writing and bring you as much of the Heart of This House as I can as quickly as possible!

I'm really loving all the guesses and suggestions for what you'd like to see next. The next chapter of Naomi's story is really exciting to say the least – although we still have to go through all the wrong 'uns to get Kelly to the right girl.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you for all the lovely reviews, follows and favourites. I know that I'm a bit scatter-brained with updating this story so it means the world to me to have all this support 3

All my love,

~C.I

xxx