Chapter 3: SAFE
Previous chapter: While on an stuck elevator Mission, Severide and Gabby got themselves into messy, dangerous situations.
Severide brushed a hand across his face in worry. Chief Boden had refused to update him on anything. Casey, Otis, Capp, no one answered his constent question. They just said "stay safe"
But what had happened? He remembered every step of the stabilizing, how could it have happened?
When he pulled his hand away from his face, he saw it. The blood, Jay's blood.
The poor man had no chance of making it out alive. His body had been pulled apart by the sudden friction of the cable. The catastrophic speed of the accident had splashed his blood all over his surroundings, thus Severide's blood shower.
"Clark, what happened? Check the stabilizing ropes, the knots. Now! It's an order" No matter how many times Severide replayed the process of getting the elevator stable. He couldn't see the flaw. The one thing that had sent everything to hell.
"You got it Lieutenant" He heard through the radio.
Gabby's heart rate quickly went from normal to tachycardia. The powerful blow of the fall violently propelled her to the corner of the confined space. The air seemed to diminish. During a small moment of lucidity, when her mind managed to escape the panick, she had talked to Casey. The terrifying thought she knew she would eventually face on the job had just hit her. And it hit her hard.
"I'm going to die" she had said over the radio, not even sure why she felt the need to announce it on the radio.
Now it all seemed trivial. The mind games, the flirty looks. The sneaky reference. What a waste of time!
I should have said it. I should have just fucking said it. Why the hell didn't I say it?
She wouldn't see his eyes again. Not ever again. She would never know what it would be like to wake up next to him. To pour his coffee in the morning and make him her Gramma's blueberry pancakes, with nutmeg. What a waste. What a stupid, unfortunate waste.
He would have loved those pancakes, he would have asked for seconds. He would have walked to the store to buy more blueberries for these pancakes. It could have been great. It would have been great.
"Do something!" Casey yelled at Herrman.
Herrman's eyes widened. He'd never seen his Lieutenant like that. But again, he'd never had a coworker be trapped in a falling elevator. He nodded at the staircase and started sprinting towards it.
"The butler said it's an old building" He went through the steps two by two.
"Let's see if there's a control stick somewhere that would stop it before it hit..." he stopped, diverting his attention elsewhere "Do you think they got Jay out in time?" he asked, doing his best to not think of the worst case scenario.
"I hope so" Herrman said, avoiding eye contact.
The butler was the first person either person focused on.
"Hey. How old exactly are those elevators?" Herrman started.
"Is there a manual stick to stop the cables ourselves? People are still inside!" Casey pressed, taking no time to put it gently. "Dawson's still inside"
Boden's eyes fell to the floor.
The butler remained silent.
"Hey, you heard the Lieutenant" Herrman insisted, aggressive this time.
The butler's eyes reflected his true emotion. One a scared little buy, put on the spot would wear. They had no time for that.
Casey took a volontarily threatening step toward the boy butler. He had to talk, no matter what it took.
Gabby's head was about to explode. The terrified screams of the man beside her -while justified- hurt her ear like a bitch. The intense friction of air against the elevator already made her eardrums pops, the way flights did -Which was never a pleasant sensation-
To ease the omnipresent fear, she had asked for their names. Mr Hanging legs was now Larry and Mister Suit and Tie was now Eric. Small talk seemed out of context but Gabby saw it that way: they'd spent that less time worrying about the upcoming tragedy.
The little girl screams Eric was letting out almost erased her memory of him, earlier, bravely calming his lady friend.
But his squirrel squeals weren't the only ridiculous thing about that situation.
Pff, for goodness' sake, Gabby had been a hell of a medic'. She was now aspiring firefighter! She'd been in an ambo, saved the lives of who knew how many people. She'd fought fires, dragged burned victims out of the flames, she had survived so many risky calls. Dying on an elevator call, what a joke, what a freaking pity.
'This should be quick', yeah that's what Casey had said. He jinxed it, that's what he did. He couldn't have been more wrong.
She was a candidate, who died a candidate? Gabby couldn't think of a saddest way to die for a firefighter. After the academy, her failure at the first round. The criticism she had to face only for being a woman. After all of her hard work, it was like God, fate, the universe -whatever the heck you called it -was telling her "Good job! You're almost there. Now die"
And it simply wasn't enough. She couldn't sit back and do nothing. Gabby couldn't stand there and wait for trainwreck to happen. There had to be something...
She laid her hands flat on each wall surrounding her, and bent her knees to cushion the imminent hit from when the elevator would reach the botton floor.
Gabby looked around her to check on the remaining passengers. She was still responsible for their well being, as long as she was alive. She took a look at the hanging legs, they were quivering like leaves about to fall from a tree. In her dreams, they all walked out alive and well but as horrible as the mental images she had before her eyes were. She couldn't help but look down, biting her lower lip.
Larry had complained about rib pain, well once the elevator had reached its final destination, it would be the last of his problems.
Dawson checked on Eric, he had recreated each of her moves. From the hands on each wall to the slight bend in the knees. As though he'd been watching a falling elevator survival tutorial.
Brett, Mills and Capp joined forces to carrying the injured man down. Brett still had hope. Quick response was everything. They had been quick.
"Dawson was in there" Mills heard Casey say through the radio. "Now Serevide, stay there. You'll only get yourself killed. We're heading to the top floor to find the manual controls" Mill's head immediately raised up toward the roof and then down as to calculate the free fall of the elevator.
At the same moment, Herrman and Casey appeared in the corner heading upwards.
"Do you need me here?" He asked Brett, a rush of adrenaline showing through his face. Brett shook her head.
"Go" she allowed with sympathy.
Mills quickly made sure Capp had it covered and dodged the steps by 3 right behind his old Truck buddies.
"How many floors are there?" He asked, calculating how fast they would get there.
"31" He said, "We're at 28 so we better move it" Casey ordonned and they doubled their speed still dodging the steps by 3.
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In the control room, Casey and his men started searching the place. Too worried to look for detail, he stopped in front of a pair of sticks, one was red, the other was blue.
"Which one is it?" Casey yelled to his radio.
"What do you mean?" The butler answered in a little voice. Chief Boden had lent him the radio.
"There's a red one and a blue one. Which one should I pull?" He examined both." Wait one screws, the other's a push or pull"
After a small hesitation "The screw one"
Casey didn't hesitate, he tried to screw the small red wheel but his efforts seemed vain. The wheel circled around but he felt no push, no pull, non sign of it doing anything at all.
"How's that?" He asked, still hopeful.
"Nothing, try something else" The butler said.
"You try something else, it's you're job!" Casey barked, out of his mind.
Mills came closer, and read the labels of each handle.
"Maybe the top shieve's bad. It doesn't even seem to be connected to that red thing. Should we try the blue one?"
"I don't know"
"What do you mean you don't know? Can you help or not?" Mills asked, getting aggressive too.
"I'm doing the best I can" The butler's voice sold his distress.
"Then find someone better!" Casey yelled, his voice resonnated in the small cabin.
Herrman stood there, observing Matt's reaction. Again, he'd never seen a Lieutenant care like that for a candidate. But again, no other candidate had been in that position before that so, it could be just a Lieutenant to Candidate involvment.
Casey squatted down and put his head in his hands, grabbing his hair at the root but not pulling. Squad's help was out of the question, they had done enough. Or they hadn't, anyway, that's what got them there.
The elevator car must be awfully close to the bottom. That thought made him cringe.
"I know!" A lightening Otis said, "Let's activate the cabin's safeties."
Casey saw the light at the end of the tunnel. That didn't sound that dumb.
"Ok, how?" He said, listening again.
Gabby heard her radio again "Dawson do you copy?" chief Boden said.
"I'm here" she managed, she had to shout to be heard.
"Here's Otis. You gotta get the hanging man to push a green button. He's gotta see it somewhere"
She looked up and pinched the leg, it twiched. He was still with her. Good news.
"Ok"she confirmed to Otis "Hey Larry?" He didn't answer.
He probably couldn't hear. She pinched again and used the sides she had been leaning on to jump closer to him.
"You'll have to repeat that to him as soon as I give him the radio," She told Otis, making sure she spoke loud enough.
When he replied his ok, she jumped again and threw the radio through the small space of the elevator opening his body wasn't obstructing. She took her initial position back and hoped the radio wouldn't break.
She saw the legs move. Good sign. He pointed his foot and beat his leg in the air as to look for something stable to rest his foot. He seemed to be reaching for something. She stepped out of her position, again and pushed the legs up. She was sad to note that she wasn't really much help. Feeling her struggle, the man beside her stepped in and pushed Larry's legs up. The extra help made all the difference.
The heavy grating of the car's safeties kicking in were a painful, yet welcomed sign of their efficience.
Both Gabby and Eric covered their ears and BAM!
It all went black.
The different teams busied themselves to two different spots: With Severide, who was still between the elevator tracks. And with Gabby and the rest of the victims. Shay had called in a second ambulance. Not by pessimism but as precaution. As PIC, calls like that were up to her.
She stood still at that same spot, watching everyone work and waiting for her cue to examine Severide. Gabby would be fine, it was just an unexplanable intuition she had. She would be fine because she had to and Gabby knew it. A world without Gabriela Dawson would not be a world she'd want a part of. So Gabriela would make it. She would live, for no other reason than she had no other choice. Shay would hunt her down in the here after and kill her a second time for leaving so soon.
The fresh PIC felt her fear surface and start to send shivers down her spine but she didn't let it sink in. It wouldn't stick. It would all be fine, again, it had to be.
The second ambulance was there, she heard it on the radio. Good, now she could solely focus on Severide. Cause, you know: Gabby had to be all right.
Casey was back with the butler. The employee looked like a little boy scared of a mad parent. The Lieutenant saw that frightened, boyish butler and tried his best to shake the anger away, from his face, at least, he needed his full knowledge of the Hotel.
"Could you find out where it stopped?" He started with a slight smile. Slight but the best he could do, for now.
"I'm mean it would be nice to waste time searching each floor. You get that, right?" Herrman stepped in with a cheerful tone.
The butler looked at Herrman who played the 'Good firefighter' as opposed to Casey who played the 'Bad firefighter'.And it seemed to work.
"I think I might," He took what looked like a phone out of his butler case and drummed on it.
"Here. 2 floor" He said, with a smile, happy to finally help.
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Casey was there first. Otis, second. He drilled a hole and pushed the doors apart. Casey moved closer and let his eyes sweep the place.
The hanging legs were the first thing that caught his eye but he looked off, scanning the place for one special person.
Casey's heart skipped a beat when he saw Gabby's body laying on the floor. Her eyes were closed and she didn't look conscious. He stepped in, almost in a sprint and started placing his hands beneath her fragile body to lift her up.
"Lieutenant, stop Now!"
He did, looking up at his interlocutor. He didn't recognize him, It was definetly not Mills. Red curls, pinkish skintone.
He must be from the second ambulance Shay called.
"You never know where she is injured. We need to transport the patient properly ,"
He knew that. he'd always known that! He looked down at Gabby, then, aggrieved, stepped out of the elevator. It was best if he let the medics do their job.
The day after that. Casey grabbed a cup of coffee, black with one sugar, the way she liked. A donut and drove to the hospital.
He entered the room, Shay gave him her back. Just as he thought he'd interrupted something, Shay kissed Gabby's cheek and said goodbye.
He smiled at Leslie as both Hello and Goodbye and gave his full attention to Gabby.
"Did Eric make it?" she asked, convinced that Larry had given his life for them. Casey shook his head, a controlled sad look on his face.
"But Larry did. He was in surgery all night be he's stable now" He said, her eyes grew in size. Sometimes the unexpected happened.
"One sugar," Changing the subject. He lifted the cup before putting it on the hospital tray in front of her.
"And a donut?" she asked.
"Not just a donut" he qualified, she looked a question at him. "The donut you sneakily ate in the truck, thinking I couldn't see you"
"You saw that?" He laughed, nodding "I thought I was being so badass and all"
"Well you failed" He confirmed, still laughing. She joined and pushed on her hands to sit up. He motioned toward her to offer some help but she had done it without him.
She grabbed the cup of coffee, "Why didn't you say anything?" she asked.
He smoothed the back of his hand with his thumb to calm his nerves. "Cause you were cute, struggling to eat it discreetly" He admitted, he sipped his coffee and smiled, revealing his teeth.
She laughed again, but this time it was out of shame. She looked up at him again, struggled to hold eye contact and thought about the time she'd spent in that elevator. About how in the face of death her first thought, her first regret had been about him. Or rather, about not having told him.
Only fools refused to learn from their mistakes. Wasn't that a saying somewhere? It should be.
He stood there and suddenly decided to sit on the edge of the bed. He placed a hand on her unbrushed hair and gently smoothed the thin flyaways.
She took a deep breath, mustering her strength for the big reveal.
"Matt, I.."
His lips shut her up. Her heart rate could raise the roof. Shivers crossed her arms as her lips moved accordingly. He turned around, slightely and grabbed the sides of her body, pulling her in onto his lap. Their lips separated, each mouth eager for more. His gaze magneted to her lips her eyes sunk in his burning orbs. The wait wasn't long but felt eternal, before their lips locked again.
And again.
I really hope you liked it. Stay tuned my little brain's got things in store for you. Tell me what you thought of it. I told you I had hotness in store and I still have more, no worries guys, you'll get your fix here to get you by until November ^^.
