Thanks to Aly and Bulletgirl1723 for reviewing! I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter!

Chapter Twenty Seven: Waiting

Rockford Police Department, Illinois

Lilly turned off the light on her desk. When she looked up, she saw Scotty standing by her desk. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," Lilly said back.

Scotty stared at her for a while and then spoke up again. "Look, I'm sorry about earlier. I guess I was a little negative."

"Hey, everyone can get a little negative sometimes," said Lilly. "I guess I was a little too caring."

"No one can get a little too caring," said Scotty. "Though I did figure out where both Lisa and Stella are from a text message Stella sent to me. But I still haven't found out about if my friend's okay."

Lilly nodded. "So, where are Lisa and Stella?"

"The Chicago Public Library," replied Scotty.

"Do you think we should go and see how they're doing?"

"I wish we could Lil," said Scotty. "But Chicago is virtually inaccessible right now. Floods have claimed the city. We're going to have to evacuate soon though, and a good place to go to would be Montana."

"And where did you hear this?" asked Lilly.

"Stella said that Special Agent Lindsay Monroe is giving her the information on the storm and that's where she is currently staying. She said that Lindsay said Montana is the safest place to go right now."

"What's going to happen to us if we stay here?" asked Lilly.

"Well, you've seen 'The Day after Tomorrow', right?" asked Scotty.

"Yeah," replied Lilly.

"Then that's how the weather's going to end up," said Scotty.

"But Montana is going to freeze from the snow too," said Lilly. "It's in the Northern Hemisphere. And according to the movie, the safest place to go was Mexico."

"Not everything that happened in the movie is going to end up happening to us," said Scotty. "But right now, Montana is the safest place to go."

Lilly leaned back in her chair. "Scotty, we can't just leave the others alone in Chicago. We have to help them."

"We should," agreed Scotty.

Lilly raised her eyebrows questioningly. "Do you have an idea on how to get to Chicago?"

"Actually I do," said Scotty. "If we call for help maybe we could get a few helicopters to bring us there and rescue the people from Chicago. We'll take them back here and then they can go off their separate ways, evacuating where they want to."

She smiled. "Good thinking, Valens. Let's get on the phone and start calling for help."

Below them the city of Chicago lay, drowning in the floods. The winds blew against the helicopter fiercely, making the helicopter shake back and forth in the sky. The clouds in the sky showed no signs of moving; they would bring snows to Chicago, along with freezing cold temperatures. Lilly turned to look at Scotty and smiled. They had made it to Chicago, and now the helicopters would be able to save the people sheltering in the library from the rising storm.

Flying lower to find a place to land, they were soon able to get inside the public library. Lilly got off the helicopter first, and immediately rushed inside. She realized that some of the library had been flooded. She quickly ran to find the immense crowd, huddled around the library's many shelves of books.

She yelled, "Excuse me, if I could get your attention please." The crowd quieted and turned to look at her. "I'm Detective Lilly Rush, from Rockford PD. My partner, Detective Scotty Valens will soon be here. I'm looking for Detective Stella Bonasera and Dr. Lisa Cuddy?"

In the crowd, she could see Stella immediately run over to her. She saw that Dr. Allison Cameron had to sign to Cuddy that she was there, since she couldn't hear her. Stella was soon by her side; Cuddy took a few more minutes to get there.

"Lilly?" asked Stella. "How did you get here?"

"By helicopter," replied Lilly. "We may be able to get everyone evacuated out of here."

Cuddy was now by Stella's side. She smiled to her and Lilly nodded. She looked behind her when she saw Cuddy gazing passed her.

Scotty was running over to her. "Lil, I have to tell you something…"

"What is it, Scotty?" asked Lilly.

"The weather, it's getting pretty bad now, the winds are picking up and the chances of getting everyone on the helicopters safely are next to none," explained Scotty. "We can't evacuate. We're going to have to wait."

"Wait?" questioned Stella. "We don't have time to wait."

"How long Scotty?" asked Lilly.

"Four days," replied Scotty.

"Shoot," Lilly mumbled. She turned to look at Stella and Cuddy. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen."

"It's okay," said Stella. "The thing that matters is that you tried."

"So," said Scotty. "Do we have a place to rest?"

"Yes," replied Stella. "Follow me."

Cuddy, Lilly, and Scotty followed Stella through a desolate hallway, and then stopped to knock on a wooden door. The door opened, revealing a new face. "Yes?" the voice answered.

"You know it's me Flack," said Stella. "Now let me in."

The door opened wider and the four of them walked in. Stella quickly introduced Lilly and Scotty to the others, and then they sat down at some chairs to talk. Lilly glanced over to the couch near the fireplace, where a motionless body lay. "Who's that?" she asked Stella.

"Thirteen," replied Stella.

"Thirteen?" questioned Lilly.

Stella looked at Cameron. She sighed. "She was in a competition to who was going to be in the final three of Dr. House's staff and that happened to be her number. No one knows her real name. Didn't I tell you of Thirteen before, Lilly?"

Lilly shook her head. "Lisa only mentioned her name before."

Stella glanced at Cuddy, who again hadn't responded to her name, and then turned to Lilly. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "I've realized that Lisa doesn't respond to her name. Are you sure that's her name?"

Cameron and Lilly laughed. "Watch," said Cameron. She walked over to Cuddy and signed, "How's Thirteen?"

Cuddy signed back, "She's still unconscious. Chase hasn't reported anything to me. If you want to know her condition, I would ask him."

Lilly had to translate this to Stella. "She can't hear," she told her.

The expression on Stella's face turned to shock. "Oh, I…I guess I should have known that…" She got up from her chair and walked over to Flack and Scotty. Lilly hurried to join them.

"I don't know Scotty, I'm not sure we're going to make it for four days," Flack was saying.

"We'll be fine, I know we will," reassured Scotty.

Lilly smiled; she was glad he wasn't using his negativity around the others. A new thought struck her mind: How was the rest of her team dealing with the weather? Could John, Kat, Nick and Will possibly be stuck in the terrible weather the storm brought?

"We are going to make it through this storm," said Stella. "Lindsay will keep giving us information on the storm, telling us what to do and what to expect. We can't give up hope, not just yet."

"And we have help coming for us," Lilly pointed out.

Scotty and Stella nodded. Flack, on the other hand, decided to protest. "The help may never come," he said. "They may get stuck in the storm as well."

"Flack!" exclaimed Stella.

"Hey, I'm just trying to point out the other possibilities," said Flack.

"Like I said, we need hope, not discourage," said Stella.

A cough from the couch interrupted their conversation. They turned to look at the sight. "She's awake," Hawkes announced from the couch.

Even though Lilly barely knew Thirteen, she hurried over to the couch to join the others. "Where am I?" she heard Thirteen saying. "What's going on?"

"You were unconscious," said Hawkes.

"Your apartment had gotten hit by one of the tornadoes that ripped through Chicago," explained Chase. "You were hit unconscious and then buried under a bunch of debris."

Thirteen coughed again. "So, where I am?"

"In the Chicago Public Library," replied Hawkes.

"Why am I there…?" She coughed again. "Shouldn't I be…home…?"

"Here, you should have some water," said Chase, giving her a glass of water. She took the glass from him and, with her hands shaky, took a sip of the water.

Lilly could hear Flack mumbling. "Another one of our supplies that won't last…"

They left Thirteen alone, with both Chase and Hawkes. They dispersed around the room, finding a place to rest, since it was getting late. Soon everyone was sleeping, and the fire burning in the fireplace was enough to keep them all warm. Only Stella found it hard to sleep, thinking of what was to come.

The weather didn't seem to be clearing up, and their only chances of help had been forgotten. She wanted so badly for all of this to be a dream and she hoped she would wake up from it as soon as she closed her eyes. She gazed at Mac, who was sleeping peacefully next to her. As she stared at him, she soon found herself forgetting all of her problems and finally, she was able to fall asleep.

A/N: Hope you liked this chapter! In the next chapter, we'll see how Lindsay, Danny, Horatio, and Calleigh are doing in Montana. It should be up either tomorrow or Tuesday!