A/N: I'm so, so sorry it's taken me so long to update! I really haven't been motivated to write at all, and I've been crazy busy. But I hope to be back to updating regularly from now on! I'm really looking forward to finishing this story! Please enjoy Chapter 22!

"Listen, sir. I'm going to need you to step away so I can take this to treat our patient," Sylvie spoke, her hands steadying the gurney as it sat half in the ambulance and half on the ground.

As she went to move again, she felt a hot pain hit her side and stumbled backwards, her hands immediately moving to her side and putting pressure on it. She watched as the man ran from the scene as she lost her balance from the pain and fell to the side of the ambulance, pushing herself up against the wheel and groaning in pain.

She risked a look at her side which was now covered in blood, her hands covering the wound also covered in the substance. Stars danced in her vision as the pain intensified, her hands pressing harder on the wound to try and stop the bleeding as best she could.

She was going to die.

She knew there was no chance she'd be able to stand with this pain, and she couldn't gain the courage to lift her hand to grab the radio. Her eyes drooped quickly as the pain became harder to bear as everything around her went black.

Sylvie shot up in bed, breathing heavily, her hand resting onto her side. With a deep breath, she let her head fall into her hands. She hadn't been having nightmares about the shooting that often, but it'd been getting worse now, even after testifying.

"You're fine, Sylvie," she said to herself, softly. "Everything is fine."

Beside her, she felt the bed shift and Antonio sit up, his hand rubbing her back softly. "Sylvie? You okay? I felt you wake up. What's wrong? It's 3am."

She shook her head and turned to face him. "Nothing, just a nightmare," she smiled at him as reassuringly as she could, but knew it probably wouldn't show like she wanted it to.

"Nightmare? Tell me what it was about, baby," Antonio whispered. "You have nothing to be afraid of, Sylvie. I'm here, and we're safe."

Sylvie nodded at him. "I know we're fine, and that I'm safe. I just… sometimes I get nightmares where I don't grab my radio after I get shot… and nobody finds me. It's just the shooting - it scares me still, so I freak out about it. But it's silly, don't worry about it."

"Baby, it's not silly," Antonio frowned and pulled her closer to him, pulling her back to lay down on the bed again. "It's completely normal to have nightmares about that sort of stuff, just try and sleep again, okay? You have work again in the morning, and I'm here. I always will be."

She let herself lay back down beside him and snuggled into her side, nodding to herself. She knew that Antonio was right, but it was so much simpler to just downplay it to her favour. But Antonio was quick and she should have realised he wouldn't have fallen for it.

Her mind had been running on overdrive for the past week. After getting that text from Harrison at her surprise party a week ago, everything had been different. She didn't want to talk with Harrison about anything, because she was happy with Antonio now. Anything that could upset her was something she wanted to steer clear of.

She hadn't let herself tell Antonio yet, and the only person to know about the text so far was Will. He'd promised he'd keep it to himself and Sylvie believed him - it wasn't a big deal if she didn't reply to the text, and that was what she did. It was just an unanswered text on her phone so far. She didn't plan on giving him an answer, because he simply didn't deserve it.

Sylvie shook her head to try and clear her mind and allow her to sleep.

Eventually, the only thing that let her fully drift off was Antonio's grip around her that ensured her that she was safer than she felt.

"Squad 3, Truck 81, Ambulance 61, house fire, 1941 South Desplaines Street."

Sylvie ran out of the firehouse just after Gabby, happily taking her seat in the passenger seat and letting Gabby drive. She hadn't driven to the scenes since she'd been allowed back at work, but it wasn't bothering her lately - as long as they got to the location and did their job, everything was fine.

She felt a little guilty for not mentioning Harrison's text to Gabby, of all people, but as they pulled up to the house, the thought left her mind. Sylvie quickly headed to the front of the house where a woman was standing with her daughter. Gabby began to speak to the mother and lead her to the ambo.

"Hi, sweetie," Sylvie smiled. "I'm Sylvie and I'm going to take good care of you, okay? Can you tell me your name?"

"Hannah," the little girl coughed as Sylvie led her to the ambo after her mother. It was simple smoke inhalation so nothing seemed to be too wrong as the boys from Truck and Squad headed inside and worked on making sure no one else was inside and putting out the fire.

"Okay, Hannah. Are you feeling okay?" Sylvie asked her, grabbing some of the gear she was going to need to check Hannah and make sure everything really was well.

The little girl nodded and Sylvie smiled at her just as Severide called her name from the house. "Brett! We need you over here!"

She looked quickly to Gabby who nodded at her. "I've got it, go!"

Sylvie hurried over to where Severide was standing with Cruz. On the ground next to Cruz was a small boy, probably around ten years old, severely burnt. Sylvie knelt beside him, checking for a pulse. "It's weak, we need to get him to Med."

She looked back up at Cruz. "Go to the ambo and grab the gurney, this kid's priority."

He nodded at her and ran off toward Gabby and 61 who was already calling a second ambulance for assistance. As Sylvie began to check his airways, Cruz pushed the gurney up beside her and with help from Severide, they lifted him up onto the gurney and wheeled him back to the ambo.

Severide and Cruz took the woman and her daughter while Sylvie got into the front of the ambo and drove to Med as quickly as she could.

As they dropped the boy off to Natalie at Med, Sylvie felt a weight lifted off of her chest. Though, as she and Dawson finished the papers, she could see something was wrong. She turned to Dawson and frowned. "Hey, Gabby. What's up?"

"Louie's Dad showed up," Gabby muttered, shaking her head. "He's threatening to take Louie away from us, Brett. That guy can't take Louie away from us. I won't let it happen."

"I can't imagine what you're going through, I'm so sorry," Sylvie frowned. She hated seeing Gabby so upset, especially since she knew how much Louie meant to her and Matt.

"The thought of not having Louie in my life, it's not hard. It's impossible," Gabby shook her head, tears rising to her eyes. "Everything was so good just a few days ago, and now everything's just gone to shit, Brett."

Sylvie frowned, letting her eyes fall to the ground before looking back up at Gabby.

"I was adopted." She said, trying to make her voice seem more confident than she felt.

"You didn't tell me that."

She could tell that Gabby was shocked, and she had good reason to be. Sylvie was a private person - everyone knew that. But it'd never come up before, and so, she'd never felt a good reason to mention it before. "It's not a secret or anything. I just don't talk about it much. I look a lot like my parents who are both wonderful, loving people. It wasn't a big deal when I was little. But as I got older I thought about them all the time. My birth parents, I mean. Mostly I wished that they cared enough to come looking for me. Get to know me," Sylvie sighed, taking a deep breath. "They never did."

Sylvie watched as Gabby solemnly nodded before looking up at her again. "What do you think I should do?"

"I think it's not such a bad idea to sit down with this man. Both for him and for Louie."

Gabby nodded at her again, before furrowing her eyebrows. "Does Antonio know? About you being adopted?"

Sylvie shook her head. "It's never come up, because I never really felt like it was important to talk about. You know? The parents I have are the people that really are my parents, even if they didn't give birth to me. I don't like to bring attention to it too often. But I should tell him, you're right about that. I just don't want it to be a big deal or a contributing factor to why I'm me, you know? And I want to be ready. Please… don't tell him just yet. It has to be the right time."

"I still don't understand why blueberry pancakes weren't on the menu tonight," Sylvie sighed, throwing away the takeaway containers and turning to face Antonio, grinning.

He chuckled at her and shook his head. "We can't have blueberry pancakes every night, baby. You'll get sick of them if you eat them too much, I'm sure of that."

Sylvie rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Me? Get sick of blueberry pancakes? You make me laugh," she let out a sarcastic laugh. "I could eat them for every meal for the rest of my life, you know."

"Here's the thing, Sylvie - I know you could. And that's precisely the reason why we didn't cook them tonight and why I've lett them for special occasions." He grinned at her and pressed a kiss to her lips. "Hey, I need to talk to you about something…"

Sylvie frowned at him, but nodded. "Yeah, what is it?" She asked.

There was no way he could have known about the Harrison text since he and Will weren't very close. And she knew Gabby wouldn't have told him about her being adopted… so what was it?

The two of them moved over to sit at the dining table once more, and Antonio took her hand. "I've decided to leave my job in the Intelligence Unit," he spoke softly.

Sylvie raised her eyebrows in shock. "What? Are you serious, Antonio? You love your job!"

"I know I do, Sylvie," he frowned. "But I've got an offer from Peter Stone that I can't turn down. I'm going to work with him over at the Attorney's Office. I'm going to be Chief Investigator." Antonio smiled so brightly that Sylvie couldn't help smile back.

"Are you serious? Antonio, that's great news! Have you really thought this over, though?" She asked him, holding his hands tightly in hers. "I mean, the Intelligence Unit is everything to you. Do you think you really can move like this?"

He nodded at her. "I know I can, Sylvie. I've already told Peter Stone about it and everything is set up. It's happening, and I'm really happy."

She grinned over at him and leant in to kiss him softly. "I'm so proud of you, Antonio," Sylvie chuckled. "But now that you mention that, I wanted to ask you something."

Antonio nodded at her and smiled. "Shoot," he spoke.

She knew this was a long shot, but with the text from Harrison, she felt like it was the right time for the two of them. So, with a deep breath, she spoke:

"What would you think about me moving in permanently with you?"