"Home is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserved; it is life's undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room, from which we go forth to more careful and guarded intercourse, leaving behind...cast-off and everyday clothing." - Harriet Beecher Stowe

Kelly Severide took a swing of his beer as he looked around the room, taking in everyone including his fellow firefighters who had come to celebrate and mourn the life of Andy. Kelly still couldn't believe what had happened, Andy would still be with them if Casey hadn't have let him climb through that window to vent the house. It wasn't fair that his friend died because of somebody else's mistakes. As he looked around the room Kelly finally spotted the one person he had been looking for ever since he had seen her at the funeral; Serena, the one who always got away but yet at the same time was constantly there, the woman who drove him insane and not always in a good way and always gave as good as she got. The two of them had a history, they had been friends but after countless screw ups on his part and an incident that led them to stop speaking for six months before Serena moved to Boston. They hadn't spoke to each other in three years up until today. Kelly didn't even think she would show but Serena had. At first Kelly didn't recognize Serena, he put it down to her now being a redhead given that the last time he had seen her she was brunette. Her face was familiar but the hair completely threw him off until he saw her legs and realized he knew those legs very well and they belonged to Serena McArthur.

Kelly could have kicked himself for not recognizing her sooner but there was only one way to really know if it was her and that was to call her by his personal nickname of Rocket. Serena always claimed to hate it but not once since Kelly had known her did she not answer to it. So Kelly did, he called out Rocket and Serena stopped and he really knew that it was her. No matter what had gone on between them she was always going to be his Rocket. He called her Rocket because of her temper, Serena was one of those people who barely lost their temper but when she did she was literally like a rocket and could not be stopped until she reached her target. Kelly knew well enough to stay out of her path when she was like that given that he had been on the receiving end of her temper a couple of times.

Kelly took another swing of his beer as he watched Serena get into a conversation with her dad as well as Casey and he didn't like it at all. Ever since the accident, he couldn't bring himself to talk to Casey, not when he blamed him for Andy's death. Draining the rest of his beer Kelly made his way over to the small group in order to grab Serena. "Hey…"

"Severide." Chief McArthur greeted, whilst he had never been great at making impressions with parents for some reason Kelly had managed to make a good impression with Serena's father, who always welcomed him for Sunday dinner whenever he was free. Even after Serena had left town.

"Chief McArthur, it's been a while…"

"It has."

"You ready to get that drink?" Kelly asked and Serena nodded and after she excused herself from present company the two of them walked away and as they left Kelly could see that Chief McArthur was wearily eying him up which was a bit weird. The two of them made their way to the bar where Kelly ordered the two of them beers. "Do I have to worry about your dad?"

Serena frowned. "No… Is there a reason that you think my dad has to be worried about you?"

"No, forget it." Kelly replied with a shake of his head, originally he thought that Chief McArthur was being a bit cold with him because of what had happened between him and his daughter. But given Serena's response to the question, he gathered that she hadn't said a word to him about why they had fell out.

"My dad always says that it's a bad day when you're in a bar filed with firefighters drinking and you don't have to shout over people to have a conversation." Serena wearily said with a small smile as the bartender handed them their drinks.

"He's right." Kelly grimly added.

"You haven't changed a bit Rocket, you look the same." Kelly noted as he watched Serena take a sip of her drink, she was the same as he remembered with her heart shaped face, the green eyes that Serena lazily rolled when he suggested something that she thought was stupid or lame. The only difference was her hair and although Severide was shocked to see Serena with red hair at first, he was growing used to it. The red hair suited her, in particular her fiery red temper.

"It's been three years Kelly, I wasn't going to change that much… What were you expecting? Me to be not so happily married and pregnant?" Serena skeptically said and Kelly didn't know how to reply to that as whilst those thoughts had occasionally crossed him mind he was glad that it hadn't. But if he ever admitted that, it would no doubt lead to Serena getting pissed off with him and the last thing he wanted to do was let the 'rocket' loose especially here of all places with Serena's father halfway across the room.

"I don't know what to expect." Kelly quietly replied and the two of them fell into a comfortable silence that was one of the things that Severide had missed about Serena. The two of them could sit in each other's company without having a need to actually say anything.

"How are you?" Serena asked after about ten minutes.

"Bit of a redundant question, don't you think Rocket?" Kelly asked given where they were and what had happened to their friend. He knew that Serena would no doubt have a response about how it was what you were supposed to do in situations like these but Kelly honestly didn't know right now. He and Andy had known each other since they were kids, became firefighters together and worked in the same house together. On the day Andy died, Kelly could remember saying 'Andy makes squad the day I'm no longer in charge' no matter how hard Kelly wanted to forget ever saying that, it never seemed to go away.

"You know what I mean Kelly." Serena softly replied, gently nudging Kelly in the ribs and he caught a look in her eyes that contained actual worry. She was worried about him, no doubt about how he was coping with all of this despite the fact that she had her own grief to deal with. The fact that Serena was so worried about him made Kelly adamant about not even mentioning the pain in his shoulder, as all Serena would do was tell him to go see his doctor or worse, tell him she'd be willing to take a look at it. There was no reason to worry Serena about it as Kelly put it down to being a pinched nerve due to the fall he took in the blast, it would probably be fine in another week or so.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me." Kelly assured her although he knew there was little chance of that happening. Serena tended to worry about everyone. "But enough about me, how are you Rocket?"

"Nothing much, still a lover of tequila and very much a workaholic although I have finally finished my residency along with a two year fellowship. So now I am what they consider to be an acute care surgeon although my official job title is attending trauma surgeon."

"Doesn't that mean you specialize in both trauma and emergency general surgery?" Kelly questioned and he watched as a pleased smile appeared on Serena's face and it made him realize how much he had missed seeing that smile. Over the years he had missed Serena but he didn't realize the full extent of it until now, with her here and back beside him after three years of being away.

"Impressive, I didn't think you'd know that as when most people ask what I do I have to simplify it and tell them that I'm a trauma surgeon, which is true and simpler to say…" Serena chuckled and Kelly had decided not to tell her how he knew what fellowship she had done because that would do nothing but stir up trouble and open up a can of worms which he wanted to remain firmly shut.

"So how long are you going to be around? I'm assuming that it'll only be a couple of days because of work?" Kelly asked and Serena's jaw hardened which Kelly took to be a not a good side and she didn't say anything for a few moments and when she did, it was only to order to another round of beers and a single shot of tequila.

"Actually more than a few days this time, I'm going to be for a few months at least as Frosty the Ice Queen is sick." Serena finally announced and Kelly knew she was talking about her mother as Serena nicknamed her mother a variety of nicknames like Frosty the Ice Queen or the Iron Bitch because of her mother's typical cold and harsh demeanor. The two had never really gotten on and Serena had moved in with her dad when she was fourteen as their relationship wasn't the easiest to deal with. The two of them couldn't be in the same room as each other without at least one argument occurring.

"Sick?"

"Yep, lentigo maligna melanoma…" Serena said and Kelly had no idea what she said, whilst he had some medical training it wasn't enough to even begin to try and realize what Serena had just said. There was a reason why Serena was the doctor and he wasn't. "It's skin cancer Kelly."

"Rocket I'm so sorry…" Kelly began until he noticed Serena shaking her head.

"Don't be Kelly, whilst it's pretty bad she's not a complete write off yet as the cancer is treatable and Frosty has a very good chance of survival although it's was bad enough that the senator called and asked me to come home. Well… It was more like he told me to come home and you can imagine how well that went down." Serena replied wearily laughing before downing the shot of tequila, similar to her relationship with her mother, Serena had an equally bad relationship with her step-father who she just called the senator. So when a man like the 'Senator' who Serena hated and had no respect for told someone like Serena who didn't like to be told what to do, demanded that she do something, things weren't going to end well. Kelly wasn't even going to ask what happened as either way it ended up with Serena being here next to him.

"You need anything, you know you can always come to me right?" Kelly stated as although they had left things on a bit of a rocky patch three years ago, he wanted Serena to know that he was always there for her. Serena McArthur had always been one of the best friends in his life, she was someone who he could always have fun with and could depend on her to call him out on his bullshit if it were necessary.

"I do." Serena replied, this time with an actual smile not one that she had forced on one that she had been using for much of the conversation.

"I've missed you." Kelly said and Serena just sighed, the conversation that she clearly didn't want to have had finally come up. But Kelly needed to know that despite what happened, he had really missed her. Things had really changed when Serena had left and now they had changed even more with Andy's death.

"You don't think I missed you Kelly? Of course I did… But you know that we did the right thing, after what happened Kelly we needed to take a break from each other and have some distance between us. Just because of what happened three years, doesn't mean we ever stopped being friends Kelly. I know the radio silence over the last three years haven't exactly showed that but–"

"–I'm sorry too." Kelly interrupted and Serena smiled as she stood up from her seat.

"I should probably get going."

"Why?" Kelly questioned as the two of them had barely been talking for an hour and given that this was the first time that they had talked in three years, Kelly knew they had barely scratched the service when it came to the two of them catching up. Not to mention the inevitable conversation about why they fell out all those years ago was bound to come up again at some point. The two of them really did need to talk about what had happened between them.

"I have something's to take care of not to mention I have work tomorrow so there's that too." Serena explained with a small shrug of her shoulders.

"Work? You've found a job already?" Kelly asked in surprise although some part of him wasn't surprised as other people called her Rocket because of how fast she moved not to mention how good she was at her job. So if anyone could get a new job in days then it would be his Rocket.

"Not exactly, I'm working per diem at the moment until I find something a little permanent."

"There's a hospital not too far from the station, Lakeshore… You know I could see if they're looking for a trauma surgeon and if so I put in a good word for you." Kelly offered and he was surprised when Serena kissed his cheek before walking away. Turning in his seat Kelly watched as she walked away from him without looking back, Serena had a habit of wordlessly walking away which Kelly had always found to be very annoying. Despite it being three years since they had last seen each other it seemed like little time had passed as Serena was making them fall into old habits and already starting to drive him crazy.