"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked" - Bernard Meltzer
Standing at the ER admin desk updating a chart on a patient that she had just finished examining for suspected appendicitis, who could be treated with antibiotics instead of surgery Serena was about to pick up a new chart when her hand was slapped away. Turning to her right Serena saw that the person responsible was Nurse Emma Perry, an ER nurse who was also new friend of Serena who shared her love of tequila and dancing until the early hours of the morning. Anyone who shared Serena's views on tequila and dancing was considered a friend for life especially if they worked with her as there was nothing Serena liked doing better than going to a bar after a hard shift and bitching about the downsides of her job. It was especially fun when she went with nurses as they always had the best stories to tell not to mention Serena had known ever since her med school days that staying on their good side was a necessity.
"Emma I promise you I was not choosing the most interesting patient in the rack, I was about to pick up the chart at the front." Serena said, she was covering the ER today and since she hadn't had a trauma case in a couple of hours she was treating regular patients until something came her way. Serena had covered the ER plenty of times in different hospital to know that they all worked in the same way especially when it came to new patients and charts. You never went through the charts and picked up the most interesting case, you always picked up the first chart.
"That's not why I wanted your attention Serena."
"Then what did you want Emma as I've got patients to see…" Serena murmured as she picked up a new chart and glanced over it to see who her newest patient was and what was their chief complaint.
"Always the good doctor but forget about your patients for a second Serena and check out the drop dead gorgeous firefighter talking to Mr. Dumphy, he is smoking hot… Just wow!" Emma replied in a dreamy tone of voice and Serena rolled her eyes in amusement at the awful 'smoking hot firefighter' cliché that she had heard god knows how many times. Despite this Serena found herself looking up from her chart to check out this so-called drop dead gorgeous firefighter to see that it was Kelly. Not that she was too surprised, whilst Serena may be just friends with Kelly she wasn't stupid nor was she blind. She knew he was very good looking, as did he.
"Hot firefighters name is Lt. Kelly Severide, he works rescue squad 3 and is based over at firehouse 51."
"You know him?!" Emma demanded.
"That I do, we go back to my med school days and I'd quit drooling Em, because he's off limits." Serena idly said as she re read the chart in her hands, her new patient had a pencil embedded in the middle of their hand. That's what Serena loved about covering the ER, always came across such interesting people and even more interesting injuries.
"Oh really? So just how long have you and the hot Lt. Severide been seeing each other and why am I only hearing about this now Dr. McArthur?" Emma asked and it took Serena a moment before she finally registered the question that Emma had just asked her.
"Me and Kelly? No… We are not together, not in the slightest we're just friends we go back from my med school days." Serena said shaking her head more times then it was actually necessary but she wanted Emma to know that her and Kelly were just friends and always had been.
"So he has a girlfriend?" Emma asked.
"Not as far as I know".
"Then why exactly is he off limits?" Emma pushed narrowing her eyes at her friend and Serena bit her lip, if she had just said that Kelly had a girlfriend that Emma would have dropped the whole matter. But because of her big mouth this was becoming a thing when it wasn't even thing to begin with.
"Because I say so." Serena said hoping that Emma would just leave it at that but a part of her knew that the chances of that were pretty slim. So instead she hoped that a big bloody and gory trauma would burst through the doors in the next ten seconds to save her from answering anymore of Emma's question.
"Now I'm intrigued McArthur, you say that your just friends but he's off limits to me for reasons why you can't explain to me. There's something that your not telling me about you and the gorgeous Lt. Severide and I want to know what it is. Are you in love with him? Is that it?" Emma asked her eyes lighting up with excitement and Serena just sighed, like she had predicted this had blown out of proportion.
"No."
Emma let a loud gasp. "You hesitated!"
"No I didn't, there was no hesitation in the slightest Nurse Perry." Serena retorted rather quickly.
"Yes you did, I asked you whether you were in love with Lt. Severide and you hesitated! You hesitated for a good ten seconds before you finally answered me Dr. McArthur. The reason why you said he was off limits is because you're in love with him!" Emma replied in a very cheerful manner.
"Emma I am telling right you now that I am not in love with Kelly, things are just complicated."
"Does complicated involve sex?" Emma asked and Serena could feel her cheeks burning up the moment Emma basically asked if she had ever slept with Kelly and her bright red cheeks immediately gave her away. "Oh my god! You had sex with him! You had sex with a firefighter, I am so proud of you Serena!"
"Will you keep it down?!" Serena hissed as Emma had said that last part a bit louder than she really should have and the last thing that Serena wanted was people at her new place of employment knowing about her sex life. Or rather people she had slept with.
"Rocket?"
Things had just went from bad to worse as Serena looked up to see Kelly looking at her with an amused grin on his face and he said a couple of more thing to Mr. Dumphy before making his way over to her. Serena wanted strangle Emma in this exact moment as they were so busted as there was no way it was a coincidence that he had spotted her just after Emma had figured out that she had slept with Kelly and then said it out loud for the entire ER to practically hear. Serena forced a smile on her face before turning to Emma. "Now he's seen us! Are you happy?!"
"Very! Because now I get to meet him!" Emma retorted and all Serena could do was laugh and hope that this was over pretty quickly just as Kelly came to a stop right in front of her.
"Of course it's me Kelly, I do work here after all or can't you see my id and fancy lab coat." Serena said pointing to her lab coat which had yet to be vomited on or have someone else's blood on it today but the day was still young.
"I can and it's very nice and white." Kelly said as he took a step closer and grabbed a hold of Serena's lab coat and she watched a smile grace his face as he studied her lab coat. Serena looked down to see what he was staring at and when she realized what he was looking she knew he'd never let her hear the end of it. "And what do you know? It even says Rocket on it."
Serena glanced down at her lab coat thanks to Kelly and his phone calls, when she had arrived at Lakeshore and collected her lab coat she had found that not only did it have her name and credentials stitched on it but also a little something else. It read Serena 'Rocket' McArthur M.D. F.A.C.S. Serena would have made a smart-ass comment in response but she realized that Emma was with still with her and watching the two of them interact so she took a step back. "Kelly I'd like you to meet a friend of mine, Nurse Emma Perry she works down here in the ER and Emma this is Lt. Kelly Severide of the Chicago fire department."
"Pleasure."
"Likewise Lt. Severide, Serena here has been telling me all about you." Emma said and Serena would have glared at her if it wouldn't make things apparently obvious to Kelly. She needed to nip this conversation in the bud before it got any further.
"Is that so? And what exactly has Rocket been telling you about me? Knowing her it's probably been all bad but I can tell you some interesting stories about her and not all of them are good." Kelly asked in interest and Serena knew she had to shut the conversation down now.
"You'll never know Kelly as Emma is leaving us right now to set up a suture kit for me in exam room 4, isn't that right Nurse Perry?" Serena asked, all but gritting her teeth together.
"Yes I am Dr. McArthur, it was nice to meet you Lt. Severide." Emma replied with a sweet smile before walking away but as she did, Emma mouthed 'I want details' to Serena, which made her shake her head. There was no way she was telling Emma anymore than she had said already.
"So what brings you to my neck of the woods Kelly?" Serena asked moving things swiftly along in order to prevent Kelly from asking more about Emma as the last thing Serena needed or wanted was the two of them hooking up.
"That guy Mr. Dumphy? Pulled him out of a fire in the early hours of the morning and I found out later that one of his brother's died in a fire five years ago, guy's just come home from a tour of duty so I figured that I'd quickly pop in and check on him on the way back to the station." Kelly explained and Serena couldn't help but smile, it was a very nice thing to do. "Plus it gave me an excuse to come and see you Rocket."
"Come and see me huh? I might have not been working today Severide." Serena quipped in amusement she liked the fact that Kelly came down not only to check in on someone he rescued but to also see if he could catch her.
"I know which is why I called Finn on the way over, I figured he'd know whether you'd be working a shift given that you're crashing with him at the moment." Kelly replied and Serena couldn't believe that he had actually called one of her brothers to see whether she's be working today. It was rather sweet and Serena liked the fact that Kelly had gone to all that effort so he could see her. "So you didn't call me after you stopped by the firehouse last week."
"I meant to but I've just been busy with–" Serena began.
"–Work? Your telling me that you couldn't have picked up the phone once during that entire week?" Kelly skeptically questioned.
"Frosty had her operation. That's why I didn't have a chance to call you, it's not that I wasn't going to call it's just that I literally had no time, if I wasn't here at work then I was at Northwestern or the Senator's mansion dealing with her and my family. The only time I had after that was to sleep..." Serena said with a sigh.
"Oh." Kelly awkwardly replied.
"But if I'd had known that you'd be waiting by the phone the entire week waiting for me to call then I would have found a way to call you Kelly." Serena quipped poking Kelly in the stomach for extra measure.
"So how is she? Your mom, I mean…" Kelly questioned and Serena sighed and shrugged her shoulders.
"Cancer is turning her into an even bigger bitch than usual, I know my mom is pretty over dramatic most of the time and she's got cancer so she can play the cancer card to get sympathy but bloody hell it's like she's going for the academy award. The other day I had a fifteen year old boy come in with a ruptured spleen and the operation went smoothly until we noticed a mass on his liver. Turns out it was cancer and I was in the room when he was told about the cancer and he didn't upset or mad, he just looked at us and asked what the next step was in beating this cancer. I wish my mother was like that but no she wants us all by her side constantly, acting like she's going to die when the surgeon got pretty much all the tumor and she has a very good survival rate. I was to like mom we'll be here as much as when can but we all have careers and we can't just take off an undetermined amount of leave. That didn't go down too well but I reminded her that the Senator isn't sitting by her bedside day and night, he's going to work. You can imagine how well that went down…" Serena wearily said.
"I'm sorry about all of this."
"Don't be Kelly, there is no way that my mom is dying of cancer as that would mean she would be off my case about everything I do and there's no way that's ever going to happen." Serena said waving off Kelly's concern off her mother as it wasn't needed and it could probably go to someone who actually needed it. "So how are you?"
Kelly sighed. "When are you going to stop asking me that Rocket?"
"I'll stop asking when you give me a proper answer Kelly." Serena replied because she was worried about him, he had lost his best friend who he had worked with and very shift Kelly went back to the place where he had one of his last moments with Andy. She just needed to know that he was okay.
"How about I'll give you a proper answer tomorrow night over dinner if your not working? What do you say to that Rocket?" Kelly questioned.
"And by dinner I take it you mean pizza and beers?" Serena questioned with a smirk as in the years she had known Kelly, she had only seen him cook several times. He was an awful like her when it came to cooking, they both knew how to they just chose not to do it on a daily basis.
"Of course, unless your willing to cook?"
"Don't count on it Severide." Serena retorted as she had filled up her yearly cooking quota.
"So pizza it is, look I've gotta head back to the station but call me whenever and by that I mean within the next twenty four hours Rocket so we can finalize things." Kelly stated as he took a couple of steps backwards.
"My shift ends at seven this evening so unless I'm in surgery the latest I will call you is seven thirty tonight, I promise. You know what Severide I'll even pinky promise that." Serena adamantly stated as she held out her pinky and Kelly linked up his pinky with hers and they both shook on it.
"I'll be waiting by the phone." Kelly joked as he made a phone gesture with his hand and held up to his ears as he continued to walk backwards, he did it for a couple of more steps before finally turning around and heading towards the ER doors. Serena couldn't help but laugh, there was something about Kelly Severide that did these things to her. Picking up the chart that she had placed on the admin desk so she could talk to Kelly, Serena made her way down the ER hallway in order to make her way to exam room 4 to treat the guy with pencil in his hand. On her way Serena passed by Emma who was taking the vitals of an elderly patient who smirked at her.
"McArthur who are you kidding? You are so into him…"