"We face up to awful things because we can't go around them, or forget them. The sooner you say 'Yes, it happened, and there's nothing I can do about it,' the sooner you can get on with your own life. You've got children to bring up. So you've got to get over it. What we have to get over, somehow we do. Even the worst things." - Annie Proulx

Serena quietly walked into the garage of Firehouse 51 and as she made her way further into firehouse she saw that the squad's truck wasn't in the garage, which meant that they weren't here. Which was kind of annoying as Serena had come over to see Kelly or rather speak to him. But she could wait, she would wait for him as she really needed Kelly today of all days. As Serena walked into the actual station she saw various members of Firehouse 51 going about their business as they waited for a call and she wasn't sure how to begin. She hadn't been over to the station since they had thrown her a thank you dinner for saving Hermann's life and a lot had changed since then. Well more her then anything but today was different, Serena had the worst day that she could ever possible remember and after her shift had finished she found herself here looking for Kelly. She didn't even bother getting changed after work, she was dressed in her scrubs but she had thrown a sweatshirt on to keep her warm given that she had been in the morgue for twenty minutes after her shift had ended.

"Hi everyone!" Serena called out giving out a quick wave to everyone.

"Well look who it is, the infamous Dr. McArthur and I see you've gone back to your original hair colour." Casey began and Serena couldn't help but smile as she had pushed a piece of hair behind her ear. Two days ago she decided to go back to her natural hair colour and after one expensive trip to the salon she was now back to being a brunette.

"Hey Casey…" Serena began as she looked over to the small round table where Casey was sitting only to be surprised to see Dr. Hallie Thomas with him, Serena knew her from the hospital as Hallie was a resident and was currently doing an ER rotation. However Serena didn't know that Casey and Hallie knew each other. "… And Hallie."

"Hi Dr. McArthur."

"Serena, please…" Serena instructed with a small smile as she walked over to the two of them.

"You two know each other? I didn't know that…" Hallie asked and Serena and Casey just looked at each other as saying they knew each other was a bit of an understatement.

"Yeah, Serena and I have been friends for a few years now… We met when she was an intern through Andy as Serena became friends with him through Severide and we all hung out occasionally until Serena left Chicago to go to Massachutes General for her fellowship. Then I'm friends with two of Serena's brothers as she comes from a family of firefighters." Casey explained and Serena nodded along as she had known Casey almost as long as she had known Kelly. But her past with Casey was less complicated that hers with Kelly.

"So the two of you are together, huh? Not once since I've been back Matthew Casey did you tell me that you were dating someone who worked at my hospital. I'm rather hurt you didn't tell me about Hallie –" Serena began.

"—Don't even go there Serena, I would have told you but I've barely seen you as if your not at work then your with Severide." Casey retorted and Serena couldn't help but let out a weak smile as Casey had got her real good on that one and he knew it. They both did.

"Severide? Serena are you and Kelly an item?" Hallie asked.

"No… God no, not that there's anything wrong with Kelly but he and I are just friends. We're just really good friends which is what brings me here, I'm kind of looking for Kelly. He's kind of the company to my misery and when I'm not feeling great I come to him and Kelly cheers me up in his typical fashion. And I've kind of had a really long and crappy day…" Serena replied in a weary manner

"Yeah I heard about what happened, are you okay?" Hallie questioned and Serena swallowed a lump in her throat before nodding and forcing a smile on her face. She needed people to think that she was fine and that nothing was wrong and that she had not gone through the most physically and emotionally draining day of her life. Serena didn't want to go home as that meant being alone with her thoughts and thinking about her day as she drowned her sorrows with a bottle of wine. And she didn't want to bother her family especially her not so cancer ridden mother as she wouldn't understand. Serena could have gone to Emma or any of her other friends from work but she hadn't. She came here instead. To see Kelly.

"I'll be fine." Serena said after a moment and the look Casey gave her said that he didn't quite believe that and Serena could tell that he was going to ask what was going on. But before he could, he was interrupted by the sound of an approaching truck and turning around Serena could see that Squad 3 had returned. Not wanting to be impolite she turned back round to Casey and Hallie to give them a polite smile. "I'll catch you guys later and I forgot to tell you this earlier but you did great work today Hallie…"

"Hey Rocket… You dyed your hair back. It looks good." Kelly said once he had made his way over and pressed a kiss on Serena's check and already she felt marginally better.

"Yeah, c-can we talk Kelly?" Serena quietly replied.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"I've had a bad day." Serena stated and she needn't say anything more as her saying to Kelly that she had a bad day was code. It was code for Serena needing to be saved as she was close to falling off the edge. And when Serena needed to be saved she always went to her trusty fireman to rescue her. Kelly reacted straight away and took Serena's hand and led her through the firehouse and into the empty locker room.

"What happened?" Kelly asked and Serena let go of his hand and took a deep breath before sighing and sitting down on the ground and leaning against a locker.

"It had been a crappy day from the start to the end, two surgeries which one didn't make it off the table and countless traumas in the ER. I had a seventeen year old kid who was brought in after being shot and I had managed to stabilize him and we were getting ready to transfer him upstairs. He crashed and died in the elevator. Then it gets worst, I got a big trauma… 30 year old woman beaten within an inch of her life. She's got a collapsed lung, lacerated spleen and just so happens to be 34 weeks pregnant. I had to do a crash c-section, the baby was in distress and it was the only thing I could do. I had the Chief of OB/GYN paged to help me but the baby died Kelly. He was alive for maybe two minutes and then he was gone. Mom died an hour later, her injuries were way too extensive. Turns out her husband beat the crap out of her…" Serena wearily explained.

"Serena…" Kelly quietly said as he sat down next to her and automatically Serena leaned her head against his shoulder.

"I lost two kids today Kelly, one was a kid who had fallen in with a bad crowd and the other one hadn't even got a chance to live his life. I tried so hard to save them all…"

"Of course you did." Kelly assured Serena, gently squeezing her knee. She had missed this, being able to go to Kelly in her time of need. She had missed him.

"I have to present the mom and baby case at an M&M." Serena quietly said referring to a morbidity and mortality conference, which were used to peer review poor or unusual outcomes during the care of patients. It was always a bloodbath and Serena hated it, she hated public speaking and now she was being thrown into the lions den.

"That sucks."

"I hate kids dying…"

"What can I do? Say the word and I'll do it Serena." Kelly asked as he linked his hands with Serena's and entwined his hands through hers. The two of them sat there in silence and there was familiar feeling in the air, a feeling that Serena hadn't felt in years and had missed but she hadn't realized until now. And there was no place she'd rather be.