THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT: I LOADED THE WRONG CHAPTER 3, SO THIS ONE ISN'T GOING TO MAKE SENSE UNLESS YOU GO BACK AND REREAD CHAPTER 3. SORRY!
Thanks to everyone for reviewing, I'm going to start putting in responses to the reviews, yeah, so, let me know what you think, I feel like I rushed this one, so please tell me what your thoughts are. Thanks! Love y'all bunches!
Lilkcb06- I'm glad you like it, I will keep writing
Kaila- Thanks for reviewing, and I'm glad you like it
Rachel- Thank you so much for your awesome words, they make my day, I struggle letting people see my work, so I'm glad to find people like it.
Mandi- like, the best review so far, hope you keep reading
Guest- though I don't really know what that means, I'm happy you let me know what you thought and are trying to help me revise my writing. I will try to tone down the medical stuff and move more into her life and her relationships, something I tried to do in this chapter. Though those specialties are what make most of the story, I'll get into the other kind of special, not the medical. Though I don't know who you are, or if you'll review again, I hope you do and let me know how you think this chapter went. Thanks bunches!
Lora K- I'm glad you like it, it makes me happy to know I can please people with my writing. I will continue to update once a week maybe so keep your eyes peeled!
"You alright?" she asked, shining her pen-light in Emily's eyes.
Emily managed to shake her head before everything went dark.
Waking up wasn't nearly as traumatizing as she thought it would be. So was in her home, in her room, in her bed. Her head ached, her joints hurt, and her stomach churned. The smell of garlic made her gag and all she wanted was to be able to get up and run to the bathroom to relieve the feeling. However, Emily Dawson knew better than anyone that that wasn't a good move.
She looked to the right to see Basil, sitting on the floor, with just her head resting on the mattress, eyes boring into Emily as she sleep. But as soon as the dog saw the movement, she couldn't contain herself and jumped on the bed to greet her owner and welcome her back to the world. The welcoming didn't last long though; she began to whine when the girl didn't respond.
Should I go get someone? She projected at Emily.
"Yeah, Bas (Baze), you should" she rasped through her scratchy throat. The wolf trotted across the room and out the door, having to nose it open with her snout. There was nothing left to do but stare at the ceiling. So stare at the ceiling she did, watching the blades of the fan chase each other around in a never-ending circle, knowing they would never catch each other. The removable wall decals they put on the ceiling were peeling, the adhesive collected around the edges like tape on a desk, making it an unattractive sight. She made a mental note to remove them and then replace them with something more eye-catching. The door suddenly opened and in walked Antonio.
"M'hija, hola, hi. How are you?" she stared into his eyes for a moment before sitting up and capturing his toned frame in a hug. His shock took a moment to overcome, but he eventually closed his arms around her and squeezed her tightly "Mi amor, I love you too." He whispered into her hair.
She pulled away and took in his features. His brows were slightly drawn, there always were, his brown eyes showed relief, his jawline, chiseled and covered in dark and light gray stubble. "Je t'aime" she replied in French, smiling genuinely. She tossed the covers off of her legs and swung them over the side of the bed to stand.
He reacted quickly, jumping to the floor and running to stand by her left side. He placed his right arm around her waist, holding onto her hip with that hand to keep her steady. She took his left hand in hers to allow him to assist her to the kitchen. He lifted her onto a barstool and went to grab a water bottle from the fridge.
She sipped generously and waited a moment before speaking, "How long was I out?" she asked hesitantly.
His brows knit and he let out an exasperated sigh, "Almost 3"
"Yeesh"
"What happened?"
"…flashback…" she told him and the room settled in silence.
"Do those still happen often?"
"I'm not doing this" she replied hastily, dropping to the floor and striding to the living room, disappearing from his sight to sit on the couch in the living room. She heard a sizzle as he stirred the contents of the pan on the stove. She watched him go wide around the breakfast bar, a glass of white wine in one hand.
He sat next to her on the couch and stared ahead at the television, not doing anything. Emily gave in and snuck a quick glance at him before giving in and crawling over to him, tucking herself under his arm and into his side. She heard him chuckle and felt his lips on her head.
"When did she leave?"
"'Bout a half hour ago, chief said he forgot to reroute for tonight and that he'd do that when they got back."
"…wait… they?" she questioned him nervously.
"Yeah, they've all been real worried about you mona. It was chief, Hermann, Mills, Kelly, Cruz, Otis, and Shay. Casey wanted to be here, but he and Hallie, he was here the past two nights so…"
She nodded into his chest and settled in. Santana just smacked Quinn and Quinn smacked Santana and then boom, commercial. They sat there and watched the pesty things and waited for the arrival of family number dos.
The door swung open with a thud, and then the sound of coats being shrugged off and not hung up-she'd have to vacuum that later. The sound of boots being thrown off alerted her to the fact that she'd have to use the 'Mr. Clean Magic Eraser' on that wall also. "Antonio?!" she heard her sister yell. It was all Emily needed to motivate her to sprint for the front door.
"Incoming!" he yelled back at her.
"Wha…?" she rounded the corner just then.
"Emily! Ooof!" Gaby's face lit up and she let out a laugh as Emily nearly slipped on the hardwood. Gabriela had just enough time to straighten before Emily threw herself at her big sister. She lifted Emily from the ground, holding her tight and relishing the feel of the tiny body in her arms.
"Oh Em. Baby girl." She breathed into Emily's hair. Gaby stroked her sister's face, tucking a loose lock of hair behind her ear and smiled warmly at her. They laughed and hugged again before Emily made her rounds with the rest of the crew, laughing, being thrown in the air, and hugging some more.
They sat in the kitchen, the living room, and some in the dining room. Mills took over the cooking and Emily sat snuggled into Gaby like she had been Antonio. Shay held her right hand where it settled on the young girl's hip. They rode out the rest of the 'Glee' episode and switched to a demand channel to watch 'Modern Family'.
"I want you to go to bed soon k?" Gaby said, squeezing her sister to her side as she said it.
"But I just got up" Emily stated factually. Shay snickered behind her and mumbled something inaudible under her breath.
"You know you're tired so don't fight it. I won't have you up all night because you know Sundays are busy." Emily sighed and placed her head back on Gaby's chest, returning the squeeze she got from Shay's hand.
When the episode ended, Shay squeezed her hand and stood up, "Come on, I'll put you to bed" she told her, stretching in the process. "Come on" she stressed, waving her hand in the direction of the girl's bedroom.
Gaby kissed the top of her head, "Te amo" she whispered, and Emily stared. When was the last time she spoke Spanish? Certainly not for a few years. She went around and let Antonio kiss her cheek.
'G'night!" everyone yelled at her, receiving glares from her older sister. Emily smiled at the floor, waved them off and allowed Shay to take her hand and lead her to slumber. Shay sent her to the bathroom to wash up and closed the door to the room. She picked out clothes for her step-in sister and cracked the door to pass them to her. She laid back against the bed and stared at the ceiling, noting the same thing Emily had earlier when she woke up.
"Hey Em!" she yelled.
"Yeah?" Emily replied.
"We need to do something about your ceiling! You need new decals?"
"Christmas!"
"Too far!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yeah-huh!"
"Whatever" replied the almost-teenager, pulling the door open and tossing her clothes into the hamper. She lay next to Shay on the bed and stared at the peeling stickers.
"Can I ask you something?" the older woman asked.
"Is that a question, or are you going to ask anyway?"
"Why did you get so defensive about dancing?" Shay asked her hesitantly, almost regretting the words after she spoke them.
Emily didn't reply immediately. Instead, she pondered her answer, "Because… I don't know" she sighed and turned on her side to look at Shay, "You wouldn't have known if I hadn't gotten mad. You would have never gone deep enough to figure out that I did all these things. I got mad. It was mine, it is mine. It's just…like I said… you would have never found out…" a tear trailed from her eye, leaving a glistening streak.
"That's true but, I was only offering monkey, I want going to take it away. It will always be yours, no matter what. I wanted to help you keep it, help you get better. You need to know that, now that you've put it out in the open, and everybody knows and you don't have to hide it anymore, you can talk about it. You don't have to hid it." she added.
"So… I couldn't talk about it before?" she asked, immediately squeezing her eyes shut and regretting her words.
"That isn't what I'm saying and you know that" Shay reprimanded sharply. I deserve that, she thought. "You could have if you trusted us, if you felt like you could tell us. And you could, you need to know that. You could have and still can tell me or any one of the guys anything, you just choose not to. You have the right to your secrets, secrets are healthy. But not all secrets. Some of the secrets you kept, that you're still keeping, are not good secrets, they're not healthy. But it's your choice to keep them. You're just too damn good at it." Emily smiled at the last part and opened her mouth to talk, but closed it, not knowing whether she wanted to tell her that. She opened her eyes and peered into Shay's, letting another tear streak its way down her cheek.
"What? Hm? What is it monkey? What's wrong?" Shay asked sincerely, searching Emily's eyes for an answer.
She tried again, "There's…there's a competition…next weekend… a week from today…you guys… you guys can come if you want…" she paused, looking back up at Shay from when she tore her eyes away, "I…I want you guys to come… if you want…" She finished, still speaking slowly. Shay nodded, bent to kiss her forehead and let her lips linger there.
"'night monkey," she told her, standing and pulling the cover's to Emily's chin. Emily let out a heavy sigh and held the covers up for basil to crawl under. Shay opened the door, "See you tomorrow" she turned out the lights.
The door was almost closed; "Love you" Emily called
"Love you too monkey" Shay responded, pulling the door the rest of the way closed.
Back in the living room, Shay dropped next to Kelly on the loveseat and leaned halfway into his body, still sitting mostly straight. She took the time to stare off into space, unaware that people would notice.
"Shay? Shay, you alright?" Shay snapped from her trance to stare into Gaby's big brown eyes.
"What?" she responded absentmindedly.
"Are you okay?" Gaby repeated, looking concerned.
"She talked about dance…" the sentenced trailed.
"Oh?" Gaby looked intrigued, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees, her head in her fists.
"She said…she said she has a competition Saturday…next Saturday. That…that we could come…you know, if we wanted to."
"Oh" Gaby replied, flopping back into the couch and taking another sip of beer.
"we should go" Peter Mills added. Silence overcame them, the awkwardness filling the room.
"Alright" Gaby declared, patting her knees and bringing herself to a standing position, "We have a 24 tomorrow, how 'bout we all go home for a good sleep" she suggested, walking to the kitchen to place her bottle in the recycling bin.
The guys took the hint and began the long process of figuring whose jacket was whose and which size boots they wore and where they were. Kelly and chief were the last ones there; Kelly grabbed Shay's arm, "You staying here?" he asked. Shay nodded and he kissed her cheek before nodding at Gaby and stepping out.
The chief was last to leave of the fighters. Before heading out the door, he turned to Antonio and Gaby, "You need anything, you call" he told them, pointing between the pair of Latinos. Antonio nodded and shook his hand, closing the door behind him and turned to face Gaby.
"I should get going" he said. Gaby nodded while he grabbed his coat. Before he left, he took one more long look at her; her eyes had bags, her body language screamed exhausted, she stared at the floor with her shoulders raised and her gaze to the floor-she looked ready to collapse. Antonio stepped forward and pulled her into a hug, wrapping his arms securely around her shoulders and turning his head to press his lips against her hair. Gaby leaned into the hug, pressing her lips against his shoulder.
He pulled away and looked her in the eyes, "See you soon Hermana, love you. You need anything, you let me know alright?" she nodded and held the door for him, shivering once at the cold.
"Love you too Antonio" she waved and shut the door, taking the opportunity to lean her back against it and let out a big sigh. She pushed herself off the door and took slow, shaky strides into her room, placed the back on her knees against the edge of the bed, and allowed herself to fall back. Her back hit the mattress and she let out a puff of air, she too stared at the ceiling. The mattress shifted, alerting Gaby of Shay's presence next to her on the bed. Turning on her side, she looked at Shay, who coked her head to the side to try and read her best friend's emotions.
"What is it?" Gaby shook her head, but stopped to let a single tear fall down her cheek. "Yes, there's something, tell me" Shay pressed.
Gaby took in a breath of air, "It has been a very long, very stressful few days." She told Shay, letting out another large sigh.
"Preach honey, preach" Gaby looked at her. The look said "You're insane, what's wrong with you? Do I know you? Are you possessed?" they'd both held their serious faces for too long. Collapsing into a fit of giggles, troubles melted away for a few seconds, only to reappear in the silence following their few blissful seconds.
Back in Emily's room, she had trouble getting to sleep for the first few minutes, but it came easily after a revelation that gave her a new hope-there had been no flashback today.
So I hope you guys liked it. Once again, GO REREAD THREE BECAUSE I HAD PREVIOUSLY UPLOADED TE WRONG ONE! IMSOSORRY!
Please review, please like, and spread the word. We need more Chicago Fire stories because there are like…none. Thanks bunches. Love y'all!
M'hija- my girl
Hola- hi
Mi amor- my love
Je t'aime- I love you—the only French line
Te amo- I love you
Mona- monkey