Chapter 4

The sun was just starting to paint the sky when Squad 3 pulled back into Station 51. Severide slid slowly out of the passenger seat until he felt his feet touch the apparatus room floor. A few hours before he had sprung up from his rack in his quarters...hit the ground running...adrenaline coursing through his veins. And now he was moving like a man twice his age. He was exhausted...but worse than that, he felt defeated.

The other men felt it too.

He shrugged off his bunker jacket and yanked his red suspenders off his shoulders, shoving his pants down his legs until he stepped out of his boots. He stuffed his feet into his waiting shoes and trudged toward the locker room along with everyone else.

The mood was somber as the team cleaned themselves up...then collapsed onto their respective bunks.

Except for Severide. He headed back to the apparatus room and flopped down in the ugly green recliner parked beside Squad's sacred table and pulled out his phone.

He knew it was too early to be calling...but he didn't care.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Kelly?"

He could hear the panic in his wife's voice as the call was answered before the second ring.

"Hey..." he said softly.

"Are you okay?" Alyssa asked. "Is everything all right?"

"I'm fine." he told her reassuringly. "I just...needed to hear your voice."

Thirteen blocks away, Alyssa let out the breath she'd been holding.

Calls in the middle of the night sent her heart racing a mile a minute...even when it was Kelly calling her himself.

"What's goin' on, Honey?"

"Is everything okay at home?" he asked. "Are the kids all right?"

"They're fine..." she told him.

"Can you go check on 'em? Please?"

Something in his voice made her get up out of bed, and slowly make her way down the hall.

"Kelly...just tell me what's wrong." She said quietly.

"I just want to know the kids are okay..."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Alyssa silently opened the door to the twins' room...and approached her sleeping sons. She was reassured by the sounds of their breathing...in perfect unison.

"The boys are fine." she said as she closed the door behind her. "I'm going in Maggie's room right now."

The glow of the butterfly nightlight filled the room and Alyssa crept over to the day bed on the far wall. She skirted around the open trundle...in case the little girl would roll out of bed in the middle of the night...and gently caressed Maggie's silky soft baby curls. She heard the tiny, slurpy noises as Maggie sucked on her title thumb.

Back in the hall, she carefully shut the door...not making a sound...and headed back to her own room.

"Everybody's safe and sound, Kelly. Now...tell me what that was all about."

She heard a deep sigh on the other end of the line.

"I'm sorry I was such an ass this morning..."

"Honey...you just caught me by surprise." she said. "That's all..."

"I love you...you know that? Right?"

"Kelly...you're really freakin' me out, here. What's goin' on?"

"We just got back from a call..." he told her. "And it was...really..."

"I understand, Baby."

After a dozen years together she could decipher the code.

They had had a call...and it involved a child...or children. And the outcome was not necessarily good.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They talked a few minutes more...and once they hung up, Severide hauled himself out of the chair and headed for the office. He had an after-action report to write.

The twins were waiting for him when he walked in the back door.

"Dad!" Andy cried as he ran over to Kelly.

Kelly took a step back and held out his hand...and Andy skidded to a halt with Jesse a step behind. He was still trying to break them of the habit of plowing into him. He'd been trying for a while now...and when they boys got excited they sometimes forgot.

"Can you take us to Open Gym at school today?" Andy asked.

"Yeah...we wanna play basketball!" Jesse added.

"I think we can make that happen..." Kelly told them.

The boys let out a cheer and ran back through the house.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Maggie slid down the stairs on her bottom and landed right at Kelly's feet.

"Daddy!" she cried happily as she popped up onto her feet.

"There's my Princess!" he said as he scooped her into his arms and hugged her.

"Play with me?"

"What do you want to play?" he asked.

"Crayons?" she said.

"You wanna color? Sure...you go get everything set up..." he said as he set her back on her feet. "Where's Mommy?"

"Uh-stairs."

Kelly gave Maggie a gentle swat on the bottom to send her on her way, then he headed upstairs to find his wife.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Alyssa was pulling her hair back into a pony tail when he came up behind her.

"Hey..." he said.

She turned around and found herself enveloped in a hug that lifted her off her feet.

"Hey..." she replied.

He set her down...then leaned down to pull her in for a deep, all consuming kiss. He needed to feel her...he needed to know that she was there...that they were okay. He needed her to know how very much he loved her and that he couldn't live without her.

When they reluctantly came up for air, he pulled her close and just breathed in the lemon scented shampoo he loved so much.

"Are you okay, Baby?" Alyssa asked as she traced one finger gently down his cheek.

"I am now..." he answered.

He took a step back.

"Let's go out tonight...I'll find someone to watch the kids. I want a date with my wife."

"Okay..."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The day passed in a whirlwind of activity.

After coloring and playing with puzzles with Maggie, the twins sat down and joined them for a game of Candyland while Alyssa got lunch on the table.

And then Kelly took Andy and Jesse over to St. Pasqual's and played basketball for a couple of hours. He loved having that time to bond with his kids and make memories with them that would hopefully last a lifetime.

If the last year had taught him anything, it was that tomorrow's never guaranteed. He went to work one morning like he'd done thousands and thousands of times...and he almost didn't get to come home.

His mind turned to the fire last night...and the little boy. The kid never had a chance. Never even had a chance to grow up. There was something sinister...something ominous about the whole thing and Kelly knew they hadn't heard the whole story yet. And honestly he wasn't sure he wanted to.

He actually shuddered as he remembered the woman standing by the car. She had her coat on...and the baby was all bundled up against the March cold. Who takes time to do that?

"Dad? What's wrong?" Jesse asked. "Are you cold?"

Kelly snapped back to the present.

"No...I'm okay, Jess." he told his son. "Let's work on your free-throws..."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That night he and Alyssa sat at a corner table in their favorite Szechwan restaurant.

Kelly chuckled to himself.

"What's so funny Severide?"

"I was just thinkin'...our kids are prob'ly the only kids in Chicago who get babysat by a couple of TV stars..."

The babysitters de jour were Morgan Craddock and his on and off screen girlfriend Shaina Weathers. Kelly had made a lifelong friend when he "trained" Hollywood to play Lieutenant Aaron Whitlock on the television show Chicago Fire...now in its third season. And Hollywood had made the Severides his family in the Windy City.

"They just think it's normal..." Lyssa said with a smile.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After their meal Alyssa reached across the table for Kelly's hand.

She squeezed it reassuringly and began to rub gentle circles across the back of it with the pad of her thumb. And he began to tell her about the call...and the little boy.

Mason. That's what the neighbor said his name was. And he was six years old...

"And there was somethin' else..." he told her.

Something that had been bothering him.

"The woman...the one with the baby. When I walked past her...I saw a baby carrier in the back seat."

"That doesn't sound unusual."

When you had a baby you had car seat in the car.

"But we always popped the carrier out of the base." Kelly said. "We...and everybody else we know...carried the baby in and out of the house in the seat. And left the base in the car. I'm tellin' you, Lyssa. Somethin's way off."