Chapter 16

Kelly strode up to Station 51...for his first shift as a father of four.

The past two weeks had been like a dream. Lexi had settled in beautifully. She was smiling and laughing and babbling non-stop... she was reaching out for Alyssa and Kelly...

The kids were loving every minute. Maggie was asking when Lexi could have a sleepover in her room...and Andy and Jesse fought over who was going to push the little pink "car" when he took the kids over to the park.

As much as he was loving all the good family time and bonding with Lexi...it was time to get back to work. Four kids was expensive.

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"Hey...look who decided to join us..." Hermann said as Kelly walked into the apparatus room.

"I suppose you'll want your seat back..." Clarke added.

He held out his hand and Severide returned the firm handshake.

"Thanks for coverin' for me...'' he said. "But the party's over, Ladies...I'm ready to crack the whip!"

There was some good natured laughter.

Casey came up behind the little group.

"So...how's it goin' with Team Severide?" he asked.

"It's good..." Kelly answered. "She's really a good baby."

"So when're we gonna get to meet her?" Hermann asked.

"We'll have everybody over soon...we just wanted some time for her to get used to us first." he said.

"We get it." Casey told him. "But now we got another kid to spoil...so be prepared."

That was how things worked at Station 51. Andy, Jesse, Maggie...and now Lexi were like everybody's kids.

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The team headed to the locker room to get changed and report for roll call.

Hermann slapped Kelly on the back...

"You still need one more...before you catch up to me, Lieutenant."

Hermann still held the record for the most kids...he was a father of five. His oldest son had another year of college left...and his youngest was about a year and a half older than the twins.

Severide laughed. He had often joked about how he wanted his own baseball team...or football team. He wasn't picky.

"That sounds like some kinda challenge."

"Eh...you got lucky with that "two-fer"."

Kelly laughed again.

"That wasn't luck...that was skill."

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They didn't have time to kid around...because in the middle of roll call the bells went off.

"Engine 51, Truck 81, Ambulance 61, Squad 3...multi-vehicle accident."

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'You know you're in trouble when you have to drive onto the off ramp to get to the scene...' Severide thought.

Everything was all turned around.

A young man...he couldn't have been more than twenty...came running up as Squad 3 jumped off the rig.

Kelly was directing his men to start going car to car...there were three separate crashes.

"Over there!" the guy said, gesturing wildly. "There's like a dozen people over there!"

Severide's head spun around on his shoulders and he saw a twenty year old SUV on the side of the highway...off in the grass, half up an embankment. It was sitting upright, but the roof was caved in...a sign that it had rolled at least two or three times.

Kelly started running.

"Mills! Clarke! Capp!" he called out. "I need you over here!"

Two civilians were trying to get into the car...trying to help the victims. But Severide didn't like the smoke coming from under the hood.

"Get back!" he yelled. "I want all civilians to clear the scene!"

He grabbed the first guy he could by the shoulders and propelled him away from the vehicle. Then he got a look at what he was dealing with.

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It was a mess. The backseat was a tangle of bodies...bleeding, broken...and screaming.

"¡Mi niño!" a woman wailed. "¿Está bien?

"¡Mamá!" A child cried. "¡Mamá! ¡Mamá!"

"Ernesto!"

The woman sprawled across the front seat was screaming the loudest.

"¿Dónde está mi bebé?" she cried. "¡Dónde está mi bebé!"

The only man in the whole wreck moaned incoherently.

"Get Dawson over here!" Severide hollered.

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He started tugging at the doors of the car.

Mills appeared beside him with a Halligan...and Kelly grabbed it out of his hands and used it to pry the back driver's side door open.

It was worse than he thought.

There were three adult females...and at least two children he could see.

"¡Ana!" one woman cried. "¡Ana! ¿Estás bien?"

"¡Mi bebé!" the woman in the front cried over and over.

Dawson came up beside him.

"Whaddya got?" she asked breathlessly.

"See for yourself..."

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"Severide!" Clarke hollered.

Kelly ran around the other side of the vehicle to where Clarke was trying to pry open the passenger side door.

"Look!" he said.

Kelly looked at the windshield...and the hole in it.

He turned his head to the right...following the trajectory path. He began running...and after he got about fifteen yards, he saw it...about five more yards in front of him.

"Shay!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. "Shay! Get over here!"

But there was no way she could hear him.

He came to an abrupt stop...and looked down at his feet.

Kelly felt his stomach heave...and the breath leave his body.

He backed away.

It was too horrible.

An EMT he didn't recognize came running past him...and he too skidded to a halt at the sight before him.

Kelly turned and ran back to the vehicle. There were people in there he could save.

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Dawson was trying to get something out of the driver.

"¿Qué pasa..?" the man mumbled. "¿Dónde estoy?"

"Señor...había un accidente..." Gabriella told him. "¿Le duele algo?"

She was asking him if he hurt anywhere.

"How many people are we looking for?" Clarke called out.

"¿Cuántas personas hay en el carro?" Dawson said as she tried to get the driver to stop fighting her.

"No sé...no sé..."

He didn't know...

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Chief came over to check on the rescue efforts.

"How many more ambulances are we getting?" Dawson asked.

"I called for six more..."

"We're gonna need more than that!" Mills hollered out. "There's a kid under all this..."

"Dispatch..." Chief said into the radio on his shoulder. "We need more personnel...we need more equipment! Roll every available unit in the vicinity!"

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You could have heard a pin drop as the team climbed down from the trucks and shrugged off their gear.

This was one of those scenes nobody was going to forget any time soon. Maybe not ever.

The SUV had blown a tire and gone careening out of control. It clipped a cement median and flipped over...rolling twice before the terrified driver gunned the engine so it ran off the highway before coming to rest halfway up the grassy knoll.

There were ten people crammed into that car...three women squished together in the backseat with four kids on their laps. In the front was the man and his wife...who was holding their baby in her arms.

Nobody had a seatbelt on...and obviously there were no car seats.

The sight of the SUV going all over the road had forced half a dozen drivers in the vicinity to slam on their brakes...resulting in three more crashes. A total of eleven cars in all...nineteen casualties...eight critical...and two victims...both children... were pronounced at the scene.

One was a little boy...not much bigger than Lexi.

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Kelly pulled his phone from his pocket.

"Hey..." he said when the call went through.

"Kelly...are you okay?"

That was the first thing Alyssa always asked...every time he called her from work.

"I'm fine...physically, at least."

"What do you need?" she asked.

She knew him...so well.

"You think maybe...you could bring the kids over?" he asked.

He needed to see his children...to hug his boys...to hold his girls.

"Kelly..."

"Lyssa...I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important..."

There was a moment of silence on her end.

"Lyssa?" he asked, uncertain if the call might have dropped. "You still there?"

"Yeah..." she answered. "Give me about forty-five minutes...and I'll be there."

"Thank-you..."

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He headed into the locker room where the rest of the men were moving like molasses...everybody was processing what they'd seen...heard...and everybody had their own way of doing things.

Clarke...the former Marine...was already grabbing his stuff and heading for the showers. Hermann was mouthing something...Kelly didn't know if they were curses or prayers. Cruz's movements were slow and deliberate.

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Kelly's eyes fell on a man sitting at the end of the row...and he wove his way through the bodies to get to him.

"Hey...Dec...you doin' okay?" he asked his seventeen year old nephew.

Declan had finished his first year with the CPFTA right where he wanted to...at the head of the class. The kid was already half-way to achieving the goal he had set out in Boden's office a year ago. He wanted to be the best Candidate the instructors had ever had...and he was working his ass off. And he was rewarded with a plum assignment for his internship.

'How I spent my summer vacation'...riding Truck 81.

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"Uncle Kelly..." Declan said as he looked up.

"You okay?" Kelly asked again.

Dec had just started his internship the week before...and this was only his third shift with the team. And it was his first big scene.

Kelly was worried about what he might have seen.

Every firefighter had to come to grips with the demands placed on him by the job. The Academy trained them to use the tools...to climb the ladders...to get comfortable in the gear...and to walk into danger any sane person would run from. You had to learn to trust your training...but more to trust the man on either side of you. And you had to learn to check your ego at the door.

To be able to save the life of another human being is a privilege. And sure, it felt good after it was all said and done...but when the shit was coming down and you were right in the thick of things...the last thing on your mind was how great you were.

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"I'm okay..." he said slowly.

"What'd you do?"

"Whatever Lieutenant Casey told me. I helped stabilize a couple of the vehicles...pried open a couple doors...assisted some of the victims over to the triage area."

Rookie stuff. Nothing too bad. Nothing too gruesome.

Severide was pretty sure only he and the nameless EMT had seen the worst part of it.

"Okay...good...good job." Kelly said. "Get cleaned up...we got work to do."

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The men were busy with the various chores they had to do after a run. They were cleaning the rigs...cleaning off the gear...checking tanks...when Andy and Jesse came running up the drive toward the open doors.

Maggie was chasing along behind 'em...calling out

"Wait for me! Wait for me!"

Kelly caught his boys in a quick but fierce hug...then crouched down to scoop Maggie into his arms when she eventually caught up to her brothers.

"There's my Baby Girl!" he said as he hugged her close.

Maggie wrapped her arms around his neck as he approached Alyssa.

She was carrying Lexi...and the diaper bag they had to haul everywhere they went again.

He leaned down to kiss her before he took the heavy bag off her shoulder and transferred it to his own.

"Thanks for comin', Babe..." he said softly.

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

"There's no doubt in my mind." he told her.

He put his arm around her and guided her toward the house.

"Look who's here..."

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The entire team dropped whatever it was they were doing and crowded around Kelly and Alyssa. Otis held out his hands to Maggie, and Kelly passed her off. Then he dropped the bag...and reached out to take Lexi from his wife.

"Is this Lexi?" Hermann asked...smiling at the little girl.

"This is her..." Severide answered with a smile. "Can you say 'hi', Lexi?"

He took her hand in his and waved it up and down.

"Say 'Hi, Uncle Chris...' "

Lexi gave a big smile.

"Look at those teeth..." Hermann said.

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Then something caught the baby's eye.

She squealed happily and pointed at the trucks...her eyes wide with excitement.

"Do you see the fire trucks?" Kelly asked...taking a couple steps closer to Squad 3. "You wanna see Daddy's fire truck?"

He walked up to the Squad and Lexi reached out to touch the driver's side door.

"Pretty cool...huh?"

The baby gurgled.

Clarke came up behind Severide and reached up to open the door. He held out his hands to take the baby and Kelly quickly climbed up behind the wheel.

Clarke passed Lexi up to him and he settled her in his lap.

The little girl's eyes lit up as she grabbed the steering wheel and started to make the "engine" sound Andy had been working on teaching her.

Clarke just about doubled over with laughter...and the rest of the team crowded around.

"Yeah...she's a firefighter's kid all right!" Hermann laughed. "She'll fit right in."