Doing a version of the upcoming episode was pretty hard, since I had very little information about it, but I tried! I was supposed to upload it earlier today but as the idiot that I am, I forgot my keys and was locked out for a few hours until my roommates came back. But here it is, just in time!
Kelly woke up to the sound of shuffling in the room. He turned his head and saw Erin getting ready for work, taking her credentials from the drawer of the bedside table.
"Morning," he murmured, catching her attention. "You're off to work?"
The brunette nodded and sighed, "Not all of us have the day off, mister."
He caught her waist and pulled her down so she laid on top of him. "Oh, how I wish you had the day off too."
She leaned down and kissed him quickly. "Too bad for you. I'll see you tonight then?"
He kissed her again, "You bet. Be careful out there."
She paused and locked eyes with him. "I will. Love you."
"Love you too."
She stood up, took jacket and pulled her over her shoulder before sending him a wink and walking out of the room. He sighed and stretched, then reached for his phone, shooting a call to Shay. He waited three beeps before she answered.
"Hello?" Came a raspy voice on the other end of the phone.
"Sorry, did I wake you?"
"Hold on a sec," she whispered. He heard another voice, shuffling and footsteps, a door closing and then, "What's up?"
He grinned cheekily, "I take it your date with Nadia went well last night."
"Kinda," he could hear the happiness in her voice, and he couldn't help but smile wider.
"Cool," He said. "Are we still on for ring shopping this afternoon?"
"Yeah, sure. Where do you wanna meet?"
"You tell me, jewelry stores are not my kind of deal."
He could picture her roll her eyes right then, "Right, I know a nice one. Meet me at my apartment, I don't want to walk."
He chuckled, "Alright, princess."
He went out for a run, worked out, and took a quick shower and breakfast before leaving his apartment to go pick up Shay. When he got there, he saw her on the front porch saying goodbye to Nadia. The other woman left, and Kelly got out of the car, walked up the steps to Shay's house and shared a hug with his best friend.
"Coffee?" She asked.
"Yeah, sure." They got inside the house and Shay poured him a cup of steaming coffee.
"So Nadia, huh?"
A shade of pink appeared on the blonde's cheeks as she smiled and looked looked down at her own cup of coffee. "Yeah."
He squeezed her shoulder, "I'm happy for you, Shay. I hope it will go somewhere."
The blonde nodded, "Me too. So, do you have any idea of what type of ring you wanna buy?"
He shook his head, "Not a freakin' one. I mean, does she like princess cut, or round cut, emerald or sapphire..."
"Wow, I'm actually kinda impressed that you know all these names."
He looked at her sheepishly. "I had no idea until an hour ago. I did some research."
Shay nodded proudly, "Okay, let's do it."
They both went to a jewelry store in the center of the city, where the store employee laid out the different types of engagement rings they had, and Kelly tried to imagine each one on Erin's finger. He knew she would want something discreet, not too big, and simple. Of the seven laid out in front of him, the one on the left caught his eye, and he knew it was the one.
He locked eyes with Shay and she nodded, smiling brightly. He pointed at the round, simple diamond engagement ring and looked at the seller. "That's the one."
It was a little over his budget, but it was the one that he wanted to see on Erin's finger every day. They ordered it in Erin's ring size (he had 'borrowed' one from her stash) and had a month delay to come pick it up.
After dropping Shay up at her place, Kelly dropped his car off at the tow shop for its yearly routine control. He decided to take the subway to go back home, and, after stepping into one of the wagons and sitting down, he pulled out his phone to send a text to Erin.
How's your day going?
Her response was almost immediate, meaning she was either doing paperwork or on a coffee break. She would never respond to a text message while out on a case.
Boring. I feel like my head is about to explode if I keep doing paperwork.
He chuckled, Chicago has plenty of criminals, I don't think you'll be bored that long. Anything specific you want for dinner tonight?
You're cooking?!
He rolled his eyes. Haha, very funny.
I'm craving homemade pizza. Is that on your recipe list, chef?
He was about to respond when a gun shot rang from afar. His head snapped to the left, and he saw two people running past him, screaming something about someone shooting. He stood and saw more people running away. He wouldn't know what made him walk toward the danger, but he was doing it and before he realized it, he was standing a couple feet away from an injured woman, crouched down on the floor, holding her stomach.
His instincts kicked in and he rushed to her, kneeling down to observe the wound. "You're okay, you're okay, I'm just gonna take a look," he lifted the shirt off her back and sighed in relief, then locked eyes with the woman. "The bullet is through and through, that's a good thing."
He stood and pulled out his phone, speed dialing Erin. Thankfully, she picked up on the second ring.
"Missing me already?"
He tried to be as quick and clear as possible. "Erin, I need you to send a patrol as quick as you can. There were gunshots fired on the train 2509 two minutes ago. The driver is injured."
"What? Kelly, where are the shooters? Are they still on the train?!"
"I don't know, right now I'm taking care of the injured woman. Do I stop the train or not?" Kelly stopped short when he saw a black man at the end of the wagon, his gun pointed at him. He pulled the phone off his ear.
"Kelly? Kelly?!"
He heard the distant voice of his girlfriend as he set the phone down, never breaking eye contact with the other man. Kelly raised his hands above his head and slowly walked toward him.
"Look, I don't want any trouble. All I wanna do is help her."
"Shut up!" he shouted. "You're not supposed to be in here! Stop walking or I'll shoot you."
Kelly did as he was told, but he was now standing three feet away from the kid. "How old are you? 16? You don't wanna do this. You can still get away from this. I told you, all I care about, is helping her," he heard her labored breathing behind him.
"You think I don't know you gonna tell the cops on me? I ain't stupid."
Severide took a timid step ahead, immediately stopping when the kid shook his gun at him. "I just care about this woman's life. Let us go."
He rose the gun in front of Severide's face, and the lieutenant took his chances, lunging at him and pinning his armed hand on the train window. They struggled for a few seconds. Severide received a blow to his cheekbone, but swung right back, hitting the other guy right in the jaw.
He seemed to be a bit weakened by it so Severide connected his knee to his stomach. He kicked the gun out of his hand and knocked him down with a blow to his head using the side of the gun.
Insuring he would be down for a while, Severide tucked the gun in the front of his pants and rushed back at the end of the wagon. His took his phone off the floor and charged a map of the train track to see where they were exactly.
He pulled the emergency rope just after passing a station and the train came to a slow stop.
"Come on, let's get out of here," he told the woman. "You think you can walk?"
"I think so," she whimpered. He helped her stand up and pulled the driver's door open, getting down first and helping her afterwards. They still had a couple hundred feet to walk before they could reach the station, and Severide braced himself as they started walking -he supporting her weight-, hoping the police was on its way.
He did not know how many they were, and although he had a gun on him, he had never used one before, and he was not ready to kill anyone today.
"Come on, we can do this," he said. "My name is Kelly, I'm a firefighter."
The woman winced in pain and leaned against him. "I'm Audrey, and I've had better days."
Severide chuckled. "I'm gonna get you out of here. As long as you stay with me, we're making it to the station and to safety."
When they reached the station, Severide winced, realizing they were not going to end up in the best neighborhood of Chicago. He helped her up the stairs and told her to sit still while he climbed a little bit ahead to see what was going on.
When he turned around the corner, he came face to face with another gun pointed directly at him and he thought he needed to stop ending up in those kind of situations. That time, it wasn't just one guy, but three, and Severide had no choice but to put his hands up.
"My boy Travis told me you had knocked him out," he spat, waving his gun at him. "That ain't nice. Get on your knees," Severide didn't move, and kept his hands above his shoulders, trying to think of a plan. "Now!"
"Alright, alright," He said, slowly getting down on his knees. The next thing he felt was a sudden pain on the side of his face where the back of the gun had connected with his temple. He saw black for a minute, before being pulled back upright by the collar. "Just let me go, I won't give you any trouble."
He heard one of them snicker and doubled over when another of the gang swung his fist in his stomach. He coughed and was once again pulled upright.
"Alright, Travis, wanna finish the job?"
The kid he had taken down earlier appeared in front of him and took his gun back from Severide. The lieutenant heard the safety switch being switched off and-
"CHICAGO PD, PUT THE GUN DOWN!"
He thought it was Antonio's voice but he was not sure. Everything that happened next was a blur. He heard footsteps running away and gun shots being fired, but everything snapped back into focus only when he saw Lindsay kneel down in front of him.
"Are you injured?" She said urgently, cupping his face, forcing him to look at her. His head was killing him, his stomach was hurting too, but he considered himself lucky to see her face again, when he thought that that morning had been the last time he had had that chance.
"No, I'm okay," His thoughts went back to Audrey and hastily tried to get up. "There's an injured woman down the stairs-"
"The EMT's are taking care of her," she said, stopping him in his tracks. "Don't ever scare me like that, alright?"
He nodded and rested his forehead against her shoulder, worn out by the day's events. When his heartbeat had slowed back down to normal, he stood up with Lindsay's help and saw Audrey being pulled up on a gurney.
"She'll be fine," One of the EMT's said. "Thanks to you."
Audrey grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "Thank you, Kelly."
He smiled and squeezed back. "Take care of yourself."
They wheeled her away, and when Kelly turned back around to Erin, Voight was standing by her side while the three men of th gang were being taken away in handcuffs.
Voight extended his hand, "Good job, Kelly. One of them already had a few murders under his belt and now we've caught him. Thanks to you."
Kelly accepted the handshake. "I was just here at the wrong moment and wrong time."
Voight nodded. "It took balls, what you did. But I guess it comes with the job."
"Yes sir," he said. "And thank you. But I think guns and gangs aren't for me. I'll leave that part to you."
They got home later that day, just as the sun was beginning to set. Erin drove, and stole quick glances to her boyfriend every now and then, making sure he was okay.
"Here," She said once they had made it to their apartment, taking a bag of frozen peas from the freezer. He sat on a stool and she gently pressed it to his temple. He winced in pain, causing her to chuckle. "You big baby."
He pinched her side playfully, and she laughed, but he could still tell that she wasn't in her normal state. He gently pulled her hand off his bruise and set the bag of peas the counter.
"Hey," he whispered, pulling her closer. "I'm okay."
She nodded as she closed her eyes and a few tears escaped. "I know, I just-" She took a deep breath. "I was so scared when the phone call ended. I didn't know where you were, and what you were dealing with and I-I... I panicked. I snapped at everybody at the unit and I couldn't think straight."
He took her hand and placed a kiss upon her knuckles, "I'm still here," he murmured. He stood and pulled her into his arms, letting her rest her head against his chest, simply appreciating the feeling of having her in her arms when afew hours earlier, he thought he would never be able to do that again.
"Erin, baby," he said lowly, pulling away from her, his hands on her arms. "Today has taught me a lot about not to take anything for granted. And although I already knew it, it has dawned onto me that we both have dangerous jobs. I know it might be too soon, but when it's meant to be you just know it, right? So..."
"Kelly," She said, her eyes widening when he got down on one knee. Her heartbeat rate increased as he started speaking.
"I am and have been in love with you for a quite some time now, and I can't imagine myself being with another woman, nor can I imagine another day calling you my girlfriend and not my fiancée. So I am asking you, Erin, baby, will you marry me?"
She was not crying, but her hazel eyes had got quite a spark upon hearing him say those words.
"Stand up, please," she requested, and his smile faded, thinking what an idiot he was for skipping steps. He did as he was told, and she stood on the tip of her toes to press her lips to his in a slow long kiss, that left him speechless.
She rested her forehead against his then, "Yes, of course I will marry you."
He pulled her into his arms and lifted her up lightly, giving her another, shorter kiss. When he set her down on her feet, he grew more serious. "I'm sorry, I don't have the ring. I wanted to wait a little bit more but after today I just couldn't."
She cupped his face, "I don't need a ring, Kelly."
He stopped her by placing a finger over his lips. "I won't have it. I bought it this morning, but they didn't have your size. So I'm having it made."
She shook her head at him in amazement, "How did you even know my ring size?"
"Oh, I borrowed one of your rings."
"You sneaker," she rasped out. She kissed him again, and he savored the taste of her lips. "I love you."
He pulled her closer, if that was even possible. "I love you too."
That night they did not have a homemade pizza. Instead, they had dinner at a nice restaurant, Kelly insisting it was the least he could do after proposing to her before a ring. He did not have any regret though, to have proposed sooner than planned;
Because it felt damn good to be able to call her his fiancée.
TADAAAM. Incredibly cheesy, right? But I loved writing it, I hope you loved reading it just as much! I always appreciate your great feedback, thanks y'all!