Thank you for the awesome reviews, faves and follows. Well, on my birthday (today!) I have a little gift for you… an update. Thanks again to the readers – you make my day.

Kelly realized this was a long time coming.

"You do know you're guilty of these charges, right?" Erin repeated, pacing the floor of their living room. It had been a torturous wait till her husband got off shift; the detective getting all the information she could on his accuser in the meantime. Harrison had a clean record, traffic violation his biggest brush with the law.

Erin thought the initial arrest by Halstead would be it. Voight had gotten that cleaned off the books; it was over. Or so she thought. Now, actual charges being filed, maybe a civil suit for damages to the car.

"I'll take care of it. It's my problem," answered Kelly. He'd been expecting a rant since the night she came back from the cabin. It had never come. Until now.

"Your problems are my problems," Erin retorted. "And this one is going to cost us."

Kelly knew his wife's savings had been cleaned out by dear old dad, but he had a little nest egg. Lawyers' fees would have to come out of that.

"I screwed up. Just tryin' to help out Brett."

"Why you? Why do you have to always be the hero, Kelly? Look what it's done. We're going to be out thousands of dollars." She wanted to say more, but bit back the things eating at her. The way he went head first into everything, act first, think later. Yes, part of the attraction, she had to admit. But that part was wearing thin. All that talk about babies, about them being parents. How? When he was a child himself some of the time?

He had nothing to say. There was no answer. He knew he had that gotta save the world mentality, had it even in grade school. Never thought it was a problem. Until now.

Voight got involved without Erin knowing it. He was working with the judge… first, had Severide served with a summons not a warrant. Now he was digging up everything he could find on this piece of work called Harrison. So far, nothing.

"Lindsay, in my office."

"What's up, Hank?" she asked sitting in one of his chairs, running her hand through the front of her hair. She'd been a mess, coming in late, tired… not like the Erin Lindsay he'd watched her grow into.

"You okay?" he asked worried about the person he loved like a daughter, really was a daughter.

"Gettin' there," she answered honestly. "I just don't get why he had to do this. Use a damn fireman's tool on a guy's car he doesn't even know, all for a woman he just met."

"It's called a hero complex, kid. Firemen got it. Hell, we got," laughed Voight, thinking about some of the dumb moves he'd made, that had gotten him in deep with the Mrs.

His indiscretions usually involved way more than car damage.

"Cut him a break," offered Voight. "It came from a good place."

"A halligan to a car door came from a good place?" asked Erin.

"Yeah, I think it did."

"So I got this whole thing arranged, planned out, six nights, seven days." Kelly threw the printouts on the dining room table for Erin to see. He was hopin' this would improve her mood. She'd been upset about work, figured it was about Halstead, and ticked off at home, he knew because of the charges.

"How are you paying for this?" asked the brunette noticing the expensive looking resort featured prominently on the front.

"It's all good. Paid for." The grin spreading to his eyes almost broke her, got her to give in, say to hell with it, let's go. Almost.

"I hope you can get your money back because I'm not going anywhere until your turn as Rambo is resolved." Erin didn't touch the brochures, instead moving to the kitchen to make herself a salad.

"C'mon, babe. How long are you gonna be like this," Kelly tried going to her, wrapping his arms around her, kissing her on the back of the neck.

"The thing is … I think that everything is perfect, going our way and then…" Erin felt a lump forming in her throat, her voice raspier than usual.

"Nothing's ever gonna be perfect. I sure as hell ain't," Kelly said, holding her tighter. "But what we got is as perfect as it's gonna get. So quit bein' mad at me, kiss me, and let's do this thing."

"I wish it were that simple. The thing that pisses me off the most is that you seem blind to all that it's done."

"What's it done? Really? At the end of the day, what's it done?" Kelly asked feeling his temperature rise.

"You are kidding, right? What's it done? Well, let's take a look," Erin was boiling, her face was red, words rattling off at machine gun pace. "It's going to cost us a fortune to get you out of this. Beyond the money, you assaulted someone, vandalized his car. You showed no self-control. That's what scares me the most."

"I know you aren't saying that you're scared of me," Kelly said, not believing his wife's words.

"I'm not, but what you did has screwed everything up. My work is shit. Your work must be shit. You don't just go through life doing everything you want. You grow up and act like an adult."

"Wait a minute. Your work problems are my fault? You've gotta be shittin' me!" Kelly was desperately trying to keep his voice down.

"Yes! If you hadn't done this, none of that crap would be going on." Erin put her hands on her hips, settling in for battle.

"You know what? Forget I mentioned this," Kelly grabbed the printouts, crumpling them in his hands, heading to the trash can.

"Forgotten," retorted Erin slamming a tomato against the cutting board.

"Hey, wake up. Kelly," Erin whispered louder, shaking him. They'd been sleeping back to back, when she woke to an incessant buzz.

"Hmmmm? What?" Kelly mumbled more than half asleep.

"Your phone is blowing up. Get it," she snapped, rolling back over.

"Severide," he answered. "Brett, slow down. What's goin' on?"

Erin was up, flicking on the small lamp on her nightstand, waiting for him to hang up.

"Slow down, I caught about half that," he said, rubbing his eyes, getting up now.

"Give me fifteen. If he tries comin' up, call the police." Kelly hung up, heading for the bathroom.

"Let me guess. Hardison's back and sweet, little doe eyes is afraid of the big, bad, ex?"

"Doe what?" Kelly asked, rubbing his eyes till they were red.

"You cannot be that stupid you think you can go running over there and save blondie?" Erin got up and turned the bedroom lights on, the harsh light filling the room.

"I was planning on taking you with me. You and your badge." Kelly couldn't believe they were fighting about this.

"She needs to call 911 if she feels threatened. I am not going over there. We both need to stay far away from the situation. Kelly, all he needs is one more thing to get these charges bumped up."

"So we let Brett hang in the wind?"

"Yes. She's a big girl."

"I can't do that. We don't do that at 51," Kelly tried.

"You can call Boden, Casey, one of the other guys. It's not going to be you." Erin reasoned, her tone softening.

After a long pause… "You're right," Kelly admitted. "Sorry, wasn't thinkin.' I'll get chief on the phone."

Another call from Brett buzzed in before Severide could get anyone on the phone.

"What? You think he's in your apartment?"

Erin grabbed the phone out of Kelly's hand. "Sylvie, it's Erin. Get in a closet, somewhere you can hide. If he finds you, keep calm, tell him what he wants to hear. I'm on the way."

Kelly pulled on jeans, grabbing his boots.

"Oh no. You are staying here. I'll call you when I know something." Erin was dressed and out the door in two minutes … Voight, already heading to Brett's.

"No one was there. She imagined the whole thing." Erin was beyond tired, glancing at the time on her phone.

"I'll talk to her tomorrow 'bout callin' me, okay?" said Kelly, rubbing her shoulders. "Thanks for goin' over there and in case I didn't say it earlier, I'm sorry." Not as hard as he thought it would be.

"Mmmmm, that feels good." Erin had the chance she needed to cool down. Seeing Sylvie Brett hunkered down in her closet, scared out of her mind, helped to soften the detective. "No, I don't think you said that earlier. I'm sorry too. I don't think I said that earlier."

"You gotta be tired, right?" asked Kelly, a hint of something in his eyes.

"It's 3:00 a.m. Severide, so yeah I'm tired," laughed Erin, deciding it was impossible to stay mad at this man for long. "But what did you have in mind?"

She found out at 3:02.

Kelly had the conversation with Brett two days later after immense coaching from Shay. She knew Sylvie was crushing big time with Kelly clueless. Leslie also knew how much toughness her partner could take from the fireman. It wasn't much.

Brett's eyes filled with tears about thirty seconds in.

"Hey now, no reason for tears," Kelly tried, reaching for her hand. They were outside the station and she felt like she was getting dumped by a long-time boyfriend.

"I know I've been relying on you too much. It's not like we're even friends," she said, tears flowing now.

"Sylvie," Kelly said holding both hands now, "we are more than friends. You're family now. We all are in the house. Just with the charges..."

"No, I'm the cause of those charges … and you even got arrested," she was sobbing now. "And got your ass k – k – kicked."

"Hold up. I did not get my ass kicked. It was more of one shiner," Kelly laughed with Sylvie cracking her first smile. "Did I mention I was outnumbered?"

The blonde was laughing now, her admiration for the man in front of her growing. Kelly threw his arm around her, both laughing as they headed back in.

From across the street, a still in town Harrison watched the two, a clearer picture forming in his clouded mind. The other night he'd seen the dark haired girl show up, the one he knew was with the fireman. She brought some old guy with her. Some cops rolled up later, and they all talked in front for a while. She must be a cop, detective, something like that.

He was getting good at this surveillance thing, he mused. Soon he would act and get his Sylvie back. He repeated his mantra that he wasn't leaving Chicago without her.

As quickly as the charges had been filed, they were dropped.

Harrison gave all the appearances of a man who was going to get his ex back the old fashioned way … woo her with gifts, dinners out, and words that sounded perfect. He called Sylvie saying he was back in town and not leaving until she realized she was still in love with him. He even popped in at 51 apologizing to chief and to Severide.

Brett was wary at first, but let her loneliness and their past romance seep in, beginning to trust her ex a little more each day.

"Another lunch?" she asked watching Harrison bring in enough lasagna for the entire house.

"Feeling like I'm part of the gang now, hon. Your family's, my family," he said dumping the huge container on the dining room table. "You wanna help me with the salad and bread."

"Now, what's our problem with this guy again?" asked Mouch opening up the silver package with all the delectable smells.

Shay slammed the foil down. "We think he might be lying. We don't trust him. No matter how good his lunches are. Got it?"

"Got it. Can we eat now?" Mouch was reaching for a napkin and plastic ware. "Like the lunch but not the man. Understood."

Harrison and Sylvie were back with an elaborate salad and garlic bread.

"Almost forgot… one more thing," he smiled kissing the blonde on the cheek. She pulled away blushing. "Be right back," he said shuffling back to his car.

Everyone was busy opening containers, digging in, as Harrison made one side stop on the way to dessert – squad's truck. He was in and out quickly, no one the wiser.

"Cannolis!" announced the outsider who was making himself an insider through the stomach.

Kelly even reached for one, ignoring Shay's narrowed eyes.

"What? They're my favorites." He smiled shoving half of it in his mouth.

"Eat your dinner first. Dessert after," Leslie reprimanded as Kelly shoved the rest in his mouth.

Truck 81 … Ambulance 61 … Squad 3… Car off Lakeshore Drive, submerged…

"See, dessert first," Kelly said still chewing. "Never know when this is gonna happen."

"Mills, suit up, you're going with me. Capp, be ready too." Kelly tried not to grin with the enthusiasm in his youngest squad member. He always took Capp in the water. Always. Not this time. He was givin' Peter a chance to freeze his assets off. Capp deserved a break once in a while, he thought letting that grin form.

The car careened off Lakeshore Drive, eyewitnesses saying it was speeding, looked like a couple of teens inside.

Severide hopped out of the squad's truck in time to see the tires of the overturned car swallowed by the freezing, dark waters of the lake he oftentimes loved, but sometimes hated. Underwater calls were true adrenaline rushers, the high risk he loved, the low yield he hated. With fire, he knew he had minutes, with water, every second that much more precious. Victims were usually not pulled out alive, proof in the statistics they faced at the end of each year.

"On my hip," he called to Mills before jumping in. Peter nodded his head anxious to prove himself.

The car was sinking quickly, two tons of metal holding two young people, a girl and a boy. Kelly could see their panicked faces upside down in the sealed car, air sustaining them for the moment.

The car drifted down settling into a mass of metal grating, scrap dumped into the lake, finding a final resting place off the busy highway.

Severide couldn't get to the window, the metal blocking his way like a cage keeping the vehicle trapped. The teens could see him as he tried to tell them to calm down by giving them an okay sign. He kicked back to the surface.

"Capp, we need the diamond!" he yelled, knowing the saw was the only way to free the enclosed car and save the kids inside.

Kelly headed back down, Mills anxiously waiting for the tool. Severide mapped out the fewest cuts he could make, save as many seconds as possible. He pulled at the grating, testing its strength, impossible to move without that diamond. The water seemed colder than usual, Kelly chalking it up to the first water rescue of the winter.

Capp kicked down and passed off the saw … Mills took everything in as Kelly sliced through the metal like it was cheese. They pulled the square piece away roughly, with Pete helping to push his lieutenant through the opening. Kelly didn't feel the intense cold when the little tear in his suit become a larger one as it got caught in the freshly cut grating. He was too hyped up, the rush of being so close to the victims - the teens he was getting out of there.

Severide motioned for the kids that he was breaking the glass. With one smooth move, he crashed his small tool into the window, water rushing in. He pulled the girl out first, propelling her to Mills waiting at the opening. They floated to the top, Peter kicking furiously to get her out of the freezing water.

Severide grabbed the boy who already extricated himself out of the car. The cold was gripping at the fireman now rendering his legs ineffective, paralyzed with frigid temps. He used his arms to torpedo the young man through the opening, the teen kicking to the surface. Mills met him halfway, grabbing him by the jacket and hauling him to the surface.

"Where's Severide?" asked Boden concern growing in the no show of his lieutenant. The customary burst to the surface was taking longer than normal.

"Go! Go!" commanded Boden to Mills still in the water. The teens were stripped of their clothes and covered with warming blankets.

"Cough it out," encouraged Brett, looking around for the emerging figure of Severide. Shay was up by Boden's side, all the guys on truck waiting. "C'mon Kelly," Casey muttered to himself.

"Capp, get back in there," instructed chief, not liking how the seconds turned into minutes with still no lieutenant.

Kelly was looking at the grating and the opening right in front of him. His fingers hung on, positioned in the holes of the metal but doing nothing to help him through that opening. Suspended there, floating, fighting that cold. Losing.

Yes, leaving it there. Good news… I'll update soon. Hmmm, so Harrison involved or not? And poor, gorgeous, sweet, hero Kelly.