Thank you to all my regulars who love Linseride and leave me a positive word with each update. You are awesome, smart and funny, and I love reading your thoughts. To my 'no account' friends - Aryal, EKFan, RIPShay, jdubbs, Jackie, ErinSeveride, and guests - wow, thanks for the kind words that make me want to write Linseride forever.
Hope you enjoy this little update!
"He won't let me touch him, won't let me call 911, won't let me do a damn thing. Said he needs to sleep it off," Erin spat out, opening the front door before Cally's foot hit the last step up to the Severide place.
"This is ridiculous," Cailin exclaimed, rushing headfirst to her friend's bedroom.
"Whoa, babe, hold up," Clarke said catching his wife's arm. "I'm goin' in."
He slowly creaked the door open, letting out a sigh of relief seeing his friend in boxers on top of the sheets. Jeff walked over to Kelly, unsure if he should sit on the bed or just hover over him. He settled on standing, clearing his throat.
Severide's eyes flew open recognizing a male throat clear.
"Shit," he rumbled angrily. "Clarke, I'm fine. Go home."
"I plan on it. Just need to see you get out of that bed, move around a little, then I'm outta here."
Kelly exhaled loudly. Fight or flight. Right now he could do neither. "Give me a minute."
"Where you hurtin'?" Clarke asked hesitantly, fearing the worst.
"My junk's fine, it ain't that. Think I pulled somethin', lower back maybe."
"Not your neck? You sure?" Jeff asked doubtfully.
"Positive."
"What do you wanna do?"
Clarke agreed to getting him up hoping it wasn't a colossal mistake, moving him around trying to work out the tightness.
"I am so sick of this shit," Kelly said, not believing that an under the sheets session with the most beautiful woman he knew would lead to this, hobbling around like a man thirty years his senior. He also sensed Erin was sick of this shit too.
"I can imagine," agreed Jeff although he couldn't. He'd been out with his shoulder but not this long, never a question of him returning.
Both women barged in, Erin's jaw so tight, concern etched in the corners of her eyes.
"Should I call Shay or Brett?" asked Cailin trying to get a read from Jeff on how serious it was. "or 911?" she added slowly studying her friends, feeling like the girl who didn't get invited to the party.
"No one," Kelly and Erin answered together. Erin pictured little doe eyes fawning over her husband and her hand went instinctively to where her gun usually resided. No, she didn't need that right now. And Kelly had no desire to listen to the snorts of laughter coming from his best friend after she established he was not really broken. He could hear the cackles over his injury inducing sexcapades with his wife.
"I'll call the doc tomorrow, sure he'll fit me in and tell me everything's good," Kelly smiled at the suspicious eyes on him. "So, Clarke's, I love ya, but go home."
On the way to the car, Jeff grabbed Cailin's hand, speaking first… "I love you, babe." He brought her hand to his lips, small smile on his face.
"Back at you, cowboy," Cally reciprocated confused at the declaration right now.
"But…" he added, "if you ever break me let's just keep it between the two of us."
Cally put a hand on her mouth stifling her laughter until she slammed the car door. The laughter that would boom inside the confined space echoing throughout. Echoing inside their home as Jeff shut the front door in a rush. And echoing under the sheets sporadically as she worked so hard he thought maybe she was trying to break her cowboy.
Kelly felt a stab of disappointment when Dr. Stinson told him to lay off any PT for a couple of days, only amplified by the empty apartment greeting him after his appointment. Erin took off, Voight's call sounding urgent. What the hell could be so pressing about a dead college kid? He was dead. Instead of pushing it, Kelly'd given her a long kiss to show he was fine.
There was more than the disappointment of having to take it easy… he missed Javier. Plain and simple, he was lonely. When the little guy got home from school around 3:00, they would share a snack, and talk about the Cubs, the Hawks, whatever… that was the highlight of Severide's day until Erin made her way home. Now he only had his hamster wheel. Sure, the guys came over on their days off, but they all had their own lives. Clarke didn't want to sit around watching ESPN with a dude when he could be saddled up next to his beautiful blonde, not to mention what a time sucker that house was. Kelly labeled it the money pit, much to Cally's chagrin, but he knew every second Jeff was plopped next to him on the couch was a second he was thinking about making some home improvement. Manny had his own family with a load of girls into everything from dance to soccer to gymnastics. Casey was good for a day or two, but he was drawn by the Clarke money pit also, coming up with ideas for his childhood friend to approve or cut Shay… Shay. He took the cruel fact that he was no longer her number one like those bitter pills he swallowed down each day.
Kelly had to admit, it was more than just having someone around. He liked the kid. Manners like he'd gone to some freaking boarding school, a quiet sweetness about the boy. Ready to get a water, a towel for the fireman, the love of sports, especially baseball, and even the way he tattled to Erin.
"So what have you boys been up to?" asked Erin dragging herself in after a day of visiting with three very different, but all uber intellectual forensic experts, each having their own opinion on the Chase Traviani maybe suicide. Her brain hurt from the inside out.
Javi was stirring spaghetti sauce while Kelly assembled what had the makings of a salad. He was chopping celery with a pained look on his face.
"Hey, take a load off. I'll finish," Erin said dropping her purse on the couch and heading to the kitchen. She wrapped her arms around him feeling up and down the length of his body, doing that old, Erin body check that had been missing for months. Kelly smiled at how she started it back up again even though his riskiest maneuver was getting in and out of the shower. How he'd loved the move when he came in from a long shift. I'll get there, he told himself.
She moved over to Javi giving him a quick squeeze. "So what'd you learn today?" she asked.
His mouth became a non-stop motion machine, the quiet demeanor falling away with one look at the hazel eyes and dimpled smile waiting for him to answer.
"... and I learned that Mr. Kelly is good to drive now." Javi tried to take the heavy pot of pasta to the sink with Erin grabbing it from him.
"Really?" she asked giving her husband a look that said there would be no risk of duplicating her moves from the other night. "When did this happen?" she questioned Javi, the narrowed eyes saying there would be no risk of him not answering.
"Um, today," the little boy answered softly. "We didn't have that bread you like, so Mr. Kelly went to get it."
Erin rattled the empty pot in the sink, looking at the fireman who was now concentrating mightily on the tomatoes he was chopping. She knew that old bucket of bolts Benny dropped off in front of their house last week was nothing but trouble.
"So what did Dr. Stinson say when he apparently called you to tell you that driving was A-okay? Hmm?" her hand was now on her hip in that teacher stance that said you are going to the principal's office.
"Gotta pee," Javi sputtered out, almost running to the bathroom.
"Let's not blow this outta proportion," Kelly tried, shooting the boy a look, Javier not raising his head as he scuttled off. "You know damn well Stinson didn't call me. I ran out, got the French bread, came back in one piece. It's all good."
"It won't happen again though, right, Kel? Because I love you and after the other night… I don't know what I'd…" she couldn't finish.
"Nope. One time thing. If you need bread, you can get off your ass and get it yourself," he teased, taking her face in his hands laced with juice from the tomatoes. She brought one finger to her mouth, licking off the remnants of tomato, just as Javi bounded back in the kitchen.
"Sorry," the boy mouthed behind Erin's back.
Kelly mouthed, "You're dead meat" wrapping his hands around an imaginary neck out of his wife's sightline.
Erin spun around wondering what the two boys were laughing at now, having a feeling she was the brunt of it, and not caring one bit.
Now facing an empty apartment, Severide sighed heavily hopping off the banned treadmill wondering what the heck he was gonna do for the next three hours. He couldn't tackle the machine, not after Erin strapped that thing on his ankle. He'd tried to argue that it wasn't exercise equipment that almost sent him to the hospital, but she wasn't listening.
It was like those keys to the clunker were calling his name, in the voice of a damn seven-year-old kid. He threw on his jacket, grabbing them, lying to himself that he was running out to pick up a snack. He drove not thinking, not remembering the road he'd traveled to get to his destination, but there he was parked in front of Javier's new home, the little boy and his new family inside.
Kelly inhaled sharply knowing he should just turn the car around and get his ass back home, but something made him get out, walk up the long narrow path of cracked cement and ring that doorbell.
What answered the door made him think he'd gone to the wrong house. This couldn't be where they dropped off Javier.
"Whaddya want?" a heavyset man asked, the smell of a brewery lingering in the air. Kelly stood in stunned silence taking in the white wife beater he was wearing, sweat plastering it to a swollen belly, hair sprouting from every exposed area. Red spots littered the front of it, Severide wondered if that was some kind of sauce or maybe blood?
"What the hell do ya want?" he asked again, his face contorted, showing an annoyance that said he was up to something important.
"Uh, I think I got the wrong…" Kelly began, ready to turn around, but a pair of dark brown eyes caught his attention from behind the couch. "What the…" the fireman pushed the door in catching a glimpse of Javi ducking back down.
The man bumped up against Kelly, banging him against the wall. "Whaddya think you're doin? Get the hell outta…" He tried to push Severide again, missing in a drunken stupor that had him tumbling to the ground.
"Kid! Get out here!" yelled Kelly, sidestepping the mass of flesh on the floor.
"Mr. Kelly, you get outta here! He's a bad man!" Javi yelled back from behind the couch.
"Get your ass out here. Now!" Severide called, feeling a greasy hand on his shoulder as he shuffled to the couch. He grabbed the boy by the neck, launching him toward the door.
Javi stumbled over the side of the couch, crawling furiously to the exit. He crunched his knee into the man's bare foot, grinding it down hard as he snaked his way between his captor's legs. The massive body fell again narrowly missing Javier's too small for his age frame.
Kelly mused that alcohol was a good fighting partner as he watched the guy drunk-crash to the floor again. He hopped over the mound, avoiding a desperate grab at his ankle, wanting nothing more than to open a can of whoop ass on the ass, but also knowing he couldn't do it. He threw his keys at Javi's head, the boy catching them with one hand and sailing to the old car unlocking both doors before Kelly made it down the driveway.
"Hurry up, Mr. Kelly!" the boy pleaded, waving his hand in a blur, that motion telling Severide he was scared. What the hell happened to him? That fear.
Kelly turned to see the guy topple out the front door. "Ah, shit," the fireman said as he stopped and slowly turned back to the house. He exhaled loudly, feet now moving to the rotund, drunk giant.
"No! C'mon!" Javi's panicked voice floating in one Kelly ear and out the other. The boy rushed back up the driveway, leaving both doors open and the car now running.
Kelly stood over the man… "You pile of shit!" he said hands shaking, jaw clenched so tightly, Javi's fear driving him. On all fours, the man cocked his head up, his mind hazily recognizing the look in the fireman's eyes. It was one he wore often. The look of pure, raw rage.
Kelly didn't care if this set him back another couple of days, or weeks. He only cared about feeling the guy's jaw on his fist, enjoying the fear in the man's eyes as he created a few more spots of red on the front of his shirt.
Javi was yanking on his hand, pulling him to the car. Kelly stopped before getting in, taking the trembling little body in his arms, pulling him in so close and so tight.
"You ain't never goin' back there. I promise." He could feel the shaking begin to quell. "Let's go home."