So finally I have gotten around to write another chapter to the story, I am so so sorry, for not updating sooner, but work and life caught up and I couldn't find the time to write. But now I will try to get back to it. Thank you to Sarrabr4, SweetKittyCat and HermioneandMarcus for their reviews, I am so glad you still read the story. Thank you also to all of you who follow and favorited this story, it means so much to me. But now on with it. The link for the outfits is still on my profile page and will be updated, too.

Have fun reading. Thank you for your patience.

Chapter 6

"Are you almost done, sweetheart? I got the movie running." Michael asked from the living room as Nora stood in the kitchen getting the snacks.

The blonde grinned as she heard her boyfriend call out. "It's nearly done."

Just as she was about to enter the room, where the broker already sat on the couch, there was a loud knock on the front door.

"I'll get it. Sit down." the young man called, walking over to see who wanted something from them this late.

He opened the door and swallowed down the anger that nearly choked him, when he saw Kelly standing there. At first Michael thought something had happened with her uncle, but the look on his face was different.

"Kelly? What's going on?" That's when Nora decided to come up to the door to see what's going on.

The Squad Lieutenant raked his hands through his short hair, breathing out a loud sigh. He looked at the blonde standing in front of him, dressed in a mans button-up and black yoga pants together with her boyfriend.

"I, ah. Sorry. I shouldn't have come over." he mumbled and turned to leave, but Nora reached her hand out to him, halting his movements.

Herrmann's niece smiled softly at her friend, putting her hand on his arms. "Please, Kelly. We are friends, aren't we?"

"Yes. We're friends." the dark haired Lieutenant nodded his head, looking over at Michael before he continued. "I wanted to visit Georgie. She is Peter's wife. The one from the call Shay told you about."

Understanding his unasked question, Nora nodded her head. The broker now understood the bond they had, to her the people at 51 were her family and they would always come first. He didn't like it, but if she always came back to him, he would live with that.

"I'll come with you. Micheal, I'm sorry, we'll watch it as soon as I'm back."

"You don't have to." Kelly said, shaking his head, seeing the annoyed look on the dark haired man next to Nora.

But the blonde woman interrupted him. "I want to. So just give me a second."

Without waiting for his answer, she went inside her apartment, with Michael following behind her. Herrmann's niece kissed his cheek.

"I'm sorry, I know you planned this tonight, but Kelly is still my friend."

The broker put his hands on her cheek, kissing her softly. "I know. Now go with him, I think he isn't as bad as I thought at first."

Taking the light jacket from the wardrobe in the hallway of her apartment, she thanked him and walked back out through the door, seeing Kelly standing there, his hands deep in the pockets of his black jeans, pushing up the dark shirt and his black leather jacket.

"You ready to go?" Nora asked.

The Lieutenant nodded his head, letting the blonde lead the way out of the building. He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his body. "Thanks, Nora."

"You're welcome." They arrived at Kelly's car and got in, before he drove off to Georgie's house. "Will you tell me what happened?"

Swallowing thickly, he nodded. "We got called to a construction site. It collapsed. Some were only lightly injured, but then there was Peter. He was farther down, his foot jammed under a rock and bleeding on the inside. We tried everything, even called for the trauma surgeon, but it was taking too long."

He stopped and Nora grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly, letting him know, that she was there for him.

"Peter asked me to take his foot off, but it just took too fucking long." Kelly sniffed and pushed his fingers against his eyes, not wanting to let the tears escape. "He asked me for my phone, to record his last message for his wife. I could do nothing and sit there, while we waited for his last breath and to finally get out of the unstable construction."

"I'm so sorry, Kelly. I'm sorry I never answered the phone."

Severide shook his head and gave her own hand a tight squeeze. Not long after they stopped in front of a nice looking house which had to be Georgie and Peter's home. They exited the car and walked up to the door.

Kelly was nervous, fiddling with his hands before he finally knocked. Nora laid her hand on his arm and gave it another reassuring squeeze. He had told so many people that their loved ones were dead, but this was something entirely different.

It didn't take long for the older woman to open the door, the blonde could see a slight sheen of tears in her eyes, knowing she must have expected the Lieutenant to come by.

"Oh, Mr. Severide. Come in please."

Giving her a tight lipped smile, turning back to Nora and pulling her after him.

The older woman looked between the two of them and led them over to the couch. "Would you or your girlfriend like something to drink?"

"Ah, no, thanks. And I'm, well, I'm not his girlfriend. We're good friends, that's it." Herrmann's niece said and Kelly felt a slight pain near his heart, so badly wanting her to take back the words and say that she was his girl.

Taking a deep breath, Severide turned to Peter's wife, who now sat down next to him, as he pulled out his phone. "You're husband wanted me to record this for you. He wanted to tell you goodbye."

Tapping the screen of his iPhone, Kelly opened the video file he recorded and showed it to Georgie. Nora leaned against his shoulder and watched it with the two of them.

In the video, Peter moved his fingers along his temple and cheek, trying to wipe away the blood there.

"Is the blood off? I don't want her to see the blood."

"Here, here." As there was still a slight trace on the side of his face, Nora could see Kelly's hand reach up and wipe the remainder away. "There. You're good."

The workman brushed his hair back, obviously still wanting to look good for his wife. "And my hair? I should've got it cut."

"Your hair looks fine. Fine." Kelly reassured him and the young woman saw him swallowing thickly as he watched the scene again.

She looped her arm through his own and kissed his cheek, feeling the slight stubble there.

And then, Peter turned his eyes to the camera, giving it a soft, loving smile. The Lieutenant handed Georgie the phone, so only she could see it now.

"Georgie, my love. God, I wish I were better at this." he started and the older woman chocked up, seeing her dead husband for the last time. "I've made a lot of promises to you over the years. Some were harder to keep. I promised you a house in Provence. I'm sorry we never made it there. You worked so hard on that French."

Nora felt the tears sting her eyes as Kelly leaned his head on top of her own, fighting back his own sorrow.

"But any promise I ever made about you, about how you were the final piece to my puzzle. Those I kept until today. Every day."

Severide looked over, seeing the wife in such a state of sorrow had him wanting to tear his own heart out, just to not feel the pain. All this was just too much too soon. First Andy and now he had had to be with Peter during his final minutes of his life.

"I know...I know what you're thinking about Kelly here 'cause I thought it, too. He's exactly the son that I pictured for us." Georgie looked over at him, her tearful eyes making contact with his own sorrowful ones as he constantly fought back the tears. "And if it weren't for him, I wouldn't have had this chance to say goodbye. "Oh, my love, do you remember how I made you promise me that you'd let me die before you?"

Sniffling softly the blonde rubbed her fingers under her nose, as he heard Peter's words of love. They mus have had a wonderful marriage if their bond was still so strong.

"Well, thank you, my love because I couldn't live a day in this world without you."

The older woman softly stroked the screen, as if her own fingers could brush his cheek one more time.

"Georgie..." Peter breathed before the video only showed his face.

"Mon amour." Georgie told him and turned back to Kelly, thanking him and pulling him into a tight hug. She even turned to Nora, doing the same to her.

"I haven't done anything, besides coming with him, to see you."

The older woman smiled softly, brushing her hand against the Lieutenant's cheek before they all said their goodbyes for the night. Herrmann's niece had already gone down the steps towards Kelly's car, when Georgie stopped him.

"You should tell her how you feel, Kelly, or it might be too late. Life's not waiting for us to finally decide what we want to do with it."

Sighing, Severide raked his hands through his hair. "I know, but she already has someone else and I'm not sure it would work out between us."

"You won't know if you don't try, son. And on that note, you're always welcome here. My Peter was right, you know, you were just like we imagined our own son to be, if we had one."

Thanking her, Kelly left the house and slowly moved to his 1968 Chevy Camaro, still mulling over the words Peter's wife said to him. He knew he couldn't just walk up to Nora and say 'I love you' because it wasn't that easy and right now it wouldn't work as she was still with Micheal.

"Hey guys. I brought you breakfast." Nora called holding up the bags she had brought with her.

The guys and women of the firehouse cheered and went over to the kitchen bar. The blonde pulled out the food containers and let them all have their fill. "Has anyone seen Kelly, by the way?"

"Ah, I think he went to Boden's office." Shay said, when she passed the young woman to get to her breakfast.

Thanking the blonde paramedic as she made her way to the office space of the firehouse. It wasn't a long walk from the break room and she saw Severide talking to Nikki. Nora didn't have a good feeling with all this, but she had to let her friend deal with it however he wanted, because he would never listen to her anyway.

Before she had met Michael, Herrmann's niece always pictured herself with the Squad Lieutenant, having had a crush on him ever since she saw him the first time at the firehouse visiting her uncle. But now, their friendship was only platonic, her having a boyfriend and him jumping between the sheets all over Chicago.

"Look, I'm not really known for my self-restraint, so I'll need you to meet me halfway here and respect Boden and your dad's wishes."

Smirking to herself, Nora bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud when she listened to the two as Kelly shot her down. Once he was satisfied, Nikki wouldn't do anything stupid, he got up and smiled as he saw the young blonde standing there.

"Hey. Sorry, had to some paperwork."

"Yeah, I saw that." she commented, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly. "I just wanted to let you know, that I brought you guys breakfast."

Smiling the dark haired Lieutenant put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek. "Listen, I just wanted to thank you for the other day. You know, for going with me to meet Georgie.

"You're my friend, part of my family. I'd do anything for you guys."

He softly kissed her temple and pulled her closer, leading the blonde back to the common room. "Love you, Torch."

Giggling, Nora looked over at Kelly. "You know, Michael calls me that, too. Something about Eleanor and it meaning Torch."

"Well, I didn't know that, but you got a temper and I thought it was fitting."

With an outraged cry, Herrmann's niece hit his uninjured shoulder lightly, thankfully for the Lieutenant.

They entered the break room and Kelly steered directly toward the counters, grabbing his breakfast.

Nora smiled and then went to her uncle, kissing his cheek. "All right, folks. I gotta go, I'm meeting up with Michael and his mom for brunch."

"Dressed like that? Must be some fancy thing you're going to." Christopher commented as he looked at the light pink dress and heels she wore. His niece never wore heels, if she didn't have to, not even at her own prom, where she wanted to dance all night and not just sit around because her feet hurt.

Nodding her head, she pushed her hair up into a tight bun on the back of her head. "Yeah. His mother is a lawyer or some other. That's why we're going to this really upper class thing downtown."

"Well all right, have fun, sweety." Herrmann copied her and kissed her cheek in goodbye.

Thanking her uncle, Nora waved in the general direction, but not before seeing Kelly's sad look, when she left. "See ya, guys. Be careful out there. Oh and you might consider doing something else besides putting a sign out there, asking for a TV donation."

A chorus of 'bye' and 'always' sounded through out the firehouse as she left and the blonde got in her car, driving off towards downtown.

"Hey sweetheart."

Michael kissed her lips longingly, his hands on the bare skin of her neck, in front of the restaurant they would meet his mother.

"You shaved." Smiling at her boyfriend, Nora linked her hands behind his own neck, when they finally broke the kiss. "Is your mother already inside?"

"Yeah, she is waiting for us."

The banker grabbed her hand and lead her to the back, where already a middle aged woman was seated. Her hair was up in a tight bun on the top of her head and she was immaculately dressed in a womanly pinstripe suit.

"Michael." she said in a icy tone, turning her glare onto Nora.

Olivia Banner was one of the best paid attorneys in the whole of the US, a woman of the upper class and now her son brought home some floosy from the who knows where.

"Mother"

"You must be Nora."

The blonde only nodded her head, swallowing the lump that had gotten into her throat. "I am. It's nice to meet you Mrs. Banner."

"Yes. That's nice." she said, the sarcasm thick in her words as the couple sat down across from her. "Michael, why don't you get us some coffee. The waitress has probably forgotten to bring it."

Nora thought, if his mother were a wolf, she probably would have growled and gone and ripped out anything she could get between her teeth.

"So, Nora. Tell me about yourself. My son usually doesn't tell me about his girlfriends."

Swallowing, the blonde started off by telling Olivia about her family, how her uncle and his wife were her only family now and that she felt safest at Firehouse 51.

"You work there, too?"

"No, I work at a small diner just a few blocks away from here. That's where I met Michael. He helped me, when some men wanted to get grabby. But I do cook at 51 on occasion. They are kind of like my second family. And I also want to open my very own cafe, Michael was so nice to help me plan all this." she explained, fiddling with her hands and picking at her nails on occasion, a nervous habit, she wasn't able to quit for now.

Crossing her fingers and leaning her elbows on the table, Michael's mother stared straight at her, her cold eyes, giving Nora shivers that ran down her back. "Nora, darling, from what I see and hear of you, I am not sure you fit into all of this."

"I don't think I understand."

"Michael and I are part of the upper class of Chicago. Everything we do or say, how we dress and act, reflects upon us and the society we are part off. And this little fling he has going on with you" grabbing the blonde's hand and squeezing it tightly. "It's not going to last, sweety. He needs someone better by his side, not some little orphaned girl. You're just a charity fuck for him. I am the best in what I do and this is my reputation on the line."

Feeling the tears sting her eyes, Nora tried to blink them away. She never felt so cold and alone at the moment, that Olivia Banner started her speech about how she was not good enough for her son.

"If you'll excuse me now, I'll have to get back to New York. I have an important appointment there."

And with these words, the woman, that Herrmann's niece lovingly called Lady Dragon, left the restaurant, saying her goodbyes to her son.