Birthday
"Da dum, da da dam, da da da." Sophia was talking to herself in her baby babble as she attempted to walk holding on to the furniture. "I think she's saying dada." Sylvie pointed out to Antonio as they were laying on the floor playing with Sophia and watching TV. Sophia was turning one tomorrow and they had a big birthday party planned for her. "Of course she is, I'm her favorite person in the whole wide world." He picked her up and held her above him. "Aren't I baby girl?" She giggled at him and he sat her down on his stomach.
Sophia was pint-sized with big blue eyes, a headful of untamable, brown, curly hair and she was the happiest tiny person on the planet, she was always smiling and laughing. She hardly ever cried but when she discovered she could make sounds, she was unstoppable; she "talked" nonstop in her baby babble. She was very shy preferring only a handful of people who she would let hold her or even talk to her. She loved her family and always slept in bed with her big sister because she refused to sleep anywhere else. She was very spoiled but that was okay.
"Can you believe it's been a year?" Antonio said running his fingers through Sophia's hair as she laid back against him drinking her bottle. Sylvie had been watching her husband and her daughter laying there completely natural, thinking how different life would have been if she would have never gotten pregnant. She probably wouldn't be married, maybe not even with Antonio, and definitely no Sophia, that last thought made her heart hurt because Sophia may have been a surprise and it may have almost killed her but she couldn't imagine her not being a part of her life. "No, it seems like a minute." She sighed; she couldn't believe how fast it had gone.
"Can I ask you something?" Sylvie asked nervously, it was a question she had wanted to ask for a long time. Antonio looked at her, "Yeah, anything, always, is something wrong?" She shook her head. "No, but don't take it the wrong way okay?" he nodded. "What do you think would have happened if I had never gotten pregnant?"
Antonio stopped running his fingers through Sophia's hair and just stared at the TV. He had thought about it before but preferred not to. Yeah, he really didn't want anymore kids and the marriage was fast and on a whim and the time leading up to Sophia being born was the most terrified and exhausted he had ever been in his life but the thought of these two girls not being in his life was absolutely impossible and not having this home with Sylvie and his kids simply could not exist in his reality.
Sylvie was nervous; Antonio had went completely silent and had been staring at the TV for what seemed like an eternity. "Hey, it's okay if you don't want to answer." She said. Her words startled him out of his thoughts and he moved Sophia off him and crawled over to where Sylvie was lying on the floor and laid beside her. "No, I was just thinking, sorry." He rolled to his side and propped himself up on his elbow to look down at her. "I've thought about it, we were in a crazy situation, a what-if is natural to think about, hell I'm sure our friends think it too." He grabbed her hand and brought it up to his chest.
"Look, we got back together before we even knew you were pregnant, we were doing good, I think it would have eventually led here, actually I'm sure of it. I had made up my mind that we were going to work out no matter how hard you resisted." He winked at her. "We wouldn't have Sophia and probably not be married yet but we would definitely be engaged because there was no way I was letting you go again." He kissed her hand and she nodded.
"And I know I wasn't sure about kids and it was all twisted and dark for a while and I lived on virtually no sleep and fear until she was born but I wouldn't change anything, I would go through it all over again if it would always lead to laying here in the floor with you and Sophia, Eva and Diego upstairs, and having a party tomorrow with all our friends and family." He laid his head down facing Sylvie and pulled her towards him putting his forehead against hers. "Look, we're here, it doesn't matter how or why, it only matters that we love each other and our kids, okay? Nothing will ever change that."
She smiled at him. "Thanks babe, that's exactly the answer I needed." She leaned over and kissed him. Sophia crawled over and shoved herself between her mom and dad and left a big, wet, open-mouthed, sloppy kiss on Antonio's cheek and rolled on her back and started babbling away.
Eva stumbled down the hallway carrying Sophia on her hip and knocked on her dad's bedroom door, "Come in" her dad said sleepily. Eva opened the door and went to the bed and sat Sophia down and started to walk away, "She's been up since six talking and playing, I need sleep, I'm going back to bed, will you wake me up at ten please?" Antonio grunted and Eva left. Sophia crawled up to the top of the bed and patted Sylvie's head. Sylvie uncovered her head "Happy Birthday baby, what are you doing up at six-thirty? It's way too early, daddy's gonna be grumpy, it's his day off." Sophia just stared at her and patted her head again.
Antonio rolled over and grabbed Sophia and pulled her under the covers against him as she giggled. "I could never be grumpy on this day" he kissed her on the cheek and tickled her. "Happy Birthday" she was laughing and kicking trying to get away from the tickles. "Are you hungry? Let's go get some breakfast and mommy can go back to sleep." He said holding her up above him as she looked down at him with those eyes he couldn't resist and babbled to him. "Mommy agrees, love you" Sylvie said and covered her head back up.
"Eva, Diego, can you come help me please?" Sylvie yelled from the bottom of the stairs. Eva came down the stairs and Sylvie handed Sophia to her, "Can you please, please, please put her dress on her and put a bow in her hair?" she begged her. Eva smiled and gladly took Sophia, "Of course, you ready to get dressed for your party, SoSo." Eva said as she walked back up stairs.
Sylvie moved back to the kitchen to find her phone guessing Diego didn't hear her. She texted him and he came right down. "Dad wants you to please move the couches against the walls in the front room and bring all the folding chairs up from the basement before he gets home, do you need help or can you do it?" he nodded. "I got it." Sylvie was relieved she really didn't have time, people were supposed to be there in an hour and she felt like she had nothing done. "Thanks for helping" she said and went back to finishing her stuff.
Antonio returned home from picking up the cake and balloons just as Gabby and Matt had arrived. "Cutting it a little close with that cake aren't you?" Gabby teased. "Funny, can you help Sylvie finish? The baker didn't have the cake ready when they were supposed to and I haven't been able to help." He was annoyed. Gabby went to help Sylvie finish up getting the food completed. Eva and Diego had helped with the decorations, Sophia was having a unicorn party and it looked like a unicorn had thrown up rainbows everywhere.
Everyone started to arrive and Sophia was clinging to Antonio. She had been to parties and was used to being around people at district and the firehouse but she was still skeptical of them, she would bury her head in Antonio's shoulder anytime anyone tried to talk to her. Antonio went in search of Sylvie and found her talking to Adam and Kim; they must have slipped past him when he was talking to someone else. Sophia saw Adam and started squirming and trying to get away from Antonio and lunged for Adam.
Adam took her and she gave him a sloppy kiss on the nose. "Hey Birthday girl, I love you too." He said tickling her and she squirmed. "Da dum, da dum" she said as she patted him on the cheek. Sylvie cracked up, "Umm, babe I think we were wrong last night, I think she was saying Adam." He did not look impressed. "You were saying da da last night right baby girl?" he asked her as he attempted to coax her back into his arms. "Da dum, da da dum" she said again and clung to Adam. "Awe, I really am your favorite person." Adam was laughing.
"There is no way her first word is Adam, no, not happening." Antonio seemed a little jealous. Kim and Sylvie were snickering. "It's not funny." Antonio was pouting. "Come on it is and besides it's better than what Diego's was." She teased, Antonio had told her how when Diego and Eva were little he didn't think much about cussing occasionally in front of them and it back fired when Diego's first word was "fuck" and he said it constantly for three months straight.
Adam slapped him on the back, "Hey, if it makes you feel better, I'll teach my first kid to say Tony first, okay?" he chuckled. "Uh, no you're not." Kim laughed. "I guess if it had to be someone else at least its you, I would have been pissed if she said Otis or something first." He said reluctantly.
Over the last year Adam and Kim had become the two people him and Sylvie came to rely on. They were always there, after Sophia was born, they helped with errands, brought food, and just hung out damn near every night. Kim was his partner and he loved her completely but Adam had weaseled himself under the wire and became his best friend. He had other friends, Hank, Matt, Jay, Atwater and some others from the firehouse and district but Adam was the one who he knew without a doubt he could count on in his personal life, he was just there. And Adam loved his family just as much as he did and most importantly Sophia loved him, once she was in his arms there was little chance she was going to leave them without bribery or Adam handing her off, which wasn't very likely either.
Adam kissed Sophia on the cheek, "Hey partner, I think you need to go back to daddy, I can't hog you today." he handed her back to Antonio, she pouted for a moment and turned her attention back to her dad and started babbling to him. He decided to make the rounds with her as Sylvie tried to keep up with the food.
"Hey SoSo, I haven't seen you in weeks!" Laura held out her hands and Antonio handed Sophia to her.
"Thanks for inviting me. I've missed her." Laura said rubbing Sophia's back as she hugged her. "No problem, maybe she can spend the night with you one of Sylvie's shift nights, talk to her about it, I'm sure she'll be fine with it." Antonio was glad he could finally be in a room with her and have an actual conversation. It was all still a little bizarre though, willingly handing his ex-wife his child with his current wife and offering for her to spend the night, considering a year ago he had a restraining order preventing her from seeing any of them. They had come a long way since screaming matches and custody wars. "I would like that, it's been a while since we've done that, right SoSo? Maybe Sissy will spend the night too and we'll have a girls night?" Sophia just laid there with her head on Laura's shoulder.
"We better finish making the rounds, Sylvie's in the kitchen, I think." He took Sophia back and went to find the next person that she may or may not interact with.
Sophia smashed her mini cake between her fingers and shoved her whole hand in her mouth fully enjoying the sugary sweet icing, she had never had sweets before so it was new and she loved it, she pulled the cake closer and shoved her whole face in, earning cheers and laughter from the whole group, she was covered from head to toe in cake and icing. "She's going to need a bath before we do presents." Sylvie laughed as she snapped pictures. "I can run her up real quick, if you want." Antonio offered as he pulled his very messy daughter out of her highchair and headed for the stairs.
There were so many presents, what does a one year old need with so many toys? Antonio thought to himself as he stood there staring at the massive pile he would have to haul up the stairs later. Sophia had a blast opening everything but she was more interested in the noise the wrapping and tissue paper made then the actual presents themselves. He just shook his head, thankful that there were so many people who cared about Sophia.
It had been a long day of never-ending people, food, cake, presents, and fun but Sylvie was exhausted. She went in search of Antonio and the kids and found them all in the front room. "I need help cleaning." She said as she walked into the front room. Diego held his finger up to his mouth and pointed to Antonio asleep laying on the couch with Sophia asleep on his chest. She tiptoed around and found Eva asleep on the floor right below them. Diego got up and motioned for Sylvie to follow him. "I'll help you, just tell me what to do." She pulled him into a hug. "Thank you for always helping with Sophia and anything I ask for without complaining but let's just leave it for tomorrow, it'll be fine." Diego agreed and headed up to his room.
Sylvie grabbed two blankets and put one over Eva and kicked off her shoes and shoved onto the couch next to Antonio and cuddled into his side and threw the blanket over the three of them. He woke up and kissed her on the head. "What time is it?" he yawned. "Nine" she snuggled a little deeper and he readjusted his arm under her head. "We should head up to bed." She shook her head into his side "I don't want to, I'm comfortable here, can we stay for a little bit?" she was tired and didn't want to move. "Sure." He closed his eyes and fell back asleep.
Halloween
It was Halloween and Sylvie and Gabby had been on non-stop calls all day, the crazies were out in full force and there was a full moon to top it all off. Sylvie was staring out the window not paying attention to what Gabby was saying. "Hey earth to Brett? What's going on?" Sylvie looked over at her and shook her head, "Nothing, I just feel bad for missing Sophia tonight, Tonio probably won't be off in time either, he got called in, they had a case jump off." Sylvie sighed.
"She won't remember it anyway, she just turned one like three weeks ago, she'll be fine." Gabby pointed out. Sylvie went back to staring out the window. "We work Christmas this year too, do you think it makes me a bad mom that I'm going to miss holidays as she grows up? What if she hates me later when I can't always be there or when me and Antonio both get tied up and miss a holiday?"
"No, you're a great mom and you guys will work around your schedules, you're not the first to be in this predicament besides she'll know she has two heroes as parents who are out saving lives." Gabby smiled at her and reached over to pat her on the shoulder. "I guess, I still feel bad though and if he can't get off then I won't get to see her tonight because he won't let Eva drive her car until he gets new brakes on it." She huffed.
They made their way back to the firehouse at six hoping that they would be able to help hand out Halloween candy without the bells going off for a while. It was about seven and there had been a steady stream of kids for the last hour and the bells had not interrupted them. Tonio had texted that they were tied up and it would be impossible for him to get off, she was upset but kept smiling for the kids. She was spaced out when the bells rang; she finished shoving some candy in kids' bags and ran for the ambo.
It was a quick call, they didn't need to transport so they were able to return back to quarters. They pulled in and noticed an unmarked car out front. "I don't recognize it, do you?" Sylvie asked Gabby. Gabby shook her head, "Maybe a cop brought their kid, who knows?" Gabby parked the rig and went to start inventory and Sylvie headed inside. She walked into the common room and was shocked. There sat Adam and Sophia on the couch watching TV. "What are you doing here with her? I thought the team was caught up?" she walked over and picked Sophia up and kissed her, she was wearing her kitty cat costume.
"Tony and Kim are but I was able to weasel myself out and I was told in no uncertain terms that I was to go get her and bring her here." He smiled and she gave him a hug. "Thank you, I missed her and felt bad that I was going to miss her first real Halloween." She was so happy.
"Come on baby, let's go see some people." She carried Sophia out to the apparatus floor where she knew Kelly and Gabby were, Adam following behind. "Look it's Uncle Kelly." She said as Sophia reached for him. "What's up munchkin?" he said as he tickled her and she squirmed and giggled. "Hey Ruzek, what's been going on?" Kelly shook Adam's hand. "Ah, nothing much, just fulfilling my orders to bring Sophia to Sylvie or risk the wrath of Tony." He laughed. "Yeah, that's a wrath we all try like hell to avoid." Kelly chuckled.
"Oh my god, she looks so frigging cute, come to Tia SoSo." Gabby grabbed Sophia from Severide and held her up so she could look at her. "Adam did you bring her?" he nodded. "Yeah, Tony is quite convincing, not that I need to be convinced to hang out with her." Sophia reached for him, "Da dum." Adam grabbed her. "I still can't believe you were her first word." Gabby laughed. "Well at least we know she has impeccable taste." He quipped.
"Let's take her out front so she can get some candy and everyone else can see her." Sylvie started walking toward the front of the house and the bells went off, everyone stopped to listen, they called for truck and ambo. Gabby kissed Sophia and told her bye and took off for the rig. "Don't wait around, just get some candy and take her home, thanks for bringing her, bye baby girl." She kissed Sophia on the forehead and kissed Adam on the cheek and ran for the rig.
"That was such a tease, I got to see her for a whole five minutes." Sylvie was pouting as she stared out the window on the way to the call. "At least Adam brought her, you could have not saw her at all." Gabby pointed out. "I know I just feel bad, maybe it's because this is the first set of holiday's were having to work around." She sighed. "It'll get easier, I promise." Gabby smiled over at her.
Christmas
It was five days before Christmas and all the Dawson's were opening presents. This was the only day both Antonio and Sylvie's schedules would sync until after New Years so they decided to just do Christmas early. "Are you guys sure you're okay with this?" Sylvie asked Diego and Eva. "Yeah, this is awesome." Diego said. "It's not like we believe in Santa and besides we understand, Dad had to work a couple Christmas's when we were little too." Eva tried to reassure Sylvie.
Sylvie looked over at Antonio slightly panicked. "What are we going to do about Santa when she understands?" Antonio put Sophia down in the floor and she toddled over to Eva and started "helping" pull Eva's new clothes out of a gift box.
"We'll do what me and Laura did with them. We told them that because I was a cop and was saving people and couldn't be there on Christmas that Santa made a special trip for kids of cops." He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "That's a good idea." She was impressed. "Yeah, it's a cop trick, someone else told me about it." He smiled at her. "Okay I feel a little better, I still don't like both of us missing it at the same time." She snuggled into him and watched as the kids went through their presents.
Christmas day shift had started at six in the morning, it was cold the temperature hovering around twelve degrees with a wind chill of negative ten and seven inches of snow already on the ground and another six to twelve inches forecasted throughout the day, it was going to be a hellish shift, hopefully they wouldn't need to leave the house often and power to the neighborhood would stay on. "It's going to suck when we get a call." Sylvie said to Gabby as they stood there changing into their uniforms. "Yeah, I know, ugh." Gabby groaned.
The day had been slow, truck and ambo had been called out twice to assist on wrecks but no injuries meant the girls could return to quarters and not freeze their butts off in the cold. It was two pm when the bells sounded calling ambo out on a solo mission.
The roads were bad and Gabby was having trouble keeping control of the ambo. "I need you to reach around and grab my seatbelt and buckle it." She instructed Sylvie. The roads were really scaring her and they were coming up on a curvy embankment that dropped pretty far. Sylvie managed to get Gabby's seatbelt on and promptly buckled hers.
"Do you think we should just head back and call it in that the roads are too bad?" Sylvie was hanging on, the ambo was heavy so it shouldn't be all over the place like this; the roads must have a solid inch of ice under the snow. "I think we're fine, we'll just go slow." Gabby looked at Sylvie and gave her a small smile to reassure her.
The ambo had cleared the last turn around the embankment when Gabby suddenly threw her arm out to block Sylvie, screamed, and hit the breaks as hard as she could causing the ambo to slide and start to spin. Sylvie's popped her head up from a text Antonio had sent just in time to see a large black pickup truck sideway, sliding right at them and there was nowhere to escape. The truck hit them full force in the side and sent them through the guardrail and over the embankment. Gabby reached out and found Sylvie's sleeve and held onto it for dear life. The ambo rolled what seemed like a dozen times before landing on its side and being hit again by the truck as it rolled down behind them. The truck landed upside down half on top of the ambo.
Sylvie blinked, she was confused, it was freezing and her head and shoulder were on fire. She could tell she was in the ambo but why was it cold and why was everything so fuzzy? Her head started to clear a little and she remembered they had crashed. She panicked and tried to move but she was still buckled in and she was sideways. "Gabby, Gabby, are you okay?" she didn't hear an answer. She could see her, her arm looked like it was broken, fuck she thought. She tried to move her legs, no pain; they must be fine, she thought. She did a quick check on herself, dislocated shoulder-yes, collarbone- maybe broke, concussion-yes, head bleeding-yes, that was all she could discern.
She attempted to undo her seatbelt but her weight was making it impossible, she needed to lift herself up and unbuckle at the same time, but she was down an arm so she would need to find a way to improvise. "Think Sylvie, fuck." She used her legs to push up against the dashboard and was able to get the seatbelt undone. She let herself down slowly and crouched next to Gabby to check her vitals and check her over for injuries quickly. Vitals-okay, broken arm-definitely, broken tibia-pretty sure, scratches and scrapes on face, head wound-not horrible, concussion-guaranteed. "Gabby can you hear me?" no answer, she was unresponsive. Sylvie checked her pupils, they were fine. "Okay concussion probably knocked her out she thought.
She knew she needed to get out and get to the back of the ambo and check the passengers of the truck. The windshield was partially missing so she braced herself and kicked it the rest of the way out. She ran around to the truck to check the driver, there was no one there, damn it, he must have been ejected. She looked around the best she could but he was nowhere to be found. "Okay Sylvie, don't worry about that, you'll find him, you need to focus and get Gabby covered up or hypothermia will set in." she was talking to herself out loud.
She opened the back of the ambo and started to cry, everything was everywhere and it looked like stuff had been thrown out, the doors must have opened while it was rolling. She climbed in and tried to find the thermal heat blankets, they weren't in their spot, she spotted a sling and grabbed it, carefully sliding in on and placing her arm in it. "Fuck, okay, I need to radio dispatch." Still talking out loud to herself. She climbed out and ran back around to the cab and climbed back in and found the radio. She pushed the button and nothing happened. She tried it again and achieved the same result. "No, no, no, no this can't be happening." It was damaged, she began to cry again but she remembered her cell phone and grabbed for it in her vest. "Please work." She begged it. She hit call on the first number that popped up, it was Antonio. "All circuits are busy please try your call again later." She started to cry harder and dialed again, it was the same recording. She checked her phone for Internet connection, nothing; text messages weren't going to go through either.
"Okay, pull it together Sylvie." She wiped her eyes and climbed back through the window and ran back around to the back. She pulled the gurney out and took the sheet and blanket that was strewn about and put them to the side, she got down and opened the side compartment praying to god that the spare blankets and sheets were in there, yes they were but they only had two. She knew she had to do something or they would freeze to death fast out here. She found a neck brace and grabbed the blankets and sheets and ran for Gabby, she slipped the brace on her and tucked the blankets around the best she could and used the sheets to block out the wind.
She decided to check her phone again and dialed Antonio, it rang "Thank you Lord," she said. It continued to ring and ring and ring, finally it picked up "Tonio? Tonio? Tonio can you hear me?" There was no answer, it was just dead, she tried again four more times with the same result. Then decided to try 911 and the firehouse multiple times with the line being dead. It was cold and she knew she needed to get help, the guys were expecting them to be gone awhile because of the roads and wouldn't come looking for them anytime soon. She looked up at the hill to the road and knew she wouldn't make it up, especially with a dislocated shoulder.
"Okay need to find the heat blankets Sylvie, it's already been an hour, we'll freeze to death" She told herself and went to dig through the wreckage.
"Hey" Antonio said knocking on the doorframe of Voight's office. Voight looked up from his computer, "What's up?" Antonio held up his phone, "Circuits are down, I keep getting calls from Sylvie but the lines won't connect, when I try to call back it says all circuits busy, I'm gonna head over to 51 just to make sure everything's okay." Hank shifted in his chair. "Okay take Burgess with you, I'd rather none of you be on the streets alone." Antonio nodded, "Thanks, we'll be back."
Sylvie had abandoned the search for the blankets and returned back to the cab with Gabby. The pain was unbearable causing her to vomit; she felt lightheaded but refused to take any pain meds fearing she would pass out. She did her best to huddle her body with Gabby's under the thin blankets from the gurney and prayed the guys noticed they were gone or dispatch would alert them that they never made it to their call. She tried not to cry but the emotions took over and she sobbed.
The drive to the firehouse was slow to say the least; the usual ten-minute drive was nearly thirty minutes, even in the truck. "I bet everything's fine, she probably just wants to make sure you're safe, since we got called in." Kim smiled at Antonio trying to reassure him as they pulled up to the firehouse. "She doesn't call over and over when I'm on, she calls once then texts." He looked worried.
Opening the door to the firehouse, Antonio noticed the ambo wasn't there. "They're not here." He pointed out to Kim. He headed for the common room and spotted Cruz. "Hey Cruz, where are the girls?" Cruz shrugged, "They went out a while ago on a call." Antonio gave him a look, "How long is a while ago?" Cruz thought a moment, "Probably two hours or so."
Antonio just turned away from him and started toward Boden's office, Kim gave Cruz an apologetic look and mouthed 'Thank you' at him. Antonio didn't even knock, he walked straight in, "Boden, I need to know if the girls made it to their last call." He stated. "Dispatch would have notified me if they didn't, why what's going on?" Boden knew Antonio wouldn't just show up if he didn't have a legitimate reason.
"Sylvie's been calling over and over but the line won't connect, Cruz said they've been gone about two hours, so I need to know." He was starting to get nervous. "Okay follow me." Boden led them to the command center and radioed to dispatch and asked about the last call. Dispatch responded back, "We still have them in route, no response, communication is down to the rig." Boden looked at Antonio, "Go find Casey and Severide I think they're in the bunk room." Antonio took off running and found both men in their bunks and they all ran back to Boden.
"Ambo never made it to the last call, something's wrong, load up the guys, we're going to go follow their route and see what we can find." Chief gave his orders and they loaded up, Antonio and Kim rode with squad knowing his truck would be useless and wouldn't be able to keep up with the fire trucks.
Sylvie had lost track of time, she was trying to check Gabby's vitals and keep them both warm but she was so tired, she could feel herself falling asleep, she knew she shouldn't but she couldn't stay awake any longer.
"Where the hell are they?" Antonio was a nervous wreck staring out the windows trying to find any glimpse of the ambo. "We'll find them, I'm sure they're fine." Severide tried to reassure him.
Squad was leading the search followed by Truck. Twenty minutes in, Squad rounded a corned and Severide threw up his fist, stop he told Capp, the truck came to a stop. "What?" Antonio asked. Severide pointed to the guardrail. "Let's check that." Both trucks unloaded and walked to the edge. "Chief, we got a problem, it's ambo, they went over, there's another vehicle down there also." Severide yelled back over his shoulder.
Antonio thought he was going to lose it. He started pacing, his emotions starting to take over; he was watching Severide and Casey yelling orders at the others. Kim grabbed him and pulled him against her tight. "Focus, I need you to focus, don't panic, Sylvie and Gabby are fine, okay?" she pulled his face to look at her. He was crying, she had never seen him cry. "It's my sister and my wife." He just shook his head, he couldn't stop the tears. Kim held him against her.
Severide and Cruz were hooked up to ropes and were easing their way down the embankment, calling out for the girls, as they went, receiving no response back. Midway down Severide stopped Cruz and motioned to some brush, he could see a foot. They made their way over to the body and Severide radioed up to Boden. "Hey we got a body, male, he's gone, probably ejected from the truck." Severide and Cruz finished their descent knowing there was nothing they could do for the man.
"This is a disaster." Cruz said as him and Severide got to the bottom and could fully take in the scene. "Check the truck." Severide said pointing to it as he moved toward the ambo. "Clear." Cruz yelled and headed toward Severide.
"I got them, get over here now." Severide yelled at Cruz as he climbed through the windshield. "Chief I need two baskets down here now, they're alive, barely, and get two ambo's here now." He yelled into the radio. Cruz ran and grabbed the basket as Severide stripped his coat off and tried to lay it over them for some warmth, Sylvie stirred and opened her eyes, she stared at Severide confused for a moment. "Thank god, I thought we were dead." Her teeth chattering and her whole body shaking, she was beyond cold.
"We got you, just lay still, we're getting baskets down here." He was rubbing her arm trying to comfort her. Chief radioed down, "Severide, they're saying twenty minutes out for just one ambo, even longer on a second, we're going to transport." Severide moved to pick Sylvie up. "Is anything broken?" he asked before moving her. "She nodded. "Pretty sure my right collar bone is and my right shoulder is dislocated." He tried to be gentle as he grabbed her but she winced in pain and started to cry. He laid her in the basket and covered her with a warming blanket.
"Kelly please get Gabby up first, she's been out the entire time, her left arm and left leg are broken." He nodded and radioed that they were sending Gabby up first.
Antonio and Matt ran for the basket as soon as they saw it come over, Gabby looked bad, Antonio kissed her on the head as the two of them carried the basket toward Truck and loaded her in. "Kim can you ride with them? Stay with her, I have to stay with Sylvie." He was begging her. She hugged him again and wiped his tears. "They're going to be okay." She said and climbed into the truck with Gabby. He gave Matt a hug, "She'll be fine, just get her to the hospital, text me okay?" Matt looked a mess but was doing a brilliant job at keeping his emotions in check. "I will, let me know about Sylvie." Antonio nodded at him and Matt climbed in the truck and it took off.
Antonio stood at the edge nervously watching as Severide and Cruz came up with the basket containing Sylvie, he had no idea what to expect and judging by Gabby he didn't think she would be any better. As they reached the top he heard Sylvie calling for him. He exhaled, relieved he ran to the basket, she was crying. "Hey, it's okay, you're okay." He tried to comfort her as he knelt down next to her.
"Another Squad and Truck company are about two minutes out, they'll take over the recovery and clean up while we transport." Severide said as he patted Antonio's back.
"Recovery?" Sylvie's eyes darted to Severide and nodded to her, "Yeah, the driver of the truck was DOA, ejected." Antonio shushed her, "Don't worry about that now, we need to get you to the hospital." The guys loaded her in the truck and Antonio climbed in and sat next to her holding her hand.