A Slow Burn // Brian 'Otis' Zvonecek // Chicago Fire ✔️

22 || CONSEQUENCES

"You keep this up and you won't be." Herrmann replied, rounding the table towards her. "Wolf, you know I love you like a daughter and I don't want to see you ruining your career over this guy. So you gotta cool off before you give him a reason to fire you."

"Let him try, see if I care." Riley mumbled before she left the room, pushing the doors to the apparatus floor open hard, almost taking Cruz with them as he'd been on the other side.

"Hey, whoa, you okay?" Cruz asked concerned as he changed his mind about going inside and turned on his heels, following Riley instead.

"Define okay." She scoffed out, making her way down the driveway and towards the bench by the firehouse. She sat down rather hard, feeling a tingle shoot up her back as her tailbone slammed against the metal beneath her. "Pridgen is testing me again."

"You saw the bowling shirt, huh?" Cruz sighed out, coming to sit beside her as she stared out into the distance, her arms folded across her rapidly rising chest.

"Where does he get off treating us like this?" Riley snapped out, not at Cruz obviously, she just couldn't hold it in any longer. "It's like he's purposely targeting Otis just to try and get some kind of rise out of me... Which granted, he is, but it's not my fault if it annoys me when people go after Otis, I can't help it if I'm in love with him-"

Riley's mouth snapped shut, her lips pressing into a thin line as she closed her eyes, wishing she could go back ten seconds and not say that.

"You're in love with Otis?" Cruz repeated, his mouth a little gaped. Sure he wasn't fully surprised, as it was clearly obvious she had feelings for Otis, but to hear her actually admit it, well he hadn't expected that.

"What? No, I, uh- I didn't, uh..." She stammered, clearing her throat before she just gave in and sighed, there was no getting out of this one. "Yeah... Have been for a while now."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Cruz asked carefully, not sure what way this conversation would go given her mood. "Was it because of your rule?"

"My rule? How did you know-"

"James told me, that day he was here, you know, before the accident." Cruz confessed as Riley finally turned to look at him, a defeated look in her eyes as she sighed again.

"Partially, yes." She replied with a small head tilt. "And because I was scared... Scared that he didn't like me back."

"Are you kidding me?" Cruz half-chuckled, half-scoffed, watching as Riley's eyebrows knitted together at his words. "That guy has had a thing for you since the moment you bumped into him in that coffee shop. Ask anyone here, he's completely head over heels in love with you."

"He what?" Riley said blankly, swallowing harshly as she looked back out at the street before her. Otis loved her too? God, had she really been so blind this whole time that she couldn't see it?

Whatever Cruz said after that went unheard by Riley, her eyes pulling out of focus as she just stared at the now blurry fire hydrant across the street. She was about to stand up, to run back inside and find Otis, to tell him she loved him but then, as usual, the bells went off.

🔔 Truck 81. Engine 51. Ambulance 61. Squad 3. Battalion 25. Structure Fire🔔

The entire drive to the fire was like a blur for Riley, Cruz's words about Otis being in love with her were rattling around inside her mind the entire time.

Now that she knew the truth, she wasn't sure just how long she could keep these feelings to herself. How long she could stick by her rule, the one that seemed so stupid now. Why shouldn't she date someone she worked with if it made her happy? Made them both happy?