A City Of Heroes, ONE Chicago #3 (Chicago Fire)

Chapter 24 "Why?" (Non-Graphic Version)

Shaylynn has her eyes closed thinking to herself, I'm still in a coma! This isn't real!
When she opens her eyes, Butch, Rob, and Dave are still standing in front of her.
She can feel the wind blowing on her face so she knows she's not dreaming any of this.
Finally, it sinks in.....Dan's gone!
Her knees get weak, she starts getting light headed, she starts going down.
Severide hurries and catches her.
He scoops her up and carries her into the Firehouse, Dawson hot on his heels while Brett grabs a bag from the ambulance.
Everyone else follows Severide and Dawson inside.
Severide lays Shaylynn down on the couch. As soon as he moves, Dawson starts examining her. Brett walks over and hands Dawson the bag.
"Kelly, has she eaten anything since leaving Med?" Dawson asks Severide.
"No" Severide tells Dawson.
"With taking those pills on an empty stomach and with what she was told, she fainted" Dawson says.
Dawson takes some smelling sauce from the bag, makes a few passes under Shaylynn's nose, after the second pass Shaylynn's eyes pop open. She rubs her head and sits up.
"I think it would be best if you stayed laying down" Dawson tells her.
"I'm fine!" Shaylynn says as she looks around for Butch, Rob, and Dave.
Mouch walks over to the couch from the kitchen carrying a bottle of water and a sandwich. He hands it to Dawson.
"You have to eat something! Those pills you took are making you sick since you took them on an empty stomach!" Dawson tells her.
Shaylynn looks at Dawson who has a dirty look on her face. She picks up the sandwich and starts eating it.
"SIT!" Shaylynn says to Butch and the others.
They don't argue with her and sit down, "What happened for him to do this?" she asks them.
"The last mission we went on is what did it!" Butch tells her.
"Tell me about it!" she tells Butch.
"I really don't think that's a good idea" Butch tells her.
"TELL ME!" she yells at him.
"We were searching a building for a head terrorist. The building use to be a slaughterhouse. When we came to the freezer, what we came upon was a sight NO ONE should EVER see...." Butch stops talking.
"And?" Shaylynn says.
"Shaylynn, you don't need to hear anymore!" Rob tells her.
"DAMN IT! YOU'RE REALLY STARTING TO PISS ME OFF! FUCKING TELL ME!" she demands.
Butch looks at Rob, "NO! We're not going to tell you! You should know what we saw was really bad for Dan to do this!" Rob says to her.
Shaylynn looks at her guys, "How did he do it?" she asks.
Mouch sits down on the couch where he always sits, which happens to be beside Shaylynn. She grabs Mouch's hand. She looks at him, he looks at her and smiles.
"Shaylynn..." Butch says to her.
"HOW?" she says again.
"He shot himself" Dave tells her, "When we returned, we knew something was wrong. We stuck close to him, but he figured out what we were doing. The one place we didn't follow him was the bathroom, we should have!" Dave tells her looking down at the floor.
"I'm holding General Jones responsible!" Shaylynn tells them.
Severide speaks up, "General Jones was here right before you guys showed up! He told Shaylynn that she's been reassigned to Washington D.C. to the White House!" he tells Butch, Rob, and Dave.
All three guys look at each other, "Did he say when this suppose to be happening?" Butch asks Shaylynn.
"No! Chief told him it was time to leave" she tells him, "He also told me that the Organization is going a different way. Instead of watching the Government, they now are going to be working with them!"
"What!? General Biggs is going along with this?" Butch asks her.
"I guess Biggs has retired!" she tells the guys.
"What the fuck is going on?! Do you know who's in charge?" Butch asks.
"He said General Johnson" she tells him.
Butch looks at Rob, "No fucking wonder we were sent overseas!" Rob says, "Johnson is trying to dismantle us!"
Shaylynn can't believe what she's hearing, "I'll be right back!" she says as she stands up, walks out of the Common area, toward the bathroom.
Casey, Mouch, and Herrmann are talking to Butch, Rob, and Dave. Severide looks at his watch and sees Shaylynn has been gone for a little over ten minutes.
He walks toward the bathroom, walks in and realizes Shaylynn isn't in there. Walking through the locker room, he doesn't see Shaylynn in there either, so he walks into the bunkroom and notices his Officer Quarters door is shut.
Severide opens the door, over in the far corner on the floor beside his bunk he sees Shaylynn sitting with her knees up to her forehead, crying.
He walks over and sits down on the floor in front of her, "Babe..." he says softly.
She looks up, scoots over to him, lifts herself up so she can sit in his lap, wraps her arms around his neck with her legs around his waist and starts crying into his neck.
Severide wraps his arms around her, pulling her closer to him.
"Why?' Shaylynn says between sobs, "WE would've gotten him help! All he had to do was say something and we would've been on it!" she says crying.
"Babe, I can't answer that. Just know I'm here for you!" Severide whispers into her ear.
"That's two brothers I've lost!" Shaylynn says then starts crying more.
Severide puts a hand on the back of her head.
"This needs to stop!" she tells Severide.
"What?" he asks.
"Veterans committing suicide. They need help and a lot do ask for it, but don't get it!" she says, "It's hard enough for a Veteran to ask for help, but then to have your own Government tell you no they won't help you is a smack in the face!" Shaylynn says to Severide.
"Would you like to go home?" he asks her.
Severide can feel Shaylynn's head move against his neck which he's assuming the answer is yes.