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

Chapter 25 "In Bad Times"

"You're not taking her anywhere!" Edmunds tells Skinner, "I'm the White House Chief of Staff!"
"I don't give a shit who you are! She's a fugitive and I'm here to take her in!" Skinner says.
"What are the charges?" Edmunds asks.
"War crimes!" Skinner tells him.
Shaylynn gets a surprised look on her face, she's screwed!
Skinner pushes Edmunds out of the way and walks over to Shaylynn with handcuffs in his hand.
"Put your hands behind your back!" Skinner tells her, but doesn't wait and grabs her wrists.
Shaylynn gets pissed, "If you know anything about me, you know I could take you down in two seconds!" she tells Skinner.
"That wouldn't be wise!" he tells her grabbing her arm and pushing her toward the door.
Skinner leads her out of Edmunds office, with Edmunds following them. They walk back through the same halls Shaylynn walked through when she arrived.
Once outside, Skinner leads her down the steps to a parked car. He opens the back door, pushes her into the back seat and closes the door. He opens the driver's door, gets in, and drives down the driveway and out the White House gate.
Edmunds turns around and looks at the woman who met Shaylynn, "Get General Johnson on the phone!" he tells her.

Shaylynn is finally able to get herself in an upright position in the backseat of Skinner's car.
She looks around and notices they're heading out of D.C.
"Where are you taking me?" she asks Skinner.
"Out of D.C.!" he tells her.
"No shit, Sherlock! I see we're leaving D.C.! Where the fuck are we going?" she asks him again.
Shaylynn keeps watching and sees a Maryland sign.
What the hell is going on? She thinks to herself.
Skinner gets off the Freeway via an exit. He continues to drive.
After about thirty minutes, he turns down a dirt road. It seems like they're on this dirt road for hours when they finally come to an abandoned airfield.
Shaylynn sees the Organizations jet on the runway, "What the....? Who are you?" she asks Skinner.
He stops the car beside the run down hanger, gets out and gets Shaylynn out of the back seat.
Skinner walks Shaylynn into the hanger. Once her eyes adjust from being out in the sun, she sees General Biggs standing there.
"Hello, Shaylynn!" Biggs says to her.
"What the hell is going on?" she asks him.
Skinner takes the handcuffs off of her, she turns around to look at him while rubbing her wrists.
"We are in bad times! The ones we've been watching to make sure they don't cause havoc, well they have now penetrated the White House, the Organization, and the FBI" he tells her.
Shaylynn's eyes get big, "SAM! Is she okay?" she asks Biggs.
"She's fine! She doesn't know anything and it needs to stay that way! If they find out she knows anything about their plans, there's no telling what they'll do to her!" he says.
"So who's this?" she asks Biggs pointing to Skinner.
"He's who he says he is. Isaac Skinner, Director of the CIA. He's also my Stepson" Biggs tells her.
Shaylynn looks at Skinner, "Sorry I was so rough! I had to make your arrest look realistic for Edmunds to believe it" he tells her.
"Shaylynn, I have information for you, but I think you should sit down to hear it" Biggs says to her.
The three of them walk over to a old table sitting in a corner of the hanger. Each of them pulling out a chair and sitting down.
"Ever since that incident with your family, I've been secretly looking into it. Everytime when I thought I was getting somewhere, I would hit a dead end. That is until Isaac became the CIA Director then I was finally able to make some lead way with his help" Biggs tells her.
"So you found out which terrorist group it was that planted those explosives in the warehouse?" she asks desperate to know.
Biggs hands Shaylynn a folder. She opens it up, flips through the papers and sees the word CONFIDENTIAL on all of them.
Going back to the first page, she starts reading. When she flips to the second page, she stops reading it midway and looks at Biggs with a shocked look.
"It wasn't a terrorist group who blew up the warehouse" Biggs says.
Shaylynn looks back down at the page, "This conversation that was recorded, it was between General Johnson and Paul Edmunds" she says to Biggs, "They orchestrated the whole thing?!"
Biggs shakes his head 'yes'.
The color leaves Shaylynn's face. She can't believe all this time she was told it was a terrorist group who blew up the warehouse and the city block it sat on, that killed Marshall, her Mom and Stepdad, but it was all a lie! It was her ex-fiance Paul and General Johnson who was always biting at her Stepdad's heels for what he had that arranged this.
"Shaylynn!" Biggs says to her.
She shakes her head and looks at him, "Are you alright?" he asks her.
Shaylynn shakes her head 'no', "I'd like to go home!" she tells Biggs pushing the folder back over to him.
He pushes it back, "That's your's! I have one and so does Isaac. DON'T trust Jones! What he did to Butch, Rob, Dave, and Dan will forever be inexcusable and unforgivable! Jones knew EXACTLY what they were walking into!"
"He told me that you retired" Shaylynn tells Biggs.
Biggs gets a pissed off look on his face "I did no such thing! I was forced out! I was told if I didn't step down, MY teams would be targeted!" he tells her.
He stands up and sticks his hand out to her, "Let's get you on the jet and back home!"
Shaylynn puts her hand on his, he helps her stand up. They start walking out to the jet with Skinner following them.
"You need to lay low!" Biggs tells her, "I've sent Butch, Rob, and Dave somewhere else along with Chrysti and her guys. The other Chicago teams have been sent to other places. Only tell Hank and Kelly what's going on! That way they'll know why we no longer have a presence in Chicago. I have someone working on all your contracts to get them taken care of that way Johnson can't get his paws on you and the others!" he tells Shaylynn.
They stop at the bottom of the jet's steps, Biggs gives her a hug, "Stay safe, Sweetie!" he tells her.
She backs up from Biggs and walks a few steps over to Skinner and gives him a hug, "Thank you for helping me! Make sure you keep an eye on your Stepdad!" she says in his ear.
Shaylynn backs up, Skinner nods at her.
She starts climbing up the steps. Once inside, Peter raises the steps, heads for the cockpit and starts the engines.
Biggs and Skinner start walking back to the hanger, to their cars.
The jet gets up to speed and takes off.

Back in Chicago at Firehouse 51, Casey knocks on Severide's Officers Quarters door.
Severide looks up and sees it's Casey, he waves him in.
"Do you have a minute?" Casey asks him.
"Yeah, sure!" Severide tells Casey as he continues to write.
"I went to the salon to have a look around. The contractor in me just couldn't understand why a salon that was recently renovated caught on fire like it did. After fifteen minutes of looking around, I found the cause. None of the wiring had been brought up to code. With all the hair dryers, straighteners, etc being used I'm surprised something didn't happen sooner. The tanning bed is what overloaded the wiring. I don't understand why the installer even installed the tanning bed. The outlet was hanging out of the wall, he had to see the wiring" Casey tells him.
Severide looks up at Casey, "Maybe we should call the tanning bed store and ask them about their installer!"