IN THIS SKIN -- CHICAGO FIRE

23;

  Kelly paced the waiting room floor anxiously. Gabby was in a private room recovering from surgery, but she was out of the woods, and would make a full recovery. Whilst everyone was happy to hear this, all they had been told about both Marley and Shay was minimal. Shay had been rushed into a resus bay, whilst Marley had been rushed to surgery. The waiting area was full of members of the house, plus Donna, Cindy and Antonio, Jay and Erin had turned up. There was a hushed chatter amongst people, but no one was really in the mood to talk. They had seen Shay being given CPR by both Marley and the paramedics, and they knew how dead she looked. They had seen Marley's head wound, and the amount of blood she was loosing when they got to them was horrific. The quiet was interrupted when a doctor walked out of the bays where Shay was taken, and wore a sad look on his face. He looked at the waiting room full of firemen and sighed.
"Are you here for Leslie Shay?" He asked, and they all rose to their feet.
"Yes, what's the latest?" Chief Boden answered for the group.
"Leslie arrived with no pulse. We managed to get a rhythm again, but it's not looking very good. Her brain was without oxygen for at least thirty minutes. If she wakes up, she would be brain damaged, severely." The doctor sighed again.
"But will she wake up?" Kelly asked, his voice cracking.
"I think you need to say your goodbyes to Leslie. She's on a ventilator, and we're keeping her alive for the sake of her only being brain damaged and disabled if she ever wakes up again. We've been given permission by her sister to turn the machines off. But we wanted you to have the chance to say goodbye first. I'm so sorry. Please keep three to the room, and she's on bay four when you're ready." Kelly quickly took a step closer to the doctor.
"Hey! If she was given CPR sooner, would she have survived?" He asked, his teeth grinding and he felt anger building. Boden shook his head at the doctor.
"You don't have to answer that." He said sternly to the doctor. Kelly glared.
"Like hell he does! She was my sister. Would she have lived?" Boden sighed, backing down. The doctor looked down.
"It's difficult to say, but in my professional opinion, yes. It's likely that she would have had oxygen to the brain sooner, so she would have less chance of brain damage and potentially be alive. But that's just my opinion. There's no saying it would have been the case." He said, feeling bad for the young girl he had heard was faced with two people in desperate need of CPR. He didn't know what he would have done in that situation.

Herrmann, Otis and Mouch went first. It was hard, they all loved Shay, and saying goodbye was always hard. But they held it together. They knew they had to be strong. They all knew that Kelly blamed Marley for Shay's death, and so Marley would need them. The three spent five minutes with Shay, before leaving the room.
"Any word on Marley?" Otis asked, and everyone shook their heads. But what shocked everyone the most was Kelly.
"Who cares?" He snapped, pushing through everyone and sitting by Shay's bedside, refusing to move.

Kelly's words had made Christopher feel sick. None of this was Marley's fault. She performed CPR on two people, with a severely broken arm and one of the worst head wounds anyone had seen. Both people had regained a pulse at some stage. Marley had saved Gabby's life, and she had tried to save Shay's without a second thought to her own injuries and well being. That was a selfless thing, and Severide was acting unbelievably cruel. Everyone was shocked at Kelly's attitude to Marley, but knew he was grieving and left him alone. A doctor appeared again.
"Family of Marley Severide?" He asked, glancing at the room. Immediately, Cindy and Christopher rushed forwards. Casey was preoccupied with dealing with Gabby and Kelly was in no fit state to deal with anything.
"Marley broke her left arm severely. We set the bone in surgery. She also had a very severe head injury- fortunately there seems to be no internal damage, but the deepness and largeness of the wound wasn't clear until we cleaned her head up. She had a large cut on her face, running from the left side of the top of her head to the bottom of her right ear, and several shallower cuts over her forehead and cheeks. We've stitched them up and have covered the worst of them, but we do fear that some of them are going to leave noticeable scars on her face. Whilst that poses no medical issues, given her past mental issues, it's important she's well looked after for the time being." The doctor said.
"But she'll be okay?" Cindy asked, tears filling her eyes. The doctor gave a smile.
"She'll be fine. You can see her if you like. She's in a private room so as long as you keep the noise down you, given the circumstances, I can ignore visiting hours just for today." Christopher grinned at the doctor.
"Thanks Doc, that's great news!"

After relaying the news to the rest of the firefighters, some who had already said goodbye to Shay decided to leave and return later to see Marley. Boden was given the role of telling Kelly about Marley. He walked in slowly, seeing Kelly holding Shay's hand tightly, as if trying to cling on to any life left in her body.
"Marley's going to be okay." He said after a moment of silence. Kelly's eyebrows furrowed together in frustration.
"So Shay is dead, because of Marley, but she gets off unhurt?!" He snapped. Boden's anger began to grow.
"Marley has a badly broken arm and is going to be permanently scarred, Severide. As sad as you are that Shay is gone, Marley, you're child, acted way past her capabilities and managed to successfully resuscitate a victim and try to save another, all with no prior training and a broken arm. She did all she could, and you chose to have her, so now is the time you step the hell up and act like her father." He snapped at Kelly. All Kelly did was shake his head.
"No. I'm done. I'm done with this." He said, as he stroked Shay's forehead and kissed her cheek before storming out of the hospital, past everyone and not looking back.

Everything was dark. Marley tried desperately to open her eyes, but to no avail. All she saw was darkness. She felt inside her body, she could feel the hard mattress and the flat pillow, she could feel a pressure on her hand, and presumed it was Kelly holding her. Then she began to hear- at first all it was was a beeping sound that was relentless, then she could hear people talking. She recognised Herrmann's accent, along with Antonio's, but she couldn't hear Kelly. Her monitor skipped a beat slightly, and slowly she began to see a bright light.
"Open your eyes sweetie. C'mon kid, you can do this." She could hear Herrmann repeating, and slowly she opened her eyes.

She scanned the room, and her eyes met Christopher's slowly. Her arm was in immense pain and her head was throbbing but she ignored it.
"Where's Kelly?" She croaked, and Herrmann tensed up.
"He, erm, he was with Shay."
"Is she okay? Is Gabby okay? Was anyone else hurt?"
"Slow down Chica, we'll explain everything."
"You saved Gabby, she's going to be just fine, a little bruised, but she'll make a full recovery. No one else was hurt, sure we got a little roughed up, but we'll all be okay." Herrmann answered, purposefully avoiding answering the question about Shay.
"I'm glad about that, but what about Shay? And why isn't Kelly here?" Both Antonio and Herrmann exchanged a look.
"Listen, Shay had real bad injuries. You tried your best, but unfortunately she was without oxygen to the brain for too long so they've turned off her machines." Christopher said softly.
"What does that even mean? Is she alive? Is she... Oh God, this is all my fault." Both men rushed to her sides to calm her down.
"No, sweet, no. This is not your fault. She was gone before you started CPR baby." Herrmann said to her, trying to help her.
"Oh God, if I'd have started with her-"
"Then Gabby wouldn't be alive. Marley sweetie, you saved Gabby and didn't even think twice about helping Shay, even though you had severe injuries too. You should be proud baby." Antonio said, stroking her knuckles.
"That still doesn't answer where Kelly is." Marley stated, she was thankful they were there, but she wanted her dad.
"Marley, Kelly is really struggling to handle Shay's death, and he couldn't face up to being here right now. I'm, erm, I'm sure he'll be back to see you." Christopher struggled to justify Kelly leaving, but attempted to any way.
"He blames me. I know he does." Marley stated, wiping a tear. Both men felt for the girl, but didn't know what to say.
"Listen Marls, if Kelly blames you then that's his problem. Right now, our priority is making sure Gabby and you are okay. Shay's gone, but that couldn't be helped Marley. And blaming yourself will not help anything. Kelly, he needs time to grieve. But right now, you don't need him, you have us. 51 is more than a house, Marley, we're a family. We stand by each other, and we stick together. We all love you so much, Marley." Christopher said softly. Marley nodded, she was still confused and hurt and angry with the situation, and she didn't trust herself to talk about it right now without breaking down.
"Hey Herrmann, I want to see Gabby."