The firefighter's smile

Chapter Six

"Kelly Severide, for the God sake open this damn door, now!" I shouted from the other side of his door's office.

"If you are here to lecture me, you can get the hell out of here!" I replied.

"Sev, I just want to talk to you" I tried, smoothly.

In a matter of three seconds, his office's door opened. While I'm walking in his hideout for the last two shit, the Squad 3 Lieutenant sat down in front of his desk, silently. 

"Talk to me"

"There is nothing to say!" He exclaimed.

"So it's because there is nothing to say that you yelled all your frustration on Casey?"

"Shay, I don't want to talk!"

"You forced me to listen to you when Clarice broke my heart, so, now you are gonna listen to me!" I retorted. "Darden's death was an accident, no matter what Casey's team says or your's team say: we all know that was an accident. And unfortunately, accidents happened and, even if we want, we cannot change that. Casey and you are best friends since the Academy and you fixed that thing around Darden's death a couple weeks ago know, don't back off."

"You don't under..."

"I perfectly understand that you missed Charly like hell!" I cut him. "But she isn't dead, she is alive. And the fact, that we all have seen her and not you, is what frustrated you. You have to let her some time to recollect her memory and to let you time to grieve."

While I expected an answer from him, I just can hear him sobbed out. So, gently, I put my arms around him and hugged him tighter than I can.

Casey's point of view.

"Herrmann, you replace me" I ordered passing in the common room with Charly's gear and uniform in my arms.

"What are you doing?" Severide voice echoed behind me.

"He helps us on an investigation case" Lindsay replied for me.

"With Charly's stuff?"

"We're trying to arrest her aggressor" I added.

"And if I didn't see you empty her locker, would you have told me?" He asked.

"Severide isn't the place for making a scene" Herrmann added.

"I don't have to receive orders from you."

"Don't play with your grade with my men" I retorqued.

"Manage your men then!" Kelly shouted.

"You really want to do it, here and again?" I asked angrily. "I'm tired with your bullshits! For once, act like a grown ass, face your problems and your responsibilities instead of throwing them on all of us, as when you decree that Darden's death wasn't your fault"

"Did you really say that?" He tried to reply emotionless.

"Look Kel, I'm..."

"I see perfectly from where your men find the right to remember me that I lost Andy" He concluded, hurt in his eyes, before leaving the common room.

It's under the disapproving look of Shay that I quitted the firehouse with Erin. After a couple of minutes in her car, she finally broke the silence.

"Remembering what he lost don't gonna help him," she said.

"I didn't mean to hurt him."

"I know. Sometimes, together, you are like a dog and cat but at the end, you care about each other more than you can admit"