A/n:
This is the end of Love, Dad. But I'm working on book two! Titled: Dear, Dad. More info to come later😁
–––
Chloe and Joe stayed at the peninsula for a mini Honeymoon before their big one in a of couple months. They're thinking about making it a family event and bringing Tatiana but it's undecided. She was very excited to see them when they picked her up from her grandma's. Now she's settling into their new apartment. It's a three-bedroom, one-bath apartment and Tatiana has been having a blast decorating her new room.
"Tati breakfast is almost done when you're ready," Chloe says walking through the open bedroom door where Tatiana was digging through the boxes that lay around. "Tati you okay?"
"I can't find the letters!" She cried out not looking up from the box.
"What letters sweetie?" Chloe asks walking in further and kneeling by the box.
"The letters from Dad! After he got shot he wrote a bunch of letters to me. Just in case anything happened to him and they're gone." She says tossing various toys and clothing items from the box.
"Hey, sweetie we'll find them okay? They're in one of these boxes." Chloe says putting a hand on the girl's shoulder making Tatiana look up at her.
"There's my favorite ladies. What's wrong?" Cruz looks at them concerned.
"Dad's letters are missing."
"Okay well, how about I call Foster and see if they're laying around there somewhere? She can bring them to the firehouse I'll bring them home with me okay?" Cruz suggests sitting down next to Tatiana. She gives a small nod and pulls his phone out of his pocket. "Okay go get breakfast. We have to leave in 10."
"Okay thank you, Uncle Cruz." She wipes her tears always before following Chloe out of her room. Joe calls Foster looking around at the mess that is Tatiana's new room.
"Hey, Cruz what's up?" Emily asks from the other side of the phone.
"Hey can you check around the apartment for a shoe box, it would be labeled letters for my Tater Tot," Cruz says a sigh falling from his lips.
"Uh yeah, Cruz let me check." She does a walk-through of the apartment and doesn't find it. "Sorry, Cruz it's not here."
"Fuck. Okay, thanks for looking. I got to go I'll see you later." Joe says unsure of how he'll tell Tatiana that he doesn't know where the letters are while still getting her to school. He knows the letters are probably in one of the many boxes sitting around the apartment.
"Babe! Come eat breakfast is getting cold." Chloe shouts from the table. He breaks from his thoughts and stands up.
"Coming."
–––Later–––
Tatiana couldn't focus on school all day. Those letters are some of the only things that she has from her dad. She just wanted to get home and look for them. She climbs on the bus and finds a seat next to Brady.
"Are you going to the fire station today?" He asks her grinning.
"No Uncle Cruz thinks I need to stop going to the firehouse every shift now that Chloe lives with us I should stay with her." She says. Since Tatiana hasn't had a nightmare in a little over a month Cruz thought now would be a good time to try having her stay home. She's a little annoyed about it cause she likes being there while he's on shift. To make sure everyone arrives in one piece after each call. Plus Cruz lets her go over to Brady's house to play with him.
"Lame. Well, wanna play Minecraft when you get home?" He asks her smiling.
"No, I still have to unpack I lost something really important." She tells him a frown covering her face.
"I hope you find it. We should play afterwards!" He suggests.
"Sure." Tatiana smiles looking out the window at the passing buildings.
"Monday you should ask to come over to my house! You can just ride the bus over."
"I'll ask them." She grins at him.
"What'd you lose?" He asks her.
"My dad wrote me letters and I lost the box that has them all in it," Tatiana says looking at her hands.
"I'm sorry that sucks," Braden says as the bus pulls up to his stop. "Bye Tots! See you Monday!" He hurries off the bus while she looks at the firehouse. Cruz stood at the end of the apron waving at her. She waves back at him with a grin. He plans to do this whenever he's not on a call and the bus is passing.
The bus makes it to her stop a little while later and she climbs off and hurries up the street Chloe following behind. No words were said. Chloe didn't know what to say. She's known for almost a year that one day she'd be helping raise this girl. But now she has no clue how to. How to help with these hard moments. Or what to say. So she says nothing instead following her to their apartment and unlocking the door.
Tatia runs in going straight to her room. She digs through the boxes, not an easy feat when one of her arms is in a cast and a sling against her chest. Chloe was unpacking the kitchen since they haven't gotten to that yet. Tatiana come in maybe an hour later dried tears on her face.
"I didn't find them." She says.
"Okay then let's unpack the living room together and see if they got put in one of those boxes instead," Chloe suggests setting the plate in the cabinet.
"Fine," Tati says turning on her heel and going into the living room.
She opens a box and begins carefully removing the framed pictures that were wrapped up in the box. They used to be placed around their old apartments. Most featuring fifty-one, and Tatiana. Others have Leon, Otis' family, and Chloe in them. Chloe takes each photo from her and props a few of them up on the mantel. A photo of Otis and Tatiana at a father-daughter dance, her latest yearbook photo. Though Cruz told her Otis has the rest stacked in there too. She leaves space for her own photos and the wedding pictures they haven't gotten yet.
She stacks the rest to later hang up. She looks at Tatiana who was moving to the next box after finding that her letters were at the bottom of that one. Chloe says nothing as she moves the empty box out of the way. They make it through all of the boxes in the living room and find nothing.
"We'll find them," Chloe assures.
"No, we won't. They're gone I lost them." Tati cried running to her room. Chloe watches in defeat. Her phone begins ringing and she reaches for it.
"Hey, Baby." She says to her husband.
"Hey, I have good news." He says on the other side of the phone.
"Really?"
"We found the letters. They got kicked under the seat of my car during the move." Cruz tells hers.
"That's great I'll bring her down to grab them. We can help make dinner for you firefighters." Chloe cheerfully.
"Capp got injured on a call. This morning. I don't want to worry her I'll bring the letters home with me tomorrow." Cruz says.
"Okay. Is he okay?" Chloe asks.
"Yeah. But he ran off from Med and Severide is pissed at both Capp and the business he got hurt at. I don't want Tatiana getting worried."
"Okay, do you wanna talk to Tots."
"Sure."
"Tots! Your uncle is on the phone!" Chloe hollers making sure to move the phone from her head. "
"Coming!" Tatiana shouts before running in.
"I'm gonna go make dinner. Bye Baby I love you." Chloe says before handing Tati her phone. "Bring me my phone where you're done, sweetie."
"Uncle Joe. We still haven't found my letters." Tati says sadness clear in her voice.
"I have good news. The box got kicked under the seat of my car."
"Really? Can me and Chloe go get it?"
"Chloe just started dinner so I'll just bring the letters home with me tomorrow," Cruz suggests.
"Okay." She says before hearing a call come over in the background.
"Hey, that's me. I'll call before bed. Bye, love Tots."
"Bye be careful. I love you." She says and hangs up.
–––The next day–––
Cruz grabs the box of letters from his backseat. He doesn't know what Otis wrote in any of them. He didn't tell him. Though Joe can't blame him these are private pieces of advice he left for his daughter. Though he wonders what made Tatia look for them. Whether she was going to read them or just wanted to make sure to put them in a safe place. Cruz shakes from his thoughts as he walks to their new building. He makes it to their floor and their apartment turning his key he opens the door.
Chloe's parents had come over to help with moving. When Joe opens the door he finds Tatiana sitting on the couch next to Chloe's dad. Their attention is on the tv where Tatiana has her switch set up. She insisted on showing him her game. She's never really had a grandpa. Otis's dad died before she was born and her mom's parents have never been in her life. By the choice of her mom. Chloe's parents couldn't wait to have grandkids. It was kind of this perfect mix. Their daughter married a guy raising a kid. It didn't matter to either of them that this kid wasn't related to them or their son-law by blood.
"Uncle Joe! I'm teaching Earl how to play super smash bros." Tatiana says looking over at him.
"Cool Mija. How's it going, Earl?" Joe asks walking further into the couch.
"Great I won one battle already." He smiles at his son-in-law. "How was work?"
"Long." He says walking past the couch and ruffling Tatiana's hair. "Where's Chloe?"
"I think she's in the kitchen with her mom," Earl tells him eyes focused on the screen.
"Okay. Good luck man." Joe says before walking to the kitchen where he finds he's wife leaning on the counter drinking coffee and talking to her mom. "Hey, baby." He wraps his arms around her and kisses her.
"Hey, how's Capp doing?" Chloe asks as he greets her mom with a hug.
"Tony's going to his place now. Severide and Casey are going tonight." Cruz says reaching for the coffee pot. "Tony's gonna text me later. How was Tatiana?" He asks, mostly hoping she didn't have any nightmares. That would send her back months. He pours himself some coffee before turning to his wife.
"Good. No nightmares." She answers knowing exactly what he was asking.
"Okay." He smiles relieved that his niece is okay and isn't getting nightmares again.
"You wanna go out for breakfast or are you tired?" Chloe asks him.
"Breakfast sounds great. I'll tell Tatia and your dad we'll be leaving soon." Cruz smiles and walks out of the kitchen with his coffee.
"Hey, tots go get dressed we're going out for breakfast," Cruz tells her.
"Okay. Did you get Letters?"
"Yes, I did they're by my bag." He says, she grins grabbing them before heading down the hall to her room.
She sits on her bed and opens the box. Her dad left one letter in that box not addressed to her. Big letters on the envelope say "For Joe" She didn't tell him. She wanted to wait for a big moment, like right after he got married. She grabs the letter before quickly getting dressed and walking out.
"Uncle Cruz, Dad left this for you with my letters." She says handing him the letter. He looks at it then her confused. Otis hadn't mentioned this.
"When did you find this?"
"Right after you gave me the letters but it looked like it needed to be read after something big. But like a good big not a bad big." Tatiana explains as she puts on her shoes. He looks back down at his best friend's handwriting.
His best friend wrote him a letter, how nervous about dying did he get? Sure Otis mentioned one night a couple of months before his death that Dr Charles thinks he has PTSD. Otis was drunk one night and mentioned it. Cruz imagines that the PTSD is what caused his need to make sure everything was in writing and that there was someone he could trust to take Tatiana.
"Joe you okay?" Chloe asks him.
"Uh yeah. I'll meet you guys at the car."
"Okay."
They walk out and he sits on the couch. He fiddles with the envelope. He's kind of nervous to open it. He gently peels it open and pulls out the piece of paper. He unfolds it before beginning to read it.
"Surprise! I wasn't really planning on writing this letter. But your my best friend, and I'm trusting you to raise my daughter so those things mean something. And no this isn't a letter telling you how I want her raised. You know most of that I tell you everything. I probably won't tell you about this letter, let it be a surprise. I hope I live long enough to see if you and Chloe get married. She's already been great to you and it's only been a few months. I hope I get to meet your kids. I want to get to be the cool uncle to your kids like you are to mine. You even just took her out to the trampoline park with Annabelle. But enough about that. I'm writing this October 2018 so a while after I wrote Tati's letters. Dr. Charles thinks I have PTSD but if I do I can't be a firefighter. I'll probably never tell you this to your face though. If I'm really gone please keep Tatia in touch with my mom and Baba. You already know not to let Julie's parents see her but they haven't tried in a while. Okay Joe I love you, I'm sorry I broke the promise. Crotis forever"
Love, Otis