Charly's point of view.
"Morning!" Cindy, Herrmann's wife, smiled whereas I'm trying to put my not combed hair in a bun or something which is supposed to be a bun.
"Morning Charly!" Lee-Henry, Herrmann's son, shouted.
"Hi!" I simply replied, settling around the breakfast table already set.
"So, what are you doing today?" The firefighter asked me with his cup of coffee in his right hand.
"I don't know. Maybe I'll go to the firehouse" I lied.
I already know what I'm gonna do, but I know that if I told him that I count to go to the Chicago Fire Department Headquarters to try to understand what happened in Austin, he and probably the others will try to stop me and I don't want that. After all, it's my life and I can't continue to live without knowing what is the face of my past.
Just a coffee and a peanut butter toast later, I decided to take a quick shower. After that, I combed my hair and fixed them in a ponytail, I dressed a pair of black jeans and an emerald blouse. I finally put my favorite perfume before going down the stairs, putting my shoes, snatching my black coat on the hanger and my purse, and, finally, leaving the house without saying where I'm going.
The city of Chicago has never worn her nickname better than today. The cold is definitely here. Faster than I can, I walked to the headquarters of the Fire Departement of the city. Inside the building, the warm replaces the cold of the wind for my happiness. After asking the secretary if I can see the CFD commissioner, I have the bad surprise to cross in the gaze of the Austin's Truck Lieutenant. The gaze with a damn destructive flame.
"Everyones out, now!" A male voice ordered in his radio while we, the Truck crew, are reaching from some victims of this fire.
Welch stoned, thanks to a kick, a room's door. Behind this latter, he and I faced two victims: a little girl and a man, probably her dad, twice too heavy for me.
"Smith you take the man. I take the girl" My Lieutenant said.
"What?" I screamed through my mask. "You kidding me! He's at least twice my weight" I added before to cross in his gaze a terrific flame and on his lips a small grin of satisfaction.
And before I can add something, this stupid man is already out of the room. Without more time that my battalion chief authorized me, I'm out with this man on my shoulder. Once free of this weight, my only wish is to kick the ass of this asshole who is supposed to be my Lieutenant and I don't wait for more time to do it. With anger, I throw him my gloves in his face.
"That the fucking hell-" He tried to say but I don't let you more time to punch him in the face.
"SMITH!" My former battalion chief yelled.
"It's not because you don't like to work with women that you have the right to put me and the victim by the same way in danger in this fire. I explicitly told you that this man was twice my size and you laughed at me and ran out of this house." I shouted, a few inches to his visage. "Do that again and I send you directly in the arms of the Grim Reaper!"
Is it because of this that I leave Austin? I don't have the time to think about it longer than a man, wearing a CFD uniform, invited me to follow him in his office.
"My secretary said me that you want to see me Mrs. Smith" he started. "I'm listening to you"
"I worked for the CFD a year ago and I would like to have access to my files and more precisely to my transfer order to Austin from 51"
"Why know? Why after all this time?" He asked me suspiciously.
"Because I asked you to!" I replied.
After a reflexion time, he finally accepts my request and gives me my files. This later on my possession, I leave the headquarters and before I can hail a taxi, my mobile phone starts to vibrate in my pocket. I forgot this thing exists.
"Hello!" I said after accepting the call.
"Charly it's Herrmann. You need to come to the firehouse, they are something for you." He said.
"Okay. I'm on my way."
"See you soon!" Christopher concluded.
I finally hailed a taxi and give to the driver the address of Chief Boden's firehouse. During all the car ride, the answers on my mind restart. What the fucking hell happened in Austin? Why did I leave? Is it me or my Lieutenant who asked for my transfer? Welch said I did something against his firehouse but what?
"Here we are!" The taxi driver smiled before asking for his money.
"Keep the change" I added.
Easier than yesterday, I walk on the apparatus floor we a truck this definitely missing due to the fact that four pairs of shoes are on the floor waiting for the return of the firemen.
"Here she is!" Cruz shouted.
"I was thinking that it's supposed to be the candidate who cooks?" I laughed, watching Casey's man trying to crush potatoes with a fork.
"The candidate is a terrible cook!" Otis replied.
"I need to meet him: between bad cooks, we should get along well"
The firefighters present in the common room laughed while their Lieutenant arrived.
"Smith, Chief office please" He simply said.
That was weird. He doesn't smile, he doesn't laugh, he doesn't even say hello or make a job about his men. In the office of Boden, I can see the consternation on the faces of Wallace and Christopher.
"We need to talk Charlotte" The Battalion Chief started, beckoning me to sit between Casey and Herrmann.
To the agreement of my first name, I can prevent me to wince. I hate my name that why always call me Charly.
"What's up?" I asked.
"I receive a letter from the juridic service of the Fire Department. Lieutenant Welch from Austin asked a review of the complaint that you filed against them" My former Chief explained.
"What complaint?" I asked, totally lost.
"We know that you go in this HQ to recover your file. Do you read it?" Casey added.
"No! Why do you try to tell me? What the fucking hell happened in Austin?"
"The better answer we can give you it's to read your file"
It's with anguish that I open the record and read the first line which makes me lost my control of myself.
"Hello, Erin!" I smiled, stalling my phone between my shoulder and my ear as I end up changing myself in the locker room of my former firehouse.
"Hey, Charly! Are you free tonight?" She asked.
"Of course I'm free! What do you want to do?"
"I take you at your apartment at 7 pm and I buy you a drink in a new bar"
"Okay. It's okay with me. See you later, girl!" I accept before to hang up.
"Looks who is here alone!" A man voice whispered in my back.
"You want something Buckett?" I retorted drily.
"Let me reflect!" He laughed softly whereas I can now fell his breath in my neck.
I don't have the time to say something that I'm cornering between the lockers and my colleague.
"What the-" I tried to say but he pressed his lips against mine without my consent.
I really start to freak out so I try to push him away but nothing helps and he is more and more insistent.
"Don't touch me!" I yelled, his hands going under my shirt before passing under my skirt. "Don't touch me!"
"Nobody can hear you. It's just you and me."
"Don't do that!" I cried, realizing what is on his mind. "Don't touch me! Don't do that!" I yelled again and again with tears rolling down my cheeks and my hands trying to push him away but nothing works.
I cannot breathe anymore. My hands tremble, my eyes are blurred by my tears and I'm gasping for some fresh air.
"Charly, you need to breathe slowly" Chief Boden told me, squeezing my hands in his. "We're gonna help you to handle it. Come on, you need to calm down to breathe slowly: in and out, in and out..."
In and out. After a couple of minutes, I can finally refine a normal breathing.
"Tell me what you want to do and we are gonna do that" Casey smiled at me.
"Everyone in the meeting room, now!" Chief Boden ordered the firefighter without a face by his side while we are all eating in the common room.
Five little minutes later, we're all in the common room waiting to hear the news that the Chief has to tell us.
"As you know" he started "Kelly is demoted from his title of Lieutenant until further notice and Matt is injured so I need you to welcome as it should their replacements, Lieutenant Welch on truck and Buckett on Squad"
What? No, that can be true! It's a nightmare! I can't support again. While all my colleagues welcomed them, I quit the room almost running, under the disapproving cries of my superior.
"Charly!" A pretty man voice blurt out while I'm trying to hide me the most I can. "Charly!"
"I don't want to see you, Severide!" I moaned.
"I don't let you the choice" The famous firefighter without a face said, crouching in front of me. "Hey!"
"What?" I asked drily.
"For who are these tears?" He questioned. "Welch? Buckett?"
"Don't say his fucking name!" I shouted.
"Wow. What happened?"
"Nothing important"
"If you cry it's important, Charly!" He contradicted me.
"I don't want to talk about it with you!"
"You know what? If I want I can ask to see your transfer order with the motive of the latter and the Chief can-"
"He raped me! Are you happy now? Did you have what you want?" I yelled at him. "Get out!"
"No!"
"I said, "Get out!" I repeated.
"No way! We're a family here in 51. I'm here for you know. Tell me what you want to do and we are gonna do that" He said.
Severide's point of view.
"Are you okay, Lieutenant?" Tony asked me while I'm trying to hide the pain in my neck.
"Yeah, I'm fine!" I lied. "Focus on the road!"
My neck hurts like hell since the house fire where Andy died a couple months ago. I know that I can become paralyzed if I don't make this surgery but the risks are too hight and I can lose my job because it's probably the only thing who keeps me alive since Charly left for New York City after her accident. I miss her so much. I miss seeing her yell after the guys in all the station, and I miss smell her perfume and, of course, I miss see her when I wake up.
While the truck stops on the apparatus floor, we all jump out of the Squad truck and my eyes block on a woman who leaves a determining step the firehouse. And in front of her, in front of her shape and her brown hair, just one name comes through my mine: Charly.
"Hey, Severide!" Herrmann said. "You alright?"
"Charly was here right?"
"How... Yeah, she was here!"
"And why the fucking hell no one of you told me that my fiancée was here?" I yelled. "You know how much I love her and how much I miss her and you don't tell me she is here in Chicago! Why?"
"Because you look like a crap for one year!" Matt replied.
"And how I'm supposed to be? Come on tell me! What would you feel if it was Dawson, your wife, instead of Charly, or if it was Cindy?"
"Severide calm down!" Chief ordered.
"Calm down, seriously? You fucking lied to me. All of you. Don't ever say to me again that we're a family. Never!" I screamed walking to the exit.
"Severide don't to that!" Wallace said.
"Find another Lieutenant! I have nothing to do with you anymore!"
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