Casey's point of view
The shift started for two hour now and we already had a tough call. A husband and father of three kids died in the fire, desperately trying to protect and saved all his family. Truck 81 is the last one to come back to the station.
"Severide, can I talk to you?" I asked my fellow lieutenant just after putting off my gear.
He simply nods and follows me to my office.
"What's wrong with your shoulder?" I asked directly, noticing that he rubs his shoulder for a couple of weeks now.
"It's my neck, not my shoulder and I'm fine, thanks for your concern" he replied, curtly.
"I'm just worried about you, Kelly"
"You shouldn't"
"If you have a problem, we all have a problem."
"Right now, I'm not in the good mood to hear that we all are a family and blah blah blah" Severide replied.
"Listen to me! Here, we perfectly understand that what you go through it's really complicated, but every people in this house count on you to do your job."
"Whoah" Kelly started, tears in the eyes "Yeah, right, you perfectly understand, this is why no one of you talks to me for what looks like a couple of months."
"We didn't know what to do..."
"Me neither" He cut me. "The woman I love more than being a firefighter not remember me and left for another state and my best friend since kindergarten died during a call under your supervision, and for your well-being, I should have what? Smile? Laugh?"
"We all lost Darden" I replied.
"Say that to your bunch of idiots who perfectly make me understand that I should have vent the back"
"Kelly, stop!" Shay tried, knowing her best friend.
"Oh! But you told me that too, Casey!" He finally yelled, before leaving me here with Shay.
"What do you want?"
"Erin wants to see you in Boden's office." She announced me. "I gonna talk to him".
Whereas I start walking towards Chief Boden's office, Shay caught me up.
"He didn't think what he said" She tried.
As an answer, I just sighed and walked away. In front of the door of my superior, I stopped myself and knocked on the door.
"Come in!" He screamed softly.
"Erin! Chief!" I saluted. "What can I do for you?"
"For now, you are the only one that Charly trusts" she started.
"Something happened?" I asked, worried.
"No! Not something like that anyway. We find a way to punish her rapist and if you can be there for her..."
"Of course!" I cut her. "What do you want to do?"
"Send her to Austin, with you. Like if it's a transfer."
"Send her in the mouth of the wolf is your plan?" I questioned, shocked by the sayings of the detective.
"We need confessions and it's the only way to have it."
"How should we proceed?" I asked, in an accepting sign.
Shay's point of view.
"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"
"I just have the impression that nothing that I can say or do, help him."
"Charly is the only person who can help him but they need time for recollecting their former them. Anyway, we arrive."
Charly's point of view.
Nervously sitting on the open-space of the Intelligence Unit, I watch at each of them, wishing that one of them is gonna told me what's gonna happen.
"Coffee for everyone!" A man yelled.
I accepted shyly the coffee he gives me, no remembering his name.
"You only bring coffee in the hope to don't piss off Voight because you are late" Jay laughed.
"Officially, I queued for your coffees."
"And more seriously?" Ruzek asked.
"I was at my boxing club" He smiled.
"We need a volunteer!" Mouch declared, incoming the common room.
"For?" Darden asked.
"Annual boxing battle between the CFD and the CPD"
"I'm on it!" I accepted.
The laughs of the firefighters around me made me raise an eyebrow.
"What's the problem?"
"Your opponent is my brother and he's boxing for almost ten years now and he has his own boxing club" Gaby informed me.
"So, you can tell to Antonio that I'm boxing for a long time and I'm gonna kick his ass" I smiled.
"I bet on our badass firefighter" Darden screamed.
"Thanks, Antonio!" I smiled.
Silently, we all drank our coffees until we all heard the open-spaces' door opened and two people going upstairs: Erin and Matthew.
"It's the time you show us what you do" The detective smiled to me while the Truck 81 Lieutenant handed me my uniform.
The first time, I wore this uniform was six months after the end of the court at the Academy: I was no more a candidate, I'm a firefighter.
"I let you put on your uniform" My first firehouse Chief smiled.
In the locker room, I put on my uniform quickly. After that, I rested a couple of minutes, looking me into the mirror that I put in my locker and, with all my faith, I repeated to myself that I can do it.
"Are you ready?" Matthew asked while I mumbled to myself 'I can do it'.
"Yeah!" I answered.
Herrmann's point of view.
"Severide doesn't come eating?" Chief asked while we are around the table at noon.
"Oh, you don't ear?" Otis smiled.
Synchronize, Shay and I give him bad looks, making him understand that it's better for him to shut up.
"Don't ear what?" Wallace demanded.
"He just has a really important phone call to make at noon." Leslie lied.
Discussing as always while we're eating, the sound of a locker slammed attracted the Chief's warning. Before he has the time to say something, Severide walks in the common room, cardboard under the arm.
"Can you tell me what the hell are you doing?" Wallace yelled.
"My transfer to Arson has been accepted" He replied without stopping.
No one of us can believe what he just said. Kelly Severide at Arson it's just impossible. Always with the same synchronization, Shay and I rise from our chairs and follows him.
"Look", I started catching his attention, "if it's for what happened this morning..."
"You don't get it", he cut me. "This house is just heartbreaks and misery. I can't stay here any longer"
"You fucking stubborn, you're gonna listen to me! You're gonna call Arson and tell them that you don't quit 51 because if you do it I'm gonna be oblige to kick your ass! The Kelly Severide that I know never run away!" Shay cried.
"Things changed" He concluded.
"No matter what we said, what we do or should have done, you're still a member of this family" I tried again.
In a shrug, he got into his car and drove away.
"Call Casey, now!" I ordered Shay.
Casey's point of view.
"That was true!" Bucket laughed at Welch while we're walking towards them.
"It's just for a week, nothing to laugh about" Smith retorqued.
"A lot of things can happen in a week" He added.
"That's what we're gonna see" She continued.
"There is a pile of dishes waiting for you" Welch said pointing us the kitchen.
Side by side we're walking towards the kitchen.
"I already want to punch him" she burbled.
"Stupid as he is and too proud of what he did to you, that doesn't be long before we have his statement"
Trying to do as if nothing happened, we talking about a lot of things while we're making the dishes.
"If someone told me that one day I would have Casey under my command during calls" Welch smiled behind us.
But what they don't know is that for the well-being of the case all the calls are redirected to others firehouses.
"Smith with me, the locker room needs to be clear" Buckett smiled.
Slowly, she walked away, fear in the eyes.
Charly's point of view.
"Can I ask you something?" I tried once arrived in the locker room.
"You know that I wait for it for a long time" he replied perversely.
This man disgusts me.
"How can you live with it?" I asked.
"With what?" He questioned, still smiling.
"With what you did to me"
"You talk about the day that we fuck, here, on the locker room?"
"This day we didn't fuck as you said, you raped" I retorqued.
"Yeah and? What's that change?" He laughed. "You can't prove it. No one will believe you since they all know that you lost your memory after your accident"
"You're right" I added, smiling. "I love popcorn!"
"What?"
"CPD! Put your hands over head! You're under arrest!" Jay and Erin yelled.
"I knew that you're stupid but at that point" I laughed, relieved. "Popcorn was a name code, son of a bitch!"
Backed to one of the many lockers, I watch them take him away from here and this time for a long time.
"Shay called me a couple of time. Severide left the firehouse at noon and they don't have any news and he's not back home." Casey surprised me.
"Go!"
"Are you sure?"
"Of course! I'm coming with you!"
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New chapter online after a long time without posting.
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See u soon! ❤