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Kelly walked into the locker room without Leslie that morning, he didn’t know where she had gone but she had already left by the time he woke up. In the locker room Matt was tying his shoelaces and Kelly makes eye contact with him the tension so sharp you could cut it with a knife, Matt couldn’t have escaped from that room faster. After he had left, Leslie waltzes in straight after him grinning at Kelly when she greets him
“So, we're off and running.”
“For what?” Kelly asks confused
“I went to the doctor's office this morning and got my hormone shot.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“How you feeling?”
“Fine. Yeah, it's not affecting me at all. Just, uh, it means the window for ovulation is gonna be in the next couple of days so don't make any plans. And, um, as soon as these say that I'm good to go, we gotta get to the clinic and perform our respective duties. Sorry, I'm just... I'm really excited.”
“I can see that.”
“Yeah. All right.” Leslie stands up to skip away when Kelly calls back to her
“Hey. I am too.”
Otis and Joe walk into the common room to see a large container of popcorn sitting on the kitchen bench waiting for them, incredibly excited the two march over to the can popping the kid off immediately before they begin to devour the pecan caramel goodness.
“Let's get into this before Herrmann finds out.” Joe says
“Herrmann's gone hunting with his brother. It's all the pecan caramel popcorn you can eat.”
“Sweet! Who brought this in?” Otis asks
“A paramedic candidate who's riding with Brett and Shay.” Gabby says as she wanders off after cleaning the kitchen
“Oh, yeah, Tara. Apparently she spent a couple of shifts over at 95. Bob Macelroy said she's pretty cool.” Otis says
“What, are you stalking her now?” Joe questions with his mouth full of popcorn
“No, I'm not stalking her. I just like to know who I'm working with.”
“Are you wearing cologne?” Gabby asks crinkling her face up at the smell
“No. Body spray, maybe.” He says as Joe laughs at his friend. In the distance, Tara was talking with Sylvie so Otis calls out to her before Kelly walks in behind her helping himself to the popcorn “Uh, Severide, I think Capp's looking for you.”
“No, I just left him.” Sylvie and Tara then walk up to the ever growing group of firefighters consuming the popcorn
“Hi, everybody.” She grins
“Did you bring this popcorn because it's amazing.” Joe says as Tara helps herself to the popcorn she had graciously brought for the firehouse
“I am not above buying people's affection.” She teases
“So, um, I hear that you are quite a graphic designer.” Otis says
“So is anyone with a laptop.” Tara laughs and then continues to speak “Yeah, I wish I'd figured that out before I racked up $60,000 in student loans.”
“Well, what made you wanna be an E.M.T.?” Gabby asks curiously knowing that truly the only good paramedics were the ones that wanted their job more than anything
“Uh, my roommate's a paramedic at 35. I didn't have to hang out with her very long before I realized the firehouse is where it's at.”
Engine 51, Truck 81, Squad 3, Ambulance 61. Industrial accident, Racine and 15th Street.
“Hey, what happened?” Sylvie asks Gabby as she, Leslie and Tara arrive at the scene
“A worker backed a forklift into the shelves and the whole thing came down on top of him.” Gabby explains as they try to get in closer
“Hey, can you tell me your name?” Sylvie asks the man who was bleeding from his knees, wooden planks pressed against him, his face was pasty and his limbs were shaking profusely.
“Phil. Phil Manfreddi.”
“Okay, hi, Phil.” Sylvie smiles. “Okay, Phil, I want you to breathe slow and easy for me, okay?”
“You see his nail beds, how blue they are? What's that mean?” Leslie asks the young girl that stood between her and Sylvie
“Shock. He's in shock.”
“Very good. We're gonna keep his C-spine nice and straight. And we need to warm him up.” Leslie explains to the young paramedic. Kelly begins to torch the metal pole away so that they could move Phil out of the warehouse when Matt notices flammable oil leaking from an oil drum
“Severide, kill the torch!” Matt calls but there’s no time before the oil goes up in flames, the members of Engine immediately fight the flames with fire extinguishers they held in their hands
“Ugh! Is it out?” Kelly asks
“Can't tell. I need to get in there.” Matt says as he peers underneath the pile of collapsed supplies to search for the fire “It's still smoldering. This can go up again any second. We gotta move him.”
“I didn't make it through the beam.” Kelly shakes his head as Gabby comes back into the warehouse with what looks to be a second beam in her hand. They use it to lift the other beam allowing Leslie, Sylvie and Tara to get into the scene. Tara freezes when she sees the gaping wound in Phil’s legs
“Focus on his face and keep him calm.” Leslie instructs as her and Sylvie begin to work on moving Phil out of the warehouse and in the direction of the ambulance.
When Squad three arrives back at the firehouse, Tara walks up to him with a smile on her face and a clipboard in hand
“Hey. Kelly, right?”
“Yeah.”
“We have a mutual friend. Jennifer Robinson? She tends bar at Cubby Bear. She said to say hello.”
“Okay. Yeah, tell her I said hello.”
“Will do. It's nice to have a connection to someone here.”
“Yeah, it's a... it's a great group at 51. I'm sure that you'll fit right in. Shay and Brett taking good care of you?”
“Yeah. I actually have some copies to go make for Shay right now. So I'll see you later.”
Gabby was sitting at the table in the common room when she calls to Otis,
“My grandparents in Madrid. My grandfather proposed to her there.” She holds a photo up to him
“Hmm, you will never see Russian grandparents smiling like that.” Otis laughs
“The place they're standing in front of is one of the oldest restaurants in Europe.”
“You been?”
“No. Someday.” She says as Matt walks up to them. “I think Molly's needs a big, wooden door like this. Something timeless and beautiful.”
“How did I know there was an agenda attached to this story?”
“It is a nice door.” Matt slides the photo over to him to get a closer look at the perfectly detailed wood carvings in the large oak door.
“Look, Dawson, now is not the time to be making design decisions, okay? Herrmann's unreachable in the woods of Ontario somewhere.” Otis sighs, Joe had now overheard the conversation and was now joining the group peering over Matt’s shoulder at the old photograph.
“Yeah, exactly why now is the time.”
“Well, we don't have any money left.” Otis sighs
“There's a salvage place I use. There's all kinds of old structural pieces. Might take some searching, but we could take a look.” Matt pipes up
“That sounds great thanks.” Gabby smiles
Ambulance 61, laceration injury. 670 North Talman Avenue.
“So sorry about this. My husband, Dennis, he was working on the garage door and it just started opening.” A woman dressed in pyjamas says as she ushers the three blondes underneath a garage door to reveal a man dangling from the roller door rails.
“The arm's caught in there. We're not equipped for this. Call in in.” Leslie says as she approaches the man
“Dispatch, this is Ambulance 61. We need a truck company to 670 North Talman Avenue.” Sylvie says into the radio as Tara watched the scene unfold in front of her anxiously.
“My shoulder! I heard the muscle make a ripping sound.” The man says as Leslie holds the man’s feet in place while Sylvie grabbed a ladder from the back of the garage bringing it over to them, Tara continued to watch on frozen, Leslie instructed her to hold his legs but she still sat frozen clearly on another planet. Leslie calls out to her again when she is shaken back to reality. They put the ladder underneath the mans feet as Leslie climbs up the other side of it to get closer to the man’s shoulder.
“Brett, see if you can lift the door.” Sylvie did just that walking over to the roller door trying to lift it up but it wouldn’t budge not even a tiny bit, Leslie calls Tara to come up the ladder to help her dislodge the man’s arm which they do successfully before loading the man into the stair chair.
At the hospital, Sylvie was filling in paperwork when Leslie approached her
“Where'd Tara go? She off crying in a corner somewhere?”
“Oh, come on, that was pretty gnarly. Cut her some slack.”
“So Dawson and Casey going treasure hunting after shift, huh?”
“Don't even start that.”
“Why jealous?” Leslie teases
“No, no, actually Dawson and I had a nice chat about Casey the other day”
“Ooh, do tell”
“We just agreed that we wouldn’t let him come between us”
“Yeah, heard that one before” Leslie laughs softly “Hey, I ran into Mike, and he said Hallie, she's... she's long gone. She's history. She's off finding herself, doing some medical aid work in South America or somewhere...”
“I don't care, Shay. Hallie may be gone, but I’m not going to do that to Dawson”
“She’s got her man! Dawson doesn’t own him, come on Brett” At the ambulance bay entrance to the hospital, an orderly had begun to move the gurney property of ambulance 61 and Leslie wasn’t having it, she approached the orderly with a sinister bite in her voice “Hey, hey! Excuse me, don't touch that! That's not yours! Put it back.”
“How long ago since that hormone shot?” Sylvie asks
“Just don't mess with my gurney.” Leslie replies as Tara comes up to them clearly from an expedition to the cafeteria handing each of the paramedics a coffee
“Grabbed a couple coffees for you guys. I, uh, I saw the doctor in the hall. She said you saved that man's arm.” Tara smiles
“Well, we got him here fast. That's the key. A quick response is everything. Okay.” Leslie says to the young girl before they make their way out of the hospital and in the direction of the ambulance.
When the ambulance arrives back at the firehouse Sylvie catches up with Matt
“Hey, so you’re going door hunting, that’ll be fun”
“Yeah, hey you should totally come”
“Oh no that’s okay”
“Really? I thought you were a sucker for home improvements”
“I am, I am, but really I wouldn’t want to intrude”
“You wouldn’t be intruding, I mean I’m sure Dawson would love to have you there”
“Um yeah, I actually think I’m busy so…”
“Oh, okay, well maybe another time then”
“Yeah, another time” Sylvie smiles as she walks inside to the coffee machine where Hadley was standing so instead she turns around and walks away, she would come back later for coffee if she were that desperate, or if push came to shove she would just ask Leslie to stop by a drive through cafe on the way back from thier next call
Leslie had Tara reorganising the ambulance, throwing out all the empty packaging and old paperwork, Tara scrunches up an A4 sheet and goes to throw it into the bin when Kelly calls to her,
“Bet you a dollar you miss that.”
“Make it a beer.”
“You're on.” Kelly nods as Tara makes the shot and fails dismally
“Gee, I guess I owe you a beer.”
Leslie sat in the locker room with a protein bar in her hand, she was reading the nutritional information but not a single word was going into her head, she was far too distracted to focus on anything. Lucky for her Cindy Herrmann decided to pop her head into the locker room
“Cindy.”
“Hi, Leslie.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Fat. Uh, Christopher left his set of car keys here. I just need to grab them.”
“Okay. Did he, uh, call you yet to brag about how many innocent birds he's killed?”
“No, they're... they're deep in the woods up there, so I don't expect to hear from him.”
“Mm, well, I'm sure we'll all get an earful once he's back.” Leslie jokes but she noticed Cindy’s discomfort and shortness of breath “You okay?”
“Oh, yeah. Yeah, I just got real winded walking in here. That's what I get for gaining 25 pounds in the first two trimesters.”
“When did the, uh, shortness of breath start?”
“Oh, I guess it got tricky about an hour ago. I... I should sit... Mm-hmm. A few minutes, maybe.”
“Yep. All right, well, just to be safe, I'm gonna just go ahead and take your vitals, okay?”
“Oh, it's probably nothing.” Cindy insists but within moments Leslie had taken Cindy out to the ambulance and the firefighters wife had a blood pressure monitor strapped to her arm. “Everything look okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, everything's all right. I just wanna get you to Lakeshore and have a few things checked out, okay? So just stay here. Take nice, easy breaths and, um, I'm gonna go tell Chief Boden, okay?” Leslie smiles but she speed walks to Boden who thankfully was standing on the edge of the apparatus floor with Sylvie and Tara. “Chief. Cindy's oxygen levels are way too low. It could be a P.E. We need to get her to Lakeshore now.” She rushes out as she begins running back to the ambulance. “All right, Cindy, nice, easy breaths. In and out, you just relax.” Leslie says as she places an oxygen mask over Cindy’s face when she passes out on the gurney “Brett, she's lost consciousness. Call ahead to Lakeshore, give 'em the report. I gotta tube her.”
“Lakeshore, this is Ambo 61 Be advised we are on route with a pregnant female” Sylvie says into the radio as Leslie hastily intubates her friend with the help of a panicked Tara.
“38 year-old female. 26 weeks gestation. She went unresponsive, stopped breathing, and I had to intubate.” Leslie says as they push Cindy into the hospital
“She's a friend, the wife of one of ours.” Sylvie nods
“Sounds like a P.E. Let's push T.P.A. and tell the C.T. scanner we're coming. Right away. We've got her.” The doctor says as they begin to move Cindy upstairs
“She shouldn't be here alone.” Leslie shakes her head turning to Sylvie
“You should go with her.” Sylvie nods
“You sure?”
“100%.”
“Thanks.” Leslie says before racing off to see Cindy. A nurse then approaches Leslie as she stood in a hallway staring out the window over the city of Chicago
“Hey, how is she?”
“The clot traveled to her lungs. We did a thrombectomy and fished it out.”
“And how's the baby?”
“The baby's fine. We're starting her on blood thinners so she'll be on bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. But other than that, she's fine.”
“Okay.”
“You can go in and see her.”
“Thank you.”
Cindy lay on the bed tiredly as Leslie appears in the doorway
“Hey, girl.” Leslie smiles
“Get over here.” Cindy says opening her arms to engulf the paramedic in a tight hug
“I'm so glad you're okay.”
“Thank you, Leslie.”
“Of course.”
At the end of shift, Sylvie knocked on the doorway of Boden’s office
“You and Mouch get a hold of Herrmann?” she asks
“Yeah, uh, park rangers tracked him down. He's on his way home now.”
“Great news about Cindy. Thanks to Shay.” Sylvie turns to leave but is stopped by none other than chief Hatcher
“Good morning, Brett.”
“Hey, Chief Hatcher.”
“I came by to see how Tara Little's doing on the rig.”
“Uh... yeah, she's a nice girl. Putting in a real effort.” Sylvie nods
“Brett, one thing I know I can rely on with you is a straight story. And that's what I'm looking for here now.”
“She's not cut out for a busy house, Chief. She's game, has a positive attitude, but she doesn't have the stomach for it.”
“Sound like city work's not for her. Maybe the suburbs. Thanks, Brett.”
“No problem.”
Matt and Gabby walked through the antique store as Matt looked around admiring all the old products.
“I love how solid all this old construction stuff is. Houses were built to last.” Matt says as he picks up an old garden statue
“Cool, let me check it out.”
“It's pretty heavy.”
“I'm sorry, are you saying I can't manage?”
“Mm, look at that game face.”
“Give it to me.”
“All right.” he hands the statue for her and she wobbles as she tries to carry the statue
“I got it. It's fine. It's not that bad.”
“Yeah, you look like you got it.”
“Okay. No, it's... take it.”
“Yeah? Sure?”
“Take it. Ta... take it.” Gabby wobbles as Matt takes the statue from her and they both laugh when Matt points to a selection of doors and the two of them begin to go through them
“Oh, Casey.” Gabby says as she holds a door “This is it.”
“Yeah, we can strip it down, stain it a dark mahogany or something.” Matt suggests
“Yeah. It's perfect. If my mom sees this hanging up at Molly's, she is gonna go nuts.” Gabby says as her phone begins to buzz, she excuses herself and answers Peter Mills’ call
“Uh, look, I'm gonna have to blow off dinner tonight. Yeah, they're letting me jump into this vertical rescue class, and I just can't.”
“Oh, yeah, no worries. Um, we can... we can do it tomorrow night.”
“Okay. Where you at?” Peter asks as Gabby’s voice is drowned out by the background noise
“Um, I'm looking at doors for the bar.”
“By yourself?” Peter asks “You wanna wait until tomorrow? I can help you.” Gabby turns to Matt who is pulling the door off the shelf
“Um, no, I'm good. Thanks. Talk to you later.”
Tara knocks on the door to Kelly’s apartment
“I always hold up my end of the bet.” She says holding up a four pack of beer.
“Ah, very honorable of you.”
“Am I interrupting something?”
“Uh, not really. Um... Come on in.” Kelly, while uncomfortable, opened the door wider to let the paramedic student into his apartment. The two sat at the kitchen bench as Tara told him a story about how her family didn’t support her decision to become a paramedic.
“Do they support you now?” Kelly asks
“Not really. But they will as soon as I show them I can hack it. I could tell that you didn't really remember Jennifer. That bartender I asked you about.”
“No, I do, the... the blonde.:
“Black hair. Black. Oh. Nice try. She remembered you. When I told her I was gonna be working at 51, she warned me about you. She said that you were just my type. That I'd have a hard time staying away.”
“Really?”
“Mm-hmm. She's a smart girl, that Jen.” Tara nods as Leslie slams the door shut to the front door and storms in yelling at her roommate
“What the hell, Kelly?”
“What's wrong?” Kelly asks confused
“What's wrong? I called you, like ten times!”
“I... I must have left my phone at the gym.”
“I told you to be on alert. I'm in the window. I... Now the clinic's closed! Unbelievable. Unbelievable!”
“Hey, I'm so... look, hey! Listen, Shay, I'm sorry, okay? We can go to the clinic tomorrow morning. That's still in the window, isn't it?”
“No! There's no way to be sure about that.”
“I gotta ask, is this... is this you talking or is this the...”
“Don't blame this on the hormones! You can't even bother to look at your phone? You can't even think to look at it?”
“I didn't have it.”
“A baby isn't an afterthought, Kelly.”
“I know that.”
“Do you? So I release you of the obligation.”
The following day Gabby was frying pancakes on the stove while Otis and Joe were helping themselves to more than their share of pancakes
“Okay, save some for Brett.”
“Why? She tanked Tara. You tank the single attractive E.M.T.” Otis says turning to her
“I didn't tank her... Otis. I just said that she wasn't cut out for the streets of Chicago, okay? They'll probably move her to Mayberry or something.”
“Wrong. Her probationary status was revoked, Brett.” Sylvie grabbed some pancakes and went to go sit down when Matt approached the pancake station.
“Hey, did you show Otis?” Matt asks her
“Uh... no, not yet.” She says as she served Matt some pancakes
“Show me what?” Otis asks from the table his mouth full of delicious fried egg and flour
“The new door for the bar.” Matt says
“Oh, Dawson, I was happy with the one we had.” Otis shakes his head
“Don't worry about it. I know the guy who runs the place.” Matt nods “Dawson has expensive tastes, granted, but I managed to talk him down.”
Engine 51, Truck 81, Squad 3. Ambulance 61. House fire, 4800 block, West Thomas.
“Severide, get that gate down.” Boden orders
“Windows are all covered up, Chief. Can't get a look inside.” Matt notes as he and Kelly make their way around to the back of the house
“Patched into the city service just below the weather head. They're stealing electricity. Looks like we got a marijuana grow house, Chief.” Matt explains to his radio
“Give me a small primary search team. And be careful in there.” The group head inside and begin moving people out when there’s an explosion catching Capp in the crossfire, Matt and Gabby are inside looking around for him when they see that the electricity is still on.
“We're looking for a secondary line now. Hang on.” Kelly says into his radio to the other lieutenant still inside the building. Matt soon finds Capp laying on the floor between marijuana plantations and he bends down to the fallen firefighter,
“He's caught up in some wires. I can't tell if they're energized.”
“Casey, the secondary line is cut. We're still looking for other lines.”
“Stand back, Dawson.” Matt says as he uses a stick to move the wire out of Capp’s body. Outside, it was quiet, almost two quite
“Hey, Casey, do you hear me?” Kelly says into his radio but he gets no response, too many seconds pass before Matt, Capp and Gabby emerge from the building
“Hey. How you feeling, Capp?” Sylvie asks as she removes his mask
“Smells like a phish concert out here.” Capp jokes as they all sigh a breath of relief as Sylvie helps him up over to the ambulance to get checked out properly.
Truck 81, are you available to assist in a shooting incident?
“Truck 81 responding.”
Sylvie and Leslie pull up underneath an overpass, a police officer was already standing beside a body on the floor
“No rush, ladies. He's not going anywhere. Territorial dispute. Couple of corner boys ran up and shot him. Same old story.”
“This guy looks familiar; I think I saw him with Dawson and Casey when they were going through that stuff with Voight” Sylvie says as she and Leslie bend down in front of the body soon enough Truck 81 pull up to the scene and Matt gets out of the truck walking over to the paramedics
“Hey, we're too late.” Sylvie shakes her head sadly
“Yeah, okay. How's Capp?”
“He's good, yeah. No electrical burns or anything. They gave him an E.K.G.” Matt bends down in front of the body
“Curtis” he mumbles.
Joe, Mouch, Matt, Gabby and Otis were floating around Molly’s fixing things up
“According to Boden, the D.A.'s office remains committed to its case against Detective Voight. And, after all, Curtis's testimony wasn't the only arrow in their quiver.” Mouch explains
“Is that what you're hearing, Casey?” Gabby asks
“I thought we were here to celebrate.” Matt replies as Leslie and Kelly arrive to help out.
“Exactly. Come on, guys! It's time for the inaugural round of beers at Molly's.” Otis grins, everyone swarms around the bar picking up schooner glasses of beer while in the doorway Leslie and Matt engaged in a small conversation missing all the fun that was being had over at the bar.
“Hey, Casey.”
“Hey, Shay.”
“Hey, how's Cindy doing?” Gabby calls from the distance
“She's good. Herrmann's back, glued to her side, which is driving her crazy.” Leslie says as she takes a glass from her friend
“All right, guys. Belly up. Come on.” Matt joins them taking a glass that’s passed all the way down the bar from Otis to him and they are about to drink when Otis stops them. He turns the fairy lights on when they all cheer, toast to Molly’s and then drink. They look at the beer and then to Otis
“it's delicious, Otis. But are you gonna chill it before opening?” Kelly asks
“God, I swear I plugged that in.” Otis says
“Okay, who wants to see this door?” Matt asks as they all begin walking towards the door. Leslie then stops Kelly in the hallway and they both immediately start apologising to one another
“I'm sorry. I mean, it was the hormones. Or... I think. I'm not sure, but look, I... I think I should make other arrangements, 'cause it's, like, our friendship is one of the only really good things I have going on in my life, and I don't wanna mess that up.” Leslie says when she can finally get a word in on top of Kelly’s apologising.
“That's the silliest thing I've ever heard.”
“But, Kelly... “
“You're trying to give me an easy out, I get it. I do. But I don't need one, okay? We're doing this. Okay? Come here.” He wraps her in a tight hug.
Outside, everyone is admiring the door and Matt and Gabby are about to take a photo together when Leslie pulls the door open into him. Peter Mills then arrives at the bar and he kisses Gabby whilst Matt stands directly next to the two of them
“Hey, Pete. Hi, I thought you had classes all day.”
“Oh, I do. Just wanted to carve out a couple of minutes to come see this door. Looks great.” Kelly’s phone then buzzes in his pocket
“Uh, I gotta go to the firehouse.”
“What for?” Leslie asks
“I don't know. See you guys.” He waves to everyone before making his way back to the firehouse he had only left two hours prior.
“Hey, Tara.” Kelly smiles when she sees the young girl but she doesn’t dare make eye contact with him and storms away.
“Chief.” Kelly says as he knocks on the door of Boden’s office, inside three other men in white shirts stood none of which had pleasant expressions on their faces.
“Come on in, Kelly. Take a seat.” Boden says, he pauses for a moment before he begins to speak “Lieutenant Severide. A subordinate has accused you of luring her to your apartment... and trying to force yourself upon her.”
“What?”
“She hasn't pressed criminal charges as yet and we are trying to convince her to keep this an internal matter.”
“Are you... are you... are you talking about Tara Little? What did she say I did?”
“You're gonna wanna talk to your union rep. See about getting a lawyer.”
“I really appreciate this, Casey. It means a lot.” Gabby says to Matt, everyone else had now filtered out of the bar and it was just the two of them now
“I know. That's why I did it.” Matt smiles leaning against the bar “It seems like things are going pretty well with you and Mills.”
“Yeah. They are.”
“He's a lucky guy.” The door to the bar opens and Gabby turns to tell the customer they were closed until she recognised the familiar face.
“Hallie?” Matt asks as he wraps her in a tight hug
“Hey, Matt.”
“I thought you were in South America.”
“I was. I just got back. The guys at the station said you might be here. Hey, Gabby. How are you?”
“I'm good. I'm good. You look... you look great.”
“Thanks. “
“Uh... You wanna grab a coffee or something?” Matt asks
“I'd love that. All right.”