Chapter Text
Stella yawns and stretches her arms out in front of her as she walks out of the bedroom and into the kitchen of the loft. She rubs her eyes and then smirks slightly as she spots Sylvie already standing next to the coffee machine, in her work clothes but also in what looks like one of Casey’s old CFD hoodies. She raises her eyebrows as she approaches. “Morning”.
Sylvie smiles and turns around, holding her mug in her hand as she replies. “Good morning.”
Stella reaches the coffee machine and pours herself a mug, taking a sip. “Ooh, did you add that hazelnut flavouring already? The guys don’t…”
She stops as Sylvie grins and nods as she points at two travel mugs on the counter. “Don’t worry, Matt has complained enough times about this hazelnut flavouring that I know not to add it to his coffee. I guessed Severide would be the same.”
Stella chuckles and nods, “You’re right about that. First time I added it and Kelly tried some, he acted like I had poisoned him.”
Sylvie laughs, and then Stella bites her lip at the sound of Kelly exiting their bedroom and speaking up.
“Who has poisoned who?”
Stella grins and turns to her fiancé. “The hazelnut flavouring…”
Kelly groans and shakes his head as he walks over. “Don’t tell me you added that stuff to the coffee again, I really need caffeine right now.”
Stella grins and shakes her head as Sylvie responds. “No, I made you and Matt a mug of unflavoured coffee each. I don’t get how you like it plain though, without any sugar.”
Stella nods, agreeing with Sylvie as she takes another sip of her coffee. She then turns once again as Casey walks into the room, responding to Sylvie’s last comment. “Well, you do have a bit of a sweet tooth Syl. You add sugar to pretty much everything.”
Stella snorts, and then tries to cover it with a cough as Sylvie raises her eyebrows at her boyfriend and watches as Casey tries to save himself. “Which… uh, just explains why you are so sweet…”
Stella laughs at Kelly’s gagging noises as Casey wraps his arms around Sylvie, who shakes her head but leans into him anyway. She watches as Kelly reaches for one of the travel mugs, and as Casey punches his shoulder with his free hand. Kelly is grinning as he shoves Casey’s hand away. Casey shakes his head at his friend, and then looks down at Sylvie as he speaks up. “You ready to go babe.”
Stella frowns slightly and looks at the clock on the wall; they still have a while before they have to leave for shift. She speaks up as Sylvie nods at Casey. “Where are you guys off to?”
Sylvie hands Casey his travel mug and grabs her bag as she speaks. “Matt said he would take me out to breakfast before shift, but we overslept slightly so instead we’re going to go get some coffee and donuts and bring them with us to the firehouse.”
“Ah, okay. In that case could you get me the…” Stella is cut off from making her request for donuts as Sylvie nods and responds.
“Yep, I will get you some with just the glaze on and hide them in my locker.”
Stella grins at her best friend. “You know me so well.”
Sylvie smiles back as Casey speaks up. “We’ll see you guys at the firehouse.”
Stella nods, waving as they walk out of the door. She waits for the door to close behind them before she turns around to face her fiancé, who is zipping up his work bag. She makes her way slowly towards him. “You know… we still have time before we have to leave for shift…”
Kelly raises his eyebrows, smirking slightly. “Really?”
Stella grins, moving even closer until she is right in front of him. “Uh huh. And you know we had to keep it down last night because Casey and Sylvie were here…” She doesn’t even get to finish her sentence as Kelly places his bag and travel mug down, and she laughs as he grabs her by the waist and pulls her back towards the open door of their bedroom.
Sylvie makes her way through the firehouse, and knocks on the open door to Matt’s office. She watches as he looks up from the paperwork he is filling out and speaks towards her.
“Hey.”
Sylvie smiles and leans against the door frame. “Hello.” She looks behind her and around the bunkroom before making her way into his office and shutting the door behind her. She looks through the window, knowing that everyone is in the common room eating the donuts they brought with them to shift, and makes sure nobody is in the bunk room before she slowly pulls the blinds closed. She finally looks around at Matt, who is watching her with a bemused expression on his face as he speaks up.
“What are you doing?”
Sylvie smirks and leans against the closed door. “Well… we were at the loft last night and I fell asleep after getting through almost two bottles of rosé with Stella. So… I didn’t get to do this…” She approaches him and watches him swallow slightly as she places herself on his lap and presses her lips to his. Matt kisses her back gently but as she tries to deepen the kiss, Matt pulls back slightly, still keeping their foreheads pressed together as he speaks.
“This is risky.”
Sylvie smiles and shrugs slightly. “Come on, what’s life without a tiny bit of risk?” Her smile grows as Matt stares at her for a split second before he pulls her close again and is kissing her hungrily. Her hands reach for the bottom of his shirt, untucking it from his pants. She can feel one of his hands cupping her cheek, the other coming to rest on her waist as she reaches up to run her hands through his perfectly swept and styled hair and…
“Truck 81, Squad 3, Ambulance 61… person trapped…”
Sylvie groans, smiling as she breaks away from the kiss and leans her forehead against Matt briefly as she speaks. “To be continued.” She jumps off of him and opens the blinds and the door as Matt hurriedly tucks his shirt back into this pants and shrugs on his jacket which had been resting on the back of his chair. They jog out of his office together, and Sylvie winces as she spots Capp running out of the locker room, smirking at the two of them as he speaks up.
“Hurry up lovebirds.”
Sylvie bites her lip, trying not to grin as she watches Matt roll his eyes. Maybe they hadn’t been as discrete as she thought. She locks eyes with Matt as they make it out onto the app floor, and she laughs as he smiles and pinches her side gently before they head for their rigs.
Casey glances around as Kidd pulls up to the address they have been called to. In front of them is a big and very old looking house. It looks both abandoned and as if it could collapse in on itself at any second. Casey hops out of 81 and looks at the house. The door is broken, and is propped open so from where he is standing he can just see into the hallway of the house. He turns around as Mouch whistles and speaks up.
“That house looks like a collapse just waiting to happen.”
Casey nods, then grabs his radio as dispatch speaks through it.
“Truck 81, be advised squad 3 and ambulance 61 have been held up by traffic. ETA 5 minutes.”
Casey nods to himself and responds. “Copy that main.” He then looks away from the house as a man calls over to them from where he is making his way over from his car which is parked nearby.
“I called it in.”
Casey nods. “Okay, what’s going on?”
The man points towards the house as he responds. “I swear I heard somebody calling for help from inside the house. But it looks really unstable and the floor creaked real loud when I tried to walk inside and see what was going on, so I called 911.”
Casey nods. “Thanks, we’ll check it out.” He watches the man make his way back to his car, and with Truck following him he walks over to the building. He peers inside and frowns. “I can’t see anyone on this level.”
He takes a step inside and surely enough the floorboards creak loudly. He glances around the room briefly. He can see the dark and large stains of damp on most of the walls. He turns to face the others as he speaks up. “You guys stay by the door. The less weight on these floors the better. I’ll radio if I need help.”
Casey waits for the other three to nod before he makes his way inside the house. Across the room from where he is, a door is open, leading down into what looks like a basement. He makes his way over and calls down the wooden staircase. “Fire department, anyone down there?” He moves quickly as he hears voices shouting up the staircase. He carefully makes his way down, the stairs creaking ominously as he reaches the bottom, and spots three boys (around eight or nine years old) inside the basement. Two of them seem to be trying to lift a heavy looking bookshelf off of the third one’s leg. One of them speaks quickly, looking panicked as he does so.
“We come in here all the time. Nothing like this has ever happened before… we had just sat down and the bookshelf fell on James.”
Casey looks at where the bookshelf had been. There is water dripping down the wall and a big damp patch where it had been. The damp and water must have rotted the wood, causing it to become unstable and fall. He looks at the three boys and speaks up. “Okay, you two need to get out of here. Go back up the stairs carefully and head on outside. There will be some firefighters out there who can help you. I’ll stay here to help your friend.”
The two boys nod and look down at their friend as Casey grabs his radio and speaks into it. “I got two kids on their way out to you guys. Gallo, grab your halligan and come down to the basement.” He watches as the two boys slowly and carefully make their way up the stairs, and a few seconds after they have gone from view, Gallo appears at the top of the stairs. Casey turns his attention to the boy stuck under the bookshelf and smiles at him. “Hey James, my name’s Matt. I’m gonna get you outa here in just a second okay.” He watches as the boy nods, and then looks up suddenly as there is a snapping sound and the sound of Gallo cursing.
Casey looks at the stairs to see one has broken. He looks at Gallo and speaks up. “Careful Gallo. Keep to the edges.” He watches as Gallo nods and makes it down into the basement without any more steps breaking. Casey directs him into position and they both lift the bookshelf, making it so there is enough room for the boy to pull his leg out from underneath it. They place the bookshelf back on the floor as gently as they can and Casey examines the boys leg quickly. “Okay James, it doesn’t look like anything is broken, you’ve just got a few scrapes and bruises on this leg. Let’s get you up to the medics okay.”
He waits for James to nod before he lifts him and makes his way over to the stairs. However, he only makes it onto the first step leading out of the basement before the stairs are groaning loudly, and Casey steps back off of them just before the entire wooden structure of the staircase collapses in front of them. “Dammit.” Casey places the kid on the floor gently, quickly double checks Gallo is close by and then grabs his radio to tell the others they will need assistance getting out of the basement. Before he is able to say anything though, the whole house seems to shake and a groaning sound once again fills the air around them, only this time much louder as dust rains down on them from above.
He turns as Gallo speaks up, sounding slightly panicked. “What the hell…”
Casey catches Gallo’s eye and nods at him. “It’s probably nothing, just a bit of dust.” Casey goes to talk into his radio once more, but is interrupted as what looks like several big pieces of wood fall down from above them. Casey curses under his breath and shouts into his radio quickly. “Mouch, Kidd! Pull back! Get out of the house!” Casey turns his attention back to Gallo quickly, trying to locate his position in the basement, and spots the beam heading straight for him a split second before Gallo seems to.
“Gallo, look out!”