Chapter Text
[5:45 - 6:35]
There's a group of seven people crowded into the frame of the camera, grinning sunnily at whoever stands behind it. Starting on the left, they introduce themselves.
"I'm Tyler. You saved me and my little sister from a fire three years ago."
"Sean. You saved my dad from a car accident that would have killed him if you hadn't gotten to him when you did."
"I'm Mary. I'm only alive because you and Captain Casey got me out of a collapsing house after a car crashed into me through the wall."
"Kaden. You saved my little brother from a fire at his school."
"We're Carly and Kara. We're twins, and you kept both of us from being the only twin left after a car bomb exploded on a lower level of the parking garage we were in."
"I'm Andy. You rescued my dad after an accident at the construction site where he was working, and he was able to come home, unlike my mom years ago. You're the reason I'm not a foster kid."
In unison, they chorus, "Thank you for their lives, and our own. You're our guardian angel, and we can't thank you enough."
/^/^/^/
"Is this another surprise visit to the airport to pick up someone from Chicago again?" Kelly asked when Owen all but dragged the three of them out to his car without a word of warning.
"You got half of it," the captain admitted with a shrug. "If I told you that Nolan and Frank are in the other car, would that help you get the other half?"
"Jack is coming?" Matt blurted, his eyes widening.
"Among others. Don't run them over when you see them," Owen warned, only half-seriously. "They wanted to talk to you three as soon as possible, and Cosgrove and Price insisted they be the ones to pick them up, so we're shuffling cars when we get there."
They lapsed into silence instead of continuing to pester him with questions he would simply refuse to answer. Kelly leaned tiredly against the window beside him, watching absently as Austin flitted past beyond the glass. Brett - wedged between him and Matt - kept a concerned eye on him, loosely holding his hand. As they pulled into the Arrivals pick-up line, he squeezed back and pulled away, sitting up straighter and hopping out of the car as soon as it stopped. Frank and Nolan had beaten them there, and Cosgrove was tightly hugging a young girl while his husband greeted the other three warmly.
"Kelly Severide, Matt Casey, meet Jack McCoy, Samantha Maroun, Lily Cosgrove, and Lieutenant Kate Dixon," Nolan introduced them. "Sylvie, you better remember them."
Kelly turned to check on Brett, who was being unusually quiet, then grinned when he saw that she had taken over embracing Lily. As he watched, Cosgrove's daughter pulled away and looked up at him curiously. After a moment, she said softly "I'm sorry you've been through so much. You look like a nice person," and then proceeded to wrap her arms around his waist and hug him gently. For a moment, he just stood there in surprise, then reached down at Frank's encouraging nod and hugged her back.
"Thank you," he whispered when she pulled away to greet Matt. She smiled at him sunnily.
"Any time," she promised.
/^/^/^/
The courtroom had erupted in chaos the second Kidd lunged to her feet during Nolan's cross-examination of her. Dawson had followed suit behind the prosecutor, and the bailiffs were all immediately moving to apprehend them. Frank beat them there, jumping the barricade and pulling Price backward by the shoulder out of the way of a flailing punch from Stella, who had gone completely off the rails screaming at him.
"Sit down!" Cosgrove roared at her. Her jaw snapped closed with an audible click and her eyes went wide, but she didn't settle back into the seat. Dawson's struggles subsided as the bailiffs marched her away, but they didn't have as free of access to Kidd with Frank and Nolan in the way. Price looked surprisingly unfazed, his calm an anchor for the rage that threatened to sweep away Cosgrove's tenuous control. "Now," he snarled when Stella still didn't obey.
"This is cause enough for another minor charge," Nolan observed quietly, his head tilting thoughtfully as his steel grey eyes drilled into Kidd. Judge Olmstead - being led out of the way in a protective detail of police officers - glanced at him quickly. "Lucky for you, I don't especially feel like putting you even further away if it means we have to draw all of this out even longer. But if you keep digging yourself a deeper hole, I will happily continue to bury you in it. Come on, Frank. Let the bailiffs do their job."
Without another glance back, the two Manhattan natives turned and walked away from where Stella remained frozen.
/^/^/^/
Kelly only had a few moments to second-guess himself before the video call connected and he leaned back from the laptop. Boden didn't say anything for a long minute, one hand pressed to his mouth and his eyes swimming with unshed tears. Matt and Sylvie pressed in against his sides a little more firmly, waving excitedly. On the screen, Mills came into view beside the Chief, the rigs just visible behind them as everyone else that had remained in Chicago followed suit, calling out happy greetings. Grainger and Pelham were there, too, grinning at the polycule.
"Hey there, strangers," Severide greeted once they had settled enough that he could be heard. There wasn't a dry eye in either house as calmer greetings were sent back to him. "Miss me?"
There was an emphatic "yes" from the entire gathering and he chuckled wetly, ducking his head to look at his folded hands. "It's good to see you again, and I'm happy as long as the three of you are happy," Boden finally said.
"Thanks, Chief," Matt replied, a wobbly smile gracing his face as the conversation seemed to come easier after that.
/^/^/^/
"Hey! Aren't you that guy that came here and then got those two girls arrested?" someone called from the sidewalk as he, Cruz, and Herrmann got out of the car, headed for the front door of the restaurant. Kelly froze, his spine stiffening, but Herrmann stepped between him and the stranger.
"So what if he is? It doesn't affect you," Christopher snapped, his shoulders rigid.
"Just leave him alone, man," Cruz added. "Why do you care?"
"Why'd you have 'em arrested for makin' sure you were safe?"
"You'd do well to back off. You don't know the full story, and if you did, you wouldn't be siding with them," Joe bit out, his teeth clenching.
"Whatever, man. What a bunch o' fag-" the man started to retort. Kelly crossed the distance between them in two long strides and curled his fingers into the front of his shirt, shoving him back against the wall and leaning in dangerously close.
"Keep your opinions to yourself, and your nose out of my business. This doesn't concern you in any way whatsoever, so you go about your life and I'll go about mine. And we never have to cross paths again. Deal?" Severide snarled, his blue eyes turning flinty. The man sneered up at him.
"What are you gonna do 'bout it? Fuckin' -"
He hit the ground hard when Cruz yanked Kelly back just in time for Herrmann to deck him. Shaking out his hand, Christopher turned to look back at them, pasting on a winning smile. "Maybe we should try a different restaurant, no?" he asked. Kelly nodded and they headed back to the car, leaving the man crumpled and confused on the sidewalk.
Three minutes later, they came back and went inside to get an employee to help him, then left again, this time for real.
/^/^/^/
[7:17 - 8:01]
It's another slide show of pictures, although this one is actually short video clips. The first thirty seconds are focused on a building that is burning strongly. There are some firefighters running across the lawn, but most of them are by the rigs, anxiously watching the front door. After an anxious wait, the viewer can see why, as Matt staggers out, his arm around Severide's shoulders for support. Less than five seconds after they appear in the doorway and escape onto the porch, the roof buckles, sending up a vicious plume of smoke and debris. The clip immediately cuts to the next, where the camera has to zoom in from across the apparatus floor at 51 to focus on the laughing polycule. There's soot and something that might be watery spaghetti sauce on Matt's face, and Kelly is doubled over at the look of stunned disbelief on his boyfriend's face, barely avoiding getting sauce all over himself from where it stains his hands. Sylvie has her own hands raised in surrender, starting to back away, and Severide raises an eyebrow at her, playfully ruffling Casey's hair, which draws an indignant shriek from the blonde as red follows the motion.
/^/^/^/
Nolan breathed in deeply through his nose, closing his eyes as he entered the museum. Frank - already inside on a bench - chuckled warmly.
"Look who finally made it," he greeted, standing to embrace his husband. "Ready to go? Kel recommended this really good pizza place for lunch."
Nolan nodded with a sigh, his shoulders slumping slightly under the warm pressure of Frank's arm around him, which immediately squeezed tighter. "You have questions, don't you," he said - more of a statement than a question. Cosgrove hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Ask away, but once we get the pizza, I'm not talking about court anymore."
"Alright. That's fair. First and foremost, are you okay?"
"I'm so tired, Frank. I don't want my sister to be going through this. Hell, I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but here we are. And I'm pretty sure Kel isn't happy that I'm prosecuting, especially since it means I'll be hearing the whole story, and too many people he knows already know bits and pieces. He doesn't want this to follow him, and yet..."
"Yet everyone he knows is going to remember it."
"Yeah."
They lapsed into silence, not really registering the fact that Frank's time was being eaten up under their combined strides until they were standing outside the mom-and-pop restaurant. "I'm just going to say, from what I've heard, they won't have to deal with it much longer, and everyone they know should know them well enough to forget about it," Frank finally said, squeezing his shoulders again and then letting him go to open the door.
"I know. I just wish it hadn't even started. I wish it was just over."
"I know. I know."
/^/^/^/
"Judge Olmstead," came the greeting from the other end of the phone line. He couldn't stifle a satisfied smile. He'd gotten the right phone number on the first try.
"Good morning, Judge. My name is Jack McCoy, Manhattan DA, calling on behalf of my prosecutor, Nolan Price."
"The Severide v. Kidd and Severide v. Dawson cases," she confirmed, recognition evident in her voice.
"That's correct."
"What can I do for you? "
"I need you to fax me all of the case files you have access to. I'd like to review the case myself for details that may have been missed."
"EADA Price said the same thing the first time we met. I would be happy to help. Give me a couple of days, and then you should have them."
"Very good. Thank you."