The couple walk into headquarters having stayed up the previous night investigating arsonists.
"Carter, Kelly" the man greets, "these arsons we've been fighting, M.O. matches up with John Westminster, that's a guy that my dad helped put away a few years back" kelly explains, "yeah, yeah, big John, I remember, so?" the man asks, "so I called DOC, and it turns out he was released from prison a month ago, right before the fires started" carter explains, "so you think he's looking to settle the score with Benny by coming after you? but why would he come after Carter as well?" the man asks, "I think it's worth looking into and we figured he wouldn't settle for just me he's after someone important in my life" kelly explains, "sure, anything for Benny Severide's kid and his girlfriend" the man agrees.
The two head into work and go about sorting the equipment in the squad when shay catches them.
"Hey" shay says, "hey" kelly greets, "so the management company called to remind us that the new tenants are gonna move in on the 16th" shay explains, "yeah, Carter and I can finish packing up this weekend" kelly says, "so does that mean you got the arsonist handled?" shay asks, "we just explained our suspicion a few hours ago" carter explains, "give us a break, okay?" kelly asks, the two head in to the common room to get food, "any update on Heather's friend Jen?" kelly asks, "still in critical condition" matt reports, "Casey, how are the boys?" shay asks, "as far as they know, mom's on a trip, hopefully they'll be home soon, If it hadn't been for her, they'd have shown up to school an hour late wearing pyjamas" matt explains, "yeah, that smelled like beer" gabby asks, "Gabby saves the day once again" carter praises her friend, the alarm blares a moment later, "truck 81, squad 3, engine 51, ambulance 61, multi-vehicle accident, interstate 90 at the Eisenhower expressway" the alarm announces.
The crew pull up to the scene seeing an over turned mobile home.
"Hey! Hey, over here! over here!" a man calls causing the crew to walk towards him, "hey, just before the house went over, I saw a motorcycle passing on the right" the man explains, carter spots the wheel of the motorcycle sticking out from underneath the mobile home, "go" boden instructs, kelly gets down, "sir?" kelly calls out gaining no response he slides his hand under to check the pulse, "I can feel his leg, just not a pulse" kelly reports, "all right, get us some cribbing and air bags, we need to lift and stabilize this home" carter orders, "you got it" capp confirms, a man's groan catches the two's attention, "Boden, you hear that?" kelly asks, "Otis, Mouch, grab us a ladder, there's someone else inside" kelly radios, "copy" otis responds as the rest of squad carry the cribbing and airbags over getting to work in placing them when otis and mouch bring the ladder over.
"Strand, Severide, where do you want it?" otis asks, "guys, right there" carter instructs pointing at the best spot, "Clarke, follow us" kelly instructs as he climbs the ladder with carter following behind, kelly opens the door and peers in, "located the victim, send us up 2 lines" kelly instructs, tony carries the lines up handing them to each lieutenant, carter quickly attaches the line to her harness, "all right, I'm on line" carter says as she hops in to the mobile home, kelly following suit, "all right, going down" kelly reports, "what have you got, Strand, Severide?" bodens voice comes over the radio as carter looks at the injured man, "he's in bad shape, we need to find a way to get him out of here quick" carter reports, kelly pulls one of the cabinets open and peers in before looking up, "Clarke send down a sawzall, then bring the stokes basket" kelly instructs, "got it" clarke confirms, clarke sends the sawzall down and kelly gets to work cutting through the pipes blocking entry to the back of the cabinet as clarke sends the stokes basket down just as he joins the two, kelly cuts through the back of the cabinet and rips the piece of wood out which exposes the man's face, "found the owner of the boot, the other victim's trapped beneath em, we need those air bags now!" carter says as she passes kelly a c-collar which he puts on the victim, clarke kicks a cabinet out the way, "air bags are up, motorcyclist's legs should be free, lieutenants" capp says, clarke and kelly get the stokes basket in place and carter joins the two at the cabinet, "one, two, three, up!" carter instructs, the three lift the man up and place him on the stokes basket, "all right, guys, get ready to lift him up" carter shouts up, the scene is cleared and both victims from the motorcycle are taken to hospital.
Carter sits at the squad table on the app floor when Andy's youngest son Ben enters the firehouse.
"Hey! Ben Darden's in the house!" herrmann announces, carter heads towards the youngest darden child with kelly, "Carter! Kelly!" ben calls out excitedly, Kelly picks the small boy up tossing him in the air, "hey, you little rug rat! look at you!" kelly announces as he adjusts his grip on the boy, "how you doing? you're getting so big, come on, we'll show you around the joint" kelly says, "so Ben have you come to work for me, taking Kelly's spot yeah?" carter asks causing the small boy to laugh as kelly carries him towards the doors to the building, "Is that all of Chicago? Is my house on there?" ben asks catching site of the address map, "yep, it is, It shows us every street and address in the city, right there, that's the dangerous buildings list, every station has one, It shows us all the buildings that are really tricky to fight fires in" Kelly explains pausing momentarily as a realisation washes across his face, "yo, you want to come check out the truck?" mills asks as Kelly puts the boy down, Ben nods and allows mills to lead him to the truck, "come find me when you're done ben and we can get you some candy" Carter says as Kelly looks at the dangerous buildings list again before heading to the office as carter stays out on the apparatus floor until the crew let ben on the aerial, Carter heads to their shared office and taps the door gently, "hey, I never got a chance to ask you what's with you and the dangerous buildings list, and you seem to have realised something, now, I know you don't have to explain whatever it is to me but I'm in this to, and I saw the realisation that washed across your face, Kelly, what's going on?" Carter explains questioning the man, Kelly stands up and sits on his bunk taking Carter's hands in his, "look you know that I love you no matter what, right? when the arsonist targeted both of us, I told myself that I'd find them and keep you safe" Kelly explains letting out a sigh, "Is there any chance that you noticed the pattern" Kelly asks, "I don't need you protecting me I just want you to protect yourself but yeah I noticed the pattern just wanted to check you noticed it" Carter confirms, boden knocks on the door, "lieutenants? arson just called, wanted to let you two know that the cops have big john in custody" boden explains, Carter nods, "thanks" Kelly says.
The two take the battalion car and head for the station jogging up the stairs.
"Hey, detectives are talking to him now, the bastard's even twitchier than I remember" the man from arson explains, kelly nods, "you got anything solid tying him to the fires?" Kelly asks, "nothing" the man from arson shrugs, an officer and a detective bring the man down the corridor, "hey, look, It's the arson guy's son and his girlfriend" big john announces, "two buildings up in flames? do you know how many people you almost killed?" Kelly asks as big john gets closer, "huh, how many of my own men, huh?" Kelly shouts as he pushes big john up against the wall, "Kelly!" Carter warns, "get away from me!" big john shouts, "Kelly! Kelly!" the man from arson warns pulling Kelly away, "get him away! get him away from me!" big john shouts, "get him out of here!" the man from arson instructs letting go of Kelly as big john is led out, "hey, I looped you in out of respect for your father, as a courtesy, you understand?" the man from arson days, Kelly pushes past him and walks out.
The two meet with benny in a restaurant after shift.
"Hey" kelly says standing up to shake his dads hand, "hey" benny greets back, "thanks for coming down" kelly nods, "thanks for calling, It's good to see you both" benny muses, "you too" kelly agrees, "could I get one of those too, please?" benny asks the waitress pointing at kelly's beer, "coming right up" the waitress nods, "thank you" benny says, "well, did you, did you talk to the guys at arson?" kelly asks, "yeah, as soon as Big John was on their radar, Rome called me" benny explains, "did you know they had him in custody? they let him walk" kelly says, "yeah, I heard that, the thing is, I'm not so sure he's the guy, MO might be similar, but I could tell him pretty well, I don't see him having the balls to set a car on fire right outside a station house and he wouldn't have ran out of time to set the other one on fire" benny explains, "you're wrong, all due respect, I think you're wrong, the guy, he, he knew me the minute he saw me, I, he knew I was your son and Carter was my girlfriend" kelly explains, "okay, well, let me get in it with arson, see what I can find out" benny says, "yeah" kelly agrees.
The crew sit in the common room all doing their own thing.
"Guys, Guys, I, uh, I just wanted to give everybody an update on the Darden boys" matt announces, the group quieten down, "turns out they're gonna be living with me for the next 15 months or so, and the thing is I'm gonna need some help, I, uh" matt explains, "say no more, we're there" herrmann says, "whatever you need, they're our boys too" boden agrees, "thanks" matt says.
After shift, kelly walks into his and carter's shared bedroom finding her packing whilst searching for apartments on her laptop.
"Hey, I thought I'd find you here, what are you doing?" kelly asks, "I got a call from the realtor when I was picking up more moving boxes, that's why I didn't show at molly's. The seller got a better offer on the place and chose the new buyers over us, we lost the place. I'm trying to find a new place that'll let us move in before the 16th but there's none that fit what we want" carter explains, "Carter, it doesn't matter we'll figure something out" kelly assures.
The two sit with shay in the hallway during the start of their next shift.
"Jeez, Is there anything I can do?" shay asks, "honestly, we just need a place to live, our place is gone, right?" kelly asks, "yeah, but I've got an in with a great realtor and a lead on a one-bedroom and a sweet three-bedroom" shay explains, "yeah?" carter asks, "yeah, we could take the three-bedroom and find a roommate later if we need, sound good?" shay explains, "yeah, that sounds good" kelly confirms, "all right, I'm sorry" shay says as she hugs her two best friends, the alarm blares, "truck 81, squad 3, engine 51, ambulance 61, building fire, 2939 cortland street" the alarm announces, "that's my restaurant" mills says in horror.
The crew pull up to the burning restaurant, mills runs into the burning building ignoring bodens orders.
"Mayday, mayday! we have a man inside, squad 3, go get him!" boden instructs, "come on" kelly instructs, squad stop to pull their hoods on and mills runs out the building just as it flashes over behind him carrying his fathers medals and a homemade arson contraption like the ones found in the apartment building and the male squad lieutenants car, kelly and carter catch a glimpse of it causing them to frown.
The crew pull into the station and Mcleod walks out onto the floor announcing she has to speak with everyone.
"Common room, ladies and gentlemen" boden instructs, the crew begin filing through to the common room, "Mills" kelly calls out gaining the man's attention, "we'll get the guy who set these fires" kelly assures as they head into the common room, "this won't take long, I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page, yeah? allowing visitors, especially children, to ride on any of the apparatus is a serious violation of CFD policy and a potential liability for the department" Mcleod announces, "now, you can call me a killjoy if you'd like, but the severity of this cannot be overstated" Mcleod finishes.
Kelly, Carter, Matt, Cruz, Otis, Mills, Herrmann and Mouch gather in the hallway.
"First your cars, now my restaurant" mills says, "It doesn't make sense" mouch adds, "Mills wasn't even on the job when big John set those first fires" matt points out, "no, my pop's right, It ain't him, It's a firefighter" kelly declares, "what makes you so sure?" herrmann asks, "when I was looking at the dangerous building's map it hit me that all the arsonist's targets were on there and in our district" kelly explains, "except for the car and the diner" otis clarifies, "so it's a firefighter who's got beef with all of us at 51?" cruz asks, kelly, mills and carter look at each other in realisation.
After shift, the couple enter a bar they know hadley frequents walking over to him, kelly slaps his back as the two take the seats next to him.
"Hey!" kelly says cheerfully, hadley laughs, "Severide, Carter, how are you buddies?" hadley asks, "I'm okay, can't complain" kelly muses, "same" carter agrees, "good, can I get you guys a beer?" hadley offers, "oh, no, we're good, we're good right now, thanks" kelly declines, "so what brings you two around my stomping grounds?" hadley asks, "well, we were looking for you, actually" carter admits, "oh, yeah?" hadley asks, "yeah, we were just thinking about some of the fires we fought together, string of arsons on the westside, barbershop, couple garages, that old Italian restaurant on diversey, you remember?" carter asks, "vaguely, yeah, you guys sure you don't want one? I'm gonna order another round" hadley offers, "nah, we're good, but I'll tell you what, I got your next round" kelly days, "so you two came all the way out here just to, uh, reminisce?" hadley asks, "there's been a bunch of similar fires the last couple weeks, that's what brought back the memories, reminded us you're a damn good firefighter" kelly explains, "yeah, I appreciate that, I do, but I got to tell you steady work has been pretty hard to come by since I got pushed out of 51" hadley explains with a laugh, "look at us" carter instructs, "Is that why you're setting the fires?" kelly asks, "you think I'm setting the fires? well I guess you better prove it" hadley instructs, "we're going to" kelly says, "we're gonna catch you in the act Hadley" carter warns.
season 2 ep 2