What happens in Vegans Definitely didn't stay there

Chapter 22: Worry

Sylvie gets injured and spends too much time in a waiting room, and 51 says goodbye.

Sylvie blinked slowly, feeling a warm weight on her back. Her head hurt, and she could feel something dripping onto her arm. When she was able to focus she realised it was blood, and she shook her head slowly to clear it. It did the trick, but she let out a low moan at the pain from her cut.

"Brett, Brett, you ok? Sylvie!" The person on top of her moved, and she realised it was Matt. He rolled off her, standing and offering her a hand to help her up. As she looked around she saw concrete had come down around them, but they were safe, Matt's helmet protecting him and his body protecting her. He pulled off his SCBA, putting it to her face to give her a few breaths of clean air rather than the dust and smoke filled stuff around them.

When she gave him back the mask Matt surveyed her head, looking at the blood dripping down her cheek, almost the same way his had been almost a year beforehand.  "I'm sorry Sylvie, you shouldn't have been in here. You've got a cut, c'mon. We need to get you out of here."

It was slow moving through the building, pushing rubble out of their way. The stairs had survived whatever had happened, and they made it up to the lobby, Matt pulling her out into the bright sunlight that stung both of their eyes. Once they were outside Sylvie turned and saw the jet black smoke exiting the building and gasped, realising that she'd been in it and she survived.

They stumbled to the ambulances that were there, the crew from 92 grabbing her from Matt's arms as soon as they got close. Matt helped them lift her onto a gurney, and they put a nasal cannula on her to help her breathe. It didn't take long for the extra oxygen to make her feel better, and she relaxed into the hard gurney, holding gauze to the cut on her head. They were about to put her into the rig and take her to Med when a yell from the damaged front doors made her blood run cold, the monitor beeping at her heart rate speeding up rapidly.

"FIREFIGHTER DOWN! FIREFIGHTER DOWN!" Cruz was screaming as he, Mouch, Capp and Stella were carrying a prone body out of the building towards an awaiting gurney. His helmet was off and once they took off the damaged SCBA Sylvie saw the jet black hair and gasped, hoping she'd seen incorrectly. She grabbed Matt's arm to lift herself up to look, determined to be wrong. But she wasn't.

"What happened? Otis?" Her voice was weak from the smoke inhalation, and only Matt could hear her. He put his hand on her arm and squeezed to comfort her, but she could see the set of his jaw and knew it wasn't a good sign. She hadn't seen exactly what was happening, but before she could get a question out about Otis the paramedics helping her had recovered. They whisked her into the rig, and she could barely say goodbye to Matt before she was gone, her yell of "Let me know about Kelly," floating between them. They brought her straight to Med, and she felt embarrassed at being whisked in on a gurney when she could have walked.

She was seen quickly, and Connor Rhodes stitched up her head, Will saying that 51 would kill him if he gave her a scar. It was a complete role reversal from the last time she'd seen him, but he'd been informed about Otis and what was happening. Halstead and Rhodes thought she might have a mild concussion but she passed the tests, still not convincing them she was perfectly fine.

Halstead offered to let her go, as long as she went home when she heard about Otis and followed concussion protocols. She agreed, and made her way to the waiting room where she was immediately engulfed in hugs. Kelly held onto her the longest, but Matt pulled her aside before they went to sit.

"It's bad, the paramedics estimated more than fifty percent burns. All upper body. Us, Kelly, Herrmann, and Boden know, but everyone else is in the dark. We need to keep our faces straight until the docs give us all the information. Cruz rode in with them, he's got Otis's POA so he's staying with him." Matt wrapped her in a hug so she had a moment to take in the information. Once they separated she put her professional face on, masking her emotions, and walked back into the waiting room.