good/right/real

Chapter 45: Something About You

Summary:51 has their first shift post Peter Mills.

Sylvie thanks her lucky stars that she and Pete broke up long before he left. Sure, she misses him, but she'd gotten used to her daily life without him by now. That one last night together didn't change that. Does she mourn her chance to build a friendship with him? Yes, of course. But that alone is not enough to break her.

She could try rebuilding their friendship from a distance. However, that might be too much with several states in between them. Instead, she lets it go -- let's him go.

She said a lot of things after that drunk girls night several weeks back but one of them felt irrepressibly true. She jumped back into dating too quickly after Harrison. Deciding to take time for herself releases an enormous weight off of her shoulders.

It's okay to take a pause and just be for a while. She doesn't always have to be thinking about the future or where she wants to go or who she wants to be with. She's allowed to slow down, look at the world around her, and breathe.

That's exactly what she plans to do.

Walking into the house next shift feels like walking into a totally different house. They've all been working without Pete for months but it must be different for 51 knowing he's more than just a phone call away now. They miss him.

She can relate.

But life goes on and she can't dwell on all the losses. If she does that then she takes for granted what she has right now.

Speaking of what she has right now.

Matt gives her a questioning concerned glance as he approaches. "How are you holding up?"

She smiles affectionately at him and waves off his worry. "I'm okay. I promise. I was actually just thinking that, looking back, it's a good thing Pete and I broke up when we did. It gave me a head start on missing him and makes it easier to...let him go, I guess."

His expression shifts from concerned to impressed. "That sounds like a very healthy reaction." He grins encouragingly and then motions to the rest of 51 as they enter the briefing room with mopey expressions. "Can you share some of that emotional maturity with the rest of the house?"

She laughs softly. "If I could they'd be too stubborn to take it."

"You're not wrong," he concedes, letting her take her usual seat at the front of the room before he finds one toward the back.

At least Matt is being relatively normal about Pete leaving. Everyone else gives her pitying looks as they wait for Chief to get them started.

She pointedly avoids looking at any of them and stares down at the table surface. Are they expecting her to be weepy and broken? She's been in that place for a few weeks now already. She's tired of being weepy and broken. Especially over Peter Mills.

Mercifully, Boden walks in and begins the general housekeeping announcements, stealing everyone's focus from her. She's anticipating the awkwardness resuming when the briefing ends until the bells go off. First call of the day and they've barely started their shift.

Everyone makes a break for their rigs. Shay squeezes her arm and gives her an encouraging smile as they get in the ambo and pull away from the house.

"They don't mean to make you feel any type of way," Shay tells her with a muted chuckle. "They're just worried."

"Yeah," she replies with a small smile. "I get that."

They arrive on scene to find the house already fully involved in a fire with an obnoxious neighbor shouting orders at them just seconds after arriving. Boden sends Squad in to search the second floor and Truck the first. Kidd and Otis go around the back and Herrmann and Casey take front. Shay and Brett stand by and wait -- ready for any possible victims.