Empty Spaces

Heebie jeebies

Where is she?" Was the first thing Ava heard when she woke up. Her head was pounding, and her eyes hurt from the bright lights. She heard him again. "Where is the brat!?"
She didn't answer at first, she knew she was the only thing protecting Bella and what these men would do to her if they found her was enough for her to want to keep her mouth shut, at least until she could get help.

She felt one of the men grab her shoulder and shake her, trying to wake her more out of her haze. Where am I? Was her first thought. She didn't remember much except for the tree falling and the pretty blonde lady, after that everything is black.

"Where is she, bitch?" She felt a slap across her face and her hand instinctively went up to cup her cheek. Finally, her eyes opened, and she saw who it was questioning her. She heard more then she saw her heart rate monitor going off, her heart felt like it was beating out of her chest.

She heard the second hit before she felt it, it echoed throughout the room and she heard it come out before she could stop it. "Fire house."

She blacked out, praying that a guardian angel was watching over her cubby.
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It hadn't taken long for Bella to warm up to Kelly during dinner. She had seen the way both Matt and Stella were with him and she figured that if they could trust him so could she, even if he was 4x her size. Plus, he had been kind to her since the moment they had pulled her out of the house, treating her like a kid and not tip toeing around her like a lot of the other crew were.

Bella was still scared though, scared of what would happen next. Ava had warned her that if she was picked up, she would go into the system and that sometimes it was worse than living on the street, Ava had a lot of stories from her years in foster care before she had run away. She had asked Sylvie about what would happen to her and although Sylvie had told her not to worry about it, she couldn't help but worry about being taken away from her new friends at fifty-one.

Everyone was sitting around eating dinner together. Bella sat in the chair between Matt and Sylvie, Stella and Severide sat across from them and the rest of the crew were scattered out either on the other end of the table or on the couch watching tv. They had gotten news from Chief Boden that the storm could go on for some days if the rain, wind and lightning doesn't let up. They had maintenance working to try and fix the radio line, but they were beginning to think the issue may run deeper, possibly a tower outage that effected the range. Until it was dealt with the firehouse was out of service, which they all hated.

As the lightning and thunder began to pick back up it made Sylvie feel more uneasy. In the last couple hours it had chilled and seemed to be letting up, but now she was beginning to think she may have been to distracted and just wasn't paying attention, now that she could hear it echo throughout the house she felt her anxiety creep up.
"Hey Bella, how do you feel about storms?" She heard Matt speak, when their eyes met, she knew he could sense her panic and she gave him a small smile. It was like he could just tell by looking at her, it was one of the reasons why he was such a great captain and friend.

"I like watching the lightning, it looks pretty but I don't like the thunder. Too loud." Bella spoke, a mouth full of pasta. It made everyone around her laugh and Sylvie smiled, easing some of the tension from her shoulders.

"I don't like storms at all, they give me the heebie jeebies." Sylvie said with a shutter of her shoulders. Just thinking about it gave her an uneasy shiver down her spine. It made her think about all the people struck by lightning every year and the disasters caused by the weather.

"The heebie jeebies?" Matt asked, slightly mocking her use of words. Stella and Kelly gave a giggle too until she sent them a playful glare.

"Hey! That's a completely appropriate phrase." Sylvie said, a playful pout evident on her face. It caused Matt to smile and shake his head just a little.

"You are right, heebie jeebies is a perfectly normal way to explain something." Matt raised his hands in surrenders but laughed when her pout turned grin as they kept their eyes locked, the other adults and Bella having a giggle too which caused them to break eye contact.

"What do you think Bella? Is heebie jeebies normal?" Sylvie asked, her attention going to the small girl sitting between them.

"I say heebie jeebies." Bella said with a shrug, eating more of her pasta. She had almost finished the entire plate that Sylvie had dished up for her and was still hungry. Kelly looked at Sylvie with a shocked expression, he had never seen a kid eat so much.

They were all so busy with their banter and conversations that they hadn't noticed the door to the tarmac open and two hooded figures enter the common room. It was only when one of them cleared their throats that everyone looked over. Herrmann was the first to jump up to great the men.

"Uhh hi guys, can we help yous with anything?" Herrmann asked, standing in front of the men.

No one had noticed at first how Bella shrunk back and down into her seat, trying her hardest to appear invisible at the sight of the men who she clearly recognised. They were to focus on the two men who had come in out of the rain.

"Uhm yeah, Ava said we could find our little sister here. Her names Bella." The first man spoke, he had taken his hood off to reveal his greasy black hair. His face was unshaven, and he looked like your typical offbeat wannabe, except there was something different about him. He really gave Sylvie the heebie jeebies.

It made Sylvie's eyebrows furrowed and she looked down, shocked at the site of Bella. Her face had gone pale and she was trying her hardest to hide under the table. Kelly, Matt and Stella noticed the same thing. They all realised that something must be wrong, but they couldn't quite put there finger on it. Not until Sylvie heard those words.

"Where's our sister? She also goes by cubby."

Sylvie's eyes grew wider and she reached for Bella, picking her up and protectively shielding her with her own body. Matt and Kelly stood up and moved to stand in front of Sylvie and the child, protecting them.

"They're not her family- they're the ones who tried to buy Bella!"