Empty Spaces

Little questions

When the shift came to an end Sylvie felt a slight panic. She hadn't spoken to Matt since the meeting with Hailey and Jay, she had been avoiding him a little. She had allowed Bella the opportunity for a full nights rest by bunking out in Emily's bed which was right next to hers, while Emily slept in the spare bunk.

Sylvie was having one of the best sleeps she'd had in the past few days, with all the drama going on in her life it felt like she could never really fall asleep and stay asleep and she felt exhausted. It felt good. That was until her alarm erupted next to her stirring her out of her sleep. She rolled over with a groan, smacking her phone with her hand, finally switching off the alarm. She yawned, rubbing her hands over her face as she began to finally wake up.

She slowly sat up, grabbing her phone and checking the messages that had gathered over the past couple days. She never meant to ignore people, but she also hated being glued to her phone. She took a quick peek over to see if Bella was still sleeping, only to realise she wasn't in bed. Sylvie finally checked the clock to see it was 7am and second shift would be arriving soon. She had to find Bella before the men came in and freaked her out.

Scrambling out of bed, Sylvie pulled her sneakers on as she walked, a move she had learnt from years on call. She began looking in every bunk around the room, looking for a mop of brown hair.

"Bella?" She didn't want to freak out, but she had to admit, she was freaking out! She had lost a kid, in just 24 hours of having her. She started to hyperventilate at the thought, the whole conversation with Hailey and Jay running through her head, as well as the confrontation that had happened yesterday. She was scared the men may have come back.

"Bella!?" She called out a little more frantic this time, searching more of the house. As she rounded the corner she bumped into Matt, him barely holding onto the report he was looking over.

"Hey, you alright?" Matt asked, using his empty hand to secure her from falling while his other held his reports. "What's wrong?"

Sylvie began stuttering slightly, frantically looking around. "I can't find Bella, I-I was so tired. When I woke up, she was gone."

Matt placed him report down on the station closest to them, he brought both his hands up to her biceps rubbing them gently. "Brett. Sylvie. Look at me. Calm down." He says, her eyes instantly locking with his. He gave her a small smile before proceeding. "Bella is with Severide. She woke me up at 6am and ask for Kelly. He's making her breakfast."

Sylvie let out a laugh, short at first before breaking into hysterics until tears were rolling down her face. Matt was looking at her like she was crazy, but she didn't care. She had been so scared that something had happened she was sure if she didn't laugh, she would be crying, plus she thought her aeroplane mom moment was kind of funny. She looked up at Matt as she began to calm down, wiping the tears from her eyes and face.

"Woah, sorry." She said, huffing a little as she smiled.

"No, its okay. You just shocked me is all." Matt said, letting out a small chuckle of his own as his hands finally returned to his sides. "Come on, let's go see Bella."

As they entered the kitchen it was like nothing else mattered to Bella, once her eyes were on Sylvie her face lit up and she was running full speed at her with her arms open. Sylvie laughed at the gesture and picked her up, hugging her and kissing her cheek.

"G'morning Sylvie! My Kelly and I made pancakes!" Bella exclaimed excitedly, residue from the pancakes and syrup still on her chubby cheeks and chin. For the past hour Bella and 'her Kelly' had cooked pancakes, cut up some fruit and drank hot chocolate together to everyone's amazement, even Stella's. It had been one of the first times a lot of the crew had seen Severide cook.

It made Sylvie smile, to see the drastic change in personality the girl had had in 24 hours. "Wow! Aren't you lucky?" Sylvie smiled again; it was hard not to with this kid around. Bella nodded. "Did you say thank you to Kelly?"

"Thank you, Kelly." Bella repeated, her head falling down onto Sylvie's shoulder who then rested her head on Bella's. Matt's hand still not having really left Sylvie's back since the hallway.

"Am I the only one who thinks this is whack?" Gallo spoke up, breaking everyone out of their trance of staring the three in the middle of the room to give him a questioning look. "Come on, I'm not the only one who see's it! Y'all look like a family."

And to there shock it was Matt who turned slightly, looking at Bella and Sylvie then back at Gallo with a simple. "We do. Text me when you're ready to leave, ill grab a booster." Before he smiled at Sylvie and retreated back to his report. Taking it to chief Boden and grabbing the space booster.

A blush creeped up on Sylvie's cheeks, everyone was watching her waiting on her to speak but she was frozen. His reply wasn't what she expected, not that she had even expected him to reply in the first place.

She soon kneeled and placed Bella back on the ground, everyone else going back to their usual activities once they realised, she wasn't going to say anything on the matter. Her heart almost stopped when she heard Bella's little voice whisper in her ear.

"Are you going to kiss Matt yet?"

She could hear Stella scoff quite loudly from beside them, her chair being the only one closest to hear the tiny voice. When everyone looked up, she turned it into a cough, playing off like she had chocked on something. She leaned back enough to join the conversation, her signature smirk on her face as she repeated Bella had just said. Only loud enough for them to hear.

"Yeah Brett, are you going to kiss Matt yet?"