❝ melisa becomes a firefighter at house fifty-one, finding her second family ❞
❝ amy took the intelligence job in chicago to
solve her parents' murder, falling in love
...
chapter forty-two; when things got rough [ season two, episode seventeen ]
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"WHAT'S UP?" Casey walked into the locker room, where some of his firefighters were. They were standing by Mouch's locker.
"Mouch got a Dear John letter from Mari in Japan," Hermann explained. "It's over."
Otis frowned. "They were still together?" He whispered. Melisa gave him a little shove while Hermann and Cruz looked at him in disapproval.
"Serves me right," Mouch stated. "Thinking I could make it work when we were 6,000 miles apart." He sat down. "Apparently, the new guy is a game show host. How am I supposed to compete with that?"
The other four were motioning to Casey to say something. Perhaps Mouch would feel better if his lieutenant said something encouraging.
"Hey." Casey went up to Mouch and patted his shoulder. "You'll rally, Mouch. I know you will."
Mouch got up, closed his locker, and walked out. Hermann looked at Casey. "Even I could have done better than that." He then went after Mouch.
"It was good advice."
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Shay caught up with Kelly just as he got off the phone with someone. She got a glimpse of his phone screen. "Hughes? The detective chick?"
"Yeah." Kelly put his phone in his pocket. He then noticed the look Shay was giving him. "What?"
"The Keeler case is closed, so she's calling you on a social level. You two going out?"
Kelly scoffed. "She's not interested. Besides, she only called to ask about Katie."
Shay chuckled. "You have a crush on her. Adorable. Well, I like her for you. She's a badass."
"You're teasing me about having a crush when you have feelings for Mel?"
Shay didn't know how to respond to that. "Touché."
꧁ ꧂
"HEY, CASEY!" Kelly called out as fire surrounded them. "We'll take the east side."
"Copy. We'll take the west side of the hall." Squad went into the hallway first. Melisa followed Casey inside, along with the rest on Truck, and they split. "Fire department, call out!"
Casey reached his hand out through the thick smoke until it made contact with something. Or rather, someone. "I got one!" He lifted this man's hand, revealing a small one-a child.
"I got a kid here!" He radioed it. "I need back up in the bedroom, west end of the hall, now!" Melisa rushed into the room with Hermann and Mouch.
They rolled over the man and were shocked to find three people lying underneath him. "Oh, my god! They're all here!"
"They're all moving!" Hermann yelled. He got the girl, and Melisa grabbed the little boy, wrapping her arms around him tightly. More firefighters appeared, and they grabbed the mom and dad.
Melisa made it out of the house after Hermann. The boy was moving in her arms, and she rushed him to an ambulance. The paramedics took over.
She took her mask and helmet off and went over to the rest. Gabby and Shay were trying to save the dad.
"Ah!" Gabby grunted in frustration. "I can't get a pulse. Let's put him on the monitor." Everyone watched as they desperately tried to save him.
"He piled up his whole family in that corner bedroom, Chief," Kelly told Boden. "Laid on top of them."
The kids were asking for their dad, who was gone. He had sacrificed his life to save his wife and kids. Casey wouldn't accept this. He went over and started doing chest compressions, ignoring the pleas to stop. He couldn't let this man die. "Come on! Come on!"
But he had to give up eventually.
꧁ ꧂
THE FOLLOWING DAY the chief and the firefighters got dressed and ready to face the woman who had lost her husband in the fire. She was charging them with wrongful death, blaming them for her husband's death.
Boden started by explaining what happened on that call. "Lieutenant Casey, I understand you were the first inside," the attorney on their side stated. "Can you tell us what happened after you went in?"
Casey cleared his throat. "Yes, um, four members of my unit as well as two from Lieutenant Severide's entered the main floor and proceeded immediately up the stairs to the second floor. The door was locked, so we had to take it down."
"And how long did that take?"
"About ten seconds, I'd say. It was pretty quick."
"And once you got inside?"
Casey briefly glanced at the woman. "We were at zero visibility, yelling for anyone to call out, but no one did. So, uh, we split up, and I went directly into the bedroom at the west end of the hall."
"And what happened when you entered?"
"I got low and moved into the room, and I was sweeping my arm out when I felt something." The woman let out a cry as Casey explained what had happened.
"Go ahead, lieutenant."
"Um, um, not sure Mrs. Brooker wants to hear this."
The woman in question shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere." The attorney told Casey to keep going once again.
"I moved closer. And, um, I felt a man's arm. I could tell it was burned pretty badly, and I reached out further and... I felt several small bodies just beneath him. I called into the radio for help. When we rolled the man off of his family, we, uh, we felt the children moving, and we were extremely relieved." Casey was doing everything to stop himself from crying.
Kelly noticed that Casey couldn't keep going, so he spoke. "Lieutenant Casey handed the children off to the firefighters one by one, then the mother. Then he and I lifted Mr. Brooker together."
"Mrs. Brooker," she looked at Casey, "I am lucky enough to work with some of the best, bravest firefighters in the world. But what your husband did to save his family, that was the bravest thing I've ever seen."
