It's Always Been You

Chapter 11

"So.." Leslie sits down on the bunk beside mine. "You have a crazy ex too?" She asks, laughing awkwardly.

I open my eyes and look at her. "Yeah. You could say that." I groan and pull the covers up to my chin. "I just need to relax for a bit after that."

"I get that but.." She trails off.

"But what?" I ask, sitting up in bed.

Shay shrugs. "But Casey wants everyone on truck out on the apparatus floor to run drills." She grins at me.

I roll my eyes and pull the covers off me. "The one day I try to fucking nap.." I hiss with annoyance.

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger." She puts her hand in the air and stands up.

"Fine." I stand up as well. "I won't today." I add playfully and gently push on Leslie as she cuts in front of me.

"Hey!" Leslie laughs as we walk out to the apparatus floor. "You're so mean sometimes."

"You would be too if your ex tried to burn you and your kids alive." I add sarcastically which Shay is unable to respond to.

I make it to the area where the vehicles are kept to see Casey and all of truck doing rescue drills.

"Hi, Lieutenant." I wave as I approach the group.

"Nice of you to join us, Westermore." Casey says with a nod then get to explaining the drill to me.

We're practicing dragging victims across the floor the best way to prevent injury. So we go at it for about half an hour before we break and go back inside.

As I'm walking past the squad table, Kelly stands up.

"Hey, Chanel!" He calls after me.

I turn and connect eyes with him. "Hey, Lieutenant." I say with a smirk, trying to be professional.

"I was wondering if I could talk to you in my office real quick?" He asks, shoving his hands in his pockets and waiting for a response.

I nod quickly and open the door to go inside.

Kelly catches the door after I pass through and follows me to his office.

We step inside and Kelly drops the blinds.

"What's up?" I ask as soon as the blinds are dropped.

Kelly doesn't say anything. He simply pulls me into a hug. I hug him back and we stand in silence for God-knows how long. Our hug is comforting and I feel better than I have all day.

"I just want to make sure you're alright." He finally says and pulls back to look at me.

I look up at him and in this moment I realize how much I care about Kelly. 15 years have passed and I still feel the same that I did when I was a kid. It's Kelly. He's the guy I want to be with and always have.

"I'm okay." I whisper back, my voice cracks with emotion at my epiphany.

Kelly raises his eyebrows at me. "Are you sure?"

I nod confidently.

"Good." He smiles and pulls me into another hug.

"I couldn't do any of this without you." I whisper and rest my cheek on his chest.

Kelly doesn't say anything to my words, but when I finally pull away we lock eyes and can't pull away.

"I'm not good for you." Is all he says in our intense moment of eye contact.

I press my lips firmly together before I speak. "You're perfect." I sigh then put his face between my hands. I put my lips on his in a surge of self confidence and wrap my arms around his neck.