F | I'll stand by you (One Chicago)

Chapter Eleven

Emily rushes back home. 'I thought David Shakespeare is dead?' She asks Kelly.

'He is.' Kelly nods. 

'I could've sworn I just saw him.' Emily says, Kelly immediately sits up, concerned. 'It was either him or his exact double. It then hits her. 'He has a twin.' 

'There you go.' Kelly sighs with relief. 'A logical explanation.' 

'No. David's twin smokes with his right hand, David smokes with his left. The man that I saw was smoking with his left. The same hand that David smokes with.' Emily shakes her head as she sits down. 'Maybe I'm just imagining it.' Emily sighs, frustrated, putting her head in her hands. 

'Emily.' Kelly sighs. 'Don't beat yourself up about it.' He tells her. 'How about I give Sergeant Voight a call in the morning? Talk to him about it.' 

'Nah. It's not worth the hassle.' Emily shakes her head. She then stands up and walks to her room. 

~

The next day, Kelly is planning on taking Emily to get enrolled in The Chicago High School for the Arts. At 9am, he walks into her room and sees that she's not there. 'Emily?' He shouts. No answer. He walks into her bedroom and sees that her bed hasn't been slept in. He also doesn't see her clothes from the previous day in the wash basket. Her phone charger and laptop are gone. 'Shit.' He whispers to himself. He gets out his phone and calls Emily.

'Emily's safe.' A familiar voice says. 'You're Mr Severide, right?'

'Yes.' Kelly says slowly. 'And you are?'

'Sorry.' The person on the other end laughs. 'James Cordon.'

'Oh right.' Kelly says, shocked. 'How'd you know Emily?'

'Well, her musical theatre mentor is Jesse Tyler Ferguson. He's in town and so I am I so we decided to stay in the same hotel. Emily turned up at Jesse's hotel door at 10pm last night. She tends to walk away from things when she's scared. Like her rapist not actually being dead.' James explains.

'She told you?' Kelly asks.

'Yeah.' James responds. 'We're at the Ritz Carlton. Room 132.'

'I'll be there within the hour.' He then hangs up, walks out of Emily's room, grabs his coat and makes his way to the hotel.

~

When he arrives at the hotel, he gets the lift to the correct floor walks to the correct room and knocks on the door. A few seconds later, James answers it. 'Mr Severide?' James questions.

'Yeah.' Kelly nods. James then motions for Kelly to walk in. When he does, he sees Jesse sitting on the chaise longue with Emily laying down, her head on a cushion on his knees.

'She's a good kid.' James smiles.

'She is.' Kelly nods in agreement. 'Why did she come here?'

'She was upset, confused, she claims that she almost killed herself.' Jesse explains.

'What?!' Kelly exclaims, causing Emily to stir.

'She was speaking nonsense, like she didn't know what she was saying. She said she was going to jump off Michigan Avenue Bridge but her guardian angel stopped her and wouldn't let her jump.' James replies. Emily then slowly sits up and rubs her eyes.

'Hey there kiddo.' Kelly smiles and laughs. 'I was worried about you.'

'I did it again, didn't I?' Emily asks Jesse.

'You did.' Jesse nods, laughing. 'But you know that whenever I'm in town, you can come and see me, as long as you tell Mr Severide.'

'Call me Kelly.' Kelly tells Jesse and James.

'I'm sorry.' Emily apologises to Kelly. 'One minute I was in my room, the next I was on Michigan Avenue about to jump off, then I was here.'

'Don't worry about it.' Kelly smiles as he sits opposite her. 'Just leave me a note next time.'

'Don't encourage me.' Emily laughs.

'Come on, we need to go. I've got an appointment to enrol you at the arts school.' Kelly tells her. Emily sighs, puts her shoes on and stands up. As she does, her top lifts up a little to reveal the scar from when she was burnt.

'Emily, what happened?' Jesse asks.

'Stupidity happened.' Emily sighs. 'I don't remember why I was still in the building whilst it was on fire, and I don't think I ever will.'

'Stay safe, Em.' James smiles as he hugs the young girl.

'Let us know how you get on at the school.' Jesse adds before also hugging her.

'No promises and I will.' Emily smiles.

'Thank you.' Kelly nods gratefully.

'No worries.' Jesse smiles. He then shows Kelly and Emily out. Kelly and Emily walk down to the car and get in.

'We'll go home so you can get washed and changed but you'll have about half an hour.' Kelly tells her as they drive off.

~

An hour later, Emily and Kelly are at the school. They walk into the main reception and Kelly tells the receptionist that they have an appointment with the headmistress. Just as they do, the headmistress walks out. 'Mr Severide.' She smiles as she shakes Kelly's hand. 'And you must be Emily.' She adds turning to Emily.

'Yeah.' Emily nods.

'I'm Nikki, the headmistress. In this school we allow all students to call the staff by their first name, seeing as we're not the average school.' Nikki introduces herself as she shakes Emily's hand. 'So, let's start with the tour.'

Nikki takes them around the school,showing them the different classroom, the practise rooms and the recording booths. She then takes them to the preformance block which is made up of one massive theatre, two smaller theatres and a dance studio. They then go to the admissions office and sit down.

'Rules are simple. No violence, no hate speech, no promoting anything illegal or drugs etc. treat everyone with respect blah, blah, blah, everything will be in the handbook.' Nikki explains. 'In terms of clothing, something practical and nothing too revealing.' She continues. 'That leads us on to the most important question. Would you like to attend this school?' Emily looks at Kelly and smiles.

'Sure.' Emily nods.

'You don't have much catching up to do. Most subjects have been doing baseline assessments to see what the students know and building up the gaps in knowledge. So, if you come in tomorrow, say, 12pm, we can do those tests and see where you're at. They won't take long and you should be done by 4pm, 5 at the latest.' Nikki informs her.

'Sounds like a plan.' Kelly grins, noticing that Emily hasn't lost her smile.

'I'll take you through subject options then.' Nikki girns back.