Something's gotta give

The explanation

"Right, we're taking a ride. Get everyone ready to go to the army head quarters" Boden instructs while his voice cracks.
Truck 81, squad 3 and battalion 25 all roll up to the building and everyone goes to the generals office. Boden knocks on his door and they all enter.
"Firehouse 51, What can I do for you" the general asks with a piece of gum in his mouth.
"Tell us what happened to Gabby" Matt snaps.
"Casey stop!" Severide interjects.
"Sorry to come in like this, but we need to know what happened in Afghanistan." Mouch joins in calmly.
"Alright, Boden, I'll only speak to you and your 2 lieutenants" the general sighs.
"No I'm coming too, I need to know. Come on Chief, she's my best friend!" Brett protests.
"Come on then." Boden gives in.
Severide, Boden, Casey and Brett all follow the general into the meeting room and sit down. The general has a serious face on and looks directly at Boden.
"Gabriela Dawson never made it to the base in Afghanistan" he informs them.
"What are you talking about?" Boden asks slightly raising his voice.
"As soon as the new recruits got off the helicopter they were ambushed by the enemy. Dawson and the others were taken and tortured for information." The general says slowly. "Out of 35 recruits, only 12 survived. We only found them 2 weeks ago."
"So what you're saying is that Gabby tortured the whole time she was there?" Severide guessed melancholic.
"Unfortunately, yes" was the reply he got.
The room went silent for a few minutes. Brett had her head in her hands and breathed heavily in discontent. Severide was motionless, he couldn't think, he couldn't see, he couldn't breathe. When they all got back to the rest of 51, Otis and Herrman asked them what happened.
"Let's just get back to the firehouse first" Boden instructed, he couldn't tell them just yet, he didn't even want to believe it himself.
Everyone got to the firehouse in silence and headed to the briefing room.
"So... what happened?" Cruz asked hesitantly.
"So as you should all know by now, Dawson has scars on her back, well we now know why." Boden cleared his throat." Gabby was a prisoner of war for the whole three months she was in Afghanistan. She, along with the other medics were tortured for information."
"Oh my God" Capp said looking to the ground. Everyone's faces either turned sad that the lovable Gabby Dawson had the worst experience of her life or angry because sick people hurt their sister.
Brett walked out, she had to find Gabby. She looked everywhere until she finally found her sitting against the wall outside looking at pictures on her phone, they were of everyone at 51.
"Hey" she walked up to Gabby and sat down beside her.
"Oh. Hey. You scared me" Dawson fake laughed.
"You know you can tell me anything right? Brett implies.
"Yeah, why?" Gabby responds.
"Well why didn't you tell me about Afghanistan"
"Who told you" Gabby said impatiently.
"Severide but that doesn't matter, the point is why didn't YOU tell me"
"Well how was I supposed to? I couldn't just say hey how are you oh yeah by the way I was tortured for 3 months and saw my co workers being killed what's for breakfast?" Gabby said sarcastically.
"I get it, but I just wish I could've been there for you, you know? I wish I would've known sooner so I could get you through this and support you." Sylvie snivelled and Gabby held her hand.
"Hey, you're here now, don't blame yourself no one could've known this was gonna happen" she reassured her.
"But if you ever need anything ever again just tell me okay? I will always be here for you I'm not letting you do anything dangerous alone ever again." Brett insisted.
"Yeah of course" Gabby chuckled " speaking of needing anything I Uh , kinda need a place to stay. I got kicked out of my place." She felt embarrassed.
"Of course, you can stay at mine." Sylvie noticed Severide walking up to them " and so is Severide"
"I am?" Severide questioned.
"Yes, we need a man in the house to do all the.. manly stuff" Brett stated.
Kelly looked over to Gabby, waiting for her to protest but she didn't. She just gave him a half smile. Her smile always made him tingly inside. After shift ended, Severide nervously waited by his car to pick up the girls. He was nervous because this would be the first time he met with Gabby after Afghanistan and he didn't want it to be awkward. A few minutes passed when he noticed a man on the other side of the street. He had a baseball cap on and his hands were in his bomber jacket pockets, he was looking directly at the firehouse and particularly at the person who was walking out of the firehouse, Gabby Dawson. Severide was about to cross the street when Sylvie called out to him. "Kelly are you ready to go?"
"Yeah I just need to talk to that guy over there" Severide turned around only to see the man wasn't there any more. "That's weird" he thought out loud.
They all hopped in the car and drove to Brett's apartment. The journey was silent apart from when Brett was giving Severide directions to her place. They got to her apartment ten minutes later.
"So what do you guys wanna eat?" Brett asked while putting her bag down by the door.
"I don't mind but is it alright if I cook?" Dawson suggested.
"Yeah sure sounds good" Severide chimed in.
"I'll go get some groceries from down the road, I'll be half an hour." Brett said as she grabbed her purse and left leaving Gabby and Kelly alone on the couch.

End of chapter-
Authors notes: hey guys! I hope you liked this chapter I will try to post more frequently I just need to update my note book because I'm running out of ideas to carry on with the story but I guarantee whatever the outcome is, it'll be worth the wait! Thanks for reading :)