Unexpected Blessing

Chapter 6: Wake Up Call

Kelly's P.O.V

I get back to my car and once again find myself just sitting there for a few minutes, processing everything I've come to find out about Addison and her life. Part of me is angry, another part confused, but mostly I just feel helpless. It's like someone telling you someone's about to get hurt but not being able to do anything about it.

Because she will get hurt. Somehow, she's going to end up on the other end of some horrible, shitty person who doesn't recognize all the good in her. Someone as good as her should never be forced to go through one person after another who can't see it like so many others do.

I bring myself to leave after fifteen minutes, peeling away towards the firehouse.

When I arrive, Casey looks up from where he's putting some equipment away into 81.

"Hey." He greets me, eyes flashing over to my car. "Dawson and Shay told me about you going back to the hospital to see Addison. How she doing?" he asks and I shrug.

"About as well as can be expected. Her leg and lungs have taken a bit of beating with the fact she's been in two fires, but she's on the mend." I explain as he nods thoughtfully.

"Dropped her off again?" he asks, and I give a stiff nod. "What did the parents have to say?"

I give a bitter laugh. "What parents? They weren't even there." I say, and I watch as Casey's face falls, a look of bewilderment coming over him. "They didn't show up the whole time she was in the hospital...You know what she told me? She said they probably hadn't even realized she was gone."

Casey sighs and shakes his head. "I...God I will never be able to understand people like that." He says and I nod.

"You, me, and the rest of the sane population." I say and Casey looks to me pointedly for a moment.

"If there's anything you need, or she needs, just let me know. It seems like she's in a bad spot right now—If I can do something, I'd like to." He says, and I give a grateful nod.

"Thanks Casey, I appreciate that." I tell him, and with that I continue into the firehouse.

It only takes minutes before I'm ambushed by Dawson and Shay, both eager to find out more about her condition. Again, others overhear us talking and their curiosity seems pricked by Addison's story. Otis, Cruz, Mouch and Hermann sit at the main table, all looking down or away from one another, features etched with concern, disgust, or a combination of both.

"The thing I feel the worst about is the fact that her guitar got lost in the fire." I say to Shay and Dawson. "It's how she made any money for herself, sounded like one of the few things that made her happy too...Her mom gave her the guitar before she passed away, so it meant a lot to her." I frown and look down into my half full coffee cup.

"God, as if she hadn't come out of that fire with enough physical damage, she had to get the emotional damage piled on too." Dawson shakes her head, brown eyes full of a mixture of anger and sadness, a combination I've seen in my own eyes as of late.

"I don't know what to do." I admit, feeling a sense of exhaustion and defeat come over me.

I feel a hand on my shoulder, and looking up, the crystal blue eyes of Shay look at me gently. "Kelly...Don't take this out on yourself. I think it's fair none of us would have any idea what to do—I mean look at us, we've barely met the girl and all of us are sitting here feeling like pieces of crap for not having a solution." She gives a sad laugh. "Something will happen, something will change."