The firefighter's smile

Chapter Seven

It's been already two hours that Matthew and Charly were driving all across the Windy City at the research of the missing Squad Lieutenant, and they weren't the only ones. All the firehouse was out, reaching for him, looking across every single bar that Severide might be.

"Can you call Shay?" Matt asked his passenger, focusing on looking the small street at his left.

"Yeah sur" Charlotte replied, feeling a little helpless not knowing what looks like the missing man.

She reached Casey's mobile phone and unlock it. Scrolling down his contact list, she finally dialed Kelly Severide's best friend number. After what seems like an eternity, she picks up the phone.

"Hey Leslie, it's Charly" she started. "Any news?"

"Nope. I... I'm starting to think that he had something behind his mind when he felt the firehouse with all his stuff, saying that he quitted 51."

"We're going to find him!" she tried to reassure, no believing in her own words. "Did you notice something strange in his comportement recently? I don't know, something that has happened which could influence him..."

"The graveyard" Leslie cut her.

"Which one?"

"I... I... I don't remember the name but Matt will know where it is. I have to hang up, we're calling us for an intervention. Keep me posted!"

"What did she say?" Casey asked directly.

"She said he might be at the graveyard..."

"Shit!" he mumbled.

"What?" Charly questioned.

Even if he was driving, the fireman took his phone and tried to find a picture to explain it to Charlotte. When he found the picture of Andy, he showed it to her. She frowned slightly, having another flashback.

"When?" she simply asked, understanding perfectly what had happened.

"Months ago. We were working on a house fire, there was no vent but he went through the window, no listening to my orders, before to me eating alive by a blast" he explained. "Ah, fuck!" he growled. "I should have been here for him, me more than the other. He was acting so weird, so different from the day you woke up, and I didn't know how to act or what to say, and like if that wasn't enough, Andy died and... and I got the feeling that I have lost Kelly too."

"Then you have to tell him what you feel" she answered whereas Matt parked his truck on the roadside.

Together, with the help of their phone's flashlight because of the dark night, they walked in the graveyard reaching Kelly. Arrived at Andy Darden's grave, both of them let out an oath.

"You know the road he uses to take?" The former firefighter asked.

Casey nodded. They made their way back to the car and drove again, hoping to find him.

"God!" Charly yelled, constating a car crash against a pylon.

When she noticed the blank expression on the pale face of Gabby's boyfriend, she understood that they have found him. Against that pylon, that was Severide's car. Without hesitation, she ran out of the car she was in and reached the one that was crashed. The bloody face of the man made her heart skipped a beat before to paralyze her.

"Everybody out now!" Boden yelled, watching the burning building start to break down.

All the women and men already outside were watching anxiously: inside of that building, there were their brothers.