New Family (Onechicago) (RE-WRITE)

Chapter 21 - Now More Than Ever

The line went dead, and Chase walked back inside. Will spotted him.
"I just heard..." He said. Chase shook his head, no longer able to fight back the tears. Will pulled him into the break room and pulled his friend into a hug. He had never seen him like this.
"She's strong...she's going to pull through this" Will said once Chase had calmed down.
"I know..." Chase said, running his hands over his head. It wasn't long after that that Chase spotted everyone from 51 walking in through the main entrance. They had obviously travelled to the hospital with their lights and sirens on. He went out to meet them.
"What happened?" Kelly asked concerned as Riley was like his little sister.
"In cases like Riley's it's normal to have a secondary bleed or a bleed that goes unnoticed. Her blood pressure was still quite low, so Rhodes took her for a CT scan which revealed she had a small bleed. They took her into surgery about an hour ago to fix it before it could get any worse. Hopefully after she'll be stable enough to come off the vent" Will explained, seeing it was too hard for Chase to.
"She's tough...she'll pull through this" Casey said what everyone was saying. Everyone agreed and made their way up with Chase to the waiting room.
"How's work been?" Chase asked, trying to distract himself.
"Busy...we've been on non-stop calls otherwise we'd have been up here with you" Herrmann said seriously.
"It's okay...there's not much you could do anyway" Chase said quietly. They waited for about an hour before Connor came back to the waiting room. Chase stood up followed by Casey, Severide and Boden.
"She's stable. We made sure that everything was sorted before we closed up. We've taken her off the vent and we'll move her back up to the ICU." Connor said happily.
"Oh thank god" Chase said relieved.
"She'll be in the same room so you can go up and wait. She'll be up soon" Connor said.
"Thank You" Chase said once again.
"Normally we have a limit of visitors. Once Riley's awake if she's happy with it you can all spend a few minutes with her. But only 5 minutes max" Connor gratefully said to everyone.
"Thanks Doc" Boden said. Connor shook it off before walking away. Severide jogged after him.
"Hey Rhodes..." He said, making Connor stop.
"I know we've had our disagreements...but thank you...I couldn't imagine loosing Riley, she's like my little sister" He said sincerely. Connor held his hand out and Kelly shook it. They nodded at each other before going separate ways. Kelly went back to join everyone. Casey smiled slightly and patted him on the shoulder as Kelly had done the right thing, something he wasn't always great at doing.
"Right everyone clear out. Leave them to have some time alone together. We can all come back up tomorrow when we're not on shift. Give Riley sometime" Boden exclaimed to everyone. Everyone nodded and said farewell to Chase as they made their way out of the hospital. Once everyone was gone Chase made his way back to the ICU. When he got there Riley was being wheeled in by Connor and another nurse.
"She'll be out for a few hours at least. I don't expect her to wake up until at least the early morning" Connor explained as it was currently only just past 10pm.
"Thank you, Connor...I know you focus more on cardio now" Chase said seriously.
"She's family...of course" Connor said before leaving the couple alone. Will came in shortly after.
"I'm about to head home but I brought these in for you. I went to your place and grabbed you some stuff. There's also some snacks and a few drinks in the bag as well" Will said, placing a bag down next to Riley's bed. Chase thanked him.
"I can stay for a bit if you want to go have a shower and change your clothes" Will said kindly. Chase hesitated before standing up. He kissed Riley's forehead before making his way to the family bathrooms down the corridor.

Will sat with Riley whilst Chase freshened up. She was slowly starting to gain her colour back and already looked a hundred times better than when she first came in – even though she was still so weak and ill. She was out of the danger zone but would remain in the ICU for at least another 24 hours before she would be moved to a room on another ward.
"You gunna be okay?" Will asked as Chase returned.
"Yeah...thanks." Chase said, briefly hugging his friend.
"Call me if you need me" Will said before leaving. The couple were on their own once again. Chase settled in for a long night in the ICU. Getting as comfortable as he could on the chair, he made sure his hand was on Riley's before he allowed himself to drift off.

It must have been a few hours later that he woke up again because he felt Riley's hand move under his closely followed by a small groan.
"Riley...." Chase said relieved, sitting up in the chair and leaning over Riley. Riley's eyes slowly opened and instantly she turned to Chase.
"Hi..." Chase said happily.
"What happened?" Riley asked confused.
"You collapsed at home...don't you remember?" He asked gently. Realisation came over Riley.
"The baby?" She asked sadly, already knowing the answer. Chase couldn't answer so he just shook his head. Riley's eyes became watery.
"Hey...hey it's okay. We're going to get through this okay...together" Chase said, squeezing her hand and wiping away her tears. He hated seeing her like this but also knew exactly how she was feeling.
"I'm sorry..." Riley sniffled.
"Why are you sorry?" Chase asked, confused.
"This is my fault..." Riley sniffled again. Chase sat on the bed carefully and took Riley's hands in his.
"This is NOT your fault. Nothing you did or didn't do would have stopped this. It's just one of those shitty things that happen okay? Please don't blame yourself" Chase told Riley. Riley nodded. Chase wiped her tears away and moved to sit next to her on the bed so Riley could lean into him and so he could wrap his arms around her. They had had the crappiest thing that could ever happen, happen to them, but they had each other and they have their family...and that means everything.

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What do you think? x Please let me know...I'm seriously at a loss with this book right now. Let me know if you have any ideas x
Dharma xox