Happy Endings (Chicago Fire FanFic)

Chapter Two

It had finally happened, she'd lost her first patient since moving to Chicago. It was going to happen at some point, she wasn't stupid. It was a high risk surgery and she'd known what the odds were going in. It didn't stop it from physically knocking the wind out of her lungs when she realised there was nothing else they could do. She'd called time of death and hightailed it out of the OR back to her office, looking for somewhere she could at least have a cry about it in private.

Anna Palmer. That was the name of the eighteen year old girl who had just died on her table. She was young, full of promise and had all kinds of plans for the future. She'd been hit by a drunk driver in the middle of the afternoon as she walked down the street with her friends. The resulting brain bleed had meant she never really stood a chance.

It wasn't until she got halfway to her office that she realised that she was going to have to go and tell the girls parents. The knot in her stomach twisted and for a moment she thought she might by sick. She'd done it hundreds of times in her years on the job, but it never got any easier and she could still remember the face of every single relative she'd broken the devastating news to.

She wiped her eyes roughly as she walked down the hall, heading for the waiting room. She'd retreat to the safety of her office to have a cry about it after she'd told the girls parents. They had to be her priority for now. She was halfway down the hallway when a familiar voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Hey Amber, wait up!" She turned around to see Kelly jogging down the hall towards her. "I was on my way to your office to look for you."

"Hi." She croaked. "Um... now is really not a good time Kelly." She glanced over her shoulder. "I've got to um..."

"Got to what?" He frowned at her, looking disappointed.

"I just lost an eighteen year old on the table. She was hit by a drunk driver and I've now got to tell her parents." She blurted out. "So I'm really sorry you had a wasted trip, but I can't do this now." She turned away and dashed off before he had a chance to say anything else. She knew he'd understand if she gave him the chance, in his line of work he would've been through more or less the same experience and he would know how much it hurt, but she didn't have it in her to discuss quite how awful it was with him right now.

She didn't look back to see the way he stood in the corridor, watching her quickly disappear around the corner. It hadn't really occurred to her that he'd care. She'd heard all about the infamous Kelly Severide and his reputation. They'd been getting on great and it had been a lot of fun over the past few weeks, but she was careful not to let herself get too attached. No matter how she felt, she was always going to be just a bit of fun for him. She had baggage, and a whole lot of it too, and even if he was prepared for something more, she wasn't ready to get her heart broken into a thousand pieces again. It was much easier to keep her distance and think of it as a bit of harmless fun.

LINE BREAK.

Amber did eventually make it home, twenty six hours after she'd first left for work. She was absolutely dead on her feet and barely able to make it up the steps to the front door. Her phone was dead, her feet hurt and she was hungry. The idea of cooking was all a bit too much though and in reality all she was going to do was collapse into bed and sleep with the rather depressing knowledge that she had to be back at work in a little under eight hours.

She grabbed her phone, which had long since run out of charge, and plugged it in beside the bed. She now had a bedside table to put it on thanks to Kelly's flat pack building services. Heading into the bathroom she stripped out of her scrubs, having not bothered to change before she left work, and stepped into a scalding hot shower as though it might somehow wash the stresses of the day off her.