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C H A P T E R - S I X

June 17     

~ The events in this chapter were based on the Chicago Fire episode Retaliation Hits (Season 1 Episode 21). The rights to the episode belong to Dick Wolf and NBC. There are mentions of sexual assault as well as false sexual assault accusations. ~

Kelly Severide called Alyssa Torres four times that day. The day that he found out that Tara Little accused him of forcing himself on her.

Every time he called, he sounded stressed and every time he called, he got more upset that Alyssa wasn't answering. Even though, if he had been in his right mind, he would've known that she barely got cell service and that she did want to answer his calls, she just couldn't.

 He had a meeting with CFD officials who had to take his statement about what happened at his apartment with Tara.

Mouch, as his Union Representative, was there and both of them were dressed in his dress blues. The entire time that Kelly was putting it on, he felt disgusted. In over ten years of being a firefighter, never had anyone ever accused him of sexual assault.

He spent at least ten minutes trying to figure out how to tie his tie and then realized that in the last eleven months since Alyssa started living with him, she had tied all of his ties. And he was having the hardest time remembering how she did. He tried imagining her hands but he remembered that she moved so quickly when she did it and that he was always distracted by her face when she was that close.

"How long was she in your apartment?" the woman from the CFD asks.

"Half an hour," Kelly answers. He had gone through this in his mind a hundred times. He had just left a voicemail for Alyssa before he answered the door for Tara. And he had sent her a text message after she had left. There were just about forty minutes between the two. "An hour tops, maybe."

"How many beers did you drink?"

"Two," he answers. He knew that his tone was rude, almost bored.

"In thirty minutes?"

"First time in history that anyone's ever had two beers in under an hour?" Severide asks, looking annoyed that she had asked the question as if she was insinuating that he was an alcoholic. He glanced over at Mouch who gave a small shrug.

"Miss Little stated that it was hard to keep up with you, she felt buzzed."

"That's what happens when you drink beer," he answers as if he was explaining this to a child.  "She brought the six-pack over."

"She says that you attempted to kiss her. She said that she was uncomfortable and tried to leave but you backed her against the wall, leaned into her body, and put her hand on her buttock."

Kelly scoffs.

"Do you have a response?" the woman asks, looking up at the lieutenant.

"Lieutenant Severide is not obligated to respond to any of these questions," Mouch speaks up when he notices Kelly's silence. "He came in good faith to listen to the charges against him."

"I faked a yawn, said I was tired, and said that she should leave because I started thinking that she was a little ... desperate." He had struggled to find the right word but had eventually realized that Tara Little had been desperate.

Kelly was in the locker room changing into his work outfit after his hearing when Mills walked in.

"Lieutenant," Mills calls, causing the man to look over at him. "What you're going through ain't right. So if there's anything that I can do to help, name it. I mean, if you just want to grab a beer or put on some gloves."

"Appreciate it," the lieutenant nods, closing his locker as Hadley enters as well.

Truck 81, Squad 3, Engine 51, Ambulance 61, Car Accident, 344 Morgan Street

Severide was first out of the locker room, moving at a run towards the apparatus floor as he watches Casey be pulled aside by Boden.