Ashes

it ain't easy

The crew pull up to a fire call the three lieutenants hopping out of their rigs straight away.

"Squad, you're on search" boden instructs, the two squad lieutenants head in walking by casey, "main room's clear of hazardous material, no workers in here, haven't checked the supply room yet" matt radios, "we got it" severide confirms, strand and severide watch as vargas scans the room with the thermal imaging camera, "lieutenants, somebody's in the corner!" vargas says, "okay, grab his legs!" carter instructs, "Hadley, Capp, finish the sweep!" kelly instructs, "we're on it" hadley confirms, "truck's still engaged, I need you three to vent the roof" boden instructs, "on it" kelly confirms as the three climb up to the roof and begin venting it, "how we doing on that vent?" boden asks, "we're venting" kelly says as the two lieutenants walk further away from the windows, "making progress" carter adds as a blast rings out the fumes sending vargas down, "Vargas!" kelly shouts as he pulls carter down shielding her from the fumes, "mayday! mayday! firefighter down!" kelly radios.

The pa goes off distracting the crew from their downtime.

"Live and in person, Jose Vargas" the pa announces, the crew rush out of their respective spots to greet vargas, casey, otis, mills and carter all give vargas a hug as mills begs him to stay for lunch kelly shakes his hand, "he's staying, come on, let's eat!" kelly instructs, "doctor's got me huffing on a nebulizer four times a day, plus, this inhaler, busy day so far?" vargas asks, "uh, no, no, not too bad" kelly says, "Casey, Severide, Strand, Chief's asking for you" one of the office assistants says, the three lieutenants get up and head to bodens office, "this is Dr Tenney, the CFD medical director" boden explains as matt shakes the man's hand, "gentlemen, lady" the doctor greets shaking carters hand then kelly's, "we wanted to bring you men and lady in since Vargas served under all three of your commands" boden explains, "his lab suggests chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" the doctor explains, "what's that?" kelly asks, "he'll develop emphysema, which means his lungs will gradually deteriorate, he won't be able to breathe a normal amount of air, which could lead to other issues, weight loss, skeletal muscle dysfunction, heart problems" the doctor explains as carter looks down, "there's just no way he can handle the demands of the job" boden shrugs, "he's out there right now, chief, he looks good" matt argues, "we are placing him on long-term disability, I wanted you three to know what was happening, when I get all this paperwork together, I will talk to Vargas" boden explains, the three lieutenants look at each other to ensure they're thinking the same thing and nod, "we'll tell him" matt nods, carter heads out bodens office first and heads into the common room, "hey vargas, can you head to the locker room, myself, Severide and Casey need to speak with you" carter says as she heads to the locker room vargas following closely behind, "so that's it?" vargas asks, "I'm sorry Vargas, It could have happened to any of us" kelly apologises, "well, be glad it didn't happen to you" vargas argues, "hey, you're getting paid, 3/4 salary" matt argues back, "yeah" vargas confirms, "It's not what anybody wants, but any of us would take that deal" matt muses, "how about you, Kelly? Carter? would you take that deal?" vargas asks, "honestly no but I wouldn't get a choice" carter shrugs, "uh, they're not offering a choice" kelly says, "you still doing landscaping?" matt questions, "yeah, whenever my buddy needs another guy" vargas explains, "take the 75%, start your own business" matt suggests, "or go ride Harleys with your brother like you talked about" kelly suggests, "he moved to Albuquerque" vargas reveals with a soft chuckle, "you and me should both be taking 75%" vargas says causing silence to fall across the room as he gets up and leaves as kelly explains to matt the situation with his neck/shoulder when the alarm goes off, "squad three, engine 51, single car accident, 5512 South Sangamon" the alarm announces, "well that's us, thanks for coming to my ted talk boys" carter remarks causing laughter from the two men on the way to their rigs, "never change carter" matt muses.

The two lieutenants jump out the rig and head to the car.

"Car's energized, keep your distance, Tony, get on the horn with com-ed and get this line cut" kelly instructs, "watch it, guys" carter warns, "uh, I knew to not get out of the car" the driver explains, "you knew right, you hurt?" kelly asks, "no, I don't think so" the driver says, "what happened?" carter asks, "well, this animal just darted out, right out in front of my car and" the driver explains, "well, looks like you missed him, so PETA will be happy, just give us a sec" kelly explains, "Strand, Severide" hadley calls as carter walks over spotting the fuel, "nice work Hadley" carter praises, "all right, we can't wait for the power company" kelly declares, "wait, what's happening?" the driver asks, "stay in the car" carter instructs, "Hadley, throw me the rope bag" kelly orders, hadley tosses the rope bag to kelly, "oh, my god Is everything gonna be okay?" the driver questions as kelly tosses the bag to capp, "yeah, I promise, you're gonna be fine" kelly assures, the crew watch as kelly and capp move the wire away from the car and carter helps the woman out the car.

An evening later, kelly arrives home from his date and lets himself into carters room.

"It's you that I want to be with, I can't take it anymore" kelly declares, "you can be with me but I'm not some meaningless hook up, I have feelings, Kelly, I don't want to be used for your convenience anymore and I want to be treated right" carter shrugs, "is that a yes?" kelly asks, "more or less, can't keep dancing around each other forever" carter confirms, kelly leans down capturing carters lips in a soft kiss, the two pull away when their phones begin to go off, kelly picks his phone up, "we gotta go, Vargas is on a roof" kelly reveals, carter pulls her shoes and jacket on rushing out the apartment with kelly, "Vargas you gotta stop playing" kelly warns holding his hand out as matt appears, "come on man" kelly pleads, "hey there buddy" matt greets as he approaches slowly, "what's going on?" matt asks, "this is so messed up" vargas mutters, "why don't you move away from the edge there, Vargas?" matt suggests, "we've been telling him, he keeps living the rest of his life the way he fought fires, he'll have a hell of a lot to be proud of" kelly explains, "remember the homewood fire? we lost the house, and Vargas saves the family photo album" matt asks, the new couple nod, "but here's the thing I never told you, the mom thanked me after it was all over, you know what she said? she said, the house was made out of wood, but the home was made out of the people in that book" matt says pausing before continuing, "firehouse 51 is made out of you and me and Severide and Morgan-Strand and every firefighter that passes through those gates, nothing can take that away from you, 51 is always gonna be your house" matt says, the two men pull him down and carter joins them in a group hug comforting vargas.

carteride finally got their act together! I didn't want to go into the book with them together and I promise there's a lot of drama coming in the later chapters!