Ashes

a coffin that small

Kelly and Carter step out of bodens office as he stops matt in the hallway.

"Hey, Lieutenant, I want to bring you up to speed on what Kelly and Carter just filled me in on" boden explains, "we're gonna push to fast-track Peter Mills to squad" kelly reveals, matt nods, "we think Mills would be a good addition to squad" carter says, "and I talked to Chief Walker over at district, and he thinks it would be great for CFD morale" kelly explains, "Is that what you think, chief? great for morale?" matt asks, "as long as he qualifies" boden says, "well, sounds like you guys have all the answers" matt remarks as he walks away, kelly leads carter back to the apparatus floor watching as she sits down, he pulls the circle saw out and begins fiddling with the blade when matt confronts the two about what they witnessed earlier that morning, "Heather Darden and me, we're just friends, she came over to talk and fell asleep on my couch" matt explains, "right, got it" kelly nods, "I don't know what you want me to say here" matt states, "we saw what we saw, Casey" carter snaps, "sell your clean whistle act to some other people cause we ain't buying" kelly adds, "you two can't imagine you both might be wrong about something, can you?" matt asks, "we can imagine a lot of things, just not the idea of you rolling around with Andy's widow" carter says loudly as she follows kelly to the squad causing the other 6 people in the rooms attention to focus on the trio arguing, "come on" matt mutters, "explain to me why Heather barely talks to me and Carter, but she'll sleep with you, even though you're the guy who put her husband through that window?" kelly asks walking towards matt, carter follows prepared to break up a fist fight when gunshots pierce the windows causing the rooms occupants to get down, "get down! get down! what the hell is going on here?" herrmann asks, the sound of tires screeching can be heard prompting the occupants to get up.

The crew gather in the common room kelly holding carter close the two slightly shaken from the sudden gunshots as boden speaks with a cpd detective.

"What the hell is going on here detective, this has always been a neighbourhood house" boden asks, "you tell me, no run-ins recently? no fires where one of your guys tried to pop off to the local" the detective asks, "no, we're not cops, people are happy to see a firefighter show up" herrmann interjects, "could this be Voight related?" the detective questions, "Voight?" casey asks, "when it comes to gang violence, the man has a long reach, he's got a dismissal hearing soon" the detective explains, "not like Voight to stir up the nest if he's trying to free himself" casey points out, "man, why don't you pick up one of these bangers for something small and trade the bust for what they know about the shooters?" cruz asks, "corner boys in this neighborhood are good, we can't catch them with the drսg and make a bust stick, we'll keep our ears to the ground, In the meantime, I'll make sure we have a conspicuous police presence around the station" the detective explains, "meaning what?" boden asks, "put a special detail on it, squad outside, officer posted in the house" the detective clarifies, "well, that's fine, so long as the men and women are safe" boden agrees as the cops head out, "what?" boden asks herrmann, "cops in the house is a bad precedent, sends a message to the good residents around here that we're not a safe haven" herrmann explains, "you rather have one of us be killed?" mouch asks, "of course not" herrmann protests, "we will let the police handle their business, and we will handle ours" boden instructs.

The three roommates sit in their favourite coffee shop alongside carters older brother tk who had come to visit, coffees in hand.

"Hey, any word on that kid pulled out of the laundry chute?" kelly asks, "the 81 crew pulled a kid out the laundry chute in a neighbouring apartment building, Shay and Gabby treated him" carter explains to her brother, "haven't heard anything yet, hey, what's going on with you guys and Casey? It seemed like" shay begins, "oh, I don't, I don't want to talk about Casey, neither does Carter" kelly shuts shay down, "okay, fine, we'll just enjoy watching you three mark your territory" shay shrugs before turning to face tk, "so what do you want to talk about?" shay asks, "so how would this work? with the, um insemination?" tk asks, "well, basically, you know, I'd get a hormone injection once a day for 12 days to boost ovulation, then we'd go to a clinic where they have rooms set aside for collection, meaning, you know, they give you magazines or whatever, and you go in and do your business" shay explains, "I mean, I get that part, how much does it cost?" tk asks, "uh, all-in, 10 grandish" shay reveals, "10 grand, are you serious?" tk asks, "yeah" shay confirms, "you have that kind of cash?" tk asks, "I'm gonna stretch some card limits and cobble it together" shay explains, "I'm in" tk announces, "dibs on calling mom to tell her!" carter announces causing the three to break into laughter as shay wraps tk in a warm hug.

The two squad lieutenants spot matt in the tower and decide to confront him.

"You know what the worst part is?" kelly asks, "what is the worst part, Kelly?" matt asks, "that you don't have enough balls to admit you're sleeping with heather, at least come clean" carter interjects, "keep walking, I'm done explaining myself" matt orders, "ooh big bad Casey" carter remarks, "you haven't explained a damn thing! that's the point!" kelly says raising his voice, "cause you're wrong! don't come up on me again like this" matt hits back in the same volume as kelly as he stands up, "no fuck off, you go running back to Heather whilst she acts like we killed Andy when it was you! I barely get to see the boys now Andy's gone It's always whenever Heather picks and chooses her moments" carter fires back matching the two mens volume, "really?" kelly shouts at matt, "what the hell is going on here? In my office, now" boden orders, kelly follows with carter hot on his heels and matt behind her, "we've been here before, almost tore this house apart" boden explains, "this time, it's different" kelly states, "tell me about it" boden instructs, "yeah, Casey, tell him about it" carter remarks, "no offense, Chief" matt walks out, kelly leads carter out to the apparatus floor, the two coming face to face with tk and shay, "just dropping by to talk with Shay" tk explains, "you can talk in our office gives you more privacy, follow us" carter instructs as the two lead tk to their shared office shay following, "I know this may not be the best time, um, but I have a new proposal, so please don't say anything or make any funny faces" shay warns, "okay" tk agrees, "okay, uh, I can't afford the insemination, so I've been thinking about plan B, and I propose, when the time is right, you go into
the guest room with magazines or Skinemax or whatever you need to get yourself ready, and then with the lights out, you signal me by calling out my name once, you'll hear the door open, footsteps, and then you'll be mounted, you will finish your business inside of me as quickly and efficiently as possible, and then I'll be out the door, so you can clean up, cry or whatever you need to do, at which point, I will need to be alone, most likely to cry, and we will never speak of this to anyone ever for the rest of our lives, and, I thank you for listening, just think about it" shay instructs her male counterpart.

The couple sit at the squad table on the apparatus floor when shay speed walks over to carter.

"Hey, guess what?" shay asks, "what's up?" carter asks, "well, my dad just called, he's gonna pay for the insemination, says he was worried that he'd never be a grandpa" shay explains, "that's great" carter says, "yeah, so you know, back to plan A for me and Tyler" shay nods, "this means I can spill it to my mom" carter announces, the crew sit in the common room all doing various things when boden clanks the serving spoon in the spaghetti dish down, "okay" boden announces stopping as he spots the mother of the boy from the laundry chute incident who had sadly passed away, "Mrs Leppert" bodens tone changes to a soft remorseful tone, "Chief" the mother addresses causing the crew to stand up, "hello, I'm sorry to bother you" the woman says, "no, no, no, we're all very sorry about your son" boden gives condolences, "thank you, you may know he was here once, and, he wanted to be a fireman ever since, anyway, he would have been happy to know you guys were there at the end, and he would have wanted you to have this" the woman hands boden a photo of the boy in a firefighter costume, "thank you for what you do in this neighborhood" the woman praises as she heads out, "thank you" boden says as he heads to the pin board filled with various children's drawings and pins the photo of the boy front and centre pointing at it, "we owe this kid, we owe Taye better than this" boden announces as he looks at his crew seeing the upset on the face of each member, "we are better than this" boden says as he exits the room, herrmann walks over the picture and stares at it turning to face his teammates, "I have an idea" herrmann announces, the crew gather as he explains his idea that they could gather the trucks and ambo outside, don their dress blues and follow protocol as the boys funeral procession passes through the neighbourhood on friday, which is how the crew find themselves outside standing in front of the trucks and ambo with the lights going in their dress blues following the protocol for ceremonies, "ten-hut!" boden orders causing the crew to straighten up, the car the mother and the younger son are travelling in begins to get closer, "present arms!" boden orders causing the crews left hands to go up in a salute as the car drives passed, the crew lower their arms as the car gets further away from the firehouse.

little bit of an early update to celebrate my graduation day! I did it guys I graduated! this is why updates have been hit and miss at times