Back to Chaos

C H A P T E R - T H I R T E E N

Everything had been perfect.

The apartment, Kelly, living together, working at 90.

Everything was going perfectly.

Until Erin Lindsay called her halfway through a shift.

Alyssa Torres had been hesitant to answer and she couldn't tell if that was because she didn't have Kelly at her side to hear the news or if she was just afraid of what the information was. Or both.

The firefighter had stood up from her seat in the common room and hurried to her office, her heart in her stomach and a very strong stomachache.

"Hey, Erin," she answered, taking a deep breath as she raised the phone to her ear.

"Hey, Alyssa," the detective answers, and Alyssa was quick to pick up on her tone. She sounded sad, almost regretful that she had called the woman.

There was a pause as both women thought of what they were going to say.

"It's about him, isn't it?" Alyssa spoke quietly, almost as if she was hoping if she got quieter, she wouldn't remember who she was talking about.

"Yeah, yeah, it is."

Torres nodded, tears filling her eyes as she unconsciously rubbed her free hand against the fabric on the thigh - a nervous habit.

"Did you find him?"

"We - uh - we have a lead. A lead that places him in Chicago, Alyssa."

A shuddering breath left Alyssa's mouth as she tilted her head up, hoping that would keep the tears from falling - it didn't.

One by one, the tears slipped down her cheeks, dripping off her chin and onto her shirt, a quiet sniffle leaving her mouth.

"Is he - is he trying to find me?"

"We don't know. We're not sure if he knew that you were deployed or if you came back."

Alyssa couldn't hide the fact that she was scared - utterly terrified of the idea of facing that man again. But part of her - part of her was angry, part of her wanted to walk right up to the man and beat the living shit out of him. But she also knew, no matter how much she really hated the man, that she would freeze the moment she saw him again.

As soon as they hung up, the woman wanted to call Kelly, to tell him what had happened. But she knew that he was close to being as scared as she was. Now, don't get it wrong. Kelly was scared of what Black could do to Alyssa but that didn't mean that he wouldn't beat the shit out of him. Alyssa was scared of what Black could do to her in a way that made her want to shrink up in the corner.

Alyssa knew that if Kelly found out, he wouldn't leave her side, she wouldn't be able to work until Black was behind bars, and that Kelly would most definitely try to hunt down Black on his own. All things that she didn't want.

So she stopped halfway through dialing the man's number, glanced at his contact name once more, and then slipped the phone back into her pocket.

She didn't get the time to rethink her actions since, almost instantly, the call noise rang out and she was all ears to see if her company was being called out.

Truck 23, Squad 6, Ambulance 12. House fire, 34 and Broad.

The office door flung open as the firefighter ran through the sleeping quarters, through the common room, and out to the apparatus floor. Her gear was waiting by the passenger seat of the Squad rig, and she easily stepped into the pants, slid her socked feet into the boots, and grabbed her helmet and jacket from where they sat, hanging off the open passenger side door.

She slid into her seat, her hat and jacket resting on her lap as she felt the truck shake slightly as the doors slammed and the firefighters slid into their seats. Talking filled the cab quickly, not that Alyssa minded. New conversations meant that she forgot what Erin Lindsay had called about, she forgot how bad she was going to feel when Kelly found out - how betrayed he would feel that he wasn't her first call.