Burnin' Love (1)

Barbecue

♣️Season 1, Episode 2♣️

Nicole yawns as she and Matt walk into the station for a new shift. He wraps an arm around her shoulders and guides her to the locker room to get ready where they run into Kelly, "Hey, morning."

"Hey," Kelly nods, "How are the Darden boys doing? Talk to Heather at all?"

"Uh, yeah. Good as can be expect, I suppose. You seen her?" Matt asks.

"Yeah."

Kelly's short response causes Nicole to tilt her head as she studies her brother while Matt keeps the conversation going, "I hear they're coming to the barbecue."

"Good," Kelly stares off.

Nicole pushes Matt to go change, kissing him before turning to Kelly, "Okay, what's going on?"

He shakes his head, waving her off, "Don't worry about it."

"Nuh-uh, cough it up. What happened?"

"I, uh, I ran into Heather and the boys a few days ago. She told me that Andy wouldn't have even been a firefighter if it weren't for me," Kelly confides in his little sister as she takes a seat next to him on the bench.

"That bitc-"

Kelly puts a hand over her mouth, "Language. You don't need to be swearing."

Nicole slaps his arm, "Kel, I'm your little sister. I work in a firehouse. I can swear whenever the hell I want and Heather is a bitch that has no right to put anything having to do with Andy on you. Ignore her, she's always had a stick up her ass."

Snorting, Kelly ruffles Nicole's hair, "Go get dressed," Nicole shrugs before standing up to go change but pausing and turning around when she hears Kelly's voice, "And for the record, she hated you because when she and Andy first met, Andy had a little crush on you."

"Everybody had a crush on me, I mean, what's not to love?"

"You in the morning."

Nicole grabs a towel and shucks it at her brother's head.

♣️♣️♣️♣️

Checking over the rig, Nicole looks up when she hears cheering and sees Herrmann hobbling in and joins in the cheering, "They ticked the nerve in my leg. I may not walk straight again."

They happiness dies down as someone yells, "Candidate, get him a chair."

Peter is quick to roll a chair over for Herrmann, "Thanks kid. Oh, ho, ho, wait a second, fellas. Um, are any of my kids around here? My wife or her parents?"

Otis shakes his head, "No, why?"

"Oh," He starts kicking his 'bad' leg before standing up and doing a jig, "I'm healed! It must have been living with my damn in-laws that was breaking me down."

Nicole hits his arm before moving next to Matt's side while Otis bull dozes into him, "Ready to get back?"

"Glad you're back, Herrmann," Chief tells him, joining the group with a pretty brunette in a red shirt, "We're a better house with you here."

"Thanks, Chief," Herrmann smiles.

"Uh, later on, we're gonna have a whiteboard session. About what happened in the Darden incident last month. I expect you all to be there. But on another note, this is Nikki Rutkowksi."