Burnin' Love (1)

Awkward

♣️Season 2, Episode 5♣️

Nicole grabs Ember, bouncing the newborn in her arms as she walks to her and Matt's room, "Okay, I'm meeting Kelly and Benny at a diner, so you need to get her and the boys ready."

Matt groans, sitting up and holding his arms out for Ember, "Yeah. No problem. Why are you meeting with them again?"

"Benny wants to meet Ember and I never want to speak to Benny again so we're compromising and having a meal with Kelly."

"How is that a compromise?"

She stops, tilting her head in thought before shrugging, "I'm actually gonna talk with him and he's gonna try to make up for years of being a crappy father."

"Have fun," Matt gets out of bed, kissing her forehead while holding Ember, "Don't kill Benny. I'd hate to explain to the boys that both mom and Aunt Nicole are in jail."

"Bold of you to assume I'd get caught."

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Sitting next to Kelly, Nicole anxiously bounces her leg as the sibling duo wait for their father. Feeling her brother look back, she does the same and spots Benny walking up the sidewalk and into the restaurant. 

"Hey, sorry I'm late, decided to walk. Nicole, you look beautiful," Benny sits across from the siblings.

Kelly looks back over her shoulder, "Oh, yeah?" Like he knows something Nicole doesn't.

 Benny shouts over to the waitress, "Could I get a coffee, please? Black, no sugar. Thanks."

"So," Kelly starts, leaning forward, "What ever happened between you and Beth? You never told me."

"Well, she heard all my stories and I heard all hers. Basic seven-year itch type of thing," Benny told the siblings, causing Nicole to rolls her eyes and shake her head, "But, look, I'm not here for that, okay. When Boden and I were on Squad together over at the 35, we used to have this Chief that liked to help himself to certain keepsakes on some of the calls we went on. So, of course, Dwyer gets investigated. And everybody at the house, we don't know what to do. And it was Boden, the old Navy man, who said, don't go down with the Captain, stay with the ship. And he was right."

"If this is your way of telling us to abandon Boden, you've truly lost it," Nicole tells the retired firefighter. 

Benny takes a breath, looking directly at Kelly, "I'm hearing from a lot of sources that Boden's got one foot on a banana peel. You two are gonna need to make a choice."

Nicole shakes her head, standing, "As always, I will back those that have backed me. I thought you were here to try and bond with me to earn my approval to meet my daughter. So, you have fun trying to convince Kelly to leave Boden, but it won't work because he has loyalty."

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Sitting in Matt's office, Nicole works on paperwork as she ignores the awkwardness between Gabby and Shay. 

Hearing a knock on the door, Nicole looks up to see Kelly standing there, "We need to talk about Benny."

"Or we could talk about Ember or Shay or Matt or literally anyone else."

Kelly gives her a disapproving look, "C'mon, I know you don't like what he's saying but I'm focusing on a different problem."

Nicole still looks over the paperwork in front of her, "You mean the fact that he's basically gone through two end of marriages in the duration of Matt and I's relationship?"