A Slow Burn // Brian 'Otis' Zvonecek // Chicago Fire ✔️

17 || CHOPPER

Just as Riley had dreaded, her face ended up in the newspaper the day after shift. It seems as though someone managed to catch a photo of her tackling the peeping Tom from their call and now the papers were calling her a "hero firefighter".

Riley hated having her face in the paper, and she hated it even more when she walked into Molly's that night to see multiple clippings stuck up behind the bar, all of which had been drawn on.

"Okay, who did this?" Riley asked unamused as she looked around at her suspects, her arms crossed as she squinted at each of them. "Otis?"

"Not guilty." Otis held his hands up in surrender, subtly gesturing to Cruz with his eyes, who sat towards the end of the bar looking especially guilty.

"Mr Cruz... Would you like to confess now or shall I just bring Lucifer straight to you and let you confess then?" Riley leaned against the bar, her eyebrow raised as Cruz sighed.

"Okay fine, you got me." He sighed defeated, his hands in the air. "But you gotta admit, they're kinda funny."

"You and I have different definitions of funny." Riley mumbled before she rounded the bar and ended up behind it.

"Hey! You can't be back here." Herrmann called over to her as he watched her pull down the newspaper clippings.

"That fifty grand I gave you guys says otherwise." Riley muttered as she scrunched the clippings into a ball, making Herrmann think to himself before he spoke.

"Fair enough." He mumbled, shrugging his shoulders as he knew she was right. Technically she did have some stake in the bar whether she accepted it or not so if she wanted to go behind it and take down some clippings, he couldn't stop her.

Riley threw the scrunched up newspaper articles at Cruz and they hit him in the face making him frown... but he deserved it. Although it was still pretty funny, despite what Riley said.

"Hey, while you're back there could you grab me a beer?" Cruz said humorously before it was Riley's turn to frown.

"Do I look like a bartender to you?" Riley shot back, earning a wave of 'ooo's' from those sitting around Cruz.

"Bartender? No. Superhero? Eh maybe." Cruz chuckled, as did Capp and Tony who were sitting with him.

"You better watch yourself, Joe Cruz... I know where you live." Riley said through gritted teeth as she squinted a little at him, obviously she didn't actually mean it in a threatening way, it was just a bit of fun but she often enjoyed scaring the guys. Especially when they were still under the impression she was secretly a witch and might end up sacrificing them.

"Uh-oh, you're gonna end up cursed." Capp sighed out as he took a swig of his own beer, making Tony chuckle and Cruz just gulp a little.

"Hey, stop scaring my customers." Herrmann pointed towards her as he walked over. "Go on, out you get." He ushered her out from the behind the bar, all while she glared at Cruz who seemed to shrink in his seat.

"I'm watching you, Joseph Cruz." Riley muttered as she headed towards the empty seat beside Tony, hopping onto it and taking off her jacket.

"Can I get you drink?" Otis asked around a chuckle, enjoying the way she put the fear of Lucifer, so to speak, in Cruz.

"Uh, I'll take a club soda, please Otis." She replied with a heartwarming smile.

"Coming right up." Otis said with a nod and turned his back, just in time too as a rather wide smile tried to appear on his face, one he did his best to stop. But ever since yesterday, ever since she agreed to go to the gala with him, he couldn't help but smile at random times of the day when he thought about it.