City of Smoke // Brian 'Otis' Zvonecek ✔️

06 || RORY'S

The smell of sweet treats and the lingering scent of coffee filled Rory's car as she headed to the firehouse, still getting used to actually feeling excited to show up at fifty-one given her first couple of shifts.

Ever since the guys had apologised and truly welcomed her into the family, Rory had been much more happier at fifty-one, finally getting to see the side of the guys that she'd heard so much about. And she got to get to know Otis a little better, which is what she had hoped for.

Instead of her crush going away, like she had once hoped it would, it had grown a little more and she sometimes felt a little nervous to around him if she was being honest. But thankfully she hadn't embarrassed herself in front of him. However there was still time for that.

Rory pulled up outside the house, parking on the street behind Severide's famous blue car, the one he never let anyone drive. Or touch. Or even look at. She shut off the engine and hopped out before rounding her car and lifting a large white box from the front seat, one that was so big she needed both hands to carry it.

Using her hip to shut the door, Rory just about managed to lock the car before she headed down the sidewalk and up the apron into the firehouse. Opening the doors into the building was a little tricky with no hands, but luckily Rory managed to use her elbow to pull open one of the doors and she turned sideways, slipping through the gap with just enough space between the frame and her hands that she didn't bang her knuckles against the metal.

"Whoa, what do we have here?" Mouch said excitedly as he all but leaped from the sofa, a large white box meaning only one thing. Sweet treats.

"A little gift." Rory said with a smile, the word gift catching the attention of those sitting around the table as they turned to look at her.

"Rory's bakery?" Otis questioned, his eyebrow raised as she shared look with Cruz. "Wait, Cruz and I go here all the time... Is this? Do you own a bakery?"

"God no, I can't even bake boxed brownies." Rory chuckled, setting the box on the table and keeping her hand flat on the top to stop prying hands getting into it before she allowed them to. "It's my dads bakery. He named it after me."

"No way, your dads place?" Otis exclaimed, surprised that he'd never seen Rory at the bakery before given how often he and Cruz frequented it, since it wasn't far from their apartment.

"Wait, is your dad kinda short? Brown hair? Faint... British? Accent?" Cruz asked, his head tilted a little.

"Scottish accent, but yeah. That's my dad. Scott." Rory told them, Cruz and Otis both letting out a little chuckle of surprise.

"Small world." Otis breathed out, looking down from Rory's face to the box beneath her hand, however his eyes kept flicking back to her face, and every time she smiled it sent a warmth through his chest, one that he didn't quite understand.

"So, who wants a pastry?" Rory asked around, a wave of overlapping response hitting her all at once. "They might be a little stale as they're leftover from yesterday. My dad was going to get rid of them but they're still pretty good as long as they're eaten today."

"Trust me, they'll be eaten." Casey chucked out, already seeing the guys move closer to Rory and if she wasn't quick when she opened the box she'd get dived upon.

"Have at them then." She opened the box and stepped back, just in time as a bunch of different hands soon crowded the box, a few of them fighting over certain pastries.