City of Smoke // Brian 'Otis' Zvonecek ✔️

21 || FURLOUGH

Otis's plan to confess his feelings to Rory wasn't going as well as he'd hoped given that he couldn't find her anywhere. He swung by her apartment around lunchtime the day after the marathon but no matter how many times he knocked or how long he waited there, it didn't appear as though anyone was home.

He'd tried everything that day, from calling Rory's cell, that went straight to voicemail, to asking Sylvie or Jimmy if they knew where she was, which they didn't and it didn't seem as though Jimmy would have told him even if he did. He'd even stopped by Chicago Med to see if perhaps Dr Rhodes had heard from her, but he hadn't, and truthfully Otis didn't know whether he was disappointed or relieved by that answer. So it was safe to say that he was at a loss as to what to do next.

That night, the night after the events of the marathon which had shaken the city of Chicago, Otis sat alone in his apartment. Cruz was off spending the evening with his brother and Otis himself didn't feel up to going to Molly's, he knew Rory wouldn't be there so what would be the point in that? And so, with a movie on the TV that he wasn't even paying attention to, Otis prepared himself for a long, lonely night of brooding. That was until a gentle knock on his front door met his ears.

With a deep sigh, Otis pulled himself from the couch, half expecting it to be Herrmann or one of the other guys standing behind the thin wood, but when he finally pulled open the door his eyes soon met those of the one person he'd been searching for all day. Rory, who, to his dismay, was crying.

"Rory?" Otis questioned, the redness to her eyes sparking worry beneath his chest as she sniffled softly and wiped at them with her sleeves.

"I didn't... I didn't know where else to go." She hiccuped, a quiet sob escaping her lips that had Otis's heart break in two. But at least this time he hadn't been the one to make her cry, at least, he didn't think so anyway.

"It's okay." Otis said softly, stepping forward a little as he watched her eyes shift around the hallway, her hands a little shaky from both the coldness of outside and the fact that she was crying. "Do you want to come in?"

Rory nodded, biting at her nails a little as the tears continued to fall down her face, despite her best efforts to try and stop them. The events of yesterday had hit her hard that night, the images in her head of those who'd been injured. The sounds of those screaming, of the bombs that went off so close to her she could still hear the ringing in her ears. And the smell. The smell was the worst. Smoke and ash. Blood and the stench of burnt flesh, it still remained in her nose no matter how much she'd tried to wash it out.

She didn't know how to deal with it all and she didn't want to bother her dads with it, not when they themselves had been through it personally, which is why after wandering around the city in the dark trying her best not to break down, she ended up right where she was now. Inside the apartment of the only person on this Earth that she could currently stand to be around.

"Are you okay?" Otis asked quietly as Rory delved further into his apartment, her back to him as he stood awkwardly in front of the door.

"No." Rory's croaky voice replied, folding her arms tightly across her chest. There was no point in hiding it, not when the evidence on her face showed the opposite of anything she could have said other than the truth.

Otis moved forward, slowly and carefully as he didn't want to push her away by being too eager, not when she was exactly where he wanted her to be. With him. He cleared his throat a little, coming to a stop just behind her before he reached out, placing a comforting hand on her semi-shaking shoulder.

The second Rory felt his touch land on her she turned, falling against him and grabbing a tight hold of the front of his t-shirt, her sobs becoming more audible now that she was where she needed to be. In his arms. He held her tightly, stroking the back of her hair as he allowed her to simply get it all out. It wasn't as heartbreaking this time, hearing her cry, not when he was getting to comfort her rather than having been the one responsible. But that didn't mean it still wasn't hard for him to see her like this.