Back to Chaos

C H A P T E R - E I G H T E E N

The stop at Alyssa's Torres' and Kelly Severide's apartment was short. Alyssa grabbed some clothes, some of her possessions, and her personal care items, and shoved them into a bag. Kelly did the same but couldn't seem to let Alyssa out of his sight for more than a minute at a time, scared that she'd suddenly disappear or break down or something.

They were back in the car in what felt like five minutes, the couple, side by side in the back of the black Intelligence Unit SUV. They'd been on the road for what felt like forever, but Kelly was sure it had only been an hour.  Alyssa was asleep next to him, her head on his shoulder, the path that the tears took down her cheeks was clear, dry, and pale. Their belongings were packed in the trunk but Alyssa had a small backpack clutched in her arms. He wasn't sure what was in it besides her phone charger, wallet, and a book. But he knew she had shoved some other stuff in there, some personal stuff of hers that was usually kept in a locked drawer in her office or in her nightstand.

Erin Linsday was in the front seat with Jay Halstead next to her. The other Intelligence Unit detectives, while they would have access to the safe house where the two firefighters would be.

"Linsday," Severide calls, bringing the female detective's gaze to him. "Everything's going to be okay, right? We'll be able to go back to work soon?"

"That's the goal, Kelly." The truth was, no one really knew when the two firefighters would be able to return to work. Julian Black managed to escape the police before, he could manage to do it as many times as he pleased.

Kelly looked down at the woman that he had an arm draped over. She seemed so peaceful when she slept, like there was no care in the world for her. He wished there wasn't.

"How far is this safehouse?" He didn't know what questions he could ask about this. He never thought he'd be like the people he heard about through his police friends - taken away to a safehouse, their identities hidden, fake names given.

"I can't tell you that," Linsday responded, sounding sympathetic. She knew that the couple would have many questions about what was happening. But none of the detectives could tell the couple what was happening.

Kelly looked at his girlfriend again as she shuffled around before looking out the tinted window of the SUV. They had left Chicago about twenty minutes ago and were now in another city, away from the lake. He assumed they were going south, it had to be somewhere in Illinois or there would be detectives from a different state or FBI agents.

Halstead then began to give Kelly a rundown of a few things they changed. Their phones would work a little differently, their calls could no longer be traced, they'd be routed through multiple different substations that would make it almost impossible to trace, not that they would really be allowed to call very often though. Their calls would be monitored by an Intelligence Unit agent, they would only be allowed to call certain people and they were only allowed to tell them certain things.

A few times, Kelly found his eyes fall shut but he forced them to stay open. He was sure that nothing would happen to them while in an Intelligence Unit car, but he still wanted to be awake and on the lookout for anything. But after another hour, it was inevitable. Kelly fell asleep, his arms tightly around his girlfriend, his head leaning on hers.

Then two hours later, the car came to a stop, waking the man up. He looked down at his girlfriend first, noticing that she was still asleep, most likely exhausted from the day's events. And then he looked outside. It was a nice ranch-style home, surrounded by acres of land and bordered by tall trees that blocked anything past them from sight. There was a large wrap-around porch, and a swinging bench by the front door. It was beautiful. It was Alyssa's dream house almost exactly as she had described it.

"Lys, sweetheart," the man whispered, gently shaking the woman. She stirred a bit, turned as far as the seatbelt would let her, and buried her face into the man's chest. "Lys, baby, we're here, come on, sweetheart."

Alyssa sat up, rubbing her eyes as she did, and looked up at Kelly. He gave her a small smile, kissing her forehead, before unbuckling his seatbelt and opening his car door. Alyssa followed him out, instantly tightening her grip on her backpack before grabbing the man's hand. She looked at the house, if the current situation wasn't what it was, Alyssa would've loved the place. Kelly was right, it was her dream house. The wrap-around porch, the swing on the front porch, the large amount of land.

She tried to like it. Tried to think of the best outcome.

It could mean some alone time for her and Kelly.

A man that raped her and killed a cop is trying to kill her.

It was some time away from work.

He could kill both of them.

She could work on her hobbies.

Would they even be able to step foot outside?

Maybe it was safer this way.

What about Sammy? Liam? The other firefighters from 90? What about her job? Her home? Her life?

"Lys?" Kelly's voice pulled her from the thoughts in her head. He was standing in front of her, one hand lifting her chin so their eyes met and the other one holding her waist.

"Huh? What ... sorry?"

"We're gonna go inside, sweetheart," the man says, concern in his eyes as he drops his hand from her face, brushing the hair from her face as he goes. The hand on her waist moves to grab her hand, leading her from the car to the front door.

"It's nice," she managed to say. She wanted to ease some of the tension. It was a nice house, a really nice house. Probably at least four hours from Chicago, she didn't remember much of the drive.

"Yeah, it is," Kelly nods in agreement, squeezing her hand as Linsday opened the front door. The two detectives quickly cleared the first floor even though it was already supposed to be a safehouse. Linsday stayed downstairs with the couple as Halstead headed up and cleared the top two floors.

When Halstead returned, the two detectives gave the rundown to the couple. Food was stocked in the fridge and the cupboards, if they needed groceries, one of the detectives would bring them some. They would be allowed to call family but weren't able to talk about their locations or even mention that they were in protective custody in case Julian Black was somehow able to hack into the cellphone calls. They were allowed into the backyard but not passed the treeline.

Finally, after giving them the rundown and making sure they were situated, the two detectives left. They'd be just down the road at another house, able to help if needed. It was just Alyssa and Kelly now. In a new house, far from home, basically cut off from the rest of the world.

"So? Shall we unpack?" Kelly says, clapping his hands together as he tried to ease the new feelings.

Alyssa looked around the house, it was open. The kitchen, living room, and dining room were all visible from each other. There was a bathroom on the first floor, a pantry. The kitchen was beautiful, huge, sparkling clean. The living room was comfortable, a large TV mounted on the wall.

"Yeah," she nodded, grabbing her bag and following the man upstairs to the master bedroom.