Sprucing up Chicago

1. The Surprise

This story isn't mine ALL credits to Katieverse on ArchiveOfOurOwn.org.

The last 24 hours had been exhausting, and Sylvie Brett wanted to do exactly one thing: go home and sleep. It sounded like one of those dreams you didn’t want to wake up from in the morning, but realistically she knew that it was really all it was going to be. A dream.

Almost a year ago, she had packed up her life in Fowlerton and made the decision to start new in Chicago. With her job as a paramedic, it was easy to find a position with the CFD, and after a few weeks of floating, she found her permanent position at firehouse 51.

It was a great house, and all her colleagues had essentially become her second family. It made her start in the windy city much easier, and she knew whenever she had any kind of problem, someone from her station would help her out.

With her 26 years, she was one of the youngest members of their station, but thankfully Stella Kidd had joined their house just a few weeks after Sylvie. They had instantly bonded, and now the young firefighter was one of her best friends.

“Hey, Brett,” Peter Mills, her partner on ambo, called out to her, pulling her out of her train of thoughts. “I’ve got something to show you. Come on.”

She turned her gaze towards him from her spot in front of her locker in confusion. Their shift was about done, and Peter and she had already filled out all the necessary paperwork for the end of shift.

“I was just about to change. Shift is almost over. What do you wanna show me?” She asked, mustering him intently.

“I can’t tell you. It’s something you have to see. Come on now,” he urged her, crossing the distance between them, and stretching his hand out towards her.

Too tired to think any further about it, she reached out to grab his hand, letting him pull her up. A soft groan left her lips as she put weight on her feet, feeling the endless calls from their shift.

“I promise you’ll love it, Sylvie. Trust me,” Peter reassured her, wrapping his arm around her waist to give her a firm side hug.

A few months ago, the physical contact between them would have excited her as she had a major crush on her handsome partner, but she had gotten it under control. Starting a relationship with someone you work with was always a bad idea, Stella and Lieutenant Severide were the best example of that. They had a weird on-and-off thing going, and Sylvie had a front-row seat to Stella’s frustration and anger.

Besides, Peter Mills was one of her best friends, and their friendship was much more important to her than anything else. She had learned to appreciate genuine friendship over the last few years, after experiencing the complete opposite in Fowlerton.

“Alright, let’s go. But you’re only getting a few minutes,” she gave in, wrapping her arm around him.

When she glanced up to him, he had the biggest grin plastered onto his face, and it confused her. He always smiled a lot, but his good mood was different somehow. Especially considering the last 24 hours.

When they rounded the corner to the apparatus floor, she got even more confused. Maybe Cruz and Otis had gotten into trouble again for starting one of their weird challenges, but the house had been entirely too quiet for that.

“Mommy!” A familiar voice screeched loudly.

Sylvie had just enough time to drop to her knees before the small ball of energy crashed into her arms.

“Lexi, baby, what are you doing here?” Sylvie asked her daughter, picking her up to give her a hug. “Mommy missed you, lovey. I’m so happy to see you.” She pressed a few loud kisses into her daughter’s hair, giving her a tight squeeze.