From Fire Comes Life (Born Of Fire) Ruling Chicago #2 (Chicago Fire)

Chapter 32 "The Next 24 Hours"

At Chicago Med, Shaylynn is wheeled into the ED.
Dr. Rhodes runs up to them, "We're going straight up to surgery!" he says running beside the gurney.
All of them get onto the elevator.

Reaching the surgical floor, Shaylynn is rushed back to operating room three.
Eight hours later, Dr. Rhodes comes walking out to the waiting room.
He sees Severide asleep in a chair, Hank is also asleep with Sam sitting beside him with her head laying on his shoulder.
Dr. Rhodes walks up to Severide and pats him on the shoulder. Severide stirs, looks up to see who patted him.
Seeing that it's Dr. Rhodes, he stands up, "How is she?" Severide asks.
"The next 24 hours are going to be crucial for her to see if she has full use of her leg," Dr. Rhodes tells him, "Thankfully the wire missed the bone, but A LOT of veins had to be repaired along with the muscle."
All Severide can do is shake his head, "Can I see her?" Severide asks.
"Yes, but we have her pretty sedated!" Dr. Rhodes tells him.
"Understood!" Severide says.
"Follow me," Dr. Rhodes tells him.
Severide starts following Dr. Rhodes down the hallway. They stop, Dr. Rhodes walks into the room followed by Severide.
He can't believe the sight he sees. Shaylynn has bruises, scratches, and gashes that have been stitched up all over her body.
"I'll leave you alone," Dr. Rhodes says patting Severide on the shoulder.
He starts walking toward the door, Severide turns around, "Connor!" he says with Dr. Rhodes turning around, "Thank you!"
Dr. Rhodes smiles at him, "You're welcome!!" then walks out the door.
Severide walks up to Shaylynn's bed and looks at her. 

Over the next 24 hours, Shaylynn wakes up to learn that she's going to need intense physical therapy to ever have full use of her leg.
Sam forces Severide to leave so he can get a shower and different clothes, promising not to leave Shaylynn so he'll leave.
"Kelly hasn't left your side this whole time!" Sam tells Shaylynn.
"Where's Shannara?" she asks.
"She's with the Herrmann's," Sam tells her.
"Sam, I almost died, again! I mean I've almost died quite a few times over in the Middle East and was ready. Then with..." she stops talking referring to the triplets and pushes back tears, "Of course I wasn't aware of that time, but this time I was! I was so scared! I didn't want to leave Kelly and Shannara!" Shaylynn tells her.
Sam walks over to Shaylynn's bed, sits down, and hugs her.
"It's time for Kelly to come home," Shaylynn says.
Sam smiles, "I'm sure he would love that! He's been so worried about you!"

Over the course of the day, the nurses have had Shaylynn up walking with Severide right by her side helping.
When Shaylynn starts showing signs of fatigue, they head back to her room.
An hour after returning to her room, there's a knock on the door, "Come in!" Severide says.
The door opens, in walks Herrmann along with Lee Henry.
"How you doing?" Herrmann asks Shaylynn,
"I'm doing good, thank you!" she tells him.
"I hope this is alright, but Lee Henry has a school report that's due tomorrow and he was wondering if he could talk to you about it?" Herrmann says to Shaylynn.
She looks at Herrmann with a confused look, "Okay, what's the report about?"
"He had to pick someone from the military to do his report on. I tried to get him to do it on you, but he picked Chris Kyle" Herrmann tells her.
A big smile goes across Shaylynn's face, "That's alright! I would've done my report on Chris Kyle also!" she looks at Lee Henry, "What do you want to talk about?"
"Every time I looked up his name, your name was listed with his most of the time. Why is that?" Lee Henry asks her, "Did you know him?"
Shaylynn smiles, "For your first question, the reason my name was listed with him was because both of us being snipers. Even though it's never been documented, our range for kills is pretty close. We both were nicknamed by the enemy, he was given the nickname "The Devil of Ramadi", where I was nicknamed "The Angel of Death". The enemy also had bounties on our heads. To answer your second question, I met him once. Of all places, it was in an airport.
He was with his guys, as I was with mine. We all were waiting for our flights to go home. He was sitting away from his men because he was the only one married and the others were talking about women. I too was sitting away from my guys, because I sure didn't want to listen to what they were talking about. Chris noticed I was sitting alone and striked up a conversation with me. That's when we found out who each other was. We talked about our families, where we grew up, things like that until it was time to board. Not once did we EVER discuss what we did.   Later on, I received the news of his tragic death. One of the many reasons I'm a huge supporter of those who have PTSD, including myself, to get help and if also needed a service dog."
"Shaylynn, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bring any of this up for you" Lee Henry tells her.
She motions to him to come over to her, "Don't apologize! PTSD is a silent killer. It's not just the person who has it, who suffers. That's why it's important for those who do have it to get help. Just not Veterans, but anyone who's had a traumatic event happen to them. Chris was a great man, with a wonderful family. If only..." she pauses, "If only treatment would have been sought by the one who killed him."
Herrmann looks at Lee Henry, "We should get going so Shaylynn can rest!"
Lee Henry nods to his Dad, "Thanks for talking with me!" Lee Henry says to Shaylynn.
"You're welcome!" Shaylynn says.
Lee Henry walks over to the door. Herrmann holds it open for him so he can walk out.
Herrmann looks back at Shaylynn, "Thanks!" he tells her.
"Anytime!" she says.
Herrmann follows Lee Henry out.
Severide looks at Shaylynn, "Lee Henry looked very surprised to find out that you knew Chris Kyle."
"I don't know if you can say I knew him, we only talked once. I just wish my name wasn't put with his! No way I was anywhere in his league!" she tells him.
"Oh, I almost forgot! I have something for you!" Severide tells her standing up.
He walks over to her bed and hands her a box. Shaylynn opens it to reveal a bracelet. 

Shaylynn smiles at him.
She takes it out of the box and puts it on, "Thank you!" she says, "But we need to talk!" she tells him.
Severide gets a worried look on his face, "I've been doing a lot of thinking, after everything that's happened I think it's about time you moved back home!"
Severide smiles, "Yeah?"
"Yeah!" she says.
He leans over and kisses her, "There's something I've been wanting to talk to you about," he tells her.
"What is it?" Shaylynn asks.
"What do you think about us having our own child?" he asks her.
Shaylynn gives him a look, "Kelly, that's not even funny!" she tells him, "And just how do you think we'll do that?"
"With your eggs and my sperm, how else?" he tells her.
"But my uterus is out of commission, remember!" Shaylynn says.
"We would have to find a surrogate," Severide says.
"You're talking about taking my frozen eggs, your sperm and implanting them into another woman? I don't know, Kelly! To me that's like using the woman as an oven!" she says to him.
"We can always talk to Ms. Goodwin. I'm sure she knows all the ins and outs" he says.
"I'm not going to say no, but for right now let's just get information about the subject and we can look it over while I get better!" she tells him, "Sound good?"
"Yeah, at least you didn't say no," Severide says smiling at her. 

*~*~*~*
With it being the Christmas season, I won't be able to get a chapter up everyday after this one.
I have A LOT to do and starting to run out of time.
I hope everyone understands.