explosion (jay halstead / one chicago)

chapter 11

sylvie's pov

"Hey, open up!" I banged on the bathroom door just for the key to turn and the door to open a second later, revealing my best friend, hair still wet and make-up half-finished.

"You look stunning," Liz remarked, and I gave her a smile. "So do you."

She sighed. "I just want this to be over already." I pulled my friend into a tight hug. "You'll have fun, I promise." Today was the day of the housewarming party we were hosting at our new apartment. Initially, we had been looking forward to it, but with everything that had happened recently I understood just too well that Liz would have rather spent the night by herself. The evening after staying at Jay's, he had called her and the two of them had talked for a while, Jay assuring her that everything was fine, and Liz promising to explain it all to him in person soon. I didn't know much about Liz's troubled past, but I knew enough to be certain she didn't look forward to this conversation.

"You heard they arrested the guys responsible for the pub attacks?" I asked, trying to cheer her up a bit. "They really did it to profit their own bar."

"Yeah, I heard." Liz carefully applied her mascara while I stood next to her brushing my hair.

"Oh right," I gave her my you-know-what's-coming look. "Forgot you have a boyfriend at Intelligence."

My friend rolled her eyes at me through the mirror. "Still don't."

"He coming tonight?" I raised an eyebrow at Liz. Clearly it would be weird if he wasn't coming, but with her and Jay you could never be sure. I did a good job asking. "Nope." Liz avoided eye contact, but I grabbed her arm and made her face me. "Why?"

"Cause I didn't ask." She turned back to the mirror and started adjusting her hair. When she noticed me still staring over at her in disbelief, she turned around again, letting out a deep sigh. "When we called, we talked about feelings, troubled pasts, that kind of stuff, you know? I didn't really get a chance to be like 'Hey, wanna come to my housewarming?'." I sighed, patting my friend's arm in empathy. It was such a Liz thing to do not to ask the guy she was in love with to come to her party and then be sad when he wasn't there. But if all I needed to do to brighten her day was make sure someone would drag Halstead to our apartment, I could arrange that.

jay's pov

"I said I'm not going anywhere tonight."

"Did I ask for your opinion? You don't have a say in this." My brother scoffed at me, then turned back to Natalie. "I told you I'm not his babysitter and I'm not taking him. He's fucking annoying."

Nat sighed and rolled her eyes at Will before turning to me. "Sylvie and Liz are having a housewarming party at their apartment. Sylvie called and said if we don't drag you there, Liz will just be faking smiles all night. So either you grab your jacket and come, or we're leaving without you." I didn't need to hear any more. I jumped up and grabbed my keys from the sideboard. "Let's go."

I recognized the building and corridor from several times I had brought Liz home, although I had never actually been inside the girls' apartment. "Thank god you're here," Sylvie welcomed me when she opened the door for us all to enter. Inside there was a small hallway with several doors leading into separate rooms, most of which were closed. The blonde paramedic led us into a room in which muffled music was playing. It was a spacious living area, combined with a kitchen that had a bar-like counter separating it from the rest of the room. Quite a few people were standing around or sitting on the sofas, most I recognized from firehouse 51. Kim was there as well, talking to Stella from the firehouse. I knew both Nat and Kim were good friends with Sylvie, which was probably why they were the only non-firehouse people that I saw, besides Will and I of course.