If it was one thing that Erin hated it was people meddling in a case, it was another thing to be meddling in a case where she found herself bound and gagged in a chair. The rag had a very gross taste to it. What had her dad done this time? "You think Daddy and your boy toy can save you this time? You're wrong?" the voice pointed out.

Erin struggled to free herself, she could smell the gasoline in the other room. The rag even tasted of it now that she came to think about it, she smelled of it. Panic and horror set in as the man left she watched as flames went shooting off on the other room. Though it set off the alarm system in the apartment that automatically went to the firehouse.

Tag: Lt. Kelly Severide

Kelly looked up as the Claxxon alarm blared and headed towards the Squad Truck before stumbling when he heard the location. Holy s-t, that's Erin's place, he thought to himself. That wasn't good. Why the hell was her house on fire? He knew she wouldn't leave anything on or plugged in, so it shouldn't be on fire. Okay, he would get the information once he was the scene. He just had to focus on that. Without another word, he headed straight for the Squad Truck and got in.

After what seemed to be an eternity----though it was probably only actually a few minutes----they arrived on the scene, and headed in, barely remembering to put his face guard on.
"Fire department! Call out!" he shouted. Not that he expected anyone to be in the house, but it was protocol to ask for signs of life. Who set her house on fire? he wondered. And why? He was not happy about this.

Erin had not passed out from the smell of gasoline and the smoke but she was almost to that point just as the fire department arrived. Luckily for her the room she was in hadn't gone up in flames yet. If so she was going to be in trouble. She was still tied to the chair, all of the room smelled like gasoline and she smelled of it too. She could hear a voice but she couldn't respond.

A voice clicked over the radio. "You are too late Severide. She's probably already dead" He chortled over the radio. "Pity she's a feisty one" he added after a second. Clearly whoever it was couldn't be that far to be able to be on the same frequency with the fire department; but that also meant they were watching and knew things.

"You should have left well enough alone, she'd still be alive" he added. Though as he did Erin was able to kick the gasoline can that had been left. The metal made a strong clatter sound as it clattered against metal clear across the room. Wait that voice had it been Kelly's? No she was imagining things?

'Kelly' it was all she could think. The voice was so familiar but she was hallucinating right? This wasn't his apartment what was going on. Where was her dad? Where was Kelly and Jay? She was frustrated. Kicking the chair with her foot to make a pounding sound it was all she could do.

Three short thumps followed by three long ones and another three short ones. S. O. S. and again. All Erin could do was kick. It was exhausting but someone had to hear her? She was too weak to make it any louder and she was so close to passing out. 'Erin you have to stay awake. Come on' The voice in her head told her to keep going as her thumping slowly started to fade as she tired more and more.

Tag: Lt. Kelly Severide

Kelly froze when he heard a voice on his radio saying that he was too late and that Erin was already probably dead, which was too bad because she was feisty. The hell? he thought to himself. How had this guy gotten on their radios? Had one of his guys been hurt? No, he probably would've heard something to that affect.
"Fifty-One, report,"he called into his radio. Hey, better safe than sorry. And if one of his guys had been compromised, he needed to relay that to Boden. Hopefully, he was just being paranoid though. He didn't want to even think about one of his guys being in trouble.

His brows furrowed when the voice spoke up again, saying that he should've left well enough alone and that she'd still be alive if he had.
"Who is this?" he demanded as he activated his radio. Gotta find them, he thought to himself as he moved forward. He was going to make them pay for taking Erin and hurting her. Hearing a clanging sound, his head turned in the direction it had come from. Erin. She was still alive! Knew it, he thought to himself. His girl was too damn stubborn to give up, which was one of the things that he loved the most about her.

As he continued moving forward, the sounds of thumping became louder. Erin, he thought, his heart jumping in relief. She was alive! Now he just had to get her out of here.
"Fire department! Call out or make noise!" he shouted. Yeah, there was a chance that the guy on the radio could hear him, but Erin needed to know that he was coming for her. "Guys, I'm hearing thumping on the west side, near Erin's bedroom" he reported into his radio. Hold on, Erin. I'm coming, he thought to himself.

All of the firefighters who were on scene reported. The guy though had a maniac laughter to his voice as he listened to fifty-one scrambling around. It was funny to watch them run like ants. He paid the question from Kelly no mind though. There was just dead silence that emulated through the radio other than the laughter. There was no point in answering Severide.

Erin could hear Kelly's voice. She was luckily wearing steel toes that day so the tapping against the metal chair actually was making some noise. She wanted to scream she wanted to go running to Kelly but she was still tied with her hands behind the chair. She was hallucinating still soon she saw a figure in the doorway. Though she wasn't sure if it was really there.

Tap Tap Tap. Taaaaaap. Taaaaaaap. Taaaaaaaaaap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"That's not just noise Lieutenant. That's an SOS" he pointed out as he joined up beside him. There was clearly someone in there. He gave Kelly a knowing look. He pushed open the door. "Severide!" he called as he heard a thud hit the ground. Erin had passed out and was now laying on the ground.

Kelly's body was rigid as the noise came again. Gotta follow it, he thought to himself. At Capp's revelation that the tapping was an SOS, his eyes widened. Erin, he thought to himself, speeding up. He had to find her. He wasn't going to let anything happen to her. He wouldn't. He refused to.

At Capp's cry, he sped up even more.
"Erin!" he shouted, all trace of professionalism gone. Yes, he was well aware that the person inside could be someone else, but his gut was telling him that it was Erin. He needed to find her. When he heard the thud, his pushed to increased his speed even though he was starting to hurt a bit and he forced the door open, and then went to her, checked for a pulse, and then picked her up, and ran out. Please be okay, he thought as she was loaded into the ambulance.

Erin started coughing once they got oxygen into her system. Body fighting against all of the smoke. As soon as she opened her eyes she saw the bright lights of the ambulance. Just light and only light. Panic set in. The house it was on fire. Kelly... where was Kelly? She tried to sit up. "Ke.." more coughing. She was trying to scream for him. They were gonna kill him. Erin blinked back tears. She'd yet to adjust to the light to be able to see that Kelly was in the ambulance.

"Detective Voight. Easy, come on I need you to lay back down" the paramedic on duty was trying but Erin weakly threw her hand into the air to back hand him. Lucky for him, she had slow reflexes and she missed. It wasn't unusual and he wasn't going to hold it against her.

"He.." she took a few breathes of the oxygen. "Kelly!!!!" she screamed as loud as she could (which wasn't very loud) it sounded like a hoarse rasping sound. Almost like her dad when he'd almost lost his voice, only a little more feminine sounding. There were tears and coughing and more fighting to try and sit, the straps from the ambulance holding her in place causing more panic.

The medic was trying to keep her from hurting herself as he went to catch her arm which she had somehow gotten free from the stretcher. "Let..." coughing following by more coughing. "me go.." the cop in her was stubborn and wanted to fight. The more she couldn't get free the more she wanted Kelly and her dad. She was scared.

Kelly tried to stay out of the way as much as possible in the ambulance. The medics needed to be able to do their thing and they didn't need him muddying up the works. However, when he heard her hoarsely calling for him, he made his way up to her.
"I'm here, Babe. Right here," he assured as one of the medics moved aside so that she could see him. "We're both okay. Just let the medics do their thing...please?" he asked.

When she started pleading for the medics to let her go, Kelly reached for her hand, intending to squeeze it lightly.
"Babe, they need to check you out. You've got smoke inhalation and we need to make sure your lungs are okay," he told her. "Do you trust me?"

Erin's eyes took a moment to adjust but she felt Kelly's hand before she realized he was standing right beside her. Though she was following his voice. The smell of gasoline was making her stomach churn. Whoever had done this had one sick mind. None of it made sense. "Kelly" she breathed out slowly. Though the tone was more one of relief. Right now it was all she could spit out was his name. Erin wasn't one to freak out simply because there was a paramedic nearby. Just waking up in the back of an ambulance in her state of mind was frightening.

"Have I ever not trusted you?"

Well okay there had been a few questionable moments when she'd told him no surprise parties for her birthday and he threw her one anyway. But that didn't count. When it came to a deep rooted trust, she definitely did. "And.." she coughed and rolled her head to the side watching him. Though she didn't finish the sentence. What was she going to say? She didn't know at this point.

Kelly smiled as Erin said his name.
"Yeah, I'm here," he assured her. "G-d, I thought....I thought I was going to lose you," he whispered. Not sure what I would've done if that had happened, he thought to himself. It would've been his fault. He hadn't been looking out for her, his fault. Hank would've killed him. Not that he would've blamed him. Hell, he still might. Not that he blamed him. After all, he had almost gotten his daughter killed.

His grin grew as she countered his question, asking if she had ever not trusted him.
"I don't think so," he said. "And you're gonna be just fine. The docs will look you over and then give you a clean bill of health," he assured. At least, that was his hope. He had no idea if it would really happen that way. But like he said, he was hoping.

Erin reached her arm out to his back. He was being too rough himself. She reached around with one hand and put her hand on her back. Wiggling her other hand free of the belt she went to take the belt that was on the gurney off. She sent a glare at the medic as she did so. Right now was not the time to mess with her. "I'm right here Kelly." She sat up coughing some. Using the hem of his turnout coat to pull herself up. "Babe, don't do this to yourself" Erin was fairly certain that seeing Kelly get down on himself hurt more than the crap she was trying to cough out of her lungs.

As always, Erin was putting up her front of being okay. Even though her eyes clearly said otherwise to anyone who knew her. Someone had almost tried to purposeful kill her and that was sinking in. The person who had done this he was still out there. As much as she loved Kelly, the cop side of her would worry until the cops and feds got to the guy. Or Voight... she felt sick. If her dad caught up with the guy... Erin looked at Kelly with a panicked expression. "Don't let dad do anything stupid" she bit her lip.

Really she wanted to add the same thing to Kelly; but it was pointless. She was trying to make him feel better, though she knew it was hardly the start they had wanted from the new city. Erin knew she wasn't the target. Kelly was the target and by telling Kelly the truth the guy was getting exactly what he wanted. When the medic tried to get her to sit back down she snapped. "Touch me and I'll break your arm" she snapped at the guy. This wasn't Erin; not usually. She coughed again before leaning over and tossing the contents of her stomach. "I want to go home" she grumbled into Kelly's arm.

Tag: Lt. Kelly Severide

Kelly smiled as Erin assured him that she was right there.
"I know," he said. Thank God I wasn't too late, he thought. If he had been too late and she had died....No! he couldn't be thinking like that! She was fine....safe. That was all that mattered. Almost as if she knew what he was thinking, she told him not to blame himself. "I wasn't looking out for you like I promised I would. I nearly lost you," he said. And honestly, that still scared him. He wasn't sure if he could survive without her. She meant everything to him. Love her so much, he thought to himself. What would he do without her? Scarily, he had almost found out. Don't want to go through that again, he thought to himself. No, he wanted to just hold her close and hide her away from everyone and everything.

He realized she was talking again and focused on her as she pleaded with him to not let her father do anything stupid.
"You mean like finding this jackass and putting a bullet between his eyes?" he asked. Truth was, he was tempted to do just that himself. But on the other hand, he knew why she was asking it: Hank Voight was notoriously protective of his family which sometimes got him into trouble. And Erin was wanting to keep that from happening. "I promise i'll make sure he and I both don't do anything stupid," he assured her. Was he still going to be tempted? Yeah, probably, but for her, he'd make sure he'd stay put. She was worth it and he sure as hell wasn't going to scare her.

He then went to help her stand, shooting the medic an apologetic expression when the officer threatened to break their arm if they touched her, grumbling that she wanted to go home.
"You need to get checked out. Your voice is raspier than normal which means smoke inhalation," he pointed out. "I know you hate hospitals---I do too---but please....do this for me?" he pleaded.

Erin felt dizzy and being on her feet in the moving ambulance was not her best judgement call. Erin started coughing again before puking all over the place again. The medic gave Kelly an apologetic look. "I need you to keep her still" He stated firmly. "Detective I really don't give a damn if you hate me or not." He stated. He could see that she was having trouble breathing. Checking her airway he made up his mind as he started intubation to keep her airway from becoming worse.

The medic smacked on the roof to catch the drivers attention. "I want that chopper for Knoxville waiting at med" he stated. Erin was very much awake and the panic was streaked across her face. The room was still spinning. Hooking fluids up to the IV line he was keeping his eye on everything. Erin realized that she had to let them help. Though her free hand moved towards Kelly as the medic finally got her calm enough to get the oxygen line back in.

"She's got fluid building in her lungs. There is chopper flight on stand by waiting to take her to Knoxville" He stated. Their small military hospital wasn't enough to handle trauma cases. The best they could do was keep her stable. Erin hated flying but she could feel the medication that was already going into her system. Though the glazed over look of fear in Kelly's direction. She squeezed his hand. There were mild burns on her arms, the medic cleaned up the area and put some cream on them before wrapping them up. "The burns on her arms are pretty minor." He explained as he looked to Kelly. Erin was loosely traveling her thumb over Kelly's hand. She still didn't understand how he could run into an inferno. She had no problems running into a gun fight.... but fire... it was likely to traumatize her.

When Kelly noticed that Erin looked unsteady on her feet, he went to sit her down even as the EMT told him that he needed to keep her still, adding that he didn't give a damn whether or not she hated him.
"Give her a minute. She's never been good with ambos," he said, remembering to keep the sharpness out of his voice. The EMT was just trying to do his job. It wasn't his fault that Erin wasn't fond of going to hospitals. "Erin, hey---look at me, hun. I need you to do me a favor and be still so the EMTs can do their jobs," he requested. And yes, he had just called her "hun" even though he had only used it on occasion when they were teens and that was only when he was feeling especially affectionate. He was hoping that the old nickname would calm her down, but whether or not it would have the intended effect, he had no idea.

Seeing the panicked look on her face as the EMT radioed that he needed waiting for them at Chicago Med, Kelly went to grab her hand, intending to squeeze it reassuringly.
"You're safe, hun," he murmured. He just had to keep using the nickname. Just had to keep reminding her that nothing and no one was going to hurt her. He would make sure of it. He hated seeing her so frightened. It wasn't like her at all. He needed to do something to wipe that fear off of her face.

When the EMT started talking again, he focused on them, listening as they explained that hse had fluid building in her lungs, there was a chopper waiting for them, and that the burns on her arms were minor.
"Do it," he instructed. Voight. I need to call Voight, he thought to himself. He pulled his phone out, scrolled through his contact list, found the number he was looking for, and then pressed the call button. Hopefully he wasn't interrupting the man's work. Otherwise, he would be pissed at him and he'd like to avoid that, thank you very much.

Sgt. Hank Voight

Hank slammed the door to his office as he had finished screaming at a patrol officer that had bungled three months of police work in under three seconds. It had just been a bad day, one thing after another and sleep yeah what was that thing again? He had been up a ridiculous amount of hours and he couldnt honestly remember the last time he had gotten a decent night. It had just been one of those cases and so far it was in tatters.

He was about to head home or to the couch in his office when he heard the phone ringing, he did his usual ‘where’s my phone’ pat down before he managed to pull the thing from his front pocket. He squinted at the ID as he answered it. “Hey Severide.” He said trying not to sound annoyed at the man, “Sorry... hey Kelly.” He said deciding that this wasn’t work, no he wasn’t about to start using the man’s last name that was only reserved for when he was annoyed.

Then again it wasn’t like he had much reason to be, Erin was happy with him and he had pulled her back and kept her away from the things he wanted his daughter to be free of. Hank glanced at his watch wondering what it was that had Kelly calling him, they weren’t exactly the once a day chat types who spent at least an hour updating each other on their days. Not that they didnt talk but, still he waited and listened to hear what was going on.

Tag: Lt. Kelly Severide, Det. Erin Voight