It didn't take Irina more than a few seconds to figure out just which one of the guys had noticed her scars and told the Chief. Otis wasn't exactly being subtle with the way he was looking at her, his eyes filled with pity and sympathy, something Irina really didn't want or need from any of them.

Otis didn't know how Irina's talk with the Chief went as her face showed no clear signs of anything, it just remained as it always did, unreadable. However when her eyes found him, and seemingly darkened a little, he soon found himself slightly regretting saying anything about what he'd seen.

"Outside. Now." Irina said hushed towards him, her enhanced hearing able to make out just how harshly he gulped at her words, although she figured anyone could hear it as it wasn't exactly quiet.

Otis nervously followed Irina outside, ignoring the chuckles and 'ooo's' of his fellow firefighters as it was pretty obvious to them that he'd done something to piss her off, only they just didn't know what.

"The Chief told you it was me?" Otis said quietly as they reached the apron, letting out a gentle sigh as Irina turned around to face him, her arms folded across her chest.

"No." She replied, to Otis' surprise as his head lifted up a little more and he actually managed to make eye contact with her. He half expected her gaze to turn him to stone.

"Then how did you-"

"I can tell by how you're looking at me. The pity in your eyes. And I will tell you now that I don't want it." Irina said sternly, her accent thicker then ever. "I don't need pity and I don't need sympathy. And I certainly don't need people gossiping about my personal life."

"Irina, I wasn't gossiping. I would never gossip about something like that." Otis said a little defensively, shaking his head. Sure he was a gossip at times, but never about something as serious and personal as Irina's scars. "I was worried about you. I thought someone was hurting you, that's why I went to the Chief."

"You were worried about me?" Irina said in surprise, never once having heard those words directed her way before, not even by her father.

"Yes. Because you're one of us now, you're part of fifty-one." Otis explained, watching in real time as the gears in Irina's head seemed to move behind her eyes. Had she never had someone be worried about her before? "And we look out for each other."

"Oh." Irina exhaled, a hint of regret building in her stomach over how harsh she'd been with him just now. She saw now that his telling the Chief was out of concern for her, and truth be told she wasn't quite sure how to feel about that.

"If you're being hurt, you can tell us. We can help you." Otis said softly, taking a step closer to her only to have her back a few steps away from him, the clear signs of someone who'd been through some form of abuse.

"I'm not being hurt." Irina replied, this time it was her avoiding eye contact as she looked past Otis and to the Truck behind him. "Not anymore."

Anymore.

Sure Otis knew she had to have been hurt at some point in her life, but to actually hear her admit it, well it made him feel sick to his stomach again.

"It happened a long time ago and I'm over it now." Irina added, part of that sentence being the truth.

It did happen a long time ago, the last time she'd been purposely hurt had been when she was around seventeen, as after that she learned to keep her mouth shut and behave. Although she wasn't quite sure she was fully over it yet given how hard she found it to fall asleep at night.

"Do you mind me asking what happened?" Otis asked carefully, Irina biting the inside of her cheek and avoiding his eyes still as she debated to herself whether she wanted to tell him the same lie she told the Chief. "If you'd rather not say, I totally understand. I don't mean to pressure you."

"No, it's fine." Irina shook her head, this time it was her who swallowed a little harshly before she took a breath and finally allowed herself to make eye contact with him. "I grew up in a bad place. One with bad people who liked to hurt me and the other girls."

"God." Otis whispered, his stomach churning over the idea of other girls like Irina having been put through the same as she had. "I'm really sorry you had to go through that."

"Thank you." Irina mostly whispered, the genuine care in Otis' voice throwing her a little, yet it was comforting to her. So much so that she found herself wanting to tell him more, to a point, almost as a way of finally getting some things off her chest so that maybe she would start to feel better about it all. Finally start to heal.

"The photo in your locker, of you and your sisters... Was that taken wherever you where?" Otis asked curiously, as the smiles on their faces in that photo seemed genuinely happy.

"No." Irina shook her head, having forgot all about that photo in the heat of the moment. "That was taken here, in America... We were, how you say, adopted for a short time until we were sent back to that place."

"To an orphanage?"

"Yes, sort of like that." Irina nodded, unfolding her arms as she fiddled with the sleeves of her jacket before she pulled one up, revealing clearly the faded rings around her wrist. "At night they handcuffed us to our beds, to stop us escaping... One night I managed to free myself and for that I was punished..."

Otis' face dropped, more than it already had, when Irina lifted her shirt a little, showing the old bullet wound on her lower stomach. He felt disgusted, even angry over what she was telling him. What kind of sick people would shoot an innocent, young girl as punishment?

"Other times it was a belt... Honestly I'd pick being shot over the belt any day." Irina chuckled out a little softly, much to Otis' shock and disbelief that she found humour over what she'd been through.

"I... I don't know what to say... Irina, I mean- God, that sounds horrible." Otis said quietly, for once finding himself at a loss for words. "Why did no one ever stop it?"

"Those who tried didn't last very long." Irina replied, feeling like maybe she'd told him a little too much as every ounce of his usual smiling and happy face seemed to have vanished. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring you down or whatever... I just- I've never told anyone that before... And it feels a little nice to get it off my chest."

"No, it's okay." Otis said assuringly, subconsciously taking another step closer to her only this time she didn't back away from him. "If it helped you then I'm glad you told me."

"I'm glad I did too." Irina agreed, managing a small smile as she already felt better than she had previously. Perhaps talking about things was a good idea, but she'd said enough already and there wasn't much else that Otis, or any of the guys, needed to know about her as some things were better left unsaid. "Just... don't tell anyone else. Please."

"Yeah of course, I won't tell anyone." Otis said honestly and with a brief smile. As was said before, this wasn't something he would ever gossip about, and if Irina didn't want the others to know of her past, then it wasn't his place to tell them.

"Thank you." Irina said in Russian, a seemingly proper smile on her face before she went to walk past him. "I go raid the fridge now."

"Cupboard above the sink, behind the oatmeal... Hidden stash of peanut m&m's." Otis half chuckled, finding himself speaking a lot more Russian than he had recently, something he found himself liking.

"Not anymore. I ate them last shift." Irina replied back, leaving Otis just laughing a little to himself as she headed back inside.

Mouch was not going to be happy when he found out she'd eaten his m&m's.

When Otis returned to the common room, just a minute or so after Irina, he found her exactly where she said she was going to be. Raiding the fridge. He had no idea how she could possibly be hungry after the huge breakfast she'd had not three hours ago, or after what they'd seen on that call, but he knew better than to bring that up.

He knew better than to talk about how much someone was eating in general, not just with Irina who quite frankly scared the hell out of him. But he did wonder exactly where she managed to find room for everything and she was beginning to rival Mouch with how much she ate in one shift.

"Did someone finish the chips?" Irina asked, looking around the counter for the bag of potato chips she'd left lying there when they got the call earlier.

"I think Capp ate those." Severide told her, chuckling a little when she let out a rather annoyed groan and mumbled something under her breath in Russian.

"Hey, what'd she say?" Cruz asked hushed towards Otis, who just shook his head as he smiled to himself.

"You don't want to know." He replied, much to the annoyance of Cruz who just let out a sigh before he rolled back away to his original spot at the table.

"Are you eating cheese?" Cruz' eyebrow arched as he glanced over at Irina, who slowly turned around towards them with the last quarter block of cheese in her hand, which had teeth marks all along the edge.

"Yes." She replied, mumbled as she had evidence to back that answer up before she quickly swallowed it. She was starving and there wasn't much else in the firehouse that she wanted to eat.

There was some candy in the cupboard but the sugar in those often hurt her teeth, and sometimes made her feel sick which was strange given that she technically couldn't get sick. There was also some meat in the fridge but it looked questionable and smelled a little weird so she didn't want to risk that. And since Capp ate her chips, there wasn't much else she could really choose from.

So it was between cheese or a tub of ice cream and in that moment, she felt like channeling her inner mouse and nibbling on a block of cheese. Although let's be honest once she'd finished that she'd probably eat the ice cream too.

"I'd hate to see your grocery bill." Cruz chuckled to himself, a few of the guys in the room, mainly Dawson and Shay who'd returned back to the house after the impalement call, sucking in a breath over his comment. All of them unsure what kind of reaction it would get from Irina.

Dawson and Shay would have smacked him upside the head for saying something like that to them, but to their surprise Irina just shrugged her shoulders and seemed unaffected by it.

"I eat a lot of boxed mac and cheese." Irina replied, swallowing down the last of her cheese and doing what she thought she'd do and go for the ice cream next. "With hot sauce, just like they way my father used to make it."

Otis' ears perked up at the word father. He had assumed she didn't have parents, given that she was raised in an orphanage, at least that's what he thought. So to hear her mention a father made him a little suspicious as to whether what she'd told him had been the truth. But then again, why would she lie about something like that? And it was clear that her father wasn't responsible for what happened to her given the tone in which she spoke about him, so he was a little confused.

Maybe she meant her foster dad? She had said something about being adopted for a little while so maybe that's who she was talking about? Yeah, it must have been it, Otis thought to himself. She must have been talking about a foster dad, as he couldn't imagine her real dad allowing such things to happen to his daughter.

"I think we've got some of that in the back of the cupboard, and there's a bottle of hot sauce in the fridge." Cruz pointed out, watching as Irina's eyes seemed to light up and she quickly returned to ice cream to the freezer, not without one last bite though.

And soon enough Irina was enjoying an entire box of mac and cheese, smothered in hot sauce, all to herself. She hadn't even put it in a bowl, or on a plate, she was just sitting atop the kitchen counter eating it out of the pot she'd made it in. With the wooden spoon she'd stirred it with.

Irina really was a rather strange person, the guys all thought to themselves but they couldn't help but grow incredibly fond of her over the short time she'd been with them. And despite her angry accent and "resting bitch face", they really enjoyed being around her.

"In other news..." The TV news broadcaster spoke filling the silence in the door and gaining the attention of a few of the others. "A team of ocean explorers believe they have found the shield that once belonged to the world's first superhero and only super soldier, Captain America."

"Bullshit." Irina scoffed out, tossing her empty pot into the sink as she hopped off the counter. "Captain America is not the worlds only super soldier."

"Uh, yeah he is?" Otis said questionably as he turned towards Irina, who had her eyes glued to the TV, reading the clearly false news report.

"No, he isn't." Irina replied, her eyes shifting towards him. "And I would expect you of all people, to know that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Otis asked, unsure whether he should be offended over that, or just confused, which he currently felt.

"You've not heard the stories of the Red Guardian?" Irina folded her arms, feeling a touch of sadness inside her over the superhero name for her father. Normally she wouldn't bring this up, or even mention it, but she was sick of the world not knowing that Captain America wasn't the only hero out there.

"The Russian myth?" Otis scoffed out, turning more in his seat to face her better. "I didn't expect you to believe in that stupid story."

"It is not a story, it is real. The Red Guardian exists, I've seen him myself." Irina told him, watching as Otis' mouth gaped a little in shock, clearly believing her story.

Just wait until he finds out that she's really talking about her father.

"You've seen the Red Guardian? Russia's supposed super soldier?" Otis breathed out, clumsily getting to his feet fast enough that he shook the entire table and had Cruz grumbling as his coffee had spilled over his newspaper.

"Seen. Spoken too... And trust me when I say, that he is as great as the stories make him out to be." Irina said, feeling a little defensive and protective over her father, who she'd spent years hearing was nothing more than a myth.

"Hey check it out, looks like they found the Captain's shield." Mouch pointed towards the TV, stopping Otis before he could ask Irina any more questions. "In the Pacific Ocean, can that be right?"

"No." Irina replied, leaning her elbows on the back of the couch. "Captain America crashed in the Artic, these guys are faking it. And besides, look at that shield, it has a huge dent in it... Vibranium doesn't bend like that."

"Vibranium?" Mouch repeated, glancing back at Irina who began to think she might have been saying too much, but there was no getting out of it now.

"The Earth's most strongest and versatile substance and they used it to make a frisbee." She scoffed out, wanting to add the phrase 'among other things', but that was something she definitely couldn't say.

"Not a fan of the Captain, I take it?" Cruz asked towards her, knowing Otis was probably biting his tongue as he loved everything to do with Captain America. And now Iron Man.

"He's not exactly on my Christmas card list, no." Irina replied, hopping over the back of the couch and landing next to Mouch, stretching her legs onto the coffee table.

"Any reason in particular?" Mouch questioned, watching as Irina fiddled with a loose thread on her sleeve.

"Not really, I just don't like him." She replied bluntly, already finding that she wanted to put and end to this conversational topic, and it was as if the God's (thank you Thor) had heard her, as no more than five seconds later, the bells went off.

🔔 Truck 81. Squad 3. Ambulance 61. Person Trapped 🔔

Ever since Irina had kicked an entire door off it's hinges, she's had to remind herself to hold back on calls so as to not draw anymore unwanted attention to herself. And sure, going to pick up a liver with her bare hands was strange, but it could be chalked up to her having a strong stomach.

However what happened on this call, brought Irina way too close for comfort to having those around her figure out the truth about her, but when the victim started slipping, she didn't have much of a choice.

It all started when they arrived on scene, the victim hanging from the side of an apartment building having fallen off while doing construction on the roof. It was clear to those on the ground that the only thing holding him up was a thin piece of rope that was minutes away from snapping, so it was all hands on deck as every second counted.

"Cruz, position the aerial." Casey called towards him, looking up at the man who was holding on to the rope for dear life, an almost thirty foot drop beneath him. "Hold on sir, we're coming!"

"Capp, Hadley, Tony, come with me to the roof, we'll see if there's an anchor point to swing down and get him." Severide called towards his men, who nodded their heads as they moved to grab their rope bags.

"Casey, what's the situation?" Boden asked as he arrived a few minutes later, having been stuck behind a train on his way here.

"Guys hanging on but I don't know how much time we have here, Chief." Casey replied, hearing Boden sigh... But that was the only thing he heard, when he knew for a fact he should be hearing the aerial moving into position.

"Cruz, what's the hold up?" Casey called back, glancing over his shoulder to a rather flustered looking Cruz.

"Aerial's stuck, Lieutenant, I can't get it to move." Cruz strained out, doing everything he could to try and get the aerial to work.

"Crap." Casey mumbled, before the yells of the victim pulled him from his thoughts.

"The rope is breaking." He called out, his legs thrashing in the air as he began to panic more than he was currently doing.

"Just hold on, Squad is on their way to the roof, they'll get to you." Casey said, despite not believing his own words as he had no idea whether the guys would get there in time.

"Screw this." Irina mumbled, hastily unclipping her turnout coat, much to the confusion of the guys next to her. She tossed her coat onto the Truck next to her before she ran towards the building and jumped, not high enough to raise suspicion, just high enough that she could kick herself off the wall and grab hold of the balcony above her.

"Irina!" Casey and Boden called after her, but it was no use as before they knew it she was already three stories up, climbing the balconies towards the victim without a single protective harness or rope securing her in place.

Irina climbed balcony to balcony with ease, not bothering to look down below her as she just expected to see the Chief and Casey calling after her, as she could hear them but chose to ignore them. They could tell her off all they wanted, just after she saved this guys life.

She kept climbing, the metal bars of each balcony creaking with her strength each time she gripped them, using said strength to push herself upwards towards the balcony above her. Eventually she reached the level the guy was hanging adjacent to and she pulled herself over the balcony, landing at the feet of a rather shocked looking elderly lady who'd been enjoying a book on her balcony when the whole incident happened.

"Apologies for the intrusion, ma'am." Irina said towards her. "As you were." She turned, climbing into the side closest to the victim and leaning over, her foot slipping a little which made her drop a small bit, and almost gave those on the ground a heart attack.

"Help me!" The man cried, he himself also dropping a little as the rope frayed more and more.

"Take my hand!" Irina shouted to him, holding her hand out for him to grab, and just as he managed to link his fingers with her, his rope snapped.

The rope landed in a pile on the ground, those standing around it letting out the hugest sigh of relief as they looked up and saw Irina and the man dangling from the balcony, before Irina somehow managed to pull him and herself up and over, the two of them landing safely at the feet of the still shocked woman.

"Thank you." The man breathed out, almost hugging the balcony beneath him as Irina got to her feet.

"You're welcome." She replied, dusting some dirt off her trousers before she turned to the woman whose balcony they were intruding on. "Ma'am, do you mind if we take the safe way down?"

And soon enough, Irina and the victim exited the building via the front door, Dawson and Shay rushing towards them to check on the well-being of the victim, after Irina told them she was fine when they tried to make a fuss over her.

"Irina." Boden said sternly, his tone indicating that this conversation wasn't particularly going to be fun. But as long as he didn't take off his belt and hit her with it, Irina suspected that she'd manage. "That was reckless behaviour, especially for a candidate. If you ever, and I mean ever, pull a stunt like that again, I will have no choice but to remove you from Truck 81. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Chief." Irina nodded, once again standing like a soldier with her hands clasped firmly behind her back. "I apologise. It won't happen again."

"Good." Boden replied, half having expected her to argue back as the others probably would have. He left it at that and walked away, leaving Irina standing alone as her form relaxed and her arms fell loose by her sides.

"I know you probably don't need to hear it from me either." Casey said seriously towards her, beginning to sense a reckless and carefree attitude about Irina, one he had started to suspect when he saw her riding a motorbike with no helmet. "But next time, at least use a harness."

Irina just nodded her head before Casey walked away. She didn't regret what she did, after all she'd saved a guys life who otherwise would have ended up pancaked on the ground. So despite being told off, if you could tell that being told off, the guys could really learn a thing or two about discipline, she would call that a win.

"You guys should have seen it." Otis exclaimed the minute he stepped off the Truck after they'd arrived back at the firehouse, still in awe of what they'd just witnessed. "She was like something out of an action movie."

"Sorry I missed it." Severide replied, having heard all about Irina's rescue when they returned from the roof, where they'd barely began setting up their anchor point before she'd already saved the guy.

"It really was incredible." Cruz added as he passed by the front of the Truck, making his way towards the main building.

Irina was about to follow him when she felt a hand grab her wrist, and it almost took everything in her not to floor the person who'd touched her.

"Sorry." Severide said the instant he saw the look on her face when she turned to him, his hand immediately letting go of her as he threw both of them up in surrender. "I just wanted to say... When you complete your candidacy position, you should think about applying for Squad. I think you've got what it takes."

Little did he know that Irina was more qualified for Squad than he or any of his guys were.

"You do?" Irina replied, having to act like she didn't know she had it in her to become a Squad member.

"I do." Severide nodded. "You could be a great addition to the team... And the first ever woman in the CFD to make Squad."

"Wait, no women are Squad members?" Irina asked, genuinely shocked but also not as most people underestimated women, which was the exact reason every single widow was one.

"Nope. Not yet anyway." He added with a grin and wishing he had a time machine so he could make Irina finish her candidacy time and join his company already.

"I'll think about it." Was all Irina said, but she meant it. She'd love to join Squad as it was exactly what she was trained to do, other than kill obviously but she hoped she wouldn't have to do that again.

"Good." Severide said happily. He really wasn't lying when he wished he had a time machine.

Severide could already see that Irina would make one hell of a Squad member, she'd proven that before she'd even joined the CFD and he would be more than proud to call himself her Lieutenant.

-
irina is literally my own oc and my own creation but i love her so much?? also eating mac and cheese with hot sauce, yelena would be proud!

also yes, the call and how irina acted was similar to what Gallo did when we first met him in season 8, but only hers looked much cooler ;)

anyway, next chapter will probably have a time jump of a year, maybe, probably when irina is no longer a candidate and training to join squad... the truck guys aren't going to be happy to hear that! also it'll be around the time of iron man two, so we'll be seeing that on the news in a few chapters or so!

but yeah, hope you liked this chapter, and if you did please don't forget to vote and maybe leave me a comment! i love reading all the comments people leave on my books :')

okay bye! next chapter might be a little longer to update as i have other books that need my attention 🙃