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𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞: 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬.

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Her shivering hands grip the blue jacket around her tighter as the familiar fire-trucks come into her view. To say that Maddie moved a little slow was an understatement. After her quick chat with her friends, it took her forty-five minutes to get up from the bed and head into the shower. In her defense, Pinterest was to blame for that. It took another twenty minutes for Maddie to decide on what to wear between her party clothes and two pairs of jeans. In the end, she decided to wear the only sweater she brought with her, some jeans, a baseball cap and a random fuchsia scarf Nigel must have stuffed in her suitcase.

Maddie spots Sylvie Brett coming out of the ambulance, her partner waving at the approaching brunette. She greets them with a smile and lightly bounces on the balls of her feet because of the cold weather. Soot and tiredness cover their features but they still managed to give her a smile.

"Well," Brett says as she takes in the outfit. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes, Mrs. Severide! Cute jacket."

Maddie laughs though she remembers that Kelly's CFD jacket was the only thing warm piece of clothing she could find. She panics for a while thinking that he might get irritated because she wore his clothing on a whim. "Thanks. Any chance Kelly is around?" The two paramedics point her towards his quarters. She passes by some of the men and women of 51 and gives them a small smile.

She wasn't usually this shy around new people. But, Maddie didn't usually move miles away from her home and put herself in a new environment in a span of seventy-hours. She sees him hunched over his desk with papers laid out in front of him. A bed is placed not far from his desk and two picture frames occupy Kelly's table—one of him and Shay and the other with a woman who shared the same kind smile as his (which made Maddie guess it was his mother).

Maddie timidly knocks on the open door and he doesn't even turn to check who it was before barking out, "Otis, for the last time, I'm not giving you money to buy Newhouse's goodies."

She snickers, "I didn't think you'd use the word 'goodies'."

At the sound of her voice, Kelly turns to her with a bright smile on her face especially as he takes sight of Maddie's little red nose. There was something about the short brunette that had drawn him to her. People called them crazy but he knew marrying Maddie was the right decision—at least they both hoped it was.

After sharing a kiss, Maddie takes a seat on his bed. It was then that Kelly noticed a piece of her clothing that belonged to him but it only made her look even cuter (if that was even possible). "Nice jacket." He compliments her.

"Oh." Maddie croaks out, "I—I hope it's okay that I'm wearing this. Nigel said that my stuff might arrive tonight so you wouldn't have to worry about me borrowing any more of yours."

Kelly added her mindless babbling to the list of things he had recently discovered about Maddie. He also discovered that she thought ketchup went with everything else but that was a whole other story. "Maddie, it's okay." He assures her, standing up and kissing her on the forehead.

Maddie thought she didn't deserve any of his understanding and kindness.

A sigh of relief was released from Maddie (one she didn't even know she was holding). Footsteps were heard and she sees Capp, Hermann, and Joe lay down on their beds. A news report about a helicopter crashing echoes in her mind and she wonders if 51 was the one to respond to the incident.

"Yeah, we were there." Kelly says, "And another call at a house fire. What's bad about it is that I think we might have found a pornographic ring. Most of the pictures contained really young children."

Maddie grimaces, not in the mood to listen to something so bile. "Kelly."

He catches the wrinkle of her nose and quickly apologizes. "Sorry. I just needed to let it out."

Her cold hands find his and she squeezes them twice. "I'm all ears but I'm not used to it. Give me some time, yeah?"

"As long as you need." Kelly tells her, "And, as much as I love seeing your face around here, is there any specific reason you dropped by?"

"Can I borrow your car?" Maddie asks, "I need to buy some groceries."

With a chuckle and a kiss, Kelly gives her his car keys.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Maddie was slightly embarrassed with what her grocery cart contained. There was at least three gallons of ice cream, a chocolate cake, and lots of pork. She had a mental checklist and crossed out "find some food before I die of starvation" on it. Next on her to-do list was consider apartments for her and Kelly to live in and then find a job.

She wasn't used to doing nothing all day. Back in Miami, Maddie was out of the house by eight and returned late in the evening. Within the day, she could complete a lot of errands including buying her father's medicines, taking care of the family business, and even find time to paint.

Paint! She almost forgot to buy art supplies.

"Excuse me." A voice from behind chimes, "Are you a firefighter?"

Maddie turns to see a man who looked like he was in his late forties. He had thinning brown hair and wore a pair of square-rimmed glasses. Even though her mother had taught her manners, there was something about the man that gave her the creeps. Or maybe she was just over-reacting. She shakes her head making strands of her hair fall in front of her face. "I'm sorry but no." Maddie tells him and moves forward as the person in front of her finishes with their groceries.

As she was putting the food she brought on the counter, Maddie could feel the man's burning gaze on her. The cashier punches everything and she tries to forget the odd man behind her. After two minutes, her total comes up and she gets her wallet. Maddie briefly looks up to see that the man was still looking at her.

"He's a squad lieutenant." Maddie informs him, "We just got married." She hoped the mention of Kelly could intimidate the man. He just gives her a wide smile which made the hair on her arms go up. She quickly gathers her groceries and wishes him a nice day. Maddie never walked so fast to the exit in her entire life.