Work Text:
When the men and women of Firehouse 51 arrive to the scene, they are met with chaos. There is a fire in the middle of the street and a part of the street had been uplifted by the explosion. This is the second gas main explosion that the first responders have responded to in the last day, the first one being near a government building. PD figured it was intentional, most likely domestic terrorism, but no real leads or viable suspects yet. But now the offender has struck again and the result was catastrophic. “Whoever’s doing this won’t stop until this entire city is leveled,” Kelly says quietly to Stella and Pascal as they all survey the scene.
“I’ll call a 10-1 and make sure PD gets down here, and have Med send doctors for triage,” Pascal says.
Panicked people surround the street, and a young blonde woman approaches Stella. “The subway crashed when the explosion happened! Everyone seems to be fine but there are a lot of people in there still!” she explains, her voice shaky with terror.
“Okay, we’ve got them,” Stella assures her.
“Kidd, you and your crew help get people out of that subway. Go quickly, the tunnel is probably unstable,” Pascal orders. “Squad, get to the gas main and contain it to make sure it doesn’t cause any more damage. Engine, get on that fire.”
“Copy, Chief,” Stella says. “Ritter, stay behind in case we need supplies or if Engine needs help. Mouch and Carver, come with me.”
“On it, Lieutenant,” Carver says as the trio makes their way into the nearby subway tunnel, where people are frantically pouring out of the car.
“Fire department! We’re gonna help you guys out of here!” The Truck firefighters begin helping people out of the subway.
A bit later, as they are preparing to take a new set of people out of the car, Stella sees a familiar face enter the tunnel: Adam Ruzek. “Ruzek, who allowed you in here? This structure is unstable.” She stays behind as Carver and Mouch head back to the street with the victims they’re helping.
“We tracked the suspect’s phone. He’s somewhere in this subway,” Ruzek says quietly and calmly so as not to alert anyone. “They let me in to see if I can find him.”
Stella takes a minute to process the information, worried about the implications and how much worse this thing could become. “Come in with me and see if you can find him.”
The walk into the subway, Ruzek carefully scanning and seeing if he can identify the offender through the horde of people, and Stella looking for people who may need medical assistance. “Do you see him?”
“Not yet.”
Then, they feel the ground shake and hear people shouting. They look out of the windows and see rubble where the exit to the tunnel had previously been. Stella turns to all of the civilians in the subway. “Everyone stay in here, it’s not safe out there. We’re first responders and we’re going to check on the people out there.” The two of them rush out of the car and examine the scene. They see unconscious civilians on the ground, covered in soot and debris.
“Police officers are taught basic life support, right?” Stella asks, to which Ruzek nods. “Start checking out victims, I’m going to radio for help.”
Ruzek does this, and Stella reaches for her radio. “This is Kidd, we are trapped and have injured civilians in here.” She is met with silence. “Severide, do you copy? Chief, Herrmann? Can anyone read me?” Again, nothing. Stella feels hopeless as she looks at the chaos around her.
____________________________________________________________________________
Squad is working on securing the gas main when, out of the corner of his eye, Kelly sees a collapse. He knows that’s the direction to the subway. A look of horror grows on his face as he realizes Stella was most likely still in there. Cruz immediately sees the distress on his Lieutenant’s face, realizes what’s going on, and reacts accordingly. “We’ve got this, Lieutenant. Go.”
Kelly nods, puts down his tools, and runs toward where the rest of the house is, staring at the rubble. “Kidd, report!” he hears Pascal say into his radio as he gets closer.
“Anything?” Kelly asks, desperate for answers.
“No, her radio’s probably not working with her being underground.”
“What the hell happened?”
“We were helping victims out of the subway, but Kidd stayed behind to talk to Ruzek,” Mouch explains. “And then next thing we know…”
“So Ruzek’s in there, too?”
“Them and the about 40 passengers still inside,” Carver pipes up.
The reality and gravity of the situation begins to hit Kelly like a ton of bricks. But then, another question enters his mind. “Wait, why was Ruzek in there in the first place? What did he need to talk to Stella about?”
Pascal prepares his next words carefully, knowing his Squad lieutenant won’t take them well. “Apparently, CPD has reason to believe that the guy responsible for all this is inside of that subway.”
Kelly had been able to keep his composure up until that point. But those words make that impossible to do any more. “So you’re telling me that my wife is stuck in a tunnel with no way out, no medical supplies, limited air, and with a dangerous criminal in there with her?” he nearly shouts.
“Stand down, Lieutenant,” Pascal says, but his seeming lack of concern only further irritates Severide. He can’t help but think about how different this would all play out if Boden was still at 51, how his former chief would be almost as worried for Stella as he is right now.
“Severide,” Herrmann starts, knowing that Pascal is only making things worse, “I know that you want to get Kidd out of there- we all do. But we need to be safe and smart about how we do it because one wrong move could trigger another collapse. I know you know that.”
Kelly takes a deep breath, knowing that Herrmann is right but still not any less worried for his wife.