Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground

A/N: Not sure of the pairings yet but heavy Sylvie, Stella, Gabby, Shay and Chilli friendship. For the sake of the story, Shay is still alive and she and Dawson are still partners, and Chilli and Brett are partners on another Ambo, both working out of Firehouse 51. Matt/Gabby and Severide/Stella are established, and Sylvie, Stella and Chilli all share an apartment whilst Shay is still living with Severide and Gabby has her own place but spends most of the time at Matt's. It will have Chicago Med and Chicago PD characters as well.

Sylvie Brett was exhausted. They all were. It was the second to last shift of the week and it had been a rough one on the whole house. It had been especially hard on Chilli, having lost two patients as PIC en route to Chicago Med. Out of the three cases they had been called to during shift, Brett had lucked out with a simple drug overdose so had offered to fill out the majority of the paperwork, allowing Chilli to go home early. Although by home, that meant "Molly's" for majority of the station. Gabby, Hermann and Otis had headed there straight after shift knowing that it was going to be a busy night, Shay and Severide were going to swing by their place first to change, and as far as she knew, everyone else on Truck and Squad were making their way to the bar too. Boden was the only one still there from day-shift; sitting in his office, doing his usual self-reflection that he did after tough shifts.

Brett pulled her hair loose and swung her head slightly so that her blonde curls framed her shoulders loosely. She glanced down at her phone, noting a text from Dawson and a missed call from a private number. She frowned but figured it was nothing considering they hadn't left a voicemail. Dawson's text was simple- "You on your way?" and Sylvie responded with a simple "thumbs up" emoji. Sure, it wasn't exactly true but it wasn't a complete lie. She was almost done with the paperwork and figured she'd just change at the station rather than swinging by the apartment she shared with Chilli and Stella first.

They had grown close, her and Chilli. They all had really but Brett had helped Chilli with her drinking after her sister died and they eventually ended up moving in together, along with Stella. Gabby had contemplated moving in with them as well but with all of the time she spent at Matt's, it didn't make much sense. After Stella and Severide got together, things were a little awkward but they all adjusted well, especially after both her and Stella "proved" to Shay that neither were gay during a very-drunk game of truth-or-dare. Sylvie had adjusted well to the firehouse and everyone had grown to be her family.

"You on your way out, Brett?"

The blonde looked up from the desk as Chief Boden spoke, smiling and nodding tiredly. "Just finished."

As if to reassure her boss, she stacked the paperwork together and told him that she would hand it in to Connie before telling him to have a good night.

Sylvie changed quickly, opting not to shower. She wasn't planning on having a late night but it was always helpful to blow off some steam. Grabbing her bag, Sylvie headed out of the station and into the dark, shivering slightly and hoping she had packed another sweater in her car.

A hand cupped her mouth hard and another wrapped around her stomach, pulling her backwards before she had a chance to act. She dropped her bag and keys as the person pulled her out of sight and into the buses.

Sylvie wanted to scream, fight, run, something, but was completely frozen when the man put his head next to hers and whispered through alcohol-ridden breathe. "Scream and I'll kill you."

She knew in an instant who it was. She didn't want to be right, but she knew that she was.

In a few swift instances, he winded her with a jab to the stomach and two punches to the face. Sylvie could feel the blood dripping down her face and she couldn't move her jaw, assuming that it was broken or at least dislocated. She tried to cry out but could barely manage small whimpers and she tried to curl up in a foetal position but the pain was too unbearable.

"I warned you."

His voice was a rough whisper- it was one side of him that only she knew. Sylvie tried to look up at him to beg for him to leave but her vision was blurred with tears. This only seemed to amuse him more. He grabbed her jaw tightly, ignoring the small cry she couldn't help but let out, and forced a rough kiss to her lips. His hand slipped up under her shirt and rubbed her breasts roughly while he used the other to unbutton his jeans.

He pushed her down harder and tore off her own jeans and underwear in one swift movement before forcing her legs apart with his knees. Twisting her arms, he pinned them above her head and forced himself inside of her.

The pain was so unbearable that Sylvie could barely hear the man talking.

"You know, I used to love you, Syl." He kept thrusting. "We would have been good together." Another thrust. "Made some beautiful babies, had a life, but no, you had to run off and play superhero."

He spat in her face and Sylvie felt like she was going to vomit, either from the pain, the disgust or both.

He finished fairly quickly although it felt like hours. Sylvie put it down to his clear intoxication. He may have been done with sex but the multiple beatings that followed proved he wasn't completely finished. Once he was done, Sylvie was numb. Her paramedic training knew that she needed help, but the overwhelming fear and pain coursing through her body kept her from moving.

"Tell anyone, you're dead."

With one last whisper, he was gone.

xxxxxxxx

Chilli was sitting on the bar with Capp, Tony, Cruz, Otis and a few other patrons, laughing and doing shots when Gabby came over to her from behind the bar. "Have you heard from Brett? She said she was on her way over two hours ago."

Chilli checked her phone but shook her head. "Maybe she just decided to head home?"

Gabby frowned but nodded, making sure to hand Chilli and the guys a few glasses of water before heading over to Stella, Severide, Shay and Casey. "Have any of you heard from Brett?"

She wasn't really expecting an answer from the boys but looked between her partner and her friend. "Nope."

"Maybe she just went home early."

Gabby frowned again. "Yeah, that's what Chilli said. Can one of you please call her?"

Gabby wasn't much of a worrier and she knew that most of her friends could take care of themselves, but something didn't feel right and ignoring your intuition wasn't something that ran in the Dawson gene pool. Stella nodded, dialling and waiting before hanging up.

"Straight to voicemail." Stella noticed the concern on Gabby's face and placed a comforting hand on the Latinos while Matt did the same as he rubbed her back. "I'm sure she's fine."

Gabby nodded but wasn't convinced. However, the bar was getting slammed and Hermann was struggling to keep up so she headed back to helped. It died down around midnight with most of the station too exhausted to stay much longer. Matt, Shay and Severide stuck around to help clean up, but Stella and Chilli plus the rest of the house headed home.

xxxxxxxx

Gabby Dawson woke up with a pounding headache and for a minute thought she had one of the worst hangovers ever. That would have been impossible though seeing as she hadn't had a drop to drink the night before. She groaned, turning on her side to see Matt's side of the bed empty. It took a moment to process that he was in the shower so she grabbed her phone off the bedside table and glanced at it. They were running early for work but still no word from Brett.

After getting dressed and downing a few coffees and some aspirin, Gabby looked up to see Matt emerge in the kitchen. "You're not showering?"

"No, I want to head in early. Check on Brett."

Matt nodded. He knew his girlfriend and he knew that she was concerned. Although he suspected there was nothing wrong, he went along with it and grabbed his keys. "Let's get going."

Gabby smiled and kissed him thankfully before they headed to the car.

xxxxxxxx

Stella groaned as she rolled over in bed. Her headed pounded and from the overwhelming smell of coffee, she could tell that Chilli probably felt the same.

"Mornin'."

Chilli barely looked up from her coffee. "There's aspirin on the counter."

Stella gratefully downed two with a freshly made cup of coffee before leaning on the kitchen island in front of Chilli. "Brett up yet?"

"I think she went in early."

Stella nodded, noting that Chilli was already showered and dressed. "If you want to head in early, I can drive too."

"I was actually going to head to a meeting." Chilli looked slightly ashamed and Stella frowned sympathetically. Chilli had been working really hard on her drinking and rarely had bad slips, but she could tell that the Paramedic was feeling guilty for going overboard the night before.

Stella nodded, smiling and rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. "Good idea. I'm proud of you… We all are."

Chilli smiled but didn't say anything. Instead she watched as Stella headed towards the bathroom before grabbing her keys and heading to her car.

xxxxxxxx

It took Stella longer to get to work than she expected, partly because she had stopped for more coffee on the way and the other part due to her hangover. Everyone's cars were there and Stella breathed a small sigh of relief she hadn't realized she'd been holding when she saw that that included Brett's.

She practically ran up the driveway and decided to use the side door, knowing she was running late and hoping to avoid bumping into Boden.

Stella looked down at her shoe the second she almost slipped when entering the building. She almost cussed, figuring it was dog poop or something equally as disgusting, but was surprised to see a red footprint when she lifted her shoe.

The brunette turned around and noticed that she had tracked in the same red footprints from outside and curiously followed them, pondering for a moment whether she should find one of the guys to go with her. Deciding otherwise, Stella cautiously following the footprints down the pathway and almost fell back when she saw what was in front of her.

A body- unconscious, bruised and bloodied, and only half-dressed lay in the bushes. Had it not been for the phone, keys and bag lying next to her, Kidd wasn't even sure it she would her recognised the girl as Sylvie Brett.

She dropped to her knees and shakily felt for a pulse before jumping up and running to the door, shouting, before running back to Sylvie.

"I need some help out here!"