A/N: Thanks for being here! Just a warning - there is a very brief mention of suicide in this chapter (Jones). No detail is gone into besides the fact that it happened.

One month after being assigned the candidate spot on Truck 81, Rebecca Jones felt that - aside from a rocky start - she was starting to fit in at Firehouse 51. As the candidate, she was assigned many unpleasant tasks. This was initially a point of contention as she thought she was just getting assigned these because she was a woman. Peter Mills, however, pulled her aside one day and assured her that the same had happened to him just a year prior. After that, things became much smoother. Casey appreciated that she followed orders better on calls, and she was shaping up to be a great firefighter.

As January came to a close, Dawson's doctor gave her clearance to resume her firefighting duties. Her initial position under Welch, however, had been taken by another candidate after she broke her ankle. She was told she could be in the floater pool for paramedics, but she otherwise had to wait for another position to open up. She often found herself riding her old spot on 61 during this time, as no PIC wanted to transfer from their current house and Shay was still too new to be awarded the promotion.

The first shift of February, Chief Boden had barely gotten in his office when Connie dropped a transfer paper from HQ on his desk about the same time his phone rang.

"Boden," he answered.

"Good morning, chief," Lionel Jones returned. "I have a favor to ask of you."

"What's that?"

"You should have received some transfer papers for my daughter this morning. I want her to take a position on the administrative side. You have to boot her."

"I will do no such thing," Boden retorted to the man on the other end of the phone. "Rebecca is proving to be a good firefighter. She fits well here at 51."

"Wouldn't you want to keep your only daughter safe?"

"I will keep her as safe as I keep the rest of my people. I will not boot her without good reason."

"As safe as you kept Andy Darden, Chief?"

Boden scowled into the phone. "You know as well as I do that we lose people from time to time in our line of work, and it's a shame every time."

"And I don't want it to happen to my daughter. Boot her or I boot you."

Boden's scowl deepened as the line went dead. "Connie, get me Casey and Jones."

. . .

"You wanted to see us, Chief?" Casey asked from the doorway.

Boden nodded, waving the truck lieutenant and candidate into his office. "Shut the door behind you."

The door clicked shut and Boden gestured for the two to sit. Turning to Jones, he cleared his throat. "Your father is concerned about your position on Truck 81." Jones rolled her eyes and sighed as Boden continued, "He wants me to boot you. However," he said, holding up a hand to stop her protest, "unless Lieutenant Casey has been lying about your performance -" he trailed off, looking to the truck lieutenant expectantly.

"Jones is very eager to prove herself, Chief," Casey affirmed. "She has potential."

Boden nodded his thanks. "Then it's decided," he said, grabbing the transfer papers Jones' father had sent. "If you want to stay, Jones, I'll lose these papers."

"Thank you, Chief," Jones replied. She knew her father wouldn't be easily convinced, but it was nice to know Boden was on her side. "I won't let you down."

"How dare you," Rebecca said, barging into her father's office after shift in a fury, "telling Boden to boot me? I've worked my ass off to get here! And you just want to take it all away from me?"

"Losing your mother was bad enough, Rebecca. I'm only trying to protect you," Lionel replied calmly.

"What about Joseph and Blake and Danny? Wouldn't you care if something happened to one of them?"

"You're my little girl. It's different."

"Dad -"

"This is not a debate," he cut her off. "If you think you can hide behind your chief, I'll give him the boot too. And every other chief who defies my orders. Now, if you want to keep working for the CFD, you'll have an administrative position waiting for you on Monday. If not, I start handing out pink slips."

She huffed as she turned and stormed out of her father's office almost as quickly as she'd barged in. In her car, she slunk low in her seat, tears stinging her eyes. She didn't know why she even bothered trying to convince him to let her stay. It was pointless. He was always going to get in the way of her dream.

Two months into the spring semester, Sylvie felt she'd settled in surprisingly well. She loved that her new university's campus sat so close to Lake Michigan. She was sure she'd spend a lot of time studying there whenever the cruel, Midwest winter faded away to the spring. For now, though, she spent as much time between the various university buildings as she could. The only other thing she would change if she could was her roommate.

Sylvie was often awoken by Jaden clambering around the dorm room when she came home reeking of smoke and alcohol and lord knows what else. Sylvie didn't understand how a person could waste away precious time like that and she certainly didn't appreciate her sleep routinely being disturbed. She'd picked up a job on campus on the janitorial staff and had to wake up early enough to be across campus at 5 o'clock every weekday morning. It wasn't ideal, but she could listen to music and even sing while she worked. Most times, since it was so early, no one else was there to hear her.

On the weekends, she performed at an open mic bar she'd stumbled across earlier in the semester. Since she wasn't quite 21, she always got there early and was never there for more than an hour. It rarely made her more than 20 or 30 dollars, but every little bit helped.

Dragging herself out to her car one particularly chilly February evening after playing at the bar, Sylvie noticed a young woman pacing heatedly by the curb, talking on the phone.

"You said you'd be here. - Well how am I supposed to get home? - I can't take a cab, Grant, because you spent all of my money AGAIN! - No - No, you know what, Grant? Forget it. I'll walk home," the woman said forcibly, jabbing the screen to end the call and shoving her phone back in her pocket.

"Um, sorry to intrude," Sylvie said softly, approaching the young woman. "I overheard your conversation. I can give you a ride, if you want."

The tense features on the taller woman's face relaxed some, replaced by a mild look of confusion as she tried to figure out whether Sylvie was someone she was supposed to know or not. "You're obviously not from around here,"she responded. "Never know if you can trust a stranger."

Sylvie shrugged. "I guess old habits die hard. I'm from a town where nobody's strangers." Then, tentatively extending her hand, "Sylvie Brett. I'm a first year over at the University of Chicago. I promise I don't bite."

The other woman hesitated, carefully looking over Sylvie as if trying to determine how serious she was. Deciding to chance it (she could probably easily take out the petite blonde if she needed to), she took her hand and shook it. "Stella Kidd. I'm a firefighter. Were you serious about that ride?"

"Of course," Sylvie replied. "Why would I offer if I didn't mean it?"

Stella offered her a small smile. "You're a good woman, Sylvie Brett."

"I certainly try to be," Sylvie replied with a grin of her own. "Come on, my car's this way."

The women conversed on the drive to Stella's apartment, getting to know each other better. They found they had a surprising amount of things in common and hit it off quickly. When they reached the apartment, Stella thanked Sylvie again and the two exchanged numbers before parting ways with a promise to meet for lunch soon. On her way home, Sylvie smiled to herself. She wasn't sure, but she felt like she'd just made her first friend in Chicago.

"I have some great news and I have some terrible news," Boden said as he entered the conference room at the beginning of the shift.

The conversations hushed as all eyes turned to him.

"What's the bad news, Chief?" Herrmann asked hesitantly.

Boden took a deep breath before continuing, "I am very sorry to inform you all that Jones committed suicide over the weekend.

"We're not supposed to lose our own like that," Mouch mourned.

After everyone had taken a moment to process the news about Jones, Gabby ventured, "And the good news?"

"We have decided on a replacement for Hadley - our very own Peter Mills."

"That puts us two down on truck, Chief," Cruz commented after a round of somber congratulations had been offered to Mills.

"I know," Boden sighed, "And you can be sure that I'm searching high and low to get us replacements for them as well as getting someone on deck for ambo once Dawson finds a candidate position."

Gabby opened her mouth to say something, but the bells went off, and she and Shay bolted out to the Ambo.

Later that day, Matt was working on a report from one of their fires that morning when Gabby came back from their latest call. "So," she started, greeting him with a kiss, "any good candidates to replace Jones and Mills?"

"We only just found out this morning," he replied tiredly. "What do you think?"

She shrugged as he continued, "The next academy class won't be out for another four months. We'll just have to pull from the floater pool until then unless someone wants to transfer from another house. Given that Hadley was arrested for all of those arsons, we don't look the best for transfers right now."

"I'm sorry, baby," she said, rubbing his shoulders. "It's just - I know how you can get someone sooner, if you want."

"Oh?" he asked, spinning around to face her.

She nodded. "Me. I want to take a place on 81."

"Gabby, you can't."

"Why? Because you don't want a female firefighter?"

"No, Gabby, it's not that -" he started, but she cut him off.

"You've been against me doing this since I found out I got into the academy. Peter never doubted me when I said I wanted to be a firefighter! He supported me - like you should be doing right now."

"I'm not doubting you, Gabby," he sighed. This argument was getting old fast. Getting compared to her ex-boyfriend? That was even worse. Steeling himself, he continued, "This isn't about female firefighters. It's not about you becoming a firefighter - you know that. I didn't want you to do that because I didn't want you to leave 51. And I'm saying you can't have the candidate position on truck because we both know you can't work under me while we're together. Like it or not, those are the rules."

"But Boden has to make an exception, Matt. He knows we can keep it professional."

"Boden doesn't have that power and you know it. As long as you're a firefighter and we're together, you'll have to be at another house."

"But the rule is only for people who are married. We could do it."

Matt rubbed his forehead, sighing. How many different ways was he going to have to tell her? "I hate that I have to say this, Gabby, because you know I'm not that kind of guy - you have to choose between me and the job. You can't be on 81 as long as I'm the lieutenant."

"Matt?" She gasped, blinking down at him, feeling betrayed. "How could you ask me something like that?"

"Look, I don't like the question any more than you do, but it's the reality of our situation. Do you want to stay together or do you want to ride on 81?"

Gabby swallowed hard. She and Matt had only been together for about six months. She was loving it. But did she love him? It was too soon to tell. She and Pete had been dating for the same amount of time and the only thing they ever argued about was whether she had feelings for Casey. Matt, on the other hand, seemed to argue with her at every turn. He never just let her do her thing. Like how he wanted her to wait to make the decision to go to the firefighter academy once she'd been accepted - It was ridiculous. He was a great guy and a good friend, but - in a relationship - he was turning out to be a massive pain in the ass. "I've gotta stay here, Matt," she replied finally. "This house can't handle any more loss."

It was his turn to feel betrayed. "Okay," he said, turning back to his report,"If you're sure, I'll talk to Boden. We'll see when we can switch you over."

"Great," she said, voice tight. "Thanks."

As the door to the bunk room swung shut behind her, Matt sadly finished his report then made his way to Boden's office.

Boden looked up as a knock sounded on his door. "Casey, what can I do for you?"

"Ga - Dawson is requesting to become 81's new candidate."

"You know I can't -"

"We're not together anymore," Casey interrupted, pinching his brow. "Therefore, she can be candidate on 81."

"And you're okay with this?"

"Far be it from me to interfere with her career choice," Casey replied dispassionately.

The chief took a moment to study his truck lieutenant. "Casey, I need to know that the two of you will be able to work together. If there's any hard feelings -"

"I'm fine," Matt gritted. "Just let her do her thing. I'll let Herrmann handle her."

"Okay," Boden conceded, still not totally convinced. "But you go home for the day and take some time. I'll cover for you until I can get a relief lieutenant in."

Matt opened his mouth to protest, but Boden stopped him short. "It's not a request, Casey. Go home."

Casey sighed, dropping his head. "Yes, Chief," he muttered as he turned to leave. He knew it was the right decision. His head would be clouded the rest of the day after getting dumped. That doesn't mean he had to be happy about it.