Elizabeth's phone pings followed by Jay's phone. They get them out of their pocket and look at them before looking up at each other. 'I'll put Harper back in her cot.' Jay hands Harper back to Elizabeth who puts Harper back in the cot.

'Mommy, what's going on?' Aaron questions.

'Mommy and Jay have to go back to work.' She tells him as they walk through to the kitchen. 'Jay and I have to go back to work.' Elizabeth tells Callum. She walks to the window and looks out. 'Holy shit.' She whispers. Jay walks over to her and also looks out. There is a thick black cloud of smoke slowing rising over Chicago. 

'We better get there.' Jay tells Elizabeth. Callum joins them.

'What's going on?' Callum questions. 

'Massive fire at a warehouse. Apparently, there was an underground rave going on. There's gonna be a lot of casualties and a lot of heat on us to figure out what happened and why.' Jay responds. 

'We'll take your car.' Elizabeth looks at Jay. She turns back around and kneels down in front of Aaron. 'Be good for daddy, okay?' 

'Okay.' Aaron nods. They then hug. 'Be safe, mommy.' He tells her as they part. 

'I will.' She kisses the top of his head before standing up and kissing Callum. 'Don't wait for me.' She tells him. 'This is most likely gonna be an all-night kind of thing.' She kisses him once more. 'I'll see you tomorrow.' She turns to Jay. 'Let's go.'

~

Ten minutes later, Jay is pulling up at the fire. He gets out of the car with Elizabeth and they walk up to the command centre where Voight, Hailey, Adam, Kim and Kevin are waiting. 

'Do we know what happened?' Jay asks.

'No.' Voight shakes his head.

'This can't be happening again.' Adam sighs.

'Something similar happened in 2017, right?' Elizabeth queries.

'Yeah.' Jay nods. 'The daughter of a late colleague was killed in it alongside 38 other people.' 

'Cheif Boden is in charge, Halstead, Maxwell, I want you two to go and speak to him and see if they have any idea as to how this started.' Voight orders. Elizabeth and Jay nod and walk off. 

'Cheif Boden is-' Elizabeth starts, hinting at Jay.

'Battalion Cheif of firehouse 51. If he's in charge, chances are his firehouse was first on the scene.' Jay tells her. He spots Boden taking to Captain Tom Van Meter from the Office of Fire Investigation and the three officers of Firehouse 51: Captain Matthew Casey, Luitenant Kelly Severide and Luitenant Christopher Herrmann. 'Cheif?' Jay interrupts them. 

'We were just going to come and find you guys.' Boden says. 

'This is Detective Elizabeth Maxwell, she's new to intelligence.' Jay introduces Elizabeth. He turns to Elizabeth. 'This is Cheif Wallace Boden, Captain Matthew Casey, Luitenant Christopher Herrmann and Luitenant Kelly Severide from Firehouse 51 and Captain Tom Van Meter from OFI.' 

'Nice to meet you.' Elizabeth nods as she shakes their hands. They all nod as if to say "you too".

'Do you have any idea as to how to fire started?' Jay questions. 

'The building was condemned by the city for faulty wiring so our guess is that it's an electrical fire that got out of hand.' Van Meter says. 'We won't know the official cause until we investigate.' 

'What time did the call come in?' Elizabeth asks. 

'About an hour ago.' Kelly replies. Elizabeth looks at her watch. 

'Any fatalities?' Elizabeth queries looking back up.

'Not as of yet?' Matt says.

'By any chance,' Elizabeth looks up, 'was there a man waiting here for you guys?' 

'There was.' Boden asks. 'He took off though, he said that he had to get to work. We got his details though.' 

'James Wallace?' Elizabeth questions. 'Address is in a super fancy area?' 

'Yes.' Boden nods slowly. 'How do you-'

'I know where you're going with this.' Van Meter cuts him off.

'Liza, what's going on?' Jay asks confused. Elizabeth looks at him.

'It matches the M.O of an arson attack a few years ago in Seattle. Party in a condemned building. The call comes in at 6 pm. No fatalities at first. A man waiting for the fire service, says he has to get to work and gives his name as James Wallace and address as a fancy area.' 

'What do you mean by "no fatalities at first"?' Herrmann queries.

'After two hours there was a massive explosion.' Elizabeth responds. 

'How many people died?' Kelly asks.

'Over a hundred.' Elizabeth informs them. 'There was a bomb in the basement of the building. We need to find it and disarm it.'

'I'll call the bomb squad.' Jay says as he gets his phone out. 

'No point.' Elizabeth shakes her head. 'No bomb squad will be able to disarm it.' 

'Who can?' Jay asks. 

'Me.' Elizabeth sighs. 'He tried to strike again. We managed to disarm the bomb before the explosion. The disarming of the bomb is triggered by fingerprints.'

'Why would-' 

'I'll explain later.' Elizabeth says. 'We need to find Voight and let him know what's going on.' All of them walk over to the command centre and explain everything to Voight. 

'Are you okay with going in and disarming the bomb?' Voight asks her.

'Of course.' Elizabeth nods.

'Liza, you have two children and a husband.' Jay says. 

'I'm the only person who can disarm that bomb.' Elizabeth states. 

'What if you don't disarm it in time?' Jay asks. Elizabeth stays silent. 'Liza-' 

'I'll disarm it in time.' Elizabeth tells him. 'But we need to go now. There's normally an entrance in the east side of the building.'

'Casey, Severide, go with her.' Boden orders.

'Let's go.' Elizabeth tells Kelly and Matt. They all walk to the east side of the building where there is a bulkhead door with a chain and padlock.  

'I'll go and get the bolt cutters.' Kelly says. 

'No time for that.' Elizabeth shakes her head. She takes a couple of bobby pins out of her hair and uses them to pick the padlock. After a couple of minutes, she has unlocked the padlock, takes it off and removes the chain. Kelly and Matt go to put their breathing apparatus on. 'You won't need those. Basement has always been unaffected.'  She opens the door and they walk down to the basement. On a table in the middle of the room is the bomb. There are wires coming out of the bomb and into the walls. They all walk over to the table. Elizabeth takes a deep breath and takes the cover off the bomb. They see that the timer is set for forty minutes. 

'So, how do you disarm it?' Matt asks as he goes to touch it.

'Don't touch it!' Elizabeth tells him. 'This whole thing is covered in fingerprint sensors. If anyone but me touches it, it will detonate.' Matt drops his hand. Elizabeth puts her hand on the timer. After a couple of minutes, the timer shuts down.' 

'That's it?' Kelly asks surprised.

'It's not that easy.' Elizabeth replies. The timer starts up once more. This time, it shows six hours.

'Six hours?!' Kelly exclaims. 'Is that until the bomb goes off?'

'Not quite.' Elizabeth laughs nervously. 'That's how long I have to stand here with my hand on the bomb until it disarms.' 

~~~~~

This chapter when in a completely different direction than how I wanted it to. 

Let me know what you think!