☆ chapter one ☆
༄ HALSTEAD SIBLINGS

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It was rather odd that, on her first day, none of the firefighters in the 51st had heard Malia's last name. Boden knew it and knew who her brother was. He would have hired her anyway simply because of her resume and the recommendations that came with it. But knowing that Inspector Jay Halstead, who had helped several members of his firehouse and saved Brett and Mills from kidnappers, was her brother, won him completely over.

That morning, as they walked into the locker room, Herrmann, Otis and Cruz came across that familiar last name written on the tag on one of the lockers. Malia had arrived early for the shift, along with Matt and Kelly, and had taken the opportunity to set up her locker.

That's how Brett and Gabriella found them as they arrived at the firehouse, arms crossed and frowns on their faces as they stood in front of the locker. Both girls raised their eyebrows in confusion and shared a quick glance with each other.

"What's with the faces?" Dawson asked, walking over to her locker.

"Since when does Jay Halstead work here?" Herrmann asked, without answering her question, at least not completely.

"What?" Brett stood next to him, bringing her gaze to the locker.

"Halstead is a very common surname, isn't it?" Otis commented. Everyone's gazes turned to him. "What?"

"How many Halsteads do you know?" Cruz asked his best friend.

"I don't know, I'm just trying to find an explanation for this." He pointed to the locker in front of them.

"That's Malia's locker." Gabriella's words make them look to her.

"Are you saying that Malia is...?"

Truck 81. Squad 3. Ambulance 61. Gas leak.

The alarm interrupted Cruz's words, setting them all off on their first call of the day.

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When they arrived on the scene, most of the factory employees had already left the building in the face of the gas leak. Two of them were on the roof, so Casey, Severide and their teams had to get them down while Malia, Brett and Mills attended the rest of the workers.

The three paramedics attended as many people as possible, handing them oxygen masks and checking their breathing. Otis and Dawson were handing them bottles of water and trying to help as much as they could.

"Okay. Put the mask on. Don't take it off" Malia looked at the woman in front of her. Getting rid of the stethoscope in her ears. The woman nodded, letting Malia approach another of the victims.

Mills walked past her, checking that she had everything under control.

"Chief, the victims are in respiratory distress." The boy walked away from her, approaching Boden.

"We can take two or three in the squad truck." Severide joined them in the conversation.

"We go to Chicago Med and help out there." Matt seconded his stance, standing next to Boden.

The chief watched them closely and a little hesitantly. There were many victims and the ambulances would take a long time to arrive.

"Okay." He finally agreed, seeing that was the best way to get the victims to medical attention as soon as possible. "Mills, call them. Tell them they're going to work their asses off today."

The boy nodded, walking back to the ambulance.

"Okay, 51, we're going to Chicago Med." Boden exclaimed, getting the attention of all the firefighters under his command.

The victims were divided between the two trucks and the ambulance, which, as soon as they were ready, headed for the nearest and best hospital in the city, Chicago Med.

"Inhalation of anhydrous ammonia." Mills announced as he entered the emergency room with the patient most affected by the gas leak. "Thirty more coming in."

"Third trauma room." A nurse instructed him.

Peter nodded, dragging the stretcher, along with Brett, into that room. Malia followed close behind, along with Matt. They were helping another victim into the emergency room.

"Get him to trauma room seven." The same nurse instructed them.

The rest of the firefighters enter after them, along with the rest of the victims.

"Everyone, please, can I have your attention?" One of the nurses tried to bring order to the ER as Mills and Brett left the box where they had left their patient under the care of a doctor. But no one seemed to want to listen to her. "Can I have your attention?"

"Attention!" Severide exclaimed, trying to help her.

The room fell silent after that, and all eyes traveled to them.

"Okay. Today is going to be a very busy day. And I understand that you are not feeling well, but we need you to help us and to be patient." The nurse said. "If you're here for the ammonia leak, you'll move to this side when I say so. If you're here for the flu or for low-risk reasons, you need to..." Her attention shifted to a man, who had just climbed onto a chair, right next to her. "Sir, not now, please. I need you to..."

Malia looked at Matt with confusion.

"If you thought Ebola was a nightmare, I am the apocalypse!" He proclaimed, pulling a grenade out of his jacket and activating it. "Death to the Americans! You will die in two weeks."

Malia didn't have time to hear or see much more, because, in one swift movement, Matt forced her down, placing himself on top of her to try to protect her from the explosion. Even so, because of the shock wave, and despite covering her head with her arms, the fall to the ground came out pretty hard.

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Her ears ringed, her eyelids felt heavy and her head ached. She was confused and disoriented. Dust from the explosion filled her lungs, making her cough uncomfortably.

"Casey, what happened?" Boden's voice reached her ears through the radio on her shoulder.

The fireman at her side moved slowly.

"Malia, are you all right?" He asked, placing his hand on her arm. She nodded weakly. "Dawson?"

"I'm fine." Gabby said from a few feet away from him.

"What did he say? The terrorist." One of the doctors asked.

His voice confused Malia, as it sounded strangely familiar. It sounded like her older brother Will. But that couldn't be possible, since as far as she knew he was still living and working in New York.

"Something about it being worse than Ebola." Matt answered.

"We need to lock down access. No one in or out! Now!"

Matt nodded, turning to his teammates.

"Herrmann." He called out to him. Herrmann nodded and got to his feet before running to stop everyone leaving the E.R. with fear on their faces. Matt grabbed his radio. "Chief, a suicide bomber just blew himself up. He said he had something worse than Ebola."

Malia slowly tried to sit up as a prick of pain in her head caused her to grimace. Her vision was blurred, but she could still recognize how a doctor approached Matt, grabbing his radio so he could talk to the chief of the firehouse.

"Everyone needs to go back inside. They could be infected." He spoke nervously.

Malia closed her eyes in frustration, trying to calm down and hoping that the aftermath of the explosion and the shock from the blast would leave her as soon as possible so she could help.

After checking that Malia wasn't seriously injured, Matt began to give orders to his teammates to control the situation and help all the wounded.

"Have the firemen bring in those who have gone out, including the firemen. And no one leaves." The doctor ordered.

"All right." Herrmann nodded.

"Hey." The doctor turned to Matt. "We need to set up a disinfection area. Find bathrooms with showers and start showering people."

"Okay."

Malia started coughing in discomfort. This caught the doctor's attention.

For the first time, Will's eyes fell on her.

"Hey, hey. Look at me." He crouched down next to her, forcing her to look up. Her eyes, still blurry, were able to recognize the man in front of her almost perfectly.

"You know my name." She groaned in response.

"I know I do. I want to see if you do too." He explained, taking a small flashlight out of the top pocket of his robe so he could look at her eyes closely.

Malia narrowed her eyes, annoyed.

"Malia." She answered.

"Okay." He sighed bringing his other hand to her right cheek, forcing her to keep her eyes on him. "I know you probably already know this, but, Lia, you may have a minor concussion. I need you to sit still while I take a look at you."

"I'm fine." She assured him with annoyance.

"I'll have to check that myself." He noted, pulling his hand away from her cheek and tucking the flashlight back into his coat.

"You know, you're still just as annoying as when we were kids." She complained. "My name is Malia Halstead. I'm 20 years old. I was born June 27, 1999 in Chicago. I have two older brothers. One of whom is right in front of me. I have two cats, one named Katniss and one named Binx."

Will smiled slightly as he watched her tenderly.

"Everything is fine." He stated then. Malia sighed with relief, lowering her gaze to the ground.

"Okay, good. Can I help people?" She asked, raising her eyes back up to meet his.

"All right. Come on." Will grabbed her hand gently to help her stand up.

"And yes, I have a minor concussion, of that I'm sure, because if I remember correctly my older brother lives and works in New York."

"And if I remember correctly, you study and live in Los Angeles."

"Touché." Malia sighed. "I arrived three days ago."

"I got here a few weeks ago. But this isn't a good time to catch up."

"Hey, hey, over here! It's Severide!" Otis' words attracted the attention of both siblings.

Mills ran to him, crouching down next to the wounded fireman.

"Kelly. Kelly, can you hear me?" He shook his unconscious body.

Sylvie crouched beside them, bringing her hands to Severide's wrists looking for a pulse.

"The pulse is weak." She then reported.

"Trauma to the back and chest. He has shrapnel from the grenade."

"Let me take a look." Will requested, pulling Peter aside so he could observe Kelly's condition. "No. There's nothing to do."

"What?"

"Will." Malia watched her brother in distress.

"Percentages are very low that he'll..."

"I don't give a damn about percentages." Peter cut him off.

Will watched him silently, not knowing what to say. His gaze then shifted to Otis, Sylvie, Matt and his own sister, seeing the concern on their faces.

"All right. Get a gurney." He instructed his little sister.

Malia didn't hesitate to listen to him, moving as quickly as she could.

"One, two, three." Otis counted as Matt, Mills and him placed Severide on the gurney.

"Trauma bay four. Put him on oxygen and start cutting off the jacket, but wait to uncover the wound. I'll be right there." Will instructed them.

"Okay." Malia and Peter nodded.

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With all that chaos Will wasn't surprised to get a call from his brother. Surely he was one of the detectives in charge of that terrorism case. What a first day he was having.

"Tell me you're not in there." Jay spoke as he got out of his car.

"Well, I am. And I'm not the only one." Will responded from the other end of the line. His eyes scanned all the people in the emergency room, checking to make sure everyone was being attended to.

"Wow, you don't say?" Jay scoffed when he heard his older brother's response.

"I'm not joking, Jay, I'm not talking about the patients, nor the rest of the doctors and nurses, nor am I talking about the firemen who were here when it happened." The red-haired man clarified. "Mia is here."

"Mia?" Jay frowned, stopping in his tracks abruptly. That caught the attention of his partner, Adam Ruzek, who stopped next to him. "Our Mia?"

"Yes, our little sister."

"What are you talking about? She's in..."

"Los Angeles?" Will completed his words, watching the young woman through the glass of the room where she was helping a surgeon treat Kelly Severide. "Well, not anymore. She arrived a few days ago, apparently she is a sanitary of the ambulance 61, the one in firehouse...

"51." Jay quickly completed. "Yeah, I know the firefighters of that house."

A million questions were running through the heads of both brothers. Malia had gone to California to study medicine, and as far as they knew she was still there, studying. However, on that strange day, they had both discovered not only that she had returned, but that she had apparently dropped out of medical school to become a paramedic.

"Listen." Will decided to snap out of his thoughts and address the real problem. "The terrorist said he had something worse than Ebola."

"And he spread it just like that?"

"Yeah. All of us here have been in contact with him."

That was certainly much worse than what Jay had first imagined when he heard there had been an explosion in the emergency room at Chicago Med.

"Who was it?" Jay asked.

"No idea." Will answered, shaking his head. "Do us a favor and find out, okay? And, Jay... make it quick."

Will's eyes watched his little sister's movements closely. He didn't care if he was hurt or even in danger of dying from a strange disease, he only cared that she could get out of there safely.

"Tell Mia I'll get you two out of there." Jay requested after a few seconds of silence. "All right? I'll get you out of there safe and sound."

"Unfortunately, that's not up to you." He sighed, looking away from his sister to observe the rest of the people around him.

Malia didn't know how she had ended up there, in the middle of a possible terrorist attack, operating on one of her new co-workers and with the uncertainty of whether that man had infected them with a deadly disease.

"Damn, saturation is going downhill." Hannah Tramble, the doctor in charge of Severide's operation, complained. "Ventilate him while I dress the wound."

Sylvie grab one of the ventilators in the room and place it over Kelly's mouth and nose, beginning to ventilate him with air. The vitals machine started beeping as Malia's eyes met Matt and Will's gaze. The former was worried about his best friend, while Will was just watching her. Malia knew how to read his gaze, he was worried about her and the whole situation they were in.

"We need to intubate." Hannah spoke, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"I'll do it." Malia responded, grabbing the intubation kit Peter handed her.

"20 milligrams of etomidate." The doctor ordered. Peter prepared it and handed it to her so she could inject Kelly with it.

"Intubating." Malia announced, starting the procedure she had performed so many times before. "Crap. I can't find the cords."

"Come on, you can do it." Sylvie, who was standing next to her, encouraged her.

The pressure was making young Halstead's head spin. She knew what Kelly meant to the entire 51 Firehouse, and she was the newcomer, so she had to get it right.

"Take a deep breath, and insert the tube slowly." Hannah instructed, trying to reassure her.

Feeling her brother's gaze through the room's glass panes didn't help either, which forced her to take a deep breath to try to calm herself down.

"Okay, I've got it." She announced, managing to get the intubation tube down Severide's throat.

"He's stabilizing." Peter noted, reading the vital signs.

"Okay, listen to me. We need to put him on a chest tube and make sure the wounds haven't caused any more damage." Hannah instructed them.

"Whatever you tell us."

After putting on the right suit and getting everything ready, Hannah began the operation. Peter was at her side, assisting her, while Malia was in charge of the ventilator that allowed Kelly to breathe steadily.

Matt and Will moved away from the room to continue attending the rest of the people. That calmed Malia down, taking a huge weight off her shoulders.

"Oh, come on." Hannah complained.

"What's going on?" Peter looked at her worriedly.

"He's got shrapnel between his ribs. I can't... I can't get it at this angle." She explained. "I need a thoracic retractor." She turned to Sylvie, who was standing back from the operation, out of the way. "Get me a thoracotomy kit."

After a nod, the blonde left the room in search of a nurse to help her find what Hannah had asked for. A few seconds later, Sylvie came back.

"Here it is." She announced, handing the kit to Peter.

"I need more hands." Hannah said.

Sylvie replaced Malia, who stood in front of Hannah to assist her in the operation.

"Tell me what to do."

"Okay. When I say, turn this and open it slowly, okay?" She pointed to the chest retractor already placed on Kelly's chest.

"Okay." Malia nervously nodded. Hannah watched her for a few seconds before returning her full attention to the wound.

"Now." She instructed. "All right, that's it. Oh, shit. I've lost it again."

"Sats are low. 78%." Sylvie announced, looking at the vitals monitor.

"Brett, I need you to remove the balloon from the tracheal tube and insert it into the right bronchus."

"But the left lung won't ventilate." Malia noted.

"I'll cut the lower pulmonary ligament and pull the lung away." Hannah quickly explained to her. "Ready? Now."

Sylvie does as the doctor instructed, causing the machine to start beeping. At least for a few seconds. The same seconds that took Will to enter the room. Malia looked up to him.

"Got it." Hannah announced, pulling the piece of shrapnel from inside the lieutenant's chest.

"Arterial hemorrhage!" Peter exclaimed as he saw the blood start to flow out.

"The shrapnel has severed the intercostal artery. Hold on." Hannah said, handing the forceps to Malia. "I need sutures."

Peter handed them to her.

"Rhythm stabilizing." Sylvie noted as Hannah began to close the artery wound. "He is stable."

Hannah took a step back, smiling slightly at the success of the operation.

"I like to be wrong." Will commented, attracting the attention of the three paramedics. Malia smiled with relief, sharing a look with her older brother, who looked at her with pride.

Once the operation was over, everyone began to leave the room, meeting Herrmann, whose face remained serious.

"What's the matter?" Hannah asked with concern.

Herrmann looked up, a faint smile forming on his lips.

"It's not contagious." He then announced. Making the people in the emergency room let out a sigh of relief.

"He has tested positive for avian influenza, but the Marburgvirus didn't have time to incubate." Diane Claman, the infectious disease expert who had come into the ER wearing a protective suit to do the necessary tests, announced. "Whatever he had died with him."

The celebrations didn't took long to arrive. Applause, smiles, tears of joy and some hugs.

"Open the doors!" Will gestured, after sharing a look full of joy with his little sister.

"Hey, Chief..." Matt switched on his radio to talk to Boden, who was still outside the building with the police and the rest of the 51st firefighters. "It's all good. It's not contagious. Let's get the doors open."

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With all that had happened, the fire department had decided to call the 51st shift to an end, even though they still had hours left. Malia hadn't been able to meet with Jay after leaving the hospital and hadn't had much time to talk to Will either, so she was the first to leave the firehouse.

That meant that none of her coworkers were able to ask her about her last name and her possible relationship to the detective from the Intelligence Unit of the 21st Precinct. Still, all their doubts were put to rest that night at Molly's, where the three siblings were finally able to reunite.

Malia wanted that hug between her and Jay to last forever. He had always been her closest brother, the one she had spent the most time with, so to be reunited with him after two years of not seeing each other was something very special.

"How could you not tell us you were back?" The detective asked as they separated.

"I could say the same about Will." She complained, pointing to the red-haired man, who rolled his eyes in response. "I don't know what to tell you, Jay, I didn't plan on coming back. I just... I needed to get out of L.A. and I ended up here. I wanted to see if I fit in, if I felt at home again, because if I didn't I would have gone to visit you and left again."

"Would?" He repeated her words. "Does that mean you've already decided to stay?"

"Yes, I think so." She smiled. "I mean, today I almost died because of a terrorist, but... I like the 51 Firehouse. And... now that I know you're both here, I don't know. Family reunion, I guess."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"I second that." Will said, with a smile on his lips. "But you have to explain to us why you dropped out of med school."

Malia sighed as she nodded. She didn't like failing or leaving things half-finished, so reliving that wasn't something she really wanted to do.

"Halstead." Herrmann called to them as he approached them with a tray. "On the house."

"Thank you, Herrmann." Malia smiled at him, grabbing the soda he handed her while Jay and Will grabbed their respective beers.

"You know, we were all surprised to find out there were three of you. Especially you, Mini Halstead. You should have seen our faces when we walked into the locker room and saw your last name written on one of the lockers. Cruz thought Jay had changed jobs."

Jay let out a small chuckle.

"Was it just Cruz who thought that?" Malia raised her eyebrows, not quite believing his words.

"Who cares?" Herrmann answered, making her smile. "We already told you the other day, but you're family. You too, Will. Good job today." He patted the redhead on the back.

"You too."

Please let me know how to improve my English if there were any mistakes here. English is not my first language and I do these translations with a translator and the knowledge I got in high school and on my own.

Thanks for reading and I'll try to be quicker with the next chapter. 🧡