Ashes

leaders lead

Carter stands next to kelly in the parking lot of a grocery store, watching as tara little enters the parking lot after exiting the store.

"Go time" carter mutters, "promotion, huh?" kelly asks, "you need to stay away" tara warns, "you get a promotion, and meanwhile, I could go to jail and my girlfriend could lose her job?" kelly asks as the two walk in front of tara, "get away" tara warns, "they're talking about filing criminal charges, why the hell are you doing this?" carter asks, "we didn't do a damn thing to you" kelly adds, "I said to stay away" tara warns again, "are you okay, ma'am?" a concerned man asks, "she's fine" carter snaps, "ma'am?"the man asks, "we all know nothing happened that night" kelly shouts the man stops him following tara, "hey" kelly warns, "watch out sir that lady might say you sexually harassed her" carter warns, "Tara!" kelly shouts as the woman gets back in her car, the alarm goes off as carter pulls on her squad jacket, "truck 81, squad 3, ambulance 61, building collapse, 800 South Carpenter Street" the alarm announces.

The three lieutenants join boden as he walks up to the building.

"All the schools are on spring break, big party, we were here on a D&D when we saw the whole thing collapse, one porch on top of another, there's at least a dozen trapped, just tell us where you need us chief" the cops explain, "we'll get the surface victims first, set up cribbing columns, K-12, sawzalls to cut away the timber" boden instructs, the crew get to work removing timber and pulling victims out.

At the firehouse boden pulls carter aside as the woman makes her way down the hallway

"You confronted the woman again?" boden asks in a stern tone, "chief, I had to I'm the one facing charges for something I never did you need to see it from my eyes" carter explains, "no I do not because not one person in this firehouse thinks you attacked that woman and we will fight this" boden muses, "thanks chief" carter nods, "but if you go within 100 feet of her or contact her again, you will force me to pull you from your squad, understood?" boden asks, "got it chief", the three roommates walk towards carters beloved jeep together having carpooled the previous day, "I'm not exactly one to sit on my hands, you know?" kelly asks, "yeah, well, you shouldn't" shay encourages, "yeah, well, that's not what the C.F.D. is advising, I'm running out of options here, Shay" kelly admits as carter tosses him the keys, "I'm telling you guys, the more I think about it, the more I think that she targeted you two specifically, she knew your background Kelly and she noticed you two are in a happy relationship, and she took, what, all of two seconds to start flirting up a storm? anyone do a background check on her?" shay asks, "I never thought about it but no" carter admits, "I've been on my heels this whole time, no" kelly says as he places his bag in the back of the car at the same time the two women get in the car, "yeah, exactly, It's time to turn it around, go on the offensive" shay recites as kelly gets in the drivers seat adjusts it and speeds off.

The couple stand in a quiet location waiting for gabbys brother, Antonio who happens to be a cpd detective.

"Hey" antonio greets the two, "hey, man, thanks for meeting us" kelly greets back as the two shake hands, antonio let's go of kellys hand and gives carter a friendly hug, "you two sure you know what you're doing" antonio asks, "like I told you on the phone, we're, we're feeling out of options" kelly explains, "well, it might be worse than you two think, I called the assistant states attorney, that Rutkowski's testimony landed, and they won't be accused of playing favourites for 2 firefighters, they're gonna approve criminal charges, I ran a background check on Tara Little, she worked at an ad agency, there were criminal charges filed and then withdrawn" antonio explains, "against her?" carter asks, "no a fellow employee there named Clay White, there's an address in there" antonio clarifies as he hands kelly a file, "we appreciate it" kelly says, "If I was smart, I'd tell you to let a lawyer handle it from here" antonio says as he turns and walks away, carter makes sure the man is out of earshot before turning to kelly, "let's go on a little trip and speak to Mr White" carter announces, "you're crazy girl" kelly teases, "you love it" carter remarks as she leans up and kisses kelly, "you're right I do" kelly declares as they pull away.

The two enter the quiet ad agency

"May I help you?" a man asks, "are you Clay White?" kelly asks, "I am" the man confirms, "we were told to talk to you about Tara Little" carter explains, "anything you wanna say about her, you can tell my lawyer, now get the hell out" the man warns, "It's, it's not like that, we, we need your help" kelly explains, the man leads the two to the back and the two perch on the edge of a desk, "I was a middle level executive at ramsey call, the high-end ad agency on michigan avenue, tara was one of 20 graphic designers we had on staff, tara and I had hit it off" the man explains, "was it inappropriate?" carter asks, "she was game, and I wasn't married, It was all consensual, we had some fun but went in different directions, ended totally civil, then we lost an account, the rumour mill started flying about downsizing, bext thing I know, Tara makes a claim, says I took advantage of her, it was a hostile work environment, I was fired and ostracized by the whole industry, I've got an M.B.A, and this is what I do to pay my mortgage, she got a nice settlement from what I heard" the man explains, "sounds familiar, would you consider coming forward?" kelly asks, "I signed a nondisclosure agreement, so she'd drop the criminal charges" the man explains, "you didn't answer the question" carter points out.

The crew pull up to a collision scene.

"The taurus there was just pulling out of the hotel parking lot, when, bam! the trailblazer hit it straight on" a woman explains, "thank you" matt says, "we're on the trailblazer" carter announces as she and kelly head towards it, kelly checks the man's pulse, "he's doa" kelly announces, the two walk over to the taurus and begin commanding the squad men, kelly checks his watch once the hard work is done and shows carter the time, "hey, I'm gonna need you to cover for us for an hour when we get back to the station" kelly tells capp, "you got it" capp confirms, the two strip out their gear upon reaching the station and head for the administrative offices meeting clay white there.

The two walk in to the canteen as kelly stands directly in front of tara.

"You're supposed to stay away from me" tara warns as she heads in the opposite direction, "are we?" kelly asks as they walk up to tara again, "you're finished, you two hear me? I am about to scream so loud" tara warns, "you do that, I'm about to give you a real reason to scream" carter says as clay white stands behind tara, "hi, Tara" clay greets, "he can't, he signed" tara starts, carter cuts her off with a smirk, "a nondisclosure and confidentiality agreement?" carter asks, "what else can you take away from him? we checked with the union attorney, and it turns out in cases of fraud, the courts don't care much about those agreements" kelly explains, "fraud?" tara asks, "maybe we take you to criminal court, get testimony on the record, or you retract your lie, quit this job" kelly says, "we never see each other again, crazy bitch" carter finishes for kelly.

Boden spots the couple in the bullpen.

"Hey, just the people I was coming to find, I don't know if you've heard, but miraculously, Tara Little has quit the fire service and recanted her testimony against you two" boden reveals, "did she?" kelly asks, "what'd you two do?" boden asks, "well, we, we" kelly begins, "you know what? I'd rather not know" boden says, "It was on the up-and-up, Chief, we promise you that" kelly promises, "we were like spies, let's just say that. I might have a change of career super spy you know like black widow from marvel" carter muses causing boden to chuckle, "Kelly, Carter, throughout all this, never doubted you, I want you both to know that, just had to be a chief" boden explains, "we know, we appreciate it" kelly nods shaking bodens hand, "truck 81, squad 3, engine 51, ambulance 61, building fire, 3331 West Halsted Road" the alarm announces.

The crew pull up on scene.

"Let's go! why aren't those hydrants open yet?" kelly asks, "we're gonna need this vented, get that aerial to the roof" herrmann instructs, "hey, back door is there, fan out! look for victims, we'll stick with Casey" kelly instructs, matt pulls a cop up, "I couldn't reach her!" the cop says, "where?" matt questions, "get him out of here!" carter instructs, "fire department! call out!" kelly shouts, "Hallie! Hallie!" matt shouts as they reach a metal gate, the two men continuously hit it trying to get it open, "this is an oven, everyone out!" boden instructs, "Hallie!" matt shouts as they go at the gate again eventually getting it open, "no! no! no!" matt announces as he gets to hallie, "I'm going out to chief to explain the situation I'll see you guys out there" carter explains as she runs out to the front exiting the building, "they're coming now Chief, Shay, Gabby get ready Hallie's in a real bad way" carter says.

season one episode twenty two