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"What are you doing?” A ten year old’s words to her uncle in a Walmart dressing room.

Joe Cruz was a firefighter for House 51 of the Chicago Fire Department, and he was a great one at that. He was very compassionate, forgiving, and empathetic towards people. That was seen as a great attribute for a firefighter, but he thought he seemed too vulnerable, brainless, or gullible.
One of his favorite parts of being a firefighter was driving; it was something that had brung him peace, although he never knew what he was about to see.

Otis Zvonecek was Joe Cruz’ colleague, his firefighter family, and his best friend. Otis thought very highly of Cruz, even when he would make fun of him at times. Otis saw Cruz as caring, kind, understanding, and handsome even. Otis really did care about Cruz a lot, although Cruz didn’t like to open up, Otis was there when he did.
Otis was observant over things Cruz did and liked, Cruz liked sweet tea, chili, old cars, driving, and trampolines, oh how he loved trampolines, and he did stuff like crocheting, rocking back and forth subconsciously, fidgeting, and biting his nails. Otis really liked to observe what he did to better understand him, he learned that skill from the one year psychology class he took in high school, pretty useful class if you would ask him.

A call for Truck 81 to a scene had come over the intercom, a house fire on Dagger St.
Otis and Cruz jogged over to their turnout gear and hopped into the truck. Cruz put his hands onto the wheel and drove to the location, something in the back of his mind making him think that location sounded familiar. He shook the thought from his mind and focused on driving to where he was going.

As they pulled up there, Cruz hopped out the truck and glanced at the fire before going to set up an aerial on the truck for Otis. He was then ordered to go into the house, and as he ran in the house, he had a horrible gut feeling. He ran into what seemed to be a very destroyed bathroom, seeing a man on his stomach on the ground groaning, and Otis on the ladder outside the window. Cruz opened the window for Otis to pull the man out, and glanced back to the man on the ground. As he turned the man around, his heart dropped and he felt like he would puke. The man he was facing was his uncle, who then developed a smirk while looking at Cruz.

Cruz fell to the ground as he felt like everything around him slowed, except his breathing which was fastening as tears formed into his eyes. Otis took notice and called Severide over to help take the man out, puzzled on what just happened. As soon as he took the man out, he climbed through the window and knelt down in front of Cruz. “Hey Cruz, I don’t know what’s happening, but we have to get outta this house right now. Do you think you can climb out the window?” Otis warned.
Cruz shook his head no, hyperventilating as his eyes roamed the room, then Otis’ face.
“Gonna have to carry you then.” Otis rushed.
Otis scooped Cruz into his arm and climbed down the ladder, holding onto Cruz as tight as he could without suffocating him. As soon as they got onto the ground, Otis sat Cruz down on the curb and rushed to grab some water for Cruz to drink. He brought him the bottle and sat next to him on the curb, cautiously putting his hand over Cruz’ arm. Cruz automatically leaned into Otis’ touch and sobbed. It broke Otis’ heart to see his best friend so distraught, and unable to figure out what was wrong.
Cruz started to mumble into Otis’ arms, so Otis tuned out every other noise to see what his best friend was saying, and what he heard made his heart drop.
“He raped me Otis, he hurt me” Cruz sobbed.
Otis’ eyes widened and he hugged Cruz before he got up and he walked to the man. He started screaming at the man and tried to attack him, but was restrained by Severide and Casey. Chief Boden glared at him and told him to meet him in his office back at 51.

Otis was comforting Cruz when they got back to 51 before he was called into Boden’s office. Cruz had calmed down quite a bit, but he was still crying. Otis wanted to murder the man and if he hadn’t been stopped from attacking him, he would have killed Cruz’ uncle.
“Otis, what the hell happened out there? You better have a good reason for what happened out there.” Chief Boden lectured.
“That man is a rapist.” Otis defended.
“Do you have any proof of that? That is a very serious accusation.” Chief Boden sternly warned.
“He raped Cruz, Chief. Cruz told me, he had a panic attack when he saw him.” Otis muttered, shaking his head.
Chief Boden started to rub his temples with a sickened expression on his face. He informed Otis he would tell the police.

Cruz sat in the bunk room on his bed while he stared at the ground. He glanced up when Otis entered the room and sat next to Cruz. Otis sighed as he relived what just happened in his mind.
“What you did out there was stupid, but I really do appreciate it Otis. Thank you.” Cruz quietly thanked.
“Of course. I was going to kill him but Kelly and Casey held me back.” Otis admitted.
Cruz smirked and shook his head slightly before he sighed and glanced back at the ground.
“I was ten. We were in the Walmart dressing rooms, I was trying on clothes for church. That was the first time.” Cruz confessed.
Otis’ gut dropped, as he felt himself sicken, and grabbed Cruz’ hand and squeezed it, letting him know that he was safe now. He was safe because Otis was by his side, and always would be.