Chicago Fire Episode 3.18 Forgiving, Relentless, Unconditional

Rice and Severide head to a diner before the shift starts and talk old times with an unlikely guest - mutual friend April from Chicago Med. Severide requests some one-on-one time and reconnects with April later while on a garden stroll. She reveals why she felt betrayed by him in high school - despite staying at her house for a summer while his family sorted out issues, Severide ignored her at the beginning of the new school year. Severide apologizes, but presents ammunition for the way he acted - his dad cheated on his mom with a teacher from their school. Either way, Severide assures her that he's a different guy now, and they solidify their reunion by meeting at her parents' house for a potluck.

Back at 51, a call to an apartment fire sends the squad to Herrmann's old neighborhood where he grew up. The fire rages and Herrmann risks his life to save a baby inside, defying an order from Boden in the process. Once the baby boy gets to the ambulance, Herrmann calms Slater, the frantic father, connecting with the man's understandable sense of dread. But the rescue gets complicated when Chicago P.D. stops by 51 and reveals that a friend of Slater's videotaped him blowing meth smoke into his baby's face earlier that day. The negligence may have caused the fire, and now Slater's gone. This news hits Herrmann hard, and the squad returns to the neighborhood for a little investigating of their own.

Herrmann approaches an old neighbor and discovers everyone knows Slater's an addict and points Herrmann in Slater's likely direction - a bar. After sitting on the information for a little while, Herrmann heads over to the bar, finds Slater and beats him without mercy, irate that he would jeopardize his son for an addiction. Luckily Casey shows up in time to separate the two men and help subside Herrmann's rage. Officers Burgess and Roman from Chicago P.D. toss Slater into jail and announce that the fire is officially considered arson. Casey keeps a tight lid on Herrmann's action - no one needs to know what happened.

Meanwhile, Dawson notices Brett avoiding Cruz, and the roommates discuss the faltering relationship at home. Brett confesses that she plans to break up with Cruz over dinner, but feels awful about dumping such a nice guy. With Dawson's support, Brett heads to the dinner ready to end the relationship... except Cruz beats her to it and dumps her! Turns out Cruz realized that their worlds - and interests - simply do not match.

Another imperfect scenario comes to fruition when Mills' sister flies into town with big news - their grandfather's estate left them a restaurant in North Carolina. She presses Mills to move out there and open up the restaurant together, excited for a new start. But when Mills hears from his doctor that he's cleared for the squad again, his decision appears clear. He wants to fight fires again, and Elise relents.

At Chicago Med, all of 51 gathers when news breaks that the baby Herrmann rescued developed a blood clot. While they wait on word from the doctors, Chaplain Orlovsky stops by to chat with Herrmann. Surprisingly, Herrmann reveals a deep guilt for rescuing the baby - what was the point if the baby was going to go through hell afterwards? Orlovsky urges him to focus on the righteousness of his action rather than the unfortunate state of the present. He's a firefighter, after all - this is part of the job. However, when the doctor announces that the baby did not survive the surgery, Herrmann struggles to hide his emotions. It's not until he attends church with his family and listens to Orlovsky speak about loss and faith that Herrmann finally feels at peace - lucky and happy to be a loving father and husband.