7. Act Brave

Complete story — includes the ending

Still locked in a custody battle over Joey, Jimmy and Kim meet with a court-appointed evaluator and plead their cases. When Sully and Tatiana visit his mother at her nursing home, Tatiana expresses concern over the quality and cost of his mother's care. Convinced that she can do a better job of taking care of her at home, she signs her out and moves her in with them. Sully is shocked and displeased, and tells Tatiana that it will be too difficult for her to take care of his mother. Alex tries to stay busy to avoid dealing with her feelings about her father's death. Eager to fill empty hours and maintain the brave front her father insisted upon when she was growing up, she works extra shifts and even helps Carlos and Ty move into their new apartment. While Carlos is downstairs unloading the truck, Alex takes Ty up on his previous offer to talk and asks him about his father, who also died in the line of duty. She shows him a chain that she wears around her neck which contains her father's 20-year service ring and the St. Florian medal he gave her the day she passed the department exam. Soon after the shift begins, an immense explosion rocks a local diner and ruptures a gas main. After everyone is evacuated, Alex realizes that her chain has fallen off in the diner, and she goes back inside to retrieve it. Just as she finds it, she sees a little girl trapped under fallen equipment and calls for help. The girl begs Alex to stay with her and she does, even though it means disobeying a direct order from Lt. Johnson to leave before there is another explosion. Johnson and Doherty finally free the girl and Alex rides with her in the ambulance. Ty joins Alex at the hospital as she watches the girl sleeping; she asks him more questions about the loss of his father and finally begins to open up to him about her fear and grief. Doc later takes Alex to task for disobeying Lt. Johnson's order, puts Carlos on the schedule in her place for the double she signed up to work that evening and sends her home to get some rest. Jimmy and Kim cool down and agree to celebrate Joey's upcoming birthday together, even if it is just for one day. Alex goes to Ty's apartment. Sully tucks in his mother, and Yokas tucks in Charlie. In the last scene, Ty is shown holding Alex in the shower.