Wherever Dick Wolf goes, a procedural based drama is bound to follow, and with that, a likely romance between at least one set of the series’ characters. Because of this, NBC’s Chicago based emergency response franchise comes with no shortage of enticing love stories.
Consisting of starter series Chicago Fire and the three spin-offs that followed — PD, Med, and the short-lived Justice, One Chicago has been serving up relationships as hot as the city’s infamous deep dish since the fall of 2012. But for as many romances as there are, only a handful of these whirlwind, star-crossed, non-platonic partnerships stand among the procedural greats of the last few decades.
Lindsay and Severide
Even though their crossover romance was short-lived, Chicago Fire and PD’s attempt at blurring the lines between two series through Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush) and Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) made for an interesting connection.
While working together to save Severide’s sister, Erin and Kelly formed a bond, growing to understand each other in a way that few others had. Their understanding led to a brief relationship, and though it fell apart because of Severide’s grief following Leslie Shay’s (Lauren German) death, the two continued to have each other’s backs in times of need.
Platt and Mouch
Though the work-place romance of two first responders is a trope that’s hard to beat, sometimes the most successful relationship comes from two people who hardly work together at all. That may be the case for the One Chicago universe, where Fire‘s Randy “Mouch” McHolland (Christain Stolte) and PD‘s Sergeant Trudy Platt (Amy Mortan) remain one of the franchise’s longest-running marriages to date, as well as the only lasting cross-over romance.
After reaching for the same slice of cake during Chicago Fire‘s season two finale, Platt and Mouch quickly hit it off and started dating. Though much of their relationship happens off-screen, it is evident that the two not only became grounding factors for each other, but for the franchise as a whole.
Stella and Severide
While their storylines tend to follow a blueprint set by the relationships that came before them, Fire’s romance between Kelly Severide and Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) found its footing as the story of a womanizer grounded by the love of a woman that stands her ground.
Introduced as the new girl during season four, it’s quickly revealed that Stella was once pursued by Severide — an event that the two agree to leave in the past. But as the past does, it comes back with a vengeance and Kelly and Kidd spend the next few seasons dancing the line between feelings and friendship until finally, the two get together in the show’s sixth season.
Katie and Otis
Every drama needs a bit of light-hearted fun from time to time, and for the most part, that’s exactly what the adorable relationship between Chicago Fire‘s Brian “Otis” Zvonecek (Yuri Sardarov) and Katie Nolan (Brittany Curran) serves.
When Katie arrives at the firehouse, she and Otis quickly become infatuated with each other, later bonding over their mutual love for the board game Settlers of Catan. But there’s a catch with their courtship; Katie is Severide’s younger sister, and Otis must face his coworker in order to properly ask her out on a date. He does eventually, and the two take part in brief relationship before Katie leaves the show, choosing to move to Colorado after her kidnapping in season two’s “Tonight’s the Night”.
Upton and Halstead
It’s not often that a series’ second-chance romance manages to hold a candle to that of its predecessor, but after Erin’s departure from the show, Chicago PD found a way to do just that with its partners-to-lovers romance between Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) and Hailey Upton (Tracy Spiridakos).
Officially paired together in PD’s fifth season, Upton and Halstead’s partnership gradually grows from one of unease to loyalty, allowing their friendship to make the inevitable leap to something more during season eight — a move that just so happens to lead them down the aisle not long after.
Halstead and Lindsay
Though Sophia Bush abruptly left the show in 2017, Chicago PD’s romance between Erin Lindsay and Jay Halstead remains one of the great will they/won’t theys of the franchise.
Partnered together from the start, Erin and Jay began to grow close and like many of the procedural drama greats, chose not to act on their feelings — at least, as long as they could. But once the two crossed the line from platonic to romantic, they spent their time working to maintain their relationship on and off of the job until the season four finale brought Erin’s reluctant decision to join the FBI.
Donna and Boden
When it comes to a first responder series, it isn’t always the workplace romance that gets to the heart of what’s at stake. It can be the spouse left at home while their other half runs into danger that does it, and where better to look than with Fire’s Donna (Melissa Ponzio) and Chief Wallace Boden (Eamonn Walker)?
Brought face-to-face by a call in season two, Donna and Boden quickly hit it off — discovering that both are cut from similar cloths of failed relationships. To everyone’s surprise though, their relationship seems to work, and Donna becomes a sort of compass for Firehouse 51’s battalion chief.
Robin and Connor
Despite being yet another short-lived One Chicago romance, the relationship between Chicago Med’s Connor Rhodes (Colin Donnell) and Robin Charles (Mekia Cox) remains one of the medical drama’s most memorable.
When Robin is hired as an epidemiologist in season two, she and Connor quickly build a rapport that spirals into a deep love for one another. But in the end, their love isn’t enough and Robin’s trauma following a teratoma causes her to leave Chicago, leaving Connor to make the choice to let her go rather than follow her out of the Windy City.
Burgess and Ruzek
As one of the few relationships still standing from the earliest days of the franchise, Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati) and Adam Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) make up one of the most interesting will-they/won’t-they pairings on television. Despite the push and pull of their on again/off again romance, the two are never quite as platonic as one might think; constantly and completely devoted to each other as partners, and now parents.
While hot and heavy in Chicago PD’s first few seasons, Kim and Adam’s relationship came to a crashing halt by the third, and since then, things have been… complicated. Since season three, the two have circled around their mixed and mingled feelings, kissing in bars or settling for one-night stands — one of which resulted in a pregnancy and eventual miscarriage. But it’s in season eight when Kim adopts a child and Adam quickly grows attached that their trajectory takes a new turn, officially adding the layer of parenthood to their already confusing yet not-quite-platonically-committed relationship.
Dawson and Casey
There’s no romance quite like — or better than — a franchise’s foundational love story. In One Chicago’s case, it’s the relationship between Chicago Fire’s Gabby Dawson (Monica Raymund) and Matt Casey (Jesse Spencer) that remains deeply embedded in the cement of the Chicago-verse.
Though it took time for Matt and Gabby to work through the back-and-forth of feelings that both believe were unrequited, the two finally got together in season two and spent the next few navigating ups, downs, loss, and change both in and out of their relationship. But it was in the one-hundredth episode that their love story found a sense of culmination along with the series, when one look between Dawson and Casey sent them off to the courthouse to tie the knot. Unfortunately though, their story took a turn the following year when the toll of Gabby’s own trauma led to her departure from the series, but her quick return during season eight’s “Best Friend Magic” ultimately proved that Dawson and Casey’s love (and chemistry) is one fire that Chicago’s firefighters will never manage to put out.
