Who was Shay on Chicago Fire?

Leslie Shay was a major player in the first two seasons of Chicago Fire. She had a complicated friendship with Gabby Dawson (Monica Raymund), and fans combing through old episodes may be confused as to who she was and why she’s no longer part of the show.

Shay, played by Lauren German, was a paramedic at Firehouse 51. She was present from the pilot, and quickly set herself up as a no-nonsense force within the team. One of the most notable Shay episodes is “A Nuisance Call”, where her and Dawson try to talk down an unstable man with a gun.

Dawson takes an aggressive approach, but Shay, sensing that the man is unresponsive, takes a more nuanced route. Sadly, the man shoots himself, and Shay becomes somewhat despondent in the aftermath. The guilt over the incident forever hampered the dynamic between Dawson and Shay.

What happened to Shay on Chicago Fire?

Tragically, Shay’s life to comes to an end soon after. In the season 2 episode “Real Never Waits”, she answers a call for a building fire, and a collapsing pipe strikes her in the head.

Dawson is also injured in the process, but she’s able to recover and start applying chest compressions to Shay. By the time Severide (Taylor Kinney) arrives on the scene, however, Shay’s fate is basically sealed.

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It’s later discovered that the fire was caused by a serial arsonist named Trenton Lamont (Robert Knepper). Not only was he responsible for a string of fires that dated back twenty years, but he was stalking Shay and was seemingly targeting her.

While characters who died can sometimes return to Chicago Fire in the form of a flashback or a dream, Shay has not seen since season 2. Lauren German, on the other hand, has found success as Chloe Decker on the Netflix series Lucifer.

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