Lucky

News

"Baby, are you coming to bed?" Hallie called into the ensuite.

"In a minute," Casey replied, he was standing by the worktop and mirror, his left hand was tracing the long scar on his torso, he was noticeably thinner but he was thankful the hues of yellow and light brown bruises that had remained on his skin for weeks and weeks had finally faded. He slipped a top on and joined Hallie in bed.

"Are you cold?" she questioned, he'd be wearing clothes to bed since he returned home from the hospital, it was unusual for him to wear anything more than a pair black figure hugging boxers when he slept.

He just shrugged and adjusted the bed covers.

"Matt?"

He sighed. "It just stands out so much, it's ugly and…"

"Your scar?" she asked. "You have a scar here too," she brushed the back of his head, "And here… and…"

"Stop."

"They just show how strong you are," she told him.

"I don't look strong," he said almost petulantly.

"Your arms are three times the size of mine and…" she sighed, understanding what he was talking about, "Yes you've lost weight but that's nothing you can't deal with, and whatever you look like; I will always love you, you know that. Even when you're old and grey I will love you. You never need to worry about that, I will always love you, no matter what, I will never leave you, I'll never hurt you…"

"What if I ever hurt you? What if I do something stupid like…"

"You are not your parents." A reminder she had given him several times since their marriage, since he had divulged his past to her it was something she always knew he was worried about and there always seemed to be little she could do to dissuade him from those thoughts.

"Matt, you in?" Shay called after knocking on the front door and receiving no answer.

"Yeah, what…" he opened the door, he'd quickly put on his dressing gown after hearing the knock on the door as he stepped out of the shower. "Hi," he greeted a young paramedic he didn't recognise.

"Hi, Lieutenant Casey," she stated nervously, not sure where to look as his dressing gown gaped open.

"I've been home for a month..." Casey stated as he secured his dressing gown, "Surely Hallie's still not having people check up on me?"

"We came for brownies," Shay responded.

"I've not made any… When are you guys going to stop dropping by so I can shower without fear being interrupted?"

"Erm…"

"Do you think Hallie will ever trust me to look after myself?" he teased.

"She trusts you… she just…" Shay trailed off. "You've not made brownies?"

"No," he stated, "Where's Dawson?"

"Suspended until next week," Shay replied.

"She's been suspended? She kick someone off the back of the ambulance again?" Casey grinned

"Yeah something like that," she replied.

"If you want food to take back to the house all I can offer you is biscuits from the back the cupboard… No idea how long they've been there but you didn't really come for food, did you?" he questioned knowingly.

Two weeks later Hallie and Casey were sitting at their dining room table eating breakfast, Hallie was flicking through a medical journal as he sat eating his toast and reading the daily newspaper they received.

"Take a look at this." Hallie passed him the article she had just read.

He glanced up after reading it and stated. "Be useful if EMTs could start using it in the field."

"Yeah imagine the time it could save."

"And the lives," he responded, "Bet it won't happen for a long time even if they do decide to start rolling out."

"Politics," Hallie shook her head.

"Yup..." he scoffed.

They finished their breakfast but continued sitting lazily at the table, it was Hallie's day off and neither of them had plans.

"Do you need to check your…" Hallie began but she hadn't needed to.

"It was fine when I woke up and I feel fine now," he replied honestly, he'd become a lot more fine-tuned to his body's needs, most the time he could tell if his levels were high or low.

Hallie watched as her husband's finger tapped at the wooden table as he read through the newspaper. "What's Kelly up to today?"

He shrugged. "I dunno, not spoke to him for a few days."

"You should go on a guys night out," she suggested.

He frowned, a questioning look across his face.

"You're bored," she said. "You've not done anything fun for weeks and I know you're worried about your appointment in a couple of weeks." Casey would soon know whether or not he would ever be going back to active duty.

"So you're suggesting a wild night out with Kelly Severide?" he grinned.

"Yeah... I mean what harm could really happen." If she sounded like she was trying to convince herself it was because she was.

"You picked us both up from the police station last time you said that," he pointed out.

"And I'm still desperately trying to forget that incident."

For the whole hour before Severide arrived at their house Hallie reminded Casey that any alcohol he consumed was likely to cause a drop in his blood sugar levels. She was still reminding him to be sensible when he and Kelly were standing at the door about to leave.

"I'll be fine, don't wait up," Casey insisted.

Hallie looked from her husband to his best friend. "Kelly…"

"I know, I know; you could kill me in thousand different ways, and the cops would never know it was you if your husband doesn't come home in one piece."

"Good," she gave quick nod, her eyes glinted teasingly in the light from the porch. "Have fun but…"

"But not too much," Casey grinned.

"Another round of shots!" Severide called over to the waitress that had just walked past their table.

Casey looked down at the empty glasses in front of him, the colourful lights reflected off them, mesmerising him.

"Case?" Severide grabbed his friends arm.

"What?" he frowned, it was hard to hear above the noise of the club.

"I said what do you think Hallie's up to?" Severide repeated loudly.

"Up to?"

"Why do you think she wants the house to herself?" Severide reiterated.

"Oh… I imagine she's just fed up of me being around 24/7, she's used to having at least one night a week without me," he laughed, "She's probably watching all those reality TV shows that she pretends she doesn't like."

Their fresh drinks arrived, blue and florescent, but Casey barely had time to wonder why all the drinks they were having were so bright before he and Severide downed them.

He soon slipped off to the men's room, Hallie's warning words in the front of his mind despite his state of inebriation. He checked his blood glucose levels in the privacy one of the stalls before joining Severide back at the bar to discover he'd ordered even more shots.

Casey woke up the next morning to an incredibly irritating buzzing noise.

"Casey…" Severide moaned. "Turn it off…"

He frowned and opened his eyes to find his phone buzzing away right next to his head, he fumbled with it, his eyes squinted against the horrific light in the room. "Hello," he answered with a croak.

"Matt!" it was Hallie, "Where were you this morning? I've been calling you and Kelly since I woke up."

"Erm…" He pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked blearily around. "… I'm… erm… I'm at Sev's…" Or more precisely, he was sprawled across the end of Severide's bed.

"How drunk did you get?" she questioned.

"Erm… I'm all right…"

"Have you checked your levels this morning? Have you eaten yet? It's nearly 10am…"

"I…" He thought for a moment. "I feel all right… I mean… I'm really hungover but I'm all right…"

"Matt," she said warningly.

"Checking now…" he fumbled over the bed to find his jacket on the floor, in his hungover state it took him a while to insert a fresh strip into his monitor before pricking his finger and waiting for the reading. "Normal," he told her tiredly, "Can I go back to sleep now? I'll come home later…"

She sighed. "I'm at work so I'll see you tonight." She wasn't at all angry with him for not turning up at home in the early hours but she was annoyed he'd not let her know where he was, at least her plan had worked and he'd actually had some fun for the first time since the accident.

"Hey," Casey greeted her with a guilty expression late that evening when she walked in from work.

"Do you feel awful?" she asked as she put her bag down on the floor.

"Not so bad now," he smiled but the smile soon dropped, "I'm sorry I didn't come home… sorry I didn't tell you… to be honest I don't remember a lot of the night…"

"I'm not surprised," she responded, "You've not had anything to drink since before the accident and you went out bar crawling with Kelly."

"You forgive me?"

"Forgive you?" she repeated. "It was my suggestion, you needed a break, a chance to forget about the crap that's happened recently. You had a good time?"

"Yes…" he frowned, "From the little that I can remember anyway."

She laughed at him, shaking her head before kissing him on the cheek and heading to their bedroom to change.

Casey was sitting in the waiting room outside his doctor's office two weeks later, Hallie had said she would try her best to be with him during his appointment but so far he was sat alone nervously flipping through a magazine, taking no notice of its contents as he did.

"Lieutenant Casey?" The doctor appeared in the waiting room after what felt like an inordinate amount of time although he must have only been sitting there for fifteen minutes.

Just as he got up to follow the doctor into the office he heard Hallie. "Matt," she smiled when she reached him, she was still wearing her scrubs. "Told you I'd make it up here," she squeezed his arm comfortingly.

"Doctor Casey," the doctor greeted her and the three of them walked into his office.. "Take a seat."

As they sat down the doctor opened up Casey's file. Casey kept his eyes on his face but the doctors expression was passive and he couldn't tell if he was about to be given good or bad news.

"Well, I am happy to say that I can clear you for duty, the blood tests we took last week show the improvement in the function of your pancreas and I'm happy with…"

"I'm fine?" he interrupted disbelieving, "After everything I'm fine?"

"You still need to be careful, listen to your body but there's no reason I can't clear for duty," the doctor replied.

"I…" Casey frowned, still not quite believing what he had just been told.

"You weren't expecting good news," the doctor smiled, "We'll do a couple of blood tests in few months but I have no doubt that they'll come back good."

"Are you all right?" Hallie questioned when her husband didn't utter a word as he drove them home.

He nodded and kept his concentration on the road. When they reached their house he turned off the engine but made no move to get out of the car.

Hallie reached across and took his hand. "You were really expecting bad news even though you've felt much…"

"I don't get it… I don't get how I could have been so lucky. Eight weeks ago I thought I had cancer, thought I was going to die. This morning I thought I would never be able to go back to active duty," he said, staring out the windscreen, a frown on his face.

"Finding the tumour was lucky," Hallie replied, "Getting cleared for work was always a possibility, you just kept thinking you wouldn't, you didn't want to set yourself up for disappointment."

"Back to work tomorrow." Casey smiled as he entered the bedroom, he stripped off his clothes, leaving just his boxers.

"And back into bed with very little clothing on." Hallie grinned as she herself started to change, happy he was finally comfortable with his body in front her once again.

"How about no clothes at all..." He took off his boxers, moved in front of her and unclipped her bra at ease, letting it fall to floor by her feet. He slipped his hands between her hips and her panties and slipped them off. In one swift movement he picked her up so she was straddling his hips and whilst kissing her laid her down onto the bed. Still kissing the soft skin of her neck he fumbled across to the bedside table.

"Don't bother," she breathed.

He halted his actions, drew his arm back from the table and frowned down at her.

"I can't think of a better time than right now to start a family."

He grinned and went back to giving her soft skin the attention it needed with his lips.

The End