Matthew Casey

A/N – Thanks for the reviews.

Remember That

Christmas Day came but sadly it was not a day of cheer or festivities at the Columbus Drive firehouse. It was Casey's first shift back after the massive warehouse blaze and everyone in the firehouse was subdued. Casey's team were sitting in the common room when someone asked, "What's the latest update on Adcock?"

At that the young candidate looked up from the bowl of cereal he was stirring aimlessly. He didn't know why he had even got it from the cupboard because he didn't feel at all like eating anything.

"Critical condition still," Butler supplied. He and Adcock had come up through the fire academy together and had maintained their friendship to this day. Their wives were friends and their kids were friends.

"How are his wife and kids holding up?" Hayes asked.

"They're not, not really. We've been watching over the two boys after they finish school. She doesn't want them to see him in the hospital. They're with their grandparents today, they're gonna try and give them a normal Christmas…"

Conner just nodded, "Understandable. You'll let us know if there's anything more we can do then?" he said. The truck lieutenant had already sent a boot around the whole firehouse collecting donations to help the captain and his family through this really difficult time in their lives. Casey had felt so downhearted about Adcock's injuries and he had contributed some of his construction earnings to the fund to try and make up for what had happened. He felt it was certainly his fault for just not being good enough at the end of the day, not fast enough, not strong enough.

"Of course, thanks," Butler responded.

There was an awkward silence after that until someone piped up, "So Casey what are your plans for the holidays then? How's that girlfriend of yours huh?" A small snicker had gone round.

"She's not my girlfriend," Casey retorted and everyone seemed to sigh in relief at the change of subject. It was always difficult when any firefighter went down with injuries on a call, but they all knew and accepted the risks of their job.

"Ah that's good then," Hayes commented, "Saw that red head give you her number..."

"That's good?" Casey repeated, "She was never my girlfriend to cheat on..."

"She must have left him..." someone said.

"But she wasn't my..." Casey started to protest.

"Red head? The EMT from Ambo 57?" McCormack chimed in, "The one who checked you over... God you're good..."

Casey just looked away from their prying stares but Hayes didn't miss a trick. "You slept with her didn't you?" he quizzed.

"We just had a few drinks and I took her home," Casey stated quite simply.

"Took her home and then slept with her," McCormack nodded in satisfaction that he had guessed correctly about Casey's sexual escapade, "I mean, don't blame ya… she is stunning."

"Believe whatever you want," Casey gave a small shrug.

Suddenly the klaxons shut down any further conversation or speculation about whether Casey had or had not slept with the red headed paramedic, "Truck 6, pin-in MVA at West…"

A couple of days passed after Christmas where surprisingly, although they didn't end up eating until after 8pm, Casey's dinner had been a success. He was off shift and found himself walking up the nurse's station in the burns ward at Lakeshore Hospital. He wanted to find out for himself how the firefighter was doing. Maybe he could dispel some of the various rumours and reports he had heard around the firehouse, perhaps he was doing better than everyone suggested. "Hi. I'm looking for James Adcock's room, I'm..."

"A firefighter?" the nurse smiled, continuing at his puzzled expression, "He's had a lot of visits from Fire personnel," she explained, "He's in room 12B..."

"Thanks," Matt smiled. He didn't particularly like hospitals, for no real reason, and he was nervous about this visit to begin with. He followed the small corridor of rooms and found 12B at the end but he waited outside the glass door. He was even questioning why he was even there. He didn't really know the Captain but something was just telling him he should visit, to make sure he was going to be ok. However, from what Matt could see, things weren't really looking too good. Adcock was just about completely covered in white bandages and surrounded by medical equipment. Matt hadn't been into a burns unit before and after seeing into various rooms on his way past and then looking over at the Captain he wasn't sure he'd ever wish to visit one again in the future. It had really put into perspective just how dangerous his chosen profession could be.

Matt was still lost in his thoughts when someone spoke, "You can go in and see him if you want to."

He turned to see a nurse standing behind him. "Oh... erm... I don't know him really…" he began, feeling awkward to have been spotted and approached by the nurse and now feeling obliged to go in, when he had more or less just taken the decision not to, "I mean… I'm not just stalking random patients... I'm a..."

"Matt Casey?" another female voice came from his left.

"Erm yeah…" he nodded as he turned to face her.

"I thought it might be you," the woman replied, a small smile gracing her weary features, "James' crew said you broke through the warehouse wall so he could be rescued." Before Matt could say anything she pulled him into a hug, "Thank you."

"Just my job," Matt told her sincerely when she pulled back. He hated attention, hated that she thought he had done something special. All he had done was get them out. And that was his job. He had done nothing more than what was expected of him. He was nothing special. "How is he doing?" he questioned. The nurse had slipped into the captain's room and was checking over his vitals and lines. He watched as she did so.

"He's... hanging in there. He's having surgery this afternoon which they're hopeful will help him," she explained.

"Surgery?" Matt questioned, wondering why it was needed. He had just thought the Captain had a few burns, not that he'd been injured in the fall or in some other way.

"They're taking his hands," she told him calmly although Matt could see she was on the brink of tears.

"I'm sorry…" he knew it was no consolation to her but he was unsure what else he could say. No words would really help her right now. And it was a big shock to him as well.

"Don't be sorry Matt… do you mind if l call you that?" she went on.

Matt shook his head, "Not at all..."

"Well no need to be sorry. Everyone knows that you did everything humanly possible to get James out safely. The doctors think the surgery will give him a much better chance of survival…"

The nurse stepped out of the room and spoke to Adcock's wife, "Sarah, he's awake now," she smiled.

Sarah nodded and spoke to Matt, "Thanks Matt, thanks for what you did. You could both have been killed. Thanks to you the boys still have their Dad. It's good you were with him. Thanks for coming," she squeezed Matt's arm gratefully and went inside the room.

As the door slid closed, Casey spoke to the nurse, "What are his chances?" he asked her thoughtfully, watching Sarah Adcock walk to her husband and kiss his face on what seemed like one of the only un-bandaged areas of his body, "I thought I got him out in time... thought he was going to be fine..."

"He has a long road ahead of him but at the moment he's still really critical," she tried to reassure him despite the pessimistic answer, "I'm sure you couldn't have done anything more than you did."

Two weeks after the huge warehouse blaze, Captain James Adcock died at Lakeshore Hospital. He had never regained consciousness after the major surgery to remove his hands. When the news broke, Casey was on shift as Chief Neal had come into the common room to break the distressing news. Lieutenant Conner had asked to speak to Casey alone once the Chief had gone. Although quite a gruff character, Conner knew his men all gave 110% to the job and cared that they were physically and mentally okay. Casey had nodded and followed his Lieutenant down onto the apparatus floor.

"We save a lot more lives than we lose," Conner stated simply, he was a man of few words, Casey had learned that quickly, "Remember that."

The weeks following weeks flew by. Matt kept up his hard work and even took some additional classes at the Fire Academy recommended to him by his lieutenant. He was surprised to be sat next to Kelly Severide at one of them, although really he shouldn't have been surprised, he knew the man wanted a position on a rescue squad. Since neither of them was on shift the next day they had decided to have a night out afterwards to catch up one what the other had been up to recently. They enjoyed themselves and had a good night but neither could remember much about what had happened, when they woke the next morning it dawned on them they weren't in their own homes. They discovered they had followed a couple of girls home and flaked out on their convertible couch.

Over winter time the construction jobs with Flanagan had slowed but they still had jobs completing house interiors and one day they were heading out of the scrapyard towards home after a long day spent doing tiling work, when Casey had spotted something by the exit almost covered by the snow.

"Could you pull over for a sec?' Casey asked the other man.

"Yeah, sure... you ok?" Flanagan answered, braking and stopping the truck by the scrapyard fencing.

Casey was peering out of the window, "That scrap?" Casey questioned, nodding towards the item he had spotted.

"Is what scrap?"

"That sewing machine," Casey replied.

"I'd say so... why?"

"Think I'll take that home…" Casey opened the door and jumped out into the freezing air, his breath making clouds in the air. He bent down and picked the item up, chucking it into the back of the truck and getting back inside, rubbing his hands for warmth.

"What do ya want with a busted sewing machine?"

"If I can fix it could be useful."

"What? You're taking up sewing now?" Flanagan laughed at him, "You wait until the guys hear this..."

"I'm not taking up sewing," Casey smiled with an easy humour, "But thread is cheaper than clothes..."

Flanagan just shook his head at Casey, "You've got two jobs, three even, you can't tell me you haven't enough money to buy clothes…"

"Yeah, but no point in throwing stuff away if it can be mended is there?"

Flanagan had grinned at the young man, realising little a bit more about him. Obviously the kid had grown up in a poor household or parents had been to0 tight to buy him anything new.

"He drags us out of bed at the crack of dawn but is there any sign of him? Nowhere to be seen. Where the hell is he?" Severide grumbled, peering around the small diner, his dark brows knitted into a scowl.

"Just after 9:30," Matt pointed out, "Hardly the crack of dawn is it..."

"Well this is very civilised of us isn't it? I feel like we're growing up…" Severide went on.

Matt almost choked on his mouthful of coffee, "You're 23 Severide, you are a grown up."

"And you're a little old man stuck in a 22 year old's body," Severide scoffed at him.

"Maybe… but at least I can hold my alcohol better than you," he grinned and added, "And I'm not an immature cocky bastard..."

"I'm not cocky... just direct that's all," Severide shot back in defence.

"The way you spoke to that poor waitress…"

"Huh, bet ya ten bucks she'll give me her number though."

"See, cocky," Matt stated pointedly, nodding over towards the door behind Severide where Andy Darden had just come in.

"Hey guys, sorry for being late, shift overran," Andy said breathlessly as he sat down, shuffling along the seat next to Matt.

"How was shift?" Matt enquired.

"Full of tile scraping and floor cleaning, then got an MVA early this morning at about 5am," Darden explained.

"So why did ya want us all here then?" Severide questioned.

"Well l got news…"

"You knocked Heather up?" Severide grinned.

"No but we're getting married..."

"You finally quit smoking then? I'm actually a little impressed," Severide nodded then turned to Matt, "I bet she's pregnant. She'll tell him straight after the wedding…"

"You wanna bet?" Matt laughed.

"Hey will you betting about my future wife!" Darden was shaking his head, laughing along with the two of them.

The crew of Truck 6 jumped from their rig and made their way over to the seemingly abandoned house, with its boarded up windows, and a litter strewn garden overgrown with weeds.

"Where's the fire then?"

"Neighbour called it in," Lieutenant Conner said as he approached the front door and banged on it firmly with his halligan, "Fire department! Is anyone in there?" he shouted loudly. When there was no response, he yelled again.

"You smell that Lieutenant?" Hayes questioned from his position by one of the boarded up windows.

Casey wrinkled his nose, "Smells like burning rubber or plastic…" he said, "Crack maybe?"

"Yup. Masks on," Conner ordered. "You ready to see how we deal with a crack house then?" he asked Casey, who nodded eagerly. "Ok then. Hayes you're with McCormack. Butler you and Flanagan round the back. Casey you're with me," Conner smiled inside his mask at his candidate's enthusiasm, "Let's get this door open then..."

Matt was still breathing heavily when he finished running and was walking up the dingy stairways to his third floor apartment. As he went through the door and turned into the corridor on his landing he spotted Kelly Severide outside his door. He didn't hide his surprise when he said, "What are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you too," Severide drolled, "I did message you earlier..."

"Been out," Casey replied, wiping sweat off his face with his sleeve.

"So I see," Severide answered dryly.

Casey pulled his cell phone out of its zipped up pocket in his joggers and sure enough there on the screen was a text from Severide timed just after he'd gone out running.

"So… you gonna let us both in then?" Severide asked.

"Yeah, yeah..." Matt unlocked his door, gave it a bit of a shove to get it open and Severide followed him inside. "So what do you need?" Casey asked at length, feeling vaguely uncomfortable that Severide was seeing the way he lived. Sure the man had seen it before but only briefly and he was probably far too distracted by the situation he'd found him in. Matt was sure Severide's living arrangements would be far superior to his own, but then he had probably never wanted for money nor had to run two jobs at the same time to finance himself through the fire academy but he didn't like to make assumptions and tried not to judge him despite the attitude he'd had during their training, he knew Severide had his own struggles when it came to his family.

Severide was standing in Casey's tiny cramped apartment, staring around himself, finding his surroundings quite distasteful, "Casey, you really need to get a new place... you're living in one room..."

"Well there's only one of me… don't need anything more," Casey replied as he pulled his sweat soaked top over his head.

"It's run down, falling apart, and as for the stairs and landing... it's not the most secure place… and I swear I walked past someone with track marks all over their…" Severide was saying as he walked over to the table where Casey had put the project he was working on.

"Careful, don't touch it," he warned Severide.

"What the hell is it? Looks like it belongs in a scrap yard…"

"It does. At least that's where l got it from…" Matt had relaxed a bit now Severide had moved away from the table.

"Does it work then?" he asked.

"Not yet, I'm fixing it," Matt answered,, pulling open one of the dresser drawers, taking out a clean t-shirt and pulling it on.

"God… you are tight..." Severide laughed, "You're getting paid as much as I am."

"I'm trying to save and it keeps me busy, I like tinkering with mechanical stuff…"

"So you don't think about all the shit we see on the job?"

"What are you talking about?" Matt scoffed, feigning ignorance.

"I go to the boxing gym," Severide told him.

"What?"

"I box, hit a bag, or a person... it does help."

"Right… yeah..." Casey nodded in mock disbelief, "Anyway why are you here then?"

"Just needed to talk to you about Andy's bachelor party, got a few good ideas..." Severide's bright eyes twinkled with mischief now and Matt was intrigued to hear what he had in store for their friend.

Severide and Matt had ended up planning Andy's bachelor party that evening, sat together on the couch in Casey's apartment, downing several beers and munching popcorn. When the night finally arrived it was a huge success and both of them were sure that Andy would certainly not remember one second of the night come the next day.

"See, good idea to have this a few days before the wedding or he would never recover in time to get up the aisle. Heather would have our asses on a plate..." Matt said as he and Severide watched the groom-to-be mesmerised by the strip-tease, "I mean he's shaving a few years off his liver right now but at least he'll make it to the church."

"You can live without a liver…" Severide interjected.

"Nope," Matt shook his head firmly, "Can't. That's the spleen."

"No… listen, I'm sure you can..."

"Nah Kel... think about the name... liver… live. Can't live without one..." Matt draped one arm around Severide's shoulders, the world was shifting somewhat before his eyes, both of them were the worse for drink now.

"You've done too many ambo ride-alongs Casey..."

"Not since EMT training," Matt started to laugh for no real reason other than the fact everything was making him smile and being proven smarter than Severide made him smile whether he was drunk or not.

"Well… whatever…" Severide decided it time for a change in topic, "Didn't you tell me that Lou works in a strip club now?"

"Yup, she does," Matt stifled a snort as Severide's eyes peered around the club, "But not this one..."

"Well which one then? We can go there next..."

"It's in New York," Matt half whispered.

"Oh, didn't know she'd gone... when?"

"Last year," Matt told him, suddenly seeming a little sad, defences down because of the alcohol. Severide knew that they had only been friends with benefits but she had been a good friend to Casey and looked out for him at times when he had needed it.

"Oh sorry man…" Severide said soberly, even though he didn't feel sober. Not at all.

"She was never my girlfriend," Matt said, shrugging, a forlorn smile on his lips.

"But she was a good friend...you must miss her..."

"Yeah I do sometimes, but she has her own life, and it doesn't include me..." Matt stared at the floor, then a small smile crept onto his face and he looked up and into Severide's face, "Are you worrying about me?" he asked cheekily.

"Huh?" Severide shook his head at the idea, "No of course I'm not... I wouldn't ever worry about you…"

"Good because I'm fine."

"Good," Severide nodded, "I'm glad… You should really think about getting a new…"

Severide's remark was cut short by Andy who was rushing towards the two of them, one of the hugest grins Matt had ever seen plastered all over his face. "Guys, guys... you gotta try this... you gotta try it… " he held out a glass containing something pink in it and shoved it right under Casey and Severide's noses.

"Jeez Andy...that's a girl's drink," Severide said, turning his head away.

"They good though," Matt grinned, "It's like… erm… fruity but not like juice… like artificial fruity…"

"Please tell me you're just making that up and you don't make a habit of having ladies drinks… I mean look… it's got a glitter in it…"

Matt just took the glass from Andy and nodded enthusiastically, "I'm very comfortable with my sexuality Kelly Severide…" he smiled, "I can drink pink glittery drinks all day long if I want."

TBC