A/N: Here we are at the last chapter. I hope everyone enjoys it. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Kelly was having a dream where you knew you were in a dream but you couldn't wake up. In the dream he saw the same man who'd been watching him from the street. Somebody else saw the man and called the cops, he got away, but not before the CPD got on his tail, six police SUVs with blue lights flashing and sirens wailing chased him for miles at top speed, just narrowly avoiding all other traffic on the road as he attempted to lose them as he turned off of one street to another to another and cut across one way streets and over bridges. Additional police vehicles joined the manhunt every few miles until there were almost 20 squad cars chasing after him. At one point it was determined where he was heading, and several cops put out spike strips to flatten the getaway car's tires as he came by. A few minutes later the man came upon the scene at 100 mph, hit the spikes, lost control of the car and it flipped over and he was thrown through the windshield and lay crumpled in a heap on the ground as the police vehicles pulled to a screeching stop to assess the situation. The sirens were still blaring away and it seemed like they'd never stop.

Then Severide realized somebody was talking to him, he opened his eyes and saw Antonio standing over his bed.

"Kelly, we got him."

"What?" Severide asked as he sat up.

"We got the bastard."

"Huh? Wha...how?"

"A traffic stop half an hour ago," Antonio told him. "We found a cigarette butt in a trashcan at the corner after you called us the other night, found out the DNA was in the system but there was no name to it. When we got the bastard, we ran his plates, the name on his driver's license, his name is Jack Malloy. No surprise, the picture on his license doesn't really match up with the real thing now. Turns out he was in a car accident some years back, and what you saw was the end result of a slew of plastic surgeries that were not successful, that just maybe knocked this guy's brain a little loose. Kelly...this guy is a real serial killer."

"What?"

"Now that we have a match on his DNA, it ties him to a cold case mass murder at a cemetery in New Jersey at Halloween five years ago, another dozen high school kids, and another in New York five years before that, somehow he always got out of Dodge before he could be suspected and laid low for a few years, then struck again at a new location. If he's some kind of satanic nutjob trying to rack up some body count record, I don't know, but back then he just out and out poisoned them with heroin cut with drain cleaner. Apparently he was working his way up to bigger and better kills that couldn't be pinned back to him, drugging his victims so they became suicidal, he could kill them without physically touching them."

"What?" Kelly felt like his head was in a fog. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Tell me about it, even Narcotics is scratching their heads on this one," Antonio replied. "Look, I'm not sure the State's Attorney has enough to actually make the case, but it doesn't matter, because if they don't, this guy will be extradited back to the East Coast and he'll be bounced between the two districts and he's going to rot in prison for the rest of his life for about three dozen murders. I know you don't think it's fair to qualify that as justice for Casey if it doesn't go to court here and he'd not even charged for what happened to Matt, but we have to take it as a win. It's all over, Kelly."

That news thrilled Severide, but he was left with one burning question.

"What about Casey?"

"We're going to take Matt off the drugs," Will told Kelly the next day. "He has a long recovery ahead of him and it's going to be painful, but I think he is strong enough now to endure it from here."

"Are you sure?" Kelly asked.

"He's one tough guy, Kelly, he's already had his skin blister and fall off three times in the last week without him being aware of it, we've made sure the burns didn't become infected, it's a good start, and I think he can withstand the next go-round in full consciousness," the doctor told him.

"How long is the recovery going to be?" Severide asked.

"He was burnt in waters near 140 degrees, at that temperature a full burn can set in in as little as 10 seconds, in which case he could've been fully recovered in three weeks. But we estimate he must've somehow endured the water for at least a minute, so it's going to be a couple months longer, the upside is he's not looking at any skin grafts or surgeries, in time the damage will repair itself, it's largely just going to be a waiting game."

"Yeah well, Casey was never any good at those," Kelly said, "but who is? Can I see him when you wake him up?"

"Sure. I'll have April come and get you when we're ready."

April came and got him half an hour later, it was the longest 30 minutes of his life.

Kelly stood beside Casey's bed as he watched the nurse peel off the bandages from his eyes. As far as his burns went, his face sustained the least amount of damage, but no chances had been taken that he'd lash out and damage his eyes while he was recovering. The drugs had been removed from his IV, the oxygen tubes had been removed from his nose, he was breathing fine on his own and slowly coming around. His eyelids slowly fluttered a few times, then his whole face scrunched up in a grimace of pain as a series of low moans escaped from his throat. He kept his eyes squinted nearly shut to block out the light, and he didn't seem able to really focus on anything he saw.

"Kelly?" he quietly asked. He slowly raised one bandaged hand and held it out, as if testing for the presence of his friend.

"It's alright, Casey, I'm here," Kelly said as he carefully took Matt's hand in his.

"Kelly?" Casey slowly blinked and looked around.

"It's okay, Casey, it's over, everything's going to be alright," Severide assured him. "It's alright, Casey, you're gonna be fine."

Kelly's eyes were closed as he lay in the hospital bed, his face covered in a sheet of perspiration, as he thrashed around and moaned as he weakly called out, "Casey...Casey...Casey."

Matt stood beside the bed and looked down at his friend who continued to call to him. He turned and looked at Hank Voight, who stood back against the dresser, his hands in his jacket pockets, who merely looked on curiously. Casey felt somebody on the other side of him elbow him in the ribs, he turned towards Antonio.

"Don't this guy ever call you by your first name?" Dawson asked.

Casey snorted as he reached over and took Kelly's hand in his, "Never." He used his other hand to smooth back Kelly's short but sweat soaked hair, and told him, "Wake up, Kelly."

"Come on, Matt," Antonio told him, "you've been trying all day with no luck yet."

"Let him try," Voight told his detective, "we're not in a hurry."

Casey looked down at his best friend, tightened his grip on Kelly's hand, and said again, "Come on, Kelly, wake up."

Severide moaned in his sleep, then he opened his eyes, then closed them again, then jerked up in his bed and frantically looked around at the man standing over him. His eyes hadn't totally focused yet and half of what he saw was blurry, and the other half was doubled, but he reached over for Matt and was yelling at him, "Casey, get away from him, he's the murderer!" Kelly lunged over to the other side and pointed at Voight and said as he frantically pointed around the room, "You're the killer, you killed him and him and him and..." then he started to calm down, and realize where he was, and who he was with, and he looked around at all of them and asked, "What happened?"

"That's what we've been waiting to find out," Antonio replied. "Do you know what day it is?"

"Er..." Kelly tried to think back. Had it all been a dream? Antonio and Voight were right there, just like they'd been in the dream. Yet he knew it must be a dream, because here Casey was, alive and well, no indication of any scalding burns anywhere on his body. "Uh...November 1st."

"2nd," Antonio replied, "you've been in the hospital for almost 30 hours."

"What?" Kelly blinked. "What happened?"

"You overdosed, genius, that's what," Voight told him.

"What?" Severide asked. "On what?"

"We finally got the official report back last night," Antonio answered, "Meth."

"What?" Severide shot up in the bed, "That's impossible!"

"Yeah, we already got that earful from Casey," Voight said. "You know how lucky you are we live in such modern times?"

Kelly shook his head as if trying to clear it from a fog. "What're you talking about?"

"We got a good idea how you got the drugs when they did an ultrasound," Antonio told him, "you know these days those things are so accurate they can show what you ate? They found 12 candy bars in your system, they guessed at least one was full sized. So that just leaves the question where the candy came from."

What they were saying didn't sound connected to reality, but it got Severide's mind racing, trying to tie back something they were saying to something he could remember. Then finally it came to him.

"First Watch was in charge of giving out the candy this year," he remembered, "there was a bag left when we came on shift, it hadn't been opened yet."

"We know," Antonio told him, "we already confiscated it and sent it to the lab for testing. Now I don't know how the bastards did it, but half the candy bars tested positive for meth. However, the doctor figures the bulk of what you OD'd on came from the full size bar, where'd it come from?"

"The vending machine," Kelly recalled, "I was getting tired of waiting on Herrmann to finish cooking lunch."

"We confiscated the rest of them too," Antonio told him, "We took all the food out of the firehouse."

Kelly laughed weakly, "Oh boy Third Watch must be pissed."

"And you didn't notice anything weird?" Voight asked.

Kelly shrugged weakly, "It tasted kind of off, I just figured it's been a couple years since they put anything new in the machine."

Casey got out a weak laugh and leaned over the rail and stroked a hand over the top of Severide's head, but he didn't say anything.

"We got lucky," Voight told Kelly. "Everybody else tested negative for drugs. Apparently you were the only one that ate the tainted candy."

Severide tried to think back to that time, but his mind was blank when it came to the details of what had happened.

"How did...what did...how'd you know?"

Casey finally spoke, "We knew something was wrong, you started ranting and trying to kill everyone, then you fell on the floor in convulsions, the EMTs had to strap you to the backboard just to examine you, then they found out you had a high temperature and a heart about to stop beating completely."

Kelly took that newfound information in, but something else occurred to him. "Anybody else?" It didn't seem likely to him that whoever poisoned one bag of candy would stop there.

"A couple cases over at Lakeshore," Antonio said, "Kids who got the stuff in their trick-or-treat bags, those Narcotics is having a harder time tracking down where they got it from because none of them stopped at the firehouse, but they didn't get as big of a dose as you did and they'll be going home before too long."

"Good," Kelly sighed.

Voight turned to Casey and told him, "Well, he's awake now, so you should be able to take it easy now."

Kelly looked up at Casey and asked, "What's he mean by that?"

"This guy has been here since they brought you in yesterday," Antonio told Severide as he pointed to Casey, "he never left for so much as a cup of coffee. 24 hours waiting for you to regain consciousness, I sure as hell hope you call him in the morning."

That comment drew a small chuckle out of Voight, who seemed to be watching all of this in amusement.

"Seriously, glad to see you're doing alright," Antonio reached over the rail and patted Kelly's knee, "we'll see ya round."

Severide watched as Antonio headed for the door, then Voight, then he felt his anxiety levels reach zenith when he saw Casey following behind them.

"Casey!" Kelly screamed as he shot up in the bed again. At any other time his dignity wouldn't permit him to let another person see him like this, but right now he was completely terrified of Casey being out of his sight after the dream he'd had.

To his surprise, Casey turned back towards him and explained, "I'm not going anywhere, Kelly." Instead, Matt shut the door, then headed back towards him. "But if you think I'm spending another night in this chair getting a sore back, you can think again. Move over."

It took Severide a few seconds to catch on, when he did he scooted over to one side of the bed and Casey swung his legs over the rail on the other side to climb in.

"One good thing about people getting fatter, it makes it a lot easier to fit two people in one of these beds," he commented as he drew the blanket up on himself. He turned towards Severide and saw the Squad lieutenant staring at him.

"Why're you looking at me like that?" he asked.

Kelly sucked in a breath and answered, "Oh man, Casey, I had the weirdest dream earlier, you wouldn't believe it."

"Try me," Casey replied.

Severide did, and some parts all the details came spilling out at once, other parts he had to force himself to keep going, but after about an hour, he'd told Casey all that he could remember of it, and through it all, Casey's face gave nothing away, it was impossible to gauge what he was thinking about the whole thing. Finally when Severide had finished, Casey told him, "They do say meth is one hell of a drug. Kelly, I'm fine, I'm alright, you're alright, it's over."

"I know, Casey, I know that...but it was all so real."

"But I'm here, Kelly, I'm here, it was just a dream. So go to sleep and don't worry about it."

Of course Casey knew that was easier said than done, but for the moment he got a kick out of ordering Severide around.

After a while, Kelly did fall asleep, and so did Casey, but about an hour later, Severide shot up in the hospital bed with a pronounced, "AHHH!"

Casey woke up and reached over and grabbed Severide's hand with his and told him, "I'm right here, it's alright, it was just a dream."

Severide breathed heavily in and out for about a minute, but he finally calmed down and went back to sleep. A while later the same thing happened again, and once again Casey had to calm him down and tell him to go back to sleep, but he finally did, again.

Casey felt his neck getting stiff, he turned over in his sleep but found that didn't do any good either, his pillow had gone flat and whatever was under it was sharp and poking him. Not even bothering to open his eyes, he raised up both hands to slap some shape back into his pillow, and he did. The loud fleshy sound of the pillow getting hit was the first thing that drew him back to consciousness, the second thing was that his pillow moaned underneath him.

Casey opened his eyes and felt them widen to their limit as he realized Kelly was asleep facedown under him and Casey had been using his back as a pillow. He moved to get up, but then ultimately decided against it. Instead he looked at the man sleeping under him. What happened to Severide the other day scared the hell out of all of them, but nobody more than Casey. The doctors had treated Severide based on what they could piece together until the official diagnosis came back, but even once they had him detoxed he wouldn't wake up. He had a fever and thrashed around in his sleep and called out Casey's name, it was the only thing he said, and though he didn't wake up when Casey talked to him or took Kelly's hand in his own, his presence somehow seemed to calm Kelly down, so he'd stayed with Severide until he finally woke up.

Matt dug his knees into the mattress on either side of Severide's body, and raised himself up on his hands so he could look down at the Squad lieutenant. Kelly never moved, he was still in a dead sleep, Casey had to admit Kelly looked kind of cute, when his mouth was shut anyway. Glancing to the door to make sure no one was watching, Casey leaned down and lightly kissed Severide on the back of his head. No response. At least Severide wasn't waking up screaming anymore. Casey was going to move over to the other side of the bed, but he decided against it, instead he slowly sank back down against Severide's back. He was too tired to move, in no mood to risk waking Severide up by shifting his weight around, and if he could be honest, though he would never admit it to anyone, it was actually pretty comfortable like this. If Severide woke up and said anything, he could always claim he'd had no idea what he was doing while he was asleep. Casey folded his arms under him, and went back to using Severide as a full body pillow and shortly afterwards was sound asleep again.

Kelly moaned in his sleep. His back was killing him, he tried to roll over and get off his stomach, but he couldn't move, and that quickly jerked him wide awake in a panic. He tried to get up, but there was a weight pressing against his spine and he couldn't, then he realized that the weight was breathing in time with him. Severide craned his neck as far as he could to see what was holding him down, and he about turned his head upside down to see what was on his back, and saw it was Casey sound asleep. Severide wanted to laugh. He also wanted to get Casey off of him so he could turn over. Slowly, he tried pushing up from the mattress with the added weight on top of him. It took a few tries but he finally got on his hands and knees, then slowly turned to the side and felt Matt slide off of him and land beside him on the bed.

He turned over on his side so he was facing Casey, the man never woke up, he never even moved. Kelly couldn't believe how real the dream had felt, and the stark contrast to how well Casey was, and he could see it with his own eyes. The biggest relief though was that he could actually touch him, and he didn't have to worry about hurting Casey. Severide reached over and carefully put his arms around Casey, who never even stirred, and he slowly pulled the blonde man over towards him, until he held Casey tightly against him. Through it all Matt still never moved.

Kelly leaned over and kissed Casey on the top of his head and whispered to him, not sure if Casey could hear him or not, "I love you, buddy, thanks for staying with me."

It occurred to Kelly that Casey's skin was cool to the touch from falling asleep on top of the covers. He reached down, grabbed the blanket and pulled it up over both of them, then gradually fell back asleep.

"Oh boy am I glad to be out of that hospital," Kelly sighed as they walked out of Med the next morning.

"I don't know," Casey replied as he walked alongside him, "It's not so bad using one of those beds with someone else."

Severide looked at him, did a double take and got out a laugh as he reached over to elbow Casey in the ribs.

"Don't ever scare me like that again," Casey told him.

"I wasn't trying to."

"You don't have to try," Casey replied. "So, you got anything planned for today?"

"We're off shift, I never have anything planned," Kelly told him.

"Well I know you just spent two days in bed doing nothing," Matt said, "but how does going home and crashing on the couch sound?"

"Like a plan."

"Stop staring at me," Casey told Severide that night as they were watching the game on TV. He was watching the game anyway, but he could feel Kelly's eyes boring a hole in the side of his head, he didn't even have to look at the man to know he was doing it, he'd been doing it off and on all day.

Severide blinked. "I can't help it. That dream was so real."

"Yeah well, you walking in on me in the shower, that sounds like a nightmare alright." He turned and looked at Kelly. "Do you want to see the thermostat for the water heater? Would that make you feel better?"

"You've actually seen the water heater in this place?" Kelly asked.

"I had to replace it when I moved in two years ago," Casey answered. "You want to see it?"

Severide shook his head, "Nah, I'm good."

"I hope so," Casey told him. "You've hardly let me out of your sight all day, to be honest I'm getting nervous about going on shift tomorrow."

Kelly just laughed in response.

Casey opened his eyes and realized he was falling asleep on the couch, he blinked, and felt his eyelids grow heavy and close again for several seconds and felt his head sink down towards his chest, he forced himself to wake up, and he reached for the remote to shut off the TV. He turned to ask Severide a question and saw Kelly had already fallen asleep sitting up at his spot on the couch. Casey got up, then gave Kelly a slight shove and watched the other man fall lengthwise across the couch, his head making a perfect landing on the armrest. Yep, Severide was out of it. Any other time Casey might be tempted to wake him up and tell him to go to his own room, but he knew Kelly had been through enough the last few days and decided to just leave him be and let him rest. He grabbed the blanket draped over the back of the couch, unfolded it and draped it over Kelly, who didn't even move. Casey quietly groaned as he stretched his arms up over his head, then groaned louder as he felt something jerk and pop in his back, then he lowered his arms, turned and left the room to go to bed himself.

Kelly woke up and the first thing he saw was the back of the couch. He looked over towards the windows and saw it was just starting to get light out. It must've been morning, but he didn't remember falling asleep. He moved under the blanket, and turned over onto his other side, and he saw something that made him freeze where he was.

Casey was asleep on the floor not five feet from the couch. Apparently sometime during the night he'd gotten a pillow and a blanket and put together a makeshift bed on the floor. He was also asleep on his side, facing towards Kelly, he had one arm wrapped over the pillow, and Severide noticed he had his other arm outstretched towards him.

Severide lay on the couch for a minute and just stared at Casey, trying to figure out what it meant. He'd figured that Casey would've gone up to bed last night, so why this?

"Stop staring at me," Casey grumbled without opening his eyes.

Severide fell back against the couch and laughed, "How'd you know?"

"Your breathing," Casey opened his eyes.

"How long have you been awake?"

Casey checked his watch, "About 15 minutes."

"What're you doing down there?" Kelly asked.

"Well..." Casey looked down at the carpet.

Severide blinked as he realized what Casey wasn't saying. If he'd woken up in the night freaking out from another nightmare, and Casey was right there on the floor and Kelly could see for himself that he was alright, that no doubt would've been a lot less trouble than going upstairs and Severide waking up alone, temporarily grappling with what was reality and what was just a dream. And possibly the reverse was true too, what Casey had gone through had been a real life nightmare watching him in the hospital, and just because Casey hadn't woken up screaming that night in the hospital didn't mean he hadn't been having his own share of nightmares, and just maybe this had been for his own peace of mind too, if he woke up in the night he could see Severide and know that he was alright too.

Kelly pushed back the blanket and scooted onto the floor beside Casey.

"Thanks, buddy," he said as he wrapped an arm around Casey's back and squeezed him tight, thankful that he was able to.

Casey groaned as he felt the air get knocked out of him, but he didn't say anything. Instead he reached around and clapped a hand on Severide's back, so glad to be out of the hospital, and to know the drugs Severide ingested hadn't done any permanent damage. It was unlikely that the cops would ever find out who had been responsible, but all Matt cared about was that Severide was okay and nobody else had been harmed.

"Come on," he finally said, breaking the silence, "we gotta get ready for work, we go on shift in little over an hour."

Almost reluctantly, Severide finally let go of Casey.

Casey slammed the door to his truck shut and walked over to Severide's Mustang he was just getting out of.

"So are you alright?" he asked. He thought he'd better be clear about that before they actually started shift. "You're not going to be staring at me the whole time we're here, are you?"

Kelly managed to suppress the laugh but wasn't as successful with the smirk on his face, "Yeah I'm fine."

"Good," Casey replied. "Hey, I'm glad you're okay."

Severide knew it sounded weird since Casey had never really been in any danger and that had all just been a drug induced nightmare, but he responded, "I'm glad you are too."

"There's something I gotta ask you though," Casey told him.

"What's that?"

"Twelve candy bars?"

Severide laughed. Casey just looked at him like he'd just been declared the 7th wonder of the world.

"Do you have a tapeworm or something?" he asked.

"Stop," Severide playfully jabbed at him.

"Come on, let's go," Casey nodded towards the station house. "I'm sure the others are anxious to welcome you back."