Waiting

Casey felt his head dropping to his chest, wasn't sure if he was awake or asleep or somewhere in between and didn't really care. He just wanted to stay there with his eyes closed. But that idea was shot to hell as he felt a hand on top of his head and felt a handful of his hair get wrapped up in a tight grip that jerked his head. With a pained groan he opened his eyes and picked his head up and realized he was sitting in a chair at the waiting room at Chicago Med. He turned to the person seated beside him and saw Hank Voight with his arms crossed at his chest and an intense stare straight ahead at the wall. Casey looked past him to the next chair and saw it was empty. He turned his head and saw Kelly pacing up and down the floor, waiting for news about Benny.

They'd been on shift, somebody had called Kelly and told him Benny was in the hospital after having a stroke. Casey had offered to go with him, no idea what news they'd be walking into but knowing Kelly would need somebody with him no matter what it was. They'd both been mildly surprised, to say the least, to see Hank Voight at the hospital, even more surprised when he'd said he'd wait with them until the doctor came out to tell Severide about Benny.

And how long ago had that been? Casey looked at his watch but he was so tired he didn't even remember what day it was, let alone how many hours it had been. First Watch's lieutenant was out with pneumonia, so Casey had been covering double shifts for two weeks, and he was exhausted. They'd just been a few hours away from Third Watch's shift change and he'd been so looking forward going home and sleeping in his own bed, then Kelly got the phone call. Casey knew despite his best efforts to stay awake and be there for his best friend, he'd already nodded off a few times in the chair, he wasn't sure if Voight was watching him through the corner of his eye or what but it seemed every time Casey just started to fall asleep, Hank was jerking his head back up to wake him up. If Kelly wasn't there, he would've said something, but he knew they were all on edge, Severide especially, nobody had given him any information yet about what condition Benny was in, or why he'd been rushed into surgery, or how the surgery was going, or if it was over, or if his dad was even still alive.

The next thing Casey was aware of was a hand lightly stroking over his hair, then jerking his head up by his hair again, this time hard enough to pull several hairs out.

"Ow!" he yelped as he opened his eyes and turned towards the Intelligence sergeant, "Voight!"

Hank was still staring straight ahead at the wall, and acted like he was hardly even aware of what he'd done. He pulled his hand back and simple murmured a low but gravelly, "Sorry, Casey."

Matt looked past him again and looked around the room, "Where's Severide?"

"Went to the bathroom, he'll be back in a minute, doc still hasn't come out."

Casey sat up straighter and massaged his scalp where the cop had torn his hair out and after thinking about it for a few seconds he commented, "I guess you must be worried about Benny too."

The cop barely even nodded but answered, "Yeah, I guess so."

"How exactly do you know Benny?" Casey asked.

Kelly had told him, some time after the fact, about his first encounter with Voight when he got out of prison, and how strange it was to see his face light up at the mention of Benny. Clearly these two had to have history together, but Kelly wasn't going to ask his dad and neither of them was going to ask Voight. Now, Casey decided, there didn't seem to be any sense dancing around the issue.

After a brief pause where Casey thought the cop was just ignoring him, Hank finally answered, "We used to be friends."

Casey blinked, "What? Kelly never told me that."

"He wouldn't know," Voight told the lieutenant, he looked at Matt and explained, "This was years ago, before Kelly was even born."

"Geesh, I never would've imagined," Casey said. "Not that Benny was known for keeping the best company anyway."

"Hey," Voight remarked warningly.

Casey shook his head, "I don't get it, what happened with you two?"

"We both got married, had kids, raised them, time got away from us, stuff happened, we just lost contact," Hank answered.

Matt spent a minute trying to take that in, but he had another question, "So what're you doing here?"

"When Benny came back to Chicago a few years ago we got in touch, given my history with Kelly during that hit and run case, we figured nobody else needed to know about it. He'd called me up last night and wanted to go out to a bar tonight and catch up...I was halfway to his apartment when I heard the ambo dispatch on my radio."

Casey had no response and just looked down at his hands that were intertwined and resting on his thighs. "What do you think's gonna happen to Benny?"

Voight shook his head, "I don't know."

They both saw Kelly returning to the waiting room and as soon as he saw them he asked, "Has the doctor come out yet?"

Casey shook his head and Voight told the Squad lieutenant, "We ain't seen anybody yet, Severide, sit down and take a breather."

"Nah, I'm good," Kelly insisted as he started absently pacing around the room again.

Casey sat with his arms folded tight against his chest and mentally told himself he wasn't going to fall asleep again. He felt his eyes closing, but he was going to stay awake...

A hand was jerking his head again and he realized it was drooped down and to the side again, he opened his eyes and before he even saw Voight he asked the Intelligence cop, "The doctor coming?"

"No," the sergeant sounded annoyed, "You're starting to drool on me, lean the other way."

Casey clumsily wiped his hand along his jaw and chin, and looked over and saw Kelly continuing to wear a hole in the floor.

"What's taking so long?" Casey whispered to Hank.

Voight murmured back so Kelly wouldn't hear, "You've been in waiting rooms before."

"I don't know anything about strokes," Casey said.

A few agonizing minutes later, Will Halstead entered the room, "Kelly-"

Severide looked like he was paralyzed, his eyes widened at his name but no other part of his body was moving, Casey and Voight moved to get up to hear the news.

"I wanted to give you a heads up, your father's surgery went very well and he'll be moved to ICU soon."

Kelly was dumbstruck by this comment, for several reasons. The first thing he thought to ask was, "What surgery did he have for a stroke?"

The redheaded doctor furrowed his brow, "Stroke? Benny didn't have a stroke, he had a heart attack."

"What?" Casey asked.

"He's going to have a long recovery ahead of him but from what the surgeon told me, he's a fighter," Will told the fireman. "If anybody can do it, it's probably him."

Kelly's brain felt like it was overloading at that point, words were beyond his ability in that moment.

"Thanks, Will," Casey said for him. "When can Kelly see him?"

"Someone will let you know when Benny's moved to ICU, at this time a brief visit is all that we can allow, I would strongly recommend going home and getting some rest and then coming back tomorrow, he'll be kept under heavy observation, we'll let you know if anything develops."

"Anything?" Kelly was able to form words again, "Like what? What could happen?" He frantically hammered the doctor with questions.

"Kelly, your dad's in the best hands right now, you need to let them do their job," Will told him, "He needs to rest, and so do you."