Down and Out

Assault

Casey was sitting at his desk struggling through paperwork that he should have finished yesterday, that he could have finished yesterday if his head had been in it but he'd spent the whole night tossing and turning. He'd spent nearly a week struggling to sleep now. No. That was a lie. He'd been struggling to sleep since Andy had died right in front of him, and just as he'd started to sleep through the night once again Voight had happened.

He stiffened, ready and alert, when the alarms chimed.

"Squad 3, rope rescue…"

He glanced at his watch, Severide would be less than impressed at being called out just twenty minutes before their shift finished. Casey went back to his paperwork and it soon hit 8am and his crew started to leave the firehouse as the shift changed.

"Hey Casey." Dawson popped her head into his quarters. "You didn't have breakfast. Wanna go and grab something together?"

He shook his head. "Need to finish this."

"I don't mind waiting," she replied, leaning on the doorframe.

"Don't bother, I'm swinging by the hospital as soon as I'm done here. Hallie's on a double."

The truth was that Hallie was concerned about him and he knew it. He needed to put her worry at ease especially after telling her that he'd gone and yelled at Voight. Hallie shouldn't have been at all surprised at the course of action he had taken, she'd known him long enough. Dawson was worried too. Almost everyone was worried. Even Severide was concerned although he wouldn't admit that now. The two were still not back to their old friendship, they weren't at each other's throats anymore but neither of them had gotten over Andy's death. They both knew that the other was not dealing well and now Severide was sure a gang cop was threatening Casey, so much so that earlier on in their shift he'd even admitted to not sleeping well, and Casey rarely admitted to such things, even before their best friend's death. Severide had seen the way Hallie had spoken to him at the hospital and he regretted not saying anything more to him in the bathroom after they had returned back to the firehouse. He had wanted to follow Casey into Boden's office that previous morning, before Andy's death he wouldn't have hesitated. Everything was different now but every now and then there were little moments where everything felt normal before the world came crashing back down on their shoulders. It had been nearly two months since Andy's death now and they both doubted that anything would ever be the same, or even remotely so.

"Ok, if you're sure." She smiled but made no move to leave.

"Bye," he stated as he continued with the paperwork.

Casey had just finished off and closed the light brown file with a heavy sigh as Boden walked by his quarters. "Casey?" he questioned with an air of authority.

"I am leaving," he stated.

"Good." Boden nodded, he'd known Casey for long enough to know how he dealt with most matters. Burying himself in work and burying his feelings inside until he burst, it wasn't unusual for someone in his position but he held onto things more than most, took things personally. "How are you doing?"

"Fine," he replied through thin lips.

"We'll figure this out, Antonio is on your side, just don't…"

"Don't do this my own way?" he scoffed.

"Don't do something reckless, something you'll regret," Boden warned as he often did when it came to his truck lieutenant.


Casey walked into the ER less than an hour later, freshly showered and wearing an old red checked shirt under his dark green jacket, his jeans were worn and faded, casual and comfortable. He had a smile on his face and two coffee cups in his hands. He found Hallie almost immediately.

"Hey baby."

"This is a nice surprise." Hallie smiled as she placed down the file she was holding onto the nurses station. "Or have you been yelling at more gang cops?"

"No yelling," he replied succinctly. "Coffee." He passed her the cup.

"Thank you. You look tired, how was the rest of your shift?"

"Typical," he replied naturally.

"Break room?" she suggested, he nodded. "Sally I'm taking ten," she told the nurse who was sitting at the station.

"I'm gonna go to the store later, you want to stay over tonight? I'll get us something in for dinner." He sat down on the couch in the empty break room.

"Course I'll stay, Matt," she replied before bracing herself with her next comment. "Dare I ask… Has anything happened since you had words with Voight?"

He shook his head. "Not really."

"Not really? Something has then?" Getting information out of Casey was like pulling teeth at times.

"Well, instead of having breakfast when I got back to the house I got called into Boden's office," he explained, but he didn't explain the details instead he simply finished simply. "Dawson's brother's looking into the case."

"That's it?"

"Pretty much." He shrugged.

"What happens now? What if something else happens?"

"I'll pick you up from work. I don't want you to be…"

"My car's here," she replied.

"I'm still picking you up… I'll follow you in my truck," he insisted.

"Bit extreme don't you think?"

"Hals…"

"All right, all right," she conceded.

"I'd hate myself if something happened to you because I…"

"Matt, you're doing the right thing, and you need to keep doing the right thing," she said softly, "And if that means just letting this play out, waiting for the hearing, that's what you need to do."

"I would have just let it play out. You know that. But Voight is using…"

"If you make one wrong decision you'll look like the bad guy, he has a picture of your personality now… he knows how to push you," she warned him gently. "Look, why don't you see if Kelly wants to go boxing later, take some frustration out with gloves on…"

Casey shook his head. "He wouldn't want to." He didn't know what was acceptable, could he ask Severide out for a drink? Could he ask him to go a few rounds at the gym? Would his request be laughed at incredulously or was Severide too edging to ask those questions of him? He hated the uncertainty of their friendship now, he didn't know where he stood and he didn't want to worsen their newly recovered relationship.

"You guys need to get over this blame game," she commented.

"I…"

"You didn't need to say anything," Hallie stated, her features softened, "You moved out after Andy died, you weren't talking to Kelly… I'm sorry."

"It doesn't matter, it really doesn't, we're here together now and… and I promise I won't do anything reckless."


That afternoon Casey walked to his local store, it was his usual stop for last minute shopping, his new house wasn't far from his and Hallie's old place. He'd still wanted to be near the firehouse, this place was just a little further from the hospital. It was a decent neighbourhood, it wasn't the best but he'd lived in worst.

With excellent timing his phone chimed as he excited the store, he smiled when he saw the caller ID. "Checking up on me?"

"Do you need checking up on?" Hallie questioned dryly.

"Just picked up food for dinner," he replied.

"Good."

"Meet you by the ER doors at 6pm?"

"Yes sir," she mocked.

"Just want to make sure you're safe, who knows what Voight's willing to do…"

"I know baby," she conceded. "See you tonight."

"I'll bring flowers."

"I don't need flowers; just you." He could tell she was smiling just from her tone. "And message Kelly, make plans."

"Yes ma'am," he teased but after saying their goodbyes he went to do exactly as she'd suggested. He walked along, squinting down at his phone, looking at the blank message screen below Severide's name, grocery bag swinging in his left hand.

The attack came out of nowhere. Three masked men had crept up on him.

Casey managed to get in a couple of hits before a knee slammed into his solar plexus; he collapsed, wheezing onto the concrete, the gravel scraped his skin. Rage swept through him. He scrambled to defend himself but was grabbed viciously. He was pulled up and back, held tightly by the larger of the men as the other two continued their assault, his efforts to release himself from the man's vice-like hold were fruitless. The fabric of his shirt tore. His chest was on fire. Agony stabbed at his lungs every time he took a breath. His ears were ringing.

He had no time to think, no time to comprehend what was happening before he was slammed roughly into a dumpster, sending it crashing and rolling away. Rough hands grabbed his hair and slammed his face into the wall. He collapsed onto the ground once more, he couldn't see, barely a thread of consciousness was left now. The three men were merciless in their attack. His mouth was filled with thick red blood, it caked his teeth and dribbled thickly down his chin as he tried to take a breath, his nose was bleeding heavily, joining the pool of blood that was forming alarmingly quickly on the concrete below. He coughed and spluttered, spraying dark red. His clothing was quickly becoming saturated in blood. His breaths were tortured.

He could do nothing as the assault continued; he couldn't even defend himself as he lay helplessly on the ground. He spat out blood, one of his teeth with it. His fingers cracked, his hand crunched under their weighted boots. He let out an agonising cry. Steal toe caps flew into his face, into his chest, it was relentless. One more blow and he'd be out. The pain was crippling. He could hardly breathe. His head was spinning. Half his face was already swollen. Blood was oozing out of his nose, dripping down his face, trickling out of his ear and pooling out of his mouth.

Another boot to the head and he was out cold as the assailants ran off into the alleyway. His phone lay smashed just yards away.

Nearly ten minutes went by before anyone walked by the alleyway and spotted him and it took another fifteen minutes for the ambulance to arrive.

A tortured cry escaped his lips as he was moved onto the backboard. He was conscious but completely unaware that he was now lying in the back on an ambulance, ECG electrodes on his bloodied and already heavily bruised chest, oxygen mask slipped over his broken and bloodied nose, over his swollen and cut lips, an IV in the crook of his elbow providing fluids and much needed painkillers that helped ease his breathing. He couldn't hear the paramedic trying to rouse him, couldn't feel her hands on his body as she checked for injuries.

All he knew was pain.


The paramedics rushed Casey's inert form into the ER. "Assault victim. In and out of consciousness at the scene and throughout transport. No awareness but responsive to pain stimuli. Extensive damage to his head, chest, hands. He's had 10mg of morphine."

"No ID?" the ER doctor question as he began his evaluation.

"Oh God... I think I recognise him…" a nurse stated as she rushed alongside by the gurney. She quickly checked his jacket pockets and eventually found his wallet in his jeans. "Someone page Doctor Thomas. It's her fiancé."

"Take him to Trauma Two."

Casey was whisked into the trauma bay and a mass of action took place around him.

"Blood in the ear canal. Nose. Mouth… jaw's obviously broken."

"God, someone worked him over real good…"

"Left hand's a mess."

"Leave it. It's not life threatening at the moment. Reduced breath sounds on the right and feels like... at least three broken ribs. Can we get the x-ray over here?"

"Respiratory failure! Get me a trach tray… I'm in… O2 stats are rising…"

"Shooting the x-ray. Stand back."

"Damn. Get him up to the OR now."

Hallie appeared at the trauma bay doors having just rushed down from Radiology, she'd been chasing a patient's results. "I was paged."

"Hallie… It's Matt."

"What?" she frowned quizzically but then she saw the blood mattered blond hair as the gurney moved towards the doors. "Oh God…" She tried to follow him.

"Hallie you can't." The nurse, Sally, was blocking her way. "You know they're taking the best care of him. You need to sign the consent forms, you're listed as his…"

"What happened? His injuries?"

"Come and sit down."

Hallie's heart was pounding in her chest, she couldn't shake the image of Casey's bloodied and beaten form, he was barely recognisable with all the equipment he was wheeled off to the OR with. His clothes and belongings had been shoved messily into a clear bag. Staff had started to clean the room ready for the next trauma, there were open and used gauze packets on the floor, blood smudged on the tiles, used rubber gloves. It always looked like a warzone after a trauma, Hallie was used to it, but she wasn't used to this. She was sat on the couch in the break room now, the exact spot where she'd sat next to Casey just that morning. Sally was knelt down in front of her, she was talking, her lips were moving but Hallie was paying no attention to her.

"… Hallie?"

"Sorry, what?"

"You need to sign this." Sally was holding the consent form above her knees.

She barely glanced at the form before scribbling her name at the bottom. "Can you get me a copy of his chart, all x-rays and scans?"

"I… yeah of course," she replied. "And Peterson is coming down to cover you."

"I'm gonna go up to the OR then, bring me his chart."

"Hallie you can't…"

"I'll be in the waiting room."


Just over an hour later Severide rushed into the waiting to find Hallie sat clutching a navy blue file. She had called him, all she'd explained was that Casey was in the hospital, that he'd been assaulted, that he was having surgery.

"He's still in there? What happened? He was in a fight?" he questioned. Casey had been in his fair share of fights over the years Severide had known him but nothing so serious to put him on the operating table.

She nodded numbly. "No one knows what happened yet but… but he wasn't mugged." She was frowning now, she'd been thinking about this for the last half an hour. "His wallet, his watch… all still on him. He was attacked and I think…"

Realisation struck. "That son of a bitch!"

"Kelly…"

"That cop is behind this, isn't he? I knew it… I knew I should have told him not to submit that…"

"Kelly this isn't helping," Hallie silenced him.

He softened, "How bad is it?"

"I should call his sister, try getting hold of his mom too…"

"Worse than bad then."

TBC