Wrongfully Accused

It was a typical night at Chicago Med, which meant an onrush of emergencies, minor injuries, and a lot of false alarms that were yet to be diagnosed as such. The waiting room was half full of people waiting to be seen by a doctor or waiting to receive news about their loved ones.

April Sexton's cell phone vibrated and she saw it was Kelly Severide calling.

"Hey Kelly, what's up?" she answered.

The response was not one she was expecting. There was a lot of background noise crackling and Severide's voice was frantic.

"April, I'm coming in with Matt Casey, I need the paramedics outside ready to go immediately, you got that? Our ETA's about 3 minutes."

"What's going on, Kelly?" she asked.

"I think Casey's having a heart attack!"

April's eyes widened but her voice was professional as she responded, "We'll be ready." She disconnected the call, told Maggie to inform the paramedics, and ran down the hall after Connor, "Dr. Rhodes!"

Kelly Severide was barely paying attention to the needle on the speedometer which said he was doing 30 miles over the limit, if anything he thought it should be higher. Beside him in his Mustang, Matt Casey was leaned back in the seat and painfully inhaling and exhaling as he struggled to keep breathing. In the glare from the streetlights shining into the car, Kelly could see Casey's face and hair were drenched in perspiration, he'd already sweated clear through his shirt and jacket long ago, or what felt like long ago anyway. He wasn't sure how long he'd been driving, it didn't seem to him it should be taking this long to get to the hospital.

Severide had taken his car to a gas station to fill it up, and just as he'd finished, he spotted Casey's pickup pulling in at the next pump. They'd started talking, and the conversation had gone back to a call they answered earlier that day. It had been a bad one, they were less than an hour away from shift change when they'd responded to a house fire on the second story of a triplex, fully occupied, so they had three families to make sure everybody was out before they put out the fire. Additional trucks from neighboring houses had been brought in to assist because flying embers and burning debris threatened to ignite the houses on either side of the triplex and had to be evacuated, largely against the homeowners' wishes. A couple grass fires had already started in between the yards and were close to getting out of control. The family on the first floor had already run out before the fire got bad, the family on the fire floor had managed to race down the stairs before the whole floor was engulfed and had to be treated for smoke inhalation. Then there had just been the family on the third floor to rescue. They raised the aerial and a young firefighter from House 21, Jason Hellman, had gone up with Casey while Herrmann and Otis went to work with other firemen from 21, venting the back of the house. Just as they'd started to knock out a window, there was a sudden whoosh and something exploded. Half of all the windows from ground to roof blew out and bright orange flames and black smoke poured out of all of them. Severide heard a crackle on his radio and heard Casey's frantic voice but couldn't make out what he was saying. Then he saw the aerial coming back down and the paramedics rushing over with a gurney.

The young fireman had been making his way up the ladder when the second story window blew out and he had been pelted with large shards of glass, flames, and the sudden onrush of heat strong enough to partially melt his turnout gear. Casey helped Hellman down the ladder and he was assessed by the paramedics as having second and third degree burns, loaded on a backboard, wheeled into the ambulance and rushed to Med.

There hadn't been any time to dwell on what had happened, because the next thing they heard was glass breaking and they saw the couple on the third floor smash out the window and jump. There were a few firemen standing around in just the right place they were able to help break the fall as the two 20-something-year-olds plunged 30 feet straight down to escape the flames. They suffered minor smoke inhalation and had a few burns and cuts but otherwise were alright, though two additional ambulances took them to Med to make sure there were no underlying problems. With all the civilians out of the way, the sole focus was now containing the fire, which took longer than expected, and it was going on noon before everybody finally returned to 51 to shower, change and go home.

Looking back now, Severide had noticed Casey looked bad while they were talking, but he thought it was just the memory of the call. Then he realized for it being the middle of March in Chicago and the wind chill made the night air about 40 degrees, Casey was sweating through his clothes and breathing hard. Then the Truck lieutenant had moved his foot and about fallen down as he lost his balance. Severide grabbed him and helped steady him. Casey sucked in another breath and put a hand to his chest.

"What's wrong?" Kelly had asked him.

Casey got out a pained yelp and then hissed through gritted teeth, "It feels like something's stabbing me clear out through my back."

And then Severide put it all together. He could call an ambulance, or he could put Casey in his car and rush to the hospital himself. He knew he could drive faster than any ambo, so he took Casey and got him in the passenger seat. He pulled open the glove compartment and took out a bottle of baby aspirin he kept on hand. Even off duty, you never knew when a medical emergency might occur and you were the only person around to help. He used to keep a bottle of regular aspirin on hand instead, but switched them out after one time he'd been in a grocery store and a 10 year old girl in line with her mother suddenly started exhibiting symptoms of a heart attack.

He'd popped the cap and poured out several and told Matt, "Take these, I'm getting you to the hospital."

And here they were. Was it really possible that everything had taken place only in the course of a few minutes? How many? 10? 15? Already it felt like it had been hours.

"Take it easy, Casey, just keep breathing," Severide said, relying on all his years of experience to not panic now, "we'll be at Med in a couple minutes and you're gonna be fine."

Casey took a break from his labored breathing long enough to turn to Kelly and say accusingly, "Not if you get us killed on the way there first, watch out!"

Kelly actually looked and saw they were starting to veer into the next lane and a truck was coming. He jerked the wheel all the way to the right and buried the accelerator and got them away just a few seconds shy of colliding with the semi, the driver of which honked furiously at them as they passed.

"Just try and stay calm and keep breathing," Severide told Casey, "we're almost there."

About 30 seconds later, the lights at Chicago Med came into plain view, and Severide exhaled with relief. He sped into the parking lot and saw the paramedics ready with a gurney, all waiting for them.

Kelly pulled up and hit the brakes. One of the paramedics was already opening the door on Casey's side and talking to him as they got him out and lowered him onto the gurney. Then they got him on oxygen and started wheeling him in, Severide followed them so he could see Casey and know he was still alive. They passed through the sliding doors and Connor told Severide, "We got it from here. We'll do everything we can for him."

Severide watched Matt struggling to breathe even with the oxygen, and he reached over and grabbed the lieutenant's hand in his and told him, "You'll be alright, Casey. I'll be here when you come out."

And like that, Casey was wheeled away past a set of swinging doors with the doctor and several people in scrubs heading for the ER. And Kelly was left standing outside, feeling like everything was in a fog.

Time ceased to exist for Severide. He couldn't think, he could barely function at all, all he did was roam the halls and pace around the waiting room. He had had more than his fair share of waiting around for the doctor to come out with the news about somebody being worked on, and he never paced for any of them, but this time he felt like if he didn't keep moving, he'd lose his mind. How the hell could Casey be having a heart attack? As physically demanding as their job was, it was necessary for all of them to be in excellent shape, they regularly took physicals to ensure they were still qualified for the job. Heart attacks happened to older guys like...Kelly didn't want to think about that either, but it still didn't make any sense.

Kelly was so lost in his own thoughts he initially didn't pay any attention to the onslaught of new voices behind him.

"There he is."

"Severide!"

He turned around and saw his men from Rescue coming towards him. He couldn't even think, it finally dawned on him that he hadn't even thought to call them, so how'd they know to be there?

"What's going on?" Tony asked.

Nobody had said anything to Severide since they took Casey away, his brain was barely able to remember how to form words.

"It-it's Casey, he had a heart attack tonight."

"What?" Capp asked.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah!" Kelly answered, "I was talking to him and he, he, he, he couldn't catch his breath and he started having chest pains and..."

"And you're not going to be far behind him, breathe, Severide," Capp told him as they each grabbed an arm and led him over towards one of the chairs.

Kelly heard both of them telling him to breathe, to calm down, but it sounded like they were miles away, nothing was really registering in his head yet. But something did occur to him.

"How'd you guys know to come here?"

"April called us," Tony answered.

Kelly did a double take. "April called you?"

"Yeah, she said she was notifying everyone."

And like clockwork, in stepped everybody from Truck.

"There he is!" Herrmann pointed to Severide.

"What happened?" Otis asked.

Kelly stood up and answered, "Casey had a heart attack."

"WHAT?" the men asked.

"That's not even possible," Cruz said.

"I saw it, I brought him in," Severide told him.

Otis thought of something and asked, "What were you two doing?"

"We met up at the gas station, we started talking about the call today, and..."

A light seemed to come on in Otis's eyes, and the expression on his face said he was not amused as he asked, "And did Darden's name happen to come up in the conversation?"

Kelly's anxious expression became a blank stare, then a scowl as he asked, "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"I think we all were thinking the same thing today," Otis said, "what happened to Hellman was very similar to what happened to Darden. Did you bring it up?"

"No."

"You didn't happen to accuse Casey of putting him through the window trying to kill him too, did you?" Otis asked.

"What?" Tony asked.

Capp usually had his lieutenant's back for everything, especially when it became a turf war between Truck and Squad. But he looked at Severide and asked him point blank, "You said that to him? What the hell is the matter with you, Kelly?"

"How did you know about that?" Kelly asked Otis.

"Oh my God, Kelly," Tony took a step back, "what's wrong with you?"

Everybody started talking over each other at once and nothing said was decipherable from the rest of the yammering back and forth. The only thing that broke it all up was a very deep throat clearing. Everybody turned and saw Wallace standing behind them, and everybody quickly calmed down.

"How's Casey, Severide?" he asked.

Kelly shook his head. "I don't know, Chief, nobody's come out yet."

"Then all we can do at this time is wait," Boden said, and addressed all of his men, "I don't know if you realize it, but all those chairs over on the other side of the room are there for a reason."

Everybody mumbled their agreements with him and went over to take a seat, except for Severide.

"Kelly, can I see you for a minute?" Boden pointed down the hall.

"All of us were hit hard by Darden's death," Boden told Severide, "And I know that's the core of the animosity that started between you and Casey shortly after the fact, and I couldn't get an honest answer out of either of you at the time, but would you mind explaining to me what it was all about? It's not optional this time."

Kelly sighed and shook his head, "Andy wasn't supposed to die in that fire."

"Each time we go out on a call, we face a good possibility that all of us are not going to make it back, that's just the nature of the job" Boden told him. "We spend enough time second guessing when we can't save civilians, wondering what we could've done differently, could we have been faster? It's harder when it's one of our own."

"There was no vent, he shouldn't have gone in!" Kelly said.

"But he did, and he paid the ultimate price for it," Wallace said, "and so have we, so has his family."

"Casey should've done his job and told him not to go in."

"Casey said he did," Boden pointed out. "Have you ever known Matt Casey to lie about his performance on a call? Even when it could make him look bad? Even when he could be facing disciplinary actions?"

"No, Chief," Kelly started to feel the air being let out of his argument.

"Then why are you still blaming Casey for Darden's death?"

"Because he was there, he should've stopped Darden."

"Hold up," Boden raised a finger. "You and Darden went back a long ways, right?"

"Since kindergarten, all we ever wanted to do was be firemen."

"And in all that time, did you ever know anybody to be capable of stopping Darden from doing anything he set his mind on?" Boden asked.

Severide's defensiveness took another hit. "No, Chief."

"You think if you had been there, that he would've listened?"

"Yeah...maybe...I wasn't there, it wasn't my job."

"And neither was venting the back, right?"

Kelly's eyes widened. "Casey told you about that?"

"He didn't have to. I am not so oblivious to everything that goes on in my house as you might think," Wallace told him. "I can appreciate how hard his death was for you since you two had history, that's why I gave you every chance I could to fix this situation between you and Casey when it happened, but it still wasn't enough."

Boden stared the lieutenant down and asked him, "Kelly, did you really accuse Casey of putting Darden through that window?"

Kelly felt like he was shrinking. Right now Boden seemed to be towering over him like an angry father reprimanding a 5 year old.

"Yes, Chief."

"Even though he knew there was no vent?" Boden asked in an interrogatory manner.

"Yes."

Boden's face was largely his same old 'unreadable but infuriated' self, but there was something else there that warned Kelly things just took a turn for the worse.

"Kelly," Boden's deep raspy voice dropped to a lower tone than usual, almost ominously, and said, "I really hope you're not about to suggest that Matt Casey knowingly, intentionally or negligently sent a fellow firefighter to his death, or that I would keep someone who did, in my house for all these years. Because if you are, you and I are going to have a serious problem."

And that was when Kelly knew he'd been licked.

"No," he answered in a small tone.

"No what?" Boden asked.

"No, Chief," he sighed, "I know Casey wouldn't do something like that. It's just that...it shouldn't have happened! There's no reason why it should've!"

"And it makes more sense to blame someone else for what happened instead of acknowledging no matter how well we train our men, there are some things just beyond our control," Boden said. "Kelly, every single fireman who has ever lost a man on the job has been in your shoes, all of them trying to make some sense of it, all of them looking for something or someone to point the finger at and say 'if it wasn't for this, he would still be alive'. It doesn't do any good, nothing can bring Darden back, or any of them. Casey doesn't deserve the accusations you threw at him."

"It was a bad moment," Severide said.

"The whole world has bad moments, Severide, that doesn't excuse it," Boden told him. He came down a notch and told Kelly, "Now when...when, Matt comes out of this, you need to fix what you started."

Kelly looked at him somberly and slowly nodded, "Yes, Chief."

"Alright, let's go back and see if there's been any word," Boden said.

The two of them returned to the waiting room at the same time they saw someone else joining the party.

"Chaplain Orlovsky," Boden said, "what brings you here?"

"Well actually, Chief," Orlovsky answered, "I've been in with Hellman and his family."

Everybody got quiet after that.

"How is Hellman doing?" Cruz asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Still wait and see," the chaplain said as he sat down, "on my way out I heard about Matt. How's he doing?"

"We don't know," Otis said. "The doctor hasn't been back yet."

"Well," Orlovsky addressed all of them, "the only thing that we can do for Matt right now is pray, and I think it would be the most appropriate thing to do."

"Uh," Mouch raised his hand in a questioning manner, "will this involve holding hands?"

"If you're comfortable with it," Orlovsky replied in a somewhat humoring tone.

"Uh I think we'll pass on that, Padre," Herrmann spoke up, "everybody around here's already looking at us like we're weird."

"Suit yourself."