Fever
Kelly Severide was aware of several sensations of discomfort. His tongue was dry, his throat was scratchy and burned, his lips felt like cardboard when they pressed together. He felt sweat dripping and running in every crevice of his body. His back was killing him. His nose was stopped up and he couldn't breathe. His head hurt. Not a migraine, the back of his head literally hurt from laying against the pillows for so long. How long?
But everything was not a miserable sensation. There were a couple small comforts in between everything else. The soft cotton of the sheets rubbing against his feet, a cool breeze blowing over his skin...something soft and plushy pressed against the crook of his arm and subsequently against his ribs.
"Huh?" his voice barely croaked out as he tried to open his eyes, "Wha..."
The room was dark but not pitch black. He could see a light gray coming in through the open blind meaning it was early in the morning. Through the open bedroom door there was a light on somewhere but it was at an angle and he couldn't determine its location. Kelly's eyelids felt heavy and closed again, then he became aware of a presence standing over him. He opened his eyes again, and though the figure was half concealed by the dark, he'd know Benny's outline anywhere.
"Pop?" he barely got out in a whisper.
The elder Severide offered a small smile, and Kelly felt his dad's hand on his forehead. "Hey Kelly, how're you feeling?"
"Wha's going on? Wha?" Kelly tried to look around, and first and foremost tried to focus his eyes on the thing pressed against his arm. He looked down, and even in the scant light from the window he could make out a small stuffed dog tucked in the crook of his elbow. "Wha the?" somehow he felt it should look familiar. It felt familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.
"Remember when you were five?" Benny pulled up a chair and sat beside the bed and recollected, "I'm getting ready to leave for shift and you come running up and say 'Pop, take Skip with you so you don't get lonely tonight' Remember?" Benny chuckled as he watched his now grown son's eyes roam around trying to remember, but it didn't seem to take. "Even though half the smoker eaters got kids, you know how that would've gone over, kept it stuffed in the pillow on my bunk every shift. Found it a couple months ago with some old boxes in the attic."
Kelly looked at the fairly weathered gray dog with the black ears, as if waiting for something to ring a bell, then looked up at Benny and asked him, "Pop, what're you doing here?"
Another figure appeared at the doorway and he heard Matt Casey's voice, "Is he awake?"
"No but he's doing a good impression of it," Benny answered as he stood up.
There was a click and the lights came on. Kelly groaned and drew his hands over his face, only realizing now that one of them felt numb and heavy, the circulation had been out of it for a while.
"Put your hands down."
That was Casey's voice. Kelly closed his eyes against the sudden brightness, then heard a digital 'beep' and felt something pressed against his temple. There was another 'beep'.
"99.6," Casey said, "beats 101.9."
"Wha happened?" Kelly asked as he fumbled for the covers and drew them up over his face.
"You've been sick for the last two days with a fever," Casey told him.
Kelly lowered the blanket and croaked out, "Flu?"
"Looks like, you haven't been able to eat or drink anything since the night before last," Casey said. "You were rambling incoherently for a while."
Kelly's eyes roamed again, back over to Benny and asked again, "What're you doing here?"
"Matt called me."
Kelly's eyes widened, "Casey called you?"
"If you didn't hear the storm last night, you were sick," Benny told him as he went over to the window, "half the trees are down on the block. Had everything, thunderstorm, high wind, big hail, did you hear the tornado?"
Kelly tried to sit up, and plopped right back down against the pillows. "What?"
"Not here, but it started to touch down a few blocks away, luckily not enough to do any real damage, but it was close for a while," Benny said.
Kelly looked around the room, and saw the clock that said it was 5:30 in the morning, and he kicked back the covers and announced, "I need a shower."
He tried to stand up, and as before, fell right back against the bed. His legs felt weak as soon as any weight was put on them. Casey went over to the bed and helped Kelly up, as the covers fell away he looked down and saw he was in his underwear, and his entire body was soaked with sweat.
"What happened?" he felt a need to ask again.
"It's alright, Kelly, everything's fine," Casey assured him as he walked him to the bathroom. As he did that, Benny started to strip the sheets off the bed.
Kelly leaned against the back of the tub and sighed as he felt the hot water burning his skin, it felt nice.
"You okay?"
Kelly opened his eyes and saw Casey seated on the edge of the tub looking down at him. Kelly closed his eyes again but managed a half smile, "Better now." After a minute he told Matt, "I can't believe you called Benny."
"You were barely conscious when I got here," Casey said, "I'd been calling all morning, you didn't answer...they'd been saying on the radio all day we could get hit by a tornado, I didn't want to be the only one here with you if something happened."
"So you called Benny?" Kelly asked in disbelief.
"I panicked, okay?"
"I guess," he replied. "I don't remember much."
"You're lucky," Casey replied.
Kelly grabbed the bar of soap and lathered up the washcloth and tried to scrub his back and groaned. "How long was I in bed?"
"My guess? Close to 30 hours," Casey said.
"Uh huh," Kelly put the soap back in the dish, he'd wait for those muscles to loosen up before trying that again.
"How're you feeling?"
"Still miserable...but better than I was."
Casey noticed Severide's face getting flushed and he was breathing harder now than a few minutes ago.
"I think you need to get out," Casey said as he stood up and grabbed a towel off the rack.
He helped Kelly out of the tub and the two headed back to the bedroom where Kelly promptly collapsed on the newly made bed and lay across it lengthwise, his chest rising and falling as he huffed and puffed heavily, trying to catch his breath.
"You okay?" Casey asked.
Kelly nodded as he breathed laboriously, it was only now Casey saw his whole body was just as flushed as his face was.
Matt turned on the ceiling fan and told Severide, "I'll get you something to drink, I'll be right back."
Benny was in the kitchen pouring a cup of coffee and asked, "How is he?"
Casey stalked over to the fridge and took out a bottle of orange juice. "Hopefully he'll be able to keep something down now." He moved over to the cupboard and grabbed a glass, then thought to say to the retired smoke eater, "Thanks for coming over, Benny."
"No problem, Matt. Hey, you might try and get some sleep yourself."
Casey tiredly smirked and replied, "Will do," and left the kitchen.
He returned to the bedroom and saw Kelly still flat on his back and couldn't resist asking again, "You okay?"
Kelly groaned and replied, "Help me up, my back doesn't want to move."
Casey pulled him up into a sitting position and gave him the glass, which Kelly drank down faster than was probably wise, but seemed to suffer no ill effects from it.
"You hungry?"
"I don't know," Kelly said.
"I'll let you get dressed," Casey told him, and he turned and left the room.
A few minutes later Casey poked his head in and saw Kelly had gotten himself dressed in a T-shirt and a pair of pajama pants and crawled back under the covers and seemed to be asleep again.
"You awake?"
"No, go away," Kelly grumbled as he turned on his side away from Casey.
Casey walked over to the bed and commented, "I'd think this would be the last place you wanted to be after yesterday."
"I'm tired," Kelly moaned.
This admission concerned Matt, on one hand Kelly would probably have a little more energy once he actually ate something, on the other hand if just taking a bath and walking back to the bedroom had worn him out, back in bed was probably the exact place he needed to be right now.
"Hey Kelly," Benny stuck his head in and announced, "I'm gonna cut out, you doing okay now?"
Kelly tiredly nodded, barely able to keep his eyes open, "Yeah, sure, fine, thanks Pop."
"Hey," the elder Severide walked over to the bed, leaned over and lightly kissed his son on the forehead and told him, "Feel better."
That got Kelly's attention and his eyes widened, though it was lost on both his dad and the Truck lieutenant who saw him out.
"What happened yesterday?" Kelly asked as Casey returned to the room.
"Do you really think I'd call your dad if you were just sick?" Casey asked.
"Oh wow," Kelly groaned as he closed his eyes and settled back against the pillows again.
A few seconds passed, and Kelly felt something tap him on the shoulder and heard Casey's voice, "Hey."
Kelly opened his eyes and turned his head and saw Casey standing beside the bed with a mischievous smirk on his face and the stuffed dog in his hand as he thrust it in front of Kelly's face and said tauntingly, "Peek-a-boo."
"Give me that," Kelly grumbled as he grabbed it away from Casey and tucked it under his head for an extra pillow.
"You need anything?" Casey asked.
Kelly just shook his head.
"Okay then, I'm going to crash on the couch for a while, let me know if you change your mind."
"Okay," Kelly turned his head and added, "Thanks, Casey."
Matt stopped at the door and looked back, and not knowing what else to say, merely responded, "No problem," and hit the lights on his way out.