A/N: Hey guys, I haven't really wrote anything in awhile, and so when I got this little idea in my head, I went with it. It's pretty poetic, a bit depressing, but I might add on a little to it from Gabby's POV. I hope you all like it!

I don't own Chicago Fire or its characters.


Nights Like These

Matt & Gabby


Matt lay awake in emptiness, the sound of harsh wind battling against the exterior of his building the only thing keeping him company. He listens to it in sadness, knowing it was a reminder that winter was making its way into Chicago once again. He turns his head towards his alarm clock, finding it to read 1:03am. He sighs, thankful he has the day free of shift and of construction jobs. He crawls out of bed then, rubbing his eyes and exhaling heavily, knowing sleep wasn't going to come anytime soon, and walks out of his room.

He can hear Severide in his room, laughing silently with April as he makes his way into the kitchen. The floor was chilly under his bare feet, but that was the least of his worries. He walks to the fridge, barely able to see the picture that still hung by a magnet in the darkness. God, he missed her so much.

On most nights, since she left, he's been able to lull himself to sleep by the memory of her voice. The way she rambled when something made her nervous or when she was just too excited to tell him something and had to get it out quickly. The way she laughed in between words when sharing something she found to be funny, or the way she would instinctively touch his arm or face or neck when they lay in bed together, talking quietly and sharing feelings of intense love with each other.

As he stares at the picture of them, remembering the joy they found in each other even in the midst of a Chicago winter, he hears another blast of air outside blowing snow across the city. And he knows, somewhere in the wind, his laugh is still interwoven with hers.

He finally opens the fridge, bringing light into the room, and gets a bottle of gatorade before making the room dark again. The noise is loud against the silent kitchen as he opens his drink and tosses the cap on the counter. However, the cool and refreshing flavor isn't enough to make him stop thinking of her.

He remembers the days when they want on walks throughout the city, and the way her eyes shined in the sunlight. When he first met her, and saw her smile, he was caught between wanting to dart away and stay exactly where he was. When they kissed, he remembers how it felt like she was marking him out for something bigger. He loved that feeling like nothing else.

He remembers whispering her name under his breath in the middle of the night, and her doing the same to his name. It was comforting to both of them. He wishes he could have it back.

He remembers their first official date, and he remembers how the butterflies did not dance in his stomach, but how they ran. He remembers gazing into her eyes in the middle of their meal, and not knowing if they were the reason why he was breathing or if he was just drowning in them.

He knows now that it was a combination of both.

He remembers the way she danced and sang to a song. The way her hips moved and the way she strut over to him, throwing her arms around his neck, making him dance as well. He sucked at dancing, but neither of them cared. He remembers the way she loved being twirled and dipped. He can still hear her favorite song playing through their old radio in the bedroom.

He remembers the way they kissed, the way he felt the whole world fade to black whenever their lips met. There was nothing else like it. He can still hear her heartbeat in the silence, and the way it beat just for him. He misses that more than anything.

He remembers the winter two years ago, when he was injured, and how it seemed like the world was crumbling down around him. But she became his spine, his feet, his eyes, his wings…

She became all of him, but he had let it go. He had let it go with nothing more than a hole in the wall and a few nights with a woman he'd hoped help him get over everything. It was fun, but it was not worth the pain he made Gabby feel because of it.

He can only imagine that the way she speaks, the way she laughs, the way she kisses, the way she smiles, is making somebody else fall in love with her. He suddenly feels an intense pain at the thought of it.

He puts the gatorade bottle down on the counter, just now realizing he had drank the whole thing, too lost in his thoughts to even bother taking a breath. A door opens, and he turns to see Kelly stepping out of his room, wearing old CFD sweatpants and nothing more.

"What the hell you doing up, Case?"


One day, two years later, he sees her again. He had been offered a promotion, and he took it. He hadn't seen her since his promotion party that 51 threw for him.

But now, in the dim light that Molly's offered, he noticed her glowing. She was still pulling him in. It's as if nothing has changed.

"Hey, looks like this guy isn't too good for us after all!" Herrmann's voice is barely enough to cause his eyes to dart away from Gabby's figure.

He had seen the guys of 51 a lot, but not nearly as much as he used to. Granted, he had moved to a different firehouse, but Molly's was no longer a place he went to on every free night.

He talked to Otis and Cruz and Mouch and Boden, but after a couple of hours, he knew he needed to talk to Gabby. He just needed to hear her voice.

As he walks towards her, he remembers the way things used to be. The way their fingers battled, the way her lips attacked his neck, how every breath of his sounded like her name, the way they stared up at the sky on dark nights and asked each other questions about the universe.

As he walks towards her, she smiles, and he realizes that his heart still beats for her, and how it always will.