A/N: Welcome to the first Chicago Fire fan fiction story I have ever written. And thanks for getting to this point, meaning you gave my story a chance. For that, I am sincerely grateful. I hope you enjoy and leave me notes telling me what you do and don't like so that I can connect with my "fan base" and keep it to your liking as best as possible!

Disclaimer: I do not own Chicago Fire, NBC, or anyone associated with the show. This is written purely for fan fictional purposes and out of love for the show.

Warnings: This story will start off with clean intentions and the occasional explicit word usage, but I will warn any reader now, there will be future violence, graphic descriptive visuals, and sexual content. I will again warn you with each chapter on what to expect.

Pick up Point: This is right after the end of the season finale, where Casey and Dawson hug, except this is my alternate continuation of what could happen!

Casey tears fell more rapidly as Dawson embraced him tighter, shifting so that most of the weight was on her. She could feel the heat from his breath as each sob rang out into the silence that surrounded them.

'How could a man that seemed so strong have so many hidden emotions?' Dawson thought to herself as her hand subconsciously rubbed in a repeated up down motion along Casey's back, 'Oh yeah, he's just as human as the rest of us.'

Suddenly Casey pulled back, wiping his face with the sleeve of his grey shirt. Clearing his throat, he spoke lowly, "Sorry…lost it for a second there." He moved past Dawson and walked into the living room, "Sorry you had to see this mess, just haven't been around lately to clean it up!"

'Lie!' Dawson thought to herself. She kept her back to him so he wouldn't see how confused he had felt that he needed to cover this up.

"I mean, with all the shifts Chief Boden's been making me work, there isn't much time to do anything other than sleep." He began cleaning up dirty clothes that cluttered the couch, "I guess whatever keeps me busy makes him…"

"Casey, stop!" Dawson turned around to face him, "You don't have to make excuses for this mess."

"They're not excuses, I'm telling the…"

She cut him off again, "No, you're not telling the truth," she tried to calm the harshness that had begun to show in her voice, "Please, you don't have to hide your pain anymore. What you just let out, that emotional side, it's not evil, and it's ok to be sad…" She stopped, feeling choked up for a brief moment.

"What happened to Hallie is beyond horrible, and it's not fair, whether her killer is dead or not!"

"Or not?" Casey finally spoke again, "What do you mean or not? He was shot in the head, Dawson. You checked him yourself, he was dead, no pulse, straight up fucking dead!"

"Yes, that guy was dead. But something wasn't right about that guy Casey. When Voight was walking up, the guy asked if it was him, and then he began to say something else…" Dawson looked to the floor, recalling the events of that day, "He said something about Voight telling us the truth about something, and then he was shot, point blank in the head."

"How do you even know that? You weren't up there with us when it was all going down," Casey's anger began to fade as he too recalled what had happened, begin choked with a gun to his head, but more importantly, what was going on in his surroundings.

"I wasn't, but Antonio was. He was right behind Voight. He said it sounded like this guy was innocent…well, at least innocent when it came to Hallie's death."

"I don't remember that, and the guy had me in a chokehold. I would have heard him say that!"

"Not if your adrenaline was pumping and you were focused on not losing your own life," Dawson moved into the living room, closer to the couch where Casey had now taken a seat. "Casey, Antonio is on our side, he's very skeptical about Voight, too."

Casey shook his head and ran a hand through his messy, unwashed hair, "Dawson…I know that, but Hallie was murdered and my gut tells me that guy had something to do with it."

"Fine, maybe he did. But maybe Voight did too. He almost killed Hallie before, in that car accident. You don't think maybe he had something to do with her actual death?" Dawson's tempered voice echoed off the walls.

"…I…" Casey was left speechless, his thoughts racing through all the possibilities. "I don't want to think about this anymore right now. I have things to get done, Dawson. Can you please?" He pointed towards the door.

Dawson looked to the door and then looked back to the disheveled man that sat before her, "I can't leave you like this, Casey. Scratch that, I won't," she emphasized, "leave you like this."

Casey sat in silence, pondering what she just said, and after a few minutes, responded, "Well, if you're going to stay, could you at least get me a beer?"

Dawson let out a much needed laugh, feeling that the mood in the apartment had lightened a little with his words. She got up from the arm of the couch and walked past the dining room into the kitchen, "Platinum or just a regular?" She called.

"Whatever you want to grab!" Casey yelled back.

A/N: Alright, so I know this chapter is quite short, but I want to make sure that people are interested in reading more before I truly invest a lot of time into this story. Let me know what you think!