Overhaul
Established Sevasey relationship. Hallie never existed, Dawson may exist but she is somewhere far, far, far away from Casey and the two will never meet.
Mundane Work
The three-story house fire was out. The victims were on their way to the hospital. Squad 3 were packing up their rig. The engine crew were just exiting the building. The sun had risen and coloured the sky in shades of orange and red.
Casey walked up to Severide, full turnout gear still on, hair jutting up at all angles, soot and sweat covered his face. "I'll have my guys do overhaul then?" he questioned, his tone was less than impressed but his expression was somewhat amused at Severide's attempt to get away from the scene.
Severide smiled. "Thanks, Casey," he mocked. Overhaul was not a glamourous job. The adrenaline of rescuing the victims trapped in the fire was gone, the excitement of battling the fire was diminished but the job was not over, now that the fire was out there was mundane work to be done. They needed to open walls, ceilings, voids and partitions to check for any residual fire. It was backbreaking and tedious.
He shook his head in frustration, although his eyes told a different story as he said, "You owe me." Severide brushed passed him intentionally after he shut one of the compartment doors to the Squad rig. "Tonight, my place," he whispered as Severide passed.
"You are demanding." Severide turned and smirked.
"You wanna do overhaul?" he questioned with a smile.
Severide grinned. "Oh, don't worry, I'll do some overhaul tonight," he said in a hushed tone as Mills approached them.
"Herrmann stick with Mills, start on the ground floor," Casey spoke loudly, getting the attention of his men, "Cruz you're with me, we'll start on the second floor."
"And squad gets away once again..." Otis commented offhandedly, "And what about eng…"
"We have a candidate to train," Casey pointed out, "Mills needs to get as much experience under his belt as possible."
Casey glanced at the squad rig leaving the scene as he and Cruz walked up a few steps to the house, Severide gave him a quick wave, Casey shook his head at the gesture, put his helmet on and entered the building behind Cruz. Mills and Herrmann were already inside going over the ground floor. The stairs creaked as he followed Cruz to the top of the house. The whole place was black and damp with water. They opened up the walls and ceilings, checking for any remaining fire, it was hot and exhausting work, Casey could feel beads are sweat dripping steadily down from underneath his helmet, his hands were moist within his gloves and he knew his polo shirt would be soaked through. He couldn't wait to get back and step under the cold stream of water of the shower, at least they'd be getting overtime pay for this and he now had something to look forward to tonight instead of spending the night alone in front of the TV.
"Lieutenant," Herrmann began through the radio. "Definitely an electrical fire, the amount of plugs, sockets and extension cords here is ridiculous. We're going down to the basement now."
"Copy that," he replied to Herrmann. "Cruz, let's go down."
They went down to the first floor, continuously opening up sections of burnt wall and ceiling. In total it took a couple of hours but eventually they completed the overhaul. Herrmann and Mills left the building first, pleased to take off their turnout jackets, the heat in the middle of August was unforgiving. Casey and Cruz began their decent to the ground floor; the whole building had been creaking the entire time so they took care on the stairs.
Casey followed Cruz as he led the way down the stairs, looking down at their footing as they went. Cruz stepped down, the step groaned ominously so he quickly moved down to the next. His boot went straight through, Casey quickly took hold of him but the momentum had already begun and the old wooden steps splintered around them. The stairs crumpled sending the two of them crashing down from the first floor to the basement.
To cushion his fall Casey had instinctively put his arms out, but it did nothing to protect him as the two of them crashed through the ground floor and into the small basement. He only lost consciousness momentarily. Once the initial shock of plummeting down one and a half storeys diminished he called out for Cruz, who had only been inches away from him when they initially fell through the stairs, but the debris was now scattered around him and he couldn't make much out in the darkness of the basement.
"Cruz?" he called out, "Cruz? You hear me?"
There was no sound other than a few thumps as a few more small pieces of wooden debris fell down into the room. Casey pushed himself onto his elbows, there was a sharp pain but it only lasted momentarily, he caught a glimpse of reflective yellow in the small glimmer of light that appeared from the hole above them, the hole that had previously been part of the ground floor.
"Casey? Cruz? Do you copy?" his radio buzzed into action, it was Herrmann, he was speaking frantically, Casey wondered if he'd been calling through to them previously but he'd been too preoccupied to notice.
"We're here, we need an ambulance, Cruz is unconscious," Casey responded. "Don't enter, I don't know how stable the building is now. The stairs gave way, we've ended up in the basement. Put a ladder down through the north-west window."
"Copy that, Lieutenant," Herrmann replied.
Casey began to make his way over to Cruz's inert form, he didn't stand or even crawl, he wanted to disturb the area as little as possible, there was so much debris scattered about so he pulled himself forwards with his arms.
"Cruz can… argh!" he yelled, the sharp pain in his abdomen increased tenfold, he took some deep steadying breaths before calling out again, "Cruz?" He continued to move, trying to ignore the pain as he got closer to his fallen firefighter.
"Casey?" Cruz's voice was quiet when he woke. It took a moment to realise what had happened but then it all flooded back to him, the stairs, the step, the loud crash that had emanated around them when they fell through to the basement. He fumbled and grabbed the flashlight that was on his turnout jacket, he switched it on and the room lit up a little so he could get his bearings.
"Don't move," Casey instructed, "You've been out for a few minutes." He was sat up tentatively now he'd reached Cruz.
"I… I think I'm ok," he stuttered, "I've just got a massive headache, how about you?"
"Erm…" Casey frowned, suddenly forgetting his words, he'd had forgotten what had happened if it were for all the splintered pieces of wood and debris around them. "Erm…"
"Lieutenant!" Herrmann called through the small window as he, Mills, Mouch and Otis slid the ladder inside.
"Casey?" Cruz's voice was stronger now and laced with concern. Herrmann's concern grew as well, he could see little through the window and his lieutenant hadn't responded.
"Erm… There's an ambulance on the way..." He struggled to think, to find his words, everything felt slow and lethargic. "We... we need to get out of here, you need to get checked out, you're hurt…"
"I think you're really hurt," Cruz stated, his eyes had shot open, he was now shining his flashlight just behind Casey.
"No I was barely…" he frowned, what was Cruz looking at? He was about to turn and look but he heard his name being called.
"Casey?" it was Herrmann.
"We're… erm… we're on our way," he stuttered.
"Don't move, Casey," Cruz instructed. His torch light had caught a glimpse of the thick red blood coating a large splinter of wood. Casey's adrenaline was obviously masking any injuries and he wanted it to remain that way. Cruz moved the beam of the light to Casey's chest. "Oh God…" the words slipped out his mouth before he could stop them.
Casey frowned and slowly looked down; he took a sharp intake of breath at the sight he discovered. The whole of his lower torso was covered in blood; it was soaking through his turnout jacket and spreading quickly and thickly out of the tear towards his left hand side. The pain then arrived in full force. He quickly put his right hand over the rip in his jacket and pressed down, the pain increased and his breaths hitched but he remained calm, they needed to get out of here, Cruz needed to get his head checked out.
"I'm ok," he said through gritted teeth. "We need to get out of here." He staggered over to the ladder with Cruz's support.
"Mills! Grab the first aid kit!" Cruz yelled as he helped Casey up the ladder. fortunately it was a small basement, they didn't have a long way to climb, but the six steps Casey took were taken shakily with bated breath. Herrmann helped him off the ladder and immediately put his arm under his and gently lay him down on the ground. Otis gave Cruz a steadying hand and sat him down on the ground, insistent that he waited to get checked over by the paramedics rather than rush back to Casey's side.
Mills flung himself down next to Casey on the grass; he quickly grabbed some gauze from the first aid kit and pressed it down on the thick blood oozing from Casey's abdomen. "Herrmann, his jacket and top…"
"I got it." Herrmann grabbed the scissors from the kit. The sirens from the ambulance could be heard in the distance.
Casey was looking blearily up at Mills as they opened up his turnout coat and cut away his polo top. "You're not smiling," he slurred.
"Give me more gauze," Mills called out for as he kept pressure on the wound. Herrmann placed the fresh white gauze down and Mills took hold of it over the wound, it quickly soaked with blood.
"Lieutenant?" Herrmann questioned, Casey's eyes were flickering closed, he needed to stay awake.
"Mmm..." he mumbled tiredly, his whole body felt weak and battered. There were a few small grazes adorning his face that must have occurred when the stairs splintered, Cruz's face had the same cuts present.
"The ambulance will be here soon, you just need to stay awake, can you do that for me?" Herrmann spoke calmly despite the worry he felt.
"Mmm… hurts…" he slurred, his grip on reality fading fast.
Herrmann's mouth opened at his admission, Casey would never admit to pain, the blood loss was effecting his judgement, it had brought down his walls, he now had no energy to shield his thoughts and feelings from the world.
Casey's eyes shot open. "Cruz?" he questioned quickly. "His head, he needs to get checked out, we need an ambulance."
"It's on its way, Lieutenant," Herrmann informed him, "Listen, you can hear it."
"Good," he slurred, "Why're y'all standin' around?"
The ambulance pulled up, the paramedics jumped out and rushed over to Casey with a backboard and first aid kit.
"Think a wooden splinter went straight into his abdomen when he fell into the basement," Cruz explained from the distance, Otis had still not let him near Casey, "It must have been at least two inches…"
"You took it out?" one of the paramedics asked as he knelt down next to Mills, ready to inspect the wound.
Cruz shook his head. "It just came out, I don't think he realised it was there before he moved…" he trailed off as the paramedics removed the blood soaked gauze pads and replaced it with fresh, this time the redness didn't spread quite so fast. The gauze was taped on, and a cannula was inserted into the back of his right hand so they could quickly get some fluids into him to temporarily counteract the blood loss. There was blood smudged all over Casey's chest now, it had even pooled just above the waistband of his turnout trousers.
Casey was still hanging onto consciousness when they carefully moved him onto his side and slipped the backboard below him, he let out a sharp groan as he was moved back down onto it.
"You're all right, Casey, you're going to be ok," Herrmann reassured him as the he was lifted up off the ground. "Cruz, you better go with them," he said before turning to the paramedics, "He fell with him and was knocked out for a few minutes."
Casey was taken into the back of the ambulance, Cruz followed him in, the doors were slammed shut, the sirens were turned back on and it sped away from the scene. Herrmann and the others were left looking at the pool of blood that had appeared on the patch of grass their lieutenant had been lying on.
TBC
