Recoil
"Casey, gun!"
Matt threw himself on the ground as the explosions of gunfire rang throughout the alley, he couldn't see anything, he hadn't realized he'd squeezed his eyes as tightly shut as possible.
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
BANG
The shots seemed to go on forever, it felt like hours before there was finally silence in the alley.
Then the sound of a gun dropping on the ground.
"Casey!" Severide yelled as he made his way through the alley to the Truck lieutenant laying flat on the ground with his arms over his head.
"Casey! Are you alright?" Kelly dropped on his knee beside Casey. With the dim light from the streetlamps that barely coated the area in an orange hue, he saw Casey was covered in blood.
"Casey?" Kelly turned him over to check his vitals, Casey's eyes were wide and dilated, his pulse was racing, he was hardly breathing.
"No come on, Matt, stay with me," Kelly shakily said as he took out his phone to call 911. "Stay with me, buddy, you're gonna be alright."
It seemed like forever until a dispatcher was actually on the line. Kelly gave their location and told them they needed an ambulance, and specified Casey's condition as best he could. He knew what the average response time was for EMS, and he wasn't sure either of them would make it until then.
Kelly looked over at Casey loaded on the gurney with a blanket covering him, the paramedics were still working on him but didn't seem to be rushing to get him to Med, Kelly didn't get it.
"Sir."
"Hm?" Kelly turned back to the cop who had been questioning him. "Sorry, what?"
"I said did you know either of the two men you shot?"
Kelly shook his head. "No, never seen either of them before." He glanced back at the scene of the two twenty-something year old black men lying dead in the streets with cops and crime scene people standing around assessing the situation.
The cop held up a Glock contained in a plastic bag. "Ever see this gun before?"
"No."
"Do you own a gun?"
Kelly blinked. "No."
"But you did take this gun off one of the suspects?"
"Yeah."
"Have you been drinking tonight?"
"No," Kelly answered, feeling defensive at the line of questioning.
"I'm going to ask you to submit to a breathalyzer test-"
And Kelly knew what would happen if he refused. Not understanding what any of this was about, he blew into the breathalyzer and waited to hear the findings, but the cop wouldn't tell him.
"Why aren't they taking Casey out of here?" he asked. "He needs to go to the hospital."
"Mr. Severide, we're going to have you come back with us to the precinct for some further questioning. We are also going to ask you to submit to a GSR swab-"
The words were only half resonating with him, he looked over again and saw the paramedics finally loading Casey into the ambulance, a few seconds later it tore off with the lights flashing and sirens blaring. Hearing his name called again, Kelly turned back to the cop and reluctantly agreed, "Alright, let's go."
"Did you know the two men you shot tonight?"
"No," Kelly answered for the fifth time as he sat in the police interview room with a cop in his late 40s who looked like he'd done this a hundred times before.
"Had you ever seen them before?"
"No," he responded, his tone making it clear how agitated he was.
"Do you own a gun?"
"You've asked that three times and it's still no, what is this all about?" Kelly asked.
The Glock in the evidence bag was placed on the table in front of him.
"That's the gun you fired at the suspects?"
"Yeah."
"Where did you get it?"
"I wrestled it away from the guy who was aiming it at me, and when I shot at the other guy, the first one got up and got hit too," Kelly was surprised at himself how nonchalant it all seemed in hindsight. He felt like he should be shaking, dizzy, nauseous, but there was nothing, just a dreaded feeling in the back of his head about what was happening to Casey at the hospital.
"How many rounds did you fire?"
"I don't know."
"More than one?"
"Yeah," Kelly answered in a 'well duh!' tone.
"More than two?"
"Yes."
"How many?"
"I don't know. More than five I think."
"This gun had a 10 round magazine, all the rounds were used up. Did you shoot it 10 times?"
"I don't know," Kelly sighed tiredly. He'd been there two hours answering questions over and over and nobody would tell him what it was all about.
"Why did you fire so many times?"
"Look," Kelly was very close to biting the cop's head off but he knew that wouldn't do anybody any good, with much restraint he said in an annoyed tone, "I may not know anything about guns, but I know that idea of shoot somebody once and they go down is a load of crap, some people are still standing after five shots."
"And is that why you shot them so many times?"
"I didn't want the guy getting back up and shooting at Casey or myself," Kelly answered.
"How did you happen to encounter those two men?"
"I explained that already, don't you have it written down somewhere?" Kelly asked. "And what happened to Casey? Has the hospital said anything?"
"I need you to answer these questions."
"For the fifth time, we were out on a jog, we heard a gunshot, we took off and split up. The guy I took the gun off of came around the corner from me just outside the alley, we wrestled with the gun, I got it away from him, knocked him out, I heard noises coming from the alley, looked in and saw the second guy drawing his gun behind Casey. I screamed at Casey to get out of the way, the guy turned around and I just pulled the trigger. But...I don't know if Casey got hit during that or not, he was covered in blood when I got to him, but I couldn't find a wound, not an obvious one anyway."
"Do you usually jog in that area at night?"
"No," Kelly rolled his eyes as he leaned back in the chair.
"Why did you decide to go there tonight?" the cop asked.
"No particular reason, what is this all about?"
"We just need to get all the details."
"Why? All you need to know is two guys tried to kill us."
"And now they're dead and your friend is in the hospital."
"And why do you need to keep asking me the same questions about that? I've already told you everything that happened, and everything I know," Kelly said.
"Were you drinking tonight?"
Kelly rolled his eyes and slammed his forehead against the table.
Kelly heard the door opening and realized he'd fallen asleep facedown on the table in the interview room.
Hank Voight stepped in the doorway and said, "Alright, Severide, you're free to go."
"About damn time," Kelly grumbled as he got up. "What're you doing here?"
"Just clearing some things up. I understand you had a rough night."
Kelly snorted. "That's an understatement. What the hell is going on?"
Voight raised a hand to silence him and responded, "This is about more than just you killing two thugs last night."
"What about Casey? Is he okay?"
"He's fine. Listen, you need to understand what happened. Those guys that tried to kill you and Casey last night broke out of a prison in Indiana two days ago, both of them were doing life for killing two cops, three women and one two year old child. So tempting as it was for the cops to let it go as it was, the political pressure on them given the victims' race, dictates everything done to investigate the shooting was done by the book threefold just so nobody can come after this saying it was racially motivated."
"Racially mot-"
"Not on your part, not on the officers' part or the ASA's part in their decision not to charge you," Voight explained.
Kelly was dumbstruck. "These guys kill 6 people, escape from prison and it still has to be determined that I didn't just shoot them for the hell of it?"
"It's a bad system and everybody knows it," Voight said. "Unfortunately politics does rule the roost, especially these days with social media sparking statewide riots before anybody even bothers to find out all the facts."
"Unbelievable."
"Tell me about it," Voight replied. "Now come on, there's somebody outside to see you."
They left the interview room and Kelly took five steps out the door when he stopped and felt his eyes bug out at the sight of Casey standing ten feet from him.
"Casey!"
"You okay, Kelly?" Matt asked.
Kelly's brain lost the ability to even form words at that moment. "Who-wha-how-wa-"
"He wasn't shot," Voight explained. "The blood was spatter from the guy you shot, they treated him for shock and released him...and that's when he called me."
Kelly looked from the cop to his best friend, "You called Voight?"
"I figured if anybody could get you out of this mess, it'd be him," Matt answered.
Kelly was overwhelmed and he became unsteady on his feet. Casey reached over and grabbed him by the arm to steady him.
"Kelly."
Severide turned to Voight, who told him, "They dug five slugs out of the first guy you shot, one was a through and through that exited the guy you stole the gun from, then lodged in the other man's body. For a guy with no experience with guns, you've got one hell of an aim."
Kelly had no idea what to say to that.
"It's been a long night, get out of here," Hank addressed both firefighters, "go home."
"Thanks, Voight," Casey said.
"Yeah...thanks," Kelly added.
"Thank you for saving my life," Casey said as soon as they got in the door of their shared apartment.
"Don't mention it, and don't make me have to do that again," Kelly replied as he took off his jacket.
"You'd do it in a moment's notice and you know it," Casey replied with a small smirk.
Kelly thought about it. "I suppose so. Would you?"
"Huh?"
"Would you have done it if it was me?" Kelly asked him.
Casey inhaled apprehensively and responded, "I haven't liked guns since my mom killed my dad...but for you? Or anyone else that I care about? ...Yeah, I think I would...but I hope I never have to find out."
Severide nodded in understanding.
"Come on, let's go to bed," he told Casey. It had been a long night from hell and he was exhausted.
"Sounds good," Casey replied. "I spent half the night in a hospital room, and the other half waiting at the precinct for them to spring you."
He surprised Severide though by coming up on him and grabbing him in a tight hug.
"Thank you," Casey's voice was shaking.
Kelly stood there in mild shock and just patted Casey's back reassuringly.
"It's okay, it's over. Let's go."
Casey pulled away from him and the two lieutenants headed off each to their own bedroom for some much needed rest.