Heatwave

It was summer in Chicago and even without the heat index the thermometers were at triple digits to prove it. Even with the air conditioner on in his apartment, Kelly Severide was hot and miserable, he'd long since sweated through his clothes and they clung to him uncomfortably and he'd already changed into a dry set once that day. He'd only been home from shift for six hours but he already felt ready to crawl out of his skin.

And then the power went out.

Kelly looked around at his slightly darker apartment and heard the whine of the electricity dying, and shook his head, "Beautiful, just beautiful."

It wasn't his first thought, but definitely in the top 10 to call Casey and see if his power was out too. The Truck lieutenant had been absent the last couple shifts and at home with some new kind of flu that was going around.

The call went straight to Casey's voicemail. A few different ideas went through Kelly's mind, he could've been asleep, he could've been charging his phone, but all the same Kelly decided he better head over and see for himself what was going on. He didn't like the idea of Casey being home sick in a 100 degree F blackout with no one to check on him.

At least the AC in his car was still working, and for the drive over to Casey's apartment Severide got it nice and chilly. As he drove through the city he guessed a whole transformer must've been down because the traffic lights were out, patrolmen were directing cars every which way and all the digital signs on every building were blackened out, stores were dark, the neon 'open' signs in every window were dead, this was not going to end well. As he neared Casey's block he noticed more of the same and had a bad feeling that his best friend also had not been exempt from the power outage.

Casey's truck was parked at the curb, Kelly pulled up behind it. He still had his spare key and let himself in and was instantly met with a hot stagnant air that was just about as bad as the weather outside.

"Casey?" he shut the door behind him to keep the sun out, so it didn't get even hotter than it already would, and made his way through the apartment. The blinds had all been drawn in a futile attempt to keep some of the heat out, and it took a little effort to make his way from room to room without walking into anything, the apartment was just dark enough that he couldn't clearly see every little thing that got in his way.

"Casey?" he reached the bedroom and saw Casey unconscious in the bed, a thin sheet pulled up to his chest, everything above it was covered in perspiration, and Casey wasn't responsive to the voice calling his name.

"Matt?" Kelly made his way to the bed and felt Casey's pulse, a little fast, then felt his forehead. He wasn't sure if Casey still had a fever or not but either way he was burning up.

Kelly tried to think and tried not to panic. The electricity was out in the whole neighborhood and there was no way to cool down the apartment, and there was no telling how long the power would be out for. He thought, and an idea came to him, he went to the bathroom, which was just about pitch dark because there were no windows in it, felt his way along to the tub and turned on the taps. The only plus side to no electricity in a heat wave, no water heater so there was plenty of cold water.

While the tub filled, Kelly searched through the rooms and found an LED lantern, turned it on and set it on the sink counter so he'd have some light to see by. When the tub was half full he went back to the bedroom where Casey hadn't stirred, pulled down the sheet that was practically stuck to him and saw the rest of his body was also soaked.

"Come on, buddy," Kelly said as he put his firefighter training to good use and grabbing Casey by his arm, pulled the blonde man up enough to sling him over Kelly's shoulders and carry him into the bathroom. Once there he leaned over and eased Casey down into the tub. He barely responded to the sudden shock of the cold water aside from a muffled groan. Kelly got a washcloth out of the cupboard, soaked it in the cold water and smoothed it over Casey's face, he softly moaned again and this time was more responsive.

"Casey?"

"Kelly?" in the distorted light from the lantern behind him, Kelly could see Matt slowly opening his eyes and trying to figure out where he was and what was going on. "What happened?"

"City's in a blackout," he answered, "the whole apartment's hot as hell." The power hadn't been out that long. "Did you even have your AC on?"

Casey grabbed the edges of the tub and pulled himself up so he was sitting straighter and weakly responded, "The air conditioner hadn't been working right...I was going to look at it, when..."

"You felt better," Kelly put the pieces together.

"I...haven't really been...firing on all cylinders yet," Casey told him, "all I've done the last few days is stay in bed and sleep...what day is it?"

"Stay right there, don't move," Kelly said, "I'll be right back."

"I'm not going anywhere," Casey replied as he sank back down in the tub.

"And don't fall asleep!" Severide called back to him.

Kelly stripped the bed and piled the sheets on the floor, he dug out a new set from the closet, then he got an idea. He took them, and a change of clothes for Casey, took them into the kitchen and with a little effort, stuffed them all into the freezer. As long as the door stayed shut, everything would stay cold for about 24 hours without power. Then he opened the fridge, took out two beers and headed back to the bathroom, where Casey seemed content to stay in the cold water.

"Might as well enjoy these while they're cold," Kelly said as he twisted the top off one and handed it to Casey.

"Thank you," he weakly replied as he took a drink.

Kelly leaned over and felt Casey's forehead. "Still warm, but better than a little while ago."

"Don't have a fever," Casey said, "I don't think anyway..."

"Well that's good because there's not enough ice to pack you in," Kelly told him.

"Very funny."

"So how have you been lately?"

"Tired, weak, otherwise not too bad," Casey answered.

"Yeah well you better stay in there a while because there's no telling how long the power's going to be out," Kelly told him.

"Blackout in the middle of summer, just terrific," Casey grumbled as he started to sink under the water.

After soaking in the tub for a while, Casey decided while he was in it he should actually wash up so he didn't smell like a skunk when he got out. And while he did that, Kelly pulled his shirt off over his head and settled for a whore's bath at the sink. He'd just taken a shower last night after they got back from a house fire, and already he'd sweated so much that the oil in his hair was rolling down his forehead. It was so hot he'd swear his deodorant had actually melted. As brutal as the Chicago winters were and anybody who'd been there for even one season knew how bad they were, there were times when he hated summer, and this was one of those times.

"I guess it's gonna be cold sandwiches for dinner tonight," he said.

Casey turned and looked at him, "You're staying?"

"Why not? My apartment's in just as bad of shape as yours, at least here I got somebody to talk to."

In response, a sopping wet and balled up washrag was hurled in his general direction.

"Besides, I am not going through that traffic again until some order's been restored," Kelly added.

"You sure about that?" Casey asked.

Kelly heard the water splashing as Casey emerged from the tub and pulled a towel off the rack.

"What do you mean?" Kelly asked.

"Any idea how widespread this blackout is?" Matt asked.

"No, why?"

"Just thinking, maybe we could find a spot of Chicago that still has electricity and we could spend the better part of tonight in some place that's air conditioned," Casey answered as he stepped out of the tub.

Kelly had to admit it sounded tempting.

"We'll see," he replied.

"Exactly what gave you this idea?" Casey asked as he finished dressing in the clothes that Kelly had put in the freezer earlier. They weren't really cold yet but notably cooler than the sheets he'd been laying on that morning.

"I used to have a girlfriend that froze all her underwear and T-shirts in the summer," Kelly answered, and as Casey started to crack up at that he added, "Shut up."

"I'm listening," Casey said as he stifled a laugh.

"Well the way she always did it was to spritz them in one spot, then put them in a paper bag and leave them in the freezer for a couple hours. I figured if that worked, just tossing them in to chill them wasn't a bad idea either."

"Interesting," Casey remarked.

"How're you feeling?" Kelly asked.

Casey thought about it for a minute and answered, "Better than earlier." He shook his head, "It's unreal when you think about it, our ancestors lived without air conditioning, without electricity, and you know the summers had to have been as bad back then as they are now. How did they all survive it?"

"Who says they did?" Kelly replied. "People drop dead of heat stroke all the time, and there's probably more than one reason why so many people used to die young a hundred years ago."

"Hmm, fair point," Casey said.

There was an electrical crackle and the lights came back on and the sounds of the power coming back to life rang out through the apartment.

"Hallelujah," Casey commented as he looked at the lights above him.

"Great," Kelly said, already starting to sweat again, "now let's look at that air conditioner."

"Casey, do you ever change out the filters on this thing?" Kelly asked.

"I...didn't get around to it this year," Casey admitted. "It was cold longer than usual and I didn't think about it."

"This thing is disgusting," Kelly said as he put the blackened filter at the curbside trash.

"Needs more Freon too," Casey noted.

"Well, we'll give it a couple hours for traffic to get back to normal and head to the store, in the meantime at least the fans will work," Kelly responded.

Casey looked at him, "You're still staying?"

Kelly shrugged, "Is it okay?"

Casey nodded, "Sure. After being in bed all week it'll be great to have some company. Oh that reminds me...why'd you come over anyway?"

"You're sick, it's 110 degrees, nobody in the vicinity of this power grid has any AC, and you weren't answering your phone...why wouldn't I come over?" Kelly asked.

Casey took that in and responded, "Didn't think of that. I'm glad you came over."

Kelly looked at him and nodded. "Me too."