Author's note: Okay, a few things are in order here. First, I don't own Chicago Fire or any of the characters- just a big fan. Second, this story contains spanking between two adults as a form of discipline. If you're not interested in reading that, stop now. This story assumes that corporal punishment is fairly standard at Firehouse 51. The following story was thought up by an interaction between Casey and Dawson in season 3, when Gabby is asking Matt if she'd be treated like any other candidate. She asks, "And if I mess up, will you discipline me?" To which Matt responds, "With enthusiasm." Seriously, what else could I have done with that scene?

When Matt Casey had approached her about becoming Truck 81's candidate, Gabriela Dawson had wanted to accept straight away. But she knew better than to accept the offer as it was straight away- personal things are complicated, and that always seemed to be magnified in her relationship with Matt. So, she saved some questions for later- she wanted to stay with her 51 family, of course, but she also didn't want any preferential treatment based on her relationship status. The whispers at the Academy had been enough for her, thank you very much.

"And if I mess up, will you discipline me?" She asked, the final question in her string of queries, making sure that she'd be treated just like any other candidate.

"With enthusiasm."

It wasn't like Gabby was ever trying to find trouble. Trouble just seemed to find her, always. She had a pretty thick folder of all her write-ups at headquarters, she was pretty sure. And all those write ups were from when discipline wasn't handed out in-house, so basically whenever someone legally complained, or when she messed up in front of the higher ups.

Firehouse 51 handled discipline differently. It wasn't exactly a secret in-house, candidates typically didn't come in knowing, though, and the veterans of the station never felt the need to share; the candidates would figure it out in no time, given their propensity for making mistakes on the job.

Gabby Dawson, however, had been at 51 before she had been a candidate there. Which meant that she knew her exact fate when she made an impulsive move during a call.

It had been a standard fire, nothing particularly out of the ordinary about it, and Gabby was bored. Not because the fire wasn't particularly interesting, but because her lieutenant had her stationed outside, waiting for a command over the radio.

She had spotted something she could do and, while technically it went against her lieutenant's orders, she was through with just waiting. She'd ask forgiveness later, instead of permission in the moment.

So she ran in, and did as she was trained to do- not what she was ordered to do. It turned out fine, and she ended up helping as she intended, nothing detrimental came of it.

As the rest of the members of Truck 81 were doing a secondary sweep for fire or more victims, Lieutenant Matthew Casey pulled Candidate Gabriela Dawson aside.

"Once you get cleaned up back at the station, I expect to see you at my office."

Even Gabby knew not to argue with that.

There was about 5 different techniques for making a shower last longer than is strictly necessary for cleansing purposes, and Gabby had taken advantage of each and every one of those. But with Hermann grumbling about her using all the hot water outside, she knew she had to get out and face what was coming to her.

That didn't stop her from taking the time to towel her hair, so that it was damp but not dripping down her back. And taking the time to make sure her uniform shirt was perfectly tucked into her pants. And taking the time to pass by the picture of Shay hanging up, lingering by it. She's still sad, yes, but she smiles, knowing that if Shay were still here, she'd no doubt be ribbing Gabby about what's about to happen.

So Gabby made her way to the lieutenant's office- really just a smaller sectioned off part of the bunk room, which offers a little more privacy than just the normal bunks for the smoke eaters. The office itself has a wall that's practically all windows, looking out into the bunk room. The blinds aren't shut, so she peeks in to see her lieutenant at his desk with a small mountain of paperwork.

She knocks, and then waits.

Matt looks up, gives her a "one moment" gesture, and Gabriela Dawson is left with trembling hands she tries to hide, and butterflies in her stomach. She's a tough person, this shouldn't be affecting her so much. Besides, it's not like she wasn't used to this sort of discipline.

Gabby and Shay had been called into Boden's office after a call gone bad. Well, what brass considered a call gone bad; Gabby thought the call couldn't have gone any better.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Boden's voice booms as soon as they close the door behind them.

"We were just trying to save-" Gabby begins, only to be cut off by Boden.

"You save people by doing your damn job. No more, no less. What you did was way outside the scope of practice of a paramedic-"

"But I knew how to, and it worked!" She protests, looking at Shay who smartly, hasn't tried to argue during this reprimand.

"It doesn't matter if it worked," said Boden, pinching the bridge of his nose, "If you weren't such a damn good paramedic, I would have fired you at least ten times by now. Dawson, you have to stop doing this."

She loves her job, and her 51 family, "I never meant to lose the job, I was just trying to save our victim."

"I know," Boden said, then sighed, "That's why we're handling this in house. Shay, you're dismissed." Once Shay was out of the room, "Over the desk, Gabriela."

Sighing, Gabby assumed the position she knew so well, the punishment was worth it- she had saved her patient. That didn't make the first strike of the belt across her ass any less painful.

After what seemed like forever and a half, Matt opens the door. "Come in, Candidate," he says, making it clear that this would be between Candidate Dawson and her superior, Lieutenant Casey, not between Matt and Gabby, the lovers.

"Yes Lieutenant," Gabby says, walking in and standing in a loose parade rest. She had seen this coming when she ignored orders, she doesn't really care to argue this, knowing that it will only make things worse.

Casey all but ignores her, walking around her to close the blinds to his office. Everyone at the firehouse knows what this means, usually, and the stragglers in the bunk room quickly clear out- even if vision is obscured, the walls are hardly soundproof, and none of them want to hear this.

"Candidate!" Matt raises his voice, finally addressing Gabby, who struggles to meet his eyes, "What the hell were you thinking!"

"I saw something I could do to help, Sir, and so I did," she conveniently leaves out the part where she knew she was disobeying orders, which Matt clearly picks up on because his next question is,

"Was that the orders given to you?"

"No Sir."

"Then what were your orders."

"To stand by and wait for instruction over the radio," she says, looking down. She knew this was coming to her from the second she made the decision.

"I don't order you around for the fun of it, Candidate. I do it because you don't have experience on a fire scene, and if you make a wrong move you could be dead. This house does [i]not[/i] need another person killed in the line of duty!" And maybe it's a low blow, but he can see it hits Dawson, who looks very much like she's struggling to hold back tears.

Casey pushes the thoughts to the back of the mind that come from Matt, not Lieutenant Casey. Thoughts like, "I can't stand to lose you," and "I don't know what I'd do without you," and "I told you I worried every time you went out on the ambulance, and I knew having you on truck would be worse but could you please not put yourself in more danger than is required for the job!" Those would come later that night, when they were laying in bed next to each other, Matt and Gabby not Lieutenant and Candidate.

He decides that his point is sufficiently made, and more lecturing would just be redundant. "Over the bed, Candidate," he says, knowing full well he doesn't have to explain how he wants her position. Lord knows she found herself in this situation countless times as the Paramedic in Charge of Ambulance 61, given her propensity towards drastic measures to save a life.

He opens the drawer of his desk and pulls out a belt- sure, he could use the one that he's currently wearing, but it's securing his pants and while he definitely has been pants-less with Dawson on more than one occasion, now wasn't the time. The other guys on the truck don't need to see him pantsless either, and given the inclination towards risky maneuvers and insubordination, he finds himself fulfilling this role of lieutenant far more often than he'd really prefer.

Casey positions himself to the side of Gabby, putting a gentle hand on her back to keep her from moving and maybe that's more Matt than Lieutenant Casey, but he doesn't really care, the gesture is as comforting to him as it is to her.

The belt, doubled up in his other hand is drawn back and swung through the air, landing in the center of Dawson's ass. She jumps, and he can hear that she's trying not to make a sound, and has to fight the urge to comfort her as he had many times before, when Boden had been the one handing out her discipline.

She stopped bothering to knock long ago, she could look through the window to make sure he was alone, anyways, before barging in and drawing the blinds closed. This happened frequently enough that there was a little bit of a ritual about it, everything always happened in the same order.

Barging in, blinds shut, and only then did Gabby flop down on Matt's bed, stomach to the mattress; she was perfectly fine not sitting for a long while after her most recent punishment.

Finishing the paperwork Matt was working on when his girlfriend came in, he set down the pen and sat beside Dawson, who found the dip in the mattress comforting, and the hands rubbing her back even more comforting.

She let out a long, shaky breath, biting back more tears, and let herself be comforted by Matt.

"You going to do an unauthorized procedure again?" He asked, knowing damn well what the answer would be.

His only response is her turning her head so she could exaggerate her eye-roll.

He doesn't really keep track of how many strokes of the belt she's received- he knows some people who, for work related discipline, has set numbers for different infractions. But in his years of being lieutenant, he's realized that it's better to gauge by the physical reaction.

So he keeps bringing the belt down on her ass, trying not to think about how oh man, he's definitely an ass man and her ass in particular is his favorite, tries to think of her only as Candidate Dawson and not Gabriela or he's never going to be able to see this through. Finally he notices a change in her posturing, from keeping in position because it was expected to staying in position because she's not fighting it anymore, lesson learned, and he can hear small cries escaping despite her best efforts to stay silent.

Willing himself to treat her like any other member of Truck who's fucked up in the past, he opens the drawer and throws the belt down inside with more force that is maybe necessary, and then waits for her to collect herself.

Gabby cries softly into her sleeve for a little, trying to stifle the tears as soon as she can, and then stands up, wipes her eyes, and resumes parade rest.

Matt has since made himself busy at his desk, continuing to work on paperwork resulting from the last call, and doesn't even look up when he says, "Dismissed, Candidate."

Gabby leaves his office, and goes to look for Shay since she wants her partner to know she's alive at least, before going to seek comfort from her boyfriend and spends about five minutes wandering around before she realizes that she isn't going to find Shay, not anymore.

That thought tips her over the edge and she beelines back to Matt's office, hand on the doorknob when she realizes that she can't do this, they can't, he can't offer her comfort, not after he was the one who disciplined her, and she doesn't know what to do so she looks around the still empty bunkroom frantically.

Matt had heard the doorknob rattle, though, without anyone coming in, and thought he had a good idea of who might be on the other side of that door. He peeks through the closed blinds, watching his girl look around frantically, light reflecting off the tears streaming down her cheeks, and decides to hell with Lieutenant Casey, he's Matt now.

He opens the door, and pulls her into his office, holding her in an embrace as she sobs into his shoulder. He doesn't know what he can do for her, other than stand there and rub her back, and wait for her to cry it out. At some point she tries to explain her emotions to him, choking on words while still sobbing, and all he hears is "Shay," and has a good idea what's wrong.

Once she's calmed down a little, he directs her to lay down on his bed, just like they used to do, him sitting beside her and rubbing her back.

"Your mean lieutenant spanked you?" He asks, teasing weakly.

"Yes," she replies instantly, with the banter that Matt is accustomed to from his girlfriend, "He made me cry."

"He sounds awful," Matt jokes back, chuckling a little at the absurdity of this situation.

And Lieutenant Casey would never kiss a subordinate Candidate, but if Matt kisses Gabby, well, no one knows what exactly happens when the blinds are closed.