The boys were three quarters way through their training at the Academy, when Matt's past became public knowledge. He, Kelly and Andy were watching TV when a news report came on. It was a report about the end of his mother's trial and her sentence.
Matt buried his face in his hands, he hadn't told Kelly and Andy anything, and now they were finding out in the worst possible way. While there was no hundred per cent certainty that going by his surname that people would work out the Nancy Casey from the report was his mother, his reaction pretty much confirmed his relation to Nancy for his friends.
"Matt?" came the quiet voice of Andy. A hand came to rest on his back, but he shook it off and hastily fled to his room.
He leaned back against his door and stared across his room. Their gonna hate me. Who'd want to remain friends with someone who lied about their parents? With these thoughts, he slid down the door and remained sat there curled in on himself.
There was a knock on the door. "Matt. It's Andy. Open the door. Matt?"
Matt remained silent, his hands holding onto his sleeves with a white knuckled grip. A minute later, quiet footsteps moved away from his door. There Matt stayed for the rest of the day.
Over the weekend Matt had hidden in his room only coming out when he knew his friends weren't around or in their own rooms, he didn't want to face his friends, although he knew that he'd have to at some point. So once Monday morning rolled around, he took a deep breath and left his room. Andy and Kelly were already in the kitchen eating their breakfast.
They looked up and hesitated when Matt entered the room, their faces a mixture of sympathy and uncertainty. Undoubtedly from the report they would have learned that his mother shot and killed his father, and was now going to spend many years in prison.
Kelly sighed and said, "Look Matt, about the news report-"
"It's fine," interrupted Matt, "Look I'll just catch the bus and meet you guys there, I'm not hungry and I don't want to rush you guys. So see you later." Then he was out of the apartment before Andy or Kelly could do or say anything.
Matt was stood at the bus stop, the bus a few feet away when he saw Kelly swiftly making his way down the street. As soon as the bus had come to a stop, Matt was on it and being the only one at the stop, the bus was soon pulling away leaving Kelly still a small distance from the stop.
Throughout the next few days, Matt was getting side looks and some people even making some comments about his family. It hurt that people Matt had liked would say stuff like that, and it only caused him to close off from everyone else. Ted Griffin however, was one of the few who never stopped their comments.
What Matt didn't know, was that Kelly had come close to punching all the guys who had been making comments. It was only that Andy had managed to stop him that prevented the fights from breaking out.
"Let me go Andy," hissed Kelly as he glared at yet another of Matt's tormentors.
Andy shook his head, "I can't do that Kelly. It doesn't matter if being Benny's son gets you recognition around here. You get into fights and that's good reason for them to throw you out. Fighting them isn't going to do anything."
"It'll make me feel a whole lot better!" exclaimed Kelly angrily, "And give them the message to lay off Matt!"
"Kelly," sighed Andy, "Punching them won't help Matt."
Kelly sharply turned his face and glared at Andy. "Won't it? Their comments are only distancing Matt from us. Those comments are getting to him and making him feel the need to pull away from us! It's as if he expects us to be making comments like that! And while we won't, people he was friendly with are, so he's only protecting himself!"
"We'll just talk to him when we get home," stated Andy.
Kelly shook his head, "He won't talk to us Andy! You've seen how he's been!"
Andy patted Kelly's arm, "We'll just be there for him, not necessarily bringing up the news report straight away."
Kelly nodded and then went to get changed. His mind swirling, he couldn't imagine how Matt had coped with what had happened. Going by the report, the murder of Matt's father would have happened not long after Matt's eighteenth birthday. He should have been worried about finishing high school, not about what would happen to him after loosing both parents. However, it explained why he never talked about his parents and why he had lived in that dive of an apartment. Matt was his brother and it pained him to see how hurt Matt was by all that was happening, even if he did a good job of hiding it.
That evening when they all got home, after Matt sitting silently in the back of the car. There were letters waiting, three for Matt, he took one look at the handwriting on the front and then dumped them on the table.
"Aren't you going to reading them?" asked Andy, looking between Matt and the letters.
"No," retorted Matt as he marched through the living room towards his room.
"You know who their from?" frowned Andy in confusion.
"My mom," snapped Matt.
Kelly hastily followed his friend across the apartment, "Matt! -"
"Just leave me alone Kelly!" and then Matt's door slammed in Kelly's face.
Kelly turned and shared a desperate look with Andy. He walked over towards the front door, needing to go to a bar and have a drink. "We're loosing him Andy. Hope you've got a plan to bring him back, otherwise I'll start busting some heads." Then he was out of the apartment storming down the street, all he wanted was for everything to go back to normal for Matt, the kid didn't need all this mess.
It had been two weeks since the news report and most of the guys at the Academy had now laid off their comments about Matt's family. Well, all but Ted Griffin. It was as if Ted was picking up the slack from the other guys, and in some ways that was worse for Matt. It was on this day that everything came to a head. Matt had silently taken all the comments for the past two weeks, but everyone at the Academy could see that they were grating on him.
They were outside and walking towards Kelly's car, when Ted, who was ahead of them, turned around and called out.
"Hey Casey! Gone to visit your mom yet? Heard they've got some killer people over there."
Andy looked over at Matt and saw his friend tighten his jaw in frustration, but otherwise remained quiet.
"Oi Casey, do you not talk about your sister or see her because you're scared she'll turn out like your mom?"
That was the last straw for Matt. He may have hated his mom for what she did, but there was no way someone was badmouthing his sister.
Andy caught movement from the corner of his eye, and hastily threw out his arms and caught hold of Kelly. "Don't Kelly!"
"Let me go! Dammit Andy!" snarled Kelly, as he twisted and pulled, trying to get out of Andy's tight grip.
As Andy battled to keep a snarling Kelly from a smirking Ted, from behind him came a swirl of movement and the next thing he knew Ted was lying on the floor, with Matt stood above him, hands balled into fists.
Matt turned away from Ted's wide-eyed gaze to look at his best friends. Both Kelly and Andy were stood frozen in shock, eyes comically wide and Andy's arms still supporting Kelly and holding him back.
"Matt?" asked Andy in disbelief. Not quite believing that his usually quiet and almost shy friend had suddenly thrown a punch.
Ted got to his feet and was scurrying away, when Kelly's face slowly morphed into a wide, proud, grin. He stepped forward and clapped Matt on the shoulder.
"Didn't know you had it in you," Kelly chuckled, shaking his head.
Matt shook his hand, "Neither did I."
"But it felt good?" asked Kelly, the grin not disappearing.
"Kinda," responded Matt, ducking his head a little, trying to hide his smile.
"Don't encourage him Kelly!" admonished Andy, as he finally found his feet and approached his friends.
"He doesn't need encouragement!" argued Kelly lightly. Seeing Matt still shaking the hand he'd punched Ted with commented, "Come on. Let's get you home so we can ice that hand of yours, Rocky."
On the way home, one of the radio stations happened to be playing the Rocky theme, Eye of the tiger. Kelly turned it up and grinned across at Matt who, in the passenger seat, just shook his head and tried to hide his smile.
That evening everything began to go back to normal, Matt's parents were not mentioned, neither were the two new letters addressed to Matt that he ignored. The next day when Ted tried to get Matt into trouble for punching him, Andy and Kelly came to the rescue and managed to make up something that did not get Matt into trouble. They suspected though, that their instructor felt sympathetic towards Matt, as everyone, cadet or instructor would have heard Ted spouting his mouth off about Matt's family the past two weeks.
Matt felt calmer now that everyone had gotten the message to not mention his family and had stopped distancing himself from everyone. Even the guys who had made comments apologized to him, although Matt swore Kelly had threatened some of them into apologizing, however he couldn't prove this.
Andy smiled again, he had hated to see Matt distancing himself because of the past that had come to light, and had hated to see Kelly so wound up about seeing Matt so closed off.
Kelly was relaxed again, glad to see Andy smiling again, and beyond glad to see Matt back to his old self. He may or may not have had made some of the guys apologize to Matt. No one messed around with his brothers; if they did then they had to deal with the consequences, which came in the form of Kelly Severide.
Through all this, the friendship and brotherhood between the three of them had strengthened. It showed that they could come out on the other side of any hardship, because they were there for each other. What else were brother's for?
The End.