Ever After

Parole

Firehouse

Casey had been back at work for nearly a year. It had been over a year and a half since he had been kidnapped and tortured for nine days, a year and half since he thought his life had changed forever but he had endured and returned to work despite his doubts and worries. Life at the firehouse had changed very little, Dawson had left but Borelli had been a welcome addition to Truck 81. House 51 really were a family, they looked out for each other. They didn't mention anything about the days Casey had been missing or the months he had spent recovering, they knew he didn't want that, they knew he had dealt with it, was still dealing with it. They also knew Severide was there for him, a relationship that was now often joked about at the house. The two of them, although best friends before, were barely separable now. Severide was Casey's safety net, just a glance towards him and any anxiousness lessened.

Severide was sitting at the squad table when Truck 81 pulled onto the apparatus floor.

"You all right?" he questioned as Casey walked past him with a pain expression across his face.

"Fine," Casey replied briskly and continued on to the locker room.

Severide soon followed him and found him sat on the bench. "Your knee?" he questioned. Casey had been experiencing pain in his leg recently, pain that he'd not been able to hide from his roommate. It was more frequent when he was physically active, which of course he was most of the time as even his downtime activities were strenuous.

Reluctantly Casey nodded and admitted, "I've had some aspirin."

"It's getting worse," Severide stated, edging towards a tricky topic as he wanted Casey to make a hospital appointment.

"Yeah… guess it is," he confessed hesitantly

"Want an ice pack for it?" Severide asked.

"It's not swollen or anything… it just hurts," he sighed, "I need to call my doctor, don't I?"

"Smartest thing you've said all day," Severide smirked.

"Hey..." he mock hit him as he stood up from the bench.

Later in the day Severide was making his way to join the others in the common room when he spotted a curiously lost looking man. "You all right?" he asked.

"I'm looking for a Matthew Casey," than man explained.

"Who are you?" he questioned. Boden joined him as he'd been walking past.

The man handed Severide a card, he was a reporter, "Is he here?"

"What do you want?" Boden asked.

"I just wanted his thoughts on Nesbitts parole hearing," he said.

Severide frowned, "Parole hearing?" It was the first he'd heard of it.

"Because of the overcrowding," he replied.

"Well he's not here," he stated as glanced through the glass into the common room. The visitor seemed to have gone unnoticed by Casey who was sat with Herrmann, Mouch and Otis playing cards.

"Will you give him my card?" the man asked.

"Yeah sure," Severide replied but he had no intention of giving Casey this man's card. He turned to Boden when the man left, "Nesbitt can't get parole… can he? He had ten years… there's no way they'll let him out right?"

"Right," Boden stated with uncertainty, "I'll make some calls and see what Voight or anyone else knows about this."

Severide looked at Casey again and half stated, half questioned, "We're not going tell him?"

"Nothing to tell him yet," Boden replied.

"Right," he scoffed. "If he gets parole can we hide that too?" he shook his head.

"You can't hide everything from him," Boden said gently.

"He's happy, right now he's happy and he deserves to be," he replied.

"Hopefully nothing will come from this, it could just be a rumour," Boden responded before entering the common room.

Severide remained looking at Casey with the others, almost everything was back to normal, he still had the occasional nightmare, he still saw Doctor Lawson, he still slept with the light on. Nothing was going to make him forget the events that had transpired but he dealt with everything well, he was strong.

Therapy Room

"You should come," Casey smiled.

"To a firefighters picnic and BBQ?" Lawson questioned.

"It's not just for firefighters," he said, the smile still lingered on his face, "It's for family and friends too."

"I'll have to come along then, see what all the fuss is about," Lawson replied.

"You can be friends or family," he scoffed.

"You've not heard from your sister recently? Your mom?" Lawson began to broach a subject he'd wanted to bring up in the last couple of months as he knew Casey avoided the subject.

"Nope," he replied flippantly, it was a shield he used often.

"Have you approached them?" Lawson enquired.

Casey leaned back on the couch. "You've gone into shrink mode," he smiled, "You know the only reason I don't mind coming here still is because it's just chatting, but then you go and hide in little questions like that..."

Lawson smiled, "You've not approached them."

"No," he sighed. "Not since before…" he trailed off.

"Because you don't want them around or because you don't want to anticipate a response from your mom and not get one?" Lawson asked.

He looked away and concentrated on the bookshelf to the right of the couch he was occupying. "I don't need my sister and she has her own life, I have my own life, we're both busy."

"Your mom?" Lawson urged.

"I was missing for nine days and apparently my mother missing too… she never even came when she knew what happened," he replied quietly.

"So better not to try?" Lawson questioned.

"And not be disappointed," Casey nodded.

Firehouse

"You're still here?" Severide stopped by the open door to Caseys quarters.

Casey looked up from his paperwork, "Appointment's at 9:30 , no point in going home first."

"Want me to come?" he asked.

"Nah, you should go home," Casey smiled.

Severide didn't go straight home, he left Casey in his quarters and went to Boden's office. "Chief," he greeted him as he knocked on the open door.

Boden signalled for him to enter.

"I spoke to Antonio after shift the other day, he doesn't seem worried about the situation with Nesbitt but he's not the one who was kidnapped," he scoffed.

"The parole hearing is in two weeks because of his good behaviour and the overcrowding," Boden stated, "The attorney general called me back today; we can speak up against his release."

"Good behaviour. That doesn't cancel out anything he did! There's a chance he could get out on parole?" he questioned incredulously, "Will it be enough? If we just speak against his parole."

"You don't want to tell Casey about any of this?" Boden surmised, "You should tell him. If he finds out and finds out that you knew... or worse Nesbitt gets out on parole and you have to admit you hid it from him for weeks…"

"Right I'll just bring it up whilst we're eating breakfast," he shook his head, annoyed at the situation, "This is all meant to be over. This isn't fair, it's not right."

Hospital

"Matt," Doctor Andrews greeted him loudly, he shook his hand, a large smile played across his face. "It's nice to see you, well, to see you up and about, not here specifically. I'm so glad we managed get you back to work, back to your life," he said, sitting down and indicated for Casey to do the same, his smile faded away and he begun, "So down to business, you said you've been experiencing pain in your leg?"

"It's my knee, not my leg," he replied. "My knee, not my thigh," he reiterated, he wanted it to have nothing to do with his previous injury.

"The pain's been there for a few weeks?" the doctor questioned.

"Erm…" Casey hesitated. "Maybe more than a few weeks…" he admitted.

"But you waited to make an appointment because you're worried something's wrong with your leg?" Doctor Andrews asked as he recalled his phone call with Casey the other day.

"It is my knee though… just happens to be the same leg you guys nearly decided to chop off," he scoffed, nervous and worried, he watched the doctors expression, "It is to do with my leg?"

"It isn't uncommon for the IM rod we used to fix the break to course knee pain," the doctor explained.

"Ok…" he frowned. "What does that mean?" he had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach; he knew what it meant.

"Our best option may be to remove it," Doctor Andrews stated.

"Surgery?" he questioned.

The doctor nodded, "We'll need to do some scans first though, you're most recent x-ray is nearly a year old, MRI scan is even older. I also want to do a bone density scan."

"To make sure I don't need the rod that was holding my leg together?" he asked sceptically. Again the doctor nodded, Casey frowned, "And if I need it?"

"We'll then do further scans to see when we can remove it," Doctor Andrews explained.

"It can't stay in?" he asked.

"The pain will only get worse, the soft tissue will continue to be irritated, there may be muscle deterioration," the doctor explained and add softly, "There may already be deterioration. You do a lot of strenuous activities so the best option will be to remove it dependent on the scan results."

"Work?" he questioned worriedly

"You can work for now but if it gets worse I won't be able to clear you for active duty, and it will get worse Matt," Doctor Andrews reiterated.

"Ok," Casey accepted sullenly.

"We can get the scans done today, get everything done quickly for you," the doctor noted the apprehension across Casey's face, "Or I'll fit you in tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow," he said quickly, he hadn't prepared himself for anything other than a quick appointment today.

Apartment

Casey wordlessly joined Severide on the couch later that same day. Severide glanced over to him expecting him to talk about the hospital appointment, when he didn't he grew concerned with Casey's silence but didn't pressure him. After a while Casey looked over towards Severide and then back to the TV, he sighed. "I've got to go back to the hospital tomorrow," he explained, Severide waited for him to continue, he turned to face him, "They want some recent scans of my leg."

"Bad news?" Severide questioned.

"Erm… I don't know…" he frowned, "The doctor thinks they should remove it, the IM rod. That's what's causing the pain but he won't know if he can until he sees the scans. My leg might not be strong enough without it because of the infection and second surgery."

"I'll come with you tomorrow," Severide stated, he wasn't going to give Casey a choice.

He sighed again. "I don't want more surgery," he stated, "I mean, I don't remember ever having surgery but this would be planned and I don't want to… I don't want to wake up like last time… it was…"

Severide shook his head, "It won't be scary. You'll understand what's happened because it is planned."

"Ok, I guess," he nodded, "You don't mind coming with me tomorrow, do you?"

"I don't mind," Severide reassured him.

"We can go for a run when we get back," Casey smiled.

"Really Case?" he scoffed.

"Oh right, yeah, probably shouldn't," Casey replied. In the last year he'd become rather obsessive about running, not that he had done little before his injury but he was now running up to several hours a day most days of the week. It was only recently that Severide had become concerned about it because it obviously pained him to keep pounding the streets.

Severide shook his head and laughed, "You have no self-preservation." He decided with Casey's news about a likely surgery he wasn't going to mention the Nesbitt situation just yet, he would wait for a more appropriate time.

Hospital

"It's good news Matt," Doctor Andrews smiled, he was sat behind his desk facing Severide and Casey, "The scans are good, we can go ahead with the surgery to remove the IM rod."

Casey wasn't entirely sure that it was in fact good news, he certainly wasn't looking forward to having surgery but he understood that the pain would get worse without it, "How much time do I need off work?"

"It can vary from a few days to a few weeks," the doctor explained.

"Weeks?" he questioned.

"There's no set recovery time for this surgery, we won't know until afterwards," Doctor Andrews replied.

"When do I need to have it?" Casey asked with a tone of resignation.

"I'd like to get it done next week, is that enough notice for work?" the doctor asked.

Casey nodded, "All right."

"Now, like any surgery there are risks, just from general anaesthesia alone but the removal of the rod is also risky, your leg has scar tissue from your previous surgeries, there's a risk of nerve damage and re-fractures. It's unlikely but there have been cases where pain has worsened after removal," he explained.

"But you're also saying without it being removed there could be muscle damage and the pain will only increase?" Severide chimed in. Casey had managed to find himself in yet another unfair situation through no fault of his own.

"Matt," the doctor addressed him directly, "If there was something else I could do then I would do it, this is the only option."

"I won't be able to work eventually if I don't do this?" he questioned.

"No," the doctor replied.

"What if I wait until that point?" he asked.

The doctor shook his head, "I wouldn't recommend it. The sooner we do it the less chance there is of further soft tissue damage."

Casey frowned, "There's already a lot of scar tissue in my leg, from the other two surgeries, that made rehab difficult last time, this will make more scar tissue?"

"You're not going to be inactive on the leg, you'll be up and about straight away," the doctor explained.

"Ok," Casey sighed, "Let's just get it done then I guess."

"It's the right decision Matt, I will schedule you in for next week, you won't need to stay over the night before but you will need to stop eating after midnight and hopefully you'll be able to go home the same day," the doctor smiled.

TBC