Luckiest Souls
Thanks so much for all the great feedback and encouragement about this story! I'm glad you guys are intrigued by the concept and want to read more. This chapter should answer one big question for you guys regarding Puerto Rico and for the record, I actually wrote the majority of this chapter prior to S7 of the show starting so anything that sounds similar to something that happens on the show is just a crazy coincidence. Please let me know what you guys think! =)
May 2019
Matt sighed as he finished writing up a report from a recent call and sat back in his desk chair. It had been a busy shift for firehouse 51 but he didn't mind. It kept his mind off missing his wife, Gabby Dawson, who was away working with a CFD task force in Puerto Rico. She'd been there for over eight months but would soon be coming home from her assignment which made him incredibly happy. He looked at a picture of them that he had on his desk and smiled. He'd been missing her so much but it was going to be amazing having her home again.
It hadn't been an easy time for them both before and while she was gone. They'd been trying to have a baby all those months ago but ended up getting news from their doctor that Gabby had an abdominal aneurysm from her previous miscarriage which made carrying a baby now a hazard to her health. They hadn't handled the news well at all. They started fighting over what their next step should be (he wanted to adopt, she wanted no part of that and wanted to have a baby anyway no matter the health risks to herself), they weren't talking through any of their emotions, and the overall stress caused both of them so much pain.
Gabby never figured out how to handle the situation, and was tired of fighting with her husband, so she decided to take the Puerto Rico task force job offer to clear her mind and find some peace for herself. The conversation she and Matt had before she left was so heartbreaking. He couldn't understand how being away from him was going to help her or be good for them as a couple and she couldn't understand why he didn't see how much she was hurting from the baby news. They parted on sad terms and barely talked for over two months.
Matt spent most of those first two months alone. He didn't really want to talk to anyone about what was going on between him and Gabby and he refused every single offer that came his way from his friends. He kept himself busy by taking on extra construction jobs and spending more time working on his captain's paperwork. He finally had a long talk with his boss, Chief Wallace Boden, when his heart was hurting so much that it started affecting his work. The chief encouraged him to take matters into his own hands and if he wanted some answers from Gabby, he needed to go to her if she wasn't ready to come home.
Matt took those words to heart and came up with a plan. He contacted Gabby's superior officer on the task force to find out her address in San Juan, put in a furlough request for a week of time off, and hopped on a plane to Puerto Rico. When Gabby got off work one Friday evening, he was waiting for her on her apartment porch. She was carrying groceries at the time and she dropped the bags all over the sidewalk when she saw her husband standing outside her apartment. She burst into tears and jumped into his arms and they both cried tears of happiness at being together again.
They spent the entire weekend talking about their relationship and the baby situation, the tension finally broken between them once he showed up on her doorstep, and also did the one thing that they should have done months ago…they cried. They finally let all their emotions out and mourned for their lost opportunity for her to carry their child. It was raw, painful, heartbreaking, and necessary for them to finally move past their pain.
The weekend proved to be therapeutic and hopeful for Gabby and Matt and they were able to enjoy the rest of their week together. The task force gave her some time off to spend with her husband which she greatly appreciated. The two of them did some sightseeing around old San Juan, toured the large rain forest, and tried some water activities including paddle boarding, snorkeling, and kayaking. They had an amazing time and by the time Matt had to head back to Chicago, their relationship was well on it's way towards repair and healing.
They continued to work hard and keep talking about things while they were apart. She was able to return to Chicago for Thanksgiving and the Christmas holiday which was a big help to their healing relationship as it gave them extra time together. They enjoyed celebrating the holidays with their friends and family and Gabby was finally able to repair her friendship with Sylvie (they had been on bad terms when she left for Puerto Rico and had spoken very little while she was gone).
The winter was long and lonely for the couple since they were apart for most of it and Matt decided to surprise her again, this time for Valentine's Day. He arranged some time off for her from the task force work with her chief in San Juan and came down to Puerto Rico again for a visit but this time, he had another plan. He swept her away to St. Croix for a very belated honeymoon at an all-inclusive resort. They enjoyed all the water activities (and decided that someday they wanted to get scuba certified), the food at their resort was excellent, and most of all, they enjoyed some much-needed romantic time.
Matt smiled at the picture on his desk, it was a picture of them in St. Croix, and felt so grateful that they'd been able to work through their problems. They still had to deal with the whole baby situation but they were planning to look at all their options once she got home so they could make the best decision for them as a couple. They knew they needed to make this choice together.
Matt's thoughts were interrupted by the alarm bells going off. He listened for the announcement to find out if he needed to respond: "Truck 81, Squad 3, Ambulance 61, Battalion 25…apartment building fire…." He stopped listening at that point knowing that he was required to respond and quickly put his report folder away. Before leaving his office, he took a quick look around his quarters, not for any particular reason, and his eyes landed once again on that picture of him and Gabby on his desk. He grinned at the image and thought once again of how soon she was going to be home. After giving the room one more quick glance, he rushed off to join his men on Truck 81 hoping for a quick return to the firehouse after the call.
Gabby sat in her seat on the plane and looked once again at her watch. Couldn't this plane go any faster? She was so impatient, it had been a long few days for her, and she knew her nerves were already shot even before she got home to Chicago. Things weren't supposed to go this way…not for them.
She hadn't meant to hurt him when she left. She was just so heart broken and didn't know how to make the pain go away while in Chicago. She hated fighting with Matt, they never fought the way they had after they got that baby news, so she took the first opportunity that came her way to get out of the city and try to get her head back together. She wasn't thinking straight, she was barely thinking at all, and once she'd arrived in Puerto Rico, the enormity of what she'd done hit her full force.
She hadn't blamed him for not being able to talk to her when she tried to call or text him those first few weeks. She could barely talk to him as well but she didn't want him to think she'd just up and abandoned him so she kept calling and texting even though they never got anywhere. He was broken…she was broken…and they just couldn't find a way to connect over their shared pain and it caused a rift in their relationship.
She really wasn't running from him…she was running from the pain she had in her heart. No one could ever understand how much it had hurt her to hear a doctor tell her that she shouldn't carry a baby because it would be too dangerous for her. That's all Matt had ever wanted…to have a family…and this doctor had just rocked their world with their worst-case scenario. What kind of wife was she if she couldn't even give her husband his greatest wish?
Over two months went by and Gabby couldn't get past her pain, but she hid it so well that her fellow coworkers on the task force never knew that she was hurting so much. She was quieter than she'd ever been while working there and she felt a little more lost every day that she was apart from Matt. As much as they hadn't been able to talk, she missed him so much and wanted badly to tell him what was going on in her head and heart. He had always been her best friend and part of the lost feeling was that he wasn't there with her.
She was feeling particularly heartbroken one Friday evening, it had been a long day of work for her, when she got the shock of her life upon returning home. Matt was sitting on her porch with his suitcase, a bouquet of flowers, and a look of pure love and hope on his face. She had dropped her grocery bags all over the sidewalk and the tension that had been building between them for months melted away as they jumped into a tight embrace.
Her world completely changed after Matt showed up in Puerto Rico. They were finally able to talk to each other again and for the first time, they were able to open up and be honest about their painful situation. They spent that entire trip talking, crying, and supporting each other as they started the slow process of repairing the damage that those few months of uncertainty had done to their relationship.
Gabby smiled in spite of her current anxiety as she remembered Matt's first trip to see her in Puerto Rico. If he hadn't taken that big leap of faith and showed up at her apartment, she was pretty sure their relationship would have fallen apart and the thought of that happening made her shiver. Their relationship had grown stronger every time they saw each other through the rest of her time away and their trip to St. Croix had been simply magical. They'd finally gotten to have a honeymoon after not getting one when they first got married. Life was on it's way to being amazing for them again and her permanent return to Chicago was coming up too which had made them both so happy.
The gentle landing of the plane shook Gabby out of her daydream and rudely reminded her of the present. The pilot came on the intercom giving them the current time, weather, and gate updates for Chicago and Gabby's anxiety came back to the pit of her stomach. She had arranged a ride with Lyft and alerted her driver that the plane had landed so he could be ready to pick her up. After the plane was secured at the gate, Gabby gathered up her things and eventually made her way out of the airport to face the most difficult thing she might ever have to do.
She'd been away working at a remote area of Puerto Rico when the information got to her. Chief Boden had been trying to call her for three days and he finally had to call the task force administrator to get in touch with her. When she returned to the task force headquarters and finally got the news, she felt like the world had just crashed down on her.
It was a freak accident. The apartment fire wasn't anything out of the ordinary for Truck 81 but while in the building, Boden noticed that something wasn't right with the roof and ordered all his men out. The guys all reacted quickly to Boden's order and Matt was making sure all his guys got out ahead of him when he heard a sudden noise. The last of his men had just left through the hallway when his world suddenly went black. The roof had caved in, taking two floors with it, and had landed right on top of him. He was half buried in charred and fire ridden rubble and his gear was damaged leaving him vulnerable and unconscious.
Squad 3 had been ordered in to retrieve their fallen friend and barely him got out of the building before the entire structure collapsed around them. They were relieved that they got their friend out but the damage had been done and Matt was badly hurt. The ambulance rushed him to Med but his overall prognosis wasn't good. His gear had kept him from getting too burned, although he got some burns in a few exposed areas, but the other injuries were pretty severe. He had several broken bones that were going to require surgery, internal bleeding, and a head injury that they didn't know the extent of since he was in a coma. Everyone was worried about him and it didn't look good.
Gabby finally arrived at Med and immediately felt her anxiety go up as she looked at the door to the hospital. She walked in timidly while looking around for someone she knew and saw Nurse Maggie behind the desk. Maggie's face immediately softened as she saw her friend walk towards her. Gabby struggled to find her voice, "I know it's late and…visiting hours are probably over...but I couldn't get an earlier flight and I got dropped off here still hoping I could see…"
"Girl, I got you," Maggie said as she came out from behind the desk. "You're all right. I'm gonna take you to him right now. Follow me."
Maggie led Gabby down a hallway towards the ICU while giving her an update on Matt's condition but Gabby was barely paying attention to her. All she wanted was to see her husband and hold him close to her. She couldn't believe she'd spent so much time away from him. She couldn't get that time back and now he was clinging to life alone in a hospital bed and she hadn't been by his side. Her heart hurt more and more the closer they got to his room.
Maggie stopped at Matt's room and gave Gabby a big hug before opening the door and leaving so that Gabby could have some alone time with him. She entered the room and gasped at the sight in front of her. Matt was hooked up to all sorts of equipment, his left arm was in a cast, his left leg was in traction, the left side of his face was bandaged up, and his overall complexion was extremely pale. He looked so small laying helplessly on the hospital bed and Gabby's heart broke seeing her strong, handsome husband this way.
She slowly walked towards the bed while trying to come up with something to say to him. She knew that people in comas could hear things from their loved ones even though they couldn't respond but she had nothing. Her mind was a jumble of emotions and sadness without any coherent thoughts and she felt herself shaking. She sat down gently on the side of the bed away from his injured side and held his right hand while still trying to come up with something to say to him. She finally came up with something and could barely get the words out.
"You promised to keep your badge off the wall."
After uttering those words to this man that she loved with all her heart, she finally collapsed into tears and laid her herself gently on his chest. She ended up sobbing herself to sleep while listening to his heartbeat and holding his hand. Their story wasn't supposed to go this way.
Maggie and Dr. Conner Rhodes came running down the hallway towards Matt Casey's room. A nurse had called them when she saw that Matt's vitals had dramatically changed and they were worried that the worst had finally happened. As they approached the room, the nurse was waiting with anxious eyes. She handed them his chart and opened the door for them. They entered the room and couldn't believe what they saw in front of them.
Gabby was sound asleep and still resting on Matt's chest but his stats had improved by leaps and bounds since the previous evening's tests and his breathing was easy and normal. They looked closer and saw that his right hand was resting on Gabby's left arm and his eyes were half open as he was clearly trying to process what was going on around him.
Dr. Rhodes immediately woke up Gabby to get her off Matt's chest and along with Maggie, they started checking his vitals while Gabby stood to the side bewildered and half awake. Then she noticed Matt's eyes were open and gasped in shock. Her emotions went into overdrive again and she felt like she was hyperventilating as she tried to process what was going on. She stayed out of the doctor's way but got closer to the bed so she could talk to him.
"MATT?! Oh my God, Matt? Can you hear me?" she shrieked without even realizing that she had spoken so loudly. He looked over to her and reached his hand out to her. She grabbed onto it and kissed it before holding it to her face while half laughing and half crying at this unexpected turn of events.
Dr. Rhodes was completely overwhelmed by what he was seeing and decided to remove Matt's intubation since his breathing had improved enough. Once he and Maggie did that, the doctor asked Matt how he was feeling. They all chuckled when he said that he felt like a building had fallen on him. After being satisfied with Matt's status, the two medical staff members decided to give the couple some privacy since they'd been apart for so long. Maggie dragged a chair over for Gabby to sit on since she could tell her legs were about to give out on her and then the two of them left the room.
Gabby ignored the chair and moved back over to sit on the bed. Matt was still trying to figure out what all had happened to him but he was thrilled to see his wife next to him. They stared at each other for a while, Gabby gently stroking his face with her hand, until they finally just smiled like teenagers as it sunk in that they were finally reunited at home in Chicago after her long assignment. He took her hand in his and gathered up the energy to say something to her.
"I'm so glad you're here," he said quietly while holding her hand. "I was waiting for you to get here and part of me thought you weren't coming."
"I was away from the home base for a while," Gabby said sadly as she held his hand, "it took Chief a few days to find me. I would have been here sooner if I hadn't been assigned away for those few days. I'm sorry I wasn't here when you first got hurt. You know I would have been."
"It's okay," Matt said smiling. "You're here now and that's all that matters."
"I…I thought I was gonna lose you," Gabby said shakily. "They weren't very encouraging about your condition. You're hurt pretty bad babe."
"I don't feel great," he admitted with a grimace. "I was waiting for you because I knew I didn't have enough strength on my own to wake up. I needed to draw some from my amazing wife."
"They talked like you were waiting for me to get here before you passed away," Gabby said quietly as some tears formed in her eyes. "I didn't want to believe it but you scared me so badly last night. Even when you got trapped in that burning warehouse and said your goodbyes to me on the walkie talkie years ago wasn't as bad as last night was for me."
"I'm sorry," Matt said as he continued to hold her hand. "I wasn't about to break my promise to you though."
"Your promise?" Gabby said slightly confused. She didn't remember any recent promises that he'd made to her. The one she was referencing when she spoke to him the previous night had been made before they'd gotten married.
"That I'd always come back to you," he said quietly with a shy smile. Gabby melted at remembering that promise he'd made to her almost two years ago after his recovery from the warehouse accident. She smiled back at him and then rested her head on his chest as he hugged her close to him with his good arm. Their story wasn't over after all and she would never stop being grateful for that.
So, are you still with me regarding this story? Sorry to scare you with Matt's bad accident but I had to get Gabby home somehow, LOL ;) Anyway, I hope you're still with me because there's a lot more to come and I can't wait to bring it to you. Thanks so much for your support! =)
