Since Stella had left for work, not many words had been spoken between the two guys. Kelly had decided not to tell Casey about the text from Stella telling him there was a possibility of Gabby stopping by. He didn't want to get Casey's hopes up. He knew Gabby. She could be stubborn. If she had decided she wasn't going to speak to Casey before she left, then probably nobody could talk her out of it. But he was proven wrong by a soft knock at the door. On the other side of that same door, Kelly found an unusually insecure Gabby.
"Stella said that Matt was here." She didn't look at Kelly. Instead she was looking into the apartment, trying to see if the man in question was actually there.
"Yes, come in." Kelly told her. He stepped away to give her access, but she didn't move much further than a few steps.
As soon as Matt had heard her voice, he had gotten up from his chair at the dining room table.
"Hey" Casey greeted Gabby. He remained standing in the same spot, not really knowing what to do.
"Hey" Gabby replied while staying at her place at the door.
"I'll leave you two alone." Kelly said, trying to break the tension. "If you two need anything, just call me. There is a spare key in one of the kitchen draws." With that he left the pair to their own devices.
Kelly's actions did have the effect that he wanted. It broke the pair out of there staring contest. Casey walked over to her and took her hands in his.
"Just be honest with me. Why are you leaving?" He asked her quietly.
"It just that..." She said while looking at the floor. "...losing the baby, and Louie, and now hearing that..." She trailed off trying to regain her composure.
She sighed heavily and continued with a clear tremble in her voice "...hearing how getting pregnant might not be an option for us...it's just too much."
Tears were now slowly making it down her face.
"I know" Casey said, pulling her in for hug which Gabby graciously accepted."I know it is." He gently stroked her back to comfort her.
He would have wanted them to stand like that for longer, but he also knew that they needed to continue to talk about this.
"But we can figure this out together. Just stay here in Chicago with me." That had the effect he was afraid off. She stepped out of his arms.
"Matt...I really need some time away. Maybe sometime apart will be good for us. It will give us both time to decide what we actually want."
"Gabby, it is not like we will just be taking a break. You will be thousands of miles away." He slightly raise his voice, despite that he knew very well it would not help his cause.
"But we can still talk to each other. That doesn't change." She tried to convince him.
"Yeah that is not really the same." She didn't respond to that.
"I'm not going to talk you out of this, am I?" He continued
"I need this Matt"
"How long will you be gone?"
"The initial assessment of the situation there is probably going to take a month. Then I'm going to report back to the CFD, so depends on that if I'm going to go back or how long I'll be staying there."
"Okay" was his only reply.
"I still love you. You know that right?" That statement made Casey bring Gabby back into his arms.
"Yeah" He said, while kissing the top of her head. "This is going to be hard."
"I know"
"Can we at least spend this last day together? Boden gave me the shift off" He offered.
This brought a small smile to Gabby's face.
"Yeah, I'd like that"
In the mean time, Kelly had arrived back at the station. He had hoped that Stella would be there, but truck and ambo were still working at the scene of a car accident. He was greeted by Capp and Cruz sitting at the squad table. He made small talk for a couple of minutes before he headed to his office. He gave them the excuse that there was the paperwork piling up on his desk. He could see that the guys didn't really believe them, but he didn't care. He just wanted to be in his office before the rest arrived at the station.
Soon enough he heard the station fill with the noise of his colleagues returning. It didn't take long before Stella walked into his office.
She closed the door behind her and asked: "How is Casey?"
"I don't really know. I left after Gabby arrived and I haven't heard from him since"
"Do you think she will actually go?"
"Knowing her? probably yes."
"Yeah, I was thinking the same."
His phone on his desk buzzed shortly. Kelly picked it hoping that it would be a message from Casey.
Me and Gabby are going to spend the day together. Locked the door behind us. Thanks man.
"Here, you have to read this" Kelly said as he handed over the phone to Stella with a smile.
"Well that is good news. At least they are not fighting anymore." She said after reading the message.
"Yes, thanks to you." You could see how proud Kelly was of her by the smile on this face as he pulled her on to his lap.
"Does this mean you'll be making me that breakfast that you promised me this morning?"
"You know that it is almost 11 o'clock, right?"
"Yeah, you're right. Too late for breakfast. Maybe you can thank me in some other way?" She asked playfully.
"I like where this is going." He kissed her and stood up with her in his arms. He carefully placed her on the bed. But their make out session was soon interrupted by three loud bangs on the door.
"Lieutenant Severide, Boden wants to see you in his office." It was the voice of Connie.
They just could not catch a break in this house.
