Strange Bedfellows

Kelly Severide had been watching a Blackhawks game on TV when he suddenly heard a whining surging sound, then suddenly everything went quiet and his apartment was plunged into darkness. It took a second for him to actually realize what had happened. He got up from the couch and made his way over to the window and looked out, and felt his heart drop.

Everything was dark. There were no lights in any of the apartments across the street, the street lamps were out, everything was out, all he could see were the headlights of a few cars driving along in the street. The only way he could see anything was from the moonlight shining on the snow that covered every single thing outside his apartment window. Just great. The whole power grid was probably out, and it was 10 below out. Fabulous.

His cell phone started ringing, and Kelly wondered who could possibly have that kind of timing, at least it lit up so he could find it. It was Casey calling.

"Let me guess, you too?" he asked.

"What the hell happened?" Casey asked. There was some static over the line.

"Looks like we're in a power outage, is it your block too?" Kelly asked.

"I'm not home," Casey told him.

"Where are you?"

There was some noise in the background, when Casey talked again it sounded like his nerves were about shot.

"I'm about five blocks from your place...everybody's driving like a lunatic, can I stay at your place tonight?"

"What?"

"I have a feeling I won't make it back to my apartment alive tonight if I try making it," Casey's tone told Severide he wasn't joking.

Kelly just could imagine all the drivers on the road freaking out when all the lights along the streets went out, and he agreed that was the last place Casey needed to be right now.

"Can you get here okay?"

"I'll be there in a couple minutes."

"Okay, I'll let you in," Kelly told him.

There was a pause, then Matt responded, "Thanks, Kelly."

Kelly hung up and tried to remember where he left his flashlight. He used the illumination from his phone to make his way over to the kitchen and opened the junk drawer at the end of the counter, there was an assortment of old screwdrivers and hammers and an ice pick, but no flashlight. It had been a long time since he'd actually needed it. He opened the cupboards over the sink, and working with what little light he had, didn't see a flashlight, but did see a box of votive candles. He also found a box of matches in the cupboard, perfect since that was the only way he'd be getting the stove lit until the power came back on. Thank God that wasn't electric too. He took the candles down, fished a plate out of the dish rack, poured a few candles onto it and lit them to get some light on the subject so he could better look around the apartment.

Somebody was knocking on the door.

Kelly carried the plate in one hand as he went over to the front door and asked, making sure it wasn't one of the city's numerous crazies taking advantage of the blackout to go looting, "Casey?"

"Let me in," he heard Matt's voice from the other side of the door.

Kelly undid the locks and let Casey in.

"What happened?"

"It's freezing out there!" Casey announced as he walked in, hugging his coat tight against his body.

"Ain't gonna be much better in here," Kelly said as he pushed the door shut with his hip and relocked it. "You okay?"

"I was on the road when the power went out," Casey said, clearly shaken up but trying to hide it, "everybody panicked, a couple cars flipped over, another went into a ditch, you could see flashing lights on the way, but I knew if I stuck around I'd be there all night..." he shivered as he finally took his coat off and said, "all I wanted to do was get home, but I don't want to risk running into 50 more nuts like that on the road."

"I'm glad you came here," Kelly told him.

Casey noted the candles on the plate. Severide set it down and explained, "I'm trying to find a flashlight."

"Interesting," Casey noted. "Where'd you last see it?"

Kelly did a double take. "Smartass."

"Uh...is it alright if..." Casey motioned towards the couch.

"Oh, yeah, hang on," Kelly went over to the closet and opened the door, he grabbed a flannel blanket with one hand and tried to pull it down from the top shelf, but it wouldn't budge, then it gave way and unraveled as it fell on him, and he heard a familiar metal clink in the process. He knelt down and found the flashlight and turned it on.

"Well things are starting to look up," he commented as he picked up the blanket and handed it to Casey.

"Thanks...I really appreciate this, Kelly," Matt told him.

"No problem. I just hope they can get the power back on before too long, or this city's gonna riot."


Since there wasn't much to do with no power, Casey got settled on the couch and Kelly decided to call it an early night around 11:30. He changed into his warmest pajamas and crawled into bed and shortly after fell asleep.

By 12:05, Casey quietly crept into Severide's bedroom, wrapped in the flannel blanket like a mummy, and he softly padded over to the bed, where Kelly was obliviously asleep. Matt leaned down and whispered into his ear, "Kelly..." no response, he tried again, "Kelly..." Again, nothing, Casey pulled back, and asked again, much louder this time, "KELLY!"

"AHHH!" Severide shot up in his bed.

"Oh good, you're awake," Casey sarcastically replied.

"What is it? What happened?" Kelly asked as he tried to figure out where he was and what was going on since it was still too dark to see anything. Then he realized who was talking to him, hit his head back against the pillows and asked, "What do you want, Casey?"

Matt sighed as he explained, "There's a draft in the living room...can I stay in here with you?"

It was obvious from his tone that he was miserable, and any arguments Severide might've had about letting Casey in his bed suddenly died on his lips.

"...Sure," he said as he reached over and pulled the covers down.

Casey went towards the door and shut it to keep the cold air out, then went over to the bed and burrowed under the covers.

"Goodnight, Casey."

"Goodnight."


12:25-

Kelly coughed and it caught in his throat, he was choking, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't breathe, even through his nose he couldn't breathe. He opened his eyes and saw very little from the light coming in the window reflecting off the snow. He could make out somebody hovering over him and realized his nose had been pinched shut. He struggled with the other person and finally broke loose from their grip on his nose.

"Casey, what the hell are you doing?"

"You're snoring loud enough to wake the dead!" Casey complained.

"So you're trying to kill me?" Kelly asked.

"I can't sleep, you make more noise than a garbage disposal!" Casey told him.

"Oh for crying out loud," Kelly said as he turned to face away from him.


12:43-

Kelly felt his eyes bulge, and turned over and jabbed Casey in what he guessed to be his shoulder, to wake him up.

"Ah! What is it?" Casey asked.

"Keep your feet on your side of the bed and stop pressing them against my ass," Kelly told him. "They're freezing!"

"I know that, I was trying to warm them up," Casey replied.

"You are sick, you know that?"

"I'm cold!"

Severide sighed as he threw back the covers and got out of bed. Casey couldn't see what he was doing but it sounded like he went over to the closet and was rifling through it. Then everything was quiet. He heard the floorboards creak as Severide came back over, and felt a sudden breeze that chilled him just before he felt something heavy hit him, he felt it and realized it was another blanket.

"There, problem solved. Now go back to sleep," Kelly told him.

"I'm trying to go to sleep."

"Don't try, do it," Kelly said.


1:38-

"OUCH!"

Kelly shot up in bed as he simultaneously heard Casey scream, and felt the whole bed shake.

"What happened?"

Casey leaned against the side of the bed and groaned, "I kicked the bedstead."

"What're you doing up?" Kelly asked.

"I went to the bathroom," Casey answered defensively as he climbed back into bed and pulled the covers up, "I was trying to make my way back in the dark."

"Why didn't you just turn on a flashlight?" Severide snidely asked as if it was the most basic concept in the world.

"Because I didn't want to wake you up!" Casey replied in an aggravated hiss of a whisper.

"Well you suck at that," Kelly told him.

In the dark Severide heard Casey moan, and would almost swear he even heard a couple small whimpers, but they quickly subsided as he heard Casey moving around and the blankets and quilts rustling with his movements.


2:09-

Casey felt his legs knocking together, he could feel gooseflesh under his sweatshirt. It finally dawned on him the reason he was so unbearably cold was he wasn't covered up. He was curled on a ball on his side of the bed and all the covers were gone. He turned over and realized they were all bunched up over Severide, who as far as Casey could tell was in a dead sleep. Casey resentfully shoved Kelly towards the edge of the bed and heard him yelp, then a crash, and a pained groan.

"What now?" Kelly demanded to know as he got back on the bed and brought the covers back with him.

"That's for stealing my blanket," Casey told him.

"What?"

"I'm freezing to death over here!"

"Why didn't you just say so?" Kelly asked as he felt along the blankets, found one that wasn't tucked in at the foot of the bed and tossed it over to Casey's side.

"I need to sleep," Casey whined exhaustively.

"Then go to sleep," Kelly told him.


2:45-

Kelly woke up because he felt something touching his neck, freakishly coinciding with the nightmare he'd just been having about a vampire trying to bite him. He laid perfectly still and tried to figure out what was going on, and it occurred to him he was feeling somebody's breath against his neck, the breath was cold. Then he also realized that somebody had their arm draped over his waist, and he could feel somebody's weight pressing against his ribs. And finally he realized it was Casey, who had curled up against him in his sleep, and was currently dead to the world.

Several different ideas were running through Severide's head all at the same time, half of them different ways to get Casey off of him. He knew that Casey couldn't help it because he was asleep and didn't know what he was doing, but...he realized he couldn't do it. They'd both been trying to sleep all night, so far with very little success...no, he could deal with it for one night, maybe now they could both get some sleep. Kelly stretched his hand out to figure out where the covers were and drew them up on both of them, since he couldn't see what he was doing, he thought he pulled the blankets halfway up Casey's face, but as long as he wasn't complaining, Kelly was going to leave it alone. He had to admit it was warmer this way, not entirely unpleasant. He got his weight slightly adjusted so Casey wasn't pressing on his ribs as much, and finally, almost absently, wrapped an arm around Casey's shoulders, and listened to the quiet, even breaths of the man next to him, and slowly fell back asleep.


7:25-

Kelly opened his eyes and noticed the snow outside looked lighter and realized it was morning, and hopefully that meant the sun would actually come out later. He tried to move but he was tangled in all the covers, he turned his head and saw Casey hadn't moved and was still on his side, with one of the flannel blankets covering his nose. Severide looked around the apartment and realized the power was still out, he was not looking forward to getting out of bed. They didn't have to be at work until tomorrow, so there wasn't anything really pressing, especially with the whole block still in a blackout, but he decided they might as well face the day and get it over with. He nudged the Truck lieutenant with his shoulder.

"Hey, Casey, wake up, it's morning."

Matt took in a deeper breath than before and slowly opened his eyes, he pulled the blanket down and sat up.

"What time is it?"

Kelly reached over and grabbed his phone.

"Almost 7:30."

Casey reluctantly got out of bed, "I should be able to get back to my apartment now."

"You want to stick around for a few minutes, I'll make us some coffee," Kelly told him.

Casey turned back to him. "How? I happen to know all you have is the electric coffee maker in the kitchen."


The whole apartment was freezing cold by this time. Kelly filled a saucepan with water, put it on the stove, turned the knob to 'light' and when it clicked, he struck a match and held it towards the gas and a blue flame sparked to life under the burner. He turned back towards Casey, who was still wrapped up in a flannel blanket practically up to his eyeballs.

"It'll be a few minutes."

"Since when do you drink instant?" Casey asked.

Kelly reached up and opened the cupboard door and pulled out a jar. "Since this isn't the first power outage I've been in, and that's not enough of an excuse to go without coffee," he explained.

"Hey, uh...thanks for letting me stay here last night," Casey told him. "I really appreciate it, and I know it wasn't easy."

Kelly tried to shrug it off but a small laugh worked its way loose as he replied, "Actually it wasn't one of the more livelier nights I ever had."

They both had a laugh at that.

After a few minutes the water started to boil, Kelly poured it into two mugs and they were both taking a sip of the first hot beverage either of them had had in almost 24 hours, when suddenly the room got bright, and through the wall to the living room they could hear the TV blaring away.

"Hey the power's back on!" Casey realized.

"Thank God," Kelly said.

"I don't know, I think I'd rather be in a blackout in winter than the dead of summer," Casey replied as he unraveled the blanket and folded it over a chair.

"And you call yourself a fireman, we're supposed to thrive in a dead heat."

"In a fire, sure, you want to sit around 51 with 30 sweaty guys and no air conditioning for 24 hours?"

"Eeeh, good point," Kelly nodded.

Casey finished his coffee, and told Severide, "I'm gonna get going. Thanks again."

"No problem," Kelly said as Casey put on his coat and was out the door.

Despite the noise of the electronics suddenly coming back to life, the apartment was silent after that. Kelly stood there for a minute, thinking to himself, if he was completely honest with himself, it hadn't been that bad of a time last night. He actually found himself almost wishing they'd have another power outage...in May.