This chapter's the longest so far :D (I usually suck at writing long chapters, haha) Hope you like!

...

The past four days had felt like eternity for Dawson. The morning after her surgery, she'd been moved up to one of the regular patient rooms that were a lot bigger than the small recovery room she'd waken up in. Her roommate, a woman around her own age who had a similar surgery, had been released the day after Dawson had been moved up into the new room and from then on it was only her, a couple of magazines and a TV. She couldn't thank Antonio enough for bringing her clothes and DVDs, but after 3 days of watching various shows and movies, Dawson had grown really tired of being stuck at the hospital. The only remotely good thing about it was that she was close to Shay and could go to see her whenever she wanted, but she still hadn't woken up from her coma yet and even though it hadn't even been a week, Dawson was starting to get more and more nervous that her friend might never wake up. She'd been sitting next to her bed every evening, telling her whatever came to her mind with the hope that Shay would open her eyes. But she never did, not even during the most embarrassing stories Dawson told her about her life.

Severide was visiting Shay a lot too, at least whenever he wasn't on shift and everyone else from firehouse 51 who knew Shay popped in as well, leaving flowers and whatnot.

Waking up in the morning of the fifth day after the ambulance crash, Dawson realized that this was the first time in her life that she would be spending New Year's at a hospital. To her, still being here seemed unnecessary. She was fine, she felt fine. Her headache had gone away and in her opinion, she was ready to go back to working again. Sitting in a hospital room all day doing nothing had been relaxing for just about half a day before it had started to get on her nerves. 'We'll keep you here a few days for observation', those were the doctor's words every time she asked him about the possibility of being discharged. Observation. There was nothing to observe anymore, she was perfectly fine.

Sick of the hospital night gown, she got dressed in her own clothes as soon as possible, waited for one of the nurses to come in with breakfast, put a random season of 'How I Met Your Mother' into the DVD player and ate. Dr. Thompson didn't show up until early afternoon, but when he finally did, Dawson was quick to ask him about being released today. His response was the same as the previous days and consisted of some vague talking about how important observation after a head injury was. She tried to bargain and argument, but he was just about as stubborn as Dawson herself and insisted to have her stay at the hospital until the next morning. She couldn't say she was happy about being in here for another whole day, but at least now she could look forward to being discharged on the next day, January 1st. "So we come to agree that I'll discharge you next year, Miss Dawson," Dr. Thompson said, then proceeded to laughing about his own little joke. "Get some rest. New Year's Eve at the hospital is quite dull." With these words he turned around and left the room while Dawson watched him with a clearly annoyed look on her face.

Instead of 'getting some rest' like the doctor had suggested, Dawson soon got out of bed to walk around outside the hospital for a bit. Laying down for too long would only mess her up more, she needed to keep moving. When she came back inside, she headed up to Intensive Care to visit Shay for a while. "Severide texted me this morning." She spoke softly, her eyes resting on her friend and coworker. "The firehouse is on shift until 10 tonight, but he said he would try to come and visit you before the New Year." Dawson got comfortable in the chair next to Shay's bed. "Peter Mills texted me too, wishing me a Happy New Year and saying he was sorry he couldn't come visit today, but his family is claiming him after shift." Had Shay been awake, she would have probably teased Dawson about Mill's little crush on her. Dawson never quite believed her, in her eyes they were just good friends and that was all there was to it, but Shay was convinced that Peter Mills wanted more than just friendship. It was just one of many things Dawson missed since the ambulance crash, the friendly banters with Shay.

Dawson got back to her own room just in time for dinner. The nurses didn't like when she was missing for too long, but she usually didn't care much. They rarely seemed to like anything. She just tried to always be there when they were coming with the food tray, so she wouldn't piss them off more. Dinner consisted of a piece of meat, mashed potatoes and a fruit salad and turned out to be exceptionally bland, even for hospital food. If she hadn't been so hungry, she probably wouldn't even have bothered eating much of it.

After dinner she laid back down on the bed, still wearing her own clothes. The other bed in the room was still empty, she'd never gotten a new roommate. Maybe with someone else here, New Year's Eve wouldn't be so boring. Dawson sighed a little, looking up at the ceiling, contemplating watching another season of one of the shows Antonio had brought her. What else was there to do?

…

Casey kicked off his shoes, threw his jacket onto a chair and walked into the kitchen, grabbing a beer out of the fridge. He hadn't expected to be home alone at New Year's Eve, the past years he'd spent this day with Hallie, but their sudden break-up a month ago had left him without any plans this year. So it would only be him and a beer on the couch watching TV, waiting to see the Big Apple fall at midnight. He leaned back on the couch, put his feet up on the coffee table and took a few sips of his cold beer.

As he picked up the remote to flip through channels, his mind started to wander to Dawson and the fact that she was most likely spending the evening at the hospital if the doctors hadn't discharged her yet and they most likely hadn't or else he would have probably heard about it from the Chief. The minute he had started thinking about her, he couldn't stop anymore. His mind now seemed to be focused on the thought of her being bored in a hospital bed or alone talking to Shay, who wasn't going to respond. He stopped flipping through the channels and sighed a little as he tossed the remote next to him on the couch. The prospect of paying her a visit at the hospital was compelling, but at the same time he was hesitant because he didn't want to complicate things between them. Ever since his break-up with Hallie, things had been a little awkward between him and Dawson, not necessarily in a negative way, but unusual nevertheless. He'd always been loyal to Hallie, but after their break-up he had finally gotten aware of his slowly growing attraction to Dawson and now he simply didn't know if he should act on it or not.

…

A soft knock on the door woke Dawson up from the light sleep she'd fallen into sometime during watching 'Finding Nemo'. She turned her head to the door and sat up straight in bed, pushing the blanket away. It was warm in the room and the fact that she was wearing her own clothes instead of a hospital gown only added to that. She was surprised to see Casey walking in and that surprise was pretty evident in her voice and facial expression as she spoke. "Casey."

"Hey." He flashed her a small smile before looking up at the TV. Seeing the cute animated fishes on the screen only widened his smile. "Finding Nemo, huh?"

The smile on Dawson's face was as big as Casey's as she looked at him. "Yeah, Diego insisted on Antonio bringing it to me along with some other DVDs." She picked up the remote and turned the TV off, then moved to sit on the edge of the bed facing Casey. "What are you doing here?" She smiled up at him, obviously pleased to see him.

"I thought you might enjoy some company." He shrugged a little and took a step towards the bed. Dawson looked back into his eyes, her expression growing more serious for a moment as she was wondering if he had come 'only' as a friend. If anyone was good at sending out mixed signals, it was Matthew Casey. He had called them going to the Christmas party together a 'date' and then told her that it wasn't a good time, which had made her assume that he was still in love with Hallie. A part of Dawson knew that it would probably be best to step back a little and distance herself from him for a while, but the bigger part of her wasn't strong enough to do that. She loved spending time with him, even if they were friends and not lovers.

"You okay?" He noticed that the smile had faded from Dawson's face, but his question pulled her out of her thoughts and brought the smile back on her face. "Yeah. Let's walk, I've been stuck in this room for far too long already."

They walked down the hallways of the Lakeshore hospital without really paying attention to where they were headed. Casey told Dawson about everything that had been going on in the firehouse these past few days while she listened and commented every now and then. Nothing extra-ordinary had happened, but she was still glad that he kept her updated.

"Looks like we ended up in pediatrics." Casey stopped and looked at one of the giant signs that told them what ward they were in. Dawson followed his eyes and saw the sign as well. It was no wonder that the hallways in this part of the hospital were so quiet and empty even though it was New Year's Eve, the sick children had to be asleep no matter what. "We should probably turn around," Casey said and glanced at Dawson who was just about to nod in agreement, when she suddenly saw a child running around the corner. The little boy immediately stopped when he saw them and mutterd something that sounded suspiciously like:'Oh crap'.

"Hey." Dawson put on a soft, friendly smile and so did Casey.

"Hey buddy, how come you're still awake?" he asked curiously, with a hint of concern in his voice.

"Please don't tell the nurses." The boy looked around nervously, making it even more obvious that he wasn't allowed to be out of his room alone at this time. Dawson shot Casey a quick look. They couldn't just pretend they hadn't seen him and let him keep wandering the hallways all alone.

"I just wanted to get my teddy bear, I left him in the playroom. That's all." He looked up at Casey and Dawson with a pleading look, his bright blue eyes and sad puppy dog expression on his face making it almost impossible to call the nurses on him. They exchanged another quick look before Casey took a step towards him. "We'll help you find your teddy bear, but then you really need to get back to your room, okay?"

"Okay, sir!" The boy smiled sheepishly and turned to a hallway on the right. "Playroom is this way."

Casey and Dawson followed the dark-haired boy down the hallway and into the playroom that was completely dark. "What's your name?" Casey asked while he was looking for the light switch. He found it and the lights in the room flickered on. "Oliver," the boy replied with a bright smile on his face, "And I'm 6. Just in case you were wondering." He quickly went to close the door behind them, so the nurses wouldn't find them. "Nurse Rita is really strict. I think it's because she's so old," the boy babbled, getting comfortable in one of the little chairs in the playroom. Dawson chuckled at his words as she looked around the room. "Do you see it anywhere?"

"See what?" Oliver asked and gave her a curious glance.

"Your teddy bear." Dawson slightly raised a brow and gave him an amused look. Casey was glancing around the room as well. There were a lot of toys, but he couldn't see a teddy bear anywhere among them.

"Oh right!" Oliver jumped up, now seemingly searching for the teddy as well, but it didn't slip Casey's attention that the boy didn't really seem to care for the stuffed animal anymore. "Did you lie to us about the teddy bear?"

Oliver's face grew serious when he heard Casey's words and he hung his head in shame. "Yes. I'm sorry, sir." The boy paused for a moment and then looked up at Casey and Dawson again. "I just wanted to stay up because it's New Year's Eve..."

Casey exchanged a quick look with Dawson, then sat down on the carpet in the middle of the room, smiling up at Oliver. The boy didn't seem tired at all. "Fifteen minutes. Then we really have to get you back to your room, okay?" Casey waited for Oliver to nod in agreement. It was a deal. The boy sat down opposite of him and smiled brightly. "Okay, sir!"

"This is Gabby," Casey glanced up at Dawson, who was still standing up and watching their exchange with a smile on her lips, "And I'm Matt." He glanced around the room and spotted some paper on one of the shelves. "Dawson, can you get me some of that paper and scissors?"

"Yeah, sure." She walked over to the shelf to collect what he had asked for, curious as to what he was going to do with it. Once she had handed him the things, she slowly sat down next to him on the floor, watching as Casey started to fold a hat. Oliver looked at him in amazement, his mouth half-open. "Is that a firefighter hat?" he asked excitedly with a sparkle in his eyes.

"Yes, it is." Casey nodded and smiled at Oliver, handing him the finished paper-hat.

"This is awesome!" The boy took the hat, put it on his head and jumped up, almost losing it in the process. "I'm a firefighter!"

Dawson chuckled and slightly turned her head to look at Casey from the side. He was incredibly good with children and it only increased her attraction to him. They would get into a lot of trouble if one of the nurses found them here, but Casey and Dawson silently agreed that it was worth it. There was something absolutely beautiful in spending some time with a little boy who wanted nothing but not to lay alone in his bed on New Year's Eve, even if it was only fifteen minutes.