Chapter 6

Gabby POV

"Matt's here," I say as I point over to where I found his vehicle.

"Severide must have called him," She says as she reaches for the door handle of car, but before she climbs out she looks over at me. I do my best to try and collect myself before leaving the car. I wasn't expecting to see Matt.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I tell her finally removing my eyes from the back of his truck to face her. "I just remembered that I forgot to pick something up," I lie lamely still trying my best to collect myself.

Shay raises her eyebrows, "Really, You're going to sit there and lie to me?"

"Let's just go in," I tell her as I open the door and move around the car. I am not ready to get into how I feel with Shay right now, not right before I have to go and see Matt standing in front of me. Shay is beside me as we walk across the street and go up the steps to the door.

"I really think Kelly is going to be happy that I didn't find a couch, he seems to like the one we have," Shay rolled her eyes as she opened the door.

When we walked into the apartment Kelly and Matt where sitting on the black sofa with a beer in their hands and watching a game on TV.

"Hey," Severide shouts at us, "Did you guys find a new couch?" he asked not turning his attention away from the screen.

"No," Shay replies taking a seat on the recliner next to him. "They really didn't have anything I liked."

I take a seat on the arm of Shay's chair; I can feel a certain pair of eyes on me. I do my best not to look in direction, but I can't help myself. I glance over at him, his eyes still on me, I give him a small smile he does the same.

"How are you doing?" I ask knowing that I was being ridiculous.

"Things are good, Kelly and I just got finished putting all of Shay's book shelves together," he said tilting his beer in the direction of their work.

"You guys were busy," I reply with a laugh.

"Not really," Matt smiled taking a drink of his beer.

"I'm gonna go grab one of those," I say standing up and walking into the kitchen. I take a deep breath with my back turned to my group of friends; I can do this I tell myself.

Matt POV

I take another drink of my beer as I try not to watch Gabby walk away, I have to force my eyes to stay on the game. I hear Shay and Severide talking, but I'm not really following their conversation. Once I hear Gabby's voice, I'm brought back to the real world.

"So did you boys think that you were going to join us for girls' night," Gabby chuckled resuming her spot next to Shay.

"Yeah we thought we would get our nails and hair done too," Kelly replied with a smirk.

"We are not twelve," Shay shouted with an eye roll. "How about after the game we play a game of cards or something, it has been a long time since we all hung out."

"I'm in," Severide nodded his head and then turned over to look at me, "Casey?"

I can feel all eyes are on me, "Sure what the hell," I say taking another drink of my beer.

We all watch the game as we laugh and joke around, Gabby is a little quieter then normal, but seems to be in good spirits. It was nice just being with my friends without having to explain every twenty seconds on how I'm doing. It almost makes me feel like I'm normal again, like I'm healed.

The buzzard sounded with the crowd on TV and us erupting with cheers, our team won with a one point lead.

"Before we get started, Shay show me where you want the book shelves."

"Okay," she replied as both of them got off the couch and went up stairs.

I look over at Gabby who was watching them, "How was the shopping?" I ask drawing her attention over to me.

"Exhausting," Gabby sighed. "We went to seven different stores, but she couldn't find a damn thing she liked."

I smiled, "Sounds like Shay."

"Some things never change," Gabby replied looking down at her beer.

"Speaking of changes, I hear you have a boyfriend," I say before I could stop by myself. Before Gabby says anything, I watch her body tense and for a second I can see panic in her facial expression, but as quickly as it came on it disappeared.

"Yeah, his name is Evan and he is a doctor over at Lakeshore."

"A doctor uh?" I say almost wanting to laugh at the irony of all it.

"Yeah, but we didn't meet there. That night you came over to tell me you were leaving, Shay and made me go on a blind date with her and her girlfriend at the time. The date was a complete nightmare," Gabby laughed. "I ended up sneaking out early, but I left my purse there and had to go back. When I got there the wait staff had already found it and placed by the bar, as I was waiting he accidentally split his drink on me and that is how we meant. You probably don't want to hear this," she rambles on looking up at the ceiling.

A large part of me agrees with her, but there was no way I was going to tell her that, "No you're fine," I say. "And for the record I don't think it was an accident."

"You guys ready?" Shay asked as she came back into the room with Kelly and a deck of cards in her hand.

"Of course," Gabby said as she got up from her spot, "I'm going to grab another beer. Does anyone want another one?" she asked.

"I'll take one," Severide and I both said.

I ran my hand through my hair as I moved closer to coffee table watching Shay passing out the cards. I knew that tonight was going to be along night with Gabby near by.

Gabby POV

After my short conversation with Matt I needed a moment to put myself together. I couldn't believe that I just told him the whole story of how Evan and I meant. I could see that he looked a little uncomfortable as I rambled on; I should have realized that it would make him miss Hallie more. How stupid could I be? I asked myself as I grabbed the beers out of the fridge and made my back into the living room. I handed Kelly and Matt their beers and took a seat on the floor between Matt on side of the couch and Shay in the chair.

"So what are we playing?" I asked getting comfortable.

"Euchre, Dawson and I are on a team and Casey and Severide are a team," Shay states as she passes out the cards.

"Ready to get your ass kicked," I smiled over at Matt.

"The only ass that will be getting kicked is your's," Matt smirked back.

We played a three with Shay and I winning two out of the three. It was nice just hanging out with everyone; we joked around and talked about our favorite calls. It has been a while since I've seen Matt's smile reach all the way to his eyes. There were moment throughout the game, I couldn't take my eyes off of me, and he was beautiful. I almost forgot how it felt to be around him like this; it just reminded me how far he had come since I found him in house that day.

"I should be getting home," Matt said looking at his watch.

"You said that you would do girls' night with us," Shay said getting up off of the chair and grabbed the empty beer bottles. "And grils' night is not complete with out a movie."

"Very true Casey," I say incomplete agreement.

"What movie did you two have in mind?" he asked looking between us.

"You can bet it is a chick flick" Severide laughed.

"Actually smartass, we haven't picked out a movie yet," Shay called out.

Severide hurried up and grabbed the remote and began going through their options. After much debate, we all agreed on a comedy from the early nineties. We sat around the coffee table watching the movie, but it wasn't long before I looked over to find Shay sleeping on Severide's shoulder, his eyes were also closed. I then looked over at Matt who was still wide awake.

"I love this movie," he says as his eyes moving towards me.

"Yeah me too" I say.

He then looks over at the two sleeping bodies, "wish I could say the same for them."

"I know we didn't get to talk the other night, but I wanted to tell you how glad I am your back."

"Thanks," he smiles. "It is great to be home again with all of you. It's funny but just a little while I ago I felt normal and I can't wait to get back to work. "

"I know all the guys are excited for you to be back, things at the station haven't been the same," I tell him.

"I'm sure you guys got by with out me," he teases.

"That doesn't mean it was easy. I was worried about you," I tell him in a moment of complete honesty.

Matt looks down at his lap and then back up to me, "There was a thousand different times I wanted to call you the whole time I was gone. I knew that if I heard your voice everything would be okay."

I wasn't expecting Matt to say something like to me; it took me by complete surprise. "Why didn't you call?" I asked in a whisper.

"Because," he paused for a second and ran his hand over his face. "Because if I would have called you, I would have come back before I was ready."

We stayed there just staring at one another, neither one of us daring the other to move. There was something in the air that seemed to weight us both down, but yet completely released us.

"I…" began to say before my phone began to ring. It took me a moment longer to realize that I needed to answer it. I looked away from Matt as I pulled the phone out of my pocket and answered it. "Hello," I said as I cleared my throat.

"Hey babe," Evan's voice rang into my ears; I looked over at Matt who was watching me. I slowly lifted myself off of the couch and made my way into the kitchen. I didn't feel comfortable talking to Evan in front of Matt.

"Gabby?" he asked.

"I'm here," I tell him.

"Did I call at a bad time?" he asked

"No, I was just thinking," I lie knowing that I didn't have to, but I felt like I couldn't explain to him.

"Well I was just calling to see how girls' night is going and just wanted to say goodnight."

"Oh that is very sweet of you," I tell him.

"Alright, I'll let you get back to your fun. I love you," he said.

"Goodnight," I tell him with a close of my eyes. He tells me the same and is off of the line. I know he said that he would wait for me to catch up to him, but I know that waiting is going to get old and if I can't say those words to him then that will be the end.

Matt POV

I knew who was on the phone the moment Gabby answered it. I watched as guilty looked clouded her face as she said hello and that same look as she got up and moved into the kitchen. I forced myself not to watch her; instead I stared at the screen, but completely stuck in my own head. My mind kept replaying what I just shared with Gabby. I was painfully honest with her and instead of being embarrassed by my words, I felt like I was finally lifting a weight off of me I had been carrying around.

"Sorry about that," Gabby said as she sat back down.

"Evan?" I asked already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, he is working tonight and just wanted to say goodnight," she says quietly.

"He sounds like a great guy" I tell knowing that was what she needed to hear from me.

"He is," she says with a nod of her head.

I look back at my watch, "I really should be going, we all have an early day tomorrow."

"Yeah," I'll follow you out.

We both quietly grab our things so we don't wake Kelly and Shay. As we step out onto the porch, Gabby and I slowly walk in the same pace.

"Thank you for everything," I tell her knowing that I don't need to elaborate; she knows what I'm referring to.

"Anytime," she tells me. We stop at her car; she gives me a quick hug and drives away. It took everything I had in me not to just hold here in the middle of the street, not for any sexual reason, but just to feel her against me.

Author's Note

Thank you so much for all the great reviews and for everyone that is reading this story! I hope you are enjoying the updates and everyone is having a great week. Please let me know what you think.

Grace