You'll Get It And Be Gone Chapter 6: Stay, a chicago fire fanfic

A/N: Alright guys, this is a pretty big chapter for this story and one of my favorites to write. I've been looking forward to this chapter since the start of this story. It's really going to move the present time storyline along and fills in an important chunk of the past storyline. There is still a few more big past storylines to be filled in after this one.

I am still a couple chapters ahead in this one, but I'm going to really start pacing myself. I've had a lot going on lately and have just been in a funk (for lack of a better word) and have not had much inspiration at all to write. I'm trying my best, but life has just gotten in the way and I've been dealing with some pretty heavy personal stuff. I promise to try my best to update all of my stories for you all!

Thank you for the support on this one. Your reviews make my day and completely blow me away. You all are so amazing, truly!

(This song… beautifully heartbreaking. AND it is the song that this story is named after, which is why I've been so excited to write it since the beginning. It fits in beautifully with this chapter. Sugarland has always been one of my favorites. Jennifer Nettles voice is just…WOW. Check it out!)

Enjoy!

I own nothing.

Chapter 6: Stay
Sugarland

I've been sitting here staring at the clock on the wall
And I've been laying here praying, praying she won't call
It's just another call from home
And you'll get it and be gone
And I'll be crying

When she slips into consciousness she can feel the dip of the bed next to her and the arms that are loosely draped across her stomach and she smiles at the comfort that all gives her. She rolls over straight into his warm inviting arms and snuggles into his chest. Placing a kiss right over his heart when she feels his arms wrap around her and hold her close.

A hum of appreciation leaves his lips and he kisses the top of her head. "Morning you."

"Morning." She whispers, letting her chin rest on his shoulder and looking up at him. He pulls her on top of him and she giggles softly as his lips find her neck and then her lips, leaving a trail of loving kisses along the smooth flesh.

She straddles his hips and lets her forehead rest on top of his as the look into each other's eyes. She smiles sweetly and he brushes his lips against hers before pulling her down so her chest is pressed to his and her face is buried into his neck.

He holds her close and takes it all in.

"You want some breakfast?" He asks lowly and receives a nod in reply.

"Later." She whispers. "Right now I just want to lay here with you." She says just as softly and he smiles. "We don't get enough mornings like this." He hears the vulnerability in her voice and can only nod. They don't get enough mornings like this, and if she wants to spend all of this morning in his arms in her bed than he is all for it.

"Okay." He whispers. Holding her tight to his chest and relishing in the feel of her bare body against his.

It's been a few weeks since he has seen her outside of work and just as long since they had done any more than share just a few kisses. Ever since their close call with Shay in the showers a couple weeks ago they have tried to cool it down. The last thing they need is to be caught by the blonde Paramedic or anyone else for that matter.

Hallie was away for the weekend on some hospital conference thing that he had no idea about until two days prior. Not that he much cared. They'd been on the rocks a lot lately. Avoiding each other when they were home together, and arguing when the silence became too much.

He wasn't happy, and he didn't really think Hallie was anymore either. He tried pinpointing the moment his marriage began to fall apart and he can't think of a real date, but he's pretty sure it started long before the girl that was currently in his arms came back to town. If he's being honest with himself he's pretty sure the marriage started falling apart the moment he said I do and he felt like he was suffocating when it fully hit him that the girl standing across from him wasn't the one that was in his arms now.

The difference between the feeling he felt then and the feelings he felt now towards his marriage were that he was pretty sure he wasn't the only one feeling them now. Hallie hadn't said as much, but he could tell, and he was still left asking himself why he didn't just come clean to his wife and tell her the truth, ask for a divorce, and move on with his life.

He felt like he owed it to Hallie to stay in their marriage, and that just sounds like the saddest thing he's ever heard. He's staying in his marriage because he feels obligated to. Who does that? He knows that he isn't happy with her, only because he knows just how happy the small Latina in his arms makes him and what Hallie makes him feel is nothing compared to what Gabby makes him feel.

There was never a big blow up with Hallie, never any huge realization. He just fell out of love with her, and it was during the time that Gabby wasn't in his life that he started to realize it. But when Gabby left him in that hotel room 4 years ago after he promised her he would leave his, then fiancé, Hallie, he forced himself to get over her. They spent two years planning the wedding and during that time he silently prayed that one day Gabby would come back to him. It was during that time that he realized he was no longer in love with Hallie, but he couldn't just leave her, they'd been together for over 8 years at the time and he no longer had Gabby, it only made since to stay with the girl that he had been with for so long and follow through with the marriage. He realizes now how stupid that was of him.

He doesn't realize why it ever took him so long to realize he'd fallen out of love with Hallie. He wishes he would've realized it years ago.

But he'd been happy with Hallie. Sure it wasn't near as passionate and deep and meaningful as anything Gabby had ever made him feel, but it was love and it was comforting and he let himself believe that it could be enough.

And then Gabby walked back into his life and it hit him for the first time in years just how unhappy he really had been all those years.

In the year of him and Gabby sneaking around again he had never told her any of it, his doubts in his marriage. In the early stages of their 'relationship' she hadn't even wanted to hear Hallie's name, and he couldn't blame the brown eyed brunette for that.

He should have realized when he no longer started to feel guilty for being with Gabby and started feeling guiltier for being with his own wife that he was married to the wrong woman. Though a small part of him knew from the start that he was married to the wrong one, the big part of him took a little longer to realize it.

As he holds Gabby in his arms and feels her breaths evening out once again, the little snores that he adored leaving her lips, he wonders what he's been doing the past year, the past 8 years, with Hallie, and why he hasn't been with Gabby all along. He wonders what it would be like to have this every morning and every night. Not just on a stolen 3 day weekend while his wife was away.

He wonders what it would feel like to have the girl in his arms hold his last name behind her first and for a ring to be on her finger. He wonders what it would be like if she was his. Fully, not just on their stolen moments away.

He wonders how much longer he can keep this all up before he finally breaks and tells Hallie the truth. He's starting to think it won't be much longer at all.

And I'll be begging you, baby
Beg you not to leave
But I'll be left here waiting
With my heart on my sleeve
Oh, for the next time we'll be here
Seems like a million years
And I think I'm dying

She's back in Chicago after two straight years of being away from this place that holds so many terrible memories. Its Christmas time and her niece and nephew, who are only 6 and 3 have been begging her to come home for the holiday.

She'd skipped the past two years, telling them that she didn't have the money, or had to work, but this year no such luck with the skipping. It was the day after Christmas and she'd spent the majority of her time in her hotel room, not wanting to venture too far out. This city held her worst memories, and some of her best, but the worst of the memories started to outweigh the good ones a long time ago.

This is the city where she fell in love. A love so deep and pure that she reduced herself to something she swore she would never be. A cheater. This is the city where her heart broke and shattered into a million pieces, multiple times.

This is the city where she lost the child that she was supposed to be able to hold in her arms and raise with the man she thought she'd spend forever with.

This is the city she left 2 years ago to get away from all those painful memories. To get away from him. To get away from all the lies and secrets. To get away from the memory of the child they had lost. She'd learned long ago that all those memories wouldn't leave her. They were forever bound to her. But in New York they were much easier to deal with.

She finds a dive bar around the corner of her hotel room and slips inside to get out of the cold that she'd been walking in for a while. Not ready to head back to her hotel just yet. Her parent's left this morning to go back to the Dominican Republic and her brother and sister in-law were spending the day at her parents' house. So she'd been left to her own devices. She leaves to go back to New York tomorrow, and all she really wanted was to have a couple drinks, go back to her hotel to sleep, and catch the first flight out of here the next day.

She'd sat at the bar for close to an hour and had downed two shots and two beers in that time, working on a buzz, but not drunk yet, when she felt someone slide into the stool beside her.

"I think I might be dreaming." He breathed out and her eyes snapped to his.

Blue met brown and she could feel tears sting her eyes instantly. Two years. Two years since she had seen this man.

The last time she had saw him he was standing outside her packed car begging her not to leave. Not to leave him. And now he was here.

It's funny how fate works.

"Matt…" She breathes out.

She'd left this place to get away from him and not even 5 days here and she ran into him.

He smiles softly. "Hey you." He whispers and a tear trails down her cheek.

God, had she missed him. So, so much. She would never admit it to him, but she did. Every day since she was gone.

She stares at him for a moment longer, to lost in him and the thoughts that she'd never see him again, to utter a word.

The bartender pulls her out of her thoughts when he asks her if she wants another drink and she shakes her head 'no' before turning to look at the blonde man again. Finally finding her voice. "I, uh, I should go." She whispers and is out of her seat and out the door before he can even think of what to say.

She knows if she stays she will be falling into his arms again.

What she doesn't expect is for him to follow her…

He hears the door close behind her and he takes a deep breath. Don't do it. Don't do it…

Too late…

He's off his stool in an instant and out the door following her. She's already half way down the side walk and rounding the corner, but he calls after her and is running after her in the cold Chicago evening.

When he rounds the corner and catches up to her he calls her name and grabs her hand, spinning her around to face him. "Gabby."

There are tears trailing down her cheeks and he hates that the last few times he has seen her she has been crying. He almost forgot what one of her smiles looked like, almost, but not quite.

He pulls her into his arms without a second thought and his lips are on hers in a tender kiss full of longing and passion and love.

When they pull away he looks down at her hesitantly. He doesn't know where to go from there. He hasn't seen her in 2 years and the last words shared between the two of them weren't the most pleasant. He isn't sure why she is back, or for how long, and he isn't sure of much of anything.

The one thing he is sure of is that he missed her and he loved her and he hadn't stopped thinking of her in the 2 years since he last saw her.

When she pulls away from him and keeps her hand interlocked with his and starts pulling him in the direction of a hotel and then up to the her hotel room he is sure that he will go anywhere this girl leads him without a second thought.

He pulls her into his arms right after the door closes behind them and their lips are locked in a long kiss within seconds.

No words are said and it doesn't take long before they are tangled in the bed sheets.

What do I have to do to make you see
She can't love you like me?

She rests her forehead against his chest as she takes a few deep breathes as they both come down from their highs.

He lets out a rather large puff of air and takes another deep breath to try and calm down his heavy breathing and she smirks up at him from the affects that they had on each other. She lays flat against him, letting her chin rest on his chest lowly so she could look up at him easily.

His hands comb through her hair and he grins down at her as she lay on top of him wrapped in the sheets. "That was… amazing." He breathes out and smiles at her wolfishly.

A blush rises to her cheeks and she smiles back up at him, nodding her head in agreement. A rare burst of vulnerability hits her and the next words are tumbling from her mouth before she can stop them. "Better than her?" She's never asked this before. She'd never been able to bring herself too. She knows that she should assume as much, why else would he be with her after all? But she can't stop herself from asking, and once the words have left her mouth she finds herself needing to hear that answer more than she cares to admit.

He smiles softly, almost reassuringly, and pulls her up his body so she is resting above him nearly face to face. He doesn't know why she's asked it. In over 8 years of knowing each other she has never once asked a question like this.

But after his thoughts from earlier this morning about ending things with Hallie, he can't help but answer her completely honestly.

He smiles and tucks the hair behind her ears and rest his hand on her cheek. "Baby… there isn't anything about you, and us, physically, or emotionally, that isn't better." He promises.

She smiles softly, a smile full of accomplishment and happiness. But it's only there for a few seconds before his words seem to have the opposite affect and she is frowning slightly. Giving him another vulnerable, and almost confused look. "Then why are you with her…" She breathes out and he takes a deep breath.

It's an honest question. One that knocks the wind out of him. He wants to say it's because he loves her or something else as equally sweet and noble and charismatic.

But he can't.

Because looking down at the woman he does love, all he can wonder is why he isn't with her.

She's beautiful and vulnerable and strong and kind and sweet and sarcastic and sassy and sexy and there isn't a single thing he can think of that is wrong with her other than the fact that there isn't a ring on her finger and this isn't their bed it's hers. The only fault with the girl in his arms is that she isn't his wife and it took her words to make him fully realize that he really has no idea why he is with his wife.

He feels like the winds been knocked out of him as he stares into her deep brown eyes that hold a question that he can't answer.

Why is he with his wife? Why isn't he with the girl he truly loves, the girl he always loved?

"I don't know…" He whispers. The words almost foreign in his mouth. The first time he has ever admitted it out loud. He meets Gabby's eyes now. Realization coursing through him. "I, I don't know…"

His phone rings and he sighs. He picks it up and they both tense at the name that's on the screen. Gabby rolls away from him almost ashamed. His words hitting her and his wife's name on his phone making her feel terrible and all sorts of ashamed and so many things.

He kisses her temple and gives her a reassuring look. They'd be finishing this conversation.

Then he is slipping into the hallway and answering the call from his wife.

Why don't you stay
I'm down on my knees
I'm so tired of being lonely
Don't I give you what you need
When she calls you to go
There is one thing you should know
We don't have to live this way
Baby, why don't you stay

They lay facing each other on the hotel bed. Nothing but the sheets between them. Their eyes locked and their hands shamelessly running up and down the others sides as their legs stay interlocked.

"This is crazy." She whispers into the quite air that had encased them.

He raises an eye brow in question and she takes a breath before answering him. "I, I haven't come back here in 2 year because I didn't want to face everything that made me leave… and honestly I didn't think I'd be able to face you. I really didn't think I'd run into you while I was here… I thought I'd never see you again…" She tells him softly, her throat tight at the admission.

He smiles softly. "Well I'm glad the latter didn't happen… I haven't stopped thinking about you since you left Gabs." He whispers vulnerably. He'd tried putting her at the back of his mind, but she never left him. He could never get her out of his mind or out of his heart.

She nods tearfully. "Me either…"

They're silent for a moment before his next words are tumbling from his mouth. "Move back here…"

"Matt…" She warns gently, her voice hoarse from the tears that are threatening to escape and the tightness in her throat. "I can't…"

His face falls. "Why not?"

"Matt, you're engaged… you have Hallie and we… we're nothing…" Even she knows that's a lie, and his jaw sets at her words.

"We aren't nothing… Gabby we could never be nothing. You and me, we're… God, we're everything." He tells her vulnerably.

She shakes her head, trying to act like he didn't say those words. He doesn't mean them, he can't. She smiles softly, "You're getting married Matt…"

He shakes his head. He doesn't know why she keeps saying that. He wishes she would stop. He wants it to be her. He's wanted it to be her for years now. "What if I don't want too…" He asks almost childishly and her breath hitches and she is shaking her head at him again.

"You don't mean that…"

He cuts her off. "I do… God Gabby, for the past 4 years it's been you. For the past 2 years I have tried to convince myself that I could live without you and… I, I don't want too… I don't want to live without you anymore…"

"And I don't want to be your dirty little secret Matt, but I guess we are both screwed." She says angrily. He couldn't be saying these things to her. He said things similar 2 years ago and then took them back. She won't go through it again.

"Gabby…" He tries, but she is getting up from the bed, wrapping the sheet around her and clutching it to her chest as she moves away from him.

"Maybe you should go."

And there it was. The Gabriella Dawson wall of defense. Built up nice and high for no one to enter.

He shakes his head, standing from the bed and pulling on his boxers as he walks towards her, letting his hands rest on her arms.

"I'm not going anywhere." He argues.

She looks at him, tears swimming in her eyes, why can't he ever just let it be easy. Why can't he understand that she doesn't want to hear anymore promises that he won't keep.

"You should go home to your fiancé, Matt."

He shakes his head, letting his hand rest on her cheek as he looks down into her eyes. Oh silly girl. "But the love of my life is right here…" He whispers with so much conviction that she is throwing herself into his arms once again. Letting her tears fall and her lips meet his.

You keep telling me, baby
There will come a time
When you leave her arms
And forever be in mine
But I don't think that's the truth
And I don't like being used and I'm tired of waiting
It's too much pain to have to bear
To love a man you have to share

She doesn't know how she let herself fall into this again, last night she had been determined to kick him out and not let him back in. But when she wakes up in the morning with his arm draped over her stomach and hears a phone ring she grabs it and opens the flip phone without looking at the caller ID.

She doesn't even have any words out before she hears a frantic voice fill the line. "Matt? Matt, where the hell are you? Baby I've been worried."

She sits up with a start and closes the phone quickly, letting it fall to the bed. She looks over at Matt as he sleeps soundly and she makes her way to the bathroom for a shower, she needs to wash the feel of him off her skin. To wash the complete shame she feels away.

This was a mistake.

He has Hallie. He's getting married, and the words he said last night mean nothing because they don't compare to the ring and the promises that she is sure he has promised that other woman as well. Actions speak louder than words after all.

The tears hit her hard once she reaches the shower and the water has run cold by the time she steps out from behind the curtain. She dresses quickly and doesn't bother with makeup or drying her hair.

When she steps back into the room she's not sure whether she is happy or disappointed that he hasn't woken up yet. She sits on the side of the bed for a moment, letting herself take him in for a few moments. His tousled hair and his muscled back. His cheeks pressed into the pillow. He looks peaceful.

She grabs the little note pad that was resting on the night stand and writes him a quick note. She sets it on her pillow and runs her hand through his hair and down his cheek and feels the tears sting her eyes.

He has a girl he loves waiting at home for him and she has a plane to catch.

This was their goodbye.

She places a kiss on his cheek and grabs her bag and when the door clicks shut behind her she doesn't bother to stop the tears that race down her cheeks.

Matt wakes up a short ten minutes later and looks around warily when his hand runs across the cool sheet and hit a piece of paper. He looks at it briefly before sitting up and calling out her name.

When he looks around the room and notices her bag is gone and there is no trace of her he looks back at the note and feels like his heart is breaking.

I'm sorry…
Please, be happy, Matt. That's all I've ever wanted for you.
Love always, G.

Doesn't she realize she makes him happy?

He lets out a shaky breath and doesn't stop the tears as he dresses and makes his way out of the hotel room and the sound of the lock clicking shut behind him sounds a hell of a lot like the sound of a heart breaking.

He checks his phone as he walks to his car and when he listens to his voicemail from Hallie and hears her ask why he picked up and hung up he is silently cursing her, but he shakes that thought almost immediately. He can't blame this on her. He can't.

He wants to blame Gabby, but he also can't bring himself to do that either. He is the one who is with someone else, he doesn't deserve to be mad at her for leaving.

He tucks that note into his back pocket and when he gets home stuffs it into the little box of things he's had for a few years now hidden in the back of their closet.

He can't shake the feeling that last night was a goodbye…

Casey, he determined, hated goodbyes.

He walks back in the room and she is resting up against the headboard with her knees pulled up to her chest and the sheets still wrapped around her.

He smiles softly, almost regrettably, and she knows what coming.

"You're leaving." She breathes out, already knowing the answer.

There were supposed to spend the whole weekend together. He'd stayed over the night before and she was supposed to get one more night with him before shift tomorrow. Before he had to go home to his wife. It's not the first time their plans have been changed by a call from his wife, she should be used to it by now. She's not, and she never will be. He's supposed to be hers, there isn't supposed to be anyone else calling him away. She hates this feeling.

The feeling she gets right before he leaves to go back to her and with the conversation and his admission that happened before he took this call she is hating it all even more.

Hallie called to ask where he was, it was nearing 6pm and she had gotten home early. She wasn't supposed to be home till tomorrow afternoon. He tries not to be mad that she is home so early… he can't blame her, none of this is her fault. But he still feels that twinge of resentment towards her that he hates.

"Gabs…" He tries to reason but she is cutting him off and going to move from the bed.

"It's whatever, I'm used to it." She grumbles, and he's on the bed and laying half on top of her holding her into place before she can go.

"Hey… don't do that…" He whispers.

She crosses her arms over her chest, almost like she is trying to place a barrier between them, he doesn't like that action at all, and he really dislikes the words that leave her mouth after in a defensive tone.

"No, its fine, I'm used to it Matt. She's your wife and I'm just the thing you do on the side." She remarks and he pulls away shocked by her words and her sassiness before settling his arms around her and pulling closer, kisses her collar bone delicately before looking up at her and shaking his head.

"Don't… Don't say that… You know it's so much more than that. It always has been, and it's always going to be."

Tears well in her eyes and shakes her head as her lips tremble. "I don't want to do this anymore…" She cries softly and he feels like his world might fall down around him. "I hate seeing you go home to her and I hate hiding how I feel about you… I just… God Matt, all of this is so hard. I just want you, all the time… not part time." She whimpers.

It's honestly the first time he has ever heard her be this vulnerable about their situation and he hopes she knows how much he wants her all the time too. "You have me." He whispers, pulling her down so her back is against the bed and not the head board. He kisses her lips softly. "You have me, baby."

She shakes her head, unshed tears still swimming in her brown eyes. "Yeah, I have you… and so does she." She says sullenly.

"What if she didn't anymore?" He asks her honestly.

Gabby's breath catches for a moment as she looks up into his blue eyes. Blue eyes full of conviction and love and adoration and so much more and she lets out a breath as the tears slide down her cheeks. They've never talked about this before. What would happen if he left his wife? And now here they are, talking about it so offhand.

"Yeah?" She questions.

"Yeah." He confirms.

"Then I'll be here waiting." She whispers and his lips are on her in an instant.

I can't take it any longer
But my will is getting stronger
And I think I know just what I have to do
I can't waste another minute
After all that I've put in it
I've given you my best
Why does she get the best of you
So the next time you find you wanna leave her bed for mine

He's going to leave his wife.

He has no idea how he will start the conversation, and in all honesty he had no idea how, what, and how much he is going to tell her about his affair with Gabby.

All he knows is that he has finally come to a decision and he feels lighter. He feels happier.

And knowing that Gabby will be here waiting for him is the best feeling in the world. They are finally going to get a real chance at something. To be more than just secrets and lies and sneaking around. He is finally going to get to show his girl off to the world.

Gabby stands against the counter with a smile on her face. He'd decided. He had told her he was leaving his wife.

She had been waiting to hear those words for a long, long time. They felt amazing. He was amazing.

He was going home and he was going to talk to Hallie and he had promised her that tomorrow morning on shift he would tell her all about it.

She feels arms wrap around her and smiles when he places a kiss to her bare shoulder. He'd ran to take a shower after their activities and had changed into his clothes, and for the first time she didn't have a sinking feeling in her heart when she realized he was leaving her. Because she knew he would be coming back to her soon. Very soon.

He pulled away and took a sip of the coffee she had in her hands and then set the cup down on the counter, taking her into his arms and looking her up and down. Her curls framed her face and her cheeks were blushed a light pink. Her eyes were bright and her lips were just a little swollen from their kisses that they'd shared. She looks happy. And she was still only wrapped up in that damn white sheet.

"Do you ever wear clothes?" He growls out.

She giggles softly, and boy was that noise music to his ears. "When you're around? Not often." She laughs, going to move away from him.

He had other ideas and lifted her up onto the counter, resting in between her legs and kissing her deeply. "You make it so difficult to leave." He whispers, resting his forehead against hers.

She smiles softly and plays with the buttons on his shirt. "Yeah, well soon you won't have to be going anywhere."

"No I won't. And I don't plan on going anywhere far from you ever again after all this is said and done."

"Promise?" She whispers.

He collapses her smaller pinky in his and kisses their interlocked finger before kissing her lips. "Promise."

She groans and pushes him away, jumping from the counter. "You need to go before I don't let you leave."

He laughs loudly, throwing his head back and grabs his jacket and slings it over his shoulders before pulling her close once more. Kissing her head and then kissing her lips lovingly.

"I love you."

She smiles against his lips and whispers those three words back.

He walks to the door and send her a wink over his shoulder before swinging the door open.

Leslie Shay's mouth drops open as she stares at the blonde man in her best friends door way and spots Gabby over his shoulder with wide eyes, wrapped in a bed sheet.

Matt's eyes meeting the blue ones across from him in shock as well.

A smirk of accomplishment washes over the blonde girls face as she hollers out. "I knew it!"

Why don't you stay
I'm up off my knees
I'm so tired of being lonely
You can't give me what I need
When she begs you not to go
There is one thing you should know
I don't have to live this way
Baby, why don't you stay, yeah

Oh HEY Shay, welcome to the party!

So Gabby stood up for herself, and Matt says he is leaving Hallie… Sounds like all is falling into place right?

You all know by now it's never that easy with these two.

Hallie will finally officially be introduced next chapter, and we will get Shay's reaction.

Hope you all enjoyed this one!

Review, Review, Review pleaseeeee.

XxXx