Kelly woke up and realized he'd slept twice as long as he'd planned to. He got in his car and rushed back to Lakeshore, and just as he got out of his car, he saw Antonio pulling up as well.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Voight's not answering his phone," Antonio pointed to Hank's car, "he's still here."
"Still? He's been here this whole time?" Kelly asked.
"If not, I'd like to know what's going on," Antonio said. "You call Casey?"
"He doesn't have his phone...I didn't think to bring it," Kelly answered as they headed towards the entrance.
"You don't think something happened, do you?" Severide asked.
"I'm hoping not but Hank was supposed to be back at the 2-1 before this," Antonio told him.
"He said he'd tell me if anything changed," Kelly said.
"Let's go."
The two made their way down the corridors until they reached Casey's room, and both of them stopped at the doorway, and neither could believe what they saw. There weren't any words that could begin to describe their shock.
Casey was asleep in the hospital bed curled on his side. And Voight was laying on the bed next to him, Casey's head resting on Voight's chest, Voight's hand on the back of Casey's head, Casey's chest moving up and down in slow, even breaths.
Severide and Antonio just stood at the threshold, unable to move, speak, let alone think. Neither of them knew what to do.
At some point they both became aware of Hank Voight looking at them through the corner of one eye. The Intelligence sergeant motioned for them to be quiet, but also gestured for them to come over and help him. Stepping lightly, Kelly went over and carefully slipped his hand under Casey's head and supported it as Voight moved out from under him and inched over to the edge of the bed, Kelly slowly eased Casey's head down on his pillow as Voight quietly stood up and stretched and tried to work the kinks out of his upper body. He motioned for the others to follow him out to the hall, and they did.
"What the hell happened?" Kelly wanted to know as soon as they were out of Casey's room.
"Guy's got problems," was all Voight said in response.
"Hank, what's going on?" Antonio asked.
"It's the only way he doesn't keep waking up screaming thinking Gabby's trying to kill him," Voight explained.
That took any and all wind out of both of their sails.
"How long were you..."
"Long enough," Hank answered.
It had been after the third time that Casey woke up screaming. Hank finally got him to calm down, and tried to get Casey to go back to sleep, but he could easily see this vicious cycle repeating itself, so he decided to get creative in how he handled it.
"Move over," he told Casey.
Matt looked at him skeptically as he scooted over to the right side of the bed, and asked hesitantly, "What for?"
"I'm gonna try something," was all Hank told him as he climbed in on the other side of the bed.
Casey made a small sound in his throat and dryly commented, "Now I know what they mean by sleeping with the devil."
Any other time Voight would've had a response to that, but he decided if Casey was in enough presence of mind to still have reservations with the older man, to take it as a sign of improvement.
"Now what?" Casey asked. Between the two of them the bed got pretty cramped.
And Voight was about to make it even more so. He reached over and less than gently pushed Casey's head down and told him, "Get your head down here" and forced Casey's ear against his chest. He gave the blonde lieutenant a few seconds to get adjusted to it and to hear the beating in his chest, and he asked Casey, "Hear that?"
He felt Casey nod.
"That means I'm here. It means you're not alone..." Voight paused as he watched the expression on Matt's face change, and in a softer tone he told the younger man, "You're safe, Casey, nobody can get to you in here. Now go to sleep."
"Voight..."
Voight lowered his voice and practically said into Casey's ear, "Matt...I am not going to let anybody get to you...now trust me, and go to sleep."
Casey was quiet after that, Voight watched him and after a few minutes saw Casey's eyelids start to get heavy, he tried to keep them open, but every time he blinked they stayed shut a little longer, and finally they stayed shut, and his head cocked to the side, a small hum emanated from his throat, and after a few more minutes he raised his arm and slung it over Voight's ribs. Hank looked down at the lieutenant, and raised his hand and carefully stroked over the back of Casey's head, and watched the younger man while he slept. Every so often he looked at the clock. An hour passed. Then another. His whole body was stiff but he didn't move. Another hour passed. Casey moved slightly in his sleep every so often, turning, stretching, scratching, scooting on his hip to curl up closer against Voight, oh the irony indeed. Voight was not oblivious to how sad the fact was that anybody, but especially a lieutenant in the CFD, had to be hospitalized to actually feel safe enough to sleep through the night for the first time in months.
"It's the first time he's stayed asleep," Voight explained to Antonio and Severide. "Somebody's going to have to stay with him at all times."
"I can stay with him," Kelly said.
"It would be better to rotate with somebody," Voight replied.
"What about somebody else from 51?" Antonio asked.
"Oh shit," Kelly got a panicked look on his face. "We're supposed to be on shift tomorrow. How am I gonna explain this one to everybody?"
"You don't have to," Voight told him. "I'll do it."
"No!" for some reason that idea particularly seemed to scare the hell out of Severide.
The two cops looked at him questioningly.
"I can assure you," Voight told Kelly, "I know how to handle this."
"What're you gonna do?" Severide wanted to know.
"You just stay here and keep an eye on Matt, let me worry about that," Hank said.
Hank played the video taken from Casey's apartment the night of his attack, and waited, and watched as Wallace saw what had unfolded two days ago. He watched as the color drained out of Boden's face.
"Stop," he finally said, sounding sickened by what he'd just witnessed, "stop it."
Voight paused the footage and pocketed his phone. "I'm sorry, Wallace, I know this is hard to come to terms with."
"How..." Boden looked like he was going to be sick, and he struggled to swallow, "how long has this been going on?"
"We really don't know," Voight told him. "Severide brought it to my attention four days ago."
Wallace looked at him with a puzzled expression. "Severide came to you?"
"Tells you how desperate he was," Hank said.
Boden struggled to take that one in. He asked Voight, "And how long has he known something was going on?"
"Well, he started getting photographic evidence about three months ago."
Boden actually seemed to be turning gray from this revelation.
"Chief..." Voight shook his head, "please don't think that you weren't told because your men don't trust you. It was a bad situation, Casey wouldn't admit what was going on, and there was no point asking Gabby if it was true, she'd never admit to beating Casey. Severide had no evidence, and he knew how bad it would look if he publicly accused Gabby in any way."
"And when he had the pictures?"
"It's a bad situation, Chief...nobody wants anyone to get hurt...a guy beats his wife, somebody finds out, they call attention to it, nothing's done, he just beats her harder when they get home because she made him look bad...we don't have enough info on abusive wives to know if they operate the same way, but it's probably a safe bet. And I'm sure you can figure out why Casey never said anything."
Wallace grunted under his breath. Despite the situation, Voight cracked a smile, he'd almost think he was rubbing off on the battalion chief.
"Battered men hardly report their abuse as is, because everybody knows nobody is going to take them seriously, not the police, not the courts, there's a whole psychology to it that nobody looks at because the only thing they focus on is the sex and the physical size of the attacker," Voight explained. "Casey's position is worse, it isn't just that he's a man, a firefighter, it's that his wife, who is beating the crap out of him, works at the same station house as he does. He says anything, not only is it his word against hers, the whole firehouse is divided as everybody tries to figure out who to believe. You guys are all family, what happens when family starts picking sides? He knew it would happen, Gabby's been there long enough that nobody would believe it, even if they did, not everybody would, and the rift that that would cause, could permanently damage the relationship you all have. He wasn't willing to risk that. It was easier for him to just take what Gabby did, and keep his mouth shut."
A strained laugh escaped Boden, "Yeah, that's Casey, he keeps everything to himself..." he shook his head and asked, "why the hell did this have to be one of them?"
"Who would he tell?" Voight pointed out. "He knows how you feel about her, he knows you wouldn't believe it if you didn't see it...he didn't know anybody recorded any proof, he wouldn't tell a cop, Antonio's her brother, that's a no-win situation, me?" Voight grunted and shook his head. "Our history would make that very difficult...it's still difficult now."
"Who else knows?" Boden asked.
"As yet, nobody from 51, my men know, some of the doctors at Lakeshore, so far that's it," Voight answered.
"Anyone with him?"
"Severide and Antonio are there now."
"Antonio?" Boden blinked. "How did he take the news?"
"It's his sister, he doesn't want to believe it, but he can't deny it, he saw the video too...whatever happened between he and Casey, they seem to have patched it up."
"And where's Gabby now?" Boden asked.
"Not in custody yet, the docs at Med are taking a run at her to see if there's any medical explanation for what she did...I wouldn't hold my breath, Wallace, I know you love this girl like a daughter, but she's just plain evil."
Much as Wallace wanted to, he couldn't argue with that after what he'd just seen.
"As I'm sure you can understand, Severide's going to probably be asking for the next shift off...he's hellbent on not leaving Casey's side right now."
"How...how do I explain this to everyone at 51 tomorrow?"
"If you want, I could help break the news to them," Voight offered.
Wallace looked at Voight through the corner of his eye and said, "I might have to take you up on that...none of this makes any sense.
Boden called Herrmann and told him to open up Molly's, and he personally called everyone else from 51 and told them to come to the bar, and not ask any questions.
Voight froze the video taken from the time of Gabby's arrest, and he and Boden looked at the firefighters and EMS who were seated around the bar. To varying degrees everybody looked like they were going to be sick, some looked stunned by the shock of it all, suddenly everybody from 51 could've easily passed as an extra in a zombie movie.
"I know this is hard for everyone to take in," he told them. "I know everybody has questions. Matt Casey is being treated for his injuries at Lakeshore, he has requested no visitors from 51. Scan showed no new damage to his fracture." Some of the firemen sighed in relief at that news. "He's being monitored to make sure nothing new develops, he's also being treated for stress ulcers, and exhaustion. Gabriela Dawson is currently in a 72 hour psyche hold at Med. We want to make sure whether or not she is in full control of her actions or not before we proceed. We know that she's been abusing Casey for at least three months, before that we have no way of knowing, so we need your help to fill in the holes. Whether she has a psychological disorder or not, we need to establish a window of time when her violent behavior got started. If anybody knows anything, this is the time to tell it. Anybody ever see anything, hear anything on shift, Gabby get violent with anyone, threaten anyone? Even if you didn't think she was serious. Even if you didn't think it was important at the time. If so, this is when you want to open up."
For a few minutes everyone just sat there looking at one another in shock, and nobody said a word.
Then, finally, Mouch raised an inquiring finger and got out a borderline, "Uhhh..."
"What is it, Randy?" Voight asked.
"Well, as union rep for 51, there have been a few instances over the years where Gabby's been written up relating to her conduct on the job...most of it's just standard protocol of the higher ups have no idea what we do, the conditions we do them in, the facts at hand, they haven't had to get their hands dirty for 20 years and just got used to parking their asses behind a desk and dictating what everyone under them should be doing. Most of it is perfectly explainable if you're actually in the field and see what we deal with every shift."
"But?" Boden asked.
Mouch bit the corner of his lip as he chose his next words carefully. "There have been a few instances in which she used more force than was necessary when dealing with volatile people on the job. At the time it was all chalked up to heat of the moment encounters with potentially dangerous people, but...now I'm not sure."
"Okay, that's a start, can you recall any specifics?" Voight asked.
"I'll have to check my records to make sure I have all the facts, but I can get them to you."
"Anybody else?" Boden asked as he looked out at the men and women who served under him. None of whom looked too eager to talk. "Let's get something straight. Nobody is ratting Gabby out. She tried to kill Matt Casey, any loyalties you feel towards her, have just gone out the window, we need to know what we are dealing with. If you know something, speak up."
Slowly, a few more hands went up.
Casey exited the bathroom and saw he had a visitor. He didn't know where Hank had gone but Antonio was standing in the middle of the room, looking like he wasn't sure if he should even be there.
"Antonio."
"How're you feeling, Casey?"
"Like crap," he answered honestly as he went back to his bed and sat down, "the doctors won't let me out of here, they're only letting me get up enough to walk around so I don't get blood clots, for the other 20 hours of the day they want me in this bed and out cold. What're you doing here? What's going on?"
"I...I'm sorry about everything, Casey, I really had no idea what Gabby was doing," Dawson told him.
"I know, I don't blame you," Casey replied as he drew the blanket up.
"Why not?"
"Because you didn't know, nobody knew, at least I thought nobody knew...all this time Severide's been keeping records..." Casey closed his eyes and shook his head, "I still can't believe it. I'd hoped nobody would find out."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Antonio asked, a tone of betrayal evident in his voice now.
Casey looked at him. "You wouldn't have believed me," he answered simply. "It's your little sister, and I'm the guy that pissed her off, come on Antonio, we both know what you would've thought."
Antonio knew that he was right, but he still couldn't bring himself to accept the truth.
"You should've told me...you should've told somebody."
"Oh yeah right, who?" Casey scoffed.
"You should've told Voight. He believed Severide, he would've believed you," Antonio told him.
"And we'd be right back to where we are," Casey replied, "As soon as you heard about it, 'Not my sister'."
"I'm sorry, alright? I get it, I should've been paying more attention," Antonio said.
There was an awkward silence in the room momentarily. Casey shifted his gaze to the blanket covering him, and finally he said, "No you shouldn't, this is my problem, I should've handled it."
"We're family, Matt," Antonio walked over to the bed.
Casey shook his head. "After this I seriously doubt it."
"No, whatever happens with Gabby, that has nothing to do with it, you are still my family, you got that?" Antonio asked.
Casey looked at him, and finally nodded. "Yeah, I get it. Thanks." He thought of something else and asked, "What does happen with Gabby now? Where is she?"
"You don't know?" Antonio's eyes bugged out.
Casey obliviously shook his head.
"She's in the psyche ward at Med," Casey seemed equally oblivious to the bruises on Antonio's face, but he raised a hand to point out the black eye and matching purple jaw and said, "I said something she didn't like, she attacked me...I was able to have her forcibly committed..."
Casey groaned as he squeezed his eyes shut at that.
"The psychiatrists are running whatever tests they do, find out if she's got a mental problem they need to address...if that's the case..."
"Then it wasn't her fault," Casey opened his eyes in realization, "I told Voight it wasn't."
"That's what we're checking on...I wish you were right," Antonio said. He gestured to the bed and asked Casey, "You mind?"
Casey shook his head and moved over. Antonio sat on the edge of the bed with one leg draped over the rail. The last couple days had taken an extremely emotional toll on him and he felt ready to drop.
"Either she did this on purpose and she's just plain evil, or it's not her fault and she's got some psychotic disorder that everybody missed...as her brother, how am I supposed to win either way? No matter how you look at it, something horrible is wrong with my sister that I can't fix," Antonio explained. "I can't accept that."
"I know," Casey replied, "neither could I."
Antonio turned and looked at him. "I'm sorry, Casey, I'm sorry you had to go through all of this alone."
"How's Casey?" Voight asked as he returned to Lakeshore and caught up with Kelly in the corridor.
"Last I saw, Antonio was in talking with him," Severide answered as they both took off for Casey's room, "figured I'd give them some privacy, let them say what they had to."
"And he's still there?" Voight asked.
"Didn't get past me, that's all I know," Kelly answered. "How'd Boden take the news?"
"Fairly well given he just rounded everyone up at Molly's to break it to them," Voight answered.
"Damn."
"So, some of them will probably be dropping in before too long," Voight told him.
"Casey's not going to want to see them," Kelly said.
"I know, but you can't watch him by yourself," Voight pointed out, "so you better get used to the idea, and quick. Let's go see what Antonio's up to."
They reached Casey's room and stopped in the doorway as they saw Casey and Antonio both asleep in his bed. Casey laid flat on his back on one side, Antonio had one leg swung over the rail and was sitting up on the other side, and neither of them moved. Voight and Severide looked at each other and shared a mutual look of disbelief. Voight took a step towards the bed to get Antonio up, but Kelly put a hand out to stop him, and instead he lightly stepped over towards the bed, grabbed Antonio's wrist, and working carefully and awkwardly, knelt down and got Antonio settled across his back and maintained a hold on his wrists and one ankle as he and Voight moved away from the bed and quietly exited the hospital room, all the while Antonio never stirred.
"'Waz going on?" Antonio groggily asked as he started to come around.
Kelly stopped and bent over to set Dawson back on his feet.
"How'd it go?" Voight asked.
"Uh...fine, I guess...any update on Gabby?" Antonio asked.
Voight shook his head.
"Why does Casey keep asking about her?" Kelly asked.
"I'm sure you can figure it out, Severide," Voight told him.
Kelly's eyes widened, "You don't mean that he still-"
"Abusive relationships are never cut and dry, we see it with battered women all the time, no matter what, they take him back."
"Yeah, because they don't have a choice," Kelly said.
"In their mind they don't have a choice...because their husbands have had years to mentally undo everything about them so they can't imagine a life without them, and Gabby's had plenty of time to fuck with Casey's mind, we don't know how he's thinking right now," Voight explained. "We may have to have him subjected to a psyche eval."
"He'll never go for that," Kelly told the sergeant.
"Maybe if we could get that shrink at Med to come over here, Doctor Charles," Antonio thought.
"Casey knows him but he won't talk to him either," Severide responded.
"He might if he doesn't think he has a choice," Voight told both of them. In remark to their curious expressions he pointed out, "All Casey wants to do is go home, the doctors won't let him go until his stats improve, in the meantime he could probably be persuaded that he has to talk to a psychiatrist as part of his release."
"That's cruel," Kelly said.
Voight looked at him, and said simply, but firmly, "We saved his life, it won't count for much if we can't save the rest of him. To do that, we may very well have to resort to a lot of unpleasant things. It's all in his best interest, Severide, and hopefully Matt will reach a point someday where he will be able to realize that."
