If you could watch her life this morning on mute, fast forwarded and in black and white it would be just as hilarious as a Chaplin movie. Watching two naked people wake up together, with a hangover, confused, in an unexpected place, stumbling across the room in a mad dash for clothes and the sneaky escape out of a bar in the early hours of the day might have made a great scene for a comedy movie. But probably not for Gabby Dawson or Matt Casey.
They had impulsively avoided so much as a look at each other since waking up together on the floor of Molly's. Trying their very best to avoid having a conversation each knew they had to have. Fate had kind of helped them achieve that so far as Matt had been summoned to the firehouse by chief Boden for a meeting before the start of shift(much to his relief) and Gabby was left to go home, change and get ready for the day.
On shift
One thing was for sure, this wasn't turning out to be a good day for Gabby. Till now three reasons:
1. They had learned that morning that chief Boden had taken a weeks furlough to attend to some undisclosed personal business(Hence the officers meeting in the morning).
2. Boden's arch nemesis chief Riddle had been called in to replace him.
3. It was turning out to be an unusually hectic day for the men and women of firehouse 51.
They had responded to atleast four calls already. All road accidents. Which also meant that she had had no interaction with Matt about the previous night or anything else really other than at calls.
It was nearly 7 in the evening. With dirt all over their bodies, tiredness stretching out over all of their faces, shoulders slumped, stomachs growling( they had to skip lunch for a call), and heavy eyes they entered the firehouse, hoping for a quiet night.
After dinner, Gabby saw Matt exiting the Chiefs office with a scowl in his face and heading straight to his office.
She followed him.
"Hey, everything alright?"
He was sitting slumped in his chair with a hand to his forehead, looking utterly exhausted. He shut his eyes closed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"He is trying to wind me up" He said softly trying contain his anger.
Gabby raised her brows in question.
"He wants the all the incident reports, for this month, filled in according to a new format by tomorrow"
The current Chiefs animosity with Boden had placed the lieutenants of firehouse 51 at the receiving end of chief Riddles fury.
Gabby felt sorry for him. They had all had a tough day and to pile that much amount of work onto someone after that, let alone an officer, just seemed evil.
"So, Severide...?"
He nodded in answer and glanced back at Severide's office, where the squad lieutenant was buried in piles of incident reports stacked left, right and centre.
"If there's anything we can do to help..."
He shook his head too tired to answer with words but muttered a soft "Thanks" in response just the same.
Later on shift
Pretending to check her email while lying on her bed, Gabby was deep in thought. With the amount of work Matt had on his hands, she doubted if he would be home at all, at least for a couple of nights and she didn't want to spend another night alone in that apartment. She could crash at Brett's or Antonio's. But the prospect of having to explain the situation to her brother would be too much of a hassle for her. It'll have to be Brett.
Craning her neck a little to check on Matt, she found him still surrounded with his paperwork and in the grips of a very foul mood.
She got off her bed and knocked on his door. She needed to at least inform him.
He looked up and mentioned her in.
"Hey, I was thinking about spending the next couple of days at Brett's"
His brow furrowed as he processed the statement in his head. Gabby waited.
"So, You won't be home at all until next shift?"his voice groggy with exhaustion.
"Well I'll need to pick up a few things..."
"So why are you telling me all this right now?"he asked her irritably.
Gabby was taken aback, she hadn't expected that response. Granted he was having a pretty shitty day but that was no reason to treat her like that. It's not like it was her fault.
She really did not want to take this conversation any further when her mouth decided to disobey her and she heard herself say:
"You are hardly at home anymore, so..."
"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked turning in his chair to face her.
"Ha!" She let out a sarcastic laugh. That's cute!he's tying to play the dumb card again, she thought.
"Gabby, you..."
"Matt, don't. Just don't" she warned.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about. When was the last we had a proper conversation? I have no idea where you are anymore. I don't know when or if you will be home every night. I don't know if you have had dinner or how your day was or what's going on with you. I don't even know who you are anymore" she continued, her voice breaking at the end. Anger was rising up fast and fiery inside both of them.
Matt sighed deeply & hung his head, defeated. He ran his hand across his head before making eye contact with Gabby.
"You very well know the reason behind it. Incase you haven't noticed I have been extremely busy lately. It's not like I'am having a vacation here" he retorted.
"But that doesn't give you the licence to forget and ignore the people in your life" Gabby choked, a deep, dull pain was rising in her chest, making it hard to breathe.
"This is ridiculous! You think it is easy managing three jobs and social implications that come with it. You think I'm enjoying all of this?" He asked.
"Then why are you still doing it?" implored Gabby.
"You wanted me to do it! I can't just back out now because you can't handle it"he said bitterly.
She couldn't stop the tears that escaped at the corner of her eyes.
Matt looked at her with another deep sigh.
"What do you want me to do? Just quit!"
"I don't know" she let out miserably, tears were falling hard and fast down her face now.
"Well then let me know when you do" he dismissed, going back to his work.
Heartbroken, Gabby stormed out of his office with a tear streaked face.
End of shift
There had to be some kind of record for how early someone could get up and ready on a cold, cold, rainy day. And if there was, Gabriella Dawson was giving it serious competition that morning. Having been amongst the first ones to wake up, she was now bathed, changed and currently busy packing her bag in the locker room.
Why the hell was she in such a hurry you ask? Well, if she wasn't, all her efforts since the crack of dawn would go in vain if she had to face one particular member of firehouse 51, Matt Casey, who also happened to be her boyfriend and the reason for her foul mood. She wanted nothing to do with him, at-least until her anger cooled down. After the argument they had had and the tiring shift they had served yesterday, the day had definitely made her "days-that-totally-sucked" list. Gabby was so glad it was morning. Which did not bring much respite to her. She had woken up with a pounding headache for the second time in a row that week. Clearly a result of last nights' emotional outpouring. She'd have to take something for that, she thought miserably, as she jogged out of the firehouse. Gabby seemed to be channeling Houdini's spirit as she sneaked out and nobody, absolutely nobody saw her slip out.
She drove to the apartment, that she shared with Matt,in record time. She was sure she would have definitely earned a speeding ticket if it was a little later in the day. On reaching her destination, she did a general clean up of the room, grabbing a few things that she might need for the next couple of days.
She was about ready to leave when she thought about making herself a cup of coffee. Her headache wasn't getting any better. She brewed a particularly strong coffee hoping that it would alleviate some of her pain.
She sipped her coffee in complete silence and it seemed to be working, the caffeine was kicking in, making her head a little lighter. As she scooped up her cup
from the table and moved to wash it, two things happened in quick succession;
1- "Hey there! " came a sharp voice from behind her, which made Gabby jump
2- she dropped the cup, she was holding onto the floor.
She turned around to witness Hallie Thomas take a seat at her coffee table. Gabby groaned inwardly, shut her eyes and desperately prayed "gosh! not today!"
Having completely ignored her visitor she went onto clearing the the mess that was now spread out across her kitchen floor.
"So, you missed me?" Hallie asked in a flirty tone.
Gabby ignored her again.
"Ouch !" she cried as her hand caught on a jagged piece of glass, drawing blood.
"Hey easy there, don't be so excited "
Gabby cursed and ran to retrieve the first aid box from the bedroom. This wasn't the kind of start she had wished for that morning, especially after the previous day. She needed to get out of there before Matt came back. With a bandaged hand she returned to the kitchen, where Hallie still sat, absentmindedly picking at the fruits on the table.
" judging by your absolutely delightful mood, I'd say you are really mad at someone." Hallie said sarcastically.
Gabby rolled her eyes and sighed. Of course she knew. She might have been standing next to them last night for all gabby knew.
"He'll come around, you know. You all had a really tough day yesterday. He was probably just frustrated"
"Yeah. But Like you said, we all had a tough day. It wasn't just him. No one cares how I have felt for the past few months. "
"You made him do it, you know. He's upto his neck in there with all the work. You can't entirely put the blame on him"
"There it is again. That same argument! I just asked him to do it because I thought there was no one better for the job. I should be hanged for that! God!"
"You are being dramatic"
She rolled her eyes again.
"Yeah that's me" Gabby scoffed.
"Talk to him. Fighting with each other is not what you guys need right now. You need to pay more attention to each other. Spend some time together. You can't let this bury you guys again"
"I'm getting late." She whispered in a small voice, heaved her bags onto her shoulder and marched out of the apartment.
A/N-
Uh-oh, well that didn't go so well, did it? Ah! Hopefully things will get better soon.
Also,
I'am extremely sorry for the delay in updating this chapter. A lot of things went wrong for me, all at the same time, d'you know what I mean?
So, anyway, Hope you like this chapter. Review?! Pretty please !
A little heads up, next chapter will be in Matt's POV?
