"What are you going to tell Shay?" Casey asked curiously.
Last few days were very refreshing. Never in his life did Casey let himself act so freely. It didn't mean that he wanted to change his life, no way. They had had enough problems for him to even think about that possibility and truthfully he liked his life. But every person needed to express feelings at some moment so not to explode.
"Why should I tell her anything? After all I'm not the one who will use makeup." He smiled enjoying Casey's discomfort.
"Very funny." Casey muttered. "But you know what, he laughs best who laughs last. I'm going to enjoy every second of your feeble attempts explaining yourself to her."
"Come on, who do you think she is? My mother?"
Casey didn't even deign his question with answer. They both knew who Leslie Shay was.
"Fine. You're right. Happy?" Severide gave in. "What about 'I needed some time to myself after making a life changing decision'?"
"Good one. But she would still ask about your whereabouts?"
"Okay. Hmmm. I was camping with my Dad." Severide tried again. "It should be enough for her. She always tried to make me go see him."
"Then you should be fine. See you later." Casey dismissed him easily now thinking more about all duties he had to finish before returning back to work.
"Already. I thought we…"
"What?" Casey asked looking back at his friend. "You need something more from me?"
"No… I guess I should go." Severide shook his head but didn't look very confident in himself.
"Oh for God's sake. Don't tell me you're scared to see her on your own." Casey sighed.
"I'm not." Severide denied immediately. "But you said you were going to enjoy our conversation. After all she should have already known about our close friendship from Clarice."
"You're blackmailing me now?!" Casey asked incredulously.
"Maybe." Severide looked at him expectantly. "We'll tell her that you gave me a lift from there because of some problems with my car."
"Okay. But you own me big time for that."
"Hey Matt." Shay greeted. "Kelly?!" She looked at him suspiciously. Severide knew too well what that look meant for him.
"How have you been?" He asked trying to deflect her attention.
"Good. Me and Clarice were working on nursery. You?" She asked back.
"Not bad myself."
"I got you here now it's time for me to go. I still have some errands to run." Casey interjected.
"Of course. Thank you for the ride." Severide answered getting a glare from Shay.
"Yeah, Casey, thank you and sorry if that brat here spoiled your weekend with a girl." She winked at him knowingly while Casey and Severide stood there absolutely dumbfounded.
"I didn't know you were with a girl, Matt." Severide muttered barely holding himself. "If I knew that was the case I'd never ask you."
Casey was out of words. Something was going on or at least Shay thought so.
"It's because you shouldn't have." He answered hoping it was the right thing to say. "What I'm interested in is how you, Shay, learned about that?"
"I don't think it's a good idea. I probably shouldn't have started." She said looking at Kelly.
"Oh no. You can't say something like that and get away with it." Severide pointed at her.
But she was still in doubts.
"Look. Now it's better for you to explain yourself or Severide will imagine more ridiculous possibilities." Casey said nudging her to continue.
He could feel Kelly's laughing eyes on his back. No matter what Shay would say next his friend wasn't going to forget it in any near future.
"Okay, well. It's just Hermann told me that he was going to ask for your help with that new project of his and you weren't at home. And Dawson told me she would be out of town for the whole weekend because of some private business and we all know what it means. So it wasn't hard to put two and two together. Sorry guys. I know you didn't want for that to become known."
"I see." Casey was able to mumble.
He didn't expect that at all. Well, of course he liked Dawson and after that Christmas party thought that maybe they could give it a try. But to hear that from Shay as if it was a made deal was a real shock.
"I'm really sorry Matt." Shay pleaded thinking he was upset with her.
"Don't be. It's okay. I'm glad we had that conversation. Really." He assured her. "But if you tell anybody I'll kill you." He turned to Severide.
"I'll help bury the body." Shay added.
"Hey there" Shay greeted Dawson noticing with amusement how radiant the younger woman was. "Looks like someone here had a wonderful weekend." She winked,
"Umm, nothing special. It was just good to be out of town. That's all." Dawson said too quickly for that to be true.
"Yeah, nothing special. Except for one nice guy with you." Shay laughed.
"You really thought you could hide something that huge from me." She added seeing shocked expression on her face.
"I don't understand what you're talking about."
"Save it. He already admitted the truth."
"What? How could he? He promised that would be only our business. I'll kill him."
Dawson couldn't believe that. After all long conversations and that incident with flowers she really thought they wouldn't have such a problem again.
"Come on. It's not that the whole firehouse didn't know about your feelings for a while already." Shay tried to reassure her confused by Dawson secretiveness.
"What? I'm not even sure about my own feelings yet, how could you know better than me?"
"You're not sure about your feelings to Casey?!" Shay asked incredulously.
"No, of course not. Why are you asking about him?"
Now it was Shay's turn to be totally confused.
"Because you just said that you weren't sure about your feelings to the man you've spent weekend with." She clarified patiently.
"Yes, but" Dawson stopped mid sentence. "You thought I was with Casey?"
"Yes."
"I see." Dawson sighed. Then something else caught her attention. "Wait a minute. When you said about him confirming your suspicions, you didn't mean that you asked Casey, right?"
"Of course, it did. Who else should I ask about that? Are you sure you're alright?" She asked worriedly.
"Not at all." Dawson muttered.
Now not only she had to tell Shay about her relationships with Mills but deal with Casey knowing about them too.
"Why? What's wrong?"
"You! You just had to go there and tell Casey I'm with some guy." Dawson answered angrily.
"As if he didn't know… Wait a minute. You meant you weren't with him?! You're dating someone else and he doesn't know."
"Finally, Einstein."
"Oh shit" Now Shay understood her friend's response.
"Yeah, that's exactly my reaction."
"But if it wasn't Casey than who your hidden Prince Charming was?" Shay asked a minute later not letting the shock to leave her away from the topic. "And don't even think about saying once again you were alone, you've just proved you weren't."
"Okay. Yes, I was with someone and we wanted that to be a secret." Dawson gave up finally.
"Do I know him? Come on, tell me." Shay asked excitedly.
"You do." Dawson admitted. "But remember, no one should know. And I mean no one." She warned her.
"Yeah, I promise. Now spit it."
"It's Pete." She smiled. It felt good to be able to tell somebody after all.
"Pete? As in Candidate Peter Mills? You, naughty girl!" She laughed clapping Dawson on the back. "How was he? Candidate there too?"
"Not at all" Dawson winked at her.
"Oh, oh, I want to know everything. You're so damn lucky."
"Maybe after the shift I'll give you some hints about" She stopped mid sentence waiting for guys to pass by, Casey one of them.
He smiled greeting her but didn't stop for some small talk.
"Though maybe I won't be in the mood for anything after the shift." She muttered her demeanor changing drastically.
"Come on. It's not like you were a couple. All, you had with him, was that disaster of a date as you put it." Shay tried to assure her. "Don't need to worry."
"It's easy for you to say." Dawson sighed. "I don't want to lose our friendship."
"And you won't. He knew about you mysterious guy and still smiled at you, means he doesn't have problems with the fact."
Dawson nodded wishing for Shay to be right.
"On the second thought he was too okay with the situation" Shay said to herself. "Playing along and not denying that he had been with you."
"He just didn't want to give me away to you."
"Maybe" Shay agreed though not convinced. "Still I think there's more to it than just him being a gentleman, especially considering his own disappearance."
"What do you mean?"
"Hermann tried to get Casey for the whole weekend with no success. I assumed he had been out of town with you but now that I know "
Dawson glared at her.
"What I know" Shay corrected herself. "I wonder where the hell he has been?!"
A/N: I'm still excited about season two. That's how I ended up writing this chapter. You know this story was going to be only about their road trip so my question is:
Do you want for it to end here or continue with Shay trying to get to the truth and boys living through all those things series creators got for them, maybe just with some changes from my part?
Thank you for the reviews and I'm waiting your answers :)
Me, yeah, they aren't very talkative on the show and we simply have to change that here. :)
