Ever After


Epilogue

Three Months Later

Firehouse

Severide was sitting at the squad table. He looked up from his newspaper when the apparatus doors opened. Truck 81 was returning from a call. He glanced back down at the article but his attention was brought back to Truck 81 when Casey jumped out, laughing with the others.

"Did you see her face?" Casey was saying and Severide's curiosity was peaked.

"Ha I didn't think she was ever gonna let you leave," Herrmann replied with a grin plastered across his face.

"Thought we were gonna have to call PD for back up," Otis joined in.

"Very funny," he replied mockingly.

"Seriously thought we were gonna have to leave you there," Herrmann laughed.

"It's not my fault..." he insisted.

"Not your fault that you look like a mens underwear model?" Kidd questioned.

Casey looked at her incredulously before he hung up his turnout coat on the side of the rig.

Severide got up and joined Casey as he walked through the doors heading to the common room. "Should I ask?" he smiled.

"Best not to," Casey grinned.

Much later in the day Casey was sat in the common room browsing on his laptop. "What are you looking at Lieutenant?" Otis crept over Casey's shoulder to take a glimpse at the laptop screen. Herrmann soon joined him, "Boats?" Otis asked curiously.

Casey sat back and sighed, resigned to the questioning he was about to receive, he could have been looking in the privacy of his quarters but he still much preferred the company of others to his own head if he was given the choice, it was far better to listen to the others and join in their conversations. It felt very normal, he felt normal.

"Boats?" Herrmann questioned, "People who retire get a boat."

"I'm not retiring," he scoffed.

"Boats are expensive," Herrmann said.

"Lieutenants salary," Otis noted.

"These ones aren't," Casey replied.

Herrmann took a closer look of the screen, "They don't look seaworthy."

"That's because they're not," he said, a small smile laced his lips.

"Since when have you ever wanted a boat?" Herrmann asked curiously.

"Well..." he hesitated, "I've got some money sitting around."

"Oh money sitting around, that's nice," Otis chimed in.

"Compensation money," he explained shortly.

Herrmann moved to whack Otis across the arm for his thoughtlessness. "Oh," Otis mouthed.

"Yeah 'oh'," he replied, "Anyway, I've still got the majority of it sat in my savings account… Thought I should I spend it… I can't think of any reason just to keep saving it all."

"Why don't you get one you can actually use?" Herrmann questioned.

"I'd rather fix one up, have it as a little project… I don't know the first thing about boats but Severide does..."

"Get it," Herrmann replied, "You can always sell it after you're done with it."

"Maybe," he sat up straight and switched his laptop off.

"We've put you off?" Herrmann asked with a frown.

"No," he shook his head. "Maybe I should just get one when I retire," he laughed.

"Less time to…" Herrmann trailed off at the sound of the alarm calling Truck 81 and Ambulance 61 to a car accident.

It was a busy shift. Early in the evening Severide was sat in the squad rig as they rushed to a call, there was someone threatening to jump out the window of an apartment building. He jumped into action when they arrived. Truck 81 had been close to the scene, clearing up the car wreck, they'd arrived five minutes before Squad 3.

"Chief where do you want us?" he asked as he walked up to Boden.

"Casey's up with there with the victim," Boden explained and Severide could see the rest of Truck 81 were preparing the inflatable pad below the window.

"Casey?" Severide questioned.

Boden turned the volume up on his radio and Severide soon heard Casey's calming voice loud and clear. "…You don't want to do this, not really, let's just take a step back together… no I'm not going anywhere…"

The inflatable pad was still expanding beneath the side of the building.

"Chief let me go up there."

Boden gave a curt nod.

As he sprinted up the stairs, taking two steps at a time, Severide could hear Casey on his radio. "…Look, why don't we get some privacy? I'm going to turn my radio off, then we can chat because you're not going to do this without telling me why, otherwise, what I am I supposed to tell your family, your friends?"

Severide wasn't entirely sure he was actually going to turn his radio off, it was against protocol but then there was only silence.

"Damnit," he muttered. He slowed down and calmed his breaths as he reached the door to the room that Casey was currently in trying to persuade the young man not to jump.

"…I know I can't possibly know what you're feeling, what you're going through. You don't need to know my reasons, you don't need to know my story. You need to know that things are going to be ok even when you don't understand that, don't even believe that anything could possibly be ok again. Four months ago I was stood at the top of a building about to jump, about to end it all but I didn't and here I am, living, I'm all right, things got better, bad things will still happen but it's not the end of the world, and yes, sometimes things aren't ok but I'm here. In a few weeks from now don't you want to say that? That you survived the worst part of your life? Because you can survive it, you really can," Casey spoke sincerely. "I don't know what the future holds for you, no one does, but if you do this then there's nothing, or you can step back and see if there is something, because something is better than nothing, a few more bad days are better than nothing at all. If you turn around now I will grab you and help you back through the window. We can talk, or not talk, it doesn't matter because if you turn round you're already surviving."

Severide heard movement from inside the room and soon the door opened up revealing Casey and the victim. Casey gave him a short nod before following the victim out of the building and taking him to the ambulance. Severide went down after them, leaving them plenty of space, he saw the victim with Brett and Chilli by the ambulance, after another glance round he found Casey stood in front of his truck.

"Good job," Severide walked up to him.

"You heard everything I said, didn't you?" he asked softly.

"Pretty much," Severide nodded, "You ok?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm good," he replied and he genuinely believed his answer. "I'm thinking about buying a boat," he added with a smile.

The End