CHAPTER 20

It was New Year's Eve and Casey and Severide were helping Sergio with his restaurant. The floors and ceiling needed to be fixed, so Casey offered to fix it and Severide offered to help. It was going to be an all day job but it Casey and Severide were hopeful to get some of it done before ringing in the new year with their women. Meanwhile, Stella had asked Brett to come over to help start planning the wedding.

"So, have you and Severide picked a date for the wedding?" Brett asked.

"No but I figured I might as well get a head start on what decorations and all that to get so that he and I don't have to wait." Stella said.

"That can't hurt. You do know that things can go in and out of style between now and when you guys get married." Brett joked.

"True but it doesn't hurt to look." Stella giggled.

The two of them continued to look at wedding decorations and dresses until it got dark. Casey called Brett.

"Hey Beautiful, Kelly and I are almost done here. I'm gonna stop and get a pizza. I'll be home in an hour." Casey said.

"That sounds good. Uh, Stella and I were just finishing up." Brett said.

They said their goodbyes and then they hung up the phone. Brett told Stella goodbye and headed back to her apartment she shared with Casey. Once she arrived back home, she opened the door, took her shoes off, and then closed the door. She grabbed a bottle of red wine from the cabinet beside of the refrigerator and then two wine glasses from the cabinet above the sink. She poured the wine into the glasses and waited on Casey to come home. She changed into her pajamas and watched some TV for a bit. It had been nearly two hours since she had heard from Casey, which was unusual. She missed him. She ended up falling asleep on the couch and started having another dream about Otis.

BRETT'S DREAM:

Brett was doing inventory at Firehouse 51 on her day off, which was unlike herself. She rarely worked on her day off. As she continued to do inventory and fill out the reports from the last week, she was greeted by a familiar voice.

"Sylvie, what are you doing?" the man asked with a laugh.

"Doing inventory." Brett joked.

The man laughed.

"Seriously? You're doing inventory on your day off? That's crazy." Otis laughed.

"Do you have a better idea?" Brett giggled.

"Yeah. Go have fun. Trust me, when you can't do the things you wanna do anymore, you miss it. You miss the people around you. I know that you have taken my death the hardest besides Cruz. We were the Three Muskateers. I miss you guys every day." Otis firmly said.

Brett started crying.

"Otis. I miss you. We all miss you. It's so hard without you." Brett cried.

"Sylvie, I know it's hard. It was hard for me to leave you guys. I didn't want to but I had too. I was needed here. I love and miss you guys every day but I have to stay here and watch over all of you." Otis smiled.

"Otis, I need to know something." Brett said.

Otis knew what she was gonna asked.

"Everything is going to be fine. I promise." Otis smiled before he disappeared.

END OF BRETT'S DREAM.

Brett woke up and saw that Casey still wasn't home. She checked her phone and saw a text message from him.

"TRUCK WOULDN'T START. RUNNING LATE. BE THERE IN A LITTLE BIT. LOVE YOU. - MATT" the text message read.

Brett smiled. Her anxiety was starting to wear her down. The dream with Otis seemed so real. She felt as if Otis was trying to tell her something but she was unsure of what that would be. She scrolled through the Internet on her phone and until she heard the door open. Casey walked in, closed the door, and walked over to Brett and gave her a huge kiss. He missed her.

"What was that for?" Brett asked with a smile.

"Well, it is New Year's Eve and I couldn't wait until midnight to kiss you." Casey chuckled.

"Good because I couldn't have made it that long." Brett giggled.

"So, we have two hours until midnight, two pizzas with some Italian cheese bread and marinara sauce, and some cuddling to do. How does that sound?" Casey teased.

"Mmm, I like the sound of that." Brett smiled.

"Yeah? Well, what movie do you wanna watch?" Casey asked.

"You pick one while I get some paper plates." Brett said as she walked to the kitchen to grab some paper plates that were sitting on the counter.

Brett decided to just bring all the paper plates with her to the living room and she also grabbed a roll of paper towels. She walked back to the the living room where Casey was waiting on her before starting the movie. He had chosen the movie, New Year's Eve that had the likes of Jon Bon Jovi, Zac Efron, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, and several others. He thought it was only fitting that they watch that movie since the movie does revolve around New Year's Eve. Brett handed Casey a paper plate and they filled their plates with pizza and Italian cheese bread. They watched the movie as they ate their dinner. When they were finished, they cuddled next to each other on the couch.

"I love you." Casey whispered.

"I love you, too." Brett smiled.

"So, are you ready to go back to work?" Casey asked.

"Yes. I've been going nuts being off work." Brett giggled.

Casey noticed that Brett was acting weird.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Casey asked.

"I had this dream earlier. I was at the station doing inventory on my day off and Otis showed up." Brett explained.

Casey looked at her as she continued to explain the dream. When she was finished explaining the dream to Casey, she started crying. Casey wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Hey, look at me. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. I think that was Otis's way of telling you that he's alright and that he's always gonna be with us." Casey said.

"I think you're right." Brett smiled.

Brett rested her head against Casey's chest. After the movie ended, they just laid in each other's arms. It was five minutes until New Year's Day and Casey had asked Brett to spend the night with him in his room. She immediately agreed to and headed to his bedroom. They looked out of his bedroom window and saw that the sky was being lit with fireworks, signally the new year was being brought in.

"Happy New Year, beautiful." Casey whispered.

"Happy New Year, handsome." Brett whispered back.

They rang in the New Year with a kiss. They made love and enjoyed the rest of the night. The next morning, Boden had called in the first shift to come back to work a day early. Everyone had agreed. Everyone had been getting restless over this break and it was nice to get back to work. The shift started just like every other shift did. It started out slow.

"It's pretty slow today." Gallo said as he and Ritter were making breakfast for everyone.

"Dude, don't say that." Ritter said as he playfully hit Gallo on the shoulder.

"Why? It's the truth." Gallo said.

"Just give it time. We are gonna get a call and then you are gonna regret saying that." Ritter said.

The two of them joked around. Casey was in his office working on paperwork from second and third shifts. Severide was in his office doing the same thing. Meanwhile, Brett and Foster were hanging out in the common room with Stella, Herrmann, Mouch, Ritter, and Gallo. The women couldn't help but laugh over Ritter and Gallo bickering back and forth. Stella showed off her engagement ring to everyone and they congratulated her and Severide on their engagement. As they were all hanging out and catching up, the alarm rang.

"AMBULANCE 61. POSSIBLE CARDIAC ARREST. 1880 MELROSE STREET." the woman said over the intercom.

"Let's go!" Brett yelled at Foster who was talking to Stella.

"Coming!" Foster yelled as she and Brett ran to the ambulance.

Foster and Brett got in the ambulance and headed to the address. When they arrived, they heard a woman yelling for help.

"My name is Sylvie and this is Emily. We are paramedics with the Chicago Fire Department. What's going on?" Brett asked the woman.

"It's my father. I think he's having a heart attack." the woman said.

"What's your father's name?" Brett asked.

"Harold and I'm Melissa." Melissa said.

"Alright, Melissa. Emily and I need to examine your father, but we need you to give us some room to work." Brett said.

Melissa stepped away to allow Brett and Foster to work. As they checked her father, they raised him up and he let out a huge belch. Suddenly, he was feeling better. They still checked him out and determined that he was alright.

"It looks like your father will be just fine. Turns out that he just had to pass gas." Foster told Melissa.

Melissa and her father laughed.

"Thank goodness it's nothing serious." Harold said.

"I highly, highly recommend that you get checked out at Chicago Med or by your primary care physician just to be on the safe side." Brett implied.

After talking to them for a few minutes, Brett and Foster left and headed back to the station. Squad 3 was out on a call and Casey was hoping that Truck 81 wouldn't get called out. The day went by fairly quickly but then Truck 81 got called out to a fire. That's the last thing Casey wanted to do today.

"TRUCK 81. POSSIBLE BUILDING FIRE. 1680 WOLF LAKE BOULEVARD." the woman said over the intercom.

Everyone who worked on Truck 81 left right before Brett and Foster got back. When Brett and Foster arrived back at the station, they noticed that Squad 3 and Truck 81 were out on a call.

"That's odd." Foster said.

"What's odd?" Brett asked.

"Squad and Truck are out on a call but we didn't get called to go to help them." Foster said.

Before Brett could answer Foster, Squad 3 returned.

"Looks like they got called out on separate calls." Brett said.

Foster let out a laugh. The two women headed into the common room where they were greeted by Squad 3 shortly after. Everyone was talking about their call when about two hours later, Truck 81 came back. Brett was writing up her report for the call that she and Foster were just on when she looked up and saw Casey. He looked like he was in a foul mood and was worried that he might not wanna see her. Casey caught her looking at him before she looked back down at her report. Casey walked over to Brett.

"Hey, meet me in my office in five minutes." Casey whispered.

Brett looked up to see Casey. She saw the smile on his face and smiled back before he headed to his office. Brett finished her report and met Casey in his office.

"You wanted to see me?" Brett questioned.

"Yeah, come in and close the door." Casey grinned.

He walked over to the blinds and closed them and then pulled Brett close to him. He gave her a kiss.

"What was that for?" Brett asked in a whisper.

"It was a rough call. We lost one of the victims but everyone else got out alright." Casey said.

"I'm sorry." Brett frowned.

"Hey, it's ok. We can't save them all even though we want too. Just seeing you after I come back from every call or after you come back from every call is the only thing I need." Casey whispered.

Brett could tell by Casey's whisper that he just needed her more than anything right now.

"I just wanna cuddle with you right now." Casey said.

"Sounds good to me." Brett smiled.

Casey walked over to the bed in his office and laid down. Brett followed behind him and they cuddled until someone came looking for them or until it was time for them to go home. They discussed some heavy issues that they hadn't talked about before.

"So, you know that Gabby and I fought about having kids but then we got Louie and everything changed and I began to think that I could actually be a dad. I guess I would actually like to have a family of my own some day." Casey explained.

Brett looked at Casey and gave him a smile.

"I think you would make a wonderful dad. I'd like to have my own family some day as well. I've also thought about marriage and how I'd like to get married but still pursue my job." Brett said.

Casey looked at her the same way she looked at him.

"I hope you don't get offended when I ask or say this, but is that why you and Kyle didn't work out?" Casey asked.

"I was ready to get married but he wanted me to be a house wife and didn't want me working. I didn't like the thought of not being able to work and then there was the whole being in Fowlerton thing that just didn't feel right. I mean, I loved Kyle but I wasn't in love with him." Brett explained.

"I know that feeling. I thought I was in love with Gabby but I realized that although I didn't love her, I was never truly in love with her. The way I feel about you is real. I feel in love with you. When I'm not around you, I think about you. I miss you. With Gabby, I worried about her but her heart just wasn't in the relationship." Casey said.

"I know that feeling. Just so you know, I feel the same way about you as well." Brett smiled.

They kissed and cuddled some more. Brett saw that Casey was asleep and quietly got out of bed. She wanted to write in her notebook like she always did when she needed to talk to Otis. She headed to the common room and grabbed her notebook. Everyone was in the bunk room resting, so she was able to sneak in and get her notebook without being caught. On her way back to Casey's office, she walked past Otis's plaque that was hanging in the hallway. Casey stepped out of his office and saw Brett standing in front of Otis's plaque, clinging her notebook. Casey walked over to her and pulled her close to him. They had about two hours to go before their shift was over. They walked back to Casey's office where they cuddled. Casey hated that Brett was still hurting from losing Otis and wished her pain would go away. At the same time, he wondered to himself how anyone could ever abandon her when she was just a baby. He wanted to take her pain away. He wanted to make her feel like she was loved and that she never had to worry about him leaving her. She held him and he let her cry as long as she needed too. He kissed her forehead and then held her hand. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep in his arms. He fell asleep shortly after she did.