Story of 7x16 when Casey almost got shot by the madman, but happened in Season 8 when Casey, Severide, Stella lived together.
Casey didn't lie when he said to Severide that he had a headache. After all, his head bumped into the floor. Add nearly getting shot, he was a mess. He drove home on autopilot, grateful that at least he got to sleep in his own bed. The headache had developed into a mild migraine. He remembered the doctor's words after he recovered from the brain injury. You have to be more careful with your head. Easier said than done when you're a firefighter.
He sat on the sofa and stared into the ceiling. What kept me alive? He wondered. He should be dead by now. He stared down the barrel of a gun and saw it being triggered. Not many lived to tell the tale. Why was he given another chance at life? Nearly being toasted in his own apartment, now this. Severide's count of his nine lives would be in the double digits now. He squeezed his eyes shut when he felt a wave of pain in his head.
"Casey?" Stella stared into her Captain with worry. He hadn't been his usual self since the call yesterday. He was always the quieter one in the firehouse, but he barely said a word since he nearly got shot. They all saw that he tried to conceal the pain, the shock, but nobody said anything about it. As she got into the apartment, she figured she would have the apartment to herself as Severide said he would take Casey into a union meet up. So she was surprised to see him sleeping on the sofa.
"Huh," Casey mumbled hoarsely. He felt pain shot into his head as he opened his eyes. He quickly shut his eyes.
"Hey, you need anything?" asked Stella, sitting beside Casey and frowned as he struggled with the pain. "Is it your head?"
"Yeah," said Casey. Stella felt the back of his head and found a lump. Casey jerked as she touched the area.
"You took any meds?" asked Stella.
"Last night," said Casey. Stella walked to the medicine cabinet and pulled a bottle of pill and grabbed a glass of water. She took two pills, trying to be quiet as Casey seemed sensitive to the sound, and slipped them into Casey's hand. Casey popped the pills into his mouth.
"I…" Casey's voice died down. He didn't have the energy to lift the glass. He opened his eyes slightly to see if Stella was still beside him, and regretted it immediately since the pain in his head grew tenfold.
"I got you," said Stella, taking the glass and lifting it to Casey's lips. She gently lifted his head to meet the glass in the middle. As soon as he swallowed the pills, he patted Stella's arm. Thank you. He was embarrassed, that his subordinate had to tend to him.
"You should lie down," said Stella.
"Can't walk," said Casey, whispering as if it took a lot of effort for him to talk.
"I can fireman carry you… but right, just lie down here. I'll grab a pillow for you," said Stella, pulling Casey to lie down. She grabbed a pillow from nearby stool and slipped it under Casey's head as he curled on the sofa. She helped Casey lift his feet to the sofa and took off his shoes, and went to his room to grab his blanket. She draped it gently on him, and went to close the window blinds.
"There's a rubbish bin near you, just as a precaution," whispered Stella as she put the object an arm's length from Casey.
"Might use it," grumbled Casey.
"May I put cold compress on your bump?" asked Stella, fully expecting Casey to reject her offer. As far as she could tell from serving under Casey, he always put the tough man act. Once he didn't tell anyone that he had a flu, he led a two-hour fire rescue like a champ, went completely silent in the truck, only to collapse in his office after they got back. Stella found him feverish and in pain when she called him to have dinner. She remembered how angry Kelly was, despite his obvious concern, for not telling anyone he was sick. Since then Stella always watched him closely before and after each call, since like Kelly, Casey had the tendency to downplay everything.
"Please," said Casey. Stella pulled out an icepack from the freezer, putting it on his head. Casey sighed as the icepack touched his head, and he seemingly more relaxed after that. "Thanks, Kidd."
"Just sleep," Stella rolled her eyes at the impeccable manner, squeezed his shoulder, and settled to prepare her lunch in silent.
After lunch, Stella settled to read book from her Kindle since she couldn't turn on the TV due to Casey sleeping on the sofa. She changed the icepack on Casey's head with a bag of frozen corn, and peas, and anything she could find in the freezer, glad that he didn't wake up. He tossed and mumbled in his sleep, though, thus Stella knew he was having nightmare, probably about the thing that he didn't tell the truck members. First time his sleep was disturbed, Stella considered between letting him be or waking him up. Seeing the distraught and pained look on his face, she decided to touch his shoulder, mumbling "it's okay". That seemed to be working as he calmed down immediately, therefore every time he tossed and breathed rapidly, she stroked his back and calmed him down. Never did she thought she would see her superior officer like this, but he was also a friend as well as a roommate, and he went through a lot during the past year. From his divorce, fire on his apartment, and having Otis died on the job. Stella's reverie was cut off when she heard moaning. She put her kindle on the table.
"Kidd," Casey's hoarse voice was barely above whisper.
"Huh?" asked Stella. When Casey didn't answer her, she knelt down on his side, realized that his face was really pale. "You need anything?" she asked gently.
"Shouldn't spend your free time keeping me company," whispered Casey.
"Don't be so big headed, Captain. I'd spend today reading anyway, whether or not you're here," Stella couldn't help but teasing him. The longer reply might be a sign that he was feeling better. "How's your head?
"Better," said Casey.
"Define better," said Stella. When Casey fell silent, she persisted. "I can either call Brett or Foster to ask you, or you tell me."
"Pain is now here," Casey pointed to his forehead, "instead of here," he moved the icepack from the back of his head, where the bump was, to his forehead.
"You're shivering," Stella pressed the back of her hand to his neck, feeling his temperature which was on the warmer side.
"It's cold," said Casey. Stella ran her hand up and down Casey's back.
"I'll grab another blanket," said Stella. "Any nausea? Blurry vision?"
"Slight nausea. Vision is clear," admitted Casey, knowing that there was no point in arguing with her. He might be her superior in Truck, but since she dated Severide, then moved in, they had become roommates.
"Can you open your eyes?" asked Stella. Casey peeked with one eye.
"What time is it?" asked Casey.
"It's almost 3 pm," said Stella. When Casey didn't reply, she shrugged and went to the corner cabinet to grab another blanket. She draped it over Casey. "Better?"
"Mm-hm," Casey settled to sleep again. Stella patted his shoulder before claimed her previous position and resumed reading.
Kelly Severide opened the door, confused by the dark space. It was a bit after 4 pm, and both his roommates should be in. He knew Casey might be sleeping in his room, if what he said earlier was true. Kelly knew something was wrong, more than Casey let on. Stella had told him what happened during the call, but Kelly was suspicious that there was something more to it. Casey didn't tell him anything though, and he knew he shouldn't persist if he didn't want to get yelled.
Stella was in the corner chair, reading on her kindle. Her face was lit from the gadget's light, and she signed to Kelly to be quiet, pointing at something. Kelly walked towards her, and saw Casey sleeping on the sofa, bundled in more blankets than he should be using and there was a towel on his forehead.
"I found him in pain, likely migraine," Stella whispered.
"Concussion?" asked Kelly.
"No, maybe a little, not that severe," said Stella. The bump on his head had reduced in size, she made sure of that when she changed Casey's pillow since the previous one was damp from the compress.
"And the blankets?" asked Kelly. Casey chose that exact time to mumble in his sleep and tossed so one blanket fell to the floor.
"He had slight fever earlier. It went down already," said Stella. She knelt and pressed her hand to Casey's neck, pleased to feel no heat, then changed the towel on his forehead and ran her hand up and down his back until he calmed down. She covered Casey with the blanket. "What?" she whispered when Kelly looked at her with smirk on his face.
"No… you look good playing nurse," Kelly pulled her up and into their bedroom.
"What…" Stella tried to suppress her giggle, then shutting the door silently.
Casey opened his eyes and saw the room was dark. He stirred and felt the blanket. The recollection about what happened came back to him. Headache, Kidd, the gun… he looked around the room and saw dim light in the kitchen.
"What…" his voice was rough. He freed himself from the blankets.
"Hey," Kelly who was sitting towards him realised his movement.
"How's the head?" Stella chimed in.
"Better," Casey sat up and pressed his fists to his eyes. "How long?"
"I found you miserable at 11. It's 6 now," said Stella. "I'd allow you some painkillers if you ate something."
"It might end up there," Casey motioned to the rubbish bin.
"Just a bit. I'm sure you haven't eaten anything since yesterday," Stella persisted.
"I had. He forced it down my throat," Casey grumbled. Kelly smirked. Truck was out on call during dinner, so after he came back from an accident call and went straight to his office, Kelly made a sandwich and brought it to Casey's office quarter, forcing him to eat. He even waited until Casey ate half of the sandwich until he left Casey's quarter.
"It was nearly 24 hours ago," argued Kelly. He walked to Casey and grabbed his arm. "Can you walk?"
"Yeah. You know, Kidd threatened to carry me," said Casey.
"Oh I could," smirked Stella.
"Don't doubt it," said Casey, standing with Kelly's arm as a support. He walked slowly, ignoring Kelly's arm hovering behind him, to the kitchen island.
"You still nauseous?" asked Stella, looking at the clock, trying to define if the nausea was from the concussion or the migraine.
"A bit," Casey frowned. He accepted a mug filled with ginger tea from Stella.
"We're out of ginger ale when Kelly got food poisoning," explained Stella. Casey smirked. "Drink that, and then eat this," Stella motioned to the pot on the stove.
"What's that?" asked Casey.
"Soup," said Stella. She poured a bowl of soup and pushed it in front of Casey.
"You don't have to," said Casey.
"I won't say anything if I were you," Kelly interjected while poured himself some soup. They ate in silence. Casey was surprised that he managed to eat most of the soup, albeit slowly. Kelly and Stella had garlic bread with their soup, but Casey didn't want to tempt his stomach more than he already did.
"How's the union thing going?" asked Casey.
"You really wanna hear it?" Kelly raised his eyebrows. Casey thought about it.
"Nope," said Casey. Stella laughed.
"Yeah, right," Kelly shrugged. "You work tonight?"
"No, I don't. My shift is tomorrow," said Stella.
"I'm going to meet the guys there, promised Capp and Cruz I'd see them. Won't stay long," said Kelly.
"Alright," said Stella. "I will have my wine here," she cleaned the table and put the dishes in the dishwasher.
"Kidd, don't stay to keep an eye on me," said Casey.
"I think I told you not to be big headed. I work at Molly's there three nights a week, at the firehouse two nights a week. I deserve to stay in the apartment now that I pay rent, don't I?" asked Stella. Casey lifted his hands in a defensive position.
"Alright, suit yourself," he said. Stella grabbed the pill bottle from the living room table and passed it to Casey. Kelly grabbed his jacket and went back to kiss Stella on the cheek before leaving the apartment.
"See ya!" Stella called out behind him.
"Anyway, thanks for your help, Kidd," Casey cleared his throat.
"No problem," Stella shrugged. "Hey, if you need anything… or you need to talk, I'm here."
"Yeah, I know," said Casey. He walked slowly to the sofa to grab his shoes and put it near the entrance.
"You know, I may not be able to help with anything, but… sometimes talking helps. Even though you might not believe it, just like Kelly," added Stella.
"You guys okay?" asked Casey, catching the bitterness.
"Yeah, no, sorry. We are now, until the next problem when he shut me out," said Stella. "Anyway, it is not your concern," Stella opened the fridge to pour herself a glass of wine.
"It is my concern, I'm the third person in this apartment, I need to know if there's any time bomb," defended Casey. "The same offer goes to you, though. If you need to talk."
"I know," said Stella. She opened her kindle and resumed reading. "Call if you need anything," she called out as Casey grabbed his blanket and went to his room.
"Night, Kidd."
I binge watched Chicago Fire since a month ago, and my favourite is Seasons 7 and 8!