Hi everyone! So I was going to post this as part of Family Portraits, but I also really wanted it to be a stand alone idea, so I'm posting it as a one-shot that can be a tag on to the world I created in Family Portraits!

This is an imagining of 8x19 and what could happen at Cruz and Chloe's wedding… I hope you enjoy!

Easy

She didn't understand. How could she understand? She couldn't read minds – but she sincerely wished she could right about now. That would make this whole situation a lot easier.

It was all going so well. They were friends. The best of friends. It was rare that she trusted someone as much as she trusted him. He was just so warm and compassionate and good. Not to mention the way he made her feel when he looked at her. My god it just made her melt. It was like she was the only person in the world that mattered to him. She'd even started to believe that that might be true. Matt Casey made her feel like none of her problems were insurmountable when she was with him. He caused her to develop nervous ticks when she was around him. She would play with her watch, constantly twisting it around her wrist. She would push her hair behind her ear. She would just get so awkward.

But now she was wondering whether it had all been in her head. Maybe all he wanted was a friend and she was just that – a good friend through some difficult times.

Something happened at Cruz and Chloe's wedding. She wasn't sure what it was exactly. She'd been trying to work it out for the past week. Something in him just clicked and she had her suspicions what caused it – but she didn't know why it triggered him.

The ceremony had been so beautiful and romantic and full of love – and she could feel Casey's eyes on her the whole time as she stood at the front beside Chloe, acting as he bridesmaid. He'd been staring at her all day. Then he sat beside her at the reception and they talked and they laughed about anything and everything. She laughed at the thought of her almost doing this whole wedding thing twice. Matt laughed that he never had the big white wedding experience and that was what probably doomed his marriage. That he somehow didn't do it right. She thought it was nice (and a little twisted) that they could joke about it now.

Just after the speeches, she said something quietly to Matt. She said something that appeared to change everything. As soon as she said it he became withdrawn and broody. He didn't appear to be in any mood to laugh.

"Love is a strange thing." She said as Matt eyed her curiously, waiting for her to continue. "It should be mad and extraordinary and passionate… but it should never be hard. Yes, you may go through some difficult things, but if it ever makes you think love is hard then it's not right. If you can find someone who makes love feel as easy as breathing – then I reckon that's when you'll feel most complete." She'd let out a little laugh as she continued to contemplate what love meant to her – and she could still feel Matt's eyes piercing through the side of her face as she smiled in the direction of the bride and groom dancing. "It's not something that comes along very often and it can seem like the scariest thing in the world – but no one ever falls in love without being a little brave."

He hadn't replied to what she said. In her peripheral vision she saw him gulp and turn his gaze away from her. After a few moments of silence, he stood up and held out his hand.

"Dance with me?" he asked quietly as she nodded and placed her hand in his, allowing him to delicately pull her to the dance floor.

They got to the floor and Matt delicately spun her under his arm with a little smirk before pulling him close to him. Her hand slipped around his shoulder as his delicately fell upon the arch of her back, her right hand securely locked in his as her head slipped beside his, her curled hair tickling his cheek.

All time seemed to slow in that moment. She completely forgot they were in a room full of people. It felt like it was just the two of them and that was all that mattered. Now, he wasn't even looking at her or saying anything and he was making her feel that way. It felt… easy.

Wise men say only fools rush in
But I can't help falling in love with you
Shall I stay? Would it be a sin?
If I can't help falling in love you

Like a river flows, surely to the sea
Darling so it goes
Some things are meant to be

Take my hand take my whole life too
For I can't help falling in love with

The song came to a stop and so did they – but they held on to one another. She didn't want to let go. She knew a part of her would just feel empty not being in his arms. She closed her eyes, hoping this moment could last forever – but then she felt him slip away from her. He held on to her hand until the last possible second before she was left standing there – alone.

She felt her heart break a little as she stood for a moment. She pulled herself together before turning around and locking eyes with Foster, Kidd and Severide, who were all staring at her with hopeful eyes, but also sad eyes. It was like they were hopeful that things were finally falling into place for their friends, but sad that it had disappeared in a blink as Matt left her standing there.

A week had passed since that moment. A week and they'd barely said one word to each other. Any time she tried he just walked away from her and gave her blunt answers. They only thing that he could talk to her about for an extended period of time was work and even that appeared hard for him. He couldn't even look her in the eye.

She wasn't going to say anything. She didn't want to make whatever was going on between them worse… but then she realised she couldn't do this anymore. She just couldn't.

As everyone in the firehouse ate their dinner, she made her way round to his quarters, trying her best to keep her composure but knowing that she would probably crumble as soon as she opened her mouth.

She stood in his doorway, twisting her watch as always. She was about to deliver a strong and wilful speech – but as soon as he turned his head from his desk to look at her she crumbled. She dropped her wrist and she felt the tears form in her eyes and she just spoke from the heart.

"I can't do this anymore" she said in a whisper as Matt frowned, not knowing what she was talking about. "I can't keep sitting here wondering. I can't keep wondering if it's all in my head. I can't keep wondering if it's worth it. I can't keep wondering if I put myself out there and then Gabby comes back and I'm left shattered because you'll never love me like you love her, I can't keep wondering if you could even love me at all—"

"Sylvie—" Matt began as he stood from his chair and stepped towards her to stop her from rambling, but she immediately stepped back.

"Something freaked you out at the wedding. Over the past few months, I have learnt to read you like a map Matt Casey so don't pretend like that's not true." She warned sternly as Matt closed his mouth and put his hands in his pockets, deciding that it was probably just best to let her finish. "Something bothered you and I just – I can't do it. I can't pretend that we're just friends because I hopelessly in love with you" She said as she felt the tears starting to trickle down her face; "… and it's hurting me."

Everything before the past week had been easy. It almost seemed too good to be true and now she was right. Now she was feeling that hurt that made her doubt love was even possible at all.

She stared at him for a moment as he said nothing. He just looked at a loss for words. He looked emotional, he looked conflicted. He looked like he wanted to say something but just didn't know what.

"Will you say something? Please?" she begged. "Just say something, anything! I am sick of this silence!" she exclaimed in an uncharacteristic moment.

He opened his mouth to say something, but again, nothing came out. Sylvie took his silence for what it was. A painful form of rejection. He didn't feel the same way and he was too nice to tell her and now she was mad and she'd ruined their friendship and she just wanted to curl up in bed and cry.

"Just – forget it." She said as she turned on her heel and stormed away.

"Sylvie!" he called through the door.

"What?!" she exclaimed sharply as she kept walking towards the bunk room door.

"Can you not walk away from me please?"

"Oh, just like you walked away from me at the wedding?" she challenged as she put her hand on the door handle.

"So, what? You want to fight fire with fire?" he challenged as Sylvie finally looked at him with a glare as he stood at the opposite end of the bunk room by the door to his office.

"God, you are so frustrating!" she exclaimed as she let go of the handle. "I don't get you." She said as she started to pace in front of him and he steadily walked towards her. She'd entirely missed the determination – and the little smirk – on his face as she kept rambling in front of him. "I mean, I thought I did but then you turned so cold like you'd realised you'd let this thing we have get too far, but it's fine, because now I know that it hurts to love you, I know it's not right –"

Sylvie's words were cut off as he carefully took her face in his hands and kissed her with everything in him. Again – time felt like it was standing still. Everything else fell away and Sylvie realised that maybe it didn't hurt to love him after all. Matt's hands moved from her face as they wrapped their arms around each other, all while deepening their kiss. They'd never felt a kiss like it. It felt secure and safe and… easy.

They pulled away from the kiss, their arms still wrapped firmly around each other, their noses brushing delicately over each other's as Sylvie waited for him to say something.

"You freaked me out at the wedding." He told her quietly as she gulped. As soon as he saw her walk up the aisle he knew he was sunk. She was like an angel and he felt like he just didn't deserve her, but he also couldn't stay away. He was like a moth drawn to a flame and when she told him how she thought of love – he knew in an instant that's how he thought of her. He loved her. He loved every part of her and he had a feeling he would love her until the day he died.

"You freaked me out and ever since I've been trying to work out how to tell you what I want to tell you… so here it goes. After Gabby I didn't think it was possible to love in the same way again. I thought my heart might never heal… but I'm not going to let the heart that didn't love me enough to stay, keep me from the one that will." He told her with a little smile. "I don't want the same love that I had with Gabby. I want this love. I want our love… because it is easy. It's one of the easiest things I've ever felt in my life and I can't begin to describe how good that feels and how right that feels. I know that this is how love is supposed to be. I am so ridiculously in love with you Sylvie Brett and you were right – no one falls in love without being a little brave. So I'm laying it all out. When I look at you, I see the person that I am meant to be with. The person that was right under my nose all this time…" he said as they both let out a laugh as they rested their foreheads against each other's.

"There are a lot of uncertainties in life," Sylvie began, "but you're not one of them. You are the one thing I am sure of – and I just know I'm better for it."

Matt smiled as he cupped her cheeks again and their lips brushed against one another, his infectious smile spreading to hers.

It felt so good to love each other. It felt like home. They had finally found the one their souls were longing for.

And it felt so easy.