They had Thanksgiving off, but were on shift on 'Black Friday'. Matt had told them all months ago not to ask for furlough that day unless they had a significant reason – it was a popular day off and the floater pool was minimal – and the paramedics had similar orders. She could've gone home, it was only about a three-and-half-hour drive to Fowlerton, but instead, her parents had decided to drive up to Chicago, though Leo was staying in Indianapolis. Mom had said she'd cook at their apartment, and any of her friends could join them. Chloe and Joe were spending the holiday with Chloe's family, who were in town to help plan the wedding, and Lily and Otis were with her family for lunch and his family for dinner (wow, a lot of food, had been Sylvie's thought), so that left Sylvie with a decision about whom to invite. Of course, she was going to invite Matt. The question was whether to invite just Matt. She hadn't really told her parents she was seeing Matt, yet. It had only been a month or so, and Mom always started practically planning a wedding the minute Sylvie said she was dating anyone. If she invited a few people, it would hopefully distract Mom a bit from interrogating Matt. She waited until they were in bed, pleasantly post-coital, to bring up the holiday. More for her own nerves than his. And yes, she was aware of how ridiculous it was to wait until Monday night to ask this.

"Do you have plans for Thanksgiving?"
"You mean the holiday that is two days away?" Matt asked, sounding amused. "Only if 'spending the day with Sylvie' is plans."

"Oh, well, that's good. Because my parents are coming into Chicago since I'm not going home and Leo is in Indianapolis with his girlfriend's family. Mom is cooking and I was hoping you'd come even if my mother is going to interrogate you. I mean like Sergeant Voight levels of interrogate. I think. I haven't actually seen him interrogate anyone."
"Sylvie." He pulled back from their cuddling enough to meet her eyes. "Are you this nervous because you think your mother will scare me off, or because you think your mother will hate me?"
"She'll love you!" She hoped so, anyway. She couldn't imagine what Mom could not love about Matt. He was handsome, he had a good job, he was kind and sweet, he liked kids and wanted a family, and he was a great boyfriend.
"Babe, I survived Hallie's parents – who did hate me – and Gabby's parents, who…well, the Dawsons were just a lot, so I don't think your mother will scare me off by asking a lot of questions. She loves you, she's interested in your life; I think it's nice."

"Hallie's parents didn't like you?"
"Her family generally didn't. Her sister tried, I think. They didn't consider me their sort of people."
"Okay, what does that mean?"
"Her parents were pretty high-class people. They did not think a firefighter/contractor who barely got out of high school was good enough for their Ivy League-educated doctor daughter."
"That's stupid. My parents always said money mattered less than how he treated me."
"Did they like Harrison?"
"Not really." She had to admit that, now. Maybe that had been a part of her deciding to run away rather than marry Harrison.

"Okay, then I can believe that."

"Do you keep in touch with Hallie's family? You two were together a pretty long time, weren't you?"
"Eight years." Matt kissed the top of her head as she rested her cheek on his shoulder. "No, I haven't heard from them since the Christmas after Hallie died. I sent a card to them, and Vivian – Hallie's sister – to express again my condolences, I guess, and try to offer them, some comfort maybe, I don't know, that I was missing her, too. Vivian sent one back, asking me not to contact them again."
"That seems rude." He had done something kind and considerate, after all.
"I think it was just too hard. I was the one to tell them about Hallie. Felt I owed it to her to tell them myself. I get it. I'm not sure I'd want to see the cops who told me about my dad again, you know?"

"Those cops didn't know your dad, or you. You'd spent years with Hallie, they knew you. My mom is more likely to adopt you, though, and start calling just to fuss after you. Just so you know. She'll ask a million questions about you and your family and your entire life."
"It'll be fine, Sylvie."
"What if she asks about your parents? She will, she's going to ask really nosey questions about your parents and grandparents and siblings and all the stuff she'd know about someone if I had stayed home and ended up with someone from there."
"Sylvie, I can handle it." He laughed a little. "You might want to cover it ahead of time, though. It might be a bit of a mood-killer for a holiday to talk about my mom shooting my dad to death two days after Thanksgiving."

"Oh my god, I did not know that anniversary was coming up too. I should know these things, Matt."
"Why?" He sounded genuinely baffled. "I've never mentioned it, so you'd have no reason to know it. It happened twenty-two years ago. You were eight years old. Wow, okay, that makes me feel like a pervy old man being here with you."

"Yes, horribly old – you're eight years older than me, Matt. Not even a full eight years."

"If you want, you can come out to the cemetery with me on Saturday. I usually go, even on days I'm on shift, on the exact anniversary but this year, I'm not at 51. I don't think Chief Gayan will be as lenient about me ducking out for a bit."
"I'd love to go with you." She kissed his chest fondly. "I want to know this stuff, Matt. It's important to you, to really knowing you, so it's important to me."
"Will your parents know about the fact I used to be married to Gabby?"
"Yeah." Sylvie nodded. "I talked about Gabby a lot."
"I'm sure that'll impress them." Matt sighed. "Son of an abusive jerk and a murderer, and used to be married to your old partner. Add in the 'barely got out of high school' bit and I'm a helluva prize, huh?"

"You are the grand prize." Sylvie sat up a little, meeting his eyes and kissing him firmly. "I'm happy, and you are so fantastic to me, so my parents will be happy. Mom will worry about your job, but she worries about mine, so that's nothing, really."

She called her mother from shift the next day. It went about like she expected actually. Which meant that Mom was a combination of excited that she was dating anyone and frustrated by the fact she hadn't said anything until the day before Mom and Dad were heading for Chicago. Mom asked three separate times if Matt had any favorite foods she needed to prepare for or any Thanksgiving traditions she had to account for and Sylvie had to admit she didn't know about the traditions but she was pretty sure Matt would eat anything up to and including burnt macaroni and cheese. He might not like it, but he'd politely eat it. Then she'd answered all the obligatory questions about Matt – how old was he, where was he from, what did he do for a living – and then try to explain about how she was dating her ex-best friend's ex-husband. Mom had been surprisingly cool about that, saying it made sense, she'd already liked him, and it had been a while since Gabby left. Dad was more circumspect, but then, Dad had already expressed his distrust of all those 'city boys'. Both of them mostly ignored the fact that she had also invited Foster. Technically, she'd invited Stella, Severide, and Foster, but Severide's mom was in town so Emily got to be the extra wheel (as she put it). It did at least keep it from being too much like a purely 'meet the parents' dinner. It was a holiday. It was supposed to be about communal thanksgiving, not torturing her boyfriend.

Matt had strongly insisted that he would give her all day Wednesday with her parents without his presence. He would meet them Thursday. He would not stay overnight. He would bring wine and flowers for her mother. He would be dressed up. He had a lot of rules apparently. He also did legitimately have work scheduled for Wednesday and she had sprung her parents' arrival on him pretty last minute. Plus, it gave her a chance to spend the afternoon and evening of their arrival telling them a few key things that she felt were best not explained on the phone. Which she was sort of cowardly enough to wait to do until the evening news was over.

"So, what time is Matt coming over tomorrow?" Mom asked, with a pretty good impression of casual indifference.

"He said about noon." Sylvie reminded, they'd already talked this part out. "He has some work to do at his aunt's house first thing in the morning, but he'll be here by noon."
"Does the boy just constantly work? You said he worked today, and tomorrow is a holiday, and you're both on shift on Friday. Does he have to work so many hours for some reason?"
"Cathy, I don't think a man with a strong work ethic is something to criticize." Dad remarked.

"He's doing a favor for his aunt. He does have two jobs, yes, but he just doesn't do 'time off' very well. You should appreciate that, Dad, the farm was your second job and it's at least as time-consuming as his construction company." Sylvie knew most family farms these days were 'side jobs' for people. Her dad also worked, or used to work, at the Ball factory in Muncie.

"Like I said," Dad shrugged, "I'm not criticizing a man for work ethic."

"How do the two of you find time to get to know each other if he works so much?"
"Mom, we both work together at the firehouse." Sylvie almost laughed. "I see him for 24-hour-long shifts two or three times a week. We've known each other for five years. I don't need to 'get to know' Matt – I already know him."
"I just worry, you know. I haven't even seen a picture of him."
"Cathy, is what he looks like really important?" Dad sighed, but somehow, he always sounded so incredibly fond, even when exasperated. "Sylvie's happy. He has a good job, two of them it seems, and he's settled, responsible, and forgiving that whole ex-husband of her old partner thing, seems like a very acceptable young man. I don't think his looks matter."
"I just don't want to be surprised tomorrow, Chuck."
"By his looks? He has two eyes, a nose, a mouth, two arms, two legs, stop me when I'm wrong, Sylvie, probably some hair-"
"Dad." Sylvie cut him off, though she couldn't help laughing. She pulled out her phone because that was easiest, and found a recent picture of Matt. He didn't like having his picture taken, so he always had to be in a group, but Stella had gotten one good one of her and Matt at Halloween and sent it to her. She handed the phone to Mom. "That's Matt. So you won't be surprised."
"Oh. Well." Mom gave her a knowing look. She handed the phone to Dad, who looked at it, grunted, and shook his head.

"I don't like him."
"Two minutes ago you approved." Sylvie sighed.

"He's too handsome. He's probably what do you call them these days, a player? And he was clearly too interested in your outfit that night."
"Dad!"

"Call it like I see it." Dad shrugged.

"He is the opposite of a 'player', Dad. I can't argue the 'too handsome' though."

"Handsome men are trouble. Ask your mother. That's why she married me. I was plain."
"You were not." Mom swatted his shoulder lightly. "You were very dashing, once. Now, Matt, Sylvie. Tell me more about him. You said he's from Chicago, is he missing his own family to come to Thanksgiving with us? What about Christmas, will you spend it with his family or can you come home this year?"
"We haven't talked about Christmas at all, Mom, honestly." Sylvie truly had not thought that far in advance yet. Matt's schedule with this reassignment was kind of all over, lots of overtime, and Christmas just hadn't come up. They were sort of at a 'let's get through this week' point right now. "His family is…sort of a sore spot, so don't grill him tomorrow, either of you."
"Oh. Have his parents passed?" Mom asked.

"His dad died when he was sixteen." Sylvie paused, but she supposed it was best to get it all out at once rather than come across later like she'd been hiding something. Mom was already making that 'poor boy' face. "Actually, his mom killed his dad, two days after Thanksgiving, which was less than two weeks after his sixteenth birthday. So his dad's dead, and his mom spent fifteen years in prison for it, and is still on parole."
"Sylvie." Dad managed, looking shocked and like he had a whole new bunch of reservations about this relationship she was in.
"Matt is a fantastic guy, okay? Don't judge him based on his parents; that would be so unfair. His dad was abusive, even after the divorce I guess, and his mom lost it one night and shot him. It has nothing to do with Matt, I just wanted you to know so you don't grill him about his parents."
"A man from a family like that-"
"Dad, he's the kindest most genuinely good man you'll ever meet. Just because his dad wasn't, that's not Matt's fault. You can't tar him with that brush. Before you ask, I know for a fact that his divorce was completely unrelated to anything 'like that' okay?"
"Well. At least we know there won't be much competition for family holidays." Mom declared firmly. That was probably very important to her.

"Be careful, Sylvie, that's all I'm saying."

"Just wait until you meet him tomorrow, Dad. I know you'll like him."
"As long as he makes you happy, I'll like him well enough."