She was a little nervous about Christmas. She'd never actually brought anyone back to Fowlerton before – of course, everyone already knew Harrison so it wasn't like she had needed to really introduce him to people and everyone she had dated since had not really done the meet-the-parents thing, let alone the holiday-at-my-parents'-house thing. She knew Matt was nervous, too, but then, Matt was just jumpy in general anymore. He only ever really seemed relaxed at Molly's and at his apartment. But he'd packed her car quite willingly before their shift on the 23rd, so they could leave right away on the 24th, and she'd seen presents (he'd wrapped himself even, or maybe paid to have them wrapped, at least he hadn't asked her to do it) for her parents and her brother and his girlfriend. Okay, so willingly was a stretch, but that was only because he had wanted to take his truck but she refused because she got better gas mileage in her car and because she planned to drive, which he also argued about, but had had to back down when she called him out on the sexism of insisting he drive because he was the guy. She also wanted him to sleep in the car, but she was going to wait to spring that on him until this morning. They'd gotten permission to leave Matt's truck at 51 and he was parking it now. She didn't know why she was nervous. Mom insisted that she and Dad had both really liked Matt at Thanksgiving. Which was no surprise, because Matt was fantastic. He was also visibly exhausted, she could tell just watching him walk towards where she was waiting outside her car.

"Hey, you ready to go?" Matt asked, kissing her softly.

"I'm just wondering if subjecting you to my family is really the best idea. I mean, I really like you, and maybe it's not too late to just hide out at your place for the holiday."
"Actually, it is." Matt looked a little chagrined. "Severide's mom is coming into town – she's staying in my room."
"Oh my god, you changed the sheets, didn't you?" She knew precisely what they'd been doing in that bed not all that long ago.

"Well, no, because I didn't have time between that last round and when I had to leave for shift." Matt shot her a very knowing look, one that might have tempted her to kiss it off his face if they weren't on the sidewalk in front of the firehouse in broad daylight. And if they weren't due in to her parents' house for lunch.

"Matt! That's his mom-"
"His mom." Matt chuckled as she swatted his shoulder. "I left the clean sheets out for Severide to put on, I think he can manage that. He's been…a little oddly willing to do anything I ask him to lately. You two aren't still fussing behind my back, are you?"
"We are." She admitted it freely. No 'distance' between them, as he'd asked for, gave her a total blank check to be utterly honest with him. Plus, she wanted him to know they were still worried. They might not be pushing him to tell them, but she wanted him to know every day that they were worried and wanted to listen, if he'd just open his mouth. "If we didn't love you so much, we wouldn't worry so much, so take the worry as a measure of love."
"We should probably get going. Though I'd rather take you back to bed, to be honest."
"Matt – that is an awful lot of dirty in your eyes, and your eyes should not promise me a check that your body can't pay."
"Can't pay?" He asked, eyebrows raised and looking a little offended. He pulled her to him and firehouse, broad daylight, strangers walking by be damned, he kissed her like he meant to devour her right there on the sidewalk. It took her a moment to realize he had picked her up and set her on the trunk of her car, her legs to either side of his hips, but once she did, she also remembered where they were and what they were supposed to be doing.

"Matt, we need to get on the road." She managed, a little breathless as she pulled away from his mouth.

"Apparently, I need to prove-"
"You have nothing to prove." She assured him. "I meant that we need to go – and that you look tired. I want you to try to nap in the car."
"I'm not an old man yet."
"Definitely not. You just look like you had a lot of calls this shift and didn't get much sleep."
"Not a lot, just a couple long ones." He admitted, as he pulled away from her and then helped her hop down off the car. She didn't actually need help, he was just gentlemanly like that. "House fire at 1 am. Guy passed out drunk while smoking in bed."

"God, did he get out?" She asked, as she slipped into the driver's seat and he got in the passenger side.

"He got out just fine." Matt sounded angry. "His girlfriend's three kids upstairs, though, we had to go get them. Six-year-old girl, four-year-old boy, and a two-year-old girl, scared to death, stairs full involved, had to use the aerial to get them. Smoke inhalation and scared mostly, thank fuck."
"Sounds intense, but not long."
"The two-year-old, screamed her head off every time I tried to hand her off to anyone, even the paramedics. She was so scared, shaking, and her brother was barely any better – he ended up inside my turnout coat he kept burrowing closer. The older girl was a little calmer, but there was no way I was leaving until mom got there."
"Was she at work?"
"Yep – she's apparently, uh, a dancer."
"She's a stripper you mean. Unless she offered, and you accepted, a lapdance in repayment for your efforts, I can't exactly get mad, Matt."
"She got there, and after she broke up with her boyfriend, she went with the kids to the hospital. Then we had to do overhaul still. Got off that one about 5 am. By the time we cleaned the gear, no point in hitting the rack."

"Get some sleep, Matt. Seriously. Mom is going to have all sorts of things planned for the entire time we're there. And I hope you were serious about being okay with sleeping on the sofa. Leo's girlfriend is coming, too and Mom won't let an unmarried couple share a room."
"Sylvie, I'll be fine. I've slept on worse, I'm sure."
"I'm just saying, get some sleep on the drive. At least try to doze a little."

Matt chatted to her idly until they got to Merrillville, pretty much the edge of the Chicago metro area. She was pretty sure he'd talked more in that 45 minutes than he had in a few weeks combined (not about what she really wanted to know, which was what the hell was bothering him and going on up at that stupid firehouse) but that he only did it to stay awake while she drove through the city. He crapped out in Merrillville, and fell asleep leaning against the passenger window. She glanced over at him a few times as she drove south. He was adorable when he slept, and while most people looked stupid sleeping sitting up, doing the jello-neck-head-bob-thing, he was propped up and steady, just out cold – and not even breathing heavily, let alone snoring (which he sometimes did in bed, she hadn't told him yet, but it was a relatively quiet kind of cute snore) or drooling or something embarrassing or unattractive. Nope. He had to be stupidly attractive even asleep like that. She let him sleep through most of their drive in Indiana, it wasn't like the scenery was that special or unique, and she hadn't been kidding about Mom having their day planned full. It wasn't all that often Sylvie got home, and it was Christmas, and she was bringing home 'a boy' (Mom kept calling Matt that, which was silly, Matt was 38). She'd panicked a little because of course Mom was going to church, they were all going to church, except Matt wasn't Methodist, Matt was Catholic. She'd told Mom, and Mom had acted like she'd announced she was dating a vegan or something truly exotic. His last name was Casey. He was Irish. In Chicago. She'd thought the Catholic thing would be self-evident.

She reached over to gently shake his shoulder when they'd just about reached Fairmount. It was only a few minutes to the farm from here, and she knew he would want a few minutes to shake off his nap.

"So, this is Indiana."

"You've been to Indiana before."

"Only to drive through on the interstate on the way to Detroit for Red Wings games, and once out to South Bend for a Notre Dame game."

"Seriously?"
"You know, Severide isn't joking when he says I never left Chicago until I was old enough to drink, right?"

"Well, yeah, but you're older now."
"And until you, I had no reason to ever visit Indiana." Matt shrugged. "It looks pretty much like downstate Illinois."
"Sorry we didn't paint is Hoosier crimson for you."
"Uh, that barn actually is. Big white IU logo on it, too. Must be fans."
"That's the Cordrey's place." Sylvie knew it well. "I think every generation of their family has gone there or something. Dad says Jim Cordrey bought the place just to have horses – the fields he leases out, he doesn't farm, he owns businesses up in Marion. Wait until you see the gold and black answer that the Mitchells have – they're a Purdue family."
"So they painted their barn yellow?"
"Gold, not yellow. Very important difference."

"I love the Blackhawks, but I'm never actually painting my house to match their colors."
"College loyalty is different, I guess." Sylvie shrugged. It seemed relatively normal to her – barns were often painted distinctively, well not often, but not rarely either.

"Do your parents have a team? I know your dad is a Colts fan."

"Pacers, obviously for basketball. Cubs for baseball, mostly, he's not a big baseball fan. I don't know how much hockey he watches. Sorry."
"No, it's fine. Football is always safe. And he'll probably ask about work – I can tell a few firehouse stories."
"Not any that involve any danger to me, or serious danger to you." Sylvie practically begged.

"I know." He smiled gently at her. "I do the same thing with my mom, Sylvie. You don't tell them the scary stuff. My mom doesn't even know I had a cracked skull."
"You never told her?"
"Why would I?" Matt looked genuinely confused. "She wasn't exactly at my bedside, Sylvie. She has her own life now, she's enjoying all the...stuff she missed out on."

"You just don't like her boyfriend." Sylvie had figured that much out.

"I haven't liked the few I've met, or any of the ones I've heard about. She has horrible taste, but then, I should expect that. She married Dad."

"They can't have been too horrible. They made you." She said, as she pulled into the farm driveway. The house wasn't set that far back from the road, the barns were arranged behind it, so she quickly pulled over into the parking area behind Leo's car.

Sylvie took a strange satisfaction in seeing Leo's girlfriend's face when she introduced Matt. Allison had always been nice enough, but there was always a bit of an 'your brother did better than you did, he got someone like me' air to her, like Sylvie wouldn't get anyone as relatively hot as Allison was. To be fair, Allison was very pretty, and despite growing up in Indianapolis, seemed pretty content to be preparing to take over the farm with Leo. They lived in Kokomo right now, where she worked. Sylvie liked Allison. She just also liked seeing that surprised and impressed 'Sylvie scored a hottie' look on her face. Because she had scored a hottie. Leo also seemed impressed, maybe more by the size of Matt's biceps than anything else, though (much as she loved Matt, he wasn't the biggest guy in 51 even, especially since he'd lost weight recently, but still, impressive enough – and a lot stronger even than he looked, actually). Dad and Leo had helped bring the bags in, there was some manly ritual involved that said the women could not possibly help, so Sylvie left them to it.

Lunch was easy, mostly because everyone seemed to respect that Matt was clearly rather hungry – oh, he was polite and had good manners, but he ate three sandwiches and an impressive amount of Mom's pasta salad and potato chips. Thankfully, Mom just took it as a compliment to the homemade roast beef, which it kind of was. Sylvie was just happy to see him eating plenty, because if he was low on sleep he at least needed good food to keep him fueled. Then, Mom's activities started. It was a bit of a whirlwind, Sylvie had to admit – Christmas cookie decorating and building gingerbread houses, then a "quick run by church" to help set up the post-service reception, complete with dropping off the decorated cookies and gingerbread structures, kept them busy that afternoon.

"You know, I don't think anyone has ever built a gingerbread candy factory instead of a house for the reception before. Ours is going to be the biggest brought in, for sure." Sylvie informed Matt as he carefully set his (officially it was theirs, but really it was his) creation on one of the tables in the church hall. Sure enough, two of her mother's 'church lady' friends were already hovering around, carefully inspecting Matt's creation – it was about four of the houses repurposed and reconfigured, carefully built into a two-story candy factory complete with candy conveyor belts between windows and candy delivery trucks in the drive outside. Sylvie's major contribution had been showing him how to quickly dye and put colored sugar on fondant disks to make a cool multicolored roof pattern. Matt leaned over to whisper in her ear,

"I do like being the biggest." She couldn't even respond to that with her mom's friends right there.

"Sylvie Brett, this is beautiful. And who is this who's delivering for you?"
"He actually built most of it." Sylvie corrected. "This is Matt Casey, he came with me to celebrate Christmas."
"From Chicago?"
"Yes, ma'am, all my life." Matt confirmed politely.

"Matt, this is Mrs. Anderson and Mrs. Bertram, they're in the ladies auxiliary with my mom."
"It's wonderful to meet you, Matt. Thank you for helping out."
"Happy to help, and it's nice to meet you, too." Matt smiled, and thankfully the two ladies walked away, though Sylvie had no doubt that they were now whispering about the guy she'd brought home from Chicago.

"They auction the gingerbread buildings off each year as a fundraiser. The money goes to the church food and charity bank – you know, food but also for like if someone has a fire or other damage during the winter." Sylvie told him.

"You should've said, I could've gone bigger-"
"Matt, in two hours you built the biggest gingerbread construction I've ever seen. And we got it beautifully decorated. And now you're going to get stuck helping Mom and her friends decorate, we both will. This is why Leo was happy to send you along, so he didn't have to come. You get to be on the ladder."
"Ladders are sort of my specialty." Matt just smiled and shrugged. God, he was so handsome, especially when he was happy, and for right now, he was clearly happy, so she was just going to let herself revel. Why he was happy to be Mom's servant at the church hall, she had no idea, but hey, if he was happy, she was good with it.

By the time they finished decorating the hall, it was time to go home for dinner. Mom always did a Crock Pot meal on Christmas Eve because she cooked up a storm on Christmas Day and then there was the church stuff always going on. It was usually some form of hearty soup that tasted great on a cold December evening. This year she'd made Irish stew, which was Dad's favorite (otherwise Sylvie might be mortified that Mom had made it because Matt was Irish) and had gotten homemade bread from Mrs. Abernathy to go with it apparently. Thankfully, Mom had foreseen Matt's continued appetite, because Sylvie was pretty sure he ate an entire loaf to himself, practically using it as a spoon for the stew. Mom looked very pleased that Matt was eating so well again – either she was just happy that her guest was happy or she had picked up on Sylvie's concern about Matt's weight loss. Hard knowing which one it was with Mom. After cleaning up from dinner, which Matt tried to help with but Mom kicked him out of the kitchen again, it was time to start getting ready for the Christmas Eve service. Mom wasn't so strict about the 'no sharing rooms' thing when it was just about getting ready for church, so she and Matt changed in her childhood bedroom. He looked fondly around the room, grinning at the remnants of her earlier life (she hadn't changed much in years, even before she moved out, so it kind of still looked like senior year of high school), but didn't say much. He managed to shave around Allison and Leo in the hall bath (Sylvie was well-practiced at doing her make-up in her room, because Leo had always been a bathroom hog even when they were kids) but when he came back to her room she finally got an answer to a question that had been low-key plaguing her: why he always smelled so strongly of wood. His cologne was wood-scented. That was cheating. Except she didn't really care, because he smelled fantastic. A little too fantastic for standing in her childhood bedroom, ready to head for church, with her parents about 4 feet away from them.

"You need a new cologne." She sighed.

"I thought you liked this one." He seemed completely confused.

"I love this one." She admitted. "But it makes me want to do dirty things to you, which we can't do, so you need a new cologne to wear on the times I can't jump you. Also, mister, you are cheating, because I thought you just smelled like wood naturally."
"When you first said something, I, uh, didn't have this yet." Matt shrugged a little. "I went looking for it because of what you said."
"You bought a new cologne just because I said I like you smelling of sawdust – before we were even dating?" She kissed him out of sheer love for this silly wonderful man.

"I told you, I'm good with explicit directions, especially when you reward me so well."
"I do like you obedient." She kissed him again, a little more to it this time, and of course that exact moment is when her bedroom door opened and her mother walked in.

"You two stop – we need to leave, or we're going to be late."
"Sorry, Mom, but I got distracted by my handsome guy. We're coming." Sylvie tugged Matt's hand, so he followed her out of the room. He was wearing the same outfit as he had to his birthday dinner and if she wasn't careful, she was going to get distracted by the memories of that night. Better to keep him behind her. Even if she had an idea that he might be looking at her butt in this pencil skirt.