Olivia stood at the mirror with her arms crossed and watched Voight and Casey. The two men had been on the floor for almost 20 minutes, she couldn't hear what was going on but she'd had enough experience with victims that watching Voight as he held the fireman in his arms and spoke gently to him, she could guess how it was going. Finally Casey seemed to calm down and he pulled away from Hank and the two stood up, the fireman's face was streaked red with tears and his eyes were puffy, Hank placed a hand on Matt's shoulder and said something to him, Casey weakly nodded but didn't say anything as he used the back of his hand to brush away the tears that traveled halfway down his face.
"This is weird," Elliot commented as he stepped beside Olivia, "This doesn't look like two guys that tried to kill each other."
"Hank's trying to make amends for what happened back then," Olivia said, realizing she knew more about the situation than Elliot did, knowing he wasn't likely to get it, and knowing he likely wouldn't understand it even if she explained it.
"An-n-n-d, it still doesn't look like he gave it up," Elliot said. "Casey knows we're going to find out whatever he's got on his phone, why doesn't he just confess?"
"Well, above all else he hasn't asked for a lawyer, so whatever it is, it's probably not anything illegal," Olivia noted.
"And we're sure the gay angle's out?" Elliot asked.
"You want to ask him?" Olivia replied.
"Hey," Fin said as he came up to them.
They turned around and Elliot inquired, "Get anything out of Kelly?"
"Maybe," Fin answered, "Turns out his sister was raped a year ago, they never found the guy responsible, there was a prime suspect, a Vince Keeler, local gang member who hasn't been seen since."
Liv and Elliot turned and looked at each other as they considered this.
"Voight should know something about that," Elliot said.
The door opened and they saw Voight and Casey leave the room and saw Voight escort Casey to the men's room. Elliot followed them down the corridor, a few seconds after they went in, he pushed the door and entered behind them. He saw Voight standing adjacent to the sink that Casey was bent over as he cupped his hands under the cold water and splashed it on his face.
"Detective," Voight said curtly, which drew Casey's attention and the blonde man shut off the water and turned around to see what was going on.
"Our captain would like to speak to you," Elliot said with a stone face but a knowing look in his eyes.
"How come you didn't tell us about Severide's sister being raped?" Elliot asked when they got Voight back to the squad room.
"Our focus is on Matt Casey, not Severide's family," Voight answered, "Or am I missing something?"
"You worked that case?" Olivia asked.
"Yeah, while she was missing, then we looked for Vince Keeler...he never turned up, it was always assumed he left town."
"And nobody's seen him since?" Elliot asked.
"Not that we know of, what's that got to do with this?" Hank wanted to know.
"Why was Katie Severide targeted?" Olivia asked.
Voight looked like a light bulb went off, "Retaliation against Kelly, he and Keeler got into it, he tried to bash Kelly's head in during a blackout, it didn't work, so he kidnapped Katie and raped her."
"And now Kelly's best friend has also been raped," Olivia said. "That's a big coincidence."
Hank looked around at the detectives skeptically, "You think this is a vendetta against Severide?"
"Believe me it wouldn't be the strangest theory," Munch told the Chicago cop, "After 12 years in sex crimes, we've seen them all, and a lot of them more than once."
"Except a vic who's so dead set against saying anything about their attack even when they know whatever secret they're holding onto is about to come out in the open," Olivia added. "There has to be a reason Casey won't talk."
Voight grunted, "So you're thinking he was threatened?"
"Either him, or maybe he was threatened with Severide's life if he talked," Elliot said. "Casey seems pretty self-sacrificial, but he wouldn't endanger somebody else's life, would he?"
Voight shook his head. "This is a stretch though. Vince Keeler wouldn't have the brains to orchestrate something like this, and he wouldn't be able to lure Casey 1,000 miles from home to do it. The best bet is that he's dead by now, just another forgotten gang banger that nobody even misses."
"Well we got nothing else to go on right now," Olivia said, "have you heard from your guys about Casey's computer?"
"They're still looking," Voight answered.
"So, we have nothing to go on right now," Elliot said.
"Did Casey say anything to you in there?" Olivia asked.
"Nah," Voight shook his head.
Olivia threw her hands up, "What are we missing here? What is Casey still trying to hide?"
"You know," Munch addressed Voight, "We get a lot of people who don't mind telling us what's going on just to clear the air, but beg us not to tell their spouses, their families, this guy doesn't want anybody to know what's going on. If he can't even disclose anything to us, what's he going to tell everybody he works with back in Chicago when they want to know why he up and disappeared?"
"Good question," Voight answered.
"How has Severide put up with Casey giving him the cold shoulder on this so far?" Elliot asked.
"He hasn't asked any questions, that's how."
"Why would he do that?" Elliot asked. "My best friend winds up in the hospital, I want to know what happened."
"But you'd also know not to press him for details," Voight pointed out, "especially if he didn't want to get into it."
"But that only carries so much weight, they know eventually I'm gonna be asking," Elliot replied.
"Matt's hoping to bury this thing as soon as he gets back to Illinois," Olivia said. "He's hoping by giving us the runaround that we won't catch the perp and the case dies."
"If things keep on like this, that could actually happen," Elliot commented.
A small sound caught in Olivia's throat and she pushed against Hank as she pulled back from the kiss and scooted back on the cushion on her side of the couch.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Sorry," she said.
It was the first time since they'd met that they'd made any actual attempt at an intimate relationship, after the first time they'd had to join forces it had been apparent to both that there was something between them but they'd never gotten a chance to find out what it was. Life and the job always interrupted. When they returned to Olivia's apartment they had dinner, and a couple of drinks, and decided to see where it went. But Olivia had quickly realized where it was going was towards a roaring stop, not an unusual experience for her. Still she felt the need to explain, "It's...never easy trying to be with someone with this job. Either the gory details put them off, or they get too interested..."
"And then there's cops," Voight replied.
"The only people who can possibly understand it...and often the worst people to get involved with."
"Hey."
"Present company excluded," she offered a small smile, but it quickly gave way to a sigh as she told Hank, "I just can't stop thinking about what happened to Matt...I can't believe he'd be willing to go to such lengths to avoid explaining any part of it...if he's not involved in anything illegal and this wasn't a gay hookup gone wrong he doesn't want the people at Firehouse 51 to find out about...why won't he tell us anything?"
"That's the million dollar question," Voight told her. "I'm hoping by tomorrow my guys got some answers."
Olivia leaned back against the couch and looked towards the ceiling as she said, "The thing I hate is when this investigation is over, you'll be going back to Chicago and then I won't get to see you again until...the next time we have to work together."
"Gives working relationships a whole new meaning," Voight commented.
"Yeah, the problem is we never get a chance to enjoy it," she replied.
Hank looked at her mischievously through the corner of one eye, "Oh we can enjoy it." He reached an arm around Olivia's shoulders and pulled her against him.
Olivia giggled, "This is nice," and leaned her head against his shoulder.
Voight looked at her, she appeared to be lost in thought, and he asked, "What're you thinking, Olivia?"
She stared blankly towards the wall and answered, "Wondering what's going through Matt Casey's mind right now."
The screaming woke Kelly up. His eyes flew open and he shot up in the bed trying to figure out what was going on and trying to find the light. He hopped out of bed and ran into the wall feeling for the switch, he finally found it and as the hotel room lit up he saw Casey sitting up in the other bed, eyes wide open but he was still screaming. Kelly went over towards him but was careful not to get in Casey's reach, "Casey, CASEY!"
Matt blinked and his yells of terror carried on a couple more seconds before stopping entirely, he looked around the room and blinked again. "Kelly?"
"It's alright, buddy, it's just me," Kelly spoke softly and slowly, "You're safe."
Casey looked around the room as he breathed heavily.
"It was just a nightmare," Severide tried to assure him, "You're alright."
Casey shakily got to his feet and told him, "Kelly, let's just get out of here and go back home."
"Casey, we are not going to the airport at 1 o' clock in the morning," Kelly said.
"Not the airport, I don't ever want to get on a plane again," Casey shook his head.
Before he could say anything else, Kelly asked him, "What happened?"
"I've never been on a plane before in my life, my first time on one and the whole way here I thought I was going to throw up, I couldn't wait for it to land and get off," Casey said. "We can find a bus heading to Illinois and leave tonight...please, Kelly, I don't want to stay here."
Kelly forced himself to stay calm so he could hopefully keep Casey calm, "I know you don't, and I'm sorry, but we can't do that."
"We have to!" Casey responded in despair, "If we stay here, they're gonna...they're gonna..."
Even now Kelly could see Matt couldn't bring himself to explain what had happened, not to him, and not why he came to New York in the first place. It was killing Severide not to know what was going on, but he knew he couldn't push Casey on it.
Instead he tried to be reassuring for his friend's sake, "Casey, it's going to be alright," he saw Matt shaking his head and open his mouth to argue but he cut him off, "I'm going to stay with you the whole way on this until we can go back home."
"I don't want you to," Casey said weakly. "I don't want you to know what happened."
"Casey it doesn't matter," Kelly told him.
Casey grimaced as he inhaled as if breathing was suddenly too painful for him, "It matters to me. Please, let's just get out now before they find out anything, I want to put all this behind me."
"How?" Kelly knew he was on dangerous ground now, but he thought he was entitled to some explanation, "How can you put it behind you? Even when we get back to Chicago, you're still going to remember."
"That's not what worries me," Casey told him. "If they make an arrest...if it goes to trial...I have to put in a furlough to come out here to testify and then everybody hears what happened to me, it becomes a matter of public record, and when everybody back home finds out, nobody is going to look me in the eye again, they would all be too disgusted by me, of me."
Nothing he was saying made any sense to Kelly, he couldn't imagine anything so horrible that Casey's words could actually hold water. Everybody at 51 knew what an upstanding guy he was, nobody could possibly look at him and think any of this was his fault.
Kelly shook his head helplessly, "Matt, that is not going to happen."
"Yes it will if anybody finds out..."
"Matt," Kelly tried to think, "If they do find the bastard that did this...they can't arrest him if you don't press charges...I know this is hard but I think you just need to let them do their job. Think of it this way," he cut Casey off when the blonde man opened his mouth to protest, "They know what they're doing, they know whoever it is, isn't going to stop, they'll do it again to someone else. Okay so let them identify the guy, and then when we're gone, they can keep eyes on him and stop him from doing it to someone else. That way, he gets caught, he goes to jail, you don't have to do anything."
"But they'll know, Kelly," Casey moaned.
"And they can't say anything to anybody back home about it," Kelly said, "nobody will find out."
"You'll know," Casey moaned as he squeezed his eyes shut, "You'll know, Voight will know."
"Voight's not going to tell anybody either, you know that, he wouldn't do that," Kelly told him.
Casey inhaled uneasily and fell back against the edge of the mattress and collapsed on the bed crying. Kelly could just imagine everything weighing on him: the fear, the shame, the guilt, the frustration, the exhaustion.
Kelly felt like a rock was lodged in his throat, he wasn't sure what to do or what might make things worse.
"Matt," he stood over Casey, who had his back to him, "Matt...can I touch you? I mean," he scrambled to amend his poor choice of words, "Can I hug you? Is that okay?"
Casey rolled over and looked at him curiously, a choked sob caught in his throat as he conceded and held his arms out, Kelly bent down and pulled Casey into a loose embrace.
"It's going to be okay," he told his best friend, "Everything's going to be alright, you're gonna get through this."
The screams woke him up again.
Kelly shot up in bed in the dark and tried to remember what was going on, but before he could reach for the light the screams abruptly stopped. There was silence in the room except for the creak of the bed springs as Casey sat up in his bed.
"Case?"
The Truck lieutenant's voice was small in the dark as he quietly responded, "Sorry..."
"It happened again?" Kelly asked.
There was no answer, but he could tell.
"You want me to turn on the light?"
"No," the voice answering him was even smaller now.
Kelly's eyes adjusted to the darkness, the only light in the room was the red digits on the clock, 2:24 A.M. By now he could make out the shape of Casey sitting up in his bed. He could hear Matt's strangled breathing as he tried to calm himself down without being heard.
"You want," Kelly spoke slowly, testing the waters, "me to come over there?"
There was silence. He watched the outline of Casey in the dark, he turned his head and looked over at Severide, then turned his head back, then slowly moved over to the other side of the bed and pulled the covers back.
Kelly got up and went across to the other bed, sat on the edge and pulled his feet up and laid out beside Matt.
"You okay?" Kelly asked as he pulled the covers up.
"...No..."
Kelly merely nodded though he wasn't sure if Matt could see him. He bent his knees and half sat up and reached over and pulled Casey against him and held him in his arms. Casey didn't fight him, if anything Kelly would swear he could feel Casey holding his breath. After a few seconds his body relaxed as he softly broke down sobbing. Kelly pressed the side of his face against Casey's temple and said nothing as he held his best friend and waited for him to cry himself to sleep.
Olivia heard a phone buzzing and she slowly opened her eyes. She and Voight had fallen asleep sitting up on the couch and the lights were still on, though they'd been dimmed earlier in the night.
"Is that mine or yours?" she asked as she stretched to get the circulation going back in her arms.
"Mine," Hank answered as he pulled his phone out and answered, "Yeah? ...What? Alright, I'll be right there."
"What is it?" Olivia asked.
"911 was dispatched to the hotel Casey and Severide are staying at," Hank told her as he got up.
