Disclaimer: I do not own Chicago Fire, or any of its characters or plots. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners.
Three years later
Matt tried to be as quiet as possible as he made his way into their home. He had pulled out a double shift for the last 48 hours, at Chief Boden's request. He had not been eager to work double shifts or do overtime for the last months, he had even cut on working construction projects lately, but Boden had asked him as a personal favor. "I know it's a lot to ask, Casey, given that I'm sure all you want to do is be home right now, and I understand, but I'd really appreciate it," Chief had solemnly said. And Matt had not been able to refuse. And although there had been no tough calls involved and both shifts had gone relatively smoothly, he could feel how tired he was now that the adrenaline of the job had worn off.
Once he closed the front door after him, he locked the door with his key, headed upstairs, duffel bag on his shoulder, and walked down the small hallway. He stopped right in front of their bedroom door, and rested his body on the door frame, taking in the sight before him. The bright early morning light of Chicago filtered into the dark room through a tiny uncovered spot by the drapes, and once his eyesight adjusted to the dim light, he could see his wife and their six week old son, both sleeping soundly. As much as he loved the view and could surely spend hours standing there like that, no matter how tired he was, he could not resist the impulse to push himself off the door jamb, silently drop his bag in the corner, and move to stand by the blue bassinet. "Hey buddy. How are you? Give mommy and daddy a while before you wake up?", he whispered in a very low voice, in an effort to not disturb the baby's sleep.
After making sure that he had not woken him up, Matt quietly walked to his side of the king sized bed, stripped down to his undershirt and boxes, and slowly got into bed. He had not settled under the covers yet when Sylvie rolled over and placed her head on his chest, her right arm over his waist.
"Good morning. How was the rest of shift?" she quietly mumbled, her sleepy voice muffered against the soft fabric of his shirt. They had last been texting around 2 am, after she had fed the baby, but had not been in touch since then. They had made a habit out of texting during the nights since she had been on maternity leave. Matt missed her at the firehouse, and Sylvie missed Matt and also being at the firehouse, so they had managed to develop a brand new communication channel between the two of them, now that there were not together on shift and when they were at home they usually took turns to take care of the baby while the other rested.
"Morning," Matt greeted her, wrapping his left arm over her soft and warm body and kissing the top of her head. "Blissfully quiet, had time to catch up with paperwork and even get some sleep. What about you? Andy let you sleep?" he asked back.
Every time Matt pronounced their son's name she could not help but remember who he got it from and how his father had struggled with his own feelings in naming his firstborn after one of his best friends, who also had happened to die under his watch and his command. Sylvie had never met Andy Darden, as she arrived at 51 two years after his death, but she felt like she knew him after hearing all of the members of the firehouse talk about him on a regular basis, especially Matt and Kelly. And after all she had learnt to know about him, Sylvie was proud that their son was bearing his name.
Andrew Wallace Casey had been born on a snowy and really cold night at the end of the winter a month and a half ago. Sylvie had had a very good pregnancy, with just the usual morning sickness during the first trimester and the occasional tiredness as she got closer to her due date, which allowed her to be able to keep working on desk duty right until the week before Andy was born. But once she was in labor a few complications occurred and the doctors at Chicago Med strongly recommended a c-section before taking any risk. That possibility had never crossed Sylvie's mind before, catching her off-guard, the memory of Julie dying on the table of the OR suddenly coming back with full force, and at first she seemed to be a little bit hesitant to give her authorization, much to Matt's worry, but Dr Natalie Manning´s words had dispelled any possible doubts. "I almost lost Owen because I was stubborn about a natural birth, Sylvie. Don't make the same mistake, you're gonna be his mother either way," she had said. And finally Andy had made his way into this world without endangering his life or Sylvie's in the process.
When they had first addressed the topic of marriage and family shortly after they had finally gotten together, Matt had told her Sylvie that he had always thought that if he ever had a son he would like to name him Andy, after Andy Darden, but he didn't know if he really would, given the case, because he suspected probably Severide would like to do the same with his own child. "I know that they would have different last names, but I'm sure they'd be close and the same name… I don't know…. And, after all, Sev and Andy grew up together, I only met him at the Academy…" he trailed off, shrugging. Despite it being obvious that it was something that was really important to him, Matt never mentioned it again for years, but over the next months, as their relationship progressed, Sylvie somehow got used to the idea that it was likely that if they ever had a son his name would be Andy.
So when they found out that she was pregnant after being married for over a year, Sylvie encouraged Matt to talk to Kelly about it. "I know it's hard for you two to voice out your feelings, even more about Darden, but I think you should let him know that you'd like to name your kid after Andy. You shouldn't miss the opportunity just because you'd rather not talk about it with your best friend. And who knows, he may surprise you…" And the following shift Matt asked Kelly about it as they smoked cigars sitting on lawn chairs right outside the firehouse, while everybody else slept. "Not that you need my permission or anything, but thanks for asking. I think Andy Casey sounds great," Kelly had said before taking a deep puff. "Much better than Andy Severide if you ask me ..." he had added.
Her husband's hand gently stroking her hair brought Sylvie back to the present. He had asked about their night. "Yeah, he's been great actually, sleeping like a pro since 2 am. Can you believe that? Natalie's right, I think he's about to sleep through the night…"
"Yeah, he's growing up..." Matt said, a slight tone of nostalgia in this voice. He felt it was unbelievable how their baby did new things almost every day, let alone the weight he had gained since birth.
Sylvie chuckled against his chest, trying to keep it quiet in order not to wake up Andy. Since he had been born they had not been able to share too many moments like this. "Well, I think we still have time to save up for college…" she joked.
"Yeah," he chuckled back. He then shifted his head against the bed headboard, making eye contact with her in the dim light of the room. "And how are you?" he softly inquired, stressing the word 'you'. He still remembered that when Andy had been born he had suddenly gotten all the attention from family and friends, and although Sylvie had not cared about that at all, clearly enjoying it, Matt had been a little bit worried that she could somehow feel neglected in favor of their baby. After all, she had been the one that had carried him for forty weeks and had her low abdomen sewn up in stitches after giving birth. So since then Matt had made it his special mission to not let room for those thoughts in her mind.
Sylvie smiled, moved by his concern for her, and placed her right hand on his neck, caressing his cheek with her thumb. "Good, sleeping for more than six hours straight for the first time since you went back to work is definitely making a difference…" she replied, her hand now on his back again.
He tucked a loose strand of her behind her ear with his left hand as he kept his eyes locked on hers, giving her that solemn Matt Casey look. "You can stay in bed until your OB appointment at Med, I'll take care of Andy when he wakes up…" he offered.
She shook her head. "No, no, you rest. I was thinking maybe we can have a quick lunch together after the appointment, just the two of us, no baby nearby?" Sylvie hesitated as she posed the question, trying not to sound too straight forward. After all, they had not had a meal together without their son at arm's reach since before he had been born, but still felt the need to elaborate. "Cindy said we could drop Andy during the morning and she'd bring him here at the end of the afternoon. She says she misses having a baby in the house…" she continued.
"Well, she's soon having one, every three days, when you go back to work…" Matt said. He loved Andy with all his heart, but currently he could not imagine how he would manage taking care of more than one kid, and sometimes wondered how Cindy still liked having babies around.
"Yeah, but I think she also knows it's the six week OB appointment, you know, she's had five kids herself…" she explained, raising her right eyebrow, trying to convey the probable real reason Cindy wanted to give them some privacy for a few hours.
Matt softly chuckled. "Are you telling me, Sylvie Brett, that everyone in Firehouse 51 is doing the math and knows doc is gonna give you the green light today?"
Sylvie shrugged. "I don't know the rest of the house, but those with kids of their own, yeah, probably, now that you mention it…" she trailed off, rolling on her back.
He rested his head on his hand, placing his elbow on the pillow so he could lean over her and make eye contact while he spoke. "Hey, we don't have to do anything just because the six week restriction is over… It's only up to you…"
She smiled. "I know, and I miss you Matt. I mean, having Andy is, I don't know, the best thing that ever happened to us, but I'm really looking forward to that green light so we can …" she explained, suddenly stopping mid-sentence hearing movement coming from the bassinet.
They stayed still for a few seconds, waiting to hear if Andy had woken up, but silence enveloped the room. "So am I, Syl..." Matt whispered when it was clear that their baby was still sleeping, or at least not crying, embracing her in a tight hug.
"Hey Matt, you remember those letters Boden made us write in case something went wrong on a call?" Sylvie asked out of the blue, burying her face deeper in his neck as she pronounced the words.
His body tensed at her question, remembering how hard it had been to write them both, the one addressed to Gabby first, and then the one for Sylvie. As a matter of fact, if he was honest, the last one had been especially difficult to write, because they were not together at the moment and Matt poured into the letter all his feelings for her given that he had never found the right words to voice them out and she had no clue about how he felt. It had to take a very serious accident on a call to finally bring them together shortly after he had handed Boden the new letter.
"I do. Why?" he inquired back, already guessing her answer, because he had to admit that the thought that he should update that letter once more now that they had a son had crossed his mind a couple of times since he had first held Andy in his arms. "I have time till Sylvie comes back to work. If something happens in between she´ll be there to tell him how I feel," he had thought in order to feel comfortable pushing it back.
He could feel Sylvie shrugging in his embrace. "I don't know, I was just thinking last night that I wrote it when we'd been together for only two weeks... and that maybe it was a good idea to write it again, now that we have a family with Andy…" she trailed off.
Matt nodded, softly stroking her hair as he spoke. "As I recall, writing that kind of letter was hard, Sylvie… You sure you wanna do it now? Maybe wait until you're back to work?" he gently asked.
She shifted backwards placing her hand on his chest to be able to look at him. "Yeah, I think I'll do that. I hope you two never get to read that letter, but I just want him to know, Matt, in case… I mean, you know how I feel about you, and that hasn't changed since I wrote that letter. Well, it's different now, those feelings have grown and you're my partner in everything…" She started laughing all of the sudden, letting her head fall on his chest, making him furrow his brow in confusion and, why not, worry. Sensing it, she lifted her head and continued to let him know where all that sudden laugh was coming from. "Now that I recall it, I wrote that letter that day that Kelly and Stella almost walked on us in the turnout room, remember?"
Matt chuckled at the memory, relieved. "How could I forget it… It was just once we got carried away at work and we almost… Good thing at least they were heading there for the exact same thing…"
Sylvie chuckled back. "Yeah, it didn't stop you though… We then went to the laundry room and… Oh God, I'm starting to remember some of the things I wrote in that letter afterwards…" she added, feeling the blush fiercely creeping up her neck and her face.
Matt immediately noticed her reaction despite the dim light in the room. "Hey, you blushing? I'd really like you to read me those things when you exchange letters with Boden…" As she had begun to shake her head, he hesitated for a few moments but then kept talking. He was about to bring up a hard episode in their lives and the last thing he wanted was to upset her. "It's only fair since you got to read my letter…" he cautiously added, reaching to cup her face with both hands.
She sighed, all traces of joy gone from her expression. "Matt, you were in the ICU, on a comma, and we didn't know if you'd ever wake up, and, if you did, if you could lead a normal life… Boden gave me that letter because your condition worsened and according to the doctors you weren't likely to make it… I was a mess those days and he thought I'd feel better if I had that letter although you were still alive hooked to countles machines …" she said, trying to keep her tears at bay. She would be forever grateful to Boden, for providing her with something to hope for during those terrible days.
"I know it was under dire circumstances, but it did bring us together, didn't it?" he stated, hugging her again. Reading that letter that Matt had given Boden only two weeks prior to the accident had let her know how he really felt about her. When he had woken up from the coma a week later she had been the first one he had seen by the side of his bed, along with his sister and his niece. "So iIt's only fair I get to read your letter…" he added.
In that moment Andy clearly made his presence known, softly crying.
"You wish…" Sylvie whispered as she quickly kissed her husband before tending to their baby.