Disclaimer: I own nothing except my imagination and the kids names.

a/n: Hey guys. Thanks again for the ton of reviews that were left on the last chapter and thanks also to the new followers of myself and this story, it means a lot to me. Thanks also to everyone who's been so patient with me and my return to work. I had a crazy week with little of sleep and too many hours on the job so I had to cheat and write secretly at work to get this chapter finished so I hope you enjoy it.


Matt sat in his office, his mind clearly not on the incident report that was sitting on his desk. He looked at the picture of Grace and Emma that was sitting on it and couldn't help but smile. It was a brand new picture and that day was clear in his mind.

They ran through the park, Emma chasing Grace around, both girls laughing. Matt had taken them to the park, just the three of them. In the past months, they had spent a lot of time with Gabby and her kids and he didn't want the girls to think that they were going to spend less time with their father.

"I want a picture of the two of you." Matt screamed from his spot on the park bench.

"You already have a ton of pictures of us dad." Grace complained.

"I know but I need a new one for my office." He got up while Emma pulled a very reluctant Grace. They were standing in front of the slide, Emma's arm around her sister's shoulder and she was ready for the picture. Grace finally smiled but as soon as Matt pressed on the button, Grace made a funny face for the camera while Emma smiled, making Matt laugh as well.

The knock on his door pulled him out of his thoughts. "Hey Sev, what's up?" He looked at Severide who walked in and closed the door.

"I was going to ask you that same question. What's up with you? You're not your normal self." Matt ran a hand in front of his face.

"I'm sorry. Let's just say that the past came knocking on my door last night."

"You mean literally knock on your door?" He questionned, leaning against the wall, both arms crossed over his chest.

"Yeah. I told you we were going to the park after school and for some ice cream with Gabby and the kids right? Whell you'll never guess who was waiting for me on my front porch."

"You've got to be kidding me right?"

"I wish I was."

"You're telling me that Hallie was waiting for you when you got back from the park? Just like that?"

"Just like that."

"What did she want?"

"I didn't give her time to get to that. I told her to leave."

"Oh my god. What about the girls? What did you tell them?"

"I told her she was a friend. What was I supposed to tell them Kelly?"

"Man that's rough." They kept talking a bit until they heard glass breaking in the common room. They walked that way to find out what was going on.


Hallie woke up and got ready for her day. She wanted to get some errands done before going to the firehouse for a surprise visit. She knew that she'd cause quite the surprise but she didn't care. She knew that Matt was on shift and she knew that there wouldn't be anywhere to hide for him. Around eleven thirty, she went to a smile diner that she knew Matt loved and grabbed his favourite before driving towards the house. She parked in an available spot and walked up the firehouse apron and walked through the apparatus floor, finding the Squad table empty and the trucks in their respactive places, meaning that she was right on time for lunch break. She walked through the halls that she remembered and made her way to the center of the firehouse. When she walked into the common room, everyone looked in the direction of the doors and stopped what they were doing, all eyes were on her.

"Hi." She sweetly said, ignoring a few gaping mouths.

"Hallie?" Herrmann choked out, dropping the coffee mug he had in his hands.

"Nice to see you again Christopher." She smiled, talking as if they hadn't lost contact for the past five years.

"What are you going here?" He finally found his voice and his protective side came out once again.

"I came to see Matt." She simply said.

"I'm here, what do you want Hallie?" Matt appeared in the common room from the bunk area.

"I thought we could have lunch together." She raised the bag she had in her hands and smiled at him. Everyone in the house looked from Hallie to Matt, everyone wondering what was going on right now. Matt simply nodded in the direction of the hallway, Hallie following him, all eyes following her every move. What do you want Hallie? Matt turned around abruptly, facing her.

"I said I wanted to grab some lunch with you, I brought your favourite." She acted as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"I haven't gone there in years."

"Look Matt, I just want to talk." She tried a different approach because the lunch excuse wasn't working.

"You can't just barge into my work place and expect me to want to talk."

"Well you didn't want to talk yesterday. I knew that I'd catch you on shift today so I took a chance."

"Well I don't want to talk today either."

"You can't just ignore me Matt. She was getting defensive and he was starting to get angry.

"I sure as hell can."

"We have kids together Matt. You have to talk with me at some point." This was Matt's breaking point and anger overflowed.

"YOU LEFT US!" He screamed, making Hallie jump slightly and the person behind her stop her step.


Gabby got to work with a few minutes to spare, running the last steps up to peds so she could relieve the night nurse.

"How's it going with loverboy?" Nathalie questionned her from the top of the nurses station.

"His name is Matt." She chuckled and rolled her eyes at her boss. She knew Nathalie loved to tease her about Matt ever since she found out they had started dating a few months back. "He's been doing great right until last night."

"What happened sweetie?"

"Everything between us is going great. It's uh, actually, his ex showed up last night."

"Oh God." She exclaimed. "Did the girls see her? How did he explain it to them?" The words all came out at once.

"He said she was a friend and I didn't stay very long." Nathalie was one of the few in the hospital that knew about Matt's past.

"That has to be tough."

"It is."

"What about you? How do you feel about it?" Gabby stopped what she was doing and put her pencil down, thinking about what she was about to say.

"At first thought, I just wanted the girls to have a mom because I would love for the boys to still have their dad but then when I thought about it some more, I realized that I really like Matt and I want more with him and they deserve so much more than someone who left them. Maybe it's me, maybe it's not but I just want them to be happy." She was really trying hard to let her brain talk and not just her heart.

"I think you should take an extra long lunch, grab some food and go spend some time with him at the firehouse."

"I can't do that." She tried protesting. "You need someone to cover for me and you don't so I won't."

"I'll cover for you." Nathalie smiled at Gabby.

"Thanks." She smiled. Gabby spent the rest of the morning, occupying her mind with the sick kids that were under her care before giving her report to Jessica and heading out. There was a small diner next to the hospital that she loved going to sometimnes so she grabbed some food for two and headed towards the firehouse. The garage doors were opened and the trucks were in so she smiled and walked up the apron and through the halls that she was now familiar with. She pulled the doors to the common room and walked in, a smile on her face. Shay quickly noticed her and smiled.

"Hey girl, what are you doing here?" She walked closer and pulled Gabby in a hug.

"I thought I'd come see if Matt was available for lunch." Shay looked behind her nervously and Gabby noticed it. "What's going on Shay?"

"Nothing."

"Really Shay?" Gabby made a face that said to not even try it.

"Matt got a surprise visitor."

"Hallie?" Gabby wasn't entirely surprised that Hallie had turned up here. She knew from the moment Hallie left, giving her the eye that she would attempt something else.

"You knew Hallie was in town?" Shay was surprised that she hadn't heard it from Gabby's mouth. "How come I didn't know she was in town?"

"I figured it was for Matt to tell you guys, not me." She shrugged.

"I think he's in the back." Gabby got a hug from everyone before she went looking for Matt. When she walked through the door, she could pick Matt's voice out in the less busy hall and he didn't sound happy. She ventured close, making as little noise as possible when Matt's outburst was heard.

"YOU LEFT US!" His voice was filled with a mix and red hot anger and pain. It tugged at Gabby's heart strings. Hallie had her back to her and she saw her flinch when he screamed out. Silence suddenly filled the small hallway, the three people occupying it processing what just happened. Matt finally acgowledged Gabby with a smile and Hallie turned around to see why he was smiling.

"And of course, she has to show up." She raised her hands up exasperated. "This is a private conversation." She said rudely.

This conversation is over. Matt simply said, walking around Hallie and kissing Gabby on the cheek before taking her hand in his.

"This conversation is far from over Matt." Hallie couldn't believe that this was happening but her thoughts were cut off by the overhead paging system

Engine 51, Truck 81, Squad 3, Ambulance 61, Battallion 25 kitchen fire

Matt couldn't believe that a call was coming in at this exact moment when his ex and current girlfriend were standing in the firehouse but he had to go.

"Raincheck?" He asked Gabby

"Absolutely." He kissed her lips sweetly and quickly turned to Hallie.

"And you need to be gone when I come back." He told Hallie before leaving quickly, his job taking priority in this case. He only hoped that it wouldn't explode in his face.

Gabby decided that she would leave what she had taken with her in Matt's office for when he came back and she turned around without one word to Hallie but her attempt at avoiding the issue was rendered moot when Hallie caught up with her in the common room.

"Hey you, I'm not done with you." Gabby was aware no introductions had been made but it didn't mean that that she wanted any kind of confrontation with the woman.

"Listen Hallie, I'm not looking to cause any trouble here." Gabby started. She wasn't sure which way this was going to go.

"Well that's too bad." Clearly this was going to go sideways and Gabby needed to get back to the hospital.

Firehouse 51 arrived on scene to find the fire already out by the owners of the house,frustrating Matt further. The guys quickly packed up while 61 stayed behind to take care of minor burns. Cruz parked 81 in its spot next to 3 and they all got out.

"It'll be alright lieutenant." Herrmann patted Matt on the back. He knew how frustrated his friend was with Hallie being back in the picture and what everyone in the house had clearly heard earlier.

"I just hope she left when we did but something tells me she didn't." Antonio walked up right before Matt walked into the house. "Hey Antonio, what are you doing here?"

"Gabby gave me a call last night, told me what happened. She asked for my help." He simply said, not bothering to explain anything but the voices coming from the other side of the door caught their attention, both pushing forward to prevent something bad from happening.

"Do you really think you can play house with Matt and my girls?" Hallie questionned Gabby harshly.

"The way I look at it, you left them, you lost the right to call them your girls a long time ago." Gabby was tired of letting Hallie verbally abuse her. She had tried to not let it affect her when she started more than thirty minutes ago.

"You know nothing about me." Hallie cut in.

"I know that you left a great man and a great family. How could you even do that to them? You just left them, without a mom and I think that's pretty selfish of you." Gabby had never really told Matt what she was feeling when he told her about Hallie leaving them but having the woman responsible for it in front of her and attacking her for no reason angered her and she was fed up with it.

"You little bitch." The both of them were close enough that Gabby never saw the punch coming her way but her jaw felt the pain and she stumbled backwards a little bit, Matt catching her and Antonio had his arms around Hallie's waist, pulling her away.

"Are you out of your mind?" Matt hissed, looking at Hallie who was trying to get out of Antonio's grip.

"That little slut deserved it." She pointed in Gabby's direction, who was running a thumb on her bloody lip while Shay was trying to tend to her.

Matt had never seen Hallie like this in the eight years they had been together but she wasn't the woman he used to know anymore. Antonio looked at both Matt and Gabby in turn before Matt gave him the nod.

"You're under arrest for assault." Hallie fought him but Antonio was stronger and he managed to put her in cuffs.

"This isn't over Matt." She screamed, Antonio using a bit more force against her uncooperative body to move her past Matt and Gabby along with the rest of the house. He looked at Gabby before he left to take Hallie down to the district.

Both Matt and Gabby knew that Antonio couldn't keep her longer than overnight unless charges were formally filed but the both of them needed to finish their work shift. Matt walked back to Gabby who was now sitting down at the kitchen table, Shay kneeled down in front of her with a cold cloth.

"Are you ok?" He could finally give her all of his attention. The rest of the house went back to its usual business, trying not to talk about what had just happened.

"Yeah it's just a scratch." She smiled painfully as she removed the cloth to show him.

"Honey, that will be swelling before you know it." Shay figured she'd give her two cents while Gabby gave her the death glare.

"I promise it's fine." She stood up, handing Shay the cloth again.

"Let me drive you back to work at least."

"You're on shift Matt, I can't let you do that but I can swing by after mine and cook dinner for everyone, how does that sound?"

"Don't you have to go pick up the kids?"

"They're staying at Antonio's for the night, he's supposed to teach them how to box." She rolled her eyes. She really wished that Antonio wouldn't do that but he loved boxing and wanted to teach it to his nephews.

"Then I would love that." He smiled and pulled her in a hug, playing a soft kiss on her forehead.

"Alright I left you some lunch in your office, you might have to heat it up though."

"Thanks. I'll see you here later." He kissed her and let her walk away.

"Bye guys, I'll see you later." Everyone said by from where they were seated and she left, Matt making his way to his office again.

He sat at his desk and picked up his phone, dialing Lakeshore's familiar number, letting it ring a few times before someone answered. He asked for the peds department and waited for someone to answer.

This is Nathalie speaking, can I help you? Matt remembered Gabby talking about her boss Nathalie from work so it was just perfect. "Hi it's Matt Casey, I work at the fire department." So finally I put a voice to the man that makes Gabby smile so much. Matt chuckled. "That would be me. Listen, something happened at the firehouse just now and I just wanted to make sure Gabby was ok. Do you mind keeping an eye out for her?" He didn't want to seem like he was hovering but he knew that she was lying when she said she was ok so he was just concerned. What happened Matt? Matt exhaled when that question was asked but he was pretty sure she'd share it with her herself. "I'll let her tell you herself, just keep an eye on her please?" Of course, thanks for the heads up Matt. "Anytime." He said one last time into his phone before he pressed the end button and put it back on his desk, opening the brown bag that was in front of him and eating what Gabby brought him for lunch before going back to the incident report that was still sitting on his desk.

TBC


Gabby and Hallie finally went at it while the guys were at a fire, not ending entirely too well for Hallie. The next chapter will be a direct continuation of this one and we'll finally find out what happened to Hallie so stick around, I'll do my best to update soon. Please take a few seconds to review before you go, I always love to find out what you guys think - Sarra