Disclaimer: I own nothing except my imagination and the kids names.
a/n: Thank you to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter and specially thank you for your patience with me. Life has been extremely busy, at work AND at home plus a huge case of writers block where this story is concerned which leads me to thank a few people. Em, Whit and Emma, thanks for letting me bounce my ideas off of you, it helped a lot with the block, love you. So here is the next chapter, hope you like it.
Things had quieted down a lot in the Casey/Dawson household since Alberto's parents had left and the family was now able to relax a bit more, the end of summer nearing at a fast pace. The kids were playing in the yard one evening while Matt and Gabby were doing the dishes.
"What's going on in that head of yours?" Matt had been watching her for a few minutes while he dried the dishes she handed him mecanically.
"Everything is fine." She smiled back at him.
"I've known you long enough to know when something is off." He took the plate she handed him.
"There's only one week left until school starts."
"Summer has gone by quickly this year."
"It's not that I just can't believe that Valentina starts pre-K, she's so little." Her eyes looked back outside where she was saw Valentina playing with Emma and Grace, doing bubbles and running after them, the girls laughing.
"She'll be fine." He put his rag down and pulled her to him by the waist. She has two great big brothers and look at the girls with her. Grace was now giving her a piggy back ride, her arms wrapped tightly around her neck. "See, you have nothing to worry about." He turned her so she could face him and leaned down to capture her lips in a kiss.
"I guess your right." She smiled at him when they parted.
"I'm always right." He smirked, earning him a slap against the chest.
"Anyways." She rolled her eyes playfully at him. "Are we still on for lunch tomorrow?" She played with his short collar.
"Absolutely." He kissed her but they were soon swarmed by five, very excited kids.
"Can we have some ice cream?" Emma asked with a huge grin on her face.
"And what do we say?" He teased them.
"Pleaseeeee." All five of them asked in unison, both Matt and Gabby fell into laughed. The kids were qickly seated as Matt made ice cream cones for everyone, leaving the adults to watch them eat, their arms wrapped around each other. After running around in the yard and taking their baths, the kids were exhausted and it didn't take that much time to get them asleep, Matt and Gabby enjoying the last light of the day on the patio with a glass of wine.
"Matt?" Gabby's legs were propped on his knees.
"Yeah."
"I know nothing is set right now with everything that's happened in the last couple of weeks but I had a few ideas floating around in my head for the wedding." She took a sip of her glass of wine.
"How about we ask someone to check on the kids after my shift let's out and we can spend the evening with those ideas?" He pulled her chair closer to his. "Just the two of us." He took her both their glasses and set them on the table on his left before he pulled her on him, making her straddle him.
"And maybe practice our wedding night." She whispered seductively against his lips.
"We don't have to wait until then to do that." He kissed her as he raised them both from the chair, leading them back inside and up the stairs towards their room, wine and lights on forgotten.
Matt woke up the next morning and Gabby was still tucked into his side. He left her sleep as he heard the kids awake downstairs and he made sure everyone was getting breakfast and was dressed before he had to wake up her. At the top of the stairs, he noticed that the door was ajar so he made his way inside quietly, knowing she was probably in the shower so he waited for her on the bed. He had a few minutes left to spare and he leaned against his arms on top of the freshly made bed. Their eyes met when she stepped back into the room and he smiled at her.
"You should have woken me up." She walked to him as she tightened the towel around her body.
"You looked peaceful and I had some time ahead of me." His fingers played with the material of the towel as his eyes traveled her body up and down.
"If you do what I know you want to do, you'll be the one that's late."
"Huh? What did you say?" Her voice pulled him out of his thoughts.
"I said that if you do what I know you want to do, you'll be the one that's late." She ran her fingers through his hair.
"Yeah." He sighed, getting up. "I'll see you later for lunch." He kissed her.
"Definitely." She kissed him back, pressing her tongue against his lips, giving him a taste of what he'd be missing until she came to see him at the firehouse later. "I love you."
"I love you too." He smiled at her before he left. The firehouse was already packed by the time he made it in with barely enough time to change into his uniform before he had to head into the conferance room. Boden wasn't even half way through his speech when the bells rang, calling them to house fire. Another call came in right after, everyone called to a warehouse involving an incident with a machine and an employee. Matt, Kelly and Squad 3 were in the thick of the rescue along with the girls on ambo so obviously, Matt was in the ambulance to assist them in case the patient took a turn for the worst.
Their stop in Med was fairly quick but Matt offered to fill in the paperwork while the girls cleaned up so obviously, after giving Maggie the paperwork, he went upstairs to pay Gabby a surprise visit. But when he made into the department, he wasn't ready for what was waiting for him. Gabby was standing at the nurse station and next to her was a tall man in a lab coat. They were in deep discussion and all he could hear was the sound of her laugh, a laugh that she usually reserved for him only. Instantly, his body became hotter and he could feel that heat raise up to his face, anger rising with it. He turned in his spot and took the stairs down, pushing the door with anger.
Gabby turned at the sound of the door that banged hard against its frame, her eyes glancing at the ghost of pants, making her frown. She wasn't sure if she had hallucinated turnout pants or not but she was quickly called to see one of her young pateints that wasn't doing so good. She was more than happy when lunch time came and as she always did when she went to see Matt, she stopped at the diner to bring him his favourite sandwich. She parked her car and walked up the apparatus floor where she got a hug from Kelly who told her he was in his office but in a bad mood for some reason that was lost on him too. She waved at everyone in the common room and went straight for Matt's office. She watched him through the glass, the anger tensing his muscles.
"Hey baby, I got your favourite." She quietly knocked on his opened door. Matt didn't even acknowledge her and it was starting to worry her. "Is everything ok Matt?"
"You tell me."
"What happened today Matt?" His shoulders tightened yet again. "Talk to me." She took a step further inside so she could take a seat on his bed.
"Do you really want to get married?" He suddenly turned in his chair, his question making her take a step back.
"Where is this coming from? Did I do anything to make you think that I don't want too?" It hurt her that he would think such a thing after last night and this morning.
"Young, tall doctor. That ring a bell for you?" Her mind tried to remember who she had interracted with today and then it hit her.
"Are you talking about Dr Mason?"
"Whatever his name was, you looked like you were having a lot of fun him." His arms were crossed against his chest, anger rolling off of him in waves.
"He's just a resident Matt." She took a step forward again but Matt rolled his chair farther behind him. "He was telling us about his week end, there's NOTHING going on between us.
"It didn't exactly look like nothing."
"If I didn't want to get married, Matt, I wouldn't be wearing the ring YOU gave me." He raised her hand up to show him the ring that was sitting there, her anger starting to get the best of her too. Time wouldn't be on their side right now because the bells rang and Matt stood up and left without another word, letting Gabby there, fuming. She couldn't believe that he had the nerve to insinuate that something, anything, was going on with that resident was making her angry, so angry that she took the only step seperating her from Matt's desk and the anger took her over and she slammed her fists against his desk, its contents flying to the ground as she cried in anger before storming out of 51 and into the Chicago air to get her bearings before heading back into work and the rest of her shift.
When Nathalie saw the look on Gabby's face, she knew not to ask questions so she let her nurse do her job, knowing that she would come see her if she needed to vent. Gabby did her afternoon with Matt on her mind, anger still there but she stayed Professional. A call came in a few minutes later and Nathalie sent her into the ER for a little patient that was coming in with hypothermia and the scene that was waiting for her made her anger explode.
"How dare you."
"Gabby." Matt was taken aback, clearly not expecting her there.
"How DARE you accuse me of flirting and I come down here and I catch you doing the same?" The nurse that was previously been talking to Matt had disappeared from view, not wanting to be in the middle of a lovers argument.
"Woah, Gabby, I wasn't flirting." He raised his hands in defence but she was having nothing of it.
"Says the guy with the huge grin on his face."
"Gabby." She felt a pull on her shoulder. "You're making a scene." Shay's voice whispered in her ear but Gabby simply pulled away and stormed away to go take care of the little girl that had been brought in.
51 quickly left Med, Matt clearly still shocked at Gabby's reaction but as soon as they stepped into the firehouse and that Ambo was parked, Shay was the first to get in his face.
"What the hell did you do to make her this angry?" Shay hissed.
"I didn't do anything Shay, she just came at me."
"You better think hard and fix this." She growled at him before she left to find something to find to eat." Matt left for his office, hoping to get the incident report out of the way but he definitely wasn't expecting what was in front of him.
"Damn, Casey, what the hell happened here?" Severide stood beside him, clapping a hand on his shoulder.
"Shit." He hung his head low, everything coming together in his mind. "Must be Gabby. I was pretty mad at her when she came by for lunch."
"What the hell for?"
"I kind of accused her of flirting with some doctor and about her not wanting to get married." He ran a hand on his face.
"Bad move lieutenant." Cruz added his two cents on his way to his bunk.
"I need to make this right, I'll try calling her."
"Good luck." Severide gave him another pat on the back before he left his best friend to mick up the mess and fix things with his girl.
Matt closed the door to his office and left the mess as was, this phone call more important than cleaning up his office. It rang and rang and rang and still she didn't pick up the phone. "Come on baby, pick up your phone." He said under his breath. Then it beeped, going to voicemail. You've reached Gabriella Dawson, leave a message. "Gabby, baby, I know you're mad at me and you have every right to be pissed but please, please pick up the phone so we can talk about it." He sighed as he pressed the end button. He was mad at himself for letting his jealousy get the best of him and it was something he'd have to work on moving forward. He set his phone down on his desk and started picking up the pieces of papers that was on the ground and putting everything in its place. He bent down the piece of paper on the ground and noticed something on the side of his desk, a picture frame. He picked it up and the glass was cracked. It was the picture that Shay had taken a while back where Gabby was sitting on his lap at Molly's and they were making out. He really needed to make this right. He set the frame back on his desk and left his office, going in search of Herrmann and chief Boden. "Hey Herrmann, you mind stepping in for me for a little bit? Is that ok chief?"
"Do what you've gotta do Casey."
"Thanks chief." Matt hurried to his truck and made his way to Med and up into peds but he came face to face with Nathalie.
"I think you should go." She raised her hands to stop him, Matt mere inches from her.
"I need to make this right Nathalie." He knew how close Gabby was to her boss.
"I don't know what you did because she won't tell me but she's been upset ever since she came back up with that little girl so just give her some space and try talking to her in the morning."
"Please Nat."
"I'm sorry Matt, Gabby is on shift." Matt knew that he wouldn't win.
"Tell her I love her and that I'm sorry." Nathalie nodded before Matt turned around, defeated, and left.
When he wasn't on a call, he stayed in his office, feeling miserable about not being to get in touch with Gabby. When darkness came and no call had rang, he tried her one last time on her cell but again, it went to voicemail. "I know that I've been a complete ass and I put you in an impossible situation but I love you and I'm sorry. Anyways, I'll see you at home in the morning. Night." He pressed the end button and discarded his phone across his desk before he laid down on his cot, both hands behind his head. He had really messed up this time and he wouldn't be surprised if she didn't forgive him.
They were lucky enough not to have any calls during the night so as soon as Boden was done with their end of shift briefing, Matt didn't waste any time to get out of there. He stopped at the store close to their house where he knew they had fresh flowers every morning and he picked something out for her before he stepped into the hjouse, dropping his duffle bag by the door. The house was unusually quiet so he figured Gabby had either asked someone to babysit the kids of she had sent them off in the basement to play quietly. He walked up the stairs and when he saw the soft glow of the light, he knew Gabby was still in their room. He looked in the kids rooms by habit and walked all the way to his and Gabby's room, pushing the door open, Gabby looking up with tears in her eyes, Matt's heart breaking into pieces.
"Hey." He whispered, the flowers in his hand, sitting against his leg.
a/n: So although Matt and Gabby started the day on a good nite, it became rocky, fast. Can they fix it or did Matt's jealousy push them in opposite directions? Please take a few seconds to leave a review before you go, I want to know your thoughts - Sarra
