Matt sighed as he settled on to the couch with his breakfast. Normally he would eat at the table with the boys, but they were both at friends houses and wouldn't be back until later, so he decided to eat on the couch while scrolling through what to watch. Thankfully his last shift hadn't been too bad and he was able to sleep some which is why he doesn't want to go straight to bed. He had just taken a bite of his eggs when his cell phone rang. Grabbing it he glances at the display and is pleasantly surprised to see Kelly Severide flash across the screen. Quickly he hits accept and brings the phone to his ear.
XXXX
"Hey Sev, it's been a little bit. How are you man?"
"Casey…" The hollowness of his friends voice sends spikes of fear through Matt.
"Kell, what's wrong?" "Is Sylvie okay?" he asked worriedly. Sure he and Sylvie were no longer together, but it didn't mean he didn't still care about her.
"No, Brett's fine, or at least as fine as the rest of us are right now. It's Violet actually whose not okay."
"What happened?"
"We responded to a really bad fire at the Pickwick theatre. It was an all hands on deck situation. Hawkins showed up to help with triage. He saw someone who was collapsing while everyone was helping take care of others and ran to try and help and the building came down on both of them. We fought like hell to rescue him, but by the time we got to him it was too late. Mikami was obviously devastated. God Matt! The scream she gave when Chief told her there was nothing we could do will haunt me for a long time."
"Damn! I'm so sorry, was anyone else hurt or…" Casey broke off but Kelly knew what he meant.
"Thankfully, no, but it definitely gave me flashbacks to the warehouse fire with Shay," he confessed choking on his best friends name. Matt blew out a breath he felt bad for Kelly reliving Shay's death surely wasn't easy.
"What can I do?" Matt wondered. He wasn't sure what he could do from this distance but he would figure something out.
"Honestly? I'm not sure, but you're the only one of us who can truly know what she's going through. I mean I lost Shay and Joe lost Otis, but they weren't the love of our life. Like Hallie was to you." Matt sucked in a breath at her name. Even all these years later it still hurt on some level, but thankfully it had gotten better.
"Yeah, that's definitely not a club I would ever want anyone to join," he said softly.
"So maybe you can call her or something? I know she really thinks a lot of you and respects you and your friendship," Kelly suggested. Matt thought for a moment before speaking.
"I think this warrants more than just a phone call. I just got off shift and actually have the next three days off because I covered for someone on top of my normal shift so the chief is giving me an extra day off. I'll check on flights and get one as soon as I can. Where will she be?"
"Stella and Brett have her here at our place. We all decided no one needed to be alone right now. Are you going to be okay seeing Brett?" Kelly asked in concern. Matt nodded before remembering he was on the phone and the other man couldn't see him.
"We'll be fine, like I said we're still friends, and even if we weren't, todays not about us. It's about Mikami," he argued.
"That's true, okay, well, let me know when your flight gets in and I can come pick you up."
"Thanks, will do, see you soon, Sev."
"Yep, see you soon, Casey. Travel safe," Severide responded hanging up his phone and heading back into the living room where he saw Brett gently closing the guest room door.
XXXX
"Is she finally asleep?"
"Yeah, went down about ten minutes ago. You want some coffee?" Stella asked as she stood in the kitchen filling mugs for herself and Sylvie.
"Thanks," he said heading into the kitchen and taking the mug his wife held out to him. The three of them settled at the table. They all knew that they needed sleep but none of them felt like they could yet.
"Who were you calling?" Sylvie questioned. Kelly hesitated before answering.
"Casey actually. I wanted to let him know what happened and see if he could maybe talk to her or something. I know we all want to help, and we are, but none of us know what it's like to lose the love of our life especially in such a violent way," he explained. Both women stared at him in confusion and he realized that neither of them had been there when Hallie died.
"Who did Matt lose?" Sylvie wondered.
"His fiancée Hallie. She was a doctor and she volunteered at a clinic and it was set on fire with her inside and she didn't make it. Stella gasped and Sylvie nodded in recognition.
"He did tell me about that, but I had forgotten how she died. So is he going to call her?"
"Well, uh, not exactly?" Kelly explained. He looked nervously at one of his best friends.
"Spit it out Severide!" Brett demanded.
"He's getting the next flight to Chicago. He thinks he can help better support her here instead of just over a phone. I'm sorry for not asking you first…" Sylvie held her hand up in the universal stop sign.
"It's fine, we're friends, just because we broke up doesn't mean we don't care about each other. Plus, honestly, I wouldn't expect anything less from him," Sylvie commented with a soft smile. Stella nodded in agreement.
"Casey is definitely one of a kind," Stella said. The others nodded in agreement. Sylvie was about to speak up when a cry filled the air.
"Evan, no!" Both girls jumped up and headed for the guest room hoping to do what they could for their grieving friend. Sighing in sadness, Kelly began cleaning up from their coffee and the breakfast they all had half-heartedly when they got to the loft. He just hoped Casey could help Violet in some way.
TBC?
A/n, this is just the first chapter. I'm not exactly sure how to write the conversation between Matt and Violet but I thought it deserved its own chapter, so I hope to have it written in the next day or two.
