TW- Kidnapping, neglect, eating disorders, emotional abuse, death of a child (not Sonny), panic attacks, mentions of suicide.
Hope you enjoy.
"Don't mess with me Kelly" growled Matt. What sort of sick joke was Kelly playing? Matt felt anger surge through him as he clenched his fists.
"I'm not messing with you Casey, they found Sonny alive" promised Kelly tightening his grip on Matt's arms in an attempt to calm the blonde down. Matt's heart was drumming inside his chest and his legs felt like jelly. They found his boy but before he could begin to celebrate Matt came crashing down to reality. He shook his head as he remembered bitterly all the times before they thought they had found Sonny, Matt didn't want to get his hopes up, what if it wasn't his boy? Matt didn't think he could take another disappointment.
"Look I promise I'll explain everything I know on the way but get in the car now, we have a long drive ahead" urged Kelly, Matt jumped into the car and they sped off down the country road neither of them being able to wait much longer for the truth.
"Are you sure?" Asked Matt his voice full of fear, he'd dreamt of this day for the last ten years.
"Yes Matt I'm positive" insisted Kelly, he remembered the first few weeks after Sonny went missing, how they jumped up at every lead, how Matt would wait by the phone all night silently begging for the phone call telling him they'd found Sonny. But ten years of not knowing where his son was, ten years of driving across the country following leads that turned out to be dead ends had made Matt pessimistic.
"Detective Warner received a call from police in Pennsylvania, they were chasing a suspect in a robbery when they caught up with him they found a fourteen year old boy in the car, he didn't know his last name he just insisted his name was Logan. One of the cops suggested running his DNA and it was a match with Sonny's" explained Kelly his mind still buzzing in relief.
"Warner made them check the DNA again before he contacted me but the guy they were chasing was in Chicago at the time Sonny went missing. It all matches up, you know Warner would never tell us unless he was positive it was Sonny" Kelly continued. They both knew how much time detective Warner had invested into Sonny's case. He'd been on the case since day one and the detective had never stopped searching, to this day he still carried Sonny's case file around with him, Sonny's disappearance gnawed at Warner, it was the case that would always haunt him.
"What happened to the guy they were chasing?" Inquired Matt breaking his silence.
"Suicide by cop, Sonny saw the whole thing" revealed Kelly sadly
"Is he ok?" Questioned Matt, even if the boy wasn't Sonny he felt sympathy towards them, that must have been a horrible thing to witness, he hoped they were alright whoever they were.
"Physically he's fine, no injuries" replied Kelly.
"That's good" admitted Matt before staring out of the window. For ten years he'd been running various scenarios of what had happened to Sonny but as time went on Matt believed it was highly unlikely he'd ever see his little boy again.
One decision, all this pain because of one stupid decision. Matt had met Hallie when he was a candidate and she was a med student, after being together off and on for three years she fell pregnant with Sonny, they weren't living together at the time and after a brief unsuccessful attempt at living together they decided they were better off separated. They were good friends but they weren't meant to be husband and wife. They never let the fact they weren't a couple get in the way of what was best for Sonny, having suffered due to his own parents divorce Matt knew how important it was to remain civil. Admittedly they encountered obstacles ; every family does, parenthood was far from easy but they always got through it. Matt would have Sonny one week and then Hallie would have him the next, when they were on shift Sonny would stay with their reliable babysitter Cindy Herrmann. Matt didn't have enough money to buy a house therefore he still lived with Kelly,Sonny stayed in the room that belonged to Andy when they were candidates. Their situation was far from conventional but it worked, Kelly had always been like a second father to Sonny. He was the luckiest kid in the world as he had three amazing people who cared about him more than anything. They swore they would always be there to protect Sonny. But they failed on that horrible dreadful day. Hallie had a rough shift as a young seven year old girl had passed away. When Hallie turned up at Casey's with tear tracks staining her face asking to see Sonny Matt felt a pang in his heart, he understood what she was going through every time they lost a child on a call Matt felt sick to his stomach. Seeing how shaken Hallie was Matt told her to take Sonny for the evening, but there was something neither of them knew, after investigating suspicious activity at the clinic she worked in Hallie had earned a target on her head. Her shady boss had hired someone to take care of her. They'd been stalking Hallie for weeks, they knew her shift pattern and that Sonny was supposed to be at Casey's. No one expected little Sonny to jump out of his bed after hearing a loud bang and run downstairs to find his mum dead on the living room floor.
Detective Warner had quickly connected Hallie's boss to her death but even after being arrested and imprisoned for life he refused to reveal the names of the people he hired to kill Hallie. He proclaimed he had nothing to loose, the only joy in his life was watching the pain in detective Warner's and Matt's eyes. The crew he had hired were skilled, they were paid in cash and used burner phones, they were ghosts. There wasn't a day that passed that Matt didn't wish he had told Hallie to stay, told her she could sleep in his bed and he'd sleep on the couch, Sonny would have definitely been ok and maybe Hallie would be still alive. Sonny had always been a happy kid, he was their little ray of sunshine and Hallie was the kindest most loving mother in the world. Matt's decision destroyed their lives, he would carry that guilt for the rest of his life.
Matt felt like they'd been driving for years, he needed the truth soon before his head exploded with anxiousness.
"Kelly pull over" instructed Matt as he stared at the exhausted firefighter next to him.
"What? Why?" Asked Kelly panicked, he wasn't surprised Matt didn't believe they had found Sonny but he didn't expect Matt to not even check.
"Relax Kelly, you look like a corpse. I'll drive the rest of the way, you need to sleep" explained Matt. Kelly began to protest but Matt cut him pulled over the car and swapped places with Matt, they'd only been driving for five minutes when Severide began leaning heavily on the car door as his heavy eyelids closed. Matt let his thoughts drift away from Sonny and to the tired firefighter next to him. Sonny was Matt's son but Sonny meant the world to Kelly too, Sonny always called him uncle Sevy and Kelly had been their nearly as much as Matt had. Finding Sonny was just as important to Kelly as it was to Matt.