Goody Goodies

"Sorry I'm late," Kelly called out as he entered the apartment and kicked the door shut behind him. He held up one of the grocery bags he was holding and told Casey, "I got the steaks for dinner, I'll start the potatoes and..."

The pained moans Casey was making from where he sat leaned back against the couch drowned out whatever Kelly was about to say and it was only at that time that Severide actually saw Casey and could see he appeared to be in some kind of agony. Kelly dropped the bags and crossed over to the couch.

"What's wrong, Casey?"

A small whining whimper escaped Casey as he pressed one hand against his eyes and told Kelly, "Forget about dinner, I can't eat it, I can't eat anything."

"What's wrong, are you sick?" Kelly asked curiously.

Casey moaned again and his whole body grimaced, "I'm an idiot."

"Casey, what's-wrong?" Kelly tried to get a definitive answer.

Matt whined again and got to his feet and motioned for Kelly to follow him to the kitchen.

Kelly wasn't sure what was going on, but he picked up the grocery bags and followed Casey.

The light was on in the kitchen and among the first things Kelly saw was an empty box on the table. It looked slightly familiar, he stepped over to the table and examined it closer and realized it was the bakery box the Christmas cookies were in that they'd gotten yesterday at the store.

Kelly felt his eyebrows climb halfway up his forehead as he exclaimed in disbelief, "You ate all of them?"

That wasn't entirely true, they'd each had a few the day before when they got home with them, but the fact remained Casey must've eaten close to 30 cookies.

"Shit, Casey," Kelly looked at him, "Do I need to call an ambulance? Do I need to take you to Med?"

By itself, Kelly wouldn't have been too worried about this incident, if it weren't for the fact he knew Casey had already eaten several pieces of fudge one of the neighbors had made, and the top layer of a box of cordial cherries earlier that day, and he was worried what the combination of the two was going to do to Casey.

Matt shook his head, "No, no hospital, no ambulance."

"Are you gonna puke?" Kelly asked.

"I don't know," Casey moaned.

Kelly closed his eyes for a second and merely nodded. "Okay, okay," he grabbed Casey by the wrist, "Come on, let's get you to bed and you can sleep it off."

Casey continued to moan and whine as they made the short trip from the kitchen to the bedroom. Kelly pulled down the covers, got Casey settled on the edge, stepped into the bathroom and came back with a glass of water.

"You know the routine, drink this, it'll help the sugar pass through your system quicker," Kelly said as he handed the glass to Matt.

"I can't drink that."

"Yes you can, just sip it," Kelly told him.

Slowly, begrudgingly, Casey managed to drink the water, and when the glass was empty Kelly took it and pushed Casey to lay down, and drew the covers over him.

"I'm sorry, Kelly."

Severide merely nodded, "It's okay, you just take it easy, you'll feel better tomorrow."

"I'm an idiot, I don't know why I did it. I knew...after the first few I knew to stop, but I didn't, and I don't know why."

"Don't worry about it," Kelly decided not to take any chances and he put the wastebasket by the side of the bed, aligned with Casey's pillow above. He stroked his hand over the back of Casey's head a couple times and told the blonde lieutenant, "You go to sleep and rest, if you need anything just holler."

Casey groaned as he turned one way and the other, trying to actually get comfortable but not having much luck. Kelly turned off the lights, but he left the blind open so the distant lights outside could shine in for a little light during the night. Then he left the room, and headed back to the kitchen. There wasn't any point in making the steaks now. He put them in the fridge and took out some stuff to make himself a sandwich.

"Hey, how're you feeling?" Kelly asked Casey the next morning as he wandered into the kitchen.

"Better," Casey said quietly. He accepted the mug of coffee offered and slowly drank it. "Still feel stupid."

"Don't worry about it, Casey."

"I knew better, I knew I'd make myself sick if I kept eating the cookies, but I just didn't," Casey said as he sat down at the table, "I don't know why."

"Well look at it this way, they were just that good," Kelly said with a small chuckle.

Casey curled up one side of his mouth in a half grimace and shook his head. "They were, but I still knew better."

"Eh, it's only once a year."

"Oh yeah, that makes me feel better," Casey said as he took another sip of his coffee. "Sorry about dinner."

"It's alright. How does steak sound for breakfast?"

"Hey, what's this?" Kelly asked as they entered the kitchen at 51 and saw a large box on the table.

"Oh, this apparently is from that woman that we pulled out of the car wreck last shift," Cruz said, "it came gift wrapped with a card."

"What is it?" Kelly repeated.

Tony and Otis took the lid off and revealed row after row of chocolate candies in a plastic holder.

"A three pound box of chocolate," Cruz said.

"No!" Casey yelped as he turned on his heel and left the room.

"What was that about?" Otis asked.

"Never mind," Kelly said.