8 months later-
There was a heavy silence in the air as Casey entered Kelly's apartment. Kelly sat on the couch and watched as Casey came in the door carrying a small box, all the stuff he was able to salvage from his apartment after it was set on fire.
Casey looked for a place to set it down but a sudden urge came over him not to let go. Out of nowhere, something came back to him from several years ago.
"So that's it? You put in 14 years at this station and it all fits in one box?"
The words ran through him like ice in his veins and he felt himself starting to shake.
Kelly got up from the couch, stepped over to Casey, took the box from him and put it down, and put his arms around his best friend and hugged him tight as the reality of everything finally sunk in, now the adrenaline rush of catching the people responsible was over, and the reality hit him that his home and everything in it, everything he'd worked for over the years, was gone.
He felt the tremors running through Casey's body as the blonde man broke down crying.
"I'm so sorry, Casey."
Kelly was eternally grateful that Matt had been able to escape from the apartment before the whole place was going up in flames, glad that his best friend was alive and well, but he knew how devastating this had to be for Casey right now. His home was gone, everything he had there was gone, life as he knew it was gone, and why? Because a bunch of greedy bastards decided to kill him for investigating their business that was blatantly endangering the lives of their customers. The whole thing was still mind boggling even now.
"Hey, hey," he whispered as he rubbed Casey's back, "It's going to be okay..." He felt as much as he heard Casey suck in a shaky breath as he tried to compose himself, "I promise you it's going to get better."
Casey tried to pull himself together but he couldn't, Kelly held on to him for a couple minutes as Casey pressed his mouth against Kelly's shoulder and all the fear and hurt and anger and devastation came pouring out. All day long he'd been able to hold this off because he had a purpose, nail the bastards responsible. Now that he didn't have that, there was nothing to keep his guard up anymore.
Kelly rubbed his back and told him, "Come on, you can stay with me tonight," and led Casey over to the bedroom.
Severide knew it wasn't going to be an easy night, and he knew that Casey was trying his hardest to stifle the sounds he was making in the pillow he'd folded under his head. He had his back to Kelly, but the Squad lieutenant could still see the tremors running through Casey's back as he softly cried. How much life could change in just 24 hours, in a way nobody could have ever seen coming. Kelly lay on his side of the bed and watched Matt for a while, wanting to do something, say something, but he knew there wasn't anything he could offer that would make Casey feel better about his current situation. Finally though he decided he had to do something, so he leaned over, gently turned Casey over to face him and hugged him.
"I know, I know," he whispered as Casey rested his head on Kelly's shoulder, "It's going to be alright, it'll be okay."
Casey was still futilely trying to stifle the sobs that accentuated the words coming out of his mouth as he tried to talk, "I'm...sorry..."
Kelly glumly smiled to himself as he rubbed large circles on Casey's back and told him, "It's alright...everything's going to work out, Casey, just try to rest."
He didn't know when Casey finally fell asleep, but when the blonde man finally calmed down and his breathing became slow and even, Kelly offered a silent prayer of thanks and closed his eyes, hoping they'd get through the rest of the night without anything else happening.
Kelly came home and saw Casey on the couch looking over a bunch of papers. "What's this?"
"I had to get new copies of everything from the bank," Casey answered, "I have to get new copies of everything from everywhere."
"Well," Kelly looked around at the four large Walmart bags on the floor, "looks like you're off to a good start."
"Not me, Herrmann had Cindy get it all," Casey said almost resentfully, "I don't want charity."
"It's not charity."
"They didn't have to do it," Casey told him.
"You're family, they want to help," Kelly said.
"I don't need their help, I could've gotten it myself," Casey said.
"We know it's going to be a while before your insurance pays out," Kelly started to say, but was cut off.
"I don't need it," Casey replied. He picked up a sheet of paper and thrust it at Kelly, "See?"
He saw it was from Casey's bank with the information about his account, including the current amount. It had been months since Kelly actually thought about it, but he guessed that Casey had finally been able to get caught back up to where he was before Gabby stormed out, or if not caught up, at least close.
"I've got enough to replace everything that was lost in the fire," Casey said, "and rent a new apartment."
"What?" Kelly blinked. Surely he hadn't heard right.
"Thanks for letting me stay here last night, but I don't want to cramp you up," Casey told him, "I can get my own place."
"Whoa, wait a minute," Kelly wasn't even sure what was going on. This came out of nowhere and blindsided him.
"I don't want to be a burden," Casey said.
"Casey, stop...was I a burden when you let me stay with you and Gabby?" Kelly asked.
Casey paused at the question, finally responding with a half muttered, "That depended on what mood you were in."
A small snort escaped Kelly, "Fair point...Casey, you can stay here as long as you need to, as long as you want to."
"I don't want to put you out, Kelly," Matt told him.
"You're not, I'll talk to the landlord and we'll get it figured out," Kelly said.
Casey shook his head, "I can't ask you to do that."
"You're not, I'm offering, you're my best friend and I want you here," Kelly told him.
"This isn't you, Kelly," Casey said, "you don't do commitments, and this is a big one."
"This is different," Severide responded. "Look, Casey, you've got a lot to deal with right now and it's confusing enough as is...why don't you stay here until everything gets settled, and when you get the insurance money, then you look for a new apartment?"
Casey looked at him for a minute as if he wasn't sure how to answer. "You'd be willing to do that?"
"Yeah."
Casey shook his head, "It could be a couple months, or longer."
"I don't care," Kelly told him. "You kept me longer than that."
Casey closed his eyes and shook his head, like this was too much for him to take in. When he opened his eyes again Kelly saw them shimmer in the light from a thin layer of tears welling up.
"Thank you," he said quietly.
Kelly pulled Casey against him and said to him, "You didn't really think I was going to kick you out, did you?"
"I didn't want you feeling obligated to keep me," Casey told him.
Kelly laughed and leaned over and lightly kissed Matt on the forehead and told him, "You are so cute when you're being ridiculous."
Kelly had been asleep when he woke up to the sound of Matt pacing out in the living room, the floorboards squeaked in the same places as he made his rounds. Severide sat up long enough to look at the clock and saw it was going on 2 in the morning, he laid back down and tried to go back to sleep, but that wasn't happening. Finally he threw the covers back, went to the door and went out to the living room to find out what was going on.
"Casey, what's wrong?" he asked as his eyes adjusted to the dark and he was able to make out Casey's figure standing by the window.
Matt turned towards him and didn't say anything at first, then he shook his head and said simply, "I don't know."
Kelly could see he was going to have to take a different approach. He went over to the blonde man and asked him, "What's going on?"
Casey shook his head again, "I just...have a lot on my mind."
"Okay, like what?" Kelly asked.
"It sounds crazy."
"Okay," Kelly jerked Casey by the arm over to the couch so they could both sit down, "tell me."
Casey was quiet for a minute, then he started to talk.
"You have no idea how much I appreciate you letting me stay here-"
"I told you it wasn't a problem," Kelly said, "I told you you can stay here as long as you want-"
"I know," Casey cut him off, "but I'm not sure you mean it."
Kelly did a double take, "Huh?"
Casey sucked in an anxious breath and explained, "What I mean is...if I don't take the initiative and move out soon...I...I think...I..."
"Casey," Kelly felt in the dark and grabbed Casey's wrist, "Whatever it is, just say it."
"I'm trying...I...I've really enjoyed staying here the last few weeks, but I'm worried if I don't get a place of my own soon, I might...I could get used to staying here...do you know what I mean?" he looked at Kelly, "No you don't...it's...it's been nice having someone around, you know? I guess...I guess I just...never really got used to living alone."
Kelly blinked, "What do you mean?"
"I functioned when Hallie and I broke up, but I preferred it when she came back and we got back together...and after she died...it was awful...and...don't hit me for what I'm about to say, okay?"
"What?" Kelly asked.
"When...Heather went to jail, and I got the boys...it was almost..." he couldn't think of the word, "having somebody else around who I had to make the first priority, it helped me to stay focused, feel like I had an actual purpose, that my life wasn't totally empty...and having Gabby around to help with the boys...and then when Gabby and I actually got together...and we moved in together..." he sighed, "I know it sounds crazy, but even with all the shit she put me through, I was willing to put up with so much of it, just so I didn't have to be alone. That sounds horrible, doesn't it?"
"No," Kelly shook his head, "it actually makes a lot of sense."
Casey looked at him, surprised by his answer.
Kelly added, "People are willing to put up with a lot of things just to have someone else around. It's a recipe for disaster, it's never a good thing, but most people can actually relate to it. People don't like being alone."
"Or living alone," Casey replied. "That's why I'm worried I could get too comfortable here and I won't want to leave, but I have to-"
"You don't have to do anything," Kelly told him, "Casey, I'm not kicking you out. If that's what you decide, it's fine."
"You say that now," Casey said, "but can you see us living together for a year? More than that?"
"Why not?" Kelly asked.
"Don't you think Stella's going to complain after a while?" Casey asked.
"Don't worry about Stella," Kelly told him. "Casey, when the time's right to get your own place again, you'll know it, and if it doesn't happen, there's nothing wrong with that. We've been roommates before." Casey opened his mouth to respond but Kelly cut him off, "If I hadn't left when I did, would you have kicked me out eventually?"
Casey paused, "I never really thought about it like that."
"See? If I hadn't moved out, I would've still been there when Gabby stormed out, and if I'd been there for that, I would sure as hell have been around after she left. Hell, we would've still been roommates till the night the apartment was torched."
"Now that's a depressing thought," Casey said.
Kelly laughed, then commented, "But would you have felt like it was an imposition?"
Casey shook his head, "Of course not."
"Okay, so what makes this different?" Kelly asked.
"What's different is I've been sleeping on your couch for six weeks and you're pretending it's not an imposition," Casey answered.
"It's not."
"Not yet, what if it is a year? Or two? Are you still going to say it's not one then?" Casey wanted to know.
"Casey, you can't think that far ahead, what's going to happen is going to happen, and if you decide it's time to move out, you'll know it when it happens," Kelly told him, "and either way you will have my blessing on it, but I don't want you moving out just because you think you're not wanted here."
Casey sighed and told Kelly, "This has just been up and down the last few months. My wife leaves me, practically runs me into the ground with debt, and it feels like I've lost everything. Six weeks ago some bastards torch my apartment and I literally lose everything. Now I'm staying with you, and-"
"And what?" Kelly asked.
"I don't have a wife anymore, I don't have a home anymore, but for once..." he looked at Severide, "I feel like I have everything."
"And that's a bad thing?" Kelly asked.
"It's scary," Casey answered honestly, "the last time I felt like that...was with Hallie, then she was murdered."
Kelly lowered his head and grimly nodded. "I get it."
"And then...I just started to feel the same way with Naomi, and we were nearly killed. I'm worried what it'll mean if I get too comfortable here," Casey said, "if I let my guard down."
He felt a strong arm lock around his shoulder and pull him over towards Severide.
"Come here," Kelly said. "Casey, nothing is going to happen, you don't need to worry about that."
Casey nodded, "I know, but I do."
"Matt, everything's going to be fine, you need to calm down."
"I know..."
"We're going to figure this out," Kelly told him, "everything's going to be alright."
Matt tiredly nodded.
Soon Kelly realized Casey had fallen asleep leaning against him. With his free hand he grabbed the blanket off the back and draped it over both of them.