Every Breath You Take
Chapter 7 Smooth
**Notes** The feedback I receive from this story is incredible. Thank you so much. If I have not reached out to you, I am sorry, I am trying to get to everyone that leaves feedback at AO3 and Tumblr.
So I am not sure how the stalker is going to be caught just yet, but I have ideas running through my head that involve Upton, Burgess, Kidd, and Brett going all girl power on him.
Once again I do not own Chicago Fire, just taking them on a little adventure. All mistakes are mine. **
"You can always stay outside in the truck, Casey," Brett mentioned as they pulled up to her apartment building.
She had called the Intelligence unit on the way to her apartment and they were going to have her car towed to inbound and try to dust it for prints. Upton wanted to make sure they had plenty of evidence to put Guthrie away for a long time once he was caught.
"I'm not letting you out of my sight, Sylvie Brett," Casey admitted as he opened the door to get out of his truck.
"That might be a bit difficult while you are sleeping," Brett retorted, opening the door and getting out of Casey's truck.
"Not if you are next to me in bed," Casey murmured, hoping she didn't hear it.
"What was that, Captain," Brett snickered with a smile. She couldn't believe he had said it, but now her ears were turning red at the thought of being in bed with Casey. They hadn't talked about where she was going to sleep at Severide's. The guy's shared a two-bedroom loft and Stella had moved into the loft only a few months ago. Was Brett going to get the couch or was Casey going to insist she get his bed?
"Nothing," Casey responded as he followed Brett up to her apartment. He wanted to tell her how he felt, but it wasn't the right time. She already had enough on her plate. Sylvie Brett was one of his closest friends and he didn't know what would happen if they took that leap and it didn't work out.
He followed her up to her apartment in silence. Neither of them could stop thinking of his remark or their feelings for each other that it left both of them nervous to say anything.
Brett unlocked her apartment, ready to open the door when Casey took her hand. He needed to confess something to her.
"Sylvie, I think we need to talk," he stated before the door opened all the way.
"I know, Matt," she responded looking into his eyes.
Matt stiffened up when he looked inside the apartment. He pulled Brett aside and grabbed his cell phone from his pocket. He didn't want her to go inside and see what had occurred.
"What is it, Matt," Brett asked, now standing behind him. He wouldn't let her inside her apartment after pushing her in the back of him and closing the door.
"It looks like Guthrie was here," Matt confessed, not wanting her to see what the stalker had left in his wake. "Stay here, please, while I make sure the close is clear."
"You told me just a few minutes ago, you didn't want me out of your sight. Now you want me to wait outside in the hall while you go looking through MY apartment. Matt, I can handle it," she ordered pushing him aside and opening the door.
She stood at the entrance of her apartment and gasped. The place was in shambles with furniture turned over, books were torn off the bookshelf, and cupboards open with broken dishes that were smashed on the ground.
"We are going to catch this guy," Casey told her as he put his hand on her arm.
"Yeah, well, right now, I just need to get out of here," Brett commented heading towards her bedroom. As she opened the door, she wasn't ready for what was before her. Her room was untouched, nothing out of place. He had ransacked her apartment but left her bedroom, her sanctuary untouched.
Casey came up behind her and looked inside her bedroom. He had never seen her bedroom before, the colors inside her room were light and airy with a touch of femininity. Some splashes of color here and there and yet also the feeling of the country.
"Why would he trash my apartment, but leave my bedroom untouched," Brett asked as she grabbed a bag from her closest and started moving around her room putting things into it.
"One minute calling you an angel, then trashing your car. He can't make up his mind whether he wants to love you or hate you," Casey explained, "I guess his mind workes in mysterious ways. Like why me?"
Casey sat down at the edge of her bed, he knew the answer to that question. He felt confused about Brett as well, although his feelings ran deeper.
"You are a good person with a heart of gold. You take your job seriously and let it affect you by caring for your patients and not just forgetting them once you drop them at the ER. You're forgiving and spontaneous with an angelic side, yet when you want to be you have a feistiness in you," Casey explained without missing a beat and his head down looking at his feet "I'm surprised more men haven't been infatuated with you. You're gorgeous, Sylvie Brett, and the fact that you don't know that makes you even more alluring."
Brett stood there in the middle of her bedroom flabbergasted at Captain Matt Casey's description of her. Her mouth hung open, her hands full of clothes, and she couldn't move.
"You are an amazing Paramedic, who has been through so much pain and yet still keep smiling and making others smile," Casey stated as he nervously grabbed at nothing on the floor. "A man would have to be a fool not to fall in love with you."
The room was silent for what seemed like hours instead it was only a few seconds until Brett's cell rang making her shake her head and put her clothes in her bag. She answered her cell from her front pocket.
"Hello," Brett answered. "Oh hi, Hailey."
Casey stood there picking at an invisible item at his shows. He couldn't believe that he had just done that, admitted how he saw Sylvie Brett, and nothing. She had to know how he felt about her. It was obvious to everyone else especially Severide and Kidd that he was crazy for her.
He got up from her bed and walked into the kitchen and took out his cell to check his messages. He was getting tired from the long workday and he only got a couple of hours of sleep in a very uncomfortable position. He rubbed the back of his neck while waiting for someone to respond from the text he had sent. He wanted to help Brett even more than he already had, so he had to make sure her apartment would be taken care of quickly. He was positive that she would tell Detective Upton about the apartment, but he wanted even more. First, her car was trashed, and now her apartment.
"Okay, thank you," Brett said, entering the kitchen and disconnecting her call. "Upton said someone will come to check the damage to the apartment and from now on there will be patrols at the firehouse, my apartment, and your place until this guy is caught."
Casey turned around to look at her.
"Good, that makes me feel better," Casey responded, running his hand through his hair.
"Let me grab a few things from the bathroom and we can get out of here," Brett commented before leaving him standing there.
As they exited the apartment building a few minutes later, Burgess and Ruzek were pulling up the building. Casey looked over at Brett and took her bag from her.
"I'll take this to the truck, so you can talk to them," Casey stated sternly. He had been quiet on the way down to the first floor. Neither of them had much to say, what was there to say. This wasn't the right time, yet when would the right time be. He had tried to ask her out on a date over a year ago, and that fell through with the engagement from the Chaplain. When she came back from Fowlerton, Gabby showed up, and Brett told him to take Gabby to the fundraiser event. Then it was Julie and her death, now it was the stalker. When would it be the right time to start something? Was there a right time?
A few minutes later, Brett opened the passenger door of his truck and got inside.
"I gave them the keys to the apartment, and they said they will get them back to me in a couple of days. I shouldn't go back until the dust the place for prints and such. So now it's just a waiting game," she explained as she buckled her seatbelt.
"You ready then," he asked.
"About earlier in my bedroom," Brett commented putting her hand on his arm. "I heard everything you said, and I love how you see me, Matt."
"We will talk about it later, okay," Casey retorted. "We don't need to talk about it right now."
"We can't keep dancing around like this, Matt," she admitted, hurting from him turning her away again.
"I know, but there is so much on your plate, right now," Casey explained. "I don't want to add our budding relationship to that. Relationships that start under intense circumstances, they never last."
"First, you are quoting Speed with Keanu Reeves and second you want to have a relationship with me," Brett retorted, tilting her head to look at him.
"Sylvie, I can't imagine anything else," he admitted with a smile. "But I want to do this right and take our time because I don't want to ruin this or our friendship."
"I am the one with two broken engagements," she responded.
Casey started the truck and headed down the road. It was their close friendship that he was afraid of losing, nevertheless he couldn't risk not taking a chance at a romantic relationship with her.
"I guess we are both a little gun shy about taking the next step with each other," he replied as he drove towards his apartment.
"After this maniac is caught how about we try going out on a real date together," Brett suggested, grabbing his hand.
"I thought you would never ask," Matt laughed with a smile.
Twenty minutes later with crazy traffic, they entered the loft Matt shared with Severide and Kidd. Neither of them is around, so Casey takes Brett's bag to his room. Brett took off her shoes at the entrance of the loft and watched Casey disappear with her bag. She looked around the large loft with the kitchen and living area and walked towards the couch. It had already been an exhausting morning and it was barely ten o'clock. She sat down and put her head back, closing her eyes. She felt the movement of someone sitting next to her and the hand on her thigh.
"It's been a long twenty-four hours, how about you go in my room and get some sleep," Casey suggested, squeezing her thigh.
"You had me sleep in your bunk last night, and I recall, you got less sleep than I did," she responded, putting her hand over his. "I'll take the couch."
"No, you're the guest," he retorted. Truth, be told, the couch wasn't that comfortable to sleep on and he was exhausted.
"We could share, Matt. I mean, we are both adults, I think you can behave yourself for a few hours," she stated with a smile across her face.
"Let's go," he stood up and held his hand out to her.
"You know I usually don't get into bed with someone on the first date, let alone before the date even happens," she teased as they entered his bedroom.
"Haha," Matt stated as he went over to his dresser and got out some sweatpants and t-shirt. "I'm going to go change, I'll knock when you're ready."
He left her standing in the middle of his bedroom. The dark blue comforter on his bed and charcoal bedroom furniture was the typical style for men, but Matthew Casey was far from typical. She grabbed a pair of pink cotton pajama bottoms with coffee cups all over it and a matching tank top out of her bag and put it near the closest. She looked on top of his dresser where he found a picture of his sister and her two children. Sylvie had never met Christie, although he had mentioned her a couple of times. Matt didn't discuss his family too much or his childhood. She never asked even though asking him about his childhood or teenage years was something she would like to hear at another time.
After Sylvie changed her clothes quickly and pulled the covers back on the right side of the queen-size bed. She sat up against the headboard, waiting for Matt's knock. Several minutes later there was a light knock on his door.
"Come in," she said, pulling the comforter closer up to her body. She didn't know why she was being modest.
Matt opened the door, walked in, and suddenly felt a rush of hot air through his body at the sight of Sylvie Brett in his bed. He stood there staring for a moment.
"Did I take the wrong side," she wondered, noticing the look on his face.
"No, no, you're fine, just the sight of you in my bed feels a bit surreal at the moment," he admitted sheepishly. He pulled back the comforter and got into bed. He grabbed his cell off the side table and turned on the alarm. He could feel her eyes on him and any other time or woman, it would make him nervous, yet with Brett, it felt different. "I have a worksite I have to go to later."
"That's right, I told you that I would help you," she responded, moving down into the bed and putting her head on the pillows.
"Okay," Casey said as he put his phone down. He put his head on his pillow and both of them laid there on their backs in silence.
Brett couldn't stand it anymore, she reached over and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you for being you, Matt Casey," she whispered before turning over and closing her eyes.
He put his hand over his cheek where she had kissed him and grinned. He needed sleep, but the feeling of her lips on him made him feel alive - something he had not felt in a very long time. He turned towards her and she moved back towards him and then quickly fell asleep with his arm around her waist.