AN: Short one! Interstitial chapter to explore the motivations of a couple characters before they are presented with more drama information than they can handle!

To each and every person who reviewed, the guest ones too, you're all magic to me. No lie. And I feel like a silly awkward person responding to each of your reviews like you have that kind of time to read my not fanfiction babble. But thank you thank you thank you. Here you go!

It started with little things so Dawson was as amused as she was frustrated. Severide had never been a subtle man but he reined in his more impish impulses at the firehouse because of Shay. Honestly, she thought he'd be more angry. The way they had parted, Dawson still didn't have words for it. Then he was at the bar and she was in the stock room wishing for a block of ice. It wasn't even summer yet. Shay was still peeking around corners at them so it seemed, and he'd learned to keep a secret. The slightest tilt of his mouth at one end could send her into a tailspin… if she let it which she didn't. She either hate loved it or love hated it but the things like his hand on her shoulder because he suddenly felt unsteady or the snort laugh he made at someone's joke, or the day she went to open her locker and the whole door came off to a note that said: thanks for the brownies next to a bag of Hershey kisses. He was being snark cute. He was trying to be both the Severide she'd always known and the Kelly she'd given up.

He said oops so many times the first shift she could have sung Britney Spears ad infinitum. He was clearly bored in dispatch but not enough to get himself into trouble with Boden. The shifts he wasn't calling out job locations and parameters in his devastating voice, he'd be in officer's quarters playing nicely with Casey as he grumbled through paperwork and cleaned up his logs. She preferred him in dispatch for her own sanity. Did his calm voice over the intercom make less and less sense as anything but sex on steroids when she heard it? Yes. But she didn't see him. That was key. Seeing him meant reckoning with the shift in their dynamics and how very much her fault it was. He needed Shay more than he needed her, that was a given. Add in a long term injury, the fact he couldn't drive and was impossible to keep entertained and happy while injured… she'd probably last three hours before she went crazy on him.

How was this possible? She'd asked herself over and over. Severide had been around for years, joking with his men and being so charming all she could do was mirror Shay's official position of scoffing and rolling her eyes before push came to shove and the man pulled a victim from a car, spent hours talking to a dying man trapped under a T beam and then visited the man's wife to pay his respects in person. Severide had his own code of honor. It was complicated, definitely infuriating but underneath it all he was so loyal that being mad was a complete waste of time.

So Dawson was practical. She leaned into his hand on her shoulder because she wasn't about to let him fall. Answered his hail on the comms with brisk efficiency when he called out information she needed and let him do what he liked around the firehouse. It had to die down eventually. He was like an excited puppy, more so than Pouch had ever been, playing with his friends and demanding their attention after too long alone. He wasn't going to ask for people to deal with his injuries, or to accommodate him in anyway the stubborn idiot. Like right now, he was throwing popcorn kernels at Mouch's head while he watched the tv and snorting every time Mouch whacked one to the ground for Pouch to eat.

"So, are you down for a couple hours at the bar tonight? We need to go over inventory"

"Huh what?"

Dawson blinked back into her conversation with Otis and hoped her perusal of Severide had been less obvious. "Sorry. I'm just tired. Yeah I'll be there"

"Aaaaaand we can talk about Zoya's start date?"

"Zoya?"

"My cousin from Russia who's going to be working at the bar while she's-"

"Hermann!" Dawson bellowed. She wasn't having this conversation without their third partner. The two men had grown accustomed to using her as the scapegoat when something got done without the other's consent. And it was getting very very old. Firehouse life was remarkably like frathouse life and even Hermann as the adult of the trio devolved into a teenage tantrum on occasion about their side job project. She'd threatened to sicc Cindy on him.

"Come on! How are we going to staff the bar when we're all on shift without her?"

"You think I'm letting her run the bar alone when we're out on jobs?" Dawson gave Otis her are you crazy?! face which crumpled into her oh shit we did not think about how our shifts worked when we bought this place face and Hermann stomped in, saw her glum expression and Otis sitting down and immediately started cursing because she'd discovered a new problem.

Severide snorted from the couch and they all turned to look at him.

'It's a firefighter's bar. Who on first and third watch need jobs and won't drink your profits?" The three business partners considered this. Dawson glanced around. Otis didn't look particularly thrilled because he wanted his cousin to have a job when she visited, but Hermann thought about some of the career firefighters on the other shifts and didn't look so stressed. It was an idea with merit.

"I'm sure you have suggestions Severide. Who you thinking?" Herman demanded.

Before Severide could respond Boden called everyone into the briefing room. It was time for the mandatory sexual harassment training session he'd scheduled. Dawson sighed silently. In truth, Severide being back at the firehouse was a welcome distraction from the awkwardness and uncertainty surrounding Campbell's career. He was technically still serving as relief for Severide but the brass was still hounding him about Tara and as everyone filed into the room Dawson really wished she hadn't taken so long with her evaluation of the woman. For all that they didn't really know Campbell, none of this jived with the quiet stoic man who gave commands with an almost desultory air. Lieutenant Campbell sat at the front, painfully uncomfortable under the scrutiny of Jason Sahale, diversity counselor extraordinaire for the CFD. Sahale waved everyone in and was pleasant. Didn't do any ice breakers thankfully or make everyone say their names. It was all going well if painfully stilted until Sahale called Dawson and Casey up to act out inappropriate conversations between work colleagues.

Shay, god bless her, raised her hand to stall as Dawson attempted to get her face under control. There would be no blushing. None at all or she'd never hear the end of it. Because it had to be Casey right? She stared down at the ring of laminated index cards with actual pictures on them for each proposed infraction. For one careless moment, she wondered what crack designer had decided this topic needed their childlike cartoon drawing genius. She looked across at Shay. At Kelly for one brief moment before biting her lip and looking away.

"Do you have any scenarios in which two people of the same gender but different orientations?" Shay inquired loudly as Dawson and Casey stood toe to toe.

"Given the gender breakdown in this room alone it stands to reason-"

"Yes. Yes and if two of your colleagues would like to volunteer to act them out I'd be happy to oblige"

Dawson did not expect there to be any takers and the tell-tale squeak of plastic chairs shifting, probably with discomfort, sounded out as Shay gave Dawson a speaking glance. Dawson smiled a little. She was fine. This was embarrassing but she'd be fine so long as-

"You look lovely today"

"Thank you" Shit. This was going to be painful.

"Have you been working out?"

Shay went to raise her hand and interrupt but Severide pulled her hand down. He was looking at Casey and Dawson intently. Severide knew they were close but had never actually sat down and watched how their interacted. His neck went hot. Casey had a little smile he was trying to hide and Dawson was looking more at the cards then Casey's face and her cheeks looked a little bright.

"Yes, I've started using weights at the gym"

"Well, it's doing your butt right" Casey remarked. Dawson glanced up and the two shared a look Severide didn't miss and behind him Hermann scoff laughed while Chief told him to shut up and Severide wasn't even listening anymore because Dawson's guard was down. She was leaning in and Casey was mirroring her and he could feel Shay's eyes looking at him for a reaction she wasn't going to get. He knew what he was up against. Dawson had a constant and persistent need for people to think well of her and the whole firehouse did, so she'd accomplished that feat. She was beloved because she could kick ass at a job, cook and swing that mean right hook while being so caring she'd become the bonus sister of half their shift. A feeling he would have shared last December. It felt like eons ago now.

That the feeling had expanded into, what the creeping heat up his neck suggested was desire and possessiveness so vehement he had to blank his face or the whole room would know… Well, he didn't have any explanation beyond the one word that came into his head as often as D did. She fit. It might look outlandish to everyone else but there it was and his heart was pounding while he breathed slowly through his nose and Shay kept looking and Dawson herself was standing toe to toe with someone else like they were reciting vows. His stomach soured. He was a low key guy. He didn't do drama, not intentionally. Dawson was stressed right now. Overwhelmed and still hurting because of Mills who he could hear groaning in the back. If Casey was what she really wanted maybe he should step back...

Just then, Dawson swung her face to the room and looked straight at Chief with wide hopeful eyes begging for the entire scene to be over. Chief shook his head no. Her whole face slumped comically. The room laughed and Severide relaxed into his own grin. Yeah no. He was never going to be a guy who gave up without a fight. He let the heat rise in his neck. Smirked as Dawson scowled and turned back to the cards. Casey was looking down at her with a slight smile. Conceding was so far from Kelly's mind, he couldn't even be mad at Casey. For all he knew, Dawson was fair game but she wasn't. He hoped like hell she wasn't.

Casey was laughing. The whole scene had been embarrassing but now he was off shift and drinking beer with Hermann at Molly's waiting for Otis and Dawson to show up. The final touches on the place were coming together and this would be one of their last meetings on any necessary structural changes that had to happen before opening night. Hermann had asked Casey's advice which had led to outright begging and bribery before the men posted up on stools with bottles of Bud. Hermann was a good guy with a joke and he'd been cracking several about the mandatory training to pass the time. Casey took the ribbing well. It wasn't like it was his fault they were being held in the first place.

"How you doing Casey? A lot of shit's been coming your way these last few months". It was a shift in topic that surprised the lieutenant as he took another sip of his beer. He knew his men cared about him. Casey didn't doubt their loyalty to Firehouse 51 and to him… until they decided to switch to Squad. He squashed that thought before it took root. He was happy on Truck and always had been. He didn't need more classwork to make him a good firefighter. This wasn't about his ego at all. Casey glanced over at the older man, aware that for all his schemes and shenanigans, Hermann saw a lot more than he let on. He was the only husband and father on their team anymore. The collective wisdom of his life experience was second only to Boden's. Time to be honest, he supposed.

"I really don't know anymore. A lot's changed with my mom being out and Hallie being gone." He swallowed against his suddenly dry throat. He hadn't lived alone in awhile and it was an adjustment. He was used to Hallie being there and then his mom, though she was crazy.

"Not to mention the mess with Voight" Hermann added.

"Yeah that…" Casey didn't like thinking about it. It had driven him to the edge of his sanity. Hallie left him she was so worn down by the drama of it all. He'd almost beat Voight with his irons. It was eerie how Boden had known him so well that he'd shown up and talked sense to him. Everything rational in him had fled under the very real threat of blackmail by a man who had access to so much information on the everyday citizens of Chicago. This is what the man had attempted to do to a fellow public servant. Everything in Casey's blood screamed at the injustice of it all still.

He couldn't pretend that he was logical when it came to Voight. It just wasn't possible. The animus that heated his blood every time the cop was mentioned, even now with only brotherly concern in Hermann's comment, was enough to send him reeling into an anxiety spiral of what ifs. What if Antonio hadn't succeeded with the wire on Curtis? What if that bag of coke had been found in his house with Hallie? The shuddering impulse of fight or flight rode him hard. And he was built and trained for fight down to his marrow.

So he'd lashed out at Gabi and he deeply regretted it. All of it, the screaming match and his subsequent coldness but in that moment it had felt like the worst betrayal. Gabi was doing what Voight did to stay in power, trading on favours and information in a way that made everything that came afterwards seem so dirty. He still didn't know how to articulate all of this without exploding and it hurt. It hurt that she was holding him at arm's length, and that he didn't have the words to comfort her. Everything felt like it was out of his control and he resented it deeply.

Casey gave Hermann a small smile. "But things are looking up now."

Just then, Dawson walked in squabbling with Otis and Casey felt his face split in two with the magnitude of his amusement. Otis was still riding her about the workshop skit and he couldn't resist throwing more fuel on the fire.

"Well hey there pretty lady"

Dawson turned to glare at him. He had to believe that they would work it out. That he and Gabi could eventually fix what had broken between them. She was too important for him to think anything less was a possible outcome.

Thank you for reading!