AN: SO. The beginning of the Casey fallout is nigh. Apologies in advance to Casey fans. The next couple chapters are going to read a little like Casey when he was pissed off at Dawson about Voight. I hope. That was my intent...

Anyway, please enjoy and thank you as always for reading!

Summer was rolling by fast. Severide went back on shift without any issues… Well without issues because of his leg. There was a growing pit of ice between him and Casey where their bickering used to be hot, indignant and impulsive. One day, walking into shift with Bri and seeing her off to the ambulance on a medical call had caused a stiff sound of disgust to leave the other lieutenant's lips before he stalked off to the officers' quarters. Another, it was the stiff shake of the newspaper as they shared a bowl of cereal and talked about their schedule after shift was over. Shay remarked later that she'd never even seen Casey pick up the paper before and Severide had just looked at her. How was that statement at all helpful?

Boden was oblivious; told Severide to speak up if there was ever any pain with a slap on his back before walking into his office, damn near whistling. Connie actually smiled at Severide like he did something right. His boss was happy regardless of all the mischief he sometimes caused. It was weird and not weird because he'd been around the firehouse doing light duty. It was probably weird because Bri was stonewalling him at work so much it sucked. Since he announced they were together to the whole crew both Truck and Squad had tried to catch him and Bri sneaking off to have sex. They'd placed bets on where in the firehouse and when. Such was the humour his relationship inspired. Fuck, am I calling it that? He wasn't a saint. Severide had definitely had some girls in some interesting positions around the house. He'd rechristened a couple of those spaces with Bri while she mocked him with her foul mouth for his very dirty ways… But that was before everyone found out and now it was a no. At least until the heat died down and no one made money off of their affection.

And she was affectionate. They didn't do cute. At least, he didn't think they did. But she brought him coffee and ruffled his hair during the early morning hours in the break room. He continued to put Hershey kisses in her locker because he could and she kept demanding to know how he even did that when she'd never given him the combination. Severide kept his trade secrets. Right then she was asleep with her head in his lap while he watched late night TV. She'd had a tough call earlier with a heart attack victim and his weeping hysterical wife. He'd died and it was still too close to Joseph's demise in the building collapse for Bri to feel centered. They'd talked about it briefly when she'd shuffled in from the hospital and when she'd begun yawning, he'd maneuvered her down onto his thighs to keep talking while he played with her hair. She still hadn't cut it. Everyone else milled around them. Just another shift at the firehouse as the evening wore on and the crew stumbled off one by one to their cots until he and Bri were alone with Pouch on the floor beside his feet.

"Hey"

Severide tensed as Casey sat down in the armchair across from him. He was peering down at Bri in that way that make his neck heat up and he'd known a reckoning was coming but he'd be damned if Bri woke up in the middle of it. Severide brushed the hair back behind Bri's ear before resting his hand low on her back. Pouch whined for a scratch and Casey obliged.

"Hey Casey"

They stared at each other for a minute. Severide figured Casey wanted to talk so he'd wait him out. Be polite. Do nothing to jeopardize what flowed easy and warm between him and Bri. She still cared for Casey there was no pussyfooting around that even if they never ever talked about it. He and Casey had been friends before everything with Andy and Heather. Some day he hoped they could get back to that but Andy's death was still raw and the temporary truce of his fall had given way to this tense scrutiny Severide couldn't control for. If he was possessive of Bri after seven months, he couldn't imagine what Casey was thinking.

"You think she'd be with you if I hadn't backed off?"

Well, that was an opening salvo. Severide leaned back into the couch, his hand quiet on Bri's back while Casey continued to talk. "We both know you're gonna hurt her. Just like you hurt everyone else around you. What are you doing? Using her to get back at me? I told you I never slept with Heather!"

"If you think I'm using her to hurt you that's fine. But Dawson is not stupid. She can make up her own mind"

"And you two sneaking around while I took care of Andy's kids says what exactly?" Casey scoffed and Severide watched him laugh derisively but didn't answer. "Dawson's impulsive. She doesn't think. Doesn't look before she leaps. I bet you guys started the way she and Mills did. Am I right?"

Severide again said nothing. They hadn't said much to anyone about the way they'd started up, not even Shay. He didn't appreciate the comparison to Mills. Whatever else he and Bri were, it was not that. He'd made a choice that first morning. He'd jumped where Bri had been careful and determined to walk. He'd pulled them both to her kitchen floor and there had never been any regrets for that on his part. He wasn't telling anyone anything about his girl. He knew the sort of things they were assuming and he and Bri still needed to discuss her Heather confrontation. Preferably when she could string three sentences together about the woman without cursing. His girl was mad as hell on his behalf. He didn't really have words for the way that made him feel. He could fight his own battles and he usually picked his own fights. Severide looked down at her face, mouth slightly open and kinda wet with drool. He smiled and didn't even glance at Casey as he thumbed it off her lip. Bri really was this thing that had hooked into him and wouldn't let go. Which was weird since he kept pushing while she froze. Her big heart was her weakness but it was so very very fierce. He couldn't help admiring her for it.

"Even if we did. It doesn't matter now. She made a choice. We made one. Together."

Severide was willing to bet that was what was stuck in Casey's craw right now. That he had made the decision to wait for Dawson and ended up waiting too long. That he had done the so-called right and noble thing while Severide was allergic to anything like control with his girl. That night in her bar sprung into his mind... Jesus he needed that night tenfold and forever. He wasn't trying to torture Casey. Far from it. Right then, with Bri curled into him and quiet, Severide didn't want to be fighting with Casey. Life was too damn short. He didn't say it to himself very often but he could have died in that fall. Bri could have died in that building. They were all one very bad job from death. Andy had taught him that.

"Look at what happened with Renee. You think that sort of shit just happens? You'll screw it up. You always have"

And I'll be the one to fix her when you do. Severide could hear this in Casey's voice. Considering everything he'd told Bri from the very beginning, Severide couldn't help up but silently agree with Casey on that. He was pretty sure he'd told Bri that he was guaranteed to screw up. What he'd never told anyone, not even Shay was that it felt like it was his fault his fiancee cheated on him so very very badly. Like he didn't see her at all. Didn't know her: a girl he'd known forever. He wasn't lying to her brother when he said he hadn't moved on. For awhile there, he didn't. She was the one. People could call him a manwhore all they wanted. He didn't cheat. That was the one part of his dad's MO he couldn't do. He didn't answer Casey. He refused to give the other lieutenant anymore ammunition against him. Their history had given him enough. Severide just looked down at Bri, sleeping quietly on his lap and felt happy he could have her for the little while he would. He was well acquainted with how quickly such good things shattered.

Dawson was standing at the bathroom mirror at Molly's braiding her long hair down her back for her shift and locked in a very good memory. He wasn't Severide to her anymore. He'd probably never be Lieutenant Severide again. He was Kelly, sometimes Sev. When he had her so tied in knots she spoke Spanish he was Kelly cariño not that he knew what it meant. And she was bent over the same bathroom sink he'd had her on. Naked and so raw they could have peeled the paint off the walls with their fever. She was gone. So utterly gone on the man who was probably sitting at what had become his spot at her bar, nursing a beer and waiting for her. He was always waiting and Dawson knew she was going to spend the entire shift permanently turned on. Already she was breathing hard. Forget the firehouse bets, they'd christened her bar. There wasn't a room in the whole building she didn't know intimately. There wasn't a chance in hell it wasn't going to happen again some night soon. Dawson looked at herself in the mirror. Really looked. This was what he did to her without doing a damn thing at all. Her cheeks were flushed, her breasts pebbled in her bra and the white tee shirt hiding nothing. She snuck a hand into her jeans shorts. She'd never get through a whole shift without a little relief now.

It was a Friday bar scene and rowdy. Hermann was behind the bar with her and the crowd was drinking hard, watching the game while she bounced back forth behind the bartop with Kelly's eyes always on her. He was quiet today but then again she was busy and Antonio was watching her too. For the first time in forever she hadn't told him about a guy, about Kelly. He'd heard it through gossip and he knew enough of Sev's reputation to be big brother worried. He was sitting at the other end of the bartop from Kelly and she had to smile at how her two guys refused to speak to each other just yet. They'd collaborated on cases over the years. They knew each other and suddenly now they couldn't share a drink and chat.

"You're not getting details tonto" she teased, smacking Antonio with a towel across one shoulder.

"I don't need them. Ay just look at you"

Dawson froze. Did she look that turned on? She thought she'd done a passable job in the bathroom but her fingers weren't Kelly's by a very large margin.

"You're happy hermaña. You're fucking glowing. As long as he treats you right, we're good. Just not right now. He looks like he wants to eat you and I'm your brother. That shit ain't right".

Just hearing her brother say those words made her want to shiver. Instead she laughed loud and long. Several eyes turned to her as she did so. Dawson was unaware of just how beautiful she looked just then, of the smiles that curled upward on drunk faces because of her joy. She didn't look at Kelly after that. Her colour was high. She smiled wide at the latest group of frat boys in front of her as she poured their pints. Teased a little. College kids slumming it. They weren't regulars but tips were tips.

"What's your name sweetheart?" Dawson resisted the urge to roll her eyes at paying customers.

"Gabi, what you having college boy?" she had her hand on one hip, already rocking attitude.

"Stella for me. IPA for my boys here" She watched him lean in and stood very very still. Aware that she had two, no three overprotective men who would ride to the rescue if she called. Not that she would. She really missed using her right hook and all.

"I'm Jake. You gotta man Gabi?" she told him yes while she filled his order. Didn't point Kelly out because she knew she could handle it. Was polite and sweet and not at all sarcastic but then the man reached over the bar to grab her wrist. Hey now! She tried to pull loose but he twisted his grip tighter. She flinched.

"From where I'm sitting he ain't doing you right" and the long scan he gave up and down her body made Dawson go cold with anger. She didn't want a scene. She didn't want to lose customers but- she snatched her wrist from his hand and bent four fingers backward as Kelly shoved Jake's head into the bartop and Antonio pulled his badge before anyone else got too out of hand.

"No one touches the barkeep! Alright?!"

That was Hermann's voice but Dawson wasn't looking. She was holding Jake's fingers back as he yelped. She was staring straight up at Kelly who held the jackass down on the bartop with a forearm across his neck while Antonio cleared a semicircle around them. Told his friends to sit down with their drinks and watch the game unless they wanted to give statements at the station. Patted Kelly on the back to let the prick up but she refused to give back his fingers. Kelly and Dawson stared at each other. There were bruises forming around her wrist and it throbbed. Asshole. Then Antonio gave her the look. The one that said, we'll take care of it now and she knew they would but she wouldn't back down like a weakling into the bargain. That would never be her.

"Just get the money for the beer and we're good" she snapped, finally tossing her assailant's hand back before she tucked her wrist into the ice chute where they kept the bottled beer. Dawson glanced at Hermann. Gave him a smile. Nearly missed Antonio slapping Kelly on the back but overheard, you show up like that every time and we're solid. Oh crap. They were bonding over protecting her. Wonderful.

"Gabi, grab some ice and check that wrist out in the back. Take your brawler with you." She knew Hermann was right but didn't want to leave him with the crowd. Dawson protested but he said he'd call Otis if her wrist was so bad she couldn't serve drinks in thirty minutes.

Which was how she found herself sitting on the desk in the office with Kelly on the chair in front of her, running ice blocks wrapped in a towel back and forth on her wrist. Her right wrist. And it hurt and she was going to be slow moving the rest of the night to be sure. She frowned.

"I do good by you. Right?"

Dawson blinked out of her self recrimination to find Kelly's eyes no longer on her wrist. He was staring right through her, his eyes bluer than she'd ever seen them in the dim light of the office. Her stomach lurched. Something was very wrong and it wasn't her wrist.

"Of course you do Kelly. What's the matter?"

He was absently running ice back and forth along her bruises and his face had closed in on his thoughts like a vise. "Kelly, what's going through that head of yours?" Dawson stroked his cheek with her non injured hand, felt the slight tremor going through him and became more alarmed by the minute.

"Kelly, you gotta use your words. I'm not a mindreader. Remember?" She was banking on him remembering that fight in her bed so many months ago when he'd been a dick assuming things without telling her first. Worrying about making her life more difficult than it was which he didn't. That was all on her. How she worried after everyone's thoughts. About her reputation. It didn't matter. She was good at her job. She gave it her all. If anyone thought less of her for her current choices they could deal. She was learning to do the same because of him.

"It's nothing"

"It's not nothing" she whispered. "Talk to me baby"

His eyes widened. Baby was his thing for her. Dawson didn't deal in sweet names but she could be soft for him. She could let him in close. Had already done so. He'd opened the door by telling her not to go where he couldn't follow. Dawson wanted to tell him the exact same thing. For a man of few words what he said always flummoxed her. "Okay fine! Don't talk. Just listen."

Dawson's heart was in her throat. She'd started this shift thinking she was so gone on this man she had to get herself off to cope with seeing him and not touching him for hours. But it was more than that. So much more. And he was taking care of her so sweetly. He was being vulnerable. Again. Asking her for something but pulling back when she pursued it. Like he couldn't articulate exactly what he wanted from her. If she let it, that old creeping anxiety to fix everything and be perfect would surface. He'd taught her better. Kelly let her be her whole messy self without question but something wasn't sitting well with him. She didn't know what and she wouldn't guess. She'd wait for him to tell her now or argue it out of him later.

"You do right by me and I'm not talking about the sex. You're good at it. Really good"

Dawson was hoping that the compliment would get her at least a small smile but it didn't. The one long crease in Kelly's forehead deepened into shadow under the bright office light. Dawson found herself scrambling to console him for an upset she had no clue into understanding.

"We are more than sex Kelly. Have been for awhile now. I thought you realized but-" Dawson swallowed. "I have never been with anyone so fiercely alive as you. I have never ever had my life turned so upside down while being so right side up at the exact same time. Kelly… I need you."

Do you need me? She wondered. Dawson could have said more. Wanted to because that tricky knot under her breastbone that was Kelly... she didn't want to work it out. Loved the way it felt to be half bewildered half utterly impressed by the man sitting before her. Dawson was scared she was already in love with him. That she could be. Kelly had been all in from the get-go which had startled and in her deepest heart, pleased her. Kelly's undivided attention was precious. Being rated worthy of it still shocked her sometimes.

She took the ice out of his hands, put his hands on her cheeks and allowed him to stare quietly through her. They did this for several minutes in silence. It was unnerving, but they were both so shit at words at times. His fingers were cool from the ice and he looked so damn solemn Dawson was scared and her heart sped up and at last she couldn't shut up.

"I see you Kelly. You're beautiful and stubborn and so damn loyal and I'm right here. Where are you?"

Kelly sighed. Closed his eyes. Leaned his forehead against hers.

"Can I take you home? Can I please just take you home tonight? I don't want you here."

It wasn't an answer and Dawson wanted to scream and cry. She wanted to know why and what she'd done wrong. They were right where they wanted to be. Everyone knew. He wasn't a secret she had to keep anymore. She could hold his hand and kiss him whenever she wanted and just fucking be. Finally. But something was wrong. She needed him so she nodded and she didn't ask where was home. Dawson let him tell Hermann she was leaving. Let him tuck her into the passenger seat of his car. Let him drive them back to his place up his stairs into his loft. And she let him peel three more layers off her heart while treating her like porcelain, like finespun glass, wrapping her wrist and kissing her palms. Then he fucked her like he was a dying man and all she could do was hold on.

I'm gonna be honest and say it gets worse before it gets better... Thank you for reading!