7:40 A.M. and shift was changing in 20 minutes. Casey went over to Severide's quarters and looked in the window and saw Kelly pacing around with his phone at his ear. Casey rapped on the glass and saw Kelly turn towards the noise, but he didn't stop talking to whoever was on the other end of the line. He signaled to Casey he'd just be a minute, he was actually five. He finally disconnected the call and opened the door. "Sorry about that."

"Something wrong?" Casey asked.

Kelly shook his head, "Cathy, she suggested we go out tonight."

"Oh, an actual date? I'm impressed," Casey joked. "You still remember what to do on those, right? You know it involves more conversation than just 'Ribbed or ultra-sensitive'?"

"Shut up," Kelly playfully stomped his heel on Casey's foot.

"Ow!" Casey winced at his toes being ground under the heel of Kelly's boot. The moment passed and he asked, "So?"

"So what?" Kelly asked.

"Did you at least find out her last name this time?" Matt wanted to know.

"Cathy Woods."

"Well, I'd ask more, but I know details aren't your strong suit," Casey said.

Severide snorted in response as he moved to kick Casey as he walked by, the blonde lieutenant caught sight of him before he did it and quickly got out of the way, laughing as he made a narrow escape.

It wasn't much of a secret that Casey and Severide had a severe difference of opinions on what they were looking for in a woman, the two constantly joked with each other about Casey always focusing on Miss Right, and Severide leaned more towards Miss Right Now at any club or bar he went to. Despite their vast differences in what they were looking for, they were certainly able to respect each other's views, and as long as both of them didn't wind up with the same woman, there were no problems between them. As it was, Casey had to admit he was a bit jealous that Severide was actually out with a woman, on an actual date instead of his usual drunken hookups at last call, while he was sitting at home in his apartment with nothing to do but watch TV. Lately he'd gotten engrossed in the true crime lineup and found himself spending hours every other night watching murder cases and damn if they weren't addicting, even more than the cop dramas on the lower channels.

After shift change he'd gone out on a construction job and he'd only gotten back to his apartment around 6 that night, so he was well past exhausted, so much so that he was too lazy to go to bed. He just parked himself on the couch after dinner, pulled the blanket off the back cushions, curled up under the heavy blanket and resigned himself to sleep there whenever he got tired of watching TV. In fact, he found himself cat-napping off and on all night, he'd watch TV for a while, close his eyes, hear the narration of the crime and investigation, have dreams about it, then wake up, watch TV a while more, then nod off again and dream about the things he was listening to. By 10:30 he was seriously considering turning the TV off and just going to sleep. He sighed as it started to dawn on him that he was getting old if he was this wiped out this early in the night, he missed those early days in and fresh out of the academy when he had enough energy to go all day and night without having to slow down.

The more he thought about it, he missed a lot of things, being young and relatively carefree, he missed Hallie, every day he missed her so much. He missed having any woman in his life, Hallie had been the one he thought he'd marry, but after a while even he had to admit his life had to go on even without her. At first he felt too guilty to even entertain the notion of being with another woman, but gradually he realized that that part of his life was over and he couldn't spend the rest of his days just clinging to a memory. But it was hard to get out and meet somebody new, it hadn't even been easy when he met Hallie. They'd been together for 8 years, and never gotten married, there was always a reason why it wasn't a good time for it. But none of them ever seemed good enough to Casey, and especially if he'd known back then what he knew now, he would've found a way to convince Hallie to go through with it and marry him. He missed her so much it was unbelievable.

Getting back into the swing of dating hadn't been easy either. He couldn't define what he was looking for but he knew it when he saw it and he hadn't seen much of it since Hallie died. Some days he wished he actually could just be more like Kelly and not really care who he was with, just go out, meet a woman, go home with her, it might not solve anything else but at least the nights wouldn't be as lonely.

Except...Casey had actually had a few one night stands and he already knew from personal experience that they didn't help. There were two different kinds: the ones that he knew wouldn't last after that night, which made it extremely difficult to enjoy the few hours they spent together because he knew when the night was over, that was the end of that; and the ones he foolishly thought could actually go somewhere and become a real relationship and not just be something cheap, drunk and easy. Half of the one night stands he'd had hadn't been intended as such, but the next day, or the day after that, the woman always had a bombshell to drop on him why she couldn't be with him, she wasn't looking for anything serious, it wasn't the right time, she had to leave the city, the state, sometimes even the country for work, and didn't see a long-distance relationship they just started working out that way. There'd been a couple where he'd found out the next day, much to his horror and disgust, that she was still involved with someone else. Legally separated but technically married, they tried to brush it off as no big deal, but it was where Matt was concerned, even if there wasn't any reconciliation planned, in his mind it was still cheating, and he'd never tolerated cheating before, and he sure as hell wasn't going to just because he hadn't known that's what he was getting into. He remembered that saying 'ignorance of the law is no excuse', well, once he knew she still had a husband, he couldn't even claim ignorance anymore, he knew, and once he knew, he got out as quick as he could.

Those were certainly some of the least proud moments in his life and he generally kept them to himself, he'd been too ashamed by them to even tell Kelly about, so as far as anybody knew, he was strictly looking for a committed relationship. He certainly was now anyway. He'd been burnt on enough one-time hookups that he knew what he was talking about when he told Severide there were always strings attached. Kelly's problem, that he wasn't even aware about, as far as Casey could tell, was that Severide didn't think in terms of those women actually having an entire life before they sat down at that bar, a whole history he knew nothing about that could come back to bite him later on; an unexpected pregnancy, an undetected STD, a boyfriend who found out his woman cheated on him, so many different scenarios that any of them could result in more drama than he or anybody else needed. The nights might've been lonelier for his reservations but Casey just wanted to meet a woman he could fall in love with, who loved him in return, and not have to deal with all that additional baggage that could very easily pop up sometime after a one-time fling.

Casey was going in and out of sleep and felt his head swimming, when he heard the familiar buzzing of his cell phone. He opened his eyes and saw it on the coffee table and saw the screen light up, and reached over to grab it. Forcing his eyes open he recognized Kelly's number, and also that it was 11:45 P.M., what did he want at this time of night?

"Hello?" he tiredly asked as he set the phone to his ear. He waited a few seconds, there was no answer. He tried again. "Hello? Kelly?"

A few more seconds passed, and nothing. Then Casey heard the click of the call being disconnected. He tiredly grumbled to himself and dropped the phone on the table. If Severide didn't want to talk, he didn't care, all he wanted to do was get some sleep. He finally picked up the remote and shut off the TV, and very quickly was out like a light.