Friendzoned

Kelly Severide had just left his quarters with an incident report in hand ready to turn in, and was on his way to Boden's office when he heard voices traveling down the corridor.

"So how long do you think it'll be before something actually happens?"

"How do you know it hasn't already?"

"No way, I got $20 in the pool they'll be sleeping together within a month."

"How're we going to know if they do?"

"Oh we'll know, people in this firehouse couldn't keep that secret if their lives depended on it."

Curiously, Kelly followed the sound of the voices and saw it was some of Herrmann's guys off truck.

"Hey Severide, you in on this pool yet?"

"About what?" he asked.

"About when Casey and Brett are gonna sleep together."

Kelly stood there for a few seconds with no change whatsoever to the expression on his face, then suddenly his eyebrows jumped halfway up his forehead and his eyes bugged out and he asked, "What?"

"So far the best odds are anywhere between two weeks and a month, I like a long shot, I'm got $50 that says they'll last till May before they hit the sheets."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kelly asked them.

"Oh come on, Kelly, don't pretend you haven't noticed."

"Noticed what?"

"Where have you been? You haven't noticed how much Casey's hanging on Brett all the time? Hell she's the first person he goes to for anything around here anymore, it's just a matter of time before they sleep together."

Kelly knew he had to have a look on his face by now like that of a deer in headlights, but he couldn't comprehend what they were saying. The question remained, where the hell had he been if everybody else had seen this going on and he hadn't even noticed?

Casey and Brett? It didn't make any sense. What could the two of them even...well, he knew better than to ask that question. 51 had more than its share of in-house hookups, 90% of which were disasters waiting to happen from the word go, but it was an age old fact they were bound to happen when two people worked together, especially in a field like theirs, and each could appreciate what they faced every day on the job. It was a lot easier than trying to explain it to someone out-of-house who wasn't well acquainted with the Fire/EMS world. But Casey and Brett? It just didn't click. What was going on? When had that started? And how had he missed it?

He left the conversation without adding anymore to it than he already had and went to turn his report in to Boden, and then try to figure out what was going on. On the way he came to a sudden stop when he saw Casey and Sylvie talking in the common room. Their voices were too low for him to make out anything they were saying but he wasn't oblivious to how close they were standing next to each other. Whatever was going on it did not look like a professional relationship related conversation. He saw Sylvie's eyes light up at something Matt said and she was gesturing as she said something that roughly sounded like she was agreeing with what Casey was saying.

Kelly felt like his head was going to explode. He quickly left the area and kept on his way to find the Chief.

Kelly was already awake but the sound of Casey moaning in pain got his attention and he left the bedroom to see what was going on.

"Casey? What's wrong?"

Casey was half sprawled over the couch and slow to get up, he reached his hands to the back of his head and told the Squad lieutenant, "Oh God, the back of my head feels like it's gonna pop."

Kelly stepped over to the couch, "What happened?"

"I don't know, it was hurting when I went to bed last night, I thought it'd be normal when I got up, it's just worse now," Casey said.

Kelly carefully placed his hands on the back of Casey's head and felt his way down Matt's neck and to his shoulders. There was tension, but he couldn't find a pulled muscle.

"You probably pinched a nerve," Kelly said, "Can you turn your neck?"

"Ow," Casey said for answer when he turned it to the left, then again to the right.

Kelly grabbed his arm and told him, "Okay, come on, get up, let's see if something does need to pop."

Casey groaned and grumbled as Kelly subjected him to a series of exercises swinging his arms all the way around one at a time and then reaching behind his back, turning and rolling his neck in every direction, several times Casey jerked and said something near his shoulder felt like popping, but nothing worked.

"Okay, stay here, I'll get you some ibuprofen and the ice pack," Kelly told him.

"Like I'm going anywhere," Casey said as he sat back on the couch, then he realized, "Oh crap, we have to be on shift in an hour."

"I'll call Boden and tell him you can't make it," Kelly said as he returned with a pill bottle, a glass of water and an ice pack wrapped in a dish towel, "There's no way you can go in like that today."

"Who're you telling?" Casey groaned as he took the pills and drank them down.

"Come on, lay back down and put this behind your head," Kelly told him as he handed Matt the ice pack.

Casey groaned as his head touched the pillow, but after a few seconds he adjusted to the cold and seemed content to lay there for the rest of the day.

"Do you need me to stay home with you?" Kelly asked.

Casey forgot the pain momentarily and tried to shake his head, he groaned, "No, that's fine, you head in, I'll be fine."

"I'll get started on breakfast," Kelly told him.

Severide took Casey's plate to the kitchen and Matt lay back down on the couch, everything in the back of his neck feeling half frozen from the ice pack, but not cold to the point of blissful numbness yet.

"So Case," Kelly said as he reentered the living room, "I know it's none of my business but can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah, sure, what is it?" Casey asked as he scooted around to get comfortable.

"You and Brett, when did you two become a thing?"

Casey looked at him and hardly missing a beat, with a look of complete oblivion on his face, said in response, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Come on, Casey, everybody at 51 knows about it," Kelly said, "everybody's already betting on when you two are gonna sleep together."

Casey's eyes bugged out and he got out a loud and determined, "WHAT?" as he forgot his situation and tried to sit up in one movement, and only got halfway before a pained groan escaped him and he fell back against the pillow. "They're what?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Kelly wanted to know, "When did this even happen?"

"Kelly, I don't have any idea what the hell you're talking about," Casey told him as he tried to sit up again, slower this time.

"Matt, it's the worst kept secret at the firehouse," Kelly said, "everybody knows, everybody's seen you two together."

"Oka-a-ay?" Casey asked in a confused tone, "And the point is?"

"Every shift, Matt," Kelly pointed out, "you had to know people would notice something like that."

"Kelly," Casey slowly got to his feet and it took him a couple tries but he finally stood straight and faced Severide, "I don't know what's gotten to everybody at 51, but there is nothing going on between me and Brett. How could you even think such a thing?"

"I saw you two together last shift, it didn't look like nothing to me," Kelly told him.

Casey rolled his eyes as any words escaped him, he opened his mouth but nothing came out, finally he shook his head and said to Kelly, "You are seriously reaching on this."

"Then explain it to me," Kelly said.

"Kelly, ow," Casey grabbed the back of his neck as he moved it wrong, he looked at Severide and said to him, "Kelly, think for a minute, can you actually imagine what it would be like sleeping with Brett?"

Instead of actually trying to picture that, Severide's automatic response was a disgusted, "Oh God no."

"There you go," Casey said in a knowing tone as he feebly tried to roll his neck, "It'd be like trying to picture your own sister."

Kelly's eyes widened and he blinked several times as if trying to push that idea as far away as possible, "Yeah...but if you're not sleeping with her-"

"I'm not doing anything with her," Casey replied determinedly.

"But you have been going to see her every shift," Kelly said.

"Yes," Casey answered, "As a friend, Kelly, that's it. I need to get somebody's opinion, she's there, I don't already know what she's likely to say so she's a good option for an unbiased opinion. It works, Kelly, it's not awkward, there's no issue of rank that would be present if I talked to one of my guys on Truck, and it would be too awkward to try asking the opinion of anybody on Squad, and you can forget Herrmann's guys on Engine. Brett's the only option, it works because she's a paramedic and we have no direct working relationship, that's all it is."

Kelly slowly took that explanation in and mulled it over. As he did, Casey started rotating his arm backwards again to see if anything would pop his neck back into place. There was a sudden noise as he yelped and reached his other hand over towards his right collarbone.

"It didn't pop," he commented, "it jerked."

"Is it better now?" Kelly asked.

Casey tested the waters by turning his head one way, then the other, "Yeah, I think so. So, has everything been cleared up?"

"But why Brett?" Kelly wanted to know.

"Sometimes I need a woman's opinion and it's too awkward to ask Kidd," Casey told him. "Besides..."

Kelly looked at him as the blonde man suddenly looked to the side, "Besides what, Matt?"

Casey looked back at him and explained, "I already got burned once hooking up with a paramedic, I'm not going to make that mistake again, but...I need a friend, Kelly, I need somebody I can talk to, somebody who's going to hear me out without judging me...and that used to be you-"

Kelly did a double take, "What do you mean used to be?"

"Kelly, you have to have noticed," Casey said almost in disbelief, "Between everything going on with you and Stella, and now she's going to be moving in soon, and your transfer to OFI, and then coming back to 51, between everything that's been going on, I haven't been able to come to you about anything...when was the last time we even had a cigar on the apparatus floor? Do you remember? I do, 3 months ago. I'm all alone here, Kelly, and I don't like it."

Severide felt like somebody had just punched him in the gut with a sledge hammer. "Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"How could I? Why would I? You have your own life, you have your own stuff you're dealing with, if you didn't even notice what was going on it's obvious you don't have time for me anymore," Casey told him. "And that's fine, you know? Life changes, things change, people change...we're getting older, nothing stays the same. In fact..." he looked around the room, "Stella's moving in soon...won't be too long before you two get married, you don't need a third wheel around here to kill the mood...I think it's time I moved out and got my own place."

Kelly couldn't believe he was actually hearing this, any of it. He didn't even know what to say. There was nothing he could say that could excuse his behavior over the past few months, the fact he hadn't even been aware of anything that was going on proved that Casey was right.

"I'm sorry, Casey, I really didn't realize what was going on," Kelly told him, not knowing what else to say.

Casey shrugged dismissively, "It just happened, life changes. I can accept it, but the shifts are too long to be there all day without a friend to talk to...besides, I've...never really had a friend that was just a woman, that I wasn't romantically involved with...I figured this might be a good time to start, and a good candidate, Brett's nice enough but there could never be anything between us. Besides...she really needs a friend right now as well."

Kelly's eyes narrowed to inquisitive slits, "What do you mean?"

"She used to be able to talk to Cruz, now he's marrying Chloe and he's not available anymore, and she used to do stuff with Foster and Kidd, and now Kidd hasn't been around much the past few weeks either."

"How do you know that?" Kelly asked.

"Because Brett told me." A small, wry, hollow smile formed on Casey's face as he said almost matter-of-factly, "We found common ground in that the friends we used to have, just aren't there anymore."

Kelly felt the turmoil running through his body going from bad to worse. How the hell had things gotten this bad and he hadn't even noticed?

"Casey, I'm sorry, I don't know what to say."

Casey shook his head, "There's nothing to say, it's just time for me to move on...and move out...it's been great staying here, but it's been over a year, I should be able to get back on my feet now."

Kelly couldn't help asking, "Where would you go?"

Casey shook his head again, "There are plenty of apartments for rent in this city, I'll find a place...thank you for letting me stay here this long."

Kelly felt like the biggest idiot who ever lived as he just stood in the middle of the room and let Casey walk past him and out of the living room, but there wasn't a single thing he could say after the damage he'd unknowingly done that could fix this. There had to be something he could do, but what?