A/N: Thanks for all of your kind reviews! Thanks also for those of you who favorited, followed, or are just reading along. You all are awesome. I have at least three more chapters for this story. I'm hoping to have the next one up Thursday or Friday. =)

After shift, everyone at 51 headed home. They all met at Molly's that night to celebrate Severide and Kidd's wedding, but the mood was subdued. They all felt it deeply when one of their own was injured. The only benefit of the somber atmosphere was that nobody really noticed that Stella wasn't drinking.

When the newlyweds got into bed that night, Stella cuddled into her husband. Something had been bugging her and she needed to talk about it. "Casey saved my ass today," she said. "That bed should've taken out all three of us."

"All four of you," Kelly corrected, letting a hand rest on his wife's still-flat-for-now abdomen. "What happened in there, anyway?"

"Well, you know up to the part where we sent you out with those kids."

"Yeah. I was worried about you. The ceiling didn't look good when we went out, and you two were still behind us."

"You're telling me. By the time we found the dad and got him on our shoulders, the ceiling was bowing pretty bad. All of a sudden, it got really loud, and I barely had time to register what was happening. I remember I sped up, then it felt like I got pushed out the door. I thought maybe I'd just tripped on something until I realized Casey wasn't on the other side of our vic anymore." She smiled sadly. "After that, it was just autopilot, you know?"

"Yeah, I know."

"I can't stop thinking about what would have happened if things had gone differently."

"Stella," Kelly said softly. "You'll torture yourself thinking like that. You got out in time, and Casey's going to be okay."

"But would've he done it differently if it weren't a pregnant woman with him?" Try though she might, it was really hard to shake the feeling of guilt over Casey getting hurt.

Kelly shook his head. "That's probably why Casey paired himself with you, sure, but he would have done the same thing for me, for Gallo, for anyone. Don't blame yourself."

"Classic Casey," Kidd shook her head. "Does the man put himself ahead of anyone?"

"Not in an emergency situation," Kelly said. "That's what makes him such a great captain."

Starting to feel a little less guilty, Stella let it drop. She knew Kelly was right about Casey doing the same thing for anyone. It was just hard when that 'anyone' was her. She snuggled closer to her husband and was soon falling asleep. It had been a long day.

Casey hated being idle. Sylvie wouldn't let him do anything. Normally, this would be frustrating at best, but moving hurt so much that he found he didn't mind her doting on him. Not to mention the fact that he was still pretty freaked out from suddenly losing feeling in his legs. He didn't actually know what he would have done without her. She got him anything and everything he wanted or needed, and she seemed to have a plethora of fun stories up her sleeve. If he thought the time was passing slowly like this, he imagined he truly would have gone crazy without her.

When the time for his surgery finally came, Sylvie stayed with him as long as she could, then gave him a long, sweet kiss before he was taken to the OR. She trusted the people at Med, and she knew the procedure he was going through was incredibly common, but the little voice in the back of her head kept running her through the 'what if's.' She hoped it would stop once he was out of this.

Two hours later, Maggie came to get her. "Doctor says everything went well. He's starting to wake up, but fair warning," she said, walking with Sylvie to Matt's room, "he's still a little loopy from the anesthesia."

"Thanks, Maggie," Sylvie said, texting an update to Stella before she entered the room.

Matt was staring out the window when she walked into the room. "Hi, handsome," she said, pulling a chair up beside the bed.

"Heyyyy," he said, turning his head toward Sylvie. "Sivvy! You're here! Guess what!"

"Hm?"

"Der's cement in my spine. I'm like a skyscraper! And I do construction! Can you believe how awesome that is?"

Sylvie giggled. "You're a lot shorter than a skyscraper, darling."

"But Sivvyyyy," he said, eyes wide, trying to make her understand. "My SPINE has CEMENT."

"Just one vertebra, and only a little bit."

"I know! I'm like a skyscraper!" He paused for a moment, face contorting into some sort of confusion. "Do you think skyscrapers' backs hurt? Because my back hurts."

"You just had surgery, baby, of course it hurts. When the nurse comes in, maybe she can give you something for it."

"Okayy." Matt nodded lazily. "Sivvy?"

"What, darling?"

"I'm thirsty."

Sylvie held a cup of water for him and put the straw to his lips. He took a few sips then let his head plop back against the pillow. His eyes were getting heavy.

"I think I need a nap," he said. "I love you, Sivvy."

She put a hand on his chest and kissed him. "I love you too," she replied, but he was already asleep.

He woke up again an hour and a half later. The bright afternoon sun shining through his window hit him right in the eyes. He groaned and turned his head.

"Hey," Sylvie said softly.

"You're here," he said, reaching for her hand.

"I haven't left," she replied, switching from her chair to sit beside him on the bed and interlacing their fingers. "How are you feeling?"

"Back hurts, but it's a different kind of hurt, so better, I guess."

She gave him a small smile. "That's good. Do you need anything?"

"You wouldn't happen to have some water, would you?"

Sylvie reached for the bottle.

"You're incredible," he said, gratefully accepting the water and taking a long, slow drink.

"Matt?" she asked when he'd finished. "Do you remember talking to me earlier?"

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Like before I went into surgery?"

"I'll take that as a 'no,' then," she giggled.

"Why? Did I do something embarrassing?"

She shook her head. "The anesthetics had you pretty out of it."

He wasn't surprised, but a realization hit him. People said and did stupid things when they were drugged up. "Sylvie?" he asked carefully, "Did you take a video of anything?"

"I thought about it," she said honestly, "but I didn't. You can look through my phone, if you don't believe me."

He let out a sigh of relief. "No, I trust you."

She leaned down to give him a kiss. He wrapped his free hand around her back. "Thank you for being here, Sylvie."

"I'll always be here for you, Matt."

They shared a smile and another kiss, then a nurse came knocking on her hourly rounds.