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CHAPTER 16
After eating breakfast, Sylvie, Matt, Evan, and Elaine headed to the funeral home to make arrangements for Sylvie's father. Sylvie felt like it was taking all day to make the arrangements but it was only a few hours. Afterwards, Evan and Elaine decided to call family members and notify them of the situation, while Matt and Sylvie went back to Chicago. Sylvie told her mom that she needed to tell Boden and the others in person but she would be back later. After driving for three hours, Matt and Sylvie arrived at 51. At this point, she didn't care if Stella and the others teased her about Matt or if they found out that she and Matt were together. All Sylvie knew was that this was going to be hard on her. Boden kept quiet about what happened to Sylvie's father until Sylvie or Matt told him otherwise. No one in the house knew her father died except for Boden. Matt called Boden to let him know that he and Sylvie were on their way back and they needed to meet everyone at 51.
"Here goes nothing." Sylvie softly whispered to Matt.
"It's ok. I'll be right beside you." Matt said.
Boden had everyone meeting in the briefing room.
"I know you guys are wondering why I called you here. Sylvie Brett is going to need us more than ever. She and Casey should be here any minute and she can tell you guys herself but I will say, the news isn't one that any person wants to hear." Boden said.
Boden stepped aside and about two minutes later, Sylvie and Matt walked in. Suddenly, Sylvie felt overwhelmed.
"So, uh, I went back to Fowlerton and we had a decision to make. We had to let my father go and we just got done making the arrangements. His services are going to be Friday, at 6 pm for the wake and Saturday at noon for the funeral at the Fowlerton Funeral Home. I'm gonna be off work for the next several days.
I..." Sylvie cried.
Sylvie couldn't help but cry. Everyone got up and walked over to her and one by one, they gave her a hug.
"Hey kiddo, if you need anything at all, just ask." Herrmann said as he gave her a hug.
"Thank you." Sylvie whispered.
"I'm so sorry." Kelly said as he gave her a hug.
"Thank you." Sylvie whispered.
"Girl, if you need anything, just ask." Stella said as she gave her friend a hug.
"I will." Sylvie replied.
Emily gave her friend a hug but couldn't say anything. Seeing Sylvie cry and be in pain was more than enough for Emily to handle.
"Hey, Trudy and I are just a phone call away." Mouch said as he gave Sylvie a hug.
"Thank you." Sylvie whispered.
Ritter, Gallo, Tony, and Capp all gave Sylvie a hug and then Boden was the last one left.
"51 is a family. We are your family. We are not going to miss your father's funeral." Boden said as he gave her a hug.
Sylvie teared up some more as she returned Boden's hug.
"We all love you." Boden said, motioning towards everything.
"Thank you, guys. Really." Sylvie cried.
Sylvie and Matt said their goodbyes for now and headed back to Fowlerton.
"Hey, would you mind if we stopped to eat?" Matt asked.
"Sure." Sylvie smiled.
Matt pulled into the parking lot of Pizza Hut.
"I'm gonna go order four pizzas and four things of bread sticks and sauce. Is that ok?" Matt asked.
"Four? You're gonna eat four pizzas by yourself?" Sylvie joked.
"No, one for me, one for you, one for your mom, and one for Evan." Matt smirked.
Sylvie laughed.
"No kidding." Sylvie giggled.
Matt pulled into an empty parking spot after circling around a few times. He parked the truck and turned to her.
"Do you know how much you mean to me?" he asked.
"I have an idea." she smiled.
He kissed her and she returned his kiss. She let him go in and place the order. Since the restaurant was busy, they gave Matt a pager so that they could page him when his order was ready. He went back out to his truck and sat with Sylvie while waiting on the order.
"You are amazing, Matthew Casey." Sylvie smiled.
"No, that's all you." Matt smiled.
"If you say so." she giggled.
She knew better than to try and argue with him. After about thirty minutes, Matt's pager went off and he went inside to get the food. He came back out to the truck and placed the food in the middle between him and Sylvie. She could smell the food and it was making her hungry. He turned the truck on and drove to Sylvie's parent's house. It didn't take them long to get there and after he parked the truck, Sylvie grabbed the bread sticks and sauce, while Matt grabbed the pizza and they headed inside.
"Mom! Evan! We have food!" Sylvie called out.
Sylvie and Matt headed to the kitchen and placed the food on the table. Evan and Elaine weren't in the house. Sylvie looked for a note but saw nothing.
"Where could they be?" Matt asked.
Sylvie looked up and noticed the back door was opened.
"The barn." Sylvie said.
Sylvie made sure the door was unlocked before she and Matt headed to the barn.
"Annie and Stormy are gone." Sylvie smiled and then started laughing.
"What's so funny?" Matt asked, confused.
"Mom and Evan are out riding." Sylvie chuckled.
"And that's funny why?" Matt asked.
"It's funny because I was remembering when dad and I used to go riding. Once a week, mom and Evan would pick a day and just go riding for the whole day. Dad and I did the same thing. Saturdays would be mom and Evan's day and Sundays were for me and my dad. Every Monday, all four of us would go riding before school. I don't know. I guess I seeing Thunder just reminded me of that." Sylvie smiled.
Matt looked around for a minute.
"Have they been fed?" Matt asked.
"Yeah." Sylvie smiled.
"How can you tell?" Matt asked.
"There's a bag hanging in Annie's stall. The only time we ever hang bags is if we have fed them." Sylvie giggled.
A few minutes passed by before they headed inside. They went over to the couch and sat down. Sylvie grabbed the remote from the coffee table and turned the TV on. They sat and watched TV for a while before Elaine and Evan came home after riding.
"Hey sis, we're home!" Evan yelled as he and his mom walked into the house.
Matt and Sylvie got up and walked into the kitchen where her brother and mother had just came in.
"There's some pizza and bread sticks that Matt got for all of us." Sylvie said.
"Oh, good. I'm starving." Evan joked.
They all laughed.
"You're always hungry." Sylvie joked.
"It's called hunger pains." Evan joked back.
"Alright you two, let's eat." Elaine chuckled.
Sylvie grabbed plates from the cabinet and placed them on the table. Evan grabbed some tea from the refrigerator and then grabbed some cups and placed them on the table.
"Let me tell you about these two, Matt. These are two sneaky siblings." Elaine laughed.
Matt was intrigued now.
"Sylvie? A sneak? I don't believe it." Matt said.
Elaine laughed and then flashed Sylvie a look.
"Do you wanna tell him about the time that you and Evan skipped school because you both went to a party the night before?" Elaine said with a smile.
This definitely got Matt's attention. Sylvie was turning red and normally, she would try to shut her mom up, but given the circumstances, she decided to let her mom tell the story.
"Wait, what party?" Matt curiously questioned.
"Alright, so Evan met this girl who was a sophomore in college. Sylvie was a senior in high school. Well, Evan talked his sweet, reliable, sister into going to this college party one night. Well, in order for them to go, they had to leave school at lunch in order to make it and you'll never guess where the party ended up being." Elaine explained.
"Where?" Matt asked.
"The University of Chicago." Elaine laughed.
Sylvie's face was blood red from blushing but the fact that she was allowing her mom to tell an embarrassing story to the guy that she was seeing just made her feel good because she needed to smile. Her mom needed to smile and telling stories was the only thing right now that Sylvie had to cling too.
"What happened?" Matt asked.
"Do you wanna finish the story?" Elaine asked Sylvie.
"Sure, but to be fair, it was Evan's idea." Sylvie said as she threw her brother under the bus.
"Hey, don't go blaming me. You're the one who went along with it." Evan laughed.
"Ok, ok. So, the party was at the University of Chicago. Evan thought it would be a good idea to tell mom and dad that we were going to leave school for lunch, so when they called the school to see if we were back, they were told that we missed the last two classes of the day." Sylvie said.
"Then dad busted us." Evan chimed in.
"So basically we drove to Chicago and stopped at a few places before going to the party. We purposely left our cell phones at school and well, dad wasn't too thrilled. He found out where we were because Evan's then ex girlfriend told dad that it was in Chicago but didn't say where." Sylvie laughed.
"So our dad spends all day looking for us. I think he said he went to the cops and reported us missing or something sometime that evening. When the party had started, Sylvie and I were having fun. We started drinking and that's when dad showed up. Needless to say, we were grounded." Evan laughed.
"Sylvie? Drinking at a party underage and grounded? No way." Matt chuckled.
Sylvie and Evan continued telling the story and even told a few more stories, with Elaine remembering her husband. They were all laughing and enjoying the conversation. It was getting late and they all headed upstairs to go to bed. Sylvie made sure that Elaine and Evan went into their rooms first before she and Matt went into her room. She grabbed her pajamas and went to the bathroom to change. While she was changing clothes, he changed into his pajama bottoms. She came back into the room and found Matt dressed in his pajama bottoms and a grey tank top. They crawled into bed and Matt wrapped his arms around her and went to sleep. It was nearly time for the wake for Sylvie's father. It was going to be hard. She was getting ready and it was very hard. She chose a pair of black dress pants with a navy blue v neck dress shirt and black blazer. Even though it was Spring, the weather was still a bit cool outside.
"Hey, your mom and Evan just left." Matt said as he walked into Sylvie's room.
"I'm almost ready." Sylvie said as she grabbed a sterling silver necklace and bracelet set off of her dresser.
The necklace that Sylvie put on was a sterling silver necklace with a silver heart on it with the words "I Love You" on it that her father gave her when she was adopted. The bracelet was also sterling silver with a silver heard on it with the words "Too The Moon And Back - Dad" that went with the necklace. She only wore the necklace and bracelet set once and that was for her high school graduation. She put on some perfume and put her black dress flat shoes on, and she and Matt left the house. They headed to the funeral home where her mom and brother were waiting on them. They arrived and greeted her mom and brother.
"I'm not ready for this." Sylvie told her brother.
"I know. Mom is gonna try to hold it together but we need to try to be strong for her." Evan said.
"I know." Sylvie quietly replied.
Evan and Elaine headed inside to greet people who were already there. Sylvie and Matt stayed back for a few minutes.
"I'm gonna be here for you. I'm not going anywhere. Ok." Matt said.
"I know." Sylvie whispered.
They headed inside where they were greeted by many of Sylvie's family members and most of the doctors and nurses from the hospital, some of which Sylvie really didn't want to be around, but still tried her best to be nice too. As she made her way through the crowd of people who were giving her their condolences, she spotted her family from 51.
"Hey kiddo." Herrmann said as he hugged Sylvie.
"Hey, Herrman." Sylvie half smiled.
"Sylvie, how are you?" Cindy asked.
Sylvie gave her a hug.
"I've been better." Sylvie slightly chuckled.
Sylvie looked and saw Kelly walking towards her. He gave her a big hug.
"How's my favorite paramedic doing?" Kelly joked, trying to lighten the mood.
"I've been better but I'm just glad you guys are here." Sylvie half smiled.
"We're all here for you." Stella said.
"Thank you, guys. I'm glad you're all here." Sylvie smiled.
Mouch, Trudy, the Intelligence Team, and everyone else from Chicago that Sylvie knows had come to pay their respects and to be there for Sylvie. Sylvie introduced her mother and brother to everyone and Elaine and Evan finally understood why Sylvie loved Chicago. Everyone got along and Sylvie was right, they all were like family to each other.
"Thank you all for coming. I'm sure Sylvie is glad to have her friends here with her at this time." Elaine said.
"Mrs. Brett, I'm Chief Boden and on behalf of myself and Firehouse 51, we are sending our condolences to you and your family." Boden said.
"Thank you, so much." Elaine said as she hugged Boden.
Sylvie's cousins were a few rooms down in the kitchen making sandwiches and snacks for everyone. The real service wasn't until tomorrow but something about eating finger foods during this time and catching up with family that makes things seem like it's going to be alright. Sylvie had her family from 51 with her and she felt a bit at ease.