A/N: Last chapter, thanks to everybody for reading and reviewing, I'm glad you've enjoyed it!

Kelly beat on the front door so hard he thought he was going to bust his knuckles, but he didn't care, he kept pounding relentlessly until the porch light came on and he could hear the bolt being undone, and he saw Hank Voight's face as he pulled the door back.

"Are you fucking Casey?" was the first accusation out of Severide's mouth.

The suddenness and spontaneity of the question clearly caught the Intelligence sergeant off guard and after a brief pause the only thing he could get out with a very confused and wide eyed express was an equally confused, "Ex-cuse me?"

"I saw you two together, Voight, what the hell did you do to him?" Kelly demanded to know as he forced his way into Voight's home.

Voight largely maintained his normal unreadable expression, and a strangely restrained tone as he told Kelly, "You are way off, Severide."

"I don't know how you got your hooks into him but if you don't leave him alone, I'm gonna kill you," Kelly said point blank.

Voight's eyes were the only part of his stone face that changed in expression at Severide's threat, his only verbal response was a somewhat amused, "Oh really?"

"I saw what you did to his face, you touch him again, I'm gonna bury you," Kelly was practically on top of the cop.

There was nothing in the sergeant's face that gave away what was going through his head, but he turned and called out, "Matt, come on out here."

Kelly heard a door open and turned and saw Casey step out from another room, looking defensive.

"Severide, what the hell are you doing here?" Casey demanded to know.

Kelly felt his eyes double in size in disbelief. "What the hell am I doing here?"

The two lieutenants got in each other's faces and started yelling at each other and very few words could actually be deciphered from the tirade. Voight raised his voice to be heard over both of them and told them, "Alright, both of you shut up!" Somehow that did the trick and both men suddenly got quiet.

"Matt, show him," Voight told Casey.

Kelly looked from Voight to Casey, completely clueless about what he meant. Casey just stared at Kelly, a blank look of discontent on his face.

"Show him!" Voight repeated.

Reluctantly, Casey opened his jacket, and his shirt, revealing a wire strapped to his chest.

Once again, Severide had that same feeling that his brain was about to explode.

"Casey, what's going on?"

Casey sighed and answered, "Somebody threatened Christie's life and tried to kill me."

Kelly's mind went completely blank and he could barely even talk.

"Wait, what? Wha-huh?"

Voight took a step towards Casey and spoke in the general direction of the microphone, "Take five, Jay, ears off."

Casey re-buttoned his shirt and shut his jacket.

"Casey, what do you mean? What happened?" Kelly asked.

Casey sighed painfully and explained, "Christie called me a week ago, said some guy had come around threatening her, I went to her house..."

"Then he called me," Voight added. He pointed to the still purple bruise on Matt's face and told Kelly, "He was already like that when we got there, half conscious on the floor bleeding."

Matt was faintly aware of his sister's panicked screams, but they sounded far away. The guy that had just beaten him bloody was gone, at least Casey thought he was gone. He tried to get up but his body wouldn't cooperate. He rolled over onto his stomach and crawled over towards Christie, tried to ask if she was alright, but the words wouldn't come.

"Oh my God, Matt!" his sister screamed as she knelt down beside him.

Casey fumbled for his pocket and took out his phone and tried dialing a number.

"Matt, what're you doing?"

"-Help," he tried to answer as he put the phone on speaker.

He'd thought he'd dialed Antonio's number, instead he heard a gruffer voice answer, "Voight."

Casey didn't have time to worry about that, they both worked in the same unit, one would likely bring the other anyway.

"This is Matt Casey...I need somebody at..." his head was throbbing and he couldn't remember Christie's address. He held the phone up to her and told her, "Tell h'm where we are," and he slumped back against the floor.

The next thing Casey was aware of was somebody calling his name. He tried opening his eyes, everything was blurry, he tried again, Voight's face started to come into focus. Somewhere around him he heard other voices and he was gradually able to make out the images of Jay Halstead and Antonio Dawson in the background talking to Christie.

"Can you hear me, Casey?"

Matt groaned as he tried to answer.

"Do you know where you are?"

He forced his head to nod, just slightly.

"How many fingers you see?"

Casey squinted his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing double and croaked out, "Two."

"Come on, let's get you up," he felt Voight's hand squeezing his and felt himself being pulled off the floor. "We'll get you to the hospital and have the docs take a look at you."

Casey shook his head, every movement felt like a pickax right between the eyes. "No, no doctor, no hospital."

"Matt," he could hear Christie's voice but didn't see her yet.

"I'm fine," Casey grunted as he got to his feet.

"What happened?" Voight asked.

Casey tried to answer but he felt like the floor dropped out from under him and he collapsed face first into the carpet.

When he came to, he was on a table in an exam room somewhere, a doctor was hovered over him checking him over, Voight stood by the wall.

"So what's the damage?" Voight asked.

"Nothing that won't heal in a couple weeks," the doctor said, and told Casey, "All the same before you go I'll get you a prescription for some painkillers."

"So let's try this again," Voight walked over to the table and asked Casey, "What happened?"

"Turns out that her ex-husband was an associate who owed them some money," Casey said. "Somehow he got the impression Christie was holding onto it, threatened to kill her and her daughter if she didn't get it to him."

"My God," Kelly barely got above a whisper.

Casey pointed to Hank and went on, "Voight moved them out and to a safe house, had the whole house searched, didn't find anything."

"And you?" Kelly asked.

"The guy's name is Frank Jacoby, a link in a chain of criminals that narcotics, the gang unit and Intelligence have been trying to bust for months," Voight told him. "Casey's been stringing him along about getting the money, we're setting up a meet tonight where he's going to get Jacoby to incriminate himself, because the money he's after was supposed to be his cut from a drug ring, but somebody somewhere cheated him, put the blame on Casey's brother-in-law."

"Ex brother-in-law," Casey corrected.

"Now you get the picture?" Voight asked Kelly.

It was obvious from the look on Severide's face that it wasn't that simple.

"I don't get it, I saw you two..." he turned to Casey, "the night you called me, you said your sister was out of town-"

"Eight hours after he got his face bashed in by Jacoby," Voight clarified.

"In the middle of everything I remembered I was supposed to meet you, figured it was a good way to buy some time while the commotion died down," Casey explained.

"But I saw you, at the bar," Kelly looked at Matt, then Voight, and back at Casey again, "I saw you two together-"

The expression on Casey's face changed to one of confusion, "You were there?"

"I was at the door and I saw you two. You looked..." he couldn't even finish that sentence.

There was the slightest hint of an amused smirk on Voight's face as he told Kelly, "Figured after the day he'd had, he could use a drink, and loud bars are still one of the last places anybody pays attention to what two people are saying."

"We were going over the details of how this was going to work," Casey said.

Kelly replayed the events of that night over in his mind again. Remembering it now, he only saw Casey from the profile and it was the opposite side from where he'd been hit, so that explained that much anyway. But he also remembered the look on Matt's face as he spoke with the cop, smiling and laughing, and Severide had a hard time lining that up with the explanation they'd just given.

"Kelly?"

Severide realized Casey was talking to him but he hadn't heard a word the Truck lieutenant said.

"What were you two talking about?" he saw his best friend and the Intelligence cop look at each other like Severide was crazy, and he elaborated, "you two were laughing about something, what was is?"

"How's the eye?" Voight asked as they got their drinks.

"Hurts," Casey answered, and turned to the side, "how's it look?"

"Like it hurts," Voight answered.

Casey grumbled as he picked up his bottle and replied, "Nothing a dozen more of these won't fix."

"Amen."

"So...you really think you can nail this guy?" Casey asked.

"I know we can, with your help," Voight answered.

"And once he's arrested, what then? What's he looking at? Is there a chance he'll just get probation or something like that? If he comes near anyone in my family again-"

"You play your cards right, I guarantee you, he won't see the light of day again," Voight told Matt.

That made him smile, though it hurt his face to do so. "Good."

"So you figured out what you're gonna tell everyone at 51? I'm assuming you're going in next shift?"

Casey nodded. "Hadn't really thought about it yet."

"Might talk to Erin, she might be able to help," Voight suggested.

"With what?"

"We both know it'd be easier if the subject doesn't come up at all," Voight pointed out. "She can probably help you cover it up."

Casey raised an eyebrow, "You mean makeup? I don't think-"

"Don't knock it. One time Halstead comes in with his whole jaw black and blue, because the woman he spent the night with sucker punched him in her sleep. He hadn't bothered to find out she was a boxer."

Casey laughed.

"Erin goes into the locker room with him, ten minutes later he comes out, face looks normal again." Voight shrugged and told him, "Your choice."

Casey thought about it, feeling gleefully delirious either from the pills the doctor gave him or how much he'd already had to drink to try numbing the pain. "Would be easier if I didn't have to explain this to everyone."

"Or you could say you took a boxer home and she clocked you in your sleep," Voight replied.

Casey busted out laughing.

"Think about it, Kelly," Casey said as he gestured to his face, "we've known each other for almost 20 years, do you really think I know anything about makeup?"

"Good point," Kelly said with a sigh of defeat. Then he thought of something else, and asked, "Who were you on the phone with that night on the next shift?"

Once again, Voight and Casey shared a mutual look of confusion.

"When everybody else was in the bunk room, you went outside."

"You followed me?" Casey asked.

"I was looking for you," Kelly answered. "When you were on the phone saying 'I need to see you, where are you?', something about you hadn't told anyone, were you talking to Voight?"

The two looked at each other again and a sudden choked laugh caught in Casey's throat as he connected the dots. He turned back to Kelly and answered in an amused tone, "No, that was Christie. I wanted to see her to catch her up on what was going on so she wasn't just in the dark. She was freaking out thinking I'd told somebody where she was."

"One other thing," Kelly responded. The one that he couldn't let go of, he just had to know. "Casey, I stopped by your apartment a couple nights ago because you weren't answering."

"My phone was off, Voight gave me a burner to contact Jacoby with and that's the one I kept on at all times," Casey answered.

"But I saw you pull up in Voight's car...I saw..."

Casey's eyes widened as he must've figured out what Kelly was talking about, and Severide noticed a flushed hue rising in his cheeks and didn't fail to notice the Truck lieutenant's eyes looking to the side.

"What was that about?" Kelly asked.

"He had a meeting with Jacoby that night, my guys picked him up, he came back to the 21st, we collected the wire, I brought him back," Voight answered.

"But what..." Kelly glanced over at Casey, who still wasn't making eye contact with him. "What happened in the car?"

"You did good tonight," Voight told Casey during the drive back to his apartment. "We'll get the money together, in a couple days we'll set up the bust."

"Hm," Casey grunted as he looked out the window.

Voight looked over at the fireman and told him, "I appreciate how hard this is for you, Matt."

"I don't think you do," Casey replied distantly.

Voight paused for a minute, then inquired, "Taking you back?"

Casey turned his head, "To what?"

"Jack Nesbitt, Katya."

Casey was shaking his head.

"You been sleeping lately?" Voight asked.

"The first couple nights...after that those pills the doctor gave me made me wired...I haven't been able to sleep for two days...I feel weird, I feel..."

"What?"

"It's stupid."

"Try me."

"What is it they say when you're on meds? It lowers your defenses...I remember my mom having periods where she just started crying for no apparent reason, my dad was always telling at her about being so emotional...now I feel like my mom, like I'm going to fall apart at any minute."

"You stop taking the pills?" Voight asked.

"Yeah but it hasn't been long enough to get them out of my system yet," Casey answered, "turns out they have a long half life."

Casey shook his head as he looked out the window at the scenery passing them in the night, "It can't happen again."

"Matt-"

"I can't have my sister murdered like Katya."

"Listen to me, Matt, we're gonna get everybody out of this alright, okay?" Voight said. "But you need to stay focused."

Voight watched Casey and saw how hard his chest was rising and falling with the heavy breaths he was taking. This really was taking him back to the whole Jack Nesbitt ordeal.

"It's gonna be alright," Voight told him. "We got someone watching your sister, we got a tail on you, if Jacoby or his people try anything, we will know it immediately."

Casey nodded but still didn't seem too assured.

"Here we are," Voight said as he pulled up outside Casey's apartment. He turned to face the lieutenant and told him, "We're going to nail this bastard, Casey, just don't start losing it now."

Casey nodded again,"I know, I know...I'll be ready."

He reached for the door and slightly pushed it ajar as he asked, "What happens if he comes looking for me before you're ready?"

"Like I said, we got someone watching you at all times, we'll know it," Voight said, "and as soon as we do we'll move in."

"Okay...okay," Casey pushed the door open and turned to get out...then suddenly he turned back, reached across the front seat and hugged Voight, much to the sergeant's surprise.

"Thank you," Casey barely got out. "Thanks for helping me, Voight."

In those few words Hank could feel the paralyzing amount of fear that had bottled up in Casey over the last few days since this whole mess started.

"Hey, hey," Voight calmly said as he clapped a hand on Casey's back, "it's gonna be okay, trust me."

Casey tiredly nodded, and pulled back, and as soon as he did Voight saw the look of embarrassment on Matt's face at what he'd just done.

"Go home, get some sleep, I'll call you tomorrow with the next part of the plan," Voight told him.

Matt nodded and turned and got out of the car.

Casey had directed his eyes towards the floor and wouldn't look at Kelly. This revelation made Severide feel like he'd been punched in the gut.

"Casey," he took a step towards his friend, who in turn sidestepped him entirely like he was vermin.

"We have to go," he said dismissively, still not looking at him.

"And you're staying out of this," Voight told Kelly.

Kelly merely nodded in agreement, he looked over at Casey who still wouldn't even look in his direction. Now he really felt like an idiot.

"I'm sorry...I didn't know..." he decided it was in his best interest to leave immediately, and showed himself the door.

Once he was gone, Voight turned to the Truck lieutenant who looked like he wanted to crawl out of his skin and under a rock somewhere, and asked point blank, "Am I what?"

Casey groaned as he cupped his hands over his face. "Voight, I am embarrassed to death about this."

"Don't worry about it, we gotta get going," Voight told him. Though as the two left Voight's home and headed to the car, Casey heard a small 'huh' sound come from the sergeant, followed by another, followed by a series of amused laughs as Severide's accusation came to mind again. Casey just groaned and shook his head.

There was a knock at Casey's door. He crossed through the living room and opened it and saw Severide standing on the other side, a humbled look on his face.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

Casey had no verbal response, he just gestured for Kelly to come on in. As Kelly entered he noticed the bruise covering Casey's face had turned a subtle green by now, meaning a few more days and it should be healed. He guessed it made sense in the privacy of his own home he'd forgo trying to cover it up.

It was 24 hours since he'd marched into Voight's home and found out what was going on, by now he'd found out from Antonio that the bust had gone as planned and Frank Jacoby and his associates were all hauled in and awaiting their bail hearings. Kelly figured by now it was safe to try talking to Casey again.

"If you've come to apologize, I accept," Casey told him.

"You do?" Kelly asked in disbelief.

"I do," he replied with a small smile.

"I'm sorry, Casey, I feel like an idiot," he said.

"Well you should be," Casey said as he headed into the kitchen, and returned with two bottles of beer. "Kelly we have known each other for almost 20 years, how could you even think of such a thing?"

"What was I supposed to think?" Kelly asked with a helpless shrug. "You blew me off and you were running off to see Voight, you come to work beat up and you won't tell me what happened."

"And from that you thought we were sleeping together?" Casey asked in disbelief.

"I said I'm sorry...why didn't you tell me what was going on?" Kelly wanted to know.

Casey shook his head. "I couldn't."

"As crazy as you were acting, you had to know I couldn't let it go," Kelly said.

"I didn't have any choice, I couldn't tell you the truth," Casey said.

"Why not?"

"Because I know you."

"Meaning what?"

"First, I couldn't have you going after this guy and ruin everything, two, I wasn't willing to take the chance of anybody else being in danger, three I couldn't be sure if you could be trusted to leave the rest of 51 out of this," Casey explained. "It was easier to make you think I was nuts than tell you what was really going on...but I sure as hell never thought you'd come up with anything so ridiculous as this."

Now it was Kelly's turn to wish he could crawl under a rock.

"After they busted Jacoby, and the others, and everything died down," Casey told him, "Voight was laughing his ass off at the whole thing. He also had an...interesting theory."

"What's that?" Kelly asked.

Casey was beaming from ear to ear, doing everything he could not to break down laughing as he answered, "That the reason you went off like you did is because you're jealous."

It took a few seconds for Kelly's brain to even register the words. "Jealous? Of what, of him?"

"Well...should we put it to a test?"

Casey closed the space between them and hugged Kelly, catching him completely off guard.

"What the hell?"

Casey laughed and responded, "Well, I thought about it once I got home last night, and the fact that you were willing to go over there and make such a jackass out of yourself and threaten Voight, you must've really been concerned...and I guess I can't stay mad at you for being worried."

"I was worried, I knew something was wrong, I just never thought it could be anything like this," Kelly told him. "I'm sorry that you couldn't tell me."

"I wanted to tell you," Casey said as he pulled away from Severide. "But I didn't want to put you in any danger. I knew you couldn't leave it alone but I just couldn't tell you what was going on."

Kelly nodded, "I understand, I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry I punched you," Casey admitted.

The two had a small laugh over that recollection. Casey grinned and told him, "Thank you for caring enough to be such an idiot."

"What I'm here for," Kelly said with a shrug.

"You realize Voight's never gonna let either of us live this down, right?" Casey asked.

The two shared another laugh at that comment. Kelly ducked his head and pressed his hand over his eyes in embarrassment as he remembered his behavior the other night.

"Though I suppose, in all fairness I should confess I did in fact spend the night with him," Casey said with a straight face.

Kelly's eyes bulged and his jaw dropped, "What?"

Casey chuckled and told him, "I had too much to drink at the bar, and it interacted with the pills I took earlier. He took me back to his place and had his people go to my apartment and search it just to make sure none of Jacoby's people had gone there looking for the money...and while we're waiting to hear back from them, I pass out on his couch. Next thing I know it's morning and I got a hangover that's making my whole face throb. I have literally no recollection what happened between those two points, all I know is I wake up tangled up in this scratchy afghan and he's standing over me holding two coffee mugs, every word he says is making my bruises pulsate."

Kelly was just about to double over from laughing at his friend's expense. Casey maintained a steady voice but he was losing the ability to maintain a straight face as he said, "So apparently spending the night with Voight is as painful and miserable as you'd think it is."

Severide fell back against the wall and slowly sank down to the floor, still laughing. It was only after a few minutes passed that he found the strength to get back to his feet.

"Seriously, Kelly, how could you ever think...what would ever give you the idea...first of all, we've known each other long enough you should know I'm not gay. Secondly, if I was, do you really think I'd be interested in Voight?" Casey wanted to know.

The two lieutenants looked at each other for a minute and as that mental image started to take form in both their minds, they both grimaced and cringed and got out matching comments of sounds of sheer disgust.

"Great, I'm never gonna get that out of my head," Casey said.

"Your head? I'm never gonna get it out of my eyes!" Kelly replied.

"You have a sick imagination, Kelly, you know that?"

"I'm starting to find that out."

The moment passed and more seriously, Kelly asked, "How is your sister doing now?"

"She's good," Casey nodded, "She and her daughter are back home now, I think it's going to take a while for her to actually feel safe, but they're doing fine."

Kelly noticed Casey's bruised eye blinking more than the other and asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah, just need to put the eye drops in again," Casey said in an annoyed tone.

"Wait, that part was real?" Kelly asked.

Casey looked at him with a puzzled expression as he picked up the bottle off the table and told him, "Come on, Kelly, don't you think if I was lying I could've come up with something better than this? They cut that metal out from under my eye, I have to take these for the rest of the week for it to heal."

"You mean that really was from the call we were on?" Kelly asked.

"Truth's stranger than fiction, right?" Casey replied.

"Yeah...I suppose so," Kelly answered. "But why didn't you want anyone at 51 to know about it?"

"Come on, Kelly, you know how they are, any non-life threatening injury is fair game for their jokes, and I just wasn't in the mood," Casey told him.

Kelly thought about it and responded, "Guess I can't blame you for that."

"So, uh...that rain check you were talking about, the offer still good?" Casey inquired.

Kelly grinned, "Yeah, sure, after next shift good?"

"My schedule's clear," Casey answered.

"Glad to hear it. You sure you're okay?"

Casey nodded, "Gonna be black and blue for a couple weeks but yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure?" Kelly asked.

Casey offered a small smile and answered. "I am now."