Casey opened his eyes and looked around the hospital room. Through the door he could hear the sound of people talking up and down the hall, the sound of elevator doors opening, the sound of gurneys being pushed across the floor, it was a distant sound so it was probably the floor below. His own room was very quiet, nothing but the slow beeps on the monitors he was hooked up to. He was still laying on his side and dreaded turning over, suddenly he felt alone and uncertain.

"Kelly?" he called out tensely. It had been hours since he'd last seen Severide, since he'd screamed at him to leave him alone; maybe he'd actually listened, maybe he'd gone home, if so that meant he was all alone now, and that was enough to send him into a near panic.

Severide leaned over and stuck his head in the door and called over to the man facing away from him, "I'm right here, buddy, watcha need?"

Casey almost laughed. Severide was worse than a cockroach, you couldn't get rid of him no matter what you did.

"Get me out of here," he said weakly.

Kelly walked over towards the bed. "What?"

"I want to go home," Casey insisted.

"Take it easy," Severide told him, wordlessly stressing not to get all worked up again and maybe pull his stitches loose. He went around to the other side of the bed so Casey could see him, and told him, "I know you want to, buddy, but you've got to stay here for right now." He saw Casey roll his eyes back in his head and throw his head back against the pillow in despair. "I know, buddy, I know, I'm sorry, but you need to wait until the doctors clear you."

"I don't want to be here," Casey said with a small whine.

"I know."

Casey closed his eyes as if trying to suppress what was happening.

"Casey, nobody knew what happened, nobody knew where you were, we were all worried what had happened to you."

"You were worried?" Casey asked accusingly as he glared at him, as if he and the others had no right to be worried by his disappearance. His eyes softened after the outburst and he said in a quieter tone, "I'm sorry."

Kelly stroked his hand over the back of Casey's head and told him, "It's alright."

"I want to go home!" Casey said with a more pronounced whine, not caring how it sounded, he was so desperate to get out of there and put everything behind him, or try anyway.

"Casey, the guys are out in the waiting room, they want to know how you're doing," Kelly told him.

Casey buried his face in the pillow and groaned, "Make them go away."

"Casey..."

"I can't see any of them," he said.

Kelly knew they'd already gone off this bridge once already but he felt a need to bring it up again, "Casey, do you know who found you in the hotel? Do you remember what happened?"

Before Casey answered, assuming he would, Tony appeared in the doorway and asked, "Hey Kelly, is he awake?"

"GET OUT!" Casey yelled at him as he turned over to face the door, "OOOUUUT!"

Tony just about fell over backwards as he scrambled to get out of the room, a few seconds later Kelly was right behind him.

"I'm sorry, Kelly, I didn't know."

"It's just a bad time right now," Kelly told him.

"Kelly!" Casey called from the bed, sounding panicked, "Kelly!"

Severide turned back and went to see what was wrong. "What is it?"

Casey moved back on the bed and screamed in pain as his eyes were wrenched shut. Kelly got over to the bed and Casey grabbed hold of him and tried to talk over the terrified screams that were forcing their way out of his throat. Kelly turned to the door and screamed for the doctor, and held onto his best friend, panicked, wondering what had happened now.

Dr. Halstead stood at the foot of the bed and addressed both Casey, who was sitting up in the bed, and Kelly, who was standing right beside it.

"Complications like this are precisely why we wanted to keep Matt here and monitor him," Will told them.

"What happened?" Kelly asked.

"The human body is designed to reject any foreign objects it detects inside of it, that's why there are complications following organ transplants, breast implants, pacemakers, stent surgery, hip and knee replacement, lap band surgery...Matt's body is trying to reject the dissolvable sutures that were used, it's causing inflammation at the wound site."

"Oh God," Casey dropped his head down to his chest and covered his eyes with his hands.

"What does that mean?" Kelly asked.

"We're going to continue monitoring him to make sure infection doesn't set in and we'll wait and see if his body adapts to the sutures, if not, we'll have to take them out and put in permanent stitches, in which case he will have to come back in two weeks and have them taken out."

"Oh God," Casey moaned louder as he dropped his hands alongside his body and he asked Dr. Halstead furiously, "Am I going to be left with any dignity when you're done torturing me?"

"I'm very sorry, Matt, I can appreciate how hard this is for you..."

"What the hell do you know about what I'm going through?" Casey snapped at him.

"Casey," Severide said warningly.

"Just...get out, leave me alone," Casey said. "Everybody leave me alone."

"Alright, Matt, we can do that," Will nodded at Kelly knowingly, "someone will check in on you later."

"Go away, go away," Casey weakly moaned into the side of his pillow as he turned on his side away from them.

Severide reluctantly followed Will out of the room and told him, "Sorry about that."

"It's understandable, he's being put through a lot right now and that's after the trauma of what he went through," Will responded.

"So now what?" Kelly asked.

"Like I said, we'll keep monitoring him and make sure nothing else happens, if it does, we'll deal with it then."

Will headed down the corridor to check on other patients, Kelly headed back towards Casey's room, he looked in and saw Casey had shoved his head under a pillow, but through the open door he could hear the muffled sound of Matt crying. Now Kelly realized why he wanted them out of the room. He stood there watching Casey for several minutes, then finally he walked back in the room and went over to the bed.

"Matt," he said quietly.

The figure laying face down on the bed stopped moving, and was quiet for a few seconds, then from under the pillow he heard a muffled, "Go away, Severide."

Kelly stood his ground. "No."

Casey's hands reached for the pillow and he slid his head out from under it and asked in disbelief as he turned over, "What?"

"I'm sorry what you're going through, and I don't want you getting worked up and screaming your head off again, but I'm not leaving," Kelly told him, his tone simultaneously firm and gentle. "Whatever it is you're scared of everyone knowing, you don't have to be, and you know it. Nobody is going to blame you for what happened, and you know nobody is going to think any less of you for it, I don't, I know nobody else does."

Casey's eyes welled up again with fresh tears, he turned his head to look the other way.

"You're not going to go through this alone, I can promise you that," Kelly said.

Casey stuck his head back under the pillow, Kelly heard him start crying again, and felt his heart sink. He patted Casey's back and told him, "I'm going to stay here with you, alright?"

There was no response, which Kelly took as an agreement. He pulled a chair over to the bed and sat down beside his best friend and calmly patted his hand and waited for him to wear down.

Severide wasn't too surprised when he returned to the waiting room and saw everybody was still there. He was sure they'd been rotating all day just to make sure somebody was there at all times, but they were all there now.

"How is he?" Boden asked.

"Sleeping right now," Kelly said, "he's had a few, what the doctors call 'hiccups'."

"Uh oh," Herrmann muttered under his breath and told Mouch, "That's what they said after I got stabbed and relapsed into unconsciousness."

"Nothing like that," Kelly said, "he...his body is not reacting well to the stitches they put in, right now they're watching to see if they need to take them out and put in new ones."

That earned a collective groan of sympathy from everybody in the room.

"How long will it take to find out?" Cruz asked.

"They're only supposed to be in two weeks so I guess it's going to be soon," Kelly said.

"Think he'll let anyone else stay with him for a while?" Otis asked.

"Uh...as long as he's asleep he probably doesn't care," Kelly said, "if he wakes up, that could quickly become another story."

"Well..." Otis held up his hands in a gesture, "I'm willing to give it a try if anybody else is."

Kelly noticed Boden's eyes widened slightly at somebody coming into the waiting room, he turned and saw Hank Voight heading their way.

"What're you doing here?" Severide asked.

"How's Matt?"

"He's resting right now," Kelly said, before he finished the last word he saw Voight heading towards the corridor, "Hey! You can't go in there!"

Voight calmly turned around and showed his badge and told Severide, "This allows me into any room in this whole hospital, without your permission." And with that he continued down the hall.

Kelly took off after Voight and yelled at him, "He's not going to talk to you!"

"This doesn't involve you, Severide," Voight told him.

"The hell it doesn't, I'm not leaving him alone with you!" Kelly said.

Voight looked at him and nonchalantly replied, "That's fine, then you can listen to what I have to say too, and you just might learn something."

Voight casually walked into the hospital room and they both saw Casey asleep in the bed. Severide reached for Voight but the sergeant got away from him and went over to the left side of the bed. "Matt?"

Casey slowly opened his eyes and saw Voight standing next to the bed. His eyes hardened and he told the Intelligence sergeant, "Go away."

"I realize right now you don't want company, but there's a reason why I came here," Voight told him.

"I'm not talking to you!" Casey yelled at him defensively.

"That's fine," Voight responded as he took out his phone, "I don't need you to talk to me, I just need you to listen, and look at something."

Severide stood on the right side of the bed and looked over at what Voight was doing. He pulled up a picture on the screen and showed it to Casey. It was a picture of a man in a mugshot photo who looked somewhere in his 40s, white skin, short dark hair, slightly heavyset, bad complexion, eyes looked like they were boring a hole through the camera.

Casey involuntarily gasped and turned away. Severide sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped an arm around Casey's back and patted his shoulder as he inadvertently wound up with his face pressed against Kelly's chest when he turned. Casey had his eyes squeezed shut as if he was trying to block out what was happening.

"That's the bastard?" Kelly asked.

"The guy's name is Edmund Murtaugh, the ID we found on him had him listed as Richard Welker, he's the DOA you guys pulled out of the hotel fire."

"What?" Kelly asked in disbelief.

"He was arrested for assault and aggravated battery back in 2010. His DNA was taken at the time and entered into the system but it was never checked until the medical examiner took it during his autopsy."

Severide wasn't sure he got it. "Checked for what?"

Voight addressed the man whose back was to him, a series of unintelligible, terrified sounds forcing their way out of his throat, his whole body shaking like a leaf. "What this guy did to you, Casey, he'd done to several other men over the years..." he looked at Severide and added, "We're not sure how many, DNA's finally being run against cold cases nationwide, so far we got 9 from the tri-state area."

Casey writhed in Severide's grip and a bunch of incoherent noises that almost sounded like whole words were trying to work past his gritted teeth.

Voight continued, "Those 9 were before his arrest, after that he started covering his tracks, there are several open cases, no DNA but the rest of the physical evidence matches, all of them hit in the back of the head, kidnapped, their cars found abandoned, all of them tied up, raped, the hell beaten out of them, the bruising pattern matches..."

Severide could feel Casey trembling even harder against him now, the noises he was weakly trying to suppress were just about to pour over in full screams.

"This guy targeted Casey for a reason," Voight told Kelly, "all the victims were men, late 20s to 30s, single...all of them, paramedics, cops...firefighters."

A dry sob escaped from Casey's lips.

"The difference between you and the others, Casey," Voight said with a slight pause, "...is you're the only one that survived."

Severide's eyes widened to their limit. Casey's bottom jaw dropped and a long, body wracking sob finally tore loose, as if that was simultaneously the worst news he could've received, and also as though he had been expecting it and dreaded the confirmation.

Voight leaned over and rested a hand on Casey's back, he flinched under the touch but not much. "I'm very sorry for what happened to you, Casey, but you survived the worst of it, you'll survive what comes next."

Hank looked past Casey and made eye contact with Severide, who felt like reality just slipped away, he absently wrapped both arms around Casey's back and held him against him as Casey continued to shake and sob in response to this newfound information. The sergeant and the Squad lieutenant exchanged a wordless understanding: it was lucky for Casey that the hotel caught fire or he would've been the next cold case homicide.

"There won't be a trial," Voight broke the silence. "He won't have to testify, nobody else is going to have to know anything that happened."

Severide glumly nodded, and found himself saying, "Never thought I'd be glad somebody died of smoke inhalation."

The corners of Voight's mouth turned downward and his brow furrowed, "What're you talking about? Murtaugh didn't die from the fire."

"What?" Kelly asked.

Voight shook his head, "Nah, medical examiner said somebody fractured his skull and broke his neck."

Now Kelly really felt lost, and it must've been obvious from the look on his face.

"It was a shady place," Voight told him, "there was one other person staying on the 4th floor, he checked out before the fire, nobody's been able to find him, it's possible the two got into it over something, he killed Murtaugh and then was in the wind."

Severide took in a slow breath as he tried to process that thought.

Voight addressed Casey's back and told him, "I know this is a lot for you to deal with, Casey, but you're gonna be alright." He patted Casey on the back consolingly, then turned to leave the room.

Without a word, he walked past the seven firefighters who stood by the door and had heard the whole conversation, all of whose faces had become silent masks of horror as they realized the extent of what their lieutenant had been put through. After Severide chased Voight down the hall to Casey's room, everybody decided to follow after Kelly to find out what was going on, and if need be forcefully eject Hank Voight from the room, they'd all kept their distance at the doorway but none of them had missed the grim details.

Casey pressed his face against Severide's shoulder and continued to sob in horror at what had been revealed. Kelly rubbed Casey's back and slowly eased him back against the pillows, Casey turned on his side towards the edge to close the distance between he and Severide, he still hadn't been able to bring himself to open his eyes and actually face his best friend now that the truth was out.

Matt didn't so much hear Voight leave the room, but he'd almost felt the presence of the cop as he left, and likewise he felt the presence of several other people, and he knew it was the others from 51, and he could feel them standing around the bed hovering over him. Nobody said anything, but he knew they were there. At any other time he would've been mortified to have them see him like this, acting like this, perhaps in the dark recesses of his mind he still was, but he couldn't do anything about it, he couldn't stop shaking, he couldn't stop crying, he couldn't bring himself to look at any of them. After everything he'd been through in the last few days, he still feared what they would say to him, and he hated himself for it.

Nobody said anything. Instead he felt their hands on him, wordlessly offering him their support and love, and though he'd never thought about it before, he could recognize them all by touch. Boden gripped his bicep and squeezed it assuredly, Herrmann did the same with one shoulder, he could feel Mouch carefully patting the other, Cruz grabbed his hand and lightly squeezed it, Otis carefully rubbed the crook between his neck and shoulder, he felt Tony grip his shoulder blade and Capp's hand wrapped around the back of his head. Severide still had one arm wrapped around his lower back, and he felt Kelly's free hand stroke over his hair. Having the full support of everybody from the House was overwhelming to Casey and it just made him cry harder than he already was, then his whole body went into a series of spasms as he started hyperventilating. The hands on him tightened, and he heard a low soothing 'shhhhhh' as they waited for him to calm down, even without opening his eyes he knew it wasn't Kelly, it was Boden.