"How long has it been now?" Cruz leaned over and asked Otis.

Otis checked his watch. "Too long. They must've had to do major surgery."

"It doesn't make sense, how could Casey have a heart attack?" Joe asked.

"It happens, Cruz."

"Not to people like Casey. Older guys yeah, older firemen like..."

"That's far enough," Herrmann warned him. "Whatever else you was about to say, you just forget it."

"I'm sorry, man," Joe replied, "this just doesn't make any sense."

"Heart attacks can happen to anybody," Mouch spoke up. "And when you consider all the stress and strain that this job requires, it's a wonder more of us aren't getting them."

"And people say I give the worst pep talks," Herrmann said. "Will you two shut up? Casey's gonna be fine."

"Herrmann, we've been here for two hours," Otis said. "If it wasn't anything serious, somebody would've told us something by now."

"Oh God," Cruz thought of something else, "what if he died on the operating table and they're just waiting to tell us?"

"They wouldn't do that, they know us too well here," Mouch said, "somebody would've come out and told us."

"Will all of you guys shut up?" Severide raised his voice. He looked around at all of them and told them, "We don't know anything yet! When we do, then we'll deal with it."

Things quieted down after that, but only for a while. Cruz and Otis lowered their voices, though they could still be heard by anybody sitting closest to them.

"If he did have surgery," Otis said, "we could be talking anything from one stent to five and a permanent pacemaker."

"And any of those means he can't be a firefighter anymore, doesn't it?" Cruz asked.

Brian nodded.

Cruz let out a pained sigh, "That'll kill him."

The next sound Cruz made was a loud gasp as he moved back in his seat. Everybody looked up and saw Dr. Rhodes and April coming towards them. The moment of truth had finally arrived, and everybody was bracing themselves for the worst.

"The first thing I want to say is that Matt should be alright, it's going to be a matter of wait and see, but I think his odds are good," Connor told them.

"How bad was the heart attack?" Severide asked.

Dr. Rhodes shook his head and told them, "He didn't have a heart attack."

"What?"

Everybody looked around at each other in confusion.

"What happened then, Doctor?" Boden asked.

"We ran several tests, and they all came up negative for any heart damage. Matt has no blockage to the arteries, no blood clots, his left ventricle however is enlarged and isn't functioning right."

"If it's not a heart attack, what is it?" Herrmann asked.

Connor looked at them and answered, "I believe Matt is suffering from something called broken heart syndrome."

Once again, everybody looked around at everyone else, trying to make some sense of all this.

"Is that really a thing?" Herrmann asked. "It sounds like one of those hypochondriac things you imagine having."

Connor smiled briefly and explained, "The technical term for it is Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, I can assure you it's a very real thing."

"Okay, now I get why they call it broken heart syndrome, it's easier to pronounce," Herrmann said.

"Doctor Rhodes, what exactly causes this syndrome?" Boden asked.

"Right now nobody can say for sure, but in some people a sudden onset of extreme stress or trauma can cause the blood to stop flowing properly and the heart starts to fail. The symptoms are very similar to a heart attack."

"Will he need surgery?" Otis asked.

"No," Connor answered. "Most people with broken heart syndrome recover in a few days or weeks and the heart damage reverses itself."

"Oh thank God," Herrmann said.

"He's going to stay in the hospital while he recovers and we will monitor him just to make sure there are no complications," Connor said, "but he's a very lucky man."

Boden raised a finger to get Connor's attention, "Dr. Rhodes, how exactly does a fireman who faces extreme stress nearly every single day, after 10 years on the job suddenly develop this syndrome?"

"Again, there's a lot about it we still don't know," Connor told them, "it's just how the body produces stress hormones in a given situation. It is possible he could get it again in another traumatic event, but it's highly unlikely."

"Can we see him?" Severide asked.

"We have him sedated right now to cut down on the strain to his heart," the doctor answered. "If the problem persists he will be put on medications until his heart is back to normal but in the meantime we're going to see if we can wait it out by putting him in basically a medically induced coma to reduce the amount of work the heart has to do to keep him going."

"Thank you, Doctor," Boden said.

"I will let you know when there's an update," he told them.

Once Connor was gone, everybody took a collective sigh of relief.

"Thank the dear Lord that it wasn't a heart attack and he's going to be alright," Orlovsky said.

"Yeah, but I still wonder what could've triggered it," Cruz said.

"The main thing is Casey's going to be alright," Otis said, "people don't die of broken heart syndrome."

"Well that's not entirely true," Orlovsky spoke up. "Once in a while they do. You guys remember a call you responded to last year, home caught on fire and the husband was arrested for setting the fire to kill his wife and four kids for the insurance money?"

"Oh yeah, I remember that, the Boyett family," Cruz said.

"The father swore up and down that he didn't do it," Orlovsky told them.

"Big surprise, they all deny it," Severide said.

"Be that as it may," the chaplain continued, "he was crucified in the press, at the coroner's inquest, the grand jury, never changed his story, swore he didn't kill his family, he didn't set that fire. It went to trial, and he was presumed guilty from the start, again by the press, and the public, the lawyers...but the jury acquitted him. The press hounded him even more. Last month he had a heart attack and died...seemed to have a heart attack anyway. I was requested to come out as a favor to the remaining members of the family. While I was there, a call comes in. Upon autopsy, the medical examiner found no sign of a heart attack, nothing blocking the arteries. Two days after Boyett dies, a new investigation proves that the fire was caused by faulty wiring. He knew he was innocent, and he was cleared, but it didn't matter, there's only so much that one person can endure before they finally give up."

"Aw geez," Herrmann commented.

Cruz turned in his chair and asked, "Hey, where's Severide?"

Everybody looked and saw the chair the Squad lieutenant had been occupying for over an hour was now empty.

"Probably had to stop in the men's room," Herrmann said as he got up, "Me and Mouch will go check."

"And I'll just go check and make sure he didn't try sneaking into Casey's room," Otis said, "where is it, April?"

"Follow me," she said.

Boden picked up his jacket and headed for the exit.


From the sliding doors, Boden could already see Severide seated on the hood of his car. He walked over and the closer he got, the easier it was to see just how much of a mess Kelly was.

"Severide," Boden made his presence known with his deep booming voice. "You alright?"

Kelly looked at the battalion chief, then gestured to the passenger side of his car. "The whole interior's soaked, he must've sweated off 5 pounds in the time it took to get him here...he could've died...and it's my fault?" Severide said, sounding completely lost and not even sure which end was up anymore.

Boden walked over to the Mustang and grabbing Kelly by the arm, pulled him off the hood and to his feet.

"Look at me," he told the lieutenant. "You saved Casey's life tonight, you were in the right place at the right time and got him to the hospital, he's going to be fine."

Kelly shook his head, "He wouldn't even be here if it hadn't been for me. This wouldn't have happened...I never thought...I didn't think..."

"Come here," Boden put a strong arm around Severide and pulled the lieutenant to him in a crushing embrace.

Severide's voice broke as he told the chief, "I didn't mean for this to happen!", just before he collapsed against Boden sobbing.

"I know," Boden replied. He tightened his grip on Severide and told him, "It's okay. It's okay."


"Okay, people, listen up," Boden said as he and Severide returned to the waiting room. "As soon as the doctor clears Casey to have visitors, Severide's going in first. The two of them have something they need to finish before anybody else gets a crack at him. Once he's done, everybody else will get a turn, understood?"

Everybody seated in the chairs nodded and mumbled in agreement.

Severide went over and sat in a chair that was closest to the hallway and furthest away from everyone else. He was somewhat surprised when Boden sat down in the chair beside him.

Now that they knew what was wrong, waiting should've been easier, but for Severide it was more nerve wracking now than before. He wouldn't look at the others, he could feel their eyes all turned towards them, he could just imagine everything going through their heads right now. That this was all his fault, and they were right.

Kelly just about jumped out of his skin when he felt somebody's hand on his, and realized he'd actually fallen asleep for a moment. He looked up and saw it was Christopher.

"Casey's gonna be fine, Severide," Herrmann told him, "it's all gonna work out."

Kelly nodded and replied, "I hope so."

"Hey, I know it," Herrmann said.

Kelly realized his neck was killing him and tried to work out a kink in it. "What time is it?"

"You've been asleep for over an hour," Mouch told him.

"What?"

Severide saw April coming their way and he moved to get up, worried what the news could be already.

"The blood flow to Casey's heart has improved rapidly, it's not back to where it should be, but it's improved enough that they're going to be waking him up soon," she told them, "you'll be able to see him."

"Thank God," Severide exhaled.

"See? What did I tell you?" Herrmann asked. "Casey will come back from anything."

"I hope," Kelly said quietly.


Dr. Rhodes had warned Kelly that even though Casey was off the sedation drugs, it might be a while before he actually woke up and was fully aware of his surroundings. All the same, he gave the okay for Severide to go see him and just see what happened, if anything.

It wasn't as if they'd never seen Casey in the hospital before. And he didn't look as bad as the time he fractured his skull, that had been a real nightmare. All the same, looking at him unconscious in the hospital bed wearing a paper gown, hooked up to an IV and the monitors and still on oxygen to help him breathe, it was a nerve wracking sight to Kelly. He didn't know if it was just the lighting of the room but Casey looked paler than he did before.

"Casey, you awake?" he asked.

Nothing.

"Casey, can you hear me?"

The only thing Matt did in response was slightly turn his head to the side. He was still dead to the world.

"Casey, I'm sorry." Severide didn't care if Matt could hear him or not. He stood over the bed and watched the lieutenant sleeping, the slow, even movements of his chest as he breathed. All the previous thoughts of the night came rushing back to him, all the possibilities that could've been in store for Casey. Kelly couldn't begin to describe how thankful he was that the extent of medical assistance Matt needed currently was a tube up his nose, and not a ventilator down his throat, not life support.

Kelly's voice dropped to barely a whisper. "Casey, I am so sorry." Unconscious or not, Severide couldn't stop himself, he bent down and put his arms around Casey, sensing some need to actually feel the man laying in the bed and know it was real, he was alive.

Severide didn't see Casey's eyes jerk open as he felt Kelly's arms pressing on him. Somehow Matt seemed to storm out of his drug induced stupor and was surprisingly coherent as he yelled at Severide all the while trying to shove him away, "What the hell are you doing? Get off of me!"

"Casey!" Kelly pulled back with a bright eyed look of shock on his face.

"And another thing, Severide!" Casey pointed an accusing finger at him, completely unaware there was a heart monitor clip attached to it, "If you ever try to..." whatever he was about to say was lost as he looked around and realized something had changed since their last conversation, and he asked Kelly, "Where are we?"

"You're at Med, Casey," Kelly told him. "I thought you were having a heart attack."

"What?" The expression on Matt's face said he was completely lost.

"Do you remember?" Severide asked. "We were at the gas station and you couldn't breathe, so I drove you over here."

"I remember that part, I think you were trying to kill us both," Casey said. "Now what's going on?"

Instead of trying to explain it again, Severide jumped right to what he came in for.

"I'm sorry, Casey."

Now Matt really looked confused. "About what?"

"Blaming you for Darden's death," Severide shook his head, "I was wrong, I'm sorry."

Casey rested back against the pillow. "Hell must be freezing over. Severide admits he's wrong. I told you from the start that it wasn't my fault."

"I know."

"You didn't believe me."

"I didn't want to believe it, I wasn't there, I couldn't do anything to stop it," Kelly looked at the man lying in the bed and felt the fight leaving him. "It was just easier to blame someone for what happened."

"How do you think I felt? I was there, I saw him die, and I knew there wasn't anything I could do." Matt said. "Do you think that was any easier? And then have you jumping down my throat about it's my fault he's dead. And then Heather...I told you nothing happened, you didn't believe that either."

"Well nobody ever accused me of being a good listener," Severide responded. "You're right, I should've known better, I...I do know you better than that. I'm sorry." Kelly turned around and paced around the room and told Matt, "Nothing made any sense, Andy was my best friend since we were 5 years old, and his wife acts like I'm a leper, but she'll come to you, that doesn't make any sense to me."

"Maybe because she doesn't think I pressured Andy to become a firefighter," Matt said. "I didn't tell him to join, I just welcomed him on Truck. Heather saw a big difference in the two."

"I never..." Kelly was about to go into a tirade about Heather's accusations, but once again, one look at the man hooked up to half a dozen monitors and with tubes up his nose took all the wind out of his sails. "I never pressured him to do anything, nobody could, nobody could ever talk Andy into or out of anything."

"And still you blamed me," Matt said, his tone slightly accusing, but for the most part it seemed neutral.

"I know, and I feel horrible about it," Kelly told him. He went back over to the bed and looked at Casey as he told him, "I never thought this would happen, Casey, I am so sorry."

Casey's head lolled to the side and his eyes closed, but only for a second, the next thing he was aware of was a crushing sensation, and woke up to see Severide had him in a death grip embrace again.

"What're you doing?" he demanded to know as he struggled to get loose.

Casey's eyes widened as he got a good look at Severide's face up close and personal and saw his eyes glazed over with tears.

"I'm so sorry, man, I didn't mean for any of this to happen," Kelly told him.

Casey felt Severide's body trembling against him as the Squad lieutenant broke down sobbing, and it worried him.

"What's the matter, Kelly?" he asked.

His head was still in too much of a fog to put the pieces together of what was going on, and saw no connection between the conversation they'd just had, and what was happening now. All he knew at the moment was Kelly was crying like someone just died, something he'd actually had the misfortune of seeing on their job, losing as many people as they had over the years. He wriggled his arms free of Severide's grasp and reached up to hug him in return.

"Hey man," he said weakly, still groggy from the drugs, "it's going to be alright. Whatever's wrong, we'll help you get through it, all of 51 has your back."

That simple statement made Kelly want to laugh, instead it only made him cry harder. When he thought back of everything he accused Casey of after Darden's death, knowing now how hard it must've been sitting on Casey's chest despite his insistence that he slept like a baby every night, seeing for himself the damage that it had all amounted to, and all Casey was doing now was telling Severide that he'd be okay. He tried to laugh at it all but instead he started hyperventilating.

"Easy, easy," Casey told him, "breathe, Severide, breathe."


"He's been in there a while," Herrmann said, "you think everything's going okay?"

"Well we haven't heard any screaming, that's got to be a good sign, right?" Otis asked.

"Those two have a lot of ground to cover," Boden responded.

"Yeah but, do you think we should at least go check on them?" Herrmann asked. "I mean make sure nothing happened."

"Like what?" Tony asked.

"I don't know," Herrmann said, "maybe Casey woke up and killed Severide."

"I'd like to see him try," Capp said.

"That's because you're sick," Otis told him.

Boden cleared his throat, effectively shutting all of them up.

"April," he said to the young nurse as she returned to the waiting room, "Has Kelly Severide finished visiting with Casey yet?"

April shook her head. "I haven't seen him, Chief. Sorry."

When she went to the front desk, Wallace turned to his men and told them, "Alright, just to make sure nothing's wrong, we'll go take a look."

Everybody stood up, stretched their legs and in single file, marched down the hall to Casey's room. They reached the door and one by one they stepped in, Boden pulled back the curtain shielding the bed from the view of the door.

Everybody just froze, and nobody could believe what they saw.

Kelly Severide was passed out half laying on the edge of Casey's bed, the other half of his body hung over the rail and his feet touched the floor. Matt lay flat on his back in the middle of the bed, also appearing to be dead to the world, and oblivious to Severide's head using his shoulder as a pillow.

Then, Casey opened his eyes and turned to the roomful of firemen and lifted his head up, and determinedly mouthed the words for all of them to understand, pointing towards Severide with his free hand, "Get him off of me!"

Boden held up his hands in a gesture letting Casey know they'd take care of it. Tony and Capp went over to the bed and each slipped one of Severide's arms over their shoulders and lifted him up.

"Wha's going on?" he grumbled, barely able to open his eyes.

"It's alright, Severide, we got this," Tony said.

"Oh, good," and with that, Severide was out like a light and dead weight in their arms again.

The others stood aside as the men from Squad walked their lieutenant out, Boden went over to the bed. "How're you doing, Casey?"

"I'm fine," Matt answered, more alert now than he was talking to Severide, "what's wrong with him?"

"What did you two talk about?" Cruz asked.

"I don't really remember," Casey shook his head, "I fell asleep for a minute. Look, what's going on? Why am I here?"

"You don't remember?" Boden asked.

"Remember what?"

"Severide thought you were having a heart attack," Brian told him.

Casey looked up at them in disbelief, "What?"

"It's alright, the doc says it's not a heart attack," Herrmann quickly added.

"But you will be off duty the next few shifts to make sure you're fully recovered," Boden said.

Casey looked around at all of them and it was obvious nothing was making sense to him.

"Recover from what? If I didn't have a heart attack, why am I still here?"

"The doctor said..." Herrmann started to explain.

Brian cut him off, "The doctor said that the stress of the call today made your body release a sudden surge of hormones that caused your heart to shut down temporarily. It has the same symptoms as a heart attack, but it's not and you'll recover quickly. He did say there's a chance you could relapse if something equally stressful happens, but it's not likely."

"Today?" Matt asked, then he shot up, "Hellman, how is he?"

Brian decided it was better to risk a lie for Casey's sake now, they could deal with the consequences later when his heart was stronger. "He's doing better. Orlovsky was in with the family earlier, the doctors are hopeful."

"Good," Matt exhaled as he laid back against the pillow again.

"Casey," Boden looked down at him. "Darden was on all our minds today, we were all worried about losing Hellman. But you got him out of there and to the EMTs as fast as possible, nobody could ask you to do anything more. Understand?"

Matt solemnly nodded. "I understand, Chief."

"This was not what happened to Darden, and we all know you couldn't have done anything more than you did then, but you also have nothing to feel guilty about what happened today either."

"I know that, Chief."

"What happened then?"

Casey closed his eyes and inhaled painfully, then he looked at them and explained, "It wasn't just Darden, it was him, and Jimmy Borelli, and all the others that we've lost...there've already been too many of them...when I saw the flames engulf Hellman, I thought for sure he'd be a goner too.

"This job claims a lot of the people who do it. That's a fact we struggle every day to accept, we struggle because it simply is beyond our control," Boden added. "No matter how far we come and what we know, we still can't get ahead of some calls, sometimes we just don't come back."

Matt shook his head and weakly said, "We've already lost too many...how many more are we...how many more do we have to lose?"

Casey started breathing heavily and all eyes were on him for fear that his condition was worsening, or even worse than that, maybe he actually was having a heart attack this time. It was to everyone's relief when they realized he was crying. They crowded around their lieutenant and wordlessly offered him their undivided support. Otis and Cruz got on either side of the bed and gripped his shoulders, Herrmann stood at the foot of the bed and patted his knee through the blanket. Boden leaned down and placed a hand on the side of Casey's head and told him softly as the lieutenant weakly sobbed in remembrance of their brothers they had already lost over the years, "It's okay, it's okay."