A/N: Here is the 3rd and final chapter. Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed, I'm glad you all have enjoyed this story!

Kelly walked in the door to Casey's hospital room the next morning and immediately asked, "How're you feeling?"

Casey had been awake for a while but was still a bit groggy, and not in the mood for company, least of all Severide's.

"How the hell did you get in here?" he asked.

"I lied and told them I was your husband," Severide teased.

"Oh yeah? Well I want a divorce, get out," Casey pointed towards the door. "There are some things I don't mind, but sharing a bed with you is where I draw the line, now get out!"

Instead Severide headed over towards the bed and asked, "How are you doing?"

Casey calmed down and answered, "Still trying to wrap my head around this...so I have a disease, that's not a disease, it just has the same symptoms as a disease, and nobody knows what caused it, but it's going to go away on its own, and nobody knows why or how...does that make any sense to you?"

"Nothing's made sense to me for the last 12 hours," Kelly told him as he sat down next to the bed, "Casey, I am so sorry."

"For what? You didn't do this to me," Casey said.

"Maybe not, but it's still no excuse."

"Don't start," Casey said. "You said what you needed to say last night, your conscience is clear. Let's move on."

"Casey..."

"I don't want to talk about it, Severide."

Kelly leaned over the bed rail and told him, "I'm just glad you're gonna be alright."

Casey was about to fall back asleep, he flopped his head back against the pillow and looked at Severide through half closed eyes and asked with a tired groan, "You're not gonna kiss me, are you?"

Kelly looked down at him with a grin and laughed, "Just try and stop me." He reached over the rail, placed his hands on the sides of Casey's face and kissed him on the top of his head.

"Ugh!" Casey grimaced, "Gross! Maggie! Maggie!"

A few seconds later Maggie came running in. "What is it, Matt?"

"Get him out of here!" Casey pointed to Severide, "He's driving me nuts!"

"Come on, Kelly," Maggie grabbed him by the arm, "let Casey rest."

Severide turned back towards the man laying in the bed and told him, "I'll be back later."

"You do and I'm having you thrown out," Casey warned him.

"You love me and you know it," Kelly said with a smirk as Maggie escorted him out.

A few seconds later, Casey saw someone else heading towards his room and realized it was April, who had a big grin on her face.

"Well somebody's a very popular patient here," she said as she came in carrying several balloons.

"What the hell?" Casey asked as she set them down on the nightstand by his bed. He looked up and saw they were all red metallic balloons shaped like hearts that had big bandages taped on them.

"This must be that firefighter humor I hear so much about," April said.

"Oh it's official," Casey said. "As soon as I get out of here I'm going back to 51 and kicking everybody's ass."

"Now you be nice," April warned him, "or you won't get the cards Herrmann's kids made for you."

"What?"

April produced from somewhere on her person, several construction paper cards that looked like handmade valentines, all of which he noted had a heart on the front that had been ripped clear down the middle, then clumsily taped back together, and a 'get well soon' message scribbled on all of them.

"Those guys," Casey said with an irritated huff that gave way to a small laugh.

"Matt, don't you think you're being a little hard on Kelly?" April asked.

"No, he annoys me. Besides, look who's talking," he replied, "it's to my understanding you wanted nothing to do with him when he found out you work here."

"That was different, besides we're good now," she told him. "You know he feels terrible about what happened."

"Yeah, but I don't get why, it wasn't his fault," Casey said.

"So what were you two talking about when it happened?" April asked.

"I don't even remember, typical ball busting like we always do," Matt answered.

"So Kelly didn't accuse you of putting Hellman through the window?"

"How is he doing?" Casey asked.

"Don't worry about Hellman, right now we're focusing on you recovering," April told him.

Casey shot up in his bed. "What happened to Hellman?"

April shushed him and pushed him back down. "Nothing happened, he is still in a medical coma so he can recover. Now what were you two talking about?"

Casey looked away, and reluctantly answered, "He said it was a good thing Hellman wasn't as fast to get up the ladder as Darden was."

"And that's when you couldn't breathe," April said.

Casey looked back at her. "He wasn't accusing me."

"Still, it had to hurt."

Casey tried to laugh but there wasn't anything to laugh about. "I had my skull fractured in a building collapse, I've gone through the floor in a burning house more times than I can remember, I've gone into 1100 degree fires...and my heart gives out because of a bad memory?"

"People do say it's a funny organ," April replied with a small smile.

"Ha-ha," he dryly remarked. "And this could happen again?"

"It's possible, but extremely rare," she told him. "I wouldn't worry about it, right now you just need to focus on getting well."


Severide returned later, as promised, and knocked on the door as he entered. "Can I come in?"

"No, I'm still mad at you," Casey told him. "The word going around the hospital now because of that little joke of yours earlier, is we're a couple."

"What?" Kelly asked.

"Don't believe me? Ask around," Casey said.

Severide took notice of the dozen or so balloons next to the bed and started to ask, "Who..."

"Do you really need to ask?" Matt asked. "There was no card, officially, but I only know one group of knuckleheads who'd do something like this."

"Huh." Severide looked at them with a confused expression and slowly nodded, "Nice touch."

"You mean you didn't know about this?" Casey asked.

"Uh..." Severide huffed, "I haven't actually spoken to any of them since last night."

"Why?"

"Turnabout's a bitch...I know what they're thinking about me," Kelly said as he kept his gaze at the balloons, "I did this...I'm such a self righteous prick that I'm responsible for this."

"No you're not," Casey told him.

"I just had to bring up Darden," Kelly said.

"We were all thinking about him yesterday," Casey said. "You had nothing to do with this."

"You can't be sure of that, Casey."

"Either way I'm not holding you responsible for what happened to me," Casey told him, "hey, you're the one that got me here, remember? About killed both of us in the process." That drew a small laugh from Severide. "But you got me here regardless."

Severide sauntered over to the bed and tried again to apologize, "I'm sorry, Casey, about everything..."

"Don't start."

"I mean it...I should've done it a long time ago," Kelly said. He leaned over the side of the bed and looked at Casey, his eyes wide and shining with tears that were just starting to build up. "I'm sorry," he said again in a lower voice.

Casey wanted nothing more than to stay annoyed at Severide, but he couldn't, not when he looked into those damn eyes, not when he saw all the pain that was there.

"Ohhh," he grumbled in frustration, "come here," and pulled the Squad lieutenant into a fierce hug.

Kelly put his arms tight around Casey and told him, "I'm glad you're gonna be okay." He rested his chin on Matt's shoulder and patted him on the back, then he opened his eyes and looked towards the door, and saw a heavyset middle aged doctor with dark hair and glasses standing there looking at them with his head cocked to the side and an intrigued look on his face.

Immediately, Severide pulled back from Casey and stood tall and told the doctor defensively, "This isn't what it looks like," causing Casey to turn to see who he was talking to.

"Oh, I know," Dr. Charles said as he straightened up, "I just didn't want to interrupt, but I thought I'd relay some news. I overheard the doctors talking about the other firefighter who was brought in the other day, Hellman?"

"What about him?" Casey asked.

"The doctors said he's going to make it," Dr. Charles told them. "It's going to be a long road ahead, but they said he should make a full recovery."

"Oh thank God," Casey groaned as he fell back against the pillows.

"I'll leave you two alone, but I thought you might want to know, I know he wasn't a member of your firehouse, but I know the brotherhood runs deep," Dr. Charles said.

"Thanks for letting us know, Doc," Severide said, "it's definitely good to hear."

"Yeah, thanks," Casey added as the doctor turned and left.

The two lieutenants looked at each other, Casey breathed hard as he took in this sudden revelation.

"You okay?" Kelly asked.

Casey nodded. "Yeah." He let out a sigh of relief and then collapsed against the bed and was out cold.

"Casey!"


When Casey woke up, he could tell from the lighting of the room and the hall outside that it was night. He looked around the room and saw Severide asleep in the chair next to his bed, right next to his bed, with his head tilted clear back and practically resting on the guardrail.

Casey groaned as he pushed up on his hands to straighten his back, and he looked at his best friend who was out like a light, and said to himself, "What the hell am I going to do with you?"

It was easy to get mad at Severide, staying mad at him was a lot harder. Casey would never admit it to anybody, but he knew he and Kelly were a lot alike, which was probably why they didn't get along a lot. Severide on the other hand could hold a grudge till doomsday, so for him to actually apologize for acting like an ass...damn, he must've really been scared Casey was going to die.

Even though Severide wasn't awake for Casey to enjoy the look he'd otherwise see on Kelly's face, Matt decided to get even with him in part anyway, he leaned over, cupped his hands over Severide's ears and with a small growl, kissed Severide on the top of his head.

Casey looked up and saw April standing in the doorway with her arms folded against her chest and an amused smirk on her face.

"Doesn't anybody do any work around here?" Matt asked.

"Oh come on, Casey, you two are almost as entertaining as the soap operas I watch," she told him.

"Don't make me puke," Casey said. "What happened?"

"You passed out earlier, really scared the hell out of Kelly," April said.

"I don't remember."

"That tends to happen."

"Was it...was it..."

"No, there was no relapse, you're still recovering steadily," April told him.

"When can I get out of here?" Casey asked.

"Dr. Rhodes wants to run some more tests and just make sure there aren't any little surprises that could pop up after discharge," she said.

Casey sighed and fell back against the bed.


"Tell that doctor to speed up the tests," Casey told Severide the next morning. "I want to get out of here."

Severide sat next to the bed and looked at Matt and told him, "Hey, buddy, any other time I'd say 'Give me the word and I'll bust you out', but I don't want to risk something happening they could've found in time."

"I'm going stir crazy, Severide, besides, shift starts in an hour."

"And Boden already told you you are off duty until you're fully recovered."

"And you?"

"I told Connie to write me up for a mental health day."

"You can't stay here watching me all day, Severide."

"Watch me," Kelly replied.

Casey rolled his eyes and snorted.

Maggie entered the room and shook her head. "Come on, Kelly, you've been here long enough, can't have you putting down roots in here."

"Maggie, get the doctor to discharge me, and I promise you'll never have to see him again," Casey said.

"Nice try, Matt, you're going to stay put until Dr. Rhodes says otherwise," Maggie went over to Kelly and grabbed him by the arm, "you however, are coming with me."

As they went out, April came in, and asked him, "How're you feeling today, Casey?"

"What kind of drugs do you people have me on?" he asked.

She looked at him. "Why? Are you having a bad reaction?"

"Weird dreams," Casey rubbed his eyes. "April, you ever see an old, and I mean old, silent movie called 'Wings'?"

"That's a little before my time, Matt," she laughed.

"Before mine too but I still saw it on TV when I was a kid," he told her. "These two friends, fighter pilots in World War I, one of them steals a German plane, and his friend shoots him down thinking he's the enemy. Guy's pulled from the wreck, and they both know he's dying, and they kiss, second later the guy dies. Last night I dream Severide's pulling me out of a fire and my whole body is burnt beyond blistering, I can feel my lungs scorched, and he kisses me," Casey pointed and emphasized every word matter of factly, "right-on-the-mouth!" He shook his head and cringed. "You want to talk nightmares?"

April just laughed at his obvious discomfort and said, "Typical man, scared more to death of showing affection to another man than you are of death."

"Not another man, Severide," Casey replied.

She giggled, then asked him "So how are you two getting along?"

"Fine." Casey sat up and told her, "I swear to God, April, you breathe one word of this to Severide..."

"Relax, your secret is safe with me," she replied.

"Just tell me something, this...syndrome that I have, it's not contagious is it?"

"Why?"

"I'm worried about him," Casey told her. "He blames himself for what happened to me, and I'm just hoping it's not enough to land him in one of these beds."

"You talked to him, didn't you?"

"Yeah but you know Severide, he's not going to believe anything he doesn't want to believe."

April looked at him quizzically, "Why would he want to think he's responsible for this?"

"I don't know," Casey replied. "But he seems to have it in his head that everybody at 51 blames him for my condition."

"Do they?"

Casey shrugged. "I didn't ask them, but I wouldn't think so."

April thought of something. "Kelly left yesterday before the others came to see you, and he didn't come back until after they'd left."

"He said he was avoiding them," Casey said.

"So maybe they do blame him," April thought.

Casey chewed on that for a minute and asked the nurse, "Where's my cell phone?"

"What're you gonna do?" she asked.

"I'm gonna tell the guys to come here after shift and find out what's going on."


Casey fell back against the bed and smacked himself in the forehead. "I can't believe you guys did that."

"We're sorry, Casey," Otis said, "we just wanted to make sure he wasn't accusing you of anything again."

"You didn't think he felt bad enough?" Casey asked the men from Truck as they stood around his hospital room looking at him.

"Casey, all they were doing was trying to protect their lieutenant from anymore of Severide's self righteous crap," Herrmann told him.

"I don't need them to protect me, I can fight my own battles, that's why I'm acting lieutenant."

Herrmann cleared his throat. "Excuse me saying so, Casey, but you're not acting lieutenant right now."

Casey looked at Herrmann through one eye and glared at him, but he knew he had a point.

"You weren't here to defend yourself," Otis told Matt, "we wanted to make sure he didn't blame you for what happened."

Casey groaned as he rubbed his eyes. He looked at them and told them, "I know, and I appreciate it, but you got out of line on this one, and in front of Severide's men too? No wonder he won't see anyone."

"So what would you suggest we do to fix it?" Cruz asked.

Casey shook his head. "I don't know, all I know is I don't want to see Severide winding up in here with the same problem I have."

"Alright, I got an idea," Herrmann announced.

"Uh oh," Cruz and Otis looked at each other.


Severide ran through the hospital corridors frantically looking around, and saw the nurse he was looking for.

"April, I got your message, what's wrong with Casey? Where is he?"

April was calm as could be as she pointed down the hall, "He's right this way, Kelly, he was asking to see you."

Severide ran down the hall to Casey's room and saw him laying in bed either asleep or unconscious. He walked over to the bed and watched Casey, his breathing was steady but other than that he didn't move.

"What happened?" Kelly turned towards April.

Casey breathed heavily but didn't open his eyes, he got out a weak, "Severide?"

Kelly knelt down beside him, "I'm here, Casey, what is it? What's wrong?"

Casey sucked in a guttural breath and just barely opened his eyes, "Gotta...tell you, something."

Kelly leaned in closer to hear him, "What is it, Casey?"

Casey inhaled hard and closed his eyes and his body went limp, then he opened his eyes wide and lunged at Severide, "Got ya!"

Severide jumped back with a yell and told him, "That is not funny!"

"That was a riot, you should've seen the look on your face," Casey said.

Kelly turned to April, staring daggers at her. "You were in on it?"

"Don't blame her," Casey said, "I wanted you down here to tell you in person that they're going to discharge me tomorrow. Doctor says it's still going to be a while before I'm cleared to go back to work, but he said they can't stand the sight of me here anymore."

That revelation seemed to calm him down. "They are?"

Casey nodded.

Severide heard the sounds of several people talking as they came down the hall, and he turned and saw the guys from Truck entering the room. Kelly turned back to Casey and said, "I'll be back later."

"Hold it right there, Severide," Herrmann pointed a finger at him, "we got something to say to you."

And Severide could just guess what that was. He looked at them, Herrmann, Otis and Cruz all had a determined look on their faces like they had come for a confrontation. Mouch on the other hand just stood behind Herrmann with a beaming cat that swallowed the canary type of smile on his face. Kelly looked back at Casey and decided this was one time it wouldn't do any good to stand his ground and raise hell like he usually did when backed in a corner.

"Alright, but not here," he said. If he was going to get his ass handed to him, he at least wanted to do it without Casey present.

"No, here," Herrmann replied. "I think it'll be very beneficial for Casey to hear."

Kelly sucked in a hesitant breath and sighed. "Okay, just get it over with."

The four men just stared at him for a few seconds, then Otis and Cruz rushed him, and before Severide even realized what was going on, he felt the air being squeezed out of him by the two of them locking him in a bone crushing hug, which was further reinforced by Herrmann and Mouch joining in.

"Thanks for saving our lieutenant, Kelly," Herrmann told him. "None of us wants to know what we'd do without him."

Severide slowly started to acknowledge what was happening, he turned and looked back at Casey, who sat up in his bed and watched with an amused look on his face and gave him an 'okay' sign.

"Sorry about the other day, we were all thrown by the news," Otis added.

Kelly's head jerked as he felt somebody slap him hard on the back, but he knew whoever did it hadn't done it to be a prick, so he let it slide.


"Why did you do it?" Kelly asked Casey later that night after the others had left his room.

"Because I want things to start getting back to normal," Matt told him, "and that's not going to happen with you ducking out every time the others come around. I didn't know, Kelly, I'm sorry about what happened."

"Eh, well, I guess I deserved it."

"You're not going to start on that again, are you?" Casey asked.

"What can I say? I don't like apologizing, I don't like being wrong," Severide said.

"Nobody does, yet somehow the rest of us still manage to, usually in a timely fashion," Matt said teasingly.

Severide smirked in spite of himself, "Alright, I'm sorry-I'm sorry-I'm sorry, happy now?"

"Depends, for what?"

Kelly shook his head. "Whatever else I never apologized for."

"We could be here all night," Casey replied as he laid back against the pillow and shut his eyes.

Severide watched him and asked, "You okay?"

Casey opened his eyes and nodded, "Yeah, just tired."

"You need anything?"

"Well," Casey slowly blinked and looked to the balloons still floating near the ceiling, "if you could help me figure out how to get back at the others for that monstrosity..."

Kelly looked up at the foil balloons with the big bandages on them and thought about it. "Eh...could be."


"So is Casey coming back today?" Otis asked as everybody showed up for shift.

"Uh, no," Severide answered, "he went in to get cleared yesterday, doctor said his heart's still not back at full strength. Figures next shift probably."

"That sucks," Herrmann said, "he's already been out for two weeks."

"I know," Severide scratched behind his ear, "but hey, we'd rather have him in one piece, right?"

Right," Otis said.

"You seen him lately, Severide?" Cruz asked as they headed for the locker room to get changed.

"Yeah, he seemed to be doing alright...anxious to get back here."

"Hey guys," Mouch called from the head of the line in a confused tone, "do you see what I see?"

The others got ahead of him to see what he was talking about. In the middle of the locker room there appeared to be blood on the floor, and it trailed from the bench, clear over to one of the shower stalls.

"What the hell?" Herrmann asked.

"You don't think one of the guys from 3rd Watch cut himself shaving, do you?" Otis asked.

Severide pressed the tread of his shoe against it and watched it smear. "Looks fresh."

"Uh..." Mouch raised a hand questioningly, "There's no way that this could be...you know...right?"

Everybody looked at the stain on the floor and tried to push that mental image from their heads.

"I knew a coed locker room was a bad idea," Otis said.

Herrmann choked on a couple choice words as he headed over to the shower, "Women, they want to be firefighters just like us and they can't even bother to clean up after their-"

He pulled back the shower curtain to see how bad the stall looked, and something jumped out covered in blood and screamed at them. Everybody yelled in shock and terror and jumped back before they realized it was Casey, who looked like he'd just walked out of a splatter film.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Herrmann yelled as he reached over and hit Casey on the arm.

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Mouch asked.

"That is not funny, man!" Cruz screamed at him.

"Maybe not," Casey replied, "but I'm the lieutenant, what're you gonna do about it?"

"Does that mean you're back on shift?" Herrmann asked.

"Not quite," Casey said as he folded his arms against his blood soaked chest, "I was advised to sit out one more shift as a precaution...come Friday, I'll be back full force, but for now I couldn't resist the chance to get back at you for that tacky get-well gesture at the hospital."

Otis turned around and saw Severide laughing and he asked in disbelief, "You were in on this?"

"What can I say?" Kelly replied. "Firefighters are close, but lieutenants...we're closer."

"Man we ain't ever gonna win against these two," Cruz murmured to Otis, who shook his head in agreement.

"It's good to have you back, Casey, that stunt notwithstanding," Mouch said.

"It's good to be back," Casey responded.

"So what're you going to do now?" Brian asked.

They all heard the unmistakable sound of Connie clearing her throat.

"Before or after I clean up this mess?" Casey asked.

As if on cue, Connie stepped past the men with a mop and bucket, both of which she held out for the lieutenant to take, all the while flashing one of her trademark unamused and disapproving stares.

"Still beats sitting around my apartment staring at the walls," Casey said, "and sure as hell beats spending another day in that hospital bed."

Severide clapped a hand on his back and told him, "Well, see ya next shift, buddy."

"Looking forward to it," Casey said as he set to work mopping the fake blood off the floor.