Violation
A/N: Just a few things about the story before it begins. This story deals with the issue of male rape but is not explicitly graphic. It does not (for the most part) contain the women characters of Chicago Fire (sorry, Gabby Dawson fans). There will however be a female OC featured in later chapters. Breaking away from the show's canon for more dramatic purposes, Casey and Severide share a house instead of an apartment. All standard disclaimers apply, don't own, don't sue. Hope you enjoy, please read and review.
Kelly Severide was in the mood to get drunk. But he was not in a mood for any bar talk that night. They'd all had a long, hard 24 hours on shift, and then some, three fires, two car crashes, and a suicide attempt that had all of Rescue Squad diving into a freezing cold lake to pull out a 20 year old college student. The last fire they responded to was a six story cluster of trouble, even with help being brought in from other firehouses, the fire wasn't contained until well after shift change, so nobody went home until closer to noon, and now that that was all over and it was night, everybody just wanted to cut loose and enjoy what was left of their 48 hours off shift. All Severide wanted to do was knock back a few drinks until he could hardly see and call it good. So he forewent his usual trip to Molly's and instead stopped at a liquor store on the way home and picked up a couple six packs and a bottle of whiskey. He was still staying with Casey, and he didn't know right off hand what his plans were for the night, but he didn't really care. Just as long as Casey stayed out of his way and didn't get on his case about leaving his empty bottles around the couch before he passed out watching TV, it was all good.
Severide pulled his Mustang up to the curb in front of Casey's house, grabbed the bags out of the passenger seat and got out. The first thing he noticed, which struck him as odd but he didn't really give it too much thought at the time, was that Casey's pickup was in the driveway, but all the lights were out. It was too early in the night for Matt to have already gone to bed. It was possible he'd gone out for the night with someone else, still, he usually took his truck, the only place he really seemed comfortable being a passenger was on Truck.
Kelly got up to the porch and reached for his copy of the housekey which Matt gave him when he moved in, but then he realized that the door was already ajar. Now Severide knew something was wrong. He kept his eyes on what was right ahead of him as he slowly pushed the door open and glanced in. All the lights were out, he couldn't see anything. He was tempted to hotfoot it back to his car and get out the spare Halligan he kept in the trunk, but if Casey was inside and something was wrong, he couldn't waste that much time. Instead he inched his way in, keeping his ears open and watching everything incase anything came charging out of the shadows.
"Matt?" he quietly called out. "Matt, are you here?"
A few more inches in, and Kelly was able to hear something, at first he couldn't tell what, but moving further in, he could hear the muffled sounds of a struggle between at least two people from another room. He held his breath and quietly moved along to find the source of the noise. He cleared the front hall, the dining room, the living room, and headed towards the kitchen, the noises were getting louder now, he could hear one muffled voice talking, but he couldn't hear what was being said, and the other was a series of muffled grunts and groans that sounded like the speaker had been gagged.
The kitchen was also dark, but there were a few sparse lights in it coming off the digital clocks on the oven and the microwave. With what little illumination that put out, Severide felt his eyes widen as he saw the outline of a figure in the middle of the kitchen floor. He almost called out to Casey, but instead he felt along the wall and found the light switch.
The overhead lights came on and in a splitsecond Severide took in the horrific sight of a strange man he'd never seen before, on top of Casey who was sprawled on the floor and laying in his own blood. The intruder quickly got to his feet to turn around and see who had interrupted him when Severide bashed him over the head with the six-pack of beer he'd brought in. The sound of several bottles shattering all at once and the glass falling to the floor was deafening in the otherwise silent house, and the man went down for the count. Now, with his body out of the way of Severide's view, Kelly could see that Matt had his hands bound together with duct tape, as well as another strip over his mouth, which only somewhat muffled the screams he was trying to release now as he saw Kelly in the room. Severide also took into account that Casey had a gash going down one side of his forehead, a small cut on his neck, and blood in his hair as well.
"Oh my God, Casey," Kelly exclaimed as he stepped over the intruder to help his friend.
There was a knife on the floor beside Casey, Severide picked it up and cut through the tape on Casey's wrists. With his free hand he took out his cell phone and dialed 911.
"I want to report a home invasion, the address is..."
Casey tried to scream through the tape again, this time louder than before, and Severide realized a few seconds too late that Matt was trying to warn him.
He felt something hit him square in the back of the head and he went down, the phone knocked out of his hand and clear across the room. Kelly rolled over and realized the intruder had kicked him, and saw him moving to plant his steel toed boot somewhere else on him. He moved away, got to his feet and tackled the man, they both fell back against the table and landed on the floor. While the two of them struggled, Matt ripped the tape off his mouth, scrambled across the floor, picked up Severide's phone, and disconnected the call.
Severide got the upper hand struggling with the intruder and kicked him in the ribs several times. Somehow the man was still able to get to his feet, and he knocked Severide back, then he turned and headed for the front door, and was gone before Severide could get back up.
"Casey," Severide got back to his feet and went over to the man who'd all but collapsed over by the cupboards. "Casey, what happened?"
He realized Casey was holding his phone and he took it back from him and said into it, "Hello the address is...hello?" then he looked at it and realized they'd hung up. He dialed again as he knelt down and placed a hand on Casey's shoulder, "Casey, are you..."
Casey pushed himself to his feet and frantically responded, "Fine, I'm fine, I'm fine..."
"We'll get the cops out here and..."
"NO!"
Severide dropped his phone at Casey's sudden outburst. Before he could pick it up, Casey grabbed it and disconnected it again. He held it over Severide and told him, "No cops!"
"Casey, you were attacked, you need..."
"I'm fine, Severide, I don't need anything."
But it was obvious from looking at Casey that that was hardly the case. Kelly got a better look at the blood on the floor, and he realized there was more there than should've been just going by the cuts on Casey's face and forehead. Then he looked at Casey again, and his heart sank as he realized where the extra blood had come from as he saw the telltale stains on his clothes.
"Oh my God, Casey."
Severide got to his feet and went over towards his friend, who backed up before Kelly could reach him, and he tried to talk some sense into the Truck lieutenant. "We need to get you to the hospital."
"NO!" Casey screamed in a panic again. "I don't need to go to the hospital!"
"Casey..." Severide tried to push as far out of his mind the mental image of what he'd walked in on, but hadn't been able to actually acknowledge had happened until this moment. "Casey, we have to make sure you're going to be alright."
"I said no!"
Kelly took another step towards Casey, who just took another step back and warned him, "Don't touch me!"
Severide held his hands up so Casey could see he was safe. Casey moved back again and this time felt the wall behind him. The fight left him now and he sank down to the floor and groaned, "I don't want anybody to know what happened, please don't make me do this!"
Kelly knelt down to make eye contact with Casey, and kept his hands up where Matt could see them, and told him, "I understand, Matt, I know you don't want to, but we have to know...if this guy had anything...you need to get treatment for it before anything happens."
Casey drew his knees up to his chest and bent his head down against them and started crying. Severide felt terrible, he knew what they had to do but he knew there wasn't any way Casey would go willingly. What could he do? Force him to go to the hospital? Oh that would just be terrific after what Casey had just been through, it would probably be like reliving the attack. But what choice did he have? It sickened him to watch what Casey was going through, but if he was any kind of friend, he had to get Casey help even if he didn't want it.
"Casey, look at me...I'm asking you to trust me, can you do that?"
Casey slowly raised his head and looked at Severide, and Kelly about fell on the floor. Casey's pupils were huge, his skin had instantly turned a shade paler, his breathing was becoming erratic, Kelly reached out and grabbed Casey's wrist, his pulse was rapid, he was going into shock.
Now Severide didn't have a choice. He knew the smart thing to do would be call 911 and let the paramedics handle it since they were actually equipped for it, but he also knew he could reach the hospital quicker than it would take the EMTs to get out here, load him up, and then to the hospital. Severide ran to the bathroom, got a couple large towels, came back to the kitchen, got Casey wrapped up tight in them and carried him out to his car.
"You'll be okay, buddy, just stay with me," he told Matt as he placed him in the passenger side, then ran around to the driver's side and climbed in the window.
Kelly grumbled to himself as he paced around the waiting room. He didn't have any idea what was going on, it had been almost an hour since anybody had told him anything. He turned around and was relieved beyond words to see a familiar face heading towards him.
"Kelly."
"I'm sorry, Chief, I didn't know what else to do," Kelly said as he hugged the man who just entered the waiting room.
Boden clapped a hand on Severide's back and told him, "It's alright, you did the right thing. How's Casey?"
Kelly stepped back and said, "I don't know...they're supposed to be doing a, a, a kit on him right now...he didn't want to come here, Chief, and I understand it, really I do...but all I kept thinking was...what if this guy has AIDS, or an STD? Or what if Casey needs stitches...or surgery? What if he has internal bleeding or...something punctured, or ruptured, or..."
The battalion chief placed a sympathetic hand on Kelly's shoulder and told him, "Calm down, Kelly, whether Casey thinks so or not, you did the right thing bringing him in either way. If they can collect any DNA for the kit, maybe the CPD will be able to track down the son of a bitch responsible and nail his ass."
It was obvious that Boden was just as thirsty for blood as Severide was, and he took that as a good sign that somebody was on his side.
"He didn't want anybody to know what happened, Chief...now everybody's going to hear about it," Kelly said. "The whole House is going to hear about it eventually, what then?"
"Don't worry about that, I'll handle the House," Boden told him. "This is going to be a difficult situation for everybody to come to terms with, but I'll make sure there are no surprises by the time next shift starts. Now where the hell are the police?"
"I don't know," Severide shook his head. "There's supposed to be one in with Matt while the doctors do the kit...I'm supposed to give one of them my statement...they're going over the house right now for any evidence they can find, Matt's going to hate that too, but I didn't have a choice. He comes in for a rape kit, the police have to be notified, they have to know where he was attacked so they have a better chance of finding DNA or blood or anything that they can catch this guy..."
"Kelly, how are you holding up?" Boden asked.
The question surprised him, "I'm fine, I'm not the one who was attacked."
"Even so, you were there, you are a part of this, how are you?"
Severide shook his head. "Fine."
Neither of them said anything after that for several seconds, Severide broke the silence by switching gears, "When I saw all the blood...the blood in his hair...I was just thinking...if this bastard hits him where he fractured his skull years ago...that would kill him. And Casey wouldn't say anything about that, if he did he'd only better his odds of the guy doing just that, whatever happened, he took it all without being able to say or do anything to stop it."
"The important thing is that you were there to stop it before the situation got any worse," Boden said, "Casey's very lucky to have you for a friend."
"He's lucky I planned to drink at home tonight," Kelly replied. "Oh my God, if I'd gone to Molly's and didn't come back until hours later..."
"Don't think about it," Boden shook his head. "No good can come from it."
Kelly turned and saw two cops coming their way, a man and a woman. "What the hell?"
"Are you Kelly Severide?" the male cop asked.
"Yeah, what's going on? Who's in with Casey?" Kelly asked.
"Unfortunately it's been a busy night and we just got here," the woman cop told him. "I'm on my way to see Mr. Casey now."
"Lieutenant," Kelly said.
Boden nudged him.
"Wait, you mean they haven't even started the rape kit yet?" Kelly asked. "What's been going on all this time?" He saw his favorite nurse walk by and followed after her to have a word with her. "April, what the hell's going on with Casey?"
April Sexton turned around, "What do you mean?"
"The cops are just now getting here? What've the doctors been doing all night?"
"I'm sorry, Kelly, we've been backed up all night, our SANE nurse just got through with three children brought in earlier," she said.
"Then where's Casey?" Kelly asked.
"Gone," Maggie answered as she came down the hall.
"What?" Kelly and April asked.
"The nurse just went to start on him and he's gone," Maggie told them. "He left his clothes in a pile on the floor. It looked like he tried to salvage them to wear out of here, then just left them where they were when he realized how bad of shape they're in."
"Wait, what?" Severide asked. "Where'd he go?"
"I was hoping you'd seen him coming this way," Maggie said, "we're going to check the whole hospital but it's a good chance he slipped out somehow."
Boden had overheard their conversation and came over to join them.
"If he left his clothes behind, he wants this guy caught, just without all the poking and prodding," Boden said. "Can you get DNA off of them?"
Maggie nodded. "There was plenty of blood and," she cleared her throat, "other bodily fluids."
Kelly felt like he was going to be sick. It was bad enough to inherently know what had happened, but getting all the details was even worse.
"Can you test that for any diseases this guy might've had?" Boden asked.
"Yes."
"Then do it."
Severide was trying to make some sense out of all this. "Do you give a rape patient clothes before their kit's done?"
"They wear a paper gown during the process," Maggie told him. "Even for Chicago, that would still draw a lot of attention if he tried making a getaway like that, especially in this weather."
"Was Matt Casey cleared as far as his shock was concerned?" Boden asked.
"Yes, over an hour ago," Maggie answered.
"Where do you keep the extra scrubs?" Kelly asked. "Maybe he stole a pair so he could slip out unnoticed."
"But where would he go?" April asked.
Severide and Boden looked at each other as they considered that question.
"He wouldn't go home," Kelly said. "The cops are still there, that's the last place he'd go right now."
"So where else would he go?" Boden asked.
Kelly had an idea. "Same place I went when I first moved in with him. Back to 51."
Severide returned to the station and got a lot of lip from the guys on 3rd Watch who reminded him his shift had already ended the day before. He asked around if Casey had come in that night, everybody said no, still Severide decided to check the bunks for himself, which earned him a lot of death threats if he didn't shut off his flashlight and let the guys there get some sleep. No such luck. Then he checked the bathroom and the showers, again nothing. As he left the station house, he started calling everybody from Truck to see if any of them had seen Casey that night. Everybody else was still at Molly's and collectively agreed none of them had seen Casey that night, and what did he do that Severide was actually looking for him?
So, if he didn't go back to 51, and he didn't go to stay with anybody from 51, where the hell would he go? Severide checked the time and considered the possibility the cops had finally finished at the house and left for the night. He also thought about the possibility Casey might have plenty of experience in waiting somebody out to hide, based on a few details he'd learned about Casey's home life as a child.
Kelly drove back to the house, saw that the police cars were gone, and from the outside anyway, everything looked exactly the same way as before. He went up to the porch and found the crime scene tape down and the door locked, he used his key and headed in. All the lights were still out, the house was deathly still again.
"Casey?" he called, louder than the last time, "Casey? Are you here?"
His instincts told him to turn on the lights, but he decided against it.
Then, a sudden noise caught him off guard and almost made him jump out of his skin. He looked above him and realized it was water running through the pipes in the walls. Then he realized he was hearing something else, the shower upstairs running. He headed for the stairs and ran up.
"Matt?"
Severide was dreading what he might find at the end of the hallway. He heard the water running at full force and saw a light shining through the crack under the door. The door wasn't locked, he slowly opened it and looked in. The room was half full of steam. The curtain to the shower wasn't fully closed, and Severide was able to see from a reflection on the mirror over the sink, Casey sitting on the floor of the shower with his back against the wall and his knees against his chest, letting the scalding hot water pour down on him and not responding to it whatsoever.
Kelly had a dozen different instincts running through him at the same time, and it took every ounce of resistance he had to fight all of them, and instead, back out of the bathroom and shut the door. No matter what he thought, or what he wanted to do, he'd already violated Casey's privacy enough for one night. He wasn't about to make it any worse than he already had.
Instead, Severide resolved himself to go back downstairs and deal with the task of cleaning up the kitchen. He turned on the lights in every room as he passed through, and when he came to the kitchen he had to stop in pause. It all came flooding back to him, here was where Casey curled into a ball and went into shock, here was where he and the bastard fell down and beat the crap out of each other...here...
Severide tried to force the memories away, he got a broom and dustpan and swept up the broken glass and poured it into the trash. Then he got a mop and a bucket, and struggled to fight back the nausea as he proceeded to scrub the dried blood of his best friend off of the linoleum floor.
