Boden was on the apparatus floor waiting for them when they headed in on their first shift back, and he had a grim expression on his otherwise unreadable face.

"Can I see you both in my office right away?" he asked, and turned and led the way.

Severide leaned over towards Casey and asked, "What'd we do now?"

Casey responded with a puzzled look and a shrug of his shoulders.

The two of them headed to his office, and didn't need him to tell them to shut the door behind them to know to do it.

"What's up, Chief?" Kelly asked.

Boden stood in front of his desk and addressed both of them, "There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." He turned to Severide and said, "Half an hour ago, somebody from CPD came in asking about you, said he'd tried calling you but got no answer, wanted to talk to you about the open investigation."

"You mean that prick Lafferty?" Casey asked.

"That's what I thought, so I started talking to him about the case," Boden said, "then he told me he wasn't here about that case..." he looked at Casey, "He was working your case."

Casey's eyes widened and his face went pale. "What?"

"Oh my God," Severide choked out in a horrified whisper.

"He said that as of yet they can only actively investigate it as a home invasion, but for any additional charges, they need you to come down and give them a full statement of your attack," Boden told Casey. "I am so sorry, Matt, I had no idea what he was talking about. I wanted to run it by the two of you to make sure that he was legit...I guess I got my answer."

Casey covered his face with his hands and groaned, "No, no, no." He turned around and screamed, "Oh my God, this can't be happening!"

The next thing Kelly saw was Matt lunging for him, he stepped to the side just in time before Casey throttled him.

" 'Trust me' you said! 'Trust me!' I didn't want anyone to know what happened, now everybody does!" Casey screamed at the top of his lungs, "Why the hell did you have to come home that night? Why couldn't you have stayed at the bar, drunk yourself stupid and gone home with some bimbo just like every other night of the week!?" Casey made a move towards Kelly and screamed at him, a raw primal yell, then he turned towards the door and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.

"Casey!" Kelly moved to follow him.

Boden held up his hand, signaling for him to stand down. "He didn't mean it, Kelly."

"Oh...I know, Chief," Severide said, feeling defeated as he slumped down in his chair, "But it sure doesn't make it any easier."


Casey stopped in his tracks right outside Boden's door, trying to figure out what to do now. He started walking, and only got six steps past Connie's desk when she called to him, "Lieutenant Casey."

"WHAT!?" he screamed as he stopped again. His face was already a mask of horror as he turned around and faced her. Connie for the most part maintained her typical unreadable expression, except that her eyes were twice the size they normally were and her eyebrows had jumped halfway up her forehead.

"Oh my God, Connie, I am so sorry," he told her, "I know you didn't deserve that."

Connie resumed her normal face, and said to Casey, surprisingly in her normal tone, "Lieutenant Casey, can I speak with you for a minute?"


The rest of the guys from Truck had heard part of the fireworks and went to Boden's office to find out what happened, now they were all in there discussing what they were going to do next. The commotion was broken up by Connie entering the office, looking a little more chipper than normal for her on a workday, and said to Boden, "Chief, I'm going on break and stepping out, I'll be back in around an hour."

"Okay, Connie, have a good time," Wallace said, knowing better than to ask too many questions about what she was doing. All these years later his relationship with Connie still revolved around asking her as little as possible.

Severide leaned against Boden's desk and said, "I think I was wrong, Chief, I should've told him that I told you and he would've known right away."

"The recovery Casey has to go through isn't quick or instantaneous, Severide," Boden replied, "right now I don't think he can take more than a few steps in that direction at any one time. This was a bombshell for him, but it would've been worse if he'd found out when everything was so fresh."

Otis wandered over to the window and looked out.

"Hey, check this out, guys," he said.

Everybody stopped talking amongst themselves and went to see what it was Otis was looking at, and they saw Connie heading for the exit, with Casey right beside her.

"Connie got Casey?" Mouch asked with a worried look on his face, "oh this is not going to be good."


"I lock the door every time I'm home for the night, you'd have to be crazy not to living in Chicago," Casey explained to Connie as they walked over to a bench and sat down. "This time I forgot, it's just so much of a habit, you don't even think about it anymore, you don't think about if you did or not."

"Mm-hmm," she looked at him as he spoke.

"I was in the kitchen, and I heard something...I didn't hear anyone come in...right before it happened I heard somebody behind me. I thought Severide had come home early. I started to turn around to ask him what was up, and that's when the guy hit me. I was stunned, I can't really focus my eyes on him, but I see this guy who...I have never seen before, don't have any idea why he's there, and he grabs my head and knocks me to the floor...then he grabs my head again and slams it against the floor."

Connie winced but otherwise didn't respond.

"All I'm thinking at that time is...if he hits my head hard enough, in the right place, he's going to kill me. He will open up that fracture. But I know if I say anything about it, he will kill me because then he'll know it's a sure shot. So I figure...if I just stop resisting, and just...let him do whatever it is he came there for...maybe he won't kill me. If I don't let on that my head is a weak spot, maybe he won't focus on it...most other stuff, I could survive...and just, not dying that night, that was the only thing really going through my mind at the time. Figure as long as I'm still alive, I can deal with whatever else happens."

Connie nodded sympathetically and let him continue.

"Everything was kind of blurry at that time, and...I hear this ripping sound...and he's got my wrists, and he tapes them together, so I really can't do anything, I can't get up, I can't fight...then things start to get clearer..." Casey slowly inhaled and painfully exhaled, "and then I saw the knife...and I feel the blade against my throat...and he says...if I struggle, he'll kill me...and he...nicks the skin, just so I know he's serious. I can't move, I can't even think, I'm just waiting for it all to be over. He puts the knife down, but it's just out of my reach, I think if I could just get hold of it..."

Casey paused before continuing. "Then the lights come on. I don't know who's there, I'm just as much horrified as I am relieved...I thought, somebody can help...then I realize...oh my God they're going to see me like this...and then I find out it's Severide...which does nothing to help that latter thought...he cuts me loose and then he and the guy get into it, all the while he's trying to call 911, I get the phone and I disconnect the call. The guy leaves...all I want to do is crawl under a rock and die. I didn't want anybody to know what happened, it was already too late with Severide but I didn't want anyone else to find out. I didn't want the cops coming in and taking pictures of the place, and me...I didn't want to go to the hospital and have them do a kit on me, he made me go, and then they left me standing around waiting for so long, I just ran out of there, went home, stayed in the shower for two hours trying to wash away everything, the dirt, the blood...the memory of it all."

Connie smiled sadly at him and reached over and touched his head with her hand, signaling for him to lean down and rest his head on her shoulder. He did, and took an odd comfort in her stroking her hand over his head and clear down to his shoulder.

"I didn't want anybody at the House to find out, I would've done anything to avoid that...now they all know, my men on Truck, Severide's men on Squad, the Chief...now what do I do?" he asked hopelessly.

"Matt." When the two of them left the firehouse, Connie had made it clear that while he was in her company, his rank didn't exist, they were just two people having a conversation. "You have to give them more credit than that. They're your family, all they want to do is help you. Now I won't lie, they're going to do a lot of things wrong."

Maybe it was just the way she said it, but somehow it managed to drag a low chuckle out of Casey. She smiled and continued, "But that's just because they're human...and men...the biggest bumblers who ever existed. But their hearts are in the right place, you know that. So now everybody knows, is it as horrible as you thought it would be?"

He thought about it, "Not yet."

"You know there's not a person alive in that House who's going to think any differently of you because of what happened," Connie told him.

Matt sighed and responded, "They might not say it, but they'll think it."

"They'll have to come to terms with what happened, just like you...they'll be confused about the whole thing, just like you are, they're going to go to a lot of trouble to try and not say or do anything to upset you, which will fail miserably...but every last one of them has got your back, Matt, and you know that. Just like I know it. You don't work at a firehouse as long as I have and not know how to read the people working there."

"But what do I tell them?" Matt asked.

"You don't have to tell them anything," Connie said. "You don't owe anybody any explanations about what happened."

Matt raised his head and looked at her, with a small, uncertain smile. "Thanks, Connie."

She patted his shoulder and told him, "Any time."


Everybody was waiting anxiously when Connie and Matt returned to the firehouse. Everybody was standing around on the apparatus floor and looked at Casey as he walked in. He glanced at Connie, who merely nodded, and he moved away from her and took a step forward, and another, and finally was in the middle of the room. He looked around at his friends, the people he'd worked with and alongside for several years, not sure what he was going to find. Nobody said a word, he looked around at everyone slowly, studying their faces: Boden, Otis, Cruz, Herrmann, Mouch...whatever it was he thought he'd see, disgust, judgment, pity, it wasn't there. All he saw was their undivided concern and support for him.

"I...I..." he tried to think of anything to say, to explain, but nothing was coming to him. "I..."

Boden took two giant steps towards Casey and pulled him into a fierce hug. A second later, Severide joined him. Casey felt two more people close the gap and he turned his head and saw Otis and Cruz there too. He felt Severide's body shove against his and saw it was because Herrmann and Mouch were standing behind him, joining in the group hug and effectively forcing everybody closer together. Capp stood heads over the others and wrapped the crook of his arm around Casey's neck and he felt Tony force his way through the group and clap him on the back. It was a very emotional moment for the lieutenant and he felt overwhelmed.

Slowly, he felt the pressure of everybody surrounding him ease up as one by one everybody finally pulled away.

"Lieutenant, can I see you in my office?" Boden asked.


"The only thing worse than what happened to me, was the thought of everyone else finding out it happened," Casey explained to Boden.

"I can understand your reluctance to come forth, Casey," Wallace told him, "but you should've known that everybody here would have your back."

"Chief, it's...humiliating, dehumanizing, and it's going to be worse if the cops catch this guy, if it goes to trial, all the details come out."

"If it goes to trial, we will all be right there with you," Boden responded, "And you will have the full support of every last firefighter here."

Casey shook his head. "I just wish nobody had found out, I wish Severide hadn't come home that night."

"Casey, you could've been killed, Severide easily saved your life."

"Yeah, my dignity is another story."

"Casey, there is nothing wrong with needing help, there's nothing wrong with getting help. Life is too hard to get through alone when things are going good, but when they're bad, then you especially need your friends to rally," Boden said.

Casey nodded. "Understood."

"But Casey, you need to start getting more sleep if I'm going to keep you on as acting lieutenant," Wallace told him. "I could tell for days that something was wrong, you came in here zombie walking through shift, it happens, it happens to all of us at some point in this work with the hours we keep, but if it doesn't start getting better, you're going to be endangering your life and that of everyone else the next time you go out on call."

"Chief...I can't sleep," Casey said. "Every time I do, I see him, I see me..." Casey started retching as he tried to continue.

Boden picked up his wastebasket and handed it to Matt, who leaned over it and breathed heavily for a few seconds, but it passed.

"You need to talk to somebody, Casey," Boden said, "pretending it didn't happen isn't going to help."

"I don't want to talk to a shrink."

"I know that used to be frowned upon in the fire department, but sometimes we just need it," Wallace replied.

Casey turned his head to look out the window and he told the chief, "I know everybody here's got my back, but tell you the truth, first I was worried what I was going to say to them, what are they going to say?"

Boden leaned back in his chair and told the lieutenant, "They might just surprise you."


"Well I haven't heard any yelling, so I guess that means the conversation's going well," Kelly said.

"That was...a lot less painful than I thought it'd be," Cruz added.

"Yeah, but what happens now?" Otis asked.

"Connie, how exactly did you do that?" Mouch asked the woman seated right outside Boden's office.

She looked up from her work and shot Mouch one of her death stares specifically reserved for him. Mouch held up his hands in defeat and walked off. Severide walked over to her and asked in a quieter tone so there wouldn't be any chance of Casey overhearing, "How did you do that, Connie? I've spent two weeks trying to get him to open up about this, you did it in one hour?"

She smiled at him and said simply, "Sorry, Lieutenant, sometimes it just takes a woman's touch."

Severide looked at her in awe for a second, then dropped to his knees in front of her and kowtowed, drawing a particularly loud laugh from the woman.


Kelly knocked on the door to Casey's office and showed himself in.

"I know you're not really doing paperwork, come on out to the common room."

"No thanks," he replied.

"Come on, Casey, I thought we were good."

Matt pointed his pen at Kelly accusingly and told him, "You and I are still on thin ice, pal."

"I can live with that."

"I don't feel like seeing the others right now," Casey admitted.

"Come on, Matt, it's not like you're a spectacle now," Kelly said, "all we're going to be doing is watching TV."

He didn't wait for any further argument, he grabbed Casey's wrist and pulled him out of his chair. "Come on, it'll be fine."

Matt sighed but followed Severide. Mouch and Herrmann were on the couch watching TV, Otis and Cruz were seated at a table playing chess. Casey tried to turn around and go back but Severide pushed him over to the couch and all but shoved him on the end cushion. Then he sat down on the armrest so he towered over Casey.

Matt looked around the room skeptically, everybody seemed to be minding their own business and nobody was looking at him. Almost like they were purposely trying not to notice him.

"Anybody got anything to say, just come out and say it," he said. Might as well get this over with.

Everybody looked around at one another, nobody said a word and everybody went back to what they were doing.

But Casey wasn't buying it. "Come on, I know you're all thinking something."

Mouch raised a hand, "I swear, I haven't had a thought all day."

"Same goes double for Capp," Herrmann said, "has that guy ever had a thought in his whole life?"

Matt tried again. "I know you're all trying to help, and I appreciate it, but I know you've already formed opinions about what's going on, so let's just hear them."

"Well uh," Brian spoke up, "since you mention it...are Voight's people handling your case?"

"No, the regular cops are," Casey answered.

"Although it's my understanding Voight has his own fingers dipped in it," Severide added.

Casey looked at him, "I didn't know that."

"Oh yeah, since they couldn't match the DNA, his people are going out provoking every low life on the street so they try to attack the cops, then they just happen to collect some blood or spit off these guys, take it back and test it," Kelly explained.

Casey sat back on the couch and took that in.

"Hey, if anybody can catch this guy, it'll be Voight," Otis said.

Casey wasn't sure he felt better about getting the ball rolling, but decided it was too late to back out now. "Anybody else got any questions?"

"Well, not exactly questions," Cruz said, "but Herrmann's got a very interesting take on what would be an appropriate punishment for this guy."

Herrmann turned to Casey and explained, "I said prison's too good for this prick, if we find this son of a bitch before the cops do, we ought to string him up, tell my kids he's a pinata with candy inside, and give them all a bat to beat him with."

Casey stared at Herrmann with a blank look in his eyes and his mouth dropped open in complete awe. Then a couple seconds later, he burst out laughing and fell back against Severide. Kelly reached down and wrapped his arm around Casey's collarbone and said to the Truck lieutenant, "See? I told you we got your back."