Thanks for all of the support everybody! While I would really appreciate more reviews, it's really been overwhelming to have people even reading my work! Feel free to share your opinions and ideas for either this fic or maybe future ones? Here's the next installment of our Sevasey Bromance!
Severide worked hard to focus solely on Matt, occasionally nudging the younger man with his knee to keep him conscious. "Just hang on bud…"
The gurney they were on rolled swiftly down the crowded hallways; a blur of bright lights and white was all Kelly would remember later. Quickly coming to a halt, the lieutenants were wheeled into a room with a mobile surgical table, metal plating, and numerous cabinets. Nurses bumbled around, donning scrub gowns and masks and laying the empty table flat.
A few seconds later, the doctor who'd been talking to Shay appeared, wearing surgical scrubs. He was a tall, fair-skinned man with salt and pepper hair and a seemingly permanent frown. Feeling Matt's pulse, he turned to address Severide.
"Severide right?" seeing Kelly nod, he continued. "I'm Dr. Cody Branson. We're going to take good care of Lieutenant Casey here. Do you mind telling me what happened?"
"Firehouse 51 was pumped full of gunfire this morning. Matt…Matt pushed me out of the way and took a hit to the right shoulder region. I got to him and applied pressure to the exit and entry wounds and called for Shay once the gunfire stopped. She packed the exit wound and stopped the bleeding. Then she realized that I'd gotten the entry wound staunched, so she instructed me not to move or change the pressure at all."
"Yep, I gotcha," Dr. Branson nodded, motioning to a nurse. "And I completely agree. You're going to be coming along for the ride. But first we need to move you and Casey over to that rolling table. Then Jess here is going to scrub you guys up as best she can. You just keep doing precisely what you've been doing."
"How are we going to be moved," Kelly asked, gently nudging Matt awake again.
"We're going to drop the gurney down and help you off of it, pop it back up, and then slide Matt onto the table. But you keep your hands there at all times," Branson instructed. "I've got to go scrub in, so just hang tight and listen to my staff, okay?"
Severide nodded stiffly as a pretty blonde came up to him. "Okay, we're going to drop you down now, so just brace yourself."
Carefully, the nurses lowered the ambo gurney to the floor. Being sure to maintain pressure on Matt's shoulder, Severide moved to crouch next to the gurney before standing as the nurses raised it.
"Alright everybody, here comes the tricky part," Jess explained. "We're going to lift him off the gurney and drop it. Then, Mr. Severide, you'll step on the gurney as we move him to the bed. We've got to move quickly. We move to the OR in 5!"
Kelly nodded quickly, letting his mind focus solely on Matt and Jess' instructions. The nurses warned him before quickly lifting Casey. Once the gurney was dropped, the fallen fireman was carefully moved to the surgical bed. Severide stayed right with them, using the lowered gurney as a step stool to continue his pressure. The second Matt was on the table, nurses bustled around to sterilize the men. One fingered the St. Florian's necklace, moving to take it off.
"No!" Kelly yelled, shocking the medical staff. "It's…it's uh…religious…"
Matt's face formed a brief smile as the nurse smiled in understanding. She then carefully began to wrap the necklace in surgical cloths. Then, Casey's bare chest was doused in chlorhexidine scrub and gloved hands wiped the antiseptic away. The process was repeated with Severide's forearms. Then a blue scrub gown was draped and tied around the Squad Lieutenant as Casey was covered with a surgical cloth, a hole cut around the wound. Each man was outfitted with a scrub cap and Kelly received a mask.
Kelly kept a running commentary for Matt, prompting him to remain conscious. Jess signaled that they had less than a minute before they'd enter OR 2. Turning to Severide, she gestured for him to move to the surgical table. With the help of two male orderlies, Kelly returned to straddling Matt, never jostling his bloody hands.
Once the Squad Lieutenant was situated, the table was rolled into the operating room. Bright lights hung low over the center of the room and metal tables full of various instruments surrounded the table the lieutenants resided on. A freshly scrubbed Dr. Branson entered with another doctor close behind him.
"This is Dr. Amistead," he introduced. "He's the anesthesiologist for this procedure."
Only then did Severide notice a nurse was outfitting Matt's arm with an IV catheter. Anxiety rose in his chest as the doctor approached with milky white liquid in a syringe. At that moment, Kelly would've given anything to switch places with Matt on that table; for it to be his arm the drug would soon be inserted into.
"Kel…" Matt spoke suddenly. "S'rry….s'rry 'bout Andy…'bout Heath…"
"Shhh Matty," Kelly cut him off. "I'm sorry. We'll talk in a few hours and work this mess out, okay?"
"Just 'case," the blonde slurred at the anesthesiologist slowly fed the drug into Casey's system.
"You're going to be just fine, bud," Kelly insisted, his fear and anxiety for Matt skyrocketing as he watched the blue eyes slowly fall closed.
"Don't worry, Mr. Severide," Dr. Anistead spoke lightly. "Your friend…"
"Brother," Severide interrupted.
"What?"
"He's my Brother," Kelly affirmed, inwardly promising to repair his relationship with the blonde lieutenant.
"Well your brother will be just fine."
Dr. Branson raised an eyebrow but said nothing, motioning for his nurses to move in. "Alright, everybody, let's move quickly to allow the lieutenant to have his hands back while we save his little brother."
At this, Kelly frowned. "I never said…"
"I just know," Branson quipped, gently probing the wound near Kelly's hands. "I'm going to need suction, clamps, and gauze to pack the area, get ready!"
Severide watched as the other people in blue gowns busied themselves with grabbing the requested instruments. Dr. Branson, meanwhile, gently felt around the bloody CFD shirt and Kelly's hands.
"Alright…when I tell you to, Severide, you're going to remove your hands and lean back, out of my way. Nurse Shane, you're going to get the shirt out of the way, but be gentle. We don't want to rip out any clots or dermal scabs. Everything is going to have to move fairly quickly. Are we ready?"
Kelly nodded stiffly, his instincts screaming at him to not let up on Matt. 'If I move my hands, he'll bleed out!' his mind inwardly panicked. But before he could rationalize with himself, Branson began.
Armed with gauze and clamps, Dr. Branson moved in close to the Truck Lieutenant's wound. "Now Severide," he calmly directed.
Kelly reluctantly released his pressure on the wound, weakly holding bloodstained hands in front of him. He felt hands gently leading him back towards Casey's feet and he unconsciously scooted backwards in compliance. His eyes, however, never left his brother's pale form.
A nurse gently peeled the ruined shirt from the wound, bringing forth small rivers of crimson. Branson moved in instantly, calling for suction as he packed the wound with gauze. Sudden alarms sounded as the monotonous beeping of Matt's heart began to accelerate.
Unbridled fear coursed through Kelly's veins, filling them with ice. 'MATT!' he panicked, watching the sudden flurry of action as the medical staff swarmed the operating table. A cacophony of medical jargon filled the air.
"BP's dropping!"
"He's losing a lot of blood!"
"Arrhythmic heartbeat!"
"Clamps…Suction…good. Someone find me 5 ott suture?"
Kelly's mind spun trying to process all of the confusion. Something was clearly wrong with Matt, if the whining alarm was any indication. Hands suddenly grabbed Severide's biceps, firmly leading him off of the table. He found himself led into a small room with a metallic basin lining the one wall. Automatically stepping back towards the room containing Matt, Kelly was surprised when the blonde nurse from before barred his path.
"You can't go back in there, Lieutenant," Jess explained. "Let Dr. Branson do his job."
"What's happening?" he asked frantically, trying to see past the nurse into the OR.
"Lieutenant Casey's heart had to work harder to pump blood once the wound was unstaunched. It caused his blood pressure to drop. They're working to stabilize him and to patch up the wound."
"But he's going to be okay, right?" Kelly persisted.
"We'll do everything we can," Jess promised, removing the scrub gown from the squad lieutenant. She then washed the blood from the man's hands, noting the haunted look his eyes had adopted.
I did everything I could, Sev… Matt's desperate voice reverberated through Kelly's head. Jess' words had unknowingly triggered a flashback to a drunken night a few weeks back. Matt had shown up completely hammered, desperate to convince Kelly that he hadn't meant for Andy to die.
As the nurse washed his hands and handed him a clean scrub top, Kelly's mind kept flashing to a pair of watery blue eyes; ones he desperately wanted to open again. Once he pulled the shirt on, he removed the mask and scrub cap from his head, shakily noticing the scarlet tinge his hands retained. Somehow, he followed Jess through the various hallways and found himself in a noisy waiting room. He looked around blankly before spotting Shay standing near a desk.
"Kelly!" she called, rushing to wrap him in a tight hug. Severide let himself sink into the embrace, burying his face in the junction of her neck and shoulder. His roommate tightened her grip before leading him over to a secluded spot of the waiting area.
Once seated, Shay grasped his hand. She noticed the glazed look in his eyes and frowned. He didn't seem to be able to focus. "What's wrong, Kel?"
That snapped him out of his daze. Whipping around to glare at Shay, Kelly fumed. "What's wrong, Shay? What the hell do you mean what's wrong? Matt's been shot. He's bleeding out on some damn operating table!"
At this point, he began pacing. Shay reached for him, "Kelly…Stupid question, I get it."
Shrugging her off, he continued his pacing, staring at his hands. "We took too long, Shay," he muttered breathlessly. "Too long getting him here, too long prepping him…I…God…I let go. I let up on the pressure and the alarms…"
Standing in front of the agitated man, Shay firmly grasped his biceps and pushed him into a chair. "Kelly!" she barked, stopping the rambling. "We did everything as quickly as we could. We got him to the ER within 15 minutes of him being shot. They got you prepped in under 10."
"They did?" he asked softly, confusion evident.
"Yeah, Kel," she confirmed, grabbing his hand. "I've only been out here for 15 or 20 minutes."
A wave of exhaustion seemed to roll over the Squad Lieutenant. "God, it felt like hours, Shay. Nothing moved fast enough and he kept getting paler…and then I let go…"
"Matt's going to be just fine," the paramedic soothed. "You couldn't have held on forever. At some point, you needed to let the doc fix trouble maker, right?"
"Yeah, but…what if he's not okay? What if the last thing he remembers is our fight over Heather? Our last interaction was him getting shot while shoving me out of the way? What then?" Severide asked, scrubbing a hand over his face.
"You can't live life worrying about what-ifs, Kelly. You know that," she gently scolded. "And Matt'll be fine. If this was any other rescue, you'd see that rationally. Through-and-through, nowhere near the heart, missed the lung… the only real danger is the blood loss. But you've got Big Brother blinders on…"
Kelly frowned and opened his mouth to retort, but Shay cut him off. "Yes, I know…it wasn't just any rescue. It was Matt," she admitted, squeezing his shoulder. "It's been a rough morning, huh?"
The man next to her bit out a shaky, humourless laugh. "You don't know the half of it, Shay. I…I hated Matt this morning. I was so pissed."
His roommate nodded. "Is that what the territory dispute was about?"
Raising an eyebrow, Kelly nodded. "Yeah, I guess…"
"So what happened? Because all you could talk about the last couple of days was how worried you were about Matt after that ceiling came down."
"He caught on fire! And then my dad nailed him in the jaw. I had a right to be worried," Severide defended.
Shay lifted her hands in surrender. "So what happened?"
The Squad Lieutenant deflated a bit, the hurt from earlier returning. "Heather was there, in Matt's house. She'd spent the night with him."
The blonde narrowed her eyes. "Like with him with him?"
"Well Matt insisted she fell asleep on the couch but…I don't know. He looked uncomfortable and guilty of something," Severide recalled.
"Maybe Matt felt uncomfortable about her staying there?" Shay suggested. "Maybe she came onto him or something? Knowing Matt, he'd feel guilty about it, even if he did nothing."
"He said he was too tired to deal with it all so he let her stay on the couch," Kelly admitted softly. "He has been looking rather rundown lately…"
"Casey's a damn puppy dog, Kel. He's loyal to a fault and can pout like no one's business. I don't think he'd do this to you."
Burying his face in his hands, Kelly groaned. "Ahh damn… so I spent this morning being an asshole instead of checking on Matt?"
"Well, it's not the first time one of you have blown up, Kel," Shay reassured him.
"Yeah, but I…I told him he put Andy through the window again," the lieutenant shakily admitted. "And Matt…he apologized to me, in the OR. For Andy, Heather…all of it."
"It's all going to be okay, Kel," Shay insisted. "Soon, we'll go back and see him and you two can hash it out, apologize, and hug, okay? Brothers fight from time to time."
Taking Shay's advice to heart, Kelly nodded and settled back into the plastic chair. Now it was a waiting game, one very familiar to him. As long as he ignored the crimson taint to his hands, he could pretend Matt had a broken rib, a minor concussion, or smoke inhalation; something simple and routine in their line of work. So instead of dwelling on Matt, he replayed his discussion with Shay over in his head. A few minutes later, he frowned.
"Wait a second!" he exclaimed, startling Shay. "What did you mean Heather probably came on to Matt?"
The blonde shrugged. "I was just saying… Matt is a young, attractive man. Heather is lonely and emotionally distraught. She probably tried to make a move on him."
Kelly's eyes narrowed. What game was Heather playing at? "So she took advantage of him?"
"Slow down there, Kel," Shay placated, inwardly pleased that the Squad Lieutenant seemed to be in better spirits. "I'm not suggesting we need to get Matt a rape kit or anything. Little Brother is capable of holding his own."
"Fine…but why is Heather messing with Matt anyways? I mean…she won't even talk to me," Severide continued.
Shay shrugged lightly. "I don't know. Maybe to get back at you, maybe she fell for the pout, hell, maybe Matt is more emotionally vulnerable? That's something you're going to have to work out with Matt."
Hey everybody! I hope you enjoyed this latest chapter! What did you think? What do you hope happens next? Should Sev confront Heather? Will the brothers hash it out? Coming up soon! Review please!