Really sorry about the long wait for this one, i won't bore you all with the whys but hopefully now things are more settled IRL i can write some more. Thanks to Callisto HK for the quick Beta !

Chapter 11

Severide sighed a heavy sigh.

His friend, his brother was right there in front of him, living, breathing on his own and so alive that he was so ecstatic and so hopeful that everything could finally get back to normal.

However, there was just one thing missing.

Matt Casey.

And it was confusing as all hell, the doctors had run a battery of further tests in the last 24 hours that there weren't any more tests to possibly run.

There were no toxins, no bleeding on the brain from the rough handling, no brain damage from the questionable amount of time Casey hadn't been breathing for when they'd escaped nor when Voight had ripped the ventilator out of him.

Nothing physically that would explain how unresponsive Matt was.

Some doctors had been saying it was psychological, that he didn't want to return

But hell, he didn't even seem to sleep, as if his brain was permanently stuck on.

And there was nothing they could do, the doctors seemed to think that it was his body reacting to the trauma it had been through and all they could do was hope that it would lessen in time.

They'd tried talking to him, they had begrudgingly let Hallie in to try and get through to him, the doctors had even tried painful stimuli.

And nothing.

Knowing the doctors were out of options made it harder to sit in the room with Matt but he wouldn't, couldn't leave, no one could make him.

Holding his head in his hands, he sighed again, everyone had spent time in here when Matt hadn't been having test after test but there was no reaction at all.

No inkling or recognition, just nothing but torment for everyone, at least when he'd been in a coma then there'd been hope that everything could be normal when he woke up.

But this...

Damn it!

And before he knew what he was doing, he'd grabbed Matt's arms and turned him towards him, trying to find something of his friend there.

Kelly felt and saw something change.

The expression on Matt's face had changed from a blank terror to pain and betrayal; he also felt Matt's body tense beneath his hands.

Oh god, what have I done!

And he immediately let go and turned to leave, unable to reconcile what he had done in his mind.

He could have just ruined everything.

He'd reached the door when...

"Kel..." He started but launched into a coughing fit at the dryness of his throat.

"Casey!"

Severide rushed to his friend to help support him.

"Here, try this." Kelly held out a spoon full of ice chips to sooth his throat, once the coughing had died down enough.

Severide just about jumped for joy when Casey, having calmed down from the coughing fit, looked at him.

Actually looked at him.

Casey was looking directly at him, at him, not through him and the joy on Kelly's face was immense.

But Casey frowned at it a little, not quiet understanding such elation. He hadn't been out too long surely?

Kelly didn't know what to say first or do, and the longer the silence went on the more awkward it was getting to sit here when Casey's Team deserved it more.

"I'll just..." Severide got up and got as far as the door.

"Wait." It was weak with disuse and Matt tried clearing his throat before he spoke again.

"Stay?" He voiced then looked away embarrassed.

And that was all Casey, the way when he needed something he posed it as a question, giving anyone to option to refuse the request without them feeling guilty about it.

Damn it! Matt it's okay to ask!

"But, I.."

"Not your fault." Casey stop him before he even started, as if it were that simple.

"But I should have..."

"It's okay, I..."

"Damn it! Matt! It's not okay! I should have been there, shouldn't have blamed you or pushed you away." Kelly was angry on his friends behalf.

Then the fear returned to Matt's eyes briefly and Kelly capped his anger not wanting to make things more difficult.

The tense silence was interrupted by the arrival of Matt's Doctor.

He looked towards Severide when he asked his question.

"Any changes?"

He smiled when he responded.

"Ask him yourself." The smile was still planted on his face until he saw the doctors expression then looked back at Matt.

That felt like a punch in the gut, it was almost as if the last few minutes had never happened and it was only his mind that had made it up because of the guilt. His heart rate increased, had it been his fault ? Had the shouting ruined the progress of the last few minutes, what did this mean now?

Matt seemed as still as he was before...

Come on Matt, please!

Then Casey blinked, shook his head a little as if shaking away what a trapped him for a short while.

"Sorry..."

He realised that the doctor was now in the room, when it had happened he didn't know but it had and he frowned, he couldn't work if he missed whole sections of time.

The doctor was as surprised as Kelly at the sudden change in response.

"What happened?" He aimed the question at them both.

"What's the last thing you remember ?" The doctor asked, they needed to assess what Casey knew, so they knew where to start from.

"Kelly, getting me out."

Severide, sighed in relief, Casey didn't need to know about the episode with Voight just yet.

"Okay, so after you arrived you were in a coma for a while," Casey was about to ask but the doctor cut him off, "around three weeks, so most of the injuries you received have healed now, but your body is going to be weak for a while so you'll need some rehab time before you return to work. In the last 24 hours you've not been in a coma as such but were unresponsive in some form, we were thinking it was probably physiological rather than physical, which now we can confirm from what i've just seen. Like a catatonic state, I would strongly suggest that you speak to someone about what you went through before you leave the hospital and maybe stay with a friend after leaving here."

Casey looked shocked at everything he'd been told, Kelly wasn't that surprised when Casey didn't noticed that the doctor had gone after a few minutes of looking at the door.

"Hey?" Kelly nudged Matt a little.

"Yeah." Casey's voice was a little distant and held questions that he didn't know how to voice at the moment.

"Get some rest Matt, we can talk later." Severide encouraged.

Casey nodded tiredly and tried to settle.

Severide had been thinking about letting the team know the news; and he knew it was selfish but didn't want leave the room yet, through fear of the progress not being real.

The comfortable silence was disturbed when the door opened again.

Both men looked up at the intruder.

Severide stood protectively over Matt.

But it was Matt who finally spoke.

"Why are you here?"

And his voice spoke volumes of emotions all at once and too many to be listed.

TBC

So who's ready for the recovery section! Who was that at the door and how cute are these two? And why isn't Sev back at work! All will be answered in the next chapter!