Disclaimer: I own nothing except my imagination.

Thanks to everyone for the support this story is getting and for the patience you guys have because this story isn't going as fast as I would want it to.

Abbey's POV

Spending some time with Peter during our last day off had been very fun. The fact that he was spending all his time at Gabby's place for his PT was making going back home extremely lonely. We had been living together for a few years now and it felt so normal to have him with me. Matt was making everything easier though by coming around often. I woke up for my shift to yet more empty silence in the house. I ate standing by the counter, thing I never did when Pete was here. I was lost in thought when the doorbell shook me out of them. I walked to the door, my coffee still in hand and opened the door to Matt.

"Morning." He kissed me.

"Morning babe. Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Did anyone tell you that you are a terrible liar?" He chuckled.

"Yes, all the time." I went back into the kitchen to finish my breakfast.

"So out with it. What's wrong?"

"Feeling alone in here since Pete's been staying with Gabby. It makes me wonder if they'll just move in together after PT."

"What makes you say that?"

"Just a feeling I have." I shrugged finishing my toast. "Do you mind if I ride with you?"

"Are you sure? Everyone will know we're together, are you ok with that?"

"I think so." I smiled at him. "We can't hide forever."

"And I don't want to hide forever. We know we can work together so why not tell the rest of our friends?" He pulled me to him and gently kissed me.

"Ok. Give me five minutes to brush my teeth and we can head out." He let go of me so I could finish up so we wouldn't be late. I looked out the window most of the ride to 51 and mainly stayed quiet. As soon as Matt parked his truck, I got out and waited for him to walk up to me.

"Ready?" He wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

"As I'll ever be." We started walking towards the house and met Herrmann along the way.

"Morning lieutenant, Abbey." I could see the slight confusion in his face as he walked past us and into the firehouse.

"What was that?" I looked up at him before we went in.

"No idea but whatever it is, Herrmann won't wait too long to talk about it." We split up as we made it to the common room. The plan wasn't to be glued to the hip for everyone to know but just not make it a secret anymore. On one of my rare lazy days, I left home still in my normal clothes so I went to the locker room to change into my paramedic uniform.

"Hey girl, what is that smile for?" Brett asked as she walked in to put her things away.

"Just happy. Matt and I aren't hiding anymore." I raised my booted leg up the bench to tie them up.

"That's great. Who knows besides chief, me, Mills and Gabby?" She sat down next to me.

"Herrmann. It was weird though. He didn't exactly act like his normal self. He gave us a look."

"Uh oh. Maybe just being your dad's overprotective friend?" I had told everything to Brett during one of our runs together in an attempt to get to know each other.

"Maybe. I just hope he won't go all Herrmann on him like he gets with his kids." Protective Christopher wasn't exactly always nice.

Speaking of the devil. "Abigail." he greeted me before he leaned against my row of lockers. Brett took it as her cue to take off.

"Christopher." I answered him using his full name too.

"Anything you want to tell me?"

"Depends on what you want to know." I squinted my eyes suspiciously at him.

"Are you and Lieutenant Casey seeing each other?"

"Why yes Christopher." I was kind of having fun making him squirm.

"Do I need to tell you that in-house relationships tend to explode in people's face?"

"Have you done that speech to Peter too then? Because as I recall he's dating Gabby Dawson, PIC at 51."

"Well Peter Mills is not my best friends daughter. The daughter I promised him I'd look after."

"Well that daughter is a grown woman, very well aware and capable of taking these kinds of decisions."

"I'm just looking out for you kid. I wouldn't want that heart of yours to be broken." He smirked.

"Thanks Herrmann, for looking out for me, but I think I'll be fine." I smiled up at him as I swung my leg back on the other side of the bench and I got up and left.

I took my phone out of my pocket and texted Matt Watch out, Herrmann is coming for you.

Herrmann's POV

I watched Abbey leave the locker room after having a fatherly conversation with her, a conversation that I had to take to Casey, regardless of the lieutenant firefighter relationship that existed between us. I turned around a few minutes after she did and walked in the direction of Casey's office. He was sitting at his desk filling paperwork so I gently knocked and waited for him to tell me to come in.

"Can I have a word with you lieutenant?"

"Sure, what can I help you with?"

"It's about you and Abbey."

"Come on Herrmann, I know why you're here, just spit it out already." He smiled. I considered Casey like a son. I watched him grow from a scrawny candidate to a great lieutenant.

"I talked to her this morning and she tells me you're seeing each other."

"We are. We have been for a few weeks now, we decided not to hide it anymore."

I inhaled and exhaled before I continued speaking. "You're a stand up guy Casey and I'm happy the two of you found each other."

"There's a but coming." Casey didn't seem the slight bit nervous.

"But I'm a father and Frank was one of my good friends and I promised him I'd look out for his little girl so don't play with her heart and we won't have any problems."

"You don't have to worry Herrmann, I'll take good care of her heart I promise." He extended his hand and I shook it firmly, giving him a smile.

"Anything else?"

"No, we're good." I turned around and left him to his paperwork.

Casey's POV

After Herrmann came to say what he had to, he walked out of the door of my office. I just watched him head towards the common room.

"It's safe for you to come in." I said aloud, knowing Abbey was close by.

"How bad did he give it to you?"

"Nothing I can't handle. He give you a talk too?"

"Right before he came to see you." She sat down on my bed. Just as we were about to continue our conversation, the overhead paging system went off

Junior smoke eaters in the house.

I smiled at her and got up with her right behind me. We walked to the apparatus floor and greeted the Darden's.

"Hey guys." I smiled at them. Both of them wrapped themselves artound my waist. "Heather." I hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. "How are you doing?" I questionned her.

"Never better." The boys detached themselves from me as soon as they saw Abbey.

"Abbey." They practically screamed and attacked her with a hug too. I turned around to look at them while Heather was still at my side.

"Hey guys, how've you been?" She asked them with a smile, making me smile too. She was great with them and having her around while Heather had been in prison made everything so much easier. She got up and they stayed glued to her hip.

"Heather, I'd like you to meet my girlfriend Abbey."

"It's really nice to finally meet you." She extended her hand for Heather to shake.

"I've heard so many great things about you from the boys." They smiled at each other.

"You have great kids."

"Thank you. Speaking of them, would you mind looking after them for a little bit? I need to speak with Matt."

"Sure. Come on guys, let's go see if I can find you guys something to eat." We smiled at each other and she turned around to make her way towards the common room and the rest of the guys.

"Can we talk in your office?"

"Sure." She had suddenly turned serious so I let her walk ahead of me to my officer's quarters. "What's up?" She sat on my chair and I just stood against my door.

"I'm moving to Milwaukee with the boys." She suddenly blurted out.

"Milwaukee? When?" I was so surprised my this.

"In a month. You know, every time I look around me, something reminds me of loosing Jen and Andy. It's too hard for me. I feel like we can get a fresh start if we move to a different city." I could tell that this was hard for her and I wasn't expecting this at all.

"But Heather. They have family here, friends and school."

"It's done Matt. I've cleared everything with my parole officer."

I ran a hand over my face. This was going to put a dent in my plans to bring the boys to Lake Carroll with me.

"Did you want to ask me something?" We had known each other for a long time now and she could probably read me as good as anyone else.

"No, it's all good." I figured I could lie my way out of this quite easily.

"We've known each other for fourteen years Matt, don't try lying to me." She chuckled.

"Fine. I was planning on bringing the boys to Lake Carroll for a week end with Kelly when we're off the next time. Do you think I could still do that? Especially since I won't be able to see them as often once you move."

"I'm sure they would love that. When is your next week-end off? I'll get everything ready for them."

"In two weeks."

"That's great. They love you and you know you'll be able to come see them as often as you want, they're your family too." She smiled at me.

"Thanks Heather, it means so much to me."

"And Andy would love how you boys have gotten close." She got up from my chair and hugged me.

"I miss him every day." I chocked up. It was moments like these that made me miss Andy and the friendship we had.

"He's in our hearts, always." She kissed my cheek. "Come on, let's go see how they're behaving in the same room as uncle Kelly." I pushed myself off the door and we walked to the common room. Abbey was behind the stove, preparing what looked like a fruit salad while the boys were in a huddle with Kelly and a football. Nothing good could come of this. On the other side, it was Otis,Cruz and Mills in a huddle just like the others. Heather took a seat at the table between Gabby and Shay, catching up. I went to stand next to Abbey.

"Need some help?"

"No, I'm good. How did it go?" I knew she wanted to know everything.

"It went well, I'll tell you all about it later."

"Go have some fun with the boys. I think they need an extra hand on Kelly's team." She reached around me and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips while no one was watching.

"Thanks baby." I went to see the boys and we quickly made a strategy before we went to play. They had moved the tables as close to the walls as possble to give us a bigger play area. Once we were done with the game, we had won my two thanks to Griffin, Abbey called us to chow for a snack. She placed the large bowl on the table and put some smaller ones with spoons and sat down next to Gabby.

"This is great Abbey, the boys tell me you own a diner." Abbey resituated Ben on her lap before answering.

"Actually my mom and Peter's own it, I just work there." She plucked a piece of cantaloup out of Ben's bowl and put it in her mouth.

"Well they tell me you cook great food. These guys must be well fed between you Peter and Gabby."

"We try." Gabb says.

"I don't know if Matt asked you but I wanted for you both to come over for diner sometime before I leave." Abbey gave me a confused look but before she could voice her confusion, the overhead paging system called us to a structure fire.

"I'll show myself out. Abbey, get my number from Matt and call me." She called before we left.

"Will do." She answered and we all went to our respective vehicules.

Abbey's POV

"Are you ok?" Brett asked from the passenger side.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Her voice had pulled me from the road ahead. "Matt said he's tell me about his talk with Heather later, he'll be able to clear things up for me." I smled at her as we drove towards the adress of the fire. It took us a few hours to get everyone out and to Lakeshore before we went back to the house. As we entered the common room, everyone was there except Matt.

"Anybody seen Casey?" I asked the whole group.

"Yeah, loverboy is in his office." Severide smirked at me while a blush crept to my cheeks.

"Thanks lieutenant." I mumbled and headed to Matt's office. The door was open and he was sitting at his desk, staring off in space.

"Hey." I said gently so I didn't startle him.

"Hey." he answered, getting pulled out of his thoughts and turning his chair to face me.

"Can we talk now?" I smiled at him.

"Sure, come in." I sat on his bed and we left the door open. This kind of discussion didn't require that much privacy.

"So, how did it go with Heather? Did you ask her for Lake Carroll?"

"I did."

"And?"

"She's moving the boys to Milwaukee."

"Oh my god when?"

"In a month." I could see he was sad about it.

"And what about school and their friends?"

"She says it's too painful for her here. Remembering Andy and Jen are gone."

"I can understand that. But what about the boys and school? And what happens to Lake Carroll now?"

"Well the boys will be transfered, I hope it won't be too hard for them and Lake Carroll is on as planned. We're going in two weeks, Heather will make sure the boys are ready."

"That's great. The four of you will have fun before they leave. I'll miss these boys." I sighed.

"Yeah me too." I looked at my watch and realized it was close to lunch time.

"I should go start up lunch."

"Do you mind if I cook today?"

"Sure." I got up and kissed him before we left his office. When I got to the common room, I sat down with the girls at the round table.

"When is lunch going to be ready?" Cruz asked me from the couch.

"Lieutenant Casey is cooking today." I looked at the stares the girls gave me.

"Put that on your calanders everyone, Casey is cooking." Severide snickered. I just threw him a ball of paper and gave him a look. He dropped the whole thing as fast as he had picked it up.

"What's wrong with Casey?" Shay asked, lowering her voice.

"Heather is moving them to Milwaukee in a month." I sighed, watching Matt as he made his way from a cupboard to the next in search of what he needed.

"That's tough, we'll miss these boys." Gabby added.

"Yeah, me too. I know he won't show it but Matt is taking this hard." I didn't have to hide my relationship when with the girls because they had been the first ones to know about it. I kept on watching him as he cooked, hoping the rest of shift would bring in its share of action so he could keep his mind on something else rather than the boys leaving town but as it would go, my wish wouldn't be granted.

a/n So here it is, a new chapter. It's going very slowly and I hope you still like reading this story. So here it is, heather dropped the bomb on Matt about moving the boys away from Chicago. Since I didn't want to completely let go of the Darden boys, I decided to move them closer instead of to Florida so I could still write them in this story.

Next up: Abbey and Matt get their first fight and Matt gets injured on the job.

I hope you'll take a few secons to write a review to tell me how you like it. Thanks again for being so patient with me, I love each and everyone of you for sticking with me