"Otis, Mouch, do you copy?" "Copy Captain." Mouch called out. "How's the sweep of the second floor doing?" We are starting to check the second half of the shut rooms now. What's up?" "They said Gabby never returned from her break and we can't find her." "Copy that, we got you." Otis added. When Otis and Mouch got to the second to last door on the right side of the floor, it was locked so they tried to peek through the little window frame on the door to see if anyone was near it. There was too much smoke to see clearly. They had no choice, but to bust through the door. As Mouch got prepared to do this, Otis radioed his Captain again and told him what was going on. "Oh my God." Was all Casey and Severide heard through the radio. Without questioning further they ran up the stairs and onto the second floor. When Casey entered the wide open door there was no preparation for seeing his wife laying there unconscious. "Gabby."
Casey made his way to the other side of the room where his wife lay unconscious. "Gabby, baby can you hear me?" Casey asked multiple times and then checked for a pulse. "Pulse is weak and thready, but I got something." "Gabby, come on, wake up, wake up for our baby. They'll need you, I need you." "Chief, this is Severide. Casey and I are on the second floor at the second to last door on the right side. We found Gabby, she inhaled a lot of smoke, lost quite a bit of blood, and is still unconscious. We need somebody up here, NOW!" "Hang on Gabby, help is coming sweetie." Casey and Severide wait no more than two minutes when McAuley and Brett arrive in the room. "What do we got?" Brett asked. "Smoke inhalation, a gash on the side of her head, and as you know, first trimester pregnancy." "Okay let's get her transferred onto the stair chair, stat. Help us guys?" Casey, Severide, McAuley and Brett transfer Gabby onto the stair chair on the count of three. Once they're outside, Brett and Casey ride with her in the back and McAuley rushes to the driver's seat. "We will meet you there after overhaul Casey." Boden called out. Once situated, Severide shut the doors behind them and sent them off to the hospital. "BP is 128/85, we need to get it down stat." "Casey, get out the baby monitor and hook it up for me so we can get a read on the baby after I check the rest of her stats and wrap this head wound." Casey proceeded to hook up the baby monitor while Brett finished up. "Okay let's go." "Heartbeat is good, okay now let's focus all of our attention on getting Gabby woken up." Another minute passed and then… "Oh, Gabby. Can you hear me?" "Matt?" Gabby jumped up frantically. "Hey hey woah, calm down, it's alright. I'm right here." "The baby, how's my baby?" "Hey, it's all good everything checked out." We're almost at the hospital, I need you to hang on." Just before they pulled up, she started crashing again. "Gabby? Gabby? Gabby!"
The day Gabby found out she was pregnant
It was quiet in the firehouse since Truck 81 and Ambulance 61s latest call lasted longer than usual so by the time they got back Squad was already at home until the next shift. Gabby was gathering the things in her locker and cleaning up before heading home, Casey took the shift off to finish a construction job that he needed to spend some extra time on. She was the last one to leave and when she got outside she got a sudden wave of nausea and next thing she knew she threw up all over the grass as she couldn't make it inside and she couldn't get to the nearest trash can in time. Luckily nobody saw her, yet she assumed she puked again because she had a little cold that seemed to have passed, but something about this time felt different. And then something hit her. "I think I'm pregnant." This was no surprise considering they had been trying for a baby. She walked the rest of the way to her car and got ready to head back home, hoping her husband would be back when she walked in. She pulled into their parking garage at their apartment complex and put the car in park. She carefully got out of the car and walked towards the inside of their building. She unlocked the door and called out for Matt to see if he was home yet, as she didn't take the time to really look around for his truck. "Matt baby, you home?" No response. "Matt?!" No response again. She didn't hear the shower running and she didn't see his coat on the rack or his keys on the island of their kitchen table. She took her coat and shoes off, then decided to go into their bedroom and grab a pregnancy test. Once she grabbed the test she went into their bathroom, sat down to go, set her timer and simply waited. Once the timer went off, she took a second to collect herself and when she looked she couldn't help but start to cry. There were 2 pink lines, she was PREGNANT! She grabbed the test from the counter and put it in the drawer she designated for when this day would come. After she tucked it away, she turned off the lights and left the bathroom. She sat there for a second wondering if her husband would be mad that she didn't wait for him to take the test, but she didn't want to tell him with only the test as proof she was pregnant after what happened last time, so she decided to wait until she went to the doctor for confirmation. Then, she got up to make herself some quick dinner. She decided to heat up some pasta she made two days ago and drink some water. She had some unanswered text messages she had to go through and answer, as she was doing that she got a call from Matt. "Hey babe, what's up?" "Hey, I just wanted to check in with you to see how shift was." "It was a little boring without you, but we managed." "Well that's good to hear! I just wanted to let you know I'll be home in about 30 minutes, I wanted to take a short break to call you and let you know." "Yeah great thank you, well I'll let you get back to it, I have to make a dentist appointment I'm due for and finish my dinner." I'm having pasta from the other night, if you text me on your way, I can heat a plate up." "That'd be great baby thank you." "Of course, I love you and be safe." "I will and I love you too, see ya." She hated lying to him, but also knew it would be better for the both of them, all three of them in fact, that she didn't tell Casey what she found out until she got confirmation from her trusted doctor. She decided to use the last obgyn they were going to use because they trusted Dr. Lacey and she's a good family friend of the Dawsons going back many years. She scheduled her appointment for next week even though they were on shift so he'll be busy at the firehouse and it was a "dentist" appointment so he wouldn't need to be home to go with her or anything.
Casey was sitting beside Gabby's hospital room alone, Gabby still hadn't woken up after crashing again. He was interrupted by a knock on the door, when he turned around to greet whoever it was he saw Boden, Severide and Kidd standing in the doorway. "Hey guys, was all Casey could get out, thanks for coming." "Not a problem, we just wanted to check in and see how our girl was doing." Kidd replied. "There's no change yet, we basically just have to sit and wait until she wakes up on her own. If she doesn't wake up on her own by tomorrow night, they'll have to put her in a medically induced coma until she wakes up." "Well, she's a fighter and if that baby is anything like the two of you they will fight for their momma to wake up too." Boden added. "Don't I know it, '' Casey says while running his finger along Gabbys hand, ''I just really need her to wake up.'' I need her and this baby more than anything." "We can go if you want to be alone?" "No, I could use the company for a while so I can focus on anything other than the fact she's in this damn hospital bed unconscious and there's nothing I can do about it." "Okay then we will stay." Boden had to pick up Terrance from school so he left Casey with just Severide and Kidd. Stella grabbed a seat next to Casey, while her boyfriend stood beside her with his hands firmly on her shoulders. A couple minutes later a nurse came in to check on them and ended up giving Severide a chair so he sat in between Casey and Kidd.
The following week on the day of the appointment
It was the morning of her appointment. Casey was still on shift from the day before so Gabby was by herself until later on. Since she couldn't eat until after the appointment, she took a shower and got dressed for the day. She decided on a loose CFD t-shirt and some jeans since she was getting an ultrasound. She grabbed a water bottle from the fridge to drink on the way since water is allowed pre-ultrasound and headed out the door with her keys. Once she arrived in the parking lot and found a good spot, she pulled up about 15 minutes before she had to go in. She started making a grocery list so she could go to the store right after her appointment as long as everything went well. In the middle of making her list she got a call from her husband. "Hey babe, how's it going?" Gabby asked. "Good, I just missed you and noticed you still had some time before your appointment so I just wanted to talk for a few and kinda check in." Casey answered. "That's good, I miss you too." "So are you there yet?" "Yeah I am, I'm just sitting out in the parking lot making the grocery list, I'm going to go after the appointment is done." "Sounds like a plan." "Anything you need that I should add?" "No, I can't think of anything urgent." "Okay, well I'm going to start heading in now, I'll see you back home later?" "You will, I love you." "Love you too, be safe!" They said their final goodbyes and Gabby grabbed her purse and keys then headed inside. She was definitely feeling the nerves and she was scared. Who could blame her? The track record the Casey's had with children weren't very good, after losing their first baby and then losing Louie a couple years later before they had a chance to adopt him. She was fragile when it came to baby talk. She was just hoping and praying for the best and that all was right with their baby. She wasn't too far along, so she could only possibly hear the baby's heartbeat. She felt weird not having Matt here for the first appointment, but she once again reminded herself it was better this way than them both going and finding out there was something wrong. Gabby Dawson is a lot of things, but one thing she isn't is selfish. So she felt that if she was the only one there and they got bad news that it would be better for her to deal with it herself rather than have him there so they could comfort each other. She thought if she had to tell him the news afterwards, she could be there for him so they could mourn rather than having him be there for the initial shock. Another thing she was though was stubborn. She knows her husband loves her and she knows he would be there with and for her even if the news was bad and scary, but she still thought it was better for the both of them if she went through with finding out the news alone. :(
After she signed in she grabbed a seat in the waiting area until her name got called back. She pulled out her phone and read a text from her husband that said, "I love you and Brett wanted me to tell you she misses you." "I love you too, tell her I'll be back next shift!" Another couple minutes passed and then her attention was focused on the young blonde calling her name to take her to her room for her appointment. The nurse took her bp and checked a couple necessary things before leaving her to wait by herself for Dr. Lacey to arrive. She was so shaky and nervous and she couldn't stop thinking about all the possibilities. Would there be no baby? Would there be a complication from the surgeries I had during my last miscarriage? Is there a tumor? Is there an aneurysm? All these thoughts consumed her for those next long 20 minutes before she was interrupted by a knock on the door. She was greeted by Dr. Lacey. "Hey lady, how's everything been?" Dr. Lacey asked. "I've been pretty good, Matt and I are great." "That's great to hear, is there any reason why you're here, but Matt isn't?" "Yeah I wanted to make sure I was actually pregnant with no found complications yet, before he knew I was pregnant." "Sweetie, that man loves you so much, don't you think he would want to be here with you good or bad news?" "Wow, that's what all my friends from work would say." Gabby said back in response. "Well as your friend I think he would be here in a heartbeat, but as your doctor I think if you want to do this alone we will just have to do that." "You ready?" "Ready." "Okay, so I just need you to lift your shirt up so I can apply the gel for the ultrasound, just a warning it's going to be cold." Gabby lifted up her shirt and took a deep breath as she was really starting to get nervous as she was seconds to minutes away from finding out if their miracle baby is truly happening. After Dr. Lacey applied the gel and got her machines set up, it was finally time to see if her baby was growing inside of her. She closed her eyes as she could feel the machine going over her hopefully pregnant stomach. After a minute she decided it was time to look up at the screen so she could see for herself. "You see that, right there?" "That's your baby." "Congrats Gabby, you're actually pregnant!" With tears flowing down her cheeks, Dr. Lacey wrapped her up in a hug as she was so excited for her friend and patient. She asked her how she felt and when she thought she would tell Casey. They talked for a few more minutes about it and then she let Gabby wipe off all the gel and she proceeded to put her shirt back down and get up off the bed. Dr. Lacey had to get to her next patient so she guided Gabby out back to the front desk again so she could schedule her next appointment where she and Matt would be able to hear the baby's heartbeat. After setting up her appointment for weeks later, she walked out to the parking lot and as soon as she spotted her car she unlocked it and once she got situated and ready to go she decided to collect herself as she started to cry tears of joy and relief. She didn't want Casey to become suspicious when she called him so she needed to stop crying first. Once she did that she called her husband hoping to check in and see how things were going. When he picked up on the second ring she was thankful she could talk to him even for just a few minutes. "Hey babe, how was your appointment?" "It was great, no cavities so that's a plus." "Good, I'm glad. Still going to the store before heading home?" "I have to go." "Bye, I lo-." She hated lying to him. After she hung up the phone, Casey was confused. She's never abruptly hung up like that, especially without saying she loved him. He wasn't confused anymore; he was deeply suspicious. He decided to call her back again, see if maybe her phone died and just needed to be charged or something. He called her twice and she didn't answer either time, so he then decided to just leave it alone for now.
Casey began to talk to the couple about the day she told him she was pregnant making for some nice conversation to pass some time. The room became silent as a nurse came in to check up on Gabby and see if there was any progress with her. "Everything okay, nurse?" "Yes, nothing has changed yet though." "Okay thanks." Casey said with a quiet yet gentle tone. "She'll wake up man." Severide broke the depressing silence. "I know, I know I just want them to wake up soon, I need to know they are okay." "I know, but this is Dawson we are talking about Casey, she's a fighter so that means that baby boy or girl in there is too, we just need to give it time." Stella reassured him. A couple minutes had passed while they continued to talk and then Stella and Kelly decided it was time for them to head out. "I really need you to come back to me baby. I really need you to wake up." He continued to talk to her as it really goes a long way for coma patients. He continued to talk to her and hold her hand.
The day Gabby told Casey the good news
It was the morning after Gabby's appointment and she planned on telling Casey right away she just needed to wait for him to come home from shift. Gabby's sitting on the couch curled up in a ball watching some tv until she hears the door open. "Hey babe, how was shift?" Gabby called out to Casey as he entered their apartment. "It was fine." He answered back annoyingly. "Then why did you answer like that?" Gabby asked, confused. "Is there something you want to tell me?" "What do you mean?" "Well when we were talking earlier you just abruptly said you had to go when we weren't done talking and then you didn't even say I love you. We always make it a point to make sure we get that in." "Well what do you expect? I had an appointment so you knew at any time I would have to hang up and go." "Gabby, it's not about you having to go, it was the fact that you could've taken a couple extra seconds to say you love me and that you had to go." "I'm sorry. I've just been stressed out these last couple days." "What's going on Gabby? I feel like you're keeping something from me and I thought we didn't do that anymore." "We don't, but this is different." "And why is that?" "Well it's because I had to make sure it was really true before I told you." "Okay you lost me, what are you talking about?" "I didn't actually have a doctor's appointment." Casey was stunned. He couldn't believe she would actually lie about something like that. "Gabby, that's absurd, why would you possibly lie about something like that?! What were you really doing then?" "I was at the obgyn." You- why did you need to go there? They sat in silence for far too long. "Gabby? Are you? Are we?" "Yes." She answered truthfully and carefully. "I-" He surprisingly wasn't mad, but she couldn't quite read his expression which honestly scared her more. "Matt?" He was quiet for another minute, standing there in silence and then he just hugged her without saying a word. They held onto each other for another few minutes until he broke their contact. "I'm confused, you're not mad at me?" "Well at first I was until you explained what was really going on and now I get it. I know you and I think I know exactly why you didn't tell me." "You do?" "Yeah… you didn't want to tell me until you knew for sure because you didn't want it to be like last time, so you thought if you did this on your own that it would be easier. The one thing I don't quite understand though is why you didn't think I would drop everything and figure this out with you?" He would've wanted to and she knew that. "I know, but like you said I thought it would be easier this way. I thought that if I had confirmation from a doctor on my own that I could spare you the initial pain if you weren't actually there to hear the news." She said while tears welled up in her eyes. "I don't even know if I would've had the guts to tell you at all if things didn't work out this time either. I just thought that if you weren't there with me it wouldn't hurt as much when I came home and told you afterwards. That last sentence broke his heart. With a slight frown Casey hugged her again. They sat in a decently comfortable silence for a few, the silence was then broken from Gabby's sobs. Casey knew it was best if he just sat there holding her instead of saying anything because he didn't want to make her cry more. After Gabby had some time to collect herself she broke their contact and asked if he wanted to eat his pasta. He said yes so they sat at the table and talked about his day.
Casey was fast asleep until a light moan woke him up. "Gabby? Baby?" "What's going on?" "We're at the hospital, Chicago Med there was an incident at OFI, you were attacked." "I was attacked? By who?" Casey just sat there staring at her and then she realized that her attacker was Charles Baker. "No no no." Gabby said just before letting out a sob. "Baby, it's okay. You're okay." Casey knew no words would help right now so he decided it was best to just hug her and let her get it out. All she needed was him.