3 A.M.
Casey turned and glanced at the red digital numbers on the bedside clock radio. 2:41 A.M.
"What's the first movie you saw that scared you as a kid?" he asked the other occupant of the bed.
Kelly turned his head slightly and looked up at the blonde man half hovering over him.
"Like, horror movie?"
"Just any movie," Casey answered.
"Oh...I don't know," Kelly shrugged his shoulders.
"I don't remember the first one," Casey said, "but one of the first ones I remember that scared the hell out of me was E.T."
Kelly's eyebrows furrowed together. "How come?"
"When he turned white and he was dying, I didn't understand what was going on, it scared the living hell out of me," Casey said, "I caught it again on TV a while back, that scene's still terrifying, because it just feels so real."
"Yeah well," Kelly replied, "That's something none of those first responder shows on TV will ever have."
"Ugh," Casey groaned, "don't tell me you watch those stupid things."
"Please," Kelly winced, "soap operas in turnout gear, all they care about is who's screwing who and who's hooking up with who. Meanwhile the stunts they pull would get everybody involved killed in a massive heap instead of saving the day."
"Tell me about it," Casey said as he flopped his head down on the pillow beside Kelly's. "To say nothing of the lawsuits the city would heap on the fire department."
"Hmm," Severide looked up to the ceiling in contemplation, "well, I guess one of the first movies that scared me when I was little was...The Wizard of Oz."
"How come?" Casey inquired.
"Well it wasn't because of the Wicked Witch," Kelly answered. "And it sure as hell wasn't the flying monkeys." Casey snickered at that. Kelly smirked but stayed on topic as he answered, "It was just that idea of being a kid and you can't find your family when a tornado hits and you're all alone, that's scary as hell."
"Hmm, you got a good point there," Matt said.
"If you think about it," Kelly told him, "a lot of those classic movies kids grew up on are traumatic."
"Yeah," Matt slowly agreed.
"Old Yeller."
"Oh yeah...you ever see that movie Watership Down?"
"That is not a kids' movie," Kelly replied.
"Yeah well, nobody told us that," Casey said.
"You ever see that movie Something Wicked This Way Comes?"
"The one with the carousel? Oh yeah, that was..."
"Weird."
"The tarantulas in the bedroom scared the hell out of me."
"Me too," Kelly nodded.
"Ugh," Casey recalled, "you know, when Jumanji came out, I thought that was pretty close to a horror movie if you were a little kid seeing it. I mean you watch it now and you can tell what's computer effects and what isn't, but kids don't know any better, it all looks real. Giant killer insects, killer plants, and no matter what you do, it just keeps getting worse, with no foreseeable end in sight that can fix it."
Kelly made a small wincing smile as he replied, "I thought it was kind of boring myself."
"You would," Casey playfully punched him in the arm.
"Oh, you remember that weird Wizard of Oz movie they made in the 80s? Those people with wheels for hands and feet?"
"Oh yeah," Matt said in recognition, "and that cupboard with all the heads in it. Somebody actually made that for kids to watch?"
The two firemen had a good laugh about that one.
"What about the Neverending Story?" Kelly asked.
"Oh yeah...man, I almost forgot about that one. That was.."
"Weird."
"Yeah."
"What was that other one they made in the 80s?"
"There were a lot of messed up kids' movies in the 80s," Casey answered. "Oh...remember Pulse?"
"Pulse?"
"It wasn't a kids' movie, but remember that one where all the electricity in the house tries to kill the kid?"
"It sounds familiar," Kelly wracked his memory.
"Remember the little kid tells him it killed the woman who previously lived in the house?"
"Oh yeah, then it about scalded his mom to death in the shower."
Both firemen shared a mutual bodily cringe at that memory.
"Oh yeah I remember that," Kelly said, "apparently Psycho didn't scare enough people out of the shower."
"How many movies did that?" Casey asked. "How many movies had someone killed in the shower?"
"I don't know...Psycho, Pulse...one of those Nightmare on Elm Street movies I think..."
"There was one in the 70s I think...some guy in prison got psychic powers and killed everybody he blamed for his arrest...one was his mother's nurse who let her die, he also made the shower scald her and she fell through the glass door and was all cut up."
"Wow," Kelly's eyes got big.
"Of course when you think about it, people in movies get killed in bathtubs quite a bit too," Casey said, "one thing about a shower, you can't drown in one."
"True," Kelly said. He sucked in his cheeks for a moment, then winced and asked, "Is it 3 o' clock yet?"
Casey looked at the clock again. 2:53.
"Close enough," he said as he got out of bed.
Making his way through the dark, Casey walked over to his own room, and stepped over to the bed, reached inside one of his pillows, and took out the orange bottle with Kelly's prescription painkillers. The prescription had been filled for him after emergency dental surgery after he'd broken one tooth, and the exam then revealed a wisdom tooth was rotted, and he was in need of a root canal. He'd actually held off on getting the prescription filled, for a couple days anyway, and Casey was sure he knew the reason why but he didn't want to say anything. But finally Kelly had revealed what Casey suspected, after his previous episodes with painkillers, he was worried he might become addicted again. Worse, he'd had a nightmare before the surgery, that he'd shown up on shift hungover and Connie had fired him on the spot, true to her word from several years ago. He'd begged Casey to hold the pills for him and only give them to him as directed. As if there could be any doubt, but Casey had reassured his friend he would help him get through this and keep him on the clock, no matter what.
Casey unscrewed the cap, and as he'd done every time since they got the pills, poured them out into his palm and counted them. He trusted Kelly, but for his own sake he had to know. The exact amount of what should be there was there, no less. Casey took one pill out, put the lid back on, and stuffed it in his pillow again. It was debatable just how smart it was leaving them in such an easy place for Kelly to find, but that was the point. If Kelly got desperate for a fix, he wouldn't expect Casey to leave them in an obvious place, he'd probably ransack the room looking for an obscure hiding spot. He made his way back over to Kelly's room and even in the dark he could see Severide sitting up with a glass of water in hand.
"Here you go."
Kelly winced as he put the pill in his mouth and drank enough water to swallow it.
"How long do those take to kick in?" Matt asked.
Kelly groaned. "About an hour."
They'd been doing this for a couple days already, and Casey figured they had at least a couple more ahead of them. He hoped that Kelly wouldn't need all the pills, he'd feel better if his best friend would in fact not take all of them. But they would cross that bridge when they got there. For the time being they had another 60 minutes to kill, at least, until Kelly could go to sleep. Matt silently said a prayer of thanks that they were off shift tomorrow.
"Do you want to play Boggle again?"
Kelly shook his head.
"No...just keep talking."
"Okay," Casey crawled back into bed and pulled the covers up. "What do you want to talk about now?"
"I don't know," Kelly grumbled under his breath, "what was your favorite Halloween costume when you were a kid?"
The spontaneity of it caught the Truck lieutenant off guard. After a few seconds he recovered and said, "I don't know...never really gave it much thought, no matter what you dress up as you always get the same candy each year."
"Hmm," Kelly said, "I can tell you what my least favorite was. The year I was two, my mom put me in this hideous pea pod costume."
"You were two years old, how'd you remember that?" Casey asked in disbelief.
"She took pictures!" Kelly answered.
The blonde threw his head back laughing.
"Least favorite costume, I can do that," he said.