A\N: After a very long hiatus I'm finally back to writing and posting stories on here. This story is based loosely on the Scotty McCreery song "Five More Minutes" I'm mostly using the title though so I can explore other themes related to the title. This will be an A\u slow-burn Dawsey story. I don't watch Chicago Fire anymore so in terms of CF characters it'll just be the ones from the first few seasons.

Disclaimer: I don't own Chicago Fire.

Spoilers: None

Warnings: None

Chapter One

Looking at the door of what had been Chicago's first responder bar over the past three years, Gabby expected her husband to walk outside and greet her. She knew though, fiddling with her wedding band that wouldn't happen. The past year had been the most difficult time of her life and she'd always remember seeing her husband being rushed into the ER on a stretcher. She still didn't know how she managed to but at least, for a few minutes she went into nurse mode. She ran with the stretcher into a trauma room. She was just being pulled away by concerned colleagues when he crashed. She begged him for five more minutes before she held his lifeless body and sobbed. Now nearly a year later, life has somehow moved on and Gaby was an ER trauma nurse and a single mother to a four-year-old boy and almost two-year-old girl.

"Are you okay?" Gabby was pulled out of her deep thought by a man who was looking at her with some concern, "Why don't you sit down on this bench," He suggested offering his hand.

"No thank you," Gabby shook her head, "I'm okay, bring back her it just…" She trailed off,
she never knew how much to share with people. "This was my husband's favourite bar. I promised my brother I'd try and come and have a drink with him tonight. I need a few more minutes." She took a deep breath and tried to settle herself. The man looked oddly familiar, and she wondered if, given he was going into Molly's Bar he was a first responder. As if reading her mind, he answered her question.

"I'm Matt Casey, I'm a firefighter at Firehouse fifty-one."

"You're Matt Casey?" Gabby looked at him a bit surprised, "You're not… I mean…" She pushed any feelings away and continued, "I'm Gabby Dawson. I work in the ER at Chicago Med. I've talked to Leslie Shay, and she mentioned you have a construction company. My husband and I bought a house we were going to fix up." She felt tears come to her eyes, "He died before we could, he was a police officer."

"I'm sorry," Matt knew his offer of sympathy wouldn't do much. "Here, anything you need you just me know," He reached into his pocket and handed her one of his business cards.

"Thanks," Gabby took the card and with another deep breath walked into the bar. She found her brother Antonio and his wife Laura sitting with some of Antonio's colleagues and joined them at their table. She noticed Matt was sitting at the bar and smiled a little as he waved to her.

A week later Gabby was rushing around her apartment to get it looking somewhat clean. With her working shifts and having two young children her apartment never seemed to be clean. She had an appointment to meet Matt at her house to discuss what needed to be fixed to sell. Unfortunately, her mother was sick so she asked Matt if they could re-schedule another time as he probably didn't want to deal with the children never allowing them to work. To Gabby's surprise, Matt said he didn't mind children and was looking forward to meeting them.

Gabby knew how much of a catch Matt was and that he currently didn't have a girlfriend. She kept telling herself she didn't want to move on, she wasn't ready to. However, she felt this draw towards Matt she couldn't explain. As she finished cleaning the kitchen, she said that the living room which was clean a few minutes ago was covered in toys.

"Thomas!" Gabby massaged her face and looked at her four-year-old, "You need to put back the toys you aren't playing with. You know Mommy has a friend coming over."

"I want my fire truck," Tommy explained as he reached the bottom of the toy chest and pulled it out, "Matt and I can play police and firefighter!" He exclaimed happily.

"Mr. Casey is here to talk to Mommy," Gabby reminded him, "Now help me put the toys away. Sophia come help," Gabby held out her hand to her seventeen-month-old who was playing with a baby doll. "I see your toys here too. Put baby down for a quick nap."

Twenty minutes later the living room was somewhat clean and when she heard a knock on the door, she realized there wasn't anything more she could do. After seeing who was knocking, she opened the door,
"Hi Matt, sorry for the change of plans. Please come in. Did someone let you in downstairs?" She asked.

Matt nodded his head as he entered the apartment. He could certainly see why Gabby and her husband had wanted to move. The apartment was tiny and not ideal for a young family.

"Hi! I'm Tommy! Come play with me!" Tommy pulled on Matt's hand, "Mommy says you're a firefighter. Here's a fire truck, it has a ladder! The door is on fire." He pretended as he pointed to a door of a dollhouse,

"Oh no!" Matt played along as he sat down on the floor, "We better use fire hoses to get it out. Is there anyone in the house?"

"No, they're at school," Tommy answered as he grabbed a toy fire hose and pretended to put out the fire. "No more fire," He declared happily, "Now we need to drive back to the firehouse." He pushed the fire truck around the floor and moved his sister's toys out of the way, including her favourite baby doll.

"No mine!" Sophia let out an ear-piercing scream as she ran to her brother and hit him. "Not nice!" She picked up the doll and hugged it and then made sure it wasn't injured.

Gabby shook her head and took a deep breath. Thomas had been having trouble with listening lately and she felt guilty as she wasn't with him and his sister as much as she wanted to be. When she was working the kids were either with her parents or brother and sister-in-law. When she was off, she had so much to do that she hardly played with them. On some days she wished she could freeze time as she knew she'd never get these years back.

"Thomas, you know you don't throw toys," Gabby knew Sophia didn't hurt him as he didn't cry and wasn't injured, "Sophia," She picked up the toddler, "We use words, you're a smart big girl. Come with Mommy and Matt into the kitchen. You can play with your magnets on the fridge. Thomas, I need you to be a big boy and-"Gabby didn't get to finish her sentence as Thomas walked over to Matt and hugged him.

"No! I want Matt to stay with me! We need to put out all the fires," Thomas looked up at his mother with pleading eyes.

"You know," Matt looked down at Thomas, "Most house fires start in the kitchen. How about we pretend to put out fires in the kitchen? I can play with you and work with your Mommy.

Before Gabby had the chance to object Thomas grabbed Matt's hand and dragged him into the small kitchen. Matt set him up at Sophia's play kitchen with his fire hose and explained how to properly put out fires. Sophia watched for a few minutes holding her baby doll, Matt asked her if Thomas could pretend to save, her baby from a house fire. Sophia decided she wanted to play. Over the next two hours, Matt played with Thomas and Sophia.

Gabby stayed in the kitchen for the first half an hour and just smiled. She'd hardly ever seen her children get close to a stranger that fast and they had both never played with each other that well. When she realized how engaged they both were with the involved play she got some laundry and folded it still staying near the kitchen. However, it became clear Matt had everything under control when both children wanted to use the fire hose and Matt suggested taking turns using his phone timer. By the time the play had finished, Gabby had accomplished more chores than she had been able to do in a long time. Although what she and Matt had planned to do hadn't been accomplished, she felt less stressed out.

After play, when Matt needed to go both children begged him to stay. To get him out the door Gabby invited him to the park with them the following day.

Walking into one of Chicago's biggest parks and splash pads Matt smiled as he saw all of the children and families having a good time. Not having a great home life growing up made him determined to provide a loving family home for his children when he had them. After just a few minutes in Gabby's apartment, he could easily tell things hadn't been easy for her in the past year. He couldn't even imagine what all three of them had gone through.

The following afternoon Gabby stood in the splash pad closely supervising Thomas who was running through the sprinklers quite happily. Sophia had always wanted to play but she would need to go to the baby area. Gabby told Thomas Sophia wanted to play too but he had gotten upset, so Gabby was holding onto Sophia as Thomas played. Eventually Gabby told him they'd need to let Sophia play in fifteen minutes. Explaining how she set her watch Thomas went happily back to playing and Gabby sighed with relief.

One of the things Gabby was still getting used to with being a single parent was that sometimes one child had to wait to play to get her full attention. As both children were still so young, they both found it difficult. Unfortunately, Thomas being the oldest had to sacrifice more so his younger sister got the attention she needed. Gabby hoped him bring enrolled in part-time pre-kindergarten in the fall would help with routine and making new friends.

Sophia was just starting to get restless when Matt found the family having just arrived at the park. As soon as Thomas saw Matt, he went running towards him and soaked him with a wet hug.

"Hey buddy," Matt knelt and smiled, "You look like you're having lots of fun."

"Come and play with me! Mommy couldn't because Sophia's a baby," He explained as he pulled Matt further into the splash pad.

"I think he means I want Sophia to play over there. It's the toddler area, not sure about her here. I told Thomas he had to let Sophia play thirteen minutes ago. Two more minutes and then it's Sophia's turn."

"Makes sense," Matt nodded, "Well buddy, I think you can still play over there. I know it's not as fun, but Sophia needs to play too."

Thomas frowned, "I'm staying here. I'm staying here until Daddy comes!"

"Thomas," Gabby barely caught herself in time before she started crying, "Come here, we need to talk," She took his hand, but he pulled away and started to cry.

Matt watched Thomas break down into tears and didn't know what to do. He couldn't offer to watch Sophia as Gabby didn't know him well enough yet. And he didn't know Gabby well enough to know how she'd handle the situation. He had friends with kids and the previous night he got lucky that timing the children's play worked for sharing. Now, he had no idea what to do but watched as Gabby almost effortlessly shifted Sophia in her arms so she could lift Thomas as well. She hugged him tightly and whispered something to him that calmed him down. When she put him back on the ground Thomas started to get a little emotional again.

"Here," Matt reached out his hand for Thomas, "How about we go get an ice cream to cool off? Then maybe I can show you the surprise present I brought you."

"That sounds perfect, Let's get fires off first though, and put more sunscreen on," She walked back to the picnic bench where she left most of their things. For her wallet and phone, she had on a waterproof fanny pack.

When they started walking to the park Thomas asked Matt to carry him, after checking that it was okay with Gabby Matt lifted Thomas on his shoulders. At that moment he realized how incredibly lucky he was. It hurt him that people around them probably thought they were a family. Gabby and her children had their happy ever after stolen away from them by a person with a gun. Matt didn't think it was fair he was getting to live the life that should have been Gabby's husband's.

He had given up trying to tell himself he didn't find Gabby attractive, as she was very beautiful. He knew though she wouldn't be ready for a serious relationship for a long time, if ever. Right now, all he wanted was to be there to help her out with fixing up the house or anything else she might need.

After eating the ice cream Matt led Gabby and the kids to his car opened the back seat and handed them each a fire helmet and a fire safety colouring sheet with crayons. Thomas immediately asked to go to his firehouse and wanted to sit in the fire truck. Matt told him he could come by sometime and Thomas grinned happily and hugged him.

Over the next three weeks, Gabby and Matt got closer as they began to repair her house. They talked about work and family and Gabby even mentioned a few things about being a single Mom she had told only a few people. With her busy work and life, schedule she didn't have many friends, so she was quite happy to be able to talk to Matt.

TBC

A\N: Please review and let me know what you thought of the first chapter. I'm not sure when I'll have the next one up but I'll try and start writing it as soon as I can.