Hose MD AU after Cameron leaves, Chase leaves

Princeton–Plainsboro, and stars a new life in the Chicago CFD, but you can't run forever and eventually you have to face the music.

Jay Halstead POV

-How can i help you Casey, it seemed important?-

In reality the lieutenant was very concerned, everyone was, in the last couple months Casey had been distant, not willing to hang out and disappearing almost completely from Molly's, Jay had even heard that he had sold his truck and his contracting company.

-I am not here as Matt Casey the firefighter, I'm here as Robert Chase the Medical Doctor to confess to a murder. -

In the silence following that statement you could have heard a pin drop, Matt Casey was the golden firefighter, dedicated to helping the community, willing to risk his own life to save others, he was an alderman for a while even, so excuse me for having some trouble believing he was capable of cold blodded murder. But I was able to maintain my composture and run this like any other interrogation

The story went like this, Robert Chase was an Australian (Australian! How didn't we catch accent?) Diagnostician, Surgeon, Intensivist, and Cardiologist. In 2009 he treated an African dictator by the name of Dibala who trusting patient doctor confidentiality confessed his plans to commit mass genocide, so Chase fucked up his diagnosis to ensure his death, and now 15 years later he was coming clean

-Why? After all this year's?-

-The truth is I knew I would have to turn myself in right after I did it, but the country was in caos and if it would have come out that American Doctor had killed him, he would have been a mártir, and the satibi people would have paid the price for it. So I left it all behind and became a different person, but I promised myself that I would pay for what I'd done. Yesterday they had their third democratic election, they got a satibi representative in Congress, I ran out of excuses so here I am. -

It was like a out of body experience, to be handcuffing a friend knowing they are guilty but wishing with all my might to just look the other way. I took him to the cage, hoping a little privacy might help the team process what had happened

-Sargent I have something I have to tell you all, I just arrested Mathew Casey for murder one-

The reactions were instantaneous, Burgess the first to stand up and say how wrong I was, and frankly I wanted to agree, to say it was a joke and let Casey go, but I couldn't. I told them everything Casey had confessed to, and he could see in their faces when it started to make sense, how that willingness to help was actually him looking to atone, how his disregard for his own safety was actually a deep self hatred

--

Robert Chase POV

I haven't felt so light In a long time, when the priest said that I should face the man's justice, it felt like the stupidest thing I had ever heard. But the truth is that no matter how many lives I have saved, this incident, this crime continued to eat me up, and I saw no other way out If I'm honest with myself mostly did it to get away from the pressure, to scape the guilt.

Last time I tried to confess it was the scariest thing I have ever done, but this time I felt a peace like ever before, it actually felt good to give up, to leave it all in the hands of the police. I am not naive I know this is just the beginning, I will have to face a trial, public backlash beyond anything imaginable and life in a federal prison maybe even the death penalty. But it's completely out of my hands, I no longer have to decide how to atone, now it's all in the hands of the PD to do with me as they please.

--

Jay Halstead POV

Everyone was making calls interviewing Casey's former colleagues, the evidence was flimsy at best Dibala's autopsy hadn't shown any medical misconduct at the time, they had run an MM with same results, it all pointed to a very difficult decision between two equally likely diagnosis.

--

Robert Chase POV

I don't know how long I have been in this cage, but the presence of the DA is a welcome distraction, even though it probably means I am much closer to a sentence.

-I have an offer for you, manslaughter, maximum sentence 5 years, you could be out in three with good behavior. Of course your medical license will be gone and the CFD doesn't take felons but you may have a life after this.-

This was too good to be true, I was ready to never see the outside ever again. I sold everything and left all my accounts to Severide, I prepared myself for death in a clinical room with the eyes of the world on me, but a five years conviction I could have life after that, of course not a peaceful one I don't know anyone else that had killed a world leader but I didn't sound as something you could hide from. And of course no one would want me around after my confession but...

-What's the catch?-

-You have to help me sell it to the governor and of course the judge. You turned yourself in, even when nobody was looking for you that's going to help also your 15 years of faithful service to the CFD not to mention all the lives saved in your time as a diagnostician. But it's going to be a hard sell, and it has to be done before the FBI claims jurisdiction-

-Why are you doing this? It would definitely be better for you carer to let me rot in here, or to call the feds yourself. Casey, you have done a lot of good for this town, that earns you some leeway.-

--

It took a lot more effort than what the DA hoped, but today is the hearing and if everything goes well it is also the begging of my five years of hell, a lot less than I deserve truly but I am scared I don't know if I'll survive, I got nothing to live for I haven't heard from anyone in 51 since my confession in reality the only visitors I had in holding were my lawyers and Jay, not even the rest of the intelligence unit had come to at least interrogate me, I don't blame them really, everything I ever told them was a lie but it hurts to be alone in this.

The camera flashes were blinding, the courtroom was full of press national and international media, some fans it seems, a lot of angry people, but mostly vultures ready to feed on human misery. The judge looked imposing in his black robes, ready to pass judgment, to decide whether I am worthy of compassion.

I was a lot longer than expected and a lot more raw to hear them talk of my crime, of my shame in front of hundreds of people. But it wasn't so bad, some of the victims I had saved in my time in the CFD talked in my behalf, even some patients from Princeton general. And before I even knew it, it was over. All that's left is the ruling.

-Robert Chase please stand, I found you guilty of manslaughter in the first degree, you are to serve five years in the Statesville correction center.-

And it was all done, 5 years to atone for the life I had taken.

The clink of the cell door is definitive, the end of Dr Chase, of Captain Casey, and the beginning of inmate N*5272-3627 the path of absolution had begun.

I wrote myself into a corner with the jurisdiction stuff, so please ignore how much it goes against any and all procedural laws.

I loved the Dibala arc, the exploration of guilt and penance. We know that a confession right when it happened I would have caused a global catastrophe, but it never felt right to me that Chase could keep it quiet forever, eventually it would come out, this is my attempt of making that eventuality a reality