Chapter Text
“I thought I told you to leave this alone, Severide,” Voight started with when Matt and Severide stepped into his office. They hadn’t even had to say anything for Voight to know exactly why they were here. At least, Voight didn’t sound too annoyed or too surprised.
“We need to talk,” Severide said, evading Voight’s statement as Matt shut the door.
“What about?”
“I’m pretty sure the arsonist is a cop.”
Any sign of joking immediately disappeared as Voight straightened up. “Why do you think that?”
Severide pulled out a couple of specific papers and placed them on Voight’s desk. “I’d noticed that a few of the warehouse fires had had cops called out to them in the past about squatters or the homeless hanging around or something, all in the two weeks before the fires, but it hadn’t happened for all of the fires, so I discarded it. Until I realised that I’d missed calls that had gone to the fire service who’d called the cops in.”
“Why does that make you think that this is a cop?”
“All of these locations get stored on a list of known problem sites. Both the police and firefighters maintain some sort of list, both of places in their district and around the city. I’m pretty sure that this arsonist is picking places off the city-wide list as his targets, or at least that’s how he started. I think that now that he’d gotten braver, he doesn’t feel the need to stick just to the list.”
“And why does this all make you think that it’s a cop?” Voight asked again, appearing to run out of patience for Severide’s long explanation.
“Because I don’t think that Detective Thompson was a random choice. His name is on the paperwork for the fire where the woman died of smoke inhalation. None of the paperwork he generated makes note of him finding anything, honestly, I don’t think the case was his highest priority, but I think someone worried that he was getting too close to figuring something out.”
“It still could have been anyone.”
“Thompson didn’t have any records of interviewing anyone. No one outside of the department would have known that he was the detective on the case. The only people who could have known would be the cops, and given the low-priority nature of the case, probably a cop in his own district.”
Voight looked a little more convinced, “Who do you think it could be?”
“I don’t have a list of cops in the district to know.”
“I can get you the list,” Voight slowly said, “But I can’t let you out of this office with it.”
Severide agreed to that condition. With them this close to figuring out who the arsonist was, no one was going to be taking a break until they were in cuffs. Voight typed a couple of things on his computer and then the printer started whirring.
Just when Matt thought they were close, Voight handed them a page with a lot of names on it, “Is this only the cops in that district?” Matt asked, just needing to confirm.
“It is.”
Matt sighed as he started skimming the names. There were a couple that he recognised, but with this district being out of 51’s area, he hadn’t had much of a reason to work with many of them.
“Anything jumping out?” Voight asked, the question mostly aimed at Severide.
“Not immediately.”
“Do you trust the Intelligence department that it isn’t one of us?”
Matt glanced over at Severide who hadn’t immediately answered. But, he did eventually nod, “Yes.”
“We’ll divide up the list,” Voight instructed, “Make this go faster.”
Matt was relieved that Voight hadn’t told them to hand it over to the cops. He appeared to realise that Severide wasn’t going to leave it alone and they might as well consolidate their efforts.
Voight led them out of his office and once they were in the Intelligence bullpen, he relayed their conversation to his team. The second Voight stopped talking, everyone jumped into action. With Severide and Matt not having the access everyone else did, it was a little harder for them to pull their weight, but Burgess set them both up with a spare laptop and enough access to do a basic search.
Not knowing exactly what they were looking for, Matt just started on the first name of his portion of the list and hoped that if he did find something, it would be obvious.
And for hours they worked.
There were a couple of times that someone thought that they might have found something. But, for one reason or another, it never panned out.
Matt was starting to lose hope. They’d gotten through most of the cops on the list and found nothing. He didn’t want to think about what would happen when they’d looked at all the names, but they were starting to approach that point. For now, all he had to do was focus on looking at one name at a time and nothing more.
Suddenly, the silence was broken by a phone ringing.
Matt wasn’t the only one who almost jumped out of their skin at the intrusion. Everyone glanced around, trying to figure out where the noise was coming from and in the end, it was Severide who pulled the offending device out of his pocket.
He appeared to consider whatever had flashed up on the screen for a second before answering the call, “Severide.”
Matt couldn’t hear the other end of the line, but he could tell how Severide’s expression hardened. He watched as Severide pulled the phone away from his ear and switched it to speaker phone, letting everyone else listen in as well.
“I want just you, no other firefighters, no cops, just you,” the voice demanded.
“Where do you want to meet?” Severide asked.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Halstead frantically typing something, probably attempting to trace this mysterious call. Matt wished that he recognised the voice, but he didn’t. And from the expressions on everyone else’s face, they didn’t either.
The voice rattled off an address which Matt did recognise. It was an abandoned warehouse within 51’s district. It was the perfect location for an arsonist wanting to meet a victim alone. There was no way that Matt would let Severide go alone and he hoped the cops wouldn’t either.
“Don’t be late,” the voice concluded before abruptly hanging up.
“The arsonist?” Voight asked as soon as the call was done.
“I assume so,” Severide replied. Matt was relieved that everyone had come to the same conclusion he had.
“I couldn’t trace the call,” Halstead chimed in, “It’s a burner, that’s all I know.”
“Severide, will you agree to meet this guy?” Voight asked, “We will be watching, of course, but you will have to meet him alone.”
“Of course.” Severide didn’t even have to stop and think about it. Knowing Severide, if Voight had told him to stay away from the warehouse, he would have found a way to go anyway.
With the arsonist’s deadline only a few hours away, everyone frantically worked to get everything organised in time. Now, Matt was almost entirely useless, but he wasn’t going to leave. He was committed now and he wanted to see it through. He just made sure to stay out of the way so that no one would complain about his presence.
Before Matt knew it, Severide was wearing a wire, and they were heading out. With the target being an arsonist, Matt had done the one useful thing he could and called 51 to warn them. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that, but Matt knew that fire was a high likelihood. While obviously, 51 would immediately respond to any call, Matt wanted them to be aware of what they could be walking into.
“You sure you want to come, Casey?” Voight asked Matt just before they left the station.
“Yes,” Matt replied, leaving no room for argument. He wasn’t getting left behind now.
He hadn’t been involved like this in a police investigation for a long time, and longer since he’d been sitting in a police surveillance van watching a sting happen. Unfortunately, there were no cameras inside the warehouse for them to connect to, so all they had was the audio from Severide’s mic once he disappeared out of sight and into the building. Matt wished that they’d managed to get a camera on him, but at short notice, the cops couldn’t get a hold of anything small enough that the arsonist wouldn’t notice.
Matt tried to control his nerves as they waited for the arsonist to arrive. There were cops hidden by most of the entrances, but Matt wouldn’t be surprised if the arsonist managed to avoid detection. He’d clearly chosen this warehouse for a reason.
“You actually showed up,” a voice broke the silence, a voice that didn’t belong to Severide.
“Wanted to see the person who burnt down my home,” Severide replied, “Why did you want to meet me?”
“I wanted to meet the only person who put things together, figured out I was an arsonist.”
“Why did you kill Detective Thompson then?” Severide asked. “Since he didn’t know who you were, Ripley.”
Upton immediately started typing at Severide’s use of a name. Seeing the arsonist in person, Severide had managed to match the appearance to the list of names they’d been searching through earlier. While it probably wasn’t as useful now then if they’d managed to figure it out before the arsonist had called Severide, it was better than never knowing.
“I had to get rid of him before he figured it out.”
“But you’d hidden your tracks so well,” Severide said, plying the arsonist with praise, “He probably wouldn’t have figured it out.”
Upton turned her screen, giving Matt a view of James Ripley’s personal file. Quickly skimming it, Matt tried to focus on the important details. He’d been a cop for almost a decade, all within the same district. There was nothing crazy listed, no major commendations, but also nothing pointing towards him being an arsonist.
“It wasn’t worth the risk,” Ripley said, pulling Matt back into the audio.
“What’s your plan now?” Severide asked, “How do you think that you are going to get out of this one?”
“Since you are the only one who knows, if you weren’t to make it out of this building, it would die with you.”
Part of that was reassuring, that Ripley didn’t know the cops were listening in or that Severide had told anyone else. The other part, downright terrifying that Ripley had lured Severide here to kill him.
“When do we go in?” Matt whispered to Voight, not wanting Severide to die right in front of him.
“Give it a minute.”
Matt didn’t want to wait, but he figured Voight had already done him a favour by even letting him be here, so he didn’t want to start an argument and get kicked out. So, he bit his tongue and crossed his fingers that things weren’t about to go wrong.
“What makes you think that you can kill me?” Severide asked.
“I’ve been planning this for a long time. You aren’t getting out this time.”
Ripley appeared to decide that he’d had enough conversation, as the next thing Matt heard was the sound of something hitting another. That got everyone’s attention and both Halstead and Upton reached for their guns as they stood up.
“Should we go in now, Boss?” Halstead asked.
As if he heard them, Severide’s voice rang out, “Don’t come in, the place is doused in gasoline.”
“What do we do now?” Halstead asked, pivoting slightly from aiming the question at Voight to aiming it at Matt.
“We need to call 51 in,” Matt said, not wanting to risk things getting completely out of control before the fire trucks could get here.
Before he could explain his thought process, a window shattered and smoke started pouring out. It looked like Ripley had already started to enact his plan to kill Severide.
Not waiting around, Matt made a call to dispatch to get 51 here. Whatever Ripley had done to rig the warehouse had to be bad for it to have already become visible from the street.
“Severide, what is happening?” Voight demanded.
“It’s burning up in here,” Severide gasped out.
“Don’t worry about Ripley, just get out. We can catch him later.”
“Little hard when he has an arm around me.”
Matt leapt to his feet, wanting to rush in and assist before he processed his lack of gear. As much as he wanted to go in, he’d just make things worse and more dangerous. All he could do was hope that 51 got here as soon as possible or that Severide managed to extract himself from Ripley and escape.
As soon as 51 pulled up, all four appliances included, Matt jumped out of the police surveillance van and headed straight for the Chief who worked first shift.
“Severide’s inside with an arsonist. I don’t know how bad it is inside.”
The Battalion Chief took that and ran with it, ordering teams inside to search for Severide while attempting to get the fire under control. It took all of Matt’s control to not requisition someone’s gear so that he could charge in as well, but trust the first shift teams to get Severide out. All he could do was cross all of his fingers and hope.
“Chief, we’ve found them,” Matt finally overheard over the radio. “We’re coming out now.”
Matt focused his attention on the door as he continued to wait, fingers still crossed. The cops had all climbed out of the van as well and were waiting alongside him. Seconds felt like they took hours as they all stood there.
At last, the front door of the warehouse banged open. And people came stumbling out.
The two people not in firefighting gear were being assisted out by firefighters and led straight towards the ambulance. The cops headed for Ripley while Matt headed for Severide.
“You alright?” Matt asked once he was closer.
“I’m fine,” Severide replied.
Not fully trusting Severide’s assessment of his own health, Matt turned to Rafferty, who was still examining him. “He'll need to go to Med, but he’ll live and be fine.”
Matt let out a breath at that, finally feeling like the situation was over and Severide was fine. He looked a little worse for wear with bruising already blooming across his face and blood caked across it as well. Even with an oxygen mask on, he appeared to be gasping for air a little more than Matt would like, but at least Rafferty didn’t sound concerned.
Glancing over, he found Ripley completely surrounded by cops and one paramedic in Chout. He looked to be in similar shape to Severide, so Matt hoped that meant that he would survive and face justice for his crimes. Voight certainly wasn’t going to let him go free, so Matt could leave that in his capable hands.
“Casey, do you want to come to Med with us?” Rafferty asked as Chout handed Ripley over as a patient to the ambulance that had just arrived on scene.
“Yes, I do.”
Once Severide was safely in the back of the ambulance, without too much protestation from him, Matt climbed in as well. As Rafferty got started on the paperwork on their drive, Matt fully focused on Severide.
“You sure that you’re ok?” he asked, feeling a need to ask again.
“I’m serious, I’m fine.”
“What happened in the warehouse?”
“As we suspected, Ripley had laid a trap. Almost everything inside was covered in gasoline in total overkill. Before I could stop him, he lit it and then tried to keep me in there as well. He appeared happy to die in the blaze if it meant that I didn’t get out. Thankfully, 51 arrived in time to get control of the situation.”
Matt got the impression that there were details Severide wasn’t sharing, but he didn’t push. Severide would have to repeat the conversation to the cops for the record later. Right now, all he should be worrying about was recovering.
Once at Med, Severide got immediately sent into one of the rooms while Matt got directed to the waiting room.
“Let me know as soon as he’s cleared for visitors,” Matt told Maggie, even though she probably didn’t need him to tell her.
She nodded, “I will.”
As he waited, Matt stared down at his phone, debating whether he should tell anyone about what had gone down and where he and Severide were. He’d given Boden the heads up when they’d headed down to the district to talk to Voight about the arsonist probably being a cop. Boden hadn’t needed to be involved then, but he knew the Chief got annoyed if he heard about things where his firefighters were involved from others first.
Normally, Matt wouldn’t have second thoughts about pulling Boden in, but today he was hesitant. While Severide appeared a little less nervy about 51 now, he’d semi-willingly spent an entire shift at the firehouse, Matt didn’t know if he’d appreciate having his ex-coworkers turn up. Hoping that it would be long before Severide was cleared for visitors, Matt decided to wait until he could talk to him first.
Maybe a little over an hour after they arrived, Will Halstead approached him.
“How is he?” Matt asked, jumping to his feet. Will didn’t look particularly worried, but didn’t stop panic from flowing through Matt’s veins.
“Mild concussion, broken nose, little bit of smoke inhalation and a few patches of burns, but nothing that won’t heal in a few days and weeks,” Will told him. “He’s ready for visitors if you want to come with me.”
Matt didn’t argue that point and followed Will back out of the waiting room. Pointing Matt in the right direction, Will didn’t hang around, off to deal with everything else he had on his plate. Matt slipped into Severide’s room, shutting the door behind him.
Despite having been cleaned up, smoke smeared cleared from his skin, Severide looked worse. The bruising more prominent than before as well as exhaustion hanging over him.
“You alright?” Matt asked, unsure how else to start as he settled into the chair at Severide’s bedside.
“I’m sure Halstead already told you.”
Matt could give him that, “I heard that you’ll live.”
“I will.”
Deciding that it was easier to just rip the bandage off, “Would you be up for more visitors? I was going to let Boden know where we are and I know that it won’t take long for everyone else to turn up.”
Severide looked a little apprehensive, “It’s fine.”
Matt cocked his head, “Are you sure? I can tell Boden that you aren’t ready for visitors.”
“Might as well get it over with.”
Even before Matt had sent off a message to Boden, Severide had visitors anyway in the form of Voight and Upton. Upton let them know that Ripley was in a similar condition to Severide and the second he was cleared, he’d be taken in. Between Severide’s investigation, the Intelligence department's investigation and what had gone down at the warehouse, they’d had enough to tie him to all his fires and put him away for a long time.
After that, a few of the hospital staff who knew Severide from back when he was still a firefighter checked, and then Boden turned up. And then the rest of 51. Severide never gave any indication that everyone’s presence annoyed him, but Matt could see that after a couple of hours, he was starting to tire. It probably didn’t help that he was always the centre of attention and everyone always had a thousand questions, related to his hospital visit and not. He’d never get a break.
Before Matt could mention anything, Brett started shuffling people out and thankfully, everyone followed her instructions, leaving only Matt and Severide. Matt watched as Severide’s eyes fluttered closed, so Matt stayed quiet. He didn’t think that Severide actually fell asleep, but he figured anything resembling rest would be good for him.
That didn’t last long before Will knocked on the door, “Severide, how are you feeling?”
That got Severide’s eyes to open, “A little sore but fine.”
“Headache?”
“Little bit of one.” Matt wasn’t sure if that was the concussion or the hours of visitors.
“Well, your oxygen levels have come now. So, if you have someone who can stay with you, I’m happy to release you,” Will told him.
“You can stay with me,” Matt jumped in before Severide could say anything. Even outside of concussion protocols, Matt was prepared to make that offer. Severide still hadn’t found anywhere to live, too consumed by the arson investigation, and Matt wasn’t going to kick him out now.
“Good, I’ll get your discharge papers then.”
“You didn’t have to do that,” Severide said once Will was gone,
“I know,” Matt replied, “I wanted to.”
He didn’t know if Severide was convinced, but he didn’t argue any further. It didn’t take all that long to sign the papers and before Matt knew it, they were heading out together. With Matt’s car being parked where he’d left it down at the district station, he had to call an Uber to pick them up, but that didn’t take too long to sort out either.
They didn’t talk much on the journey back to Matt’s apartment and even once there, they both crashed immediately. Matt knew that they needed to have a conversation, but it could wait until they’d managed to get some sleep. He certainly didn’t feel awake enough for a serious conversation and he wasn’t going to force that on Severide either.
When his alarm went off the next morning, Matt found himself hating his life. He really wished that he could call in sick, and Boden probably would have let him, but he’d feel bad about it if he did. So, he just had to power through it and survive the shift.
With how little sleep he knew that Severide had been getting, Matt didn’t want to wake him. Even though he was pretty sure that Severide knew that he was on shift today, he didn’t want to leave without saying anything at all. He had to do a little bit of searching, but he managed to find a notepad and pen tucked away. Scrawling a quick note on the first page, Matt tried to explain all that he wanted to in a semi-concise manner.
Severide, I’m on shift today. Feel free to swing by 51 whenever you want if you want to. Any of the food you can find in the fridge is yours. If you don’t come by 51, I’ll see you when I get off shift.
Matt hoped that that conveyed that he really didn’t want Severide to leave without seeing Matt again. Ripping the page off the notebook, he placed it in front of his coffee machine, figuring that that was the first thing Severide would head for whenever he woke.
Not wanting to be late for shift, and still not having retrieved his car from the district, Matt jogged out the door for his waiting Uber. Thankfully, he made it to the firehouse with 20 minutes to spare, giving him enough time to check in with Boden before the shift started.
“Is Severide out of Med?” Boden asked.
Matt nodded, “Released last night. He’s mostly fine.”
“How are you doing?”
“Feeling a bit tired after the last few days, but I’m fine,” Matt honestly replied. He didn’t feel like there was any point in lying when he thought that his exhaustion was obvious to anyone who looked at him.
“If you need the shift off, I can find a floater for the shift,” Boden offered.
“I’ll be fine.” He knew better than saying anything about hoping for a quiet shift and jinxing it, but ultimately, that was what he wanted from the shift.
Thankfully, that was mostly what happened. Truck got called out a couple of times, but never for anything crazy and they were never out for that long. Matt didn’t exactly get a lot of rest, but he didn’t feel even more exhausted by the time the shift was over.
He hoped throughout the shift that Severide would make an appearance. But, he never did. Matt was hoping that that wasn’t a sign that he’d left Matt’s apartment and not coming back, but he couldn’t know that until he got home. And his return back home was delayed by him finally going to retrieve his truck from the district before heading home.
He found himself holding his breath as he unlocked the door to his apartment and only let go of it when his eyes landed on a figure stretched out on his couch.
It wasn’t until he got a little bit closer and Severide’s head poked up slightly that Matt knew for sure that he was actually awake.
“How are you feeling?” Matt asked, sitting down opposite Severide.
The other man looked terrible, bruising across his face now changed to motley black and yellow. But, from experience, Matt knew that that was just them healing and Severide might not be feeling as much pain anymore.
“I’m still tired but not sore,” Severide replied, confirming Matt’s suspicions. “How was shift?”
“Quiet, what did you do?”
“Gave my statement to Voight and he doesn’t need anything more from me,” Severide’s expression then changed, “When I was there, ah a Lieutenant Wendy Seager was also there and she offered me a job at OFI.”
Matt was both surprised and unsurprised. He was surprised Seager managed to act that quickly, but wasn’t surprised she wanted Severide on her team. Severide had a nose for arson investigation and this had all made that very, very clear.
“Are you going to take it?” Matt asked, keeping his tone light and trying not to put any pressure on Severide.
He wanted to be selfish. He wanted Severide back in his life in some way. Ultimately, he’d love to have Severide back at 51, but he’d made it clear that that ship had sailed. Him being at OFI wouldn’t be anywhere near the same, but it would be a thousand times better than the last few years of nothingness. But, he didn’t want to say any of that to Severide. He didn’t want to put pressure on him when this had to be completely Severide’s decision.
“I don’t know.” Severide had pulled a business card out of his pocket and was rolling it between his fingers, “I never wanted to be Benny and leave Squad for a desk job at OFI, but maybe it’s where I’m needed now.”
“OFI does always need more good investigators,” Matt added, trying to remain neutral.
“I just don’t know whether I want to do it.”
“You don’t have to decide now. I’m sure that Seager will wait for as long as you need,” Matt said, before deciding to slightly drop the neutrality, “But, wouldn’t it be nice to get paid for what you were doing anyway?”
“I was investigating the fires that OFI didn’t have the time or want to investigate. If I worked for OFI, I couldn’t do that.”
“Maybe you still could. Or you could help get OFI to a point where they do have the time.” Severide shrugged, “I don’t know. I didn’t think I ever wanted to come back to the CFD, but I don’t know anymore.”
Matt was taking that as a good sign that Severide no longer wanted to run away as far as possible, but got the impression that he shouldn’t continue to push that right now, “Well, whatever you decide, you are welcome to stay here as long as you need.”
That got a slight smile from Severide, “Thanks for being a good friend still.”
Matt wasn’t sure if this was the time, but he didn’t know if he’d get a better opportunity, “I’ve regretted what I said to you that day ever since I said it. I never meant to hurt you like that, and definitely not to the point of you quitting. I let the adrenaline of the moment take control and I’m sorry. I never wanted to ruin things between us like that.”
That got Severide to fully sit up, legs spinning round so his feet could rest on the floor. “Why did you say it?”
“Because it was a little girl. And I know that it’s no excuse, but we all get tense when it involves children. Now, I know why you made the decision that you did, but at the time, all I could see was a child not making it out of the fire alive.”
“I think the thing that made it the hardest and that I couldn’t get over, at least not in the moment, was that it was you telling me I’d made the wrong decision and that it was my fault. It was always different coming from you.” Severide looked surprisingly pensive as he said it and considerably more emotionally open than Matt expected.
Matt could relate to what Severide said. Even when they were fighting, Severide’s opinion was always the one that Matt wanted, often even more than Boden’s. His relationship with Severide was always unique in the way he trusted him more than just about anyone else, regardless of how things were between them. He knew how much Gabby hated that, but he’d had no desire to change it.
Unsure exactly what to say to that, Matt just stared at Severide for a minute. And he saw something he wasn’t truly expecting in Severide’s expression. Biting his lip, he tried to figure out what to say.
Before he could, Severide seemed to figure out the same thing he had, “How long had you felt this about me?”
Matt figured there was no point in deflecting or lying. There was a tiny bit of hope fluttering in his chest and it could only stay if he was honest. “Probably since the academy, honestly.”
Severide looked a little surprised. Matt wasn’t sure if it was at the length of time or the honesty. “Really?”
“Yes,” Matt replied, “For you?”
“I don’t really know. For sure, it was when I came to work at 51, but it was probably before that.”
“Where does this leave us?” Matt asked.
While knowing Severide had the same feelings that Matt had for him, was joyous, Matt wasn’t naive enough to think that with everything else changed that that wouldn’t impact things. He didn’t want it to be, but it might be a case of wrong timing for them.
“I don’t know if I’m going to accept this OFI job, but I’m not leaving Chicago again. I’m here to stay now.”
Matt was taking that as a positive, “Are you saying that you want to try this?”
Severide smiled the brightest smile Matt had seen from him in a long time, “Matthew Casey, will you go out on a date with me?”
“I’d love to.”
Matt didn’t want to wait any longer. Getting from his seat, he crossed the small gap between them and without really thinking, leaned down to kiss Severide. Any surprise at Matt’s slightly impulsive actions on Severide’s part was quickly overtaken by enjoyment. Not wanting to strain his back with the awkward angle, Matt lowered himself into Severide’s lap, never ending the kiss. Never wanting the moment to end.
“Fuck, Sev,” Matt moaned out between kisses, relaxing into Severide’s hands where they gripped his hips.
“Feels like you should call me Kelly if we are serious about this,” Severide gasped out.
That would take some use to, but he wasn’t wrong. It felt weird kissing someone while still referring to them by last night, “Fuck, Kelly,” he repeated, not quite as unconsciously as before.
Normally, Matt wouldn’t sleep with someone this early into a relationship unless he knew it would just be a one-time thing. But, he and Kelly had been dancing around this for so long that he didn’t think it truly counted as early. He had no qualms with climbing out of Kelly’s lap to pull him towards Matt’s bedroom. Matt thought that things might get awkward as they undressed, crossing a line they’d never crossed in so long of knowing each other, but in fact, it was completely the opposite. It felt completely natural and easy.
Matt didn’t mean to, but he must have fallen asleep at some point after. It probably wasn’t surprising as he still hadn’t recovered from the last few days. When he woke, the sun had almost set, only a small amount of light flowed through the window. Twisting his head slightly, he found Kelly pressed up against him, fast asleep. Feeling completely content, Matt stayed completely still, not wanting to break the moment. He was so happy like this.
He didn’t know how long he was awake for when he felt movement before him. By the time he’d turned back to Kelly, his eyes were open and he was softly smiling at Matt.
“It’s kind of fucked up that we could have had this years ago,” Kelly mumbled, voice still rough with sleep.
Matt smiled as he leaned forward to kiss Kelly, “I know, imagine if we had.”
He didn’t think it was actually worth considering, not regretting most of the choices that got them here, even if it took a long time. He eventually got Kelly, so that was good enough.
“What are you thinking about?” Matt asked, reaching over to place a hand on Kelly’s bicep
“I know it’s not be at 51, but I think that I am going to take the OFI job.”
Matt’s smile widened, unable to stop himself, “I’m sure that you’re going to be great.”
“It’s funny that one arsonist has got me both a new job and a boyfriend.”
That got Matt to laugh as well, “That’s a weird and positive way to look at it.”
He and Kelly still had to figure out exactly how they worked together as a couple, but Matt didn’t care right now. He was going to just enjoy the moment and everything else could be a problem for later. And he and Kelly could face them together, whatever they ended up being.