A/N: Yet another prompt turned one shot lol. This dialogue prompt was "You're in love with her."

Hope you like it! Happy reading!

angellwings

How Dare You Love

By angellwings

"Sometimes you read it like a school kid writin' on chalkboard walls,

Sometimes it hits you like the water rollin' over Niagara Falls,

Cheeks get flushed like the first time buzz on Cabernet.

Boots on the bleachers, the edge-of-the-seaters, just watchin' you entertain.

You show up and put a spell on me,

Oh, the nerve."

-"How Dare You Love" by Miranda Lambert

Matt looks up when a knock sounds at his door. He tries not to feel disappointment when it's Kidd at his door instead of Brett. Ambo 61 has been gone a while and he was hoping it was her stopping by to check in or give him an update on the little boy she and Foster dropped off this morning. But instead it's Stella standing half in and half out of his quarters.

"Anything you need, Kidd?"

"Yes, actually. Have you heard from Brett?"

He quirks a brow at her and wonders why she'd come to him first. Is he that obvious?

"No, not since they left that accident scene and headed for Lakeshore. Why?"

Stella shrugs. "Her parents are here. I was hoping to get an ETA for them."

"Her parents?" Matt asks. Against his will, he feels an intrigued half grin tugging at his lips.

"Yes," Stella answers with a slow smile that is far too knowing for his liking. "Would you like to meet them, Captain?"

He clears his throat and wipes the grin off of his face by scrubbing a hand across his face. "It would be rude not to at least say hello."

Stella presses her lips together tightly but her eyes are glowing with barely contained amusement as she hums her agreement briefly.

"Something you'd like to say?" He asks.

She shakes her head but he sees her grin peeking through. "Just that they're hanging out in the common room. Her mom is helping Cruz with Chloe's wedding book."

He nods, waits for Kidd to leave, and then takes a detour through the locker room to find a mirror. He catches himself straightening his collar unnecessarily and winces. What is he doing? He's being ridiculous. This isn't the first time he's met a colleague's family. It's not a big deal.

Except Brett isn't just a colleague anymore. Not that she knows that. As far as he can tell, she has no idea he's even the slightest bit interested. But no matter how he tries to talk himself down, he can't shake off the curiosity. They've known Sylvie her whole life. There's a wealth of information just out there waiting for him in the common room. He can't pass that up.

He squares his shoulders and marches confidently out of the locker room. Even if they're just friends, he's allowed to be curious about The Bretts. Friends care about each other's family, right?

"Mr. and Mrs. Brett," he greets as he approaches where they sit next to Cruz. "I'm Matt Casey. I'm a—"

Mrs. Brett immediately stands and cuts him off with a beaming smile. He knows Sylvie's adopted but he sees the resemblance anyway. "The Captain and a friend of my daughters." She says as she shakes his hand.

He feels taken aback by her instant familiarity and he knows he looks it too.

"Yes," she says, reading the surprise on his face. "I know who you are. I've heard all about you."

"All about me?" He asks worriedly. He's not sure what 'all' entails. There's a lot of common history between Sylvie and himself.

"Good things. Trust me," she says with a wink as she pats his hand and then releases it.

"Martha," Mr. Brett pipes up with an exasperated but amused stare. All he did was say her name, but Matt hears the teasing warning all the same.

"I'm behaving," she replies with a playful glare.

"For now," her husband chides with a chuckle as he too shakes Matt's hand. "You'll have to forgive her for being a little pushy. We're both excited to finally meet Sylvie's friends and see where she works. We've been trying to arrange this visit for a long time. Samuel Brett. Great to meet you, son."

The cheery tones, the gentle ribbing, the genuine interest they wear in their expressions...

They instantly make sense as the people who raised Sylvie Brett.

"You too, sir," Matt says as a warm smile blooms across his face. He's known them for barely a minute and he already understands why Brett adores them. "Brett's just dropping a patient off at Lakeshore. She should be back any minute. In the meantime, how about a tour?"

"Oh, absolutely!" Martha Brett says enthusiastically. "Let me just make sure Joe doesn't need anymore help with the cake. Poor thing."

"There's something I've been wanting to say to the people of this Firehouse since Sylvie moved out here," Samuel confides as he steps closer to Matt.

"Oh?" Matt asks with a lift of his eyebrows. Mr. Brett's tone doesn't tell him much and he's worried this won't go well.

But to Matt's surprise, Samuel Brett claps him on the back and smiles encouragingly. "Thank you all for taking such good care of my little girl. She's tenacious, my Sylvie. Makes her a bit of a handful sometimes. But in my opinion, it's worth it to see her so dedicated to helping others. It eases my mind to know she has a family here to look after her if her mom and I can't."

There's something in the man's eyes that gives Matt the impression he's thanking him specifically but he has no idea why. Everyone here looks out for each other. It's just how 51 works. Yes, okay, Matt would do just about anything for Sylvie, but he hasn't had to yet and honestly he hopes they're never in a position that precarious - for Sylvie's sake more than his own.

"You don't have to worry, Mr. Brett. It's what we do here. We stick together," Matt assures him while still brushing off his compliment. "Sylvie looks out for all of us just as much as we look out for her. We're lucky to have her. Your daughter is impressive."

Samuel's eyes narrow almost imperceptibly, but Matt notices. "That she is."

"Okay, ready," Martha says as she joins them and loops her arm through Matt's. "Where do we start?"

The gesture reminds him so much of Sylvie that he can't help but chuckle as he responds. "How about the bullpen? I can introduce you to Chief Boden."

Mrs. Brett nods. "The Battalion Chief. Yes, I'd like to meet him. Sylvie speaks very highly of him - of all of you, really. I'd never seen her so unhappy as when she came back home this summer. That girl missed this Firehouse fiercely."

Casey didn't really like to think about this past summer. It was a mess of mourning Otis and missing Sylvie more than he should have and then dealing with a shitload of guilt on top of all of that. Not his best summer to date. "Trust me, we missed her too. We were relieved when she came back."

"We?" Martha asks with a small grin. "Or you?"

He has no idea how to respond to that question and he might be getting nearer to a nervous breakdown the longer he thinks about it. Boden comes across them just outside the bullpen and, thankfully, saves him from confessing everything to Sylvie's parents.

"Ambo back yet?" Boden asks Matt before his eyes fall on their visitors. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met. Wallace Boden…"

"Martha and Samuel Brett," Martha announces, releasing Matt's arm to shake Boden's hand. "Sylvie's parents. Captain Casey, here, was just giving us a tour while we wait for her to get back."

"Ah," he says with a rare smile. One he saves for visitors and civilians. "So, the answer to my earlier question is no."

Matt shakes his head. "Not yet, Chief."

"Let me know as soon as they pull in," he insists. His glance is pointed and Casey reads exactly what he means. He's worried. He thinks Brett and Foster have been gone too long, but he won't voice that fear out loud in front of Sylvie's parents. The placating smile is back on his face as he turns from Casey to Martha and Samuel. "Mr. and Mrs. Brett, why don't you step into my office? We'll have a coffee and talk about your daughter. How does that sound?"

"Only like my absolute favorite pastime," Martha says brightly as she abandons Matt in favor of Boden.

While they make their way to his office, Boden pulls Casey aside.

"Find out where they are and if there's a problem, take care of it. Discreetly. I don't want to worry anyone," Boden orders in a hushed tone.

"I'm on it, Chief. Right away," Matt agrees. Boden's urgency is amplifying his own worries from a few minutes ago. Hadn't he been thinking they'd been gone an usually long time? He should have gone with his gut and looked into it then instead of dismissing it as his own impatience.

His first stop is the radio, and when that doesn't turn up anything he gets in touch with Control. They track Ambo 61 to a block from Lakeshore, where they've been radio silent for at least half an hour. Half an hour of silence could be the difference between life and death so now he's officially on the warpath.

He grabs a radio to take with him, strolls purposefully into the common room, and shouts, "Truck 81, we're going for a ride. Let's go."

He motions Severide over as his people pile in the truck. "Brett and Foster are MIA. Let the Chief know we're checking up on them, but do it quietly. Brett's parents are with him."

Severide winces. "Her parents? Christ, talk about timing. Any chatter on the radio I can let Boden in on?"

"No," he says with a nervous sigh. "Not a single thing from Foster or Brett on any channel."

Severide's face displays the worry Casey feels but he nods and doesn't add anything else. "Alright, keep us posted. Let me know if you need Squad."

"Yeah," he says brusquely as Kidd starts the Truck and he climbs inside.

"Where are we headed, Captain?" She asks just as his radio crackles to life.

"This is Ambo 61, we've got a juvenile and a paramedic trapped. Requesting immediate assistance." That's Foster's voice. Not Brett's.

The bells ring out across the house. Calling out the location Control had tracked 61 to and ordering Truck and Squad to the scene.

"There," he says, pointing to his radio as he finally answers Kidd. "We're headed there and step on it."

Foster is leaning nearly halfway down a manhole when they arrive, tossing supplies into its depths. She lifts her head at the sound of the sirens, relief radiating off of her. She stands and backs away from the hole as Casey approaches.

"We heard a kid and then saw the manhole cover had been removed. Sylvie got halfway down and one of the foot holds broke off. Then my damn radio fritzed and I didn't want to leave her to use the radio in the Ambo until I made sure she was okay," Foster explains in a rush.

"And is she?" He asks, irritably. What the hell were they thinking? Why didn't they call for backup first?

"She says she just twisted her ankle and hit her head, but I can't exactly see very well to confirm that and, you know Brett, she's more worried about the kid. From what she can tell so far, it looks like the boy fell pretty far. He's barely breathing. She didn't think she had time to wait for Truck or Squad to assess him or else she would have," Foster elaborates, sensing Casey's frustration.

He looks to Severide for an opinion, who overheard everything Foster relayed.

"We can probably lift them both up with webbing," he states before turning to Foster. "Did she get a C-collar on him?"

Foster nods. "Yeah, I tossed down the things she needed."

Casey takes several deep breaths to tame his worry. Sylvie is a damn good paramedic, he reminds himself. If she thought it was necessary to go down there then it was. This kid has to be in bad shape. He hustles to the manhole and leans over the edge. Sylvie's flashlight gives off just enough light to see her face and little else.

"Brett?" He calls.

"Casey! We have to get him out of here. He can't be any older than ten. I've slowed the bleeding on his leg and put a C-collar on him to stabilize his neck, but I'm almost certain he's bleeding internally somewhere. He needs to get to Lakeshore ASAP." Her voice sounds crisp and clinical, like she's not a bit scared for herself.

"We're on it. We're gonna lower down some webbing for you to wrap around him, okay?"

She nods and the way it moves the light illuminates a nasty cut across her forehead.

"What about you?" He asks with a thick swallow. "You alright?"

"It's just my ankle and my head. I'm fine. Focus on him."

He gets the distinct impression she's underplaying it, but he doesn't have time to squabble over it now.

Boden's buggy screeches to a stop behind Truck 81 just as they're sending down the webbing for the boy. Sylvie's almost got him secured when a mid-80s model pickup parks across the street and The Bretts step out. So much for not worrying her parents, Casey thinks.

"Okay, go," Sylvie yells up at them. "Slowly! We don't want to exacerbate his injuries! Foster, do you have a backboard ready?"

"On standby!" Foster replies.

"When you've got him up, get him to Lakeshore," Sylvie instructs as she tries to guide the boy's progress and keep him steady. "Don't wait on me."

"Are you serious, Brett-"

She doesn't even let Foster finish her sentence. Her tone is clipped and firm. She's not fucking around. "He has internal injuries and we have no idea how long he was down here before we stumbled across him. Get him to Lakeshore, Foster. Immediately."

Is it wrong of Casey to find Brett's authoritative demeanor extremely sexy given their current predicament? It probably is, yeah? What is wrong with him? He's both worried out of his mind and turned on all at once. How the hell is that possible?

Once the kid is on a backboard, Matt points between Kidd and the Ambo. "Go with Foster. Cover for Brett."

He trusts Sylvie's instincts on this. If she thinks the boy can't wait then he can't wait. Casey's not taking any chances.

"Copy, Captain," Kidd replies, helping Foster and the rest of Truck carry the backboard to the gurney.

Severide calls out instructions to Brett on the best way to wrap the webbing around herself, just as Matt helped her figure out the best way to support the kid. It takes a little longer than he'd like and Matt wants to crawl out of his skin every time he hears her wince in pain, but finally she's got it.

"All clear," she yells. "Pull me up."

When she's close enough he reels her in, setting her feet gently on the ground, and finally gets a good look at the state of her.

"Jesus, Brett," he curses as he takes the long gash above her brow. "We're gonna have words about this later. You and me."

The panic in his chest is soothed a second later when she lets out a hoarse laugh and nods. "I wouldn't expect anything less." Her expression turns solemn as she meets his eyes with an earnest gaze. "But you have to trust me, Casey. He would have died at least ten minutes ago if I hadn't gone in after him."

He helps her over to the extra Ambo they called in for backup. Her ankle is a little swollen and only needs to be elevated and iced. There's no signs of a concussion and the gash on her head isn't as deep as it looks. Basically, she got lucky. She opts not to be taken to Lakeshore. It's a decision he protests, not that it does him any good, and then she hugs him tightly as the rig drives away from them.

"Thank you, Matt," she tells him as she places a lingering kiss on his cheek.

"For what?" He asks with a furrowed brow.

"For letting me do my job first and worrying about me second," she tells him with a muted chuckle.

He shakes his head, feeling an urgent but mysterious need to make her understand. "No, let me stop you right there. That is not what happened. I'm a man who can multitask so I managed to do both at once. I will always manage to do both."

"Noted," she says with a soft smile.

"Do you want a ride back to 51 in the truck?" He asks, not quite ready to take his eyes off of her just yet.

"Normally, I'd take you up on that," she says with a wince. "But…" she pauses to point at her parents, who are now approaching them with stricken faces. "I should probably get a ride back with them and try to head off any lasting emotional trauma."

"Right," he replies, realizing she's absolutely right. "Bring them inside when you get back. The rest of us can probably help with that."

Brett and her parents linger behind them by about 15 minutes and, when they all arrive at the Firehouse, it turns out Matt was right. The rest of 51 can and does help. Herrmann and Mouch are the most helpful with Mr. and Mrs. Brett's shock. They stay and talk it out with Brett and her 51 family until the fear is hidden behind affection and humor.

It's getting extremely late and her parents still have to check in to their hotel. Sylvie is saying goodnight to her mother when Samuel Brett approaches him. He smirks at Matt and looks like he holds some kind of high valued secret.

Mr. Brett steps closer until he's standing shoulder to shoulder with Casey and then leans in to speak in a low voice only the two of them can hear. "You're in love with her. In case you didn't already know it, son."

Matt freezes from head to toe and slowly turns to face Sylvie's father. "What?"

He chuckles and pats him on the back. "I've been watching you all day. The way you talk about Sylvie. React to her. The way you worry over her and watch out for her. It all means one thing. You love her."

"I-I'll admit I care about her but I'm just now figuring that out, sir. I don't know if you can call it-I haven't even told her or done anything more than be her friend so how can I-" He stops stammering through a pathetic response and actually thinks about Sylvie's father's words.

His eyes widen and his mouth drops open. He's sure he looks like a fish with a hook stuck in his mouth or a deer caught in someone's headlights. He's been called out. Someone else read his feelings clearly before he could and that someone else...is the father of the woman, he now admits, he's head over ass in love with. How did this creep up on him so slowly? And what the fuck is he supposed to do about it?

"You're not gonna tell her, are you?" He asks worriedly.

Samuel Brett laughs and shakes his head. "No, I'm not. But you're lucky I'm the one who spotted it and not my wife. She'd be yelling it all over this Firehouse by now. Whatever happens now is between the two of you, but I will tell you one thing - and you didn't hear it from me - I have loved that girl almost her entire life and have never heard her talk about anyone the way she talks about you." He offers Matt a sympathetic smile and shakes his hand one last time. "It was nice to finally meet you, Captain Casey, and I hope it's not the last time I see you. You're a good man. Hopefully, you deserve her."

Casey considers Samuel Brett wanting to keep him around to be high praise, and as for that last sentence. Well...

"I don't know if I deserve her, Mr. Brett. But I'm damn sure gonna try."