Chapter One

Demo day at the new house was basically a House 51 party, about a week after Matt closed on it. Everyone pitched in, and they had the place stripped really bare by 5 o'clock that night. It was February, and miserably cold outside, but at least there was no snow or ice. The dumpster Matt had hired was full, and ready to be taken away the next day. Matt bought pizza and had it delivered to Molly's, where he also bought the first round of beers. Everyone was sweaty, dirty, and tired, but also in great spirits.

Now, she and Matt could start really deciding what they wanted to do with the house. She was pretty sure they'd do the interior stuff all first, then work on the outside stuff. Except the windows. Matt wanted to get those replaced and in some cases moved before they did much inside to the first and second floors. A couple days after demo, he laid out plans on the table at the loft, so they could plan what they wanted to do.

"I was thinking we'd do the ground floor apartment first."
"But that's the guest space." Sylvie wrinkled her nose. It didn't make sense to her to start with the space they'd use the least. Matt shrugged.

"If I finish that up, I could move in there, work upstairs."
"Hey, man, I told you – no rush." Kelly walked behind, heading for the sofa to watch the hockey match.

"I know, but it's also the part I can work on while the windows are being reconfigured upstairs."
"You're not doing that work yourself?"
"Faster to hire a crew." Matt shook his head. "And February is the driest month in Chicago, so I want to get on that now. It's cold as hell, but since we're not living in the place, I figure better to take advantage of the dry weather if we're opening exterior walls."

"That makes sense." Sylvie nodded along.

"If we want to move walls, I'll need to get an engineer to sign off on the plans, so that's our first decision. Most of the stuff I can do myself, but substantial floor-plan changes, and the decks on the back, those are going to require an engineer's approval to get city permits. Plumbing, HVAC, and wiring all need inspections, too, but I can schedule those later – just deal with the basement stuff first."

"This is a huge project, Matt. Are you sure you can afford to do all this?" Sylvie asked, and he shot her an aggravated look. "What? It's a legitimate question."
"I told you to let me worry about the money. So let me worry about the money."
"Well, I don't like that rule. If it's our project, then it should be our worry about the money."
"I don't think you can afford a fifty-percent buy-in." Matt pointed out a little sharply.

"No, I can't, but I don't want you to think you have to…try to do too much." She tried to soften her words, and her tone, because she could see he was getting offended. "Matt, you're a contractor. You're going to be working on this house every winter for the next however many years you live there. You're going to be constantly finding projects. I know you. We don't have to do everything right now. And I'm going to worry about money because I don't want you working a bunch of over-time to spend more on this house – I'd rather do the projects a bit piecemeal and have you home with me. Okay?"
"Sylvie, I appreciate that." He softened as well. He leaned over to kiss her gently. "I'm just saying, don't worry about it."
"I don't like you just saying it's your job to worry about money. I don't want you to 'take care of me' like that." She had visions of being told he wanted her to stay home or something, not work once they had kids, which maybe she'd decide that for herself once they had kids, if they had kids, she was sort of getting ahead of things there, but she didn't want to be dictated to or told she didn't 'need' to work as if she only worked for the money or as a hobby for lack of anything 'better' to do, or like it was some slight on his manhood that she worked.

"I had good equity in the condo, because of the place I had before that. So I had a pretty big down payment." Matt paused. "I promise, I will tell you when we hit the budget, okay?"
"You'll seriously tell me if we start dreaming too big?"
"I will seriously tell you. Just remember that we'll take longer to do this, because I'll be doing a lot of the work – but that means less labor costs, too. And no contractor fees."

"Fine, I trust you." She gave in, mostly graciously. She looked at the plans he had laid out. She didn't see any real need to change the layout of the home. It was pretty open on the ground floor for a late Victorian house, and she didn't want to give up any bedrooms upstairs, even if they were smallish. "I think the only walls are the ones blocking the stairs to the ground floor, we wanted to take those out, right?"
"Yeah, but we don't need an engineer to sign off on that – we're just taking out some drywall basically. You don't want to change anything else?"
"No, I like the layout." She shook her head.

"Okay. Well, let's decide big stuff first then. You like the idea of doing the ground floor first?"
"It makes sense." She nodded.

"Great. So now, we need to pick the windows we want, and start on things like flooring and cabinets for the ground floor." Matt smiled at her. "Usually, this is where the guy I'm talking to turns it over to the woman in his life."
"Nuh-uh. We are making these decisions together. I may be the fixer-upper guru, but it's your house, Matt."

They spent a good two hours that night talking about the windows they wanted, and what sort of deck they wanted on the back. Matt really hated the deck off the master, with stairs down to the lower levels, which he said blocked light to the first floor and was unnecessary. She pointed out fire egress, but he'd just shot her a dirty look. She wasn't really going to fight him on it. She thought the three-story patio/deck dominated the back of the home too. He sketched out their ideas, and they narrowed it down to what they wanted to talk through with the engineer. They also talked plumbing changes, which really shouldn't have been sexy, but she ended up in Matt's lap as they looked at bathroom options which was inherently distracting. Plus, there was something incredibly sexy about Matt in contractor mode. Was it early in their relationship to be renovating a house together? Absolutely. They'd been dating for four months. They weren't engaged. He hadn't asked her to move in with him. But here he was building, or rebuilding anyway, a home and she had a distinct feeling (backed up by the looks from pretty much everyone at 51, and especially tonight from Kelly and Stella) that it was for them. Did she care that they'd only been dating four months? Not at all. And the longer she sat in his lap, the more she got distracted by the heat and the smell and the Matt-Casey of him. She wiggled a little, so she could whisper in his ear.

"Why don't we call it a night?"
"It's nine o'clock." Matt seemed confused for a second. She wiggled again, a little more obviously this time. She took his hand, removed the pencil from his grip, and moved it to her stomach. She didn't want to be too blatant, not with Stella and Kelly on the sofa, watching the Blackhawks. Luckily, Matt was a pretty clever man. He was not, however, a very subtle man.

"Sev, you mind if I leave this stuff spread out?" He called without even turning around.

"Nah, man, we're good." Kelly replied, though there was a definite hint of laughter in his voice. She was mostly over the shyness about Kelly and Stella knowing what they were doing. Everyone knew they were having sex, in general, and it was a little weird to have friends know you were having sex right now, but she wasn't uncomfortable enough with it to not have sex with Matt. If he was in the mood, which he'd rarely been since that awful email, she was not about to be shy about his roommates being home.

She managed to keep her hands to herself until they were in Matt's bedroom. Then she kissed him, hard and fast and deep, because she could and she wanted it, she wanted him. She wanted to get lost in him, the strength and solidness and firmness and just the masculinity of him, it all turned her on incredibly, right now. She pulled at his shirt, feeling desperate to get at bare skin. Together, they stripped each other quickly, and dropped onto his bed. She loved the feel of him over her, something about the size differential between them made her insanely hot, that sense that if he wanted to, he could take her, that he could control her, it felt sexy and amazing, but safe, not at all dangerous. She loved the way he could hold her down, make her submit to him, in the most delicious ways, like now with her arms above her head and his mouth on her tits, and his body pinning her down so all she could really do is writhe a bit underneath his attentions, that and let him tease and please her. He pulled back after a few minutes.

"Can I?" He always asked, even months after she'd given him his 'birthday present'. She nodded, and he dropped back down to run his mouth so slowly from her tits to her pussy. He released her hands as he moved down, but she left them over her head, not wanting to move and disrupt even the slightly bit of the feeling just yet. Everything he did to her always felt so good. She was mostly over her aversion to having his mouth down there, because he so clearly did not think it was awful or tasted weird or smelled bad, and once she let herself go, it felt fantastic. She tugged on his hair with her left hand though, and he looked up at her with a nod.

"I know, same rules."
"Thank you." She knew he was a little disappointed that she still said surface-level only but the idea of his tongue inside her just weirded her out.
"Don't thank me yet." He grinned, and dove into his task. Either the men she'd been with before had really sucked at this, or Matt was magical, because that thing, whatever it was, that he did with his tongue and her clit and the sucking and the teeth and the everything, it sent her skyward so quickly. It might be embarrassing, how quickly she came, except that he took great pride in it, and his ability to make her keep coming multiple times. After the second orgasm, though, she tugged at his hair again. She didn't want him to wear her out like this, she had other plans.

"Fuck me, Matt. I want you inside me."
"Grab a condom." He directed her with a smile as he slid back up her body. She shook her head, and kissed him. She concentrated for what felt like a long time just on kissing him, lips and teeth and tongues and hands roving freely over each other's bodies. Her right hand eventually made it to his dick, tugging at the solid thickness of him several times. He pulled back, arching into her touch. Every stroke, she let her thumb run long the bottom, rubbing a little more forcefully at the little bit of flesh where his foreskin was connected to the head of his dick. She swore it was the single most sensitive spot on his body. It always made him arch like that, and curse under his breath in the best ways. She leaned up to him, kissing along his jaw until she got to his ear.
"No condom."
"Syl-"
"Birth control, Matt." She assured him. "I'm on it, it's had plenty of time to be at full effect, and I want to feel you fuck me, just you, no condom."

"You sure?"
"We're both clean. I'm sure." She nodded with a smile. "Just you and me, nothing between us."
"Fuck me." He groaned, but then he slid two fingers up in her, soon a third, rubbing along the front of her pussy that way that made her so wet, but opened her up for him, and then a fourth finger, and his mouth was all over her, from her tits to her neck, to her mouth where they battled for dominance, and then back to her tits, and when his thumb hit her clit as well she exploded into a third orgasm for the night. She had never thought she came particularly easily, but he must've gotten a cheat code somewhere, because she sure as fuck did with Matt.

"Please, Matt. Be in me. Please. Inside me." She managed almost coherent English. His fingers eased her down from the wave just a little, then she felt him line up and start to push home. She couldn't help the tiny flinch at the twinge. No matter how much he brought her off, it always took her body a little bit, just a moment, to adjust to the size of him as he pushed deeper into her. He felt hotter, smoother, and somehow just a little bit bigger without the condom, which made no sense but she didn't care because the feeling mattered not the sense. He was inside her, just him, no barrier, and just the emotions and thoughts tied up with that had her flying headlong towards another orgasm. She moved against him, impatient for that feeling, but he grabbed her hips firmly.

"Shit, Sylvie, give me a minute."
"Fuck me, Matt. Please, fuck me."
"I'm gonna come too quick if you don't…you're so tight, so hot and wet and fuck, it feels so fucking good, Sylvie. Need a minute."
"I'm so close again, I don't care, just fuck me." He obliged after a moment, his strokes angled perfectly, but not too hard or even that fast, at least, not tonight, and she shifted the slightest bit, and he was hitting that spot dead on, and a few seconds later she flew apart. Once she could manage any sort of conscious bodily action, she forced her eyes open as he followed her over that cliff. She could feel his cock jerking a little inside her. He kept moving, slowly, gently, for a few minutes, easing them both down from their highs. Eventually, he pulled out, and settled into the bed next to her.

"That was…a pleasant surprise." He managed, slightly out of breath.

"No distance between us, right?" She replied. "And you feel even better without a condom, which just…I didn't even know there was a better."
"You, Sylvie Brett, are dangerously good for my ego."
"It's well-earned." She rolled to kiss him gently. "I need to go clean up a little. Then sleep, seems like we've got a long day tomorrow."

Chapter Two

Matt was able to get work started on the house quickly. The window openings were moved, which included replacing bricks, and all the new windows were in place in just a few days. The modern awning over the front door was also removed. The clearly modern front fencing looked kind of out of place now, with the new design of the exterior making the house look its age again. She was glad Matt had already said he wanted to change the fencing. That would come later, though. She'd always liked the renovation shows, but now she was getting to live one out and there were a lot of decisions to make, really. She just felt bad that she was picking up overtime shifts so Matt was doing a lot of the work by himself. She could only be so helpful anyway, but at least she could be there with him, if she wasn't covering for what seemed like half the paramedics in Chicago ending up sick this flu season. At least work had been quiet, and there had been no major drama, nothing even about his case against former-Chief Gayan and her husband (at least, not that he'd told her about, but if it was major, he'd tell her). Cruz's wedding was approaching and that was all the 'drama' they needed for a while.

She hadn't yet told her parents that Matt had bought a house, or that they were renovating it together. Her parents were still not over the fake-Facebook incident, and Sylvie hadn't told them about the email. She quietly made it clear she was still dating Matt, of course, but if they needed more time to adjust, well, she didn't have much choice but to give it to them. Besides, they were so busy in Chicago, there wasn't much time to worry about things she couldn't really change, and Mom and Dad wouldn't need to talk to Matt directly for a while. They wouldn't visit Chicago until next month for Sylvie's birthday. In mid-February, Matt got a new guy on truck, not a candidate but he was new to a truck, and so he had a lot to learn about a truckie's duties at a fire scene. Matt seemed to like Gallo well enough, certainly he was enthusiastic enough, and he'd hit it off with Ritter, which was great. It just meant Matt was planning more drills again – he'd had his crew like a well-oiled machine but now it was one that had moving parts added in, so he was reworking his formula. That meant little downtime at work for February, so all the renovation decisions had to be made outside of shift, plus all the work he was doing and meeting with electricians and plumbers and stuff. They'd had a very nice date on Valentine's Day (and great sex after, of course) but she missed him. She'd agreed to meet him at Molly's, once she got off a half-shift of overtime and he finished up working on the house.

"Hey, where's Casey?" Herrmann asked as he brought her a glass of wine.

"Finishing up at the house for the day."
"Yeah? How's that coming?"
"I haven't seen it for a few days, but it's great so far. He finished the flooring downstairs last week, has the cabinets in, I think he did the countertops today and tiled the shower."
"Sounds like it's gonna be livable soon."
"Just the downstairs." Sylvie laughed. "He has big plans for the upstairs, but the guest suite downstairs is just about ready for my decorating ideas."
"Yeah? He letting you pick everything?"
"Pretty much. He makes the decisions on things like heating – he put in this radiant floor heating that is going to be amazing in a basement in the winter – and the windows, the new doors, but decorating is my thing."
"You two gonna be moving in together when its done?" Herrmann asked. Subtlety was never his strongest suit either. Sylvie smiled gently at him.
"He hasn't asked me yet." She admitted. "But I'd say 'yes' if he did. You know something?"
"Nope. Just thinking, it's good seeing you both so happy. And I ain't gonna lie, you both deserve it, you know?"

"Well, thank you." She toasted him with her wine.

"And now, I think your date is here – hey, Captain, you want a beer?"
"Yeah, thanks Herrmann." Matt came to a stop next to her, and she tilted her head up to accept a short kiss from him.

"Everything okay at the house?" She asked. He looked tired.

"Yeah, got a lot done. You need to start picking out furniture for the downstairs."
"Okay, we'll talk budget tomorrow and I'll get some stuff together, we can pick it out together."

She was grateful that February had been a quiet month. They had enough hangover drama from January, they didn't need anything new. Just nice typical calls, nothing strange or suspicious or even all that difficult. No one got hurt, beyond the usual small strains or sprains. Mouch and Otis, especially, were stepping up to train Gallo and help bring him along. Matt had in his typical low-key Matt way been really proud of Mouch mentoring Gallo, and Ritter for that matter. Matt had been pleased and proud of Kidd's increasing involvement with training schemes, and her trying to set up recruitment of more female firefighters. He seemed really happy to be back at 51. Everyone did their best to make 51 feel as normal as possible. Sylvie (and probably a lot of the others) tried not to notice, or at least not to make too big a deal out of some of Matt's newer quirks. He showered at the house, no problem, there was nothing like that he seemed nervous about, but more just that he was…he'd always been private, but now he was almost distant from everyone at times, sometimes he was in the common room joking and watching the game, whatever, just like he'd always been in the breaks between his paperwork as Captain, and other times it was like he just couldn't stand to be around people. His relationship with Chief was awkward. He'd practically run away from Donna when she stopped by the house. He barely managed a hello and eye contact with Cindy, let alone the hug it was clear she had expected when she stopped by 51. He'd seemed okay the first couple weeks, but he wasn't getting better, he was getting worse. Matt was comfortable with her, at least. He was alright with Kelly, and only a little distant with Stella (who he knew for a fact had never even seen the pictures), so home wasn't awkward thank God. Even with random strangers he was different, shy in a way he'd never been – he was not the most gregarious man naturally, often letting Kelly talk for him if they were out together – and she was worried about him. They needed some quiet time, some recovery time. So March could stay quiet, too, just let them plan the house and get through normal shifts.

She spent about half her nights at the loft with Matt, and if you added in the time on-shift, she was barely spending 1 in 4 nights at her own apartment. Still, on some nights, it was a lot more convenient. She'd been out doing wedding shopping all day with Chloe and Lily and Chloe's mom, who was in town for the week. They'd come back to the apartment still working out some of what Chloe wanted and how to get it done.

"Sylvie, I need to ask you something." Chloe said it so carefully it made Sylvie immediately wary. This was not going to be an easy question, that was certain.

"Of course."
"Joe was picking his groomsmen. You know, it's just a tux rental so he wasn't in as big a hurry to ask them as I was to get dresses for you guys as bridesmaids. He wants to, but I'm not sure whether…we debated asking Matt at all." Chloe looked apologetic for bringing it up, but like it was an unpleasant necessity.

"Matt?" Chloe's mom asked, clearly not recognizing the name.

"Sylvie's boyfriend." Chloe explained. "He's also Joe's boss."
"I thought the cute one, Severide, that was Joe's boss."
"I happen to think Matt is the 'cute' one." Sylvie smiled to take any sting out of her retort.
"Severide is his lieutenant on Squad. Matt is his captain, and used to be his boss when he was on Truck." Chloe explained further for her mom. She turned to Sylvie, "I didn't want to ask him, Joe does."
"You don't want Matt as a groomsman?" That hurt. Chloe had always seemed to like Matt. She couldn't think what he might've done to be excluded. The times Matt had talked to Chloe, he'd always been his typical sweet welcoming charming self. Sylvie knew Matt really liked Chloe, thought she was great for Joe.

"Well, honey, if you don't want him involved, I think you should have veto power." Chloe's mom made it sound so simple.
"He doesn't expect to be asked, if you're worried about offending him." Sylvie tried to shake off her own hurt feelings, like she'd been rejected as much as Matt had been. She kept her tone as neutral as she could. "Matt never expects to be picked for much of anything. But if he's not welcome at all-"
"No, that's not it." Chloe rushed out, cutting her off. "I like Matt, and of course we want him at the wedding, it's not that at all. He's a great guy. I just, I noticed he's been, since that email and everything, he's really withdrawn and you guys don't come out much, even when you do, he's…nice of course, but really sort of shy. I understand it, of course, but Joe wants to ask him because he says it's important to treat Matt normally and I think if Joe asks, Matt will definitely say yes even if he'd rather not because of everything."
"What is this email and everything?" Chloe's mom was now completely confused, that was obvious.

"Someone sent an email to pretty much everyone associated with the firehouse an email with nude pictures of Matt attached." Lily explained this time. "They also set up a fake Facebook account and posted them there. Brian says he's doing as well as can be expected, but he's withdrawn and quiet – and he never liked being the center of attention to begin with from what I can tell."
"Well, if he'd not taken the pictures in the first place, these things wouldn't happen. I don't understand why anyone sends pictures of themselves like that anyway. You have to know it'll end up on the internet somewhere." Chloe's mom shook her head.
"He didn't take them." Sylvie tried to be patient. "They were taken of him, without his consent and without his knowledge, at a firehouse he was working at temporarily. He didn't know until they were put online."
"And he feels violated, I'm sure, and probably traumatized, and like people are staring at him or…god, I can only imagine, like he's wondering who has seen them that he doesn't even know about." Chloe shook her head.

"Are you asking if I think Matt is okay with being a groomsman?" Sylvie guessed.

"I don't want him to feel pressured to say yes because Joe asked and then be…I guess further traumatized by being up there and people sort of staring and taking pictures, you know? Joe wants him because he's been so important to Joe at the house for so many years. The guys all really love him."
"I know." Sylvie smiled softly. She couldn't help wishing though, "it'd be nice if Matt knew that, but I don't know if he ever will."
"So I told Joe I'd ask you – you know him as well as pretty much anyone except Kelly, and Joe says if he asks Severide he might get punched for acting like Casey can't handle anything just fine. You know Kelly Severide is secretly the president of the Matt Casey fan club."
"I guess I can give him president, they have been friends a very long time." Sylvie joked, relieved that she wasn't going to have to fight about her 'plus one' for the wedding – she had worried for a minute there that Matt was being disinvited from the wedding entirely. "I think it's okay to ask him. Just make sure the photographer knows not to surprise Matt with any picture-taking, and do it in groups – Kelly will keep Matt distracted and probably laughing most of the day. Those two together are like twelve-year-olds half the time."

"Thank you." Chloe nearly gushed. "I had to check, I just can't stand the idea of pushing him into anything, as awful as he must be feeling. I can't imagine, if that was me."

"Thankfully, it seems to have been pretty contained, but just when you do a seating chart, whatever you do, don't put Matt and Donna near each other at any point. I'm not sure he will ever be entirely over the fact that she opened the pictures accidentally." Sylvie almost chuckled at the memory of Matt literally ducking from the Chief's wife, which would be sort of funny, Matt's complete and abject terror of running into Donna Boden (who adored Matt) if it wasn't also so infuriating and just sad, that he had been put into that position.

Chapter Three

She was running late to join Matt at Molly's. It was so close to the new house that they ended up meeting there practically every day. Even if Matt had not been there working, he always wanted to do a drive-by to check on it. He hadn't lined up any construction projects that she knew about, but he still answered his phone when former clients or family members (including former family members) called him to ask him to 'take care of' something, so he didn't get to work on the house every day he wasn't on shift. Today, though, she was the one who had been at the house – taking delivery of the new furniture they'd ordered, which of course had come from four different places all of which delivered in different broad two-hour windows. Matt had spent the day at Mrs. Danvers' house, doing…well, something, he'd said, but Sylvie hadn't paid that close of attention really to what exactly he was doing. She was pretty certain he spent half his time at Mrs. Danvers' home just visiting with her. Someday, Matt had promised, he'd take her with him to meet Mrs. Danvers. She was looking forward to it. Then again, he'd also promised that at some point she'd get to meet his mother, but he wasn't in any hurry to arrange that it was clear. She hustled over to Molly's, mostly because she was ready to go home and Matt was her ride: Lily had dropped her off after some wedding planning errands early that morning. They had shift tomorrow, and Matt had to be early, which meant he'd be up by 5 am. If she was exceptionally lucky, and they left right now, they could be home by 9:00 and she could 'talk' him into…oh, who was she kidding, she wanted to jump his bones. The only problem with that was how grumpy he got if he got less than 6 hours of sleep the night before a shift. He never liked to admit he got grumpy, but he got grumpy. He didn't sleep enough on shift.

She figured most women would be surprised and worried to walk into a bar to find a group of three women gathered around her boyfriend. Well, maybe not if they were your friends, but Sylvie had never met these women before, she was sure of that – for one thing, they all looked to be about 25. Neither Otis nor Herrmann was tending bar, or at least, they weren't out front right now. Some guys from third watch were there, watching the hockey. She waved at them, but made her way directly over to Matt. It wasn't jealousy that prompted her concern. She had no worries about Matt in that regard. He was intensely loyal. That didn't mean his eyes didn't occasionally 'wander' if a woman at the bar had on a short enough skirt or low-cut blouse (he was attracted to the female form, he looked, he just didn't look twice, and he wasn't interested so Sylvie never cared if he glanced if a woman was showing it off) it just meant she knew he wasn't exactly over there flirting with those women. In fact, as she got closer, he looked distinctly uncomfortable as the women were pretty close to him, no, that one, the brunette, she was definitely touching Matt. His shoulder, but still, touching him.

"Come on, you seem like a guy who would be into some fun."
"I'm meeting my girlfriend-"

"Yeah, I'm sure you're real loyal."
"Matt, who're your friends?" Sylvie asked sharply.

"Hey, babe, you ready to go home?" Matt stood, draining the last gulp of his beer.

"Definitely." She leaned forward, stepping between two of the women, and kissed him softly.

"Whatever. You're a fucking asshole anyway." The brunette nearly spat, but at least the little pack of hyenas walked away.

"Well, I'm sure her opinion of your character is very well-founded and deeply hurtful." Sylvie rolled her eyes. Matt looked uncomfortable still. "It's fine, Matt. Someone as hot as you is going to get hit on sometimes if I leave you alone in a bar too long."
"That was just weird. I've been hit on before, but that was…oddly aggressive."
"Well, it doesn't matter now. And I would like to get home, so I can be aggressive with you."
"Really?" He smiled at that.
"Mm-hmm. I have been waiting to get you home and in bed for the last few hours." She leaned in, whispering into his ear. "I've got an itch someplace only you can scratch."

"Yeah?" He kissed her firmly, but then led her out of Molly's. By the time they were at his truck, both of them were letting their hands wander and instead of just settling her into the truck, Matt kissed her hard, his mouth moving against hers and their tongues sliding together, and everything he did felt so good, she could kiss him for hours, truly. She would definitely want his dick later, but for now, he could just keep kissing her like this. As much as she loved him fucking her, the way he kissed was amazing, like she was sexy and precious and more vital to him than oxygen. It was heady and empowering and always made her feel not just wanted but treasured. All that in just his kisses, and the way his hands felt, moving softly over her, though as the pressure of his hands changed, she could feel him getting hungrier, and she felt the same, hands burrowing under his clothes to reach warm bare skin. She wanted him.

"Take me home, Matt." She managed to speak, pulling away from his mouth only with great determination. He nodded, looked like what he really wanted to do was kiss her again, then groaned loudly, but moved around to the driver's side.

She kept her hands to herself on the drive, and so did he. It was probably the only way they were going to get home safely. In the elevator up to the apartment, she kissed him again, tired of waiting to touch him again. They got out on the seventh floor, and although they stopped kissing to walk with her in front of him, he was practically walking her down the hall, pressed against her back so closely she could feel the swell of him in his jeans. He had never given her a key (explaining it was pointless to have Kelly make another copy, he was moving out soon enough) which if it kept resulting in her being pressed so closely between the door and him as he unlocked the door while kissing her neck and ear from behind like that, she was just fine with it forever. The door opened and she just about fell through but strong hands caught her, spun her around. She was pressed against the apartment door before she could process that he'd even gotten it fully shut. She was pretty certain that his tongue was mapping new areas of her mouth and damn, he was revved up and aggressive today and fuck if it wasn't making her insanely turned on. Something about Matt's usual restraint in his life made the times he let go of restraint (usually in the bedroom) so fucking hot, and she barely managed any sort of thought, coherent or otherwise.

"Where's Kelly and Stella?" Sylvie somehow managed to ask, before he was practically gnawing on her neck, which made her knees do their damnedest to buckle.

"Out late, 'date night'." Matt told her between his attentions to her neck. She could feel his hot breath on the wet trails his mouth had left behind. He had one hand on her ass, the other on her tits, both rubbing and squeezing in ways that just about convinced her to fuck him right here.
"Want you. Bedroom." She managed to gasp out a coherent – mostly - response around his mouth as he'd left her neck to return to her mouth, but she also didn't do anything else to encourage him to delay what he seemed very intent on doing – namely getting his hands inside her clothes. He was moving fast, but she was nearly as horny as he clearly was, and a quickie sounded pretty damn good right now. Whatever got him inside her, that sounded perfect. She was walking backwards, being half carried by him, as he moved them out of the kitchen towards his bedroom

"So wet." Matt muttered into her neck as he slipped two fingers inside her. She took a deep breath quickly, knowing he would hit it a split second before he did and she distantly felt her head bang backwards into the door to his bedroom and her knees buckle and it was all just flying higher and higher until she was sure she was going to explode, and he pulled his fingers out.

"No, shit, fuck, no, Matt." She complained, because she was so damned close. He nearly threw her the rest of the way into his room, shutting the door, and pushing her towards the bed, her back pressed to his front once again.

"Need you." Matt pushed her upper body forward, so her hands instinctively caught her, leaving her basically bent over the bed, her ass against his crotch. His hands quickly undid her belt, and then he was pulling her jeans and underwear down, and it felt like a split second later he was inside her, and the stretch was sudden and sharp. She gasped, but didn't try to get away, it hurt but was also a little delicious as he thankfully didn't shove deep right away. She pretty much collapsed onto the bed, and he was pressed against her back and it was hot and sticky and fantastic as he pushed closer and harder, going deeper as her body adjusted quickly, though he was still so big, it was that thin line between wonderful and painful. They were both still mostly dressed, but she didn't care, this felt so fucking good. He pulled her by the hips back against him firmly, slamming into her hard and deep several times before he backed off slightly and she might've keened as he left her half-filled, changing the angle of her hips, then pulling her back by the arms so she was halfway stood back up, she just went where he put her, but then he started moving and the new angle had the head of his cock hitting the same spot his fingers had just played so well and two strokes after she was flying apart, semi-conscious of his arms keeping her from collapsing entirely as every nerve in her body seemed to fire at once, and by the time awareness returned she was pressed flat against the bed again with Matt pounding into her erratically just before he stiffened and groaned and she could feel him coming inside her. He panted against her neck for a few minutes, then slowly slipped from her body, rolling over. She'd managed to gather herself enough to turn over the opposite direction, left staring at the ceiling, her underwear and jeans at her ankles, but her body too blissed out to care if it was ridiculous. He undoubtedly looked just as ridiculous.

"Feel better?" She teased with a warm smile. She certainly did.

"Took the edge off." He chuckled a little. He sat up, and peeled his shirt off. She groaned theatrically. He looked over at her. "What?"
"Baby, you taking your shirt off does not help me calm down from that."

"Then close your eyes." He teased her, as he stood up and removed his pants and underwear. She realized that he'd somehow managed to remove his boots somewhere between the apartment door and here, so he could kick his pants off. He leaned over to peel off his socks, and the new view was great: his ass and his balls visible between his legs, and she didn't think there was a single unattractive angle on Matt Casey. Literally even his ass view was great. He even had cute feet. She groaned theatrically again.

"Why are you so sexy?" She asked plaintively.

"If I had to guess?" Matt turned around, leaning down to pull her upright before kissing her. He pulled away after a minute, though. "I'm not, you're just blinded by the oxytocin and dopamine."
"Mm-hmm." She hoped her facial expression was enough to tell him what she thought of that. He unbuttoned her shirt, slipping it over her shoulders. She liked where this was going. She slipped her bra off quickly, and pulled him into another kiss. His lips parted for her tongue, and she pressed as close against him as she could get. Her right hand slid from his hip to his partly softened dick. The whole thing might have come across really sexy, except she tried to take a step and tripped over her jeans, at her ankles, blocked by her shoes still being on her feet. He laughed, and she swatted his ass with her left hand.

"I was trying to be smooth and sexy."
"You are always beautiful and sexy." Matt reassured her, kissing her softly. She leaned over to take her shoes off and awkwardly untangle her lower legs from the mess of her clothing. He tidied up his own things, then swiftly moved to take hers and put them into the clothes hamper as well. He wasn't a neat freak, per se, but he really did keep things in a pretty precise order. It was endearing. And a little neurotic. She also took a moment to enjoy the fact that he was apparently comfortable with being naked in his own bedroom again. He'd been so physically shy lately, she knew why, she just was happy to see him getting back to himself. He was not hardly an exhibitionist, but in his own bedroom (and bathroom), he wasn't exactly shy either. She never thought she'd reach a time in her life when watching a man brush his teeth while naked was comforting, but here she was. She slipped into the bathroom with him, deciding to get ready for bed herself. They both made quick work of their night-time routines, though he finished before her as usual (he didn't have to take off make-up and wash his face – he literally had stupidly perfect skin, a quick rinse and he never had serious break-outs, she wondered if he'd ever had a real nasty pimple in his life, probably not, the jerk). She slid into the bed, cuddling into his side as she always did, finding 'her' spot against him. The sex was fantastic and hot and everything she could want (including affectionate and fun and loving – who knew you could laugh during hot sex, but he proved you could, and it never made her self-conscious), but this was her favorite part. She knew he loved it too – even if she wasn't staying over the night, if they had sex, he wanted her to stay and lay with him for a while. Matt Casey loved physical affection, and she had learned quickly that what the guys at work credited to a bad mood for Casey not getting laid enough (not recently, but they used to talk about it) was more accurately a result of his not getting enough affection. He got testy and even more stand-offish when he was neglected, and she didn't intend to ever neglect him. She kissed his chest fondly and reveled in the way he tightened his arm around her slightly in response. That was tired-cuddly-half-asleep-after-sex-Matt for 'I love you'. It was all she needed tonight.

Chapter Four

Matt looked a little reluctant to bring up what he was going to bring up. That always made her nervous. The fact that he had waited until she was halfway through a second glass of rose was also not a great indication of his confidence in how this conversation was going to go, but it wasn't bad enough he was waiting until she was actually drunk. So mid-level nerves.

"It's, uh…anyway, my mom called yesterday." Matt paused and took a visibly deep breath, then continued, "she's, uh, apparently she got engaged and she'd like us to go to dinner with them to celebrate. This week."
"She's getting married? That's good news. Isn't it?" She was kind of excited, weirdly like second or third hand, given she hadn't even met his mother yet.
"I guess." Matt didn't look enthused. "I've only met Randy once. I don't really know him."
"But if she's happy, we should be happy for her."
"He reminds me of my dad." Matt confessed, clearly uncomfortable with that fact.

"She did love your dad, once."
"She also shot him. Once." Matt replied. Sylvie couldn't help smiling at his very pithy retort, even if she wasn't at all certain he meant any sort of joke. Matt tried to shrug it off. "So, I was hoping you'd join me for dinner two nights from now. The restaurant is out in Homewood. It'll just be you and me – Christie already turned her down."
"She and your mom still aren't on good terms, huh?"

"They were never very close." Matt explained softly. "Dad was hard on all of us, he wanted to kick Christie out of the house when she was sixteen, almost seventeen, and she wrecked the car – and Christie was his favorite. She loved him. They were close, despite how he was."
"So you were closer to your mom?"
"In some ways." Matt nodded. "I loved my dad, he was my dad. He was also an abusive asshole, mostly to Mom. I always felt like I was in the middle. Between Christie and Mom, Dad and Mom, didn't matter. But I think it's time you meet her, at least."
"I'd be happy to go with you, and I'm happy to meet your mom." Sylvie reassured him. "She made you, Matt, I'm probably going to like her."

"She won't like you. Just to warn you." Matt tried to say it gently, and she could tell the annoyance in his voice was about his mother, it was wasn't directed at her. "She loved Gabby. She's still mad that I divorced Gabby. Or, actually, Gabby divorced me. That I let Gabby divorce me. In my mom's world, I should've gone to Puerto Rico with her, if I really loved her. It was my job to support my wife in her ambitions, help her get what she wants in life, happy wife-happy life thing. Which is rich as hell, given her taste in men."

"I didn't realize your mom knew Gabby that well."
"Christie and Mom both really liked Gabby." Matt replied. "Christie likes you, too. At least, that's what Violet says. If it's worth much, Violet likes you better."
"She does? Why? I mean, I like Violet, but we haven't spent that much time together."
"Violet says I'm happier now than I was when I was married to Gabby." Matt looked a little bashful, but he was smiling, too. "So you have the approval of most of the women in my family, anyway. Not that it matters – I'm not going anywhere, no matter what my mother thinks or wants. I just wanted you to be forewarned, forearmed, all that."

She dressed carefully for dinner with Matt's mother. She didn't want to dress too casually, like she didn't care, but she also didn't want to be over-dressed and come across like she was desperate or something. She wanted to look like she was pretty enough to date Matt, but not like she was too sexy. Not too old or too young. Everything in moderation. It was hard to hit that 'meet the mom' balance. She wondered what it would be like to meet Matt's dad. A huge part of Matt was always going to be a mystery to her – she'd never even seen a photo of his dad, didn't even know his first name, or what he'd done for a living, anything. Matt almost never spoke of his family. She knew it was probably a habit from years of his family being an embarrassing thing, subject of rumors and taunts, but she knew she told lots of stories about growing up, so even without meeting them Matt sort of had known her parents. She knew nothing about his mom except she had murdered his dad and she apparently was still hung up on Gabby, even if Matt totally wasn't. Still, since Matt clearly didn't take after his dad, he must take after his mom, so she thought she'd probably like Nancy Casey. Probably.

Nancy was not what she expected. For one thing, given Christie's and Matt's coloring, she'd expected their mom to be blonde. She was also not nearly as much of a looker – as Dad would put it – as she'd expected given, well, that her daughter was quite pretty, and her son was Matt. The eyes, though, those were Matt's blue eyes, but with a cynicism and darkness that he didn't have. Of course, he also hadn't spent fifteen years in prison, Sylvie reminded herself.

"Sylvie, this is my mother, Nancy, and her fiancé, Randy Polinowski. Mom, Randy, this is Sylvie Brett, my girlfriend."
"It's nice to meet you, Sylvie." Randy smiled at her, then stuck out a hand to Matt, who of course shook it, "good to see you again, Matthew."

"You, too, Randy – congratulations on the, uh, engagement." Matt smiled, it was a little put on Sylvie could tell, and he leaned in to hug his mother, then kiss her lightly on the cheek. "Hi, Mom."
"Matthew, you always look so handsome." Nancy's tone was a little too much, like she was trying too hard, with that compliment. Which made no sense, because Matt was handsome, very much so, there was just something off to her tone. She didn't have a lot of time to think about it, because then Nancy held out a hand to Sylvie, who took it of course.

"It's so great to finally meet you, Nancy."
"Yes, finally." Nancy shot Matt a somewhat dirty look. "You've been sleeping with my son for several months at least. I guess now you're dating him – he's actually introducing you to people, not just having you spend the nights in his bed."
"Mom." Matt looked upset already. They weren't even inside the restaurant. "You haven't been into the city since before Sylvie and I started dating, and I haven't had time to get out here. That's all."
"Let's go inside." Randy prompted, and Sylvie hoped that dinner would be less awkward than the meeting outside.

Randy was personable enough, but Sylvie could see some of the things Matt didn't like. He tended to dominant conversation, a 'one-upper' who always had to have the better story, or a worse day, or just be that little hair-breadth better than you no matter what. He was clearly a forceful personality, and some of his opinions were more old-fashioned than Matt would agree with. Of course, neither she nor Matt was going to argue in this setting, but Randy clearly expected Matt to be more 'in charge' than he was. Weirdly, though, his mother seemed determined to make sure that Matt's opinions, on any topic, were quickly squelched in favor of her own, or Randy's, or even Sylvie's. Mostly, she steamrolled over him, and Matt never stuck with any attempt to assert himself.

"We're getting married in May, Matthew, just so you know. I'd like you to be there. I won't count on your sister attending or my granddaughter." Nancy announced, after they'd finished paying the check. Well, really, after Matt had paid. Apparently since it was 'celebratory' and they were 'celebrating' Randy and Nancy, Matt was paying.

"Oh, that soon?" Sylvie asked, surprised a little. "That's great, though, spring weddings are beautiful."
"No point in waiting." Randy stated firmly. "Neither of us want another big production, we've had those weddings, the marriage didn't turn out that great, so maybe a smaller wedding will mean a different result for the marriage too."
"All I need is Randy, and my son." Nancy smiled broadly. "But I'd love for Christie to come, you'll talk to her, won't you, Matthew? I won't expect her to come, but you'll take to her, I know you will. And Violet. The only grandchild I'll ever have it seems and I barely know her."
"She's in high school." Matt pointed out. "She's busy. I'll talk to Christie, but-"
"Thank you, Matthew, I knew you'd try. You've always been such a good boy. I'll get the information to you later this month. You've always supported me, Matthew."
"How's work been, Matthew?" Randy asked, without giving Matt any chance to respond to his mother's declaration.

"Uh, you know, typical." Matt replied with a small shrug. "Nothing too bad recently, which is good."
"Are you still living with your friend, the one with the girl's name?" Nancy asked. "Not Andy, the other one." Sylvie saw Matt flinch just a little at the casual use of Andy Darden's name. Andy had been dead for seven years, surely Nancy should've remembered that at least.
"Kelly Severide. Yeah, I'm still-"
"Really? A man your age? You should've owned for years by now, Matthew." Randy stated firmly. "How do you expect to keep a girl like Sylvie around if you aren't stable enough to take care of her?"
"I'm not worried about his finances-" Sylvie started.

"Every woman worries about how much a man makes, trust me." Randy cut her off. "You say you don't, but you do. Just like that crap about 'size doesn't matter', all a lie told to comfort the losers and the guys with small dicks, but those are the guys women ditch, too."
Matt very nearly ended up wearing his mouthful of beer. Clearly the idea of his mother marrying was one thing, her boyfriend actually talking about dick size was a little too much for him. It wasn't that Matt was a prude, Sylvie actually sort of agreed that was kind of blunt for dinner with your fiancee's son. Randy hadn't actually tried to say he didn't have any such problems, but it was clearly implied. Talking about sex in any way while meeting the family of your significant other was a bad idea, Sylvie figured – tacky at best, outright offensive at worst. Randy continued,

"Women care about both of those things, Matt – you've got what you've got when it comes to dick size, but every man can sort his finances out to at least get the woman a house. Some of us are doing just fine in both."
"Actually, Matt just bought a house, we're fixing it up together," Sylvie announced because that was rude and clearly some strange sort of dig at Matt and she wasn't going to stand for that, nope, not one little bit. "And trust me, he has a million dollars worth of both house and dick."
She could not believe that just came out of her mouth. That was so inappropriate. His mother was sitting right there. Even if Randy was kind of a jerk, Nancy no doubt wanted to know absolutely nothing about her son's sex life. Matt was staring at her like her head had just spun around like she was in the Exorcist. Thankfully, Matt did manage to say something after a moment.

"I was going to tell you, uh, yeah – I bought a house. The insurance company finally settled my claim from the condo I bought when Gabby and I got engaged-"
"Gabby's the first wife, right?" Randy asked Nancy, almost quietly, probably hoping to be discrete.

"How is Gabby? Sylvie, you knew Gabby very well, didn't you? You worked with her on the ambulance."
"We were partners her last few years at 51 and in Chicago, yes."
"Wait, you're sleeping with your ex-wife's former work partner?" Randy asked, looking at Matt oddly. "That what caused the divorce?"
"No, I only started seeing Sylvie several months ago."

"You only just got divorced, Matthew." Nancy said sharply.

"Gabby left me almost two years ago." Matt corrected, starting to just sound tired. "Everything was finalized well over a year ago."
"You should've held onto her, Matthew. Gabby was so good for you. She never let you get by with anything – you know how you get, so selfish sometimes, inside your own head, refusing to talk – and she's doing such noble work. You threw it away because you didn't want children." Nancy shook her head.

"That's not what-"
"That's what you told me, you told me she left because you fought about her wanting to get pregnant and you didn't want children."
"That's not-"
"Really, Matthew, I don't know why you don't want children – you're so handsome, you have such good genes."
"Mom."
"Nancy, leave him alone. If he's not interested in being a father, at least he won't mess it up, like his father did. You know these things run in lines like that – father to son and so on."
"No, Matthew isn't very much like Greg was." Greg, Sylvie presumed, was Matt's dad's name, good to know. "He doesn't have that anger in him, that spite and that hurtful streak. Still, Sylvie, don't let him string you along like he did Gabby, or like Hallie did to him before: if he doesn't marry you in a year, dump him."

"Mom."
"I'm just saying, Matthew, any man who waits that long, he isn't decisive enough."
"I'm getting tired, and we have a long drive back into the city." Sylvie almost subtly ended the conversation, and the evening.

Matt was quiet for the first several minutes of the drive back into Chicago proper. He seemed upset, so she let him have his time to process. Pushing Matt too quickly only resulted in fighting. He needed to settle his own thoughts and decide on his own what (and if) he wanted to share with her.

"Mom wasn't entirely wrong about why Gabby left me." Matt finally spoke, his voice soft and tentative. She detected a lot of hurt in it, embarrassment, shame even. She didn't like any of that in his voice.

"Gabby mentioned you guys were trying and then it seemed like the next day she left. It seemed really sudden."
"She didn't get pregnant the first month. She went Gabby Dawson on it." Matt sighed. "The doctor said if she got pregnant, she had about a ten percent shot of a fatal hemorrhage from a burst aneurysm, a side effect or complication, whatever, of the ectopic pregnancy."
"Gabby made a decision without asking you." Sylvie surmised, both knowing Dawson but also knowing from Matt's semi-spoken comments about what had gone wrong between him and Gabby.

"I wanted to consider adoption. After Louie, she said no way. She got angry that I'd even looked into it without her. I told her I couldn't risk losing her. She said it was her risk, not mine. That basically it was none of my business if she got pregnant, she couldn't become 'dependent' on me, or my feelings, or what I wanted." Sylvie wondered if the fact that he was not having to face her, had the perfect excuse to not look at her right now, was helping him talk about this. Even from just his profile and the tone of his voice and everything in his body language, she knew he'd been terribly hurt by what he was saying – but of course, she'd known he'd been deeply wounded by Gabby's departure. "I told her we either had a kid together, or we didn't have one together. We couldn't do it halfway."
"That's when she left?
"Walked out the door, after ripping into me for getting information about adoption without telling her, went straight to Hatcher and asked about going to Puerto Rico, without saying a word about it to me until she'd already decided and signed up."
"That sounds, actually, typically hypocritical for Gabby. I loved her, she was kick-ass in a lot of ways," Sylvie had to admit that, "but she sometimes kicked my ass, and definitely yours, in the pursuit of what she wanted, too."
"I didn't want you to think I don't want kids. I'm not saying right now, no pressure, but I'm definitely open to having them, if you are."
"I already knew you want kids. Matt, that's the worst kept 'secret' in 51. Everyone knows."
"I'm not worried about my genes or…family is more than blood and DNA. Gabby was scared we'd lose another kid, like we did Louie. I didn't even mention surrogacy, didn't get that far. But the times I had someone to come home to, a family that I lived with, those were the best times."
"You'll have that, Matt, someday. Not in the next forty weeks, don't worry. At least not if…well, it's a good thing neither of us are in the mood for sex tonight, let's leave it at that."

"Do you…why don't we just stay at your place tonight? It's closer, and I'm tired. I'd also like the company tonight, if you don't mind."
"Oh, it's such a problem." Sylvie rolled her eyes. "I've made it so obvious I hate sleeping with you."
"I just don't want to make any issues with Cruz or Otis. I am their boss."
"They can get over it. I think Otis is over it, and Cruz never really had a problem."

Chapter Five

"Sylvie, can I see you in my quarters for a few minutes?" Of course she nodded and stood up, following Matt towards his quarters but she also caught the concerned looks from everyone else on second shift. It wasn't that Matt called her 'Sylvie' on shift, he did that a lot just like he'd often (at least in the house) called Dawson 'Gabby' while on shift, it was the way he'd asked. Normally when he was all 'Captain Casey' everything was confident and collected, but this had sounded tentative, worried, maybe even scared. It was very un-Captain-Casey. Given that he'd been in an hour-long closed-door meeting in the Chief's office, no one thought that was good.

"Matt, what's wrong?"
"You remember what I said about going out for a drink with Ritter and Eric a couple nights ago?"
"Did you pick up some torrid gay affair?" She teased, but seeing his face she realized she should not have done so. He had gone out of a desire to show solidarity with Ritter, which she liked, that Matt was not afraid to go to a gay bar to meet one of his guys for a drink just because it was a 'gay' bar – Ritter had invited him, and he went (so had Herrmann). "Matt, you went for one drink. You were home by 9 pm. What happened?"
"This, uh, one of the guys at the bar was hitting on me, kind of aggressively. Not as aggressively as some women have hit on me, nothing offensive, but he was…he came on strong. And he acted like I was pretending to be straight."
"You didn't say anything when you got home."
"About what? Some gay guy hitting on me? Not the sort of thing you tell your girlfriend. Besides, if Severide overheard, I'd never hear the end of it. He called me 'pretty boy' for the first five years I knew him – Kelly Severide acted like I was the pretty one. I should've punched him for it. He finally stopped, about the time he said I looked like I actually had to shave each morning."

"So, why are you telling me now? I'm not going to be threatened or jealous – I have a pretty good understanding I think of your interest level in sleeping with a guy."
"I have no problem with Ritter, or gay guys, whatever, but I…do not understand why anyone finds men attractive." Matt wrinkled his nose sort of adorably. "I'm glad you do, don't get me wrong, but men are kind of ugly."
"I will politely but firmly disagree with you on that." Sylvie leaned forward to kiss his cheek softly. "I think you're very nice to look at."
"This guy is a friend of Eric's. I guess Eric asked him later why he was a jerk to me, that I was Ritter's boss and I'd been really supportive, Ritter didn't need this guy – Jake – didn't need Jake making it awkward or something. Jake told them of course I was 'supportive' because apparently, I'm secretly gay and using websites to hook up with gay men for sex. He pulled up some of the websites."
"Are you kidding me?" She knew where he was going with this. "Those pictures, again? I thought we were done with that?"
"It's the internet, Sylvie. It's never going to be done, it's never going to be gone." Matt looked so damned tired and defeated now. "I wanted you to know, before CPD or the city investigator, or IAD comes around asking about this. Ritter told me, I reported it up the chain, and to the police. It's all part of the case, I had to tell them. But yeah, now Ritter and Eric have seen pictures of me naked. Half of them are photoshopped to make them more explicit, I guess."

"Can't the police take the photos down or something? They're nonconsensual."
"They're contacting the websites to take down the profiles but it's the internet. Once it's out there, it's permanent. Ritter said they're on a bunch of hook-up apps, dating apps, whole profiles set up like I'm looking for guys. Which explains all the stupid phone calls I've been getting."
"Wait, what phone calls?"
"I thought it was a wrong number thing, but I keep getting calls from guys talking about the posts I made or meets I said I wanted. A couple the last few days have gotten pretty graphic. I figured some guy typed his number wrong. Matt isn't exactly an unusual name, weird coincidence but it never occurred to me that…my pictures, naked pictures of me, or with my face anyway, or most of my body but some parts, uh, inflated or changed a bit, are up there on these websites, with stuff about how I want…yeah, sex basically."
"Wait, your real name and number is up there?"
"Real name, real job, real number, real everything apparently. I got a call today from a guy who wanted to fuck me in my bunker gear." Matt looked humiliated and embarrassed and just wrecked. "I checked that voicemail while I was finishing up a call, the car wreck earlier today. I was in my bunker gear. I've never felt as gross, no matter how much soot and debris I've crawled through. I had to tell the investigators from IAD about it a few minutes ago."
"Oh my god, Matt. I don't…I'm so sorry." She moved over to him, having sat on his bunk several moments ago while he sat at his desk. She wanted, needed, to be close to him right now. She moved his arms so she could sit across his lap and hug him sort of sideways.

"It just keeps getting worse." Matt admitted after a moment of silence. "Ritter had to explain to Eric, the whole mess, and apparently, Jake showed them the profiles, I mean…those pictures were on that profile. Ritter works for me. I can't…how do I expect anyone to respect me after this? With these profiles up, like I'm trolling for gay hook-ups, or some of them were groups and 'niche interests' which I think was Ritter's polite candidate way of saying that they're fetishes."

"Everyone here knows that's not you, Matt. Of course they still respect you. None of this matters to them, to us."
"It matters to me." Matt replied, sounding so lost it broke her heart a little. "I've tried my whole life to get away from the taint of my mom and my dad, to not just be known as the guy whose mom murdered his dad, to build a reputation, and now there's this stuff, it's out there, and it's my name, Sylvie. Once you lose your name, you lose everything."

"You won't lose me. Or Kelly. Or anyone here."
"There's photos of me, I was…shit, Sylvie, she took photos when I was in that hospital bed. So now there's photos of me, naked, in a bed, out on the internet, put up there like I want strangers to call me for random sex. In the shower. Some of them are what the investigators called deepfakes, where the real photos were taken and manipulated and photoshopped onto other bodies doing…and it looks like me. Parts of it is me. It feels like everywhere I go, someone will have seen this, will know. I can't figure out what I did to deserve this-"
"You didn't do anything, Matt. Baby, no one could ever deserve this, but you especially. You've spent your entire adult life just trying to help people."
"Thank God I'm not still in politics. I thought billboards about my mom and fliers about working at Stilettoes was bad – imagine these blown up onto billboards." Matt shook his head. "I won't blame you if you don't want to be involved with me right now-"
"Matt Casey." She clapped her hand across his mouth, not letting him get an inch, not even a millimeter, further down that path. "I love you. I am not leaving you because someone hurt you. I am not leaving you at all, for any reason. I know you can't see it right now, but I am choosing to have faith, that this will work out okay, that the profiles will be taken down, and it will all be okay. Even if it never entirely goes away, I am still going to be right here, Team Matt Casey, 100%. Okay?"
"I love you, so much." He looked up at her, meeting her eyes fully. "I'm sorry I brought this mess into your life."
"You didn't. You have brought only good things into my life."

"To suit your hopeful mood, there was one piece of good news."
"Oh, what's that?"
"Gayan only had access to my official personnel file. Phone number, email, hell even what high school I graduated from, where I work out of, but it still had my old address. At least no one can just 'drop by' as some of the messages say they will."
"They posted your home address?"
"Yeah, but she didn't know about the fire." Matt took a deep breath. "Sylvie, this isn't at all the way I wanted to ask you about this, and it's unromantic as hell, and I hate it, but I was going to ask anyway, I swear, I just wanted to find a better time and place and way to do it."
"Matt, just ask."
"I want to put the new house in your name, well both our names. I want you to be one of the members of the property trust I'm putting it in. That way, after this, it's not listed by my name at all. We can get a court order, because of the criminal case, to suppress the publication of my name with the trust at all. It'll be ours, and just to be very clear, I want you to move in with me in our house."
"Okay, you're right, not the most romantic setting, but yes, of course, Matt, of course I want to…I want to be your partner in this, and I want to live with you." She kissed him as if to seal the deal. "I want to wake up to you every morning and fall asleep with you every night. If I had my way, I'd share that bunk with you every night on shift and not just because Mouch snores. That's my spot right next to you, and I'm very possessive of it."
"I'm sorry I asked like this. I really had planned to do it at your birthday dinner, nicely, with like…some sort of romantic attempt at least."

"Matt, all that matters to me is that we're together and we're happy. And that the police hopefully shut this crap down because it's hurting you. But you and me, no matter what, we're a team now. Not just with the house. With everything. Okay?"
"Okay." He nodded, a small smile on his face. She couldn't help it, she had to kiss him again. The kiss got deeper and she managed to not break away from it even while she shifted so she was straddling his lap. She wanted to be closer to him, to make sure he felt how much she loved him, that she wasn't going anywhere. Lips and tongues caressed one another, and she purposefully got lost in him, in being right here in this moment with him, just reveling in the feel and smell and taste of Matt, taking comfort in the solidness of him just as much as she hoped he would take comfort in the love and support and solidness she was offering. Later, she vowed to herself, she was so calling in every favor she had ever been owed by everyone in law enforcement that she knew. She was going to start with Trudy, let Trudy decide to escalate or not as needed, but surely Intelligence would find a way to make those images go away, make those profiles go away, god knew Voight and his crew had made the seemingly impossible happen before. That was later. For now, she was just going to enjoy kissing the face off her boyfriend, who had bought them a house, and who wanted to live with her in that house.

"You two could at least close the blinds." Kelly teased loudly through the door as he knocked hard on the glass. He gave them a second, just a second, then opened the door (which given yes, they'd failed to close the blinds, was pointless for privacy anyway). "Hey, man, we're getting Portillo's for dinner, you in? Usual?"
"Have I ever not been in for Portillo's?" Matt asked, a little breathless from the kissing.

"You two looked like you might be busy through dinner." Kelly shrugged.

"I actually need to go restock the rig." Sylvie said, standing up from his lap. Kelly laughed, and pointedly turned around. Matt threw a pen at the back of Kelly's head. Sylvie glanced down, and yeah, Matt had definitely taken a bit of interest, but it wasn't that blatant. She leaned down, kissing Matt softly again. "Let me know when I need to sign the papers."
"Of course, I'll set it up as soon as possible." Matt replied. She walked out of the office, slipping around Kelly. He raised his eyebrows at her, and grinned broadly as he walked out of the bunk room with her.
"I told you, three months."
"What?"
"I told you to remember I said 'three months'."
"You mean…"
"I know Matt Casey. Three months 'til he asked you to move in with him. I've known him a long time." Kelly leaned in, almost laughing at her surprised look. "I got money on the first two weeks in May, by the way."

"What?" Why did he insist on talking in riddles so often? It was kind of a jerk move.
"You'll figure it out." Kelly was definitely laughing now. "I'm happy for you guys. He needs good in his life right now. You're good for him."

"I already knew I had your approval, but thanks. At least his friends like me. His mother hates me. She loves Gabby Dawson, though."
"She likes Gabby because Gabby treated Matt exactly like she does – like he's a lot less important than whatever she wants to do in that moment: he can do things her way or he can get left behind." Kelly shrugged easily. "The good news is that Casey was barely sixteen when his mom went to prison – so he's never exactly relied on her opinion in women. You make him happy, Brett. Don't worry about anything else."