Chapter Text
Coercion
It was a regular night at Molly's and the place was semi-packed, several familiar faces from both the Intelligence unit at the 21st District, and the men and women from Firehouse 51, stuck out all over the bar. Hank Voight was waiting for his second Manhattan and glanced around and noted Matt Casey at the end of the bar checking his phone. He dialed a number and put the phone to his ear and waited, and then hung up in frustration. Being a cop, it was Hank's first nature to notice everything going on around him, and he'd noticed that whoever it was Casey was trying to get a hold of, he'd been trying several times that night, and all seemed to be to no avail. Whatever it was, nobody else in the bar seemed to notice.
"Here ya go, Voight," Christopher Herrmann said as he replaced the sergeant's glass.
"Thanks, Herrmann."
He took a drink, and looked back at the end of the bar and saw Casey getting up and putting his money on the counter, and he seemed to be moving slightly hastily for somebody just leaving.
"Something wrong?" he inquired as Matt passed by his stool.
Casey turned and looked, apparently only mildly surprised that the cop was talking to him, but still caught off guard by it.
"Severide was supposed to be here an hour ago," the Truck lieutenant answered, trying to keep his voice calmer than his body language was, though he didn't seem to realize it. He tried to brush it off and insisted weakly, "I'm sure it's nothing."
"If you're worried, it ain't nothing," Voight stood up, "I'll go with you."
That made Casey's eyes widen in surprise. "Uh, thanks but no thanks, Hank, that's really not necessary."
"This is Chicago," Voight pointed out. "That's not a good bet to make."
Casey tried again, "I'm sure he's fine."
"Maybe you're right, but what if he's not?" Hank replied. "Might help to have a cop along."
Matt didn't spend much time dwelling on that thought, but if he was honest, he had to admit a few different scenarios had gone through his mind. They saw it all the time on calls, people who had just been minding their business and suddenly, they'd been mugged, or shot, or carjacked, and naturally Casey always thought in terms of stuff like that happened to other people, but wouldn't, couldn't happen to one of them. But what if it had?
Reluctantly, Casey nodded, "Okay, let's go."
Voight took a roll of bills out of his boot, peeled the top one off and put it on the counter. "Herrmann, thanks for the service, next round's on me."
Christopher came to the bar and picked up the bill and did a double take at the denomination. "Yeah, sure, thanks, Hank."
Casey was the first out the door, Voight was behind him a few seconds later and the two men headed to the parking lot to get their vehicles out.
"I'll follow you," Hank told him.
Casey tried to stay calm and not panic and told himself there could be a dozen different reasons why Kelly didn't show up. But actually having somebody else with him who also thought something could be wrong, and thought it was very likely, wasn't doing much for his steady composure. His heart was starting to beat faster and he felt a sensation pulsing in his ears. What if Kelly had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and gotten shot in a drive by? Or what if he'd gotten into a fight with someone and got ambushed? What if...he tried not to focus on the rest, and instead just focused on getting out of there, and getting over to his apartment to check first. In his rear view mirror he saw the blinding headlights of Voight's black SUV signaling the cop was right behind him.
Matt spotted Severide's blue Mustang at the curb outside the apartment building. He wasn't sure whether he should be relieved or not. Behind him Voight's car pulled up and the lights went off. Casey grabbed the door handle and got out of his pickup.
"His car's here."
"I see that," Voight commented.
Casey looked to the apartment. "No lights on."
"Let's check it out," Voight said.
Casey didn't need to be told twice, he was already running up to the front door.
He stopped just short of grabbing the doorknob.
"What is it?" Voight asked as he came up the steps behind him.
Then he saw what Casey saw.
The door was ajar and the wood to the frame was splintered.
Casey felt his heart drop to his stomach. He pushed the door open and called out, "Kelly?"
He stepped in and felt for the light switch, he found it and flicked it up. Just before the lights came on, Matt could hear a low muffled sound from somewhere in the apartment. As the apartment lit up, he and Voight looked in to the apartment to see where the sound was coming from, there were so many things about the apartment that weren't right, it was hard to focus on any one thing. Furniture had been turned over, clothes were scattered across the floor, the coffee table was broken on the floor in the middle of the room, and beside it...
Casey felt his eyes double in size and his heart pound against his chest now.
"Oh my God, Kelly!"
Both he and Voight ran over to the barely recognizable figure that was half curled in a ball on the floor, naked, writhing, moaning, his body covered in blood, and bruises, and upon closer examination, bite marks. Kelly had purple ligature marks on his wrists, and around his ankles, and he still held his body tight and stiff as if he was still bound up. On the floor a few inches from his face was a weathered strip of duct tape that had started to curl at the ends. Kelly's eyes were tightly shut and his whole body shook with every sob suppressed by his closed lips, his face was soaked with tears that were still spilling down from his eyes. His whole body was covered in sweat, and standing over him now, both Casey and Voight were able to make out the unmistakable fluid stains on the floor that told them exactly what had happened there that night.
"Oh my God, Kelly," Matt repeated in a horrified whisper, not quite able to take in what he was seeing. This couldn't be happening, it couldn't be real, not to Kelly, not to his best friend.
At his name, Severide's eyes slowly opened, and closed against the sudden bright light, then they opened again, and his mouth fell open and his whole body wracked as he moaned and cried, no words came out, just a bunch of incoherent sounds of pain, of fear, of shame. Of all the marks on his body, the ones that particularly stuck out were a set of bruises at the base of his spine.
"We gotta get the paramedics here and get him to the hospital," Voight said as he reached for his phone.
A particularly loud noise of protest escaped Severide's throat as he looked at the two men standing over him, and words finally came out as he loudly, frantically pleaded, "No! Nooo! No, please, no hospital, no..."
"Kelly," Case tried to get his attention, tried to get him to focus, "Kelly, calm down!"
Severide didn't seem to hear him, he just continued half coherently rambling, "No, no paramedics, no, no hospital, please, don't! Nooo..."
Casey thought he was going to lose his mind. His heart was breaking at seeing his best friend like this and hearing the obvious pain in his voice, he felt like he was about to break down crying himself, not knowing what to do but knowing he had to do something. At the first thought that came to mind, he ran to the bedroom, jerked the top sheet off the bed in one swift movement and ran back to the living room and very carefully and loosely wrapped it around Kelly's torso to preserve a little dignity for the Squad lieutenant. As he did, he saw more bruises, more bite marks, and his stomach churned at the images that were starting to fill his mind.
"Kelly," Casey tried to stay calm and tried to get through to the hysterical man writhing under him, "Kelly, you can't move, we have to get you looked at, you could have a spinal injury-"
"No! No-no-no-no!" Severide was tearfully adamant, though he made no attempt to get up from the floor.
Voight crouched down beside Matt and looked Kelly straight in the eyes and said to him, in a voice both firm but gentle, "Kelly, look at me." Kelly did, and Voight instructed the firefighter to breathe deeply and calm down. Tears still poured down Kelly's flushed face but he loudly inhaled and exhaled, trying to comply with the cop's orders.
"Kelly," Voight said, in a surprisingly calming tone, one that Casey didn't ever remember hearing, "if we don't have to take you to the hospital, we won't. But you have to let us look at you to determine that."
Kelly shook his head frantically and the sobs started again, "Noooo...no..."
Casey felt his eyes stinging as he watched Kelly writhing on the floor, seeing the pain and terror in his eyes.
Voight looked at him and asked point blank, "Is whoever did this to you still in the apartment?"
Kelly very weakly shook his head.
"Okay," Hank said with a nod, "that's good." He turned and looked at Casey, wordlessly pointing out since he was EMT certified, he'd know more what to look for and told him, "Check him over."
Casey definitely was not looking forward to what he had to do next, but he knew he had to do it. Kelly was still half hysterical as he writhed around the on the floor, it was obvious he didn't want anyone touching him. Casey tried to push everything out of his mind, and the knot out of his stomach, as he began to assess the situation.
"Can you tell me what hurts, Kelly?" Knowing it was a valid question, Casey still felt horrible for having to ask it, he pressed on, "Do you know if anything's broken?"
Kelly just continued to groan incoherently, no indication either way. Casey could see he was going to have to do this the hard way. He held his hands out to Severide and asked him, as if he was talking to any one of a thousand victims on a routine call, "Kelly, can you try squeezing my hands? Can you do that?"
Kelly's eyes looked down towards his hands as if trying to figure out if they would even work. He slowly raised them, Casey noticed that the knuckles were bloody on both hands, and he felt Casey's hands and grabbed them. Casey noticed that his fingers didn't curl all the way into a sturdy grip, but it was good enough.
"Okay, good," Casey let go of his hands and told him, "let me know if you feel any pain," and he carefully ran his hands across Kelly's neck and back and up and down his spine. He heard Kelly's breath hitch when he touched the bruises on the low of his back, but otherwise nothing seemed to stick out, for that matter neither did any of the vertebrae.
"Okay, so no pain, good so far...is anything numb, Kelly?"
Kelly just shook his head as another sob escaped him.
Casey nodded in understanding. "That's good, Kelly..." his eyes trailed down Severide's body and asked him, "Can you wiggle your toes?"
He watched Kelly's feet, which were also bruised, after a few seconds the big toes moved and the ones next to them, the smaller ones didn't but Kelly was able to curl and un-curl them along with the rest.
"Good...good, you're doing fine," Casey said. Still, he wanted to make sure. "Can you turn flat on your back? Lift both arms."
Kelly did, they went up, and fell at the same time at the same speed. Then Casey had him bend and flex his knees and extend his legs, and they both lowered at the same time and speed as well.
"Okay, Kelly, can you close your eyes?" Casey wasn't sure what was keeping him level headed, it sure as hell wasn't his own doing, whatever it was he was grateful because he knew as bad as things were for Kelly already they'd just be worse if he saw Casey starting to lose it too. "I'm going to touch you-"
"No!" Kelly protested, sounding absolutely terrified of the idea.
Casey stayed focused, "I'm going to touch you in a couple places, and have you point where. Is that okay?"
It clearly wasn't where Kelly was concerned but he closed his eyes and tried to hold still while Casey did it. Matt looked at Voight, who looked about as helpless as Casey felt. He looked back at Kelly, trying not to physically recoil from the anticipated touch, but as Casey moved a hand towards him, he saw Severide bracing himself against the floor, feeling the cut through the air as Casey came closer to him. Casey didn't want to prolong Kelly's discomfort anymore than was necessary, so he very quickly touched Severide's chest and just over the knee on his right leg.
"Okay, Kelly, can you tell me where I touched you?' he asked.
Without even opening his eyes, Kelly traced over the same spots Casey had touched.
"Okay, that's great," Casey was relieved to have all that over with, "so it should be safe for you to move. Can you get up, Kelly?"
Severide opened his eyes and looked uncertainly up at the Truck lieutenant. A bunch of small broken sounds came from his throat and he didn't appear to be any closer to composing himself than when they'd first come in, and Casey truly felt helpless and didn't know what they needed to do next.
Voight got on one side of Kelly, Casey got on the other and between the two of them they grabbed him and slowly pulled him to his feet, and stayed on either side of him and watched to see if he was able to keep himself upright without their support. Kelly very slowly and very reluctantly let go of them and shakily and unsteadily stood on his feet, he grabbed hold of them again to keep himself balanced, and when he finally found his equilibrium, he let go of them again...and then sank down to the floor again, Casey and Hank grabbing him at the last second before he totally collapsed.
"Can you get him into the bathroom?" Voight asked Matt.
Casey nodded, "Yeah, I think so."
"Good," Voight nodded in response. "Help him get cleaned up."
Casey didn't say anything but he shot Hank a look as if the Intelligence sergeant had lost his mind. He looked at Kelly, painful as it was to see what had been done to him and what he'd been reduced to, and all he could see was skeins of forensic evidence that could be collected, so the cops could find out who had attacked him. Once Kelly was cleaned up, all that DNA would be lost forever, washed down the drain.
Voight added, with a knowing look that only Casey saw, "You help him get a shower, and I'll start cleaning up out here."
There was something in the way he said it that Casey caught on, that there was still plenty of DNA evidence on the living room floor that could still be collected for testing, without having to put Kelly through any further trauma at all. Casey slowly nodded his head in understanding, and took the lead as he grabbed Kelly's arm and draped it over his shoulders and helped him to his feet. Severide was still half out of his mind in hysteria from the attack, and though he briefly protested when Casey touched his arm, there was otherwise no protest from him.
"Come on, Kelly," Matt told his friend, hoping that he was actually somehow able to gain Severide's trust, "it's going to be alright."