Work Text:
Casey can admit that for the first time in a while, he’s nervous about Christmas and the holidays. Usually, he’s either working (which he preferred since he didn’t exactly have a family plan) or he was visiting Hallie at the hospital (as she was almost always working, too). It was rare to have a holiday off, but intentional.
This year, though, he’s got a family, for once.
He’s semi-made up with Christie since Jim is now out of the picture and their mother is – well, he has no idea where she is – but it’s not just Christie and Voilet, his niece, it’s Severide and Andy’s boys – Griffin and Ben.
Despite the fact that the last two years he’s sometimes had custody of them due to Heather’s stints in prison, this would be the first holiday that the boys are spending with him and Severide co-parenting instead of with either of their parents.
With Andy dead and Heather in prison, these holidays are the first of their new family and he’s stressing about making sure that it’s great. He just doesn’t want to kill their love of the holiday the way his love for it was killed following his father’s murder.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t know what to get the boys and the internet is no help since the best he can do is a generic search on their interests and it just doesn’t feel enough. He feels like a parent should do better than that.
He runs a frustrated hand through his hair and hears, “What’s got Casey so stressed?”
“The holidays,” Severide answers as he enters the common room.
“What’s stressful about the holidays, we’re not on shift,” Cruz offers. “First one off in a while, actually.”
“That’s why it’s even more important,” Casey mutters, because he knows that next year, he and Severide will be on shift next year and so the boys will be alone – well, not alone because Christie promised to help out, but well, Christie hasn’t always been dependable. Not that he doesn’t get it. She was always closer to their father, and he always wondered if she sometimes blamed him for their mother’s choice to kill their father.
“Case,” Severide says, jarring his attention ever so slightly as he sits across from him. “You need to relax.”
“I’m fine, I just need to find the perfect thing and it’ll be great.”
“Who are you shopping for that you’re this stressed?” Mouch asks. “It’s not like you’re looking for a ring, right?”
He’s wiggling his eyebrows at the joke of the two of them together that continues to pop up despite the fact that they’re just friends co-parenting together.
Both he and Severide give Mouch a look.
“It’s the boys – it’s their first Christmas without Andy and Heather.”
“Technically, we could take them to see Heather,” Severide offers.
“Right because prison is a very Christmasy place to be,” Casey says, sarcastically.
“It could be,” Cruz offers. “I’m sure they put up decorations.”
“It’s not, trust me, I know.”
He turns back to the computer, as Herrmann offers, “Well, presents are easy to do for little kids – I could give you plenty of ideas.”
“You do the shopping?” Mouch asks, unbelievingly.
“No, but I pay for them, so it counts.”
“Not sure it does.”
There’s some background chatter about if Herrmann would actually have an idea of any of his kids’ interests besides their sports due to his work either at the House or Molly’s, but Casey tunes them out for a bit.
Until Brett says, “Maybe it’s less about the gift and maybe more about the vibe? Maybe the best memories are made decorating the tree and singing carols.”
“You want us to sing carols?” Severide asks with a look on his face that suggests that he absolutely will not be singing any kind of carol ever.
“Or bake cookies or something,” Brett offers. “Gingerbread cookies are a Christmas staple.”
This gets him to look up at her. “You want us to bake cookies? Really?”
She opens her mouth to argue her point before closing it as soon as Mouch says, “I’d love to see you two bake cookies,” causing everyone to burst into laughter.
“You know what – I am trying,” she huffs before getting up from the table and stalking away.
Casey shakes his head before going back to research. He doesn’t even notice Cruz and Otis moving behind him to see him googling what to get boys that have no parents for Christmas?
“That’s not how you google – what is this?”
Casey quickly closes the laptop, annoyed. “I just – I wanted to make sure that I don’t do too much or make things worse.”
“I think that ship has sailed,” Otis offers to laughter throughout the room.
“I hate all of you,” Casey says, taking his computer and stalking away, only to have the alarms blare. “Damnit.”
***
“Here’s the deal,” Severide says when he appears in Casey’s doorway later.
Casey has been pacing in his quarters trying to release some of his stress to no avail, he nearly jumped about a mile when Severide appeared, so anxious and on edge.
“I called your sister.”
“My sister? You called my sister?”
“Yes, I figured since we’re doing this thing together that I should probably get to know her,” Severide answers.
“Why?”
“Because when your co-parent is being a nutcase, it’s probably good to get some insight and who better than your sister?”
Casey crosses his arms and huffs, “I’m not a nutcase.”
“You’re acting like one.”
Casey rolls his eyes. “Whatever. What insight did you get, then?”
Severide raises an appraised eyebrow at him. “I know that you’re going crazy about this because the first Christmas after the whole your mom murdered your dad thing happened – sucked. It ruined your holidays vibe and ever since you’ve just avoided them. And you don’t want that for the boys.”
He hates that she’s right, especially when she stopped talking to him for so long over their mother’s potential parole, siding with their father’s family, who he became estranged from.
“It was only a few weeks after and everything was still up in the air and confusing, and I know that the boys aren’t in a place where anything is up in the air, they’re ours and no one is going to take them from us, but I just…”
“I get it,” Severide offers, quietly. “Holidays have never been great for me, either. Benny wasn’t exactly a great father and after my mom – there’s a reason we’ve both always volunteered to cover shifts over the holidays.”
“Yeah, but now…” he shakes his head. “They’re so young, Sev. They deserve good holidays – a proper celebration and to forget – maybe not forget exactly – but to not spend the day thinking about everything they’ve lost.”
Severide nods. “I agree. The holidays are meant to be a joyous occasion – so why don’t we ask the boys what they want to do? We could take them out shopping for decorations since we have none – if that’s something they’d want and yeah, probably use that for some last-minute shopping. We can make this work, Case. We just need to ask them instead of trying to figure it all out on our own. Isn’t that what you would’ve wanted instead of being forced into going to your dad’s family that Christmas, only to leave because of the things they were saying about your mom and ending up at the prison? The most depressing place for Christmas.”
Casey huffs. “Wow, she really told you everything.”
“She was resistant at first, but you know how stubborn and persistent I can be.”
Casey shrugs. He still feels like that’s something that should’ve come up between them without Christie spilling the beans. Even if he knows that he probably wouldn’t have said squat unless Severide really pressed. He’ll talk to her about it later though.
“I suppose that it’s a good idea. They might want to do things differently with us than they did before.”
“Exactly. So, that sound like a plan?”
“Yes.”
“Good, now go to sleep because you’re driving the rest of us insane.”
Before he could retort that no one else probably noticed that he has been pacing for the last two hours, he sees heads peaking up from the bunks and groans. “Fine.”
Severide grins victoriously, pats his head and leaves like he was a dog that just did a new trick. He’d argue with him but he’s tired so… he’ll figure it out tomorrow.
***
Asking the boys was a good idea.
While Ben was more than happy to do everything Christmas related, there were things that Griffin was more vocal on not doing.
Christmas Carols was one of those things because that was something Heather always did with them, which worked out because they definitely didn’t want to do that anyway.
They also didn’t bake cookies or brownies, and that’s definitely for the best because he’s sure their kitchen would have ended up a disaster zone.
Seeing Santa Claus was only for Ben. Griffin didn’t really like Santa anymore. (Casey suspects it was because Santa’s gift last year was Heather getting out in time for Christmas, but that’s not something that could happen this year).
They both wanted to ice skate since they had never been before which Casey was more than happy to do (Severide refused to get on the ice, but he was happy to wave and cheer them on) and it would be a new tradition.
They loved going on the holiday train (which was something they had done before but still enjoyed) and they both enjoyed decorating their home with Ben even getting to be on Severide’s shoulders and putting the topper on the tree and Griffin getting to turn on the lights.
The cheers surrounding them definitely made Casey feel pretty great about the upcoming holiday.
***
“I thought you two figured out what you were going to do for the boys?” Cruz asks when they’re at the shift on the day before Christmas eve and Casey’s still doing some research.
“Yeah, we got enough gifts for the boys – no more last-minute shopping for you,” Severide states. “We are not going spoil them rotten.”
Casey gives him a look. “Why do I feel like we’ve entered some weird role reversal here? Isn’t it usually me saying no?”
“Yes, and I don’t like it,” he states. “So, stop it. We already have a mountain of presents for the boys, and they don’t need anything else.”
“For your information, I was looking for someone else.”
“Oh? Your sister or your niece?”
“Does it really matter?”
“Yeah, I wanna know.”
“Well, too bad, I’m not going to tell you,” Casey says, petulantly.
Severide makes a face. “It’s not for Heather, is it? Because I think –”
“Of course not.”
“What would you even get someone in prison?” Cruz asks, curious, although no one answers him.
By now, Severide’s moved over to the table where Casey’s sitting. “Then, who could you possibly be shopping for?”
“You, you asshole,” Casey states wondering why does Severide have to know everything? Why he has to ruin the surprise.
Severide frowns as Cruz asks, “You never got me a present?”
“He’s never gotten any of us presents,” Mouch offers. “Why him and not us?”
“Are you two my co-parents?” Casey retorts. “Or best friend?”
“Depends, what would you get me if I was?” Mouch asks, causing the room to burst into laughter.
Trying to be funny, Casey teases, “A donut pillow,” which makes the room laugh even harder.
Severide has moved around the table to sit beside him. “You know you don’t have to get me anything, right?”
“I want to, just have to figure out what to get you,” Casey states, as he moves the computer away so that Severide can’t see what he was researching. “And no cheating, you deserve to be as surprised as the boys.”
Severide gives him a look. “Fine, but you know now that I’m going to try to out-do you, right?”
“Good luck with that.”
***
When Christmas comes, they’re awoken by children jumping on them, both Griffin and Ben are excited and happy as they jump on him and Severide to wake up for presents. It’s a good thing they’re so excited (if a tiny bit irritating since it’s like seven in the morning and he could be sleeping in).
“Come on, dads, it’s time for presents!” Ben yells, excitedly.
He hears Severide groan, but they knew that this was coming, so they insist on breakfast first then presents.
It doesn’t really work, which causes both him and Severide to laugh and give in.
They take their breakfast and sit on the couch watching the boys unwrap presents and want to open them and play with them right away. There’s Christmas music filling the air, smiles and laughter, and Casey’s feeling pretty good about it all as the boys thank them both (Griffin still calling them uncles despite the fact that they know that he has called them dads to other people), and playing with their gifts.
“So, my turn now?” Severide asks as he pulls something out from under the couch. “I will have you know that it’s seriously last-minute, but only because I didn’t know what to get you.”
“You didn’t have to get me anything,” Casey offers as he pulls out his own gift for Severide.
“Just open it, you’ll like it – I think.”
Casey gives him a look, but opens it nonetheless. Inside is tickets to the Blackhawks’ game next week and pack of cigars.
“Blackhawks?”
“You’ve always said that you wanted to go to a game,” Severide offers, shrugging. “Figure we could go together – unless you want to take someone else.”
“Nah, I think it’s great. Be glad to go with you.” Then he nods at the gift in Severide’s hands. “Your turn. Hope you like it.”
Severide opens his gift which is two build-it-yourself models – a car, his car, the one he treats like his baby and a boat that was his first ever restoration type of boat. He also gave him cigars the night before which now he understands Severide’s laughter at that. “This is awesome. I can’t say I’ve ever done a mini boat, but this will be fun. Thanks, Case.”
“Yeah? You like it? Wasn’t really sure what to get you.”
“Well, I bought you something I knew I would enjoy and could entice you into enjoying, so … I can’t say I was much better at guessing.”
Casey laughs. “We did go for last-minute shopping.”
“Definitely.”
Before anymore could be said, Christie arrives with Voilet, and the celebration increases by two.
It’s great.
***
After his sister and niece have left, and the boys tucked in and tired out, he and Severide end up on the couch with a couple of beers and a bubble of happiness.
“You know, beyond gifts and being a little bit of a nut case, I really want to thank you,” Casey says, and he means it. “I – I haven’t had much of a holiday … a good holiday since before my dad was … well, killed. It’s been twenty years since I’ve actually enjoyed a holiday, and I probably would have really killed the vibes and ruined it if you hadn’t reined me in.”
“Just doing my part as your co-parent.” Severide laughs. “And I’m glad that I could… do this for you. You deserve a good Christmas, too.”
“You do, too.” Then he offers his beer to Severide, “Cheers to better holidays from now on.”
“Sounds good to me. Cheers.”
They clink their beers together and drink up knowing that they’re in this together – wherever this co-parenting ride takes them. Hopefully, to somewhere good.