Matt Casey's nieces and nephew

Chapter 2

Mills walked with Dawson into the hospital after shift. Casey had called to say Jake was having surgery and they wanted to keep him and the girls Grace and Ellie company for a bit. No one asked questions after that call or even talked about it. Most of them knew about Casey's family, but Peter Mills knew nothing and was curious.

"Are you happy to get back to being a firefighter?" Dawson said as they walked the halls.

"I'm always a firefighter," he grinned. "But yeah, it will be nice to fight fires again instead of crazy dogs."

Dawson returned the smile. "Hey, it's entertaining."

Mills was quiet for a few moments before bringing up the subject. "I didn't know Casey had a sister."

"Casey has two sisters, Christie and Sarah." Dawson explained. "Sarah is the oldest. She sort of dropped off the radar after their Dad died. She had newborn triplets and a family that wouldn't stop fighting so she took off with her children and her musician of a boyfriend."

"And she has drug problems?"

Dawson nodded. "Her boyfriend dragged them out to California a few years ago so he could play shows in a bunch of dive bars with his band. It started as a drinking problem and it got worse. He got her hooked on stuff too. Then he took off."

"Wow," Mills said as he shook his head. "How could you put your kids through that?"

"I don't know," Dawson shrugged. "But Casey had her convinced to come home. He told her he would pay for her rehab and watch the triplets."

"So that's why she was here?"

"I hope so."

They rounded the corner and walked into the waiting room. Grace and Matt were sitting in chairs beside each other. The twin girls were both showing him pictures on their phones and Dawson wasn't surprised that Matt had them smiling and sounding excited about something. He looked up when they walked in the room and he gave them a smile and a nod. Grace looked up and smiled weakly before slipping headphones into her ears and going back to looking at her phone. However Ellie was a little distant until she realised then smiled.

"How was Ellie's check up and how's Jake?" Dawson asked, sitting down with Mills in the chairs across from Casey.

"He's going to be okay." Casey said with relief. "He was lucky, they removed his spleen but other than that there are no internal injuries. His shoulder is dislocated and he has a concussion but they said he'll be fine. Also Ellie has a slight bruising around her body but luckily no concussion just headache."

"And Sarah?"

Casey paused and briefly glanced at Grace and Ellie. They didn't notice, Casey wasn't even sure if she was listening to their conversation. Mills noticed the hesitation and the exchange and interrupted.

"Do you or the girls want something to eat?" He asked. "I could take them and get you something?"

Casey hesitated again before reaching over and hitting pause on the game the girls were playing together. They looked up at him with little emotion and Casey figured they both had been listening. "Are you guys hungry?"

She shrugged. "Not really."

"I think you should go get something," He nodded at Mills. "This is Peter Mills, he helped you today, he'll take you."

"I don't want to go Uncle Matt," Grace whined slightly Ellie nodded and he could see that they were both scared.

"I promise you I will be right here the whole time." He reassured. "I'm not going anywhere."