Matthew Casey

**Formerly**
Lieutenant Casey
Spacey Casey
Badge #17138

**Formerly**
 City Hall

**Formerly**
Fire Lieutenant
 Firefighter

**Matthew Casey** is a Fire captain with the Chicago Fire Department. He was formerly a Lieutenant and the officer in charge of Truck 81 at Firehouse 51. He is portayed by Australian Actor Jesse Spencer.

## Biography

Matt was the only son and second child of Nancy and Gregory Casey. He has an older sister, Christie, and a Niece named Violet.

When he was a Teenager, his mother struggles under Gregory's abuse. She snapped (after Gregory started verbally abusing Matt), she shot and killed Gregory after letting herself into his home using a key that Matt had left out. Christie wasn't living with them at the time, therefore, she was adamant on supporting her Father's side on everything her mother had while she was in prison. This drove the brother and sister apart.

Casey and Severide are at odds with each blaming the other for the death of fellow firefighter Andy Darden.

Casey is in a relationship with Hallie Thomas and is engaged to her, but the two later break up. Casey gets back together with Hallie when she returns from a long trip and the two are happy until she is the victim of a fire at a clinic where she worked part time. Firehouse 51 responds to the fire and he manages to get her out, but she later dies at the hospital. He cries in the arms of one of his firefighting friends. He's very disturbed by her death and tries to dig deeper and find out what happened with the help of Antonio Dawson. It's clear that something is going on, but the head of the clinic refuses to cooperate and they meet a dead end.

After Dawson breaks up with Mills, she helps Casey through the death of Hallie and the two start dating later in the season.

Heather, meanwhile, ends up in a car crash that kills her best friend and she asks him to take care of her children, Griffin and Ben, while she serves an 18 month prison sentence. He agrees since he was close friends with her late husband Andy and Dawson helps him through it until Heather is released early due to overcrowding. Heather thanks him for taking care of her boys, and even though they have grown close to him, she decides to move to Florida.

Casey is experiencing flashbacks of the fire and suffers repeated episodes when he cannot open his locker. He and Dawson also tell the rest of the squad about their relationship. On a call, Casey saves a man named Jeremy, who had a pipe go through his neck. Casey makes a bet with the man that if he survives, he’ll buy him a six pack of beer. Casey also experiences another episode when he is forced to stop bank robbers, nearly beating someone to death and almost attacking Mouch. Casey keeps up his end of the bet with Jeremy when he visits him at the hospital and offers him a beer.

Casey proposes to Dawson, but they get a call for a structure fire, leaving the proposal unanswered. The building collapses with all of the firehouse inside.

Following the building collapse that killed Shay, Dawson returns to work after a month's leave. She tells Casey she can't accept his proposal because it would be the day that Shay died and she can't mix the memory with such a sad one. They get later get engaged when Casey tells her that Shay picked out the ring with him.

Dawson is eventually transferred to work under Casey on Truck 81 and so they can't get married as she wouldn't be able to work under him as long as she's a candidate. Everything works out fine until Dawson makes a mistake, causing Casey to call her out and threaten to kick her off Truck since she ignored his instructions. She's fine with it until Casey refuses to talk to her after shift as he's still upset with her.

Casey deals with the fallout of his sister Christie's impending divorce once his niece details the stress. However, he forces her husband into coming to a truce or else.

Casey later notices Cruz and Sylvie spending time together. He soon advices her to keep their relationship low but is surprised by her revealing Cruz is a highly skilled zumba dance instructor. Despite Brett swearing him to secrecy, Casey tells Dawson who in turn tells Hermann and the secret is known to everyone in the house. After shift, Casey and the others sign up for Cruz's class to see it for themselves and are amused to see Cruz surprised at seeing them. When Cruz nearly cancels, Casey encourages him before the class starts and the squad enjoy themselves.

When Dawson works late at Molly's that night and asks Peter to help her, Casey comes by to talk to her, but finds the two talking and takes it the wrong way when he sees them holding hands and leaves. Peter tells him he doesn't want to get in the way the next morning and Dawson apologizes, but he ignores her. Against his wishes, she decides to take a break and leaves the house, moving in with Sylvie However, they work together when Mills and Brett are kidnapped.

After Chief Boden's father passes away, he decides to take a break from the job for a few months, leaving Chief Pridgen in charge. Even though he seems friendly at first, he constantly mocks the team, specifically Otis. This angers Casey and he speaks up against him. Combined with this, Casey has a brief relationship with Pridgen's newly divorced ex-wife, Beth. He ends it when he finds out, but Pridgen finds out and takes his anger out on Casey during shift. Responding to a fire, Truck 81 and Squad 3 are about to go in, but Pridgen deliberately redirects Truck 81 to a minor accident nearby. This angers Casey, but Pridgen refuses to let him work at the fire. The team leaves while Squad 3 takes care of the fire and rescues the trapped victim. During the rescue, a man has rushed in to help and is on the top floor, but they miss him. Casey comes back and tells Pridgen that the man refused treatment and that he was fine. Just then, the man jumps out the top floor window as the house explodes and injures himself, later taking action against Firehouse 51 for negligence. The case is investigated and Welch and Severide hear Pridgen tell them that Casey failed to properly check the scene and that the reason he was redirected was because there was a 'life threatening' injury nearby. Severide files another report, going against the initial statement made by Pridgen. He finds out and "encourages" Severide to take the promotion to Captain in OFI or be stripped of his rank, but Severide refuses and claims he's happy where he is. Things worsen since the man Truck was directed to help refused treatment and there's no paperwork indicating that they even went to help him. Pridgen then uses Welch's vendetta towards 51 to get him to sign a statement to support him. He refuses due to respect for the people there and is kicked out. However, Welch goes on to make a statement backing Severide, resulting in Pridgen getting fired and Boden returning to take control.

Casey decides to find some construction work off shift. He finds a club called Stilettos where the owner, Jack Nesbitt, is looking to expand. Casey reveals to Nesbitt that he is a firefighter and Nesbitt tells him that he was a firefighter at Firehouse 114 for seven years before quitting. Casey later asks Scott Rice, who also previously worked at 114, about Nesbitt and Rice reveals that Nesbitt had some bad history with some department officials, therefore leading to his resignation. Casey is then informed by Hank Voight of how Nesbitt is into shady stuff and Antonio later tells him that he is illegally trafficking European girls into the country. Casey agrees to help gets jammed up in Nesbitt's business, when he tries to help a girl named Katya.

Dawson comes over to his apartment to tell him some important news, but his place has been ransacked and the dead body of Katya, a girl he had been helping, is laying on the floor.

Dawson calls Antonio to tell him about her discovery and asks him to track Casey down. Casey is found at Stilettos, having overpowered his kidnappers and beaten up Nesbitt for his actions. Casey is angered when Antonio informs him that Nesbitt was released after it was discovered he is working as a CI with the FBI on the case. However, he is overjoyed when Dawson tells him that she is pregnant with his child.

Casey and Dawson go to the chief to tell him of her pregnancy and decision to leave her job as a firefighter to take an office job in the Arson Division. Despite this, Casey is annoyed when Jack visits him at the house and he goes to see Voight to tell him that Nesbitt is clearly working both the feds and traffickers. He tells Voight that if he doesn't stop Nesbitt then he will. That night, he talks with Gabby and realizes where Katya stored the notebook and retrieves it but is followed and threatened by Nesbitt. However, he is saved by Voight and the FBI who had took Casey's words seriously. He is happy when Nesbitt is arrested by the FBI and CPD.

Dawson and Casey's happiness is short-lived. She and Boden are at the office trying to find files on a case when she cries out in pain. She's taken to the hospital, where Dr. Will Halstead tells her that she's miscarried. She's heartbroken by this and she and Casey go through a rough patch in their relationship.

During a tornado in Chicago, power lines are cut and houses are destroyed. The Alderman of Chicago encourages Casey, who was at the scene and helped take many of the victims to the only homeless shelter in the area, to make a speech to drive in donations. He is happy to do so and helps to raise thousands of dollars. However, when he returns to the shelter, many of the people are still there and have not received any help or donations. Casey talks to the Alderman, who brushes him off, implying he has taken the money for his own personal use. He tells Casey that it's just 'politics'. Angered by this, he decides to run for Alderman himself after a lot of encouragement from Dawson.

However, during his campaigning, he finds he needs to do more than make promises. He is constantly overthrown in his decisions and shown under a bad light by others. He is frustrated even more when someone vandalizes cars and billboards, claiming that Casey is a 'murderer's son'. Knowing his opponent did this, he threatens him to take the posters down but he is dismissed, causing Casey to think about withdrawing himself from the election. However, Dawson tells him to keep going and is upset to hear that he is thinking of quitting, which encourages him to continue.

Casey finally gives in and talks to a gang leader who had promised to help him win if he took down cameras from the street corners to let them deal drugs. Initially, he was against this idea but agrees to do so, asking them for just one thing - not to hang around the corners around the children's high school. They aren't sure about this, but imply that they are willing to do so. However, this still isn't enough. He loses his first debate to his opponent before being informed about a second debate that no one told him about. However, as his campaign affects his ability to work, he is told by Chiefs to stop or not miss any time off work. He therefore agrees and deliberately misses the second debate as he is on a call. His opponent calls him weak and says that Casey is not willing to give up enough for his job as Alderman as he still has a second job. This stresses him out, but the media catch him risking his life for a mechanic and publish it in the newspapers as the reason for him missing the debate. This heroism helps him to win the four-year term as Alderman.

Truck 81 responds to a call of a person in distress. Upon arrival, they find that the victim is a high school boy called Victor. They manage to rescue him and he survives. The boy's grandmother then shows up at the firehouse and tells Casey to do more as Alderman. He finds out from Antonio that Victor was attacked by a gang who wanted revenge because his older brother was previously affiliated with the same gang, but helped take some of them down when he agreed to help the police. Casey goes to see the gang leader again and tells him to stop terrorizing Victor, but they refuse to do so. 3 days later, Casey goes to see Victor, who wants to go to graduation. He tells him not to as he could be attacked again, but Victor remains unafraid. Seeing no other option, he gets together with the firehouse and they line up along the road, ready to protect him. Chief Boden and Casey personally escort Victor to the school.

Casey also goes through a difficult time in his relationship with Dawson after a call causes her to make an unexpected decision. They find a mother who has overdosed with a young boy in an apartment that's on fire. They help the mother out and Dawson goes in to find the boy. She finds him hiding under the bed and after some time, convinces him to come out. When she comes out, the boy is unwilling to let go of her, so she goes with him to the hospital. However, social workers tell her that he was fostered and will be placed back in a foster home. She feels terrible and tells Casey she wants to foster him herself. However, she had previously told him that she didn't want to get married and so he tells he that it's not such a good idea. She is upset and leaves, but tells him the next morning that she has decided she wants to take the boy in and he doesn't have to help her. Dawson fosters him and Casey goes on a trip with his political adviser, Susan. Towards the end of the episode, Susan kisses him and writes her room number on a napkin. He then goes to see Dawson at her new home, a loft above Herrmann's garage.

The first half of the season mostly deals with Louie and Casey's political career. A political advisor tries to get him to hire her to work on his campaign, but he refuses. Just days later, another opposing politician, who had threatened to destabilize Casey's career unless he listened to his own demands, tells the media that Casey used his position as Alderman to skip the fostering waiting time for Louie to adopt him. This scares both him and Dawson as both are threatened with the issue of Louie being taken away.

Casey decides to call the advisor, who is on the case immediately and solves the issue in no time. However, he soon discovers that this advisor and the politician worked together to trick Casey so that she could use him for her own gains. He fires her afterwards and he goes back home to Louie and Dawson, who he is evidently happy with.

Later on, Dawson and Casey are told that they can now adopt Louie if they want, but that Dawson will be seen as a single mother as they are not married. Casey tries to ask around for another option, but since they aren't engaged or married, there is none. However, later on at Molly's, they both get the idea of running away and getting married. Casey and Dawson get married at the courthouse in their uniforms, and the whole firehouse attends the ceremony. On their way home, Casey sees the man who has been stalking them for the past few days. The man reveals himself and says that he is Louie's father and that he wants him back. Tensions continue to rise between the married couple. However, things take a dramatic turn when 51 is called out to fight a large and out of control building fire. Casey calls Dawson on his radio for what seems to be the last time to tell her that he loves her and that she's his miracle.

Casey goes to the chief's office and expects reprimand from the visiting superintendent but the latter instead praises him for getting the job done, despite him breathing down his neck. Casey is surprised when the superintendent recommends him for promotion to Captain.

After Boden orders the water cannons turned on, Casey shelters himself and a victim under a metal cabinet. He is found unresponsive by Chief Boden after the fire is put out. Uniformed personnel are then seen attending what appears to be Casey's funeral, but is revealed to actually be a ceremony at which Casey receives a medal from Chief Boden for not only being brave at that fire, but for being brave everyday on the streets of Chicago. Casey is then promoted to Captain for his heroism.

A fire at Donna's high school isn't what it seems when she insists that the blaze wasn't an accident. And at home, Dawson angrily tells Casey not to say goodbye to her like that again and he agrees. When an off-duty Dawson is caught in the collapse of a parking garage, 51 responds and Casey rescues her from the rubble. After discovering that Hope forged Chief Mullins' signature on a transfer form for Stella Kidd, Casey and Chief Boden dismiss her from the firehouse.

While shutting off a damaged gas valve to slow down a fire, Casey and Severide realize that as soon as they let go of the valve wheel, the whole roof is going to blow. They run to the edge and jump into the river several stories below, still in their heavy turnout gear. Casey surfaces dazed, but uninjured. Severide, however, is injured and Stella rescues him. Casey is comforted by Dawson and Severide recovers. A photo of their daring jump makes the front page news and is great press for the department. The photographer who took the photo is invited by the CFD to do a "day in the life" type spread, but Casey catches him attempting to take photos of Dawson while she's in the shower and throws him out.

Casey helps Dawson with getting Bria ready for prom. He decides they should have something good to remember, so arranges for Kidd to drive them to prom in Truck 81. After the Truck leaves, Dawson tells him that she wants to start trying again and he happily agrees. After going to a doctor and finding out that Dawson has a 10% chance of dying if she gets pregnant, he decides he doesn't want her getting pregnant. He brings up adoption and even looks into it, which upsets Dawson since he done it behind her back and she's afraid the same thing that happened to Louie will happen again.

## Abilities

* **Skilled Fighter:** Casey has shown to be a skilled fighter, as he was able to stand up to two muggers at once and even disarm robbers armed with guns. He was even able to take down CPD Officer Hank Voight single-handedly. Casey relies on brute force and boxing as opposed to Severide, who relies on slightly more nimble moves in a fight.

## Medical Injuries

An apartment fire rages across sixteen units, with civilians trapped. Truck 81 work together to get everyone out safely and Boden orders an evacuation, but Casey learns that there is a baby still inside the building. He ignores the evacuation order and saves the baby, but while on his way to the exit, a support beam falls on him, activating his PASS device. Casey is rushed to hospital in Ambulance 61, with Severide in tow. Casey is diagnosed with a epidural hematoma and is rushed into emergency surgery and placed on leave for six weeks while he recovers. After returning to work, he still has problems with his memory and dizziness.

## Relationships

### Romance

#### Hallie Thomas

Matthew was engaged to Hallie Thomas. After responding to a motor vehicle accident and delivering a baby there, Casey asks Hallie if she wants children. She says no and due to their different choices, Hallie cancels the wedding and moves away.

Hallie returns a few months later and realizes that she misses Casey. They got back together and were getting along well. However, this ends when she is killed in a fire at the clinic she worked at. Casey had a hard time dealing with Hallie's death, but he eventually managed to get closure and move on.

#### Gabriela Dawson

Casey and Dawson started out as good friends. She crushes on him, even though he's in a relationship at the time. After Hallie and Matt break up, Dawson asks Casey to be her date for a Christmas function. At the end of the night they lean in to kiss, but Casey kisses her on the cheek instead.

After Hallie is killed, Casey leans on Dawson for support and they soon become very close. Sometime later, Casey and Dawson's feelings for each other grow and after he goes to Dawson's house one night, they get together.

Casey proposes to Dawson.

Unfortunately, Casey and Dawson take a break due to the turbulent nature of their relationship. It is caused mainly by their changed work relationship, as Casey's now Dawson's direct superior.

During the break, Casey and Dawson become close again and resolve their issues, leading to a one night stand that results in Dawson getting pregnant.

Casey and Dawson then get back together, but sadly lose the baby. Dawson and Casey are in love and better than ever even through the tragedy.

Dawson and Casey get married and foster a child named Louie. Dawson is especially torn up after Louie's father comes back into the picture and takes him back. This discourages her from wanting to adopt in the future. When she decides that she wants to start trying for another baby, Dawson goes in for a fertility test after getting impatient and finds out that she has an aneurysm that will be irritated if she gets pregnant again, and that it may kill her. Dawson wants to move forward with attempting to get pregnant again, but Casey tells her that she can't get pregnant because he can't lose her.

##### **The unborn child**

The unborn child was a failed pregnancy between Gabriela Dawson and **Matthew Casey**. The child is conceived by accident, in which the two had sex "to relieve the stress of the day".

Gabby finds out she's pregnant. After his near-death experience, Matt decides to get back together with Gabby. While persuading her they're meant for each other, she tells him she's pregnant. They announce it to the firehouse and are ecstatic to enter a new page in their lives. Gabby even pauses her firefighting career and takes a desk job at the Office of Fire Investigation.

Gabby collapses in cramps and we later find out her pregnancy is ectopic. Sadly, the baby is lost due to the pregnancy not being an IUP (intrauterine pregnancy). This type of pregnancy cannot be successful and Dr. Halstead has full hands with saving Gabby, which he manages after 2 surgeries. Both Matt and Gabby are devastated after this outcome.

### Friends

#### Kelly Severide

Kelly and Casey are co-workers at Firehouse 51. At the beginning of season one, after the death of a close friend, they had some trouble getting along and often butted heads, but would come together for the sake of the house. They have stopped blaming each other and get along very well. They are often seen putting themselves in danger to protect each other, such as when Severide went into an unstable burning building to help Casey find his fiancée. After Casey was injured, Severide was the first to notice that he was not healed. He was very concerned about Casey, asking him numerous times if he was okay and offering help.

Following Shay's death, Severide moves in with Casey and Dawson. Severide and Casey stay as roommates after Dawson moves out. Some of the strain on Casey and Dawson's relationship comes from Casey and Severide's relationship; with Casey putting Severide in front of Dawson, such as when Dawson tells Casey to ask Severide to move out after his unexpected marriage and Casey responds by saying Severide "is going to need [him] on his side, so good or bad that's where [he'll] be".

Severide instantly turns down an order from his chief to spy on Casey. He also tells the chief that Casey is "one of the finest firefighters [he's] ever had the opportunity to work with in the entire CFD."

When Dawson and Casey are getting back together and adopting Louie, Severide offers to move out to give the three of them space.

### Neutral

#### Hank Voight

Voight is a police officer whose son drunkenly caused a car accident. Casey filed a CFD Incident Report that implicated Voight covered it up.

This marked the tension between the two, as Hank tried bribing, threatening, and outright trying to kill Casey. This ultimately led to Voight being arrested by Antonio Dawson but he was released after making a deal with Internal Affairs and becoming Sergeant of Intelligence in the Chicago P.D. force.

While Casey and Voight still have their problems, they are slowly reaching neutral terms. This was seen when Voight saved Casey from a gunman. Hank informed Casey that his old friend Nesbitt is actually a crook who is trafficking women and asked for his help in bringing him down. Casey goes undercover which leads to Nesbitt getting caught. However, the FBI releases Nesbitt because he was their informant. Casey went to Voight and revealed his belief that Nesbitt may be playing both the traffickers and the feds, promising to do something about it if Voight doesn't. Voight takes his promise into consideration, secretly following Casey and arresting Nesbitt after he held Casey at gunpoint. Voight even congratulated him on becoming a father. Casey believed the conflict was behind them after Severide was nearly accused of committing a vehicular homicide.