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“Yeah, I’ll be right there,” Stella heard Kelly say as she walked out of their bedroom.
“Who was that?” she asked as she approached Kelly.
“Van Meter. They’re about to go arrest Vale, and he wants me there, so I gotta go,” he replied, leaning in for a kiss before walking out the door.
As Stella watched her husband walk out, her mind started to fill and race with all the thoughts she had been trying to suppress. Not that they were bad thoughts, but between Natalie and the Pascal investigation, she really hadn’t had much time to focus on anything else. Now that she was alone for what felt like the first time in forever — Natalie had texted her earlier saying Julia wanted to talk — all the suppressed thoughts started to fill her head.
Ever since she and Kelly started the whole adoption process, the thought of becoming a mother both excited and terrified her even more every day. Stella had been through a lot in her almost 35 years — more than most people ever will in a lifetime — but the failed adoption a few months back hurt way more than she was probably even willing to admit to herself. Walking into Med thinking that they would be taking that baby boy home, seeing him come into the world and hearing his first cry, to the look on the love of her life’s face when she told him the baby was okay — all that hope was destroyed in an instant and overtaken by a hurt that there was no one to blame for. While he didn’t show it as much as she did, she knew Kelly was hurting too, and that hurt is a hurt she never wanted either of them to feel again. Stella wanted to try to take as much control of an uncontrollable situation as she could. She knew how badly Kelly wanted to be a dad but at the same time didn’t want to get his hopes up, so to try to take back some of the control, she decided to stop taking her birth control. While she was still unsure about actually getting pregnant, this whole process had shown her what kind of dad Kelly could actually be, and that’s not something she ever wanted to rob him of. They loved each other, he’s her rock, and like she’s said many times before, everything will always be okay as long as she’s with Kelly. And while deep down there were still the fears of PPD and everything that happened with her aunt, she had started to think that getting pregnant maybe wouldn’t be that bad.
Stella’s body was still adjusting to not taking birth control, so she was unsure what was really going on. All she knew was she had been extra emotional lately — like she cried at that car ad the other day, an ad she had seen a million times before and never cried at. Maybe it was her body adjusting, or maybe it did have something to do with the failed adoption, or maybe she really was pregnant.
After taking a moment to collect her thoughts, Stella headed into the bathroom where she pulled out the pregnancy test she hoped Kelly hadn’t seen. It sat there on the bathroom counter as Stella stared at it, fighting with her thoughts to find that little bit of courage to take it — when a knock at the door interrupted her.
She quickly took the test and put it back in its hiding spot, not sure whether she’d revisit it tonight or not.
As Stella opened the front door, both Natalie and Julia stood there in front of her.
“Hey Stella!” Natalie said excitedly.
“Hey, come in,” Stella replied.
“Julia and I worked everything out. I’m going home,” Natalie said as they walked in the door.
“We’re just here to collect Natalie’s things, and then we’ll be out of your hair,” Julia added.
“I’m sorry. Glad you’ve worked it all out — it makes me so happy to see you both happy,” Stella said as they walked towards the guest room.
Julia paused before walking into the room, turned to Stella, and said, “Thank you for everything you’ve done for Natalie and for me. It means more than you’ll ever know.”
A big smile cracked across Stella’s face as she said, “Anytime. Natalie’s a really great kid,” before leaving the girls and heading to the kitchen.
Stella thought about a lot in that short walk to the kitchen. Maybe she was overthinking things — it had only been a couple of months since she stopped taking her birth control. There’s no way she got pregnant that quick; it was all probably just her body trying to readjust. She made a beeline for the fridge, reaching for a beer, but something in Stella stopped her from grabbing that beer and instead she shut the fridge and headed back to the bathroom.
Pulling out that pregnancy test, she placed it on the counter again, staring at it for a minute before deciding it was now or never.
The next three minutes felt like the longest three minutes of her life as she paced around the bathroom waiting for that timer to go off. When it did, she froze, unsure what she really wanted that result to be. She stood there for a minute, a million and one thoughts racing through her head. She walked toward the counter and picked up the test. Positive. Positive, she repeated to herself in her head. The more she did, the more it sank in. The more the feeling became real. The more the fear was washed away by happiness — happiness that she was pregnant, happiness that they were going to be parents, happiness that she would get to witness Kelly be a dad. It took her a moment, but when she finally snapped back to reality, the first thing she wanted to do was tell Kelly — but of course he wasn’t there, so she called him.
“Hey babe,” Kelly answered.
“Hey, how much longer are you going to be?” Stella asked.
“Ahh, we’re almost done — should be home soon,” he continued.
“Okay, I love you,” Stella said, to which Kelly replied, “I love you too,” before they both hung up. Sensing something was up with his wife but not sure what, and with the fact he really wanted all this Pascal stuff to be over and to just go home and be with his wife, Kelly said his goodbyes and headed straight home.
Natalie and Julia were still in the guest room packing Natalie’s things, so Stella had headed back into the kitchen to try to keep herself busy until Kelly got home when she heard the jingle of keys in the front door.
Turning to face the door, she saw her husband step through and headed straight to him.
“Nice work, Lieutenant,” she said as he let out a sigh.
“Long night,” he replied as they both leaned in for a kiss. Missing a beat, Stella grabbed Kelly’s hand and said, “I have the cure,” as she led him towards the guest room. Unsure what was happening, Kelly looked at her asking, “What?” as if it would ease his confusion.
“I wanna show you something,” Stella said, continuing to lead him towards the guest room. Continuing to coax him, they both stopped shy of the hallway, peering around to see Natalie and Julia happier than they had been in the last few weeks. They both turned and looked at each other, sharing a smile that was not only full of relief but happiness at the same time.
Heading back towards the kitchen, Kelly let out another sigh of relief at the thought it was finally just him and his wife again. Stella turned to Kelly, sensing the weight that had just been lifted off his chest, and began to search for the words to tell him what she’d been wanting to tell him in the most perfect way.
“You have had so much going on lately and I know that I have been emotional about everything,” she started to say while guiding her husband towards their bedroom.
Before she could even continue her sentence, Kelly interjected with a “Hey, hey, hey. You don’t have to explain,” to let her know there was no need for her to apologize for the emotional mess she had been.
They both stopped in their tracks, eyes interlocked, when Stella, full of emotion, said, “There’s something else. Something you need to see. I think things are about to change around here,” before continuing to guide her confused husband into their bedroom.
They both entered the bedroom, stopping in the doorway as Kelly looked around, getting even more confused when Stella pointed across the room at the object she was hoping his eyes would find. They both turned to look at each other, Stella fighting with her emotions to not give it away before Kelly, still confused, walked across the room to the dresser where Stella’s pregnancy test was sitting. Still confused at what he was looking at, Kelly looked back and forth between his wife and the test in his hand before everything all made sense, and the only words that could come out were, “Are you, are you kidding me?”
Before Stella said the three words that would forever be played on repeat in his mind: “Kelly, we’re pregnant.” Overcome with emotion, Kelly headed straight to his wife, showering her with kisses before they embraced, not wanting to let go of each other of he moment.