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“Hey Kelly,” Stella said as she answered his incoming facetime call. She was away in Detroit for a few days for a Girls on Fire trip, she had left the day before and wasn’t due to return home for another couple.
“Hi, honey,” he replied, a smile taking over his face at the sight of his wife. He quickly noticed her background and was confused by her location. “Where are you?”
Stella groaned at his question, a reminder of her less than pleasant situation. “The floor of the hotel bathroom. The takeout I had for dinner gave me food poisoning.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine. I’ll see how the rest of the night goes, hopefully I’ll be okay for tomorrow.”
The two talked for a while more, no matter how much Stella tried to hide it Kelly could tell just how rough she was feeling. She was the one that ended the call, as much as she wanted to talk to him, she didn’t want him to have to listen to her being sick through a phone call.
As soon as the call ended Kelly started packing a bag. He hated her being away from him anyway, but there was no chance he was staying away with her feeling like this. He took double the amount of clothes that he would actually need for the next few days, knowing that it was likely all she would want to wear too. She’d already been wearing one of his t-shirts when he was speaking to her, having managed to sneak it into her bag to take with her.
Kelly chose to drive instead of getting the same flight she did the day before. The drive took longer but it meant he didn’t have to wait about in an airport, he could leave as soon as he was ready, no worrying about the next flight time. He took her Jeep instead of his Mustang, she already had her own stuff with her and was a massive over packer, between that and the stuff he was bringing it was better to take her car for the extra space it provided.
After a four-hour drive, he made it to the hotel and ended up having a slightly annoying conversation with the guy at the front desk. While yes, it was a great thing they weren’t giving out guest information to anyone that walked in off the street, he was her husband. His name was listed as her emergency contact, and he was the one who had actually placed the booking. He’d put in all of her information without having to ask her for any of it, giving her more time to pack all of the many outfits she took for the short trip, even though she’d be in uniform a good part of the time.
Instead, he had to scroll through the many, many text messages Stella had sent him since she’d left. Along with at least one phone call minimum every night she’d send him texts updating him on every little thing. That the bed in the hotel room was comfortable, but too big without him in it. That the commissioner of the fire department was apparently planning to drop by for one of her workshops in the coming days. Then finally he found it, her bragging about the view out of her hotel room window, 1404.
He had stopped and grabbed a few things for her from the store. He didn’t know what she already had, but he did know what she would want. The snacks and drinks that she would want as well as a few other things. He had picked up some of her normal favourite snacks too, Taki’s might not be great while being sick, but she could have them when she was feeling better.
Kelly checked the time on his watch as he approached her door, knowing that if she had managed to get to sleep like she’d talked about hours ago, he would be waking her. Knocked on the door and waited for an answer.
He heard her footsteps approaching the door and what sounded like a groan of, “leave me alone. I didn’t order any room service.” He waited a minute as she checked through the peephole, then heard the sound of her quickly undoing the chain and unlocking the door.
“What are you doing here?” she asked as she opened the door to find him really standing there, not a figment of her imagination that she’d conjured while being tired and ill.
“You were lying on the bathroom floor. Did you really think I was going to stay at home?” Kelly replied as he made his way inside the room, dumping his bags and then going to lock the door again behind himself.
“What about work? You’re meant to be on shift tomorrow? Chief’s going to hate you.”
“Chief can deal with it. I sent a text and left a voicemail. I don’t care though; wife trumps boss every time. You hate being sick, no chance I was staying away.”
“I don’t think anyone really likes being sick.”
“No but other people might actually tell you how bad they’re feeling and let people take care of them.”
“You’re one to talk,” Stella retorted. He wasn’t exactly known for being upfront and honest about any injuries or ailments.
Finally, Kelly went for the most important thing, her. He reached for her planning to pull her into a hug.
“I’m disgusting and gross,” she warned him when she caught om to what he was doing.
“I don’t care,” he replied, pulling her into his arms anyway.
Despite her initial argument, she went easily. His arms were her favourite place to be.
“How are you feeling?”
“Better now,” she told him.
“Have you stopped being sick?”
“Think so. I just feel gross and sore. I was too tired to move from the floor.”
“Good. Do you want to go back to the bathroom or to the bed?” he asked. The two of them were still standing in the entryway of the room.
“Right here,” she replied. She hadn’t moved from him, her head still resting on his shoulder. All she needed to feel better was him, nothing else mattered.
Kelly chuckled, his arms moving so he could lift her legs up. She wasn’t moving or letting go of him anytime soon, so it was easier for him to just lift her. Picked up the bag of drinks and snacks on the way to bed, hoping he’d be able to coax something into her.
The next day she ended up being well enough to go to work, not having to miss out anything she had scheduled. If he hadn’t been there, she would have pulled herself together regardless of how she was feeling so that she didn’t disappoint anyone by having to cancel or do less on her visit. But with him there she didn’t have to pull herself together, he was there to do it for her. He made sure she was eating and drinking as much as she could, he made sure she actually got some sleep and not on the bathroom floor. He did as much as he could for her so that she wouldn’t have to do it.
During her trip Stella had a few days of taking and setting up the initial classes so that by the time she left the instructors taking over would be able to do it themselves. She had done it plenty of times, she had taught classes and skills in many different states and cities, but there was the added bonus this time of going back to the hotel and seeing her husband. Kelly continued to take care of her, even after she was back at full health. It was nice to still have some of her usual routines even while not being at home, collapsing on the bed to watch bad tv wearing his clothes was close enough to their nights at home in the loft.
Kelly had dropped by some of her stuff; he had offered to help if she needed it but didn’t want to get in the way. It was her program, and she was perfectly capable of doing it by herself, so he didn’t want to take over her stuff.
Stella didn’t need him but that didn’t mean she didn’t want him there. He was her number 1 fan, so it was nice to have him in the audience for a couple of things. She had practiced in front of him a million times, but he was still hanging on her every word. He could probably recite them just as accurate as she could but that didn’t mean he wasn’t impressed by every single thing she did.
On the last day Stella was doing a presentation for some of the bigwigs of the department. The program had already been approved and got the greenlight, she wouldn’t be there if it hadn’t been. So, this wasn’t a pitch for approval, it was to show them how successful the program had been in other cities and the initial number of signups for their own. What progress had already been made and the initial outlook for this set of classes.
Kelly had decided to come along to that meeting. Stella had mentioned to someone that her husband was in town, and they’d told her to bring him along and she hadn’t even dropped the Severide name. Kelly had brought his uniform with him, it was a back-up in case Boden was that annoyed, he could drive him and go straight to shift but that hadn’t been necessary. While Boden had been a little annoyed about him taking off with short notice, he couldn’t fault him for the reason. Boden has seen a lot of different versions of Kelly Severide over the years. The devoted husband who drove through the night to get to his sick wife is definitely his favourite.
After the presentation ended a few of the different chiefs were talking to Stella. Kelly didn’t want to interrupt her; he was quite happy to observe from the back of the room. He thought Stella was incredible, everything she did was an achievement in his eyes. But it was nice to see other people recognise her and be in awe of everything she was doing and how beneficial it was for young girls.
“It’s quite a program.” A man said as he approached Kelly, the commissioner by the looks of his uniform.
“Yeah, Lieutenant Kidd has put a lot of work into it to make it the best it can be,” Kelly replied.
“It is certainly very impressive. A young female lieutenant already having such a successful program. And having it implemented in so many cities as well.”
“Lieutenant Kidd is something else,” Kelly started before going on to describe some of her many rescues over the years as well as details of the classes she has run. The set-ups and courses she has made for the girls. Kelly went into extreme detail; he was proud of Stella and all the work she had put in and wanted everyone else to know how amazing she was.
“Wow. You know a lot about the program and it’s leader. I’m very impressed so far and glad we’ve got it set up for our own department.”
Kelly laughed, realising the commissioner hadn’t realised why and how he knew so much about it. “Yeah well, it’s a great program and she’s a great leader. Lieutenant Kidd is my wife though, so I might be a little biased.”
“I was wondering why there was another CFD lieutenant in attendance.”
“Kelly Severide, Stella’s husband and CFD Squad 3 Lieutenant.” Kelly explained, properly introducing himself.
“Severide huh, I’ve heard that name before. Heard about some of your own rescues Lieutenant. You’re pretty impressive yourself.”
“Thank you. My wife’s the impressive one though.”
Stella finished her conversation and noticed who Kelly was talking to and made her way over. By the time she got there the Commissioner had left and went to speak to someone else.
“Hey. What was that about?” she asked him. Normally she would have hugged him or put her hand on his neck or hip. But they were in a room full of unfamiliar Chiefs, so she was trying to be professional.
“I was just bragging that I’m married to you.”
“Yeah?”
Kelly nodded, “Yeah. You’re very impressive Lieutenant.”
Stella smiled, “It was nice having you here. Meant I didn’t have to go back to an empty hotel room.”
“I’ve got an idea of how we can spend our last night,” he suggested to her. “My wife’s just successfully set up her outreach program in another city and I think we should celebrate that.”
Kelly’s idea ended up being them an impromptu date night out. They had been out in Detroit a couple times over the last few days but between her initially feeling unwell and then having a busy schedule it hadn’t left them too much time for exploring. At least not together, with some of his down time Kelly had managed to scout out a couple places that they could go.
They were in the hotel room getting ready to go out. Kelly had just got out the shower while Stella was wrapped in a towel trying to decide what to wear.
“This is why I need to bring all the different options,” Stella told him, seeing him walk out the bathroom in the corner of her eye.
“Who were you going to go out with if I wasn’t here?” he teased her.
“Shut up,” she told him while smiling. “What I mean is that you never know what’s going to happen. I need outfits to suit every possibility. I just wish I had brought my leather jacket.”
Kelly had been standing in front of his own clothes that were hanging in the wardrobe, deciding what to wear himself. He reached for the hanger that had his leather jacket on it, took it off the hanger and threw it over to the bed for her.
Stella had seen what he’d done and looked at him to explain.
“Why do you think I brought so many clothes? I wear the same thing all the time.”
“You’ve really got this husband thing nailed,” she told him, walking over to him to kiss his cheek.
“I try my best,” Kelly replied, putting an arm around her so she couldn’t go anywhere. Leaned in for another kiss, not being satisfied with just a peck on the cheek.
They had ended up having a lovely night out just the two of them in a different city once they managed to make it out of the hotel room. They tried to have regular date nights at home, but it could be hard with them both being so busy. Regular jobs, side gigs, work trips and having a social life and hobbies didn’t make it easy, but they made the effort to make it work.
While his trip hadn’t been planned and had only happened because of a bad situation they had made the best of it anyway and turned it into a mini city break for them both.
On their walk back to the hotel Stella was holding onto his arm. “Thank you for coming. You didn’t need to do that, I would have been fine on my own,” she told him. “But I really appreciate that you did. It’s been more fun with you here.”
“Like I told you when I first got here, I wasn’t leaving you alone like that. You don’t need to be on your own or take care of yourself, I want to be there to do it for you.”
Stella nodded, taking in the slight seriousness of the conversation before she smirked, “You want to take care of me another way? We have until 10am tomorrow to make use of the hotel room.”
“Happily,” Kelly replied, grinning at her.