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Stella was sitting in the hospital room bored out of her mind. She had been ready to go back to the fire house and get back to work after regaining consciousness, but no, Kelly had made the decision she was going to Med to get checked out properly. Was it probably the right thing to do, especially with her history of lung issues? Yes, but that didn’t mean much to her right now since they had said she had to stay overnight for observation.
Ripley had been clear with his warnings, Phosgene gas had a lot of symptoms that might not show up right away, none of which she wanted. Respiratory failure, heart failure, pulmonary edema, no thank you. So while right now she felt fine and her vitals looked good, that didn’t mean she was fully in the clear, not yet.
Kelly had came with her in the ambulance, told Cruz he was acting Lieutenant on Squad until he got back and to radio him if anything happened. But with the way he gave the instructions it was clear that short of the entire city being on fire or blown up somehow, he wouldn’t be leaving Stella till he absolutely had to.
He didn’t know the new nurses as well as he had some of the old ones. When April had left Med he lost his main advantage card, but now Maggie was out on personal leave too and the ED was full of travel nurses. The Kelly Severide stare down didn’t have the same effect on them. They hadn’t seen him punch a hole in the wall when Stella was hurt years before, hadn’t seen him camp out in the chair beside her bed after the RPG explosion. It meant it was a little harder to convince them that there was no chance of him leaving Stella’s side, but eventually they got the memo.
He’d stayed as long as he could, asked every Doctor that entered the room a million questions. Was this a typical presentation? What symptoms were they looking out for? Would her missing a lobe of her lung affect her recovery? But once she was settled in a room and they’d got the results of the first round of tests, all of them looking good so far, he did have to go back to the fire house. Pascal was still out, Hermann was out, and now she was in hospital which left Mouch as the only actual officer still there and even then he was still pretty new to the role. Kelly had kissed her half a dozen times before leaving, promised he’d be back as soon as he could and finally left her side for the first time since he’d picked her up to carry her over to the Medics. Violet and Lizzie were giving him a ride back to the fire house in the back of 61 after dropping off another patient and Violet had ended up radioing him to hurry up.
Which meant that Stella was alone in a hospital room. Waiting for herself to develop symptoms or to get the all clear. Either way, she was stuck waiting. Which wasn’t exactly her strong suit.
Kelly had made sure she had her phone before he left. Made her promise to update him on every little thing that happened in his absence, no matter if it was big or small. He wanted to know what crappy TV was playing or what flavour jello was in the cafeteria today.
Stella picked up her phone and had a debate with herself. She’d mentioned it to Kelly, if she should tell Isaiah what happened and he agreed it was the right thing to do, but she was still hesitant about putting any more on his plate. His mom was already in hospital and the doctors were still talking about it taking time and not having any solid answers. So letting him know that she was now in hospital too, and playing a bit of a waiting game herself wasn’t exactly something she wanted to do.
But she’d been the one who told the doctors working on his mom not to hide anything from him, so she couldn’t be the one to do it now.
She wrote the message, stared at it, deleted it, typed it again for it to say almost the exact same thing and finally sent it before she could think any more about it. He deserved to know what was happening. The right wording or tone wasn’t quite as important.
Her relationship with Isaiah was a weird one. He seemed to bond a lot easier with Kelly, maybe because all the time the two of them spent playing the Xbox together, maybe because Kelly wasn’t overthinking every little thing he said or did. Either way, her relationship with him was different. She was trying to be honest, trying to be a safe place for him to come home to. Be what he needed whether that was helping with homework or helping him deal with everything that was going on in his life, and the emotions that came with it. Him shouting hadn’t been great, but she would rather he shouted, rather he let out his emotions in whatever way he knew how to than hold everything inside. She could help him with coping mechanisms later, had started to after dropping stuff off to the Hermann’s, but at the end of the day he was a teenage boy going through a really difficult time. Teenage years were hard anyway, never mind when your mom is hospitalised and it’s unclear what the future is going to be.
Isaiah, in his defence, didn’t seem to outright dislike Stella, more just that he didn’t know what to make of her and her role in his life. He had a mom, he didn’t need or want another. There was space for Kelly, he wasn’t stepping on someone else’s toes. She was.
Hannah poked her head in the door, providing a welcome distraction. “Hey, how are you feeling?” She wasn’t her doctor, just dropping by to check in on her friend.
“Bored,” Stella replied. “Only a little bit worried that at some point this is going to hit me and I’ll be unconscious again.”
Hannah laughed, “Well if it does you are in the right place.”
“I suppose,” Stella sighed. “What about you, how’s pregnancy treating you?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Not too bad so far. Dean’s getting on my nerves but that’s not too unusual.” She had been hanging around the edge of the room, moved closer to sit the bag of clothes on the chair beside the bed, “Anyway I brought by your clothes. All nice and decontaminated.”
“Thank you. Must say I think I’m rocking the gown though.”
“Oh definitely, you pull it off,” Hannah agreed, leaning against the door frame and resting one hand on her stomach “Anyway I better go and get back to work.”
“Tell Dean he can’t tell you what to do while you’re carrying his child,” Stella told her. Before the miscarriage, in that week she’d had of being pregnant she’d made that joke to Kelly. Anything and everything he said was met with a reminder that she was the mother of his child. He didn’t agree on a dinner choice? Too bad, she was carrying his child.
“Will do,” Hannah laughed. “As soon as you get the all clear I will be back and in that chair so we can catch up. It’s been too long.”
“You’ll need to fight Kelly for it, he said he’d come back at some point but he has a fire house that he’s in charge of so…,” Stella trailed off.
“From what I know about your husband I don’t think he’ll let that stop him.” Hannah said, finally leaving after all their goodbyes.
Stella stared at the spot her friend where her friend had been for a couple minutes. Kind of hated her brain as it reminded her of how Hannah was starting to show, she had the slightest bump and her hand had barely left it. She was happy for her friend, absolutely thrilled for her, but still devastated it wasn’t her too.
Her phone buzzed, pulling her back to the present and out of her daydream.
She grabbed it and quickly unlocked it, expecting it to be Kelly checking in. Asking how she was feeling, if the doctors had said anything new. But that wasn’t who the message was from.
It was Isaiah.
Are you okay?
She didn’t want to leave him waiting. Sent a reply a minute later.
Yes, Doctors are just keeping me overnight for observation. Should be home in the morning.
She didn’t hear from him any more after that. Picked up the TV remote to try and find a way to occupy herself for the evening.
~
Kelly had left Stella at the hospital, even though he absolutely didn’t want to. As soon as he left the room he was planning ways that he could make it work to go back already.
After a ride from Violet and Novak where they had asked for all the updates on Stella, they got back to the fire house and he went to his office. He had things to figure out. It was unlikely he’d get a floater Truck Lieutenant so they were pretty much guaranteed to stay out of service and he knew Cruz could handle Squad. He wasn’t really considering him staying at the fire house as an option, he wanted to be with Stella, but he was trying to make sure things would run smoothly with him, Stella, Pascal and Hermann out. Hermann may not be an officer any more but he had been a Lieutenant for years and some experience as a Captain so it still counted for something. If they really desperately needed him he would come back, but the good part of being in charge was that no one could tell him what to do.
He had already got Stella’s bag out of her locker, grabbing some things from her locker and her office that she might want, and was now getting some paperwork out of his office so that even if he wasn’t in the fire house he could still be somewhat productive. He’d just finished double checking he had everything when his phone started ringing.
Preparing for the worst case scenario, Med calling with news on Stella, he closed his office door before even taking his phone out his pocket. If he was about to be told that Stella had taken a turn for the worse he wanted a bit of privacy to process that.
When he finally checked the contact name, he was surprised, but also very relieved.
“Isaiah, hey what’s up?” he said after answering the call.
“Nothing, I just heard that Stella got hurt.”
“Yeah, she did, but she’s fine now. Doctors are keeping an eye on her.”
“What hospital is she in?”
“Gaffney,” Kelly replied without thinking. Once he did he had a follow-up question for Isaiah, “Why? What are you thinking?”
Isaiah hesitated before he answered, “I was going to head over there. The bus stop’s not far.” Along with the hesitation before he spoke, his voice sounded a little guilty, like he was waiting on getting into trouble. As if his feelings were inconvenient. He had to schedule in visits to his mom, wait for the Doctor’s permission to enter the room. But caring about someone couldn’t be scheduled into pre-approved time slots.
“You want to go and see Stella?”
“The doctors say all kinds of stuff about my mom but I don’t really believe them until I see her myself.” It wasn’t so much an answer to Kelly’s question, more his reasoning behind it.
“Okay,” Kelly said. “I’m about to head back over now, I can pick you up on the way.”
Kelly stayed on the phone for another couple of minutes. Then went to where the rest of the house was in the common room to let them know of his plans. As the person in charge at the moment, should he be leaving the fire house? Probably not. But rules weren’t going to stop him from being with Stella.
When Isaiah got in the car, Kelly had been quick to warn him, “It’s outside visiting hours so I don’t know how this will go.”
“Why are you going then? If you don’t know if they’ll let you in.”
“Cause I don’t care too much about them letting me in, I’m going. Plus I know some of the doctors and staff there, hoping they’ll do me a solid.”
“Will we get into trouble?”
“We shouldn’t. But it’s my fault if we do.”
Over the course of Isaiah staying with them the last few weeks, he had asked them some questions. Either about their job, their relationship or them as people. Sometimes piggybacking off of something they’d said or sometimes out of the blue. “How do you know the staff at the hospital so well?”
“One of the nurses that used to work there lived down the street from me when I was a kid, she was one of my best friends growing up. A lot of the others I’ve either worked with or they’ve treated me or someone I know. Firefighters, doctors and police officers overlap a lot.”
They parked the car and headed inside, Kelly already knew where he was going so they didn’t need to ask for directions.
“You said Stella’s fine, right?” Isaiah asked as they walked down the corridor. They’d walked past a couple nurses and doctors but no one bothered them about being there.
“She was when I was here earlier. Told her to update me if anything changed and she hasn’t.” Paused a second before he added, “So she better be,” in a more lighthearted tone.
Isaiah chuckled at the last part. One of the things he found strange about Kelly and Stella was their relationship. His own parents weren’t together so seeing the two of them be so affectionate and clear with their feelings about each other wasn’t something he was used to.
Kelly stopped in his tracks and after a look inside the room said, “Looks fine to me,” Tilting his head for Isaiah to head in.
At the sound of Kelly’s voice, Stella had already been looking at the doorway. She’d been expecting Kelly to walk through but not for Isaiah to be with him.
“Hey, what are you doing here?”
Isaiah answered, “Everyone always says they’re okay, doesn’t mean it’s true.”
Stella nodded, remembering what he’d said when they’d talked about the Hermann’s, that you couldn’t really know how someone was feeling. “I get that, seeing is believing. Honestly though, I’m fine. Doctor just wants to make sure of it.” After she’d finished speaking she grabbed Kelly’s hand to pull him closer to her and away from what he was looking at. Isaiah wasn’t the only one who wanted proof of her being okay, Kelly had went over to her monitors, reading the screen and doing his own assessment.
“You’re watching the Bulls game?” Isaiah asked, noticing the TV in the corner of the room.
“It was between that, the news, or some 20 year old soap opera. Easy decision.”
“I was watching it at the apartment. Did you see Buzelis’s jump shot?”
“I did,” Stella told him.
The three of them got engrossed in the game, conversation dying down so they could pay attention. Isaiah was in the chair beside the bed, and Kelly was sitting on the edge of the bed, Stella had moved to one side to make room for him. It also meant that Kelly had a good view to keep sneaking a look at all of her monitors. The image of his wife unconscious on the ground hadn’t left his mind yet.
When the game finished and the adverts started playing on the TV, Stella started up a conversation, “You mentioned tryouts for the basketball team at school, right? I’m pretty sure there’s a basketball court at the park a couple blocks over from the loft.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. We could go over there and practice.”
“We?” Isaiah asked, looking between Stella and Kelly.
“If you want competition don’t look at me. Stella’s better than me.” The two of them were competitive, the arcade game and now the pool table in the loft got regular use. Sometimes they’d use it to settle disagreements, loser had to fold the laundry. Sometimes all it took was one of them saying, ‘Still think you can beat me?’ to get them started. Neither of them would admit defeat, claiming luck or whatever else they could come up with. But Kelly couldn’t deny that Stella was good at basketball and he also knew that it would do Stella and Isaiah some good to bond over something. He could bring Isaiah along to OFI, she couldn’t bring him to Girls on Fire or Molly’s.
“Yeah?” Isaiah asked, looking at just Stella this time.
“The fire house played a game against CPD a few months ago. I’m the reason fire won. Certainly wasn’t Hermann’s coaching skills.”
“Were you the Captain?” Isaiah asked her.
“Unofficially.” She looked up at Kelly, “I may have got a little competitive.”
“A lot competitive,” Kelly said, kissing her forehead.
“Whatever,” Stella said. She realised the time and continued, “Anyway, you’ve got school in the morning. You should get back to the loft to get ready.” It wasn’t exactly late, but it had already been dark when they went on the call and it had been a couple hours since.
“Okay,” Isaiah agreed.
Kelly stood up and grabbed his car keys from his pocket. “Come on, I’ll take you back.”
“Thank you for coming,” Stella said to Isaiah before they left.
“I’m glad you’re okay.”
While Stella getting hurt wasn’t a good thing, was in fact something they all could have done without, it had at least led to a step forward in her relationship with Isaiah. It was clear that they both cared about each other, but until then it had only been shown in the smaller moments. This gave them a way to show it that made it more obvious.
It didn’t take long for Kelly to get back after dropping off Isaiah. This time bringing her bag in from the car. Some clothes and toiletries for her, and some paperwork to finish off for him.
“Kelly,” Stella said, getting his attention. They’d been sitting in silence for a while with her reading and him filling in reports.
“What’s up?” he asked, looking away from his paperwork to look at her.
“You should really be at the fire house right now.”
“Probably,” Kelly agreed. “Doesn’t mean I’m going though.” It was a well-known fact that he wasn’t a fan of hospitals, but they weren’t exactly Stella’s favourite place either. Even if they were, even if they hadn’t got bad news in hospitals twice in the last few months, once on a different floor of the one they were in, he still wouldn’t leave her.