Saving Stella - A Stellaride story

lost without you (3)

Stella's POV*

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

I wake up to the sound of my alarm, I reach over and hit it off as I look at the time, 5am, the morning of my first shift as a firefighter, I do hope I can get used to these early mornings. 

I sit up and stretch as I hear a groan from Grant who is fully dressed with an empty beer bottle on his chest and more scattered on the floor next to his side of the bed, must have got that drunk he knocked himself out, I thought to myself.

I stand up and thank the lord that the pain from last night's events had eased. 

I walk out the bedroom and into the kitchen where I begin to make myself some breakfast, whilst its cooking I go and get my bag ready for shift, with a change of clothes and some small essentials to get me through the next 24hrs. 

once my bag was packed I go to eat my breakfast at the kitchen island.

once I had eaten my breakfast I started to clear up the mess I made so as not to give Grant an excuse to be mad at me. 

man am I so glad I will get a full day away from Grant, the long time spells apart may do us some good. I can only hope. 

Once I was done Cleaning I check the time. On time, not bad i think to myself as I grab my car keys and exit the apartment.

...

I arrive at the firehouse with plenty of time to spare. I grab my bag from my passenger seat and get out of my car, I stand at my car for a couple of minutes before I see a group start to head into the firehouse chatting amongst themselves and I follow behind them. They must be the firefighters I will be on shift with. 

"Hey, you must be the new candidate" I heard from infront of me as an older gentleman had turned round noticing I was following behind

I raise my hands and walk forward "That will be me, Im Stella, Stella Kidd" I say sticking my hand out to him to which he shook 

"Hermann, Christopher Hermann, nice to meet you Kidd" he let go of my hand and pointed towards the firehouse door "well welcome to the firehouse 51 family" he held the door open for me as I walked in. 

"Let's introduce you to everyone" he walks me through to the common room where a group was gathered and he proceeded to introduce me to everyone. 

I start to have conversations with everyone and I begin to feel like I've known them all for a lifetime. Our conversations are cut short when a familiar face walks in "yo, chief wants us all in the briefing room" it was Kelly, he made his announcement to everyone as they all dispersed into the common room and I followed. 

"Hey you! Glad to see you made it for your first shift" I hear from Kelly as im about to walk through the door as he smiles at me and i cant help but smile back as i take a seat at a table waiting for our Chief to start a morning brief. 

"Good Morning 51"

"Morning chief" everyone said in unison

"so you may have all seen a new face around here this morning" he said first as he pointed at me "this is firefighter Stella Kidd,  51's new candidate for truck, I hope you all give her a warm welcome, welcome to the family Kidd" I nod at him and smile as he continues with his breifing

After the briefing everyone heads out to do their own thing and I decide to have a nosey around the house to familiarise myself with everything. 

"want me to give you a tour" I heard from behind me, I turn around to see Kelly lent against the door frame to what im guessing was his bunk/office.

"oh hey, yeah that would be helpful, I'm just a lost puppy at the moment" I said with a sigh of relief 

he smiled at me as he put his pen on the desk then began to walk over to me "so lets start through here" he said as he pointed down the hall and we started walking through the firehouse. 

our tour was cut short as the alarms went off requesting for squad and ambo 

"we will continue when i get back" he said walking backwards towards the app floor

I smiled as I walked into the common room and took a seat on the couch when a dog came over to lie next to me and rested their head on my legs 

"well aint you the sweetest thing" I said as I started to stroke the dog 

...

It was now a couple of hours into the shift and I've been on a couple of calls that weren't to big, I was enjoying my shift so far, I love this job. 

I was back in the common room talking to Sylvie Brett, the paramedic for ambo 61, we had become pretty close, we have already exchanged numbers and arranged to meet for breakfast after shift

"Stella Kidd, theres a gentleman out on the app floor looking for you" Capp said as he entered the common room

I nodded and headed out to the app floor where I saw Grant. I took a deep breath before I continued walking over to him 

"Grant, hey what are you doing here" I pretended to be happy to see him just hoping he wouldn't make a scene. 

"I missed you, you were gone before I woke up this morning" I smiled as I realised that was the first time he ever said anything remotely kind to me in a while "plus i need a favour" and there it was, the real reason he came to find me 

"what do you need Grant" I asked

"I need some cash, im all out and I need to go meet Derek, im out" I'm guessing Derek was his dealer. 

"Grant im at work I dont have cash on me at the minute, can you wait until I finish shift" his eyes filled with anger. 

"Grant please I finish in another 6 hours can you hold of until then" He quickly grabbed my arms and squeezed them really hard 

"you know I can't do that" He said as he began to sweat, as withdrawal must be kicking in already so soon.

"okay,  okay, let me go get my card and you can go to the bank and get some cash out" I said as i pushed his hands off me "just wait here" I say as I head to the locker room to get my wallet out my bag, where I took my card out before heading back out to Grant. 

"here, you remember the pin right"

"yeah, thank you! I love you, you know that, and i'll be lost without you" he said catching me off guard, I cant remember the last time I heard him say he loved me, maybe its the drug withdrawal speaking, he was always the most loving man when he was sober and didn't have any drugs in his system, this is why I stay with him, as I want to one day help him find the man he was before. I know the old grant is in there somewhere. 

I smile up at him as he pulls me into a hug, at first I dont hug back but its been months without a close affection so I hugged him back hoping to make it last longer, "you mean everything to me, dont ever leave me, i need you" he whispered to me as we hugged but he soon pushed me off him as he headed out the firehouse without a good bye

I stood there for a moment before I turned round to head back inside, where I saw Kelly quickly turn away and walk back inside as if he didn't want to bump into me.

Kellys POV*

I was about to walk out to the squad table after finishing my paper work from today's calls, when I walked out onto the app floor I saw Stella and her husband hugging. 

I suddenly remember the awkward situation from last night and didn't fancy him seeing me and causing a scene so I quickly turned back on my heel and head back inside. 

Authors note* this scene is my take on the gif image attached