Saving Stella - A Stellaride story

After the goodbye(64)

Stellas POV

we met everyone at Molly's, everyone continued to hug us and offer their condolences, Me and Kelly didn't drink any alcohol we stuck to soft drinks as neither of us felt like drinking, but that didn't stop everyone else from having a good time, which is what we wanted, we wanted everyone to be happy, even if me and Kelly found it hard to be. we wanted them to be happy for us. 

our kids were at daycare at the moment, but Annabelle promised to pick them up and keep them for the night. I feel like we haven't seen them a lot recently,but they don't seem to mind, they love visiting their aunties and uncles from our extended firehouse family. 

we stayed at mollys for a couple of hours before we decided to go home, we just wanted to be alone now in each other's arms.  we got up and said our goodbyes to everyone who all said something along the lines of "Always here if you need to talk".  we left mollys, got in an Uber Kelly had ordered and headed home. 

I opened the door and headed inside, the collar of my shirt feeling like it was choking me as I opened the top button, I heard Kelly close the door behind me as I turned round and look at him walking towards me, he stops in front of me and places his hat on the side next to me before he looks at me. I take my tie in his hand and stroke it before placing that same hand on the side of his face and neck. 

"thank you for being strong for me today, I couldn't have gotten through it without you" I say as I pull his face to mine as I place my other hand on the other side of his face as I kiss him. he kisses me back as he wraps his arms around me, I deepen the kiss, and it is only now that I realise we haven't kissed properly in a while. 

we continue kissing for a while before we both pull apart a little out of breath. Kelly picks me up and walks over to the sofa where he lies himself down and lies me on top of him "lets just stay here and cuddle all night" I hear Kelly say as he wraps his arm round me and I melt into his chest. he starts to stroke my back and every so often he kisses the top of my head.

...

5 weeks later

we have finally gone back to some normality, I am back on my depression medication as I could feel myself slipping down that wrong path and I immediately recognised the old bad habits and quickly booked in to see Dr Charles, he reassured me it was only normal I was feeling the way I was, he would have been surprised if he had not seen me.  

Kelly had gone back to work last week, he said its done him wonders as hes had the constant distraction, I believed him and decided I will get back to duty, I was cleared by the doctor to stat whenever I feel up to it, so I decided as soon as possible, my next shift was tomorrow. 

I spent the whole day with the kids playing with them, feeding them, bathing them, before ending the day with us all lay on the sofa watching a Disney film. the twins were asleep next to me, leaning against each other and Toby was lying at the other end of the sofa lay against the armrest half asleep, cuddling his dalmatian teddy.  

I smile at them as I turn my gaze back to the TV, a few moments passed before I heard a knock on the door, I looked at the time it was 8pm, I wasn't expecting anyone. I stand up and look at the kids who are now all asleep, before walking round the archway, to the door. I look through the peep hole on the door but the person standing there is turned around. 

I open the door slightly "Hello, can I help you" I ask, and the figure turns around, the light from our porch lighting up their face. I didn't recognise her

"Hello I'm looking for a Mr and Mrs Severide" the lady says as she holds up her badge "My name is Vera Gantry from Child and family protective services, we have received an anonymous complaint requesting us to do  welfare check on your children, with reports of child abuse and neglect" She says as my eyes burrow and confusion crosses my face