New Beginnings: A Stellaride Story

Shattered Universe

"Chief, let us go in and get him. He'll be almost out of air if not out already," Cruz says, gearing up to go back into the fire. "Stand down, Cruz. The fire is too volatile. I can't risk any more men," Boden orders while pulling out his phone. "Copy that, Chief," Cruz replies, a little irritated.

"Wallace, did you find him?" Jennifer asks, answering Boden's call. The look on her face instantly changes as Boden recalls everything that has happened. Trying to keep her cool and not worry Stella any more than she already is, Jennifer says, "Okay, thank you. Keep us updated." Stella looks over at Jennifer, her face the most worried it has looked all day, blurting out, "What's wrong? What's happened to Kelly? Where is he? Is he okay?" as her eyes start to fill with tears.

"Nothing, everything's fine," Jennifer starts to say through a fake smile before Stella cuts her off bluntly saying, "Don't lie to me, what's wrong?" as another contraction hits. Still trying to hide the fact that everything is not okay, Jennifer says, "Let's just focus on you and the baby," before Stella cuts her off again, "It's going to be worse if you don't tell me, so just tell me what's going on."

"Okay, if you really must know, Kelly is at a factory fire, and nobody has heard or seen him in about 20 minutes. They believe he is still in the building, but there was an explosion and nobody can get in to find him and he is unresponsive on the radio," Jennifer explains. Right at that moment, Stella feels her whole universe shattered into a million pieces. She needs him. She can't do this without him.

In what felt like an eternity, everyone gathered outside the factory waiting for Kelly to come out or for the okay to go in and search for him. Boden tried continuously to reach him on the radio with no luck. Suddenly, emerging from the smoke and the flames, two shadows appear. In between coughs and rapid breathing, they hear a familiar voice yell, "Buildings all clear. Let's hit this thing," before the medics run over to check out Kelly and the victim he pulled out.

"Not me, him," Kelly says as he sees them running towards him. "Severide," Brett starts to say before Kelly cuts her off, saying, "I'm good. I'm just a little winded," not realizing everything that has happened in the last 20 minutes. He heads straight to the squad to grab himself a bottle of water and catch his breath, not even noticing Boden standing there amongst the crowd.

"Severide," Boden says as he approaches him. "Chief, when did you get here?" Kelly asks before noticing his face. "Wait, what's wrong? Is it Stella? What's happened to her?" He frantically asks before grabbing his phone out of the squad and noticing the multiple missed calls from Stella and his mom. "You need to go now. Stella's in labor," Boden tells Kelly. "Take my buggy and head straight to Med," he continues before Kelly races off, hoping he isn't too late.

Still in shock and trying to process everything she just heard, the only words Stella can get out are, "Where is he? He needs to be here," before Dr. Cooper walks in to check on how everything is progressing. She does her checks and looks up at Stella and says, "Okay, only a few more centimetres and it's time to push." Stella looks at Dr. Cooper, her face conveying so much stress and fear, and says, "No, I can't. I can't do it without Kelly. He needs to be here." "Stella, I'm sorry to say this, but it's not exactly something we can wait on. If we do, it can make things more difficult and cause harm to you or your baby," Dr. Cooper explains.

"No, I can't. I can't," Stella says as she begins to break down. Jennifer looks over at Dr. Cooper and gives her an "I've got this" look before the doctor leaves the room. Jennifer walks over towards Stella and grabs her hand, saying, "Stella, I know this is difficult, but we have to believe that Kelly is fine and that he will be here. I know it may not seem like it right now, but he will be. You need to stay strong for you and this baby." That's when the tears start to flood from Stella's eyes.

Kelly races up to the front of Med and jumps out of the buggy, heading straight for the stairs as there was no way he was waiting for the elevator. Racing into the maternity ward, he rushes to the nurses' station, barely getting a word out between his rapid breaths, and says, "My wife, Stella Kidd-Severide." The nurse cuts him off and says, "Room 112," and he rushes off to find her.

As Stella lays there on the hospital bed, fighting the pain and the tears, she hears a voice start calling out her name over and over again before seeing Kelly appear in the doorway. "I'm here. I'm here," he says as he rushes towards the bed and grabs her hand. Watching the two of them, Jennifer smiles before quietly heading out to the waiting room. "I wouldn't miss this for the world," Kelly whispers in Stella's ear as her grip on his hand tightens, and she begins to moan loudly as another strong contraction hits. Dr. Cooper walks into the room, doing another check, and then looks up at the two of them and says, "It's time. Are you two ready to meet your baby?"

Stella is exhausted; it feels like she has been pushing forever. "Okay, one more big one," Dr. Cooper says, looking up at Stella. Stella then looks over at Kelly, whose eyes are fixated on her, and she says, "I can't. I can't do this," her voice shaky. Without breaking eye contact, Kelly says, "Yes, you can. You've got this, Stella Kidd-Severide," before Stella lets out a massive groan, and there is a short silence before the room is filled with the sound of a crying baby. Before she knows it, a nurse is placing a baby in her arms. Her baby. Her and Kelly's baby. Both overcome with so much love and happiness, they can't hold back the tears. Kelly kneels down next to Stella, reaching out his hand to which his daughter wraps her hand around his finger. "Woah," he thinks to himself, "I have a daughter."

Both completely smitten, lying in the hospital bed together, not taking their eyes off their newborn daughter, they don't even notice the nurse walk into the room until she asks, "So does she have a name?" "Uhh," Kelly says as he looks towards his wife. Without missing a beat and not taking her eyes off her daughter, Stella says, "Riley Shay Severide." The nurse replies, "It suits her well," before leaving the room. "Stella," Kelly starts to say before Stella cuts him off, saying, "I know it wasn't exactly what we decided on, but..." "It's perfect," Kelly replies, cutting her off. "I love you. I love both of you," Kelly says before leaning in and kissing his wife.

Finally, after hours of rotating doctors and nurses, it was just the three of them. Kelly sits in the chair he placed right next to Stella's bed, nursing his daughter. There is a slight hush about the room as Stella finally gets some well-deserved sleep. She slowly awakens from her slumber, struggling to open her eyes. She tries to look towards Kelly and weakly says, "Kelly, I, I don't feel so good," before her voice drifts off. Kelly looks over towards her, noticing that all the color has drained from her face. He quickly jumps out of the chair, carefully placing Riley into the bassinet, and says, "Okay, okay. I'll go get a nurse, and I'll be right back," squeezing her hand before rushing out of the room.

"Someone is on their way," Kelly says as he walks back into the room. Suddenly, everything stops as he begins to hear all the monitors beep. "Stella. Stella. Stella," he starts to call loudly as he rushes towards the bed. "Stell, baby. Babe. Talk to me. Honey, talk to me," Kelly says, his eyes filling with tears. "What happened?" He thinks to himself, he was only gone no more than a minute. She was awake and alert when he left; now she's lying there unconscious. What the hell happened? "Come back to me. I need you. I can't do this without you," he whispers into her ear.