No Ordinary Love...What Comes Next?

I'll See You Soon.

S12 Ep3 Trapped.

This is for everyone who asked me to write it.... Thank you for trusting me to do it...

♡♡♡♡♡

She told him he should go. There. The words were out of her mouth. And, yeah, she had noticed the flicker of relief that passed over his face, even though he was asking her if she was sure. And therein lay the key issue to all of this. The last six months...the tense smiles, the silences, the conversations about everything except this. He wanted to go and she knew it. Was she hurt? A little angry?Of course she was because he shouldn't want to go. To leave her on her own again. And therein lay the other problem to all of this. His love affair with arson... her nemesis. The one thing she couldn't compete with. But she was done fighting it. Because in order for them to work, she knew damned well that they needed to find room in their relationship for him to do this because if she didn't, she wasn't going to ever feel right about making Kelly choose. Because despite what he or anyone else may think, his happiness was vitally important to her and what kind of marriage would theirs be, if she was telling him what he could and couldn't do? She had meant it when she had said she never wanted him to feel trapped. Because she of all people knew what that felt like.

Disheartened and feeling bereft already about Kelly being away again, she went and sat down at her desk and pushed around the paperwork on her desk, making a pathetic attempt at pretending to do it until Sylvie popped her head through the doorway.

"Stella.. Do you have a minute?"

Stella put down the pen in her hand and smiled at her friend, eager to think of something other than her current Severide turmoil. Sylvie was a perpetual electric bulb beaming light these days. And why not? She was marrying the man she loved.

Inside her chest, fingers squeezed Stella's heart, remembering all too clearly, the time twenty months ago when she had worn this very same expression. She'd been so happy! A little mist collected over her eyes, and abruptly blinking and clearing her throat, she pasted a smile over her face.

"Hey...bride to be.... what's going on?"

"If you're busy, I can come back?" Sylvie hovered in the doorway.

"I'll never be too busy for you, Sylvie Brett... What's up?"

"Erm... " Sylvie came in, twisting her fingers. "Violet's organizing my bachelorette party..and I'm a bit nervous. In case she plans anything.. you know... too ..."

Stella laughed. "Wild?...No naked men gyrating in your face?.."

Sylvie giggled. "Definitely, no thank you on that."

"Yeah, sure, honey... I'll keep her reined in."

"Thanks, Stella.. I know I can trust you." Sylvie turned around to leave and then asked over her shoulder. " Everything ok with you?"

"Yeah... Everything is good." That word. Trust. Stella's smile was strained and false, but luckily, Sylvie didn't seem to notice and walked away.

Giving up on the paperwork, some time later, Stella grabbed her jacket, gloves, and beanie. She needed some air and to clear her head.

When Stella didn't appear for dinner, Kelly went to search her out. He'd spent the last few hours with his head buried in the AFT file but had made himself put it to one side when Capp had called out dinner, and then popped his head in her office, but she hadn't been there.. In the end, having exhausted the firehouse, not ever expecting to find her up there, he headed to the roof.

"Hey..."

"Hey.." she glanced over her shoulder.

She was sitting staring out into the night, her legs stretched out in front of her, her hands jammed in her pockets. It was cold!
Kelly felt his stomach dip, knowing she was brooding. Feeling like a jerk, his real instinct was to pick her up and wrap her in his arms.
But instead, he said.