No Ordinary Love...What Comes Next?

Trying To Do Better

S12 E12.  Under Pressure.

Because not everything that happens gets seen on screen...

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The motel room was pretty indescript, and despite the gorgeous Californian sunshine outside the window, the tired decor and the beige blinds at the window were determined to keep the sunshine outside, at the threshold of the room.
Stella pulled a face. If there was one thing the CFD were pretty hot about...its was budgets, so her duty trip across the country to check out a replacement truck sadly entitled her to no more than clean but basic accommodation.

"Yeah, I checked out the rig. It's pretty much the same, babe....But I'm also pretty sure that Mouch is gonna find a reason, not to like it." Stella could already picture Mouch, circling the new truck, his mouth curling downwards, snapping open compartments, running his finger over every last thing, looking for a fault.

"A rig's a rig." Kelly's response was so typically him. Conservative with his words and to the point.

"Yeah, I guess. " Stella rolled over onto her belly and stared longingly into the screen on her phone and at her husband, sitting at his desk back at 51. The trip to California to source a new truck had sounded great on paper but in reality no fun on her own and she just wished she was back at home with Kelly, instead of lying here on this cheap bedspread, particularly as she knew he'd be heading home in a couple of hours. She'd only been gone two days on her mission to evaluate the new Truck, but she had decided before the plane even left the runway at Midway that her and Kelly had spent far too many days and nights apart in the last year. And after what had nearly happened to him, the night truck got stolen. Being away from him was the last thing she wanted to do right now.

"I wish I could have caught up with   D C. Hill already, and got back home.  But the earliest she can see me is tomorrow afternoon. "  Stella let out a deep sigh.

Kelly leant back in his seat, thinking he wasn't particularly relishing going home to an empty apartment, experiencing a guilty conscience, at how often Stella had had to do that whilst he had been away. "If you can get D.C Hill in Boden's corner, hopefully Chief will throw his hat in the ring."

"I really hope so. Though the selfish part of me doesn't want him to ever leave us." Stella's heart hurt at the thought of their beloved Chief leaving 51. He was family. Hell, he was more than that. The only father figure she'd ever had. Including her own.

Kelly nodded. "Sure wouldn't be the same without him..."

He couldn't help but see the conflict on Stella's face, and he felt a surge of sympathy for her.  He knew how attached she was to the Chief. They all were, but for Stella, he knew that for all her outward confidence, Stella's lack of any real family left some very deep wounds that she tried hard to cover up. But the vindictive bitch, Field Chief Robinson needed a worthy competitor and in his mind Wallace Boden was the only candidate who could derail her single minded drive to one of the most prestigious positions in the CFD. And if Stella could gain him an advantage with a sell to D.C Hill, then it would be well worth it.

"So what's your plan for the rest of today in the Oakland sunshine?" Kelly  tried to divert her attention away from the prospect of losing Boden.

"Oh, sooooo much!  I might head down to the state of the art motel gym....." Stella rolled over again and pulled a face, her dark eye's sardonic. "Or...I may go and lie by the 'to die for, pool,' and top up my tan."

"Damn, you took a bikini with you?"
Kelly played along with her sarcasm, his eyes wide in pretend pain, thinking at the same time, how much better he always slept when they went home after shift and had sex, but right now there was zero chance of that with Stella on the other end of a phone screen.