The Fear of the Past

A Different Side of Stella

Stella's POV:

I stood by the door waiting for Kelly. When he came out of his room, he cocked an eyebrow at me and asked "what are you doing? You have a car, I don't know why you're waiting for me."

"I thought that maybe we could ride in together. Because it would be easier." I offered.

"Ya sure, okay." he eyed me, "Let me just get my stuff."

"Okay." I said. "Oh jeez," I thought to myself, "Dawson is going to have a field day with this."

Nobody's POV:

When Stella and Kelly got to the Firehouse, and as they walked into the main common area, the conversations around them dissipated. Herman looked up from his newspaper and surveyed the young firefighters that had just walked through the door. "Well what do we have here?" He asked no one in particular.

Kelly shook his head smiling and walked out of the room to his own office. Once Kelly left the room, all eyes turned to look at Stella. "What?" she asked.

"Can I not catch a ride with Severide? He's letting me crash at his place." she said.

Before she could get an answer, she turned on her heels, and swiftly walked out of the room and headed towards the lockers.

~ A Few Hours Later ~

Severide's POV:

I looked over at my bedside clock. "10:30," I grunted. "I've got to get some sleep."

I peered out at the beds that the rest of the house slept in, and I saw a light coming from the bed in Stella's corner. "I wonder why she's still up." I thought to myself.

I got up and quietly walked over to her. I put my hand on her shoulder as I sat down next to her. I felt her jump and through the dark, I could see she was upset. "What's wrong?" I asked her.

She just shook her head and buried her face into my neck. "Hey," I said, "Its ok." I looked down at her, she didn't move. I put my arm around her waist, and whispered into her ear, "come with me."

I led her to my office and sat her down on my bed. "What's going on?" I asked her.

"It's nothing." she replied.

"It didn't seem like nothing." I countered. She looked up at me and sighed. She pulled up the text she'd been looking at. It was from Antonio. "Call me, it's about your sister." I read.

I shifted my gaze back at Stella, "You have a sister?" I asked. She nodded, a tear escaping from her eye as she looked down. "Come here," I said wrapping an arm around her and pulling her to my chest. "We can talk about this later okay?"

"Okay," she said meekly "Thank you Kelly."

"You know I'm here for you anytime you need Stella." I told her. She turned and nodded, "I know." she whispered as she closed my office door, and headed back to her bed.

A deep fear settled into my stomach that I couldn't identify. "I hope she's ok." I thought to myself, as I turned over and drifted into sleep.