Okay, so it’s Stellaride Appreciation Week right now. I decided to try to make a good Stellaride One-Shot. Not sure how good it turned out, but I hope y’all enjoy. This one is for the Day 2 prompt “You’re Safe”.
Stellaride Appreciation Week
“Your Safe” Here in My Arms… With Me
6 months had passed since that fateful day. 6 months since the day that she almost lost him, and 51 had almost lost their squad members. Thankfully, they had each made it out alive, but some had been worse than others. Capp and Tony had been the first two out from underneath the boat, and where ultimately fine. They each had to spend the night in the hospital as a precaution, but got released the next day. Cruz had inhaled a tad bit more water than both of them and was the third person out. He had developed pneumonia as a complication of the water, but got released in around 5 days.
However, Severide being the lieutenant, also meant that he made sure everybody got out before him. Which led to him taking the brunt of most of the physical injuries. He had inhaled so much water that he was unconscious when they dragged him out. He spent 2 weeks in the hospital, one of which was spent on a ventilator while allowing his lungs the time to recover. Stella had never left his side once throughout those entire two weeks and the weeks after. She went to work and came straight home to him.
6 months later though, and the physical injuries where long healed. Severide was still having trouble with the mental reminders of that day though. He hadn’t had but maybe 5 full nights of sleep in the entire 6 months that had passed. He woke up almost nightly after having some kind of nightmare, which differed every night mostly. Some nights it was of him thinking of Stella and the promise he had made her, before everything faded to black. Other nights it was of a member of squad not making it out alive.
Most nights Stella would reassure him that everything was okay and rub his back, except for the nights that she was so asleep she didn’t hear him wake up. The days following the accident had initially given her nightmares, but those had gone away mostly within a month of the accident. She wasn’t quite sure what she could do to help him with this though.
As they both laid in bed, sound asleep, on the quite Chicago night, she was jostled awake when she felt him moving and could hear what sounded like him calling her name. As she sat up, he jumped up from where he was laying, breathing heavy and fast.
“Kelly, babe. Everybody is fine.” – she repeated in a soft and tender voice, while rubbing the circles around his back.
“Everybody got out and is okay. Cruz, Capp, Tony, and you all got out. Your all here and your all fine.” – she continued.
None of this seemed to be helping at the moment though. So Stella decided to try something different. She remembered something that her mom had used to do when she was a kid and had a nightmare. So she slowly slid one of her legs around the back of his body and was sitting behind him, one leg around each side of him. She wrapped her arms around him, and pulled him back just enough into her arms, to where he was laying against her.
“Hey. ‘Your Safe’ Here in My Arms… With Me” – she whispered softly into his ear.
She kept repeating this and within a few seconds, she could feel that his heartbeat had started to slow and he wasn’t breathing as heavy. Instead, he was merely crying into her arms.
“Shhhh, baby. It’s okay. Let it out.” – she repeated to him.
“I just can’t get that day out of my head” – she heard him say, with his voice masked by the crying.
“Hey. It’s okay, honey. It’ll take some time.” – she said.
“I just want it to stop.” – he continued.
“It will, babe. It will after time.” – she said, still trying to calm him.
“Have you thought about talking to the chaplain?” – she asked.
“Not Really, but at this point I’d do absolutely anything.” – he answered.
“Well, we could setup an appointment. I’ll go with you if you think it’ll help.” – she said, meaning every word. She was willing to do whatever it took to help him get through this.
“Ok.” – he said.
“For tonight, you know your safe and everybody else is safe.” – she whispered into his ear.
On that note they both laid back down. Kelly was laying on his back with his arm wrapped around Stella who had her head nestled onto his chest, so that she could feel the steady beating of his heart. His head was bent slightly so that he was placing kisses on the top of her head. Both of their hands intertwined.
“Thanks” – he said, interrupting the silence that had fallen upon the room.
“For what?” – she asked.
“For being you, and waking up in the middle of the night to comfort me.” – he said.
“Always” – she said.
“Isn’t that what fiancés are for?” – she continued.
“Yeah, but you never signed up for that.” – he replied.
“Hey” she said, tilting her head up to look into his eyes.
“I signed for it all, every bit of it. When I said yes, that meant whatever comes next, babe. I just can’t wait until we actually say ‘I Do’” – she said, making absolutely sure he heard every word of that.
“I Love You, Stella Kidd.” – he whispered just soft enough so that she heard him.
“I love you too, Kelly Severide.” – she replied, as they both closed their eyes and drifted off to sleep for the night.
Neither of them woke up the next night, and Stella made sure to make an appointment with the chaplain the next day. The nightmares eventually started to go away a little at a time, and they finally both started sleeping through the night.
She was just so thankful to be able to watch her peacefully sleeping husband, not being awaken by pure panic and fear finally. She also couldn’t wait to be Mrs. Kelly Severide and knew that they would get through whatever came next… together.