A/N: Happy Wednesday! Hopefully this helps you get through a week with no new episode. Thanks for all the positive feedback!
"Man, I need to talk to you."
Severide hobbled into Casey's office with his crutches, shutting the door behind him.
"What are you doing here? You're off for four weeks." Severide had only been out of the hospital a few days, and he was going crazy sitting around doing nothing. He'd even been over to OFI filing paperwork just for something to do, but he'd gotten so adamant about them reopening some of the old cases he'd been reading that they'd banned him from coming back.
"Man, I am losing my mind. So I thought I'd clean up, ya know, surprise Stella. So I'm emptying the trash in the bathroom and I find this," Kelly pulled a bag out of his pocket, thrusting it at Casey.
It was a pregnancy test, a "+" sign visible in the small window.
"Okay, that is gross."
"Casey, do you know what this means!? Stella is pregnant! Shit, I can't be a dad!"
Oh wow. "Now, take a deep breath, it's going to be okay," Casey assured him. "Have you said anything to Stella yet?"
"Are you crazy!? No!"
"Well what do you want to do?"
"I don't know! You're the logical one. Tell me what to do!"
Casey glanced at the test. "Well, I guess she didn't tell you for a reason. Maybe you should wait until she's ready?"
Severide was nodding, thinking about the situation. "Yeah. Yeah, maybe this is good. Then I won't be blindsided. Yeah. That's good. Can you keep an eye on her for me around here?"
"Sure thing."
"Alright, thanks man. I'd better go, before Stella sees me and I get in trouble for not resting." He turned, exiting through the doorway.
Casey called after him, "hey Severide... Congrats."
Kelly smiled awkwardly, his face still had a deer in the headlights look, and Casey chuckled as he hobbled away. Man, that was definitely a shock to the system. He wished he could talk about it with Sylvie, ask if she knew, but it would no doubtly get back to Stella, and Casey didn't want to cause any more drama. The alarms went off, and he raced to the rig, headed out to an industrial fire.
When they arrived, No one was inside, so they started pulling out hoses.
"Gallo, help Stella," Casey ordered, and Stella shot him a confused look. She might not be ready to talk about her pregnancy, but he was going to do his best to keep her out of harm, no matter her decision.
The fire was put out quickly, the neighbors were extremely grateful the CFD had prevented any other buildings from being damaged. A woman brought some waters and Casey grabbed two, taking one to Stella.
"Um, thanks?"
"Yeah, make sure you stay hydrated," he instructed, walking over to the ambulance. Sylvie and Emily were checking some neighbors who were complaining of difficulty breathing, but no one had been in the building, so nothing was critical.
"Hey," he smiled at Sylvie, "everyone okay?"
"Yeah, this gentleman has asthma, we just wanted to check his stats and it all looks good," she said, patting the man's back gently. He smiled gratefully and thanked her, then returned to his home.
"Hey, do you think maybe you could check Stella out? Just as a precaution?"
Sylvie's brow wrinkled in confusion. "Why, we barely had to do anything here?"
"Yeah, I'm just worried about her. You know she's got a lot going on at home, with Severide's injury and... stuff."
"Um, okay? I guess?"
Casey watched her walk over to Stella, talking to the woman, who he could see was rolling her eyes at Sylvie's words. Stella glanced over to him, her face angry. Oh well. Let her be mad at him. He'd told Severide he'd look after her, and he was determined to do so. He'd want nothing less from Kelly if the roles were reversed.
Meanwhile, Sylvie was still talking to Stella. "Just come sit in the Ambo for five minutes and pretend I'm checking your stats to appease him."
"What the hell is he doing? He didn't even give me this much grief when I was the one who got injured! If this is because he thinks I'm some emotional woman I'll show him-"
"Stella! Calm down! He's just worried about you. It's cute, really."
"Yeah, for you." She groaned, following Sylvie to the Ambo. "If everyone is going to walk on eggshells around me, I'm gonna get grumpy real fast," Stella admitted. "Do you know how hard I had to work to finally get some respect as a woman on this job?!"
Sylvie patted her knee sympathetically, putting a cuff around Stella's arm. After a few moments she said, "well, your blood pressure is a little high-"
"Because I'm pissed!"
Sylvie held up her hands defensively, a look of amusement on her face. "I'll tell him you have a clean bill of health," she said with a smile.
Suddenly serious, Stella asked, "when are you going to tell him your other news?"
Brett sighed, putting away the equipment. "I want to wait a bit."
"Girl, it's been a week."
"Yeah, but I made an appointment at Med tomorrow, I just want to see what they have to say first."
Stella sighed, "alright, it's your business. But I think the sooner the better."
The next day was their day off. Sylvie was trying to think of a good excuse for why she needed to leave at ten. Spin class? Then she'd have to take her gym gear. Grocery shopping? She'd have to actually come back with a good amount of groceries if she was gone for two hours. Lunch with a friend? She'd better get them in on her story in case Casey saw them around.
She emerged from the bedroom, unsure what she was going to come up with. But luckily she didn't have to. He was hurriedly putting some tools in a bag, smiling when she walked in he said, "hey, I just got a call from a client with a water leak, I hope it's okay I'll be gone most of the morning."
She tried not to seem too excited, but nodded, wishing him a good day.
She nervously dabbled around the apartment all morning, not really accomplishing anything. She just couldn't focus, coming up with one thousand and one scenarios of how to tell Casey. Finally it was ten, so she headed off to Chicago Med.
Sitting alone in the exam room, her hand nervously shaking, Sylvie thought she should've asked someone to come with her. She wasn't sure what to expect during this appointment, but it would've been nice to talk it through with someone while she waited.
Finally, the doctor entered. Sylvie was used to being in the ER, she wasn't usually on the obstetrics floor, so she hadn't met Doctor Fisher before. She was late 30s, short brown hair, and rimmed glasses, a kind smile pulled up the corners of her lips.
"Hi, Sylvie, I'm Dr. Fisher. You can call me Olivia if you'd like. So it says here you came in to confirm a pregnancy?"
"Um, yes. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm pregnant, I took a test, but I'm not sure what to do next."
The woman smiled, sensing Sylvie's anxiousness.
"Is this your first pregnancy?" She asked gently.
Sylvie nodded, "Is it that obvious?"
Olivia chuckled knowingly. "I see a lot of first time moms. It's super common to be a little overwhelmed, maybe even frightened. You need to have a lot of grace for yourself as you figure out the process and what works best for you," she patted Sylvie's knee, then took another look at the chart in her lap. "Well, the sample you gave the nurse confirms you are definitely pregnant! Do you know when the first day of your last period was?"
"No... I don't keep track. That's probably really stupid..."
"No, that's totally fine! We can make an estimate based on your hCG levels, which is a hormone you produce when pregnant..." she noted Sylvie's chart, telling her, "your levels are pretty high. Consistent with anywhere from eight to ten weeks? That's far enough along we can do an ultrasound to measure more exactly if you want?"
Ten weeks. Ten weeks. That was already a quarter of the way through a pregnancy... and that means it happened right when her and Casey got together. The doctor could see the alarm in Sylvie's face, and asked, "Do you mind if I ask, was this a planned pregnancy?"
Sylvie just shook her head no.
"Alright, hun. Does the man you had sex with know?"
Father. The baby's father. Not just some random man. Casey was going to be a father, of her baby. Sylvie burst into tears, wishing she hadn't tried to do this alone.
Olivia put a comforting arm around Sylvie'a shoulder. "It's okay. He's not hurting you, is he?"
Sylvie straightened up, wiping her tears, "oh no, it's not like that. I just wish I wouldn't have come alone. I didn't tell him because I wanted to be sure, and we haven't been together that long," she sniffles.
"Well, if you'd like to hear options for terminating-"
"No, I definitely want this baby."
"Okay, well I'll get an ultrasound tech down here. Meanwhile, let me write you a prescription for prenatal vitamins and go over some information with you."
The doctor started talking Sylvie through some information, handing her pamphlets and papers. There was a light knock and the ultrasound tech entered, introducing herself to Sylvie and turning on the equipment.
Dr. Fisher stood next to Sylvie holding her hand and explaining what was going on.
"So the first ultrasound is internal, the baby is most likely still too small to get good detail on an external ultrasound," she explained to Sylvie. After a bit, an image appeared on the screen, and in the midst of the black, there was a tiny white blob.
"That's your baby!" The tech said, smiling widely at her. "I'm going to take some measurements to estimate a gestational age."
After some more time, the tech printed some pictures from the machine. "I'm going to estimate you're 9 weeks and 2 days pregnant. That puts your due date at February 7th."
Sylvie had no words. She stared in awe at the pictures. How had this little life been with her for nine weeks without her knowing?
"Doctor? What about... I didn't know I was pregnant. I've been drinking alcohol and taking birth control..."
"Your baby should be fine. Obviously you need to stop those things, but only extreme excess would cause harm in that short amount of time," she reassured Sylvie.
Brett breathed a sigh of relief, thanking the doctor and technician. She headed out of the hospital in a bit of a haze, gripping the folder in her hands. It was all suddenly so real. She was having a baby. With Casey.
How was she going to tell him?
