Kelly was awakened to someone gently shaking him awake accompanied by Casey's voice saying,
"Severide, wake up."
Kelly became more aware of his surroundings, and he became aware of the fact that Stella was nowhere to be found, turning to face Casey he said,
"What,"
"Are you and Kidd fighting recently or something?" Casey questioned concerned.
Kelly went over the last couple of days in his head, and could not come up with anything he did that, could have upset her. Although Stella had been acting a little withdrawn recently, but she had never hesitated to speak her mind before, so he did not think too much of it.
"No, why where is she," Kelly asked worriedly.
"Well I came home and I saw Kidd on the couch but it looked like she was having a nightmare or something, I figured you would want to know," Casey said.
Hearing enough Kelly got up and said,
"Thanks for telling me I will check on her? Night Casey,"
Kelly left his bedroom squeezing Casey's shoulder as he left.
Kelly went out to the living room and saw Stella on the couch, she was curled up facing away from him and she was shaking slightly. Stella shifted and turned and Kelly's heart broke a little for Stella, who was clearly crying evident from the tear tracks that were trailing down her face.
Deciding whether or not to wake her, Kelly bent down by the couch and looked at Stella closer. Kelly went to brush the hair out of her, but when he made contact with Stella's skin she flinched away from him. That was all the more concerning because usually when she was sleeping she never flinched away from him. Frowning Kelly whispered,
"Hey Stella wake up," Kelly asked.
After saying that a few times Stella's eyes fluttered open and she sat up.
"Stella you okay," Kelly asked clearly concerned.
"Yeah, I am fine just go back to bed," Stella said trying to keep the quaver out of her voice but failing.
Sensing that Stella clearly was not going to tell him Kelly decide to just stick with simple and said,
"Scoot over."
Stella scooted over to one side of the couch and brought her knees up to her chest. Frowning at the way Stella was acting, as it was heavily concerning, he got up on the couch and sat next to her. Kelly put one of his arms over her shoulder to pull her closer to him.
"Stella talk to me here," Kelly said growing more concerned as with every passing second that Stella remained indifferent.
"It's nothing you can go back to bed Kelly I am fine," Stella said while wiggling free of Kelly's outstretched arm.
"No, it is not, you are obviously not okay so talk to me baby," Kelly said looking at Stella carefully and was growing more concerned, Stella was slightly pale, and was definitely crying slightly, but the most concerning part was her insistence that everything was fine. Since Stella was the one to tell him to talk, and her being so withdrawn was even more concerning.
"Fine, I have nightmares every year around this time like clockwork we were never living together though at the time before. Okay," Stella said with her voice quavering at the last part, and Kelly could see tears forming in the corners of her yes he pulled her over to him and this time she did not resist and let him hold her close to him.
"Want to talk about it," Kelly asked.
"Maybe in the morning," Stella asked leaning back into Kelly's chest.
Kelly just let Stella lean back into his chest, before he said,
"Do you at least want to go to bed," Kelly said.
"Yeah, okay," Stella said somewhat dejectedly.
"Okay, lets get you to bed," Kelly said, sitting up off of the couch and pulling Stella up with him, and started leading her to bed. Upon reaching the bed he pulled back the blankets and letting Stella settle on to the bed before going and laying down on the other side, pulling up the blankets along with him.
Stella turned so her face was buried in Kelly's shirt and He could hear her breathing even out as she drifted into sleep. Kelly was concerned about what the whole nightmare was about, but knew that she would most likely talk about it tomorrow, hoping that she would be able to sleep now, he placed a kiss on her forehead before letting sleep win over.
