Chapter 15

The first night went off without a hitch...and much to Kelly's relief without a two a.m. feeding.

He and Alyssa were downstairs in the kitchen with Maggie and Lexi when Andy and Jesse came thundering down the stairs.

"Guys..." Kelly said. "Take it down a notch? Okay?"

"Sorry, Dad..." Jesse said as they slid into their chairs.

Alyssa set a basket of muffins and bread down on the table and Andy's hand shot out in a hurry to grab the blueberry one on the top.

Kelly sat down to feed Lexi her first breakfast...

"Dad?" Andy asked. "Aren't you goin' to work?"

"I'm gonna take a couple days off, Buddy." he said. "And help Mom with Lexi while she's getting used to us."

Alyssa smiled at him as she set the platter of sausage patties down. Again...Andy was the first to get in there...stabbing two patties with his fork.

"So that means you'll be here after school?" Andy said.

"Yeah..."

The twins looked at one another...having a silent conversation.

"Can you come pick us up from school?" Jesse asked.

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Kelly looked at them curiously as Alyssa set the last thing on the table...a platter of sliced fruit...melon and pineapple...grapes and strawberries. Then she began fixing a plate for Maggie.

"I thought you guys were too big for me to walk you home from school..." Kelly said. "Isn't that what you been saying for the last...what? Two years?"

"Well...yeah..." Andy said hesitantly. "But if you come get us...everybody can see Lexi..."

Kelly chuckled to himself.

Now it all made sense.

His boys wanted to show off their new sister...

So they wanted him to bring "show and tell"...

Kinda like when he brought the fire trucks to preschool that one time...

"I think we can make that happen..."

He turned back to Lexi and spooned another mouthful of fruit and cereal into her open mouth.

"Whaddya say, Lexi...you wanna go to school?"

Lexi gurgled.

"I think that means 'yes'." Jesse said.

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Maggie looked around.

"Me too?" she asked. "Lexi come to my school?"

"Sure...I'll bring her when I come get you, Baby Girl."

Maggie smiled with satisfaction as she stuck a piece of melon in her mouth.

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Andy and Jesse set off with Aiden, Connor, and Garrett...and Kelly went to get Maggie ready for school.

While he was helping her into her uniform Alyssa gave Lexi a quick bath. She smiled...because Lexi liked the bath as much as Maggie had...she laughed and she splashed. Maybe they could put her in swim lessons that summer.

Might as well start doing all the things they did with the other kids.

Kelly poked his head in the bathroom.

"We're about ready to take off..." he said.

"Okay..." Alyssa answered.

But when she went to lift Lexi...she felt her shoulder lock ...and she didn't trust herself to lift twenty-one and a half wet, squirmy pounds.

"Kelly...can you get her out?"

Worry clouded his eyes as he stepped in to lift the baby out of the bath seat. Lyssa held out the towel and wrapped Lexi in it. Then Kelly carried her off to their room and laid her on the changing table.

Alyssa stepped in to dry her off and rub baby lotion all over her...

"Lyssa, what happened just now?"

"Nothing..."

"Bullshit." he said...not caring that there were kids around. "Something's wrong with your arm, isn't it?"

"It's been bothering me..." she conceded.

"Well, don't you think you should make a doctor's appointment?"

"I will."

"When?"

If it were him...if he was the one having problems...she'd be on the phone already. And he'd probably be at the doctor's that day...or the next, at the very latest.

"Soon, Kelly...we got a lot goin' on right now."

"Lyssa..."

He wiped one hand down his face in frustration.

"Kelly...I will call the doctor. I just can't do it right now." she said.

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"Daddy!" Maggie called from her room. "Where you go?"

Kelly glanced at his watch.

He had to get Maggie to school.

"I'll be back in half an hour." he said. "Are you gonna be okay?"

"We'll be fine."

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He zipped Maggie's little pink windbreaker and helped her with her backpack...then they set off for St. Pasqual's.

She chattered all the way...and she bounced along, just the way Andy and Jesse used to when they got excited about something. But Kelly barely felt the pull on his arm as he walked down the block.

He knew Alyssa was holding something back from him...and he hated when she did that. When Bradley Paul attacked her...when he broke her arm in three places...that was the last thing the doctors took care of when they were taking her back and forth to the operating room. First they had to remove her spleen and repair her lacerated liver and kidneys, then they had to work on the facial fractures. They had spent eleven hours on that one.

There were major problems with the anesthetic when they went to set her jaw. Her blood pressure had bottomed out and they had almost lost her.

That was the reason they waited almost three weeks to fix her arm...and in the end she had lost about twenty percent of the function in it. She had never regained her full strength and the range of motion was diminished. But she never complained...she never let it stop her.

She took care of the kids...cleaned the house...laundry...cooking...and she took care of him. When he had come home from the hospital last year he couldn't do anything for himself. Alyssa had dressed him, bathed him, cut his food...set up his toothbrush...she did everything.

He'd gotten better...he'd fought his way through rehab and now he was back at work on full duty, still leading his Squad.

He never would have made it though without Alyssa by his side.

And now he was determined to do the same for her if necessary.

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Maggie tugged on his finger...bringing him back to the present.

"Daddy? When Lexi come to my school?"

Kelly looked down at his daughter.

"I'll bring her when I come pick you up...and you can show everybody your baby sister."

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Back at home Alyssa got Lexi diapered and into the little outfit Leslie had picked out.

She had to finish washing the few things Lexi had come with...and see what all she still needed. She was going to need a whole summer wardrobe...and there were so many other things.

She picked the baby up and shifted her onto her left hip...and headed down stairs.

Alyssa spread a quilt on the living room floor and brought over the plastic bin they had filled with baby toys...soft blocks, stacking rings, snapping beads, textured balls...and colorful animals.

She sat down beside Lexi and started to build a tower with the blocks.

"One..." she said as she set the first block down. "Two...three."

Lexi knocked the tower over.

"What did you do?" Lyssa asked. "Did you knock my tower down?"

The baby looked up at her and smiled...obviously pleased with herself.

Alyssa started to build the tower all over again.

"One...two...three..."

Lexi knocked it down again.

By the time Kelly came back they were stacking colored rings.

"Blue...green...yellow...orange..."

"Hey..." he said.

Lyssa looked up and smiled.

"Look who's here, Lexi. Can you say 'Hi Daddy!'"

Kelly stopped.

That was the first time Lyssa had said that. They hadn't referred to themselves by any names at all yesterday...just the kids.

He sank down to the floor beside Alyssa.

"Do you think it's time to say Mommy and Daddy?" he asked.

Alyssa shrugged.

"That's what we want her to call us eventually...we have to make her part of the family."

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Kelly fingered one of the different textured balls and gently rolled it toward the baby.

In this whole process...applying to take Lexi...and then actually getting her...he had never really pictured the outcome. He'd never pictured her. All he had seen of her was a pink blanket at the fire scene.

He'd never imagined her calling him 'Daddy'.

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The morning flew by...with blocks and numbers and colors...and then Kelly took Lexi in his lap to look at some of the board books Alyssa brought out .

There had been only a few books that Andy had had the patience for...anything with cars and trucks...and this little set called 'I Spy'. He liked to search the pictures for numbers and letters and whatever else. And Alyssa had saved those books.

Now Lexi studied the pictures with rapt attention and she smiled and eventually squealed happily as he took her hand in his to point to the 'A' or the to the number'3'.

And then Lyssa brought down the yellow polka dotted hoodie that went with the outfit and Kelly strapped the baby in the new stroller for the inaugural ride.

"You know...I need to call my dad." he said as the three made their way down Boyle toward Melvina.

"See if he wants to come for dinner." Lyssa suggested.

Benny Severide was going to be surprised. He knew Kelly and Alyssa had applied to be foster parents...but in all the excitement of the past forty-eight hours...he didn't know that it had actually happened.

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When they got to St. Pasqual's Early Childhood center the three trooped down the stairs to Mrs. Beatty's classroom.

Maggie jumped up from her place in the circle and came running over when Kelly and Alyssa came in the door. She was practically vibrating with excitement as she grabbed onto Kelly's hand and pulled him and Lexi toward the group of twenty-five three and four year olds sitting on the rug.

"See! I tol' you!" she said with satisfaction. "I tol' you I gots a new baby!"