Chapter 29

The next three weeks were some of the toughest the Severide family had had in a long, long time.

Jesse came home from the hospital late Monday afternoon...but he was by no means back to his usual self. And that was hard on everyone.

He couldn't go to school...and the neurologist didn't want him to read or watch TV, use the computer, or play video games. They called it "cognitive rest". Who knew that those activities could actually make a concussion worse?

Of course, without those activities Jesse was bored stiff. Add to that, he wasn't feeling well. He often complained of having a headache...he was tired...light and loud sounds bothered him.

And with three other kids in the house, there was a lot of loud noise. All those things made Jesse cranky and irritable...and he'd often just burst into tears for no good reason at all.

That made Jesse even more upset...and Andy was scared. He didn't know what had happened to his brother...why he was acting so different. Usually Jesse was the most easy-going, laid-back kid in the world, while Andy way always going full steam ahead.

Maggie was just plain confused. She thought Jesse was acting like Andy, because usually Jesse was calm and gentle with her. She and Andy butted heads...and Jesse was usually the one who smoothed everything over. But now Jesse was snapping too...and telling her not to be a pest...and not to be a baby...and every other thing Andy did to push her little buttons.

And Lexi...she'd cock her head to one side...and look at Jesse like she didn't know who he was.

"Buh-Buh?" she'd say. "Buh-Buh?"

All those things were heartbreaking for both Kelly and Alyssa.

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He tried to take as many days as he could. He was worried, not only about Jesse, but Alyssa as well. Right before Jesse's accident they'd agreed that they should go ahead and schedule the surgery as soon as possible...but they still hadn't got around to it.

Thank God for the family. They always had someone around ready to share the load.

Benny walked Maggie to and from pre-school on the days Kelly couldn't. And Nadine had become a doting grandma in the past year and a half and she was always dropping in with little "treats" she had made for the kids. She made Jesse's favorite cookies...the lemon knots...but she called them some Italian name Kelly couldn't pronounce. She made the rosettes Maggie loved.

"They so pretty!" she'd say as she chomped down on the crispy fried dough, sending a cloud of powdered sugar flying everywhere.

Andy preferred something a little more hearty...his Nonna's meatballs...which were second only to his mom's.

Lexi was being introduced to all the Italian words and all the Italian foods. She had her own little vocabulary...and Kelly had to bite his cheeks to keep from laughing when she would mangia on "no-kee", or "must-cho-lees".

At fourteen months she already knew as much Italian as he did.

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Slowly but surely Jesse started to come back to his normal self. He hated that he had to miss the rest of the football season...and without that one-two combination of the Severide twins, their team didn't make it to the playoffs that year. So it was a short...and not so sweet...season for everyone.

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One Sunday afternoon Benny showed up with an envelope. It was a big, fancy one...like the kind wedding invitations came in.

"Whatcha got, Pop?" Kelly asked as he wiped chocolate pudding off Maggie and Lexi's hands and faces.

He'd already gone through half a dozen sheets of paper towels.

"Did any of that actually get inside 'em?" Benny quipped.

Kelly studied his girls.

"Doubtful..." he said finally.

"Maybe you should just turn the hose on these two."

"Believe me...if it was the boys...I would." He told his dad. "But these two...they don't really like the "Super-Soaker" treatment."

He went back to the business at hand. Cleaning two little girls who were wearing their pudding cups.

"So...are you gonna tell me what's in the envelope...or are you gonna make me guess?"

Benny looked down and turned the heavy envelope over in his hands.

"It's my fiftieth Academy class reunion." he said hesitantly.

Just saying it out loud made it seem so ancient.

Fifty years...Kelly thought. He'd have his twenty-fifth that year...he couldn't imagine fifty.

"Wow. Fifty..."

"Yeah...there's a big dinner at the Academy Saturday night." Benny said. "And a BBQ on Sunday."

"Sounds good." Kelly replied. "Sounds like a good time."

Benny cleared his throat.

"Families are invited." he said hesitantly.

So that's what he was getting at.

"Yeah?"

"So...I thought maybe you and Alyssa and the boys could come to the dinner...and then the whole family could go to the picnic."

"I'll talk to Lyssa..." Kelly said. "But I think that's a great idea."

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They were due for something good...something other than the stress they had been dealing with the past few weeks. So on Saturday afternoon Kelly and Alyssa delivered the girls to her folks for a sleepover.

"I wanna go to da fancy party..." Maggie pouted on the way to her grandparents.

"It's gonna go way past your bedtime, Baby Girl." Kelly told her. "But you get to go to a picnic tomorrow...I promise."

"Besides...Nonna said you need to try on your Halloween costume...so she can finish it." Alyssa added.

"What are you gonna be?" Kelly asked like he didn't know.

He'd been hearing about it since August...when Lyssa and Nadine had started planning.

"Cinderella!" Maggie cried happily, clapping her hands. "I gonna be Cinderella!"

"And what's Lexi gonna be?"

"Snow White!" Maggie said excitedly. "We both gonna be princesses!"

They already are...he thought to himself. They already are.

Lexi giggled and churbled in her car seat...and Kelly couldn't help but look in the mirror and smile.

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After they'd dropped off the little princesses...who were happily playing with toys Nadine had lovingly preserved from Alyssa childhood...dolls and dishes...and a little kitchen set...before Kelly and Alyssa were even ready to walk out the door.

"I never thought I'd be so happy my mom's such a pack rat." Alyssa said as they made their way back to the car.

"I was expecting at least a little fuss from Lexi..." Kelly said.

This was the little girl's first sleepover since she'd come to live with the Severides almost six months before.

Alyssa wrapped her arms around her husband.

"It'll be okay...You'll do fine...I promise." she teased.

In response Kelly gave his wife a little pinch.

"I don't know...I'll prob'ly need a little extra attention tonight..."

"Poor Baby..." Lyssa murmured as she wrapped her arms around him.

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Later that evening he pulled up to the valet service the Academy had arranged for the night and after handing over his keys he went around to join Alyssa and the boys on the curb side.

His felt his heart skip a couple of beats when he looked again at his wife. She was wearing her 'go-to' little black dress...a lace sheath with 3/4 length sleeves...and her satin pumps. Around her neck was a multi-strand pearl necklace with a heart right in the middle...something he'd bought her a couple months ago.

Her hair was caught up on one side in a rhinestone barrette and her curls tumbled down her back and over her shoulders.

As he reached for her hand he thought to himself that he was walking in with the hottest woman there...it never got old.

Andy and Jesse followed behind them, dressed in black suits and black dress shirts, carbon copies of Kelly's usual monochromatic attire. Like father like sons.

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Benny was standing at one of the bars set up on either side of the hall, talking to Stan Getz and Phil Martinelli...guys he hadn't seen in about twenty years. Stan had retired to Arizona...Phil was down in Florida.

They were talking about their families...their grandchildren...and Benny glanced over toward the door.

"Waitin' on your date, Benny?" Stan quipped.

"No...my son's comin' tonight...with his wife and their boys..."

"Wait a minute..." Phil interrupted. "Hold the phone...are we talkin' 'bout your son, Kelly? The Kelly Severide we had to lock our daughters up from? That Kelly Severide?"

"Well, time marches on, Phil." Benny said. "He's been with Alyssa for a dozen years now..."

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He looked up again, just in time to see his family coming toward him.

"Grandpa!" Andy and Jesse shouted at the same time as they ran over to hug Benny, who gathered them up in his arms.

"My boys!" he said. "I want you meet some of my old friends..."

Kelly and Alyssa stepped up just as Benny was making the introductions.

"This is Stan Getz...and Phil Martinelli..." Benny told them. "These are my grandsons...Andy and Jesse..."

Andy stepped up and held out his hand just like his dad had taught him.

"Pleased to meet you, Sir." he said politely to Mr. Getz.

Jesse did the same with Mr. Martinelli.

And Kelly's eyes shone with pride.

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Later, when Alyssa stepped out to call her mom and check on the girls...Kelly found himself at a table listening to the old firemen telling war stories.

He had one or two of his own to share...and the older men lapped up the news from Station 51.

But of course someone had to bring up the unmentionable.

"Heard you got in a tough scrape last year..." Getz said.

It suddenly got so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"Yeah..." Kelly answered quietly. "Yeah...we all had a bad run last year. Not just me. Bunch 'a guys had it pretty rough."

Apparently news of Darren Chesnick and his antics had made it all the way out to Arizona...and Florida.

"They at least get the sonofabitch?" Martinelli asked.

"Somebody got 'im." Kelly responded cryptically.

Hopefully Chesnick was rotting in hell.

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The boys came running over.

"Dad!" Andy said breathlessly. "Dad!"

"What'd I tell you about runnin' around in here?" he asked. "Save that for the picnic tomorrow."

"Dad, we met these guys...Billy and Jackson..." Jesse said. "They're twins too!"

"But they don't look the same..." Andy cut in. "Can they come over to our house sometime? Can we go over to theirs'?"

"Will you talk to their Dad?" Jesse asked. "He's a firefighter too...he works at Station 64."

That really narrowed it down...you'd be hard pressed to find a grown man in the room that wasn't with the department.

Kelly grinned.

"Sure, guys...I'll talk to him."

Both Andy and Jesse broke into matching grins. Then they turned and ran off.

"Walk, guys!" Kelly called after them...not that it did any good.

He just shook his head and chuckled to himself.

Then he became aware of Phil Martinelli staring at him.

"What?" he asked.

This time it was Martinelli who shook his head.

"Just can't get over it...Benny's kid...a family man." Martinelli told him.

Kelly remembered...Martinelli had a daughter...two in fact...Jessica and Johanna...really cute, if he recalled correctly.

And Martinelli had wanted his girls as far away from his buddy's son as humanly possible.

Severide sighed. It was the same everywhere. No matter what, you couldn't run from the past. Some people would never believe he had changed.

He glanced over his shoulder to see Alyssa coming back to him.

"What can I say?" Kelly said. "Just took the right woman..."

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The family was just getting home from the BBQ the next day when news of another big event came in.

Kelly carried a sleeping, sweaty Maggie into the house...and Andy carried Lexi so Lyssa didn't have to.

It was good that the boys were bigger than she was now...and that Kelly had started taking them to the gym with him on his days off.

That way he knew they were learning to use the weights and the machines properly...

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No sooner had he laid Maggie down on the couch and taken Lexi and set her in the port-a-crib...his phone went off.

He hurried to answer it before it woke the girls.

"Lieutenant!" Hollywood's voice came through the air...

"Wait a minute..." Kelly said. "Let me go in the other room..."

He walked quickly from the living room, through the dining room to the kitchen.

That should be far enough...

"Yeah..." he said. "I'm back..."

"Shaina went into labor!" Morgan blurted out...no preamble...no build up.

"That's great..." Kelly said. "Hopefully it'll go fast."

He had missed the boys' birth...because he'd been out on a call...and he'd barely made it in time to see his daughter born.

"They're givin' her something to move things along..." Morgan said.

His voice had a tinge of panic around the edges.

"Listen, Hollywood...you'll both do fine." Kelly tried to reassure him.

Alyssa came up behind him and slipped her arms around her husband while he tried to talk Morgan off the ledge.

"If I can do it..." he said. "It'll be a piece of cake."

Kelly listened for another moment.

"Well...Keep us posted."

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He ended the call, then carefully wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulders.

"Shaina's in labor."

"I gathered..." she said.

She squeezed him a little tighter.

"Why do you put yourself down, Kelly?" she whispered. "You're the most amazing dad..."

He placed a gentle kiss against her hair...and breathed in the perfume of her lemon scented shampoo.

All weekend he had been introduced again to men who hadn't wanted him to have anything to do with their precious daughters. He had had a reputation, even as a teenager, as a womanizer. Look at the example he had had.

He told Lyssa all that...

"That was a hundred years ago, Honey. That's not who you are. Not anymore." she said. "We have a great life...we have four beautiful kids...and our boys have the best example in the world to look up to when it comes to being a man."

Alyssa had more faith in him than anyone in the world...and not just as a firefighter. He knew he was good at his job. But his wife made him feel like he could move mountains. And even after almost thirteen years it still blew him away.

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Things were really rolling along...with four kids...Kelly felt like they could barely slow down. It was like they were cruising through that fall with the lights and sirens blaring.

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Morgan and Shaina had a little girl...Laura Jeanne. She was just cute as a button...with her big blue eyes and wisps of dark brown hair. She had rosy cheeks and a perfect little mouth. And she already had her daddy wrapped around her tiny little finger.

Alyssa and Kelly took the kids to meet her the week before Halloween.

Hollywood and Shaina were still in the Gold Coast apartment he had bought and combined to adjoin with another place he bought for his mom and his grandmother. It made for a good arrangement, because where Shaina got maternity leave from the show...Craddock wasn't so lucky. He was in the throes of a heavy story arc...where he and "Rebecca" had had a huge blow-up and she left town to clear her head...and while she was gone he had a victim he had saved from a building collapse develop an attachment to him...and now this victim had gone all "Fatal Attraction" on "Lieutenant Whitlock".

But nobody was thinking about any of that stuff today. The only thing on their minds was the little bundle wrapped in a pink blanket lying in a bassinet in the living room.

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Andy and Jesse peered over the sides in awe.

"She's so little..." Jesse whispered.

Morgan reached in and scooped little Laura Jeanne up and carried her over to the couch.

Maggie ran over to see.

"Does she do anything?" she asked. "Does she play?"

"Not yet..." Morgan said. "She pretty much just eats and sleeps...and poops..."

"Eeeewww!" Maggie said, wrinkling her nose.

"Shhh..." Andy told her. "You'll scare her! Besides...whaddya think you did when you were that little? Ate...sleeped...and pooped!"

"I did not!" Maggie replied indignantly. "I was cute!"

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Kelly set Lexi down.

"All right...knock it off, you two." he said. "Andy...don't tease your sister...and Maggie, every baby eats, and sleeps...and they all poop."

" So now that we've got that covered...let's move on to somethin' else." Alyssa suggested.

Andy and Maggie squirmed under their parents reprimands.

And while Kelly and Alyssa both watched to see what they'd do next, Lexi toddled over to look at the baby in Morgan's arms.

"Wanna see, Lexi?" Hollywood asked, as he held the baby where she could see. "Whaddya see?"

"Bee-bee?" Lexi asked. "For me bee-bee?"

"Bee-bee" was her word for "doll". She thought Laura was a new doll for her...

Kelly and Alyssa both stifled giggles.

"No, Lexi..." Kelly said as he crouched down beside her. "It's not a dolly..."

He took Lexi's hand in his and gently stroked the baby's hand with her little fingers.

"See? She's a real person..." he said. "And when she gets bigger...you're gonna get to play with her."

He continued to hold on to Lexi's hand as she touched the baby.

"You gotta make nice..." he told her. "Gentle..."

And then Baby Laura gave a huge yawn...

Lexi's eyes lit up. She finally figured it out...

"Bee-bee!" she said. "Bee-bee seepy...night-night!"

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And then it was Halloween...time for Trick or Treat.

The kids were chomping at the bit to get out on the street...and as soon as he opened the door Andy and Jesse flew out in their firefighter costumes...the same ones they had worn last year...with the white lettering that said "Chicago Fire Department" stuck across the back and a little further down, "Severide".

"When are we gonna get "Lieutenant", Dad?" Andy asked.

"When you pass the exam." Kelly told them.

"Dad!" Andy wailed.

Now they were running to meet up with Connor, Aiden, Garrett...and Dylan, Ainsely and Trevor.

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Joey met Kelly at the end of his front walk with the stroller containing a little green dinosaur.

"Cute..." Kelly said.

"Thought the princesses needed a dragon..." Joey replied with a grin.

Kelly looked down at all three girls, and he saw that his mother-in-law had been very busy indeed.

Holding onto his right hand was a pint sized Snow White...with the red, yellow and blue dress right out of the movie...and a red bow in her dark brown hair. And on his left was a pint sized Cinderella in a sparkling blue dress and a little tiara balanced amongst strawberry-blonde curls.

Ainsely wasn't about to get left out of the princess party. Nonna had made her a green and yellow dress so she was Princess Tiana from the Princess and the frog. Nonna had even sewn a little stuffed frog to ride on her treat basket.

He shook his head in wonder.

"Who whoulda thought..." he said under his breath.

Certainly not him...