Stella? Stella? Wake up, girl. You gotta get up. Come on!
Stella slowly opened her eyes. It had become harder and harder to try to fight to stay awake. She passed out after a few minutes of trying to reach her cell phone after learning that it wasn't in her purse as she had hoped. She hadn't heard it ring in a while. Battery probably died. She didn't know how long she had been unconscious but she knew it was getting late in the day.
She was starting to remember what happened. Bits and pieces were coming back. She had left Kelly's place angry. It was late and she knew she had to get up early for shift, but she was too pissed to sleep. So she got in her car and started driving south. She needed to clear her mind.
Stella wasn't, by nature, a jealous person. Nor did she consider herself insecure, yet that was clearly what Kelly thought. Why couldn't he see what Renee was doing? He had to realize that she was still hung up on him.
"I mean, there are hundreds of firefighters in Chicago. Why did it have to be Kelly?" She thought. Why? So he could spend time with her and her kid and play "happy family. The worst part was that Kelly seemed to like it. He may not have been at Renee's place to see her son, but he was certainly getting attached to him.
And Stella was angry. Ever since she moved out of Kelly's apartment, they almost never saw each other outside of work. He made her feel like she was being unreasonable for wanting to be with him.
Stella realized she was gripping the wheel a bit too hard. She also saw that her speed had hit 85 mph. Even though she was on the freeway, she couldn't afford a ticket like that.
She took a deep breath. She hated this. She hated being mad at Kelly and this whole situation. Yes, he was hanging out with Renee, but to help her help injured firefighters and get new safety protocols in place. What he was doing was a good thing. She should and did encourage him to do it. She hated that she felt jealous. Did she think Kelly was going to fall back in love with Renee? She didn't really know. She knew that Kelly was more about "living in the moment" rather than planning for a future and right now "living in the moment" means spending a ton of time with Renee and the son-that-could-have-been-Kelly's. She knew that when he found out Renee was pregnant and that she said it was his, he was ready to move in and marry her. What if he was starting to feel like she was the one that got away.
Again, Stella had to released her grip on the wheel. "Stella, Kelly is with you. He wants to be with you. Once this case is over in a few weeks, things will go back to normal."
She still felt badly about the fight, though. That last jab about the "family dinner" was just mean and so unlike her. She needed to apologize and it had to be the first chance she got in the morning. They needed to talk it out with their tempers in check. "I know. I'll get up early, grab a coffee for Kelly and meet him at his place before shift."
With a plan in place, she felt better. She took the next exit so that she could turn around and head home. She didn't see the car coming up behind her like a fast-moving tank. She never even had a chance to get out of the way.