A/N: This is a shorter chapter, but there's some Kelly and Gabby fluff in it to make up for that!
Gabby had closed the door behind the engine lieutenant, she sagged against it in relief. "Well, one person down. Only most of the firehouse to go."
Kelly laughed and tugged her into his arms, wrapping them around her. "It wasn't so bad," he told her.
"You mean, aside from the part where his arrival interrupted this?" Gabby asked, standing on her tiptoes and tugging Kelly's head down to her so she could kiss him.
Kelly kissed her back for a moment before pulling away slightly. "Are you sure?" he asked softly. "I-"
Gabby silenced him with another kiss. When they broke apart, she looked into his eyes. "Yes," she whispered breathlessly. "Just chalk it up to pregnancy hormones and a bad day."
Kelly chuckled before leaning down and capturing her lips in his once again, this one deeper than the previous two. He moved a hand to Gabby's lower back, pushing her against him, and tangled his other hand in her hair. His tongue brushed against her lips and she parted them, their tongues tangling together.
He slowly pushed them back until Gabby's back was against the door. Only then did he break the kiss, kissing his way down her neck until he reached the spot he knew she liked so much. He smiled against it as he was rewarded by Gabby shifting beneath him and pressing into him more.
Gabby's hands tugged at Kelly's shirt, pulling it up enough to expose the bare skin of his stomach. She ran her fingers along his waistband, slipping one just barely inside. His resulting moan vibrated her neck, causing her to gasp and push her hips against him. She could feel his erection between them, pressing into her. "Kelly," she murmured, her hands fumbling with his belt.
In one swift move, Kelly lifted her up onto his hips and his lips found hers again as he made his way to her bedroom. He set her down gently on the bed and quickly removed his pants, boxers, and shirt before climbing on the bed and stripping her of her own clothes. "Are you sure?" he asked softly as he straddled her, searching her eyes for any hint that she'd changed her mind.
"I'm sure," Gabby replied breathlessly.
"You want to talk about it?" Kelly asked. They were both still in Gabby's bed, and Kelly was laying on his side, his head propped up on his elbow.
"Talk about what?" Gabby asked, playing dumb in hopes that he'd drop it. She knew exactly what he was referring to.
"You said to chalk it up to pregnancy hormones and a bad day. You want to talk about why it was a bad day? Was it because of the call with Casey?" Kelly pushed.
Gabby sighed. "I needed that call. I needed the closure that came from hearing it from him that he and Brett were together. But it was still hard, knowing that part of my life is closed for good." She chuckled. "It's funny; I barely think of him anymore, and while I still love him, and always will, I'm not in love with him anymore. But that call…it was a reminder of that. Of the fact that we'll never be Matt and Gabby again. It was good, but it was still…hard."
Kelly reached out with his free hand and brushed her cheek where a tear had slipped from her eye, wiping it away. "Do you regret it?" he asked.
"My relationship with him or it ending?" Gabby asked.
"Both, I guess," Kelly replied.
"I regret how things ended. And I regret that it took us so long to realize that we just didn't work anymore. But I don't know that I regret the relationship." Gabby paused, thinking, before continuing, "Being with Matt…it felt right at first. But we were just constantly up and down, back and forth; we didn't work together. I wish we'd realized that sooner. But at the same time, the relationship, and the ending of it, taught me so much. If it hadn't of ended the way it did, I don't think I ever would have left Chicago, and 51, to do relief work in Puerto Rico. I loved it here, and didn't want to leave, but at the time I didn't see any other option. So, I'm thankful for that, because I loved my time in Puerto Rico, and I would have missed out on it had it not been for Matt and mine's marriage falling apart."
They both remained silent for a moment before Gabby added, "What about you? Do you regret your relationship with Stella?" She was hesitant to ask it, as they'd mostly avoided the topic of Stella since she'd arrived.
Kelly rolled over onto his back, clasping his hands behind his head. "No. I regret hanging on for so long after she left, and not realizing sooner that she was never coming back. But I don't regret my relationship with her. It changed me; in a way, she made me a better man, both during our relationship and at the end of it."
"Do you still love her?" Gabby asked softly.
"I think it's like you said about Matt; a part of me still loves her and always will, but not in the way I did," he answered. "It still hurts, what she did to me, but I've realized that she wasn't the person for me. She was constantly asking and taking and demanding without giving or conceding. That's part of what made me better, but at the same time, I never would have been enough for her; I never would have been good enough in her eyes. And I need someone who will love me for me, not for who they want me to be."
Gabby nodded, knowing exactly what Kelly meant. It was the same way she felt about Matt: he'd wanted someone that needed him, that needed to be saved. Not someone like her, a strong, stubborn woman who hated being vulnerable and needing help.
They laid there in silence for a while before Gabby spoke again. "What are we, Kelly? I mean, when we had sex in New York, neither of us was looking for a relationship. It was a casual fling; something that we both needed. But now that there's a baby in the mix, that complicates things. We're no longer just two friends that happened to have sex." She paused, then added, "I don't want anything to change because of the baby. I don't want there to be any pressure on either of us to be anything we're not. I grew up with parents who secretly hated each other, and I don't want that for our baby. But at the same time, people are going to have questions when we tell them."
Kelly rolled back on his side so he could look at her. "I don't think either of us is ready for a relationship right now. But, Gabby, I don't want to rule it out completely. I don't want to force anything, but at the same time, I don't want to avoid something just because we said it wouldn't happy. I like being with you. And I like having you around. So, how about right now, to everyone else, we're just two friends who had sex and got pregnant and are now choosing to raise the baby together?"
Gabby nodded. "And in private? When everybody else isn't around?"
"We take it one day at a time," Kelly replied. "And we see where it goes. We don't force it, but we also don't push back against it if that's where this leads."