A/N: It's finally time for the rest of Firehouse 51 to find out about Gabby's pregnancy!
Gabby groaned as she searched her closet for jeans that actually fit. Her 20 week checkup was today, and now that the morning sickness had finally subsided, she'd gained some weight back and was struggling to find any jeans that she could still button.
"Hey, you ready?" Kelly asked, poking his head in her door. When he saw the pile of discarded clothes on the floor and Gabby's frustrated expression, he stepped the rest of the way in. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing fits!" Gabby exclaimed. "I can't get any of my jeans buttoned."
Kelly had noticed a slight baby bump forming over the past couple of weeks, but hadn't said anything, afraid that he'd hurt her feelings. He looked down at Gabby's stomach now and smiled. Right now it could still be mistaken for bloating or a large breakfast, but there was definitely a bump there, and it wouldn't be able to be hidden for much longer. "Stay here," he told her; "I'll be right back." He went to his room, grabbed a bag out of the closet, and headed back to Gabby's room.
"Here," he said, handing her the bag. "Cindy gave these to me for you a couple of weeks ago," he explained when she looked at him in confusion.
Gabby opened the bag and pulled out two pairs of maternity jeans as well as a couple of maternity tops. "You've had them for a couple of weeks and you're just now giving them to me?" she asked.
Kelly shrugged. "Cindy suggested I not give them to you until you said something. She said it was safer that way, so that you didn't think I was telling you that you're fat."
Gabby laughed. "Thanks, Kelly. I'll remember to thank Cindy next time I see her, too." She quickly threw on a pair of the jeans before turning back to Kelly. "We're going to have to tell everyone soon. It's getting harder to hide the pregnancy now that I'm actually keeping food down."
So far only Boden and Herrmann knew about the pregnancy; they'd decided to keep it that way for as long as possible because of the extra risk that came along with the pregnancy, and because of how telling their friends may complicate things with their relationships.
Kelly nodded, "Yeah, I figured that day would be coming soon." He thought for a moment then added, "We could stop by the firehouse after the appointment and tell everyone. And since we're finding out the gender today, we can always use that as the reason why we waited." They'd been trying to avoid scheduling Gabby's appointments on days where Kelly had shift to limit questions, but they'd been unable to avoid it this time.
"Okay. Have we figured out exactly what we're telling people yet? I think we kind of traumatized Herrmann when we told him," Gabby laughed.
Kelly opened the passenger door of the Mustang for Gabby. "We tell them the truth. We were drunk, we had sex, and now we're having a baby?" he suggested hopefully. He closed the door after she was in and jogged around to the driver's side, got in, and started the car.
"Kelly! I don't think that's any better than what we told Herrmann," Gabby chided.
Kelly shrugged as he turned onto the street. "Hey, you asked! And it's true."
Gabby laughed. He did have a point. It was short, to the point, and true. "Okay, fine. You win," she conceded.
Twenty minutes later, Gabby was lying on the table in the doctor's office, anxiously waiting to find out the baby's gender.
"Okay," Dr. Cortez began as she moved the wand around on Gabby's stomach. "Are you ready to find out if your baby is a boy or a girl?"
Gabby reached for Kelly's hand, looking up at him before nodding. "Yes."
"It looks like you're having a baby girl!" the doctor announced.
Kelly looked down at Gabby, whose face had broken into a smile as she stared at the screen. "It's a girl," she murmured. "We're having a baby girl," she repeated, looking up at Kelly.
He leaned down and kissed her forehead. "She's going to be as beautiful as her mom," he whispered, bringing tears to Gabby's eyes.
The doctor busied herself grabbing the printouts of the ultrasounds photos to give the couple, who had both insisted multiple times that they weren't actually a couple but were just having a baby together, some privacy. When she turned back to them, she handed Kelly the pictures. Her face then turned serious. "We do have something that we need to discuss today. Gabby, it appears that your aneurysm has grown even more since your last ultrasound."
Gabby was thankful that she was already holding Kelly's hand, as he immediately squeezed her hand and rested his other hand on her shoulder. At Gabby's 16 week visit, the ultrasound had shown that the aneurysm had grown a tiny amount since her previous visit, but the doctor had assured them it wasn't anything to worry about yet and that it was still perfectly safe to continue with the pregnancy. The fact that she hadn't done that this time was concerning.
"What does that mean?" Kelly asked, putting words to the thoughts that Gabby couldn't seem to say out loud.
"It means I'd like to monitor Gabby a little closer going forward. I'd like to see you every two weeks, Gabby, so we can keep a closer eye on it. Also, I want you to limit how much you're doing. No lifting anything heavier than ten pounds, keep your environment as stress free as possible, and no rigorous exercise," Dr. Cortez informed them. "This pregnancy just got more dangerous for Gabby. I don't feel as though it's to the point yet where we need to talk about our options, but I'm concerned."
Gabby held tightly to Kelly's hand as they walked out of the office. She was still trying to process the news they'd received. She'd been so excited to find out that the baby was a girl only for it to be followed by the news that her aneurysm was no longer stable.
"Hey, look at me," Kelly instructed softly as they reached the car. Gabby obliged and he continued, "It's going to be okay. We're going to get through this. You, me, and our baby girl are going to be just fine. Dr. Cortez is going to make sure of that, okay?" Gabby nodded and Kelly wrapped his arms around her, holding her against him. He didn't feel nearly as confident as he sounded, but he knew that Gabby needed him to be strong right now.
"Do you still want to stop by the firehouse?" Kelly asked gently as he pulled out of the parking lot.
Gabby nodded. "Yes. It will help take our minds off of everything. Besides, I saw your reaction when you found out it was a girl. You're not going to be able to keep your mouth shut," she teased, hoping Kelly couldn't see through the front she was putting on.
Kelly could, but he didn't let on. He just reached for Gabby's hand as they drove to the firehouse. Now that Gabby's pregnancy was more dangerous, it made telling everyone scarier, but also a lot more important. With Gabby's appointment frequency increasing, the chances of him needing to switch shifts or take him off rather than being able to schedule around his shifts were increased. Plus, if the worst did happen, Kelly couldn't imagine going through it without the support of their family at 51.
"You ready for this?" Kelly asked as he and Gabby walked up the pad to 51. He was relieved to see all three vehicles in the engine bay, meaning that everyone was there and they'd only have to do this once.
"Ready to tell all of our friends, who are also friends with our exes, that we're pregnant?" Gabby laughed. "As ready as I'll ever be." She waited for Kelly to drop her hand as they neared the firehouse, but he didn't. She was surprised, considering on what they'd agreed to tell everyone regarding their relationship, but was grateful. She needed every bit of his support right now. "But, Kelly? Can we not tell them about the aneurysm? At least not today. I want them to be able to be happy today."
Kelly nodded, squeezing Gabby's hand.
"Dawson!" Cruz was the first to notice them, and as usual, he was not quiet about it.
"Hey, Cruz," Gabby greeted him with a hug, careful to hug him loosely enough that her baby bump couldn't be felt. She'd purposely worn a loose fitting sweater to try and disguise it. "Capp, Tony, good to see you both again," she greeted the other two men who had stood up from the Squad table.
"Hey, Dawson," Capp replied. "Everyone else is inside," he informed them.
Kelly nodded, reaching for Gabby's hand again, an act that didn't go unnoticed by all three members of Squad. "Cruz, will you go get Boden and meet us in the common room? Gabby has some news for everyone."
Cruz nodded and took off towards Boden's office as Kelly and Gabby, still hand in hand, walked into the common room.
"Hey! Dawson!" Mouch greeted her from his usual place on the couch, drawing the attention of everyone else in the room. "We thought you'd forgotten about us!" Gabby hadn't been by the house since her first visit shortly after she'd arrived in town.
"Nah, I could never forget about you guys," Gabby assured him as she hugged him gently. "I've just been busy." It wasn't exactly a lie. Gabby had gone to a few fundraisers in Chicago for the Foundation since she'd been back and had also been doing some admin work for them, which kept her busy on the days Kelly was on shift.
"Gabriela Dawson; it's always good to see you," Chief Boden greeted her as he walked into the common room with Cruz.
"Hey, Chief," Gabby returned the greeting with a smile on her face. Somehow Boden's presence always had a way of making everything seem better. She looked around nervously at the room full of her friends, trying to figure out how to start.
"I know my last visit left a lot of you with some unanswered questions, and the questions I did answer were pretty vague. So we- uh, I, thought I owed you all some explanations," Gabby began nervously. She felt Kelly's hand rest on her back and was thankful for his reassurance.
"The reason I'm back in Chicago is because, well, I'm pregnant," Gabby announced. She was cut off from saying anything more by the cheers and shouts that went up around the room, bringing a smile to her face. She glanced up at Kelly and saw an identical smile on his own face. She just hoped that level of excitement would remain once she told them everything.
"How far along are you?" "How long have you known?" "Are you back for good, then?"
Questions flew at Gabby from every direction, overwhelming her. She was thankful when Boden held up his hands.
"Hey, hang on. Let her finish," the chief instructed everyone, causing the room to fall silent.
"Um, so, I'm twenty weeks today, actually. Some of you may have noticed that I was pretty thin and pale last time I was here; I had some pretty bad morning sickness for a while, which is why I was able to hide it for so long," Gabby explained. "But, uh, we're having a girl! We just found out today." As soon as the words left Gabby's mouth, she realized she'd forgotten to change "we" to "I."
"We?" Cruz asked, looking back and forth between Gabby and Kelly, filling in the blanks in his mind based off of what he'd seen earlier.
Gabby was about to reply when Kelly spoke up. "Yes, we," he replied. He waited for a moment, watching as several of his housemates quickly did the math in their head, before speaking again. "Gabby and I ran into each other when I was in New York. We were both drunk and one thing led to another," he shrugged. "Gabby came back to Chicago after she found out and told me, and we decided we want to raise the baby together," he added. It didn't go unnoticed by Gabby that he'd left off the "friends" part of that explanation.
Boden was the first one to break the stunned silence. "Congratulations, both of you! I'm thrilled for you, and I have no doubt you'll make fine parents."
Herrmann was next, "I'm happy for both you kids. Chief's right, you're going to make great parents," he told them, looking mighty proud as he hugged Gabby.
Gabby was thankful that both men had already known, as their reactions seemed to snap the rest of the house out of their shock, and they were quickly surrounded by their friends congratulating them. It was difficult to tell how their friends truly felt about the pregnancy, but Gabby was relieved that, if anyone had any problems with it, they didn't voice them.
Once everyone else had finished giving their congratulations, Brett made her way over to the couple. She hugged Kelly and gave him her congratulations before turning to Gabby. "Hi, Gabby," she said nervously.
Gabby gave her former partner a smile that she hoped was reassuring. While she was still hurt by what Brett had done in not telling her about Casey, she knew the younger woman hadn't meant to hurt her. "Hey, Sylvie," she replied.
"Do you think we could talk?" Brett asked. She glanced around. "Somewhere without so many people?"
"You can use my quarters," Kelly informed Gabby, and she flashed him a grateful smile before leading the blonde paramedic to Kelly's quarters. Gabby took a seat in Kelly's chair while Brett leaned against his bedframe.
"Look, Gabby, I just want to say that I'm sorry," Brett began. "I should have told you about me and Casey; you should have heard about it from us rather than hearing about it from Severide. I didn't mean to hurt you. I think I was just afraid of how you'd react."
Gabby nodded. "It's okay, Sylvie. I'm not mad. Yes, it hurt when Kelly told me that you and Matt were together, but I know that wasn't your intention. We lost touch after I left for Puerto Rico. I completely understand why you wouldn't want to randomly call me up and tell me that you're dating my ex-husband," Gabby replied.
"Thanks, Gabby," Brett replied. "And congratulations. I'm happy for you and Severide. I know how much you've wanted to be a mom, and he's great with kids." She hesitated for a moment before adding, "Umm, Casey told me. About why you left, and what caused you two to get divorced. I know about the aneurysm. Are you-, I mean, is…?" she trailed off, not entirely sure how to ask her question.
Gabby had wondered whether or not Brett would know about the aneurysm. She debated for a few minutes whether or not to tell Brett about the news they'd gotten today before finally deciding to tell her. If they had any hope of getting their friendship back, and Gabby hoped they did, they needed to be truthful with each other.
"Umm…" Gabby let out a breath, trying to figure out how to start. "The doctor is monitoring it. Up until today, it was relatively stable. It had grown a little bit last appointment, but she'd said it was nothing to be concerned about. At this appointment, though, it was different. Evidently, it's grown enough that she's now worried about it," Gabby explained, struggling to maintain control of her emotions.
"What does that mean?" Brett asked, concern filling her voice. "Are you and the baby going to be okay?"
Gabby finally gave up trying to hold back that tears that had been threatening to fall since the appointment. "I don't know," she told the younger paramedic honestly. "The doctor wants to see me every two weeks now, and she said if it gets bigger, there may be decisions that need to be made. She seemed worried."
Brett leaned down and hugged Gabby. "I'm sorry, Gabby," she told her. "I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do?"
"Can you keep an eye on Kelly for me?" Gabby requested. "He's trying to hide it, but I can tell he's worried. I worry about him while he's on shift, and I know he's good at keeping it professional and leaving his personal life at the door…"
Gabby hadn't finished her thought, but Brett knew exactly what she meant. Kelly was great at not letting his personal life affect him while he was on shift, but with something like this, it would be impossible for him to not think about. "Of course," Brett promised. "I'll do what I can."