"Are you ready for this?" Kelly asked as they stood in front of Molly's.

Gabby chuckled. "I don't know that I'll ever be completely ready for this conversation," she replied honestly. "But I'm as ready as I can be."

Kelly opened the door, guiding Gabby in with his hand on the small of her back. Once they were inside, he grabbed her hand, squeezing it. He wasn't sure who was more nervous: him, or Gabby.

"Hey! Gabby!" Herrmann exclaimed. He came around the bar and gave her a hug. "It's good to see you again, kid. How you feelin'?"

Gabby smiled, always happy to see Herrmann. "I'm okay," she assured him. "The doctor said everything is healing fine. I should be good as new in a few weeks."

"Glad to hear it," Herrmann replied. "Listen, you need anything at all, Cindy and I are just a phone call away."

"Thanks, Herrmann," she replied. She looked around the bar and spotted Stella at a table in the back, watching them. "I have someone I need to talk to. We'll catch up later, okay?"

Giving Kelly's hand one more squeeze, Gabby let go and made her way back to Stella's table. "Hey, Stella," she said cautiously when she reached her.

"Hi, Dawson," Stella replied, forcing a smile. Despite feeling hurt and somewhat betrayed by the woman who she'd once called friend, she still felt some sympathy for her after what Brett, Cruz, and Herrmann had told her that morning. She hadn't been around when Gabby had lost her and Matt's baby, but she'd heard Gabby talk about it, and knew how hard it had been on her and how much she wanted to be a mother.

Gabby slid onto the stool across from her. "Listen, Stella; I'm not sure how much you know, or what Herrmann and the other have told you, if anything. But I feel like I owe it to you to tell you everything, at least everything from my perspective. It's up to Kelly whether or not he wants to tell you his side of things. But I know what it feels like to see someone you loved move on with someone who had been your friend."

She took a deep breath before continuing. "I guess the story really starts on my last trip to Chicago," she began. "I didn't even see Kelly that trip," she rushed to add, not wanting Stella to get the wrong idea and think that Kelly had cheated on her. "But Matt and I…we spent one wonderful night together, and then when I woke up, he was gone. No goodbye, no note, nothing. I called him and left him a voicemail, inviting him to come visit Puerto Rico next time he took leave, but I never heard from him after that."

Gabby sighed. "I'd been given the chance to go to a lot of other places, but I'd chosen Chicago because I wanted to see Matt again. I wanted a second chance to make things work. As much as I told myself I wasn't, I was still in love with him. When he just left…it broke my heart all over again. I promised myself that I would never put myself through that again. I wouldn't give myself the opportunity to get my heart broken because I wasn't going to give it to anyone else. I'm telling you this because I want you to know that I had absolutely zero plans to fall in love with Kelly."

Gabby continued, "We were both in New York. I was attending a couple of fundraising galas the foundation had asked me to help out at. I was heading back to my hotel room after the first gala ended and was walking past the bar when I spotted him. At first, I thought I was seeing things because the last person I'd expected to see in New York was Kelly. I walked over to him and immediately knew something was wrong. He looked like he hadn't slept in days and he was already visibly drunk. I sat down next to him and he ordered me a drink before telling me what had happened between the two of you.

"By the time he was finished, we'd both had too much to drink, but he was drunker than I'd ever seen him," Gabby explained. "I was helping him back to his room, but he couldn't even remember his room number; he gave me your room number first. When he finally remembered it and we got to the door of his room, I was uh-, helping him with his room key. He was leaning down at the same time as I looked up and we kissed. One thing led to another and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in his bed with the worst hangover I've ever had."

Gabby smiled at the memory of the next morning. "I was puking my guts up in his bathroom and he brought me water and ibuprofen and then sat there with me until I was done. We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon talking, just catching up. His only plans for that night were to get drunk again, so I insisted he attend that evening's gala with me. He ended up standing around by himself for most of the night while I was passed from donor to donor, convincing them to open their checkbooks. Eventually he saved me by asking me to dance."

"While we were dancing, he mentioned that Brett was considering moving to Oregon to be closer to Casey," Gabby continued. "That was how I found out that they'd gotten together after my trip to Chicago. I was shocked and hurt, of course, but didn't really have time to think about it because we were interrupted when I had to go talk to another donor. The donor was droning on and on after he'd agreed to make a donation, and Kelly saw how desperate I was to get out of the conversation, so he posed as another donor to get me away from him.

"He convinced me to leave, despite the gala not being over yet. We said our goodbyes in the elevator when it stopped on my floor. I stepped off and was walking to my room when suddenly he was there, kissing me. He said something about not being ready to say goodbye yet, and I didn't want to be alone, so we slept together again."

"The next morning, we shared a cab to the airport and said goodbye, and I thought that was the end of it; we both did," explained Gabby. "But about two months later, I got really sick and was throwing up constantly. I just assumed it was food poisoning or some kind of virus at first, but Antonio finally convinced me to go to the doctor, and that's when I found out I was pregnant." Gabby stopped, not sure she was ready to talk about the pregnancy yet, but also knowing that Stella needed to hear that part of the story to fully understand everything.

Kelly, who had been watching her and listening in on the conversation from where he sat at the bar, came over and slipped into the seat next to her. As much as he didn't think they owed Stella an explanation, he didn't want Gabby to have to do it alone. He took hold of her hand under the table and then picked up where she'd left off. "I got home from shift one morning and she was sitting outside my door, waiting for me. When she told me she was pregnant, I was both excited and terrified. When Gabby lost her first baby, she'd developed any aneurysm, and pregnancy increased the changes of it rupturing."

"At that point, we weren't even sure if there would be a baby; we went to the first appointment knowing that the doctor might recommend terminating the pregnancy," Kelly continued. "But she didn't; instead, she told us that while it was dangerous, she would do everything she could to ensure Gabby and the baby both made it through the pregnancy. We were thrilled; we both wanted the baby.

"At the next couple of appointments we received the news that her aneurysm was growing. At first, the doctor wasn't too concerned, but then it started growing faster. After the second appointment, we told everyone about the baby, but not about the aneurysm. Gabby was starting to show, and we knew if the worst happened, we'd want them there with us, but didn't want them to worry."

Kelly paused, struggling to keep control of his emotions. "The doctor's goal was 32 weeks. That was the magic number. But Gabby was only 26 weeks. Her aneurysm ruptured, and they weren't able to save the baby. There were some complications during surgery, and for a few days, the doctors weren't sure if Gabby would make it, either." He squeezed Gabby's hand as he remembered those first few days. "And that's the whole story."

"Neither of us meant for it to happen, Stella," Gabby added. "It just…happened. And at some point, we fell in love with each other. The baby may be what brought us back together, but we're together because we love each other. I'm sorry for what happened between you and Kelly, but I'm not sorry for what happened between Kelly and me."

With that, Kelly and Gabby both stood up and, hand in hand, walked out of Molly's.

Stella sat by herself for a few moments before Herrmann came over. "I take it they told you everything?"

Stella nodded slowly, looking down at her empty glass. "I thought I could come back and Kelly and I could pick up where we left off. I didn't know…I didn't expect…"

"You didn't expect him to move on," Herrmann finished for her. "Look, Kidd, I know this isn't how you wanted things to turn out. But they did. You can't go back and change what happened; you've gotta find a way forward. You need to move on. Kelly and Gabby, they're good for each other. And they're happy together. They've already been through so much; don't put them through anymore."

Once Herrmann had walked back to the bar, Stella got up and, with one last glance around Molly's, walked out. Herrmann was right; she needed to move on. And she needed to do that someplace other than Chicago. This city held too many memories.