celebrate good times come on

Kelly and Stella walked into 51 for their shift, just like normal. However, things were anything but. It had been nearly two weeks since Stella found out she was pregnant, and the expectant parents attended the first of many prenatal appointments a few days ago.

Everything at the appointment looked great; Stella was 7 weeks pregnant, and she and Kelly had gotten to see their little gummy bear of a baby on ultrasound for the first time. Those pictures were now proudly displayed on their refrigerator at home and they each had a copy in their bags for their locker. They weren't putting them up just yet though; no one at the firehouse knew they were pregnant.

Stella had very few pregnancy symptoms, which made it easy to hide it from their friends. Her morning sickness had been confined to just random bouts of nausea, and she got tired easily, but both of those could easily be ignored or written off as something else if anyone had caught on. There were a few instances where she nearly fainted, one of which at Molly's, but if she stayed hydrated and kept her blood sugar up, she was fine. No one suspected a thing.

In a perfect world, they'd wait to share their good news with friends and family until Stella was a little further along. This wasn't a perfect world though, and firefighting was a dangerous job. They needed to tell; they needed to keep Stella and their baby safe.

As morning briefing came to an end and the members of 51 scattered throughout the firehouse, Stella and Kelly made their way to Boden's office. Now that Stella was pregnant, things would be changing in every aspect of their lives—especially at 51. Her doctor had given her permission to be on light duty for now, but Stella, as much as she loved being a firefighter, knew the job was a dangerous one. As much as she hated the idea of being stuck behind a desk for months, it was the safest option. Kelly agreed, wholeheartedly, and was confident he could get Stella in with OFI. There were other options as well, like working in the 51 bullpen but to get any of those transfers signed off on, she needed to talk to Boden.

As their chief (and a father figure to them both), Boden deserved to be the first person at 51 to hear their news.

Kelly knocked on the frame of the open door. "Hey Chief, got a sec?"

Boden looked up from his paperwork to two of his firefighters standing in the doorway of his office. He waved them in, and Kelly and Stella made their way over to the chairs in front of his desk. They'd closed the door behind them, peaking Boden's interest. The Battalion Chief sat back in his chair, his previous task of reviewing reports long forgotten.

"What can I do for you two?" Boden's voice was gruff as usual, but there was genuine curiosity behind his words. The two firefighters in front of him seemed nervous and lacked the confidence they usually had.

Kelly and Stella shared a long look with each other, silently going back and forth on who would talk first. After a minute, they broke eye contact and turned their attention back to Boden.

"I'm pregnant." Stella announced.

The surprise was clear on Boden's face, but it quickly morphed into a big smile. He was so proud of the couple in front of him. Separately and together, the two had been through so much in the years he'd known them and if anyone deserved this, it was them. Boden got up from his chair and made his way around his desk. Kelly and Stella stood up to meet him. Boden pulled Stella into a hug. "Congratulations! I'm so happy for you."

Stella wrapped her arms around Boden and returned the hug with just as much fierceness. "Thank you Chief."

Boden released her after a moment and moved over to Kelly, giving him a quick, congratulatory embrace as well. "I'm proud of you Kelly," he whispered in Kelly's ear.

"Thanks Chief," Kelly said thickly, clearing his throat as he and Boden pulled apart.

Boden took a step back and leaned against his desk. "Obviously things are going to need to change. What do you need from me?"

"My doctor gave me the OK to keep working on light duty for a while," Stella started. "But we all know how dangerous this job can be. As much as I hate desk duty, I think I need to make the switch sooner rather than later."

Boden nodded. "What are you thinking?"

"Kelly's confident he can get me in at OFI, but we were also talking about maybe a position in the bullpen here?" Stella questioned. At Boden's agreement, she continued. "We'd have to bring in a floater for Truck, but I can keep working until we find a good fit."

Boden walked back around his desk and sat down, hands instantly going to his computer. Together, the three of them looked over the transfer paperwork as well as the current floater pool roster to see if any names stuck out. There were a few, some they'd worked with at different stations in the past or some Kelly remembered from helping teach at the Academy, that could be good stand-ins for Stella and Boden put them on the short list to bring them to 51 for a few practice runs.

As they were wrapping up their impromptu meeting, it was Kelly's turn to ask Boden for a favor. "Hey Chief, for now can we keep all of this between us three?"

"I kinda want a few more things to be in place before we announce it to the team." Stella chimed in. "Plus, I'm already going to have Kelly and you hovering over me I really don't need a dozen others watching my every move too."

"You have my word." The Chief laughed. Severide's protective streak when it came to Stella was a mile wide and it had only grown as their relationship progressed. He could only imagine how insufferable his hovering would be now. "How did your family take the news?"

Kelly and Stella both smiled, remembering the night they told their families. Jennifer was moved to tears at the news and those happy tears turned to joyous sobs when she saw the ultrasound pictures over FaceTime. Katie had a very similar reaction and within 30 minutes of them hanging up from their FaceTime call she sent them a text with pictures of at least three different baby onesies she'd just purchased, all with varying 'my aunt rocks' phrases on them.

"They're super excited." Stella said with a smile. "They check in daily and I love them to death, I do, but I'm very glad they don't live in Chicago."

Kelly and Boden both laughed but before anything else could be said, the tones rang, calling Squad and Ambo out on a run. Kelly headed out after giving Stella a kiss on the head and promising, at her insistence, to be careful, leaving her with Boden finish making plans. She'd fill him later.

… … …

It was a full house at Molly's that night. All of 51, including Boden, had come out, as had most of Intelligence, and some of the doctors and nurses from Med. Their friends– their family– were surrounding them and the soon-to-be parents knew it was the perfect time to announce that they were pregnant.

It had been almost three weeks since they'd told Boden. Stella's transfer to desk duty in the 51 bullpen had been approved and she only had a few more shifts with the crew before she moved from driving Truck to riding a desk. There was a part of her that was sad but overall, she felt good about the decision; they'd given a few different floaters some practice runs and Stella felt confident they'd chosen a good one to fill in for her and, at the end of the day, she was making the right decision for her and the baby.

Kelly was sitting at a table close to the bar, opposite Brett and Casey. The three had relatively full beers in front of them but Stella walked three new bottles over to them.

"Here we go guys," Stella said, placing the beers on the table.

"What are these for?" Brett asked, looking at her best friend.

The beers Stella brought over were, notably, her favorite brand and different from the ones they were already drinking.

"They're on the house," Stella answered with a smile.

Kelly wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. Stella rested her arm on his shoulder.

"Hey! Kidd!" Herrmann yelled from behind the bar. Clearly, he'd heard her. "I heard that! What's with this 'on the house' nonsense?"

Kelly took a sip of his beer to hide his smile. Herrmann had set this moment up perfectly for them, without even knowing.

Without missing a beat, Stella answered loud enough for Herrmann to hear over all the noise. "Well, I can't drink 'em for the next nine months so someone should get to enjoy them!"

The words clicked immediately for Casey and Brett, and the blonde was barely able to avoid spitting her beer out. It left her with a coughing fit that had Casey patting her back.

Molly's had gone unnaturally quiet, the crowd of people now focusing all their attention onto Stella. Evidently Herrmann, Casey, and Brett weren't the only ones to hear her answer.

"Oh my god!" As Brett collected herself, she managed to ask the question everyone else was wondering. The shock and excitement she felt caused her voice to rise. "Are you pregnant?!"

Kelly and Stella shared a look, and a soft loving smile, before turning back to face those staring back at them. Stella nodded and before she could say anything, cheers and shouts reverberated through the bar.

The couple was instantly swarmed with hugs from their friends and coworkers. Stella was whisked away from Kelly's side by Brett and Violet and taken over to where Hailey and Kim were standing and, over the sound of their shrieks, Kelly thought he heard something about ultrasound pictures. He wasn't sure though, he had his own group of people around him and while their exclamations were a few octaves lower than the women's, the excitement was easily matched.

It was a whirlwind of a few minutes, but Stella eventually ended up back at Kelly's side and everyone around them had a drink in their hands. Herrmann got everyone quiet and then Casey raised his beer, ready to toast to the couple. "To baby Severide!"

"To baby Severide!" Everyone called out, following Casey's lead.