Questions And Answers...

We've Come A Long Way

I started writing this yesterday for MarianaJacob9 and was somewhere near the end this afternoon.... when the news broke that stunned us all. I debated whether to continue or whether to file it away to gather dust and be just a memory of something that may have been..... so my good friend Follow The Yellow Brick Road thought maybe I should finish it...
She was right....its cathartic and I hope it is for all of you....

S11 Ep 1.

The chapter is around what happened after the squad cars left the cabin on Stellaride' s wedding night.

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The last of the squad cars drove off returning the cabin, back to quiet. The newly married Severides stood silently on the porch staring into the darkness as the headlamps disappeared around the lake and away, neither still quite believing what had just happened. Stella slipped her hand into Kelly's, her legs suddenly beginning to tremble as reality started to kick in.
Her husband turned towards her, a heavy look of pain weighing down his features, his eyes glittering with a mixture of guilt and shame. They had been married less than twelve hours and their honeymoon had been aborted and his wife had been a second away from death. And he knew it was his fault. He squeezed her hand, his heart jolting at the slight shakiness of her hand within his and drew her into his arms. How had this gone so wrong?

Stella buried her face into his neck, her arms tightening around him, her head replaying the moment when Del Carter had kicked open the barn door and fired at Kelly. At that moment all her nightmares had come together, her blood running cold and a whip lashing through her heart. Her terrified thought was that Carter had taken Kelly from her before she even had a chance to plan their tomorrows. Perhaps that's why somewhere in the chaotic recesses of her mind, she had decided to attract his attention so that maybe he could inflict the same on her.

They stood in the artificial light of the porch for long moments, taking comfort that they were o.k. and together, wedding rings glinting in the porch light, a new but unsullied reminder of the joy that the previous dawn had brought them.

Kelly breathed in her perfume, teased by snatches of the better memories from the day before. Despite having to source an alternative venue at the last minute for their wedding, fate had been kind to them for a change and with Casey's ingenuity, a river cruise boat had been sourced and they had had their perfect day underneath the spring Chicago sky. And it had all been perfect, even consummating their love and vows.

Until it hadn't.

Bile rolled in his stomach. Maybe his mother had been right in the first place. Severide men weren't cut out for marriage. He was supposed to keep his wife safe, instead, he had summoned the wrath of Chicago's gangland upon them. Failure as a husband taunted him, thinking abjectly to himself that he had learned from the best hadn't he?

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Kelly boarded up the splintered cabin door, knocking the hammer angrily into the screws that were holding the makeshift repair. His thoughts were boiling over. There was a mole in the CPD who had sold them out about Kelly's whereabouts. Pryma had shared that much before he had left but would not be drawn on anymore. That made everything even worse in Kelly's head. Someone who was supposed to protect people had bartered his and Stella's lives for money and that was something that Kelly could not and would not be able to compute. One way or the other he was going to find out who it was.

Stella was repacking their few belongings back into their bags, having both agreed to return to the City and hole up at the Loft instead. They hadn't bought much with them, figuring it was their honeymoon after all so weren't planning on needing very much.