✓VEGAS [CHICAGO FIRE]

eighteen.

╔═══*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*═══╗

𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧: 𝐢'𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐲
𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫
𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬!

╚═══*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*═══╝

Maddie knew her birthday was right around the corner. Which was why she wasn't surprised when the whole office started to sing to the tune of Happy Birthday in the middle of lunch break. Just like what other people do, she blows out the candles labeled 28 on the chocolate cake and gives a piece to everyone. 

By the end of the day, Maddie was looking forward to an impromptu outing with Brianna and JJ and, to her surprise, they exceedingly declined and rushed out of the building. Maddie guessed she was taking a cab. . .until she sees Kelly standing outside her building──his gap toothed smile already on his lips and his brawny arms already open for Maddie to run into (which was exactly what she did). 

Settling her back onto the ground, Kelly greets her with a kiss. "Happy Birthday, babes!" His eyes settle on her and he notices something different, "You cut your hair?"

"You like it?" She asks, consciously running her fingers through her new short haircut. "I mean, you can't pull it anymore when we have sex but──"

"Maddie, you look beautiful." 

"Thank you, mahal ko (my love)." Maddie takes his hand as they walk towards the car, "Molly's? I think I'm buying drinks for everyone tonight."

"Your present first." He tells her and leads the way to his Mustang. 

Inside the car, they had easy conversations. Kelly talked about his shift and how tensions were a bit high at 51 due to Otis accusing Scott Rice of his cowardice while Maddie talked about Brianna's gift which included an unplanned trip to the hair salon during the last fifteen minutes of their lunch break. JJ had tagged along and took a picture of the two girls.

Twenty minutes into their trip to Naperville, Illinois, Maddie had fallen alseep. She had reclined her seat and her soft snores were flowing through the car. 

When they had arrived at their destination, Kelly couldn't resist snapping a picture of Maddie curled up like a fetus on the passenger seat with a soft smile on her lips.

"Maddie. . ." He shakes her shoulders gently, "Wake up. We're here."

She rubs her eyes before sitting up. "Are we at NASA?"

"NASA? Why would you think we'd be at NASA?"

Like an instinct, Maddie tucks herself under his arm. The feel of Kelly's arms around her always felt like home. "I had a short dream that we were about to go on a spaceship and into outer-space." 

Kelly leads her into the gates of what he hoped would be their house and, in the future, would be filled with little kids running around. 

"Oh, wow." Maddie says in awe, "It's a. . .it looks like the house I dreamt of when I was a kid."

"Well. . ." He lets go of her hand and stands in front of her and recalls what the real estate agent had told him a few weeks ago. "It's roughly twenty-one thousand square feet of home. This is our future with six bedrooms and eight bathrooms with an exercise room, a fireplace, and even a home theater!"

Kelly could just picture it. He could play basketball with the kids. Maddie could paint in the garden. She could cook in the kitchen and have a pantry all to herself. They would have loud family dinners in the dining hall.

"Oh. . .this is our future?" Maddie croaks out, biting her bottom lip. "Kelly, the house is beautiful but──"

"Is it too small?" He ran into burning buildings for a living but nothing scared more than disappointing his wife. "Because, there are other offers, Maddie. There's this town in Rockford but it takes a little longer to get to the city."

He thought she didn't like it? Kelly──her husband that the other people often called a tough egg to crack──went out of his way to look for a house that resembled one she had dreamed of in during her childhood. She never felt more blessed than this moment. 

With tears brimming in her eyes, Maddie walks closer to where he was. She circles her arms around his torso and looks up at him, "Kelly, Kelly, Kelly." She whispers softly, "The house is beautiful but it's not us." 

"Wha──what?"

"I just can't picture us living in that thing. I'd just get bored and lost like I always did in our mansion back in Miami."

"So, you don't want it then?"

"Kelly, I could live inside a shoe box as long as you're with me." 

His hands find their way to her neck then their cradling her face and he's kissing her. "I love you, Maddie, you know that, right?"

"Duh!"

"Happy Birthday." 

"And, thank you."

And,when Maddie leans in for a kiss, a smile graces her lips because their love was one that she had waited for her whole life. 

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

To say that Maddie felt a tad emotional when she walked into their apartment to find Sylvie holding a birthday cake and Brianna leading her crowd of friends to a somewhat bearable version of Happy Birthday was an understatement. There was laughter and music flowing through the room and a whole lot of beer. 

An hour into the party, Kelly had found his wife again after Otis and Cruz pulled her aside and asked tips on how to see a woman beyond the first date. 

With a steady hand on Maddie's lower back, she soon came face-to-face to a girl with fringe bangs and electric blue eyes similar to Kelly's.

"Oh, you must be Katie!" Maddie exclaims and immediately pulls her into a hug, "I've heard some great things about you from your brother."

Katie laughs. "I wish I could say the same thing about you but the said brother likes to keep you all to himself." 

"Hey." Kelly quips, "I do share my wife with other people."

"Your wife." His sister repeats, eyes darting back and forth the married couple. She links her arm through her sister-in-law's, "Tell me again, Maddie, how he managed to convince you to marry him." 

"Well, Katie, once upon a hotel bar in Vegas. . ."

Maddie's laugh is the last thing he hear before Kelly gets back to smoking cigars with some guys from the Firehouse──feeling happy and contented and the luckiest man in the world. 

AUTHOR'S NOTE
double update
because i'm so dead
rn aksksks yay!!!