This Is Just The Beginning

Chapter 44

~Stella's POV~
"It's about Carver..." I sighed.
"What about him?" Chief asked me, confused.
"I... he..." I struggled to find the words.
Chief looked at me confused.
I sighed.
"I used to know him from the academy. He hated me. And I didn't like him. We were both very competitive people back then... but he's not a good guy." I said.

"He's been here for 4 months already and he's a hell of a firefighter." Chief said, confused by why I was saying this.
"I'm just saying, he's not a good guy... we kinda just had a little interaction in the common room. Not good. He's the same as I remember him." I said.

Chief was just confused.
"Well, I'll be an eye out. But by what I've seen, he's a great firefighter. And Mason's actually leaving soon, so I was thinking about Carver replacing him." Chief told me.

I was going to say something, then I was interrupted by Bella.
"Daddy!" She squealed and ran off the chair.
I looked behind me and saw Kelly.

"Hey baby... everything ok?" Kelly asked, picking up Bella.
"We can talk later." Chief said, basically just telling me to leave.
I nodded my head and Bella, Kelly, and I went to his quarters.
"What was that about?" Kelly asked me.

"Why didn't you tell me that Carver was the one replacing me?" I asked him.
"Why would I? Do you know him?" He asked me.
"Yea, we used to know each other at the academy." I said.

"Did you guys not like each other or something back then?" He asked me.
"You could say that..." I said.
"He's been a good guy and firefighter from what I've seen. But I'll start paying more attention to him." He told me.

He sat together on his bunk with Bella on his lap.
"So, why'd you guys come here?" Kelly asked me.
"She wanted to see you, and I said why not." I chuckled.
He put his hand on my stomach and one of the twins kicked his hand.

I felt my face scrunch up a bit with that hard kick.
"Did that hurt?" Kelly chuckled.
"A little... I'm still not used to having two of them in there.." I chuckled, rubbing my stomach.
"Well, they'll be here soon... how about tomorrow, I'll go home, then we can go shopping for their nursery?" Kelly asked me.

I thought about it and nodded my head.
"Yea, we really need to." I laughed.
I leaned myself on him and he kissed the top of my head.
"You're tired?" He asked me.
I looked up at him and jokingly rolled my eyes.
"Nope, wide awake." I sarcastically said.

-next day-
It was noon and the 3 of us were getting ready to go to IKEA.
"How we're we thinking of putting them together? How would the room be?" Kelly asked me. We were in the twins soon to be room.

"I was thinking... we have them side by side, and we make it the walls a grey color. I wanted to put a carpet in here too. We can put shelving here and here, and buy some cabinets and dressers." I explained.
"Yea, that would work. We have to be mindful of the sizes though." He told me, measuring the room.

"Mama, dog!" Bella came in with a dog plush.
We both laughed and I went to picked her up, but Kelly stopped me.
"Nope, you can't pick her up right now. You don't need the stress on them." He told me, picking her up and putting his hand on my stomach.

I looked at him and Bella.
"She's my daughter, I just wanna hold her." I laughed.
"You can hold her if you two are laying down in bed or on the couch." He chuckled.
I laughed and twirled Bella's hair with my fingers. She had a dog plush with her.

"Dog." She giggled and lifted up the toy.
"That's right, dog." I smiled at her.
"Come on, we should start heading out now." Kelly chuckled.

We left to go to the store.
Once we got there, we started walking around. We put Bella in the cart and we looked around.
"This one's nice." Kelly said, showing me a crib.
I looked at him.
"I don't know... it wasn't really exactly what I was looking for." I said

We kept on looking around.
"What about this one?" Kelly asked me.
"Hmm, I actually think this one might work." I said.
Kelly wrote down the numbers. He wrote down the matching set too.

We didn't find anything else that we liked, so we went with those. We headed over to the box area.
We finally found the aisle and found the boxes.
"Those look heavy, do you want some help?" I asked Kelly, who was loading the boxes.
"No it's fine, I got it." He told me.

Kelly was having a difficult time loading at the boxes in the cart. Then he was about to drop one and I caught it. And that was probably one of the worst decisions I've ever made. The amount of strain that this was on my back and abdomen was excruciating.

"Babe... you didn't have to do that... are you ok?" Kelly told me once we got the box in the cart.
"Yea I'm fine..." I said, even though I was in so much pain.
He finished loading everything. We laid for everything in left.

"We should go to Target and get some sheets and mattresses for their cribs." I said as we got in the car.
"Alright, let's go." Kelly said.

Once we got there, we went to the baby area.
"Ban-kit" Bella said, she saw a fluffy blue and grey blanket.
"You like this blanket?" I smiled at her.
She tried to reached out for it while in the cart.

Kelly grabbed it for her.
She loved it. We smiled at her.
Once we got to the crib section, we found some sheets.
"What kind of sheets were you thinking?" Kelly asked me.

"Probably... grey for her and a dark blue for him? You know we can't have blankets in there, just like a fitted sheet, but, we can use the blankets that we used for Bella when she was little like that. She has a ton and we didn't really use most of them." I explained.

"Yea, you're right." He told me.
My whole lower and center abdomen and lower back were in pain from when I caught the box. I leaned myself on the cart to take the pressure off. I kept feeling the twins kicking me too.
I put my head in between by arms and took a deep breath.

"Babe, are you ok?" Kelly asked me.
I looked back up at him. I debated if I should ie so we could get this all done, but I remembered what Nat told me.
I shook my head.
"My body... is just overworked... can we just go home?"  I asked him.

"Yea of course... why didn't you say anything sooner? You know the doctor told you to take it easy." He told me.
I just sighed and shook my head.

We left after that and went home.
Kelly brought the boxes inside.
Bella ran to her room to go and play while Kelly and I laid down on the couch.

"Are you sure you're ok after everything that happened?" He asked me.
I looked at him.
"I don't know... what I do know is that if I keep making these stupid mistakes, it's gonna be my fault if they're born early and in the NICU..." I said.

"Listen, that's not gonna happen. It's not your fault, you just have to be a little more careful." He told me, stroking my hair.
"Yea but... what if they do come early? In 2 weeks we find out if they come early or if I can wait full term." I told him, stressed out.

"That's not going to happen. Don't stress yourself out with the 'what if's'. Focus on making the best outcome possible. They'll be ok... and so will you..." he cupped my face in his hands and kissed me.

I had tears in my eyes and nodded my head.
"Whatever happens... we'll do it this together..." he squeezed my hands. I smiled at him.
"Together..." I smiled.

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