Questions And Answers...

This..

Stella sat on the deck with a glass of wine curled up in the rocker chair they had found at a local market one weekend of escape last summer. She had loved it immediately, and later that very afternoon, she had watched him from her lazy spot on the deck while he had restored the old chair. He had thrown off his shirt in the summer heat, deep in concentration, patiently cleaning and sanding down the peeling paint and then repainting it until it was like new. It was a perfect afternoon she would always remember as being one of pure happiness.
Absently, she ran her hand along the smooth wood. If things had gone to plan, she would have gone ahead and done what she had told Carver she was going to do. Bring her husband home. But she had barely got halfway to O'Hare when Chief had called her, and she had done a U turn and headed straight to Med. Mouch had had an internal bleed and had been rushed to the O.R. For a few hours, it'd been racy, but the old war horse had saved them all a lot of heartbreak when a pale but relieved Trudy had finally come out into the waiting room and shared that they had successfully stopped the bleed. Stella had stayed around until she was certain he was good, although his news that he was putting his papers in for retirement had rocked her, but she understood. It was time for Mouch to live out some of his other dreams.

It was so tranquil at the cabin, the two acre pond in front of it calm and still, like a sheet of glass, the sky a mid blue, and the early evening temperature warm as the day drifted towards sunset. She had spent a lazy day, much of it on the deck, starting with meeting the morning sun, trying to untangle a head full of chaos and answer some of the hundred questions about her marriage that had crowded out her brain, ever since the day Cruz had unwittingly shared that Kelly was no longer in Alabama, a fact Kelly had for some reason omitted telling her. And the more she thought about it, the more twisted her head got. This wasn't the marriage she signed up for. Finding out things second hand. She'd had enough of that from her time with Grant.
But the time here was giving her space to breathe and try and articulate those thoughts into something that would make sense to him when she did go to see him. She loved him entirely, and she couldn't, wouldn't, contemplate her life without him. But this wasn't working for her. This enforced separation that was driving them further and further apart.

The next morning, she busied herself with a few chores in the cabin. Dressed in T shirt , shorts, and sneakers, the windows were thrown open, and she swept away the months of dust that had accumulated around the place. Kelly would have been proud of her! It had invigorated her as if somehow it was clearing away her own indecisions and uncertainty.
She would fly out to Kelly tomorrow and tell him exactly how she was feeling and that she was taking him home. No second guessing, or answers like 'that's a little up in the air, right now'. They were married, and she needed to know that meant something.
And that was the thought playing through her head when she heard the rapping on the open door and turned around to see who it was, her eyes widening as they changed from a question to shock.
Kelly?!

There were smudges of dirt on her face, her hair scrunched up on the top of her head, eyes wide and startled, and in that moment, a crashing tidal wave of emotion floored him. Jesus, he had missed her, so much.....
But uncertainty followed straight on its heels as she just stood there, not making a sound or move.

"Hey."

He spoke first.

She had gone mute, frozen to the spot.

Her silence was unnerving Kelly. She was usually so demonstrative and impetuous. The Stella that he knew would be flying into his arms by now.

"How...?"

She finally spoke, and that was all she said.

"Don't I get a hello?" Kelly raised a brow, his mouth widening, his voice teasing.