Will You Move In?

Thanksgiving Dinner 🍽️ 🦃

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time of the year when we gather with friends and family over delicious home-cooked meals. It's a day inspired by gratitude, to give thanks for all we have, and to celebrate with the people who mean the most in our lives.

It's been a great year for Stella and Kelly relationship-wise, but a heartbreaking one with the loss of their firefighter-slash-friend Otis. So Stella wanted to do something special for her friend to celebrate his life and to remember him. And to mark Kelly and her first Thanksgiving living together.

She convinced Kelly and Casey to let her cook Thanksgiving dinner and invited everyone over: Brett, Foster, Ritter, Gallo, Cruz, Chloe, even Tony and Capp. She knew Herrmann would be with his family, and so would the Chief, and Mouch was with Trudy at Herrmann's. So everyone else, who was pretty much single and didn't have family close by, was coming.

It was a little after midnight when Kelly awoke to a bang. He sat up and looked around his room, figuring it was Stella coming home for her shift at Molly's. He laid back down, waiting for her to come into the room, but he heard the bang again. So his curiosity got the best of him. He needed to see what she was up to.

Stella was on her knees, looking through the cabinets. He arched his eyebrow as he watched her take out every pan they had. Then he heard another bang followed by "ouch damnit." He realized that bang was her hitting her head under the cabinet.

"Babe, are you okay?" He asked as he leaned over the island and watched her.

"Yes, just keep hitting my head." She says this as she continues to look through the cabinets.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm looking for a casserole dish."

"Why?"

"For my green bean casserole."

"Babe, it's fifteen after midnight; why do you need the dish right now?"

She looked up at him with a shocked expression. "It's Thanksgiving day!" She exclaimed.

"I'm aware of the day, but it's only midnight."

"I have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it."

"Stella, it's midnight, and you don't have to start cooking now. Most people wait till dawn." He jokes.

But Stella doesn't laugh. "Do you even know what goes into cooking Thanksgiving dinner for eleven people? Kelly, that's a lot of food; you want to make enough to go around and for people to have seconds if they want. "

"I know it's a lot of cooking, and I know you want everything to be perfect, and it will be." He extended his hand to help her off the floor. She rolled her eyes but took his hand. "Babe, I told you yesterday when we went shopping for everything that I would help you, so you don't get overwhelmed. Casey and I got the two long tables we figured we could put them side by side make one big table, and Brett and Foster are bringing desserts. Capp and Tony got chairs for us; Cruz and Chloe are bringing food, as is Ritter. So I'm sure that we will have enough food for everyone." He says as he's trying to calm her nerves. He pulls her into a hug.

She wraps her arms around his neck. "You're going to help me cook?" She asked curiously.

"Yes, don't look so surprised; I can cook."

"I know you can; I love when you cook for me. But I'm just surprised that you want to help; you were dead set against me wanting to do this."

"I wasn't against it; I just thought you and I could go out for dinner, come home, watch the game, and spend the rest of the night making love." He gives her a coy smile.