A Spark of Hope (Chicago Fire)

Chapter 12

"Good morning, gorgeous."

I gratefully accepted the cup of coffee that Severide held out to me as I came down the stairs. He had woken up before me, which was a rare occurrence.

"Where's Eden?" I asked, looking around the room.

"She's upstairs, still sleeping. I didn't want to wake her up just yet," he said, pressing a kiss to my forehead.

"We should leave in a little more than an hour," I said, looking at the clock.

"I can do that. What do you want for breakfast?" he asked, opening the fridge.

"I don't want anything fancy. I'm too nervous to eat much of anything."

"How about yogurt and fruit?" he suggested.

"Sounds good. I'm going to go get dressed and then get Eden ready. Please wear something relatively nice today. Jeans and a nice shirt," I said.

He nodded and got to work washing grapes. I made my way back upstairs and into the bedroom. Searching through the closet, I found my favorite pair of cuffed dark wash jeans and a white and black striped t-shirt. I threw a black cardigan over top and found a pair of black, heeled sandals.

"You look good," Severide said, coming into the room.

"Thank you," I said, kissing him on my way to go get Eden ready.

Eden was just waking up when I walked into the nursery.

"Good morning, jellybean," I said, picking her up.

"Jellybean? That's an interesting nickname," a voice said from behind me.

I spun around, my arms automatically wrapping around Eden protectively. I sighed in relief when I saw that it was only Dawson.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," she said, walking towards me.

"My mom used to call me jellybean when I was a baby. She said that when she first saw me on the ultrasound, I looked exactly like a jellybean and my dad was worried that I was just a jellybean that my mom had swallowed whole," I explained.

"That's weirdly adorable," she said, handing me a clean diaper while I stripped off Eden's pajamas.

"I always thought it was kind of silly but then I saw a copy of Christi's ultrasound from when she was pregnant with Eden at the house and she looked exactly like a jellybean. I'm sure it's insanely common, but it reminded me of my mom," I said.

"It's sweet," Dawson insisted.

I searched through the dresser drawers for a matching outfit to put Eden into. I eventually settled on a tiny floral onesie with a pale pink cardigan and grey leggings.

"She looks adorable," Casey said, coming into the room.

"Thank you," I said, picking her up and handing her over to him.

We all went downstairs and I grabbed a bottle from the fridge and stuck it in the warmer. While I waited for the bottle to heat to the right temperature, I grabbed a big spoonful of yogurt and a bunch of the fruit Severide had cut up and started eating.

"I've got it," Dawson said as I reached for the warmed up bottle.

I ate quickly while Dawson fed the baby. Eden was almost finished when Severide came downstairs, dressed in jeans and a black sweater.