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After being a floater for a few months she was finally posted at Firehouse 51, she had a great partner, she was building lifetime long friendships and her relationship with her boyfriend was nothing short out of a telenovela. But oh man...she never loved anyone else the way she loved him and quite frankly he was the only man she ever fell in love with.

But disaster and chaos struck her life inevitably...growing up she and her little sister were raised by her older brother, who became overnight their legal guardian after their mother checked out on them. Long story short, her big brother got involved in some sketchy stuff in order to put food on the table and put them through school. Now many years later, after all of them successfully left that kind of life behind, they were forced to leave Chicago for their own safety.

And it was the toughest decision Valentina had to make in her entire life. That mixed with pain and irrational thinking, she decided to cut everyone off so she could move on without spiraling down into a complete wreck. Her departure has left behind a lot of unanswered questions and hurt people...and she knew that. Why? Because she never found peace in the new city that was supposed to be her new home. Chicago was home. And after "hiding" for a few years she knew she had to come back...only a whole lot of things were to change.

//

Sitting across the table from the man that first believed in her professional skills and gave her first stable job her foot was unconsciously bouncing up and down. "I'm really glad to have you back here...and I'm sure everybody else will be just as happy to see you again." "I have to thank you Chief...for basically keeping my seat warm all this time." Sharing a laugh his eyes drifted behind her, as another person was making his towards the office.

Valentina knew who it was before she ever turned around. It was the reason why she didn't go straight to the locker room and instead came into the Chief's office.

"Chief you wanted to see me?" A very familiar voice echoed through the room making Valentina get up from her seat and turn around to come face to face with him.

"Oh you have to be kidding me..." He spoke the moment he realized who was standing right in front of him.

"Severide...Valentina will be taking back her seat on Ambo. Now...I brought you in here because I need to hear from both of you that you can work together from now on...and whatever has happened in the past won't become a present issue in my firehouse." Chief Boden spoke hoping the Ambo saga will finally be over, as he has had a tough time with floaters recently.

"It's fine by me Chief." She quickly answered as she started to feel the tension already building up. "Same with me." The Lieutenant mumbled, still trying to piece together what had just happened.

"Good, you're dismissed!"

Leaving the office and walking together towards the common area, there was nothing but unpleasant silence among the two former lovers...until Valentina stepped in front of Kelly making him stop abruptly.

"I know a lot of things have happend while I've been gone and I know you're married now...but I swear I didn't come back to raise any havoc." In her mind, the sooner they got out the weird, uncomfortable conversations, the better...but she could've waited at least a bit longer.

"Shoot me!" She almost chocked saying those words making her partner look at her like she lost her mind. "What?" "Shoot me! Through and through in my left shoulder...you take a picture and you tell them I attacked you and you shot me dead...and you got rid of my body. This way you can keep your cover and they'll trust you." She grabbed her gun preparing herself to make the scene as believable as possible. Looking up at Nick, he was taken aback but he knew this was the only way she could survive. "Do it...right here." Alba's ears started ringing and her mind was getting foggy as she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder taking over her entire body, making her hit the cold concrete floor.

~3 years later~

There were very few things in life Alba enjoyed more than autumn in Chicago and returning to the city where she was born, grew up and fell in love a few times in, suddenly overwhelmed her.

Where was she supposed to go? She was legally declared dead...nonexistent. She was a ghost, one you could see, one wondering around aimlessly. Looking down at her watch she decided to go to the only bar in town, where she was sure she will see someone familiar...and she did. She watched as people she knew went in, come out, realizing how different their lives must be now in comparison to how she knew them. She sat in her car across the street for three hours when finally, the person she desperately hoped to see stepped out.

For three years she couldn't talk to him, couldn't even send a letter to tell him she was fine and that she'll be back one day, she barely remembered her last conversation with him before going undercover and completely disappearing from the face of the Earth.

The wind picked up the closer she walked towards him almost as a sign for her to stay away, but as she finally got close enough the familiar scent of cologne brought back every single memory she held onto for all these years that helped her survive. He was trying to unlock his car, his back facing her when words suddenly felt too complicated to be spoken out loud. Taking a big breath in as if she was building courage she almost hoped he'd turn around to see her standing there, but he didn't and this was her chance to finally regain a little piece of her old life back.

"Hi Kelly!"

~~~

Turning around, it would be fair to say he looked like he saw a ghost...because that's what she was to those who knew her three years ago. Alba's eyes started to fill with tears as the man who made her so crazy in love with him was coming closer to her, his hands reaching for her face, almost as if he was trying to make sure she was real. "It's you...it's really you?!" Nodding her head tears were streaming down Alba's face uncontrollably as she slowly touched Kelly's hands that were still cupping her face. "How?" He barely got himself to speak and he felt his hands shaking more with every second he was looking at her. "I can explain...I promise."

Walking into the old apartment she used to share with Kelly, Alba was surprised that he hasn't moved out and found another place to stay...one with less baggage. Everything pretty much looked the same as she remembered, but there wasn't anything that could testify to her ever living there...not even a framed picture. To Kelly this entire experience felt strange, almost like a fever dream and all of a sudden the woman he shared his life, struggles and dreams with seemed like a stranger wandering around in his home. "Where have you been Alba?" he spoke and sat down on his coach waiting for her to do the same. Disturbed from her reminiscing thoughts, she quickly realized this wasn't her home anymore, and she was there to give him an explanation.

"Uhm...remember how before I left I told you I was going to New York for training?" With a stern look on his face he gave her a short nod and she continued. "There was no training...I went to New Mexico on an undercover mission for the Organized Crime Unit over there. We were investigating this group of Arms traffickers moving in heavy into the States and uhm...alongside another cop we went undecover...and we were in deep, they trusted us, we were gathering a lot of information...and then one day I slipped. I messed up one little detail about my background story and they made me. They still played along but they were going to kill me...they knew everything about me, everything about my family, about you, about every single person in my circle...the guy I was in with found out and told me to run but I knew they were going to find me sooner or later...or they could've used someone I knew as leverage... I told him to shoot me..." moving her shirt to the side she exposed a huge scar left by the bullet that perforated her shoulder making Kelly frown and close his eyes shut. "The only way I could escape from being killed was to be already dead...and it worked. Afterwards I fled to Cuba and a few weeks ago I was informed they finally busted them...so the entire group is either dead or in maximum security and uhm...I was given the green light to return home."

Kelly truly felt dumbfounded as if he was hearing the plot of a movie and not something that actually took place in his life. "I've buried you... I watched Halstead and, and everybody else carry you and lower you into the grave....I've, I've mourned you...do you know how many nights I spend going to your grave and talking to you...and it wasn't even you in there?!" The surprise was quickly turning into anger for Kelly.

Alba came into his life shortly after Shay passed and she was the one who picked Kelly up so many times, they lived the most beautiful and intense love story together up until her disappearance and oh man he took it hard. He went through all the stages of grief...multiple times and he finally felt like he got used to his new life when Alba decided to come back from the dead. "Kelly I swear I couldn't tell you...the more you knew the bigger the threat would've been to your life."

"The more I knew? All I wanted to know was that my girlfriend was alive...that's it, you could've spared me and so many other people so much pain, Alba!" The emotions, the anger, the frustration was getting the best of him...he never even raised his voice at Alba before but now he was full on yelling. She knew the pain she put him through, she knew that another funeral might've ruined him but she had no choice, she pressed pause on her life too and knew the moment she'll come back she'll create havoc for everybody else.

"Why did you even come back? I've finally got used to life without you..."

"I didn't come back expecting anything...I know you've moved on with your life, but I have nowhere else to go...I didn't create another life for myself in these years I've been gone. Chicago is where my life was normal the last time I can remember...and I want to go back to that in whatever measure I can." No words and no tears will ever excuse what she did and she knew that. She didn't come back expecting Kelly to open his arms and carry on like nothing ever happened, she expected such reactions but that didn't mean she wasn't hurt by his words.

"Maybe it's time for you to go...", Kelly spoke staring at the coffee table in front of him not wanting to make any eye contact with Alba and without further ado, she got up and took one more look around the apartment that held so many beautiful memories and left.

Realistically, it would be everyone's dream to find out that a loved one believed to be dead was actually alive and doing well, but Kelly felt betrayed...and even mad at himself. After Alba's burial he thought many times how he never got the chance to identify her body and he never actually saw her in the casket. For those reasons and while probably going through the denial phase, he strongly believed she was alive and that she'll come back...but she didn't and he got used to the idea of her being gone. He was mad because it took so much of himself to take the framed pictures down, to pack up her clothes, her other belongings, to empty her locker at work...he wanted to move out so many times but he knew once he left that apartment every single memory of her will be gone.

On the other hand, Alba felt numb driving to her old sergeant's house, who was the only who knew of her being alive this entire time. Entering from the back alley, it took the security system a few seconds to alert him that somoene was in his backyard and in no time he appeared on his porch. "You can come in from the front now you know?" His deep raspy echoed through and it made her scoff. "Welcome back kid, I'm glad you made it."

"Wish I didn't to be honest." with a defeated sigh she took out a cigarette and lit it up, breathing in the heavy smoke. "I wish you could've just told him I wasn't dead...that's it."

One thing Voight wasn't playing around with were emotional cops, so when she wrote the only letter Alba was allowed to send, she asked him to let Kelly know she was fine and just like he read it, he ignored it. "Emotions get people killed, Alba...you know he would've tried to find you. After you disappeared, he had a tail on him for weeks...same with the entire unit. It was better for everyone to not know..." she knew he was right but that's when she realized she probably had some more maturing to do. "Speaking of...you want to return to work?" that question had her thinking, how could she go with everyone through the same conversation she just had with Kelly. "Well first I guess you need to help me with the paperwork...to make sure you don't have a dead cop wandering around Chicago." Her attempt of making light of the situation earned Voight an actual and valid concern he's had.

"Have you been using?" Alba didn't expect the question to come so bluntly but she also knew lies were not going to bring her life back. "From time to time...not regularly." She wasn't proud of this or of the other things she had to do to survive. Once she landed in Cuba, she was on her own, no money, no clothes, no place to stay so she had to make ends meet even if that involved being extra nice to the big shot drug dealers in Havana. "But uhm...I can go cold turkey and you can ask me to take random drug tests whenever you want...I'll be clean." In return she received a nod in agreement from her old boss.

"I need you to help me break the news to everybody in the unit...I think the sooner the better before they run into me on the streets."

~~~

KELLY SEVERIDE (multi-chapter)

STELLARIDE

Nothing will ever be the same

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Quarantine Blues

Jealousy is in the air?

She was my best friend

You look like hell ft. Matt Casey

Lt. Stella Kidd

Baby Severide

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KELLY SEVERIDE (One shots)

Little Sister, Big Problems

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JAY HALSTEAD

Detective Stalker

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UPSTEAD