Chicago Fire’s Stella Kidd and Kelly Severide’s road to parenthood was upended once again during the season 14 premiere — so what’s next for the couple?
Warning: Spoilers below from Chicago Fire season 14, episode 1.
During the Wednesday, October 1, of Chicago Fire, fans learned that Kidd’s season 13 finale pregnancy reveal was not meant to be. After Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) and Severide (Taylor Kinney) met with their doctor, Kidd was told that she suffered a miscarriage just one week after she took the pregnancy test.
“The good news is that there’s nothing in the exam or the labs to suggest any issues that would stop you from having a healthy pregnancy in the future,” the doctor told them, but Kidd was visibly in shock over the news.
Severide responded, “That’s great to hear,” but Kidd was in a fog. After the appointment, Kidd started to cry and apologized to her husband, thinking out loud, “I should’ve waited a couple days to tell you or taken another test.”
“You don’t have to apologize for anything. We’re in this together. Every step of the way,” Severide replied, trying to reassure Kidd that it’s OK that the pregnancy didn’t work out. (Last season, the couple also experienced heartbreak when their adoption of a baby fell through at the last minute.)
At the end of the season 14 premiere, Kidd and Severide received a surprise visit from Terry, who was previously in charge of their failed baby adoption.
Instead of proposing a new baby for the couple to care for, he asked them if they’d be “willing” to meet a teenager who is about to be removed from his group home and become his foster parents.
The episode ended with the firefighters stunned by the concept, which showrunner Andrea Newman revealed is exactly what they wanted for Kidd and Severide this season.
Newman exclusively told Us Weekly and Give Me My Remote on Thursday, September 25, that Kidd’s “hesitations” about getting pregnant — partly because she was raised by her aunt after her parents’ deaths as a teen — was “haunting” her when she discovered she was expecting so soon after the failed adoption.
“We all saw how Severide reacts, and he is so happy and so joyous. So in that moment, any hesitation [Kidd] had, and seeing him react that way went out the window, but that’s still underneath,” Newman shared. “We thought it would be interesting to explore for Kidd [that] when she finds out the pregnancy has not stayed around, she’s carrying guilt for that. She’s carrying guilt because she knew that she wasn’t 100 percent in the way that Severide was 100 percent.”
The showrunner explained that moving forward Kidd and Severide will be “shifting gears” and learning in the moment that “there’s no way to plan every step” of becoming parents.
“They had one story in their head of what family was going to look like, and now a new story is going to be written for them,” Newman teased, noting that Kidd helping Natalie, a teen she saved as a child from a fire, during season 13, and losing her own parents as a teenager will continue to shape that story.
She added, “At the end of the day, it’s a lot of obstacle courses and wrenches thrown in a couple that you know is very much in love — but there’s always going to be challenges that come with being a parent, and that’s very much so for them and how they manage this.”
Chicago Fire airs on NBC Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
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