Even in her previous relationship with her ex husband, everything was very challenging. I think that she is a character who as a firefighter, as a woman, she has experienced so much resistance and so much adversity on her way up. I just look forward to watching Stella let herself win. Season 10, I'm very excited to see Stella's journey in agreeing and saying 'Yes, I do want to show up fully as a leader in my community,' and trusting that she can. Miranda Rae Mayo shared what she’s excited for fans to get to see for her storyline now that she’s back: The very good news is that Stella is back for good for the rest of Season 10, so even if she continues her work with Girls on Fire, that work won’t require her to leave for more episodes at a time. Both Severide and Boden were trying to get through to her as she slowly but surely ran out of time to come back and claim the spot before Pelham got it, and she may have cost herself an ideal opportunity. Stella missed a whole lot at Firehouse 51 during her absence, starting with the departure of Casey and snowballing from there with the open spot for an officer on Truck 81. And then it's just – have you ever had it where it's like, you haven't texted someone back but you know that everything's okay, even though they don't, and then it gets to the point where it's like, 'Oh, shit, it's been so long and now it's rude, even though I wasn't trying to be rude'? And so I think that rather than texting him back or calling him back at this point, she was just like, 'I gotta get home. She wasn't sure what she was going to do and she just needed to take a step back and really look at everything before moving forward. She didn't have an answer, and rather than communicating to him, like 'This is what's going on.' All the while, she's in the midst of running the program, and her days are packed. I have to choose right now.' And she froze. I think honestly, he was talking about how the lieutenant's position was open, and she was like, 'Oh my god, okay. When I asked Miranda Rae Mayo what she could share about why Stella went silent on him before just showing up again, the actress shared:

Severide was more than a little worried about Stella after she went silent on him just when a prime opportunity had opened up for her at Firehouse 51 with the lieutenant vacancy on Truck 81, but he didn’t jump for joy when she surprised him by showing up in the loft for a midseason finale cliffhanger.

Chicago fire actresses