These Chicago Fire clues showed Carver's lingering feelings for Stella

Chicago Fire season 12 episode 4 "The Little Things" focused heavily on relationships, finally offering an update about a surprising development from season 11. We had been wondering how Sam Carver (Jake Lockett) was fairing where his feelings for Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) were concerned and even if the episode did not confirm explicitly, Carver still has feelings for Stella.

Stella never fails to catch Carver's eye

Granted that Stella and Carver work closely on the same team, the attention Carver gives Stella is a telltale sign that he hasn't gotten over her. It is in stark contrast to how he treats Violet.

While Violet Mikami (Hanako Greensmith) gets all shy and bothered every time she and Carver share a space, Carver always remains calm and composed. Watching them interact, Violet's actions would betray them earlier than Carver's if ever. Violet tries to play it cool but it comes off as something else entirely different.

Carver exhibits the same behavior to some degree whenever Stella is around. He is able to mask it well such that any casual observer would not be able to notice.

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Carver offered to help Stella do a mundane task

The episode saw Stella try to help a little girl who she suspected was guilty of setting fires around her neighborhood. The case became complicated at every turn with the child's mother protecting her daughter, prompting Stella to look for an alternative method to deal with the problem.

While Carver and Violet were talking, they both caught Stella walking out to find a program that would help the little girl and Carver went over to talk to her. It was a pretty standard conversation that saw Stella explain what she wanted to do.

Carver offered to accompany her but gauging the task as easy, Stella turned him down. That was a sign that Carver was looking to spend more time with her. There's a fair chance that he was just offering as a sign of solidarity but based on what we know about him, he appeared to have other motivating factors.

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Carver was quick to run after Stella during the fire rescue

Matters with the little girl finally came to a head when she set her own house on fire and Firehouse 51 responded. Stella went in and found the girl but got stuck when the floor broke and trapped her right foot. She handed the child to Gibson and then worked on getting herself free.

Luckily, Stella broke free and as she rushed out, she met Carver who was running after her. In a scene full of firefighters who were not doing anything, Carver was too quick to come to the rescue.

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The amount of attention that Carver gives Stella leads us to deduce that he still has feelings for her and they're not going away any time soon. He needs to address them because it appears as if Violet clocked his behavior and with how quickly she is falling for him, this might not end well.

With Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) away (even if he keeps texting that he's coming back soon), a love triangle might develop between Carver, Stella, and Violet and those are usually messy.

The coming episodes will chart the course of how this develops and we hope it doesn't break our hearts.