Disclaimer: Nope, RB does belong to me.
Rated T, for no good reason ;).
A/N: I've been wanting to write this for awhile, but it never seemed write. I finally got it out, though.
Set after episode 6, 'Bullet Proof'. Just a quickie.
Hope you enjoy!
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"So, McNally, where are we going, exactly?" Sam asks her, averting his eyes from the road for a moment to look at her out of the corner of his eye.
Andy worries her bottom lip between her teeth, turning to look out the passenger-side window, "Oh, just ... somewhere," she replies vaguely. "Turn left here," she adds, pointing to an upcoming traffic light.
He furrows his brow, clearly displeased with her refusal to inform him of their destination. He follows her instructions, anyways, and continues to as she directs him through a cacophony of turns until he recognizes the street they're turning on to.
He pulls up in front of Marie's house, letting out a soft, "Oh," as he shuts off his truck and puts it in park.
Andy sighs, looking down at her lap and wringing her hands slightly.
"It's not your fault, you know," he tells her quietly. She scoffs lightly, blinking furiously and looking out her window. He doesn't push the point, though, because he knows that it'll be a long time before she's in the frame of mind to believe him.
She looks out her window for a long moment, looking at nothing in particular. After a while she turns her head in his direction, looking straight past him to Benny's mother's house. He notices the moment she's lost to memories, her eyes glazing over. Her pupils widen and her nostrils flare, her breath quickening minutely, as she hears the shots from earlier in the afternoon.
She flinches almost unnoticeably (almost), and almost instantly he knows what she's remembering. "Were you scared?" he asks her quietly, flashing back to their conversation outside the Black Penny after the Anton Hill debacle.
His words startle her out of her memories, and her eyes flicker to his. "Yeah," she answers after a long moment, nodding slightly and swallowing thickly. She looks down at her lap, adding quietly, "You weren't there."
He should have been, though. Or rather, she shouldn't have been. If he hadn't been hung-over, he wouldn't have been so willing to hand her over to Luke for the day. She wouldn't have been involved in the case at all. She wouldn't feel guilty for Benny's death right now. Her life wouldn't have been put in danger.
He clenches his jaw, furious at himself. Because of him, she could have died. It's a bitter pill to swallow, and he could waste forever on what ifs.
He doesn't, though, because he knows that it would be useless. What if doesn't matter in this job; or in the world, really. What's done is done, there's no going back and changing it. Besides, she isn't dead. She's very much alive.
So instead he focuses on the other implication of her words. The fact that she trusts him the way she does is flattering, and only serves to make him that much more determined to never break that trust again.
Somewhere during his inner-monologue Andy had lifted her gaze from her hands in her lap back to his own. He stares into her eyes, swallowing compulsively, again thinking back to their old conversation. Back to the end of their conversation; back to what he'd (reluctantly) agreed to disregard.
He clears his throat, turning away from her deep eyes to look at Marie's house. "We should probably go in," he tells her, purposefully ruining the moment. As much as he doesn't want to, he knows it's the right thing.
"Yeah," she agrees, and he senses her nod even though he isn't looking at her. "We should."
He turns back to her as she reaches for the handle and gets out of the truck. He does the same, following her up the front path and decidedly ignoring the bullet holes in the front hedge.
"Thanks for this," she says as she lightly knocks on the door.
"I don't even know exactly what 'this' is," he tells her, chuckling slightly.
She smiles slightly, despite herself. "True," she replies, adding, "But you're about to."
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