Everything Else.
Words: 1102
Couple: Andy McNally and Nick Collins.
TV Show: Rookie Blue.
Disclaimer: All characters you recognize do not belong to me. Direct quotes used are from 4x02
AU 4x02
Established Andy/Nick.
READ A/N AT THE END!

…

When she opens the front door to her apartment building, he's leaning on his truck that's parked on the curb. There isn't a part of her that is remotely surprised. Of course he was there, right on 6 o'clock, not even bothered that he was waking up that early to give her a lift that she hadn't asked for. It was just so Nick.

"So I just got a call from Traci Nash," he tells her, looking up from his sneakers, "Telling me that if you were late to hers by even a second this morning, she would have me on desk duty for the next three weeks. At the time I may have been a little bit too terrified of her to bother questioning how she has that power, but the last time I questioned whether or not a woman could do something I was getting the silent treatment."

Andy stops just in front of him, shaking her head but still not surprised.

"Ready to go back today?"
"I've been looking forward to this day for six months Nick," she reminds him.

He shrugs, and Andy is holding the strap of her bag close to her while lifting a hand to press gingerly on his eye. She chuckles when he winces under her touch, knowing that he wouldn't let her know just how much more it hurt.

"How's your eye?"
"Not bad, it's healed mostly."
"Oh yeah," Andy smirks, turning his face slightly to get a better look at it, "No scar, that's too bad."
"Hm?"
"Would've made you actually look like a man."

Her finger trails down from the bruise so that she's playing with the hem of his shirt.

"So Traci called you?"
"Yep. I guess she'll be grilling you for details if she hasn't already."
"I've spent the last week either debriefing with Narcotics, with the shrink for mandatory psych evaluations or sleeping," she says, leaning up and kissing him briefly before heading for the passenger side door, "I've spoken to you twice during that time, and Traci once. Hell, even my Dad has only gotten a text message from me."
"You should take up your Dad's offer for dinner tomorrow night," Nick tells her casually from over the car.
Andy looks up at him, eyes narrow, "I did tell you about that, right?"

He laughs and gets in the car, the female officer slowly going over the two conversations they'd had in the last week and trying to pick out exactly when she told him about her Dad offering to make them both dinner.

…

"Okay! Okay! Alright! You win!" Traci Nash laughs from behind her as they come to a stop at a park bench, "You're ready to get back on the streets."
"Undercover wasn't all watching cheesy movies and hanging out at the bar. Nick and I ran 5k every other morning."
"You're a keener!"
"Shut up."

Andy leans over, beginning to retie her shoelaces. She can feel Traci hovering behind her and glances over her shoulder.

"So. You and Nick, huh?"
"What about it?" she asks, turning back to her shoe.
"Gonna tell me how that happened? I'm not gonna have to be pulling Gail off of you any time in the future?"
"Gail and Nick were trying to fix things before everything that happened," Andy tells her, standing up straight, "But Gail couldn't do it anymore. They were over before anything happened, I wouldn't do that to Gail."
Traci nods, slowly processing what she's said, "I believe you. Just, uh, when did you and G.I. Joe start, yanno, doing the horizontal tango?"

Resting her hands on her hips, she's trying to even her breathing again while she thinks it over.

"We'd been UC for just over 3 months. It was just a thing, you know? We were just letting go of stress. But Blackstone gave us a weekend, and we had two options. Come back and then leave everyone again, or go biking in Niagara," Andy explains cocking her head to the side, "We got lost on a trail and after we got back to the cabin we actually talked. We've got a no secrets policy and it seems to be working just fine since then."
"As in Nick actually has secrets," the detective laughs.
"I don't know Trace. But I do know its working. None of my last relationships lasted, and they both had one thing in common, neither of us were 100% open with each other. May not have been the reason they failed, but still something that was a problem."

Traci's smiling at her, and Andy decides that she's either said something right or she has something on her face.

"What?"
"That's really good Andy, I'm proud of you," she smiles, "Which means you'll be okay with Sam's new girlfriend running up behind us right now?"
"Absolutely," Andy laughs in reply, turning around to greet the new officer with a smile.

She stands there for a few moments, watching as Traci and Marlo Cruz keep up small talk, and when the woman turns to face her, she isn't finding herself forcing the smile on her face.

"McNally right?"
"Yeah."
Marlo offers her hand while saying, "Pleasure to meet you, Marlo Cruz. Didn't get a real chance to meet last week."
"Yeah real pleasure," Andy says, shaking her hand.
"Heard a lot about you. So, uh, got another 10k to get in before shift," Marlo tells them, gesturing in the direction she's heading, "See you guys there."

Andy waves after her while her best friend turns to look at her with wide eyes. Traci's mumbling under her breath about the distance she'd just said and Andy is trying to contain a laugh.

"Come on Traci, there's coffee waiting for me in your kitchen and we have to be at work in an hour."

Her best friend is shaking her head, but as Andy starts to jog back to the car she knows that Traci is following behind her.

…

And here we are! Another McCollins story and another day into the hiatus.

Like I mentioned in the disclaimer. If the characters say something that you've heard before. It's because you have heard it before. From the episode mentioned.

Anyhoo, I figure this is how it's going to go.

Two chapters per episode. One from the beginning, one from the end. That's depending on the episode. And I'll focus on the fluffy stuff. Steer away from the angst. So it may actually finish with 4x09 and 4x10. I have something planned for 4x08, that'll recognize that episode as still being a McCollin's milestone sort of thing, but after that I don't really want to dive into all the other things that happened. It'll throw off the groove of the story and I rather like the character development that happened pre-Sam being shot. So I don't really want to dive into the saga of events that triggered that.

But beside that. Two chapters an episode, depending on how much of the episode I re-write. So if I stop at 4x10, there should be close to 20 chapters! What do you say guys? A longer than 5 chapter McCollins story? Oh how will I survive! c;

I currently have written up to the end of 4x04, and have begun 4x05. So if all things go according to plan this should be left hanging without an update for a long duration of time. Hopefully, because school holidays only go for so long before exams!

Thank you!

All mistakes are mine.

Review?