"Wait, what?" Andy asked, a confused sort of smile playing on her lips, hands on her waist. "Did you just say 'free weekend'?"
"Yeah," Blackstone's voice said casually over the cell's speaker. "On longer UC operations, I make these weekends available for people to head home for a visit, see loved ones, et cetera, et cetera. This weekend, you two are free to go and do whatever you want. You need anything, you let me know. I'll get back to you tomorrow."
He hung up without another word, forever Blackstone, and left Andy and Nick standing in a shocked silence.
The two said nothing of the weekend until after dinner that Tuesday night as they sat in front of the TV with Jeopardy playing in the background.
"Andy..." Nick began, waiting until she looked at him. "I don't know about you, but this weekend...it just doesn't...I don't think I can..."
Andy blinked, biting her lip. A few beats of silence went by before she nodded. "I know." It'd be too strange, too abrupt. Andy and Nick had changed in the few months since they'd left. Heading back to see their loved ones for two days before lurching back into this odd, bubbled life they'd built for themselves would be too difficult.
Especially when you considered the kind of terms they were on with everyone they'd left behind.
Within an hour, they'd shaken off their melancholy and had decided to use their free weekend to their advantage.
A half hour after that, a room had been booked at a little B&B in Niagara with a biking trail picked out.
They'd be okay. This would be okay.
"Crap," Andy muttered under breathe, tightening the grip on her bag. Nick's heart thumped a bit out of rhythm at the tension. It was Friday afternoon, he and Andy had arrived at the B&B, and the kind owner had just shown them to their room...which only had one bed.
"Uh..." was all Nick said.
The owner, a stout Portuguese woman named Linda finally noticed their discomfort. "Oh no," she said with dismay. "You aren't a couple, are you?"
Andy squished her lips together and shook her head as Nick admitted, "No, we're not. So terribly sorry..."
"No, no no no, it's me who's sorry, so sorry, I made a bad assumption! Please, come down to the main room and we'll get you in a two-bed room."
Nick felt a knot loosen in his chest. he'd only been acting as Andy's boyfriend for a month or so, and being able to actually be free of everything on this 'free weekend' was kind of refreshing. And yet, he also felt a tightening inside her as he thought over Linda's words again. The assumption they were a couple wasn't a bad one at all - two unrelated adults booking one room? At a B&B?
Linda was a very kind woman for playing it off as she did. No awkwardness, no nosiness.
Nick was just ready for a relaxing weekend with a good friend.
Saturday morning, Andy and Nick ate breakfast with the other boarders as cooked and served by Linda and her husband Ricardo.
What really stood out for them was a fabulous omelet, stuffed full of ham and veggies and at least three cheeses, with sliced tomatoes on top.
"Oh my gosh," Andy moaned. "I haven't eaten food this good in years."
Nick stopped mid-chew. "Hey!" he protested, thinking back to all of his cooking over the past months.
Andy just laughed.
On Sunday morning, Nick and Andy requested the omelet and tomato dish again, to the extensive pleasure of Linda.
"Of course, of course! It's nice to know what you like; most boarders feel rude putting in food requests, and Ric doesn't like cheese! Can you believe it?" She cooked as she talked, and the two cops watched their breakfast unfold right before their eyes.
"To be honest, I really can't," Nick stated. "That is the best omelet I've had in my life. I think I'm a changed man."
"You really enjoy it so much?" Linda looked up from slicing tomatoes.
They both nodded quickly and Andy added, "Honest, some of the best cooking I've ever eaten."
Linda flushed with pleasure, looking back to the plates she was dishing up. "That's terribly sweet of you two to say. Thank you. I hope you enjoy your breakfast!"
The two of them returned to the B&B at noon to check out and get ready for their return back to Project Dakota.
It was when Ric was checking them out that Linda bustled in with a smile on her face and a card gripped in her hand. "I noticed you were heading out, and I wanted to give you this," She held out the card to Nick, who took it with some trepidation.
It was the omelet recipe. Nick felt his eyes widened; food this good should be like a treasure kept under lock and key. He could see Andy's lips tighten together trying not to laugh at his reaction, but if anything was worth it, it was this recipe. "Are you sure?" he questioned.
Linda nodded, beaming. "Nobody's loved that old recipe like you two, and I feel like your hands are capable ones." Nick fought down an embarrassed pleasure at her words, like the joy wrought from a mother's pride.
All of a sudden, Andy's stomach growled quietly, as if in response to the thought of future omelets. (He seemed to be the only one to hear it, and he gave her a smug look that promised later teasing.)
"I even wrote the secret to the whole thing there on the bottom!" Linda added excitedly.
Nick glanced back down at the card to find a starred sentence written in red at the bottom. "'The secret to the great taste of the recipe,'" he read aloud, "'is grilling the tomatoes to bring out the sweetness in them and the flavour of the omelet'..." he trailed off, glancing up at Linda with a smile on his face. "Thank you very much."
Nick smiles as he pulls tomatoes out of his fridge. He hasn't made the omelet in almost a month, and hasn't thought about Linda in almost two.
He falls into habit as he prepares a nice breakfast for him and Gail. Grating cheese, dicing meat, slicing tomatoes. All of the actions bring back so many memories from the UC op that he doesn't think much about the food, and mostly just remembers the wonderful Portuguese woman at the quaint B&B with the two-bed rooms.
Alright, I'm aware that Nick said he invented the recipe, but I'm choosing to ignore that little fact. Artistic license!
This is a two-part story about that dumb omelet that's been stuck in my head since the episode came out. Second part will be from Andy's point of view!