"Hey." She manages, finally... He thought for a while that she was just going to walk right past him, but there's a bit of relief and tension when she doesn't. After a moment of just staring at him, her eyebrows lower considerably, and she looks a lot less like a deer in headlights.
She's buried in an over sized cardigan, but she's not supposed to be. He recognizes it, she's had it since he's known her. It just goes to show the toll her job took on her, how she neglected to take care of herself, because keeping herself alive meant more than eating right. It meant keeping track of the web of lies, and truths.
Her dark hair doesn't suit her at all, but still, she doesn't look bad otherwise. Now that he can see her face, and not the pounds of eye liner she had on this morning.
"Hey." Sam replies, like this was the most natural thing in the world. Like he wasn't the one waiting on her.
He kinda thought she'd be the one with questions. But it turns out that it's him. Wants to know what happened. He wants to know if she had scars, or if she got hurt. He wants to make sure he didn't risk losing her, for good, because of a stupid joke about Grey's Anatomy.
He wants to know exactly how close they got. He needs to know what Nick meant just now.
"How are you?" She finally asks, getting awkward the way only McNally can. She lets out a stiff smile, trying to play it off, really only making it worse. Wishing for nothing more than a different question to have come out of her mouth.
"Can't complain. You?" He asks, waiting for the small talk to be over with. He's not quite sure how he's going to play this. Be blunt? Wait until they've been around each other a little more? He's not sure what she wants, if she's going to need space. He just... He wants to ask her all of those things.
"Good to be home." She says a little dreamily, like she was considering how much better it was to be in her apartment, without the roommate. Or boyfriend, or whatever he was to her.
He nods accordingly, letting her shuffle her feet for a moment, letting her think about how awkward this all was. How it shouldn't be this way for them. They should be screaming, or making out. Either way, it was supposed to be passionate. At least, that's how she imagined it.
Built up this massive gesture in her head, this great drama, to finish off the series of unfortunate events that was her life when she left.
"Yeah. Lot of people missed you." He says, testing the waters a bit. "I missed you."
She really reacts to that. Her eyes go wide again like some kind chemical reaction to everything he says. He feels like his heart could beat out of his chest at any second if she doesn't reciprocate. To hell with his pride, to hell with being the one who cares the least, what are they, fourteen?
Her throat tightens while she's so desperately trying to reciprocate. It comes out as a bit of a squeak.
"I missed you too. More than I wanted to." She mutters, kind of an afterthought.
"So uh, you and Collins okay?" He asks, dismissing that the admission really meant anything too profound. Isn't sure he'd be able to function when really digging into how much she was telling him.
"Yeah, you know, just sick of each other. That'll happen when it's the only familiar face you look at for six months." She laughs shortly, before clearing her throat and starting again. "I'm sorry I didn't say anything this afternoon, I didn't see you. And Nick's a dick, I'm really-"
"It's okay, I kind of figured you didn't see." Sam let himself offer her a small smile, and she looked toward the ladies room door. Of course, she came back here for a reason. "I'll talk to you later." He's about to leave her be, figures he can drive her home later, but as he makes a move to go past her, she grabs his arm and holds him.
"I really am sorry about Nick, he just thinks he's protecting me. He thought it would..." She lets the sentence die on her lips, and she noticeably cringes just before catching herself.
"Thought it would what?" He laughs, hoping to ease the internal conflict she was going through.
"I guess, I guess Nick thought that it would force you to pay attention or something. I don't know. It was stupid, he was being stupid-"
"McNally, it's fine. You're not responsible for Collins." He says, assuring her that they're fine, so far. "And uh, you on a bike? I was paying attention."
There was enough disdain in his voice to convey that he didn't like it one bit, and Andy hates that Nick was right. That it made him worry a bit. She also kind of hates that he doesn't think she can handle herself on a bike. She used to be skeptical, but after her first couple of lessons, it became like an addiction. Feeling the wind fly by, being able to hear everything, it was so different. The adrenaline rush didn't suck either. But he cares, and that's more important than her pride.
"Don't worry, I'm not allowed to ride it on highways or during rush hour." She half jokes, but they really were some of the rules Nick had imposed. "I really didn't ride it much."
Sam doesn't really give a damn about that. She was putting herself on a fast moving vehicle that doesn't even have a frame to protect her if there's accident. She could go around a corner just a little too fast and send herself skidding across the asphalt. He wouldn't care if she was the best rider in the world, it would still bother him.
"Good to know." He says, deciding it is not the best time to tell her how unsafe it is, that he thinks it's a bad idea. "I should get back to my drink before Oliver takes it, but uh, can we talk soon?"
She's let go of his arm, a while ago, but he still feels like maybe that was enough of a conversation for now. For now, he had ascertained that she Nick were just partners, and in need of a break from each other. For now, no one had exploded or moved on, neither of them wanted to let what happened get in the way of a second chance. It was a good place to be... for now.
With a nod from her, he takes a step backward and turns away from her.
Andy takes a deep breath that fills her lungs, and exhales as she pushes open the ladies room door. She never actually had to pee, so she braces her hyper extended arms on either side of the sink, and takes a good look at herself in the mirror. She's got to make an appointment to fix her hair eventually...
"Andy?" Gail says, coming in behind her. "Is he really going to go?"
Andy looks at Gail in the mirrors reflection, and can't help but not hate her right now. She spent months talking to Nick about the fact that Gail might be pissed when they get back, and if she was, Andy'd happily put her in her place.
But the more time gone, the more she thought about her and Sam, she realized that as mad, and unpleasant she could be, Gail was still as fragile as the rest of them. Probably more so, and she doesn't want to play games to keep Nick here, she just wants everyone to want to be together again. The way things were before...
"I don't know." She answers as gently as she can without making it sound like pity. If Gail Peck was going to be set off, pity'd do the job. "I hope not."
Gail is sucking in her cheeks a little to keep her face schooled, but her eyes are expressing everything she can't.
"He just doesn't want to be reminded of his mistakes. All the times he's left you hanging." Andy decides to press again, seeing how far she can get Gail...
"It's not his fault. This time, it's not. He thought I was leaving. Thought he had more time-"
"You listened to his messages?" Andy asked, genuinely surprised. Gail had been making out like she remove his number from her phone.
"Yeah." She admits, resting her back against the bathroom door, denying anyone else entry. "A lot."
"He's going to leave if he doesn't think there's anything to salvage." Andy admits, knowing that she's losing whatever manipulation she was planning. "With you two."
"I figured." Gail says, just as quietly as Andy now. "I don't want him to go, but I'm still so pissed off."
Andy nods, understanding exactly how Gail felt. Andy decided to leave because she still wasn't ready to forgive Sam, and risked coming back to nothing. She's seen him, they've agreed to talk, and still she doesn't know what she came home to.
"That's okay. You should be. But also needs to know that you did miss him, and there's something here to fight for." Andy did her best to be straight, and not too soft. To the point, but let her feel like she didn't have to take him back. "I don't want to lose him either."
Gail looked at Andy for a long minute, like it was really registering that he loved her so much, he would rather go to war then be here without her love. She nodded slowly before quickly slipping out of the rest room, leaving Andy alone once again.
"Hey brother, where'd you go? You missed the little showdown." Oliver says when he sees Sam approaching from the washrooms.
He scratches the back of his neck, and slid onto the bar stool next to Oliver's, really not wanting to be frank with him. But Oliver hasn't had nearly enough to drink for his intuition to have taken a backseat, so better tell him now.
"Naw, I was uh, talking to McNally." He says, waving down the bar tender for another drink.
"Oh!" Oliver exclaims exaggeratedly, taking a big swig of his beer before turning his attention to the rookie table. "So she's McNally now?"
Sam bites a hard and tight smile at his friends ability to see right through him, and nods shortly.
"For now."
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing up until now. Please leave reviews with ideas of what you might like to see, because I'm still trying to build the story in my head. And the only reason I've put Andy and Nick in a rough spot is because its more realistic that they'd want a bit of a break from each other. I couldn't even spend that long living with my very best friends, we'd drive each other insane. So they're fine, still buds, just taking some space.