Everything Else.
Words: 689
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 4x03
Established Andy/Nick.

…

The phone in her pocket vibrates, and Andy is washed over with relief when she sees Nick Collins name on her phone screen.

"Save me," is his greeting and the bluntness has a laugh escaping her.
"I take it that Gail Peck is being ever so delightful today?" she questions with a smirk, looking around to check that her partner for the day is still in sight as she asks questions.
"She's trying to make me drink this thing she's doing for a cleanse, I'm scared she's poisoned it."
"Well I just visited Wanda."
There's a crash in the background and Nick lets out a long breath, "She doing okay?"
"Yeah, I hope so after today. The kid across the hall was terrorizing her again, sparked a bit of an episode. Other than that she's fine."
"Your partner fine too?"

Andy's eyes are on Marlo, watching her as she thanked a kid for the information and began walking back towards the squad car.

"Andy?"
"Yeah she's good. Different, kind of. I don't know," Andy shrugs to herself.
"I take it this is a conversation best had with alcohol at home?"

Home. The words brings the smile back to Andy's face.

"Yeah. I'll see you back at the station at end of shift, yeah?"
"That you will," he assures her, "Have fun with Cruz."
"Have fun with Peck."

She hears him chuckle and pulls the phone away from her ear as the line goes dead, tucking it securely back into her pocket she looks up just as Marlo stops in front of her.

"Anything?"
"Nothing," she shrugs, "Let's just keep going down the list McNally, someone will have something for us."

…

He hears through the grapevine of officers in the hall, and it takes almost everything – including Oliver Shaw pushing him back into the chair at the front desk – not to wait by her locker for her to finish with SIU. She finds him though, eventually, while he's standing there with Gail Peck outside the locker rooms while she explains what she's doing with Ernie.

He has to resist making a comment about the fact that the Ice Queen has named an urn as he runs a hand up Andy McNally's arm to the collar of her shirt to right it.

"Hey," she murmurs, turning to Gail, "Where is it?"
Peck frowns, "Where's what?"
"This cleanse stuff. Come on, hit me with it."
"You want to try it?" she asks, wide eyes and a hint of a smile on her lips.

The woman beside him shrugs, and he groans when Gail pulls the bottle from her purse.

"Nicholas Collins, you're such a baby," Andy tells him, using one hand to block her nose and the other to tilt the bottle back against her lips.

He watches her swallow the substance, her nose screwed up and her eyes tightly shut as it passes down her throat.

"Peck, that's disgusting."
"All worth it in the end," the blonde shrugs, a triumphant smile on her face when she accepts the bottle back, only to hold it in Nick Collins' direction.
With a shake of his head he holds a hand out, palm towards her, "No thank you."
"You suck."
"I just don't want the taste of whatever that is to ruin the taste of any food I digest tonight."

There's a chuckle from Andy, and a comment made under her breath about omelets as Gail Peck tucks the bottle back into her bag and begins to bid them farewell.

"We'll see you at the Penny right?" Andy asks, stopping the blonde before she could leave.
"Uh, yeah," Peck nods slowly, "Yeah later on."
"Good, see you then Peck."

A frown makes its way onto her face for a flicker of a moment, before she gives a timid wave and turns around, leaving them on their own in the middle of the hall.

"What was that?" Nick questions.
"My talent," she smiles, grabbing his hand and pulling him along.
"And that is?"
"I know when to give up, Nicholas Collins," Andy explains, "And I'm not giving up on the Ice Queen just yet."

…

So my first year twelve exam is in exactly a week and two days.

NaNoWriMo starts in four days.

My year 11 exams start in about two weeks.

Kill me. Please.

But here is a chapter, despite the delay, it has been written for a while. So Merry Christmas or whatever – because that will probably be when I regain any of my free time.

Thank you!

All mistakes are mine.

Review?