A/N: So sorry this took so long to get out. Real life and all that jazz. This will NOT be the last chapter, so there's that added bonus.
I want you not to marry him. Check.
I want you and me and Cooper under one roof. He's got the roof.
And if you give that a shot, I'm going to make you fall in love with me all over again. She's there.
But she can't. She cannot possibly just go back to some picture perfect family out in the 'burbs' going to PTA meetings together like nothing ever happened. Like there was never anything wrong with them. Who knows how long he'll wait. Who knows if they won't fall back into how things used to be? Who knows if they will?
Andy doesn't really accept any of what Sam's said, not for a couple of days anyway. Sam waits in his truck when he goes to get Cooper a couple of days later.
Luke still hasn't contacted a realtor, and Andy wants Cooper to stay at Sam's while she looks for an apartment and stays with her dad, hasn't told Sam about the whole split yet. Cooper hasn't been informed yet either. Thought she'd tell him when she had a plan. But, she's going to have to tell them soon. Any day now. She's got a couple of bags packed in her room.
Basically she just doesn't know where to go from here.
So Sam waits, in his truck. He sticks to what he says. He wants her to go to him. He's made his offer, let his position be known and now he has to play the waiting game.
He knows his ex-wife well. She wants to wait him out. Let him forget what he was waiting for. Waiting for her to realize he wouldn't. Just... waiting.
When Sam pulls up to his building Cooper gives him an odd stare, and looks back out the window at his building, trying to get his bearings it seems like.
"What about the house?" He whines, jutting his bottom lip out. Sam unbuckles his seat belt and opens his door.
"It's in escrow." He says before closing his door.
Cooper stares curiously out at his dad, eyebrows furrowed together, trying to find that word in his vernacular, but comes up empty. He pushes his door open too, and slides right out of his seat.
"What's escrow?" He asks, slamming his door, running up to meet Sam's progress to the door.
"It means..." Sam's not so good at breaking things down for kids, that was always Andy's territory. "Just means I can't move in yet. A couple of weeks and you'll be helping me haul boxes. You been working out? Cause there's no way your Uncle Oliver's going to pitch in." He teases, putting up fists like he's ready to spar. Cooper ducks and dodges Sam's small swipes, not really anywhere close to his son and Sam laughs and walks on.
Cooper just walks up into the building, a little behind Sam, thinking about the tire swing.
By the time they've gotten up to the apartment rain has started coming down outside, so naturally, Cooper declares it hot chocolate weather. Sam obliges, forever the push-over dad. He always saw himself as strict. He was at work with the rookies. If they could see him at home when ever Cooper requests something, or the way he worries when he's pushed around in hockey... they wouldn't really fear him anymore.
"Luke hasn't been at home." Cooper says immediately after Sam puts the mug on the table in front of him. "Mom didn't say it, but he's staying at his brothers."
Sam looks at his son absolutely dumbfounded.
Kids going to be a detective at this rate, or some kind of spy. When Andy's determined to keep something to herself, there is only success. Nothing else. But this little boy, he's got a talent.
But Sam just can't help but freeze when he hears that maybe it's because she wants what he wants to, and she's going to take the risk and dive in with him. Clearly she wants to take some time though, but he's got more hope now than before. And it's only speculation... from a nine year old... so.
"Why's that?" Sam asks, staring at his son, until Cooper looks right back at him.
"Dunno. But mom's not wearing her ring." He says, fighting a tiny little grin, dimples barely making a mark on his cheeks, but there's a hint.
"Your moms not big on jewelry, I didn't even know she was wearing one..." And then his slightly photographic memory comes into mind. He kissed her hand the other night, the way her fingers felt. There was no ring. He searched further back in his memory. Seeing her hands wave or on Coops shoulders. "Wait! Cooper! Luke didn't give your mother an engagement ring!" Sam says, voice rising only a fraction of an octave.
"So maybe it's not in her jewelry box anymore." He says much more quietly, hiding behind his hot cup of cocoa.
"Cooper Thomas, have you been snooping in your moms room?" He says, even louder than before. None of the actual words or the meaning that his son was trying to convey get through to Sam right away, he's about to lecture him on keeping out his moms things. Privacy is privacy.
But then Cooper's smile gets bigger, and his dimples get a little deeper and a little light bulb goes off above his head.
Girls Night had been called into session when Andy hadn't spoken to Gail or Traci in a week, and demanded she show up at Traci's on their next night off. When Jerry answered their door, Andy wasn't quite sure how much they may already know. Yeah, Sam's private, but he's definitely not as cut off from talking as he used to be. Jerry's never his go to, but he's still the man's best friend. Ha! Man's best friend...
"Hey Andy, girls have already poured you a glass." He says, moving out of the door way for her to come in, kick off her shoes, give him a short hug and move into the kitchen.
Jerry went back to TV room, and Andy was kind of anxious that he was here to hear their chatter. C'mon, Sam's best friend just a few feet away. She couldn't bring it up. She couldn't tell them. But just when Gail got done telling them about Lacy's dance teacher, AKA, bitch from hell, Jerry grabbed his jacket, said something about meeting 'the guys' at the bar. But obviously not Sam. Sam had Cooper. So, now was her window of opportunity.
"Luke and I called it off." She says after taking a generous sip of her red wine. Traci sputtered, attempting to keep her wine from spraying all over them moved her hand to cover her mouth. Gail's reaction was less dramatic, like maybe she didn't let what Andy said sink in right away.
"I'm sorry what?" Gail asks after a moment of awkward silence.
"Me and Luke? Not getting married, moving out, selling the house. Hey! You're still looking, you want it?" Andy asks, hoping to divert them, even knowing it's futile. Gail cocks her head a little and narrows her eyes at Andy, and Traci sets her glass down on the kitchen island.
"What the hell happened?" Traci asks, leaning closer over the counter.
"Sam Swarek happened." Gail mutters, going for another bottle, finding her glass empty already.
Andy rolls her eyes and Traci smiles weakly trying to school her reaction, not to mention, hoping that it's true.
"Luke and I just aren't in the same place. You know? He wants to have a baby... soon. And I'm hesitant. I don't think I want Cooper to have half brothers and sisters."
"But you'd have another if it was Sam's?" Gail questions, not leaving any room for pleasantries or dancing around the topic at hand.
Andy lets her head fall back and look up at the ceiling, trying to hide her frustration with Gail.
"I don't know." She says when Traci doesn't jump in, tell Gail that's not what they're focusing on right now. She's curious too. "Anyways, we just started fighting constantly, and just... we'd had enough. We were tired of fighting for our drowning relationship."
Traci ran a hand up and down Andy's back for a moment, forever the maternal one. Gail's expression softened when she realized that Andy had truly made the decision without any influence from her ex-husband. Now to drop the bomb, burst the bubble.
"And then a few hours later, when Sam came by... he bought our old house." She decides maybe that'll be easier for them to absorb first. Gail's eyes widen, but yet again, her mouth stays shut, and Traci lets out a very quiet 'aww'.
Gail could tell by her face that she wasn't finished just yet, and stared out down until she was ready to spit out the rest.
"He uh, he may have said some other things."
No one said a word, knowing that Andy would use anything against them as a distraction.
"He said he loves me, and he wants us, our family, and that he... that he'll respect my decision to marry Luke only if I can't see us together ever again." She says quickly watching Gail's face a lot more carefully than Traci's.
And finally she gets her reaction.
"Oh my God. Here we go again." Gail sighs, turning away to go the living room. They were all going to need a seat for the grand debate that was about to take place.
Ladies to their corners.
"I dunno Andy. We keep comin' back to the same - point. S'a risk. It would be bad for Cooper if it didn work out. But obviously neither of you have moved on. And obviously, neither of you really wanna." Traci says, bordering on slurring.
Gail's been slurring awhile now, and Andy's resting her head in her lap, receiving some loving affection in the form of fingers being run through her hair. Rare to see this side of Gail, but that's what happens when you split four bottles of wine between three women. Nice to see she's capable of it, to people other than her family.
"So?" Andy says, waving her hand in a forward circle, indicating she wants Traci to reveal the next step.
"So go slow." Traci says at last, putting her wine glass down.
"Slow is for turtles and snails!" Gail shouts, having been quiet too long. Traci and Andy burst into a fit of giggles, and Andy lazily throws a hand up to pat Gail's cheek. "How long s'been since you guys had sex? Six years? Get to makin them babies!"
"Aww babies." Andy pouts, remembering her admittance to Sam, and that she'd revealed that to her friends.
"No babies!" Traci interjects seriously before giggling as well. "But slow is for Andy too. Andy the turtle."
To say they woke up the next morning with a wicked hangover would be a bit of an understatement. They didn't even move from the couch, and woke to Jerry, Traci and Leo making breakfast in the kitchen. The sunlight would've been a kinder awakening than Gail flinging her legs over the side of the couch, tossing Andy's body to the floor.
"Owwww." Andy moaned once the pain registered. Gail grumbled something unintelligible, and stepped on Andy's hand before stumbling to the bathroom, leaving Andy in pain, confused and alone in the living room. She stayed like that for a while until Leo came out of the kitchen with a glass of water and plate of toast for his aunt.
The fourteen year old bean pole barely spoke more than he had to ever since entering his teens, and made Andy worry about the upcoming changes she might see in her son. But every once in a while, Leo would relieve a rooms tension, and remind them all that he was still there underneath, just figuring himself out.
"You're an angel." She groans, pushing herself up off the floor to sit on the couch. He just smirks at her and leaves the plate in front of her before stalking back to the kitchen, just as Traci was coming out.
"Hey there. Good thing we're not working till tonight huh?" Traci laughs, clearly in better shape than the other two. "Called Sam, asked him if he could drop Cooper here in a little bit."
Andy groans, and nearly turned, ready to fall face first into the couch cushions. Until she realized the head rush would cause her brains to explode. Only then did she restrain herself.
"In fact, that was a while ago, so... any minute they should be here. Wanna go freshen up? Throw some water on your face, deodorant. Anything?"
Andy knows she's joking, but neither of those things are a bad idea.
"Why am I going to aunt Traci's?" Cooper asks as Sam's walking him up to the door.
"Because your mom has a hangover." Sam smiles brightly, loving the Andy's wild child ways were giving him an edge in the good parenting side of things. Though the fact that she was drinking because she called off her wedding, and relationship, that doesn't make him feel as great. Especially since she's playing the waiting game. Good chance she'd just decide to be alone.
"What's a hangover?"
"Nothing you've got to worry about for another ten years buddy. She's fine. Don't worry." He says before blowing out a deep breath and knocking on the door.
Jerry swung it open half a minute later, and already he could tell they were a bit of a full house this morning. Traci had breakfast going in the kitchen, Leo was guiding Gail to a chair, and Andy was just coming out of the bathroom when Cooper and Sam walked in.
"Hey mom!" He says when he spots her, and she puts on a smile, even if he did shout a little too loudly.
"Hey kid." She says, tone hushed. "How was your yesterday?"
She planted an embarrassingly big kiss on his cheek, making Leo snicker from the kitchen, causing Cooper to go red. Jerry had long since returned to the kitchen, leaving the three of them alone.
"Good." He says, starting to unzip his coat. When he doesn't elaborate or throw Andy a bone, Sam butts in.
"Yeah, we uh, learned all sorts of things. Like the word escrow. Right bud?"
Cooper gets that devious little smile on his face and lets out a small laugh.
"Yeah dad, and hangover."
Sam looks back up to Andy immediately who has an eyebrow quirked pointedly at him. He just gives her a shrug of his shoulders. She's the reason he knows.
"Hey Coop!" Traci calls from the kitchen. "Want to help me break a couple of eggs? Feed the crowd?"
Cooper doesn't hesitate and takes off toward the sound of his honourary aunt. They laugh at his eager run, but as the humor wears off, they're both just staring down at their feet waiting for something to call them away.
"I think maybe we should talk." Andy says at last, breaking the silence, and her waiting game all at once.
"I'll be at the house all day." He replies, right before moving towards the door. "Stop by whenever you're ready."