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A Sam/Andy fic.
Chapter Twelve.
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Disclaimer: See Ch. 1.
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A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews so far, I'm glad you guys are still enjoying this story.
I'll respond to some reviews here:
singingprilly: Thanks for the review, I'm glad you're still enjoying the story. And hey, whenever you find the time to review is great by me!
hannah-jennifer: Huge props for referencing How I Met Your Mother's favorite character. Loved your review! Lol, I'll try to make it longer, we'll see how it goes. Thanks for the review!
Television-Fanatic: Yes ... Sam is definitely the one she goes to for support. NOT Luke! Never Luke! Lol. Anyway, thanks for the review, I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
.ximaginex.: (for some reason, it won't let me put your whole name ...) Thanks for the review, I'm glad you're still enjoying this. I'm so happy that you guys like Dana's character, I was a bit unsure about adding her in, but luckily it all worked out!
xxliveforever17xx: I'm glad you've enjoyed my writing so far, your encouragement is definitely appreciated. And thank you for keeping my cousin in your thoughts, it means a lot. Thanks for the review!
Taylor-Cullen-Black-Swan: (quite the name!) Thanks for the review, I'm glad you're enjoying the story. I don't like to give much away in the author's note, but after reading one of your other reviews, I thought I should make a separate note. I looked into it, after you said that people can get sick from bone marrow transplants. From the research that I've done, the only side effects come from the general anesthesia, and the effects wear off after a couple of weeks. The marrow also grows back in a couple of weeks, and there are no long-term effects of donating your marrow.
jam-hands: There will be some Sam/Andy action *soon* ... not saying how soon, though. Lol. Also, thanks for going through and reading/reviewing ALL of my Rookie Blue fics ... that was pretty awesome. I'm glad you've enjoyed them so far! Thanks for the review!
Everyone else: Thanks for the wonderful reviews, you guys are amazing!
Alrighty, that's enough out of me, let's get on with the story.
I hope you guys like this, I know I'll love writing it.
As always, please read and review, I live for feedback!
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Andy hung up the phone, sitting back in her seat. The cafeteria was about half-filled, but not too noisy. Dana would be meeting her in a few minutes, and Andy was grateful for the opportunity to compose herself.
She'd worked out all the details with Boyko and Dr. Stevenson, now she just had to talk to Dana. She hadn't planned on telling many people, but she knew that the younger girl would want to know. It was all happening so fast, she almost couldn't believe it was real.
"Andy," Dana greeted from behind her, making her turn her head in response.
"Hey," Andy replied softly, still finding it disconcerting that the teenager looked so much like her.
Dana sat down across from her, dropping her large bag onto the table.
"What's all that?" Andy wondered, glancing at the bag.
Dana rolled her eyes up to the ceiling, mentally cursing the heavy bag. "School stuff. I take most of it through distance-learning so that I can be with Bobby, but it means a lot of extra credit work, and loads of reading," she explained.
Andy nodded her head. "That's impressive."
Dana shrugged. "So, what did you want to talk about?"
Andy sighed, linking her hands together on the table. "Well ... I talked to Dr. Stevenson last night."
Dana blinked, staring ahead at Andy. "Oh ... okay." She waited a few seconds, and then continued. "And ...?"
"And, I told him that I would do the marrow transplant," Andy informed her.
Dana's entire body froze, and she looked as though she'd just been run over by a train.
"Dana?" Andy spoke softly.
"You'd better not be screwing with me," Dana whispered.
Andy shook her head. "I'm not. I'll do the transplant."
Dana closed her eyes, feeling a lump settle in her throat. In the back of her mind, she knew that even the transplant was no guarantee of a cure, but she ignored that pessimistic voice. A rush of breath escaped her mouth, along with a small whimper. "Oh ... thank you," she managed to get out, before getting up from the table and coming beside Andy.
She had about a half-second to register what was happening, before Dana threw herself at Andy, wrapping her arms tightly around her. Andy hesitated, not sure how to react. Dana's cries of relief and gratitude had attracted a bit of attention. Andy's hands slowly came up to the younger girl's back, pressing against her sweater-covered flesh. When Dana didn't protest, Andy hugged her back, feeling an odd sensation within her at the motion. She'd never had a sibling, so she'd never known what it was like to hug one ... to comfort one. It was odd ... but almost nice.
Dana pulled her head away from Andy's shoulder after a long minute, pushing her brown hair out of her face. "Thank you," she spoke again, wiping at her tears of joy.
Andy shrugged, trying not to show how uncomfortable she felt. "Don't mention it."
Dana situated herself beside Andy, restraining herself from jumping on her again. "Does ... uh, does Bobby know?"
Andy answered, "I think Dr. Stevenson is telling him and ... I think he's planning on telling everyone tonight. We just finished sorting out all the paperwork, and setting a date."
"When?" Dana asked quickly.
"A couple days," Andy answered. "He wanted to get me in as soon as possible."
Dana nodded her head in understanding. "Good. Oh, Andy, this is so great. Thank you, again ... so much!"
Andy nodded her head. She figured she would probably feel better about it later. It wasn't as though she was dreading the actual transplant or anything, she had made up her mind and she was sticking to it. It was just still very new to her, and she needed some time to adjust. "So," she began, trying to steer the conversation away from any family-related topic, "what are you taking in school?"
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Andy answered her phone on the third ring, not bothering to look at the Caller ID. She figured it was either Traci or Dana calling. Dana had already texted her twice since their meeting in the cafeteria, and Traci had planned on coming over. She hoped that Traci wasn't cancelling. "Hello?" she spoke into the phone.
"How could you not tell me?" a shrill voice screeched into the phone.
Andy held it away from her ear a bit, wincing in protest. "What?"
"I have been pacing around for days, worrying about the fate of my son, and you couldn't be bothered to put me at ease, and tell me that you'd made up your mind?" Audrey sniped at her.
Andy rolled her eyes, tensing her jaw. "Well, I didn't do it for you, Audrey. It's not my responsibility to keep you informed."
"You could have at least told me!"
Andy's hand clenched dangerously around the phone. "And you could have done more than just ditch me in the middle of the night," she retorted spitefully. "I'd say we're even, but we're not even close. Don't call here again." She hung up the phone with a snap, dropping it on the couch beside her. She wanted to chuck the phone against the wall, but reminded herself how expensive the last one had been to replace.
Andy was just considering trying to figure out how to block her mother's number from her cell, when her buzzer interrupted her thoughts. She practically stomped over to the buzzer, her mind stuck on her mother's demanding voice. "What?" she spoke harshly, after pressing down the speaker button.
"Uh, it's me," Traci replied.
"Oh, sorry," Andy spoke, sighing. "Come on up." She buzzed her in, propping her front door open as she retreated to the kitchen for a drink. A minute later, she heard Traci knock on the open door.
"Andy?"
She made her way back through the apartment, offering a drink to her friend.
"I'll just take a soda, thanks," Traci replied, closing the door behind her. "I gotta drive home. Are you okay?"
Andy shrugged, making her way back through to the kitchen to get Traci a soda. "Just my idiot mother."
"What did she do now?" Traci wondered.
Andy shook her head in annoyance. "She thought that I owed her a courtesy call to let her know I decided to do the bone marrow transplant."
Traci's eyes widened. "What?"
Andy remembered that she hadn't told Traci yet about her decision. "Ah, right ... sorry. I made an appointment to do the transplant."
Traci stared at her with an open mouth, her expression telling Andy that she needed to back-track a little.
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"Wow," Traci finally managed to speak. "That's just ... poor kid."
Andy nodded her head. "It was so terrible seeing him like that. But it got me thinking ... if it was hard for me to just see him like that, how must it be for him to have to live with it?"
Traci nodded back. "Yeah."
"That ... and Sam made me realize that I had already made up my mind, I just needed to make it official."
Traci smiled at that, failing to hide the grin.
"What?" Andy inquired after the look on her face.
Traci shook her head. "Nothing. It's just ... come on, Andy. Out of everyone that you could have gone to with this, you went to Sam? And he 'comforted' you? Let you cry on his shoulder, and fall asleep on him? You're really not seeing where I'm going with this?"
Andy rolled her eyes. "Come on, Traci. It's not like that. He's my training officer, he was just looking out for me. And besides, I only went to him because he already knew all about it, and he had just dropped me off at the hospital before."
The disbelief was evident on Traci's expressive face. "Andy, honey, his training officer duties only apply when you're actually on duty. Anything other than that ... that's all him. It's obvious to anyone with a set of eyes that he cares about you."
Andy sighed. "Not you, too. Come on, Trace, the whole division already thinks that we're sleeping together, because of Gail's big mouth. I don't need this from you, too."
"They can think what they want, and Gail's just an attention-seeking whore. No one really cares what she says, they're just desperate for gossip. The only thing coming from me is a question: do you have feelings for Sam?"
Andy was silent for a moment, her mind racing.
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Dana sat beside her brother's bed, reading him his favorite story: 'Where the Wild Things Are'. They were about halfway through the book when their mother came into the room.
"Alright, Dana. Your father's waiting in the car," she told her, setting her purse down on the chair opposite hers.
"We're just about done," Dana informed her, planning on finished the story before she left.
Bobby looked up at his mother. "Is Andy gonna come see me tonight?"
Audrey stared down at her son. "Why would ... no, honey, she's not."
"Oh," Bobby replied. "I wanted to thank her."
Audrey pursed her lips, bringing over a new pillow to replace the one behind his head. "I don't think we'll be seeing much more of Andy," Audrey told her son, ignorant of the glare that her daughter was sending her. "She's just going to do the transplant, and be done with it."
Dana stared heavily at her. "I don't think so. Andy cares about us."
Audrey snorted, glancing briefly at her daughter. "Don't be so dramatic, Dana. Andy is more than happy to be rid of us."
Dana watched her brother's face fall, and couldn't stand to listen to her mother's unwelcome ramblings any longer. "Why do you hate her so much?"
Audrey looked down at her son, who was watching her with curious and sorrowful eyes. She forced her eyes to look back at her youngest daughter. "I'm not discussing this with you."
Dana crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I'm discussing it with you. I want an answer. What did she ever do to you, to make you hate her so much?"
Audrey remained silent.
"Come on, what?" Dana persisted.
"She existed!" Audrey finally snapped. After the words came out of her mouth, she looked down at her son in shock. The expression on his face was unreadable, so she quickly moved, grabbing Dana's arm and pulling her out of the room.
"Get off me," Dana growled when they were far enough away from the room.
"Why can't you just leave well enough alone?" Audrey demanded, terrified that her son would think less of her.
Dana glared heavily back at her. "'She existed'?" the younger girl repeated. "What the hell does that even mean?"
Audrey clenched her jaw. She didn't want to answer, but she didn't want to risk another blow-out later, and have Bobby witness that as well. "She - she was - the only reason that I stayed with her father for as long as I did, was because of her. But finally, I just couldn't take it anymore. Every time I looked at her, I saw how much I hated my life. I hated being a cop's wife, I hated being second on his mind all of the time. And she was just like him; I knew she'd be a cop, ever since she was 5, it was all she wanted to be. I had to get away, I had to leave that life behind." She finished, breathing heavily and staring at her daughter.
Dana shook her head in disbelief. "God, it must just kill you to have to look at me everyday," she commented. She had seen her resemblance to Andy, she'd known how alike they were. "No wonder we never got along."
Audrey stepped away from her, looking back towards her son's room. "I'm not talking about this anymore. Your father's waiting for you. Just ... just go, Dana."
She didn't need to be told twice. She returned to the room to grab her things. Bobby asked her what was happening, but she just gave him a hug and told him everything was okay. She promised him that Andy would be back to see him, that she wasn't just going to ditch them. Dana left a kiss on his forehead before leaving the room, her glare burning into her mother's form as she passed her in the hallway.
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End of chapter twelve.
Well, what did you guys think? Like it, hate it?
This chapter was a bit more Dana-centric, but I needed to get the part about her mother in there.
Reviews are appreciated, flame if you must, but constructive criticism is much more useful.
Until next time ...!
