Prompt: You seem to be on a roll with ficlets so here's a really (really) tough one: future fic where Andy makes Sam feel the most known and loved.
"I'm sorry." Andy says, the minute he gets in the door, unable to say nothing.
He's staring at the ground in front of her feet, clenching his teeth, jaw tight, same eyes he had the night Jerry died.
Sarah comes in the door behind him, red and puffy eyes, tears lining her cheeks, looking as though they had yet to stop. Seeing her immediate distress, Andy goes to give her a hug, taking her purse and jacket first and placing them on the coat rack. And when she does hug her, it offers Sam an opportunity to slip away from the two of them, take some time to himself, which Andy thinks maybe he needs.
Andy helps Sarah upstairs to the guest room and leaves her alone when she tells Andy she can handle things from there.
"Andy?" She calls, just as she's about to close the door. "He'll be okay."
Andy nods, unconvinced of Sarah's words and shuts the door, determined to find Sam.
And she does. He's in their room downstairs, a tumbler of scotch in his hand, sitting on the chair by the window with the same determinedly stone look on his face. But when he spots her standing in the door, leaning against its frame, he stands up and sets it down on their dresser, determined to be closed off to any opportunity for a conversation.
With his back to her he starts unbuttoning his shirt, but she sees through the silence. She knows that face means that there is a storm raging inside of him.
"Sam." She says, willing him to acknowledge her, and when he does, she breaks for him, taking the few steps between them and wraps her arms around his neck.
It only takes a minute for him to reciprocate and put his hands on her back, holding her there tightly.
She scratches the hair on the nape of his neck over and over again, as if it would immediately relax every tense muscle in his rigid shoulders. And when it doesn't and he just holds her a little tighter, she kisses the exposed part of his neck above his black dress shirt.
She lets a couple more tears fall, just unable to grasp how confused and frustrated he is right now.
"It is okay to be mad at him." She insists, knowing his father was the furthest thing from a great male role model. Knowing how badly he messed with Sam's head, and esteem, and nearly dragged him down the same path. "But it's also okay to miss him."
He seems to tense even more once those words are out of her mouth and he starts to pull away from her, but once they're face to face again she places her hands on his face, trying to keep him there with her in this moment.
"Because no matter what he did, he's also that guy who split a pint of pistachio ice cream with you when you were six years old." She whispers, leaning her forehead against his. "It's okay."
His face cracks only a little, and then he pulls her into a hug again, probably only to keep her from seeing his face as his shell breaks.
She feels hot tears against her bare shoulder, and she has a hard time keeping her own at bay while he struggles to come to terms with it all.
"It's okay."