Author's note: Hey everyone! Thank you for reading and reviewing and I hope you enjoy this chapter too!
He shouldn't be here. He shouldn't be here, but they made plans for tonight, or at least that is what he thinks happened when Andy suggested they will head to Joe's together as soon as they have a Saturday night neither of them is on shift, so she will help him with his rather poor flirting skills.
But then, they haven't spoken to each other much since he found out Andy was training his daughter to be a firefighter. He was angry, they both were, and for the last couple of shifts that stretched out like chewed bubble gum, they haven't exchanged more words than what is absolutely necessary between a captain and his lieutenant. .
But the anger inside him subsided eventually, and he hopes hers did the same somewhere along the long days they shared at the station, with nothing but awkward, tensed silence to fill the gaps between one call to the other. Because he stands by the entrance to her apartment right now, and if she is still furious with him for telling her to stop doing something he knows both Livia and Andy want badly, then this will go down south rather quickly.
He takes a deep breath, and before he has a chance to regret it, he knocks on the door, then shoves his hands down deep into the front pockets of his jeans.
"Captain." Maya looks surprised when she sees him standing at her threshold, as if he doesn't exist outside the world of the fire department, even if she knows he does, probably heard Andy's stories from the countless hours she has spent in his house.
"Bishop." He nods in her direction, acknowledging her presence. "I was wondering, is Andy home?" They stare at each other for a minute while he still stands on the other side of the door, Maya sizing him up and down, debating if it is the best idea to let him in, or she should just tell a little white lie of some sort to push him away back to wherever it is that he came from.
"In her bedroom." She gives in finally, opening the door fully from the crack she used to peek at him, and lets him in. "Last door to the left." She guides him in the right direction.
"Thank you." He says, knowing she could have blown him off, telling him Andy is out or is feeling unwell. He doesn't mean to pry, but his eyes scan the living room as he walks in anyway. The apartment is small and cozy, full of life and little mementos, and looks nothing like the house he shares with his teenage girl. There are pictures everywhere, of Bishop, Andy and Hughes all smiling to the camera, even though he knows the latter doesn't share the house with them.
When his eyes catch a few fire manuals on the bookshelf, he smiles to himself, can't help it, knowing it has to be her doing. Then he walks away, leaving the examination to a different time, and knocks softly on her door. "Andy?" He whispers her name, letting her know of his presence, leaving her with the choice to welcome him in, or push him away.
She looks up at him when she opens the door, and behind him stands Maya, who mouths something incoherent Andy can't possibly understand.
"Captain." Andy uses his official title, then tries to signal Maya with her eyes that she is more than capable of handling the unexpected company. Maya raises her hands in the air, as if someone points a gun at her, then hurries to vanish and closes the door to her own bedroom behind her, giving them some kind of privacy, even though Andy is sure the blonde has her ear pressed against the wall that separates their bedrooms as she is trying to eavesdrop.
"I thought we said that outside of work we can use each other's first name." He pouts. Robert leans against the doorframe, doesn't invade her personal space without an invitation, one she is yet to grant him.
"Robert." Andy corrects herself. And there it is, that small smile, the one that appears in his dreams more often than not, especially when he is trying with all of his might to think of anything else. "To what do I owe the unexpected visit?" She asks. "Is Liv alright?"
She hasn't seen much of the girl in the last few shifts, as she was obviously still agitated with her dad and tried to keep away from him as much as she possibly could, which is not a hard thing to do, considering he spends more time in his office in the station rather than anywhere else.
Andy wonders what he eats when Liv is not around to make sure he is well fed and nourished, but she keeps that inquiry to herself, doesn't want to spark the argument again, especially when it seems like it is finally subsided into something more tolerable.
"Yeah she is fine. Being a normal teenager, but that will pass, I guess, even though I don't think I have ever seen her acting like that." He pulls at his shoulders. He remembers what it is like, being a teenager himself, even if he didn't have much time to make a sour face toward his parents every time something didn't go the way he wanted it to end up, not when the both of them died when he was around Liv's age, and he was left to his own devices in the world. "I came because we had plans for tonight." Andy gives him a crooked look, then he reminds her. "Today is Saturday. And we are both off shift."
"Oh." Andy lets out, some heat trickling up to her face, and she hopes she doesn't turn red when she says. "I wasn't aware this is something that is still on. You know, with everything that happened after the night I came up with the idea."
She didn't plan on heading out, Robert can tell that much by the way she is dressed. A pair of slippers, and shorts that reveal quite a lot of her long, smooth legs. He has to swallow hard, has to keep the image of him running his fingernails slowly up and down those thighs as she arches her back and shifts her weight toward his touch.
"Is this my hoodie you're wearing?" Robert lifts his eyebrow in her direction, questioning.
She looks embarrassed, her gaze locks on the ground when she admits. "It is." And then she adds, in a hurry. "I meant to give it back, just didn't find the right time to do so until now."
"Keep it." He calls before he has a chance to think it through. "I have plenty of items just like this one. Besides, Liv has been telling me for a while now that I need to change my wardrobe a bit, so she will be excited to know I now officially own one less hoodie."
"Thank you." Andy smiles, wrapping herself tighter in the large garment. "You don't have to do it, but thank you." Over the past months she learnt that he is stubborn, much like herself, and she doesn't plan to argue. And if she is frank with herself, she is quite fond of the newest clothing item in her closet, wearing the hoodie way too often when no one is there to look, and doesn't wash it as much as she needs to, probably.
Robert watches her for a moment, still hanging by the door, reluctant to invade into her personal space. "What is it?" She asks when she decides she has had enough of the silence.
"I just think that you should earn the hoodie, you know."
"And what do I have to do in return?" She smiles at him mischievously.
God, that half grin does things for him, things he isn't willing to admit, not even to himself. "Let me buy you a drink, like you suggested. That is, of course, if you don't have any other plans. I would hate it if Bishop is left alone because I take over all of your free time."
"I am sure Maya will be fine watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians all by herself this Saturday night." Andy smiles. "Now turn around." When he looks at her with an off-sided glare, she explains. "If we are heading out, I need to change." She orders.
He does just that, but his curiosity is taking the better part of him. She is so close, and she is shedding her clothes off, piece by piece, and he can't help himself. He turns his head just slightly, and she is standing with her back to him, so he doesn't see much of anything, really. Or that's what he likes to say to himself, because she is fifteen years younger than him, and he is her boss, and he can't watch her getting undressed. He bites down on his lower lip, hard, as he manages to take a glimpse of the back of her legs and curve of her waist and her shoulders.
She is beautiful, and his heart is racing to the sight of her.
He turns back just in time, watching the wall in front of him, because not a moment later she is all dressed, telling him. "You can turn back around now." She isn't wearing anything fancy, since they are not headed anywhere fancy, not by a long shot. And besides, it is not a date, just a meeting between two friends, so there is no reason for her to dress up, especially not on his account, he knows that much.
But the fact she is dressed in a burgundy colored sweater and a pair of light wash jeans doesn't take any of her beauty away. He watches her tentatively as she places rings on her fingers and zips up her boots, before she grabs her necklace and heads to him. "Can you help me with that?"
She turns around and holds her hair up in one hand as he fulfills her request. He helps her clasp the necklace, even though he has a feeling she doesn't really need his help with that particular task. He is done in a blink of an eye, but his hands linger, traveling from her nape slowly down the back of her neck.
Her breath catches in her throat as she feels his light touch keeps its journey down her shoulders, and it is something filled with tension, even though he doesn't touch her anywhere that might be considered inappropriate. "Robert." She breaths his name out as she turns around to face him.
And suddenly they are close, really close, close enough for her to feel how warm his breath is and how his cologne has a woodsy undertone to it. Close enough for her to shift her weight forward and kiss him, if she wanted to.
Not that she thinks about kissing him. Of course not.
"Give me ten minutes to put a little bit of makeup on, and then we will head out."
"You are beautiful with or without it, you know that much, right?" He asks as he pushes a piece of stray hair that fell on her face behind her ear, and she feels those little zings of electricity everywhere his fingers hover.
He is in her bedroom, where there is a bed and a door that locks and a roommate she knows will spy, but will be happy for her. And it has to stop, he has to stop, because if things will progress further from where they are now, they won't be going anywhere tonight. "Men." Andy snorts as she finally finds it in herself to disconnect her body from his. "Always think that whatever it is we do is for them."
She misses his touch already as she drifts away, but she won't let herself get any closer. Instead, she goes through her small make up bag, trying to find her foundation and her Beautyblender. It isn't as if she owns drawers upon drawers full of makeup anyway, not when the occasions she wears it are rare and far from each other.
Robert leaves his spot by the door and makes his way to her bed, where he grabs her pillow and throws it in her face. Luckily for him, he does so before she has a chance to start on her makeup, so no harm is done, not really. Still, she turns around with a grumpy expression, asking him. "What was this all about?"
"For misinterpreting my words. I never said that you were doing anything for me. Or for any other man, for that matter."
"Fine." Andy huffs, and throws the pillow right back at him. When the object hits him right in the middle, he shifts his weight back and lets all of the air in his lungs out quite dramatically, which makes Andy smile again. She finds herself grinning around him way more often than she would like, and it makes her feel like a smitten school girl.
Not that she is smitten, of course.
"Now, let me finish this so we can head out." She orders.
She feels his eyes on her back as she goes through the familiar motions, brushes a little bit of highlighter on her cheekbones and paints her lips in a deep wine color that matches her sweater. The burning feeling of his gaze on her body makes her feel suddenly conscious, and she sneaks a glance here and there at him through the mirror she uses.
"About that shift..." Robert starts, but she cuts him mid sentence before he has a chance to say anything more.
"You are her father, Robert. If you think you know what's best for her, then who am I to argue? I have known her for a few months. You raised her all alone her entire life, and you did one hell of a good job."
She doesn't want to lie to him. Doesn't want to keep him in the dark and hide secrets from him, but what other choice does she have? Is she really going to ruin Liv's dream just because her dad might be a bit over protective? The SFD needs more women, especially resilient and strong minded ones like Olivia, and she can't take it away from her. She won't.
So all she has left to do is twist the truth a bit, even if it pains her like a knife straight to the gut when he whispers a "Thank you." just so.
"Are you ready to go?" He asks, and when she nods he steps out to the corridor, then leads the way to his car that is parked just outside her building.
He doesn't plan on drinking, then.
"Hot date tonight?" Andy gets a text from Maya right after she buckles herself in the front seat, and he turns the engine on with a roar.
"Not a date." Andy corrects her roommate as her fingers skim quickly above the screen of her phone. "Just two friends who are going to grab a drink."
"He came to pick you from the house. I consider it a date." Maya's answer comes a moment later with a loud ping.
"Not a date!" Andy types again. "We are going to Joe's, and I am going to wingwoman for him, helping him get a date with someone who is not me."
"Ok. Just so you know, though, if you find him between your legs tonight, you are not the wingwoman, you are the woman he dates. Try to keep it down if you come here, though. I need to go on a run early tomorrow morning." Andy snorts after she reads the last text the blonde sent in, then turns off her phone and shoves it into her pocket.
Her reaction ignites his curiosity, though, so when he asks. "Who was that?" Andy turns a light shade of red. Fortunately for her, his eyes are fixated on the road as they approach the bar, so he can't see her embarrassment evident on her face.
She is going to kill Maya. Again.
"It was my dad." Andy lies, and it twists her insides again. She really should stop hiding the truth from him, but what can she say? That Maya made some pretty inappropriate comments about the nature of their relationship once again? "He wanted to know when I will be free for a family dinner with him next week."
"You know, you can take a few hours off one of a shift if you need to." He suggests.
"That won't be necessary, but thank you." Andy whispers just as he kills the engine. She is about to let herself out of the car, but he is there on the passenger side before she has an opportunity to move, opening the door for her and holding his hand out, helping her out of the car.
"A true gentleman." Andy compliment, but doesn't take the hand reached out in her direction. She knows she will feel it again if she lets herself touch his skin, will feel the way her body cries out for him. She doesn't want it, doesn't want to feel the way her body comes alive with just the softest graze of his fingers against her wrist. "I can work with that. Now come on, let's find you a hot date."
They walk side by side until they enter the bar, surrounded by silence that surprisingly enough, is not uncomfortable by any means. Then he holds the door open for her, and she skips down the stairs, her boots making a tapping sound every time her feet land on the stone. They are quite early, the full blown stream of crowd didn't arrive just yet, and fortunately for them, they spot the last empty booth right as they enter the dim lit bar.
She slides right into it, but he lingers, hovering above the table, a bit too close to her to be appropriate to something she herself defined as a meeting between two friends. "What would you like to drink? A cocktail? A glass of wine?" He suggested.
"I am more of a beer kind of woman."
"Oh, going straight to the hard stuff, I see." Robert cracks a smile, one of the rare kind that she doesn't get to see too often, but lights up his entire face.
God, he is attractive, she will be a liar not to admit that much, even if it is just to herself.
"Two beers coming right up." Robert concludes and pushes himself away from her as he makes his way to the bar.
Andy watches him go, and bites down hard on her lower lip.
"What about her?" Andy asks, glancing at a woman who stands by the bar with a few of her friends, or at least that is who Andy guesses they are. She is a real beauty, tall and elegant and has waves upon waves of red hair that streams softly down her shoulders.
Robert shakes his head, and goes back to spinning his beer bottle in his hand, watching the bubbles raise inside the half finished drink. He paced himself, knowing he can't have much more than the one bottle, even though Andy is fairly sure the liquid has gone warm by now.
He paced himself, but she can't say the same for her. She downed her bottle of beer quite quickly, and when he suggested going to the bar and grabbing her a margarita, she didn't pose any objection. "Robert, you have been ruling out every single woman you have looked in her direction today. You can't keep going like that, or otherwise our plan won't work. I can't wingwoman for you if you don't want to go talk to any of the women."
If she is being frank with herself, she doesn't want him to go. Just the thought of him leaving her alone to go and flirt with another woman makes something dark and petty twist inside of her. And she has been enjoying herself immensely, liked the banter and the easy going back and forth, and the little teases they kept sending each other's way from time to time.
And it is fun, and easy going and comfortable, and even though the bar is jammed packed by now, it feels like other than her and Robert, there is no one around them. As if they are both surrounded by this bubble only the two of them can feel.
She doesn't want this night to end, and suddenly it does feel like a date.
Not that she can date him.
"Tell me about the weirdest call you have ever had." They have already covered all the getting to know each other questions, even though she keeps telling herself she is not the one being dated, just the one being a good friend. They went through hometowns and heritages, talked about the best place in Seattle to grab a slice of pizza and the most wonderful place they have ever visited in the whole entire world. He has met her father, and they work together so it isn't like they have anything new to say to each other in that area, and soon after that the conversation shifted into a more intimate area, breaking the tension every once in a while with a story that cracks the two of them up and makes them laugh until they can't breathe anymore, just like where he is headed right now.
"Oh, this one is easy." Andy lets out. Her glass is empty now, and he looks at her as she turns the straw along the edges. He looks at her, about to slip something out of his lips, and she swears to God, if he is going to offer to buy her another drink, she is going to have to confront him about trying to get her drunk.
Andy continues before he has a chance to suggest such a thing. "I wasn't a probie anymore, but I was still fairly the new girl, and I was assigned to aid car with Dean that shift. We got an aid car call at four in the morning, and when we arrived there, we saw a young kid on the road, lying completely still. To this day I have no idea what this kid was on, but as I leaned in to check if he was breathing, he sat right up and threw up his entire stomach content straight on to me. Miller had a good laugh, and I ended up smelling like vodka induced puke for an entire week. I will never forget what he told me after we finally made it back to the station. He said 'Herrera, this job stinks sometimes.'"
Her story has Robert rolling with laughter, has him holding on to his stomach, and has Andy biting "I am happy that you find it amusing." but the smile on her lips indicates that she is not really angry with him, not even one bit.
"What about her?" Andy suggests another woman who stands by the bar, alone this time. She is real pretty, like all the women Robert kept rejecting were. Andy thinks Robert knows she won't let him get away without even trying to get a phone number, so he sighs and raises himself from his seat in front of her, promising her "I will be back."
"Don't count on it." She shrugs, sending him a knowing, dirty smile.
She tells herself she won't mind at all if he goes home with that woman, not by the slightest. She is an adult, she can catch a Lyft back home on her own, and they are here exactly for this purpose, aren't they? He needs to put himself out there, needs to get back on the horse and maybe find someone to warm his bed tonight, or to keep him company for a longer period of time than that. But then, the thought of him leaving her in that bar to go sleep with a woman he just met makes her see red, makes her feel angry and quite possessive, even though she knows it doesn't make any sense. Even if she is trying to shake this awful feeling away with all her might.
And he is handsome, and he knows how to be charming if he wants to, and Andy knows that no woman who is attracted to men can resist him. She knows that if he was looking at her in a bar just so, she would have probably gone home with him, even if she is not one to do these kinds of things.
"Hey." The woman approaches Robert right after he orders another cocktail for Andy. He doesn't even have to lift a finger to have her standing by his side, standing close enough for him to know she is not looking for a friend.
"It's a bold move on your behalf, you know. Approaching a man who sits with another woman."
"What can I say? I am bold." Robert finally gets a good look at her. She is beautiful, and quite frankly, she is his type, even though he isn't very particular in that area. She is tall, has deep dark eyes and a wide smile on her face.
"Robert." He offers his name.
"Alyssa." The woman returns the favor, the smile never fading from her face. "So, was I wrong to approach you, even if you have a woman waiting for you by your table?" She is flirting, Robert has no doubt there, as he would say he is rather good at reading people, being in his line of work.
"No, you weren't." Robert admits, because there is nothing going on between him and Andy, nothing at all. "We are just friends."
"So, Robert..." Alyssa lowers her voice into a seductive whisper. "Do you think that your friend who sits near your table will mind terribly if we go somewhere a little more quiet, where we can get acquainted?" She is not playing around, then, she is forward and even a little bit blunt. For a moment the thought does cross Robert's mind. She is not unattractive, not by any means, and Robert won't mind spending the night with her, maybe just for tonight, and maybe she will turn out to be something more than that. And he said it himself time and again, he needs someone, needs something other than his hand and the cold five am showers. He needs a woman, and even if they leave now, that doesn't mean he needs to take her straight to bed with him.
But then something in the corner of his eye catches his attention, and suddenly he sees red, suddenly he is livid. He watches with clenched teeth as a strange young man makes his way toward the booth he is sharing with Andy, then slides in, uninvited, with two shot glasses, each in one hand. His vision becomes vague as he sees Andy's body shifting toward them man, the way she sends a flirting smile in his direction.
And he must have been staring too long, because next thing he knows, Alyssa mutters "I probably shouldn't have approached a guy who shares his table with another woman." and then she disappears, leaving him with his mouth open just a bit as he tries to process what exactly happens in front of him.
His body is taking control, and in a minute he is there again, by her, placing a hand on her shoulder in quite a possessive manner. He feels it again immediately after he touches her, the small currents of electricity at the base of his skull.
"Oh, I didn't realize you were here with someone, I am sorry man." The guy apologizes, then is quick to escape, leaving the two full glasses on their table.
"What was that about?" Andy pouts as Robert slides back into his spot. "You get to go home with her, but I don't get to flirt with anyone?"
"Not going to go home with anyone." Robert barks, the change in his mood quite drastic. "It didn't work out." And then, after quite a long, loaded silence, he suggests. "Can we just go home Andy? To be honest, I am not in the mood, and I don't think it is going to work out."
"Yeah, of course." Andy nods and lifts herself up to a standing position. She doesn't know what caused this change in his behavior, he was all warm and comfortable only a minute ago, and now he seems cold and distant, but she was there for him, truly, and if he wants to leave, then she will happily head home.
"Do you want to come by my place? I know Liv will be happy to see you, and I promise to drop you at your house before your bedtime. No more sleeping on my couch and waking up with a stiff neck, I promise."
"Sure." She lets out before she even has a chance to think this through. As Robert stands right next to her, Andy interlaces their fingers, and if they leave the bar with their hands entwined... Well, she doesn't mention it, and neither does he.