Hope you guys enjoy the update. I changed a few of the previous chapters for continuity purposes. After much thought, COVID will appear for a brief time in this story to keep somewhat consistent with the show. Talk about that should end in the next few chapters. We hope you like the update and as always tell us what you think!

D.H. Caldwell and HAS5245

Four days later, Andy was being released from the hospital. Morgan from the station had come by to visit her, as did her landlady Mrs. Goldberg. Mrs. Goldberg was an older woman who had rented Andy the guest house a few days after Andy moved to Connecticut. Jack was downstairs getting coffee and talking to Dean when she came, but had the pleasure of meeting her a few days later when he went to pack up her apartment. The guesthouse was nice and roomy but sparsely decorated much like their apartment back in Seattle. Andy hadn't accumulated much in the two months that she had been living there; she did not like the clutter lying around. Andy had some new heavy duty L.L. Bean boots and a new winter jacket to brave the harsh New England cold, but that was about it. The day they left, Jack kept busy by mailing to his apartment, the things she couldn't fit in her check baggage. After he finished arguing with the people at the post office over the size of a box, Jack went to the car yard to argue with more people about retrieving whatever was in Andy's car. "With all the arguing I'm doing, the lawsuit will be no problem, Jack thought to himself as he stood in the car yard office trying to get a quote for the car. After finishing up there, he finally made his way back to the hospital where Andy was awake and just finishing a conversation with her mother. He couldn't believe he had completed his entire to-do list and it was only 10:15 in the morning.

"I'll call you when we land. Yes, lunch sounds perfect tomorrow. Well, Jack just got here so I have to go", she excused as she glanced up at Jack standing in the doorway as he always did. "I already told you Maya and I thought it wouldn't be a good idea. No we're not going to hook up. I love you too Mami. Bye". Andy hung up the phone and shoved it into her purse, frustratedly zipping the bag. "This zipper's stuck", she muttered as she threw her hands in the air in frustration.

"I'll get it. Don't worry", he smiled as he grabbed the bag off the table and pulled the zipper closed while she scowled at him. "Your mother sounds so happy", he told her sarcastically as he took a seat in the chair, already exhausted from the morning errands.

Andy rolled her eyes while Jack sat next to her, smirking, having listened to the last part of the conversation, "What? So, she's not exactly thrilled that I'm living with you. It's not funny you know. You brought that upon yourself. Dating me, then my best friend, then Eva who was married to Rigo, and don't even get me started on how weird your relationship with Inara was. Ted tried to kill you when he found you together…", Andy reminded him.

"I know, I know all about that. But Andy she can't just…", he started, only for Andy to cut him off.

"I know that as well, but she's on that kick of telling me that I need to live with someone who's mentally stable", she added frustratedly.

"Is she always that judgemental?" he asked as Andy simply shrugged, not able to come up with a good enough answer. "Well, Elena changes her opinions of people like she changes her underwear. It doesn't bother me too much. You ready?", he asked as a nurse walked in and handed her a clipboard with her discharge papers attached.

Andy sighed as she read through the papers, "Almost. Just have to sign these. Do you have everything from my house and the car?"

"Everything's in the car. I turned your keys into Mrs. Goldberg last night and she wished you luck in Seattle and gave you a card which I also have in the car. I went to the car yard this morning and picked up whatever they salvaged from the totaled car", he recalled as he thought back to his trip to the car yard. The guy in the place had said that there wasn't a lot he could have salvaged. Jack had looked at the car and cringed. He was thankful to whoever was up there protecting Andy. The state of the car alone made him wonder how she survived. The whole roof was caved in, making it difficult to reach anything in the middle console. The sun visor was broken off when the windshield broke. When trying to maneuver his way around the car, Jack had noticed something glistening off the floor. The sun visor sat below the front seat and there were three pictures peeking out of it. Ryan's globe was also haphazardly dangling from the inside of the cassette player. He had reached in to free the items and put them into his pocket for safe keeping, knowing that Andy would want them later.

"Did you grab the pictures out of the sun visor?" Andy asked as she signed off on the paper and asked that her x-rays be forwarded to Miranda at Grey Sloan. She could just hear Ben's wife now, yelling at her for running away and telling her that if she just stayed put there would have been no accident.

Jack nodded affirmatively as he held out the pictures and the globe and passed them to Andy. "I grabbed both the pictures and Ryan's globe. The asshole running the place said that there wasn't anything he could salvage, then I went in there and proved him wrong. I also popped your trunk and got that Mariners blanket you kept in there, and I got him to give you two hundred for the car. Two hundred more than what the hunk of junk was actually worth. However since it was a 2000, and it technically qualified as an antique, the guy agreed to pay you for it. Am I good or what?" he asked, pleased with himself for all the negotiating he had done that day.

"Better than good. You're incredible. Talia wrote me a prescription for pain meds, but I'll be fine with Advil, so we can just go. I don't really like to use them especially after what I saw Robert go through", she smiled as she sat down in a wheelchair and a nurse wheeled her out to the rental car. "I can't wait to see your beat up old truck and smell the musty seats again", she added as Jack rolled his eyes.

"My seats aren't musty. They're old and it gives the truck an earthy smell", he smirked. "Hey, do we need to stop by your station to get anything off your hook?"

Andy laughed thinking back to her hook and the things she might have left at the station. She sighed, knowing that she would have to tell Nolan she would be leaving. That would not be an easy task as Nolan was expecting her and trusting her to take the station over when he could no longer run it. He used to guilt her by telling her that if he couldn't pass anything onto his "lousy lawyer daughter who took after her no-good lying, cheating mother" he could at least pass it onto her. Andy grimaced at the thought of giving him her resignation, and chuckled at the prospect of him yelling at her and calling her all sorts of lovely things. "I have to resign from my job, without two weeks notice. Nolan's going to kill me", she admitted.

"So I get to meet the famous George Nolan? The old geez who's refusing to retire?", Jack laughed as Andy gave him an are you nuts look. "I know, can't go in because of COVID", he relented, holding his hands up in mock surrender. He chuckled to himself as he opened her door before getting into the drivers side of the rental car. He had trouble figuring out how to start the thing as his truck was the old fashioned key in the ignition. Andy still wouldn't let it go about how it took him thirty minutes to figure out that he had to push the button on the side of the steering wheel. At least that gave her something to laugh about. Lord knows she could use it.

Andy sat down in the passenger seat of the rental as Jack started driving towards the station. She gave him directions along the way even though it was pretty straightforward where to go once they got off 91 and into the town. Jack drove along the icy street, unwillingly dipping into the numerous potholes that made up Shaw Creek's Main Street. Andy texted Maya and Vic while Jack cursed every time he hit a pothole. They passed by Andy's apartment and the high school before driving past some of the local farms and the lake. Andy silently watched the scenery pass by one more time, acknowledging the place she had grown to like over the past two months. She liked the quiet, truly, but was more than ready to get back to the hustle and bustle of Seattle. Andy's eyes went wide when she noticed a black and white cow standing in the middle of the road and the old brown gate by the barn wide open. "Jack! Stop!", she yelled. Jack noticed the cow too and slammed on the brakes, sending both of them lurching forwards, then back. "I already have a concussion, are you trying to add whiplash to the list?",Andy questioned as she watched the cow stand frightened in front of them with no intention of moving.

Jack held a hand to his chest and was breathing quickly, visibly startled by the presence of farm animals in the road. They never had to worry about that in Seattle. "Not. My. Fault. You. Okay?", he asked, taking a breath in between each word. Andy nodded as she held the clothes bar at the top of the door. "What the hell was that?", Jack questioned as he pulled away from the farm after the cow crossed the road safely. He watched confused as Andy yelled out the open window to the man running after the cow.

"Thank you Andy!", the man yelled back as Andy waved from the car window.

"You're welcome Steve. I would fix the gate if I was you", she yelled back before shutting the window again to keep out the cold. "The Johnson's cow got loose again. They refuse to fix their fence and their cow, Malcom, escapes every now and then. He walks right into town like he owns the place. Last week, Brian and I found him trying to eat the grass on the high school football field", Andy laughed. "We may be part of the fire department but in this small town we're also animal control"

"Who's Brian? Is he at the station with you?", Jack questioned, hoping to put names to faces when they got there. He knew he wouldn't be able to go inside for COVID reasons but wanted to be able to say hello if someone passed the car outside.

"He's my partner at the station and a major pain in my ass. He's notorious in the town for 'Playing the field" with half of the population here. This whole damn town has either been with him or knows someone that's been with him. Even with COVID cases on the move, he's still getting with half the idiots in this town", Andy muttered thinking about her and Brian's interaction before the accident. "He's an idiot himself. Want to laugh? He was being an ass like usual and hitting on me. I told him no, he made comments about my ring so I threw him up against the wall", she summarized as Jack looked at her unfazed. He knew her by now and he knew that she had no problem sticking up for herself. He chuckled thinking that with Andy's attitude, she could have probably done a better job on Maya than he did. How he would have loved to see that play out. "He told me that I shouldn't confuse people with my wedding band so I said screw six feet apart, we're in our station/our pod and he needs to be taught a lesson"

Jack was then instantly brought back to the memory of him meeting Carina for the first time. Andy had been there for that and laughed through most of the painful interaction where Carina yelled at him and called him names, some of which he didn't quite understand. "Yeahhh, you know, Carina called me a frat boy when she met me, and a man hoe, and a sex addict. She still can't stand me", Jack recalled. Carina had switched between English and Italian so much that Andy and Maya had to sit him down and explain what she was saying, none of it good. It was that day that he vowed never to piss her off again, and that meant controlling himself around Maya whenever they were particularly pissed. With all the fighting they did while Andy was gone, this proved to be extremely difficult but with Diane's help, he was able to develop better methods than sleeping with Maya.

Andy chuckled, remembering the day herself, "I remember that. God, she was pissed at you. But for what it's worth, I don't think you're a frat boy, I would have pegged you for a dumb jock. Frat boys are too smart"

"I'm smart. At least I like to think I am", Jack answered pretending to feel hurt.

Andy didn't pick up on the fakeness in his voice and for a minute, thought that she had seriously hurt his feelings. "No, Gibson, you're one of the smartest people I know. I was just kidding", she explained as she put her hand on his shoulder, pulling it away the next minute when he started laughing like crazy, so much so that he could barely breathe.

"And I was just acting. You should have seen your face", Jack laughed, as Andy slapped him with a random AAA map she found in the glove compartment. "Ow. What happened to six feet apart?"

"I live with you, so that's kind of not a thing with us. Besides, the two of us have negative COVID tests as of last night.", she laughed, struggling to admit to herself that him being the same practical jokester he was back in Seattle was just what she needed. He still sat there with that crooked grin on his face, smirking at her. "You're the worst, you know that?"

"Come on, you know you love me", he answered as he drove into the gravel parking lot, the gravel popping beneath the tires as he parked. He looked over the aging building with disgust. "This is what you left Seattle for? This craphole?" Jack asked as he noticed the cracks in the bricks and the wood rotting around the barn door. He grimaced when he saw the moss climbing the rotting wood. The place looked like it was going to fall down any minute. He wondered how Andy survived there for the two months that she did. She liked everything neat and orderly, shiny and clean, and this place was anything but. He hadn't even set foot in the building and it was already driving him crazy, and that was saying something. "Are you sure this isn't abandoned city property or something?", he asked, concerned.

"I promise, I'll be right out", she assured as she put on a mask and walked into the building. She did her best getting up the stairs and into the multipurpose room where George Nolan was sitting, typing away at his computer, adjusting his glasses every few seconds. "Cap, do you have a second?", Andy asked as he spun around in his desk chair to meet her.

Nolan surveyed her injuries, squinting and shaking his head when he saw how bruised she was. "Herrera! Damn, Morgan said it was bad but I didn't think it would be this bad. What did the other car do to you?"

"Made my life for the next four months just a little more miserable", she answered as she took a seat in the chair next to his desk. "I'm surprised to see that I was gone for a few days and the station didn't burn down. Morgan must have really held down the fort"

Nolan nodded, "He did good, but he's still nowhere near your skill level. Also, why the hell are you wearing a mask? We're a pod"

"Don't talk to me about masks. You're high risk and shouldn't even be here with a mask, much less without one. Besides, this isn't my pod anymore. I'm resigning, effective immediately", Andy answered, mentally preparing herself for the fireworks. She took one look at Nolan and could tell that he was mad. He had been counting on her, and she knew it, but she couldn't stay. She looked at him again and he looked more disappointed than she had ever seen.

Nolan crossed his arms in front of his chest as he looked at her, "And going where? We can't even travel yet"

"Home. I'm going back to Seattle", Andy confessed as Nolan glared at her, even angrier, but giving her a minute to explain herself. "Nolan, my husband died two months ago. I was going through a very dark time and I needed to get away for a little bit so I came here. I want to thank you, because you provided me with a place and work to clear my head. Now, I am grateful for that, but I really need to go home" Andy smiled gratefully as Nolan showed her the first shred of compassion he's probably ever shown anyone in what she presumed to be 50 years, by giving her the biggest air hug, and probably the only air hug.

"You always have a home here Herrera. Remember that. We're going to miss you", he reminded her, bittersweetly. He was upset to see her go and certainly not happy about the short notice, but understood the minute she told him why she had really come to day he met her, he could tell that she had been through a lot, but didn't know exactly what. He gave her a job, but was always afraid to ask what brought her there. He figured she would tell him when the time was right, and now the time was perfect. She was leaving, and he hated to lose his star lieutenant, but he understood her. "We're going to miss you so much", he repeated

"Thank you for everything Nolan", Andy smiled as she got up to leave.

"Stay strong. And call around here will ya?", he told her as she nodded and disappeared out the door and onto the stairs. She slowly made her way down them and out to where Jack was parked. She got back in the car and sighed as she looked up the Shaw Creek station that she called home for a few months.

"What are you thinking about?", Jack asked as Andy slipped her mask off and tucked it into her purse.

Amdy smiled as she wiped away a tear, "I'm just so thankful I have someone like you by my side to help me through this"

"Always Andy. You and I, we're a team now", he smiled as he reached over to hug her before pulling out of the parking lot and heading to the airport to go home. Home, that felt good to think about.