Any other day, at an event like this, with his wife dressed like that, Robert Sullivan would have been calculating the minutes until they could leave and not draw disapproving looks from the higher-ups within the Seattle Fire Department. Or, they might have shown up late, saying they got caught in traffic or had to stop for gas. The gleam in their eyes and small, shared smiles would have made it clear to anyone listening just how flimsy their excuses were. They were newlyweds after all. While the brass might not approve and their friends would tease, it would be evident to anyone paying attention how in love Andy and Robert were.
Instead, Robert, dressed in a dark grey suit, stood glowering against one of the tent pools that held up the large canopy covering the outdoor dance floor. It was early August 2020. They weren't done with COVID yet, but case numbers had fallen, and with the Seattle first responders getting tested every few days, the mayor's team was confident that they could get together for this night of hors d'oeuvres, drinking, and dancing in a reasonably safe way. The cause was a good one, raising money for a scholarship fund for the children of Washington first responders who had lost their lives to COVID, but tonight Robert wished he could be anywhere but here.
His problem was not with the event, although even under the best of circumstances he didn't enjoy being "strongly encouraged" to attend work-related activities on his personal time. Tonight the reason for his sour mood was the presence of his wife. Since Maya and Carina's wedding two weeks prior, they had been living apart. From his post away from the revelry on the dance floor, he thought back to that night.
"I'm done trying to persuade you to talk to me," he angrily whispered to Andy as the news of Maya's demotion sunk in among the crew assembled for the wedding. "I packed an overnight bag before I came here. I told myself I'd give it one more chance, but I'm not going to beg. The apartment is yours. I'll find someplace else to crash."
"Robert, wait," Andy began, but he quickly made his way out the front door of the restaurant.
She began to walk after him, but Travis and Vic stopped her; they were stunned by the text message and wondered whether she could share some insider information.
Robert left the restaurant, got in his SUV, and took a breath. His head was spinning, and he had no idea what to do next. He had packed an overnight bag for himself, but to be honest, he didn't think he would be looking for a place to stay. Andy had been angry with him before, but it had never gotten this far.
He was never much of a drinker, but at that moment the thought of drowning his sorrows was appealing, and that thought scared him. He pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket and glanced at the time. It was just after 11:00: late, but not unreasonably so.
"You awake?" he texted quickly to Richard before he lost his nerve or convinced himself it wasn't really necessary.
Within a minute, Richard had called him, and Robert breathed a small sigh of relief. He trusted that Richard could serve as a calming counterbalance to his tormented state of mind.
After providing a brief summary of what led to the phone call, Robert said: "I was seriously considering buying a bottle of vodka, getting a hotel room, and drinking myself into a stupor. My problem was with drugs, so I know I'm not forbidden from drinking, but I don't want to substitute one addiction for another."
Robert, expecting Richard to quote him a line about only thinking about the next minute, or hour, surprised him when he said: "Why don't you stay here? I'm sober so we don't keep any alcohol in the house."
"I couldn't possibly impose on you like that," Robert responded. He was hoping his sponsor would share some sage advice; he was not looking for an invitation to his home.
Richard quickly interrupted: "My wife's in Boston with our son, and our house is huge. I can set you up in the guest suite, and given our work schedules, I doubt we'll even see each other. I'll text you the address."
Richard wouldn't take no for an answer, so Robert had spent the last two weeks at the Fox-Webber home. Richard had been right, given their busy work lives, they rarely saw each other, although they had shared a few meals and watched some sports on the television. Robert hadn't shared any more details about the disagreement with Andy, and the older man hadn't pried, assuming that Robert would talk when he was ready.
It had been exactly two weeks since that night, and Robert found himself at this fundraiser, watching his wife, in a skimpy red dress, moving back and forth from the bar to the dance floor.
Andy assumed correctly that her husband would attend the event. The chief had made it clear that any SFD officer not on duty that night, or scheduled to start work at 7:00 the next morning, was expected to attend. Maybe it was a little juvenile on her part, but she spent the day planning and preparing for the evening. If he wanted to walk out on her with barely a word, she would remind him what he was missing. She dug out a bright red dress from the back of her closet. It had a deep "v" in the front, an open back, and clung in all the right places. It was short enough that she had resigned herself to standing the entire night, but she didn't mind. Paired with an insanely high pair of heels, she knew her legs and butt looked good, and she didn't mind showing them off. Her hair was down, in curls that looked natural, but in actuality took her several hours to perfect, and her makeup was natural-looking, accentuating her features in a way that didn't draw attention away from her outfit.
From the moment she arrived, she had the attention of every man, and some of the women, in the room. There were 13 male firefighters in Seattle for every female, so she had no shortage of willing dance partners for the evening. She would not do anything that would go against the marriage vows she spoke to Robert less than 6 months prior, but she was not opposed to having some fun. And if her harmless fun happened to catch the attention of her husband, so be it!
In Robert's mind, the problem wasn't how good she looked, but rather how all the male members of the SFD were responding. In the time that he was there, she bounced back and forth between the bar and the dance floor, doing shots with whoever the man of the moment was, and then returning to dancing when a song piqued her interest.
Robert watched his wife cozy up with miscellaneous members of the SFD for as long as he could before he stalked his way across the dance floor. Glaring at the Station 23 firefighter currently dancing with his wife, he grunted an "excuse me" to the somewhat terrified young man before sliding his hand under Andy's elbow and escorting her off of the dance floor. His grasp was firm but not painful, and if she wanted to, she could easily have dislodged her arm and returned to her dancing. Rather than make a scene, she did her best to match Robert's long, purposeful strides, a task made more challenging by her 5-inch heels.
She remained silent as he guided her down a path toward an open area away from the dance party so that they could have a little privacy.
"What the hell are you doing, Robert?" Andy spit out when they had finally stopped.
"What the hell am I doing?" Robert retorted. "What the hell are you doing? You're clearly drunk, that dress leaves little to the imagination, and you're all over every guy out there like some sort of…"
Despite his anger, somewhere in Robert's mind, a warning bell went off and he stopped before the final word came out. It didn't matter, though. Andy knew what he was thinking, and filled in the blank.
"Like some sort of what, Robert?" Andy seethed. "Some sort of slut, right? That's what you were going to say."
Robert took a deep breath, trying to control his anger, and when he didn't speak, Andy continued, her voice increasing in volume and pace as he spoke: "Is that what you think of me, Robert? That I'm a slut? I never hid my past from you, and you didn't seem to have a problem with it when you were trying to convince me to marry you, but now that we're fighting, you have the audacity to throw it back in my face. I can't believe you."
"Andy, I…" Robert began, trying to apologize. He was angry, furious even, but he knew he crossed a line. Andy didn't deserve that, regardless of what she had said or done.
Andy, however, was not ready to hear an apology. She was fired up, and she was going to finish what she had to say: "You know, maybe we should have spent a little bit more time talking about the bad stuff before we jumped into marriage. I told you I had been with Jack, and you knew about Ryan. I thought you were ok with it, but if the first time you see me having some fun you're ready to hurl insults like that, clearly you weren't."
Robert tried again to finish his apology: "Andy, I'm sorry. Regardless of my feelings right now, I should never have even begun that sentence."
If Andy heard the apology, she gave no indication, because she continued her rant without even an acknowledgment: "And I should have paid more attention when you talked about the demons you were battling. That lineage of mistakes, putting your career before everything else, clearly you haven't worked through that yet. All that mattered to you was getting your old job back, you didn't care who you had to hurt to get there."
Finally, out of words or breath, Andy paused, and Robert took the opportunity to speak. As tempted as he was to respond to her latest jab at him, he knew it would get him nowhere. Instead, he attempted to change the subject to their current situation: "You work with these people, Andy. They know that we're still married. Someday you might be their captain," Robert began.
"Their captain, Robert? That's rich, coming from you," Andy retorted. "You pretty effectively made sure that wasn't going to happen when you and my father blocked me, and then when you installed yourself as the savior of Station 19 when Maya got into trouble."
At this point, Robert was ready to concede defeat. It was clear that this conversation wasn't going to resolve anything, and was actually making things worse. However, he couldn't leave her without one last attempt to get her to tone down her behavior: "I'm worried about you, Andy. You've been drinking, and some of these guys, well, let's just say I've heard how they talk about women when you and Bishop and Hughes aren't around…I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them. Just be careful tonight, please."
With that, Robert felt that he had done everything he could and began to walk toward the parking lot. He would leave Andy to enjoy her night.
Andy, however, wasn't above one last dig: "You lost the right to worry about me the day you walked away from me at Kaminski's."
Robert paused and turned back to face his wife. He knew he shouldn't say anything, but her comment brought his anger rushing back: "I might have walked out, but you're the one that torpedoed our marriage before even considering my side of the story. Did you ever stop and think that maybe I made the best decision I could in the moment?"
Andy didn't respond, and Robert didn't wait for an answer. He didn't think anyone would notice his absence, but if they did, he'd deal with it in the morning. He needed to get out of there, but instead of heading back to Richard's, he drove to Hamilton Viewpoint Park, a park in west Seattle that had gorgeous views of the city at night. He had been there with Andy in the spring when COVID had shuttered all of their usual hangouts and they just needed to do something, anything, that allowed them to be out of their apartment or the station. It was late when he arrived, but there was no way to block the entrance to the park, so he parked and sat down on the closest bench. As he sat, he thought back to that night with Andy.
Maybe it was the perfect weather, the fact that they were both off of work for a few days, or that they were finally settling into a comfortable routine after their separation and his arrest, but Andy was in a silly, playful mood. From the moment he suggested heading to the park, she seemed almost giddy. In the short drive over, she sang and grooved to every song on the radio, and he could only smile at her joy.
Walking from their car, he had wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and Andy had done the same, putting her arm around his waist as they walked side by side. As they made their way to a park bench away from the other groups that had gathered, she slipped her hand into the back pocket of his jeans. It was a move that reminded him of high school, where rules about PDA were strict, but given the crowded nature of the hallways, it rarely drew the attention of a teacher or hall monitor.
He glanced at his wife and raised his eyebrows to indicate his unspoken question. She simply grinned and continued walking. He had a great ass; she wasn't going to apologize for wanting to touch it, even through the thick cloth of his jeans. When they arrived at an empty park bench, and Robert sat down, rather than sit down next to him, Andy plopped herself on his lap, and wrapped her arms around his neck, planting a kiss on his lips as she did.
"Andy," Robert said with a small laugh. "We're in public."
He definitely did not mind the proximity of his wife, but given their location, he thought some discretion would be appropriate.
"Ok, ok, I'll move if you really want me to," Andy teased as she moved to sit next to him on the bench.
Still wanting the physical closeness, she wrapped one arm around his waist, rested her head against his shoulder, and placed her other hand on his leg, just above his knee, in deference to her husband's concerns about public displays of affection.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, both enjoying the view of Seattle, the opportunity to be outside their house, and the relaxed companionship they had not had in quite a while. Andy's arm remained around Robert's waist, and at some point, she began stroking his side gently, and he squirmed slightly from her touch. His movement caught her attention, and a bit of a smile spread across her face.
"You're ticklish," she exclaimed gleefully. "How come I'm just now finding out that you're ticklish?"
"I'm not," Robert retorted, but Andy repeated the movement and got the same reaction.
"Well, not really," Robert asserted, before clarifying "It's one very specific spot and a very light touch. You just haven't found it before."
"Oh, really," Andy said, already considering the ways she could use this new information to her advantage.
As Robert could almost see the wheels turning in his wife's head, he decided to go on the offensive. "Just so you know, if you do it again, I'm going to have to retaliate," Robert teased.
Andy, unlike Robert, was extremely ticklish, a fact that Robert had no qualms about exploiting. She stilled her hand for a few minutes, debating her next move. Robert relaxed, and just as he placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head, she tickled him one last time.
She had predicted Robert's response, though, and when he moved to pull her closer, she took off running toward the car, laughing as she did. He caught up to her just as she reached the car, he pulled her close, trapping her body between his and the hard metal of the car. Rather than tickle her, he leaned down to capture her mouth in a demanding kiss. She responded quickly, their tongues dueling for control, and as they did Robert's hands slipped down from her hips to her butt, pulling her toward him. Andy moaned slightly as she felt his arousal, evident even through his jeans, against her stomach.
The kiss continued for a moment before the squawk of a siren, and the flash of lights from a police car startled them. "Move it somewhere else," they heard a voice command from the squad car's speaker and they separated quickly, giggling like two love-struck teenagers as they climbed back into the car.
Once away from the prying eyes of the police officer, Andy teased: "It's all your fault you know."
"My fault," Robert retorted, "you're the one who couldn't keep your hands to yourself all evening,"
"Well," Andy shot back, "you're the one who had me pinned up against the car."
"I didn't hear you complaining," Robert replied.
"I wasn't," Andy said with a sexy grin, before leaning over to plant a quick kiss on his lips. "Now take me home and you can pin me against whatever surface you want."
Robert looked at her askance, raising his eyebrows just slightly, as he chuckled at her comment.
"Yeah, I know," Andy said with a laugh. "It sounded a lot sexier in my head. Just take me home. I'm sure we can figure out a way to occupy ourselves when we get there."
"I think that can be arranged," Robert said with a grin before turning on the car.
The squawk of a night bird brought Robert back to his reality. Looking at the flickering lights of the Seattle skyline, Robert knew what he had to do. He got up from the park bench, went to his SUV, and drove to their apartment. Once he arrived he quickly made his way to the door and knocked. Of course, he had a key, but he hadn't used it in two weeks, and it was almost midnight. It only seemed right that he give Andy the opportunity to answer the door, or not. As he waited, a terrible thought crossed his mind, what if she hadn't gone home after the event ended, or what if someone had come home with her? Until that moment, he assumed that this was just a bump in the road and they'd eventually get back together, but the thought of her cheating on him sent a chill down his spine. He knocked one more time, waited a moment, and then, just as he was about to return to his car, the door opened.
"Robert?" Andy asked as she opened the door. She had clearly been getting ready for bed. Her hair was pulled back, her face was scrubbed clean of the makeup she had been wearing earlier, and, she was wearing one of his old t-shirts.
Her look, so different from her earlier outfit, caught Robert's attention. While he found dressed-up, made-up Andy very attractive, this was the look that he loved most. Relaxed and comfortable, Andy looked younger, and, while he would never tell her this, a little vulnerable. Without her makeup, he could also see the circles under her eyes, a telltale sign that she had not been sleeping well.
"I know it's late, but may I come in?" Robert asked tentatively.
Author's Note: I'm back! I know it's been a while, but real-life stuff (some good and some not so good) has kept me away from fanfic writing. It also took me a little while to decide how I wanted to deal with 04x16. While I placed this with my one-shots, I have one more chapter planned. I'm not giving away any spoilers, but if you've read any of my other work, you know how I feel about surrera! As always, comments and thoughts are much appreciated