First off, thanks for your support and reviews, I wasn't sure what you'd say about that 2nd bit of my previous chapter and I'm glad you guys liked it, all things considered... :)
Now, I was going to move on to episode 11, I've already written it and even started working on episode 12, but episode 10 kept coming back to mind. So I simply had to get it out of my system and this is the end product. It's just a bit of an introspection I guess. With a dash of fluff.
After dinner they made themselves comfortable in the living room. Andy was sitting on the couch, feet resting on the coffee table in front of him whereas Sharon was stretched out next to him, resting her head on a pillow that she'd fluffed out and put over his lap. They were watching the news and even though Andy's toes obscured her view of the bottom part of the TV, it didn't bother her any more than the fact that his feet were on the table in the first place. She wasn't really paying attention to the news anyway. Instead her thoughts were scattered all over the place and whatever was being said on the news was but a faint chatter in the background she couldn't make out. Not that she was trying to. No, she was still reeling from the day and was absentmindedly drumming her fingers on one of Andy's knees while enjoying the feel of his hand playing with a strand of her hair.
They were alone, Rusty had texted earlier; he was meeting up with Gus and they shouldn't wait up. She would never ask Rusty to leave just so she could spend time with her boyfriend, the word still sounded funny to her mind's ear, but tonight she was really glad to have him all to herself. It had been a long day and she had yet to process its events.
So here she was, pretending to watch the news, replaying that horrifying moment from a few hours ago and reveling in her little cocoon of comfort and contentment that Andy finally provided. Work had kept them busy and, not counting dinner, this was their first private moment together.
In her musings she didn't notice that Andy's hand had stilled and slipped down to the top of her shoulder. His soft snore pulled her out of her thoughts and when she carefully lifted her head to take a look at him she realized he had fallen asleep, head drooping sideways over the backrest of the couch.
Not surprising. It was an exhausting day, a couple of days, actually. The only reason she wasn't asleep yet was that she was still thanking the lord that her team had not been injured in that explosion. She pushed off his lap and moved into a sitting position. She took the pillow from him, put it somewhere on the couch behind her and since his head was still leaning back, she splayed a hand gently across his chest for balance, lifting herself slightly up to place a soft kiss on the cheek she could now reach. He didn't stir right away, but when she whispered, "Andy, wake up," he groaned, opened one eye, as if testing it, and then another, before lifting his head. He just mumbled "I'm trying to sleep here," and let his head fall back down.
He was awake now, there was no fooling her. She chuckled, got to her feet and took one of his hands giving it a small tug. "Come on," she tugged again, "let's go to bed."
He grunted and blindly reached for the remote with his other hand. "Fine," he said as he hit the 'power' button on it. He made a show of looking behind her to see if it did the trick and if the TV was now off, as if the ensuing silence wasn't a good enough clue, and satisfied with the results of his inquiry, he got up. She watched him, an amused smile gracing her face as he proceeded to stretch his back. When it made a popping noise, her smile widened and she tugged on his hand once more. "Bed, now."
"You're only the boss at work," he grumbled, but followed her nonetheless.
They went through their nightly routine in the bathroom and as always, by the time she was done, Andy had already made himself comfortable on the bed, lying flat on his back. He didn't even look at her when she reached the bed, stopping in front of it as she applied some hand lotion. He just tapped his hand on top of her side of the bed, and practically growled, "Bed, now."
She just laughed at him and finally moved to slip under the comforter. "Bossy, aren't we?"
He turned his head to look at her. She had made herself comfortable on her side, an arm bent underneath her head, and was looking at him. "I'm negotiating," he quipped smugly, sending another wave of soft laughter through her.
"I see," she moved underneath the comforter so that her head was now resting on top of its edge. "Well, we both got our wishes," she added merrily.
"Not yet," he mumbled. He lifted his head, scooted closer to her and wormed an arm underneath her. When his hand reached her back he pulled her towards him, making her laugh again, until she settled her head on his chest. He tucked the comforter around them, then splayed the fingers of his hand over her side and rested his head back on his pillow. "Now we did," he said contentedly.
She smiled and sighed, resting her hand over his, her other arm squeezed between them. It'll go numb, she was sure, but for now she didn't mind. She caressed his hand with her fingers, "You keep trying to get yourself killed." She uttered the sentence through a smile, but the residual shock made itself heard in her voice anyway. He didn't really get into these situations that often, but it still happened far too often for her liking. What she really meant was "You scared me to death today." and Andy knew it.
He put his other arm around her to give her a quick squeeze of a hug, then let it fall back down to his side. "It's not my fault. The boss likes to put me into the crossfire." An attempt at humor on her part warranted one on his. But just like her voice gave her away so did his. They ultimately hadn't been in any real danger from the explosion, but had the circumstances been just slightly different, things could have ended much worse. And that thought alone was terrifying, maybe just as much as having been right there when the truck blew up was.
She hummed, a faint smile crossing her face. She offered no response, but stopped her caress and intertwined her fingers with his. She wasn't normally this clingy and neither was he, but this entire case had an ominous feel to it and if the explosion was anything to go by, she expected the case to become worse before it got better. Not that there was such a thing as a good case. Either way, for tonight she'd indulge in this comfortable, little bubble of hers and hopefully tomorrow, they'd both be okay again.
When she remained quiet for longer than he liked he spoke up again. "On the plus side, the boss also likes to hug me."
She snorted. "I'm never going to hear the end of that, am I?"
"Well," his voice took on a higher pitch and he stretched the word out, "turnabout is fair play." He was clearly amused by this.
She frowned and shook her head, at least as much as she could shake it in her current position. "Turnabout?" She really had no idea what he was talking about it.
He lifted his head slightly and gave the top of her head a look she obviously couldn't see, "Erm, the grief you gave me about the dead realtor?" He paused and added in a scandalized voice, "In front of the team?" His free arm went through the air before flopping back on the bed.
A soft laugh escaped her. She had almost forgotten about that. She really did enjoy keeping him on his toes that time. "That was fun," she admitted, not a hint of regret in her voice.
He rested his head on his pillow again and sighed. "For you," he pointed out.
Her highly unconvincing "Sorry." did little to appease him. Her playfully stern "But you dug those holes yourself, Andy," only added insult to injury.
"I really kind of did," he admitted though, and he had to chuckle at the memory.
"You'll hear no complaints from me," he returned his focus to her little predicament, "or Julio," he added, a grin she couldn't see playing at his lips.
There was a 'but' coming, she knew, and she mentally braced herself.
"But Provenza on the other hand..." He was trying to hold back his laughter, but it rumbled through his chest anyway.
She let out a playful yet exasperated "Oh." She untangled herself from him to lean against the hand of her arm that, as predicted, had started going numb. With the movement she lifted her head, and practically lying on her side again, she looked at him. "You scared me. All of you did. Pardon my momentary indiscretion." Her face adopted the look of a pretend pout, but the confession was very real.
"Yeah, I know." He turned onto his side to face her, propping his head on an elbow. "It scared us, too," he said seriously.
"It could have been much worse." She spoke softly, a deliberate pace to her words now. She was dealing with facts again and they were both aware of it.
"We knew those guys were nutjobs. We were prepared for the worst." He provided her with another fact.
She smiled at his choice of words. "You held the perimeter." A mental shudder swept over her at the thought of what could have happened had they not.
He ran a hand over her arm as if to warm her up, as if he had noticed her shudder. The comforter had slipped down to her waist, maybe she did shudder. "We had to, our boss is a stickler for the rules." His tentative grin grew wider when she smiled at that.
But her smile was only brief and her features turned slightly rueful instead. "He hung up on me."
That was the fact that bothered her the most. "Because he was a nutjob." If he said it in a more forceful way than intended, they both chose to ignore it.
He was, she had to admit. But that only made anger simmer in her, for having been put through this. She was done dwelling on it though. Despite having liked to have two people in interrogation to help her case instead of two dead bodies in the morgue, it was what it was. Hindsight would do little to nothing to help her now. "He was," she reiterated her mind's words.
And truth be told, she wasn't blaming herself, she wasn't having regrets, she wasn't doubting herself, or the team. She barely ever was. She was merely dealing with the scare they all went through today. And that meant voicing the good and bad what ifs and the thank Gods. However, it also felt nice being able to voice all of that at all, and to do a recap of her day once it was over and to share in that with someone who would understand. If for no other reason than to simply decompress. But for many more reasons considering just how challenging their day had been.
They just lay there for a minute then, facing each other, looking at each other. He broke the silence, "You good?"
She briefly looked away as if checking a mental list to see whether she was or wasn't. When she looked back at him, she moved closer to him and tugged on the arm his head was resting on. He took the hint and turned over on his back, letting her entangle his arm in hers. She then snuggled into his arm and rested her forehead against it. "I am now," she said and took a deep, contented breath.
He wiggled the fingers of his hand, and she responded by sliding one of her hands down his arm. When it reached his palm, he wrapped his fingers around it. He tugged on the comforter with his other hand, tucking them in. "Okay," he let out on a sigh and closed his eyes. The soft kiss he felt against his arm at his word put a smile on his face and with that they both finally drifted off to sleep.
I should be done with 5x10 now. Not making any promises, but I'm fairly certain I'll be posting my scenes for episode 11 next.
I hope you enjoyed this! :)