Author's note: The first part of this chapter takes place right before season 2 episode 2, and the second part just after the episode's ending.
I Just wanted to drop by and say thank you to everyone who left a comment and wanted to read more from my take on Surrera's relationship.
I hope you will enjoy this, and as always, I will really appreciate your thoughts.
"I hate you." Andy grants as she enters Grey Sloan Memorial through the ambulance access. Meredith, Amelia and Maggie are standing at the ER, leaning against the main station, talking about something, completely oblivious to Andy angrily walking toward them.
"Dean, can you take care of the paperwork? There is something I need to do, but I will meet you back here in a few minutes." Her partner accepts her request without a question, knows better than to start arguing. She won't deny it, she has been upset the last few days since Reply announced their new Captain. She is sure Maya gave everyone a heads up, warning them not to get on her bad side, and they probably think she is acting out because neither her nor Jack got the job they both wanted. Instead, Ripley brought in a complete stranger to their home.
Oh, if only they knew the truth.
Sure, Sullivan is infuriating. He doesn't do anything the way things used to be done around station 19. The way her father did things. They way she knows Jack or herself would have acted as Captain. Instead, he spends time inspecting their uniform, he never eats his meals with them, and he criticizes every single thing she does.
She hates him.
What she hates the most about him, is the way she feels every time he is around. She feels as if the air is electrified. She remembers the one night they spent together vividly, recalling the way he made her feel every time she can sense his presence. She feels a need to experience those sensations again, a primal need she can't really control. She loves sex, as much as any other woman, but she can sure as hell live without it if she has to, or find it somewhere else. So why did she find herself outside of his office the other night, ready to ask him to take her again, the way he did when they arrived at his place?
Then he reprimands her again for something insignificant, and all of the desire that was building up inside of her is directed toward hating him again.
To be honest, these last few days have been exhausting for Andy Herrara.
"Hey, Herrera." Meredith greets her, oblivious to the pure anger in her eyes. "We were just wondering what happened after you left Joe's bar the other night. We haven't seen you ever since."
Andy shoots the best death glare she can master to each of them before calling. "I hate you." She looks at Meredith. "I hate you." Then at Maggie. "And I most definitely hate you." She points at Amelia.
"That good, uh?" Meredith asks.
"Let's go." Andy urges them to follow her.
"Yes please, details." Maggie exclaims excitedly.
"I actually have a consult to give." Amelia starts to protest, but then Andy glares at her once again and she adds "but I guess it can wait."
The three surgeons and firefighter go up one flight of stairs, then take a couple turns. She just needs some privacy, somewhere Miller won't be able to accidentally eavesdrop their conversation, and talking about her sex life at the front of the ER didn't seem like the best idea.
Andy hears someone calling her name as she walks. "Herrera, What are you doing kidnapping my Department Chiefs?"
She turns around before answering quickly. "I am sorry, Dr. Bailey. I just need them to be my friends, and not you surgeons, for five minutes. Then I will return them to you, I promise."
They don't stay long enough to hear Bailey's answer, as Andy finds a supply closet and shoves all her friends into it unceremoniously.
"You really should knock before walking into one of those." Grey remarks. "People tend to have sex in here much more often then you realize, and they don't always remember to lock the door."
Andy just grants at that, and falls down to a sitting position against the wall. She buries her head in her palms, as she props her elbows on her knees. "I feel like I have been falling apart this last couple of days." She admits.
"What was wrong with him?" Maggie inquires. "Did he have some kind of weird feet fetish?"
"His thing didn't go up?" Meredith asks.
"Or was he really small and you were left alone and unsatisfied?" Amelia adds.
"No, he was perfect, that night was perfect, as perfect as one night stands can go." Andy admits, rising her head up so she can look at her friends, all standing above her, forming a half circle. "He was kind, and he didn't have any weird kinks, none that I could detect, anyway. And he was so, so good in bed. It felt so good, probably one of the best I have ever had. I mean, have you seen the guy?"
Amelia nods before she says "Oh, we have all seen him. And I think I can safely say in the name of us all that we were a little jealous when we saw you two leaving the bar hand in hand. So, what the hell is the big problem?"
"The problem is that he is my new boss. And to be honest, as good as he was between the sheets, I hate him as a Captain. He is humorless, he micromanages, and he has zero trust in any of us, but it feels he has the least amount of trust in me. The problem is, that seeing him again made every nerve of me want to feel the way he made me feel that night. He makes me want to pull his pants down, and choke him to death with his belt at the same time."
"That is not a real problem." Meredith argues. "I mean, the way he treats you sucks, but I met Derek when I was an intern. And we had a relationship, even though he was my superior."
"I slept with an intern, even though technically I am his boss." Maggie adds.
"Surprisingly, I haven't done such a thing, but I definitely wouldn't put it past me." Amelia finishes.
Andy can't help but release a short laugh at the awkward confessions. "OK, I don't know what is going on in this hospital, but it is not like that at the fire department. Superiors can't have any kind of sexual or romantic relationship with their subordinates. It can lead to very poor decision making in life or death situations. And if anyone finds out, it will have devastating consequences on both of our careers. Other than that, I really think he doesn't like me at all. No matter what I do, no matter how hard I work, he always has a petty little thing to say about every single thing I do. Like I could never meet his standards, no matter how hard I try."
Meredith reaches out her hand for Andy to take, helping her get up on her feet again. "Then go back to the station, and make him like you. Be awesome. Be the badass firefighter we know you can be. Show him you deserve nothing but his respect."
"Really, you have to go back, cause I am really late for this consult, and if you stay here, I will probably torture you until you give me all of the dirty details from the night you spent together." Amelia admits as she pushes the door open for her sisters to exit the dark closet.
Andy feels better already as she runs down the stairs, hopping off of them two by two.
"I am sorry for today." Andy apologizes to Maya as she is going through the cabinets in the beanery. They are both almost ready to turn in for the night, and just looking for something to munch on as they try to clear the air between them. Maybe, if they are lucky enough, they will get some time to rest before their next call.
"I thought I had it. I thought I could just jump in the drain and save this boy, but I was clearly wrong. I ruined things for you, and I put our team through a lot of unnecessary work."
Maya shrugs, and Andy knows she is forgiven.
They have been best friends since the first day of training. Had no other choice, actually, since they were the only two women in a class full of men. They have had each other's back since that day, always been there when their friend needed them the most. But that doesn't mean they didn't have their fair share of fights and arguments.
True friendship isn't measured by your ability to stay away from fighting. Maya once said after a big disagreement between the two. It is measured by how quickly you can apologize, forgive, and come out stronger on the other side.
"I like your PJs." Maya remarks. "Very sexy." She raises her eyebrows suggestively. Andy's sleeping attire is a bit revealing, to say the least. She is wearing a tight tank top, and even tighter shorts, which she knows leave very little room for imagination, but works wonders on her ass.
She doesn't know why she picked this specific sleeping wear as she was going through her choices earlier this evening. Frankly, she has more clothes at work than in her own house, considering the amount of time she spends at the fire station. It is not as if anyone is going to see her. Everyone else has already gone to bed by now, and if they get called in the middle of the night, Andy's outfit will be the last thing concerning anyone's mind.
Andy picks up an energy bar from the cupboard she is currently going through, and throws it in her best friend's general direction.
"I never should have told you. Now I am not going to hear the end of it." Andy buries her face in her hands.
"True that." Maya agrees as she opens the snack that has been thrown at her and takes a big bite.
Andy pulls out another bar from the cabinet, peels the wrapper off and takes a chunk apart with her fingers. She places the piece in her mouth and talks as she chews. "What can I say, I am hot."
"Yes you are." Maya agrees, and they both laugh gently, trying not to choke on their food as they do so.
Andy turns around as she hears someone clears their throat behind her.
Great, just perfect. Sullivan is standing behind her, still wearing his uniform, and a stern look in his eyes. "Herrera. A word in my office. Now."
Andy and Maya change a questioning look, before Andy puts her half eaten snack away and pushes herself off the counter.
Maya mouths "Keep your knees together." in her direction, without making a sound.
Andy rolls her eyes at that, making sure Maya can see, then follows her captain, to face whatever he has in store for her.
They walk silently to his office, in an amount of time that feels like a small forever, but actually takes less than two minutes.
"Close the door behind you." He orders, not inviting her to sit down.
"If you want to yell, go ahead and yell. I already got the speech from Gibson and Bishop. I know what I did was wrong, but I really thought I could get the situation under control. The kid was right down there, and so was I." Andy tries to reason her actions, even if she knows it is in vain. It seems as if all he wants to do is to lash out at her.
"If I want to yell? No, I don't want to yell, Herrera." Sullivan raises his tone, yet Andy looks him straight in the eye, refuses to look down. "I want to scream, I want to make the walls of this building come down. I want to put you on desk duty for the next month until you are buried beneath a pile of paperwork. I want to demote you, I want to send you to pack your things. Then I want to take you right here on this desk, and do all those things to you so you will be the one screaming my name."
Andy is taken by surprise hearing his confession. This is the first time he acknowledges the night they shared. Up until now, he had treated her with a cold and distant manner, as if he was not affected one bit by the thing they both shared. However, tonight the fire in his eyes is back, a heat she hasn't seen ever since she walked out from his bed that morning, after they have been up all night fucking each other senselessly.
"Damn it, Herrera, you make it so hard for me to respect you, to appreciate you, to like you. And God knows how, you make it even harder for me to stop wanting you with everything I have." Sullivan slams his fist on his desk, with so much force Andy is afraid he will break the desk, his hand, or maybe both.
"I am your captain. You don't get to talk back to me. You don't get to jump in before thinking. Your friends get to have a chance to prove their own worth, even if you think you can do better. You don't get to risk our patients. You don't get to risk any member of our team. And most certainly, you don't get to risk your own life to play some kind of a hero." Robert stops to take a breath, and she can swear he is shivering with pure rage by now. "I don't know what firefighters around here are used to, but as long as I am captain, we work as a team, and no one jumps ahead, unless you are following my orders. Are we clear?"
He moves around the desk, and closes the distance between them. She noticed how tall he really is when they first danced together at the parking lot outside of Grey Sloan Memorial, and back then she found it oh so attractive. Now it is different, though. As he looks down at her, his height adds some kind of a silent threat to the one he already said out loud.
The air between them is thick with anger and something that very much resembles sexual tension.
"Yes sir, I understand." Andy responses. "Is that all?" She asks as every inch of her itches with the need to get out the room, to flee before she has a chance to do or say something she will regret deeply come tomorrow morning.
"One more thing." He is closing the distance between them, now close enough so she can feel his breath against her neck.
She can hate him as much as she wants, it does nothing to change the fact that her body reacts in anticipation just from the feel of him almost pressing against her.
"God knows I am trying to keep my hands to myself around you, even though I know how good you can make me feel. I am doing so because I know how destructive it can be for the both of us if something more will happen, if someone finds out. So it will be very helpful if I don't see you wearing these shorts, ever again. It is an order from your captain." He whispers in her ear.
Then he walks away from her, even though she is standing in his office and she is the one who has to leave. As he reaches to open the door, he turns around, and she can trace a bit of care in his eyes, another feeling she hasn't seen since he was announced captain of her station. "Go to sleep, Herrera." He says in a soft voice, no sign left of the harsh tone he used to scold her just a moment ago. "We might have a long night ahead of us."