Author's note: Hey everyone!
As always, I want to thank everyone for reading and commenting!
I figured that it might be confusing, so I want to make sure that everyone know that I posted part 6 in two different parts on the same day. So make sure you have read both parts before continuing.
In this story, two months pass between Andy and Sullivan's fight and the storm.
I hope you enjoy and as always, I will love it if you leave your thoughts.
"I really don't want to be here." Andy protests as she is pulling the bar stool between Maya and Vic and sitting down.
Work. Home. Rinse. Repeat. That's pretty much all that she had in herself to do for the last two months, and even being at those two places made her feel like she is struggling to keep her head above water sometimes.
"Andy… I know you are upset about that fight you had with Sullivan, but it has been two months since, you have to move on." Maya says, checking her surroundings.
They all agreed that Joe's was a bad idea for their girls night out. Well, Maya and Vic thought they needed a change of scenery, while Andy just wanted to stay at the apartment and binge watch whatever Netflix had to offer. They settled on a bar that Vic suggested, and finally managed to convince Andy to come, in an exchange for a promise that if the night doesn't go well, they will leave her be for the rest of her life.
"Guys, according to the forecast, there is a storm that is supposed to hit tomorrow. And Warren didn't leave me alone until I agreed to come to his stupid Friendsgiving dinner. I think we should really call it a night." Andy tries her luck one more time, but is faced with a determined refusal from her friends.
"No way. We came to find you a rebound, and you are not leaving until you at least give your number to one guy." Vic finally reveals the true nature of their night out.
"Oh no. No, no, a thousand times no. We all know what happened the last time I went home with a stranger I met at a bar. That's what got me into this trouble in the first place." Andy sighs. "And I really think Sullivan broke the part in me that makes my libido function normally. It's like if I don't get to have the amazing, mind blowing, incredible sex with him, I rather have no sex at all."
"Sister, if you use that pizza metaphor one more time…" Vic trails off in warning. "Sometimes, a girl gotta do what a girl gotta do. Sometimes, when our favorite pizza place is closed for renovations, we eat mediocre pizza, until we find another really good pizza place. You stay, end of discussion."
As Vic orders the entire group drinks (Vodka for herself and Maya, tequila for Andy. Hanging out with Meredith Grey as much as she does, makes you pick up on some habits.), Andy twists her right ankle carefully. It doesn't hurt anymore, but there is still some stiffness to it, and it bothers her from time to time.
As she waits for the bartender to pour her drink, her mind trails off to the day that ended in her personally getting acquainted with Dr. Atticus Lincoln.
Two months earlier
Andy's breakfast is already cold.
She pushes her food around with her fork, barely touching the bacon and eggs on her plate, while everyone else chatter excitedly. She doesn't have an appetite, yet she sits around the big table and pretends to take a bite here and there.
Everyone at the station has been checking on her constantly since last week, asking her how she is doing or if she needs anything. However, she suspects that the real reason they have been hovering around her is that they want to know how she got away with everything without even a reprimand, considering the spectacle she put on in front of everyone, including the fire chief.
The last thing she needs is adding inquiries about her eating habits to their ongoing list of questions.
"Hey, captain." Ben greets Sullivan as he enters the beanery, followed by a wave of acknowledging nods and murmured hellos.
To Andy's surprise, he picks up a plate, fills it with food, and sits down in the only open spot left by the table. Which happens to be right next to her.
Perfect, just perfect.
For a moment, it feels like nothing has changed at all. She inhales deeply, can't help herself, and her nose is filled with the earthy, masculine scent of his body wash. She can feel the electricity in the air between them. A static humming she can swear she is almost able to hear.
"Since when do you eat your meals with us, captain?" Andy hisses.
"Since last week, when your father came to see me. He advised me to start eating with the rest of the team, to help me better connect with you, and I decided to take his suggestion. You wouldn't know that, because you didn't let me finish whatever I had to say last time we spoke, and you have missed every single shared meal since."
"I have been on a lot of back to back calls." It feels like a poor excuse coming out of her mouth, but it is the truth nonetheless. She took every call she could possibly get, avoided staying at the station for longer than what was absolutely necessary. She tried to keep her distance from Sullivan as much as she could, and when she had no other choice but to talk to him, a dry "Yes, sir." or "No, sir." was all that she said.
"Excuse me." She apologizes to everyone at the table as she picks her almost full plate and heads to the sink. A part of her wants to make a scene, wants to throw the plate on the floor and let the mess go everywhere. But the better side of her wins this time. She can't let everyone have just another reason to talk about her behind her back.
"Is there a problem, Herrera?" Sullivan asks before he brings another fork full of food to his mouth.
"No, sir. I just want to go ahead and start my tasks for the day." Andy answers dryly as she throws the leftover food into the trash. She washes her dishes quickly, and heads out of the beanery before he has time to ask her anything further.
She makes it down only a few stairs before she hears his low voice. "Andy, stop."
"Remember the night I gave you permission to call me Andy? I take it back."
"Herrera, I won't ask you to stop again. That's an order from your captain." His voice is stern now, and she has no choice but to stop dead in her tracks, halfway down the stairs. "Don't you think it has gone unnoticed that you haven't been eating properly the last week."
"Sir, with all due respect, you are not my lover anymore, or whatever it is that you were. There is no need for you to worry about whether I am eating or not."
"I am still your captain, Herrera, even if there is nothing personal between us anymore. It is my job to make sure my firefighters are as healthy as they can be."
"I am fine. Can I go now?" Andy asks, as she turns to continue her way down the stairs, her temper wearing thin. She doesn't wait for an answer, but as she is about to leave, a strong hand is holding her wrist lightly.
For a moment, they are not at the station anymore. They are both seated at Joe's, she is in her flowy green shirt and her tan colored heels instead of her uniform. He is grinning at her instead of the serious frown he has on all the time.
The memory of the night they met moves something deep in her core, and she is shaken by how deep she can still feel everything from that night, no matter how much water has flown under their bridge ever since. So when she pulls her wrist from his grip a bit too fast, there is a shift in her balance.
Neither of them knows exactly how it happens, but in a blink of an eye Andy finds herself rolling down the stairs.
"Andy!" He calls her name in concern, running the rest of the way down to aid her.
"Damn it!" She cries as she can feel her right ankle pulsing in pain. "Well here comes at least two weeks of desk duty. Great."
Sullivan puts a reassuring hand on her back and bends down to examine her injury. "No," Andy protests.
She can't notice it, but something in his face breaks as she flinches away from his touch. Up until now, every time he touched her, she was only leaning in closer. "You have done enough." She hisses. "Go get Ben, someone, anyone else."
He doesn't argue, just moves the hand softly touching her shoulder away and heads back into the packed beanery in order to find someone else to assess her injury.
Here goes her plan to not let them have any other reason to be talking about her behind her back.
"Planet earth to Herrera." Vic calls her as she is waving a hand in front of her face. "What are you thinking about?"
"How much I don't want to be here." Andy lies, looking down at the tequila shot she didn't notice the bartender placed in front of her.
"The guy staring at you from across the bar looks like he wants you to stay." Maya notes.
As Andy's eyes lift up, there is in fact a man looking at her. She can't get a good notion about his appearance, but from where she sits it doesn't seem like he is hard on the eyes at all, and his smile looks genuine enough.
She can give him her number, and then they will be out of here.
"To the guy across the bar." Vic toasts as she raises her vodka shot in the air.
Andy's stomach turns as she hears Vic's new nickname to the guy still smiling at her. There is only one guy from the bar, and it is not this guy neither this bar.
The three female firefighters downs their shots at the same time. Andy's face twitches as the burning sensation of the alcohol slides down her throat. She reaches for the piece of lime in front of her and sucks, the sour taste in her mouth neutralizes the aftertaste of the tequila.
Before she knows it, there is another shot given to her by the bartender.
"I haven't ordered it." She corrects.
"This is from the gentleman over there." He points at the man still smiling at her. When their eyes meet, he gives her a small nod of acknowledgment.
"Now you have to go and talk to him. Otherwise you will just be rude." Maya says, trying to coax her friend to leave them and go get acquainted with the guy who can't stop looking at her direction.
Andy feels a strong sense of deja vu.
"Come on…" Vic tries to step in. "You haven't had fun for such a long time."
"Oh, I had fun last month, when we all went shooting on our day off."
"Not that kind of fun." Vic can't help but roll her eyes. "I was talking about the naked, sweaty kind of kind of fun that makes you feel so good and takes everything else off of your mind. That kind of fun."
"Well, it seems like you haven't had this kind of fun for a long time as well." Andy looks pointedly at Vic. If she has to rip off the band-aid, so does her friend.
"Oh, no, I am all good at this area, thanks." Vic mumbles quickly.
"Really? Who is he?" Maya inquires. "Still Mr. station 23?"
"I thought we were here to talk about Herrera." Vic tries to stir the conversation away from herself.
"We are." Maya agrees. "But that doesn't mean we can't talk about you at the very same time. So, share, who is your new hot naked friend?"
"Oh, you know what, I now remember that we did have fun that afternoon at the range." Vic flinches. Whoever he is, Andy notices that she is working very hard in order to avoid exposing his identity.
"Well, at least Andy had fun. She let out some steam, she got some of the aggression and the unexplainable sexual tension she has with Sullivan out, without actually hurting anyone." Maya reasons.
"Yeah… I am not sure how much it actually helped." Andy confesses.
One month ago
"Remind me again why your doctor friends didn't want to come with you?" Vic huffs as she is standing steadily in front of her target, gun loaded in her hand and pointed straight forward.
"Oh, shooting is not their thing. Meredith's husband, who is also Amelia's brother, was shot during a mass murder that occurred in the hospital around ten years ago." Andy explains, her arms raised toward the target, supporting her gun steadily. "Can we shoot now?" She asks the instructor standing behind her.
He gives them the all clear, and they all shoot the ten bullets they have straight into their targets.
Andy can feel the blast as she pulls the trigger, trying to aim at the target as best as she possibly can. She thinks she is doing an alright job, but she won't know until their instructor will bring their cardboard targets forward.
"I thought you were against weapons." Vic states after they all run out of ammunition.
"I am. I am against selling them and purchasing them as easily as the law allows you to. I think they should be way more in control. It breaks my heart hearing about another shooting at a school, or a movie theater, or a grocery store. I hope I will never treat another GSW in my career. But this is different. We are in a controlled, safe environment, with professional instructors. And believe me when I say, I have tried everything to get this anger I feel out of my system. After my ankle healed, I tried boxing, running, and emotional eating. I even tried cycling with Montgomery. It is like nothing can put out the anger I feel inside. This was the last idea I had, but it doesn't seem to help either."
"You didn't try rebounding." Maya notes as their instructor makes sure each of them passes him her gun in a safe manner.
"I don't need a rebound." Andy protests as she takes the protective plastic goggles off her eyes. "It wasn't a relationship. We weren't in love with each other. It was all about sex, that's it. A rebound is for people who were together for five years and one day decide it is all over. Sullivan and I definitely weren't there."
"What about Dr. Lincoln? He treated your ankle, didn't he?" Vic suggests.
"He is very cute." Maya approves, nodding her head. "And how did you get the head of orthopedic surgery to treat a sprained ankle anyway?"
Andy pulls at her shoulders up "It helps having friends at the right places. But I think Dr. Link has some kind of thing with Meredith. Or maybe Amelia. I don't know, I don't even follow anymore. It seems like every time we meet one of them has some kind of new hot, doctor male friend in her life." Andy says as their instructor brings their targets closer to them.
"It settled, then." Vic determines. "You will ask them to introduce you to one of their hot, doctor male friends. God knows there is no shortage at that department at Grey Sloan Memorial."
Andy rolls her eyes as the three of them look at their hits.
"Herrera, keep your day job." Maya laughs as she sees Andy didn't hit even once. "You will be a terrible cop."
Andy stands up before she has a chance to regret what she is about to do.
"Go Andy!" Maya cheers as her best friend makes her way toward the stranger sitting at the other side of the bar. Andy flashes the best smile she can manage, and ignores the feeling at the pit of her stomach telling her that something doesn't quite fit.
In the last two months, she learned to push her feelings down. The longing, the emptiness, the sensation that something is missing. One might say that she has become a professional at ignoring her feelings by now.
She leans slightly against the bar before greeting him with a small "Hey."
"Hey." He returns, and smiles back at her.
As she noticed before, he is not hard on the eyes at all. He has a set of blue eyes, and a head full of dark hair. Two broad shoulders and one dimple in his left cheeks that comes with the wide grin he is sending her way. He looks like someone that can star in a music video for a country song.
"Andy." She introduces herself.
"I am Brad."
"Brad," She rolls her name on her tongue. She still has some game left, after all. "Do you want to get out of here?"
"Gladly." He says as he gets up from his seat and heads toward the door.