Chapter Two
Andy walked into her office, told Vic to sit down and then went behind her desk, grabbing it, trying to get her breathing under control. Vic just looked down at her hands, waiting for her captain to speak.
"Vic," Vic looks up, surprised at the use of her first name, "I have one question and I need you to answer honestly."
Vic looks surprised. "Okay? What is it?"
Andy looks at her, not knowing if her friend will yell at her for this. "I need to know if you can work with him."
"I-"
"Vic? You can be honest with me." Andy told her.
"I'll admit it's hard seeing him. It's hard working with him during some calls too but I don't know if that means he should be transferred." Vic said.
"He and Jack don't get along. I don't get along with him. I know that the rest of the station will probably side with me, but right now I just need a yes or no from you, Vic." Andy said, looking Vic in the eyes.
Vic sighed. "I can't." Vic let out. "It's still very much an open wound and I know that I can't work like this. I mean, he fucking cheated on me, Andy."
"I know." Andy got up and walked around her desk to sit in the chair next to Vic. "Vic, I just want you to know that I'm here okay? As your friend and boss. If and when you need me." Andy squeezed her hand.
"I appreciate it, Andy. Thank you."
"Now get out and get back to work. I'll make some calls and work on getting him transferred."
Vic nods and gives Andy a small smile before walking out of the office.
Andy sighs, stands up, locks the office door and then moves to the bunk room when the alarm goes off. "Damnit," Andy mumbled under her breath.
Andy runs out of the office and to the engine truck with Vic, Maya and Travis. Maya was driving when she noticed that Andy looked off.
"Cap? You okay?" Maya asked but got no response. "Yo, Herrera?" Maya tries again.
"What? What's wrong?" Andy looks at Maya.
"Are you okay? You seem off." Maya explained.
"I'm fine. Just tired." Andy rubbed her hand over her eyes and yawned. "I'm just glad shift is almost over."
Maya looked at Andy for a couple of seconds and wanted to question her further but they got to the location of the fire. They saw a three-story house on fire, smoke turning back. The team jumps out of the trucks and Andy begins to give orders.
"Alright, I want three teams of two to go in the house for a primary search. I want you all to search one floor each, as fast as you can and get out. I don't like the look of the smoke." Andy tells them, watching them run in she goes over to a neighbour to ask how many are living in the home. Andy gets told that there's a family of four that lives in the house.
"Neighbour says it's a family of four living in the house. They said the family has two cars and since only one is gone there may be a couple of them in the house still." Andy fed the information to her team over the radio.
Andy got a response from each pairing in the house and they soon came out. Travis and Maya came out with, what looked like, the father and son. Sullivan and Vic came out next. Andy was waiting for Ruiz and Warren to come out. After a minute she saw Warren come out.
"Where's Ruiz?" Andy asked Ben.
"He was right behind me," Ben said, eyebrows furrowed.
Andy sighed and tried to radio Theo but she wasn't getting a response. She grabbed her SCBA tank and told the team she was going into the house to get him.
"No, Captain. Let me go." Maya tried. Andy ignored her and ran into the house.
Andy was searching the first floor of the house when she heard over the radio that Ruiz came out right after she went in. Andy went to key her radio and let the team know she was coming out when part of the roof collapsed and landed on her. Andy groaned in pain and was slowly able to lift the rubble off of herself. She looked up and saw that smoke was starting to swirl down. Oh fuck. Andy rushes to get the last few pieces off of her leg and runs out of the house as fast as she could. She heard her name being called and people running up to her.
"Captain, are you okay?
"That was a dumbass move, Herrera."
"Andy, what the hell were you thinking?" Andy heard Theo ask. She looked at him and glared.
"Hughes, Warren, as long as the family is cleared can you take me to med? I think my wrist is sprained or worse." Andy asked, shaking her equipment off.
"You also have a cut on your forehead so we were planning on taking you anyways," Warren told her, guiding her to the aid car.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Ben asked when they started the ride to the hospital. "That was so stupid."
"I thought that I had a firefighter down and it's my responsibility to take care of this team, Ben. I needed to make sure he was okay." Andy told him, looking down at her lap.
"You have a team for a reason Andy." She heard Vic say from the front seat. "You have all of us to lean on."
"I know. But I needed to show the team that there wasn't any lingering hate for Theo." Andy looked up. "I needed to show that I care about everybody on my team."
"Andy, everyone knows that you care about everyone you work with. No matter the drama that might be going on with one of us." Ben told her. He watched Andy nod just as they were pulling up to Grey-Sloan.
"Herrera, we really gotta stop meeting each other like this," Meredith said as soon as they opened the aid car doors.
"I'll be sure to take you out for a drink soon. Promise." Andy told her, smiling.
"I'm going to hold you to that," Meredith told her. "Come on, I'll stitch up that cut on her head and check out your wrist." Andy nodded and followed Meredith to a trauma room.
"Andy, I'm sending Ben and Vic back to the station. There's no reason they need to stay. Since you're stable and conscious."
"How am I going to get back to the station though?" Andy asked, frowning and confused.
"I'm going to be taking you back to the station so you can get changed and then I'll be taking you home."
"But don't you need to be here? You know, working?" Andy asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I"m off as of half an hour ago but when Maya told Carina that you were on the way she bumped into me and told me you were coming and after rolling my eyes," Andy rolled her eyes "I told her that I would take over your care. Anyways though. Enough questions. Just let me treat your wounds, okay?" She watches Andy nod and starts to clean the cut on her forehead.
When Meredith is done cleaning and stitching the cut she places a butterfly bandaid on it and moves to look at her wrist.
"I'm going to grab a portable X-ray and I'll be back," Meredith told her, exiting the room.
"I'll be here," Andy said, sighing dramatically.
Meredith chuckled and Andy closed her eyes. She was alone in the room for a minute when she heard a knock on the door.
"Andy?" Andy opened her eyes and saw Carina standing at the door. "I just came to see how you were feeling. Maya told me what happened."
"I'm fine other than my head and wrist," Andy told her, closing her eyes again.
"Andy, are you sure you're okay?" Carina asked, stepping into the room. "You've seemed off since the ball."
"I was named captain at the ball," Andy stated.
"Yeah, I know," Carina said, grabbing a chair and moving closer to the bed. "It's a big change though, isn't it?"
"Of course it is," Andy exclaimed. "But why are you making a big deal out of this?"
"I'm just wondering if you need someone in your corner. I know since things with Robert ended and when you had to go to station 23 there was a lot of drama-"
"Carina, where are you going with this?" Andy asked, confused.
"When you were at that station you barely saw anyone from 19. Even when you were staying with people from 19 we barely saw you. You were always working on days A shift wasn't."
"What's your point, Carina?"
"Did anything happen at Station 23 that we don't know about?" Carina blurts out.
"Besides all the sexist jokes and hostile work environment?" Andy asks rhetorically "Because other than that, no." Andy told her. "You can relax."
"Andy, I know you're lying."
"Carina, you need to leave this alone."
"I'm a doctor Andy. When Maya told me you were coming in today a nurse was talking about your medical history with Meredith and I overheard"
"You overheard or you just made sure you were close enough to hear?" Andy asked, crossing her arms but whimpering when her, possibly, sprained arm came in contact with her other one.
"Andy, Why didn't you tell me or anyone at the station that you went through cancer treatment?"
Andy looks down. "Because it was one with a high cure rate. Didn't think I should bother anyone with it. Everyone was wrapped in their own stuff, I didn't need to pile my own Station 23 crap on top of it too."
Carina looks taken aback. "Andy, come on. That house is your family."
Andy scoffs. "Some family. No one even tried to fight for me to stay at 19."
"This isn't how we do things, Andy," Carina said. "We're family. Family talks to each other."
"Carina, look." Andy started "I get it. It was wrong for me to keep it to myself but like you said, A shift was always working when I wasn't so it's not like anyone could be there for my appointments."
"If no one from 19 was there for you, how did you get through it?"
"I was there for her." Meredith came into the room. "Every time I've seen her the past year it's been here or when she's spent the night at my house, riding out the chemo treatment. Dr. Deluca, I need to finish helping Andy with her wrist and then I need to get her home."
Carina was frozen on the spot. "Uh. I'm sorry, Dr. Grey. Bye, Andy." Carina managed to get out and then walked out of the room.
Meredith looked at Andy and saw her eyes close.
"Andy, I'm just going to X-ray your arm and then I'll take you to get changed and home." Meredith watched Andy nod and just started to get to work on her arm. "So it looks like it's sprained, I'll go grab a spilt for it and be back." Meredith watched as Andy nodded.
Andy watched Meredith leave as she sank back into the pillow behind her head. "This isn't how we do things" rang through Andy's head. She knew Carina was right. She knew that station 19 was a family. She knew she could trust them, lean on them, and tell them the truth. But at the time it felt like she was losing everything at once and didn't want everyone to try to convince her otherwise. Andy sighed and rubbed a hand over her face. I'm such an idiot. Months of suffering from chemo would've been so much better if I had more than just Michelle and Meredith to lean on. Andy thought. This isn't how we do things. This isn't how we do things. This isn't how we do things.
"Andy? Hey, Herrera." Meredith tried. "Captain!" Andy snapped out of her trance and looked at Meredith.
"Sorry, Mer." Andy blushed.
"It's okay. I'll put the spilt on and then we can leave." Andy nodded and watched Meredith put the spilt on. Thankfully it only took a few minutes and they were on their way to the Station.
There were few words exchanged on the drive from the hospital to the station. When they got to the station Meredith went with Andy to grab her things. They were just walking in the front doors when they heard a voice.
"Captain Herrera." Andy heard her name being called and was surprised it was Chief Ross. "I need you in the beanery. Now." Andy nodded and nearly ran up the stairs. When she stepped into the beanery she saw the rest of A shift there and gulped. What the hell is this? Andy asked herself.
"Alright, now that the captain is here. Anyone want to tell me how the hell she ended up hurt and why she went in the house by herself? Without a partner?"
Oh shit.