Till we aren't strangers anymore

Chapter 6:

Waking up the following day, Andy forgot where he was for a moment before realizing he was next to his beautiful wife and smiled as he recalled the night before in his mind, his heart warming at the memory. He was spooning with Rena and holding her from behind, his arms wrapped around her securely, his lips pressing on her shoulders as he basked in the room's quietness; the only noise was the birds chirping outside.

Feeling Rena as she stirred and rolled over, his eyes opening to see her eyes gazing back into his, "Good Morning Doctor Yablonski," she whispered as she snuggled closer, her nose running over his, her lips just grazing against the softness of his own. "Good Morning to you too, Detective Yablonski," he chuckled, pressing his body against hers, and smiled again. "That was some night," he added, his muscles aching in a good way, reminding him of their activity in the shower the night before.

Nodding her head, she smiled, blushing a little, kissing him softly, and softly moaning, "It sure was." While it had taken her a long time to get to this place where she felt happy and comfortable to be in his arms again, she had no regrets. She knew it didn't mean they were home-free; they still had issues to resolve, but she felt she was in a better place to deal with them together.

"No regrets?" he asked her, feeling like he needed to ask her, he was still a little concerned that she might have regrets, and so far, it didn't seem like it. "No regrets, Andy," she promised him as she snuggled into him, smiling softly and gazing into his eyes. "Do you have surgery today, though?" She asked, knowing that they still needed to talk, and he shook his head and pressed closer, his fingers caressing her skin, running up and down her back, "No, I don't; I called Doctor Jordan and said I wasn't coming in today."

If he had surgery, he would have gone in, but it wasn't a surgery day, and there hadn't been any calls or beeps in the middle of the night, so Andy took that as a win for now and contacted Dr. Jordan and let her know he was taking the day off. Word had gotten around that Andy and Rena had been looking for each other, so Sophia knew why he was asking for the day off and had granted it.

"How about you, however? What if you get called in on a case?" he replied, gazing back into her eyes and smiling softly, and just as he said that, she reached for her phone, and texted her boss to let him know she wasn't coming in either, that she felt like she coming down with something and wanted to rest up. "Solved that little problem," she softly giggled as he tickled her back gently.

"Since we are both playing hooky today, why don't we make the most of it? I'll cook you breakfast, and then we can do something." He knew that they needed to talk, and he was happy to, but he just wanted to spend the day with her doing the things they hadn't been able to do since they had been apart. "I'd love to, but we must talk first, Andy." Nodding his head, he leaned in and kissed her softly once more, "Okay, but I'll need coffee in my system first, so let me put on some pants, and I'll make us some coffee and be right back?"

Sighing happily, she nodded and approved his idea, "Deal." As he did that, she realized she had to relieve herself, so she went to the bathroom, then washed her hands and brushed her teeth, put some underwear back on, put his hospital scrub shirt on, and got back into bed, resting her head on the headboard as she thought about what he would do about that, her body still tingling as she remembered the events of last night, and how she couldn't wait to feel him inside her again.

Once Andy had finished making the coffee, he headed back upstairs with two mugs, handed Rena hers, and settled back onto the bed, trying not to let the fact she was in his scrub shirt affect him too much. Still, his eyes did the quick once over on her, "As a sworn officer of the law, you do know it is a crime to steal someone's belongings." He smirked as he took a sip of his coffee, hearing her laugh softly, "I'm pretty sure the owner won't mind too much," was her response to him as she sipped on her coffee, letting out a soft moan of approval. She had forgotten how amazing Andy's coffee tasted.

"I'm pretty sure he won't mind either," he replied as he smiled softly, resting his back against the pillows to sit comfortably on the bed. Holding the mug in one hand as the other hand moved to squeeze his wife's hand softy, Andy's voice finally took a more serious tone, "Rena, I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you when you needed me."

Things began to go downhill for them when he accepted the attending position on the surgical team, and as such, he had more responsibilities and a more extensive patient load. He felt he needed to be there for his patients, mainly when they received a transplant offer, and he often needed to operate at a moment's notice and be there for the doctors working under him. However, he had failed to notice that Rena had been struggling with something that was affecting them both and had been too busy dealing with his feelings and his duties as a doctor and not spending enough time on his responsibilities as a husband.

Knowing Andy, Rena knew he still had more to say, so she stayed quiet. At the same time, he thought out what he wanted to say to her, "I put my patients before you because I was hiding my pain, and I failed to realize you had been struggling as well until it was too late to do anything about it, and I know that is in part why you were hesitant in wanting to reconcile because you felt it was going to be the same issues coming up over and over."

Sipping on her coffee, she sighed softly and squeezed his hand back, "It's not just you to blame, though, Andy; I know that there was a moment where I began to put more into work and my career than our marriage as well; the pain was too much for either of us to bare. I think somewhere along the line, we both became complacent and figured our marriage would stay good even if we stopped working as hard on it because our marriage had always been good."