Chapter 12

Andy sighed and sat down in her desk chair. She opened her laptop and saw that she had an email from Chief Ross

Captain Herrera,

I need to talk to you about something brought to my attention. I'll be coming by the station around 11 am.

Chief Ross.

Andy felt a panic rise in her. There's no way my aunt told someone already. Andy thought. Andy looked at the time and sighed when she saw it was 10:50 am. Fuck.

Andy was pacing in the office when she heard a knock on the door. Andy looked down at her watch and saw that it was still five minutes to 11. She frowned and went to answer the door.

"Vic? Shouldn't you be stocking and cleaning the trucks?"

Vic looked at her wife and saw the deep frown on her face. "Andy? Babe, what's going on?" Vic asked moving closer to her.

"I- I got an email from Chief Ross." Andy looked at Vic. "She's going to be here in a few minutes. She wants to talk to me about something."

Vic was surprised. "She didn't say what it was about?"

Andy rubs a hand over her face. "No. No, she didn't" Andy looks at Vic. "Vic, you need to get out before she comes. I'll come to talk to you after we're done." Andy pulled Vic in for a kiss and gave her a small push towards the door. Vic smiles and then turned around to open the door and nearly ran into Chief Ross.

"Oh. Hello Hughes." Ross said, surprised.

"Hi, Chief Ross. Sorry, I was just leaving." Vic told her, trying to talk around her.

"Actually, you can stay. I need to talk to you too." Ross told her, pushing her into the room and closing the door. "Captain Herrera, I got a letter delivered to me yesterday that held some information about you. Information that I need to know if it's true or not." Ross told her, seeing the nervous expression on her face "Herrera, I don't know who would want to out you but I'm just curious if the news I received last night was true."

"What was the news?"

"That you and Hughes are in a relationship?" Ross was blunt. "I need to know if it's true or if this was just said to stir the pot?"

"It's true," Ross looked surprised and was about to open her mouth when Andy continued. "But we are married, Chief Ross," Andy told her.

"I need you and Hughes to fill out some paperwork then," Ross told them and pulled some papers out of her bag. "Normally you would need to do this with HR, but I thought since you were just beginning your shift that this would be easier."

Andy nodded. "So, I know this talk with you was unavoidable, but how come you're so calm about this?"

"How you live your life outside the station doesn't matter to me. What does matter is that I have honest firefighters. Why didn't you come to me with this sooner?" Ross asked, seemingly pissed off now.

"We were planning to tell you. It just happened recently."

"The relationship or the marriage?" Ross asked.

"Both," Andy answered. "The relationship and marriage are both pretty new and we just wanted some time to enjoy it when it was just between the two of us but now everyone in the house knows so I'm glad news got to you before the union or any other higher up."

"You're lucky your aunt outed you to me. Anyone else would have reported you." Ross told them. She watched Vic and Andy fill out the forms in silence and then watched Andy walk over to her bag.

"Here's a copy of our marriage certificate." Andy hands it to Ross along with her finished paperwork. Vic followed suit a minute after. "Is there anything else you need from us?"

"I don't need It, but do you have a photo of the two of you?" Ross asked.

Andy smiled and walked over to her bag again and pulled out the printed photo of the two. "This is one of the pictures from after the ceremony. If you need it we also have a video of the ceremony too."

"I think this will be fine for now. I'll take these forms to HR." Ross told them and then noticed the rings on their hands. "Oh, my god. So you guys got rings too? I thought you said it was short notice?"

"It was, but I had them already. We know that we love each other and we promised each other to get married soon after we got together if we want to keep this relationship going." Andy paused. "We were at my place last night and we called Warren, who's licensed and did Maya and Carina's wedding, and he helped perform our ceremony," Andy told her.

Ross smiled. "Well, now that this is cleared up, congrats you two. I'm glad you're happy. Especially you Herrera. You deserve it after everything that's happened."

"Thank you, Chief," Vic said, smiling. "We were worried about how you would react."

"Well, now you can rest easy." Chief Ross told them. "I'm fine with it. If you love each other you love each other. I'm glad you're holding onto each other despite department regulations." Ross looks down at her watch. "Anyways, It's nearly noon and I have another meeting soon so I need to get going. Listen, if anyone gives you two any trouble, please let me know. I don't need anyone in the department to be bullied or anything if other firefighters from other houses see you."

"We will. Thank you for not judging us Chief." Andy holds a hand out for Ross to shake. "You better get going." Chief Ross nods and walks out the office door, closing it behind her.

When she's gone Vic and Andy turn to look at each other and smile.

"That went better than I thought it would," Vic confessed. "I thought she would yell at us or something."

"Or something?"

"Like tell us we rushed it. We moved too fast and that the marriage was a mistake." Vic told her.

"Well, she didn't." Andy walked over to Vic and pulled her into a kiss. It started to get heated when there was a knock on the door and the two women groan. "I'm starting to think we're cursed. Always getting interrupted lately."

Vic laughs as Andy pouts. Vic walks to the door to open it and when she sees Maya she nearly slams the door in her face, not wanting to hear any of her excuses right now.

"Vic, You can let her in." Andy giggles at how protective her wife is.

Vic sighs and opens the door, closing it after Maya comes in.

"What do you want Maya?" Andy asked.

"I need to talk to you about something. It seems like my wife wants me to apologize for my actions at your apartment," Maya started but got cut off by Andy.

"No. I want an apology to come from you. Not one forced out of you because your wife told you to." Andy told her. "You're not a child. You're an adult responsible for your own actions. So come talk to me when you'll actually mean it when you say "sorry" because Vic and I are happy, Maya. I'm not going to let anyone ruin that. Not you, not Travis, not my Tia." Andy rambled on. "So please, just go. I have work to do and so do you," Andy turned to her wife. "Hughes, you do as well. So both of you. Please go and work." As they turned to leave Andy called out to Maya. "Oh, Maya, you're on desk duty today."

"What? I was scheduled for aid car and Hughes is supposed to be on the desk."

"I know. I'm changing it because this week we're expecting lots of Crisis One calls and since Vic helped start it with Miller I figured Vic was the right one to do it. I'm actually changing up the schedule for the next few shifts right now anyways." Andy told her, not wanting to deal with her whining. "Now go. Both of you." Andy shoos them out of the office and Andy sighs, sitting down in her chair. This is going to be one hell of a day.