Chapter 14

TW!

"So, who gets to tell Vic what just happened?"

"Who gets to tell me what?" Vic asked coming into the area, eyebrows furrowed. Maya looks at the office door, turns back to Vic and is unable to come up with any words. "What is going on?"

Meanwhile, in the office Andy locked the door, slid down the wall next to it and let the tears fall freely, unable to escape the panic forming from thinking about that night.

Andy could feel her breathing begin to pick up and she started to panic. Andy felt herself being pulled back into a memory of that night.

Back out in the reception area, everyone was looking at each other.

"Guys, what's going on?" Vic asked again. Worried that something bad was going on.

"No!" Vic heard her wife shout from inside the office. Vic ran inside and Andy shouted "No!" again as Vic tried to put a hand on her shoulder trying to console her. "Leave me alone! Please, I said stop!" Andy cried, moving past Vic and to another corner of the office. "Please, just let me go." Andy whimpered, tears flowing down her cheeks, not aware that she had an audience nor aware of Diane coming into the station.

"What's going on?" Diane asked the group of firefighters that were still standing there, seemingly on standby if Vic or Andy needed anything. When none of them reply after a few seconds she asks again, "Guys, I need to know what the hell is happening so I can go in there and help."

"Robert said some things to her about how she and Vic together didn't make sense, he thinks it's all some ploy and he brought up her previous screw ups and I don't know why the fuck he would add in the assault, but he alluded to it being her fault," Jack told her, in one breath, knowing that someone needed to help his best friend right now.

Diane opened her mouth but stopped when she didn't know what to say. She looked around the group, "I need you three to go upstairs, right now. If anyone's in the barn, tell them to stay there and that I'm dealing with something in the reception area, okay?" Diane sees the three firefighters nod and rushes off to the captain's office to see Vic trying to walk toward Andy but Diane notices that Andy has been scooting back into the corner and called out. "Vic." Diane saw Vic turn around. "I need you to leave the room." Diane saw Vic about to fight her. "I need to help try to calm Andy and I can't do that if you're hovering over me, Vic." Diane saw that Vic was scared and understood. "Vic, I don't know what your relationship with Andy is and I know you want to take care of her, but right now she needs to calm down and I don't know if she can do that with you in the room." Vic looked down. "I'm sorry, but please go." Vic nodded and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her to give her some privacy.

When the door closed, she took a deep breath and turned back to Andy. She saw that she had curled herself into a ball. Her legs were brought up to just under her chin. She knew how she felt after what happened, and she could only imagine how Andy was feeling. It was hard to see the captain so emotional right now, but she knew she needed to do something.

Diane walked up to Andy and sat down in front of her. She was worried that Andy would flinch or scoot away, but she just held still.

"You don't have to sit here with me. You probably have better things to do." Andy said, voice raspy.

Diane shook her head. "I guess your stubbornness will never change." Andy looked up at her for the first time and her heart cracked when she saw the pain that shined in Andy's eyes. "Andy, did you ever talk to anyone after that night?" When Diane saw Andy look away, she had her answer and was about to speak to it when Andy did instead.

"I did a couple of times. It wasn't helping with anything though." Andy looked up and looked at Diane and sighed. "I know what you're gonna say. You're going to say I should've given it more than two sessions, but therapy isn't for me Diane." Andy looked down and slowly stretched out her legs. Diane moved to sit beside her, careful not to touch her.

"Andy, I get it. I get not wanting to talk..."

"I did want to talk. It just wasn't helping anything." Andy quickly said before Diane could get any further in her slight scolding. "Yeah, I only went to a couple of mandatory sessions, but it was enough for me to see that it wasn't going to do anything for me That's why I started to teach self-defense," Andy told her. "I needed an outlet and that seemed like the best thing for me to do."

Diane nodded, seeing her reasoning. "But what about now?" she asked and once again Andy looked down. "Because you just had a panic attack at work, Herrera."

"it was the first one I had since before I started teaching."

"it has to be the last one, Herrera," Diane told her, resting a hand on Andy's thigh, grateful she didn't flinch. "You're Captain of the station now. You can't afford to lose it like you did when you have a team that depends on you." Diane saw Andy nod. "I know you don't want to, but I'm going to ask Chief Ross to let you go home early." She saw that Andy was about to fight her but raised a hand. "No. You need to go home and get some rest. You won't be able to fully focus now with this happening." Diane stood up. "I'll call Ross and you go get changed." Andy got up and made her way to the captain's bunk.

After Diane had called Ross, she saw Andy come out, hair down and in a pair of shorts and a tank top since the weather was getting warmer.

"I'm going to drive you home, Andy." She saw Andy open her mouth. "no. No arguments. You're lucky I'm going to leave you alone after I drop you off." Andy nodded in defeat, knowing she shouldn't drive right now.

"Okay," Andy said in defeat. It seemed like she was letting a lot of people tell her what to do lately and she wasn't loving it, she missed how she was before. She missed how she was confident before Jeremy and the almost trial. She walked to Diane's car in a daze, and she realized how tired she was. She rested her head against the window and closed her eyes.

Before she knew it Diane was shaking her, telling her that they were here. Andy opened the door and followed behind Diane to her apartment. Diana was quick to open the door and lead Andy to her bedroom. "Ross said to take the rest of the day and next shift off." She saw Andy about to argue when she put up her hand. "I was going to say that you didn't need two shifts in a row off, but she's concerned that you're struggling more than you're letting on." Andy closed her eyes as she sat on her bed. She laid down and when she was comfortable, Diane turned the AC on and put a light throw blanket on top of Andy. "You can phone me whenever you want, Okay?" She saw Andy nod, opening her eyes a second, letting Diane know that she heard her. "Good. I'll check in later tonight, okay?" Andy nodded again and closed her eyes. Diane smiled sadly at the new captain of 19. She didn't know Andy had been struggling so much and felt that she should've checked in more after Jeremy instead of just throwing her to a random therapist she didn't know. Diane just hoped Andy would let more people in. She walked through Andy's apartment and grabbed a glass of water and some Advil and then walked back into the bedroom, knowing that Andy may be thirsty and have a headache when she woke up. She walked out of the apartment and hesitated when she opened the door, not sure if she should stay to keep an eye on her.

She isn't a child Diane, she'll be okay. She's strong. Diane thought, sighed and then walked out of the apartment, locking the door as she did.

Sorry for the long wait, everyone. This is more of a filler chapter even though it's a little emotional. Expect a story based on the new episode from this Thursday at some point.