Secret Sister (Station 19)

Perfect Timing

"How'd it go with your mom?" Vic asked as Elle put her shoes and keys away in the foyer. As promised, Elle had gone to visit her parents the day after the incident with Andy. It was awkward, but she tried her best to just ignore everything that had happened.

"Honestly," she sighed as she took a seat at the kitchen counter and watched Vic chop veggies. "It was weird dude."

Vic gave her a questioning look.

"I felt mad at her. Even though I shouldn't. She didn't do anything wrong, she just came to bring me a present. It was really sweet, but it made everything worse for me with Andy. I don't even want to know what it's going to be like at work tomorrow."

Vic poured her friend a glass of wine as she watched her work herself up. "Look," she said calmly as she handed over the glass. "Andy's had a day off to cool down. I know she was upset in the moment but I think it should be better tomorrow."

Elle sighed, "yeah, I guess."

Vic spent the next 20 minutes trying to cheer up Elle, to no avail. Eventually she saw her friend look down at her phone and smile. This only made Vic laugh. "Okay so I've failed to make you feel better but clearly someone has," she joked as she looked over Elle's shoulder.

"What?" Elle was snapped back into focus. "Oh, no one. It's nothing," she said cryptically as she tried to put her phone away.

"Yeah a big nothing called RJ" Vic teased.

Elle rolled her eyes but couldn't contain her smile. Even she couldn't believe how much she liked them.

"Shut up," Elle said playfully. She got up and walked to her room, pulling her phone back out as she did.

Flopping down on her bed, she kept reading the message from RJ over and over. "I'm glad I got to see you at work again yesterday, but any chance you'd wanna see each other somewhere else for a change?"

Elle typed and deleted her response for almost 10 minutes before finally finding the courage to respond. "I'd love that... as long as you can still get me an old fashioned ;)"

......................................................

Maya was leaned over, tying her sneakers, ready to go for an early run before shift when she felt two hands wrap around her waist and snake their way up her shirt.

"Carina," she sighed out, half in annoyance and half in pleasure. She finished tying her shoe and turned around to face her girlfriend. "I promise there can be lots of this tomorrow," she said softly, placing a kiss on Carina's lips. "But I have a bad feeling about today. I need this run if I'm gonna deal with..."

She was cut off by a knock at the door. Maya and Carina gave each other a puzzled look before opening the door and seeing Andy standing there with three cups of coffee. Maya looked back at Carina, "with this," she whispered before turning back and forcing a smile as she welcomed Andy in and took a coffee from the tray.

"So," Carina started as she accepted a coffee from Andy. "What's up?" She pretended not to know what was going on, even though Maya had told her everything that went down two days before.

"Nothing much," Andy said. Maya and Carina gave each other a look before turning their glances back to Andy. "What?" she laughed, "Can't a girl just visit her best friend unannounced?"

Maya proceeded cautiously. "Of course you can. It's just that I'll see you in 2 hours at the station."

"About that..." Andy paused to take a sip of her coffee. "I'm calling out today. I got one of the guys from 23 to come sub for me," she said nonchalantly as she plopped down on the couch.

Maya quietly stared at her friend. She didn't know what to expect from Andy today but it certainly wasn't this.

Prompted by Maya's silence, Andy went on. "I know, I know, I should've told you earlier and gotten permission since you're the captain and all but that's why I'm here to tell you now.

"I'm not mad that you didn't tell me," Maya responded, shaking off her surprise. "Although, yeah let me know first next time. I'm just confused. You certainly don't seem sick, so why aren't you coming to work?"

Maya could see Andy's calm façade cracking as she thought through how to answer the question at hand.

"I just can't, okay?" Andy said quietly. "I just need the day off."

Maya nodded and joined her friend on the couch. The two chatted while Maya watched the clock, seeing the minutes pass that meant she wasn't going for a run before work.

.........................................................................................

"Will you hurry up?" Elle shouted across the apartment as Vic walked out of the bathroom still in her towel. "We're gonna be late!"

Vic rolled her eyes as she closed her bedroom door behind her. Elle could hear shuffling and drawers banging before her friend emerged again three minutes later fully dressed and ready to go. Elle chuckled, "You're gonna be the death of me."

"What?" Vic asked with a shrug, as they made their way to the car. "I needed the run before work."

"Yeah I know that," Elle said with a half laugh. "But why didn't you come running with me earlier? You're gonna make us late one of these days."

"First of all," Vic responded "are we late?"

Elle rolled her eyes but chuckled.

"Second," Vic continued. "You get up to run way too early and if I went at that hour I wouldn't see..." she trailed off, not wanting to finish her sentence.

"You wouldn't see your mystery boyfriend?" Elle teased.

For two weeks Vic had been telling Elle about this cute guy she kept literally running into at the park. They only ever talked enough to flirt, but she never got any real details on the guy. Elle joined Vic a few times trying to scope it out, but of course, he was only ever there when Vic was alone.

"I'm starting to think he doesn't really exist," Elle joked. "I mean, you don't even know his name."

They joked the rest of the way to the station, and arrived just in time for line up.

"19," Maya bellowed through the fire house. "Line up in the barn."

Elle quickly scanned the room as she joined her team. "Where's Andy?" she asked, half to Maya and half to herself.

Maya didn't quite answer the question, but called for her coverage instead. "Ruiz! Line up."

A tall handsome man turned around from the engine he was cleaning. Vic caught a glimpse of his warm brown eyes and froze. She turned to Elle and whispered, "well I know his name now."