Robert was sleeping on the couch in Andy's house for the past week. The two of them started building their routine with Maddie.
The four year old was enjoying having both her parents in the same house even though they weren't together. She would make them both play with her and watch her favorite shows and movies.
This morning Andy and Robert had a shift, Robert took Maddie to school and Andy went early to the station.
She was changing to her uniform when Maya came in "hi what are you doing here so early? Usually when you drop Maddie off on school you come in later" Maya leaned on the locker behind Andy. "Robert is dropping her off today" Andy turned around to meet her friend's face. "Are you sure there is nothing between you two?" Andy rolled her eyes "we're just friends, I told you. He's Maddie's dad and that's it. Plus he broke up with his girlfriend a week ago" Maya lifted her eyebrows "so you saying not yet?" She smiled and Andy just shook her head "I'm not saying anything" she said and walked away "c'mon Andy!!" Maya called after her.
Except for Maya, the rest of the team didn't know about Robert and Andy, or the fact he's Maddie's father. The shift started and Robert came into the beanery to give everyone's assignments for the shift. Andy was eating her breakfast and when she saw him entering the room a small smile crossed her face but it disappeared seconds after, it didn't go unnoticed by Maya tho.
"Good morning 19!" He said and took a plate to eat with everyone good morning captain" they all answered. They ate their breakfast and then each one went his way to do their chores.
Vic was on desk duty when a tall brunet woman walked into the station "hey, I'm Vic Hughes. How can I help you?" She smiled at the woman "I'm looking for Robert Sullivan, he works here." The woman said and Vic, surprised pointed to the captain's office "the captain? He's in his office". The woman turned and knocked on the door.
"Come in!" Robert said, not bothering to look up at the person behind the door. The woman walked in and closed the door behind her "Robert?" He recognized this voice immediately and looked up "Julie? What.. what are you doing here?" She pulled one of the chairs on the opposite Diane of the desk and sat down.
"I need you to hear me out. The past week was one of the worst weeks I had in my life" she started and Robert felt so bad because the last week with Andy and his daughter as a family was one of the bests he had. "I'm sorry for my reaction, it just was so sudden and I didn't know what to do with myself. It's not your fault, and it's not like you cheated on me. I love you and I care about you too much to throw everything away like that-" she had more to say but Robert cut her off "Julie..." she was the one to stop him this time "let me finish. I had this whole week to process it and I know we won't go back to what we were in a second but if you want to, I would love to try to get there and include your daughter." She finished and took a breath.
Robert is looking at the woman in from of him, his hand rubbing the back of his neck, something he always dies when he's nervous.
How is he supposed to react? She came back a week after she dumped him and said she wanna try again. "I don't know what you were thinking when you said those things to me last week, after this whole time I think I deserved the benefit of the doubt. But listen, I care about you a lot and I don't wanna throw it all away either. But I'm not moving back in" he said and mention the last park knowingly she'll ask where he's staying right now.
"Thank you, and I understand and I'm sorry." She reached out her hand and placed it above his in the middle between them "it's okay you're not moving back in right away but where are you staying right now?" She hoped for him to answer he just stayed at the station but little did she know it wasn't the case.
"I'm staying at Andy's. I'm sleeping on the couch but that way I get to be closer to Maddie and spend more time with her" he said nervous from her reaction.
She pulled her hand back and the tears were welling up in her eyes but they didn't came out. "Oh.... Yeah that make sense. But nothing happened between you and Andy?" She was quiet and honestly kind of afraid of his response "no, nothing happened between us since I stayed there" it was a white lie covering the kiss they shared in the beanery but he can't tell her about that.
"Okay. Thank you..." he looked at her a bit confused "for what?" A weak smile crossed her face "for giving me another chance".
"Like you said, we shouldn't throw our relationship away. We can try and make it work"
She nodded "well I think I'm gonna go now. I'll talk to you later?" He saw the hole in her eyes, she truly regret the breakup "yeah, we'll talk later" he said and she left the room.
When she left the station he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He left his office to go to take something to eat, Vic wasn't at the desk anymore, probably went to eat lunch. He came out of his office and almost bumped into Andy.
"Who was this?" She asked curiously "that was... Julie" he answered simply "oh... what did she want?" Andy took a step back so she wasn't as close to him anymore.
"She apologized, and asked to give us a second chance"
"And what did you say?" Andy secretly hoped he had said no, not only for Maddie but also she kinda liked the way things between them were and maybe it could be more someday.
"I said yes" Andy's eyes widened "oh... erm..." she didn't really know what to say "are you moving back in?"
"No. I think I'm gonna stay at yours for some time and where things go." She nodded looking at the ground "if that's okay with you" he added and she looked up with a fake smile "suites of course". "Okay then" he walked up the stairs leaving her alone.
He wasn't sure if it was the right decision but he have to at least try.
-
"Maddie it's time to sleep princess" Robert said as he turned off the tv "no! I want to finish the movie!" She was mad and disappointed "you can finish it tomorrow but now it's too late for tv. Go brush your teeth" Robert pointed to the bathroom direction. Maddie let out a mad sigh and did as he said.
"It's so hard to resist her!" He said to Andy as he put the clean plates Bach at their place. "It really is" Andy chuckled "so when am I meeting Julie? I don't want Maddie to meet her before I do" Andy asked.
"I'll talk to her tomorrow and we'll set something up" he replied and handed Andy a mug. As he did his finger brushed hers, they lingered at the moment gazing into each other's eyes until Maddie yelled and let them know she is done brushing her teeth pulling them out of their moment.
Being pulled back from her thoughts, Andy shook her Head for a second "I'm going to tuck her in" she turned around and went to the girl's room. Robert looking at her back as she did.
-
Robert and Julie were sitting next to each other in a booth in a diner near Andy's house. It was 10:56 when Andy arrived, she looked around and spotted the two.
She sat across the table from them "hey, I'm Julie!" She introduced herself. "Andy" Andy said simply and reached her hand out to shake Julie's.
"Bobby here told me a lot about you, and about Maddie. I'm so glad to meet you." She looked and sounded kind, but after what she have heard from Robert the other day she needs more than that.
"Bobby? Oh you call Robert Bobby" Andy chuckled. "It there a problem?" Julie was confused of why Andy reacted like that "no there isn't. It's just that I used to not like it when people call me that but I do like it now" Robert explained. "Oh okay" Julie smiled a little.
They ordered some food and the whole time eating Andy and Robert talked about firefighting stuff, her father, Maddie and things Julie wasn't really included in but the two were so coughs up in the conversation they didn't notice.
Seeing the relationship and bond between them annoyed Julie to say the least. She felt like her face will turn green any second from jealousy. After the breakup she was insecure about her relationship with Robert, now seeing him with Andy and how good they understood each other and seeing how beautiful Andy was and how different they were in the looks and personality brought more insecurities and worries to her mind.
She interrupted their conversation "so, Maddie. How is she like?" A fake smile spread on her face.
"...erm... she is perfect. Smart and kind. She is a really happy girl but sometimes she can be very shy around new people so don't worry about that when you meet her" Robert smiled to himself hearing Andy was now comfortable letting Julie meet Maddie.
"I was shy as a kid too so I understand. But it's okay I'm sure that over time we'll have a great relationship, just like a real mother and daughter"
Andy looked at Julie shocked. 'Who does she think she is?' She thought. Andy raised her eyebrows and her face was filled with disgust.
"Of course I'm not here to replace you or anything like that! I'm just-" Julie tried to fix what she did but it was too late. Andy cut her off "it's fine" her tone was intimidating "I need to go. Robert I'll talk to you when you'll come home later" she put a few bills on the table, to pay for her food, took her purse end left.
Wham Andy was gone out of their sight Robert turned to face his girlfriend. "What the hell was that?"
"Im sorry it came out all wrong... I tried to fix it"
"You've already said it it's not like you can take it back."
"I know. But I hope your gonna say something to her about how she made fun of me"
"What?" Robert was confused.
"She totally laughed at my expense when I called you Bobby" she talked a bit louder now and Robert adjusted his tone as well.
"No. She just remembered me being different about this short for my name" he defended Andy.
"Robert don't you see that? She was all over you and specifically talked about things that didn't include me"
"First of all she wasn't. She is my friend and the mother of my child but nothing more. And second it's just the usual things we're talking about not everything is about you" by now he was pissed.
"Oh okay... I bet that when she heard we broke up she was holding herself not to jump on you"
"Stop it. I'm not doing this, nor right now, not ever." He called the waitress and gave her his credit card and the cash Andy left.
A few minutes later she came back and brought Robert his card back, and the couple left.
Andy was sitting in her car on the way home, Julie's sentence playing in her head over and over again. She was so angry and so distracted. Her phone buzzed and she looked over to see she got a text massage from Robert.
She didn't read it cause she was driving but she tried to think about what she's gonna say to Robert about Julie how is she suppose to feel comfortable about her meeting her daughter when she thinks she's going to me her second mom?
She took a turn when suddenly a car came out of nowhere. After that the first thing she could remember was waking up on a stretcher, blurry view of paramedics around her and her wanting to scream, but nothing was coming out. Then everything went blank again.
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HEY BESTIESSSS
First of all sorry for leaving you on a cliffhanger like that (pls don't kill me). Second, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. What do you think is going to happen next? Tell me in the comments!
Don't forget to vote and comment.
Thank you so much for all the good comments it's really puts a smile on my face every time!
Until the next chapter... xoxo