Surrera - A New Beginning

Chapter Two

Andy's pov
As soon as I laid eyes on the new captain, I felt a connection. It was strange, something I've never felt before. By the time we'd finished breakfast, that feeling had only grown stronger.
As Captain Sullivan left the room, he caught my eye, and we both smiled. At that moment, as cliche as it may sound, I felt like there were butterflies fluttering around in my stomach.
I got on with my chores just like the rest of the team, and soon we finished all of the ones we had been assigned. "I'll go see what Sullivan wants us to do now," I said. I didn't like to admit it, but walking up the steps towards his office, I felt sort of nervous.
I knocked on the door, and when he signalled that I could come in, I poked my head around the door.
"What do you need Herrera?" He asked, and I was shocked by how cold and harsh his voice sounded. He seemed so different from earlier, but I had no clue why. I asked him whether he wanted us to do more chores or some drills, and he gave me a rather long list of chores he wanted us to get done.
I was about to leave and go back to the others, when I decided to ask him if he was okay. I knew it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway. Sure enough, he just said he was fine, and blocked me out, so I left and went to start on the new chores.
As I was cleaning the engine, I got lost in my thoughts. The way I felt around Sullivan confused me. In fact, Sullivan just confused me in general. When he very first arrived, he cut my dad off when he tried to introduce everyone. But then he agreed to breakfast and asked me what my name was. At breakfast, he was funny and open, and trying to get to know us all. But then it was like something clicked and all of a sudden he was angry or upset about something. I sighed, and continued to scrub the engine, perhaps a little more forcefully than necessary.
"So what do you think of the new captain?" Vic asked as her and Maya appeared either side of me. I knew I couldn't tell them the truth about what I was feeling, so I decided to word my reply carefully.
"I don't really know, he's only been here about an hour, so I can't really tell yet," I answered.
"Well I think he seems alright, but obviously not as good as you would've been as captain Andy," Maya said, and Vic nodded in agreement. I just laughed, before throwing a sponge at each of them and telling them to help me with the engine.

*time skip*

Sullivan has been here a month now and he is driving me crazy. He's been acting off ever since his first day, yet still, there's something about him that makes me want to get to know him. I was starting to realise what it was I feeling, and I hated it. I was falling in love with my captain. I don't know what's worse, the fact that I even feel this way in the first place, or the fact that there's no way in hell he feels the same way about me. He's made that much clear.
So I did what I do best. I shoved my feelings as deep down as possible, doing my very best to ignore them. I threw myself into my work, distracting myself with the calls we went on. I tried to avoid Sullivan, only talking to him when it's absolutely necessary, like on calls or during line up. And for the most part, my plan was working. I didn't think anyone would notice how I was acting, but it turns out I was wrong. "Andy what's going on with you?" Maya asked, cutting straight to the point. She had just barged into my room at the apartment we share, waking me up in the process.
"Maya, it's like 3am, if there even was something going on with me, why couldn't you just of waited till a more reasonable time to ask me about it?" I groaned sleepily.
"You've been acting weird for a while now, you're throwing yourself into your work even more than usual. You don't come out with the team after shift anymore, you disappear whenever Sullivan's around, you even spend more time in the gym than I do. So I'm going to ask you again, what's going on with you?" Maya asked, and I knew that she wasn't going to leave until she got an answer.
"Nothings going on, I'm just not sleeping great, that's all. Just tired," I said, pulling a pillow over my head to prove my point. Eventually, I heard her sigh and walk out the room.
I laid there for two hours, unable to get back to sleep. When my alarm went off at five, I switched it off, rolling over onto my front. I usually love my job, but I really didn't want to go in today. I didn't want to face Sullivan. There's no way I can tell him how I feel, because I'm pretty sure he hates me. Plus, he's my captain.
"Andy come on, it's time to go," Maya shouted but I just groaned. When I didn't respond, she came into my room, looking shocked to see me still in bed. "Andy what are you doing in bed? We need to leave for work," she said but I shook my head.
"I'm taking a sick day, I don't feel very well," I lied.
"Andy Herrera never takes sick days. Even if she's actually sick, she still comes into work until she gets sent home," Maya stated, reminding me of just how well my best friend knew me.
"Well I'm sick. You should get out, it might be contagious," I fake coughed.

Maya's pov
I knew something was wrong with Andy. She might put it off as lack of sleep, but she's been acting strange ever since Sullivan first got here. I don't know whether it's about him, or just because she wanted that job so badly, but somethings definitely off.
When we stood in line for line up, Sullivan looked around the room expectantly.
"Where's Herrera?" He asked.
"She's out sick sir," I told him, and for a second he looked kind of worried. Since his first day, he'd been closed off, not showing any emotion, not talking to any of us except about work, not joining us for meals. This was the first time since then that he'd actually shown any emotion.
"Oh. Tell her I hope she's feeling better soon," he said.
"Yes sir," I replied. The rest of the shift sped by. We had a few aid car calls, two kitchen fires and one big call. 24 hours later, I was heading home again. When I got in, I shouted to Andy that I was home, but I got no response. I wandered into her room to see her sat up in bed reading a book. "How are you?" I asked.
"I'm feeling a bit better, guess I just needed to get some rest," she said, but I could tell she was lying. In fact, I'm pretty sure she wasn't ever sick at all.
"That's good. Sullivan said he hopes you're feeling better soon by the way," I told her but she just snorted.
"Like he cares," she said sarcastically, and I laughed. "Except from his first day, he's been like a closed off machine." I nodded in agreement.
"He's not the only one who's been acting off though," I commented, earning me a glare from Andy.
"I told you, I'm just tired," she insisted, rolling her eyes.
"If you say so," I said, before throwing the pillow I had ended up holding at her. "Now get up we're ordering pizza."
"Oo yes," she said excitedly, jumping out of bed. I laughed before following her out of the room. We called Vic to see if she wanted to come over, and then we ordered two pizzas between the three of us. For the rest of the evening we ate pizza, watched trashy tv and laughed a lot. I think this is the first time I've seen Andy laugh in a while, but I'm glad that she's feeling better now.