Take on the World

13.

"Robert, we can't..."

Andy was silenced by his lips smashing into hers as he also tried to remove the last articles of clothing that were on her body. They had to be at the station in like two hours, and in that time they had to get themselves ready, not to mention Luna... Instead, Robert was trying to drag her into the shower with him, and let's just say he was succeeding, no matter how hard she fought against him.

"Oh come on, it'll save on time and water." He argued, pulling his large t-shirt over her head and throwing it behind her.

"Fine," She giggled, finally relenting. "But we only have maybe thirty minutes."

"I can do a lot in thirty minutes, babe..."

The thirty minute shower Andy agreed to lasted a whopping forty-five minutes, and it would've went longer if they hadn't had been stopped by someone quietly knocking on the door to the bathroom going "mommy... daddy..." every minute until they managed to untangle theirselves from each other.

"Good morning baby," Andy smiled as she slipped out of the steamy bathroom in nothing but a towel. "How did you sleep?"

"Where are your clothes?" The little girl asked through a yawn, disregarding the questioned she'd been asked. "And why are you all wet? Where's daddy?"

"You seem to have a lot of questions this morning my love," Andy laughed, looking down at Luna who was very much not amused at this point in time. "How about you go pick out an outfit for today, sound good?" She changed the subject, mainly just hoping to be able to put some clothes on.

Without another word, Luna walked out of the room, leaving Andy alone. About the same time, Robert walked out of the bathroom, in nothing but a towel the same as her.

"I can do a lot in thirty minutes my ass..." She mocked him, playfully smacking his chest before walking over to the closet.

"Can't say you didn't enjoy it." Robert replied, coming up behind her, his hands resting on her waist as she looked through the closet.

"Hmm, debatable..."

"Sure didn't sound like it when you were..." Before he could finish his sentence, Andy had quickly turned around and slapped her hand over his mouth.

"Another word from you and you'll be sleeping on the couch."

•••

Yet another uneventful shift came and went, nothing but a few aid car calls and a small kitchen fire... Nothing out of the norm. Ask any firefighter and they'll say they have a love-hate relationship with calm shifts like this one. They enjoy action and big, exciting calls, they sorta feel a bit useless when there aren't any of those on shift. But they love having the down time to relax and work around the station.

Usually, Andy would get ready as quickly as possible and leave the station after a shift, but now she'd wait to leave with Robert. She would just sit in his office with him as he filled out paperwork or whatever else he had to do before finally getting to go home. But today, she went to walk in his office and was surprised by what she saw...

Ripley.

It wasn't unusual for the fire chief to randomly show up at the station, but when he was currently in what looked like a heated argument with your captain, any sane person would have some questions.

"Vic!" Andy whisper-yelled as she made her way back into the locker room, where she was sure Vic was. "Vic!"

"I'm here, what's happening?" Vic asked, popping her head around the corner of her locker.

"Why is Ripley here?" Andy asked in a hushed tone, now standing in front of her. "And more importantly, why is he arguing with Sullivan?"

Vic looked a little confused, not sure why Andy came to her asking questions about Ripley. "I don't know, why are you asking me?"

"Oh come on, they're best friends," Andy sighed. "Robert knows things, which means I know things... So just get on with it and spill."

"I seriously don't know Andy, we don't ever talk about work stuff..." She finally admitted, throwing her bag over her shoulder. "But let's go investigate..."

Before Andy could protest, Vic had grabbed her wrist and started dragging her back towards Robert's office. She felt like a six year old, this was definitely not what she had in mind when she went to ask Vic what was going on, but nonetheless, if it got them answers, she didn't really care.

"What are we..."

Andy couldn't even finish her sentence before Vic shushed her, pulling her down to sit in the chair at the front desk.

"Vic, we can't just sit out here!" She finally got a full sentence out, watching Vic randomly draw scribbles on a blank paper that was laying on the desk.

"Pretend you're writing something and shut up, maybe we'll hear something." Was the only response Vic gave, throwing a pen in Andy's direction.

This was wrong, completely and utterly wrong. But did Andy want to know why Ripley was here and why Robert looked like he wanted to punch him right now. So she did the logical thing, picked up the pen Vic threw at her started scribbling randomly on another piece of paper.

•••

"Herrera has been in line for captain of 19 longer than I have, she's the first and only choice Lucas."

"You can't promote her," Lucas shook his head. "People will think because of your relationship with her, you're showing favoritism."

"First of all, we're not in a relationship..." Robert tried to say but Lucas cut him off with a chuckle.

"Sully, you two live together, you sleep together, you have a child together... That's a relationship"

"Okay even so, I wouldn't be giving her captain unless I thought she deserved it" Robert defended, running his hands over his face, trying to calm down. "She's worked hard, this is her job..."

"I know this is hard, but Gibson and Bishop are great candidates too," Lucas sighed, laying the transfer of ranks papers on Robert's desk. "You're being promoted to battalion chief, and this station needs a captain, and no, it cannot be Herrera, I'm sorry Sully, but that's just how it is. I know she's the most fit for the job, she's earned her place as captain, but I'm already doing you a favor by keeping your relationship unknown from the fire commission, I can't do anything more."

As Ripley went to walk out of his office, Robert contemplated saying what he was about to say. But, he said it anyway, against his better judgement.

"What if it was Vic?"

He stopped in his tracks and turned around to face Robert again, he could see the stress he was putting on his best friend just by the look in his eyes.

"But it's not, so you need to make a decision before your promotion or I will..."

A/N:
ahaha don't hate me but uhh... you can hate me because i hate myself for this. and i'll warn you ahead of time... it's gonna get rocky folks so hold on