Nobody But You

Just Friends

Happy Friday Friend! Hope summer has treated you well. Really enjoying the direction this story is taking. As always appreciate you being on the journey with me. Drop me a note below and let me know your thoughts – Ash.

"There's no update, Sully. I'm sorry," Vic said gently through the phone. She cringed internally as she spoke the words.

Vic knew it wasn't the news he was hoping for. Ben had been waiting for them when they'd arrived at Grey Sloan. He'd told them everything he knew, which wasn't much. Andy and the baby had both been stable when she was rushed to surgery. There was a lot of blood loss, shrapnel and it was hard to know the full extent of her injuries until they got in there.

So there the S19 family sat.

Terrified. Worried. Huddled together under gross fluorescent lights, stale coffee in hand, pacing back and forth. For a room filled with people used to running into the fire, this was torture. There wasn't anything they could do. Not to mention the elephant staring all of them in the face... It was unclear at this point if Sully and Andy were together or what had occurred between them, but obviously something was there.

It was all just too much to handle.

"No update is better than a bad one, I guess." Robert replied dryly as he stared straight ahead at the open road.

The truth was, as much as he hated it, he knew how this went. There'd be news when there was news. For now, he couldn't do anything. It drove him crazy to feel helpless, but what choice did he have?

"That's the spirit," Vic tried to crack a joke. Not in striking distance of her best, but the only thing she could come up with at the moment.

Robert chuckled, "Thanks for being there, Hughes." He sighed. "I really appreciate it."

"We're all here and couldn't imagine being anywhere else," Vic offered solemnly as she looked into the waiting room where all their people were gathered.

Once they'd hung up the phone, Robert's mind went back down memory lane as he continued hauling ass across I-90 West towards Seattle.

FLASHBACK...

As Robert walked further into Andy's cozy apartment, smells of warm vanilla, tobacco and apricot flirted with his senses. The familiar scent had been one of their many compromises. Not too masculine for Andy, not to feminine for him, a nice blend of both.

Seeing the large, 5 wick candle burning on the coffee table, surrounded by other decorative knick knacks he felt instantly transported back to married life during Lock Down. Long bubble baths, date nights under twinkle lights in the small yard out back and evenings spent cuddled on the couch watching movies.

At the end of their marriage it had been easy to forget that they'd been happy. Together, as first responders, they'd made it through the worst of the Pandemic. She'd grieved her dad, he grieved his career, they both wrestled with the racial awakening in America.

Somehow, despite the chaos all around them, they'd found sanctuary in each other. Now, looking back, it seemed ridiculous that something so small relative to all their other challenges had been the thing that broke them.

It made the saying, "the straw that broke the camel's back," seem so true.

"Filtered or Topo Chico?" Andy asked from the kitchen as she ducked her head into the stainless steel fridge.

"Either is good," Robert responded as he sat down, taking notice of the glass tumbler partially filled with amber colored liquid, on the end table. It rested unassumingly next to the small lamp and picture.