Becoming Part of the Team

Chapter 2

The day progressed in routine fashion. Chief Sullivan spent most of his day in his office, attending to budget, maintenance, and personnel reports, while the crew, under Maya's leadership, attended to their calls: a few suspected heart attacks, a small kitchen fire, and two relatively minor car accidents. Sullivan managed to eat and exercise while the team was away, and it wasn't until they were cleaning up after dinner that Andy realized that she hadn't spoken to her husband since that morning. She had waved a few times when he was working in his office, and he had waved back, but they both had been busy and hadn't actually found time to talk. She hoped that he wasn't upset about the awkwardness in the beanery that morning. After dinner, the team watched some mindless TV before heading to their bunks. Andy, however, wasn't quite ready for sleep. She thought about stopping by Robert's office but assumed he had gone to sleep in the small room off his office. As much as the thought of illicit sex in the battalion chief's bunk appealed to her, this was their place of work, and that particular fantasy would have to stay just that, a fantasy. She went into the beanery, dug out some chamomile tea, and brewed herself a cup. Tea in hand, she walked into the break room and sat down on the sofa to relax a bit before retiring for the evening. It was getting late, and she knew she should be trying to sleep; they could get a call at any hour and be awake for the remainder of their shift, and even later if they were called to a major incident that required multiple teams. However, she couldn't calm her restless brain. Things between her and Robert were good at home now. The rough period after they had gotten married had passed, and while they still had an occasional explosive argument, they both found that they could argue, loudly and passionately, without getting too personal. When the argument was done, it was done, and more often than not, they found themselves letting out some of their frustrations in bed. For some, their fights might be too fiery, but for two stubborn, quick-to-anger people, it allowed them to get their emotions out before they festered.

At work, though, things were still a bit uncomfortable, as evidenced by the quick end to the joking around that morning. Despite Robert's brash announcement and kiss at the spaghetti dinner fundraiser, he was still an intensely private person, and she didn't think he would appreciate the entire team hearing stories of their intimate life, even if Andy wanted to share them, which she didn't. Thankfully, after the initial shock of her marriage had worn off, the team seemed to accept it as fact, and their camaraderie with one another had returned. Robert, and the team, however, were another story. He still didn't eat with them, insisting that the team deserved to be able to relax without their boss around, and the few times she had asked him to join her when she hung out with her friends outside of work, he had made excuses for why he couldn't. This made things a little hard on her. She loved her friends, and she loved her husband, but she felt like she was living in two different worlds; one had Robert and the other had the A shift crew.

Andy was so lost in thought that she didn't notice her husband had entered the room until he was practically in front of her. She gave him a small smile as he sat down next to her and put his arm around her, pulling her gently toward him. Noticing the cup of tea on the table, he asked, "Couldn't sleep?" and she nodded in the affirmative while asking, "You too?" He also nodded and said dejectedly, "I see Excel spreadsheets every time I close my eyes. I'm beginning to think Dixon hated me from the beginning and making me battalion chief was his way of punishing me." Andy snuggled a little closer and reached up to hold the hand that was around her shoulder. She knew that Robert was venting and that most days he loved the job. She also knew that he was good at it. He could read an incident and make a plan quicker than anyone she had ever worked with, and he had a command presence that was both imposing and reassuring at the same time. She had once even seen him get a group of rowdy kindergartners on a fire station field trip to line up and get quiet. By the end of the tour, the kindergarten teacher was ready to offer him a job!