Never again

Chapter 5

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.