Secret Sister (Station 19)

Give Me A Reason

Elle and Vic were uncharacteristically quiet on their drive over to the station, half listening to the radio, but mostly stuck inside their own heads. The probie was nervous to see Andy again, especially since she had taken off the last shift. She was worried Andy would still be mad at her. Finally Vic spoke, pulling Elle from her thoughts.

"That was weird right?" she asked, sounding genuinely confused.

Elle looked at her friend, puzzled. "What was weird?"

"Trav last night."

Elle nodded. "Oh, yeah that was definitely weird."

After Vic told him Theo's last name, Travis got really quiet, to the point that his friends thought he hung up. They asked what was going on, but he didn't say anything. He just made up an excuse to end the call. Vic had tried to text him about it later, but Travis didn't respond. He definitely wasn't acting like himself and both Vic and Elle were really confused.

"You gonna ask him about it today?" Elle asked.

Vic nodded. "Yeah, I want to know what the heck is going on!"

She paused then looked over at her friend in the passenger seat. "You gonna talk to Andy?"

"Nope," Elle replied instantly. "Just gonna pretend I'm invisible again."

Vic shook her head and chuckled a little. "Great, should be a fun day."

.....................................................

Andy was also quiet most of the way to the station. Robert tried to talk to her about where she had been the day before, about work, even about what she wanted for dinner that night, but she hardly gave him two words in response. He was about to give up when Andy finally spoke up.

"Can you pull over here for a second?" she asked.

He looked over at her, confused, but slowed down. "What? Why?"

Her only answer was to hold up an envelope. He understood once he saw the mailbox on the side of the road. Andy jumped out quickly and slipped the letter through the slot before hopping back in the car.

"You wanna tell me what that was about?" Sullivan asked slowly, as he started driving again.

"It's nothing," Andy replied. "Just needed to mail something." She tried to shrug it off and hoped her husband wouldn't press her about it. Luckily they were only a few blocks from the station and he had an early meeting so there wasn't enough time for him to question her any more.

Elle was in the locker room when Andy walked in. The probie immediately diverted her eyes back to her bag and quickly finished changing and putting her things away before silently slipping out to head to the barn for line-up. Elle took her place next to Vic as everyone else filed in.

"Where's Trav?" Elle started to whisper before he came running in late.

Instead of coming to stand next to his friends, he took a spot at the other end of the crew. Elle shrugged it off but she could tell that it bugged Vic.

"Alright 19," Bishop bellowed as everyone came to attention. "Assignments: Hughes, Gibson, Miller your on Engine. Montgomery, Warren - ladder. Walsh and Herrera, I want you on aid car."

Elle froze. She was never on aid car with Andy, and today was not the day she wanted to start. She tried to make eye contact with Maya to plead with her to change her mind, but the captain returned to her office as soon as finished giving her team their assignments. Maya wouldn't have changed her mind anyway. After talking with Andy the day before, she knew that it would be okay and wanted to push them both a little bit.