Letters

June 2023

The sound of clanging metal reverberated through the turnout room as Robert Sullivan slammed his locker shut. It had taken a month, but what he had predicted in his congratulatory letter to Andy had occurred. He had been fighting fires since she had been flirting with boys in the hallway in high school. Why couldn't she just accept that there were times when his experience could be an asset to her, and to the team?

Across the station, Andy collapsed onto her bunk, and kicked the door shut, perhaps with more force than necessary. The call had been a tricky one, a multicar pileup with several critically injured victims pinned into cars, and no great options for accessing them all quickly so they could be assessed and treated. She had barely finished giving initial directions when Theo began to question her assignments. He wasn't happy that she tasked him with directing traffic around the accident site until the police arrived, and when they had he had kept up his impertinence. Andy was seconds away from losing her temper when Ben intervened and asked for Theo's help using the jaws of life to pry the roof off of one of the vehicles.

So, when Robert had questioned one of her decisions a few minutes later, Andy had snapped: "Can't you just do as you're asked, for once?"

Yes, Robert could have simply followed orders, but that wasn't his style. If he saw a better way to do something, he wasn't going to keep quiet. On most days, Andy didn't mind, but she had reached a breaking point with Theo, and unfortunately, Robert's question was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. On the scene, Robert had bit back the sharp words that came to mind and moved ahead with the job at hand, but on the ride back to the station, he seethed as he replayed the interaction in his mind.

Making his way back to his bunk, Robert continued to fume. He grabbed what he needed from his locker and went to shower. It was his turn to cook dinner, and the team would be hungry. The call had come as they had sat down to lunch, and they had each only managed a couple of bites before they were called away. As he turned the temperature as hot as he could stand, he did his best to allow the stream of water to melt away his anger. He could talk to Andy about it later, but charging into her office while he was still enraged wouldn't do either of them any good, and, depending on her mood, it might just get him written up for insubordination.

Across the station, Andy also decided she needed a quick shower before beginning the incident report on the car accident. She stood under the warm water taking some deep breaths and reflecting on the call. Her first thoughts first went to Theo. She had hoped that with time he would accept her leadership, but if anything, his insubordination only seemed to get worse. It hadn't affected team cohesion yet, but she knew that everyone was noticing. She had relied on him as a friend and confidant when she was at 23, and she had to wonder if she was letting their prior friendship cloud her judgment. If another firefighter under her command was equally insubordinate, she would have shut it down by now.

Her next thoughts went to Robert. She owed him an apology. Yes, he questioned her judgment, but it wasn't anything more than what she would have done in a similar situation, and with the benefit of hindsight, she couldn't help but wonder if things would have been a little easier at the scene if she had listened to his suggestion. Regardless, he deserved better than to be snapped at by her, and judging by his countenance when they got back at the station, he wasn't quite ready to let it go.

She exited the shower, got dressed, and towel-dried her hair. She'd let it air dry while she dealt with the tasks at hand. Sitting down at her desk and grabbing the department-issued tablet, she looked at the incident report form for just a moment before she sighed and put the tablet back down. She knew she wouldn't be able to focus unless she dealt with the situation with Robert. Her first thought was to go find him, but if he was still angry, she didn't want to make things worse, and if he had started cooking dinner, she would prefer a less public place than the beanery, where anyone could walk in.

She grabbed a legal pad from her desk drawer. It wasn't pretty, but it was all she had; she didn't make a habit of composing handwritten notes at her desk. She picked up her pen and stared at the paper. "This shouldn't be so hard," she thought to herself. She was tempted to put the pen back down and return to the incident report, but she knew herself well enough to know that if she didn't do this now, it would never get done. So, without much forethought, she began to write:

Robert,

I'm sorry about how I spoke to you earlier. Theo was getting on my last nerve, questioning every decision I made, and you, unfortunately, stepped into the line of fire. Your idea was a good one, and even if it wasn't, you didn't deserve my reaction.

You said on my first day that we'd bump heads and that you'd always have my back. I hope after my behavior today that is still true. I can't promise that we won't clash again, but I will pledge to do better.

Andy

It wasn't long; she said what she had to say, and Robert knew her well enough that he wouldn't be expecting flowery prose. Looking in her desk drawer, Andy realized that the only envelopes she had were the official SFD ones, and she didn't want to use one of those for personal communication. Instead, she folded the note, taped it, and wrote "Robert" on the front before heading out of her office. Based on the noise coming from the station, it seemed that everyone was hanging out in the beanery or the lounge, or busy with chores, so she was hopeful she could deliver the note undetected.

She walked quickly to the locker room, slipped the note under the door to Robert's bunk, and was just about to congratulate herself on her stealthiness when Vic walked through the door.

"Looking for someone?" Vic asked.

While no rule kept the captain out of the locker area there also wasn't much need for her to be there. Not wanting to discuss the note, Andy did her best to think quickly and come up with a plausible lie.

"I was taking a break from my report on the car accident, and I figured since everyone was busy with dinner and restocking, I could see if there was some laundry to fold."

Vic looked askance at her friend. Andy's hatred of laundry was well known, and while she was working hard to remain "one of the team" even in her role as captain, Vic knew that laundry would not be Andy's first choice of chores.

"Sullivan's in the kitchen," Vic quipped, hazarding a guess as to why Andy might be hanging around the locker room.

She wasn't sure what had happened on the call, but there was a definite tension between the ex-spouses after the call that hadn't been there earlier in the day.

"I wasn't looking for him," Andy answered quickly, glad that this time she didn't have to come up with a lie.

She then turned to open the dryer, wishing she had come up with another lie to explain her presence.

"Oh, it's empty," Andy noted, while Vic stood there, eyebrows raised.

"I guess I'll get back to the incident report," Andy mumbled as she made a quick exit, and Vic watched. She didn't know what was going on, but she was sure it had very little to do with laundry.

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Hi Friends

Sorry this took so long to post...but sometimes RL just gets in the way. Hopefully life and the muse will cooperate so I can get a few more "letters" finished before the show comes back.

Kat