Partners

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Andrea sighed in relief as the car door closed and Chad circled around to get in. She couldn’t wait to go home and although she’d said as much many times before, she figured it bore repeating. “Can you wait for one more hour?” he asked, making her frown.

“Why, do you have to stop at 6th street again?” Steve had told her he’d put Chad through the wringer, but she wasn’t sure he was up to it yet.

Chad shook his head and gestured towards the back seat as he started the car. “We’ve got someone who probably wants to come home just as much as you do.”

“Oh!” Andrea twisted around carefully to see Meredith’s favorite blanket and a few pillows in the back seat, and smiled over at Chad. She’d been unable to believe it when they’d found that Merry had survived after all, and she knew that Chad couldn’t wait to see him. He reached over the center console to cover her hand with his and Andrea settled back, determined to enjoy their time together – Chad had been at her bedside in the hospital day and night but after a week of the nurse’s disapproving stares whenever they kissed each other, she was more than ready for some privacy.

She elected to stay in the car when they arrived at the animal hospital since she was still sore – God only knew how Chad was dealing with the half-healed wound in his side – and Chad carried Meredith out in his arms. The pitbull’s tail thumped against the seat feebly as soon as he was transferred to the blankets, and Andrea reached a hand back to pet him. “Ordinarily I’d make some sort of joke about us all getting shot, but I won’t since it’s really not that funny,” Chad sighed, scratching behind Merry’s ears one last time before closing the back door and climbing up into the driver’s seat again.

He carried Meredith inside the house once they arrived, then came back out to get the bag of antibiotics they’d both been prescribed and slipped an arm around her shoulders to guide her up the steps. “It’s like I haven’t been here in forever,” Andrea marveled as soon as he closed the door behind them and locked the deadbolt. Merry was already snoozing on his favorite cushion, and she curled up against Chad on the couch. “It’s nice to be back home.”

“It’s even nicer to have you back. What about your apartment?” Chad asked softly, pressing his lips against her temple. “I can probably start bringing your things back tomorrow.”

She relaxed in his arms, content for the first time in a while. “There’s no hurry.”

“You do realize we’ll have to go over there and christen the place, right?” he warned.

“I think I can handle that,” she laughed.

The only good thing about being laid up like this was the fact that Chad wasn’t as annoyingly healthy as usual, running around with enough excess energy to make her tired just from watching him. He was a very attentive ‘nurse’, making sure she didn’t take any unnecessary risks and banning her from any sort of physical exertion… unfortunately, that meant he put the kaibosh on any sexual advances she tried to make. Both their families were regular visitors, to Chad’s dismay – he was still smarting from the multiple lectures he’d received from Andrea’s father and his own parents. At least with neither of them able for much, they got most of the wedding plans settled; Chad swore he’d now be able to name every single napkin pattern the next time they went out for dinner together.

She had mixed feelings when Chad was cleared for duty while she was still banned from doing anything more strenuous than flipping the pages of a bridal magazine, but her jealousy over his return to active duty dissolved as soon as he returned home with a scowl on his face. “How was work?” Andrea asked, gladly turning the television off. She’d gotten used to spending so much time with Chad lately, it was unbelievably boring without him to talk to. Chad hurled his issued weapon into a nearby chair, his scowl deepening. When he dragged his uniform into view, she blinked at it. “Is that what I think it is?”

“If you think it’s a patrolman’s uniform, then yes. It’s what you think it is.” Chad sighed. “I knew I’d have a penalty – God knows I deserve one – and I should be grateful I wasn’t fired, but… patrol?”

He looked so pissed that Andrea hastily turned her laughter into a coughing fit. “I’m sure you won’t be there forever,” she soothed.

Chad sank down on the couch beside her, and drew her legs across his thighs. “That’s not even the worst part,” he said mournfully.

“It’s not?”

Her fiancé shook his head. “No. I’m not only on patrol for the foreseeable future, but he’s got me on traffic duty, too.”

Andrea couldn’t hold back any longer, and started to laugh. “Oh, no! ”

“You think it’s funny, woman?” Chad asked, raising his eyebrows with an exaggerated look of outrage.

“You know as well as I do that SWAT can’t do without your anal-retentive qualities that we all know and love,” she scolded, swatting his arm lightly. “You’re a big boy now; I’m sure you can handle whatever Steve throws at you.”

A smile began to curve Chad’s lips as he looked at her. “That’s right. I am a big boy,” he boasted with an outrageous wink.

“You know what I meant, you perve.” Andrea’s laughter trailed off as he slid a hand up her leg suggestively. “I thought you didn’t want…?”

Chad urged her into his arms and kissed her breathless. “I always want,” he growled. “But if you’re not feeling up to it…” She twined her arms around his neck as he lifted her easily, carrying her over a sleepily curious Meredith and into their bedroom.

His fingers began to work on the buttons of her shirt as soon as she shook her head emphatically, and she sighed as Chad shoved an impatient hand inside her shirt as soon as enough buttons were undone. When his urgency seemed to evaporate suddenly Andrea tried to pull him over atop her, but Chad shook his head and lightly traced a finger around the scar left by the bullet that had nearly killed her. “You can’t get rid of me that easily,” she reminded him softly.

Leaning over her, Chad rubbed his nose against hers tenderly. “Glad to hear it,” he whispered back before dropping his head for a slow, gentle kiss. Andrea slid her hands beneath the hem of his dress shirt, resting a palm over his own healed bullet scar before setting to work opening his trousers. Well, trying to, at any rate. Chad batted her hands aside and laughed at her impatience. “Just relax,” he advised her. “I’m not going anywhere, either.”

“Then hurry up and go nowhere, because I- mmmmpph.” Her complaint turned into a muffled moan against his lips as he kissed her once more, then moved his mouth to the sensitive skin just below her ear.


_ _ _ _ _ _ _


Chad took his time, his mouth and hands learning Andrea’s curves all over again while she writhed and called his name in a breathy moan that made him long to simply unzip his pants and bury himself inside her… but he’d longed for this moment ever since they’d first separated, and vowed that he would make this perfect for her. He hooked a finger under the straps of her bra after removing her shirt and folding it carefully – that certainly made her scowl up at him - then tugged the lacy scrap of pink satin down slowly. Andrea wriggled impatiently, then slumped back against the pillow with a sigh when he dragged his tongue over the upper swell of her breast.

“Finally,” she muttered, lacing her fingers through his hair. Chad smiled against her skin and shifted to close his teeth around her hardened nipple carefully, sucking just hard enough to make her arch off the bed. Andrea hissed his name as he moved to perform the same service for her other breast, and he grunted as she managed to wriggle her foot beneath him and rub against his crotch.

“Behave yourself,” he warned with a gentle spank. She pulled at his shirt and he rose up on his knees to tug it off swiftly, tossing it off to one side of the room before drawing her lounge pants off her hips. They joined his shirt just as quickly, and Chad sat back on his heels to admire her; Andrea was sprawled out before him wearing nothing but a pair of lacy panties that matched her discarded bra, and the look on her face as she watched him undress made him go a little faster than he’d originally intended. Chad trailed kisses down her neck and over the slight swell of her belly, the musky scent of her arousal driving him wild.

Andrea bucked her hips and gave a throaty cry when Chad nuzzled his face between her legs, breathing her in and placing sucking kisses on the insides of her thighs. “Need you,” she moaned wildly, rocking against him as he mouthed her through the sodden fabric of her panties. “Oh, God – Chad….!” Her desperate cries mounted as he ripped her underwear completely off and rubbed his tongue over her clit, suckling with careful pressure until Andrea’s voice rose to an ear-piercing shriek and she came apart completely.

Stretching back over her as she quivered and shook, Chad kissed her deeply and nudged her legs farther apart before reaching down to set himself at her entrance. “I love you,” he whispered, pressing forward. Andrea’s eyes opened to look at him, so full of love that he felt an answering ache in his own chest. She’d almost been taken away from him forever… and he’d never let her go again, no matter what. “Love you so goddamned much.” His groan echoed hers as he pushed into her slickened heat - they hadn’t made love in so long, she was tighter than ever and Chad forced himself to go slow so that he wouldn’t hurt her. He gasped her name when he’d fully sheathed himself inside her, feeling her muscles tighten around his cock with rhythmic pulses that nearly made his eyes roll back in his head.

Andrea shuddered in his arms helplessly, her eyes brimming with tears as she looked up at him. “So good…so, so good…” He quickly pushed back up on his arms, worried that he’d hurt her despite his resolve not to, but her soft whispers reassured him enough to begin moving cautiously. Leaning down, Chad slanted his mouth over Andrea’s as he rocked within her gently, pleasure radiating through him from every point they were connected. Her small hands kneaded his skin as they moved together, and all too soon he felt the first stirrings of orgasm urging him to speed his movements; Andrea was nearly there as it was. Sliding his knees forward allowed him to change the angle of his thrusts, and after a few surges forward Andrea’s lips parted and her tiny frame began to tremble uncontrollably. He spilled into her with a low groan, collapsing in her arms and pressing his face into the curve of her neck as she held him close. “Chad?”

He sighed in contentment and nuzzled her skin lazily. “Hmmm?”

“You’re making a pancake out of our unborn child.”

Chad immediately shifted off to one side. “Jesus! Sorry…”

Andrea pushed at his chest and laughed when he placed a hand over her stomach to reassure himself that neither of them had come to any harm. “You need to go back on your diet, big boy.”

“You’ll be eating everything in sight soon enough,” he lectured her sternly. “A pregnant woman in the house is the best diet a man can ever ha-yowch!” Rubbing his side where she’d pinched him, Chad contemplated yanking her pillow out from under her head. The gleam in her eye told him that she expected him to do exactly that, so he deliberately lay back down and kept talking. “You know, we’ll have to stop into that new store I heard about and see what kind of carpet they have.”

She took the bait, blinking in confusion. “What? Why do we need new carpeting? You didn’t spill anything in the front room when I wasn’t paying attention, did you?”

“It’s for the kitchen. I wouldn’t want your feet to get cold,” Chad explained. “You’re already pregnant, and when you start going barefoot-”

Andrea launched herself at him and tried to pull the blankets over his head, giggling. “Chad!”


tbc…
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