Partners

Andrea tried to tell herself that it was no use getting upset about this, since it was actually an honor to be chosen and Chad deserved this opportunity…not to mention the fact that they were both grownups and could handle being apart for one month. That’s what she tried to tell herself. She couldn’t quite keep from hoping that the Chief would cancel the trip so that Chad would stay with her, even though she knew it was a completely unworthy thought. For his part, Chad didn’t seem too eager to go, but Andrea wasn’t sure if that wasn’t just him trying to be diplomatic – she knew he sensed her anxiety about their impending separation.

Her big lieutenant actually seemed pretty quiet these days, so Andrea figured it had something to do with the upcoming trip to Germany and avoided bringing it up. She wasn’t about to argue with him concerning the frequency of their lovemaking, though; it was like he couldn’t get enough of her lately. She pushed herself up onto an elbow and gazed down into his face, a smile curving her mouth as Chad sighed in his sleep and snuggled into the blankets. It’s only one month, Andrea told herself. We’ll survive. Dropping back down to her pillow, she curled up against his solid warmth and drifted off to sleep.

Her resolve to be calm, cool, and collected about him leaving was destroyed the next morning when she woke to find that Chad had placed his suitcase beside the door where she nearly killed herself tripping over it. “Damnit, Chad! What the hell were you thinking, putting that there?” she swore angrily, hopping on one foot and grasping the bruised toes of the other foot.

Chad frowned as he walked from the bedroom, pulling on his uniform shirt. “Since when do you go running into that corner by the door?”

“So this is my fault for going places I shouldn’t be?”

“Looks like,” was all he said before grabbing up Meredith’s leash and whistling for the pitbull who was practically tap-dancing in his eagerness to go outside. “C’mon, Merry – Mom’s got an attitude this morning.”

Andrea gaped. “What? I know you didn’t just say tha-hey!” The screen closed behind him and she shook her head, wondering just what she could pick up and smack him with as soon as he came back through the door. I’ll show him an attitude. Maybe she could hide a piece of Limburger in his suitcase lining… Andrea grinned as she went in their bedroom to get dressed, and came out to find that Chad was making breakfast for both of them…and had moved the suitcase from beside the door to directly in front of her chair on purpose. “Chad,” she said warningly.

He turned to look at her, blue eyes wide and innocent. “Yes? How may I help you?”

“You’re unbelievable, you know that? Move that thing right now or I’ll do something bad to you.” Chad opened his mouth and she beat him to the punch. “And not the kind of ‘something bad’ that you enjoy.”

Chad hmmphed and moved the suitcase, pulling out her chair with a flourish that made her roll her eyes as she sat down. “Should we go out tonight or stay in?” he asked, reaching for two plates. “I could make reservations somewhere.”

“Sounds good to me,” Andrea said, feeling her stomach start to roil with anxiety as she started picking at the eggs he put down in front of her. “Look, I’m not feeling very hungry right now. Sorry.” She pushed the plate away and stood, grabbing her keys. “I’ll meet you back here tonight, okay?”

He looked down at her plate and back up at her. “I made that for you, and you’re not going to eat it? You should’ve said you weren’t hungry so I didn’t have to waste my time,” Chad remarked, irritation creeping into his tone.

“I said I was sorry,” she snapped back. What was wrong with him? This was the second time this morning! “Anyway, I never asked you to make me anything.”

Chad slammed his mug down on the table, causing some of the coffee inside it to slosh over onto the tablecloth. “I’ll remember that next time.” Reaching across for her plate, he put it down on the floor. “Meredith! Come here.” The pitbull slunk past Andrea, obviously convinced he was in trouble from the angry tone of Chad’s voice, but made a beeline for the eggs as soon as he spotted the plate.

“What is your problem today?” Andrea demanded. “You’re acting like a complete jackass, and I don’t like it.”

“News flash, Battle – not everything in life is gonna be just how you like it.” Chad opened the paper so violently he nearly tore the pages, and dropped his eyes to look at it. “I thought you were leaving.”

Rendered speechless, she turned and walked out the door to her car half expecting Chad to come out and tell her that he was sorry before she cranked the engine – Andrea took several deep breaths and glanced up at the house, waiting. When it became apparent that he wasn’t coming, she started her car and put it in gear...and the front door opened. Her half-formed hopes of reconciliation were dashed when Chad went straight to his car and got in, driving away without even a glance over at her.

With her day off to such a fabulous start, it was no surprise when it just kept getting worse – her new CI didn’t feel like coughing up the information he’d previously been chomping at the bit to give to her, and Hopper was in a shitty mood about something concerning Rita. Then, of course, Faith had called her to find out why Chad was in such a bad mood. “What’s going on, Andy? He’s like a force of nature with half the manners, and everyone’s just getting out of his way like he’s Moses parting the Red Sea whenever he comes down the hall,” the other woman complained.

“Did you ask him why he’s being such a bastard?”

There was silence on the other end of the line. “Uh…”

“Just because I’m not on SWAT doesn’t mean I’m not busy, Faith,” Andrea snapped. “Now, was there something else you needed, or did you just want to butt in on something that doesn’t concern you?”

“Well, I…no, I just-”

“That’s what I thought. Mind your own business.” She hung up the phone and glared across at Hopper. “What?!”

Her partner held his hands up in the classic surrender gesture. “Nothing.”

_ _ _

At long last, her day was finally over – Andrea sighed and dug her cell phone out of her purse, and suddenly felt better than she had all day at seeing that she had two ‘missed call’ notifications, and both were from Chad. Hurriedly dialing his number, she felt a surge of relief as he answered on the second ring. “Sorry I missed you,” she said hesitantly. “Did you still want to go out somewhere?”

“Yeah, if you want to – meet you at home?”

Andrea smiled. “Sounds great.”

As soon as she got to the house, her feelings of anger and hurt at the way he’d yelled at her started to resurface to such an extent that she was hesitant to approach him first for a kiss. Chad came over to embrace her and though she knew it was silly and that she should just let it go, she remained stiff before slowly putting her arms around him. “What’s wrong with you? Come here,” Chad teased, pulling her closer and dropping a kiss on the top of her head.

She didn’t really feel like bringing it all up again, and since it was pretty clear that Chad wasn’t going to be the one to broach the subject, Andrea figured they could let this one go. She knew that it was about him leaving in the morning, anyway; no real mystery about that, right? Andrea buried her face in his chest and closed her eyes as she felt him stroke her hair, then stepped back and smiled up at him when he suggested that they leave. “Okay.”

Dinner started out well enough, but the evening began to unravel at a pretty swift pace when Andrea accidentally mentioned Faith’s phone call and Chad went on the defensive. Tempers rose even more on the drive back from the restaurant, and they were well into a shouting match by the time they were behind closed doors. “You’re the one who started bitching when you didn’t watch where you were going, so I don’t know why you didn’t tell her that,” Chad snarled. “If you’d like, I can call her up right now and she can just listen in so you won’t have to tell her everything. Hell, we can even call Hopper so he knows what’s going on.”

“Oh, come on, Chad – you’re not still using Hopper as an excuse for your shitty attitude? Grow up,” Andrea yelled, pulling off her boots and throwing them in a corner. “And if you think you’re going to get anything before you leave tomorrow, you’re sorely mistaken.”

He threw up his hands. “Yeah, that’s great. Using that against me – Jesus Christ, you’re just like Rita!”

The angry retort died on Andrea’s lips as she processed his words, and she felt as if her insides had turned to ice. Even Chad seemed to realize that he’d gone too far. “I’m going to bed,” she said quietly. Walking through the bedroom, she quickly washed her face and brushed her teeth before changing into her pajamas. She stared off into the darkness trying not to cry as she heard Chad finally come in and get ready for bed, listening to several of his indrawn breaths as if he were getting ready to speak.

In the morning, Andrea hurried through her breakfast without talking to him and took off as soon as he left to walk Meredith. Chad didn’t look as if he’d gotten much sleep, but she was still so hurt she didn’t care how miserable he felt; he should have known better. At work she tried to tell herself that it didn’t matter that she wouldn’t see Chad for a month and he wouldn’t be calling her for at least a day due to the time difference (if he felt like calling her at all), but by midday doubt started to set in and when she was headed back home Andrea felt horrible for not even saying goodbye to him. They could have worked it out, all she’d needed to do was to get over her anger enough for them to talk about it… then she wouldn’t be feeling like this.

Meredith started wagging his tail expectantly as soon as she came in the door and butted against her legs to get her to move, obviously expecting Chad to be hiding behind her. “He’s gone, Merry.” The dog planted himself directly in front of the door, resting his head on his paws with an occasional wag of his tail. The house seemed so empty without Chad, almost like how her first house had felt when he’d been in the hospital after Eddie had tried to kill him.

Andrea tried to settle down to watching a movie, but nothing on TV held her interest for longer than five minutes and reading was out as well – by the time Meredith had finally given up on Chad walking through the door and had plopped down into her lap, Andrea was looking through the photo albums Chad had put together. Occasionally she’d glance over at the phone and then at the clock, wondering if he’d call her. This is silly. Of course he’ll call – it’s not as if you have his phone number. The world’s not going to end if he doesn’t call, though. She brushed tears from her eyes, trying not to feel so sorry for herself, and was blowing her nose when the phone rang.

Snatching it up immediately, she felt the tears threaten once more when she heard Chad’s voice. “I’m sorry.”

“…Chad?” she asked stupidly, as if she had men routinely calling her up to apologize at 3:30 in the morning.

“Yeah. I thought you’d be asleep or something, so I was going to leave a message. But it’s good that you’re awake so I can talk to you instead,” he said quickly.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Andrea confessed. “And I was actually hoping you’d call as soon as you got there, so I’d know you were safe.”

“Well, the plane didn’t crash or anything,” Chad said, and Andrea cleared her throat as she tried to think of what to say to him. “Are you…do you want…I mean…” Chad sighed. “You weren’t…crying, were you?”

“What? No,” Andrea said, sniffling. Classic Chad Shelten, asking something like this.

Chad exhaled loudly. “Good, then. Your sinus medicine is in the other bathroom, even though you don’t need it.”

Andrea could have kicked herself as she sniffled again. “Well, I don’t,” she insisted.

“I never said you did,” Chad pointed out. “I really am sorry, Andy. I shouldn’t have said what I said,” he apologized. “I love you.”

“You were mean.”

“I know.”

“You may have hurt more than one of my feelings.”

“I know.”

“You said that Rita had bigger breasts than I do,” she insisted.

Chad’s huff of laughter made her grin. “That’s because she does.” Andrea gasped and tapped the buttons on the phone to make him think she was hanging up on him, and he hurriedly tried a last-minute save. “Oh, wait, wait – no, don’t hang up..! C’mon, Andy. Everyone know she wears push-ups. I liked yours better ever since I met you for the first time.”

She giggled softly. “I’m sorry I didn’t say goodbye,” Andrea confessed, sniffling again. “I guess I just like to hold on to being mad sometimes, even when it’s not worth it.”

They talked for a few minutes more until he started to yawn, and she yawned too. “I guess I’d better go get some sleep… you, too.”

“I can’t sleep without you,” Andrea complained.

“Me neither, but we have to try anyway. I miss you,” he added softly. “I’ll call you later, okay?”

She sighed. “Okay. I miss you, too.”

“I love you,” he reminded her softly.

Andrea sniffled once more. Maybe she really did need that medicine. “I love you too, sweetie.” After talking a few minutes more, she blew a kiss into the phone even as she rolled her eyes at her own behavior, and hung up. Since Merry was still awake, she took him for a walk and then climbed into bed – the pitbull took Chad’s absence as his own personal invitation and jumped up to curl beside her, and Andrea didn’t have the heart to reprimand him. “Just don’t snore,” she said sternly. Meredith sneezed loudly in response and she sighed, settling back and closing her eyes. Only four more weeks.


tbc…
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