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The Tandems is the slash ship between Robbie Lombardi and Georgie Dineen from the You Could Make a Life fandom.
Canon[]
but always in tandem[]
Robbie and Georgie meet for the first time as freshmen on the Boston University Men's Ice Hockey team. They are quickly paired together as a defensive line and become close friends. Robbie starts crushing on Georgie nearly immediately; Georgie takes a little longer but is already in love with Robbie by the end of their freshman year. They get together after Georgie kisses Robbie during their sophomore year.
After sophomore year, Georgie decides to sign a contract with the Cleveland Barons NHL team and drops out of college. Robbie, who had failed to secure a spot on the Washington Capitals NHL roster, remains in Boston. During his time with the Barons, Georgie experiences a heightened stress level after failing to connect with the locker room and being unable to match the team's expectations of his play. This ends in Georgie getting drunk on his birthday and cheating on Robbie; once Georgie starts, he can't stop, and Robbie catches him cheating on a surprise visit to Cleveland. He breaks up with Georgie on the spot and blocks him, along with all of Georgie's family, on all social media, as well as prohibits their friends (who largely do not know that the two had dated) from enabling any sort of contact between them. The following summer, Robbie signs with the Capitals and completes his degree remotely.
Three years later, the Washington Capitals trade for Georgie, hoping to reunite the stellar BU D-pair between Robbie and Georgie. Despite Robbie's animosity towards Georgie on the ice, their play remains fantastic. Georgie attempts to reconnect with Robbie but Robbie refuses to hear him out, and his hatred for Georgie also isolates him from the rest of the Capitals. One night, while at a bar, Robbie admits to being hung up on Georgie. Georgie kisses him, and Robbie kisses back. Robbie then invites Georgie back to his apartment, and Georgie comes but doesn't do anything but help Robbie get home despite Robbie's multiple invitations. When Robbie wakes up sober to find that Georgie slept on the couch, he once again invites Georgie to bed and this time Georgie accepts.
The two continue to hook up secretly, despite Robbie's anger towards Georgie and the fact that they are both still in love with each other. Despite Robbie's friends expressing concern multiple times over his increasingly erratic behavior, Robbie does not want to put a stop to it. He promises his best friend Elliott that he's going to go "cold turkey" and quit hooking up with Georgie, but fails.
Eventually, Georgie calls it off for the rest of playoffs, citing a mix of playoff stress and Robbie's evidentially worsening mental health. Robbie tries to goad him into taking it back, and tauntingly bets $1000 that Georgie won't last two playoff games. After two games go by and they don't hook up again, Robbie writes a check for $1000 and leaves it in Georgie's locker. This leads to Georgie getting angry and telling Robbie that he thinks they should stop hooking up for good and that he's going to request a trade during the offseason. Georgie also admits to being in love with Robbie and says that they need to stay away from each other. He starts crying while asking Robbie to get help with his mental health.
In the aftermath, Robbie's depression worsens. Finally, when the Capitals are kicked out of the playoffs, Robbie starts sobbing in the locker room and Georgie holds him, shielding him from the media and the rest of their teammates. He goes back home to Saugus, Massachusetts for the offseason and his mother quickly sets up an appointment with a therapist for Robbie. After a few sessions, the therapist tells him to make a list of things he wants to say to Georgie if Georgie remains on the team. When they meet up in Massachusetts before the season starts, Robbie and Georgie agree that they can't be friends, but they can be civil, and the truce carries them into the start of the next season.
still always in tandem[]
During the next season, Robbie begins dating around, which he hadn't really done before. While Georgie is jealous, he knows that he has no claim to Robbie. This does not stop him from irrationally hating Robbie's eventual long-term boyfriend Ted Chalmers. The same year, Georgie meets Melissa Stone, a bartender who goes to the same gym as him. They begin dating and have an open relationship. Georgie tells Mel early on about his relationship with Robbie, which becomes a sticking point in their relationship when Georgie cannot truthfully say that he wouldn't leave Mel if Robbie was interested in starting up their relationship again. The only reason Georgie can promise Mel he wouldn't is because he does not believe that Robbie would ever want to. Despite Robbie initially attempting to intimidate and 'warn' Mel away from Georgie, he likes her the first time they have a real conversation.
When Robbie's dad dies suddenly during a road trip, Robbie wakes Georgie up at three in the morning to sit with him. He knows that Georgie hated Robbie's father, and wants to be with someone who understood their complicated relationship before he has to fly home and face everyone at the funeral.
Months later, the Washington Capitals win the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Georgie plays the final series with a broken foot, and Robbie as his D-partner is the only teammate to know about the severity of his injury. During their drunken celebrations, Georgie wanders off into the neighborhood and Robbie finds him on a bench swing. They talk about dreaming of winning the cup together, and Robbie helps Georgie back to the team owner's mansion and into Mel's hands before joining the party again.
When his contract expires during the offseason, Georgie parts ways with the Capitals and signs with the Hartford Whalers to be close to his family in Providence, Rhode Island. Mel moves with him, and she becomes pregnant. Georgie and Mel get married before their child Tessa Dineen is born. Robbie and Georgie have a brief conversation at the bar the next time the Whalers play the Capitals, and Robbie tells Georgie he bets Georgie is a great dad; Georgie tears apart the words in his head trying to find a hidden meaning, but can't. Three years later, Robbie is traded to the Kansas City Scouts (a move that also causes a breakup with Ted after seven years together). Georgie watches him win the Stanley Cup again with his and Mel's newborn son Toby resting on his chest.
Come March of the next season, the Whalers general manager calls Georgie into his office to ask about trading for Robbie to reunite their D-pair. When Georgie tells Mel about this, she becomes upset that it sounds like Georgie was facilitating the trade despite Georgie protesting that he only told the truth. On the trade deadline, Robbie is sent to the Whalers.
While Robbie is on the Whalers, Georgie is shocked by the fact that Robbie is not only civil to Georgie but friendly. Georgie, on the other hand, begins to spiral. He drinks more than he normally would, and it eventually comes to a head when he is confronted by an old teammate from Cleveland who comments on how Georgie "turned over a new leaf" after having a tumultuous career with the Barons. He mentions Georgie having a breakdown on the team plane, and showing up to practice drunk; Georgie only remembers the plane incident. Later, Robbie pushes Georgie to talk about his rookie year because he doesn't think Georgie will tell anyone else. This leads to Georgie confessing it all to Robbie, which includes his perspective on their long-distance relationship, the extent of his infidelity, the benders he went on after Robbie left him, and the memory lapses he can't account for. Robbie tells Georgie that while he doesn't forgive Georgie, Georgie needs to stop punishing himself for what he did so he can focus on his children. However, while discussing the conversation with his therapist later, Robbie realizes that he unknowingly already forgave Georgie.
During a playoff game, Robbie takes a hit into the boards. This causes a relapse of an existing shoulder injury, and Robbie leaves the game. When Georgie checks on him between periods, Robbie wonders what it means that he can still tell when Georgie enters a room, and then says he thinks this was it, meaning the last nail in the coffin before he retires from hockey. He also asks if Georgie can find a ride for his mom to the hospital, and if Georgie can come to the hospital after the game.
After the Whalers are eliminated from playoffs, Georgie and Robbie go back to work for locker room clean-out, where they have to talk to the media. Robbie is approached by a reporter for the Boston University student newspaper, who wants to write an alumni story about Robbie and Georgie. Robbie leaves with the reporter to talk over coffee, and sends Georgie a goodbye email, letting him know that he passed on Georgie's information to the university reporter and that Robbie was genuinely glad to have played together again. Georgie replies, thinking this might be the last time he ever gets to talk to Robbie.
Nonetheless, Robbie replies once again with a question, and he thinks that his therapist is going to have a field day with this.
always in tandem[]
When always in tandem begins, it's been two years since the end of still always in tandem, and thirty-five year old Georgie is now in the middle of divorce proceedings with Mel. He has been therapist shopping but hasn't seen the same one twice. He has not seen any of the explicitly LGBT-friendly therapists on the list of options Finn made, and Finn accuses him of ignoring them because Georgie is "worried the second [he] mention[s] Robbie’s name they’ll know exactly why [he's] there." When asked why he's getting a divorce, Georgie can't decide what the right answer is; two of the reasons are that Mel fell in love with somebody else and that Mel thinks Georgie is still in love with Robbie. It is revealed that since the events of still always in tandem, the two have been in semi-frequent contact via email.
Meanwhile, Robbie is back home in Saugus and waiting on the results of an extensive hiring process with the American Hockey League headquarters. When he gets the job, Georgie is one of the first people he tells.
Fanon[]
Georgie and Robbie are a controversial ship in the fandom considering the events of but always in tandem, Georgie's history of infidelity, and Robbie's continuous animosity towards Georgie. Taylor Fitzpatrick has said that it is her second most contentious story, behind throw up your fists, throw out your wits, which ends in the central couple breaking up for good on bad terms. However, the Tandems beat it in "duration," as, unlike throw up your fists, arguments about the couple have continued for nearly a decade.
In the 2020 You Could Make a Life fandom shipping poll, they placed fourteenth out of 100+ ship options.
It is the ninth most popular ship in the You Could Make a Life Series AO3 tag, with 6 works, as well as the most popular ship for both Georgie and Robbie.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Georgie/Robbie tag on AO3
- TUMBLR
- but always in tandem posts on Tumblr
- still always in tandem posts on Tumblr
- always in tandem tag on Tumblr