For first time readers:

All of my fics are interconnected. I think I've got a few more stories like this before I start over in their relationships and shake things up a bit.

While I recommend just reading my other fics to get the whole picture, I doubt you'll all want to. So, after four storylines, here's where we are:

Andy and Sam are together after a tragic suicide drives them into each others arms. (See: At A Loss). But Sam goes back undercover, and asks Andy to marry him. (See: Life Raft).

Chris and Gail are having a baby girl, Abby, she's five months along. (See: Uncertainty).

Dov killed a man to save Sam's life while Andy was staying with him, and started drinking to cope. Then, he met a girl. She went missing, now she's back, but she won't tell anyone what happened. (See: Changing My Ways).

BEGIN!

(I don't own RB.)

In an Instant

The water looked deep and inviting as the soon to be Mrs. Swarek walked along Toronto's Sugar Beach, gazing out over the water. Her hair was French braided; a blue scarf lay around her neck and tucked into her grey winter jacket that was zipped up three quarters of the way.

She took a sip of her steaming peppermint hot chocolate and smiled. She really did love this time of year. And who she got to spend it with made it that much more special.

"McNally!" Sam called from behind her. She turned her head, her lips still tugged into a smile. Click! Sam pulled the camera away from his face to look at the LCD screen on the back. "Oh my God." He whispered, smiling to himself.

"I thought I said no pictures of me!" She called back to him, small wisps of her hair falling around her face. "Sam!" His eyes remained fixed on the screen, a smile playing on his lips. "Sam?" His head snapped up.

"Sorry, sorry." He laughed, jogging up to her. He slid one arm around her waist and kissed her ear.

"Let me see it." She held her hand out.

"No!" He held the camera away from her, laughing.

"Why?" She whined as she reached for it.

"Because this camera is my baby. And you're going to delete the picture." He pushed her hand away.

"Please?" She stepped in front of him and ran her free gloved hand over his jaw before pulling him in for a quick kiss.

"Well when you put it that way…" He handed her the camera.

"Hold?" She passed him her hot chocolate and clicked her way to the photos. Her gloves didn't make it easy, but eventually she found it. "This is gross!" She shrieked. He grabbed the camera back from her and laughed.

"You're insane! It's beautiful. I love it. I want it framed." He announced.

"Delete! Delete!" She wrestled with him for the camera.

"Never!" He laughed as he swung the camera behind him, thankful for its neck strap and wrapped his arms around her. "I want it out, framed at our wedding."

"It's ugly!" She squealed, her eyes wide. "You wouldn't."

"It's stunning. Totally beautiful. Painfully beautiful." He nuzzled his nose against hers, an intimate move that still gave her chills.

"You're lucky you're so damn good looking." She let herself relax into his arms. "Too bad we have to get back to work."

Sam groaned and handed her hot chocolate. "I don't wanna!" He whined.

"Me either." She scrunched up her nose. "Oh well. We gotta be strong, baby. Just wait until later." She drew out the last few words. His dimples made an appearance and his brown eyes bore into hers.

"'Later', is what gets me out of bed in the morning." He poked her in the side. "I'm driving." He grinned as he turned away from her and began to jog away.

"Sam Swarek!" She called after him, before she picked up her feet and caught up with him.

To a stranger, they looked happy; truly happy. They looked like a young couple, madly in love. They looked like they didn't have a care in the world. And for the time being, they didn't.

But time, like life, is fleeting.

"Ladies and gentlemen." Sgt. Best's voice filled the parade room. "You're probably wondering why I called you back from the streets." Nods and murmurs from around the room proved his theory right. "I'm sure you've all heard about the missing girl, Dawn Fletcher."

"I thought 52 was dealing with that." Oliver called from the back of the room.

"And they are, Officer Shaw, if you'd let me finish." Best was obviously stretched pretty thin. Oliver raised his hands in surrender and nodded. "As I was saying, we're four days in now. As we all know, the chances of finding a child alive after 24 hours are – "

Everyone nodded, not needing the image imprinted into their minds.

"Yeah. Well, 52 had started preparing the parents for the worst. Until this morning, when they got a peculiar message left on the tip line." He walked to the table that Andy, Traci, Chris and Gail were sitting at and pressed the play button on a black tape recorder.

"Hi, uh, my name is – no, never mind." A raspy voice whispered. Andy furrowed her brow and tried to get all the information she could from the tape. "That girl, Dawn, we have her. She's okay, she's scared. They're going to call and demand two million dollars, but don't bring it." Around the room, ears perked up and people craned their necks, as if getting closer to the speaker could help find the girl faster.

Andy pressed a knuckle to her lips as she thought. 'Definitely male, sounds Caucasian. I'm going to say, late teens to very early thirties. Damn, that's not good enough.' She huffed when she realized that she wasn't going to figure out anything new or helpful from the tape.

"Even if you bring it, they're going to kill her. I'm sorry, I really am. I never wanted any part of it, at all. I swear." The voice grew frantic. "Just please. Trace this call, do something. I don't know where we are. I think we're near Spadina, but I can't tell. Just please, – " The breath on the recorder caught.

"What are you doing?" A man yelled, then the line went dead. The officers of fifteen stared forward, a mixture of disgust and terror pasted on their faces and all painfully aware of their shortcomings.

"As you can see, coppers, someone in on this kidnapping wants out. Supposedly, that's our in." He stepped back. "Jerry?"

Detective Barber walked to the front of the room, looking especially haggard. He tossed a folder of papers down on Andy's table and turned to face the room. Holding up an eight by ten photo of the seven year old girl, he exhaled and clenched his jaw.

"Dawn Fletcher was taken from her school parking lot in a targeted kidnapping. We have two suspects, though the Ds at 52 believe that there is at least four. These men," He held up two more pictures. "Are named William Moore, 24 and Cory Watson, 23. We got them on a surveillance camera driving in the same van identified as the one at the scene of the abduction."

"What did they get on them?" Sam called from the back of the room.

"Combined, they've got a long list, but it's all petty stuff; theft under a thousand, indecent exposure, disorderly conduct, the usual." He shrugged his shoulders.

"So what, they just want some extra man power? Because that tape doesn't give us anything about location or who we're looking for." Noelle spoke up.

"True, that tape doesn't, but this one does." Jerry fast forwarded the tape, and pressed play again. The Officers again leaned forward to listen.

"Bring two million dollars to Queen's Park for eight PM. Only you, Mrs. Fletcher. Anyone else comes, the girl dies. You're late, the girl dies. You come up short, you can guess what happens. No exceptions." And the call ended.

"We got more from that?" Someone chirped from the back of the room.

"Yes, thanks. We did." Jerry snapped. "Queen's Park. Through some equations and other crazy things that our techs came up with, they narrowed the area that we should be focusing on. Add that to the ambient background noise known as waves crashing on the beach, and that gives us Lower Spadina at high noon." An exchange of astounded looks made Jerry smile. "Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we are that great." He clapped is hands together, once.

"So what do we do?" Traci tilted her head to the side.

"You, my day shift coppers of fifteen, are going to canvas. Everyone, everywhere. In the Lower Spadina area, at least. Night shift, bless their devoted hearts, will be taking calls while you guys check everything out. Anything and everything gets reported to dispatch, got it? No stone unturned, blah blah blah. You get it. So roll out, if we get anything else you'll be notified. Roll out, kids." Jerry dismissed them with the wave of a hand.

The parade room emptied and all of the officers were supplied with a photo of seven year old Dawn before they disbanded and began their search.

"Jesus." Sam said as he and Andy got situated in the car. "Un-freakin'-believable. She's seven years old, and she's been held captive for four days. This, is, – " He replaced the photo and threw the car into gear. "It just makes me angry."

"Hey." She said softly, placing her hand on his forearm. "We'll find her. And when we do, the guys that took her are going away for a long, long time." She smiled at him and narrowed her eyes a little, making sure to catch his attention. "You know I'm right."

"I love you." He smiled at her optimism, or naivety. He'd seen too many of these cases, and only a handful had ended up not haunting him for the months, sometimes years that followed.

"Love you too." She smiled as he hung a left onto the Gardiner Expressway. Andy looked up at the sky through the window of the car just in time to see one of the first snowflakes of the year make its descent. "Sam! It's snowing!" She squealed.

He only grimaced.

"What? Don't you love snow? It's almost Christmas!" She patted him on the arm.

"I love it because you love it. But right about now, I'm pretty sure Dawn doesn't love it. She wants to be at home, with mom and dad." He sighed.

"These kidnappings hit you hard, hey?" She rubbed his shoulder a little. "I know it really gets everyone, but you seem to take it all very personally."

"Just, their kids. Their innocence and childhood is taken away from them in an instant." He shook his head and clenched his jaw. "Who knows what they're doing to her." He whispered.

"We'll find her." She held his free hand, smiling at how he relaxed under her touch.

"Fingers crossed." He said as the radio crackled to life, muttering the words that no one ever wanted to hear.