I don't own Rookie Blue, nor will I ever, unfortunately.

Tag to "Takedown."

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It had been a long day. A stressful day. For the first time in a long time Sam had been scared. He'd been a cop for awhile now. Gone around the block a time or two. Seen just about everything that comes along with the job. He had done plenty of dangerous undercover missions for the Guns and Gangs squad, but today's assignment was tough. Probably due to the fact that he had less than 24 hours to prep for it. He knew he was a damn good cop and could handle just about anything, but if he was honest with himself, he wasn't sure that he was going to make it out alive earlier today. And that thought had scared the hell out of him.

So he sat at The Penny nursing his Scotch thinking about the day's events. Focusing mainly, of course, on his undercover mission. He needed to relax. He was alive. He was safe. She was alive and safe. McNally. She had done great today. He knew she would, she was a fine cop as well. Even if she couldn't admit it, he could. He had meant what he said earlier, he didn't want to do the undercover op with anyone other than her.

As he thought, he realized that she was a big part of the reason he had been so scared today. Possibly the only reason. She was smart and brave and he knew she could think on her toes, but she had barely shed her rookie title. And he had to leave her. Just leave her alone with that scumbag Ricky while he tried not to get killed.

When he kissed her, the possibility of it being the last time didn't escape him. The kiss. Sure, he had kissed her as Gabe, but he knew he was channeling more of Sam at that moment. He had to kiss her, touch her. The fact that it solidified their undercover identities as a couple was merely a bonus. He wondered if she was only acting. Why would it mean more to her? She had made it pretty clear, in his eyes, that she wanted Callahan.

With that thought he waved the bartender down and ordered another Scotch. Why not? He could always take a cab home if he needed to. Jerry or Oliver would take him to get his truck in the morning. He figured he deserved more than one drink tonight. Hell, he could be dead right now. And he needed to take his mind off so many things.

Sam had never been one to overthink anything. For the last six months, he didn't need to. He had a perfectly capable rookie who did enough overthinking for the both of them. He just couldn't get the kiss out of his head. And it was starting to drive him crazy. He started to wonder if McNally could tell that he hadn't been acting at all when he wrapped her face in his hands and whispered to her that he had her back. He figured he could just walk up to her and ask her, but he knew he would never have the balls to do that. So for now, he would just think, hope, that she felt the desire in the kiss as well.

He must have been pretty deep in thought because he didn't even notice that she was now standing right next to him. Sam didn't even know she was at The Penny. He figured that Callahan would have taken her home. But it made sense. It was rough day for everyone involved in the undercover op.

He realized that he had yet to say anything and that she was just standing there staring at him. He couldn't help it though; sometimes his voice left him when he was in her presence.

"Hey McNally," was all he managed to get out.

"Hey Sam," she returned.

"Where's Callahan," he asked, not really caring what her answer would be. He was probably in the bathroom or hanging out with the other detectives.

"He went back to the barn a few minutes ago. Best asked him to help wrap up the bust tonight," she explained. He couldn't help but notice how her eyes saddened a little bit when she once again told him that Callahan was nowhere to be found.

Of course Callahan was gone. McNally needed him tonight which meant he would probably be working on a case.

He opted not to go down the sympathy route this time. He had done that before when Callahan abandoned her. It didn't make anything better and he really wasn't sorry that Callahan wasn't here. "Well pull up a stool, order a drink," he said noticing that she looked like she wanted to talk.

"Yeah, I think I will," she said as she sat next to him and ordered a Scotch.

They just sat there, both lost in their own thoughts. There was so much more he wanted to say to her, but he figured he'd let her speak up first to see where her head was at.

"Tonight was really something, huh," she said, glancing at her drink.

Looking over at her Sam agreed, "Yeah, it got a little messy there at the end."

"Yeah," she stated, still looking at her drink. Sam could tell there was something she wanted to talk about. He had known her long enough to know when something was on her mind. But he also knew not to push the issue. If she wanted to talk to him about something she would. In her own time.

He decided to change the subject, "So how is Diaz? You hear anything?"

"I got off the phone with Dov about an hour ago. He said Chris is doing alright. The wound wasn't serious. The doctors stitched him up and gave him a blood transfusion. They are going to keep him overnight to monitor and make sure nothing goes wrong though."

"I'm glad to hear he is doing alright. Gail and Dov are with him?"

"Yeah," she said. "I asked if I should go down there but Dov said that there was no need, that he was going to be fine and there was nothing I could do."

"Yeah, he's probably resting anyway," Sam said. He glanced over at Andy and noticed that she had finished off her drink. She noticed him look and gave him a half smile and a shrug before ordering another one.

They sat in silence until the bartender brought over her drink and after taking a sip she looked over at him and added, "Sam I wanted to ask you something."

He looked over at her and smiled saying, "Shoot, McNally. I'm all ears." He wasn't quite sure where this was going to go, but any excuse to talk to her made him a happy man.

She hesitated, looking down at her drink, as if willing it to give her the courage to say what was on her mind. "Umm…okay, I know you're probably just going to say that I'm over thinking it, but I have to know." She paused for a second. "When you kissed me earlier tonight, before leaving with Angel, was it only because you were pretending to be my boyfriend and you obviously couldn't leave without giving your girlfriend a kiss goodbye first?"

He couldn't believe his ears. She obviously had been thinking long and hard about the kiss as well. He took comfort in that, but he had no idea how to answer her question. Well, he did. The answer was no. Yeah he had kissed her as Gabe saying goodbye to his girlfriend. It would have looked all wrong if he hadn't of kissed her. They both realized that, but he knew what she was really asking and the answer was that there was so much more behind the kiss than what Angel and Ricky would ever know.

"Andy," he began but paused. He had no idea how he wanted to go about telling her the kiss meant more to him. He never thought they would have this conversation. Yeah, he entertained the idea of having this conversation earlier, but he didn't think he would have to because he didn't think that Andy would give that kiss a second thought. Clearly he was way off base.

As he was about to continue, he noticed a change in her face and body. She started to shift uncomfortably and he noticed that she had her "I'm going to run now" face on. She glanced over at him with blushing cheeks, laid a ten on the bar and said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up. That was stupid. I always overthink things. I'm sorry. I'm going to go. I'll see you tomorrow."

He hesitated, shocked, for a second before getting up, placing more money on the counter and following her out the door. She had obviously read into him pausing before his explanation of why he kissed her the wrong way. There was no way he was going to let her walk out when she just opened a door for them to have a real conversation. No, in no way was he going to pass up this opportunity.

As he reached the door and opened it he saw that she was running and without giving it a second thought he was out the door running to catch up to her. She had a pretty decent lead, but he was determined to catch her and talk it out.

"Andy, Andy. Stop running, stop," he yelled finally catching up to her. He grabbed her arm and slowed her down before saying, "Hey, hey, look at me. Why are you running?"

She turned slowly, inhaling and exhaling deeply. She looked at him not knowing what to say. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought up the kiss. We were undercover playing a couple madly in love. Of course you kissed me." She paused. "It's just you didn't have to, but you did." Since she started she figured she should just get everything off her chest.

"Yeah it would have looked bad if you left and didn't kiss me, but those guys probably wouldn't have given that a second thought. I don't even know why I'm giving it a second thought. I just, I've been thinking about it all night and I…ugh here I go again." She looked at him terrified, "Just forget it. I'm sorry," she said as she started to turn and walk away again.

Sam grabbed her arm again, "Andy stop apologizing. I want to talk about this. We should talk about this. What I was going to say before you fled the bar was that I didn't only kiss you because I was pretending to be Gabe crazy in love with Edie. I kissed you because I honestly didn't know if I was going to make it. I was about to go to some old abandoned warehouse with a pretty bad guy by myself. More terrible endings to the night were in my head than happy ones. I walked up to you to make sure that we were on the same page and when I had your face in my hands I couldn't not kiss you. You were right there in front of me. We were both terrified and I needed to kiss you." He stopped and took a breath and looked at her face. She was staring at him.

"Andy, I'm not trying to scare you. We don't have to make anything of this kiss but I want, no need you to know that when I kissed you tonight I wasn't acting. You're right, I didn't have to kiss you, I wanted to. That was me kissing you," he finished and searched her eyes for any reaction to what he had just said.

She took a step closer to him and said, "I wasn't acting either." He couldn't help but smile just a little at what she had just said. She continued, "I was terrified. I had no idea what I had just gotten you into by speaking up and giving Angel the idea to take you with him. I'm glad the kiss made us look like a real couple, but Sam that was the last thought on my mind. I needed to kiss you too. I needed you to kiss me because I wasn't sure if I was going to be okay otherwise."

Sam let out a little laugh and added, "So we both agree. I kissed you and you kissed me. We weren't just pretending to be Gabe and Edie?"

"No," she smiled. "It was real."

They stood there and stared at each other for a moment longer both contemplating what they had just admitted. Sam had told Andy that he kissed her because he wanted to. It's not like he professed his undying love for her, but he did let her know that that one kiss had meant something to him. And she had done just the same. Their kiss had meant something to her too and she wasn't denying it. She felt it earlier, whatever it is between them. She feels it too.

Sam wasn't sure where they were going to go from here, but hearing her say their kiss was real was enough to make him happy for now. After wrapping up his thoughts he said in a joking tone, "So now what, McNally?"

Andy laughed, glad that there was no awkward tension between the two of them after what they had just talked about. She was actually happy that they talked about the kiss. Her mind was at ease now. She looked back to Sam and asked, "Can you give me a ride home? My feet are starting to kill from these hooker boots."

Sam laughed, remembering that she had been wearing those ridiculous boots for the majority of the night now. "Of course I can give you a ride home," he said putting his arm around her shoulder and pulling her into his side.

They both smiled and headed back towards The Black Penny to his truck. Sam was content with what had just happened. He knew there was still a lot that they needed to talk about, but that stuff could wait. They had just opened a lot of doors. He figured the best thing to do was take one step at a time. Tonight was the first time they had ever talked about their feelings and it wasn't a complete disaster. He felt good. He didn't feel alone anymore. She feels whatever is going on between them too. He figured she did, but hearing her say so was incredibly comforting. He knew he loved Andy McNally and now he knew that he might have a chance after all.