It's been a while but after watching 6x07 I was finally inspired to write something about this season. It was only supposed to be a one shot but it ended up being rather long, so I've split it into two parts.

Be warned that this story contains spoilers for season 6 up until the end of 6x07, so don't go any further if you don't want to know what happens.

Also I just wanted to say a special thanks to dcj for looking over this first.

Disclaimer: I do not own Rookie Blue or the characters, though I still enjoy borrowing them for my own entertainment.

"I'm gonna go drum in my kid's band."

Those were the last words Oliver had said before he left. They also happened to be the last words actually spoken in the room since neither Andy nor Sam had managed to vocalise their thoughts for the past few minutes.

Andy's mind had been looping over their conversation with Oliver, again and again, as her eyes shifted from Sam to the door and then back again. He hadn't moved since Oliver's departure, hadn't broken his gaze away from the door his best friend had walked out of, hell Andy wasn't even sure if he had blinked.

She didn't blame him though; she was in just as much shock if she was honest. Oliver's speech about missing solos but saving the world had almost left her in tears because he was right. The man was an amazing TO, a brilliant Staff Sargent (even if he did hate it), and he cared. He cared about everyone and he wanted to make the world a better place. Yet instead of being rewarded for all of the sacrifices he had made for the job, this was how he was being repaid.

Part of her wanted to scream at the injustice, part of her wanted to cry at the despair she had seen on Oliver's face...and part of her just wanted to know what they could do to prove his innocence. In the end though, Andy could do little more than huff out a breath and wipe her eyes while glancing at the door. It wasn't fair. None of this was fair.

With that thought clear in her mind, Andy found herself shaking her head as she shifted her eyes back to Sam. The set of his jaw was more than enough for her to know that he was trying but failing to process all of this.

"Sam." Her voice was wrecked, but she pushed on as she moved closer and took the hand hanging down by his side. "We should go."

No one seemed to be looking up here yet, but Andy knew it was only a matter of time, and there was no way she wanted anyone to see her or Sam in their current state.

"Hey," she tried again before feeling his fingers curl around her hand. "Come on, let's get out of here."

A second later he was looking at her with an expression she didn't think she had seen since the day he had told her about Marlo's pregnancy, though it was one she recognised far too well now. He had no idea what to do. In all fairness she had no idea either, but there was no way they were going to work it out here.

"Sam-" But Andy didn't bother to finish as Sam gave a brief nod before letting out a sigh.

Taking it as a sign that he was ready to go, Andy headed to the door whilst keeping his hand held tightly in her own. They couldn't talk about it here, not when they still didn't know who was in on this conspiracy, but they had to. She didn't think either of them would survive keeping this bottled up, so they just needed to go…well any place other than here.

The plan was clear in her mind but as soon as she felt Sam let go of her hand, just a few steps outside of Oliver's office, she realised that he might have other ideas. She wasn't sure what to say though, so she just turned back to face him with a furrowed brow.

"I'll meet you at the truck." His voice was hoarse and Andy could tell he didn't want to say anything else.

"Okay. Okay, I'll just go get changed."

"Yeah," he muttered as he rubbed a hand over his face. "Yeah."

With that he was taking long strides in the direction of the exit, leaving Andy staring after him for almost a full minute before she finally forced herself to get on her way. She wouldn't be long, five minutes tops. All she had to do was drop off her gun and then change out of her uniform without running into anyone.

It should have been quick, it should have been easy, but of course life had other plans for her. Just as she was about to head into the locker room, after already depositing her gun, she heard one of the voices she least wanted to hear right now.

"Officer McNally."

The cheerful singsong call of her name did nothing to improve Andy's current mood as she turned around to face Duncan.

"It's not a good time," she told him firmly, because the grin he was wearing was enough for her to know that this was nothing serious.

"It's just a quick question," he said, hands in the air as he moved towards her. "A little bird told me that Oliv-I mean Staff Sargent Shaw was playing a gig tonight and I was just wondering where that might be."

"Huh?" Andy shook her head as she tried to process his words. "What? Why do you want to know? You don't even like that kind of music."

"Um. Well I heard that people, like Chloe Price, were going, and I um…well you're friends with Staff Sargent Shaw and I just…I just want to show my support."

By the time he had finished, his hands were clasped in front of his body and he was shifting his weight between his feet with a hopeful smile on his face.

"I…I don't have time for this," Andy said before walking past him.

"But-"

"Go talk to Chloe," she called back, not bothering to check behind her because getting Duncan to Oliver's gig was really not something she cared about right now. She just wanted to get changed, get out of here, and see Sam.

Thankfully it seemed that her luck was starting to turn because no one else came to talk to her as she got changed. Though that did mean she was alone with her thoughts for several minutes which all kept coming back to one thing: there had to be something. There had to be something they could do, something they were missing, because there was no way in hell that Oliver – the person who had looked out for her for the past five years and was Sam's best friend - had done this.

"Hey, Andy… Andy?"

Forcing a small smile on her face, Andy turned around to see Chloe standing by the lockers. She didn't want the woman to see that anything was wrong, so she just gave a quick nod and a 'hey' before grabbing her bag and setting off towards the door.

"Are you and Sam going to Oliver's gig?"

Andy couldn't stop herself from sighing at the question, though it appeared Chloe hadn't noticed given the grin on her face when Andy turned back to see her.

"Um." She hadn't even thought about it, although she was already pretty sure of the answer. "Probably not. We've uh-"

"Got to plan a wedding, I hear ya," Chloe said with a wink. "Oh, but if you need any help, just remember that I am an excellent decorator. So you know like table decorations; flowers – Oh there's this great little florist on-"

"Yeah, we're not really at table decorations yet."

"Oh, yeah. No, of course, but let me know."

Considering how excited Chloe appeared, and given Andy's burning desire to be away from the station as soon as possible, she nodded a little whilst muttering, "Uh yeah maybe. I gotta go."

Before Chloe had a chance to respond, Andy was already speed walking towards the door, though she did hear the familiar voice behind her once more. "Have fun!"

Realising that leaving the station unnoticed was not as easy as she'd first thought, Andy kept her eyes focused on the floor as she hurried towards the exit. Luckily her plan seemed to pay off. No one called her name, or stopped to talk to her, so she almost found herself smiling when she entered Sam's truck, but then she saw his face.

He was still wearing the same expression he'd had on since Oliver left, so she offered him a reassuring half-smile as she chucked her bag in the back. "Hey."

Sam didn't speak but he glanced in her direction to acknowledge her presence.

"What are you thinking?" she asked quietly as she turned to face him further. She wasn't sure if he wanted to talk yet, but she couldn't ignore what had just happened. "Sam."

He didn't respond with words, instead he shook his head gently before looking up at the roof of the truck.

Andy tried to be patient, to wait for him to talk, but after a minute she had to speak. "You-"

"I've ruined his life. I've…I've screwed all of this up. I-"

"No. No, not you. This is not on you." Her voice was louder than she had meant it to be, but she couldn't let him think like this. This was in no way his fault.

"If I'd left it alone, if I hadn't brought in IA-"

"You wouldn't have been able to live with yourself if you had." She remembered what he'd been like after Ted McDonald and her near death experience, and there was no way he would have been able to move on without doing anything, at least not without it eating away at him every day. "Besides, clearly you're right about this."

"But they're going to pin it all on Oliver," he told her firmly as he finally looked over. Andy could see the desperation in his eyes as he continued. "If I could swap places with him…he doesn't deserve this."

"And neither do you," she said as she reached over and took his hand. "Look, we're not just going to sit back and let this happen. Okay? I don't care what it takes; we're going to find a way to prove he's innocent and bring the right people to justice."

"Andy, you-"

"What? You really think I'm going to let you do this alone?" she asked before looking down at her hand. When she caught sight of the ring, she couldn't help but lift it up for him to see. "For better or worse right?"

For a moment she thought she almost saw a smile from Sam, but then he was looking at her as seriously as he ever had. "This is dangerous. Ted McDonald didn't kill himself, it doesn't make any sense, and now they're setting Oliver up. If they – whoever they are - find out that we're on to them…I don't know if I'll be able to protect you."

While she appreciated his desire to look out for her, she had to point out the hypocrisy. "And what about you? You somehow immune from all of this?"

"I set this thing in motion."

"So what? Now you have to fall on your sword?" she asked, keeping her eyes locked with his. "Look, you have a daughter on the way who is going to need you to be around and not do anything stupid. You also kinda promised to be my husband, which I do plan on holding you to. So we just need to be smart, and cautious, and figure all of this out without letting anyone else know that we're onto them until we have enough evidence to put them away. Okay?"

Sam didn't speak straight away. Instead he held her gaze for a few moments, clearly contemplating her words before finally opening his mouth. "That simple?"

"We've never done simple."

There was a brief nod from Sam as he pulled her hand to his mouth and placed a kiss on it. "True."

"But we get through it. So we'll get through this."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

It seemed her determination was enough to convince Sam because he gave a quick nod before taking hold of her other hand and tracing his thumb over the ring. "Kinda promised huh?"

Andy had to bite back a smile as she shrugged; the words had come out before she'd had time to think them through.

"Trust me, McNally. One way or another, we're getting married."

He seemed so certain that Andy couldn't hold back her grin any longer because even if she didn't know how everything would play out, she knew Sam would be there with her through it all.

"Okay," she almost whispered, finally seeing a small smile from Sam as she leant over and placed a soft kiss on his lips. "Okay. But for the moment I think going home might be a good idea."

"Yeah," Sam muttered, the smile fading from his face as he released her hands and started the engine. "We just need to make a detour first."

"Oh yeah? Where we going?"

"Uh, we…" But Sam paused to pull on his seatbelt as Andy continued to stare at him, unsure of what he had in mind. "We are going to watch a forty year old man attempt to play drums in his teenage daughter's band."

The drive was mostly quiet since both of them were busy thinking over their previous conversation, and the rest of the day. In Andy's case she just kept coming back to one bit in particular: there had to be a way to prove Oliver's innocence. The man was being accused of a major crime so there had to be a hole in the story those setting him up were spinning. All she had to do now was work out what it was.

Unfortunately after running through the day's events for the past fifteen minutes, Andy had nothing. It was all so horribly frustrating and she couldn't stop herself from letting out a sigh. As much as she hated to admit it, she wasn't getting anywhere. She was exhausted, and emotionally drained, which meant she wasn't thinking clearly enough to work this out.

"Think this might be the place," Sam said, causing Andy to set aside her previous thoughts and focus on her surroundings.

There were a number of guys unloading a van full of drums and amps who looked to be around the same age as Izzy. In addition, there was a smoking crowd gathered just outside the main entrance with one girl Andy was sure she had seen before, possibly at the rave where she had first met Izzy.

"Seems like it," she agreed when her eyes landed on Oliver's car.

Unsurprisingly Sam pulled into the space next to it before killing the engine. Yet instead of unclipping his seatbelt and getting out of the truck like she had expected him to, he just stayed staring at the building in front of them. Andy didn't need to ask what he was thinking because she was almost certain it was the same question now at the forefront of her mind: should they be here?

Oliver had made it clear that he just wanted to spend some time with his daughter, to have one more night before dealing with the mess he was being framed for, the mess they had told him about. So regardless of how close Oliver and Sam were, of how good a friend she considered him to be, Andy knew there was a chance he would just see them as a reminder of everything that was wrong right now.

"Hey," she spoke softly as she reached over and took the keys from the ignition. "Worst case he tells us to leave."

The look Sam gave her was enough for her to know that he had been picturing the worst case and that wasn't it. Still, even though part of her was tempted to leave, she knew they had to try. Sam needed to talk to his friend, probably more than he would ever admit, because until he did he would almost certainly torture himself by replaying the conversation with Oliver over and over again. And in spite of what Oliver had said about not dealing with it tonight, the man wouldn't be able to ignore what had happened so at the very least they could prove to him that they were here for him no matter what.

"So?" She indicated to the building, keeping her eyes on Sam's face.

"Yeah," he muttered as he unclipped his seatbelt. "Let's do this."

Following his lead, Andy removed her seatbelt and grabbed her bag before opening the truck's door to find Sam waiting just outside for her.

"Okay?" she asked as he held the door open with one hand and offered his other to her. It wasn't that she was complaining but he wasn't normally running round to help her out of his truck.

"I'm fine." He gave a reassuring smile as he helped her out before closing the door behind her.

"Great." Andy found herself matching his smile as she locked the truck and placed the keys in her pocket. "So-"

But she stopped when she looked back up. She had expected Sam to already be on his way to the bar, or at least waiting by her side, yet instead he had come closer and removed pretty much all of the space between them.

Clearly something was still bothering him, but she had no idea what he was currently thinking. So she just waited until he finally opened his mouth. "You know I love you, right?"

"Yeah." She gave a quick nod, unable to hide the concern in her voice. "I love you too."

There was a small smile on Sam's face for a moment before he spoke again, and suddenly Andy understood what had been on his mind. "All of this...stuff. I know you want to help, and I appreciate it, I really do, but we've got to be extremely careful here...these people..."

"We will. Okay? We will. But let's just...let's just do this right now," she said as she gestured to the bar. "We can figure out the rest tomorrow."

Sam seemed like he wanted to say more but after a few moments of silence he gave a brief nod before leaning in to kiss her. It wasn't as gentle as the kiss she had initiated earlier in his truck, but it also wasn't as heated as they tended to get after a hard day. Really it was just what they both needed right now; slow and comforting.

"We should go inside," she whispered when Sam pulled back and rested his forehead against hers.

"Probably," he agreed, though he showed no signs of moving.

"Come on," she said as she stepped back and tilted her head in the direction of the bar. "Let me buy you a drink."

"Yeah…feel like I might need more than one though."

"Oh, so does this mean I'm driving later?" she asked with a playful smile on her face. She knew Sam would be biting his tongue because even though she had the spare set of keys, and also now his main set in her pocket, he still didn't tend to relinquish control of his truck too often.

"We'll see," he told her in a low voice as he opened the door for her. Andy almost felt herself laughing at his hesitance until she heard the familiar voice.

"You guys made it!" A moment later Chloe was next to them with Duncan trailing behind her.

"Uh, yeah. Change of plans," Andy said as she glanced in Sam's direction to see him looking less than enthusiastic about the situation.

"If you're looking for Oliver, he's sound checking, but he said the first band should be on in like fifteen minutes," Chloe informed them before taking a quick look around the rest of the bar. It wasn't overly busy but there were quite a number of small groups huddled about the place. "You guys haven't seen Dov have you? I…I mean cause Oliver told us that we had to come."

"Uh, no. Sorry." Andy shook her head, not missing the look of disappointment on Chloe's face. It was a look she could relate to because it was one she had been sporting around this time last year, the look of someone who was desperately trying to move on but failing miserably. "Um, well we should probably get some drinks."

"Yeah. Yeah, I'll come with you."

"But you've already got a drink," Duncan said, pointing to the half full glass in Chloe's hand.

"Oh yeah," she muttered before downing the rest and then looking up at the three of them with her usual bright smile. "Not anymore. Let's go."

Before Andy had a chance to react, Chloe had grabbed her arm and was leading her in the direction of the bar. Andy wasn't sure what the right move was because it seemed as though Chloe wanted to be away from Duncan, but then leaving him with Sam wasn't necessarily the best idea. In the end, she just gave Sam an apologetic look as Chloe walked them over to the bar and flagged down the bartender.

"Okay, so I need three beers, you and Swarek are drinking beer right?" Andy gave a quick nod. "And two shots of tequila."

The situation with Oliver was almost certainly more important than what was annoying Chloe, but still Andy had to ask.

"You okay?"

"Oh, yeah. I mean…it's just…" Chloe stopped to let out a frustrated groan. "It's men! I mean why can't they just tell you how they feel, or, you know, not act like a frickin robot? Because seriously, not cool. If they would just get angry or upset or anything, then there would be something to work with, but no. No, they ignore you, or act like…like you're just friends, but you can't be just friends with exes, it doesn't work."

"Dov?" Andy guessed as Chloe grabbed the two shots and gave her one.

"Yeah," she muttered as she clinked Andy's glass and downed it. "But it's fine. I'm moving on."

Andy couldn't help but furrow her brow, praying that she was wrong. "With Duncan?"

"What?" Chloe looked horrified. "No. Why would you say that?"

"Uh. Well earlier he mentioned that he wanted to come because you would be here, you know, not very subtly, and now he's…well now he's staring at you."

"Oh, no." It seemed as though Chloe had just had some epiphany. "No."

"What?"

"A while ago we had this conversation about sunshine and-and sunscreen...and he asks me to have a drink sometimes but…but he knows that I'm not interested…I-I mean…are you…are you gonna drink that?" she asked, indicating to the shot still in Andy's hand.

"Uh…no, all yours." Chloe nodded a thanks before downing the golden liquid and slamming the glass on the bar. "Better?"

The expression on Chloe's face seemed to indicate that she was about to go on another rant about men, but then her eyes darted towards the door and she suddenly seemed very subdued. Without asking, Andy glanced over her shoulder to see the source of Chloe's sudden attitude shift; Dov and Chris had just walked in and were now with Sam and Duncan.

"Come on," Andy gave Chloe a nudge as she grabbed her and Sam's drinks.

She knew how Chloe was feeling; she had certainly been there before. And she wanted to help, she really did, because she hated seeing her friends in pain, but she just couldn't. Not tonight. There were bigger problems to sort out tonight.