Hey guys!

So this idea just kind of popped into my head, and then snowballed into something much, much larger than I had intended it to be.

Hopefully it turned out okay, I was writing it in kind of a disjointed manner. On a side note, school just started, and I'm going to have way less time to write, so I'm sorry if I suddenly drop off the face of the earth for days at a time.

Anyways, hope you all enjoy! This takes place a week or two after "Big Nickel". Please review, they make me so happy and motivated! Thanks! xx

Andy hurried past the men's locker room, grateful that the precinct was empty. She didn't need any more distractions to keep her from her dinner date with Luke; she was already running behind schedule as it was. She quickly glanced at the open door as she rushed by. The room looked empty.

"McNally," a familiar voice hissed from behind her. She whirled around and saw Sam's head poking out from the door.

"Have a good night, Sam," she said, offering up a small smile before turning around and heading away. She didn't want to be rude, but she was half afraid that if she stopped to talk to Sam, she would be inclined to blow the whole night with Luke off.

"Wait, Andy..." his voice trailed off as she turned back around. He motioned with two fingers for her to come over.

"Sam, I know you're totally fine with skulking around the locker rooms of the opposite sex, but I'm not about to join your club," she said, a hint of a smile on her face as she obliged him.

"Yeah, well, I could point out that you were the one who started the whole thing, but I have more pressing matters to attend to. Like this," he said, pointing to a nasty looking gash on his torso. The fact that he was shirtless was not lost on Andy, but the bloody wound took up the majority of her attention.

"Oh my God, Sam, what happened?" she asked, concern lining her face as she ran her fingers lightly over the cut. She stopped as he winced, pain evident in his eyes.

"I ran into that," he huffed, gesturing to a piece of splintering wood sticking out of a locker that looked like a walking health hazard. "Oliver thought he'd bring it home since it apparently looks like a light saber, and his nephew is in a major Star Wars phase."

"And he forgot it."

"Yep. And now I'm here, bleeding to death because of that mother fuc..."

"Okay, okay, calm down, Sam. There's no need to make my ears ring," Andy said, cutting him off. She entered the locker room, taking his arm and gently pulling him towards a folding table that was tucked into the corner. "Why do you have a table in here?"

"McNally, this is a guys locker room. You could ask the same question about anything in here."

She made him sit on the table, noticing the open first aid kit. "Were you trying to fix yourself up?" she asked, motioning to the strewn objects.

"Yeah, but it's in a weird place, and I couldn't really reach it..."

"And you thought I'd play nurse for you."

"Yeah, well, that's what pals do," he smirked.

Andy rolled her eyes and started to clean the wound. Sam grimaced at the harsh stinging the rubbing alcohol was causing.

"Well, the good news is that it's pretty superficial, so we won't need to call a hambulance." She grinned as Sam laughed.

"I really need a new joke book, don't I?"

"Oh! Speaking of new joke books - " Andy stopped tending to his gash to reach for her bag on the floor. She pulled out a thin paperback book with a laughing baby on the front. "I thought I'd get you this."

Sam took the gift without a word, reading the title: "101 Funniest Jokes". He looked up at her with an unreadable expression that made her both uneasy and oddly exhilarated.

"You got this for me?" he asked quietly, his voice thick with emotion. Andy shifted awkwardly.

"Yeah, well, I thought I'd get it to say thanks, for everything you did on the Sudbury trip," she said softly, not quite meeting his eyes as she placed gauze over the wound and taped it to his skin.

"Like saving your life?" he asked, watching her closely as her fingers flew over his stomach. He had been trying to block out the feeling of her hands on his bare abdomen, but now, watching her, he was flooded with memories of another time she had touched him like that. Against his will, he shivered.

"Your hands are cold," he offered lamely, trying to cover up his arousal.

"Sorry," she murmured, her fingers moving on their own accord up his torso, splaying themselves gently across his chest. She heard him inhale sharply.

"Andy," he whispered, bringing his right hand from its supporting position behind him to gently touch her cheek. He saw them redden at the motion. He stared at her, his eyes willing her to look at him, but they only flickered occasionally to his. She finally closed her eyes, allowing herself to revel in his intimate touch, his thumb softly stroking her skin.

They stayed like that for an indefinite amount of time, until her phone rang. Startled, she jumped back, her cheeks growing even redder. She pulled it out of her back pocket. Luke.

She quickly switched it off, but Sam had already realized who it was. He cleared his throat and reached for the book Andy had given him, opening it up.

"Joke number 58," he read, "What do you get if you cross an elephant with a rhino?"

Andy shook her head with a smile. "What?"

"'Ell if I know."

She started laughing despite herself. "Oh my God, Sam, that's the worst joke ever!"

He started laughing too; he couldn't help it; her laugh was contagious.

"Even worse than my 'hen weigh' one?" he grinned.

"I think they're tied."

Their laughter carried out of the room. It felt good to laugh, the sound dispelling the awkwardness and tension that had crept up between them just then.

Sam was again struck by how beautiful Andy was as her smile lighted up the room, and he watched her like a blind man who had just been given his sight back.

Luke's frustration was only compounded by his inability to reach Andy on her cell phone. She hadn't been at her apartment, so he had come to the only other place where he imagined she could be. Perhaps she was running late, or had gotten caught up in some last minute paperwork that Swarek had dumped on her.

That last though made him slightly uneasy. Andy was his girlfriend, so why did he feel like he was waging a war against her training officer for her heart?

He purposefully strode through the precinct, looking in the women's locker room, but it was empty. As he made his way through the various rooms in the station, he heard laughter coming from the men's locker room. As he stood in the doorway, his heart stuttered and then sank at the sight before him.

Andy, her head tilted back slightly, her mouth open in a laugh that mingled with his. With Swarek's. And the way he was looking at her made Luke want a rematch of the retraining exercise.

He realized that he had never seen Andy laugh like that.

He had never made her laugh like that.

He realized that the war was all but lost, but that didn't mean he wasn't going down without a fight.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Andy's laughter was cut off by the voice that rang through the room. She turned her head and saw Luke standing in the doorway, arms crossed, a dangerously calm expression on his face. Unconsciously, she took a step back from Sam.

"Luke! What are you doing here?" she asked, a blush sweeping across her cheeks.

"I was looking for you. You didn't show up for dinner, so I thought you might be held up with paperwork. Guess it wasn't that." His tone was hard, betraying the hurt that he had hidden so well. He smiled bitterly before walking away. Andy scrambled after him, leaving a frustrated Sam.

"Luke, wait! Wait, just please, let me explain."

The detective whirled around, his face inches from hers. "Explain what exactly, Andy? How I'm always coming in second to your training officer? You're always blaming me for putting my work ahead of you, but you're doing exactly the same thing. Except, of course, that it's a bit more of a bigger deal in your case."

Andy's face fell at the harshness in his voice. "I'm sorry." She couldn't think of anything else to say. Luke looked at her with an incredulous expression.

"You're sorry? That's all you can say? Not 'Luke, you're wrong', or 'Luke, you're the most important person, Sam means nothing?' Why aren't you telling me those things?" His tone was treacherously low, his blue eyes swirling around in a murky storm.

"Because it's not true," she whispered, her eyes closed, not trusting her voice to go any louder.

Luke's eyes widened, feeling as if he had not only been sucker punched in the gut, but that his heart had been twisted and stomped upon. He had always known, deep down, that he was second in her heart, and always would be, but the fact that she had actually said it out loud made him face the harsh, cold reality. "Thank you for finally telling the truth."

Andy finally opened her eyes, her hurt not nearly as strong as his was. It was plastered all over his face, evident in his eyes.

"So where does this leave us?" he asked, his voice quiet, flat.

"I think we both know, Luke," she answered, and despite herself, a single tear slid down her cheek, more of a reaction to his pain than to hers.

His expression softened slightly at the sight of her crying, but retained the sorrow. "Okay."

He walked past her, fists clenched at his sides. He didn't dare look back.

Andy took in a deep breath that was punctured by a slight sob. A few more tears had escaped from her eyes. She did truly care about Luke...just not enough.

Sam had watched the entire interaction in complete astonishment. The fact that Andy had just said aloud feelings he had so desperately wished her to have was not lost on him. Neither was the fact that she had broken up with Callaghan. Because of him. For him...and everything that entailed.

No, these facts were not lost on him at all. But he couldn't act on them at the moment. Seeing Andy crying had snapped something in him. Right now, all she needed was a friend.

And he was okay with being that...for the time being. He quietly walked over to where she was still standing, her back facing the direction Luke had exited.

He held out the joke book she had given him just minutes before.

"Here," he said, smiling a smile that spoke everything he wanted to say but couldn't. "Right now, I think you need this more than me."