A/N: This one-shot is a look into how Sam could propose to Andy in season five/sixish ;)
I honestly have no idea where the writers will take us come season five, but am so giddy ever since having seen that table read photo yesterday :) this snippet is my version of how Sam would propose to Andy, and how who he is could get in the way of that.
Or almost, that is ;)
I hope you enjoy :)
Sim-plic-i-ty (n). The state, quality, or an instance of being simple. (Synonyms: candor, directness, honesty.)
Andy hasn't been able to shake it off; the overall giddiness that has been reverberating through her body ever since last night.
She had never thought that she'd see the day.
Exactly one year after Sam had been shot, and she had told him that he was her story, they were now engaged.
He had popped the question last night in bed, and Andy had of course said yes.
Opening her locker, Andy's eyes immediately fall on the candid photograph that Traci had shot of her and Sam a couple of weeks ago.
They had been over at Steve and Traci's for dinner and during a private moment between Sam and Andy on the couch after dinner, their hostess had snapped a photograph of them.
In the picture, Sam has one arm wrapped around Andy's shoulders, while the other is playing with her hair, and she is looking up at him with a soft smile on her lips.
When Traci had shown it to her a couple of days later, Andy had decided that its permanent resting spot would be on the inside of her locker at work.
The Sam, that he's never let anyone else see, had been on full display in this photograph, and Andy, while wanting to keep this version of her fiancé hidden from prying eyes, she also wants to showcase it to everyone and say,
'He's mine, and you can't have him.'
"Alright, McNally!" her best friend's voice booms from the doorway of the women's locker room. "Spill!" Traci exclaims walking straight up to Andy – with her arms folded across her chest.
Turning around with an innocent look plastered all over her face, Andy merely asks, "Alright, what?"
"Don't do that!" Nash warns with a raised finger pointed straight at her best friend. "What happened last night?"
"What makes you think anything happened?" she asks, shrugging her shoulders.
"You know exactly why!" Traci tells her. "You two have been living together for almost a year now, Sam has been preoccupied lately, you hinted at something having gone down last night when we texted, so spill already!" she all, but stomps her feet, that's how riled up Traci is.
"Well, if you call this," Andy says lifting her hand, "something, then I guess it is." She grins brightly at Traci, showing off her new best friend.
"Get the F out of here!" she exclaims grabbing Andy's hand and focusing all of her attention on the diamond that's placed on her best friend's finger. "I want to know everything," Traci says, as they sit down on the bench – her eyes still glued to the diamond.
"Define everything."
"Well, for starters," she says. "How did you go from thinking 'Sam's an ass' to 'yes, I'll marry you'. Inquiring minds want to know, McNally."
Looking at her watch to see what time it is, Traci grabs both of Andy's hands letting her best friend know, that they have all the time in the world for this – they have to.
"Well, as you know, Sam had been acting preoccupied, and well, not Sam lately, so I confronted him about it at dinner…"
"And what did he say?"
Clearing her throat, Andy says, "well, this is where the 'Sam is an ass' text comes into play".
"You sure you don't want a beer?" she asked mid-chew pointing her fork towards the fridge. Sam was nursing a glass of water, which was just about as rare as finding him camping in the wilderness.
"Yup!" he nodded his head in the affirmative, throwing a tentative smile in Andy's direction. Not one of those with dimples on full display, but one of those she'd gotten a ton of a year ago when there had been a Nick and Marlo in the picture.
He had been acting weird for almost two weeks now. She knew, that she wasn't the only one, who'd noticed it. Sam had basically chewed Oliver off for having neglected to inform him of some information that might've had a link to an old unsolved case of Jerry's.
She and Sam were on solid ground – or so she thought. He had been impossible to be around lately. Andy had tried to figure out what was bothering him, but he wouldn't tell her anything. She felt so far away from him – emotionally.
Andy feared that it was a sign, that they were in fact too different, and that this past year had just been a dream. That she'd dreamed how close they'd gotten, everything they'd shared – on and off the job. But she couldn't do that, because she wanted this; she wanted Sam.
"Sam, what is it?" she asked placing her fork and knife on the edge of her plate.
"What is what?" he asked lifting his glass of water to his lips, and taking a small sip.
"This!" she exclaimed – with her hands flailing at him. "You're drinking water, instead of beer. You've been in a bad mood for days on end now; you've barely said two words to me since coming home. What is going on with you?" Andy wanted to know.
Sighing deeply, he said, "Nothing is going on with me, Andy. Honestly." Sam smiled at her awkwardly before rubbing at his face tiredly.
"Nothing?" she asked, giving him a look of pure incredulousness in return.
Shrugging his shoulders at her, he stabbed his fork into a piece of meat before bringing it to his lips.
"Fine," Andy nodded her head at his words before saying, "then why don't you keep Boo company with all of your 'nothing's' instead?" she pushed her chair away from the table with a violent push making the Labradoodle look up from his spot on the floor in confusion from all of the sudden loud noises.
Throwing her napkin on top of her half-eaten steak, Andy walked away from the table and made her way into the bedroom.
"Andy, come on!" Sam called after her retreating back, as she slammed the bedroom door close, ending their discussion.
"Good morning Detective Swarek," Oliver greets his friend in the locker room, his voice devoid of the usual spirit that Sam's used to hearing from him.
Knowing exactly why his friend is all business-like this morning, Sam can't contain his grin when he turns around to look at Oliver a couple of lockers down.
"What's crawled up your butt and died?" he asks, and if looks could kill, Sam would be a dead man by the daggers Oliver is throwing at him.
Laughing loudly, Shaw gives Sam a raised eyebrow before asking, "Are you serious? That's rich, coming from you, brother."
"Alright," Sam holds both hands up in a surrender gesture indicating that he wants a cease fire between the two of them. Since it's just the two of them in the locker room at the moment, Sam figures that it's as good a time as any to apologize for his behavior.
"What?!" Oliver snaps at Sam and the shit-eating grin that's covering his face at the moment. Turning his back on his friend, Shaw pulls his arms through the sleeves of his uniform shirt.
Taking a deep breath, Sam says, "I'm sorry, man, really."
The second, Oliver feels Sam's hand make contact with his shoulder, and clap him on it; he knows that Sam is in fact apologizing.
And Sam Swarek apologizing? That's about as rare as … well, anything, really.
"Pray tell, what has brought this change of personality on?" Oliver asks turning around to face his friend again.
"Andy."
"Andy?" Oliver inquiries, shaking his head, clearly not understanding what McNally has do to with Sam saying, that he's sorry for having behaved like such an idiot recently.
Shaking his head at himself, Sam sits down on the bench, while looking up at Oliver. "Let's just say, that she made me realize just how big an ass I've been lately."
"Do tell." Shaw smirks, joining Sam on the bench, eager to hear just how their former rookie has made him eat his words.
"So, you accept my apology?" he asks, needing to know that they are good again.
"Only if you finish the story," Oliver grins wide at Sam.
The second the bedroom door had slammed shut, Sam had realized just how big an idiot he was. He had unintentionally pulled away from Andy, when what he wanted, what he needed was to be closer to her, much closer than they had ever been.
When he'd looked over at Boo, the dog had merely sighed loudly at his owner's stupidity, and turned on his side to avoid looking at Sam.
"Nice," he groaned at the dog's lack of solidarity. Sighing deeply, Sam's eyes travelled to his pocket in his jeans that contained the very object that had all, but burned a hole in his clothes for the past week and a half.
They had been back together for a year now, him and Andy, and things had been going great. Sure, they still had their small fights, but the everyday life of him being a Detective and her being a Police Officer had blended together nicely.
More than nicely, in fact. They worked great alongside one another. Andy respected his authority, and he welcomed her advice when he was slaving over a case, he just couldn't wrap his head around.
But the minute, he'd made the decision to ask Andy to marry him, all of his usual confident behavior had vanished – probably having something to do with the fact, that Sam had watched Collins hug Andy on his way out on a six month undercover stint.
He trusted Andy, that wasn't even it. But Army Boy still seemed to spark something violent inside Sam, some alpha-male bull probably, but it was there nonetheless. So, in a matter of seconds, his confidence had been turned into self-doubt.
So, instead of talking to Andy, he had made everyone else's life a living hell. He knew that he had been out of line with Oliver the other day, not to mention how he'd given Epstein and Price a verbal reprimand a couple of days ago for something completely inconsequential.
Pulling out a small velvet bag from his pocket, Sam opens it, and pulls out the very ring, that he's been guarding for almost two weeks now.
Holding it between his thumb and forefinger, the square cut diamond sitting in the center of the platinum band all but lights up the entire room.
"So much for doing this the conventional way," Sam scoffs at himself before placing the ring back in the velvet bag and returning it to his jeans pocket before beginning to clean up after their half-eaten dinner.
"Something still must've happened between you slamming the bedroom door and this," Traci grabs Andy's hand, getting up close and personal with the diamond on her finger again before adding, "making its way on your finger."
"It did." Andy nods her head with a secretive smile on her lips.
"Spill, McNally!"
"Well, I huffed and puffed a lot when getting ready to bed, sent you the text…"
"…the 'Sam is an ass' text..?" Traci correctly guesses.
"Right," Andy nods her head in the affirmative. "Well, after all that I went to bed. But I couldn't fall asleep. I could hear Sam in the kitchen, cleaning up, and then I think he went for a walk with Boo, because I woke up when he got into bed with me at about midnight."
"Enough with the small stuff, Andy – get to the good stuff!"
"Alright, alright," she laughs at her friend before continuing the story.
The alarm clock read 00:00 in bright red letters when something had awoken Andy. Burrowing her face into her pillow, she noticed a sliver of light coming from the living room, and pretty soon after Boo was making himself comfortable on the floor.
The smell of rain was in the air, so he and Sam had undoubtedly just returned from their walk, maybe the fresh air had done his crabby mood good.
The second she heard him walking towards the bathroom, Andy closed her eyes, feigning to be asleep. She had no desire to continue their conversation, it would only make sleep impossible, and she needed to be rested for tomorrow's shift.
Within ten minutes, she felt the bed shift, and Sam was lying next to her. Andy could feel his breath against the back of her neck, and then his knuckles were running down her arm prompting a shiver to go through her body, alerting Sam to the fact that she was wide awake.
"Andy..?" he whispered. When no reply came, he said, "I know you're not asleep, McNally, so you may as well cut this whole 'sleeping with one eye open' crap out."
"What..?" she asked on a deep sigh, tightening the sheet around her body.
"We need to talk."
"Really? Are you sure you don't want to continue snapping at me and everyone else? Or slamming doors? Because you're so good at it."
"I'm done snapping at people, and the last time I checked, you were the one, who'd stormed off in the middle of dinner, slamming doors," Sam replied tucking a stand of hair behind Andy's ear.
"Right," she scoffed, squinting her eyes when Sam turned on the bedside lamp on his side, casting a soft glow over the bedroom. "Sam, what is it? I have to be up in about seven hours, and I don't work well on lack of sleep."
"I have something to show you," he inched closer to Andy, so he was laying the full length of her back. Leaning forward, he made sure, that he could see the side of her face – for any kind of reaction to what he was saying.
"What is it, Sam..?" Andy sighed closing her eyes tight.
"This."
The minute, Andy opened her eyes, she thought, that she was dreaming. Because there was no way, that Sam Swarek could be holding a ring between two fingers, but he was.
It was real.
"Sam…?" she breathed, rising up on an elbow to take in the sight of the platinum ring resting between his thumb and forefinger. "It's beautiful."
"Come here," cupping the side of Andy's face with the hand that was holding the ring, Sam turned her face towards his, kissing her deeply until she was lying on her back looking into a pair of brown pools.
"Is that why..?" she asked, as a tear made its path down her cheek.
"I've been acting like a complete nut job lately?" Sam asked catching the tear with the pad of his thumb making Andy nod her head at him in the affirmative.
"But why..? We love each other, Sam. We've come so far this past year, so why was it so hard for you to just ask me?"
"I guess I..," shaking his head at the ridiculousness of the situation, Sam said, "I've probably been psyching myself up, not believing that something like this could ever happen to me. I mean, Andy, I never thought this kind of thing would be in the cards for me, and then sudden it is, and I guess I…"
"Got scared?" she guessed when the words seemed to escape him.
"Yeah, who would've thought?" Sam shrugged his shoulders sheepishly before lowering his lips to Andy's, and kissing her softly.
"So, are you going to do the rest of this proposal the conventional way?" she asked with arched eyebrows.
"I like to keep you on your toes, McNally," he grinned down at her before taking her hand in his. "Andy McNally, will you marry me?"
Upon letting another tear escape, she cupped Sam's face with her other hand, saying, "Yes, I will marry you, Sam Swarek. Yes!" Andy laughed out loud when he slid the ring onto her finger before framing her face with his hands and kissing her deeply.
Wrapping his arms around her body, Sam rolled onto his back, taking Andy with him, so her body was splayed all over his.
"I can't believe you put us all through this, just to put this amazing rock on my finger," she laughed into Sam's warm chest.
"Even awesome people can have moments of stupidity, McNally," he teased her right back.
"You came through in the end," Andy pressed her lips against one of his pectorals before getting lost in the sensation of Sam's hands running up and down the column of her spine.
"Thanks for saying yes," he breathed into her hair.
"Thanks for asking."
Roughly fifteen minutes later, Andy and Traci are walking down the hallway when a strong hand grabs Andy's, and hauls her into an interrogation room on a yelp.
"What was that?" Oliver asks joining her in her trek towards the parade room.
"What was what?" Traci asks, pretending not to know what he's talking about. As if they haven't just watched Sam haul Andy into the interrogation room.
She comes to a sudden halt when Oliver plants himself right in front of her, stopping her from moving forwards.
"You know something," he declares, pointing an accusing finger in Traci's face.
All Sam had told him had been, that he and McNally had made up – nothing else. It hadn't been until just now, that Oliver had realized that Sam had been holding out on him.
"I do!" Traci sing-songs, side-stepping him to continue her walk to the parade room.
"That's just not fair, Nash!" he exclaims following behind her.
"Why hello there, Detective," Andy sighs in the back of her throat when Sam has her pressed up against the wall by the two-way-mirror. She angles her head to the side, prompting him to kiss the delicate skin right underneath her ear.
"I missed you," he groans against her skin making Andy laugh.
"You saw me less than thirty minutes ago."
"Too long ago."
Wrapping her arms around his neck, Andy nudges her nose at Sam's cheek alerting him to the fact that she wants to be kissed on the lips now. He immediately obliges, framing her face with his hands before thrusting his tongue into the deep recesses of her mouth.
"Mmm..," she hums against his lips, raising her right hand over Sam's head to make sure that they don't arrive late for parade.
"What?" Sam speaks against her lips.
"Parade is in five minutes," Andy says, pecking him lightly on the lips before turning around to make sure, that she's presentable in the mirror.
"So..?" Sam grins at her reflection in the mirror before wrapping his arms around her waist from behind and kissing the back of her neck.
"So..," Andy shakes her head at him. "I'm still a Police Officer, not a big, bad Detective." She says, turning around in his arms.
"That can be remedied, you know?"
"I like my job. Give me two minutes, and then you can follow me out, Detective," she stands on her toes, and gives Sam a soft kiss on the lips before opening the door, and heading towards the parade room.
All the way through parade, Sam hasn't been able to keep from staring at Andy from across the room. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to see, that something has indeed changed – just judging from Sam's crappy mood yesterday, and to the shit-eating grin that's plastered all over his face today, something is definitely different about him.
"Oh! One last thing before I let you go," Frank called from the front of the room making all eyes rest on their Staff Sergeant. "I understand, that congratulations are in order to McNally here," he says, waving a hand to where Andy is sitting, making Oliver's eyebrows go up way high. "On her engagement to Detective Swarek," Best finishes on a smile, which Andy reciprocates, while everyone else is offering their congratulations by applause and whistling.
"I knew it!" Shaw jumps to his feet, pointing an accusatory finger in Sam's direction, who just grins at his friend in return, tongue in cheek.
"You did not!" Traci vehemently objects to Oliver's statement.
"Maybe not exactly, but I knew that something was off, way off. He was smiling far too much this morning," he maintains before hauling Andy into a celebratory embrace. "Congratulations," he speaks softly against her ear. "Didn't I tell you..?"
Leaning back, Andy gives Oliver a pair of confused eyes, making him explain, "You're Andy McNally, you don't give up." He repeats the words, he'd told her over a year ago when it hadn't seemed like things would ever work out for her and Sam.
"It won't be McNally for much longer," Sam interjects, pulling her into his arms. Curling her arms around his neck, Andy beams up at him with bright eyes.
"I can't wait."
Right there, in the middle of the parade room, Sam frames Andy's face with his hands, and kisses her tenderly, making today, the first day of the rest of their lives.
FIN!
A/N2: I hope, that you've enjoyed the story, and if you would, I'd appreciate a couple of words in the box at the bottom of the page :)