A/N: Sooo… I've been planning this for at least a month, but I didn't want to write it until it was closer to Halloween. And then I got the monster of all monster projects at school… and then we got 14 inches of snow and lost power for a couple of days. So this is a little late, lol. But hopefully you enjoy it anyway. :)
And since I don't have internet right now, I can't tell you what episode numbers this is set between, but it's sometime between Sam and Andy's little sparring match and when Andy realizes that she wants to be with Sam. :) Hopefully that's close to Halloween, haha.
Let me know what you think!
Disclaimer: I do not own Rookie Blue.
Title
Andy stared over the top of the passenger car door at Sam, her arms leaning against the top of the door. "Sam."
His arms were crossed over his chest stubbornly, and he gave her a dubious look. "What?"
She groaned and came around the car door, tugging on his arm. "C'mon. You promised to do whatever I wanted to do tonight."
This time Sam groaned. "You didn't tell me it was a corn maze! These things are for whiny kids and horny teenagers."
Andy rolled her eyes at him and tugged on his arm again. "Sam…"
He sighed dramatically and let her pull him up out of Tommy's car. He actually didn't mind terribly much, being here, at a corn maze in the middle of nowhere. Andy's constant chatter had amused him all the way from the station. She was starting to heal. The light was back in her eyes, and she wasn't always angry or tense anymore. She was back to the Andy he knew and… loved. Just being around her made his day better.
Today's shift had been rough (thank goodness they weren't on the night shift), and all he'd wanted to do when they'd gotten back to the barn was to go home and go to bed. When he saw Andy waiting by his truck, he instantly remembered his promise to do whatever she wanted to do. He hadn't imagined today could have been this bad, and the thought of spending more time with Andy made him grin like a fool. So of course he said yes. He hadn't known she was going to take him into the boondocks, or that he'd be forced to interact with whiney, horny teenagers.
Sam grudgingly followed her across the parking lot and watched as she paid the admission for both of them.
"I could have done that, you know."
She grinned brightly at him as she looped her arm through his. "I know." She knew how much it killed him that she wouldn't let him the gentlemanly thing. He was actually really cute when he was flustered like that.
She tugged on his arm again. "C'mon. This is gonna be fun."
Sam snorted. "Yeah. I'll be the judge of that."
Andy glared at him in the dim lighting, scowled, and shook her head. "You could at least pretend that this isn't torture, you know. You're the one who promised to hang out with me even without having a clue as to what we would be doing."
She laughed when she heard an exasperated, strangled sound coming from his throat. "Exactly!" he protested. "I thought we were going for drinks or playing Scrabble with your dad or watching lame TV or something…"
Andy just rolled her eyes with a knowing grin, patted his cheek, and leaned over, brushing a light kiss against his cheek. "I think you'll survive."
Sam stilled when he felt Andy's lips on his cheek. Did she really just do that? He felt a burning desire to turn his head to the right just a few inches and capture her lips in a real kiss. It didn't take much to remember how utterly perfect kissing her was, how soft her lips were, how perfectly she fit, cocooned in his arms. The thought of kissing Andy like that again nearly made him weak at the knees. It was all he had really wanted—Andy was all he had wanted—for over a year now. Did she know the effect she had on him?
She grinned up at him and hugged his arm a little tighter when a gust of wind hit them. Her eyes twinkled back at him, full of mischief. "You know, you should be glad I didn't take you to a haunted corn maze."
He just snorted and rolled his eyes, letting the silence settle between them again.
For once, Andy was content to walk in peaceful silence. Sam was almost impressed—until he noticed that gleam in her eye, and realized what she was doing.
She was weaving them through the walls of the maze, purposely leading them as far away from the exit as she could, all the while moving in so many directions that even he (who had prided himself on having an excellent sense of direction) had no clue which way was out.
The little devil.
A little voice in the back of his mind reminded him that if she would have guided them straight to the exit, he never would have had this much time to spend with her. After nearly fifteen minutes of silence (apparently, the maze was huge), Sam ventured to speak. "So how's your dad, McNally?"
She frowned at him curiously, but answered anyway. "He's okay, I guess. I haven't seen him for a couple weeks. Why?"
He shrugged, trying to play it off. "No reason," he said.
The truth was, he wanted to know everything about her. He wanted to know her, to love her, to be able to hold her whenever he wanted, to be with her all the time. He wanted to be able to shout to the world that Andy was his girl. She intoxicated him completely, and, to his surprise, he wouldn't change any of it for the world. When he was with Andy, he felt like he could do anything. No girl had ever made him feel like she did.
He had never been great about the whole sharing-feelings thing, which was probably why she was sending him a dubious look right about now. But with Andy, he wanted to try. He was sure that she knew by now that he would do anything to protect her, to keep her safe, but he wanted her to know she could trust him with her heart, too. A little initial discomfort was worth it if he could find a way to be with her.
She glanced back over at him and smirked. "Yeah, okay. I know what this is."
He frowned at her. "What? This isn't anything. What do you mean, I know what this is?"
She actually laughed this time. "If you think you can sweet-talk your way into getting me to leave faster, you have something else coming to you, buster."
"That's not… Andy—that's not what this is. I promise."
She glanced over at him at the contrite, sincere tone in his voice. "Okay," she said softly, resting her head against his shoulder, as if she was trying to apologize for her assumptions. "Why do you hate these things so much, anyway?"
He plucked off a dead leaf from one of the stalks of corn, fiddling around with it with his free hand. He relaxed a little. This was safer. He could do this. "I don't know." He shrugged. "Sarah always told me these scary stories when we were little. They always had to do with corn mazes…"
"Aww," Andy cooed next to him. "The almighty Sam Swarek is actually scared of something?"
He automatically snorted and rolled his eyes. "No." Really, he wasn't—at least, not about this. Corn mazes were just… weird. Besides, what person in their right mind (besides Andy, apparently) actually had fun trying to make their way through a maze like some ridiculous lab rat?
She grinned into his shoulder and hugged his arm, like she didn't buy any of it. He couldn't say he really minded. Andy never betrayed his feelings or secrets.
They continued to talk as they walked through the maze, and he felt his self-imposed barriers slowly falling away. Somehow, that's always how it was with them. No matter how stressed or worried or angry or frustrated he was, her sweetness always broke through those barriers and make him feel safe and good.
He was just starting to think that maybe corn mazes weren't the end of the world, either, when a small crowd of rowdy teenagers came racing around the corner, yelling and whooping. One of the boys knocked him off-balance, sending Andy into the wall of the corn maze before he could right himself. One of the kids, a saucy, sardonic grin lighting his features, turned around as he ran. "Watch where you're going, old man!" he called.
Sam stilled when the boy's friends chimed in. "Yeah, old man, what are you doing with a girl like that? Look at all those gray hairs!"
Sam's jaw clenched in anger, and his hands hardened into fists. He barely noticed when Andy sent them a fierce look in warning before they disappeared from view, cackling the whole way, and she pulled him off to the side, cupping his face with her hands. "Hey…" she said softly, her voice soothing over all the angry, hurt parts of his soul. She turned his face toward hers, stroking his cheek gently. "Sam… Don't listen to them, okay? They're idiots."
"Yeah," he said dismissively. He didn't want Andy seeing him like this, and he most definitely didn't want her to think of him as that old guy who fell for the sweet, good, perfect girl who was way too young for him. True, he was older than Andy—by nearly eleven years—but he'd never thought that had mattered to her.
She tugged on his face insistently, and, finally, he allowed himself to look at her sweet face, lit by the glow of the moon. She was so sincere, her eyes flashing passionately. Her eyes softened as she caressed his cheek once more. "Sam. C'mon. You are not old, okay? Nowhere near it. Besides, if you had a gray hair, you know Oliver would be teasing you about it mercilessly by now."
He allowed one corner of his lips to lift in a half smirk. She was right. Oliver would never let a gray hair go unnoticed.
Andy gave him a tender, reassuring smile. "See? I told you they were idiots."
Sam couldn't take it any longer. Andy was standing there, practically in his arms, chasing his demons away, and he was so, completely, over-the-moon in love with her. She was staring up at him, worry clouding her eyes as she willed him to believe her words. Logically, he knew he shouldn't, but he just couldn't help it. He needed this, needed her.
Slowly, he lowered his lips to hers, claiming them in a frantic, passionate kiss. He had planned to kiss her gently, take it slow, to give her time to pull away if she didn't want this as much as he did. But then she kissed him back, and pure thrill shot through him. He couldn't help it. He needed her to know how much he loved her, how much he had missed having her in his arms, how much he wanted her. He deepened the kiss, tasting her fully, and when she wrapped her arms around his neck, urging him closer, the corners of his lips lifted into a grin of their own accord.
She was the perfect kisser—all sweetness and fire, and just rusty enough from her two-month break-up to make her completely adorable. Tonight she tasted like candy corn and coffee, and she melted in his arms even more perfectly than he'd remembered. He was already addicted.
When he pulled away, letting her catch her breath, he watched, with a slow smile, as her eyes fluttered open and her eyes twinkled back at him happily. He let his forehead rest against hers, not wanting this moment to end, and she rewarded him with a shy, brilliant smile. She reached up, letting her hands rest on his chest, and she played with the buttons on his coat. "I want you," she whispered.
She hadn't looked up, and her words were so soft that he was afraid he'd misheard her. He reached down, lifting her chin with one crooked finger. "Andy…" His eyes roved her face, looking for any hint of regret, and when he found none, he leaned in, capturing her lips with his own again, kissing her slow and sweet.
When he pulled away again, she slid into his arms, burying her face in his chest. He could feel her shivering in his arms. "Can we go home now?" she asked, the sound of her voice muffled by his jacket.
Sam smiled to himself against her soft hair and nodded. "Yeah, sure. Whatever you want." He started shuffling them both toward what he thought was the front of the maze, and she maneuvered herself so she was tucked under his arm, both of her hands still wrapped around his waist. He loved the feeling of being able to hold her in his arms.
She looked up at him, studying his expression for a while. "Are you okay now?" she asked, her lingering worry clouding her brow.
He smirked, and his eyes twinkled mischievously down at her. "I still wish I had my gun."
Andy snorted and rolled her eyes, but she reached up and brushed a kiss against his cheek. "You're incorrigible."
His eyes twinkled back at her. "Thank you."
That night, as they lay, cuddled under the wool blanket on his couch, falling asleep, he couldn't help but remember the hour it had taken them to get out of that maze, and how she'd laughed at him every single time he'd backed them into a dead end. This may not have been the way he had seen it happening, but he wouldn't trade this night for anything. Andy snuggled her head deeper into the crook between his neck and shoulder, and he couldn't help but smile and drop a kiss onto her brow. He actually, really, finally had Andy.
And he was never letting her go.
A/N: Not very Halloween-ish, but I'm not a very big Halloween person. It didn't really come out like I had imagined it, but I still like it a lot. Let me know what you think!
Oh... and for The Separation Chronicles fans... I'm working on the next update. I wanted to get this out semi-close to Halloween. I'm leaving for Texas tomorrow morning for my brother's graduation from basic training... so there probably won't be an update until the end of this coming weekend, but hopefully by then, I'll have an update or two for you. :)