She woke up disoriented with a pounding headache. God, last thing she remembered was dancing with Tracy and Gail in the nightclub. After looking around she realized, she was not in her bedroom. As she tried to get her bearings, she noticed dark hair on the pillow next to her. This was the last thing she needed after her break-up with Luke. "Why, McNally can you not keep out of trouble" she thought to herself. As she tried to get a look at his face to help her jog her memory he started to move. As he turned towards her, she got a few fuzzy memories coming back to her. There was dancing and shots and nakedness with... what was his name, Mick, Rick... no hang on it was Nick. As he started waking up she couldn't help but notice he was quite good looking. Nice chiseled jaw, cute dark bed hair and as he spoke, dimples too.

"Good Morning." Nick said smiling at her.

"Morning. Hi." She resisted the urge to wave at him as she sat up, pulling the sheet up with her. "Okay, so I don't remember a lot about last night. How drunk was I? Did I do anything embarrassing? God, I'm sorry, I don't really know what the protocol for this is. This isn't normal behavior for me." Looking at his face, she realized she was babbling. "I'm talking too much. I'm just gonna be quiet now." She was completely freaking out and he was just laying there smiling at her.

"Okay, to answer your questions, pretty drunk and no, not really that embarrassing." There was a twinkle in his eye as he laughed at her. "Andy, relax, take a deep breath. I was kidding about the embarrassing stuff...mostly," he grinned as he said the last word.

Amazingly, he managed to calm her nerves with that smile..

"Enough of the difficult questions, how about some breakfast? I make a mean omelette."

Smiling at him, "An omelette sounds good, thanks."

As he got up and put on his boxers, she couldn't help but take a quick look. When he turned back around he caught her staring and smirked at her, "Ok, shower is through there, towels in the cupboard. Painkillers are in the cabinet above the sink. Have a shower and come meet me in the kitchen, food will be ready when you've finished." He tossed the last bit over his shoulder as he walked out the door.

Taking a few deep breaths, she took a look around his place. It was really quite bare, no personal touches, except the few clothes strewn across the floor. She was guessing he hadn't had a female influence here for a while. As she made her way to the bathroom, she picked up her clothes on the way. A shower is exactly what she needs to clear her head, after she has those painkillers though.

As they sat down to breakfast, she found the conversation flowing easily. He clearly didn't have any expectations of what last night was. Not only that he was charming, flirty and funny, but talking with him was as easy as talking to Tracy. She couldn't remember being this comfortable with anyone so quickly.

Breakfast turned into movies, which turned into an argument, which turned into another make-out session, which then turned into lunch. She found out he had just returned from Afghanistan (which explained the empty apartment), was waiting for his discharge papers and had no immediate plans for the future. Learnt about his parents and their deaths and the girl he left behind when he went into the service. Meanwhile, he found out about her love of policing, her father and his alcoholism. This led to conversations about Luke and Sam. She even told him about her mother leaving. For some reason, this man had managed to get more information out of her over the weekend than just about anyone.

As day turned into night again, she found spending time with this complete stranger had managed what most others couldn't. Her problems with Luke and Sam, even the attack that happened, all faded into the background reminding her how to have fun and be impulsive. Life didn't always have to be mapped out and safe, she didn't have to be scared of the future. Some surprises were good.

As Sunday morning came around, Andy decided she really needed to get home.

"Would you mind dropping me home after breakfast?" She asked Nick as she lay in bed, head resting on his chest.

"Of course." She could feel the rumble of his voice as he spoke, hands running through her hair.

"Thanks for this weekend. I think I really needed to get away from everyone and everything related to all the drama at home."

"Hey, no need to thank me. I've been feeling a little lost lately, but I feel like I might have a path mapped out now." He leaned down and kissed her forehead, then slapped her on the ass. "Alright woman, get up, I can't make breakfast with you laying all over me." He got up and pulled out some clothes from the dresser. "Don't want you to do the walk of shame, here's a shirt and some sweats. Don't worry about returning them, I can live without these ones."

When he dropped her off, she turned to face him, "Really, thank you for this weekend. You will never know how much this weekend meant to me."

"Andy, it was my pleasure." He smiled at her as he leaned across and gave her one last kiss.

"Hope everything works out for you and remember Luke is a moron because he should have realized what he had."

As he smiled and drove away, she couldn't help but feel a pang. They had agreed last night that this was a once off thing and she definitely didn't want to jump into anything. Not with the break-up from Luke so recent and the cloud of Swarek overhead. But, in another time, and in another place, maybe they could have given it a go.

6 months later

It had been a hell of a first day back. Sam picking her up from the airport, saving that girl, re-uniting her with her grandfather, getting re-instated. The other shining light was Sam coming over and being "normal" with her. She was determined this year was gonna be drama free.

And she still stuck by that thought until she walked into parade and saw her one off fling sitting at the table. This must be the new rookie Tracy told her about. She kinda wishes she paid more attention, because she is staring at him like a goldfish. As she stared, memories of that weekend came flooding back. She didn't think she would ever see him again, but here he was at 15.

Too late, he looked up and saw her standing there. A smile lit up his face and he spotted her. Knowing she couldn't hide from him, she took the seat next to him.

"Nick, what are you doing here?"

"Hi Andy, isn't it a small world? Your stories kinda inspired me a bit. Went to the academy and this is where they sent me. I didn't know you worked here."

She sat there both dreading and looking forward to spending more time with him. She remember the easy rapport they had over that short time, it would be easy to become great friends with Nick. But at the same time, she hadn't told anyone about her weekend with Nick. Was it selfish to ask him to keep this information to himself? And especially with her and Sam finally giving it a go, she wasn't quite sure how to act around him.

"Wow Nick, that's great news?"

"Yep, but how are you? Did things work out the way you wanted?"

Not sure how to respond, she was saved by Frank addressing parade.

As she walked into parade her shoulder got knocked as someone walked past, "Hey."

"Sorry, McNally, didn't see you there." Gail's words didn't match her tone at all, it was obvious she wasn't sorry for knocking into her.

"You okay?"

Glaring at McNally, she leant against the wall by the door, "You and new guy looked a little chummy at parade."

"Yeah, I was just saying hello." McNally gave her a bewildered look. "Why do you care?"

"I don't." Then Gail walked out of the room. Shaking her head, McNally continued through to get her bag before meeting up with Sam.

Waiting for the coffee machine to spit out her coffee, she felt someone come and stand behind her. She didn't need to look to know it was him, and started smiling. "Coffee Officer Swarek?"

Turning around with coffee in hand, she was surprised to see it wasn't actually Sam, but Nick. He had his head bent, scratching the back of his neck. "You ok?"

He looked around the room before straightening up and looking at her,"Look Andy, I know this is a lot to ask, but can we not tell anyone about our weekend together?"

She breathed a sigh of relief "Thank God, I was going to ask you the same thing. Things are going well, especially with Sam, by the way, and I just don't want to jeopardise it. I mean, not to say it would wreck anything if I told him, I just want to make sure..." As she got a good look at his face she got a flashback to the first morning they spent together.

He was smirking at her the same way he did that morning, "Still like to babble I see?"

"Shut up!" As she punched his arm, he laughed at her. Next thing she knew he stole the coffee from her and walked away. "Thanks for the coffee Andy."

Watching him walk away she couldn't help but laugh to herself, he hadn't changed a bit. And this was one surprise she didn't really mind.