Back to another little fluff piece. I can't see this going more than 4 chapters, but I'll guess we'll see how long winded I get. Hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing Rookie Blue.
"Come on, Andy. Why don't you come out with Jerry and me tomorrow night?" Traci asked.
"I am not honing in on your date night."
"It's not honing if I ask you." Traci assured her.
"Besides, Jerry will be fine with it; hell it'd probably be good for his ego to escort not one but two hot chicks out for supper." She teased.
Andy laughed at her friend's logic. "I'm fine Traci. I'm not even that sad; it was the right thing to do."
"I know it was; that's why you deserve to go out and celebrate. Plus, it'll be fun."
"Are you sure Jerry won't care?" Andy knew they didn't get a lot of alone time.
"He won't mind." Traci promised.
"Well, ask him first. If he says it's ok, then I'll go."
"Great, I'll ask him as soon as I can."
Traci was excited; sure she enjoyed having Jerry to herself but Andy was her friend, and she wanted to be there for her too.
While Traci and Andy finished getting ready for morning parade, Jerry had just entered the men's locker room looking to find Sam.
"Hey, Sammy. Are you still coming out with Traci and me on Friday night?" Jerry wondered.
"Did you ask her if it's ok yet?"
"She won't care." He held up his hand to stop Sam from interrupting. "But if it'll make you feel better I'll make sure and ask her today."
Sam was a little leery; he knew Traci had Leo and it wasn't always easy for her to get time with just her and Jerry. "I don't really want to be the third wheel so I'm only coming if she says it's ok."
"Yeah…about that." Jerry began.
Sam didn't like that tone. "About what?"
"You won't exactly be a third wheel." Jerry explained with a forced smile.
"What do you mean?"
"Well…there's kind of going to be a fourth joining us."
Sam was shaking his head.
"Please tell me it's Oliver or Noelle." Sam begged. He was pretty sure it wasn't going to be a mutual friend, but he could always hope Jerry had learned his lesson and it wasn't another set up.
"Come on, Sammy." Jerry encouraged. "It's time you got back in the game. You haven't dated anyone since Monica."
I knew it. "Sorry, Jerry. I think I feel a stomach flu coming on." Sam faked, reaching for his stomach.
"Sammy!" Jerry warned. "It would be rude to back out now."
Who was he…Miss Manners. Sam was not impressed. "Is that why you waited till the day before to tell me this was a set up?"
Jerry put on his best innocent look, which fooled neither of them. "Now, Sammy would I do something like that?"
Sam just rolled his eyes and Jerry clapped him on the shoulder before walking out of the locker room. "Wear something nice." He shouted back letting the door close behind him with a chuckle.
"Yeah…yeah." Sam yelled back with not nearly the enjoyment that Jerry had.
Sam despised being set up and Jerry was not known for his skills as a matchmaker. Sam had met a few ladies through Jerry in the past and it surprised him how little Jerry knew about Sam's taste in women. They had been friends for a long time and Jerry still had yet to do a decent job. If it hadn't been only a day away, Sam would have found any way out of it. As it was, he was just too much of a gentleman to back out this late in the game.
Now if Jerry could just find someone who was fun, had a great laugh, athletic, could dish it out and take a joke... As he walked out of the locker room, Sam continued to create the image of his ideal date. If he was being honest with himself, he had started to picture a brown eyed, brown haired beauty, who looked exactly like the woman he had just come face to face with. His eyes widened a little as he realized that he had just been imagining his perfect woman and she was standing right in front of him.
Andy smiled and gave him a quick wave as she and Traci headed to parade. He waited a few seconds to let them go ahead while he tried to make peace with his revelation. As he continued behind them, he saw Jerry call Traci aside.
"Hey."
"Hey yourself."
At the same time, they both started talking. "About tomorrow…"
They looked at each other and grinned. "Go ahead." Traci offered.
"I was wondering if it was ok to invite someone else for supper tomorrow night."
Traci laughed. "I was about to ask you the same thing. Who did you invite?"
"Well, I invited Sam and…" Jerry paused not quite sure how she would feel about it.
"And?"
"And, I kind of invited a woman I thought he might like." Jerry blurted quickly.
"Are you kidding me?" Traci was stunned. "And he went for that?"
"Not really, I just kind of sprang it on him." Jerry admitted reluctantly.
Traci wasn't impressed. "Well, that's just great because I invited Andy." She knew Andy had some unresolved feelings for Sam and she would not be happy with front row seats to Sam's blind date.
"Are you kidding?" It was Jerry's turn to be surprised and a little upset; he wasn't sure he could stop Sam from backing out now. "There's no way that Sammy is going to sit through an entire meal with Callahan."
Traci shot him a look. "I didn't say anything about Callahan."
"Well, she's not going to just leave him at home is she?"
"She most certainly is." Traci argued.
Jerry just looked at her, waiting for an explanation.
"Andy broke up with Luke last night." Traci revealed. "I was just inviting her to get her out of the house and back into the swing of things again."
Jerry was completely thrown. "Wow! I had no idea. The rumor mill formerly known as Epstein hasn't said a thing."
"You guys are as bad as a bunch of teenage girls." Traci chided. "It just happened last night. Do you really think they want the whole station talking about it? I know Andy doesn't."
"Whatever. Now what do we do?" Jerry wondered.
"I'll just tell Andy and leave it up to her." Traci offered.
"OK…let me know how it goes. I can always change the reservation to 5."
After parade, Traci pulled Andy aside. They had barely started speaking when Sam started yelling. "Get a move on McNally; you can have your gossip session on your own time!"
"I'll meet you out there in 10." Andy shot back.
"Make it 5!" And he left with no room for argument; he was in a bad mood with this stupid set up and it was only compounded by his revelation that he thought his partner was his ideal date, and she just happened to be taken. Yeah this wasn't going to be uncomfortable at all.
"Talk fast while we go grab our stuff." Andy ordered as she pushed Traci down the hall.
They walked into the locker room noticing that Gail was already in there. After exchanging pleasantries, they continued talking. "I just wanted to let you know that Jerry invited Sam to supper too."
Andy's eyes widened as she took a quick glance at Gail. "Traci…you didn't tell…" She considered Gail her friend, but still wasn't sure she wanted to say anything in front of her about how she might feel about Sam.
Gail was already smirking. Does Andy really think that she's hiding her feelings about Sam? Please.
"No…it's not like that." Traci said as she looked down sheepishly. "Jerry is actually setting Sam up on a blind date."
Traci hunched her shoulders bracing herself for Andy to explode. Gail was standing nearby holding her breath and waiting for the same thing. They were both surprised when Andy started laughing. "Are you kidding? Jerry's setting Sam up on a blind date?"
"What's so funny? I thought you might be…" And then Traci whispered, "upset. What if he likes her?"
Andy chuckled. "I've heard about some of Jerry's set-ups."
Traci was shocked.
"What?" Andy almost shouted. "Don't you ever talk to your partner when things are slow?"
"Well, yeah, I guess." Traci admitted.
"I can't remember how it came up, but Sam told me about a couple of blind dates Jerry forced him on in the past. From the way Sam described it, Jerry has no clue what or who Sam would like; this could be a real gong show."
Traci was pleasantly surprised that Andy was taking it this well. "You won't feel like a fifth wheel."
"Oh…I won't come alone." Andy declared.
"Well, in case you don't remember, you no longer have a boyfriend." Gail reminded her. She and Traci had both gone over to Andy's last night after her break up with Luke.
Andy scoffed. "I know that; I was the one that called it off."
"Well if you're not bringing Homicide Luke then…" Traci let it trail off, hoping for Andy to fill in the blanks.
"My cousin and his wife are in town from Ottawa this week. He called and said they wanted to get together, but his wife is busy until Saturday. I'll just bring him along. He'll be a blast; I promise."
"OK; sounds good. So I'll tell Jerry to make it a table for 6 then?"
"What about 8?" Andy wondered turning to Gail. "Are you and Chris free?"
"I wish." Gail grumbled. "Dov and Chris have some sort of video game marathon planned. I'm thinking it's time for me to just catch up on some reading or some sleep. I am not watching those two act like idiots all night."
"You can come by yourself." Andy offered.
"And be what...the seventh wheel? Don't worry about it; I was kind of looking forward to a quiet evening anyway."
"Maybe next time." Andy said before circling back to Traci. "Yep, make it 6. Just remind him that at least you were kind enough to let me pick my own date."
Traci laughed as she walked out. "I will."
As soon as Traci got to the squad car to meet Noelle, she called Jerry. She let him know that Andy was still in and that she would bring a date. Jerry was curious but didn't ask for too many details, especially once Traci started teasing him about how nice she was letting Andy decide on her own date not like some people she knew.
Andy had followed closely behind Traci after she grabbed all her stuff. She had given Gail a quick wave and ran out to meet Sam. He would probably be even more grouchy because of the blind date plus she was almost at her 5 minutes.
She was right, Sam was definitely in a foul mood all morning and it wasn't hard to figure out why; she knew he wouldn't be happy with Jerry. She didn't want to make it worse by bringing it up because she didn't think she could so without teasing or laughing. Normally she would have told him about breaking it off with Luke, but that didn't seem like the ideal topic of conversation either. So instead she just did her best to take his mind off of it by talking about anything and everything, and doing the best she could to make him laugh.
By the end of the day, Sam was definitely more relaxed. Between some minor calls and Andy, he had been successfully distracted for most of the afternoon. When they parted at the locker rooms though, Sam's bad mood was starting to return; he couldn't help but think about how much more fun he would have if he was going out with Andy.
While he changed and prepared to leave the barn for the night, Sam continued to stew about his predicament. When he came out of the locker room, he saw Andy heading out the exit and he was going to catch up with her and see if she wanted a ride to the Penny…until Jerry caught him.
"Sammy."
Sam let out a breath and hung his head before turning around with a sigh. "Yeah?"
"Don't sound so excited." Jerry responded sarcastically. "I just wanted to talk to you."
"Talk to me at the Penny." Maybe he could still catch Andy.
"I can't go tonight." Jerry declared. "I've still got a few things here to finish up on."
"Fine…make it quick."
"What's your hurry?" Jerry wondered.
He was not sharing that information with Jerry so he just gave him a look that said 'get to the point'.
"Relax. I just wanted to let you know that there'll be more of us for supper tomorrow night. Apparently Traci had the same idea as I did and she invited McNally."
"Uh uh. No way." Sam argued. "I'm not going."
"What? Why? You can't back out now."
"The set up wasn't bad enough!" He was almost yelling and had to rein himself in before he continued under his breath. "Now you expect me to sit through an entire meal with Callahan."
"Relax, Sammy. McNally broke up with Callahan last night that's why Traci was inviting her out; you know, back in the saddle."
Sam was surprised and frankly a little hurt that Andy hadn't told him herself. But then he realized that she had spent the entire shift trying to get him out of his bad mood. He felt a little guilty then, wondering if he should have recognized that there was something wrong. If she had been upset, he probably would have asked and he was pretty sure she would have told him. But she didn't seem upset so he didn't think to ask. He would definitely have to bring it up tomorrow though.
He was preoccupied with those thoughts until he again remembered that Jerry had set him up and he was going to be on a date tomorrow. He did not want to go on a date in front of Andy especially if she just broke up with her boyfriend.
"I think you should call off the blind date." Sam suggested.
"I told you; it's too late. What's the problem now?" He suspected Sam had some feelings for Andy but he wasn't 100% sure.
"How's McNally going to feel when she's the only one not coupled up? We can't do that to her, especially when she just broke up with Callahan."
Jerry believed that Sam was sincere in his concern for Andy's feelings, but he was also pretty sure that Sam would do just about anything to get out of the blind date. Jerry was anxious to see how Sam reacted to his next statement; it might help him figure out exactly how deep Sam's feelings ran for Andy.
"Don't worry about McNally; Traci said she had someone to bring with her. She didn't want to be the fifth wheel either." Jerry explained.
Sam was trying to keep his poker face while his mind was spinning. Who could Andy bring? If she just broke up with Callahan last night, how could she already be going out with someone else? Is that why they broke up? Shit! He didn't even have a chance to… He tried to keep the disappointment out of his face, but Jerry could still see it.
"I guess it's all set then." Sam said without much enthusiasm.
It was going to be an interesting night.
