"I don't think I can go through another shift like that, Trace" Andy exclaimed as she closed her locker door shut, after getting dressed and ready for shift to start.
"It's soooo hot out there. I don't get it. It's nearly September already! How can it still be so hot after last week was so cool and we got the coats out!? There should be a law against it or something. And if there will – I'll be the first to enforce it! It's the third heat wave this summer, and they only get worse. Look at me, it's not even 9 AM, I've just come out of the shower, and I'm already all sweaty like a pig!"
Andy did have a point there about how things only get worse, Tracy knew. The first heat wave was when Andy shot the guy. The second was during her probation after the shooting, when the AC at her building didn't work so she ended up at Tracy's couch for a couple of nights, making it harder for Traci, Leo and Traci's mom to be together in their tiny 2 bedroom apartment. And now this heat wave, which is the longest, and people are way beyond acting crazy.
Tracy was sure it was something else that really bothered Andy, but said nothing. She knew Andy will share when she's ready, and knew her friend better than to dig into it right now.
Time and space, that's what Andy needed, Traci thought to herself.
That, and a 12 hour shift in a full blast AC working at the squad car. Nothing less than that will work.
Five minutes later, during parade, Andy was pared with Sam. Again. She looked back from her desk seat to the back of the room where he usually set during parade. He gave her one of his smiles and she couldn't help but smile back at him, one of her newly acquired reflexes. It was not surprising that they rode together today as he still was her TO, but he somehow managed to get to her nerves every day the past week, ever since she was cleared to come back to work. She just hoped he will simply leave Luke out of the squad car today. He just didn't know how not to interfere, and she found his interest in her love life highly annoying. Especially when it came out when he used Luke's head as a piñata, when he punished her to sort a pile of shredded papers or whenever he shot her one of his "smart" remarks causing her to turn the other cheek over and over again. It was getting to the point where she was actually thinking of going to Best to ask for a change of TOs. Sam was a professional and she could learn a lot from him, but she just can't do it now. Not after everything that had happened. Even if he says that 'it was what it was', whatever THAT means.
They were half way through their shift when the call came in – dispatch called all units to a cooling warehouse not too far from them, something about murder scene and drugs. Sam looked at his rookie while answering dispatch and turning on the lights. By the look on her face he knew she'll hate seeing Luke right now, and he knew He didn't want to run into Boyde from Guns and Gungs today, but… that was the job so they had to do it. Not that he knew what was wrong with her and lover boy, but he saw their glimpsed looks during parade so he figured there must be troubles in paradise.
Andy saw Boyde once in the past, when he came to debrief Sam after she burned him. Sam's physical reaction to Boyde's presence in the room was so evident, he didn't even try to hide the fact the he hates the guy. Somehow, this made Andy look at Boyde differently.
Once inside the warehouse, Andy finally felt alive. A creepy thought considering this was a multiple murder scene in a butcher's warehouse with drugs hidden inside the animals, but she had to admit it was really nice that she finally found herself in a cool place and not oozing sweat all over her body.
Luke was nowhere to be found on scene, and so was Boyde. Sam and Andy shared a look as if each one of them was worried for the other's response, and were both relieved to find these people missing. The scene clearance and witness statements were performed slowly, none of the officers present inside willing to go out to the scalding heat.
"1505 what's your 20?" dispatch was heard through Sam's and Andy's radio. "Cooling warehouse at Sheppard" was Sam's immediate answer. He was still quicker than Andy with the radio, though she was getting better by the day. Two seconds later both Sam's and Andy's phones rang with text message received. It said: "Officers Swarek and McNally, report ASAP to Staff sergeant Best's office. Use lights, sirens and do not stop at any traffic lights. Do not stop or talk to anyone on your way".
As Sam finished reading the message on his phone he looked at Andy. She looked terrified as if she was a Bambi running on the road and caught by a passing car's light all of a sudden. She really was as cute as a Bambi to him, not that he'll ever admit it out loud to anyone. "McNally", he asked prolonging the LL sound, her eyes meeting his with a look of puzzlement on them, "what have you done this time?"