Sam Swarek didn't mess up on much. His meticulous nature just didn't allow for any error. It just so happened that the one time he could have used words of advice more than anything, the one person who was always there to subconciously give the ingenious bits of information which always seem to come at exactly the right time, was at the hospital with her...fiancee.
He couldn't help but think that to some extent this was his fault. It went all the way back to the time of the city-wide black out, where he had tested his loyalty as well as hers, and it had back fired. Andy and Luke were now closer than ever and it was thanks to his doing. He had to make ammends before Luke died. It was inevitable. Luke had driven them off the road and into the only ravine for hundreds of miles. The car had flipped, flinging the door open, and sending Andy flying. The car took another couple bounces, and landed on Luke's side. The Rescue Team had to use the jaws of life to get him out of the car 3 hours after the accident had occured. Things weren't looking good for him.
It wasn't even Luke's fault, really. It was raining - harder than it had in years. There was a tornado watch out for half of the state, and he was pushing 80 miles per hour trying to get home before the biggest push of the storm came. He took one of the only back roads for miles, and hydroplaned,
Everybody who went to visit Luke at the hospital came into the room at the gut-wrenching site of Andy holding the hand of not Luke Callaghan, but of a shell of somebody who once was. He wasn't there anymore, but continued to be optimistic for Andy's sake. Sam was the only one who hadn't paid his respects yet. All of the others, even Gail, had made their way to the hospital at one point or another to either give their prayers to Andy, or to say their goodbyes to Luke. Either way, every one had been except for him, so he put on a clean button-down and tie and got in the patrol car, so that he could drive top speed there and back, not having to waist time on anything, except giving a quick talking to, then getting the hell out of there.
Once in the lobby of the hospital, he ran into Chris on his way out with Gail, "Man, you really don't want to see it in there. They're about to take him in for another surgery."
He held his hands up in dismissal, "How's McNally?" he asked quickly.
"She's pretty banged up to. You don't want to see her like that, Man. She's a mess-"
"I don't need your opinions, Diaz. I need you to tell me what room they're in so I can go talk to my rookie. She's my responsibility; I can do the talk."
"They're up in 206." Chris finally answered and he and Gail made their way out of the hospital and back to their apartment. It may have emotionally scarred a ton of the rookies and training officers, but letting so many people take leave for emotional purposes would have left the division with very few, and two was already too many to have missing. Tracey had taken it hard, and she had been permitted to stay home the next day, to stay with Leo. Everybody else was expected to be there, fully functional, and prepared, bright and early the next morning at 5:30 in the morning.
Sam made his way up to their room without going through all of the in's and out's at the front desk. He openede the door, knocking on it briskly as he entered, "Hey, McNally," he whispered as the sight of her staring blankly at the sight of her staring at Luke's forgotten body, "You've been in this room for going on 48 hours. Do you want to go out for coffee?"
She looked up at him with disbelieving eyes. The phenomena of her streaking eye liner and mascara set his teeth on edge. Hardly ever did a day go by when her make-up was absolutely perfect, "He's going to die isn't he? They're going to take him in to surgery while we're gone and he's going to die, and they just won't tell me until after the fact what is going on with him? I'm going to stay here." Then she turned back to holding Luke's hand, the expressions of any kind vacating her face.
"Well, would you at least let me drop by your house and pick you up a change of clothes?" he asked. Sam had no clue where all of this compassion was coming from. He had never felt this pathetic, this sympathetic, this utterly useless. This is the first time he had felt useless since he was a little kid. He wanted to do something to help, but he couldn't bring Luke back from Limbo, or wherever the hell he was.
"The keys to the house are in my jacket." she said, okaying his idea for clothes. He got the keys and was about to walk out the door, when he heard a gut-wrenching sob pierce from Andy's chest. He turned back around and there she stood, holding her arms out to him, like a little child, and he took her in a slightly awkward hug, but the only thing he was focused on was her. The discomfort didn't even appear until later, "Why does it always have to be me?" she wailed into his shirt.
They stood like that for a moment until a foreboding noise broke through the near-silence. Luke's heart monitor went flat. At that exact moment, everything Sam had ever learned, or thought, came rushing back to him. He knew he had to hate this man so much because he stole the one thing of interest to him, but nevertheless, as Andy shrieked and wailed for a nurse, he started CPR.
Two months later, the wedding took place. Sam was deemed best man by both Andy and Luke, who only needded a light cane to walk now. Walking around about twenty minutes prior to the ceremony, Sam noticed Andy sitting alone by the big well at the back of the golf course. She looked up at him smiling, then she stood, having to lift her big poofy dress off the ground, "Hey, McNally." he said, in the same tone of mallice that he used at the hospital so many months prior.
"You know this wouldn't be happening if it wasn't for you. You were the one who saved him-"
"I love you." he said suddenly. He'd never had the strength to do it before, so now he chose to do it, twenty minutes before her wedding (which he had no desire to destroy for her.) With that in mind, he began to squint as the sun peeked over the horizon, he whispered, "You look beautiful, Andy." before going back to rejoin his own party.
He was so focused on running away, he didn't hear her whisper, "I love you, Sam."