A/N. Tag to 3.8 - ONE SHOT.

This was going to make an appearance as a chapter of my other story Five. Four. Three. Two. One. But, it's not M, so it's over here! I made the silly mistake of watching a couple of later episodes of season 3 last night and had to spend some time before I went out for dinner to cheer myself up.

Disclaimer: I do not own Rookie Blue.


They've been sitting in his truck kerbside of her apartment for a good minute or so; their quiet voices sifting through the events of the day, and the evening that could've been.

Andy feels slightly annoyed with herself and Gail for a moment. Damn this operation and its pear-shaped events.

…...

("Come stay with me tonight," Sam told her back at the barn when he first saw her in this get up – the locker room still except for a single long stroke he made when he zipped up her dress.

She thinks he may have felt a pang of jealousy, even if the date she was about to go on was solely work.

"I…yeah, um. I want to-" Sam's voice went all husky, something very open and vulnerable hinting on his face.

Andy exhaled loudly when Gail stomping in cut his sentence short.)

….

"You, ah. You want me to walk you up?" Sam plucks gently at one of Andy's curls. It's a delicate touch he's using; those calloused fingers tickling light behind Andy's ear as he takes off his seatbelt with his free hand and turns further to get a good look at her face.

Andy grins. She thinks about the way Sam might kiss her goodnight up there. (At her door, on her door, inside her door….and then on her bed.)

As much as she wants him to keep her warm again tonight, as much as she wants to scream his name and tell him over and over how much she loves him…well. Apparently she has made a firm decision that she shouldn't do all of that tonight.

Tonight has turned into a night that she needs to be there for Gail. And, it's highly probable that if Sam walks her to her door now, that – will make her change those plans. Which would be inappropriate….and selfish….at least, that's what Andy tells herself.

Andy closes her eyes and chooses to savour this moment…this tender caress he has going that shows her he cares. "S'okay," she whispers with a giggle as her head thuds back against the rest of the seat. "I thought maybe you could just give me my goodnight kiss from here."

She hears the creak of his leather jacket and breathes in the intoxicating scent that Sam exudes as he leans over the console…and into her space. She doesn't have to open her eyes to know he's grinning at her – his mouth is that close.

Andy's lips part in millimetres as a reflex when he bumps her nose with the tip of his.

"You're not gonna make this easy on me are you, McNally?" Sam nips at her bottom lip - gently using some teeth.

Andy smiles because she can't help it – because she loves the way he wants her…

She loves him.

She'd ask him to finish whatever it was he was going to say in the locker room earlier today, but she really should get upstairs. It's just – well. They shouldn't start something here, not with the pedestrians and traffic and the rest of Toronto looking through the windscreen like this.

Andy opens her eyes slowly to inspect the look on Sam's face.

He's close alright. So close. And he's smiling still. One of his hands is still locked in her hair, a finger wrapped tight in some of her curls. His other hand is resting on her waist, the thumb pressed firm and circling in that obscure spot that she likes. The position he's in has to be uncomfortable; his torso and shoulders twisted at an angle to take in as much of her as he possibly can.

Andy peers down at his mouth as she muses.

She meant what she said a few weeks ago. The words don't matter. Even through this game of snakes and ladders they seem to be playing, Sam shows her his love.

Andy's thoughts are broken by the appearance of one of his dimples. His mouth is closed in a small smile…but then it's not -

His tongue peeks out; a quick wet of his lips before he brushes them onto hers.

It's insane the feeling; how one tiny little gesture like that is making something intense and warm coil right inside of her.

Andy takes a long, slow breath in to steady herself.

"You don't want easy," she tries on a sassy voice with her smirk, but it comes out all wispy - and like her heart has just stopped.

Sam nudges his nose at her before his mouth settles to kiss into her deeply. He pulls back after a minute and lets their eyes lock once more. His gaze moves down to her mouth and she feels the hand he has at her waist slide across to unlatch her seatbelt and push the strap out of their way. "You're right. I don't."

Andy's eyes flicker left and right as she looks out the window at the strangers passing by. She bites down hard on her bottom lip as she looks up at Sam.

It's back to eye contact of the highest order for the next 3 minutes. Andy needing to do something with her hands, so she gets one on Sam's face – and the other on the door handle and holds on for dear life.

She's waiting, wondering what he's going to do next.

"Just you." That's what he whispers right on her mouth as his hand skims across her ribcage and all the way down her short dress. "Only want you." He kisses her again: long and soft and slow, as his fingers touch over the top edge of her boot lightly - and then he travels it all the way up from her knee and then to the inside of her thigh.

He pauses there for what feels like minutes and minutes and minutes. His fingers are barely touching her; it's his thumb tracing lines up and down just an inch of one the more sensitive patches of her skin.

Andy's breathing picks up in time with the pounding that's in her chest. "Sam," she whines because it's all she can do not to buck into him. Her voice is strangled as she tries desperately to regain some control. "God. We can't do this here." -

She can just see it now; front page of The Globe and Mail, and Sam and Andy suspended again.

Sam's face pulls back ever so slightly, but his hand vanishes entirely – away from where Andy wants him the most.

He chokes out a breath and gives her a crooked grin. His head turns away from her so he can gaze out the windscreen.

Andy watches on carefully as he sucks right at the edge of his bottom lip.

After a while he clicks his door open and steps out into the night air. Her eyes follow his every step as he walks around to the passenger side –

He opens her door and then holds out a hand.

When she's all the way out, he shuts the door behind her and then tugs at her wrist until she's wedged between him and the truck.

Andy thinks he'll say something, the way his jaw goes slack. But he doesn't, his eyes just keep staring straight into hers.

She puts her hands on his collar and fidgets. "It's really probably better you don't come up," she smiles pathetically to assure him that isn't actually what she wants. "Gail's already given me several lectures on how she doesn't want our liaisons implanted into her brain."

Sam speaks finally, well – murmurs, more is the point. "Liaisons. Is that what we do?" His eyebrows are at first all furrowed, but then he works hard to smooth out his face.

Andy blushes because she can't help it. She knows full well that this is more than that.

Sam lets her off the hook with a quiet laugh that she can barely hear and a subtle shake of his head. "McNally, you are something else." It's a tease - but it's not. There's this edge to his voice. It's like all the other times he tells her she's something…but then…it's also a whole lot like he's telling her she's a whole lot more than that.

Andy giggles because she comes to the conclusion that she's overthinking things. For goodness sake, it's not like he's going to pop the question here and now…for as much as he may not be able to say those three little words, she's pretty sure they'd have to come out before that. (And then of course there seems to be the problem that he's not the marrying kind anyway -)

Her steamroll of thoughts get silenced once more as he wraps his arms around her – into a really tight embrace.

They stand there like that for seconds upon seconds until he puts his mouth against her ear and whispers. "Tomorrow is ours."

Andy pulls back enough to look up and beam at him. "I really, really, really do not object to that being the case."

They grin like fools at one another for at least another half a minute until Sam takes the plunge. "Night, Andy." And then he kisses her long and soft and slow again.

He lets go of her eventually and stands at his truck as she walks toward the few steps up to the foyer. Andy is giddy from the lack of oxygen, but she turns and smiles one last time and holds up her keys to let him know she's got this under control.

Sam waves and walks back around to the drivers' side. As he gets his door open he sings out to her. "Sweet dreams, McNally." He bites his lip and then hollers something else that just seems to have popped into his head:

"If you're up early in the morning, text me. We'll go for pancakes before work."

Andy gives him two thumbs up and then turns to bounce up the stairs. She can't get this silly smile off her face –

Even as she unlocks her door.