Okay this is my first ever fic and im really nervous but i wanted to do this so please comment whatever you think and please give me tips on how i can improve my fic as if people like it i do have some ideas for more chapters

Sam had been my partner for a long time now.

He was there the many times my dad had fallen off the wagon, he was there when me and Luke had a huge and very public fight because of his marriage to his job which ended in us breaking up and he was there when I needed someone to fix a sink.

He was always there for me and yet I still thought of him as this totally impulsive guy who was dangerous and who would only hurt me but looking at him, driving the cruiser safely, I wondered how I ever could have been so wrong about him and why I was still having this same opinion.

"McNally would you just tell me if I have ketchup down my face already cos the staring is weirding me out"

"Sorry I was just thinking"

"Yeh I noticed, what's eating you" he said cautiously as though he was expecting me to shut him out, which I realised was something I did a lot these days. Even though he knew just about as much about my life as Traci I still couldn't tell him about my real feelings towards him, even though we had almost slept together the night of the blackout but as I had been told so many times before, lust and love were two very different things and I wasn't sure exactly what column his feelings for me fell under.

"McNally, you don't have to answer the question but a reply or even a change of subject would be nice"

"Sorry I guess just everything that's been going on recently I've realised that you are pretty much always there for me"

"Well I am your partner I'm supposed to have your back"

"Yeh I know I just want you to know that I really appreciate it and ..."

"We have shots fired all available units respond"

"1504 responding" Sam said as he flicked the lights and siren on and smoothly accelerated, "so what were you about to say"

"Doesn't matter" I replied sighing with the knowledge that I would probably never be brave enough to bring that tense subject up again and knowing that the only person I was hurting just now was myself. We arrived at the scene and I quickly assessed the surroundings.

We were the first unit there so we were going to have to take the cautious approach with guns drawn and constantly on alert. There were a bunch of houses, a desolate building and a community centre which was where we were headed.

As we approached the buildings with our weapons drawn I heard a scream and then four gunshots.

Sam looked over at me and I knew what he was thinking quite plainly from the look. He was saying just because I wasn't his rookie anymore didn't mean I could try to be a hero and I was to follow his lead and let him do the talking. He had been giving me the same speech ever since I turned my back on a gun pointed at my head to go save him. The familiar exchange wasn't one that I enjoyed but in light of my epiphany something that made me think maybe he does care.

We entered the centre and quickly located where the shooting had been coming from but when we got to the third door on the left we were not expecting what was behind it.

We opened the door and saw what looked like around twenty hostages, children and adults, lying on the floor all looking absolutely terrified but uninjured we were confused. Why were these people lying here if there was no guard or anything watching them and none of them appeared to have a gun so where had the shots come from.

We went farther into the room Sam taking the left side and me taking the right. As we approached the back we noticed a door and assumed this was where the shooter was hiding so he looked in while I kept an eye on the front door. I heard a sharp intake of breath and turned around to see a man holding a gun to Sam's forehead with one hand and his other arm around Sam's neck constricting Sam's breathing. I also noticed four dead bodies all men and all adults lying dead in the back room.

I started to panic. Sam always did the talking in these situations and whenever I did it we always seemed to end up in more trouble than we began with and the fact that this man had a gun pointed at the man I love's head was not helping with the panic.

I had my gun pointed at him and Sam's appeared to be on the floor behind the two of them. I knew that even if I did manage to get a shot at the guy he could just as easily shoot Sam at the same time. I also knew that I couldn't call for back-up as that would be Sam's death sentence so the only real hope I had right now was that there were other units on the way and that maybe one of them would be able to get us out of this mess.

"Drop your weapon or he dies and maybe I'll chuck in a kid or two as well" the shooter said this in a confident demand and knew that he was going to get his way.

I could see Sam's expression change into something I couldn't quite place as I slid the gun away from me and him knowing that my one real hope of getting him away from the shooter was now gone and I was the only one who was here to get him out of this.

Please leave comments and tell me about anything that i can improve on.

Thanks for reading!