Welcome to the second chapter! Feel free to leave your thoughts in a review and/or check out my other stories – I'd love to hear what you think so far. Thanks for reading!

Recap: Sam and Oliver show up at the McNally house after learning that Andy may have witnessed a murder. They try to question her, but Andy proves difficult. They end up leaving, despite sensing that she's lying.

Andy didn't sleep well that night, which made it even harder to drag her butt out of bed the next morning. She'd managed to keep it together while the officers questioned her the night before, but she knew it was only a matter of time before someone came back. The thought terrified her. It wasn't that she didn't think she could weasel her way out of things again; it was that she was scared of what would happen if someone saw the cops at her house. Either way, she was in a lot of trouble, but if the wrong people caught wind of the cops sniffing around, she wasn't so sure she could handle that.

Glancing at her alarm clock once more, she forced herself to get up, picking up her pace as she rushed through her morning routine and scrambled to get out the door before her father woke up.

Unfortunately, her efforts were wasted as her father emerged from his room and stood leaning against the doorway to the kitchen. She barely withheld a groan. "How did you sleep?" Tommy asked, eyeing her cautiously.

"Okay," she replied, reaching for her toast.

He noted the dark circles under her eyes. "You look tired."

Andy shrugged. "Had a really stupid nightmare," she lied, as she spread peanut butter on her nearly burnt breakfast.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

She shook her head. "Like I said, it was really stupid. Didn't even make sense. Just freaked me out, you know? Not even worth talking about."

"And what about last night?" Tommy pressed. "Do you want to talk about why my rookie and his partner showed up on our doorstep?"

Andy stared at her dad for a moment. "I told you, I don't know what that was about."

"And if you did, would you tell me?" Tommy asked.

She hesitated a fraction of a second, then nodded. "Yeah… yeah of course," she said, slinging her backpack over her shoulder and grabbing her toast before heading for the front door.

"Okay," Tommy reluctantly said, watching his daughter carefully until she was out of sight. When the door closed behind her, he turned and got ready before making his way to the station.


"Shaw, Swarek, my office," Tommy said as the officers were filing out of the parade room.

Sam and Oliver exchanged nervous glances as they followed Tommy into his office, fully expecting to be chewed out for questioning his daughter the night before.

They sat down and waited in silence as Tommy scribbled something on a piece of paper. He eyed them carefully, then slid the note across to them. "I need you to go to this address. Be there by three."

"What do we do there?" Oliver asked, frowning.

Tommy hesitated. "Find my daughter and question her."

Sam and Oliver exchanged glances again, both of them struggling to keep their jaws from dropping.

"You want us to question your daughter again?" Oliver asked, confused.

Tommy sighed. "My daughter doesn't lie to me, and half the time she's running out the door late for something." He hesitated. "She was intentionally trying to avoid me this morning, and she outright lied to my face."

"So you think she's hiding something about the murder?" Sam asked slowly.

"I don't know," Tommy admitted. "But it looks like she didn't sleep last night, and with how she was acting this morning, I don't know what else to think." He paused, rubbing his face. "I just don't get it. If she knows something, I don't understand why she'd lie about it to you and to me."

"And you think she's more likely to tell us something?" Oliver asked.

The detective leaned back in his chair, studying both officers for a long moment before saying, "Things with Andy have been a little rocky since her mom left. It's been years, but it hasn't been the same since. If I question her anymore, or she knows I'm behind this…" Tommy paused. "Look, I need you to do this… I can't risk losing her completely."

Sam nodded. "We'll be there at three."

Tommy smiled slightly and nodded.


Andy let out a sigh of relief when the bell rang to signify the end of the school day. She slammed her textbook shut, scooped up her binder and left the classroom in a hurry, ignoring her teacher's questioning look. Between being overwhelmed with thoughts and limited to the confines of a classroom, she'd felt stifled all day and couldn't wait to step outside into the fresh air.

The second her locker was open, she shoved her books inside and grabbed her bag, hesitating as she tried to decide whether or not she'd be able to focus enough on schoolwork to make bringing her books home worthwhile. As her thoughts shot back to the night of the incident, everything around her seemingly faded away.

"Is that your boyfriend?"

Andy jumped, whirling around to find Officer Swarek standing behind her.

"Uhhh, what?" she asked, blinking hard.

"The guy in the picture," Sam said, snagging the photo off her locker door. "Is that your boyfriend?"

Andy snatched the picture from him and shoved it in her backpack. "Nope."

"Oh yeah? So who is he then?" Sam pressed.

Her eyes flicked up and down the hallway. She shrugged. "Just someone I know."

"Must have made quite the impression to make it onto your locker door."

Again she shrugged. "Maybe I just thought it was a good picture."

"Alright, can I see your phone then?" He held out his hand, palm facing up.

"Why?"

Sam shook his head. "Do you really want to do this?"

Andy stared at him. "Do what, talk? No, I don't, but thanks for asking."

He quirked an eyebrow. "The more you cooperate now, the easier it's going to be for you down the road."

"I don't know what you're talking about, but I have to go," she said, turning back to her locker, and abandoning all thoughts of books as she slammed it shut.

"I'll walk with you," Sam said.

Her step faltered.

He could see her visibly tense. "Something wrong?"

She continued to stare straight ahead, her mind racing. No matter what, she couldn't let him follow her out of the school.

"Uh, no," she lied, though she hadn't resumed walking.

Sam moved so he was standing directly in front of her, watching as she scrambled to find an escape. "Are you trying to protect someone?"

Andy bit down on her lower lip. This was a disaster. Her phone buzzing moments later only made things worse. She glanced at the screen, then closed her eyes and pressed her lips together. She had to ditch him, and she had to do it fast.

"Are you trying to protect the guy in the picture?" Sam pressed.

She took a deep breath as she opened her eyes and raised them to meet his. "Look, I told you I wasn't there and I don't know anything, so what's your problem?"

"Someone from this school saw you there. They didn't see the murder, but they arrived in time to see you leaving."

Andy shook her head, "They're lying."

"So are you," Sam accused.

"Did my dad put you up to this?" she asked.

"No."

"Look who's lying now," Andy said, quirking an eyebrow.

Her phone buzzed for a second time. Upon reading the text, her face paled. A curse escaped her.

Before Sam could question her again, she moved around him and headed for the doors at the front of the school. Once there, however, she stopped, her eyes scanning the sidewalk and parking lot outside. She spotted the cop car before shifting her gaze to a red car in the parking lot where her boyfriend and his brother sat waiting. Normally she was happy to see her boyfriend, but today she just wanted to be as far away from everyone as possible.

"Aren't you going to go out?" Sam asked.

"Not with you."

He frowned. "Is someone watching you?" he asked quietly.

Her eyes flicked in his direction before returning to the glass panel in the door. He took that as a yes.

"We can protect you."

"No, you can't," Andy replied, her voice barely audible, but he caught the words and the fear behind them.

"It's our job. We can, and we will," Sam assured her.

She snapped. "You want to protect me? Stop showing up at my house and school. Just drop this… And don't follow me when I step out that door."

As she reached to push the door open, he held his arm out, barring her way. "Come with me," Sam said, almost pleading. "Whatever's going on, we'll figure it out, okay?"

Andy looked up at him, a crack forming in her façade – as much as she wanted out of this whole situation, she wanted to go with him. Something about him made her trust him. She believed he would try to protect her, but how could he when she didn't even know what she was really up against?

He held his hand out to her, watching as her eyes travelled down to it before looking up at his face again. She hesitantly reached out, but a noise down the hallway made her jump, her barriers slamming back up and her hand falling simultaneously.

"I can't," she breathed, fear etched in her words.

Before he could stop her, she was out the door. He hesitated, slamming his fist against the wall as he watched her walk away. Pulling out his cell phone, he called Oliver. "Let her walk," Sam said. "Stay in the car, but watch her. See if you can see where she's going, but be subtle, she's being watched."

"Then why'd you let her walk?"

Sam ran a hand over his face. "Just trust me on this one. You didn't see her face."

He'd originally intended on following her for as long as he could, but something in her reaction was setting alarms off in his head. What he'd really wanted to do was shove her in the back of the squad car and make her talk, but they really didn't have anything on her to be able to arrest her, and without her consent, there really wasn't much they could do at the moment. His abrupt appearance had clearly startled her, but until she walked out the door, she'd been pretty guarded. In that moment though, she seemed terrified. The thought that whoever murdered the guy on Saturday night could be somewhere nearby had his eyes scanning the area. Again, he felt the urge to go after her, to protect her, but his gut told him to stay back. If he couldn't take her away, the least he could do was not draw any more attention to her. After all, if she already felt like she was in danger, he didn't want to put a bigger target on her back – he really hoped he hadn't done just that.

Thanks for reading! Up next, a traumatizing situation forces Andy to make a difficult decision that could change the rest of her life in a drastic way.