A/N: I want to thank everyone for their kind words, support, reviews and alerts. It encouraged me greatly and warmed my heart. I'm glad that you are liking this story and I hope you like where it is going.

I want to thank Nathy3 and Sillygyrl8 for their help and support with this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Rookie Blue. Wish I did, though.


Chapter II


When at the Barn, Andy went to say hi to Traci at the front desk and Sam went to talk to Oliver who was standing at the coffee station. On his way over towards him, Sam scanned the squad room, the detective's office and even took a look at Frank's office. He was curious to see where Lillian is and how her first day, and her first case is going.

"Looking for our new power couple, Sammy?" Oliver chuckled towards Sam when he noticed him scanning the room.

"What?" Sam was confused.

"Jerry and Lill can actually give you and McNally a run for your money, minus the romance, of course!"

"What is with you today? Did you hit your head?"

"I'm serious, Sammy. They worked very well together on the Roe case and apparently Inspector Burton asked for Jerry and Lill specifically to handle this case."

"Well, we know Jerry's good and Lily's good – we worked with her already so they'll do a great job at it. Where are they, anyway?"

"Interview rooms for the past hour or so, talking to some hoity-toity couple." Oliver licked the coffee stirring stick when suddenly he heard a voice behind him.

"That's not nice!"

Oliver turned slowly around and gave Lillian a guilty look.

'He's been probably giving one of those to Zoe for years'. She thought.

"Sammy! You could have warned me that she's here!"

"And miss the expression on your face? Not a chance!" Sam laughed.

"Just because they're rich, doesn't mean they don't have problems, Ollie. Besides, where's that big heart of yours that I have missed so much?" she gave him a cheeky look.

He smiled right back at her. "Buried!" he declared. "Under many many years on the job."

"I don't believe that for a minute!" Lillian declared teasingly.

Jerry came over to join the group and to make himself another well deserved cup of coffee.

"So... what's the whole fuss about?" Sam was curious to know.

While preparing his coffee and without glancing back at him, Jerry answered. "Looks like an adoption scheme with some extortion on the side." He then turned to Lillian. "What do you think about this whole thing?"

Lillian shrugged her shoulders. "My gut tells me... I believe them. What about you?" she looked back at Jerry.

"Yeah, me too. There's no apparent reason for them to lie. I guess we should check it out." He finished preparing his coffee. "You want to get a team together?"

"I guess we should. I have a feeling Inspector Burton will be calling to check up on us so we should get some answers and some more hands on deck to..."

Before she could finish her sentence, a voice over the PA system was heard. "Detective Barber, HQ on line 1. Detective Barber, HQ on line 1." Jerry looked at Lillian with a 'you just jinxed us' face.

She sighed in return. "Don't say it...please..." She let some air out again. "Go talk to him and I'll get a team together." She turned around to face Oliver and Sam. They were both grinning at her."Shut up!" She shook her head with amused annoyance and they couldn't help but laugh at her. "Parade room, 10 minutes!" She ordered them with a smirk. "Sammy, get McNally and Nash. Oliver, get me someone who's good with computers please." She turned around to leave.

Sam and Oliver remained standing at the coffee station for a while. They exchanged amused looks and left to get the others.


Oliver and Dov entered the parade room last after everyone gathered in there, chatting. Frank was there as well; after all, having an inspector from HQ hovering over the investigation, he couldn't afford not to be in the loop and on top of things.

Jerry and Lillian were standing next to two boards that were already set up with a sketch of a young woman of about 20 years of age with long hair. Also, there were pictures of two men and one of a woman.

"Okay, so here is what we have." Jerry started talking. "So, as you could all gather, Inspector Burton from HQ called and he had requested that we check something out." He continued to tell everyone that Inspector Burton has requested to check into a possible adoption scheme that involved a close friend of his and his wife – Liam and Carol Gallagher whose photos were on the board. As Jerry pointed to the two photos, everyone could see that the woman seemed to be in her late 30's and younger than the man in the next picture who was probably in his mid 40's. The woman, now known to everyone as Carol Gallagher, had light coloured skin, blue soft eyes and brown short hair that fell across her face, covering soft facial features. The features of the man on the next picture, Liam Gallagher, revealed a bit more life experience. Bags of light skin found their place under his bright blue eyes and his black hair had already started to go slightly grey.

Jerry continued to tell everyone that the couple were adopting an infant from a young mother whose sketch was pinned on the board. The girl was known to the couple as Casey Moore. She was a first year student at the University of Toronto. The Gallaghers paid for her university education, living costs and all other expenses including private prenatal care. They have met her only several times in the beginning of the pregnancy and were certain that a connection had been established. However, as time approached closer towards the delivery, things had taken a turn for the worst.

"They were working with a lawyer, Richard Price."Lillian continued and pointed to the second picture of a male party. Richard Price had a distinguished look to him, just like any high priced lawyer you would come across. His piercing green eyes seemed to be able to pierce right through a person. That was evident even from the photo. Lillian told everyone that right around the estimated date of delivery, the lawyer contacted the Gallaghers and indicated that the young woman had possibly changed her mind and would like to keep the baby. But... he implied that she could be persuaded to change her mind back for a certain incentive. "Basically, the girl, the lawyer or both wanted a cash payment of $100,000 which they got. But there has been no word since and Mr. Price refuses to release the information about the girl to the Gallaghers at which point they turned to Inspector Burton for help. So... we need to find everything out about everyone involved before we can proceed so that we can get a clearer picture of the situation." Lillian pointed out. "I know that we have Inspector Burton hovering over this case. But... please don't let it influence your work. We do our job and we take this case where it leads us, okay?" Lillian and Jerry looked at Frank for confirmation. They didn't have to wait long until they got it and everyone nodded their head in agreement simultaneously.

"Okay so... Nash" Jerry began to distribute assignments "we need a full background check on our couple here, including financials. We have their permission to look at anything we need, so see what you can find on them – we need everything. Epstein, you are on our Mr. Price – anything you can dig up – phone records, financials, connections, properties. McNally, take this sketch and start looking through university and college student records – pay attention to names as well since the girl maybe using a fake one. Check every university around the GTA but start locally with UofT and grab Diaz and Peck to help you. We need to move this thing along. Go." Traci, Dov, and Andy left the room as Frank, Sam, and Oliver came to talk to Lillian and Jerry.

"So what are you thinking?" Frank questioned Lillian and Jerry.

"Hard to tell, we don't even know who the bad guy is here but... my gut tells me that the lawyer has a hand here. Sammy..." Jerry turned to him. "See if you can find anything out about this guy through your CIs on the street, discreetly, please..."

"And Ollie..." Lillian continued. "The Gallaghers gave us a name of another couple who have adopted successfully through Mr. Price, Michelle and Austin Kelly. Could you please go over and talk to them, see if there were any bumps on the road to adoption. Here is their information." She gave him a piece of paper. "Oh... and take a copy of the sketch with you, just in case. We might get lucky." Jerry added. Oliver left the room with Sam after that.

"I want to be updated, regularly." Frank said firmly and left for his office.

Jerry and Lillian looked at each other, making a 'ooo scary' face and left for their office to review the information they got from the Gallaghers during the interview.


Sam had been on the phone for the longest time with some police connections and CIs that might help shed light on who Mr. Price was and if he had any connections to crime. He had some leads and some names that he needed to check out so when he walked into the squad room, he was surprised to find Lillian sitting at a computer across from Andy, looking at class pictures and student registries. As he approached, he caught Andy's eyes as they were lifted from the computer screen for a moment. She shook her head at him as if to say 'look at her, doing the job of a rookie'. Sam smiled and gestured Andy to be quiet. He noticed a bowl of Cheerios sitting next to Lillian, she seemed like she was totally concentrating and completely oblivious to his presence behind her. He tried creeping up slowly while Andy tried to look busy at her computer but could not keep herself from observing the scene that was about to unfold before her. Sam came closer to Lillian and reached his hand into the bowl to steal some Cheerios when he felt a slap on his hand before he could actually grab some.

"You know better than to do that!" Lillian stated firmly.

Sam couldn't help but laugh. That trick always worked when she was young. "First, ow! Second, is it that bad?"

"Worse!" Lillian finally faced him making a discouraged face.

Andy's snort at the sight in front of her could be heard across the room. "What's the matter?"

"So this one here..." Sam started answering Andy while putting his hand on Lillian's shoulder. "When something didn't work out or she had a hard time with something, would always turn to a bowl of Cheerios. That's how you'd know she's in trouble." He then turned to look at Lillian. "Still have the habits of a 6 year old, I see..."

"Shut up, Sammy. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Besides, you keep telling people my secrets, I'll have nothing to share and then I'll have to start spilling the beans on you! I bet people around here are willing to pay some good money for some Swarek family stories, hmm?" she smirked at him.

"I'll pay!" Andy exclaimed all bright eyed and excited.

Sam smiled but kept looking at Lillian. Then, his smile disappeared quickly. He tried to stare her down. "You wouldn't!" He dared her.

"Try me!" She stared right back at him, not backing down.

Andy kept switching her gaze from Sam to Lillian and back again. She could tell that the situation was getting dangerously serious but just couldn't bring herself to look away. Besides, Lill might actually let something slip and that... that would just be the Best. Thing. Ever!

Sam smiled and decided to change the subject before Lillian would actually act on her threat. "What are you doing looking at these anyways? Where are Diaz and Peck? Weren't they supposed to help McNally?"

"I sent them for food. They were sitting in front of the computers close to two hours so I decided to give them a break, take over for a bit. Burton called again... and I figured that I'll make myself useful while Diaz and Peck are out so that we won't lose any time. Damn it! Where. Is. This. Girl? It's like she fell off the face of the earth!" Lillian sighed and covered her face with her hands to hide from everything, everyone and to hide her discouragement form her coworkers.

"Lill, we're not done yet! Once Chris and Gail come back and we'll get Dov on the computer, we'll have it all going much faster. Some more set of eyes will do the trick." Andy tried to encourage her.

Still sitting, covering her face, Lillian released another breath and Andy could tell that she wasn't all that convinced.

Sam winked at Andy, thankful for her attempt. Seeing as it wasn't so successful, he decided to make one himself. "Hey, you know what?" he put his hand on Lillian's shoulder again; his voice had a mischievous tone to it.

Lillian sighed again. But this time it was a different sigh, more of 'not this again' sigh than a discouraged one. "What?" she raised her head from resting on her hands and turned to look at him. His eyes sparkled so much; they could light up the entire room, she smiled. "What are you going to do? Try the ham-bulance joke on me?"

A snort came from across the desk. Andy couldn't control herself and followed it up with laughter.

Lillian turned to look at her, realizing that Andy knew something about it. "Oh... so you're familiar with that one I see..."

Andy nodded her head in confirmation, still unable to actually form any words due to uncontrollable laughter.

"Do you know that he tried that one on me for the first time when I was 6? You know what it feels like to discover that you are cooler than your older cousin? At 6?"

"Hey!" Sam protested. "It worked! Didn't it?"

"Yeah... it did." Lillian burst into laughter along with Andy. "Still does!" she smiled at him. "But I'm still cooler than you, though!" she pointed out before turning her head towards Chris and Gail who had returned with pizza and take out containers.

Sam looked at Andy with a funny shocked face. 'No she isn't' he mouthed at her.

"Okay people, food's here! Let's go eat." Dov called them out as he passed by them on his way to the parade room.


A/N 2: This chapter is lacking a bit of interaction between our favorite couple and there will probably be chapters in the future that won't focus on Sam and Andy so much as well, I'm sorry for that. However, I hope it won't deter you from following this story since the end result is always Sandy or McSwarek - whichever you like ;). I wanted to shed a little light on both of them separately but still relate to their relationship - I hope it makes sense because this is the best way I can explain it. With that said - I want to make sure that when I write Sandy (or McSwarek) I do them both justice and I will do my best at that.

As always, please let me know what you think, what you liked/ didn't like, loved/ didn't love and so on. Any ideas that you might have - send them my way - I am taking everything into account.