Thanks for all the reviews, favorites and alerts to this story! Several people asked me if Andy got Sam a birthday present in the last chapter. I imagine she did, but it seemed like a mundane detail to include with everything else going on and whenever I tried to write a present into the chapter, it didn't really fit. :) Anyway, hope you enjoy this next chapter! Please leave a review and let me know what you think. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Rookie Blue.


Chapter 2

Andy noticed something had been off with Sam lately and she was pretty sure it had to do with work. Lately, he was snapping at everyone – truly everyone – but he'd leave it all at the station and be as sweet as ever when they were at home together. Even though he hadn't been a detective for very long, everyone respected him so much that a lot of investigations were being diverted to him and his caseload seemed to keep increasing. Andy knew she had to do something to help him. She thought about telling him to delegate some of the cases, but knew he'd never go for that, partly because he enjoys what he's doing and helping people, and also because he feels like he has something to prove in his new position. She decided he needed a way to release the angry and frustration that was building up inside him.

Several days after Andy began trying to come up with a way to help Sam, they were lounging around her condo on their day off. Her head was resting on his thigh as he sat on the couch. He was playing with her hair with one hand while she traced the fingers of his other hand.

They'd been talking, like really talking and sharing like they promised to do. Andy telling stories of her exploits with the high school basketball team – championships included – and Sam talking about all the pets he and Sarah had growing up, including the dozen or so fish they managed to accidentally kill.

Andy decided to be bold and jump into a more serious topic. "Um, can I ask you a question about before, about when we were together…before everything?" she asked hesitantly, not knowing how Sam was going to react.

His fingers that were lost in her hair stilled for a moment before he responded. "Uh, yeah, sure."

She linked the fingers of his other hand with hers and brought them to rest on her chest. "What were you always running off to in the mornings? Why didn't you ever stay?" she asked, looking straight up at him as he tilted his head down.

"I, uh…" He began rubbing circles on the back of her hand with his thumb. "I was meeting Jerry most of the time. Ever since we joined the force, we met several times a week to spar with each other. It kept us on our toes, kept us from punching a suspect when they really pissed us off." He'd been frowning when he started his answer, but the last few words brought a chuckle to his lips. "It was just…you and I, we spent so much time together, those mornings with Jerry, they were…"

"They were 'you time,'" she finished.

"Yeah, I didn't know how to tell you. It seemed easier to just leave," he explained.

"Sam, we both need time away from each other. And sometimes it's more than just poker night or girl's night. Promise me…let's not make each other wonder, so promise me you'll just tell me?" she asked.

"Promise."

Andy leaned up and Sam's hand that had been in her hair traveled down to her back to prop her up. He closed the remaining distance between them and placed his lips on hers. When they parted he nuzzled her nose with his for a moment.

"Have you sparred with anyone since…since Jerry died?" she asked softly.

"My locker may have received some punches," he said, giving her a half smile. "But no, not since…then."

Andy suddenly found the answer to the question she'd been asking herself for days and came up with a great idea. For now, she laid her head back down on his thigh and they continued talking about less serious topics.


Two days later, Sam stopped by Andy's condo to pick her up for their morning run, but on this day she had other ideas. "Ready to go?" he asked when she answered the door.

"Yep, but I thought we'd do something a little different today, if that's okay." She hoped to keep her idea a surprise, but knew if Sam pushed too much, she'd have to tell him ahead of time.

"Should I be scared?" he asked with a smile.

"No, but I can I drive?" He narrowed his eyes, but with the amount of times he'd let her drive his truck, he couldn't even feign shock anymore that she'd asked him.

He handed his keys to her. "Do I at least get a hint?"

"Nope." She practically bounced down the hallway and out to the truck with Sam following close behind. "Just trust me," she said, when she started up the truck.

They pulled into the station's parking lot a short time later. Sam gave Andy a questioning look as they got out of the truck, but she only grabbed his arm and pulled him inside with her. When they entered the station's gym, Sam was entirely confused. "You want to workout here instead of going for a run?" he asked.

"Yes and no. Not a regular workout, but I thought it was about time you did something you hadn't done in a while," she said, walking over to the mat on the other side of the room, beyond all the gym equipment.

He started to follow her until he saw her pick up boxing gloves. "You don't have to do this. We can go for our run, like normal."

"Come here," she said, holding out the gloves. "You're overdue for a sparring session."

"I can't." He whispered. "The last time…Jerry and I…I don't think I can."

"Look, I'm not trying to take his place, Sam. That's the last thing I'm trying to do here." She knew no one could take the place of a best friend. "But you need a way to release the anger and frustration that builds up inside, and it can't be coincidence you've been snapping at people more and more now that you don't have regular boxing sessions."

He'd walked over to her while she was talking and hesitantly took the gloves she offered and put them on. "You seem to know what I need better than I do."

"Just trying to lookout for you. I love you too much for something to happen because you end up taking your pent-up frustration out on someone, like a suspect." Andy grabbed another set of boxing gloves and put them on. "You said it yourself, you did this regularly to get it all out."

"I get what you're trying to do, Andy. But Jerry and I, we were, well, we were better matched. I don't want to hurt you," he said, not entirely sure if he was giving Andy an out or trying to find one for himself.

Andy raised an eyebrow and punched him in the stomach. "Really? You want to try that again, Sam? Pretty sure the last time we did this, I took you down."

He let out an 'ompf,' more from surprise than the punch itself. "Rewriting history, are we McNally?" he questioned, smirking.

"Nope," she said, popping the 'p.' "Just remembering history accurately."

He tapped her shoulder with his gloved hand. "So that's how you want to play this, huh?"

They started to walk around the mat, each waiting for the other to make the next move. Andy finally threw a left hook, which Sam dodged, and the sparring match began. For the next half hour, they smiled and laughed as light punches were thrown. Andy could see the tension escaping Sam's body.

When they were done, Andy grabbed two water bottles from the gym's mini-fridge, plopped down on the mat next to Sam and leaned back against the wall. She handed a bottle over to him, before twisting the cap off hers and taking a long swig. "So, how do you feel?" she asked.

Sam mirrored her actions with his bottle of water before responding. He felt like a weight had been lifted off him. Maybe he had been keeping emotions that built up from all the cases he worked bottled up. "Better, I feel a lot better."

She smiled and nudged her shoulder against his. "Told you."

"I guess I didn't realize how much I missed sparring with Jerry. I thought it had more to do with missing him than needing this outlet," he admitted.

"You know, if you want, we could change up our workouts and once a week come here instead of going running." As the words came out of her mouth she thought about how Sam had said the boxing he did with Jerry was his time away from her. What if he still needed that? What if she was being too pushy, too clingy? "Or, you know, if you just want to skip one of our runs and come here with someone else, I mean, that's totally fine too. It doesn't have to be me that – "

Sam silenced her by leaning around to place his lips on hers. He smiled as he pulled back. "Couldn't imagine sparring with anyone else."

Andy returned his smile with a big toothy grin before poking a boney finger into his chest. "Just don't expect me to go so easy on you next time."

"Oh, this was you going easy?" he asked doubtful.

"You won, didn't you? So of course that's was me going easy on you," she replied, smirking.

Sam chuckled. "By all means, don't go easy next time," he said, smirking back at her.

Andy leaned over to him, placing a messy kiss on his cheek. "C'mon," she said getting up and grabbing Sam's hand to pull him up. "We gotta shower before our shift starts."

"Together?" he asked with a mischievous gleam in his eye.

Andy simply shook her head. "See you in Parade, Sam."


A few days later, Sam walked into the locker room to grab his jacket where he saw Oliver changing out of his uniform.

"Coming to The Penny, brother?" Oliver asked, expecting a positive response since it was the Toronto Maple Leafs' season opener and they always spent it watching the game at The Penny.

"Nope, not tonight," Sam replied, pulling his jacket out of his locker.

Oliver's mouth dropped open. "What?"

"McNally's got plans for us tonight. She was so excited, I didn't want to break her heart," he said. Sam didn't even know what the plans were, but Andy had been so giddy about making sure he was free tonight that he'd totally forgotten about hockey.

"Sammy, it's the season opener and it's a home game. We never miss this game. You, me, Frank...Jerry."

"I'll watch the highlights on the news later," he said, shutting his locker. "Gotta go, Ollie. See you tomorrow."

Andy was waiting outside the locker room, unusually early for once because she couldn't wait to show Sam his surprise. She pulled two tickets out of her back pocket just to make sure they were there and was putting them back when the locker room door opened and Sam walked out. "Ready?" she asked with a big toothy grin on her face.

"As always," he said, taking her hand in his. "We heading somewhere for dinner before this mystery location you're taking me to?"

"Nope, we can get dinner there."

When they got to his truck, she hopped in, waiting until Sam got behind the wheel. "So, you gonna tell me where we're going?" he asked.

"To the Air Canada Centre."

Sam looked over at her, eyebrow raised, wondering if he heard her correctly. She just smiled, biting the inside of her cheek to force herself not to reveal the surprise just yet. "Okie dokie," Sam finally said as he pulled out of the parking lot.

Andy remained silent on the way over and when they started walking up to the entrance of the Air Canada Centre, Sam finally had to say something. "You know it's opening night, right? We can't just walk up to the box office and buy a ticket."

"I may not know much about hockey, but I do know that," she replied. She stopped walking and waited for Sam to turn toward her. She pulled the tickets out of her back pocket and held them out for him. As his eyes skimmed over the ticket, he couldn't believe it. These were fifth row tickets center ice, just feet from the penalty box.

"What? How?" Sam was both shocked and excited. And he couldn't believe Andy had been able to keep this a secret.

"My dad has this friend in AA who knows someone who had some extra tickets to sell."

"Andy, this is...wow. Thank you." Sam was still stunned.

She shrugged her shoulders sheepishly as they continued walking toward the entrance. "I know how much you love hockey. I mean, last year, Traci and I were pretty much invisible to you and Jerry while we were at The Penny," she said with a laugh. They stopped at the end of a short line of people waiting to have their tickets scanned. Andy looked over at Sam. "And I wanted to do something special for you...cause I love you so much."

Sam leaned over to kiss her. "I love you too."

They made their way into the building, stopping for hotdogs, nachos and beers as they made their way to their seats. When they sat down Andy watched Sam as he looked at the ice in awe. He couldn't believe how close they were; he could nearly reach out and touch the ice. He'd been to many games over the years, but never, never had seats this good before.

"You gonna eat that hotdog or drool over the penalty box?" she teased, nudging his shoulder with her own.

"Funny," he deadpanned, before picking up his hotdog and taking a huge bite. Andy smiled as she stared at him, thinking he looked just like a kid on Christmas morning.

When the game started, Sam eagerly explained what was happening to a clueless Andy. She couldn't help that she was more of a basketball person and knew nothing about hockey. As Andy held Sam's hand in hers on the armrest, she smiled at how happy he was. Seeing the glow in his eyes and excitement on his face made all the favors she owed her dad for helping her get these tickets worth it. She really would do anything for Sam.

Andy was pulled out of her thoughts when Sam jumped out of his seat screaming. She stood up and leaned into him. "Did we score?"

"Yeah and that was a tough one," he said, wrapping an arm around her waist. "I love you, you know. Thank you for this."

She leaned up and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I love you too, and I love seeing you happy."

"You make me happy."

Andy could have stood there wrapped up in Sam forever, but soon everyone around them was sitting again, so they followed suit. As one of the teams took a timeout, Sam looked over at Andy. "You having a good time? I know hockey isn't really your thing."

"I'm with you. I don't need anything else." She laced her fingers with his, never taking her eyes off of his, so he could see how sincere she was.