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Andy stretched out in bed. Luke was already up; she could hear him rattling around in the kitchen. She threw the covers off and put her feet on the hard floor, curling her toes at the cold. Outside, the sun was still a faint promise, lighting the sky a soft pinky blue, but not yet peeking over the horizon. She yawned, stood up and wobbled her way to the bathroom. She looked in the mirror. The girl who looked back looked like a shadow of the girl who needed to be at work in 90 minutes. She'd gone to bed with her make-up on last night, and this morning it was smeared under her eyes. She was fairly sure that if she hadn't had so many drinks the night before, she wouldn't have slept at all. So maybe the tiny hangover was something to be thankful for. Doubtful. Was it better to have a nagging headache all day, and be slightly rested, or not sleep at all, but be headache free?

She groaned and turned around. She turned the shower on and dragged her pajamas off. She stepped into the shower and hissed, falling back against the wall as her desperate hand reached out to turn up the hot water. Nothing like a blast of freezing cold water to wake a person up, McNally. As the water turned hot, she stood under the spray for a long time, letting it run over her hair and down her back. She picked up Luke's shampoo and opened it and closed her eyes, inhaling its scent. The man certainly smelled good. And expensive. She set the bottle down and picked up her own.

Ten minutes later, she was wrapping herself in a towel and making wet footprints into the bedroom. She picked her comb up off the dresser and sat down on the bed. For a few seconds she just sat there, holding it, mind completely blank, eyes looking at nothing. The shower had almost taken care of her headache, and she felt awake. But she felt strange. It was almost an emptiness, the source of which, she could not pinpoint. Out the window, the sun had come up some, lighting the streets and trees to the east. It looked warm out, the roads were dry. She wished she had gotten up earlier. She almost felt like she was missing out on something by not going for a run this morning. She had gotten used to it. She loved being on the road before any of her neighbors' windows lit up. It was a very special time of the day. But her legs needed a rest.

"Hey, good morning." Andy smiled over her shoulder as Luke poked his head in. "I've got eggs waiting for you downstairs, as soon as you're ready to eat."

"Sounds good."

He patted the door frame absently and looked at her guiltily. "I kind of told them I'd be in a little early today. I know you'd have to sit around for a while but if you want a ride, you've got maybe fifteen minutes to get dressed and eat. Or you can eat in the car. Whatever works."

"Yeah, no problem. I'll be down in a few."

Swarek yawned as he drove through a sleepy residential neighborhood and glanced over at McNally. They'd responded to a call about a shoplifter, a couple of traffic accidents, and ticketed a few speeders. She, like the city, had been uncharacteristically quiet for most of the day. He'd made a sarcastic remark about the shoplifter they'd hauled in and it had barely earned a smile.

"Everything okay with you, McNally?"

"Everything's fine." She turned to look at him with her eyebrow raised. "How about yourself?"

"Yeah, I'm great. No problems."

She drummed her fingers on her knee and looked out the window. "How was your night?" she asked casually.

The corner of his mouth turned up. "You mean my date?"

"I mean your date." She turned her head and fixed her eyes on him.

"It was okay," he answered cautiously, keeping his eyes forward.

"Anyone I'd know?" The intent way she was looking at him was starting to make him uncomfortable.

"I don't think so."

"Well, how'd you meet?"

He prayed for dispatch to come over the radio. Silence. "I bought coffee from her the other morning."

"You're dating a barista?"

"No, not dating, not yet. One date. And actually, she's the owner."

"Not yet?"

"What's with the third degree, McNally?"

She rolled her eyes and turned back to her window. "Nobody's forcing you to answer me."

"Well is there anything personal you'd care to share today?"

"Not particularly."

"Okay then."

Sam drove silently, his thoughts drifting to Kate. He'd actually had a good time. A great time. When she called, he was going to suggest going out the next weekend, but she surprised him by asking him out for that night. She had a few friends who played in a cover band, and they were playing one of the neighborhood dives. So he met her at her shop and they walked to the bar and had a couple of beers. Apparently, he was the only person in a five mile radius who had never been to the place because it was packed.

The bartender waved to Kate as they walked in and pointed to a table in the corner.

"Friend of yours?" She waved back to the guy.

"Friends in the band, band plays here a lot. You know how it works."

It was hard to hear each other during the set, but conversation flowed easily during the band's break. When he leaned forward to hear what she was saying over the din of voices in the background, he caught the scent of vanilla on her long wavy hair and it smelled warm and familiar and put him at ease.

She was a few years younger than him, never married, a proud business owner of four years. She had lived in the city all her life, but had traveled all over the world after she was done with school. She liked all different kinds of music, but claimed to know just by looking at him that he was a classic rock kind of guy, hence the cover band. Definitely a different type of woman than he usually went out with, Kate was direct, answering his questions with a frankness that was almost startling.

And when they'd both learned a little about each other, she'd leaned in and taken his face in her hands and kissed him softly on the mouth. When she pulled back a few moments later, her green eyes sparkled and she said, "Just wanted to make sure. There'd be no point in going on with this if that hadn't worked out."

He'd sat back, a little surprised, more than a little turned on and had nodded. "Yeah," he answered, his voice catching in his throat a little. "Wouldn't want to waste our time."

Yes, it had been a great date. But something felt…off. Timing or something else. It wasn't a chemistry thing. There were sparks. He took a sip of coffee and glanced to his right. Then again, maybe he was just making excuses.

At the end of her shift, Andy was sitting in a chair in Luke's office, paging through a magazine. Luke was tapping away at his computer, hair flashing in the soft glow of the desk lamp. His eyes were trained on the monitor, and he didn't see Andy glance at her watch in irritation. She should have caught a ride with someone else, but she thought that waiting a few minutes wouldn't be so bad. So far, she'd been waiting a half hour. She'd already read the interesting parts of the magazine and was pretty close to falling asleep from sheer boredom. A tap on the door made her head snap up. Swarek stuck his head in.

"Hey, McNally. Show up a little earlier tomorrow morning and we'll do five miles."

She nodded. "Yeah, sounds good." For a split second, as she looked at him, she considered asking him for a ride, but seeing the annoyed look on Luke's face changed her mind.

Swarek said, "Night Callaghan," and popped his head back out.

Luke exhaled audibly and turned his monitor off. Andy stood up and put on her sweatshirt as he grabbed his jacket and turned off his desk lamp.

"Thanks for waiting. I really didn't expect it to take that long." He gathered her to his side and they walked out of his office and through the empty station to the parking lot. She wrapped her arm around his waist and he felt solid against her, under her cheek. "You know," he said. "I trust you, but I can't lie. In some primal part of my brain, it really bothers me that you leave our bed in the morning to go get sweaty with that guy." He smiled down at her and she laughed and hit him gently in the ribs with her fist.

As she got into the car, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the side-view mirror and noticed that the smile hadn't quite reached her eyes.

The Penny was kind of quiet that night. A few people sat at a few tables. A couple played darts in the corner, and another girl stood at the jukebox. Sam slid in next to Oliver at the bar. He signaled the bartender and let out a contented sigh after he took a sip of his drink.

"So, I heard you had a date last night."

" 'You heard?' From who?"

"The question is who didn't I hear it from." He nudged him and laughed. "Just kidding. Jerry told me."

"McNally has a big mouth. Never tell her anything you don't want Traci Nash to know." He looked down at his drink as he brought it up to his lips.

"So, how'd it go?"

"It was good."

"She hot?"

Sam took another drink and nodded, eyebrows raised.

"Good. Maybe she's the ticket to getting McNally out of your system."

Sam gave him half a smile. "We'll see."

"I'm serious buddy. As long as you two are spending so much time together, no other woman is ever going to have a chance."

Sam laughed half-heartedly. "Well I don't see that changing any time soon. We work together and now we're hanging out in the mornings too."

"Before work?"

Sam nodded. "We run most mornings. Sometimes we have breakfast after. Didn't you hear that around the station? We're friends." He said the last word a little bitterly, feeling it roll off his tongue with a little difficulty.

"So stop running."

"Yeah, well, I got her into that, so I can't exactly quit, can I?"

"Then stop with the breakfasts."

"I don't want to," he said pointedly, looking him straight in the eye.

"She's not your girlfriend, Sammy," Oliver said quietly, looking at his friend. "As much as you might want her to be, she's not."

"I know that."

"Do you?"

"It's made abundantly clear every time I see that." He pointed vaguely in the direction of the door as McNally and Callaghan walked in. He waved the bartender over for a refill. Andy looked over in his direction and smiled at him, giving a small wave.

"That!" Oliver gestured as Sam's head snapped toward him. "No more of that. No more of the lingering stares or the hand brushing or whatever ridiculous junior high mating games you two are playing. It's not beneficial to your situation and honestly, it's nauseating the rest of us," he finished with a short laugh. "But seriously, knock it off. Because she's going to end up with a bunch of toddlers running around in the back yard, and you're going to end up alone, because you refused to give anyone else a chance." He finished his drink and held it up for the bartender. "Now tell me more about this hot girl."

The next morning was misty, and Andy's shirt was damp before she and Sam even got to the path. The silence that settled between them was thick and she briefly listened to the rhythm of her feet, and the sound of her breath coming steady but quick. The tiny woman inside her iPod was telling her that she had 5 miles to go and as usual, the slight ache in her quads seemed to disappear after that first mile.

Her eyes flicked quickly to the side. Sam had been a little…brusque with her when she'd shown up this morning. More than normal morning crankiness. She glanced over at Sam again and he smiled wryly at her.

"Something on your mind, McNally?"

"Are you hung over?"

He gave a short laugh. "I'm not. Why do you ask?"

She shook her head. "No reason." So, crabby for another reason then.

"Anything else?" There was heavy annoyance in his voice and she raised her eyebrows, a little pissed off.

"Actually, now that you mention it."

"Great. Let's have it."

She narrowed her eyes in determination. "Well, we're friends now."

"Yes, I'm aware."

"And friends tell each other things."

"Yeah?"

"Like about their lives….and how their dates go."

He glanced over at her again. "I'm not talking to you about that."

"C'mon Sam. I'm curious."

"Well I'm not one of your girlfriends, so you'll just have to stay curious." He lengthened his stride a little and pulled away from her, ending the conversation. She narrowed her eyes and sped up until she drew even with him again.

They ran for ten minutes or so in silence and then she looked over at him again. "Why don't you want to talk about it?"

"Because it's none of your business," he said exasperated. He ran the back of his hand over his forehead and focused his attention ahead of him.

"But I mean, really. A date…it's…it's an exciting thing, right? Don't you want to tell a friend about it?" She looked over at him, trying to catch his eye.

"I did tell a friend. I told Shaw."

"But, Sam…"

He exhaled loudly and stopped in his tracks, holding out a hand to catch her arm. "Listen, this thing…it's still very new. In fact, it's not even a thing yet. It was one date. We went to a bar, listened to some music. No big deal. I haven't called her yet, but honestly, you and me? We're not at this place yet."

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, we're friends. I know we spend a lot of time together. Don't ask me why, but I'm not exactly comfortable sharing the intimate details of my personal life with you, not yet anyway. I don't transition that quickly. I don't ask you to spill your deepest darkest secrets, or ask about your thing with Callaghan." She looked down at his hand, still on her arm. As she did, he released it, putting his hands on his hips, for lack of a better place. "Just don't push it, okay? When I want you to know something, you'll know."

She nodded, her eyes looking anywhere but at him. "Okay, you're right. I was a little pushy." She nodded and they started running again, but she started to fall behind a little. He hadn't yelled, but her feelings were hurt. She really didn't want to hear about any details. Didn't want to know, but had to know. Was this woman smart? Was she pretty? Did he really actually like her? She felt a little catch in her breathing at that thought.

Sam had been making a conscious effort to not look over at Andy. He was struggling with it so much that he didn't hear her pace slow, didn't even notice she wasn't beside him until she'd fallen back about half a dozen strides. He looked over his shoulder and saw the dark expression on her face. He stopped again and held out an arm as she attempted to pass by him.

She stepped back and put her hands on her hips. "What now? Want to tell me that I have bad breath, or that I'm not a good cop? You could really start my day off with a bang." He rolled his eyes.

"Look, I'm sorry, alright? I'm just trying to work through some stuff and I took it out on you." She shook her head and sniffed, looking anywhere but at him with her arms crossed.

"I'm not sure what else you want me to say."

"Yeah, I'm guess I'm not really sure either," she replied.

"So let's just finish up then, alright?"

"Yeah."

"Are you alright?" She nodded.

He smiled. "And just so you know, your breath isn't that bad."

Andy smiled and shoved him, taking off down the path ahead of him.

They stopped at the corner a block away from his apartment and she stopped, putting a hand on his arm. He stepped back from her touch put his hands on his hips. She raised a questioning eyebrow but got no response.

"Okay then. Luke had to go in early for something so do you want to go get breakfast?"

He started to back away towards his house. "Actually I have a few stops to make before I go in, but if you need a ride, I can swing back and pick you up after I finish."

"Yeah, that'll work." She stood there confused, watching as he walked away, and then turned around and headed for home.

He rolled his head around on his shoulders, loosening up the muscles as he walked. He stretched each arm across his chest. When he got home, he'd finish with his legs and then have an unappetizing bowl of cold cereal. Breakfast with McNally was a far more appealing prospect. But Oliver had a point. He wasn't being fair to himself. And what if he did wait around forever for McNally to change her mind and she never did? It would be worse, coming to terms with it farther down the line. And the date had been good. He nodded to himself as he unlocked his back door. He was entitled to a social life that didn't revolve around unavailable coworkers.