A/N: Your responses to this story have blown me away. I really thank you all for your support. Your reviews have made my day! I have had some extra time on my hands to write so here's another chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Rookie Blue.


Later that afternoon, her eyes shot open at the shrilling sound of her cell phone ringing. She looked around briefly and after seeing the darkness of the room, she realized she had slept almost the entire day. "Hello?" she answered, still half asleep.

"McNally? Sorry to wake you. It's Shaw," he told her calmly and professionally, unable to stop the hints of anxiety from entering his voice.

She immediately picked up on his tone and skipped over the small talk. "Oliver, did something happen?"

He paused before he told her. "Everything's okay now, McNally, just relax."

Her heart rate jumped rapidly. As soon as he told her to stay calm she knew there was something to be worried about. "What happened?" she asked, emphasizing each word.

"Sam was in a car accident about an hour ago but he's alright, okay? Just a couple of minor injuries."

Andy instantly felt nauseated and jumped off her bed, heading towards her closet to find some clean clothes. "What happened?" she repeated. "Is he in the hospital?"

"He was in a cab. The driver was drunk and ran a red light. They were t-boned and Sam took a bit of the heat from it. He's at the hospital now and they're taking a look at him. I'm assuming you're coming; I'll be there in ten minutes."

She breathed a sigh of relief and tried to calm down. She didn't realize it until then that she was shaking. "Thank you, I'll be ready when you get here."


"He's really okay, McNally," Oliver said calmly, noticing her chewing on her bottom lip. He had picked her up from her place just minutes before and they were finally on their way to the hospital. "He was pissed off that they made him ride in the ambulance. Doesn't seem like a head injury then, does it?"

Andy smiled slightly, appreciative of Oliver's touch of humor. "Thanks Oliver. It's just one of those things when you need to see the person to make sure, you know what I mean?"

Oliver nodded knowingly, pursing his lips together to stop himself from saying something he had no business getting involved in. He silently debated, knowing that Sam would murder him for saying anything personal, but it was Andy sitting there and he had a pretty good idea of how they felt about each other. He sighed and put a comforting hand on her knee. "Just give him some time. When he's got a lot on his mind he closes up for a while. I think he's said ten words to me in total since the undercover op, and I know it's not fair to anyone, especially you. But underneath that rigid exterior he's got a lot going on and he hasn't figured out how to deal with it yet."

Andy just nodded and smiled as a silent thank you and turned to look forwards again.

When they arrived at the hospital, there were already a few other officers in the waiting room. She was told they were monitoring Sam and would be keeping him overnight for observation. He hadn't fully healed from his previous injuries and they wanted to be wary of concussion symptoms and internal bleeding.

She sat down on one of the waiting room chairs and put her face in her hands. The past four weeks had been an emotional rollercoaster and this only added another unnecessary twist. She felt a hand on her shoulder before hearing Oliver's voice tell her that he's okay and they're just being cautious. She nodded weakly and thanked him for the reassurance.

A half an hour later, the nurse came out to announce that he was resting, but visitors were welcome. Andy quickly scanned the room to see if anyone else was jumping at the chance to go in and see him. She suddenly felt a warm hand on her shoulder.

"Go, McNally," Oliver told her quietly, tilting his head to motion her towards the nurse. "You're the only person he'd want to see anyways."

She gave Oliver a small smile and thanked him before she followed the nurse to Sam's room.


When she entered his room, he was sleeping soundly. Aside from the brace on his wrist from his injuries the month before, she was told he also had a few cracked ribs and bruised shoulder. He had a second, larger gash on his face that was stitched up and looked a little bruised.

Andy frowned and slowly walked over to his bed. She sat down in the chair beside him and genuinely examined his face for the first time in a month. She hadn't even truly seen the damage done by Jamie Brennan, which still looked worse than the injuries from his accident. Her eyes scanned over his older stitches, resisting the urge to reach out and touch him. She thought she could faintly see the lightest yellow tinged area where he presumably had a bruise.

In that moment, she wanted to be mad at him, really and truly angry with him for so many reasons. One of them being that he always told her to never trust other people's driving, and that was exactly what he did. She was told he had been drinking when he got into the cab, but she had her doubts that he was drunk enough to not notice an intoxicated driver. Through endless nights at the Penny, it didn't take long for Andy to figure out that he could hold his alcohol very well. It was only around eight o'clock in the afternoon when it happened, and Sam was very rarely a daytime drinker.

"So stupid," she muttered under her breath, shaking her head and looking up at his face. "Why are you so stupid?"

She leaned forward to lean her elbow on the bed and rested her forehead in her palm. On the way to the hospital she had told herself repeatedly that she wouldn't hold his hand or coddle him; he's a big boy and he got himself into this mess. But when she saw him lying there weakly, she couldn't stop herself from comforting him. She reached over and laid her hand on top of his, gently rubbing his knuckles with her thumb.

"I was a little afraid you'd show up here and stab me in my sleep," he said softly, causing her to flinch and look up at him.

She quickly let go of his hand and sat back in her chair. She crossed her arms and stared at him poignantly, not saying a word. "I thought about it," she snapped.

He lowered his voice. "Andy…"

"Do you know how stupid you were Sam? And how lucky you are that all you have is a bruised shoulder?" she demanded angrily, moments later. "What the hell were you thinking? You knew the driver had been drinking, why would you get in his cab? You could've been killed."

"Hey, you'd be better off then, right?" He chuckled, testing her.

Andy narrowed her eyes and glared at him. "That is not funny. You would be so pissed off at me if it was me in your situation right now."

He nodded limply. "I know and I'm sorry," he responded sincerely. "I guess I wasn't thinking."

"No, you obviously weren't," she said matter-of-factly. "Were you even that drunk?"

He smiled slightly, temporarily appreciating the passion in her voice. "I was drunk, still am a little bit," he admitted, smiling a little. "After a few beers I thought it would be better to take a cab than to drive. The guy was a little tipsy and my gut was telling me it was bad idea, but for some reason I didn't really care."

"Right, mister I-always-listen-to-my-gut-instinct," she mocked, rolling her eyes. "And you know what? You should care…"

"Why?" He protested, cutting her off. "What's the point when the person you care about the most doesn't care about you?"

"Yeah, if that's not the most hypocritical statement to come out of your mouth," she huffed quietly. "What do you think I'm doing here Sam? If I didn't care, I would've stayed at home. I wouldn't be sitting here talking to someone that I don't particularly like right now. But you know what the ironic part of this is? All I've done for the past month is show you how much I care about you. I guess you were too caught up in your own little world to notice."

"Andy," he said softly. "I have a lot that I want to say to you right now but you know me and talking. I'm not very good at this whole feelings thing."

She shrugged knowingly. "I'm listening."

"I, uh, I don't really know where to start," he laughed nervously. Andy gave him a small smile, finding his anxiety endearing. "Well, I was wrong to do that to you, and I know I don't deserve your forgiveness but I'm truly sorry. You have to understand how confused I was after everything that happened. All I've wanted to do since the day we met was protect you from every possible danger, but when you needed to be protected from me? I didn't know what to do. The fact is, I put your life in danger. I should've stopped it from the beginning. I should've walked out of the Alpine the second I saw you and Nash there, but I couldn't. As hard as it was to leave when I did, it was even harder to think about walking away from you, again," he cleared his throat, lowering his voice into a genuine serious tone. "You know, when Brennan had me tied to that chair, I was sure you were dead, or almost dead in a ditch somewhere. I spent hours trying to calm myself down and come up with a way to get out of there to find you. I was so mad at myself. After the beatings and the hammer and the waterboarding, I…I couldn't even believe that I was stupid enough to let him get near you."

She shook her head. "I made that decision myself, Sam. I knew it was dangerous and stupid and I still went back. I was the one who suggested we go to the Alpine, and I knew that you had been there before."

He shook his head in disagreement. "It doesn't matter. I'm the superior officer, Andy. I should've put your personal safety above my desire to be with you. I still can't figure out I got so carried away. I think it's because nobody's ever affected me like you do," he mumbled, looking away. "I thought I was doing what was best after the suspension by keeping my distance and letting you get back on the right track as a cop. You are a great cop, Andy, and I didn't want to destroy that any more than I already had. You deserve someone who's not going to put your life in danger or put their own selfish needs ahead of your safety. You're too important."

"But you didn't," she demanded calmly. "I'm an adult; you didn't force me to do anything against my own free will. Really, I put your life in danger more than the other way around, because I didn't want to leave you either."

He tried not to smile at her admittance. "I guess I thought maybe if I pushed you away long enough, you'd move on to someone better than me," he sighed, voice cracking. He swallowed and looked up to gaze into her eyes. "I never meant to hurt you like I did. I'd do anything to go back and do it over again."

Andy nodded slightly, spending a moment processing what he was saying. She took a few deep breaths before speaking. "I never wanted anyone else, Sam," she explained honestly. "I tried for two years to convince myself that I could be happy with someone else. I told myself the best thing was to just be your friend and your partner, that's it. But the more time we spent together, the more attached you I got. I tried to deny my feelings for you but it was hard when I thought about you constantly." She could feel the heat rising up into her cheeks at her admittance. "I don't know, I guess sometime in the past two years I ended up falling in love with you."

Sam's mouth fell open in surprise and took a few moments before answering. "Andy, I…"

She bit her lip self-consciously. "I shouldn't have said that, I'm sorry," she blurted out, standing up out of her chair and heading for the door. She took his pause in speech as an indication that he wasn't ready to hear it.

"Wait, wait, wait," he pleaded from the bed. "Please, Andy, wait. There's going to be a very annoyed nurse in here in about fifteen seconds if you make me get up and chase you."

She turned around and leaned on the doorframe, keeping a safe distance from him. She refused to look at him even though she could feel his eyes staring at her intensely, making her even more uncomfortable.

She mentally kicked herself for saying it. She hadn't planned to, mostly because she hadn't even admitted it to herself. She knew it was true, but thinking it and saying it aloud were two completely different things.

She ran a nervous hand through her hair which she could tell was a knotted mess. "I didn't mean to say that," she said quietly, still not moving from her position by the door.

"I know," he replied honestly, lowering his voice. "Can you come back over here and sit down?"

She shook her head. "I don't think that's a good…"

"Please?" His voice cracked.

She was extremely close to giving in to him when two officers knocked on the door. She turned around to open the door to let them in.

"Sorry to interrupt. Would you mind if we stepped in to ask you a few questions about the accident?" One of the officers asked, motioning to Sam.

She cleared her throat and shook her head. "No, not at all, by all means," she said quickly as sighed a breath of relief. She quickly glanced over at Sam who was giving her his best unimpressed look. She shrugged apologetically and turned around to leave the room.


Days later, she still hadn't heard from him. She knew he had been released from the hospital and wouldn't be back to work for a week or two, so it wasn't that she expected to see him, but part of her wanted to.

She was beginning to feel guilty about leaving the hospital when she did. Visiting hours were over, she told herself repeatedly, the hospital would have made me leave if I hadn't left when I did. Although, she knew he would've insisted she stay anyways, even if it took the flash of his badge.

Andy wanted to see him; go to his house and check that he was okay. The problem was that the thought of being alone with him scared her a little; she didn't trust herself to not get carried away and do something she would regret. Truthfully, she wasn't certain if she had forgiven him yet. It took her two years to tear down her walls and let him in and she had her doubts that it would be an easy road for it to happen again. She had always trusted him very deeply, but trusting someone as a work partner was different than as a romantic partner, wasn't it?

Their conversations had been playing through her mind constantly over the past few days. She was pleased to have time to think about things, especially about where she wanted their relationship to go. As much as she tried to tell herself her heart wasn't in it anymore, his apologies were very convincing and very, very heart-wrenching. The one thing she knew absolutely was that her feelings towards Sam ran very deep; so deep that she wasn't sure she could consider not being with him in some way. It was as if her head was telling her she shouldn't love him, but her heart was telling a completely opposite story. She could feel a profound pull towards him from deep inside and as much as she tried to suppress it, it seemed like it could never go away.

She told herself she would make a decision about whether or not to go to see him by the end of shift, until Traci told her she was Leo-free for the night and really wanted to get a drink at the Penny. Andy reluctantly agreed, but knew she wanted to be there for Traci when she needed a friend.


The Penny was quiet and relaxing that night, as it was most weeknights, making it a great place to wind down throughout the week.

"So you've recovered from last weekend?" Traci giggled, shuffling up onto a bar stool beside Andy.

Andy winced and smiled slightly. "Yeah, that was pretty bad. It got to the point where I told myself I'd never touch a drink again," she admitted, laughing. "But you did convince me to come back here, so maybe I should be worried."

"Let's just say I'll never listen to Pretty Fly for a White Guy again without thinking of you," Traci laughed heartily.

Andy dropped her face into her hands in embarrassment. "Oh God, no. Please don't tell me I sang that?"

Traci nodded, not able to hold back her amusement. "You not only requested it, you also decided it would be a great idea to join the band on stage."

Andy gasped. "How could you let me do that?" She mumbled into her hands.

"There was no stopping you, trust me," Traci replied, bursting into a fit of giggles.

After they ordered drinks, their conversation lulled, strangely. Traci looked over at Andy, noticing her fidgeting with her glass and staring into space. "So…," she pressed, nudging Andy with her shoulder.

Andy perked up out of her daze and looked over at Traci. "So?" she asked innocently.

"Haven't heard from him?" Traci asked sympathetically.

Andy smirked and contemplated lying, but it was Traci asking and Andy trusted her. "Am I that easy to read?"

Traci grinned and nodded. "I know that look. You miss him, I know you do."

Andy sighed. "Is it weird that I don't even know what I want from him right now?" She looked down at her hands before continuing. "I mean, obviously I care about him and he says he cares about me, but what if a month from now he realizes that it's not working out and walks away?"

Traci shifted in her seat, stalling while she tried to find the right words to say. "You know, when I found out you went back to see him when he was undercover, I was one-hundred-percent sure it was forever thing. Without a doubt, he was never going to let you go. So, I'm as surprised as you are about how he's acted and I don't blame you for not trusting him right now. But, people make mistakes," Traci shrugged. "And if he's telling the truth and he really wants it to work it out, then maybe he deserves a second chance."

Andy nodded slowly, sending her a grateful smile. "Thanks, Trace."

Traci's words stuck with Andy for the rest of the night. If anyone understood second chances, it was Andy, and as much as she hated to admit it, Sam had given her more than her share of second chances too. He didn't give up on her even through two years of denial and suppression on her part. Maybe she shouldn't give on him just yet either.

They spent the next few hours drinking, talking and laughing. Andy's mood had improved dramatically; it felt good to not think about anything Sam-related for a while. In the middle of her explanation of the previous night's Survivor episode, Andy noticed Traci's eyes wandering and focusing on something behind her. She paused in the middle of her episode description to take a quick glance back and immediately spun back around, face full of shock. Her eyes widened at Traci, begging her for an excuse to get them out of there, but Traci shrugged and stood up, mentioning she needed to use the bathroom.

Andy took a breath and slowly turned back around in her seat. She wasn't nervous exactly, but she was completely unprepared to see him. If he wanted to work things out, she was going to need time to come up with the right words; that took preparation.

She heard Nickelback's song Far Away come on the stereo in the bar and almost rolled her eyes. Great timing, she thought.

Sam climbed into the seat next to her and rested his forearms on the bar. "McNally," he muttered, instantly noticing the way she deliberately avoided his eyes.

She smiled slightly and nodded to acknowledge him, fidgeting with the glass sitting on the bar.

"How've you been?" he asked cautiously.

"Fine," she replied shyly. "You?"

"Good. Had a lot of time to think," he said casually. "Well, actually I've had more than enough time to think lately."

"I have too. So, that's good then, I guess," she shrugged, continuing to fidget with her glass but clearly curious about where the conversation was headed. She could hear the chorus starting over the speakers and tried to think of something to say to block her ears from listening to the lyrics.

You know, you know, you know…

That I love you, and I've loved you all along,

And I miss you, been far away for far too long,

I keep dreaming you'll be with me and you'll never go,

Stop breathing if I don't see you anymore…

"Andy," he said gently, breaking her from her daze as the song continued into the next verse. He reached over to put his good hand over hers to still them. He had never heard the song before; but he smirked when he heard the lyrics and the apparent effect they were having on Andy. "Can you look at me?"

Andy turned her head sharply but stared at him distantly. She wanted badly to pull away from him and demand he keep his hands to himself, but his warmth was calming. She sighed and opened her mouth to speak, but held back.

"I know I don't deserve any kind of answers from you right now," Sam mumbled, leaning in towards her hesitantly. "But I need to know something."

She furrowed her eyebrows in surprise and nodded for him to continue. "What's that?" She asked in almost a whisper.

He swallowed. "In the past month, have you stopped thinking about me or us for even a day?"

Andy shook her head and looked back at her drink. She knew he was right; he was constantly on her mind. Every morning she woke up wondering what he was doing and every night she went to bed wishing they had worked things out. "No," she answered honestly, sounding almost embarrassed to admit it.

Sam smiled slightly at her answer, feeling hopeful for the first time in a while. "Come with me," he pleaded, leaning in and whispering into her ear. "Please? I just want to talk"

Andy immediately began shaking her head. "Sam, I can't. I'm here with Traci and we're having a night out and..."

"Don't worry about it," Traci cut in from behind her. "Go."

Andy turned and looked at her pleadingly but Traci just grinned and leaned in to whisper. "You'll thank me later. Go. Talk to him."

Andy bit her lip and debated what to do, reluctantly listening to the lyrics again. She hated this song, she knew that for certain. Who knew a stupid song by Nickelback, of all bands, could make you do things you'd probably regret in the morning, she wondered.

I wanted, and I wanted you to stay.

'Cause I needed,

I need to hear you say,

That I love you and I've loved you all along…

She sighed in defeat and stepped down from her chair. She put her jacket on while Sam waited patiently, watching her intently. He motioned for her to lead them out and just barely touched the small of her back to guide her. She felt the butterflies begin to flutter in her stomach as she walked out the door and into the parking lot, briefly feeling Sam's warm breath on the side of her neck. She climbed into his truck in silence and waited for him to start it up. She didn't know where they were going, but for some reason, she was okay with that.