A/N: Sorry for the hiatus - I've had a bad case of writers block. but now lets get on with it, it should be done by the weekend!

BEFORE

Dov paced in the parade room as he read through the booking notes of all the kids they had processed that evening. Social services were with them now, but having no place big enough to keep them all they were forced to put them into the cells.

"Dov! Dov!" Chris came racing in and pounded on the wall to get his attention. "They found something!"

They both hurried out to the bullpen where Oliver was trying to get the crowd to hush. Everyone was huddled around his desk chattering and whispering as they waited for the impromptu meeting to start.

"Alright guys…this is what we have." Dov took the file from the social worker who was standing behind him. "Out of the 28 kids we processed today, 17 of them have been…have…" he bowed his head and Andy wondered if maybe he was holding back tears but when he lifted his head she saw it was pure, barely controlled fury instead. "17 of them have been branded with this mark."

He held up a photo of a symbol that closely resembled the letter PSI from the Greek alphabet. He passed copied out to the cops huddled around him and gave it a moment to sink in. Out of these 17 kids," Sam didn't miss the inflection he put on that last word. "4 of them are quite fresh. These kids have been drugged with something so powerful, they don't know who they are, or where they are."

"Do any of them?" Chris asked.

"A few of them have vague recollections. Social services are working with them. We need to arrange transport for all these kids, get them over to the hospital on University Ave."

"I'm on it!" Dov spoke up and immediately turned to his computer to coordinate the transfer.

"Who branded these kids?" Sam asked.

The social worker stepped forward and took the attention away from Oliver. "This symbol," she said as she held up the image again. "is a known logo for a unit working out of Emery."

"Who?"

"The Galloway Boys."

"They have been working out of Etobicoke, not Emery."

"They were. They've expanded." The social worked went over to a map that was against the wall and grabbed a marker. "We've been getting more and more calls from this area," she highlighted Emery on the map. "We have been working with District 23 really closely and we have been finding more and more cases of kidnapping which we think are feeding a trafficking ring."

"Wait…what?" Sam stood up. "You knew this was happening and you didn't send out a city wide BOLO to all districts? What else have you been sitting on?" Sam's voice was getting louder and he brushed the hands off his arms that tried to calm him down.

"We're not sitting on anything officer, the social worker said. To her credit she kept her calm under Sam's barrage of questions. "We have no information, we have only conjecture, this, these kids, this branding is the first tangible link we've seen."

"Who have you been working with in 23?"

"Detectives Skye and Gleeson. I've already called them and they are on their way."

"Dov what have you got?"

"Black and Sal are taking the first wagon to the hospital, Peck and Nash to take the second. I'll follow up with Andy in the third. I've called ahead and told them to expect us. They will triage us in the parking lot and deal accordingly"

"Good job Epstien. Okay guys, go!" Everyone raced off leaving Swarek and Oliver to talk quietly with the social worker. From the corner of his eye he watched Andy race across the bullpen towards the cells where the kids were holed up.

"What are you thinking brother?" Oliver asked him as he noticed his friend's faraway stare.

I'm thinking I should go talk to Andy before she leaves, ask her if she wants to go home, she looks wretched. Those were the thoughts that swam through his head but aloud he just shook his head.

"Let's go help get these kids processed." Oliver led them through to the booking room and tried to help Dov and the social worker process the kids into groups. Sam took this moment to pull Andy aside.

"Hey…" He had hold of her elbow and stood closer than was necessary. "How are you feeling?"

"Huh?" She had half her attention on him and the other half on the group division Dov was working on. "What? What are you talking about Sam?"

"Are you feeling ok? You've been working for nearly 20 hours."

"What? Jesus Sam!"

"I just want to be sure you are ok…"

"Christsake Sam. I'm fine." She tried to brush him off but he gripped her elbow tighter. He held her gaze for a moment more then let her go. She walked away from him to help Sal usher the first 12 kids into the transport wagon and waved them off. Tracy was driving the next load with Gail and twenty minutes after that she was ready to leave with Dov.

Sam watched it all from the booking desk and followed them out to the garage and watched as she climbed into the front passenger seat. She didn't even afford him a glance as the truck pulled out and drove off into the night.

"C'mon Sam, the Detectives from 23 are here."

"What's wrong?" Dov asked as he tried to concentrate on the road as well as her sombre mood.

"Nothing."

"You look tired."

"Jesus!" Andy rubbed her face with her hands and ran her fingers through her hair. "I must really look like shit!"

"What? No!" Dov said knowing he has already sai the wrong thing and wasn't sure how to backtrack effectively. "It's just that your shift started in the AM this morning right? I came in at lunch and I'm wrecked, I'm just saying you must be too…"

"Forget it Dov… how much further until we get there?"

"ETA 7 minutes." He said reading from the GPS in the corner of the dashboard. But before he could switch the conversation back to his apology the radio crackled to life. "11-99 this is car 102 reporting 11-99 on university avenue. Under fire!"

Dov and Andy looked at each other and immediately they kicked into action. Andy picked up the radio and dialled for dispatch. "Dispatch this is car 105. We are on route to university avenue. Car 109 should already be there, are they responding?"

"This is dispatch, no, car 109 is not responding."

"We are en route, ets 5 minutes. Over and out."

Dov had flicked on the lights and now that Andy was finished with the call he flicked on the sirens too. As they turned the corner to university avenue from Dundas they saw an upturned wagon in the middle of the street. Conscious that the bas they were in held 8 children, Dov drove it to a sheltered location around the corner. He told Andy to wait with the kids and jumped out to dash over to the other car.

The windows had been smashed from the crash and the rear doors had been opened. Nash was passed out in the front seat but Gail was nowhere to be seen. Neither were the kids.

"Traci!" he called out as he crawled into the broken window. "Traci can you hear me?" She was dangling upside down in the driver's seat, held up only by her seatbelt. "Traci, I need you to undo your belt, can you hear me? I need you to undo your belt!"

Traci moaned but she didn't have the wherewithal to move or comprehend what Dov was saying. Dov climbed in further and reached over to her other side to undo the belt. She fell on top of him and he struggled to climb out from under her. She moaned and grunted as he grabbed the shoulders of her vest and dragged her out.

From across the seat Andy watched it all then when it was safe she raced over to him and helped him drag her over to the car with the kids.

"Where are the other kids?" she asked him.

"I dunno… maybe they are with Gail."

Sam was sitting in the parade room with Oliver, the social worker, whose name he came come to find out was Fiona, and Detectives Gleeson and Skye from district 23.

"We have nothing. We have circumstantial evidence, an increase in assault, kidnappings and missing persons, we have minor grievances that can be attributed to the Galloway boys but nothing else. But this…this is something we can work with."

"Something you can work with? Are you kidding me?" Sam stood up and started to pace. "28 kids. We pulled 28 kids into this district tonight and 17 of them have been branded. Physically branded with hot fucking irons and you are telling me this is something you can work with?"

"Sam, calm down!"

"I won't fucking calm down."

"These cases take time…sometimes we get nothing! After years and years of work and investigation we walk away with nothing but now, now we have something!" Detective Gleeson stood up to his full height and matched Sam's ire for a wave of anger of his own. "Don't come to me with self-righteous bullshit. We work with what we have and until now, we've had nothing."

"And now? Now you have 17 traumatised kids who don't know their own fucking names!"

"Well that's more than-"

The argument was interrupted by the desk sergeant barging into the room without knocking.

"Sir, we have an incident. The 3 cars we sent out to University avenue are under attack."

Sam was frozen stock still to the spot as a wave of white hot panic washed over his whole body.

AFTER

She pushed him back until he was standing against the wall. All the while she assaulted him with her mouth, tasted his skin, his lips, his tongue and most of all his need. He was as hungry as she was, she realised as her hands fumbled for his shirt cuff to pull it out of his jeans. She wanted to feel his skin, she needed to feel it under her hands and wondered if it would increase this intense sense of familiarity. Finally when she pulled on his shirt and tugged it off over his head then tossed it aside she let her hands roam all over his torso. His chest was warm, his back was smooth, she felt his muscles twitch and move beneath her probing fingers and she couldn't tell if it was familiar or if it just felt damn good.

He tried to reign in his thoughts, tried to stop his tongue from dancing in her mouth, her warm, wet, welcoming mouth. Tried to ignore her fingers as they stroked his back, just enough pressure so he could feel her nails scraping gently over his skin, eliciting a raspy moan from the bottom of his toes.

As her fingers trailed around the rim of his jeans to the front to grasp his belt buckle a shock of alarm rustled through him. For a moment he thought of letting her continue, to give her the solace she sought but when she undid his buckle and tugged on his button fly the alarms intensified.

"Wait, McNally…wait a sec…" His jeans were already undone and stayed up only by the width of his hips as her hands were already surrounding him, making it harder for him to push her away. "Stop…"

He took hold of her wrists and pulled her hands out from his jeans then gently guided her back. He took a moment to take a deep breath with his eyes closed as he tried to regain some composure.

"What…" she whispered.

"Jesus McNally, you're killing me…"

"That's not my intended result."

He let go of her wrists and concentrated on doing up his jeans and fastening his belt. She took a few more steps back. Her arms crossed over her chest and she watched him with nervous dancing eyes.

"This, what's happening here? This can't happen."

"Why?"

"Because you wouldn't want it that way." He crossed the room to grab the tee she had discarded earlier and put it on.

"What the hell do you know what I'd want! Hell I don't even know what I want!"

"Exactly." He went to the sink and took a glass of water to have a drink. He felt better having the counter between them. "I know you are feeling lost right now, I know you feel like you need to connect to something, someone…I want you to connect to me. God, I want nothing more than that…but not like this. Not out of desperation, or need…"

"Christ, I wasn't looking for a long term commitment."

"I know." His response was spoken so low she wasn't sure if she had heard him correctly. And then when she saw his lowered eyes and his white knuckle grip on the counter, she realised she wasn't the only one who had lost something, lost someone.

All the fight rolled out of her body and she crossed the room to lean on the counter across from him.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that." She waited for him to look up and cast him a half smile. "I guess I should be thankful for you. A knight in shining armour."

"Something like that." He passed the sandwich over to her and watched as she took a bite.