Out for "Justice" Chapter Seven:
Disclaimer: Don't own Rookie Blue.
A.N. Thank you for all of the reviews! Especially for those of you who made the Boyd comments – I forgot about him completely – he will be mentioned again in a later chapter.
A.N.2 – I am not in the medical field – all medical mistakes are my own.
Enjoy!
As Jamie Brennan drove away, Andy sank to the ground and curled up around her daughter, trying to shield her from the elements. She mentally cursed herself for leaving her jacket in the car. "Sh, baby girl, its okay, Mommy's got you."
Ella whimpered as Andy reached for the phone hidden in her boot. She hit the number three. "C'mon," she whispered, "Daddy needs to answer his phone."
Ella picked up her head. "Daddy?" she whispered.
"Yeah sweetie, I'm trying to call Daddy."
"You have reached –" Andy hung up. "C'mon Sam." She dialed again.
Ella started to whimper again. "Sh baby. It's okay. Daddy's gonna come." She listened and hung up when it hit Sam's answering machine again.
Ella cried "Mommy", causing Andy to abort her attempts to reach her husband.
Andy hugged her daughter, pulling her in closer. "I know baby girl." She used one hand to keep Ella close to her chest with sending a text with the other hand.
His phone buzzed as they were finishing the final preparations. His phone was the only phone that was actually on, simply in case Andy called with a sudden change of time.
He glanced at the number and silenced the phone when he did not recognize the number.
As soon as his answering machine clicked on, he had a few seconds of reprieve before his phone started to ring again. It was the same number. He cursed silently, wondering who would be calling him now, as he silenced the call again.
Shortly after his answering machine picked up, he received a text. He opened it and his eyes grew wide with fear as he read 'answer the damn phone Sam'.
He immediately hit send to call the number that he had just silenced.
She answered with a breathless "Sammy!"
"Andy, where are you?" In the background, he heard a small voice whimper "Daddy?"
"Yes baby girl, Daddy is on the phone. Sam, listen. You have to pull everyone out. It's a trap."
"Where are you?"
"Cherry Beach. Sam, you have to come quickly. She's shivering and burning up. I think she's also having some trouble breathing."
"I'm on my way." He hung up the phone (as much as he wanted to keep her on the line, he knew she needed both of her hands to take care of Ella until he got there) and looked around. He spotted Oliver, Chris, and Dov – three of the people who were assigned to the outside of the building. "Oliver, Chris, Dov – tell everyone to pull out! It's a trap," he screamed at them.
He didn't wait to see if they listened, he ran to the cruiser he had the keys to and jumped in. He turned on the lights and floored the gas, in attempt to reach Andy as quickly as possible. His mind was three blocks ahead of the car, trying to figure out the quickest way to get to Cherry Beach.
Remembering Andy's comment about Ella shivering, he turned the heat on full blast to warm the car.
After Sam hung up, she hugged her daughter close and reached into her other boot for her personal gun. As much as she called Sam, she was still afraid that Brennan would come back.
Ella whimpered against her chest. Andy held her tightly. She felt the small body shiver in her arms. At the same time, Ella's forehead rested against Andy's neck and Andy felt the heat coming off of her daughter. She knew they needed to get Ella to a hospital soon.
A few minutes later, she heard sirens. She shifted Ella, praying that the sirens were Sam. Ella whimpered against her neck.
Less than a minute later, she heard a car approaching. She let out a sigh of relief at the red and blue flashing lights.
The engine was shut off and the car door slammed. She couldn't move from her position because of the way Ella had fisted her shirt when hearing the sirens. Instead, she glanced at the car and softly called "Sam?"
Ella lifted her head as Sam reached them. "Daddy?"
"Right here pumpkin," Sam said softly as he took her from Andy's arms and helped Andy stand.
"Thank you," Andy whispered.
Sam didn't hear her. "Andy, she's burning up."
"I know. We have to get her to the hospital."
He hugged Ella tighter as Ella shivered. "You okay to drive?" At Andy's nod, he handed her the keys and headed to the passenger side.
She slipped into the driver's seat and started the car before glancing at him. Her eyes narrowed at his jacket, draped over their daughter. "Why am I driving?"
"Body heat." He lifted the jacket slightly and she saw that he had pulled up his shirt and Ella was resting on his chest. "I read in one of those parenting books about skin to skin contact. You were just outside with her, you're probably cold."
Andy nodded and hit the lights, leaving the sirens off. She didn't want to scare her daughter if she didn't have to and she knew how much Ella hated the sirens.
As soon as she hit the main road, Sam took the decision out of her hands and reached over to hit the siren.
"Sam, can you call it in?" She asked with obvious tension in her voice when she saw he was turning on the siren.
"Mommy!" Ella shrieked as the wail of the sirens started.
"I'm right here baby girl."
Sam ran a hand through Ella's hair. "Sh, I've got you. You're okay." He grabbed the radio. "Dispatch, we found her. En route to –" he glanced at Andy.
"Memorial," she said softly. It was a few minutes further than St. Mike's but she knew (from Monica) that they had a better pediatric unit.
"Memorial," Sam continued into the radio. "Patch me through to one of the doctors in the ER."
"Copy that." There was static on the other line as the call went through.
"Monica Dunn."
"Mon?"
"Sammy? What's going on?"
As Sam pressed the radio to talk, Ella whimpered again before crying "Mommy."
Sam was still pressing the radio as he said. "I know sweetie." He cleared his throat. "Monica, ETA is seven minutes. You need to let the mother in." He knew that she had probably been watching the news - and she probably knew it was his daughter but couldn't ask over the radio.
"Fine. Do you know the mother's ETA?"
"Seven minutes." He hoped no one besides for their friends realized that 'the mother' was in the car with him.
"What can you tell me about the little girl?" She had to keep it professional, in case news reporters were listening in.
Sam gave Monica all of Ella's information (with Andy's help) as Ella whimpered and continually called for Andy.
When he put the radio down, he glanced at Andy. Her lip was bleeding. "Andy, I know you're scared; I'm scared. But I'm pretty sure her fever has already gone down slightly."
"Okay," she said softly, clearly not believing him. When Ella whimpered again, she spoke. "I'm right here Ella."
Sam shifted Ella slightly so she could see that Andy was driving.
"Howd me!" Ella demanded.
Even though she still had trouble with the 'L' sound, Andy knew exactly what Ella was asking. "Daddy's holding you right now. I'm driving. What do you want?"
"Juice."
Andy muttered a curse. "She's probably dehydrated, on top of everything else."
Sam found a closed water bottle in the glove box and shifted Ella. "Here pumpkin." He held it to her mouth and watched her take a big gulp. "Hey, slow down Ella. We don't want you to get hurt." He couldn't say the word choke, he had already almost lost her.
Ella slowed down. When she pushed the bottle away, Sam noticed she had finished half of it. He passed the bottle to Andy. She accepted it as she continued to drive and polished off the bottle before handing it back to him. "Thanks."
Sam looked around; they were less than two minutes away. "Okay, here is how we are going to do this."
"What's wrong with 'get out of the car and rush Ella into the Emergency Room'?"
"One, she wants you. Two, the media's been hawking this case so I'm sure they'll be waiting at the hospital."
"Oh."
"Right. So, I'm going to pass Ella to you as you turn off the car. Wait for me to come around to escort you."
Andy nodded. She pulled up to the emergency room entrance. "Sam," she whispered in surprise.
"It's okay. Just drive. If they're here, they heard what I radioed in and will let us get her in to Monica."
There was a clear path leading to the ER. Andy pulled up to the entrance and took Ella from Sam. Ella fisted Andy's shirt and held it in a death grip. Andy adjusted Sam's jacket to cover Ella, trying to shield her daughter as much as possible.
Sam rounded the car and opened the door. "Keep your head down and here," he flipped her hair to cover the part of Ella's face that was still showing. "Let's go."
Andy stood and Sam escorted her to the ER. He heard sirens in a distance and hoped it was a white shirt or someone important to deal with the media.
He looked down and noticed that Andy had passed him the keys. He didn't know when she did it but he knew that he needed to move the squad car, in case of other emergencies, before going in to check on his daughter.
As he opened the door to the car, someone started to clap. He fought the urge to strangle someone. He was no hero, Andy was the heroic one. All he did was answer the phone, and even that he didn't do right away.
By the time he returned to the ER from parking the squad car, Frank was talking to the media.
His boss pulled him aside before he could reach Frank. "Use the side door. I don't need your face in the media, not with that bust you've been working on taking place next week."
Sam nodded. "Did you get my message?"
"Yeah. We got everyone out and caught the men before they made it to the warehouse."
"The men?"
"Two guys. Not Brennan. Go check on Ella. I'll find you tomorrow to update you. And, I want to hear the story from Andy since we obviously missed something in the lines of communication. We also need to know what Brennan wanted in exchange for Ella and if Andy was able to get it for him or not."
Sam nodded again and slipped through a side door that Monica had pointed out once when they were dating.
He approached the desk slowly, fear overtaking his mind. What if they had made the wrong decision, not going to the closer hospital? "Excuse me?"
The nurse behind the desk looked up. "How can I help you sir?"
"The little girl who was brought in – where is she?"
"I'm sorry sir; I can only release that to family." The woman wasn't stupid; everyone in the hospital knew it was a high profile case simply because it was a kidnapping.
Sam slapped his badge and ID onto the counter. "And I'm her father."
The woman's eyes grew round. "Give me a second." She reached for the phone.
Sam tapped his fingers on the counter, waiting impatiently, as the woman spoke in a soft tone to someone on the other end.
The woman hung up the phone and stood. "Dr. Dunn said to bring you back." She led him to a small room off of the emergency room.
Andy was standing outside of the room, leaning against the door frame. "Sam!" she cried as she pushed herself away from the wall.
He walked up to her and pulled her close. "Is Ella okay?"
She sobbed into his chest. "Monica's running tests and she kicked me out. She asked the nurse to take a sample of blood so they can run my blood type against Ella's just in case and then wouldn't let me back into the room. She told me to head up to this room." She held out a piece of paper before pulling away from him. "I need air."
Sam grabbed her hand and squeezed, silently letting her know that he was with her. If Monica had kicked Andy out, there was no way she was going to let him into the room.
Ignoring the cold and the fact that neither of them were wearing jackets, Andy led him outside, through another side door. They found themselves in a small, enclosed garden. Sam realized that Andy must have discovered this garden as a teenager when her father was brought in for drinking until he passed out. This garden had probably been her safe haven.
Andy sat down on a bench. Sam knelt in front of her and watched as emotions flitted across her face. When it settled on fear, he knew she was hiding something from him.
"Andy, sweetheart, talk to me."
She shook her head.
"Then tell me what happened at Cherry Beach. We thought you were going to the warehouse."
"Not now Sam. Our baby is in there." She gestured at the building.
He knew she wasn't going to talk about Cherry Beach until she knew Ella was okay. He needed to find out what she was hiding from him. "Andy, tell me what's wrong! Why did Monica kick you out?"
She looked at him.
"Talk to me," he whispered.
"She's doing tests." She handed him the piece of paper with the room number. "She said we should wait for her to bring Ella up to us."
He knew she was hiding something based on the fact that she did not look him in the eye as she spoke. "What kind of tests?"
"To see if he touched her," she whispered before she burst into tears again.
Sam moved onto the bench and held her, trying to process her words. He had only seen her lose it like this before once and it scared him to see her sobbing uncontrollably.
Andy pulled away before he was ready. "I should go up so that she is not alone when Monica is done." She handed him the piece of paper. "Take your time." She kissed his forehead and slipped away.
At the door to the hospital, she saw Oliver. "Stay with him," she whispered.
Oliver joined Sam on the bench after texting Zoe that he was staying at the hospital until they got an update on Ella. He had called her right after Sam radioed in that they found her - and he had asked Zoe to contact Sarah since he knew Sarah was the last thing on Sam's mind (and Andy's for that matter) but as Ella's aunt, Sarah deserved to know. Tommy was at the station with Frank (who had not come for the bust but headed to the hospital when Sam called in that they had Ella) so Oliver knew he didn't need to inform Andy's father.
He waited for Sam to speak.
"Monica kicked Andy out. I haven't seen Ella since we arrived."
"She kicked Andy out?" Everyone had heard Sam's request.
"Yeah. She had to do a test that she didn't want Andy in there for."
Oliver waited. He let one minute go by, then another, before curiosity got the best of him. "What kind of test?"
Sam was silent for a while before whispering, "she needed to check to make sure Brennan didn't touch her inappropriately."
Oliver swore. "Seriously?"
Sam nodded.
"So why didn't you go in with Andy?"
"I needed time."
Oliver shook his head. "Go find your wife and daughter."
Sam stood and slowly walked back into the hospital. He would never admit it but this prospect had never crossed his mind and it scared him just as much as finding his daughter no longer alive. Oliver followed, hanging back until Sam said otherwise.
He reached the door to the room but before he could turn the handle, Monica stepped out. "She's fine. A light dehydration and running a fever but she will be fine. Thankfully, it is just a cold and not pneumonia but we'll continue to monitor her."
"He didn't …" Sam trailed off.
"She's fine. He didn't touch her." She turned to Oliver. "I'm not letting anyone else in tonight. If you could spread the news and ask everyone to head out so we can do our work."
Oliver nodded. "Sammy, call if you need anything." He left.
Sam nodded and opened the door to the room.
A.N. I left out when Andy went into the room on purpose – I'm debating between two scenarios right now. The next chapter will start with when Andy went to the room and will include Ella's stay at the hospital.
Reviews make my day so let me know what you think - and if you want to see anything. I haven't started writing the next chapter yet so it depends how bored I am in class as to when the next chapter is going to go up.
