Chapter Fourteen

"I haven't seen her in forever – she's a mum now, has a little boy...Bryce. Maybe we could...go visit, for like a weekend. You could put up with the country for a weekend right...? It's really pretty – they live right by the lake...Sam?"

Sam tried to form a sentence of reply to her in his head, while attempting to breathe past the desperation and panic starting to take hold of him – he must have spent at least fifteen minutes trying to separate the pipes through the only join he could see – it was the only way he could think of to be able to free her – because there was no way he would have been able to get her hands out of the chains without actually cutting through them – they weren't budging – not even slightly. "Yep...Collingwood...I can do Collingwood." He tried again – putting the whole of his body weight behind him – and they didn't even creak. "Shit..." Sam reached for his vest and pulled his phone out of the pocket, but Andy distracted him before he dialled.

"Sam...?" Her voice was too quiet and it made his stomach drop – it had been gradually getting quieter, but when she spoke his name it was more like a whisper – a breathy, trembling whisper and desperate.

"Yeah?"

"Would you hold it against me if I said I loved you right now...because I've lost a lot of blood...and..."

Sam's heart lurched into his throat, and he abandoned his phone on the floor – moving around to kneel in front of her and cupped her face in his hands – forcing her to look at him. She offered him a small shaky smile, but it didn't come anywhere close to registering in her eyes and he forced himself to speak past the lump in his throat. "Don't..."

"But..."

"I mean it Andy..."

"I do..."

"You're going to be fine. You don't get to do this...ok? I'm gonna hold it against you – I swear I will."

"I'm sorry..."

"You don't need to be."

"I missed you."

"I missed you too." Sam reached out a trembling hand and brushed her hair out of her eyes, and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before lifting her eyes to his again. "You are going to be fine...there is a whole takedown team outside, and between the lot of us we are getting you out of here."

"Stay?"

"What?"

"Stay with me?...I'm cold. I'm cold, and it hurts – and I...please?"

"I'm not going anywhere."

Andy nodded at him and attempted a smile – before allowing her eyelids to droop closed. She had been fighting with herself to keep them open, but she just needed to close them for a second – they were too heavy, and she was tired...really, really tired.

"No...no, no, no, no, no. Andy...You need to keep your eyes open, look at me."

"I'm tired."

"I know you are, but you can't sleep. You just need to hold on for a little bit longer – you can sleep for a week once we get you out of here. Open your eyes – C'mon."

"Mmmhmmmm"

"Andy...please...McNally – open your eyes, I'm not asking."

Andy forced her eyes open – or at least as much as she could, which meant they were still half closed – but it was as much as Sam was going to get, and he was just happy with the fact that she was looking at him again.

"I'm trying."

"I know you are...you have to keep trying ok?"

"What's taking them so long?"

"I have no idea – they know what they're doing, you just have to hold on ok – keep your eyes open for me. I'm right here with you – I'm going nowhere."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"I do love you." The way he looked at her then almost broke her heart – she knew he was trying to keep it together for her, but his eyes gave him away; gave away the concern, and the fear and the love. She knew he loved her – didn't doubt it for a second, even though he never actually said the words out loud – he showed her, every single day. She wasn't so demonstrative with her feelings though, and up until today had never said the words out loud. She was fully aware that this may not end well – and she needed him to know, needed him to know how much he meant to her.

"Andy..."

"I know...I know you don't want me to say it, and you don't have to say it back – but it's true. I want you to know how I feel."

"You can say that to me when we get you out of this hellhole...you can't...don't do this to me...I know. Ok...I know..."

"I just want you to know..."

"I know...ok...stop. Stop it now – you're going to be fine."

Sam reached for his phone again and dialled Oliver's number. It was picked up before the first ring was even through, but it wasn't his friend that answered the phone.

"What the hell are you doing?! Do you even have a gun on you...? Do you have any idea what you're doing...you need to get back out here before this goes even further south than it already has...Sam? Sam?"

"Frank..."

"Are you listening to me? I don't see you walking out through a doorway...are you trying to send me to an early grave!"

"I can't."

"What!?"

"What the hell are you doing out there? She needs a medic Frank...I can't move her, and she..."

"It's complicated...we can't move in yet."

"Well un-complicate it."

"Sam – I promise you we will get her out of there as soon as we can, but you need to leave. You need to leave and get back out here now...the building isn't clear – in fact, we're sure that they're still in there and you're not even armed."

"No."

"Sam..."

"I'm staying with her until you get here – so you better step it up."

"Sam..." Frank's protest was cut off by the dial tone, and he turned and scowled Superintendent Peck, "I know what you said...I understand where you're coming from – but that's two of my officers in there – I know for a fact one of them is injured – we can't just stand around and wait out here."

"It's not open for discussion Frank...this is a big deal and I'm not letting you mess this up...they knew what they were getting involved in. Let's not make their efforts meaningless. We will get them out – we can do both."

Sam resisted the urge to throw his phone at the nearby wall – instead allowing it to just drop from his hands, and he scrubbed his face in frustration.

"They're not coming are they?"

"Yes they are...I promise you they are...just..."

"It's ok...I screwed up. It's not their fault."

"No you..."

"It's ok."

"Andy – they will be here."

Andy lost the battle with her heavy eyelids again – and this time Sam's desperate pleads with her to keep her eyes open didn't even make it through the darkness to register with her.

Sam resisted the urge to yell at her, scream, growl...anything to get a response. He kissed her, several times – from her forehead, to her cheekbones, tip of her nose, jaw and finally – desperately kissed her lips, and tried shaking her again...

"Andy? McNally? Please..." He was so focused on desperately trying to rouse some kind of response from the woman in front of him that he didn't register the heavy footsteps behind him...but he did register the gun...or at least the cold metal of the end of one being pressed into the back of his neck, and freezing him to the spot.

"Stand up. Stand up...and back up."

Sam did as he was told, and the gun wielding stranger circled around him to stand right in between Sam and Andy and levelled the gun so that it was aimed right in between Sam's eyes.

"You know this woman?"

Sam almost didn't recognise his own voice – it sounded different to his ears, maybe because of the pulse he could hear pounding in his ears, or maybe the fact that is mouth and throat felt so dry that he wasn't even sure he should have been able to speak.

"She's hurt...She need's medical attention – if you don't let me get her out of here and to a hospital then believe me your day is about to get a whole lot worse. There is a whole load of other cops like me just outside..."

"You certainly seemed a little friendly...friendly for a cop and a whore."

Sam held up both hands in an indication of innocence and attempted to bargain with the muscle bound ten foot tall giant in front of him. "I just want to help her...I'm not armed...ok..." He saw the gun waiver slightly, and attempted a small tentative step forward before a burning flame of pain tore through his leg and both legs gave way underneath him – an involuntary growl of agony escaping from his lungs followed by several curse words, and a lot of heavy breathing in an attempt to try and control his oxygen level and the pain.

"I told you to stand back." He took several large steps forward until he was just a few inches away from him and raised the gun again...this time only slightly so it was pointed towards his stomach..

"Ok...ok...I'm not moving."

"What's your back up doing all the way outside?"

"I have no idea – you don't need to keep waving your gun in my face. I'm not gonna fight back – you just shot an unarmed cop...I don't think I need to be your main concern right now." Sam ground out the words through a grimace, some gasping breaths and the pulsating pain in his leg.

"I've been having a bad day...you just made it brighter." He stepped his foot, huge steel capped boot of a foot down on the gunshot wound on Sam's leg and pressed down...hard. He smiled, big and wide at the growl of pain escaping the copper laid out on the floor below him and aimed his gun again...firing three more shots. He watched the blood slowly escaping for a minute before removing his foot from his leg and walking back out the door from which he came.

A/N - Evil huh? I know! Anyways...as always, I hope you guys enjoyed and I will try and get another instalment up for you as soon as I can - please push that button and let me know what you think... xxx