Sam looked up at the sound of the knock on his door.
"Sam …"
"Get your ass in here Collins and shut the door."
"Yes sir."
Nick walked into the office and shut the door.
"You gonna let me explain before you tear a strip off me?"
"What the fuck were you thinkin', man? Were you thinkin' when you brought that night up? Christ! You, of all people know what she went through!"
"You're right, I do know. I was there, I lived it with her because you weren't there. Listen, man, I thought we got past this. Hell, I thought that was why you requested we get partnered …"
"It is, or it was until you …"
"Come on, Sam, you know she's like a sister to me, I would never do anything to hurt her."
"Except remind her of one of the worst nights of her life …"
"Yeah, well, I hate to break it to you, but you're not perfect, Sam … just perfect for her. Because I'll let you in on a little secret, faults and all, you're all that matters to her."
"She tell you that?"
"During one of our 'Breakup Buddy' sessions, yeah … I'm assuming she told you about that?"
Sam nodded.
"She was supposed to be telling me all the things that drove her crazy and she was glad she didn't have to put up with anymore - instead, all I heard was how much she missed those things …"
"What things?"
"You may drive her crazy, but lemme tell ya, she won't say a bad thing about you. And during those 6 weeks? She wouldn't let anyone else say anything either. She defended you. Even when asked to explain if you were so great, why you bailed on her and she couldn't explain why you broke her heart … Somebody made the mistake of trying to bad mouth you. She threatened to lay them out."
Sam smiled. He woulda liked to have seen that, especially in light of what happened after parade.
"I may be dating Gail, but man, your girlfriend is the reason I feel like I'm part of this Division - she doesn't let people in easily, thanks to you, she let me in … "
Looking at the younger man in front of him, Sam got up and walked around to lean against his desk.
"I can't let her go out there thinking she's alone. She's not. She never has been, she never will be, but her insecurities run deep. Too deep sometimes. Right now she trusts me to trust you … and I do or she wouldn't be out there, but … any time I think I can't, I'll haul your ass back in here …"
"I know that, Sam … and I understand, man, I do. I knew going into this you'd chew my ass out if you thought I dropped the ball. Hell, if the roles were reversed I'd probably feel the same. I'm not sure I could watch her ride with someone I didn't trust."
"I'm tellin' you this because you're her riding partner and you need to know what's going on, but this stays between us, I find out you discussed this with her, I break the promise I made her that you wouldn't get hurt … Got it? It's over. It's been dealt with. I don't want her upset again."
"What happened?"
"The Penny Friday night. When we celebrated with drinks her being back on the streets?"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"The rookie with the shall we say, less than practical uniform …"
"That's one way to put it," Nick laughed.
"Remember when Andy went to the bathroom?"
"Yeah. She came back and you couldn't get her outta there fast enough."
"Yeah, well, the rookie made a helluva first impression …"
Meaning?"
"She was in there with one of her fellow rookies and yours truly was the topic of discussion."
"I'm almost afraid to ask what was said."
"That I'm fooling around on her and that the entire Division knows."
"Seriously?"
"Oh, that ain't all …"
"There's more?"
"Yeah, she made a point of sayin' how she wouldn't mind bein' the one …"
"Ah, hell ... No wonder I hit a nerve …"
"Yeah. We'd just watched Frank tell her to clean out her locker because she was no longer part of the Division, then I got to watch as Andy knocked her off her chair …"
"Andy?!"
"Yep."
"God, Sam, she wouldn't talk to me …"
"Now you know why …"
"Can I ask you somethin'?"
"What?"
"Why didn't you deck me when I walked in?"
"Because I promised her all I wanted to do was talk to you."
"Your apology … Christ! Sam, I'm the one that needs to apologize …"
Sam held out his hand, "What'd ya say we call it even today?"
Nick shook the offered hand. "Done. About Andy …"
"We're done for the day. I'm taking her home."
"Can I talk to her before I head back out?"
"As long as you don't mention …"
"No, man, I want to apologize for what I said."
Sam smiled at the younger man. "Why don't you apologize over drinks after shift?"
"I'm buyin' …"
"Damn straight you are."
Nick laughed. "So we're good?"
"Yeah, we're good."
They left Sam's office together. Sam going in search of Andy, Nick back to the squad car to finish shift.
Sam found her sitting in the bullpen staring off into space.
He walked up behind her and kissed her cheek. She jumped slightly and Sam chuckled.
"Sorry. You ready to get outta here?"
"Where's Nick?"
"Back on patrol. With everything that went down with James after parade, when you and Collins came back to the barn Frank gave us the rest of the day off. Told me to take you home."
He half expected her to put up a fight and was surprised when she leaned into him for a second before she hopped off the desk and said, "Let's go."
Outside, instead of opening her door, Sam dropped the tailgate and lifted a surprised Andy to sit on it. Sam stood in front of her with his hands braced on both sides of her hips.
"You weren't in the bullpen back there, so you wanna tell me where you were?"
"You didn't hurt him … did you?"
"I promised you I wouldn't, didn't I?"
"Yeah."
"But ya don't believe me?"
"It's not that …"
"One of us decking a fellow uniform is enough for one day, don'tcha think?"
Andy gave him a small smile.
"You can see for yourself that there's no bruises when we meet him at the Penny for drinks after shift."
"We're goin' to the Penny tonight?"
"I don't know about you, but after the morning we've had, I could use a drink and some down time with friends."
"You could invite Oliver over for poker … you haven't done that since I moved in …"
"McNally, this is Monday, poker night is Wednesday … and I think I'm busy this Wednesday …"
"Doing what?"
"Spending time on the couch … with you."
"Sam! We promised him a poker night at the house …"
"Baby, the only one I wanna play one-on-one with is you, not with Ollie and a stack of poker chips."
"So get somebody else for your third."
"Like who? Epstein? Forget it, he is not settin' foot in our house …"
"Sam, that's not nice …"
"Wait a minute … you play …"
"Uh, babe, it's called guys night for a reason …"
"You're gonna be there anyway …"
"I am?"
"What d'ya think?"
"I thought I'd spend the night at Traci's …"
"Nope, you're not there, there's no poker night. I'm not running you outta the house."
"You're not running me out of the house … I offered to leave …"
"No."
"But Traci never stayed when it was at Jerry's …"
That was Jerry and Traci, not me and you. Even if you don't play, you're still gonna be there, so you might as well play. Show Ollie the kinda poker player your dad taught you to be."
"Not afraid I'll take all your money?" Andy grinned at him.
Sam laughed. "I think I'll risk it."
"We can't play you and me against Oliver, that's not fair. We need a fourth."
"Who you got in mind?"
"Nick."
"Does he even play?"
"I don't know, but he can't be any worse than Jerry …"
They laughed, remembering the night of the quarantine. When they'd been listening to Chris talk to 'Blue Guy' while Jerry, Ollie and a couple other guys played in the background. He and Ollie had been razzing Jerry for losing his pay. They hadn't expected McNally to call him an amateur then proceed to lay down what Jerry should have played.
"Alright, we'll ask him tonight."
Andy kissed him. "Thank you. I know he's not your favorite person right now …"
"We'll survive."
"In case I haven't told you lately, I love you, Sam Swarek."
I love you too. You wanna go home or just drive around for awhile?"
"You mentioned something about a couch …"
Sam stood back and motioned for her to jump if she was ready to go. Andy jumped off the tailgate and landed squarely in front of Sam.
"Hi."
"Hi … you ready to go home?"
Andy put her arm around Sam's waist as he turned her towards the front of the truck.
She hadn't been sleeping well since Friday night so he wasn't surprised when she crashed in the cab before they got half way home. When she didn't wake up as he killed the engine, he unbuckled her belt before getting out. Opening her door, he laughed to himself, this was becoming habit. He laid her on the couch and went to make a pot of coffee.
Andy woke up and looked around, not quite sure how she got home.
Sam came in carrying two coffees. She sat up so he could join her on the couch. He handed her, her cup as he sat down.
"Thank you. How long was I out?"
"You're welcome. Not long."
He put his arm around her and she rested her head against his shoulder.
"As exhausted as you are, maybe I shouldn't be feeding you caffeine, you need to sleep."
Andy set her cup on the table before Sam stretched her out so she was laying down again, this time using him as a pillow.
"Go back to sleep, we got lots of time before the end of shift."
"What're you gonna do?" she asked on a yawn.
Sam leaned down and dropped a kiss on her forehead. "Sit here and watch you … Now, close your eyes, McNally, and go to sleep."
Andy woke up a few hours later, still on the couch, still with her head in Sam's lap. She rolled onto her back so she was looking up at him.
"Hey."
"Hey … How'd ya sleep?"
"Ok …"
"What?"
"Nothin'."
"Baby, don't do that. What's wrong?"
"I just woke up and I'm still tired."
"That's because you haven't slept much the last couple of nights."
"Sam, we didn't get up til noon yesterday …"
"Yeah, after gettin' home at 2 a.m. … and you didn't sleep for 10 hours so don't bother tryin' to sell me that you did … my arms were around you … remember?"
"Anybody ever tell you, you worry too much?"
"About you? Nope, sorry, not possible … You wanna go crawl in bed for a couple more hours? We got time before we head to the Penny."
"Babe, if I sleep all day I'm not gonna sleep tonight and I work tomorrow."
Sam laughed, remembering when she'd had to work hung over, he wouldn't put Collins through that.