AN: Sorry that it took so long for this... I was pretty much catching up on my sleep from the entire school semester of sleep deprivation! I know this is a short (albeit pretty cute) chapter, so I might feel obligated to post another one later tonight to make up for making you all wait! I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 25

Sam let out a groan and opened his eyes slowly, blearily. He blinked a few times and frowned as the room came into focus.

He was in Andy's apartment. He was in Andy's room. He was in Andy's bed.

He looked around confused and then it all came back to him. The wire dysfunction. James Barton almost killing Andy. Andy's concussion.

He rubbed his hand over his face and then looked towards the clock. 11:48am. He pushed himself out of the bed and made his way out of her bedroom.

He found her sitting in a chair at her kitchen table, the newspaper folded up in her hand as she tapped a pen on her chin. She was wearing blue pyjama shorts and a grey t-shirt with her hair in a loose ponytail with her legs tucked under her in the chair.

"Good morning," Sam said as he entered the room.

She looked up, her face surprised. "Good morning," she replied with a smile, "How was your sleep?"

"It was the best I've had in a long time," Sam admitted as Andy pushed herself to her feet, making her way into the kitchen.

"Good," Andy said with a smile, "Did you want a coffee?"

"Sure," Sam yawned into his hand, "That would be great."

Andy pulled a mug out of the cabinet and poured Sam a cup of coffee. She handed it to him and he took it graciously. He looked down at the Sudoku that Andy was completing in the paper and let out a chuckle.

"This is going well," he said teasingly. Seven numbers were written in her messy scrawl and about ten more were scratched out due to mistakes.

"Shut up," Andy chuckled, topping up her coffee, "My brain isn't working properly today." She rubbed her neck with a wince.

"How are you feeling?" Sam asked, frowning gently.

"A little groggy. A lot sore," Andy admitted, "But I took a Tylenol so it should kick in soon."

"Yeah," Sam said with a nod. He gulped down some coffee, his eyes on Andy. "Did you call your dad back? I'm sure he's really worried about you."

"Yeah I called him first thing," Andy nodded, "And Traci, Nick and Levi."

"Good," Sam nodded.

"Yeah," Andy said, "Are you hungry?"

Sam's stomach let out a particularly loud growl at the thought of food.

Andy and Sam both laughed. "Yeah I think so," Sam said.

"What do you want to eat?" Andy asked opening the fridge, "I could make soup and grilled cheese or an omelet. Or a really classy pot of Kraft Dinner. What would you like?"

"You don't need to make me food, Andy," Sam said.

"It's the least I can do," Andy said, "For you taking care of me last night. I owe you one."

"You would have done the same thing," Sam shrugged.

"Yeah, but I didn't have to," Andy said, "Just let me say thank you?"

"You want to thank me for falling asleep on your bed?" Sam asked with a grin, leaning his hip on the kitchen counter beside the fridge, watching her closely.

"You needed your rest," Andy said with a shrug, "But if we're being honest, I felt better knowing that you were here with me last night."

Sam fell silent, his eyes holding her gaze evenly.

"So what do you want to eat?" she asked again, glancing away.

"Soup and grilled cheese sounds great," Sam said after a moment.

"Okay good," Andy said with a smile, "I have an extra toothbrush in one of the cabinets in my bathroom if you'd like to brush your teeth," Andy offered, "I think it's pink or something else really manly," she teased Sam lightly over her shoulder.

"Thanks Andy," Sam said with a smile. She pulled a pot for the soup out of the cupboard and once she set it on the counter, he wrapped an arm around her waist, hugging her close to his side. He pressed a kiss to her temple, causing Andy's breath to catch in her throat. His lips lingered for a long moment before he released her and made his way towards the bathroom.

They ate the vegetable soup and grilled cheese sandwiches in relative silence, only interrupted by Sam pointing to the individual boxes in Andy's Sudoku and telling her which numbers to put where.

Once they were done eating, they put their dishes away in the dishwasher together. "So," Sam said, "What do you want to do the rest of the day?" he asked.

Andy straightened up to look at him. "You don't need to stay here all day," Andy laughed, "You can go home. Take a shower, get changed and enjoy your day off of work."

"Are you going to be okay alone?" Sam asked her, his tone concerned.

"I'm going to be fine," Andy said with a smile, "Honestly, I'll probably take a shower and then sleep for a few hours until it's time to eat dinner."

"Do you want me to come back around dinnertime then?" Sam offered.

"It's okay Sam," Andy said with a laugh, "Traci was talking about coming over tonight after shift. So you can have the rest of the day to yourself."

"Are you sure?" Sam asked.

Andy nodded with an encouraging smile.

"Call me if you need anything," he said as he made his way to the front door of her apartment, "Anything at all."

"Of course," Andy said with a smile.

He pushed his feet into his shoes. He picked up his keys and then looked back at her with a full Swarek smile, "I'm really glad you're okay Andy."

He turned to unlock her door and had just opened it when she slid her arm around his torso, causing him to turn to face her. She wrapped her arms around him and he returned the hug easily, resting his chin on the top of her head as she leaned into his chest.

"You sure you're okay?" Sam asked her again.

"Yeah, I'm good," she said softly.

AN: Sooooo! Thoughts?

I know I know I know that you want lots of Sam and Andy riiight now, and I promise that it will come very soon. But for now they are going to be friendly, flirty and they are trying to figure out their emotions before they jump into a relationship with each other again so that they don't mess it up again. It will all come in the next three or so chapters! (And the next three chapters will likely be longer too!)

Also, I had a request to make this a more 'M' rated story by using more sexual innuendos and references etc. I have it rated as M to be on the safe side right now, mostly in terms of bad language and violence (as this is based around a police show), but also for a little bit of sexual innuendo or references that comes with a romance genre. Now personally, I have no problems with reading stories with strong sexual aspects, but I'm not the fondest of writing them myself, so I won't have any raging sex scenes in this story (sorry folks... =P). I was thinking of downgrading the rating so that I could eliminate the assumption that I will be using strong sexual scenes, so let me know what you think I guess.

One more thing, I want you all to go to the reviews for Chapter 24 and see one by my ever favorite 'Guest', raging about how cruel Andy is and how kind and overly forgiving Sam is, and then raging at me about how I am 'baselessly writing Marlo as a bitch' and how I will 'feel like a fool at the end of the season'. Aaaand now, I want you all to laugh at this anonymous reviewer for being the real fool in this situation.

Have a great day guys!