A/N: YAY! It's Friday night!
Thank you for the majority of kind reviews. I am trying to reply to all of them but there are soooo many!
I have said this before - if you want to be nasty, please don't do it on this site - especially as a guest reviewer. I am not forcing you to read my 'crappy little girly fanfiction'. If you don't like it, please don't read it!
Now that is said (again), here's the next chapter...
As soon as he told Sam that Tommy had been stabbed and was being taken care of, Oliver knew that Sam would be the best person to comfort Andy. He wanted to find out what had happened.
"Frank!" he yelled as he burst through the door.
"Oliver? I thought you'd gone home?"
"I did, but I got a call Tommy's been stabbed."
"Why did you get the call?" Frank asked, confused. It was a well known fact that Andy and Sam were inseparable.
"I told Sammy not to answer his phone. I wanted answers over today. He's headed over there now."
"I've had a report of a stabbing, but I didn't realise it was Tommy." Frank admitted.
"What happened?" Oliver asked
"Ollie, you know I can't..."
"Frank. It's me, it's Sammy, and more importantly it's McNally. Do you really think those two will be happy with the standard answer of 'we can't discuss an open case with you'? Do you also think that if you keep them out of the loop they won't go be all McSwarek, I mean look at what happened when Tommy was a murder suspect."
"When was Tommy a murder suspect?" Frank asked cocking his eyebrow.
"It was, wait, that's not the point. The point is one of our own is hurt and in the hospital and I want to know why!"
"Alright, fine." Frank conceded, holding up a hand to stem the babble from Oliver, knowing he was right. He pulled him to one side before continuing:
"There was a witness. She said she was walking home from her evening class and she felt a hand cover her mouth. She said that she was dragged backwards into an alley where she was pushed against a wall. The ass tried to rape her."
"Where does Tommy fit into this?"
"He was walking past the end of the alley and heard the girl scream, and not in a pleasurable way."
"So being Tommy, he went to investigate and got a knife to the gut for his trouble?"
"Pretty much. The girl ran to the nearest shop and dialled 911."
"I better let Andy know"
"Do it in the morning, she won't be able to hear you tonight."
"Alright you lot! Calm down!" Frank ordered during the following mornings briefing.
Silence fell over the room.
"Where's McSwarek?" Chris piped up, noticing the absence of Sam and Andy.
"McSwarek is on special assignment today. Little and Anderson, you two will be riding together. Do not, and I repeat this, do not screw up.
Peck, Diaz, I want you two to stay behind. Protect, Serve and don't make my headache worse."
There was a scrabble as chairs were pushed back from tables. There was only one topic of conversation. Andy and Sam.
"Special Assignment my ass. They probably got drunk, ended up in bed together and woke up unable to look at each other and called in sick." Noelle said as she waited to reach the keys.
"Not McSwarek, they aren't that stupid." Dov said, defending his friend.
"They looked pretty cosy last night with their arms around each other." Anderson told them, waiting for his turn.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"What? I saw them in the park down near Hope Hospital. They were walking, it was dark, he had his arms around her and she had her head on his shoulder."
"You guys are talking out of your asses." Oliver said. Loudly.
"It was 3am!"
"And last night, Tommy was stabbed six times in the gut while trying to stop a woman getting raped."
The chatter regarding Andy and Sam's absence stopped abruptly.
"Who's Tommy?" Little asked, breaking the silence.
"Officer McNally's dad." Noelle said, her voice barely above a whisper, not taking her eyes off a sombre Oliver.
"She couldn't get through to Sam so she called me."
Oliver arrived at the hospital with Butterworth about an hour after the briefing ended.
"Whatever you see in here you keep to yourself." Oliver warned, knowing they could find Andy and Sam in a supportive, yet could be interpreted as a compromising position.
Oliver scanned the ER waiting room for the two of them, but he couldn't see them. He knew that Sam had taken Andy for air when they walked through the park last night, because Oliver had stayed waiting for news.
A nurse and her patient, who was sporting a bloody nose, moved into a cubicle and Sam and Andy came into view.
Sam was sat upright in a chair, head back, drool threatening to make its way down his chin from his mouth, lower arm and hand placed protectively over Andy who was curled up over 3 chairs, using Sam's leg as a pillow.
Oliver chuckled to himself at the absurdity of their constant denial, and their ability to calm each other down when their blood boils.
Tapping Butterworth on the arm, Oliver nodded in their direction and weaved his way towards them.
He drifted the coffee he had brought under Sam's nose, which made his head snap up immediately, his bleary eyes blinking against the light.
Sam used his free hand to wipe his mouth of drool and take the coffee that Oliver offered him.
"Any news?" Oliver asked, his voice quiet so he wouldn't wake Andy.
"I've told them I don't want to wake her unless it's good news. All I've got so far is that there was complications and excessive bleeding. They didn't go into details."
"I went to Andy's place and picked her some clothes up. I also raided your closet and threw some stuff into the bag."
"Cheers, bro. And thanks for the coffee."
"I figured you'd need one. Didn't expect to find either of you sleeping. We better head out, but I'll bring you another coffee drip and breakfast later."
Sam nodded and watched as Oliver and Butterworth left before moving his glaze to watch Andy as she slept.
He watched her deep, even breathing while he drank his coffee, noticing that as she breathed out she let out a small pfft of air, before he tipped his head back and succumbed to sleep once more.