Wow, all the love for this story has really made me smile. :) Thank you to everyone reading and reviewing, as well as all the alerts and favorites. I'm having a lot of fun with this story, so I hope you all enjoy this chapter! Please review, if you get a chance. :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Rookie Blue.

Chapter 2

Traci narrowed her eyes not believing how happy her friend looked as she bounded into the locker room. "What's got you so cheery this morning?"

Andy fought back a smile as she opened her locker. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play that with me Andy. Sam's back after two years and you're smiling like I haven't seen you smile in, well, two years," Traci said, closing her locker and straddling the bench next to her friend.

Andy rolled her eyes. She couldn't hide anything from Traci. "He may have come over last night, and um –"

"Did you and Swarek have sexy time?" Traci nearly yelled.

"No! Trace!" Andy hissed, hoping none of the other officers in the locker room heard the outburst. "I'm still mad at him, or well, I was mad at him. I don't know what I am."

"So…." Traci prodded.

"He came over, apologized. We talked. I've missed him okay. It was nice to see him," Andy said, hoping her friend believed her.

"Yeah, you just missed him. Uh huh. You haven't compared every guy to him. You haven't hoped every day that he'd come back. You haven't -"

"Okay Trace, I get it. I've thought about him constantly for two years," Andy said, closing her locker. "He took a part of me with him when he left and maybe, I don't know, maybe him being back makes me feel normal again."

They walked to parade, smiling at Chris, Dov and Gail as they took seats in the back of the room. "So? What's going to happen with you two?" Traci asked.

"I don't know. It really hurt when he left," Andy whispered. "I don't want to shut him out, but I don't know if I can completely let him in again." The conversation ended when Frank walked in rattling off important tips for the day.

Sam was tinkering with the pipes under his sister's kitchen sink when his phone rang. Shifting to pull his phone out of his pocket, he hit his head on a pipe and muttered curses as he answered the call. "Swarek."

"Hey brother, how's it going down in St. Catherine's?" Oliver asked.

"Sarah thinks I'm her personal plumber, so instead of taking a few days of relaxation, I'm here working," Sam replied, feigning annoyance.

"You know, Zoe keeps reminding me about our leaky bathroom sink…" Oliver teased.

"Funny. Real funny. Are you calling just to harass me?"

Oliver chuckled into the phone. He missed teasing his friend while he was undercover. "No. I'm calling to let you know poker night is at my house next Friday and I've missed taking all your money, so you better be there."

It was Sam's turn to laugh. "I think it's you who will be parting with his money, brother. I'll be there."

"Good. Good. So, uh, have you had a chance to talk to anyone, you know, since you've been back?" Oliver asked, tiptoeing around the subject he wanted bring up.

"I've talked to you and Frank. Figure I'll see everyone in a couple days when I'm back on patrol," Sam said as he tested his sister's faucet to see if it was still leaking.

"Yeah, well, uh, you might want to have a talk with someone. You know, someone who took it hard when you left," Oliver said, continuing to hint at who he was talking about.

Sam rolled his eyes, realizing where his friend was going with this conversation. "Trying to meddle in my love life Ollie?"

"Who said anything about a love life? My ears don't need to be hearing about that brother. I'm just saying you might want to have a talk with someone," he replied.

"Anything else you need to tell me or can I get back to this sink?"

"No. No. It'll be good to see you back at poker night."

They said their goodbyes and Sam stuffed his phone back in his pocket. He didn't want to talk about Andy with anyone until he knew what they were. And right now, they were both simply adjusting to him being back.

When Andy got home after shift, she decided to get some much overdue household chores done. She was doing laundry when her phone rang. Digging through the clothes she threw on her bed, she uncovered her phone just before the call went to voicemail. She couldn't help but smile when she heard Sam's voice on the other end. "Having fun with Sarah?" she asked.

"Not sure if fun would describe it. She's been taking advantage of my skills with tools and put me to work as her handyman," Sam said. He loved his sister and would do anything for her, but her "to do" list for him had quickly grown since he arrived at her house that morning.

Andy laughed. "But that's what brother's are for."

"Yeah. Anyway, she's in her studio painting, so I thought I'd call and say hi," he said. "What are you up to tonight?"

"I have an exciting night of laundry on tap," she joked.

"Well, if you can manage to talk and do laundry at the same time I thought that, you know, I could start seeing what I missed," he said. Andy was confused and when she remained silent, Sam continued. "I meant what I said. I want to know everything from the past two years. So, start with when I left."

Andy was dumbfounded. She didn't think Sam literally wanted to know everything that had happened to her. "Sam, that'll take forever."

"That's why we start now. Did you come over after you left the voicemail?" he prodded.

Andy shook her head in amazement, but started talking as she separated her laundry into piles to be washed.

Andy walked out of Leslie's apartment with a huge grin on her face. She caught a cab, her leg bouncing excitedly on the way to Sam's. She jumped out of the car and bounded up the steps to Sam's door. When there was no response after her first knock, she knocked again…and again. She wondered where he could be. Andy glanced at her watch and noticed it was still early, so maybe he had stopped by the Penny. She sat down on the top step and leaned against the railing, pulling her coat tight to fight off the chill in the air.

She started counting passing cars and apparently that was like counting sheep because the ringing of her phone woke her and Andy realized she had dozed off. "Hey Trace."

"Hey Andy, I was wondering where you were. You weren't at the Penny and then I didn't see you on my couch when I got home," Traci said, obviously worrying about her friend.

"Sorry Trace, I, uh, I had somewhere I needed to go," she replied.

"Noelle told me about Leslie. I'm sorry," Traci said.

"Hey, was Sam at the Penny?" Andy asked.

"No, haven't seen him," Traci replied. "Everything okay?"

Andy glanced up at the door to Sam's apartment. "Could you pick me up? I'm…I'm sitting outside of Sam's place."

"Of course, but why are you there?" Traci asked.

"It's complicated. I'll tell you when you get here. It's just, he's not here and I'm getting cold and I don't see any cabs," Andy explained.

"Okay. Look, I'm leaving right now. See you in a few minutes," Traci said before hanging up.

Andy pocketed her phone and stared up at his apartment. She finally shared her feelings with him, or at least with his voicemail, and now she couldn't find him. She was pretty sure the universe had it out for her.

When Traci pulled up a short time later, Andy stood up and sighed, throwing one last glance back at Sam's apartment as she opened the car door.

"I wish I had been there," Sam said when Andy finished telling the story.

"Yeah, well, there's no going back," Andy said as she moved clothes from the washer to the dryer.

"No, no there isn't. So, what's next? I assume you got your mortgage like you planned since you're in that beautiful condo now," Sam said as he leaned back on his sister's couch and propped his feet up on the coffee table. He knew she'd yell at him for that, but he decided to take the risk so he could be comfortable.

"Yeah, I got the mortgage, finalized on the condo a short time later. Everyone helped me move," Andy replied. Sam mentally kicked himself that he wasn't included in the 'everyone' that helped her. "You're turn. You said you'd tell me about the undercover op."

"That I did. What do you want to know?" he asked.

"I don't know, whatever you can tell me, I guess."

"Well, I was working in Brennan's warehouse, the legit side of his businesses. And just making friends with guys. It took a while. Took longer than I thought to get Brennan to trust me and invite me into the illegal side of things," Sam explained. "After I was in the inner circle, it was just a matter of getting enough evidence."

"Four months after you left Boyd was demoted back to being an officer at 27 Division and there was a rumor it had to do with you and the operation with Brennan," she said, her question implied in the statement.

"Yeah, well, Boyd almost got me burned. Gave me a boat seized in a high profile drug arrest. Luckily, my CI recognized the name of it before I said anything to Brennan," Sam explained.

"What? How could he be so careless?"

Sam shrugged even though Andy couldn't see him. He'd asked himself that question many times and hoped to ask Boyd himself one of these days. Andy couldn't believe what Sam had told her and realized she could have easily lost him because of Boyd. Instead of being gone two years, he could have been gone forever.

"That's not all," Sam continued. "Apparently, he covered up the murder of Brennan's wife and daughter and that's what prompted the guy to get back into his illegal activities."

"What?"

"Boyd's always colored outside the lines, but I never thought he'd go that far. He's lucky he was able to keep his badge," he said.

"Well, I'm glad you made it out alive, despite all of Boyd's stupidness," Andy said.

"Me too."

Three hours later, Andy lay on her bed with only a small lamp illuminating the room. Phone still attached to her ear, she laughed as she heard Sarah scold Sam for leaving his shoes in the middle of the living room. The sound coming through the phone was suddenly muffled and Andy figured Sam had put his hand over the mouthpiece. She could hear muffled voices before Sam's voice came through loud and clear again. "Sorry about that."

"What was that about?" Andy asked.

"Just my sister saying goodnight."

"I should let you go," Andy replied softly.

"No. I've enjoyed this. I've missed hearing your voice," he said.

"Me too. I mean, not hearing my own voice, but this, you, us," she said, stumbling over her words. Sam smiled, recognizing her nervousness.

"Sam, I'm really glad you called tonight," she said sleepily.

"I have a lot of time to make up for," he replied. When he didn't hear anything but her breathing, Sam thought she may have fallen asleep. "Andy?"

"Hmmm?"

"I should let you get to sleep."

"No, I'm not tired," she replied, fighting to stay awake, but losing miserably. As she started to doze off, her mind couldn't stop her mouth. "I don't ever, you know, want to go back, um, to what we were." She yawned loudly before continuing. "I want us. I love the feeling of us," she said, her words trailing off.

He knew she didn't really know what she was saying as she was nearly asleep, but the idea that she wanted there to be an 'us' made Sam smile. "Andy, go to sleep. Hang up the phone."

"Mmm, okay. Goodnight Sam."

"Goodnight Andy."

Andy put the phone on the night table and turned off the light before quickly falling asleep with thoughts of Sam in her head.

Sam spent the next day with his sister and headed back to Toronto after taking her out to an early dinner. After waving goodbye as his truck drove away, Sam pulled out his phone and hit speed dial #3.

"Hello?" Andy said out of breath.

"You okay there McNally?"

"Oh, hi Sam. Yeah, just got out of the shower, had to run down the hall to grab my phone. Hang on," she replied. Sam heard rustling on the other end of the phone and assumed she was putting on clothes. Sam swallowed as he thought about Andy in the shower, wet and naked and…he needed to push the thoughts out of his head so he didn't crash his truck.

"Sorry about that," Andy said when she picked up the phone again. "What's up?"

"Driving home from Sarah's. Thought you could keep me entertained," Sam replied.

"And how am I supposed to do that?"

"Well, you've done a good job already. All this talk of you and a shower." Even though Sam couldn't see Andy, he knew she was blushing.

"Oh, um, well, sorry, um, yeah. So, how was Sarah's?" Andy asked, stumbling over her words and trying to move the conversation in another direction.

Sam chuckled at her reaction. And as much fun as he was having, he thought better of pushing his luck and changed the topic. "So, where did we leave off last night?"

"You really want to know more? Life really wasn't that exciting, Sam," she replied.

"I told you. I want to know everything," Sam said. "I heard you were one of the rookies picked for the undercover training exercise. Did you have fun?"

"I guess. I mean I like going undercover, but Boyd hates me, so…Wait, how did you know I was picked?" He'd been gone for two weeks by the time she, Traci and Dov had been let loose without their phones, IDs and cash for the rookie scavenger hunt.

"Boyd may have let it slip when he boasted that Dov crushed you and Nash," Sam said.

Andy rolled her eyes. Of course Boyd would love that she lost. "Yeah, well Dov did his own thing while Traci and I went to this bar, the Alpine Inn, and played pool to get some cash. It was still kind of fun."

Sam's jaw dropped open when he heard her say she was at the Alpine Inn. It was the bar he and Brennan hung out at a lot while he was undercover. He wondered what would have happened if he'd been there when she showed up. Maybe it wouldn't have changed anything, or maybe it would have.

"Sam, you still there?" Andy asked when he remained silent.

"Uh, yeah, it's just, well, the Alpine Inn, it's –"

"I know. It's a shady place. But you told me about it once and it just seemed like the place to go to get some drugs," she said, cutting Sam off.

"No, it's not that. It's just, well, I spent a lot of nights sitting in that bar with Brennan," he said, still shocked they had been so close but never crossed paths.

"What? You were there?"

"Well, not the night you were obviously, but yeah, in the last two years I spent a lot of nights playing pool and drinking alongside Brennan and some other guys from the warehouse," he replied.

"Wow, that's…wow." Andy didn't know what to think. What if she had run into Sam? She could have blown his cover for the second time. Or maybe she could have found a way to tell him how she really felt. She shook her head. There was no going back. "So, was it a tough assignment?"

"At times. Brennan warmed up to me right away, but stayed tight lipped about his activities, so it took a while to get enough evidence to bring him down," Sam replied.

"I heard about the torture this guy was into. Glad you helped to lock him up," she said.

"We got him on a couple of those murders too. I could've gotten out six months ago, but to pin more than just a few drug charges on him I stayed," he explained.

"Congrats." As much as Andy missed him, she was truly happy for him that he made such a big arrest. Not only because he took a criminal off the streets, but it would help his career a lot too.

Sam debated asking Andy the next question on his mind. Maybe this was a conversation better had in person. But they were talking and maybe she'd feel more comfortable talking about it without him staring at her.

"You don't have to talk about this if you don't want to, but well, the other night you mentioned having to shoot someone," Sam said, figuring he'd see what her initial reaction was before prodding further.

"Yeah, about eight months ago. You don't know how much I wanted, needed, to talk to you that day," she said softly. Andy thought back and began retelling the story to Sam.

The division had been called to a bank robbery that had turned into a hostage situation. Hostage negotiators weren't having any luck speaking with the suspect, so police were trying to find a way into the bank. Andy, Chris, Dov and Gail were given the east side of the building. They were supposed to simply cover a side entrance, but soon found themselves on the front lines. Through the windows, which were only partially closed by curtains, they saw the suspect move toward them pointing a gun at a pregnant woman he held close to him. The four officers hid behind a car parked on the street with their guns drawn, but the robber knew they were there, looking straight at them as he pointed the gun at the woman's head.

"Sir, put the gun down now!" Gail shouted, hoping he could hear her through the glass.

"Look," Chris said, pointing to a body lying on the floor inside the bank. "The security guard. Think he's still alive?"

Andy looked at the man. He was lying very still and decided he was either unconscious or the suspect had killed him. She gave Chris an unsure look. "I don't know."

"Focus," Gail hissed.

"We are focused Gail. Assessing the situation," Dov replied, not appreciating the blonde's attitude.

Before they could say anything else, shots rang out and glass shattered only feet in front of them. Andy looked inside the bank and realized the suspect had fired at them. It was only two shots and none of them had been hit, but Andy knew they had to end this situation quickly. The suspect was escalating and could kill a hostage at any moment.

"Sir!" Andy screamed. "You know we have the building surrounded. Just put down the gun. Let the woman go."

"No!" He shouted. Several shots rang out again and this time Andy responded. She kept her eyes on the suspect as she fired her gun. Chris, Dov and Gail mimicked her movements, but Andy knew the moment the suspect fell to the ground she had shot him. Of the four of them, she had the best angle to hit him without hurting the pregnant woman he held.

She stood frozen as Dov and Gail ran into the bank through the shot out floor to ceiling windows. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned her face to see Chris. She saw his mouth move but couldn't hear him asking if she was okay. As she slowly walked closer to the bank, she heard someone shout that the suspect was dead. She had killed another man. She expected it to get easier after the first time, but it didn't. Knowing this was her job should have made it easier, but it didn't. Seeing the relief on the faces of the hostages should have made it easier, but it didn't. She wanted to look up and see Sam there to comfort her, but he wasn't there.

Oliver jogged up to where Andy and Chris stood standing just outside the bank. Chris gave Oliver a pointed look toward Andy to let him know she had been the one to shoot the suspect. Oliver had known the moment he turned the corner and saw the look on her face. It was only after the third time Oliver said her name that she realized he was standing next to her. "Diaz, why don't you take McNally back to the station," he suggested.

They traveled in silence back to the station and Andy quietly changed out of her uniform, making sure to hand her gun over to Frank for the standard investigation after a cop kills someone. She sat answering questions for nearly an hour about what had happened at the bank. She knew the drill. She'd be stuck at home for a couple days until the investigation was over and she was cleared to return to duty.

Andy sat in front of her locker not wanting to go home. She thought about waiting for her friends, letting them convince her to go to the Penny. Without really thinking about it, she walked into the men's locker room and sat in front of Sam's locker. She thought back to when Sam had found her after she shot the kidnapper. He had known what to say, that she had no choice, that she trusted her gut. She hadn't wanted to talk, but he'd been there. He'd been there when she'd come knocking on his door and still didn't want to talk. But as the daylight turned to darkness and she stared at his locker, now she wanted to talk. Wanted someone who knew her so well, who knew the right thing to say.

Staring at Sam's locker, she wondered if he left his uniform or one of his black t-shirts. She thought about finding a way into his locker so she could bury her nose in his clothes and remember his smell. But she remained seated on the bench. Sitting and staring. And that's how Oliver found her when he returned from the scene of the bank robbery.

"McNally. What are you doing here?" he asked, not only surprised to see her in the men's locker room, but shocked she hadn't already gone home.

"Couldn't go home," she said, glancing up at him.

"It'll be okay. You did what you had to do," he said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah. Yeah. I know."

"Really, you should get home, get some rest. Look, I'll give Nash or Epstein the okay to leave shift early to take you home," Oliver offered.

"I, um, I want to sit here for a bit," Andy replied, looking back at Sam's locker.

Oliver reluctantly left Andy sitting in the locker room. From the way she stared at the locker, he knew nothing he said could make her feel better right now. There was only one person who could and he wasn't around. Oliver hoped she'd be able to get past this without his support because no one knew when he'd be back.

All she could think about was that she needed him. She had missed him since he mysteriously left, but today she needed him. She sat and sat, hoping he'd somehow appear out of nowhere if she stared at his locker long enough. She didn't realize how much time had gone by when Dov, Chris and Traci circled around her.

"Come on. I'm taking you home with me," Traci said as Chris and Dov pulled their friend into a standing position.

Andy cried herself to sleep on Traci's couch that night. She wasn't sure if the tears were from killing a man, or missing another so much it hurt.

"Thinking about it again, I guess I wanted to listen more than talk that day. Hear you tell me it would all be okay. No one else saying it seemed to matter," Andy said when she finished telling Sam the story.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there."

"Oliver was great. I mean, he really tried to help me. But I'm stubborn. I refused to believe you wouldn't pop up out of nowhere to make me feel better." Andy sighed and both sides of the phone were silent for a moment. "Can we talk about something else, something happier?"

"Okay," Sam thought for a second before continuing. "Were you excited to boss around the new rookies?"

Andy laughed. He always knew the perfect thing to say.