"Hey, I'm just going to go grab the pizza and a couple groceries. Do you need anything?" Luke shouted from the doorway.

Andy came to where he was standing and was putting an earring back in its place. "Nope. I'm good. Just going to take a shower." She didn't bother asking where the towels were, because they were probably where she unpacked them, along with mainly everything in his house.

Luke nodded as he made his way out the door and started his car. He took a deep breath when he turned down a road that was definitely not the direction of the pizza place. Get a grip, Callaghan. You need to do this, he told himself. It's not fair to her. If there was one thing he learned about his time with Andy was, it was better to be honest from the start. So that's why he was at his new girlfriend's place, telling her it wasn't going to work.

He took another deep breath when he knocked on her door. Callaghan, he told himself. It's not like you're giving a death notification. Breaking it off with someone is easier than telling your fiancée you cheated on her. Do it already!

"Luke, hey!" Andrea Gillespie said when she opened the door. A prominent defense attorney, it was a little odd for Luke to be dating her. "Do you want to come in?"

Luke shook his head. "I only have a couple minutes. Look, Andrea, this, between us isn't going to work. I'm so busy at work and some things have come up, and it's not fair to you."

Andrea, surprisingly, didn't look shocked. "I get it, Luke. I really do. And I know that the detective who was killed the other day was a good friend of yours."

He looked down when she mentioned Jerry, but shifted his glance upwards. "Yeah. Anyways, I guess I'll see you around."

She just smiled and began to close the door and Luke turned, but she called out. "Luke. Thanks for being honest with me." He just gave her a smile and continued walking out, feeling a lot better about being honest with her and just breaking it off. It definitely wasn't fair when he was married to his work and his ex-fiancée was sleeping at his house.

He picked up a few groceries, like the coffee he knew McNally liked, milk, bread and some fruit before picking up the pizza and heading home. To Luke, it felt a lot more normal than it should have felt. He kicked the door open and brought the pizza in. "Hey, McNally, can you grab the groceries out of my car?" he asked as she was sitting on the couch, watching a really old rerun of Friends.

"Yeah, sure," Andy replied as she got up and quickly went outside. "Holy shit, its cold out," she remarked when she came inside with the groceries. She took the coffee out of the bag first. "You bought me my favorite coffee?"

Luke shrugged. "It was the only brand I recognized when I went to the coffee aisle."

She smiled. "Better than that crap you drink called Folgers."

"Probably," he chuckled. "Grab a plate. Groceries can wait." She grabbed a slice of pepperoni and went to go join him on the couch, to watch TV, which was now switched to Modern Family. "You wanna know the first time I met Jerry?"

Andy looked up at him surprised. "Yeah, I do."

Luke put down the slice of pizza. "I had just made detective and I showed up at 15. Boyko had also just made Staff Sergeant. So he's showing me around before I started the next day. We're going past the D's office, and it's pretty late, and all we hear is Jerry belting out Redneck Woman by Gretchen Wilson. Boyko and I laughed about it and forgot about it. The next morning, I come in, and here's Jerry singing Celine Dion."

"Celine Dion?" Andy asked, laughing, because she could envision the scenario Luke is telling.

Luke chuckled and smiled. "Yeah. I walked in and Jerry turns around and turns bright red. He tells me 'oh, you must be the new kid.' I told him yes and as I am putting my stuff in my desk, I told him 'and you must be the guy who wants to try out for American Idol.' I kept bugging Jerry about that for years."

"We're all going to miss Jerry," Andy said.

Luke took another bite of the pizza. "Did you know about the time that Jerry shrink wrapped Boyko's desk, car, and locker?"

Andy shook her head. "I am assuming Boyko wasn't impressed?"

"Nooooo. Last year, when you were under suspension Jerry thought it would be a good idea to relieve some tensions. He changed out all the sugar packets for sugar ones, he put honey on all of Frank's door handles and then him and Oliver filled Frank's car with those Styrofoam poppy things."

She smiled at the fond memories of Jerry. She hoped like hell Traci was thinking of good memories like that. "Please tell me Frank got revenge."

Luke smiled. "It was Noelle but it was great."

Andy can see this is was good'er coming up. "What did Noelle do?"

"She accidently," Luke put the air quotations around the word 'accidently'. "Spilled coffee all over him. All over him. And Jerry being the guy he is, had to have a shower. Which was Noelle's intent."

Andy started laughing; already knowing where this one was going and Luke finished the story. "While Jerry was in the shower, Noelle and Frank broke into his locker and took everything out. All he was left with his towel." By this time, Andy was laughing pretty hard and it hurt like a bitch because of her ribs. "I came in to start my shift, and here's Jerry, standing in the middle of the locker room swearing like no other."

"How did he get his clothes back?"

Luke laughed. "He blackmailed me into giving him my phone so he could call Traci. She had a change of clothes for him in her car. But Diaz picked her up that day and she was at a domestic disturbance call. So here's Jerry, sitting in a white towel, waiting for Traci for about an hour. I swear to God, Andy, it was the funniest thing in the world."

"Did you get picture proof?"

"Of course," Luke replied and showed her the picture, which led to her gasping for air because she was laughing so hard. Before Luke could ask if she was alright, his phone rang. "Callaghan… Oh… Really? That's not exactly good news… No, that's fine. Call me when you have an update in the morning."

"Who was that?" Andy asked, finally regaining her breath.

Luke ran his hand down his face. "Brittany. Ballistics came back. Three of the slugs in your vest came back as a semi-automatic rifle used in a bank robbery last year."

"And the bullet in Nick's vest?"

He sighed. "I hate saying this. Match to a gun used in two different homicides last year. All three incidents are suspected to be gang related. More importantly the Briarwood gang."

"Is this a target on cops or collateral damage?" Andy was afraid to hear the answer.

Luke shrugged. "We find that out tomorrow. Brittany is handing the case off to Jess."

"Jess?"

"Detective Jess Erico. She worked with 15 on a case way back, when you were a rookie. Good cop, even better homicide detective. Worked with Guns and Gangs a little bit."

Andy sighed. "So Brittany actually has a good side to her?"

He laughed. "No. It's Peterson making her pass the case off to protect his ass and everyone else's when everybody realizes Brittany is incompetent and way too inexperienced to be handling this type of case."

"Sounds like someone really doesn't like Detective Boyd?"

He shrugged. "Other than my strong dislike for her brother and the fact that she's stolen three homicides from me in the past year and tried to weasel her way into the taskforce last year, can't say I'm a huge fan."

"Couldn't tell," Andy replied. She looked at the clock which read 10:12 pm. She had no idea it was this late. "I'm going to get ready for bed."

Luke nodded. "I'll put away the groceries," he said, letting McNally use the bathroom.

That night, Luke was quite enjoying a nice sleep for a change. He was normally a deep sleeper, except for his impeccable knack at being able to hear his cell phone in the middle of the night (actually one is his major faults), but lately he hadn't been sleeping well. Tonight, well… He had the woman he loved back in his house, albeit not the same bed, and somehow it just "fit."

:::::

Unfortunately, his deep sleep was ended when he heard screaming, like coming from a nightmare. He bolted out of bed, quickly threw a pair of sweatpants on that were at the end of his bed, and made his way down the hallway. He didn't want to startle her, either. He had never dealt with a McNally who had nightmares.

The couch was a pullout, and Luke sat on the edge of it and gently shook Andy. "Andy. Wake up. It's me."

Her brown eyes opened and she sat up, not quite awake. He could tell that, because she was starting to thrash and wanted to punch something, so Luke gently took a hold of her and surprisingly, she all but collapsed in his arms. "Shhh. It's okay. It's just a nightmare."

"I just keep playing it in my mind," Andy whimpered out. Her ribs hurt like hell from thrashing and all the laughing at evening.

"Keep playing what?" Luke was aware about nightmares. Call it an occupational hazard. Whether it that be that one case you couldn't close that bugged you to no end, for him it was Zoe Martinelli, to replays in your mind of the day's events, to every bad decision you've made on the job. Suspects you've killed in self defense. Situations, where you wonder what you could have done differently and had it play out differently. Every cop had one of the above scenarios replay at some point in their career.

Andy let a tear fall or too. "The first suspect I killed on the job." She found it a little weird, to be crying in Luke's arms. All she had wanted that night was to go home with him and to be comforted by him. Instead, she had ended up on Sam's doorstep. Funny how everything came full circle.

Luke brushed a tear that fell. "Andy, you did what was right. We found the bodies of three girls in there. Not to mention Aiyesha, who you rescued. He shot a cop. He had already shot Oliver, he was going to kill you," Luke told her. He had read the incident reports, heard the brief statement SIU gave him over it. Justified kill. Sam and Oliver had backed her up on it. "Look at me, Andy." He tilted her chin so she was looking at him. "You had no other choice." With that, he planted a kiss on the top of her head.

Andy buried her head farther into his chest, folding her legs so she was closer to him. She didn't know what it was, but it felt so… good, to be comforted by Luke. He knew all the right words to say. Andy didn't know what the hell was going on anymore. "I know… I just still keep replaying it."

Luke nodded. "Every cop who has killed someone in the line of duty has it replay in their minds. Nightmares, woulda, coulda, shoulda's. We're only human, Andy. I've replayed the first guy I shot in my mind at least a thousand times. There's been one or two since then, and it doesn't get easier, unfortunately."

"Why does it have to be so hard?"

"Because we took a life. We had to do it, doesn't make it any easier. Come on, Andy, let's go to bed," he whispered.

She took Luke's hand to stand up. "Okay."

The next morning, Andy woke up Luke's arm around her stomach, holding her. He felt her stirring at also woke up. Woke up to his ex-fiancee in his arms. If that wasn't weird, Luke didn't know what was. He felt a little guilty about it, but she hadn't argued last night. And she looked pretty content. "Morning," he said.

Andy brushed the hair out of her eyes. "Morning."

"Feeling a little better?"

"A little. Thanks," she said, rolling over to look at Luke. All he replied with, was a kiss to the top of her head. "But my ribs hurt."

Luke laughed. "Before I go to work and before Super Rookie picks you up, I'll bandage them for you."

"I'm fine, Luke. They're just a little bruised."

He just looked at her. "I'm wrapping them for you."

:::::

Later that afternoon, Andy unlocked Traci's front door with the spare key. Traci was in PJ bottoms and a tank top, making tea in the kitchen. Andy kicked off her boots. "Hey."

"Oh hey," Traci said. "Do you want tea?"

Andy smiled and walked up to the kitchen. "Sure."

Traci looked at her quizzically. "Who dropped you off?"

"Nick. We spent the day together. Frank ordered both of us not to show up," Andy explained, putting a tea bag in her coffee mug and then filling it up with hot water and some milk. She took it to the living room, and Traci followed her, sitting on the couch.

Traci nodded. "How are you?"

"Isn't that supposed to be my line?" Andy laughed.

Traci just gave her that 'you've got to be kidding me' look. "Andy, I'd like to talk about something other than this. Something to get my mind off Jerry. And you're here so spill the details. I heard it from Epstein that you slept at Luke's house. What happened?"

Andy looked away. "I might have slept at Callaghan's place last night too."

"Andy! What is going on between you and Sam?"

She shrugged. "He broke up with me. Told me he couldn't be a cop and be with me."

"What?" said, Traci, in that 'you've got to be shitting me' look she often gave Andy. Usually when they were discussing her fucked up love life.

"Yup. Ended up at Luke's house and then I got shot yesterday, and ended up in his arms this morning."

Traci closed her eyes. "Andy…"

"I miss Luke. I really do. And I don't even want to think about Sam, right now, Trace. He walked out on me when things got hard. He broke a promise. He just, I don't know. He wouldn't even look at me yesterday when him and Oliver got to the scene. Wouldn't even look at me. Luke showed up at the hospital. Hell, he even bought me my favorite pizza and coffee last night."

Her best friend shook her head. "When Sam finds out that you've been staying at Callaghan's place…."

"Screw what Sam thinks," was the reply that Traci got.

:::::

The next morning, Andy and Nick were leaning up against a wall, outside Parade, before it started. Nick and gotten himself and Andy a coffee. Detective Jess Erico would be at Parade, giving everybody an update on what was happening with Andy and Nick's shooter. So far, that Luke told her last night, they had nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Sam stopped on his way to the room. "Andy. How's Traci?"

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Was the reply he got.

"I can't…"

Andy looked at her ex. "You can't or you won't?"

Sam threw his head back. "You don't understand, McNally."

"No. You can't look your best friend's fiancee in the eye. Because you know she'll give you shit about how you've been treating me," Andy retorted.

"Andy," Nick said, calmly. "Walk away."

She shook her head and looked Sam in the eye. "No. If you want to know how Traci is doing, ask her yourself. She's at the house. It doesn't take an act of God to just go over there. Or maybe it does," Andy replied and walked away.

Thoughts? I have some ideas that the Briarwood Gang (bullets from Andy and Nick's vests, came back to their guns) is connected with something in Sam's past...