I rewrote this a thousand and one times... so I hope this turned out okay.

There wasn't much words exchanged as Andy and Luke got ready for bed. It was just an unspoken agreement that she sleep in the bed with him. They took their respective turns in the bathroom and climbed into bed. Luke turned off the light and both of them were staring at the ceiling, even in the pitch black dark. Both of them didn't really know how to begin.

"We need to talk, Andy," Luke said, softly, reaching for her hand underneath the covers.

Andy resisted the urge to move her hand. He was just been her rock right now. Her comfort. "I know. Can we talk in the morning?"

Luke nodded and in the dark, pressed a kiss to her hair. They both turned over and fell asleep, as soon as their heads hit the pillow. For Andy, she had the best sleep she had in weeks. For Luke, it had been months since he had slept that solidly. Maybe it was due to the fact that he was working way too much and basically was running off of coffee and adrenaline the past few months, or it could be the fact that Andy was where she was supposed to be –in his bed.

When Luke woke up the next morning, he looked at the clock. It was still plenty early but Andy wasn't in the bed. He didn't really expect her to be, but he also really hoped that she hadn't run, like the first time they slept together. Andy McNally wasn't very good about opening up her vulnerable side.

He was very happy to see her in the kitchen, making pancakes and he could smell the coffee. "Are they chocolate chip?"

Andy looked insulted. "Of course!" She replied, with a smile on her face. "Coffee should be done, by now."

"Thanks. How are the ribs?"

She shrugged as she flipped a pancake. "As good as they can feel when you have a cracked rib."

"So what you're saying is that it hurts like a mother fucker?" Luke asked. He had been shot, he had broken ribs before. All of the above hurt. A lot. And in retrospect, he should have put his foot down harder and made McNally take more time off, but the doctors had cleared her and he wasn't her boyfriend.

Andy looked over at him. "Yeah. Basically," she put a pancake on his plate. "I know you don't like butter so I won't butter it for you. And the syrup is over there," she pointed to a place beside the fridge. Luke honestly didn't know he had the stuff to make pancakes in his house. Apparently he did. And apparently Andy found where said ingredients were.

"This talk isn't going to go away," Luke said, sipping his coffee.

She looked over at him. "I know. But can we wait till after shift? I need some time to think."

"Of course," Luke replied and leaned behind her to grab a glass for some orange juice. Andy just giggled and leaned into him and he played with her hair.

Andy was trying to get some much needed paperwork out of the way, before she started patrol with Collins. She had told Frank that her and Collins needed to do the paperwork of the shooting and he said no problem. She was a little surprised to see Gail come into the station, bandage still on her forehead. Nick automatically stood up but Gail put her hand up. "I'm actually here to see you," she looked at Andy. "Viewing room," she tossed over her shoulder.

Andy exchanged a confused glance with Collins before following in Gail's direction. She was really confused on what the heck Gail Peck wanted that couldn't wait. So she opened up the door and found Gail sitting. "Talk, McNally. Get it out. Scream. Cry. I don't care."

"Gail, what do you mean?"

Gail turned to face Andy. "I know you're not going to talk to Traci about this and well, I'm your only other girl friend. So get it out. You're screwing your ex!"

Andy ran her hand down her face. Of course Peck knew. But she knew Gail was right. She needed to get it out to someone other than Nick. There was only so much a guy could take of a girl venting to him and Andy knew that. "I'm not sleeping with Callaghan."

"But you are staying at his place?" Gail asked, concerned.

She really wasn't sure who this Gail Peck was in front of her. Andy expected Gail to be "frosty" and more Gailish after the abduction, but so far, Gail was being nice. "He told us we need to have the talk."

"The talk that said you jumped into bed with your former TO a month after Luke cheated on you. You both got suspended and then Luke leaves for his taskforce and you don't see him until the night Sam breaks up with you. And now you're staying at his place. And you work with each other right now. Did I get everything?" Gail asked.

Andy ran her hand over her face. "That sums it up basically."

"Callaghan still loves you." Gail looked to the side. "A couple drunken nights might have told me so."

"I know you two slept together," Andy replied. She couldn't be mad about it, actually she laughed at the idea of Gail and Luke together. It wasn't completely a foreign idea but she wouldn't have exactly predicted it either. Didn't surprise her, however.

"It was nothing more than sex. Meaningless sex."

"I know, Gail. I know."

Gail sighed. "What exactly did Swarek say to you?"

McNally looked to the room on the other side, empty. A room where Jerry should have been interviewing a suspect, or something. "Couldn't be a cop and be with me."

Gail looked to the ground and then looked to Andy. "Are you sure, this is what you want? Getting into bed with someone else? I know you're not fucking Callaghan. Right now."

"I don't know, Gail. I'm so confused. He cares for me, he tells me how he feels. He gives me those kisses on my head," Andy wiped her nose with her shirt sleeve. "I missed him."

Gail bit her lip. "And what are you going to do about that?"

"Tell him? I don't know. I think I should be single for awhile."

The blonde stepped closer and put her arm on Andy's. "I think you need someone to get you through this breakup. I could care less if it was Nick. If you want to use him to be your breakup buddy, go for it. But you, McNally, need to tell Callaghan how you feel."

"I don't know how to tell him that."

Gail laughed. "That's not my job. My job is for you to vent to me and for me to pretend I care. Now my job is done. So get your fucking ass into Luke's office and tell him before you lose your balls and don't do it!"

Andy opened the door. "Go!" Gail said.

"I'm going!" Andy exclaimed, shooting a look back at Gail.

Nick looked really confused when Gail walked back into the bullpen and Andy went left. "What was that all about?" Nick asked, after Gail kissed him on the lips.

"Don't worry about it," Gail replied. "See you at home?"

"Yeah, sure," Nick replied, hesitantly as Gail walked out the door, without another word. He knew Gail Peck and Andy McNally weren't the best of friends, more like frenemies on a daily basis, but something happened in there.

:::::

Andy opened the door to Luke's office and closed it behind her. She was very thankful that there was no one else in the office. She needed to get it over with. Just say it. "We're talking," she told him as soon as he put the phone down. He laughed and looked around the room.

"Now?"

Andy rolled her eyes. "Yes, now! Before I can't do it anymore. Look, both of us screwed up. Royally. I think we can both agree we were at fault."

Luke turned in his chair to face her and sighed. This is not where he wanted this conversation to happen. In his office and randomly spun on him. But that was Andy, and that was what he loved about her. And truthfully, he'd rather just get it out and over with and not have to think about the elephant in the room at dinner. "I think we can both agree on that. Look, I left when you got suspended. When I found out you were Candace and everything that happened, it hurt. It wasn't even a month after we broke up that you were in his bed."

"You cheated on me. With your ex," Andy pointed out.

He put up his hand. "I get that. And I am still sorry about it. It was, by far, the worst mistake I have ever made in my life. But I left after you got suspended because I couldn't stand to see you every day and know how much I fucked up."

"Where did you go?" It had been a question that had been on her mind since she saw him, for the first time, outside her apartment.

"Taskforce. Undercover. And then to 27," Luke replied.

Andy lifted an eyebrow. "You went undercover?"

"Swarek's not the only one around here, McNally. When Frank called me a week ago and told me Peck had been abducted from your apartment, hell yeah, I wanted to get involved. When I first saw you outside your apartment, I didn't know how to react. I didn't know how to talk to you."

Andy sighed. "You slept with Gail."

Luke rolled his eyes. "It was a couple nights of meaningless sex, McNally. Nothing more."

"She said the exact same thing."

"We never exactly thought anybody would find out. And when I first saw you outside your apartment… God, I had no idea what to do. My ex is on my doorstep, crying, three nights later. I wasn't about to call Epstein or Diaz. You needed someone."

Andy looked Luke in the eyes. "And I still need someone. My best friend's fiancée just got killed in the line of duty, my partner and my boyfriend decided to break up with me two days after the fact and yeah, I came to you because I needed someone. I can't go to Traci. I can't go to Gail. This is a little hard for me to admit, but I need you."

"And I'm here, Andy. I don't think I have ever been more scared when the times that I've gotten the call that you've been shot. More so the last one, because I got the call from the fucking hospital. I'm still going to be here."

"So what are we going to do?"

Luke shrugged. "I don't know. Keep doing what we're doing. Despite what I've said, I'm not really a defining guy. So if this is the way you want it, that's the way it can be."

Andy just looked at him. "I hate this no definitions thing, I honestly do. But I think it's a little too early to be putting any on our relationship."

"Andy, you know you don't have to sleep at my house," Luke finally got it out there.

She looked away. "I'm scared to go back."

"What do you mean?"

Andy looked at Luke and walked forward and grabbed another chair and pulled it closer to him. "I'm scared. Gail was abducted from my apartment. I haven't been back since they've cleaned it up. I had to get Nick to go in there and grab clothes for me."

Luke took her hand in his and began to rub her index finger with his thumb. "Why don't we stay at your place later this week? You need your own space too."

She looked down. "Yeah," she knew she would have memories of Sam when she walked in there, but hopefully with Luke by her side, some memories might fade. "It's just that I've been broken up for a week and now… now I am sleeping in someone else's bed."

"Okay, so it's maybe not the best logical thing to do, but it's what is happening. You can't change the past, Andy. It happened, so you need to move forward. We don't have to take things fast."

"This is really confusing," Andy finally, said chuckling.

Luke laughed a little as well. "It is. Life's messy. That's the way it is," he pulled her out of her chair and hugged her tightly. Well not too tightly, because of her ribs, and then he kissed her. It was just like their first kiss, underneath the magnolia tree. Just about perfect, other than the fact that they were in the office and somebody just opened the door up.

"Whoa," Nick said when he opened the door up. "I'm going to pretend I just didn't see that. Are you ready to go?"

Andy looked at Luke who just laughed. "Yeah, I am. I'll be right behind you."

Luke kissed her again, gently. "Go. I'll see you after work."

:::::

Nick and Andy were patrolling an area they didn't really patrol often. It was bordering the 27 division area and Andy really liked the area. Reminded her of where she grew up and brought back a lot of memories. Good ones, though. Ones of her playing in the park, with her mom pushing her on the swing. Another one of the t-ball league she was in and Tommy was he coach. She had ended up playing soccer all throughout high school and university, something Tommy had been really proud of.

"You okay?" Nick asked Andy after an hour of comfortable silence and singing to the radio.

Andy looked at him. "I'm fine. Why?"

"You and Callaghan?"

She groaned. "Can we not talk about this? I need some time to think and everything."

"Time and space, huh, McNally?"

"Shut up."

The voice on the radio came through. "1505 there is a call of a driver weaving in and out of traffic. Driver is heading west bound on King Street."

Andy groaned as Nick hit the sirens and lights. "Mark 1505 responding," Nick said back over the radio.

When Andy got out of the car, she wasn't expecting what she was going to get. Life was messy, Sam had said so. Neat was overrated. Her life, at this point was unraveling like a cheap sweatshirt. Her best friend's fiancé was killed in the line of duty, her boyfriend and partner had broken up with her in a parking lot, she had been shot. Life was going great. Just awesome.

What she didn't expect was who was behind the wheel of the car she had just pulled over. "License and… Oh my God," Andy looked over as the driver turned to face her. She almost wanted to faint. She gripped the side of the car to keep from falling over in shock. "What the fuck."

"Andy, it's not like that," Tommy McNally started to say.

Andy threw her head back. "I just pulled over my dad for suspected drunk driving," she said and walked away and got in the car. Tears were on the verge of spilling down her cheek as she climbed in the squad car.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked, already getting outside the vehicle.

"I can't," Andy said. "It's my dad." She got on the radio. She couldn't be here. She was so furious it was beyond words. Not to mention personal involvement. She racked her brain trying to remember what squad car Oliver had today. Epstein was riding alone and was 1509 but she didn't want to call him and have him deal with this. Diaz and Oliver were 1520. "Dispatch, this is McNally. Can you send 1520 to the scene?"

"10-4 1505. Sending 1520 to scene."

Nick got in the car and began to run the driver's license as protocol. He had no idea what to do. This was Andy's dad, for crying out loud. The woman had been taking body blows all week and now this? Having to deal with pulling her own father over for drunk driving? He would be hightailing it to somewhere different, if he had to go through the week that Andy had been put through.

Oliver and Diaz got to the scene pretty quickly and Collins filled the two other officers on what was happening. Oliver tapped on the window. "Get out. I'm going to drive you back to the station. You can't be here. At all. Get out."

Andy silently got out of the car and got in the passenger seat and put her seat belt on. Oliver started the car and looked at her as he began to pull away from the scene. "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

"McNally, you just pulled your dad over for drunk driving," Oliver gave her his TO stare. "Don't begin to tell me you're fine."

She swallowed. "18 months."

"18 months, what?"

"18 months sober. And then he does this. For Christ's sakes, what is going to come next? Jerry dies, Sam is someone I don't know, Traci is inconsolable, Gail is being nice, Nick is having to take care of her and me. God, Oliver, what else? What else is going to be thrown at me?"

Oliver sighed. "I don't know, McNally. But for your sake and mine, I really wish this was over. I really do."

"What's going to happen to my dad?" Andy asked, even though she knew the answer. She just needed to ask it. She didn't want to think.

Her former TO shrugged. "Process, booked. Depends how much he blows over. Might get a misdemeanor, lose his license for a while. Since it's his first time, I don't imagine jail time will be a part of it."

"I don't get it. Sober for 18 months and then this. He's a retired cop, he should know what happens when you drink and drive."

"Maybe something happened," Oliver began to say.

"I'm all he has!" Andy exclaimed. "I don't know what could have happened for him to fall off the wagon this bad."

Oliver sighed. "Here's what. I'll talk to him once Collins and Diaz bring him back to the station. Maybe get Sammy to talk to him."

"No. Don't get Sam involved," Andy said. "Get Luke to talk to him. Or you. I don't fucking care anymore. I'm done caring about anybody. I'm done."

I know Andy and Gail aren't portrayed to be great friends in the show, but I think they are, so that's why I had Gail talk to her (and show that Gail Peck does have a nice side to her)

Like I said earlier, this was really hard for me to write so give me your thoughts!