ROOKIE BLUE
A DAY AT THE BEACH
Set after "The Big Nickel". Thanks guys for the reviews and alerts and favoriting and everything. Hope you like this part.
-o-
PART 2
Sam Swarek opened his front door and grinned. "McNally, you got to get your act together. It's not even been two hours since I left you and you're on my doorstep already."
"I'm not in the mood Swarek," she pushed him aside and dashed to the living room.
"You cannot just keep on showing up like this. People will talk." He took a step outside and gave a quick peek in the street. "You alone?"
She spun around. "Don't start," she said a bit too loud, "and no, Luke didn't tag along."
"Okay, okay," he smiled, closing the front door, "I can live with that. But I got to tell you, your car isn't ready yet, if that's what you're after. You should have called me and saved you the trip." He stared at her blankly. "On the other hand, if you plan to be at my place on a regular basis, we might even consider carpooling. What do you say, bad idea?"
"Shut up Sam, it's not…" she winced, shook her head and took a deep breath, "what did you say?"
"What do you mean? Is there trouble in paradise again?" he teased her.
"Don't… don't you play games with me Sam. Did you tell Luke anything?"
He sighed and hung his head. "You know what?" He held her gaze and put a flat hand on his chest, "I'm offended. Why would I even talk to Callaghan? It's quite a reach, even for you."
"Even for me?" She took a step closer and poked at his chest, "what is it even supposed to mean? Not everything is about Luke! You know what, forget it, I give up."
"It's a shame, in any other circumstances, I would have appreciated the irony, but you lost me."
"Swarek. Stop being so dense."
"Oh, oh, that hurts!"
"You know exactly why I came here for."
"Do I? You know what, this conversation is exhausting as it is. I'm going to need something a bit stronger than beer. Can I get you anything?"
"Yes the truth would be great, for starters. What is it that you're trying to accomplish?"
"Please, sit down McNally, take a deep breath. I'm actually curious to see how you're going to pull this one off."
"You're really something Sam! I mean, I thought that we were on the same page and I had a great time last weekend. But it's not working, I can't… I can't do this, it's…" she stuttered and dropped on a stool at the kitchen counter.
"You know what? You're right, this is not working for me either."
"I…"
"Shut up," he ordered her before putting her back on her feet abruptly and tugging her along to the front door.
"Hey, what are you doing? You can't… you can't just throw me out!" she yelped, dragging her feet on the floor. That didn't slow him down.
"Watch me." He opened the door, pushed her outside and slammed the door. She tripped on the sidewalk. Before she had time to understand what was going on, Sam opened the door.
"Hey, McNally! How ya doing? You looking great tonight. Come on in. Can I get you an umbrella, a brandy, a golden fish?"
She beamed. "Okay, I see your point. I'm sorry I'm behaving like a lunatic."
"You're welcome. Now that we got this out of the way, care to tell me what's going on?"
She looked down and shuffled her foot on the floor.
"Okay. This is a major breakthrough."
She looked up, puzzled.
"You of all people can't talk? It must be big," he lifted one eyebrow at her.
"Right. Well you know, I couldn't exactly broadcast this on the 6 o'clock news. When Luke bailed out on me after my shift…"
Sam concealed a smirk. Yes, everything was definitely working according to the plan.
"… I went to the Penny. I was kind of hoping you'd be there."
"Are you trying to hurt my feelings here McNally?"
"Sorry," she said again, "it didn't come out right."
"I guess you wanted to talk?"
"Yep. I did."
"Okay. Make yourself comfortable, I'll fix us a drink, I have the feeling we're going to need it."
"Make it a double," she sighed.
"Oh, that bad?"
She laid sprawled on the couch and held on fiercely to a pillow. "That bad."
"What don't you start from the top then."
She watched him dig a bottle out of the closet, pour some scotch, and throw a handful of ice cubes in their drinks. He handed her her glass and settled down at the end of the couch placing her feet on his lap. "Hit me, Andy, I'm all ears."
"Who knows?"
"Who knows?" Now was his turn to look puzzled.
"I have that feeling that everyone knows what's happened the night of the blackout about you know, the thing?"
"Oh, the thing again… Andy, I thought that we already established that you and I were friends, it's getting old. I was under the impression that we agreed on letting the past be the past."
"We did, but that doesn't mean that we have to sweep the whole thing under the rug," she protested. "I can spot people's stares, and I'm not being paranoid here."
"Hey, if we're going to rehash it every other day, I have every right to protest."
"Indulge me," she said. "Please?" She took a sip of her drink and choked.
How could he resist that? "Well my guess is…" He shook his head. "You could have kept Callaghan out of the loop."
She let go of the pillow and shrugged. "It's not like I had a choice."
"Did he grill you about me?"
She shook her head. "Huh… It's not like that. It's complicated."
"Try me."
She glanced over the rim of her glass. "Traci was at my place and we had too much to drink already. And then it sort of popped up. The thing."
"Okay, girls night, you're wasted and you told her you jumped me."
"Yep."
"And… ?"
"And she told me not to say a word to Luke because I already went to his place in Simcoe and everything. To keep it quiet."
"Yeah, the fishing cabin…" he trailed.
"You know Sam you're unfair. I didn't want to go to Simcoe." She looked down. "I was planning to tell him just that. But you gave me the cold shoulder that morning when I came back for my first shift after the… the other thing." The ice cubes dangled in her glass and she took a large gulp. "Anyway. He told me that you said that I was all his as far as you were concerned."
"Right." Shit, he never should have tossed her coffee.
"And after that, you made a show at beating the crap out of him and I was so mad at you."
"Okay, okay, I get it. I screwed up big time. But you know Andy, I never made a mystery of the fact that I was attracted to you."
"I know. That's not the point. Traci told me to put you on ice."
"Excuse me?"
"Yes, you know, you write down the name of the guy, you soak the note inside a jar and put it in the freezer."
"Is it high school again?"
"And Luke found you."
"In the freezer…" He chuckled. "I see." His thumb was tracing a complicated pattern on her foot. "So apart from Callaghan, you and me, that would be it."
"And Traci," she reminded him.
"Of course, Traci. What about the other rookies? I'm not too comfortable with…"
"It's only Traci."
"Okay. So you think that Jerry knows?"
"No, no, she wouldn't tell him anything. No even before."
"Before? I'm really not getting all my memos."
"They had a bad day when we were in Sudbury. Jerry sort of lost his case notes and he took it out on her. My understanding is that he's not the nice guy she thought he was but just another prick in the pack."
"You know that Jerry's my friend right? I've known him since the Academy."
"Doesn't change a thing. He's still stuck in a bad divorce and Traci's more concerned about Leo than about her relationship with someone who's looking to replace his wife because she can look after his shit and do his laundry."
"Ouch. Okay. Do you want me to talk to him?"
"No, no. I'm just saying. She's pretty heart broken."
"I'm sorry," he stroked her ankle absently.
A comfortable silence settled in and they lost track of time, engulfed in their thoughts.
"I think that McLoughlin knows," she finally said.
"McLoughlin? You been working with him? When?"
"The day Best was giving you a hard time about the roster."
"Yeah, yeah, right. I thought you were with Andrews."
"Nope, that was last Wednesday. Same thing though."
"How would they know?"
"Well, like you said, retraining day."
He glared and cocked his head. "Did he act funny, did he say anything?"
"No, it was more like the silent treatment. Not the she's-got-something-in-her-teeth treatment, more like the she's-doing-Callaghan-and-Swarek-I-should-give-it-a-try treatment. It was different with McLoughlin. He was more judgmental. He didn't say anything but he gave me a hard time, yelling and lecturing."
"Yeah, contempt. He does that a lot."
"And I'm pretty sure that Shaw suspects something."
"Yeah, yeah, he does. He's been toying with the subject a bunch of times, about the rules and why I shouldn't, you know…"
"Like sleep with your rookie?"
"Well, we didn't sleep together," he stated with a straight face.
She looked down. "Nope, but that's a technicality," she took another gulp of her drink. Worst mistake of my life, she thought to herself.
"I'm a guy. I can assure you that it's not!"
"Whatever."
"Noelle knows," he said.
"You told her?" She furrowed her brows, and looked worried. Traci was very fond of Noelle but she never had the opportunity to work with her and she found her intimidating.
"No. But when we were assigned to that prisoner transport, I…" he cleared his throat, "I asked her if she would cover for me. She blew me off, -told me to work it out."
She giggled. "Traci told me I should ask Best to re-assign me that I couldn't go on holi-date with you after… the thing."
"Holi-date. That's cute. Andy, I'm glad we did. This friend thing is really growing on me. Want a refill?"
She nodded. "So what do you think? Is it bad?"
"Well, it's happened before at the 15," he commented on his way to the kitchen. "They sorted it out. He transferred. But it's not like we're doing anything wrong," he said from the kitchen. "Being friends is not against the rules. Here you go." He handed her the glass and resumed his previous position at the end of the couch, and put her feet back on his lap and, "Piece of advice though. The more obvious you'll be with Callaghan, the better."
She chewed on her lip. "That's the problem. We're never together, he's always working on a case."
"Hey what can I say, you should have picked me!"
She kicked him. "Hey, not funny."
"So we're good?"
"Yeah, we're good," she toasted in his direction.
He patted her feet. "Are you a fan of the Blue Jays?" he asked. "I never had a chance to watch the end of the game since last Sunday and I was about to…."
"… when I barged in. Right. My bad. Sure you don't want me to go?"
"I think I can live with it."
She giggled and hugged the pillow. He turned the TV on with a happy grin. It was only when the game was over that he found out that had fallen asleep on his couch. So much for been discreet, he thought. He decided against waking her up, threw a cover on her legs and killed the lights.