Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Rookie Blue. This is for entertainment only.
Notes: This is my first Rookie Blue fic and it was set after 'In Plain View'.
Also I do try to change my spelling from the Australian 's' to the US 'z' in words like realize however I do miss some. I am also sure they are not the only ones I miss (centre/center comes to mind). And because I am Australian I am really sorry to any Canadian that read this. I may have them driving in the wrong directions or in a completely wrong part of the city.
Ally the hooker
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"It's not Sam." It was something that Andy had been repeating in her head over and over. Once she felt she could trust her voice Andy repeated it to Oliver as they sat in the cruiser at the front of Sam's house.
"McNally." Oliver's tone was low and quiet.
Andy pushed the door open. "I know it's not Sam." With that Andy jogged toward the house, her hands shaking as she tried to pick the right key from the small bunch on the keychain.
Oliver's instructions when they left the barn had been clear, get the phone and get back to the car. She followed them to the point that she was now in Sam's bedroom, she'd left it within easy reach on nightstand. Grabbing it she stepped into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. It took her a moment to work out what she was going to do. Andy typed in nothing more than a question mark.
Now she waited, knowing that she didn't have long. Maybe a minute before Oliver was in the house at the door. Andy slipped down the wall onto the tiled floor when no response was received. This time Andy dialled the number and waited. She knew that if he had been able he would have texted back, she knew the call was pointless but still she waited for the phone to ring to a dead-end.
The tears finally broke and started to tumble down her checks as she punched the call button for the second and then a third time, each time the call ending with the phone timing out. She wanted to scream and throw the phone. She wanted to cry out and hit something, someone but most all she just wanted Sam to answer the phone. 'Its not Sam.' She repeated to herself in a firm voice.
"McNally."
The genital tap on the door accompanied by her name caused her to shoot straight up. "Yeah." She managed weakly.
"We need to get back."
"Yeah." She replied again as she grabbed a handful of toilet paper and used it to wipe her face before soaking it in cold water. Andy took a few deep breaths pressing the damp tissue to her eyes hoping it would take a little of the redness out of them. "Coming"
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Oliver didn't bother with the detective offices and instead opted for Best's. As it turned out he found both Jerry and Noelle in there. With a shake of his head he placed the phone in the centre of the desk. "Where's Boyd?"
"With Callaghan." Noelle answered. "Did she try?"
"One text and three calls in the log. Doesn't look like he answered any of them." Oliver dropped into the chair opposite Frank. "What now?"
"We wait for the DNA but best case that'll still take three to four days to process." Frank explained as they all focused on the phone.
"McNally doesn't think its Sam." Oliver said out of nowhere.
"She's not the only one." Jerry spoke for the first time and the room seemed to stop with his words.
"What do we do with that?" Noelle broke the silent as she pointed at the phone.
"Give it back to McNally." Jerry said simply.
"What?" Oliver seemed surprised by the response.
"Right now it's just a burner phone, these numbers don't mean anything to anyone. We don't know who sent those text messages. You came back from the John sweep with McNally, did you see her with that phone?" Jerry raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"She had somethin-"
"Jerry's right." Frank cut Oliver off. "If we log this it'll sit in an evidence locker. Give it back to McNally and someone might call it."
"Or someone might try and trace it." Noelle said as a warning.
"That's why we have someone watching her." Frank stood up and pointed at Jerry. "Set it up, this'll be off the clock and it may be the only opportunity we get to get these guys."
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Jerry had the phone in his hand as left the office followed closely behind by Oliver. "This is not like Sammy." Jerry held up the phone. "The 8-months he was under last time I never heard from him once. He knows how dangerous this is."
"I don't think it was the phone or the John sweep." Oliver stepped closer to Jerry. "That morning I met with him, we met at High Park." Oliver ran his hands through what was left of his hair. "Someone must have seen us and thought he was talking to the cops."
"Jesus." Jerry didn't know what to say. At first he'd been convinced that what was left of the body didn't look enough like Sam but the more he learnt the more it was stacking up to be him. "Why did Boyd sign off on any of this?"
"Because you know that Sammy would have walked straight out of cover if it meant he was going to get what he wanted. And Sammy wanted to see her."
"Well at least he'd still be here." Jerry said under his breath as reached Andy sitting at a desk with Traci. His face pulled into a grim smile at Traci as he placed his hand on Andy's arm and lead her to the observation room. "Did Swarek give you this phone?" Jerry paused for a second and held up the phone to stop her as she went to speak. "Because if I know that phone is linked to an active undercover officer I would have to hand it in to his operating officer … so I want you to think before you answer."
"No." Andy's voice was shaky as she answered him and reached out take the phone.
Jerry held the phone stopping her from completing taking it. "Whatever advice you were given by the person who did give it to you please follow it."
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Andy wasn't being fair to Traci, as soon as they arrived at Sam's she had disappeared straight into his bedroom. Fishing the phone from her pocket she text him again before trying to call. More than anything she wanted him to answer, to hear him grunt a hello or some other unrecognisable word.
Had he been watching her? Was he really just in the street on Friday night? God she wished he was right outside now, wished she'd known he was outside on Friday. Wished he'd come and she wish she hadn't been hiding all this time.
She pressed the call button four more times before she dropped helplessly onto the bed. The soft pillow made it easy to bury her head, hide from the world and what was happening around her. Hide her tears, hide from the sick feeling of guilt.
Traci had come with her under the agreement that she wouldn't stay here tonight, or ever again Andy had guessed. Tonight she was to return to Traci's foldout couch. To her lonely isolated world where the only person to look after her was herself.
The truth was that she had put this off as long as she could and once again she was in the bathroom, this time with a washcloth pressed to her face. Her bag was still sitting on the floor of his room just outside the bathroom door. Something she was sure, judging by the rest of the house he would have packed up and put away by now. 'It would have been a waste of time.' With that thought she picked it up and dropped it on the bed and started to stuff her favourite shirts into it. They would return in a few days for the rest of her things.
Just as she went to leave the room the chest of drawers she had resisted the first night was right in front of her. She rested her hand on it for a moment, 'screw it.' The first drawer brought a sad smile to her face, it was neat, socks on one side boxers on the other. The next held his shirts. Andy fingered the buttons on the dark blue one that rested on top, within seconds she held to her face breathing in the faint smell of him.
She missed him, really missed him. It wasn't just work that was different with him gone to Guns and Gangs. Andy had built Luke into something he wasn't, and it wasn't even that he cheated on her. It was the cheating that had made it easy for her to walk away, once the shock of finding out had faded she looked on it with relief. It also woke her up to just how bad her judgment had been on who was the good guy in her life. Who had been around to support her, protect her and give her strength.
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Traci felt uncomfortable in Swarek's house, she'd lost track of how long she'd been waiting for Andy to return. This was meant to be simple, they come here and Andy picks up as much as she needs to get through the next few days. Traci knew it was never going to be that simple, somehow Andy had held it together for most of the day but she didn't know how long that was going to last.
The noise of the bedroom door opening caused Traci to slip off the barstool. "You ready?"
"I'm staying here." Was Andy's meek reply.
Traci opened her mouth to speck before she stopped to take Andy in, she'd been crying but her face was firm. It didn't look to Traci as if she was going to be able to talk her out of staying where she was. The other thing that stood out to her was the shirt that Andy was now wearing. It was Swarek's. One of the dark long sleeved ones he was always in.
"I never told him." Andy blurted out almost from nowhere as she wrapped her arms around herself. "He was always there, I guess I thought he would be when I … I knew that he would wait." Andy quickly wipes her eyes with the shirtsleeve that was pulled over to cover her hand. "Whenever I was in trouble my first thought was Sam. I didn't go to Luke, I went to Sam, I needed Sam and he knew it … I feel it now Traci. I really feel it now."
Traci stepped closer to Andy and pulled her into a hug. "No. Sam knew what he was getting himself into. You can't take this on yourself." Traci released her so she could look directly into her eyes. "He was doing his job, he knew the risk and he knew the risk he was taking when he contacted you."
"But if I'd been honest he wouldn't have gone back under. I pushed Luke into something that neither of us wanted and that pushed Sam away."
"You don't know that."
"I do and so does everyone else." This time Andy's voice was sharp as she turned away from Traci.
"Andy please come back with me? I don't think you should be alone right now."
"I am alone."
"You're not. I'll stay with you." Traci couldn't think of anything worse than spending the night here. It felt creepy to her. "Leo's with Dex and Jerry's out with Boyd." It was only a small lie she thought.
"Honestly Traci I just want to be alone right now."
Traci watched as Andy walked to the front door and guessed that she wasn't going to give in. Only last night they had been in this very room laughing like they didn't have a care in the world. "Call if you need anything." Traci hugged her again and waited until she heard the lock click before she jogged across the road and jumped into the passenger's seat of Jerry's car. "She wants stay here."
"Well." Jerry started as he pulled the thermos of coffee from the back seat and two travel mugs. "Best and Noelle are going to take over at one."
"Do you really think anyone will come after her?"
"I think Sam will."
"You're as bad as she is. I overheard Luke say-"
"I know what he said but Luke doesn't know Sammy."
This time instead of a mug Jerry handed her a file. "What's this?"
"The morgue entry log."
Traci started to flip trough the photocopies of the MEs site notes and even in black and white the photos were gruesome. All that aside it was easy to see why someone would think this was Sam. "What am I looking for? The description matches Swarek and Luke said it looked like him."
"No tattoo."
"What?"
"Sam has a tattoo on his left shoulder, something to do with his father." Jerry reached over and opened up the report to the last page. "See nothing listed in Scars/Markings."
"Yeah but there's a reason these aren't used in court, they miss things at the scene all the time."
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He'd driven passed the first time and seen Jerry in the car with someone he couldn't make out. That had made his next move a little easier and it would also confirm if he was being followed. One of the most valuable things he's learnt was to always act as if you were exactly where you were meant to be.
Stepping out of the car and into the chill of the night air Sam pulled his dark hoddie over his head and slipped in behind the line of trees. By the time he made it back to his street Jerry was turning the corner and heading west. He lived in the other direction, that could only mean he was heading back to the barn at one in the morning.
He'd known something was wrong. By the time they had returned back to Toronto and he's car, the phone that was resting in his glove compartment had seven text message, all question marks. A screen list full of missed calls all from Andy's phone. The first thing he wanted to do was call and fine out what happened. But he'd been caught off guard and shouldn't have even had the phone with him when he went to his meeting on Friday. Unable to explain why he had a second phone he'd had to leave it in the car. A car that had been out of his sight for almost three days, anyone could have seen it and checked it. As he was about to press the call button a thought gripped his stomach. 'What if it wasn't Andy?"
After seeing Jerry watching his house the feeling that something was really wrong had taken hold of him. He pressed himself further into the shadows, head down and when he ducked into the ally that would lead to the back of his house he saw that Jerry had been replaced with Frank and Noelle.
He silently slipped the key he kept in his neighbour's electrical junction box into the back door. The house was black and the lock slipping back into place sounded loud enough to him that Noelle probably heard it. He made his way around to the kitchen with his back pressed to the wall. Sam wasn't sure what had happened in the few days he'd been out of town to have his staff sergeant watching his house. But none of the thoughts were comforting.
It took Sam a minute to recognise the noise that had him frozen in the hall that lead to his room as sobs. "Andy." Sam moved from the hall and pushed his door open in one move to find her curled in the centre of his bed. "Andy." He pushed the door closed before turning the lamp on.
"Sam?"
"Hey." He whispered softly and without thinking he slipped onto the bed and pulled her onto his lap. "Andy." Sam pushed her hair away from her face and pulled her tighter into him. Her face was wet, her eyes swollen and red and her hands had griped his shirt so tight he was sure her knuckles had turned white. "What's happened?"
"You're really here?"
"Yeah." Sam pulled back a little confused.
"They found a body and Boyd and Luke thought it was you." Her breath catching as she spoke.
The calls and messages all made sense now. "Come tomorrow morning Boyd will wish it was." Sam said as he pulled her back into him. He rested his cheek on the top of her head and began to stroke her hair as he rocked them a little. "Hey." Sam kept his voice low and soft as he turned his head and gently pressed a kiss on her forehead. "I'm fine." Sam scanned his room to see her bag packed on the floor as if she was ready to leave and next to it a crumpled shirt on the floor.
"Boyd knows about the phone and he thinks I got you killed."
"Don't worry about Boyd, he just gets a little nervous when things don't go as planned." Sam continued to smooth out her hair as he spoke. "I'm fine and I guess Boyd has your phone."
"No Jerry gave it back to me."
That explained everyone watching Andy he thought. "You're freezing." He said as his hand brushed over her ear. Reaching over her he grabbed the edge of the duvet and wrapped it around her. "Better?" He asked as he used his lips to check her temperature. First her ear, the next her cheek until he brushed her nose with his.
"I really thought I'd lost you."
"I'm not easy to get rid of." He pulled the duvet tighter around her as he imaged what she must have been going through. He wondered how much blame Boyd had placed on her for something he did. The stress of the day must have caught up with Andy as her breathing evened out and she completely relaxed against him.
He sat with her in his lap, her head pressed into his chest until almost two. It was late but he wanted to stay. He could have spent the rest of his life right where he was. Only he couldn't. He needed to tell Boyd that he'd been seen with Andy and the story he'd told to explain being with her had come back and he now needed Andy under. From tomorrow he needed to be focused on keeping her safe and he couldn't do that while he was thinking about her like this.
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"Hey." Sam said with a cheeky smile as he slipped into the backseat of Frank's car.
"Shit Swarek." Frank's voice was low as he flicked his eyes across to a sleeping Noelle. "Half the cops in Toronto are looking for you right now."
"Yeah, heard I was dead." Sam flashed his usual smile.
"Have you checked in with Boyd?" Frank's tone was short and mixed with a little relief.
"On my way to meet him now … you might want to come?" Sam watched as Frank closed his eyes for a moment. "The all night dinner on Bay Street; you know it?"
"Yeah."
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Tuesday 2:45am – Bay Street
Boyd sat next to Best in a back booth so they were both facing the front door. "You've seen him."
"Yeah, about half an hour ago."
"Well where is he?" Boyd asked tapping the table as a coffee was placed in front of him. The waitress was big enough to temporarily block his view of anything else but her dirty white apron.
"You want anything to eat?" She asked, as it would have been an inconvenience if they said yes.
"We're good." Sam said as he dropped into the booth opposite them from behind the waitress. He held up his hand to block her giving him coffee and placed two phones on the table. "Mine and hers."
"Right." Was Boyd's replied as he waited for the waitress to leave them alone. "Where the hell have you been?"
"They changed the meeting."
"And you didn't think to call in? … Too busy with your rookie?"
"No. On the way to the club they asked me to pick up Chase."
"Chase?" Frank asked.
"Johnny's nephew, he's dumb and he normally takes care of the girls." Sam paused for a moment. "When I got to him he said that plans had changed and we were going to warehouse. Once we were there we changed cars and ended up in Kingston." Sam rested back on the support padding of the booth satisfied with himself.
"What's in Kingston?" Boyd felt the frustration slipping away as he listened to Sam.
"It's where they bring the girls in."
"So when do we need to be ready to move?" Boyd asked.
"Thursday. I need a buyer for the girls and that should wrap this end of the operation up …"
"And?" The plan had always been to 'buy' the girls and have CBSA process them. However this had happened very quickly. He liked to use Sam because he had away of making people like him. It never ceased to amaze him just how quickly he could get someone to trust him. Boyd could feel the 'but' coming and the smile on Sam's face only confirmed that feeling.
"I need McNally."
"What?" It was Frank who pulled himself forward concerned.
"Johnny saw me pick her up on Wednesday and I explained her away as someone I use to keep the girls calm. With a girl around it makes everything easier … I didn't think we'd be moving this quickly."
"So you just need a female. Guns and Gangs must have someone you can use." Frank said to Boyd.
"He's seen Andy." Sam confirmed.
"I have Janette, she knows what she is doing and looks enough like McNally." Boyd didn't want that girl anywhere near his operation. Things had a way of going south when she was around.
"It needs to be Andy and I need to get back to my apartment before someone notices I haven't gone home." Sam stood. "Oh and her name is Ally."
"Ally the hooker, how ironic" Boyd said to Frank once Sam had pushed the back door to the dinner open.
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Again thank you for reading and to everyone who has commented, thank you for taking the time (it make me write more).
I also have something in mind for Sam's tattoo but I would really like to know the reason behind it.