Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Rookie Blue. This is for entertainment only (and something I would love to see happen).
Notes: This is my first Rookie Blue fic and it was set after 'In Plain View'.
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Tuesday 6am
Andy pushed her hand out from under the duvet and felt around on the nightstand until she found her phone and turned off the alarm. 'Sam', the thought of his name coached her eyes into opening. At some point he'd wrapped the duvet around her like a cocoon, apart from that there was no evidence that he'd ever been in the room.
Maybe she'd just dreamed that he'd been in the room, maybe he hadn't been found. Andy lifted her head and the second phone wasn't next to her normal one, she turned her head to check the other side of the bed and nothing. He had been here and he'd taken back the one link she had to him.
Keeping the duvet wrapped around her Andy padded her way out to the kitchen and sitting in front of the coffee maker was a folder piece of paper. She smiled as she picked it up and unfolded it.
Morning. Sorry I had to leave without saying goodbye.
I've got your phone so you can stop looking it. See you soon.
SS
Andy still had the note in her hand when the sharp trill of the house phone caused her to jump and drop the note. Andy just stared at the handset, the caller ID screen held a simple message. 'Sarah.' As it chimed for the third time the answering machine kicked in bringing an end to the debate Andy was having in her head as to wether she should answer it or not.
'Sam here, leave a message … Hi … I haven't heard from anyone in a few weeks guess I was just hoping.'
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8:20am
"Do you understand?"
"I said yes." Andy pulled herself up straighter and never took her focus off Boyd.
"This wasn't my call."
"So you've said."
"I don't think this is helping." Jerry said as he pushed himself forward in his chair.
"Everything and I mean everything this girls touches turns sour."
"Y'know if you ask me it's everything you touch." Andy said with a bitter smile on her face.
"And that mouth doesn't help." Boyd said before he pushed the office door open and let it slam behind.
"McNally." Jerry dropped a stack of files in front of her. "You've got to read yourself in and you haven't got a lot of time to do it. Once you're finished we need to review this and make sure you have everything down." Jerry reached into the pile of files and pulled out the first of the two blue ones. "This is your cover, you have to know this. It is this that'll make or break you. The one under it is Sam's" Jerry tapped it. "I know that Sam plays this like it's nothing, like the rules don't count but they do and he knows it. You don't get to be as good as he is with this stuff without doing the prep work."
"Ok." Andy decided that was a good place to start. "Ally?"
"Ask Sam."
"Sir." Andy spoke just as he reached the door to the office. "You do a lot of work coordinating with Guns and Gangs?"
"Yeah I guess."
"Do you trust Boyd?"
"Boyd's easy. He wants to be the best … you've just got to remember, he wants that at any cost … and he likes to have someone to hang it on if it doesn't work out."
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11:45pm
Sam turned the corner that lead to his apartment and stopped as he focused on something or rather someone slumped against his door. Automaticity he reached under his jacket, his hand coming to rest on the grip of his gun before he took his next step. It was with that step that the smile spread across his face, he was able to take in the long brown hair that had fallen to hide her face. He let his hand fall from the gun grip and measured his steps as he approached not wanting to startle her.
"Hey," He crouched down in front of her, "Not really the neighbourhood to be on your own." Sam smiled when he realised her hand was buried in the bag that was resting between her legs. He guessed it held her gun.
"Hey."
"Here." He held out his hand and pulled them both to their feet. "I didn't think I would be seeing you until tomorrow." Sam said as he pushed the key into the lock, stepping back to let Andy enter first as he held the door.
"Better than the last one."
It was hard to tell from her tone or her comment what she really thought of the apartment and Sam wondered for a moment why he cared. This wasn't really his. Still standing in the doorway he reached over and flicked the switch under the one that turned the main lights on. "That one operates the cameras and the wire, if you are ever the last one to leave or answer the door make sure it's on, if you want to do anything … private make sure you turn it off." He firmed his voice to make his point. "If you don't Boyd will have it on tape. That goes for your place as well."
"My apartment has cameras in it?" Andy's voice was sharp.
While Andy may have sounded surprised Sam wasn't that Boyd had left that part out, it didn't concern him too much that Boyd didn't really follow the rules. To a point. The problem with him was that he was a man's man, he thought that female officers were only good for getting coffee. Because of this no decent, self-respecting female would have anything to do with him, and that was evident by the ones that were in his unit. "Boyd didn't tell you?"
"No … I knew motel rooms were bugged for buys but you don't have to live there."
"They need to know if someone has been in when you're not and they need to know if you're in trouble." It hit Sam for the first time that he had really pulled her into this world. "It is always the second switch at the entrance. Leave them on as much as you can. It is the only protection you have."
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"So someone is watching me?" Andy wasn't sure why she never thought about it. Of cause the apartments were bugged, they'd have to be.
"Yeah, but that's why we can turn them off. Do you want something to drink?" He asked her as he opened the fridge and held up a beer, with her nod he pulled a second one from the door and pointed them to the couch.
Andy started to look around, at first she was trying to spot the cameras. The apartment was a little bigger and not a dirty looking as his last cover apartment, for starters this one had an actual bedroom. Well she guessed that the closed door on the opposite side of the room lead to the bedroom and bathroom because the only things she could see was the small kitchen and the living room that held the couch they were sitting on and a TV.
"I'm sorry I dragged you into this." He said as he handed her the cold bottle. "This isn't like anything you've done before. You never signed up for it and now you've got live and breath it, maybe for months."
Andy wasn't sure how to respond, it was easy to see that Sam was blaming himself for her being here. She wanted to tell him that the chance to be someone else, to get away from her current life was almost a dream come true. Add to that she had missed Sam, really missed him. More than she'd guessed was possible or proper for someone who was just her partner. It was that part that stopped her from saying anything. She decided to change the subject to the one thing that would take his mind off this operation if only for a little while.
"Do you get to contact Sarah?"
"No." He fell onto the couch next to her. "Someone will call your Dad every week and update them. It's not really an update but they let them know you're fine."
"Who's meant to call Sarah?" Andy waited and watched as Sam flicked his head toward her, he raised his eyebrows and shook his head slightly as a question. "She called your house this morning and left a message."
"What was the message? Did she say something was wrong?"
"Just that she hadn't heard from anyone in a few weeks. She didn't sound worried … if it wasn't for the caller ID I wouldn't have even known who it was."
"Boyd." Was Sam's only response.
With that he pushed himself off the couch, grabbed his coat and was at the front door before Andy had realised what was happening. "Sam … What are you doing? Where are you going?"
"To find a payphone."
"You can't go out in the middle of the night to find a payphone." Andy didn't think he would listen to her but he seemed to pause with his hand resting on the door. "If someone follows you or sees you." She knew she had him when his hand holding his jacket relaxed.
"You can't do that. Not even when we're alone." Sam said as he turned back to face her, his face as serious as his tone.
"Do what?"
"Call me Sam." His tone resigned.
"I know. I went over all this with Jerry today." She was tired and she'd only been under an hour and she'd forgotten the one thing Jerry had repeated. The only thing he made her repeat. 'Don't use his name, not even tonight.'
"I can't be Sam, even when we're alone. You call me that just once at the wrong time and we're dead."
"I know." Andy was a little shorter than she meant to be. She wanted right now to go to sleep, she'd only come to see him to tell him about Sarah. Boyd had been clear not to come tonight that he wanted to see Sam first. Andy was now thinking that had something to do with the cameras that were waiting for her.
"It's important."
"I know." She managed a little softer this time. "Why Ally?" Andy watched as he collected the now empty bottles from the coffee table in front of her. "Jerry said to ask you."
"McNally." Andy heard the bottles clink as they were dropped into something. "When Johnny wanted to know who you were I needed a story, so you're employment was created and should something like this ever happen I wanted you to have a name that you're more likely to respond to."
"So Ally instead of McNally." Andy guessed as she leaned over and pulled the cushion under her head.
"It was the best I could do."
"And the last name?"
"That was all Boyd."
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Sam used the break in conversion to pack away the few things that were in the kitchen and grabbed her coat that she'd placed on the chair as she'd entered. "Come on Ally and I'll walk you home." The one thing that Boyd had done right was put her in an apartment on Leopold Street. It was one way and that meant it would be easier to track cars that were in the street, and more importantly it was only a block from him and if needed he could cut through the back.
"Ally." Sam repeated and thought so far the name idea wasn't working so well. As he leaned over the couch he smiled as he saw her, eyes closed, breathing soft and even. He'd seen how tied she looked when he'd found at his door, he just didn't think she was this tied. "Hey." Sam gently shock her shoulder but Andy didn't move.
He sat and watched her for a moment, longer than he knew he should have. He also knew she couldn't spend the night folded in half on the couch. Leaning forward he slipped one arm under her back and the other under her leg and lifted her in one movement. He felt her stiffen as her head came to rest on his shoulder. "Shhh, it's okay I've got you." The smile returned to his face as he felt her relax.
He'd taken her shoes off first, and than the shirt she'd had on over her singlet. Sam tucked the blankets firmly around her, folded her shirt and left it on the nightstand with the note and her shoes next to the door. He looked back at the apartment, the closed bedroom door and hit the switch to turn the cameras back on before he flipped the lock and pulled he door closed.
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6:10am
Sam smiled to himself as the kitchen light flicked on. She still didn't sleep in, even as a child. He pulled his cell from his pocket and left it on the seat as he left the car and jogged to the front door, tapping lightly not wanting to wake the rest of the house.
"Samuel! What are you doing here?" Sarah wrapped her arms around him. "Donavan hadn't called for a few weeks and." Suddenly she pulled back from him. "Should you even be here?"
"Probably not." Sam returned with a smile. "Are you going to cook me breakfast or did I just drive an hour and half for no reason?" He asked as he followed her into the house.
Sarah handed him two empty mugs. "Here, make yourself useful."
With a half smile he pulled the milk from the fridge and started the coffee maker. 'A place for everything and everything in its place.' Something they could both thank their stepmother for.
"So … do I want to ask what you are doing here or should I just be happy to see you?"
"Be happy, you called looking for me and here I am." Sam placed the now steaming mug down next to her and settled himself at the table. It felt a little like home, like they were kids again as he watched her cook.
"I did call and normally you call back. You don't show up at my house at six in the morning." Sarah paused with the plate of eggs just in front of him. "If you heard my message does that mean you're out? You're back in uniform?"
"No, a friend heard your message."
"A friend that was at your house and passed on a message but not Donavan?"
For all of Boyd's faults he'd always been very good with Sarah, always kept in contact with her when he was under. From what Sam could tell he had always made her feel like he was safe and fine, he had guessed that when he went missing that Boyd didn't want to call her until he had something firm to tell her one way or the other.
"A female friend maybe?" Sarah pushed.
"Eat your breakfast."
"It is a women."
Sam knew that tone, knew that she kept the smile in her voice so as to not push him. Why she did it he was never sure, he couldn't remember a time he had ever gotten mad at her. She'd seen him mad but never at her. "Just a friend that needed somewhere to stay."
"And this friend … does she have a name?"
"Andy." Sam had come here because he wanted to talk and the one person he could talk to was Sarah. But instead he was pushing scrambled eggs around his plate and making this as hard for her as he could.
"Your rookie Andy?"
He smiled to himself at the term 'your'. "She's not my rookie anymore."
"What is she?"
"She's just a friend."
"Just?"
"I don't know." This is why he was here, Sarah would push him until she go the answer she was looking for. The only things that had ever been a constant in both their lives were each other. It seemed to Sam that since Sarah and Gary had married their roles had reserved, it was something he enjoyed.
"Does she know?" Sarah took a sip from her coffee mug.
"Has … had a boyfriend."
"So she does or doesn't have a boyfriend?"
"She did, now she doesn't."
"So what's the problem … you've managed to get her in your house."
'And managed to get her straight out of it." He said to himself. "She needs time and space."
"Are you sure about that? If you actually asked Andy what would she want?" Sarah didn't give him a chance to answer for question. "Sam you've spent your whole life looking out for everyone else, trying to make other people happy … you might try it for yourself once in a while."
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'Sam. Nate's apartment' she quickly corrected herself. Rolling over Andy found her phone on the nightstand along side it was her shirt and another note neatly folder in half. Grabbing the note Andy pulled herself back down into the blankets and unfolded the it.
Morning Ally. Fresh milk in the fridge, clean towels in the bathroom (main switch is on). I'll drop by tonight
The whole thing was just unusual for her but this note meant that she didn't have anything to do until tonight. She didn't have to report to anyone, no one would be looking for her. For the first time in as long as she could remember she was free to do whatever she wanted. Best case they wouldn't need her until tomorrow for anything anyway.
'No responsibility.' It is after all what she wanted. She wanted to live someone else's life and now she was getting to do just that. Apart from the name and her now unfortunate profession she was really free to make her past life whatever she wanted. Only take with her the baggage she wanted not the stuff she wanted to forget.
In this life for a moment she thought she could act on the things she wanted. The things that she'd always been scared would hurt too much in the real world. These now felt like something she wanted to run toward instead of away from in this one.
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Thursday 5pm
The skirt she had on was too short and too tight. The black leggings under it were sheer with a fishbone pattern, the whole outfit showed more than he wanted anyone to ever see of her. The problem was it fit her cover well and he wasn't sure how he was meant to focus on the task at hand. Driving them to the pick up point in Kingston was proving hard enough.
"Are you ready?" He asked taking his mind off Andy and putting it on Ally and the operation instead.
"I think so."
A standard response, she always started out confident and the closer they got to whatever it was they needed to it seemed to seep away just a little. Just enough that she'd let the uncertainness of whatever she was facing chip away at her shell. "Do you want to go over any part of this?"
"No. I've got it."
"Good." Sam turned his wrist on wheel enough to check his watch. "Talk me thought the plan."
"The plan … Ok … I'm just there to manage the girls."
"No."
"Cargo, I manage the cargo."
"Remember these guys are paranoid that they're being recorded. They operate in code and you need to as well."
"My only interest is getting the cargo delivered." Andy continued with a nod. "Once we have the cargo in the van we meet Boyd and the balance of the cover team at Belleville. They take the cargo for processing and we go back to Toronto."
"What's your relationship to me?"
"I work for you."
"And how did that happed."
"I saw a better life." Andy turned to him with an almost scary smile. "Why get screwed when you can be the one to do it."
"You stick with me and -"
"Follow your lead and no matter what I see or how I feel this is business, this is what we do." She finished as he pulled he car to a stop.
Sam reached over and grabbed her arm as she pressed down to release her belt, drawing her focus onto him. "This is it, the cover team left us once we turned off the main road and won't pick us up again until we're on our way back. If something goes wrong they're a nine-minute drive away, only we're not wired so they won't know and by the time they decide to come in it'll be too late." Sam was worried, he was always worried the first time out. The only in to the operation they had was the informant, Ryan, who was driving the van that was following them and Sam didn't trust him.
"Think of this as a test run, we get in, get the cargo and get back safe. Once they trust us we come in wired and seal it. This is all about trust, we need them to trust Nate and Ally." Sam released her arm and pulled himself into the role he was about to play. "Ok?"
"Ok."
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The next thing Andy heard was Sam's loud confident voice greeting Johnny. She watched as they shook hands and patted each other on the back. She recognised Johnny Hail instantly from the photo in the file, for Chase she didn't need a photo. Sam had warned her about Chase and the edge in his voice had made her a little nervous about this man.
He was big, taller than Sam and easily as well built. His eyes were so pale they seemed to hold almost no colour at all, there was nothing there, as if he didn't have a soul. Andy thought he was the type of man that knew people where scared of him and she was sure he liked it that way.
As she watched the three of them interact she started to think that was what Sam had wanted. He wanted her on guard around this man.
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Thank you for reading and thanks to everyone who has sent feedback.
I really want to put Sam in reading glasses, I love Ben in them but ...