A/N: Just and FYI...I don't really know anything about medical stuff, I usually steal my medic-speak from old ER scripts! and so I tend not to go into too much detail when it comes to injuries. I hope this wont detract from this chapter.

Andy raced into the ER and straight up to the check in desk. The room was loud and full with people. There was a baby crying in the corner, its aggravated mother trying her best to sooth it in this alien environment. One man lay across two seats with a large wound on his cheek, he was being seen to by two orderlies.

"I'm Officer McNally, I'm looking for my partner Officer Swarek, he was brought in by ambulance a little while ago, with a wound on his right forearm."

"He's in surgery; you'll have to take a seat an wait."

"Can you tell me what's happened? How he is? Anything?!" Andy was insistent but the desk nurse wasn't interested.

"I'm sorry but we can only hand this information out to family. Are you family?"

"…no, I'm his partner!" Andy felt her anger bubbling up. She was in partial uniform and has Sam's blood smeared on her hands and she was sure her face too.

"I understand your distress ma'am, but patient confidentiality-"

"I just watched a man fall 8 storeys to his death, my partner… Officer Swarek, got his arm cut in the process of trying to save him, I tore my shirt off to wrap around his wound, I carried him to the EMT and watched as they took him in…now can you please! Tell me how he is doing."

The nurse looked her up and down. Noted the blood on her tee, up her arms and on her hairline.

"I'm sorry…I can't. The Division Staff Sgt can call us, we can give him info if there is no family-"

"There is family. He has a sister, Sarah, she lives in St Catherine's… should I be calling her!?" Andy pleaded.

The nurses resolve melted. She reached for the file from a pile to her left. "Okay hang on…He came in with a deep laceration on his arm, he lost a lot of blood, and had to be brought in for surgery. That's all I know."

"Will he be ok?"

"I'm sorry honey, I don't know. You will need to talk to the doctor."

"When will he be out?"

"I don't know. But let me try to find someone for you who does," she said as she took the phone and dialled up to the OR.

"Thank you!"

Andy walked away from the desk. She reached up to cover her face with her hands but then noticed the blood stains on her fingers. A cold taste of bile curled up her throat and she bent over, braced her hands on her knees and tried to force it back down.

"Officer?" the desk nurse called her back. "An OR nurse will be down to speak with you shortly."

"Thank you… oh one more thing… bathroom?"

The nurse pointed down the hallway and Andy rushed towards it. She pushed into a stall and slammed the door closed behind her but with her head over the bowl nothing came out. She dry heaved a few times but nothing. When she was sure she was ok she went out to the sinks. She washed her hands and arms vigorously then looked into the mirror to examine her face. She was pale but apart from a small line of blood at the top of her forehead by her hairline there was nothing else wrong.

Andy pooled cold water in her hands and splashed it into her face and rubbed her head to get rid of the blood. She dried herself off then went back to the corridor where a nurse was approaching.

"Officer McNally?"

"Yes."

"I'm Louise Parker, I was with Officer Swarek in the ER."

"How is he?"

"He is fine!"

The OR nurse continued to speak but Andy heard nothing. Her first three words swam around and around in her head.

"He will be in surgery for just a few hours, there was some extensive damage done to his artery and that's why he lost his blood so quickly. Also the surgeon will need to check his nerves to make sure they are all intact."

"Will his hand be ok?"

"It's hard to tell. The surgeon will be able to answer that better for you when he's out."

"So he could end up with reduced mobility?"

"It is a possibility. But Dr Bartlett is the best." The nurse put and hand on Andy's shoulder. "He will be out then into ICU for an hour or so. I'll get Dr Bartlett to talk to you as soon as he can."

"Thank you."

The nurse turned and walked away and Andy slumped against the wall.

"Andy?" She turned to see Traci walking in and felt herself crumble against her. "Oh Andy!" Traci hugged her friend tight as she feared the worst.

"No, no Traci, he's going to be ok." She said as she disentangled herself from her friend's arms. "I just spoke to a nurse. They have him in surgery but…"

"But what? He's going to be ok but what?"

"The damage to his artery and possibly some nerves…he might not regain full use."

"Oh god…" Traci gathered her into a hug again.

Within a couple of hours Andy and Traci were joined by Shaw and Best. Dov and Chris had brought coffees from the canteen when the surgeon came into the family waiting room they were using.

"Eh…Officer McNally?" he said into the crowd of police officers in the room.

"Yeah that's me," Andy said as she stepped forward and tried to read the surgeons face. Best stood with her, a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm Dr Joseph Bartlett, I was in surgery with your partner Sam Swarek. We've repaired his artery and he received over 6 pints of blood. He is still unconscious but this is to be expected."

"Any nerve damage?" Best asked the question that Andy couldn't.

"We won't be able to tell that until he wakes up and we can perform some conclusive tests. All initial tests show good signs of reflex motor skills so I am very hopeful."

The room seemed to sigh with relief. Oliver and Traci hugged and Best squeezed Andy's shoulder.

"When can we see him?"

"No visitors yet, he won't be out of ICU for at least an hour, maybe two. When he is transferred to a ward then one person can go in. no more, and not for long."

"Thank you."

"I'll send the nurse back when he is ready." The surgeon smiled and left the room and Andy turned into Bests open arms for a hug. When the door opened again they all turned to see Gerry walking in. The expression on his face changed rapidly from fear and worry to smiling relief.

"I don't need to be a detective to know this room just gone some good news."

"Looks like he's going to be ok, they are hopeful for good reflex recovery too," Best said as he reached out and shook Gerry's hand.

"Brilliant!"

"The weapon was a metal plated fountain pen." Gerry said as he slipped his hands into his pockets.

"A pen? A pen did that?" Andy said as the image of the ugly gash on his arm came to her mind.

"A commemorative metal plated fountain pen. It wasn't a functional pen, it was given to him by his company, probably on his last day."

"Jesus…"

"There was nothing you guys could have done up there Andy." Gerry touched her arm. "He had taken an overdose of meds earlier and would have been dead soon anyway."

"He was so lucid…" she thought, but then she wasn't sure. "So it was all for nothing?"

"It's never for nothing Andy, you always have to try."

She nodded her head. Traci came over to Andy and put her arm on her shoulder. "Andy, you should go home, and change."

"No, no I'm fine."

"Andy you won be able to go in to see him for a few hours, so go home, and change. I'll wait here and call you if anything happens. Which of course it won't."

Andy went to argue then realised how good a shower and a change of clothes would feel. "Ok. But you promise to call me the minute you hear anything?"

"Of course."

"Andy I'll relay with you back to the station," Best said. "I need to get back. Great news guys."

Andy was back in the in the station showered and changed in record time. She signed out at the desk and hurried out onto the street to get a cab back to the hospital. When she got to the family room she found Traci sitting alone reading a magazine.

"Hey," she said.

"Andy, that was fast!" Traci said looking at her watch and noticing she had only been gone for 80 minutes.

"Where is everyone?"

"Gerry is pacing somewhere with his phone attached to his ear. Dov and Chris went back to the station, I'm surprised you didn't run into them."

"I didn't really hang around. Best gave me the rest of the day off, and tomorrow I have to go for a "chat" with a counsellor to make sure I'm not traumatized." She said complete with air quotes and eye roll as she dropped her bag and fell into the seat next to her friend. "Did you hear anything else?"

"Nothing yet."

Just as she spoke the door opened and Gerry walked in with a brown paper bag. "I brought some food. You ladies hungry?"

"Starved!" Traci admitted as she stretched her hands out and wiggled her fingers for the brown bag.

Andy smiled but shook her head when Traci pulled a sandwich out of the bag. "No thanks, I'm not hungry."

"Andy, you have to eat."

"Ladies I'm afraid I have to go. Got a call about a body found in Dundas tube station. Traci are you staying or…?" Gerry let his question hang. Traci looked at her friend.

"Go Trace, go. I'm totally fine. I'm going to go in and see Sam then I'm going home straight after."

"Are you sure?"

Andy knew how much her friend wanted to become a detective. The nights she gave up with her son to go to classes and didn't want to be the reason she gave up the chance of working a scene. "Yes, I'm sure. Thanks so much for everything."

Traci smiled and hugged her friend then hurried out the door with Gerry. Andy let her head roll back against the wall and flexed her neck. She wasn't sure if she had fallen asleep but all of a sudden a tall orderly was looming over her, his hand on her shoulder as he shook her gently.

"Ma'am."

"Oh… yeah." Andy stood up. "I'm Officer McNally."

"I was told to tell you that Officer Swarek has woken and that you were to come see him."

"He's awake?" Andy grabbed her bag and followed the orderly out of the room. He brought her through a large set of locked double doors that he opened with an ID badge, then along a long corridor to a small semi private room. There was a window on the far wall that let in a lot of natural light. One of the beds in the room was empty and Sam was lying in the other one. She went to his bedside, he had his head turned away and is eyes were closed. His right arm was in a thick bandage and was suspended in an overhead sling.

He had an IV in with several bags of meds on the IV stand that were feeding into his left arm. Andy dropped her bag and instinctively reached out to touch his free arm.

"You're hands are cold McNally," he said without opening his eyes or turning to face her.

She smiled and squeezed his arm. He turned to face her and slowly opened his eyes. His eyes were sunken, with dark circles under them and his face was paler than she had ever seen.

"Do I really look that bad?" he said when he saw the shock on her face.

"No, no you look… you look good."

"I told you before McNally, you're not my type."

He lifted his arm to try to reach for a glass of water that was on his table but the effort was too much. She took the glass and lifted it to his lips. He craned his neck and she slid a hand behind his head to help him and he took a drink.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like a ten tonne truck ran over my body."

"You lost a lot of blood. You're lucky to be alive?"

"You saved me?" his lips curved into a crooked smile "My hero."

Andy blushed but her response was cut off by the door opening and the surgeon walking in.

"Officer Swarek. Any pain?"

"No."

"Well that's not surprising; there is enough pain meds in your system to knock out a horse."

The surgeon detached the sling form the overhead hook and carefully lowered Sam's arm to lie flat by his side. He opened the bandage that was along his arm and exposed the jagged lines of stitches. Andy tried to look away but she found her eyes drawn to it. Without realising it she was squeezing his left shoulder, her fingers digging in tight. Sam looked up to her and saw she was fixated on what the doctor was doing, with a grimace on her face.

"I see you have some reflex response in all your fingers. We won't be able to tell for sure until the swelling goes down and of course the meds wear off but I'm very hopeful for a full recovery."

"Thanks," was all Sam could manage. His eyes were drooping and the surgeon closed the bandages up again with stretch clips then hung the sling back up.

"I'll come back this evening and see if there is any improvement." Sam nodded his energy levels clearly had been sapped by this little encounter. The doctor left.

"That's great news!" Andy said and she rubbed his shoulder.

"Mmmm hmmm," was all he could manage. His eyes drooped over again and this time stayed closed. Andy reached out, brushed his hair back from his face where it had become matted to his head then grabbed her bag and left.