A/N: Sorry this isn't such a long chapter. Again I've stayed up till after 1am to finish and feel like if I continue it will be at the cost of the quality. So also sorry that this kind of ends abruptly...
Sam sat on his couch with a glass of whiskey in one hand and his phone in the other. He hadn't stayed with Fiona last night, begging off with complaint of a thumping headache he left her at her apartment and walked the 23 blocks back to his own. He didn't mind the walk, and in fact craved it to clear his head but it was early morning before he got him. He immediately went to the cabinet and poured himself a stiff drink and had been sitting on his couch since. He watched the sun rise through the slotted blinds that cast linear shadows that across the room as the hours passed.
He was so deep in thought that when his phone rang in the utter silence of his apartment he barely reacted. Eventually he pulled it up to his head to answer.
"Hello."
"Sam? You home brother?" It was Oliver.
"Yeah. Sitting on the couch."
"Well answer the god damned door!" The door buzzed.
"Is that you?"
"Yeah! I've been ringing for ages!"
Sam hung up then pushed himself off the couch to go answer the door. Before he pulled it open he looked around the room to make sure it was presentable. Some clothes were strewn on the arm chair, his coat was on the floor by the couch where he dropped it. The coffee table was covered in cups and glasses and a half empty bottle of whiskey sat between them. He thought about stalling Oliver while he cleaned up a minute but instead he shrugged and pulled the door open.
"What's goin on man!" Oliver pushed in and closed the door behind him. "It's freezing out there."
"Sorry, I was asleep," Sam lies easily.
"Jeez…I know you didn't have a party," Oliver said as he walked in, sat onto the couch and spied the mess around him. "Because you would have invited me, so is this all you?"
"Yeah I guess." Sam fell onto the arm chair, not bothering to move the clothes that were beneath him.
"Wanna talk about it?"
"Nope." He lifted the whiskey to his lips and took a long drink.
"Okay, so wanna tell me about what happened last night?"
"Huh?" this caught Sam's attention and he turned to look at his friend. "What do you mean?"
"At the club?"
"What do you know?"
"God Sam, are you afraid to give up some new information I might not already know?" Oliver was joking but when he looked at Sam who was watching him through squinted eyes, the smile died on his lips.
"So what do you know?" Sam countered not giving an inch.
"I know that Nash came into work this morning saying how Andy was hassled in a bar, how she was roughed up, covered in bruises and you were there…"
"What? You don't think I-"
"No. Of course not. But what happened?"
"I didn't know it was her." He spoke softly. "I was coming back from the bar, I saw some lady getting harassed, I went over to help, and it was Andy. That's it. I dunno why she didn't just fight them off. She is more than capable."
"Jesus Sam. You are thick. With what she is going through?"
"From last night?" Sam was well and truly confused. Oliver wasn't making sense. He was sure it wasn't the first time Andy was hassled in a bar by two guys who thought they could get away with it.
"No you numb nuts! The investigation? Code of conduct?"
"What?" This caught his attention. Sam sat forward, put his glass on the table and his elbows on his knees.
"Didn't she tell you? Traci was sure she would have told you…"
"Told me what for god's sake!" Sam shouted, unable to keep a lid on it anymore.
"She is under investigation for using excessive force during arrest."
"Excessive force? That's bullshit, she would never-"
"Of course it's bullshit! But the investigation has to carry through to completion. She has been suspended until it's over."
"Oh god!" Sam covered his face with is hands as the realisation sank in. He knew the impact this would have had on her. Her job was everything she had. She kept so many things at bay, tried her hardest to be the one and only thing she could rely on and focused on her job and now that was gone too. He felt his heart sinking further into the pit of his stomach where it churned and made him feel ill.
"You didn't know?"
"No, no of course I didn't know."
"Oh…sorry brother."
"That's ok, thanks for telling me" Sam stood up and started to pace the room. "It explains why she let those guys hassle her."
"She wouldn't want to fuel the fire. But the roughed her up. Nash wanted to take her to the ER but she wouldn't go."
"Is she ok?" His fists were clenched by his side.
"I think so. I think it's just bruising. Nash wouldn't have left her if it were anything more."
"Yeah, I guess."
"So you saw her last night?"
"Yeah, briefly."
"And she saw you?"
"Yeah…why?"
"With Fiona?" Sam didn't answer, he just looked away. "What are you doing Sam?" Oliver stood up and got in the way of his Sam's pacing. Sam tried to walk around him, but Oliver pressed his hand to his chest to stop him. "No…stop it. Talk to me Brother."
"Oliver, I don't. Want. To talk."
"You need to talk! Don't think I haven't noticed, or Jerry. We're worried about you."
"I'm fine."
"No! You're not!" Oliver was shouting and Sam was taken aback by it. It wasn't often he saw Oliver so mad and it usually involved his kids. "You're not fine. You're a mess! You have been since that trouble on the roof."
"Trouble on the roof?" Sam scoffed. His left hand was scratching the scars on his right arm without volition. Oliver reached down and grabbed his arm.
"This. This is not right. What happened to you was not right and you don't just roll over and get up from that, you don't just carry on as if it's all part of carrying the badge. It's not Sam! It's not!"
Sam tugged his arm back out of Oliver's reach and held it behind his back.
"Don't give me this lecture right now." Sam's voice as low with barely contained rage.
"I should have given it to you weeks ago. I would have given it to you in the ambulance on the way to the hospital if I was there. So now…now you get to hear that I think you are being an ass. A selfish conceited ass."
Sam looked up confused.
"Andy is hurting. I know you are too. Stop licking your wounds and go to her."
"Go to her?" Sam laughed. "Oliver…I did go to her. I went to her after I got recertified and she rejected me."
"Oh…that night? That night when you were so desperate for something to hold on to you almost went home with me?" Oliver looked at him with disbelief on his face. "You're an idiot."
"I know." Sam dry washed his face with his hands and ran them through his hair.
"Go get washed up, and go talk to her." Oliver slapped his friend on the shoulder then walked to the door. He stood in the doorway for a moment, looked back at his friend and sighed before her left.
Andy didn't sleep.
When dawn broke she climbed out of bed. She busied herself by cleaning up her apartment and when it was spotless she took a shower. She leaned over and rubbed her wet hair with a towel. She draped the towel over her head then twisted it around her hair to tie it up.
It had taken a while last night to convince Traci and Gail that she was fine and didn't need a visit to the ER and even longer still to tell them that she didn't need company for the night. And even as the relief washed over her when they left, it was quickly followed by sadness. She had washed the makeup off her face, changed into her PJs and gone straight to bed. Her upper arms were tender from where the men had grabbed her and there were some bruises starting to show on her neck where one of them had grabbed her.
Now in the kitchen dressed in PJ bottoms and a black tank top, she made some cereal but didn't have the stomach to eat it. Instead it turned soggy as she moved it round with her spoon. Everything felt like it was moving in slow motion, even the heart beat she could hear in her head was slow and steady. She replayed the night's events in her head over and over but focused only on one part. His smile, followed by his kiss.
She had said something to him to make him smile. Then he kissed her. That moment, not even a moment, those ten seconds were playing in a loop in her mind and she was powerless to stop it. Her doorbell shot through the silence like a bullet and made her jump. She left her untouched cereal and went to answer it, her foggy brain moving her through the motions. She opened the door to Sam who was leaning on the door frame.
"Hey…" he said when she didn't greet him with anything other than shock.
"Hey." Still she was frozen to the spot.
"Are you going to invite me in?"
"Oh…ok… yeah, sure." She pulled the door open and stepped back. Sam walked past her, careful not to touch her and went through to her living room. He heard the door close but she didn't follow. He gave her a minute and waited for her in silence. When she came through he noticed she was a little more composed.
"How are you feeling?" he asked his eyes travelling over her neck, clocking the bruising there, then down over her arms to see the rest. He shoved his hands into his pockets to stop himself from reaching out and grabbing her.
"I'm ok." She walked over to the radiator where she had a sweater warming and slipped it on to hide the marks.
"Are you?"
"What are you doing here Sam?" she sat onto the couch and pulled her knees up to her chest. She tugged her sleeves over her hands, wrapped them around her legs and rested her chin on her knees.
"I came to see you. After last night…I was worried."
"Worried." Andy's lips were tight. "Well I'm fine so you can go."
"God, Andy can you just please stop!" he came over to her and sat on the edge of the table in front of her. He reached out and put his hands on her arms. "Stop pretending you are fine, stop pretending you don't need anyone."
"Ha! You're a fine one to talk."
There was a moment of silence. Sam's heart was beating in his chest faster than he thought was safe. She could feel heat radiating from the places where his hands were resting on her arms. He slowly moved his hands up her arms to her shoulders. Pushed her legs down and knelt on the floor before her. He spread her legs, got closer to her, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.
At first she was stiff and unresponsive against him, but when one hand reached up her neck and onto her scalp, the other slowly moved down to the small of her back and held her tight against his chest, she relented and sank into his hug.
They stayed like that for a long time. He was expecting her to cry but she didn't. Slowly he leaned back, brought his hands up to hold her face, held her way from him so he could look at her. Her eyes were wide and full of worry and she was looking at him expectantly.
He didn't mean to kiss her. He had already been burned by her rejection. He didn't think he could stand to feel that again but something inside him was drawn to her, drawn to her lips. It was a soft, chaste kiss and he tried his best not to deepen it. At the very least, he rationalised he could pass it off as a comforting kiss if she questioned him.
Then she opened her mouth, licked his lips, and slid her tongue past them to caress the inside of his mouth. Sam lost all his restraint in an instant and kissed her back. Her hands moved up his arms to his shoulders to meet at the back of his neck and pull him closer, if that was even possible.
She moved her hands again, this time to his waist and started to pull his tee shirt out of his jeans. She got it high enough to slide her hands onto his skin and he gasped at the sensation. But before she could pull it off him altogether his mobile phone rang in his pocket.
The shrill noise seemed to break their connection and Sam pulled back. He looked at her, her lips red and glistening, and her eyes wide and waiting. Sam fished his phone out of his pocket and looked down at the ID. It was Fiona. Something in him popped and he sunk down onto his haunches.