A/N: I appreciate ALL the reviews I have been getting on this story ... it'll actually turn out to be a bit longer because of all of the nice reviews you have all left in the box at the bottom of the page for me - so please keep that up ;)

This chapter is quite angsty, but I think you'll see what's hiding behind Andy's motivation to not tell everyone about the pregnancy yet, and why she's been acting like she has been in the previous chapters.

Without further ado ... here's the fourth installment of "Positively Positive" :)

[chapter four]

Andy still can't believe what has just happened.

It still seems like a bad dream that she really just wants to wake up from, but the thing of the matter is that it isn't a bad dream.

It's real.

This morning had started out so wonderfully; she had woken up all but glued to Sam's front with his arms embracing her from behind. They had spent last night talking about their baby and the plans that they had – including Andy moving into Sam's house as soon as she could get the condo sold.

They had driven in to work together, walked the halls of Division 15; hand-in-hand before Sam had delivered her to the women's locker room. He had kissed her softly on the lips, telling Andy that he would see her in parade.

And see her, he had.

"Good morning all!" Frank had greeted everyone in parade letting his gaze travel across all the faces staring back at him.

Andy had spotted Sam the minute she'd entered the room, sitting on a table in the back of the room next to Oliver – per usual. She was sitting next to Nick, who had been chatting her ear off about his recent date after finally having accepted that things between him and Gail were over – for now.

"We have a guest this morning, who some of you may remember from a year ago; Jacob Blackstone." Just the sound of his name made Andy flash back to the crappy undercover apartment she had shared with Nick over a year ago when they'd been on the taskforce.

Looking behind her shoulder, she'd caught sight of Sam and the ticking of his jaw telling her that he wasn't happy about this 'guest' of Frank's.

"Hey," Nick nudged at her shoulder to gain her attention. "You okay, McNally?" he asked.

Their relationship had changed a lot in the years they had known each other. The year before had been filled with misunderstandings of devotion mixed up with a lot of hurt, but now a year later Andy counted Nick as one of her best friends.

It hadn't been easy in the beginning when she and Sam had reunited due to the fact that he had never really taken a liking to Nick – or as he had dubbed him 'GI Joe'. But as Andy had told him – before Marlo had left town – then she'd been forced to watch him working with his ex, and her and Nick had never really crossed that line – they'd merely lingered at it.

She and Sam had had plenty of discussions and fights about the role Nick played in her life, but after a lot of talking, they had finally compromised on the matter.

He still didn't love the sight of her talking to Nick, but Andy hadn't exactly been delighted either when she'd watched Sam huddled together with Marlo when looking over a case.

"Yeah..," she breathed looking into Nick's eyes. "I'm fine."

As it turns out Jacob Blackstone is back in Toronto because he is leading up an undercover assignment; one that he is certain is all but tailored for Andy.

The problem?

Andy's pregnant.

Sam is screwed!

Absolutely screwed!

He can't let this go on for much longer, he's promised to let Andy do her job; yes, but he'd also said that he'd protect Andy and their baby – at any means necessary.

And this is exactly that.

"You okay there, brother?" Shaw whispers at him when Frank is going through the motions of the day, while Sam's dark gaze is honing in on Blackstone.

"Just perfect!" he whispers at his friend furiously without casting a glance Oliver's way.

Not only is Andy sitting next to freaking Collins, but now here is that ass to Blackstone all ready to whisk her away on yet another undercover assignment?

Hell no!

"McNally?" Frank is looking Andy's way now with a clear message in his tone of voice.

"Yes, Sir?" there's a small hitch in her voice, that only someone, who cares about would pick up on. Luckily, Sam is that someone.

"Meet me and Blackstone up in my office in five minutes." It isn't a question, it's a statement of fact and Sam knows that if he doesn't interfere, then she'll go up there and listen to an assignment she's probably dying to take, but can't.

Andy doesn't object, she just nods her head solemnly, and that's when the promise that Sam had made her the other day gets broken.

"She can't go."

"Swarek?" Frank arches an inquisitive brow in confusion at what has just come out of Sam's mouth.

Andy is now turned around in her chair, shaking her head at him – silently pleading with him to not do what he's about to do.

But right now, he doesn't really care about airing their personal life in front of all of their colleagues or about Andy's reasoning behind keeping her pregnancy a secret.

He's protecting what's his,and he won't apologize for that.

Chewing on his bottom lip, Sam offers up as neutral an explanation as he can. "McNally can't go on an undercover assignment right now, Boss."

"And why is that?" Blackstone almost scoffs at him folding his arms across his chest in defiance.

The air between the two men is still ice-cold from when Collins and Andy had had to be rescued by 15 Division due to their handler's mistakes.

"She's pregnant!"

There; it's out now.

Andy feels dizzy.

Dizzy and exposed.

No; dizzy, exposed and pissed off.

Yes, that's it.

And it has absolutely nothing to do with the side effects of her being pregnant. No, it has to do with Sam having just told the entire room that she's pregnant.

She can hear the lowered voices and whispering going on around her, and she feels humiliated. Andy didn't want to announce her pregnancy like this.

Andy had wanted it to be the two of them telling their friends about their happy news, and instead Sam had taken it upon himself to leave their private life bare. She had wanted it to be handled with care, and not for it to be blurted out because Sam's in one of his cave-man moods and wants to one-up Blackstone.

Staring ahead, she meets the look in Frank's eyes and recognizes it as being happiness.

Happiness for her and Sam, and the baby that she's carrying.

So, why is it that all she really wants to do is to find a remote corner in the Division, bundle up and have a good cry?

"Congratulations," Nick bumps his shoulder against hers jolting her out of her dire thoughts at a time when she's supposed to be filled with happy thoughts.

"Thanks," Andy smiles half-heartedly at him realizing that her smile in no way reaches her eyes, and thereby isn't a real smile.

"This certainly changes things." Jacob announces with a sigh before walking out of the parade room. On his way he passes Sam, who can't stop grinning at him.

When Blackstone has turned the corner, Sam's eyes find Andy's, but his smile doesn't stay on his lips because her eyes are dark.

Dark and stormy.

Congratulations are passed on by all of their friends and colleagues.

By now, Sam has been clapped on the back, and Andy kissed on the cheek and hugged so many times by now that they're both sore and not in the mood for any more human contact.

"You sure kept this close to the vest, brother," Oliver tells him cheerily.

"Yeah..," he sighs looking across the room to where Andy is having a private conversation with Best. "Andy wanted it that way."

"Okay..," Shaw drawls the word out making it perfectly clear that he doesn't get it, and would like to know the reasons behind it.

"I need to..," he nods his head in the direction of Andy indicating to Oliver that he can high-tail it out of the parade room at any time now.

Scoffing, he claps Sam on the back before turning towards the doorway. "Message received."

Seeing that Andy has wrapped up her conversation with Frank, Sam begins to make his way towards her. But before he gets anywhere near her, he's halted by a hand grasping his elbow.

"Maybe you should give her some time..?" Traci tries to amicably warn him off crowding Andy too soon after the revelation.

"What..?" he breathes with a pair of raised brows in confusion over her words.

"Sam..," she sighs looking back to where Andy's standing before continuing. "She's beyond pissed at you; I may actually have to hold her back from thumbing you one if you go near her right now."

Smirking at his partner with his dimples on full display, he makes it clear that he can handle anything that McNally dishes out to him.

"Sam..," Traci tries to object when he walks past her to get to where Andy's standing.

Nash' warning turns out to be a well-meant caution because she is pissed.

"Hey..," he grins down at Andy with his signature smirk on his lips trying to soothe what can only be considered being a dark storm brewing in her eyes.

"Stay away from me," she hisses at him with clenched teeth.

"What?" he gasps confused grasping Andy's hand in his when she tries to walk away from him.

Taking a deep breath, she looks up at him with so much hurt in her eyes that it all but takes Sam's breath away.

"You went behind my back, and you told everyone that I'm pregnant," she whispers furiously at him mindful of the people that are still loitering around in the parade room.

"Andy, come on," he tries to placate her, but she isn't having any of it.

"Do you know that I'm on desk duty now, Sam?" she hisses at him. "I'm barely through my first trimester, and I'm already parked behind a desk."

"I'm sure it won't..," he starts to say, but clamps his mouth shut when Andy narrows her eyes at him with thinned out lips to boot.

"If you even think about saying 'It won't be that bad'," she mocks him snottily. "Don't even waste your breath," Andy tells him yanking her hand out of Sam's.

"Andy, come on..," he sighs turning on his heel to follow her out of the room placing an apologetic hand on her shoulder from behind.

"Don't touch me!" Andy yells at him turning around quickly on her feet to glare at him.

All eyes are on Sam when the woman carrying his baby storms out of the parade room as if the hounds of hell are chasing after her.

Rubbing at his tired face, Sam realizes that protecting his family won't be as easy as he had first assumed it would be.

By the end of the day, Sam figures that enough is enough and they need to talk it all out before they go home.

The one promise that they still keep to each other is never to go to bed angry, and if they can deal with this thing before they go home, then all the better is pretty much Sam's thinking right now.

Traci fired a text at him a couple of minutes ago, telling him that Andy's alone in the locker room, and judging by the emoticons in the text, he should probably wear headgear for protection.

He'd screwed up earlier.

Royally.

It isn't that he'd wanted to take the thunder away from her; Sam just can't stand when another man stakes a claim on her, and in his mind that had been exactly what Blackstone had been trying to do in the parade room earlier today.

When he enters the women's locker room, he understands why it's deserted aside from Andy. She's banging her locker door shut – repeatedly.

As soon as Sam finds a spot where he can actually see her without her knowing it, McNally has opened her locker again, and is roughly shrugging into her jacket.

"Is it safe?" he asks, holding his hands out in front of him in a 'cease fire' - gesture.

Sighing audibly, Andy turns around on her heel looking at him, silently wondering what he's doing in here. "Traci." She states, knowing that her best friend has something to do with Sam standing in front of her.

Her best friend had left the locker room uncharacteristically quietly, considering the day that Andy has had. Traci's new friendship with Sam had been a hurdle to get across whenever they are at odds, because earlier Andy had been able to unload on Traci and she'd agree on Sam's many shortcomings, but their partnership has changed that this past year.

"Don't be mad at her," he says when Andy turns around to face her locker again on a huff of breath reaching up to grab her cell phone from the top shelf in her locker.

"She's not the one I'm angry with."

"Right..," Sam blows out his breath nodding his head.

"I'm really not in the mood for this right now, Sam," she tells him placing her cell phone in her jacket pocket before shutting her locker.

"Well, I am!" he maintains curtly.

Widening her eyes at his tone of voice, Andy wonders what he has to be angry about. She's the one, who's had her entire private life bared to all the coppers of 15 Division.

"So..?" she asks holding her arms out waiting for what he has to say for himself.

Andy doesn't mean to be a bitch about this; she really doesn't. She's just so mad at him right now, okay so most of it has dissipated by now, but the reason behind it is still very much present in her mind.

"I get it, alright!" he tells her abruptly.

"Do you?" she asks on an arched brow.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Sam tells her what his only thought had been in the parade room – namely to protect her.

Her and their baby.

"I was protecting you, and they were going to find out eventually," he shrugs at her as if it's no big deal.

Sighing deeply, Andy shakes her head at him. "That's not the point!"

Fisting his fingers in his hair, Sam turns confused eyes on her clearly showing that he doesn't know what to do now.

"Then what is?"

"Aside from the fact that you went back on your word?" she asks raising a sarcastically eyebrow at him.

"I didn't..," he begins to object when Andy cuts him off.

"I wanted it to be the two of us telling them, I wanted it to be a happy occasion and not something used as some kind of a pawn against Jacob..," she tells him as a lone tear makes its way down her cheek.

"Andy..," Sam walks to her, but is halted mid-step when she holds up a hand to stop him from progressing any further towards her.

"I need to say this, Sam." She tells him in a weak tone of voice.

"Okay..," he nods his head at her slowly.

"For as long as I can remember this job has been everything that I've wanted. But that changed the day that I met you," she says making Sam widen his eyes at her. "Yes, I know that going to Temagami and going undercover with Nick may not have supported that, but they were only excuses to stay away from you, excuses I needed because you were getting too close."

"Too close?" Sam asks confused.

"Yes," she uses the back of her hand to dry the wetness away from her cheeks before continuing. "I let you lead me, Sam, and I got left behind. In a cold and dark parking lot when all I wanted was to help you deal with what had happened to Jerry."

Sam closes his eyes upon hearing his name. He had been a complete jerk to Andy back then, blaming her for something that had in no way been her fault. In reality, he had needed to focus his grief onto something tangible, and he had chosen anger and by extension to cut Andy out of his life.

"Baby, I'm..," he takes another step towards her, but stops when he sees the distraught look on her face, the very same look that he'd put there almost two years ago now.

"And now there's someone else, who's important to me, to us," Andy lets her gaze drop to the small bump that's visible through the unzipped jacket she has on. "This baby is what connects us, Sam, and for you to think that I'd even risk his or her life hurts so much. I wouldn't have said yes, I just wanted to feel like I could still do my job despite the fact that I have now found something that's more precious to me than the job ever has been."

Sam swallows a lump that seems to have grown into the size of a basketball throughout Andy's entire speech.

"Aren't you going to say anything..?" Andy asks quietly making Sam re-discover the use of his legs. In one swift footstep he has her gathered in his arms; her head nestled underneath his chin, running his hands up and down her back.

"I'm sorry."

Andy closes her eyes, wrapping her arms around Sam's strong waist never having thought that she'd hear those two words leaving his mouth.

Later that night they're cuddled up on Andy's couch together. Andy is lying in-between Sam's legs, her back to his front - as if the entire day hasn't even happened.

Aside from the fact that Sam has uttered those two words so much that she's getting tired of hearing them.

Something she'd never thought would happen.

"Did I mention how sorry I am?" he asks for the umpteenth time playing with a strand of her hair.

"You did." She returns with a smile and a small eye-roll that Sam can't see.

"Did I mention how cranky I've been all day?" she asks him earning her a soft kiss on the cheek.

"You did," he quips lightheartedly.

"Good."

"So..," he begins drawing the word out. "Were you serious when you said that Frank had already put you on desk duty or were you just trying to make me feel like an ass?"

Giggling at his attempt at making light of their fight earlier, Andy finally decides to let him off the hook. "Well, it wasn't exactly Frank, who decided I should work the desk."

"No?" Sam asks surprised.

"No." She shakes her head small before continuing. "I had decided this morning, waking up with you, that I didn't want to take any chances with our baby," Andy says, grasping Sam's hands in hers before placing them on top of her small bump.

"Are you serious?" he asks against the side of her face.

Turning her head slightly towards his, Andy nods her head at him. "I've never been more serious," she tells him truthfully. "About anything."

Rubbing his fingers against the spot where their baby is growing , he finds her lips with his.

"I love you, baby," he speaks against her soft lips.

"I love you too."

A/N2: I hope you've enjoyed the chapter, and please leave me a couple of words in the box below :)

Next up: A picture says a thousand words.