The last good day was yesterday.

11.30 AM

A black SUV pulled into a nameless suburb about 1 hour away from the 15. Before Andy and Traci could step out, they were told to sit tight and wait for conformation. The front driver listened intently to his com's, and then after about a minute, seemed happy that they were safe. Andy stepped with Tarci right behind her. The lead security guy walked them to the front door and stepped inside. They followed. Inside they found a bare bones house, like no one had lived in it, but there were small signs of life, a coffee maker here, a deck of cards here.

Andy looked around, but all she wanted was to be with Sam, to feel his touch, hear his voice, to explain to him everything she knew and more importantly give him time to explain his side of things. On the drive over she had started going over her time with Sam. She cursed herself for thinking of him in the past tenths.

Andy and Traci had been shown to 2 bed rooms and had seen that there was a change of cloths on each of the beds. Traci picked up her set and went to Andy's room. She didn't want to leave her alone since she knew she was in a fragile state. Although she had gained some of the information during the questioning, she knew that there was more too what situation and knew that Andy needed to tell someone.

She walked in and saw that Andy had changed. She was wearing a dark blue blue pair of jeans, and a white fleece, under the fleece was a long sleeve t-shirt. She had curled up under the sheets. Traci rubbed her back and got changed. Going round the side of the bed, so that Andy's feet faced her, she looked at her friend. In a low voice, she spoke :

'Andy I only have half the story. What happened this weekend ?, you need to tell someone.'

Andy's teary eyes looked up at Traci and she begin to recount the last two days of her life.

She had forgiven Luke for cheating on her, after all he had saved her life, and showed how much he apparently loved her. She had accepted it because she needed someone in her life that she could depend on. Thinking about it she had cursed herself for being so blind, there always had been someone there in her life, she was just too stupid to realize it. A tear rolled down her tear at the thought of Sam all alone. Like everyone else, she had noticed he had become withdrawn from people at the 15th. Jerry and Shaw had tried to speak to him, but for some reason he didn't, or as it turned out, couldn't speak to them about what had happened.

That weekend had started like any other. She had gone to parade, been partnered with Shaw who she realized retrospectively had taken over Sam's roll as her unofficial partner. Shaw was a good man, fatherly, but she missed the fun that she and Sam had. The jokes, and Sam's unique view of life. Lunch was normally spent discussing Shaw's family or work related things, but with Sam it was more random. He had made work fun, plus she had learnt so much from him. As Dov had once said, he was more like a method cop. They had apprehended Niko after speaking to the call girls. It was then that she had realized what had Sam done for her all those months back and that her relationship with Luke was based on a lie. At that moment in time the only thing she wanted to do was find Sam speak to him, but she was at work. By the close of her shift she had made a list of things to do so she could get her head straight. She didn't have all the facts, but she needed to get as many things straight as possible before finding Sam. She spoke to Luke and Jo about what had happened with Ben Dixon. After an hour of arguing with them a few things became apartment. Firstly Luke's hunch was kinda right, but the way they had gone about it was complete wrong, and if it wasn't for Sam, she would have been killed. He was the one who had done all the leg work, and he had figured out that Ben Dixon had a partner. That being said somethings didn't add up. She had asked Luke how he knew where to find her, and he had said that it was an anonymous tip. He even showed her the file to confirm this however something didn't feel right. While Luke was a detective and was trained to always look at the facts, Sam had taught her to trust her instincts. Other little details had started to bothered. How did Sam know where she was.

She had asked Luke about the shooting, and while what he told her had matched up with the originally report, she could see the holes. She pushed Luke and it became clear that Luke had seen the aftermath and not the actually shooting of Ben Dixon. He also admitted that Sam had told him to check the container that she was in, while he cleared the rest of the warehouse. Jo had repeatedly asked why she cared and Andy had brushed her off, but after the sixth time of pushing her, she turned to her and said in avery angry voice

'what the hell is wrong with you, he was your friend. cannot you see that this doesn't make any sense'

Jo shot back

'He's never been my friend'

Andy shot a back at her

'Yeah, I guess the only friend you have is Luke, your best friend'

Luke and Jo looked at each other. While he had tried to make it work with Andy he still had deep feelings for Jo and she knew it.

Andy just looked at Luke, and they both new it was over. She didn't need to deal with this. Relationships are meant to bring you happiness, yet all she had with Luke was wanting and it wasn't enough. Luke started to speak to Andy, but she him off.

'I'll get my stuff form the apartment tonight, I can't do this anymore'

She left Luke and Jo alone and went straight to Best office. Best could see she was upset, but was surprised at her request, but he had caved since he knew what harm could come of it. Best had got all the case files on Ben Dixon and handed them to Andy, who had stated that she want to look over them, just to make it clear what had happened so she could move on. Best didn't question this since he knew Andy and knew that she wasn't the type of person to let things go, so her getting closure would be a good thing. Andy asked if he knew where Sam was, but all he could tell her was that he had the weekend off. She rushed out of Best office, got changed, and then went to find Jerry. Jerry was Sam's best friend and if anyone would know where Sam was it would be him. She popped in and ask, but he had no idea. She then phoned her dad and asked if it was ok to stay at his since her and Luke had broken up. He agreed, and asked if she was ok. Getting into her car, she rushed round to Luke's and got her stuff, which surprisingly wasn't that much and then drove round to her dads. He was out since he was at a AA meeting. A sad smile had formed across her face when she thought about this since it was Sam who had finally found a group that he could work with and he had been sober 6 months now.

Setting up at her in her old room at the fathers, she began to go though the file, first placing things in time order and then seeing where the holes were and there were lots if holes. Little questions like who had phoned in the tip of Ben Dixon's storage locker, how had Sam tracked Ben Dixon's to the location came to mind, but as she went though her notes, she realized that it had all been Sam. He had effectively conducted his own investigation outside of the department, against orders. Then there were details like the fact that the ballistic report stated that sam had fired at Ben Dixon's partner 10 times hitting her 2 twice, yet they had found 8 bullets at the crime scene. She knew that Ben Dixon had been hit 8 times by Sam's gun, so that would mean he would have fired 18 times out of his issue Glock 17, which only held 17. There were 3 possibilities.

One, Either he had reloaded from the time he shot John Doe to the time he shot his partner, which didn't make sense since he only had 1 spare magazine with him and when he signed over his gun to the CSI team, the noted that it had a full magazine.

Two, he had manually loaded one in the chamber and then put a fresh magazine into the gun. This didn't feel right because she had seen him load his gun a hundred times and he never did that.

Three, there had to have been another shooter, whom Sam was some how protecting.

Best had not kept anything that Sam had said after the shooting on record, most likely to protect him. She had heard some crazy things of what he had said, but there was simple no evidence. The only conclusion was that Sam was telling the truth. She paused and thought of Sam, alone at night in his apartment. He had started to drink heavily shortly after the shooting. She only knew this because she had been driving round to his house one night after an argument with Luke and stopped by a local convenience store. From behind a rack, she saw him by 2 bottles of whiskey. She had followed him home from a distant and waited outside, to see if anyone else was coming round. No one did. Her father had did the same thing when he was drinking and she knew the signs. She placed her head in her hands as she felt her self beginning to well up. She felt angry with herself, angry with everyone at the 15, but then who could Sam turn too. The more she looked though the file the more she realized Sam was involved in something much deeper. Not only had he gone against orders to save her, he had torn the city apart looking for, committed multi crimes, but it had all been covered up. She suddenly had a scary thought. If she shared her findings with Best, Sam would lose his job and face criminal charges. She needed to speak to Sam badly.

20 minutes later she was outside Sam's door. She had rang his phone, but she heard it going off inside. This had made her worried, why would he leave his cell phone at home. Looking around, his truck was gone and there was no movement inside.

Sighing she walked back to her car deflated. She sat thinking about what to do, but it as hard. Every time she thought of Sam she thought of all time she had knowing or unknowingly hurt him. When she announced her engagement to Luke, when she moved in with him. After the blackout, how she had just left, but knowing that she didn't want to.

She had gone for the safe option with Luke. The irony. He had cheated on her and lied to her about the ring, about Jo about all of it. Sam on the other hand had always been there. Once you got below the surface of the rule breaker and bad boy, what you found was a committed brother, hard working honest police officer, but more importantly a great person who always put others first. he didn't have many close friends, even at the 15, but the ones he did he protected. And then there was her. She new he had feelings for her, but she had chosen Luke (the thought made her sick), and he had encouraged her. She remembered vividly the chat they had just before they went to meet Angel. He had practically preached about look, but looking back she knew that the only reason he had done so was for her.

A tear dropped down her cheek and she closed her eyes for a second.

If it had been anyone else, if it had been Luke, they would have played themselves up and made a move for her. But not Sam. He saw past his own needs, his own happiness and told her what she needed for her to be happy.

It was partially Sam's fault. Anything that hurt him he would just throw out that million dollar smile, perk up those cute dimples and make a witty comment. It was all a defense mechanize. But she should have been able to see though it. Up until 3 months ago Sam had never lied to her, never hurt her, yet she had done just that, time and time again.

She resolved to speak to Sam when he got back. It was the most important thing in her world and just hoped that Sunday went quickly.

Though out Sunday, Luke had tried to call her, but she had ignored him. Every time her phone rang she had hopped it was Sam. The day had gone quickly expect for one D&D. Sunday night she lay awake thinking about tomorrow. She thought about all that Sam had been though, and while she didn't know all the facts and was angry that Sam had not told in her, she made a choice to approach Sam with compassion no matter what. Its what he would have done with her and he needed someone who he could trust, she was just hoping could be her.

On Monday she knew she had to re-qualify at the range and got to work early. Her plan was simple, re-qualify, find Sam and just listen to him. She knew that he would not want to see her, but she hopped that when she told him about her and Luke breaking up, he would open up a little.

Andy looked at Traci with puffy eyes. 'What am going to do, I have pushed away the only pers...'

Traci cut Andy ' we are going to find out what is going on. They cannot just hold us here'.

They heard a knock on the door.

Traci ' yes'

A stocky man with a crew cut and wearing dark blue Jeans and a tactical vest poked his head round the corner. He had a LWRC PSD slung round his neck and held pistol grip with his right hand, while his left hand rested on the door frame. He spoke with a gruff no nonsense voice.

'They are ready for you down stairs ladies'

Andy and Traci got off the bed and made there way to the door. He directed them to the stairway to the fair left. As they walked along the they noticed that each room had a function. Some had bunk beds and tactical equipment on tables, while others had been turned into little electronic hubs with rows of monitors. There were people moving around working but on what they had no idea. They went down stairs and into what looked a large kitchen area. It had all the usual amities that a kitchen had. Andy noticed that there where 3 of the security detail on guard, while 2 other people, a pretty lady in her mid thirties with brown hair wearing a slim blue jeans and a long selves t-shirt under a leather jacket was at the table looking at a number of files while seated at the table in the centre. Andy noticed that she was armed with what looked like a compact Glock in a holster on her right side. A tallish african man was at in the cutting area putting together a sandwich. They both looked up when they say Traci and Andy walked in. The Lady motioned from them to take a seat. They did so.

'So I imagine you want to know what is going on ?' she said in a sweet, dry tone. There was a hint of southern american accent, but just a hint.

Andy just looked at her with tired, but determined eyes.

' Where is Sam ?'

The lady took a deep breath.