I own absolutely nothing from the tv show. This is just a different version of how things may have gone… Hope you enjoy it and feel free to give me any impression, opinion and good/bad reaction it may give. Some of you gave me powerful comments I keep in my heart. Thank you. You are a valuable source for me.
This is chapter 3 and soon I will post new chapters.
Three months had fled away since Andy worked with Sam. Nothing had changed but she didn't expect to. She spent much time at the station moving to one case to the other. Those black eyes were saying she was tired, so tired that even Luke had noticed that. However, she felt good inside, every day lighter and lighter. "Your luck is, McNally, that I will be away this weekend and you can relax." He was asked to take part to a security committee and he probably would have been away for the next week. For this reason, Frank moved her under Swarek and Nash. She would have helped around, but Nash's baby was sick and none could take care of him, with Dex in prison and her mother out of town. Andy had to complete the minimum hours required to access the second part of the detective program. She needed to work to qualify. She wasn't happy about this last-minute change, but she couldn't do much about it. Oliver and Nash would have been around anyway. And Marlo would have been too, to check on her since the weekend story. If they were having some form of conversation before that episode, now, they barely said hi when meeting at parade or in the locker room. So, she decided to concentrate on the job, the only thing that mattered.
The next Monday she went to work with a very positive mood: she had spent the weekend in Alberta, went through an excellent kayak session where she had the luck to see a couple of otters sleeping hand in hand. She felt ready for the worst and the best.
Another drug dealer was found dead downtown in a garbage with his neck broken and blue lips. The coroner said he died by overdose. Heroin probably. She wrote everything on her note accurately and made pictures. Sam instructed her: the guy left the prison some weeks before. "I have his address, Sam" "All right, let's have a look!" They walked toward the car, jumped in and recapped while reaching the place. "Sam, I think I know the guy." He looked at her surprised. A bit worried maybe, but she cleared immediately that they arrested him months before, he was suspected of homicide. They couldn't link him to the crime but stayed in prison for drug possession. She remembered the case, but she needed to be back on those papers again. "So, he probably had a fight with someone he shouldn't have. He wanted to quit and leave the past behind so when his mate, Jordan Clarke, proposed to work again and he refused, they tried to eliminate him." "It sounds a good theory McNally". The apartment smelled of smoke and alcohol, an Irish liquor Andy recognized as her father's favourite. There was such a mess, everything was on the floor. "What were they looking for?" "Money or drug?" "Maybe both" Sam said in a laugh. Andy went to the bedroom and found a luggage opened on the bed, some clothes had been kindly folded, hiding a female touch. "He was trying to escape" "He knew they were after him." Sam completed her thoughts. "Ok, but why waiting three weeks to run?" "because something was keeping him here!" he supposed "Girlfriend or wife?" "I don't know.. there's no sign of a woman here." She pointed at the clothes and made him notice how they had been packed. Sam put the white gloves on and removed them. They found at least twenty thousand dollars in cash. "Oh-Oh" "And money will be!" she stepped back in the main room to call the forensics. "They are on the way" "What do you think McNally?" he smiled, ready for her next theory. That made him remember how much he loved listening to her theories when they were both cops. She eyed back to him and saw his brain running in some dimension she couldn't reach. "Ok, money come from drugs sale. He was working for someone, then had the great idea to keep the money to escape, but he didn't have the time, they wanted their money back and they killed him." Sam nodded, it had sense. They waited for forensics before going back to the station. On the way, Sam let her drive. Instead of leading him directly to the station they stopped at Starbucks "I need a coffee" she explained "Want some?" he agreed. She didn't ask him how he wanted it and supposed she remembered. His ego smiled like an idiot inside. He looked at her walking in the shop and meanwhile he called Epstein asking to track phones victims' calls and movements of the last 3 months, with credit card withdraws and whatever else he could find. Scott Ray had practically no story after being in jail, but there might have been something useful. With her coffee in her hands, she switched on the car. "You should eat in the morning" he said sipping and tasting the hot liquid inside. That might have explained why she had lost some weight. "I do, Luke thinks about it generally when he picks me up." Why was she all Callaghan thing? He almost coughed it off at what she said. Andy regretted that comment and observed Sam moving on his seat. He remained silent for the rest of the journey, wondering what she was doing with a man who caused her pain and he hoped she didn't forget it. He said something about the case in the end and studied her expression when she couldn't notice. The thought of her with Callaghan upset him and he put the coffee behind his feet. "It's not special, I know" she said, "Next time you choose the place". He looked back at her and wanted to say something, but she had already parked the car. Marlo approached and stared at those coffees, but didn't say a word. He didn't even think to bring her one. She up-dated them with the last information while walking toward the brain room, where she had already started to read Andy's old notes.
After 8 hours of research, Marlo and Sam were already at home, but Andy was still right there going through all the possibilities to understand why that guy had delayed his escape. She was examining an old file when she found a photo of a girl. She noticed a sign on her left arm that made her link to a place she knew. She had found the key of the puzzle. She jumped on the seat and called Sam instantly. It was around 10 o' clock and he made her notice when he picked up the phone. "What's up?" "Guess what?" "What?" "I know why he didn't leave" Sam switched on the lamp on the bed table. "Which is?" "He has a nephew. I think she stayed at the Doveblue Orphanage" she paused "There's more. Paul has just called me to inform us that last week a huge amount of cocaine has been impounded downtown". Sam swallowed his greatest fear "do we have a missing girl?" He already knew the answer, but he asked anyway. "I'm afraid so. We need you here" she said, trying not to think where his mind was going: the last time a girl was missing, Jerry died. "I'm on the way". He jumped out of the bed and put on a pair of jeans he took off just a couple of hours before.
When he arrived at the station, she noticed that he didn't even comb his hair. His cute expression was mixed with the childish concern on his face. That jeans and t-shirt combination was almost perfect, if the circumstances weren't so difficult. As he approached, she stopped chewing the bottom of her pen, blaming her conscience not to be concerned about that girl. "I called the orphanage, the director is coming here with Peck and Diaz" he took the photo and fixed the face in his mind. She looked at him, wondering if he could handle it at all. "Sam, I think we should go after that man while all the others look for the girl. And if I am right, she's with him. Epstein tracked her phone in a place downtown, but I don't think she's there." He turned to her, all ears. He nodded, before Trace broke into the room to say that ETF was ready to leave. "Epstein, send me Clarke address" he yelled at him over the chaos. They were all putting the vest on and checking their guns. Tracy saw them walking away to get another car and she had to have imagined what was going on as she remembered them they had no back-up. "We can't wait, Trace" They both looked at her. Sam knew she was right, if there was any chance to find her alive, they had to hurry up. "Marlo doesn't pick up the phone. I guess she took something for her headache and she's not hearing it!" He was on the driver side of the car and despite she wanted to drive too, she didn't argue. They jumped in and switched the siren on. Andy had the photo in her hands and was still trying to understand why he didn't move before. She turned around and asked Sam, again. And he felt her pressuring him for an answer he didn't have. "I don't know, damn it!" he was pissed off. How did they miss that she had been kidnapped? They spent an entire day and she was right under their nose. "Maybe you know it better than anyone else since running is your talent!" Another missing girl, as when Jerry died. This couldn't be happening again. She had to be alive. SHE HAD TO BE ALIVE. Lost in his thoughts, he suddenly turned the face to see an incredulous Andy about what he just said. "I'm sorry Andy, I didn't mean… I don't even know why I said that.." She was silently looking out of the window. The anger on her face spoke for her, she shook her head and took a big breath. "What?" "Nothing, just nothing." "Say it, come on" It wasn't the right moment to have a fight, but he insisted anyway. "I had the chance to work at Guns and Gangs this week rather than work with you and I didn't as I don't like it very much. But I should have, Luke told me you're not a ruled detective and I should have listened to him. Instead, I thought he said it just to be my exclusive TO and not to share me with you" She barked back with anger. Did she really say that? He was kicking her for no reason at all and all she wanted was put him back to his place. "He's better than me, uh, is that what you saying?" He was losing control, too bad, stop, Swarek, stop. "I haven't said that. You did. For sure, you should learn not to let your personal life influence your job. It must be exhausting for those working with you." She said it in a breath, knowing she just went too far. That sentence made the blood boiling in his vein. This is not true! It sounded much worse than saying Homicide was better than him. "Oh, you're absolutely right, he's skilled, talented, professional, experienced, capable and he has always been honest with you McNally, why didn't you follow his advice then? Since you clearly trust him more than me, uh?" he was practically yelling at her, unintentionally, waving his hands in the air "I haven't said I trust him more than you." He was jealous, Sam was jealous, and he had no right to be. AT ALL. "You don't need to say it since you decided to give him a second chance even if he cheated on you!" What, WHAT? OH, SHUT UP! SHUT UP! "At least, he didn't lie to me" she said it with a low and calm tone that had nothing to do with his. The tension was so visible that it could be cut with a knife. He laughed nervously, from the deepest part of his chest. She was defending him, unbelievable. "Really McNally? When? When did I lie to you?!" That hurt him as he would have never done that, never. "When you told me that you couldn't be a cop and be with me anymore. And then, what have you done? You told me you loved me and you would have done everything you could to make us work, and then, you jumped in the sack with another woman as I stayed away for 5 fucking minutes, Sam!" I was the problem and you didn't even have the courage to look at me and say it. How coward you've been! Running away like a rat from a sinking ship! So please, you're not better than him, you're just like him!" He felt a knife passing through his heart, the pain took his legs, his arms, his chest and it expanded as poison reaching any part of the body it could achieve. He wasn't even able to reply, stared at the road with an empty mind trying to formulate what to say. "Let me guess, you don't wanna talk about it, right?" she was doing everything to control her voice, but it was too late. "Andy, you've never been the problem and you know that perfectly.." "Oh, I was. It took me plenty of time to get it when it was right in front of me! You, running away anytime something big showed up. And you know the funny part?" she paused looking at him, her voice in a thrill "I have been the one accused of running away but, apparently, it's much more popular than what you may think!" she paused again, to take breath this time "You never let me in, I hope she knows how it works with you. But I'm sure that Miss-I don't-make-him-questions-not-to-upset-him got it pretty fast, to keep things easy." Boy, she had just slapped at the back of his head hard as no one ever did, not even Oliver had.
They were approaching the place and she tried to calm down. Their priority was the girl, only that girl. She closed her eyes and swallowed, knowing to have cross some imaginary line once for all. She glanced back at him after a while and noticed he was grabbing the steering wheel with an incredible force, consuming him. This couldn't go well. They both needed to set aside that awful conversation. They parked two blocks away from the house as Sam switched off the engine. The lights in the street were weak and it seemed the fog was coming down, or maybe it was just in his mind. He looked at her once more and showed all his fear. That scene moved her so much that she grabbed his hand, firmly, to make him sure he wasn't alone in all that. He welcomed the gesture closing it with her. "It's going to be ok, Sam" she whispered in that noisy silence. "Sam… Jerry is gone. Let him go. Let it go. Stop fighting it back. Instead, we are here and we can make the difference and save that girl tonight. But I need you to be here, with me, to back me up in the way that only you can do and nobody else can." He took a big breath and she continued "I need back the Sam Swarek I know to do this, can you do that for me?" He brought her hand up to his lips and put a soft kiss on it. He nodded to her and she attempted a smile, then took a micro-headphone and passed it to him. "You go left and I go right, ok?" "Watch your back and do not make a move if you don't feel it. Call me!" Now was her turn to nod. They stepped out of the car and walked into the darkness.