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. I must say thank from the deepest part of my heart to those people who decided to devote some of their valuable time to report me what they liked/disliked and what they would like to read.
This is chapter 6 and soon I will post new chapters.

Send you kisses!

It has been a hard week for Andy: she barely spent some time with Tom, buried by cases, he was hiding in his office at the court for hours. Honestly, being a lawyer and a detective wasn't so different, you spend much of the time at work to close your case. However, that night, they had planned to go out on a date, to relax and think about plans for Christmas. He had a family tradition to share with her, to prepare her to his family. It was becoming serious. He was looking to her, just to her. Sometimes she felt it was too perfect to be true.
"You will love my grandmother. She's sharp but smart. Nothing is decided without her, Andy! She's very funny." she smiled back, wondering how she could look like. She felt nervous and it was weird, even strange to think a family could be so crowded. She had been always alone with her father. Christmas was not such a big celebration, especially when the night before he had got drunk. "your father could come with us" he suddenly interrupted her thoughts, and noticed she was getting scared a bit "Andy, don't be afraid. I'll be there. Nothing will happen, ok?"she nodded, but that fear couldn't go away. She was the lonely Andy McNally that never had a mother. "I've found the best, perfect present for you. Can't wait to give you"His eyes were shining and the truth crosses her soul "I can say the same, this time. I'm learning!"she joked about it. He gave her a small kiss and then they finished their dessert before going home.

Weeks passed by and Christmas was coming: they had booked flight tickets for Montreal and they would have been there in some days. Andy felt happy for the first time after months of hard work: she would have spent a week away from the job and that could have a beneficial effect on her life. Yes, she was nervous to meet his family but at least she would have met new people, something she really loved. She had to work hard in the last weeks and despite all the efforts made to spend some more time with Tom at night and at weekends, it frequently happened to be called back by Callaghan, Nash or Swarek to work at some new case Frank wanted to be closed by the end of the year. This had proved the strength of her relationship with Tom, who complained about late hours at the station only occasionally.
It was Friday night and Andy was working really hard to close the case with Luke, go back home and pack her things before Monday when she had a plane to catch. Tom was already in Montreal since he was asked to anticipate its departure to hep his parents dealing with a legal contract for inheritance. He would have picked her up at the airport at her arrival.
Luke had almost finished to write the final report and prepare all the papers they would have needed in two weeks' at the court.

Andy was sipping a coffee while reading and suddenly remembered she didn't give the Christmas present she had bought for Trace and something for her son too. She was on the way of Nash office when she passed closed the locker room and heard Marlo and her rookie laughing and celebrating something. They were talking louder than usual, but she really didn't put any attention to that until she heard the rookie saying she wanted to see the ring. Andy suddenly stopped in the middle of the hall, almost dropping her coffee, frozen by that information. A ring. He must have proposed her to marry him.
She felt so bad, her breath was becoming faster and difficult to control that she opened the first door she found on the way and locked herself inside the room. She set down to calm, but it ended up very difficult until she slowed down, and tears started to run over her face. She loved Tom, why was she crying for Sam? Did she think he would have been for her forever? She felt stupid, but the pain was pervading her heart and she couldn't stop him. And she realised she couldn't have a life without him. She took her head with her hands until someone from the outside was trying to open the door. She stayed in silence for a while until she recognised Trace voice and she unlocked the door. "Andy, what the hell…oh dear, what is going on?" she made her come in and then locked the door again. "Andy, why are you crying?" she took a big breath "Sam is getting married, Trace."

"what.. what do you mean?" she was puzzled "what that may mean Tracy? He asked Marlo to be his wife?" "How do you know that?" "I heard her talking with her rookie.." "are you sure? Absolutely sure?" "Trace, I am sure!" she couldn't have mistaken what she saw! "Look, I don't see all this love.." "You know Sam doesn't let go much, never did that with me too" "Andy… even if it was true… you stay with Tom. You told me you love him!" "I know, I know! It's just.. I think I made a big mistake, Trace.. months ago, he came to my flat, crying, begging for a second chance. But I closed the door for him. He opened up, he told me why he left me and I told him I didn't trust him anymore. Now I feel like I've missed a big chance. Trace, I love Tom, but I will always love Sam first, I just … I don't know, thought that he would have been always there for me. I've been so stupid! I have done the same mistake he made with me the first time. I protected myself and avoided my fears to suffer again by jumping back in a relationship with him"
"ok, calm down. It is normal to feel like this about a guy you dated and now he is…" "Trace, no,no, don't say it. It's not this way, or I wouldn't cry like this!" she tried to formulate something, but she released her breath to push away the tension and trying to figure out what to do. "you have a plan, Andy?" "Trace, I just found out, what plan may I have? And anyway, it is clearly too late, so the only plan I have is to leave this place before I burst into tears the first time I meet him!"
"NO, no, no! running is not the solution Andy! How many times do I need to tell you?" "I won't stay here to see him having a family with another woman. I want him happy surely, but I need to live too in some way!" "Andy, you are just panicking…" Andy didn't even let her finished that she was already walking toward Frank office. "Andy, wait, wait!" Trace was running after her, but she got stuck by a bloke of her department and couldn't reach her "let's talk about this later" it is the only thing that she could yell at her.

Two days after that finding, after nights of no-sleep at all, They were all at the crime scene helping some detectives of the second division, when she saw Marlo simulating moving a ring on her finger by joke. Her rookie responded with a huge laugh and there she got it was all true, it couldn't be a mistake. Sam was close enough to see her doing that and smiled back. She tried to say something about marriages with Oliver, to understand his reaction, but he had none. He must have been a good liar for Sam. He was waiting the right moment to tell her the news. How nice.
It was too much. She knew she would have been uncapable to handle it, to hide her reaction and once at the station she would have made her move.

Andy jumped in Frank's office, her red eyes could have said it all, but she washed them in the bathroom behind the second-floor stairs. She wanted to be decent to convince Frank to transfer her elsewhere. "Come in McNally! What can I do for you?" a smiling sergeant staff was handling with a baby card. Probably for Noelle. "you ok, McNally?" "yep" she cut it "I came here to talk to you because I want to be transferred to a new division. I need to change perspective Frank, this place has given me a lot, but now I feel I need something new" "Is something happened Andy?" "No, I just need to go and make new experiences" "Andy, this is one of the best place in town to make experiences" he said perplexed, scrutinising her expression. She couldn't back down, she just couldn't stay there longer. "Frank, you may be right, but I need to go. Please, would you help me?" he exhaled hard than stood up and took a set of documents "fill these and bring them back to me."

She took them and started to write them right there "Andy, you should take your time to consider the consequences of what you're doing." She smiled back at him, he was nice to care about her carrier, but she continued to write. When she finished she gave them back to him and then assured him that any available place in any division would have been fine. "Andy, just tell me why you are doing this: something happened to you? it's been a tough period, why don't you take some extra days off? you have been working hard and it may be just a bit of stress…" "Frank, let me know when to move". She left the office before she could regret it.

She walked down the stairs when Nash stopped her and kidnapped her in the interrogation room "you can't just walk away like this! You don't even know if what you heard was true, Andy! How childish you've been" ok, fine "maybe you're right or maybe not, but Trace… I won't stay here watching them anymore." "ok, did you think about Tom? What are gonna say to him?" "just the truth." "I think you are overreacting a bit, you cannot screw up your relationship because some guy you think you still love is gonna marry another woman!" "I thought it was over, I convinced myself that I couldn't love a man that hurt me like that, but he is not just a man… what we lived, we may have never recognised it but it was more than a relationship, we were good friends too" Tracy sighed hard, "ok, Tracy, I will go far, but I'll ask you… what would you do if you had a chance to have Jerry back? I'm 100% sure you will fight to death." "Andy, he's not gonna die.." "I mean there is no chance anymore, Trace. If he has asked her to marry him -and we are talking about Sam- what do you think it could mean?" she didn't answer, she crossed her arms in front of her chest and walked in circles for a moment. "I am not giving up on you, my dear, but on him and everything it may remind of him. I will always be there for you" "I know, I know. I still believe the proposal is a fake. Come on, I don't see a man happy to marry the woman of his life, do you?" "I can't stay Trace." "Let me ask around, I'll ask Oliver if that's true, but don't run like this." "If you tell him, he will refer Sam, they are brothers! Look, I may be tired because it's been a rough period, but I am sure of what I heard and I will die staying here…." "Andy McNally, you always overthink, but when you really need to do it, you don't! Do what you think is the best for you. Call if you need anything, ok?" "same for you!" they hugged each other. She waited for Trace to get out of the room to call Tom. Explaining to him the situation would have been a bit more complicated. She dialled his number and waited for him to answer, then she recognised the familiar sound of his voice. "Tom, it's me." "Hi honey, you home?" her hands were shaking. The idea she was going to destroy him killed her. She loved him, but she couldn't deny the truth. "Andy, are you ok?" "No, Tom. I called because.."so mean doing this by phone, she would have kicked herself physically! "Tom I can't come there with your family, it's not fair." "Andy, why? What is going on? Some new case showed up?" he was pissed as she never heard before. She could have closed it by using this perfect excuse, but she didn't. "Tom, I can't stay with you. I love you, you are so… handsome and marvellous and perfect but I can't do it." "Andy, you're scaring me… you say you love me and then you leave me? WHERE IS THE SENSE?" he was yelling on the phone "What are you saying? Because it looks like a lie to me! Look… just come here and we'll talk about it. May be you are stressed and things are difficult right now and this vacation has perfect timing…come up here.." she took a big breath and said it all loud "You will never be first, Tom." The silence filled the space between them and she waited for him to say something "I'm sorry. But this is the truth." Then after a moment he broke it "You're dating someone else? Does he work at the station?" he was getting angrier and angrier, like he couldn't control his voice "NO, no. I mean yes, but I am not dating him. I swear it. But still…" "It's Sam, isn't it?" "Tom, please, does a name make the difference?" "Are you fucking kidding me? You leave me for an ass who kicked you in the middle of the street alone? Who has ever fought for you? This is much worse than an insult! What happened, he kissed you?" "Tom, please, I'm not such a child to jump in people's arm like nothing! Don't insult me like this. It's the feeling, there has been no action, I swear it" "let me tell you something: You really don't deserve someone like me. I would have done anything for you, Andy, anything. Don't ever call me again!" he hang up and she didn't have the chance to tell him that was exactly the reason why she was leaving him. She knew he shouldn't have involved anyone in this story. She was already drowning in her pain and he didn't deserve to pay for that choice she was sticked to.

She was lost in this thought when she heard a shot close to the room. She took the gun on her waist and open the door slowly to find out a man holding a baby girl, threatening her with a gun, clearly moved by something, screaming he wanted to talk to detective McNally. "It's me, Barry, I am the one you are looking for."