Author's Note:

OK, the big showdown between Sam and his white whale is finally here. I think I'm basically happy with how it turned out, but I'm dying to hear what you all think. Hopefully, it won't disappoint. Probably just an Epilogue after this. Enjoy!

Chapter 15: Showdown

"OK. All we can supply you with is the same phone recorder you used before, in case you get him to say anything incriminating, and an earpiece so we can try to let you know if and when the shooter makes it into place. They may discover the earpiece, though. So there's no guarantee you'll have even that much link to what we're doing." Collins asked Sam one last time, "You got the hand signal for a kill shot in case you catch an imminent threat he can't detect? Good. I guess that's all the prep we can give you."

"I'm ready. Let's just hope he still thinks I'm off chasing his tail on my own and doesn't smell a larger threat. That might mean he thinks he can pump me for information and get me to back off with a few threats sufficient to get him off the hook for kidnapping charges. Hopefully, as far as he knows that's basically what happened before with Emily," Sam tried to keep his fear in check by focusing on the most hopeful scenario. He couldn't afford to contemplate darker fates for the women Anton had gone after or fear would paralyze him.

"We have no reason to think he suspects more. Or at least he must not be sure he's got more than that to worry about or he would be unlikely to make a play like this. It also probably means he doesn't suspect Mickey is a cop, or he'd be focused on working her over instead of taking a risk to take it out of your hide to find out what he wants to know," Collins tried to reassure Sam by repeating the consensus they'd reached.

"So just stick to the goal of getting at least the two hostages out and gathering as much information as you can about Mickey's status. Plant the false information we went over if you can. Hopefully, that will convince him we're not onto the tour bus crossing tonight. Just don't take too many risks sparring with him no matter how pissed off you get. He's unpredictable and may not be as willing to let you walk away from him in one piece a second time. You'll eventually get the last laugh when we nail this bastard. Don't provoke him prematurely," Collins warned.

Sam took a deep steadying breath and stepped through Sudar's front door. Anton's two body guards frisked him before leading him into the bar area and returning to their post in the front atrium.

His eyes swept the room quickly and found it empty except for Anton, Andy and Monica. A muscle twitched in his cheek when he noted the women's arms were tied to the chairs they were seated in near the dimly lit back of the room.

"I see your definition of a humanitarian streak runs true to form. You really needed to tie them up to offer your 'assistance' for dealing with my shortcomings? And what's up with the cryptic talk about new partners? You think I care where you get your heroin? Not exactly my jurisdiction. What is it you're playing at here?" Sam asked, eyeing Anton quizzically. "You're not usually so reckless. These two aren't exactly a former street kid like Emily."

"I want to know what game it is that you've been playing. I don't think your desire to carry on with both of these women was the only thing bringing you around her clinic," Anton nodded toward Monica. "When I cut a deal with you for the safety of a woman the first time, I considered it to include more than not using those files. You should have turned your interest to a lower class of criminal. So this time you're going to come clean, and we're going to come to a new agreement. Or these women who mean even more to you are going to meet a most unpleasant fate," Anton said in a menacing tone.

"You and I can make a new and more explicit deal. But I'm not talking about anything until you let them walk out of here," Sam insisted.

Anton laughed, "I don't think so. I don't trust you to tell me what I want to know without some immediate emotional incentive. You walked in here unarmed. I think you mistake who has the leverage now to set the terms for our discussion."

"I'm really not sure what has you so spooked, Anton. But do you want any information from me or not? Because you're not going to get it until they're out of here," Sam insisted again, crossing his arms in a stubborn posture.

"Alright, I guess we do this the hard way," Anton pulled two guns, one aimed at the back of each woman's head. "We're going to play my version of Russian roulette meets the wisdom of Solomon. Pick which one you want to leave or I put a bullet in both of them."

"No. Forget your games. They both leave before I talk. I'm not choosing," Sam tried to hold out.

"Oh you'll do it alright. I don't share your softness when it comes to women, as you well know. Now choose," Anton ground out, cocking the pistols.

Sam narrowed his eyes trying to judge Anton's motives, and what his next move would be if he played along. Unwilling to either fully call his bluff or trust him, Sam finally slumped his shoulders in defeat and looked down to the floor for a moment as he heard word in his ear that the sniper had entered the building and was in place. He looked up and let an ocean of regret show in his eyes, while appearing to take Hill at his word.

Sam finally sighed, "Fine. You win." He added woodenly, "They don't say gentlemen prefer blondes for nothing."

Anton raised a brow, "Still chasing the one out of your league? Well, I was rather fond of her sister, so I can't say I blame you."

Monica let out a strangled cry of protest at hearing the man she loathed most bring up her sister.

Anton lowered the gun in his left hand that had been pointed at Andy, "So your blonde preference stays."

Sam let out a relieved breath that he'd anticipated correctly, before quickly feigning shock and anger, "What the hell? Why should I trust you about anything if you're going to pull something like that?" he demanded.

Anton just shrugged, "I never said I'd let your choice leave. I just said that if you didn't identify her, I'd shoot them both. I only need one hostage to provide proper incentive for your cooperation. I just wanted to make sure I kept the right one," he flashed a menacing smile. "If I don't get full cooperation, two murders are easier to cover than three."

"Mischa!" he called. When she stepped out of the shadows behind him, he instructed, "Cut the brunette loose and escort her out please. And Miss McNally, if you mention any of this to anyone, it won't just be you who is dead or shipped off to spend time with some of my less civilized business partners. It will be every family member and friend you're close to as well. So don't even think of raising the cavalry to come rescue the man who just betrayed you or the woman who clearly has more of his affections."

Mickey stepped forward to follow Anton's instructions. But as she drew even with him, she instead plunged the knife in his neck with one arm while grabbing the arm holding the gun. She managed to move it far enough before he squeezed the trigger with his last burst of strength that the shot only grazed Monica's right shoulder. Anton collapsed to the ground, and Mickey quickly disarmed him and restrained him while applying pressure to the blood gushing from his wound.

Seeing that she had him under control, Sam bolted forward to Andy and said urgently, "I didn't choose her. I knew he'd keep whoever I wanted released. Are you OK? He didn't hurt you before I arrived?" he asked urgently, frantically removing the restraints still binding her arms.

"No, he didn't hurt us. I'm fine. Go check Monica's wound," Andy urged, unaware of the tears of relief streaming down her face.

Sam reluctantly left her side and went to free Monica. He stripped off his shirt to apply pressure to her arm to stop the bleeding. "Are you OK?" he asked anxiously.

"Yeah," she replied shakily. "It's just a flesh wound. I can keep enough pressure on it myself. You can go back and reassure her some more that you didn't really mean that. I'll be fine," she sent him a shaky smile. "Go on. Don't let that filthy scumbag's tricks ruin your chances with her."

As soon as Sam gave her a last concerned glance, before turning to head back to Andy, Monica leapt to her feet and started screaming at Anton. Catching Mickey off guard, she landed several hard kicks to his gut before Mickey and Sam could drag her still frantically kicking body away from the prone bleeding man.

"What do you know about my sister?" Monica screamed. "Did you kill her? Tell me, you bastard!" she finally went limp and starting sobbing uncontrollably. "Tell me what you know about how she died."

"Barker," Anton said on a choking breath. "I was going to feed him to my pigs myself when I found out she bought his poison," he gasped before passing out.

The HRT team swarmed in. Sam diverted his attention long enough to tell them, "Someone get pressure on his wound. Get your team's medic to treat him until the EMTs arrive."

He turned back to find Monica collapsing to the floor, grasping Mickey's forearms, "What was my sister to him? Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"I'm sorry. I never knew. Anton often pursued pretty addicts from prominent families who finally took a tough love approach and cut them off from their money. Your sister would have been his type. He probably did pursue her, but I don't think she ever got involved with him. If she had, she would have never have needed to buy from a bottom feeding dealer like Barker. Monica, I swear I never heard Anton mention Melissa's name or I would have told you. He was too busy putting the moves on me to ever mention the one who got away. I'm sure what happened to her was a blow to his ego all around."

Sam put a hand on Mickey's shoulder, "Mickey…you didn't have to…"

"No Sam. I managed to lead Anton on for a long time by pretending to be a lesbian. Men like him don't believe there's such a thing as a lesbian who can't be converted eventually." She shrugged, "It allowed me to take advantage of his interest without ever having to actually sleep with the devil. Thanks for coming in here today. I know it was mostly for them, but it took the pressure off me like no one else could. Anton didn't want to squeeze me hard in case I hadn't sold him out by passing along any real information. But if you hadn't taken the bait, he wouldn't have had a choice. He couldn't risk having a rat that high in his organization just when he was striking an alliance with the Zetas."

"Mickey, you're the bravest cop I've ever seen. If you hadn't taken him down, we would have had to have a sniper take a shot at him. And who knows if he would have squeezed off a more accurate shot before going down. Monica could be in much worse shape if you hadn't taken advantage of the fact that Hill underestimated you," Sam gave her shoulder one more squeeze before turning to pull Monica into a hug.

"Hey, I'm sorry you had to hear that scum speak about Melissa. But at least you know now. You know it wasn't a suicide or a murder. She just made a desperate mistake and bought from the wrong dealer. It's time for you to find some peace and start really living your own life now. I don't want you to look back and have regrets that you never made time for yourself. Take some time off to heal both physically and mentally. OK?" Sam pulled back and eyed her with concern.

Monica nodded, struggling to control the emotion enough to speak. "Thanks. I think you may be right. Actually, I've been meaning to tell you…the date I was supposed to have tonight?" she paused and looked at him nervously. "It's with Luke Callaghan. I started flirting with him after I gave him the information about the bullet in Bennie's head. At first, it was to get back at Andy, and there wasn't really anything to it. But in the last couple weeks since he got over being dumped by her, we've really started to hit it off. The two of us run at the same speed. You and Andy need the full Romeo & Juliet, all-or-nothing kind of relationship. Luke and I are more like cats. We like a little space and independence. Go to Andy now. She needs you too. But will you break the news to her for me? I think she probably already hates me enough," Monica sighed.

"Sure," Sam gave her a last careful squeeze before passing Monica off to Mickey and the HRT medic who had been replaced by the EMTs rushing Anton off to the ER. He strode the short distance to where Andy stood staring with wide shell-shocked eyes at all the overwhelming activity buzzing around her. Sam ran anxious hands over her head, neck, arms to try to finally convince himself she was really all in one piece. He pulled her into a crushing embrace as a shudder wracked his whole body. The adrenaline was finally starting to ebb and the fear he'd held at bay rushed in to replace the iron control he'd needed to hold himself together.

"It's OK," Andy murmured over and over. "I'm OK. But Sam, you have to calm down. A wise man once told me I'm no China doll, but you need to ease up or you're going to break my ribs," she said with a shaky laugh.

"Oh God, I'm sorry. I didn't even realize what I'm doing. I've never been so afraid something might go wrong in my life. I can't believe I didn't realize you were in danger. I should have known…"

"Shh. How could you have predicted Anton would come after us? You already had enough crises on your hands. Besides, you knew what I needed to hear to stay calm, and you came for me just like you promised. You told me this once, and I'm telling you now. You did everything right today. You hear me?" Andy looked him in the eye willing him to take her words to heart.

"She's right you know," Collins walked over after having been given a quick rundown of what happened by Mickey and the HRT shooter. He threw him a clean SWAT tee. "Good work Swarek. The guys said they were impressed enough to loan you this. I know it wasn't easy keeping your cool in this situation. Give me your phone and we'll get by with the recording for now. We rolled up everyone on the premises and made sure no calls went out. So the bus should cross as planned. I have to go now to finish co-ordinating our intercept operation. But you go home with Andy. We've got it covered without you, and your debrief can wait for the morning. Wait 'til you hear what Mickey managed to smuggle out. If Hill lives, he's never seeing the outside of a prison. If I can be un-PC for a minute, that chick is so good it scares me. I'll be lucky if CSIS doesn't snap her up after this."

"Thanks," Sam replied. Collins gave him a brief man hug and slap on the shoulder before walking off to take command of the next phase.

Sam stared after him in shock, "He never does anything like that."

"Well, he doesn't have Superman and Wonder Woman working for him every day," Andy grinned. "You and Mickey were something else." She tilted her head, "You were really able to hold it together and read Anton that well?"

"If I wasn't positive he was going to pull that stunt, I would never have said something hurt you. But I was desperate to at least get you out of here before I tried to play any more mind games with Hill. I'm sorry I had to do that. The words almost stuck in my throat and I couldn't even look at you while saying such a lie."

"It's all right, Sam. It's funny. Now that I see Monica as a much more sympathetic and worthy rival, I'm actually less jealous of her. I really feel for her right now. I hope her family can help her through it," Andy said.

"They're pretty close since her sister passed. So I'm sure they'll insist on taking her away for a while. They've been worried about her obsession too. But it's not too late for her to turn her life in a happier direction. She can do just about anything if she really sets her mind to it. Plus, she has someone new in her life that I'll tell you about later.

Thank you for not having doubts after all you heard today. You're the one who's really something else. I must be the luckiest guy walking the planet. I feel like I dodged about a thousand bullets. I don't think I'm really going to believe you're unscathed until I've made love to you half a dozen times to make sure every part of you is still the way I remember it. This morning seems like a thousand years ago," Sam couldn't even muster the strength to put a twinkle to his eyes. He was still feeling the aftermath of sheer terror running through him.

Andy looked at him just as solemnly. "I need that reassurance too. You think I wasn't terrified of what Anton might have done to you? I didn't even realize you had someone inside backing you up at first. You seemed to be crazy enough to trade yourself for us. This time I knew you wouldn't come without backup, but I thought you were going to be stuck in here waiting for a SWAT team to bust through the doors, probably ending up in the middle of a crossfire. It was like the night of our undercover operation all over again. I kept seeing images of you in a body bag because you had felt you had to keep some promise to come after me instead of leaving it to those who are trained for this kind of thing."

"There was never any question of that. I wasn't about to sit back and let you become collateral damage to my hunt for my white whale," Sam said firmly.

"Well, let's go home and work out our anxieties somewhere more private. I'm exhausted," Andy said, deciding it was useless to argue he'd taken a needless risk.

"I thought you'd never ask," he said with a smile, finally beginning to shake off the after effects of the day's stress.

As they exited the restaurant, Traci caught sight of them and dropped to her knees on the grassy strip next to the police car. She'd been pacing anxiously ever since Sam went in followed shortly by the HRT guys. Now relief washed over her.

Andy broke away from Sam to give Traci a hand up and wrap her friend in a reassuring hug. "It all turned out fine. No one got hurt but Anton Hill."

"How did we miss him bringing you in?" Traci asked.

"His muscle brought us in through the connecting Sauna Club. It has an entrance from the parking garage down the block that is well camouflaged. You couldn't know where to post a surveillance team even if anyone had expected him to be bringing in hostages," Andy assured her.

Traci looked at Sam and started to apologize again, but he waved her off.

"No need. But Nash, lay off the twitter for a while. Next time you tweet something like that before finding out the whole story, then you'll have an appointment to meet with my vice grips," but Sam's lips twitched ruining his mock scowl.

Andy slapped his arm, "Sam, too soon! Ignore him, Traci. That's just an inside joke. He doesn't mean it."

"Yes I do!" Sam protested with a laugh. "No hard feelings Nash, but I do not want to be on the wrong side of your protective instincts again without good reason. Did she tell you she also took a swing at me and called me a Manwhore?"

Andy choked on a laugh, "No! Really, Trace?"

Traci shot her a sheepish grin, Yeah, 'fraid so. Well, Manslut actually, but same difference."

Andy laughed and shook her head, "I actually kind of wish I'd seen that one. Guess you better not ever cheat on me for real," she elbowed Sam playfully.

"No chance of that! I know a good thing when I've finally got it. I already told Epstein I'm definitely a one-woman man," he smiled and wrapped his arm around her again.

"Thanks again for sticking around, ladies. I'll tell you the whole story soon, but right now I really need to get out of here and spend some quality time with my one and only woman now that I've got her back safe and sound," he waved a farewell to Noelle and Traci as he steered Andy toward his truck.

~~~0~~~

AN: To clarify the time line a bit, Monica's sister Melissa died from using some of Mink Barker's bad heroin long before the rash of ODs preceding his murder on the day Andy blew Sam's cover. He never suspected a link between Barker and Melissa, but having seen the damage Monica bore from a sister's OD, he was happy someone took out Barker, and not all that thrilled that Andy caught the kid who did it. Anton caught on to what happened and was going to give him a much more painful death if the kid hadn't gotten to him first. Tragedy all around.

Also just wanted to say I decided to allow Sam to be a hero, but make it a little different from the standard 'man rescues the damsels in distress' resolution to the story. I really liked Mickey in Would Be Kings, so I wanted her namesake to get to be the decisive physical badass, while Sam is more mentally tough as part of mixing things up. That balanced my love of Sam with my appreciation of Rookie Blue as a largely female-driven show.