Again... I am amazed and trying to get back to each of you between working on my research paper which is turning into a hellish mess. If I have not gotten back to you personally yet, I will do so before the weekend is out!

For those of you who like Boyd... He serves a purpose... And he's not all bad in my book. Just a bit annoying :)

To the two individuals who weren't kind enough to leave me a review that I couldn't respond back to, I deeply apologize for you not liking the story line. Despite your rather strong opinions, I am not a teenager or naive. I am a happy twenty something, who has been in successful (and yes, completely faithful and healthy ) relationships in my life. I am successful at my job and have not needed to play head games in relationships. I apologize for you not liking the story or the story lines. In my own defense however, Sam is not wimpy, Andy is not a slut, and Chris is not opportunistic. To put it simply, I am not sure where those characterizations are coming from, but I would be happy to debate them with you. It certainly is a new perspective on the story and a wholly unintentional one. I will continue to keep your viewpoints in mind, however, I make no promises that I can or will make you happy. For that alone, I apologize.

That being said... on to the next chapter!

Nikka

Andy followed Boyd to the station conference room at a slow pace. She was in no hurry to be assigned his grunt work and wished there was some way she could out of it. The internal debate in her head told her that she was indeed stuck and there was no getting out. Checking her watch, Andy realized that her last day on rotation for this week had really only just begun. Boyd hated her for interfering in his ops, so she could only grimace at what he had planned for her. Sam always told her that payback was a bitch, and Boyd was a man who definitely enjoyed paying back favors.

When they got to the conference room, Boyd held the door open for her with a smile and motioned for her to go in ahead of him. It's never good when that man smiles, especially at me. There was definite feeling of dread in her chest as she walked into the room.

Andy had already thought of a few excuses including a highly contagious airborne illness that she could come down with and if it came down to it, begging one of the training officers to attempt to bail her out of this. Best had told her just last week that she should focus on working with the detectives more because it would put some of her talent to use. At the time, she'd been excited, despite Sam being in a somewhat grumpy mood the whole rest of the day after Best's comments to her. In fact the only thing that he did besides glare at her was chomp on gum, snapping it in the silences stuck in the cruiser simply because he knew it annoyed her.

She had noticed that Sam had been chewing gum a lot lately. She was starting to realize that he only did this when he was really agitated and didn't want to say something he really wanted to, but probably wouldn't benefit him at all. Andy made a mental note to start carrying a pack of gum or two just to see if she could get Sam to crack a smile when she handed it to him. Her luck, he'd probably scowl and mess up so badly on the paperwork that she'd be stuck doing it for a week.

Andy was broken from her rambling thoughts by someone clearing their throat. She looked up a bit bewildered to see Jerry and Superintendent Peck in the room. Boyd placed his hand on the small of her back and pushed her inside the room closing the door and even locking it behind him.

If she was capable, Andy would have audibly gulped, instead she merely stared a bit more wide eyed then necessary. Andy managed to surprise herself with her level of comportment facing this group and somehow managed to merely raise an eyebrow while keeping the rest of her face relatively neutral.

"Officer McNally," Superintendent Peck began. Her voice clearly claimed authority. This was her show and now one would think otherwise. "So glad to have you join us."

Andy simply nodded and looked to the two men in the room for an explanation. Watching the look that the Superintendent sent towards Boyd, she saw him raise a hand to his jaw rubbing his face. He clearly didn't want to whatever it was he was being ordered to do here. Andy had to resist the urge to fidget and settled for curling her toe and unfolding it in her boot as a mode of getting the nervous energy out.

"McNally," Boyd looked at her with something like a perverse amusement on his face. "We have a slight complication with one of our CI's and need some help. It's a special circumstance, we don't quite have anyone trained for this."

Andy went from looking at Boyd to sending a slightly startled look towards Jerry and then to Superintendent Peck. The woman who generally made people feel as comfortable as her daughter wore a reassuring if not slightly amused smile.

"No offense," Andy asked a bit unsettled by this situation. "But, Boyd hates me. Doesn't want me within a 10 mile radius of his ops -"

"More like 20," Boyd cut in only to be silenced by a look from his commanding officer.

"Like Detective Body said Officer McNally," he voice was casual, almost bored. But there was no mistaking that is was predatory. "This is a special circumstance and Detective Barber here has assured me that you posses the... capabilities that we are looking for."

Andy's eyes shot towards Jerry who seemed slightly uncomfortable. This did not sound promising at all.

"Officer McNally, there is no need to be hesitant about this. It's in your blood. Your father was one hell of a cop and I was honored to work with him. This type of chance could make or break your career."

Andy looked at the woman before her in amazement and slight embarrassment at her having used Andy's father to strong arm her into saying yes before she even knew what it was that she was agreeing to. And then this nagging little voice was practically shouting a question at her in her mind.

"Permission to ask a question ma'am," Andy asked politely trying to ignore the disbelieving looks on the faces of Jerry and Boyd.

Andy squared her shoulders and held her head confidently despite feeling anything but confident about her question. "Why me ma'am? I mean, it's just that," Andy stumbled a bit on her words. "It's no secret that you want Gail to pursue other avenues that will lead to her advancement. Why give me an opportunity where she is a viable substitute?"

Jerry and Boyd merely gawked at her audacity though were slightly impressed at her nailing their own question on the head. Gail Peck was a bit calmer under pressure and was definitely out to advance in her career, but she lacked the passion for the job that Andy had. There was a definite smirk on the superintendent's face.

"There are certain tasks that my daughter most definitely does not possess the necessary skills for." She paused a moment almost thoughtful. "This is definitely one of those tasks and besides. You've spent nearly two years partnered with one of the best UC operatives that we've ever had. There is no way that those experiences and training haven't rubbed off on you given the working relationship that you two have."

Andy looked a bit dumbfounded and honestly hadn't expected that answer. She knew that there was a good chance that she was going to push buttons with her question, but she hadn't expected so much directness.

Andy let out a sigh of relief hoping to find the catch in this whole thing before it was too late to say no.

Sam had been grateful to have his day finally over. Despite all his predictions, Epstein had actually been on his best behavior today. He had been relatively quiet, which was completely unexpected, but Sam wasn't going to put a lot of brain power into figuring that out. He was simply going to enjoy it and the relatively slow day that he had with just enough activity to keep it from getting dull.

Sam dismissed Epstein and made his way over to Shaw who looked like he stuck in the middle of a perplexing issue. "If you look at that paper any harder, you might just lose the last few brain cells that you have left."

Oliver looked up and made a face at him that told him just how funny he thought Sam was at that particular moment. Sam made an attempt at swiping the file from him before they fell into their easy chiding antics.

Eventually, Noelle joined the two men. "Either of you two seen the rookies? They've been oddly well behaved today."

Oliver laughed telling Noelle not to jinx things as he began pointing them out. "Peck and Nash are on desk, Sammy brought Epstein back, alive. Go figure." He cast a look in Sam's direction before finding it better to look somewhere else and continued. "McNally hasn't been seen all day and neither has Boyd for that matter. I wonder who's still alive."

Sam allowed a momentary look of concern to cross his face before his thoughts were interrupted by Noelle. "You missed one Ollie. When one goes missing it can be trouble."

"Nah Diaz is around here somewhere," Oliver turned his chair to look at him. "He's been checking his damn phone all and pouting because it's been silent. I swear at one point he made me call him like three times and send a text message just to make sure it was working."

Oliver almost instantly regretted saying so much about Diaz as he saw Sam tense up a bit. It was very clear that he was caught off guard with the rookies' behavior of late, but until he went and spoke to his rookie, there wasn't going to be any peace to be had.

At that moment, Oliver's rookie for the day chose to walk across the bullpen with a troubled look on his face. He still fiddling with his phone and trying to read a text message from the look of it. He stopped abruptly, appearing to read a message and then took a look around the room. Chris looked up and saw the training officers looking at him and looked a bit uncomfortable.

Suddenly a door slammed and a very pissed off Boyd stormed out of the hallway that led to the interrogation rooms. The man looked absolutely fit to be tied as he stormed up the stairs into Best's office and shut the door with a little bit too much gusto. Sam smirked proudly willing to bet a month's pay check that Andy McNally was the reason behind Boyd's temper tantrum. That's my girl!

Another moment from the hallway caught his attention causing him to lose focus on this amusement at Boyd's mood. Andy suddenly appeared in the bullpen, looking a bit flustered and clearly upset about something. Sam moved to slid off the desk seeing her shell shocked face but stopped when he saw her eyes land on Diaz.

Sam felt as though he was watching a scene from a movie instead of his life as he watched Andy look at Diaz for a moment before quickly making her way to him and reaching for his hand. Diaz looked startled at Andy's appearance, but allowed her to take his hand when she said something to him in a hushed voice. Sam watched helpless as she hauled the other rookie down the hallway and to the first interrogation room where the door shut firmly behind them.

Andy knew that she had pissed Boyd off with her request but at the moment, she didn't really care. She had been banned from telling anyone, but importantly Sam from what her assignment was. She had had to argue vehemently that since she was living with Chris, she had the right to tell him what was going on . She then had to promise on the fear of death that Chris wouldn't breath a soul to anyone, most especially to Sam.

She moved ask quickly as she could to the squad room to try and find Chris before anyone could ask her any questions. He had been sending her messages all day asking if she was surviving Body, but she hadn't had a chance to acknowledge them. When she saw him she moved towards him quickly and grabbed his hand asking him to come with her.

Once the door to the interrogation room was shut, Andy moved to lock it. Turning back towards him she left out a sigh of relief.

"Chris I have to go away for a while."

He stepped forward clearly concerned for her. "Andy, what's wrong?"

She bit her lip as she tried to decide how to best continue. Andy decided she just needed to be blunt and get it over with.

"Boyd has a job for me. Apparently, I'm the only one that can do it. It's short, low stakes, purely information gathering."

Chris looked at her momentarily shocked at her words. "How long?"

"A couple weeks. Daytime thing only, not even full time. I'll be home for a late dinner." She sounded almost convinced that this was how it was going to play out.

Chris looked at her doubtfully and then concern made itself apparent on his face. "How are you going to explain your absence from rotation?"

"Boyd is going to be training me at headquarters. He needs a rookie for paperwork and some of the menial stuff. It's payback for the op we ruined."

"But you and Sam saved his ass on that op!"

"Chris!" Andy looked suddenly startled. "You can't talk about this, that's where I am officially."

"And unofficially."

"I can't tell you. Just know that I'll be okay. And under absolutely no circumstances can you say anything to Sam. Boyd was very clear about what would happen if Sam found out and interfered in this op."

"Yea, cuz do I look like I'm brave enough to incur the Swarek wrath?"

"No I guess not," she laughed at him. "Not that brave or not that dumb?"

"If I admit to the latter, then I'd be insulting your intelligence," He teased with a smirk before pulling Andy into a tight hug. "Be safe."

"Always," she said and hugged Chris back tightly.

I hope you enjoyed this installment! Your reviews make my day!

Nikka