I apologize for the delay, the paper got completed (27 pages of blah). One more final and the semester is over. Thanks for sticking in there with me. By the lack of reviews, I think the story is becoming a dud, but I will at least finish it for those who have been following along, though it may be quicker than intended!

Thank you again for your comments and ideas… I hope I am hitting on some of them in the story! Now I finally get to read all the fabulous updates of everyone else! I can't wait!

Nikka

O o O o O

Another two weeks had gone by and Andy couldn't help but feel herself begin to get even more attached to the children she was working with every day. As Andy wiped up the glitter that had somehow found its way into every imaginable crevice, she could help but think about what she would report to Boyd later.

Boyd had practically flipped when she told him about Brennan giving her a ride to their meeting spot and when she told him about Jimmy Rourke, she swore that he was going to have an apoplectic fit right there. Andy looked down at the bruise that was beginning to mellow against her tan skin. She wanted to be pissed off at Boyd for the way he had tightened his hand around her wrist, but she found that she couldn't be. Rourke's presence had clearly shaken Boyd up and if Andy didn't know any better, she'd think that Boyd was actually worried about her.

Andy was coming to think that tightening his hand painfully around her wrist was becoming Boyd's tell for when something was bothering him about this case. It was almost like he had to have some point of physical contact with her to feel like he got her attention when he felt like things were getting critical.

Two days after Rourke's impromptu visit and Jamie Brenna's moment of kindness, Boyd had gripped her wrist tightly, seeming to flex his grip, loosening and tightening as he spoke to her without really being aware that he was doing it. Apparently, there had been a few hits on Andy's cover ID, Gabby Scott. Boyd was anxious as he spoke quietly to her about the necessity to put a second cover ID in place.

"Gabby Scott only goes a few layers deep," he said to her as he tucked her into his side. He'd begun to meet her at the bus stop instead of waiting for her inside after Brennan's appearance. "I had to put a new ID in place that goes deeper. Way deeper. You're going to have to explain why you've been using a fake name."

He stopped walking and looked down at her with concern written on his face. "Andy, by now, whoever is checking into you knows you're not really Gabby Scott, but I don't think you're made yet." Boyd quieted a bit and wet his lips as they continued walking, his hand still tight around her wrist, his grip tightening again. He didn't seem to notice her wince.

"You don't have to stay under McNally," Boyd's voice was pensive. "You've given us enough intel on the Brennan's for Sammy to be okay in his op."

Andy felt herself bristle as she tried to tug her arm free from his grip, momentarily forgetting that whether he meant it or not, he was hurting her and probably making that light bruise around her wrist deepen a bit.

"I'm not letting Sam walk in there blind," she retorted looking up at him with an intensity in her eyes that startled Boyd. "I'm staying. The more information I can get the safer he will be."

Boyd pursed his lips and motioned for her to continue moving. "It's not going to be easy McNally. You've got to pull this off. You're going to be called out on this and Brennan is a dangerous man."

Andy felt a bit of worry about Brennan. His file had caused her no amount of worry, but she was still having trouble reconciling the man she met with the man who was talented at torture. She remembered Sam's words about the importance on intel heading into a UC and couldn't help but repeat them.

"Information makes or breaks an op," her voice was measured, emotionless as she repeated Sam's words. "If you go in with subpar information, it doesn't matter how quickly you think on your feet, you're already made." She looked up at Boyd again and squeezed his hand back. "I won't be the reason that Sam gets made. I owe him."

Andy was broken out of reverie by Gracie Brennan squealing loudly at her daddy came into the classroom to get her. The glitter mess temporarily forgotten, Andy couldn't help but feel nervous as she watched Jamie Brennan scoop up his daughter, brushing back her hair away from her face. The moment that Gracie wrapped her arms around her father's neck, Andy knew by the way that his eyes never left her face that Jamie Brennan was the one who had been checking into Gabby Scott's background.

A sliver of fear ran up her spine and she had to struggle not to throw up. Andy prayed that after two years, she had learned to mask her thoughts in an expressionless mask that she had often seen Sam wear when he was unsure of something. Deep down, Andy knew that she was terrified, and without Sam here, it was going to take everything in her to control her fear.

"Mr. Brennan," she said shyly, before sending a nervous smile to Gracie. "Let me get Gracie's things together for you.

"That's perfectly alright Ms. O'Farrell," Jamie Brenna said in a casual voice. "My wife can get Gracie's things, I'd like to speak to you for a moment. Privately."

Alarm bells were screeching in Andy's brain. As she felt her heart speed up, she tried to remember Boyd's exact words about her cover story. Jamie Brennan had just confirmed that he was the one doing the digging about her, but she couldn't figure out why.

Trying to remain calm, Andy took a deep breath and stared at Brennan, noting that somewhere behind her, his wife had started gathering Gracie's things. Andy didn't think Brennan would do anything in front of her family, but she couldn't exactly justify that gut feeling.

Andy watched as Brennan met her widened eyes and prayed that her face displayed the appropriate amount of confusion at the new name rolling off of his tongue. For his part, Brennan looked at her clearly assessing her and then rolled his over the front of his teeth and then looked over at his family before looking her in the eye again. She watched, holding a breath, as he stepped closer to her.

"I know that you're name is really Candace O'Farrell, but I don't know why you've decided to go by your mother's name, or what you're running from," he paused looking thoughtful. "But I do have a proposition for you. Of course, you'd have to be willing to answer my questions."

Andy's knee jerk reaction was to deny it. She bristled and had trouble masking the terror. Andy felt her eyes search out the nearest escape route, but noticing she was pretty much stuck, she gulped and met his eye before squaring his shoulders.

"We all have things from our past we're trying to escape Mr. Brennan," she said seriously. "Some things are of our own making, some things we're simply caught in the middle of."

To his credit, Jamie Brennan actually smiled at her. If she hadn't been so worried about whether or not he though she was a cop, Andy might have smirked back at him.

"Tomorrow, six o'clock Ms. O'Farrell. Meet me at the diner down on Elsworth. Don't worry, Maggie and Gracie will be with us."

"I, um-" Andy felt herself stammer and couldn't come up with a reasonable excuse at the moment. What the hell is going on? Noting the way his body language and raised eyebrow told her that he wouldn't take no for an answer, she agreed in a mumbled voice.

"Oh and Candace," he smiled noting her stiff posture at the use of her 'real' name. "That boyfriend of yours needs to lighten up a bit on that grip of his. Bruises are unbecoming on a woman."

Andy blushed and moved to hide the bruise on her left wrist. When she looked up to begin a denial that Boyd had caused it out of malice, Brennan was already ushering her

O o O o O

Sam's foul mood had not improved. He couldn't exactly remember the last time he'd been this continuously pissed off about everything and everyone. Wait, yes he could. When McNally went to the fishing cabin with Callaghan.

Sam huffed at himself and decided to find Oliver in an attempt to switch rookies for the day. Oliver had been hoarding Diaz and Sam had been stuck with Epstein for the last month. HE thought he was going to crack. God do I miss McNally.

On his way past the interrogation room, he heard Chris Diaz raise his voice. Stopping for a moment, Sam almost felt guilty until he heard Traci's voice as well followed by Andy's name. Not usually one to snoop, Sam felt a bit apprehensive about what he was about to do as he checked to make sure that the hall way was clear before slipping into the observation room to try and see what the rookies were talking about.

Sam peered at the window that looked into the interrogation room and moved forward to press the button so that he could hear what the two rookies were saying. He watched feeling a ball of tension settle in the pit of his stomach and he noticed Diaz's agitate manner and Nash's disbelieving face.

"I don't know what it is lately," Chris said moving his hands around as he paced. "She's not sleeping, nearly jumps out of her skin and runs to her phone when it beeps or rings. I actually caught her sneaking out in the middle of the night, and then when she comes back, she checks every window and door to make sure it's locked."

"Look," Nash began in a troubled voice. It was evident that she was worried but trying to give the benefit of the doubt to the situation. "Boyd probably has her doing something ridiculous just to get back at her. Probably showed her some kind of files that have her all freaked out. Knowing Andy, she got absorbed into them and now she's paranoid."

"It's more than that," he said flatly, an angry undertone painting his voice. "She's so jumpy like she's expecting something to come at her. I can't take it," his voice nearly broke. "I can't take her being scared of something. She's the fearless one."

Sam could feel the knot in his stomach drop at the conversation. Looking up at the ceiling in a failed attempt to clear his head, Sam knew that her silence over the past few weeks should have cued him in on something being wrong. He should have been the first one to notice, but his attempts at contact had been futile and failed.

"She's got a bruise on her arm Traci," Chris' voice had gone hard and Sam's head slammed down as his eyes snapped on Diaz's face through the glass. Sam watched through narrowed eyes Diaz trying to absorb every detail that might tell him some more information.

"What are you talking about," Traci asked, not understanding what he was saying.

Sam watched Diaz take in a breath as he looked at the floor and then looked at Nash.

"She has this bruise on her wrist, and when I ask her about it, she says she wasn't watching where she was going and that Boyd yanked her arm to stop her from walking into traffic."

Nash blinked several times at him trying to figure it out. "It's possible," she said slowly. "You know Andy, she was probably trying to prove something to him and, who knows, maybe it was just like she said."

"Then why did it nearly go away, only to show up darker a few days ago," Chris deadpanned.

Sam had heard enough. It didn't make sense that Boyd would put his hands on her, but he couldn't rule it out. Clearly, the man Andy had been living with, sleeping with, had noticed something was wrong and in true McNally fashion, she was spinning some kind of diluted web of deception to protect him from something. Sam had had it.

He threw the door open and began stomping down the hall way towards the precinct exit. Boyd and McNally both had some explaining to do.

O o O o O

It was nearly five when Sam entered the doors of the Guns and Gangs Unit, but he knew that Boyd would still be there. The man almost never left work at a normal hour. After a few quick acknowledgements to detectives he had worked with, Sam spotted one of Boyd's team members at his desk.

As Sam approached the man looked up at him with a smile. "Sammy, how are you man," he asked, standing up to shake Sam's hand.

"Good David," he said as his eyes traveled around the room looking for his partner.

"You looking for Boyd or that rookie of yours?"

Sam looked at David and shrugged. "Looking for my partner, we had a prior commitment that she missed and wasn't answering her phone. I came down to find out why she's blowing this meeting off."

David laughed at Sam and headed towards Boyd's desk. Pulling open the top he drawer he picked Andy's phone and waved it for Sam to see. "He took it from McNally, you know. Nothing personal goes with you out on a job. It's been going off quite a bit, but he just looks at the messages, debates what to say for a few minutes and says something that seems to get the person to trying to get a hold of her for a few hours. I really don't know how she takes him having the balls to answer her texts for her."

Sam looked at David for a moment not comprehending what he had just heard. When the phone was placed in his hands it all suddenly made sense. Andy hadn't been the one blowing him off for weeks. It was Boyd. Sam would bet his entire paycheck that Andy had never saw any of his messages.

The awkward silence that Sam had fallen into was broken by David clearing his throat. Looking up at the other man with a look that was both apologetic and asking him to repeat what he said, Sam slipped Andy's phone into his pocket.

"I was saying that your girl is good Sammy," David said motioning for Sam to follow him.

"Of course she is, I trained her the last two years," Sam said with a false bravado, trying to act like he knew what the hell was going on. David stopped abruptly turning to face Sam with a serious look.

"No Sam, you don't get it," David said quietly. "I've never seen anyone take to a role like she does except for you. She does it almost effortlessly, without thinking. Keeps it real, keeps it simple. When she trips herself up, it seems like it's a perfectly natural reaction for her character."

Noting the way Sam's eyes probed him for further explanation, David continued. "This case isn't a joke Sam. We both know Rourke and Brennan are major players and your girl has them eating out of her hands."

At the mention of Rourke and Brennan, Sam's face visibly darkened. The look in his eyes was murderous and David's easy manners were effected. The air practically crackled with tension.

"Come on Sam," David said uneasily. "She's debriefing with Boyd right now. Brennan has made her offer."

For the second time that day, Sam stepped into an observation room to see Andy and Boyd seated at the table on the other side of the glass. She looked relatively clam despite the agitation that that was evident in the way she fiddled with her hands. The blood rushing to his head left Sam feeling a bit light headed as he tried to focus on what Boyd and Andy were talking about.

"He knew that my cover ID was fake," Andy stated looking at Boyd. "He called me by my secondary cover and said that he knew I'd been hiding something."

"Did he say anything that indicated that he knew you were a cop," Boyd asked her.

Sam watched as Andy shook her head and continued to meet Boyd's gaze. "No, he said he'd answer my questions but only if I agreed to the meet –"

The rest of what Andy had been saying had been lost on Sam as he stormed out of the observation room and slammed the door to the interrogation room open and stomped through.

Andy and Boyd jumped and looked at the door.

"Sam!"

"No freaking way, Andy McNally," Sam said in an eerily calm voice. His murderous gaze pinned her to her spot. "No freaking way are you going anywhere near a meet that Jamie Brennan set up."

O o O o O

Dun dun dun.

Sam found out. Hopefully it wasn't too disappointing, he's going to get his say in next chapter!

Let me know what you think.