A/N: Hey, guys! Sorry for the wait, but I had a lot of trouble with this chapter. But here we are! This is officially the halfway point for the story, so believe me, people who are waiting on McSwarek and Luke action, have no fear. There's plenty of time. So, yeah, as always, read review, and enjoy!

"Why am I the only one who's ever on time to parade?" Gail wondered loudly to herself as she walked by the others on her way to the Parade Room.
Andy, Traci, Nick, Dov, and Chris all rolled their eyes at her. "She likes holding our mistakes over her head. She literally gets pleasure from it," Traci mused in wonder.
Andy snorted. "You're just now realizing this?" Traci tipped her head in acknowledgement. "But, whatever she says, we should go."
The rookies nodded and stood up to file into the Parade Room. Andy and Nick sat together at one table, the others spread out in the room. They hadn't told anyone about their new relationship, mainly because they had yet to define it. They hadn't had the exclusive/open-casual/serious conversation yet, and Andy was nervous they were both scared of the other's answer. She didn't know if she'd be able to bear it if he decided he wanted an open, casual relationship.
She'd decided after they kissed that she would be faithful to him, even if he decided he didn't want to be exclusive. She knew how it felt to be cheated on. She would never do that to again, she had kissed Sam during the beginning of her relationship with Luke. Maybe he was just her weakness.
"Alright, everybody, we've got a lot to cover today." Frank's voice jarred her out of her thoughts. "First off, there's a change of position for the double homicide case. It's now under Detective Callaghan's command, and he's going to make a few more changes as we try to uncover the details of these two murders. Detective Callaghan."
There was a spattering of applause as Frank stepped down and Luke took his place in front of the officers. "Okay, then. Now, the majority of you can go ahead and look at your assignments on the board. I need Detectives Swarek and Nash, and Officers Peck, Price, Dias, Epstein, Collins, Cruz, Shaw, and McNally. The rest of you may go."
The officers who were not called stand up from their seats and make their way to the back of the room to quickly check assignments before leaving. The group that is left, along with Frank, sit scattered around the room.
"The first order of business is a new undercover mission," Luke said, holding up a hand when Sam, Andy, and Nick all opened their mouths in concern. "It's completely free of Guns and Gangs, don't worry. We won't have Boyd or Blackstone in charge of any of you, I promise. I want at least one detective in on this." He looked at Sam and Traci, who glanced between each other.
"I think Swarek should do it," Traci said. "I've got Leo, and you've got nothing to tie you here."
"Is that true?" Luke asked, looking somewhat put out. That had Andy rolling her eyes. She knew Luke and Sam had never had the best relationship, even before there had been anything between Luke and Jo. And now that he'd come back, their relationship was strained again. If Luke started getting jealous of Sam not having a girlfriend anymore, she was in for trouble. From all three of the men. She knew Sam already didn't like Nick, but she had no clue what Luke thought of him.
She marveled at her thoughts. Not many other women in the world could say they had three men legitimately wrapped around her fingers. That thought crossed her mind, closely followed by a small inner smile. Then again, that could be kind of fun…
"Yeah, it's true." Sam's voice interrupted her thoughts. She needed to stay focused.
"Fine, Swarek it is," Luke sounded somewhat tense, but if the whole room hadn't known why, it wouldn't have sounded that different. "I need at least one other person in on this, both for the safety of Detective Swarek and for the sake of more information and less suspicious circumstances for our targets."
The officers looked amongst themselves. There was silence in the room for a few moments.
"I think McNally and Collins should go as well." All heads turned to see Marlo sitting alone at a table. Andy was somewhat horrified. Was there a worse possible group to go into this? Yes, she answered herself sarcastically. Her, Nick, Sam, and Luke. Then again, Luke would be their handler if they went, so he was kind of on the team. "Think about it," Marlo continued. "They worked together undercover for months, they're partners, they know how to operate together. Swarek helped train both of them. And McNally and Swarek used to be partners."
Had the rest of the people in the room not known the long, sordid story of Sam and Andy's relationship, and then the ending of Marlo and Sam's relationship, they would have missed the slight change in the timbre of her voice when she spoke about their partnership. They would have assumed she was talking about them as partners. But they did know, and everyone understood that Andy shared a certain bond with both Sam and Nick. It was true that they'd be able to gauge each other's emotions.
"Okay," Luke said, clearing his throat to clear the uncomfortable silence in the room. Not that it did much, because he had history with Andy as well. She felt herself wishing she could sink down in the seat. She was the cause of the extreme discomfort in the room. "Any objections?"
No one in the room raised her hand, but Andy wanted to shout "Me! I object! I do not want to be cooped up in an apartment with my ex and the man I thought was the love of my life, with only my ex-fiancee to talk to!" But, of course, she couldn't say that. She couldn't put the awkwardness everyone was feeling into words or it would suddenly become strikingly real.
"That's settled, then," Luke said, somewhat broodingly. "Swarek and Collins will pose as brothers; McNally will pose as one of their girlfriends." His gaze flicked over Andy, Sam, and Nick. "You can all choose whose girlfriend she is."
Wow. She might have been the reason behind it, but she was not the cause of the tension that would be ever-present in the undercover apartment.
"You will all be put into the neighborhood where the double homicide and the break in a few days later occurred," Luke continued, making Andy pay attention. This was information she'd need for the undercover mission. "One of you will be getting a job in the neighborhood of the gas station, hopefully at the gas station itself; one of you will be posing as a guidance counselor at the school, where the young couple go to school. The third can pick their profession, and is mainly going to be there for the safety of the others and to make the cover story more convincing. Again, I'll leave it up to you to decide who goes where."
"When do we leave?" Sam asked from the back of the room.
"Tonight," Luke replied, an almost pleased glimmer appearing in his eyes at Sam's expression of shock."That's why the three of you are dismissed from duty today. You are free to go home and pack." When they just sat there, Luke raised his eyebrows at them and said, "And that was now."
Looking back and forth between each other, Sam, Nick, and Andy got up hesitantly and walked out of the room. Andy knew Luke was pissed off about her love life, and he was taking it out on all of them, but she had never thought he'd be rude or let his feelings interfere with his work. So much for what she thought she knew about him.

"You ready to go?" Luke stood in Andy's living room later that day, waiting as she zipped up a bag. She glanced around, checking for any last objects she wanted to take undercover with her. They were staying in Toronto this time, but they still were not allowed to have contact with anyone.
"Uh, yeah, I think so." She wiped her hands down the back of her jeans. It was incredibly awkward, standing there like they weren't both remembering the times he'd picked her up for a date or decided to stay over after one. "Let's go," she said after a tension-filled minute. He nodded hesitantly, glancing around before backing out of the room.
They reached the truck, where Sam and Nick were already sitting in the backseat. Both of them looked like they were ready to kill each other, or Luke, but Andy was not about to let that happen. If she was going to go undercover again, she was going to prove she could do it successfully. Something had always gotten in the way before. She'd always done something wrong. She wasn't ready to let that happen again, and her record seriously needed the help. She was almost certain one more undercover screwup would get her fired.
Everyone, including Andy, was silent as she climbed into the front seat of the truck. Luke started it up and pulled out into the road, away from her apartment. She turned, ignoring the faces of the men who complicated her life and watched as her apartment building shrunk and eventually disappeared as they rounded a corner in the grid of city streets. She knew it couldn't be a long drive, but it felt like forever. They were separating themselves form the lives they lived and taking on new identities.
What seemed like hours later, both due to the uncomfortable silence in the car and the unusual sadness Andy was feeling, they pulled up to the same building Sam had stayed in during his last undercover mission. Which she had screwed up. Memories flooded her mind.
She and Sam, naked in the bed. She and Sam, naked on the floor. She and Sam, naked… okay, pretty much all over the apartment. But there was also the fear she'd felt when Sam was gone. She glanced back and her eyes were met by Sam's piercing ones. She sometimes felt like they could see into her soul, could tell what she was feeling and what she was thinking. It unnerved her. As if his gaze was doing just that, he smirked at her.
She instantly shifted her eyes to Nick's, who were looking at her in concern. She instantly scolded herself for think about Sam in the way she had been. She had a great guy who cared about her, who wanted to spend time with her and not some other woman. She smiled at him and turned back around. She missed the way Sam shifted his eyes over to Nick when he back was turned.
"Okay, remember," Luke said, breaking into Andy's thoughts. "You're playing a character, but the character is going to be based on yourself. Tell the truth as often as possible, and there's less of chance that you'll run into trouble for contradicting yourself. Get your things sorted out. We start tomorrow."
She nodded slightly and ducked out of the front seat of the truck, sensing Nick and Sam exiting behind her. They climbed the stairs to the apartment in silence and stood, staring at each other, or Sam and Nick were almost glaring, and she finally clapped her hands. "Okay, well, I'm going to stick my stuff in the bedroom. We can rotate between the bed, the couch, and the floor."
"No," was the automatic response from both men. She looked between them in confusion.
"You're not sleeping on the floor, Andy," Nick said in a firm tone. She narrowed her eyes at him, but he just stared right back and raised his eyebrows. "You're not."
Sam cleared his throat. "He's right, Andy. We can rotate between the floor and the coach. You can have the bed."
"Okay, this is just like any other undercover mission, guys." She wanted to roll her eyes at their testosterone poisoning. "Just because you're both men and I'm a woman doesn't mean I can't sleep on the floor once every third night."
Nick stepped up to her and took her hands, looking into her eyes. "Andy." She looked carefully into his eyes, unsure if she could stand the tenderness there. Damn Sam Swarek. "You are not sleeping on the floor on my watch. Go put your stuff in the bedroom."
She narrowed her eyes at him, then finally rolled them. "Fine. But don't think this is over." She turned on her heel and walked into the bedroom. She shoved her things onto the floor and sat down on the bed, glancing around. So many memories of that room. After a moment, she stood and walked to the door, but paused when she heard Sam and Nick talking to each other through the wood.
"She can be my girlfriend," she heard Sam say. "We've already posed as a couple, it would make the process easier."
"No way in hell," Nick's voice floated through the air.
"What makes you think the two of you would be more convincing?"
There was a long, heavy pause, and she held her breath, unsure of what was next. "Because she's my girlfriend in real life."
Andy hadn't known she was waiting to hear those words until he said them. But as soon as he did, she was filled with a sense of relief and happiness. She was truly excited to be publicly his girlfriend. As complicated as her feelings for Sam were, her feelings for Nick were simple: she liked him. And it was definitely worth seeing where their relationship could go. Hearing all she needed to hear, she opened the door and stepped back into the room.

The next morning, they went their separate ways for work. Andy was chosen to be the school counselor, Sam to work at the convenience store, and Nick was wandering the neighborhood, looking for any information he could get on either Jerry's death or the double murder.
He was walking down the street by a basketball court when he stopped. On the court with about nine other guys was none other than Vince Rossario. Nick shook his head. Vince had been in and out of 15 Division for years, for anything from possession to robbery. Luckily enough, he didn't know Nick. Nick had never been around when Vince had been brought in. It was perfect. He knew Vince had gang relations, and he needed to get some information on the case. If anyone unconnected to the murders knew about them, it would be a few of the gangs.
He stepped into the court and caught the ball when it rolled his way. Vince jogged over and held out his hand. "Thanks, man."
"Mind if I join?" Nick tossed the ball back to Vince, who surveyed him for a minute, than nodded.
"You look like you fit in here." He turned his back and Nick followed him back to the group of guys playing. "What's your name?"
"Nick." He said, watching as they grouped up in front of him.
"Well, Nick," Vince said. "I'm Vince. And before you play with us, I need to know something."
"Sure." Nick's inner panic button activated, but he kept himself calm. If this was going to get him into the gang, which was the best possible place for him to be, he needed to do it.
"You ever heard anything about the Mickey Cobras?" Nick was eyed with suspicion, but that was to be expected.
"Uh, yeah, why?"
"You want in with us, you get in with them." Vince's gaze didn't waver. "We tell them about you, you make a demonstration, they initiate you."
"A demonstration?"
"One guy recently killed two people at a drugstore." A lightbulb flickered on in Nick's brain. The double homicide had gang connections. "Another guy about a year ago killed a detective from 15 Division." And there was the link he'd been looking for,
"I'll think about it." Nick nodded. If he needed a demonstration, it might be harder to get in with them than he'd thought. But it was his job, so he'd think of something. "Can we still play?"
They glanced at each other, then turned back to face Nick. Vince spoke with a smirk on his face. "Yeah, dude. For today. But don't come back until you've made up your mind."
Nick nodded solemnly and caught the ball when it was passed forcefully to him. "Let's play."

Nick entered the apartment that night with a grin on his face. "Honey, I'm home."

"She's not back yet," came Sam's sullen and grumpy reply. Not that that was out of ordinary, but now he had the satisfaction of knowing why. "She called about five minutes ago and said she'd be her soon. Any minute now."
Nick nodded and dropped himself into the couch, opposite where Sam sat on a chair. Five silent minutes later, the door opened again and Andy walked in. "Hey, guys, good day?" She dropped her purse on the table and sat down next to Nick, brushing a chaste kiss over his lips. It felt good to be able to do that again, and even better to know she could finally torment Sam back for the hell he'd put her through.
"Yeah, actually I got a lot of intel on the case." Sam and Andy looked at him in confusion. Was it possible that the one of them that hadn't been specifically assigned a task by Luke had managed to make more headway than either of the two who had?
"What'd you learn?" Nick leaned forward, and proceeded to tell them about the connection between Jerry's death and the double homicide.