"Good job out there today, Peck."

Gail dragged her eyes away from Chris's tall frame long enough to smile at Swarek. "Thank you, sir."

"Can I buy you a drink?" He gestured vaguely towards the bar.

She nodded and follow him as he weaved his way to two empty stools.

"Any preferences?" Gail slid onto the stool.

"No, lady's choice."

She grinned, "Tequila!" The one liquor that always went straight to her head and was pretty much guaranteed to set the room spinning. Exactly what she needed after tonight.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Sam signaled the bartender.

The shots arrived in short order. "To being cut loose, congratulations," Sam raised his glass.

"Being cut loose!" Gail clinked her glass against his.

They each downed the ounce of liquor in a single gulp. The tequila burned clean and hot down to her stomach. She set the shot glass back on the bar top in tandem with Swarek.

She grinned at him, momentarily forgetting that Chris was less than ten meters away and completely ignoring her existence. She had no one to blame for that but herself, but it still hurt. So, tequila it was, at least for tonight.

There was a shout of triumph from the dartboard, Gail turned without thinking just in time to see Chris hit the target in the head, giving Dove another win by the sound of it. Neither of them had managed to beat Nash's score as far as she could tell, but Dove at least appeared to be improving. She tore her eyes away from Chris's tall from and back to Sam. Tonight was a night to celebrate and as distractions went, he was a good one, but when she cast a glance in his direction his attention was across the bar, on Andy and Luke.

There had been a time, months ago, when Gail would have sworn up and down that McNally and Swarek were something more than just partners, the look on his face in that moment told her she hadn't been entirely wrong. It was the same look Gail knew covered her own face when she looked at Chris.

Unrequited love; an extra crinkle around the eyes, a tightness in the lips. Naked symptoms, poorly masked by the smile that never made it to the eyes; or the "I'm fine" that doesn't quite ring true.

"Are you ok?" She asked, knowing it was none of her business but unable to help herself.

"Yep." Sam turned to face her, "great." He scrutinized her face for a split second, "You?"

Gail fought a sudden urge to laugh, or cry, she was so far from ok she didn't even try to lie about it. "Can we get some air?"

There was compassion and unspoken understanding in Sam's eyes when he nodded. "Sure, sure." He stood and pulled out his wallet. "Just leave this.." he tossed a folded twenty on the bar top. His eyes lingered a moment too long on Andy before he turned and ushered Gail out the door.

It was chilly in the parking lot. Gail pulled her coat around her body to block out the night air as she leaned back against the grill of Sam's truck. With one hand she fumbled in her pocket for the package of cigarettes she knew would still be there. Her mother smoked, said it was a good way to pass the time on long, lonely stakeouts; helped her fit in on UC ops, especially those involving convicts; and cut off any talk of a beautiful woman being too dainty for any job. This pack had been shoved in Gail's pocket by the superintendant herself a week earlier after a particularly horrible family dinner.

Gail had smoked only one smoke from the pack, her weekly limit -self set to stave off yellow teeth, smokers cough and addiction. But this was a night of celebration. And bitter regret. So she pulled out the pack and lighter. "You mind?" She asked Sam.

"Nah," he leaned back next to her at the front of his truck.

"You smoke?"

"Sometimes." Sam shrugged, "Took it up on an undercover assignment last year, haven't had one since McNally busted me."

"Want one?" She flipped open the pack and held it out to him.

He considered the pack in her hands for a moment before taking one.

Gail passed him the lighter and pulled out a cigarette for herself as well. For several moments silence reigned in the parking lot as they each took a few drags of acrid smoke. As always, Gail's lungs burned with the first drag, a gentle reminder that her body hated this habit, regardless of what her mother might say.

It was Sam who broke the silence. "So, you and Diaz, eh?"

She shook her head, flicking a chuck of ash onto the pavement, "Not anymore."

"That have anything to do with what happened with Beebe?"

"You know about that?" She sighed, "Of course you do. Is there anyone who doesn't know?"

"Probably not." Sam took a long drag of his cigarette, eyes fixed on some unseen spot on the far side of the lot. "I'm sorry it went down that way."

Gail turned so she could look him straight on. "Whatever. That was the day of the training exercise. You didn't have anything to do with it." She forced a casual tone, but her eyes were glued to his face, there was a layer of guilt there she desperately wanted to understand. Desperately wanting to know anything that would help her understand why Chris and Andy had gone straight to the Staff Sergeant without even giving Steve 24 hours to clear things up quietly.

"McNally tried to come to me for advice but I was..." Sam tossed his half smoked cigarette on the ground and snuffed it out with the toe of his shoe. "I was distracted and I didn't listen."

"Distracted?"

He shifted his weight. "Yeah. Like I said, I'm sorry. Steve's a good guy, didn't deserve to get stuck with an ass like Beebe or to get caught up in all that shit."

"And you could have stopped that from happening?"

It was a rhetorical question, they both had been around Toronto police long enough to know that an accusation like the one levelled against her brother's partner would not be allowed to slip under the table.

Sam answered anyway, "Williams and I could have been the whistle blowers instead of McNally and Diaz... not much but it's something."

"You and McNally, eh?" she couldn't contain a Cheshire grin as she mirrored his question from a few minutes earlier.

Sam shook his head, "Nothing like that."

"Right," Gail replied sceptically. "And how long did you survive undercover?"

A/N: So sorry I am so late and that this isn't the final chapter... one more to come, i have started it, but only about 100 words in. Hoping to have it up in a week, but I will be pushing to finish Table for four first so it might be a little later than that. Thank you everyone who has stuck with me through this one. It's been fun!