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Time for more so hope you all enjoy!
Chapter 14 - Scare.
Gail took a shower and checked on Andy who was fast sleep. She was about to crash on the couch when she found Sam already occupying it.
It was the first night that he wasn't next to Andy's bed keeping an eye on her even though she'd offered to let him sleep and said that she'd stay with Andy. He was fast asleep too, shoes and all from the sheer exhaustion he'd put himself through.
Gail stumbled up the stairs and flopped down on Sam's bed seeing as he was on hers before sleep claimed her too.
...
Gail was the first one up, she checked on Andy and found Sam still sleeping so she set out to make coffee.
She'd heard Sam checking on Andy numerous times during the night, his need to see her still breathing making him risk her seeing him. Gail guessed that somewhere in the back of his mind he was secretly hoping that Andy would catch him so that it would all be over.
She had a text from Callaghan saying that Nico was still missing so that meant more laying low, but that just might be the best thing for the Swarek/McNally saga right now.
Finding Sam still sleeping Gail headed upstairs and slipped into Andy's room.
The movement woke Andy up, a light jump visible.
"Hey, I didn't wake you did I?".
Yes, this is so going to happen Gail's mind screamed.
"Can I show you something? But you have to promise not to get mad okay?". Gail pulled Andy's blanket off her.
"Mad?".
"Yeah?" Okay, maybe this wasn't such a good idea.
"Okay?" Andy found her feet unsteadily making Gail regret opening her mouth.
"Come with me" Gail wrapped a hand around Andy and guided her downstairs before stopping behind the couch. She held her finger over her lips telling Andy to be quiet.
"Just remember, we're friends" Gail whispered and then walked around to the front of the couch. Andy was a few feet back, so she couldn't see Sam.
"Hey Sam" Gail yelled suddenly, really loudly, a mass of dark hair crossing into Andy's line of vision when he bolted upright.
"Aahh" Andy let out a muffled scream and took a step back, Sam's face turning to look at her. He let out a really heavy sigh, closed his eyes and flopped back down on the couch.
"S.s.m.m?" Andy couldn't even say his name.
She padded around the couch and jabbed a finger at him, his arm absorbing her finger and telling her that he was really there.
She pulled back, let out a sob and then Sam heard her feet carry her away.
That made him jump up, and nearly run Peck over as she stood looking at him really smugly.
"Andy...". Sam tried, and it worked. She stopped and turned to face him.
Seconds later, after blinking his eyes twice, Andy crossed the room and walked right at him before punching him in the face with her good wrist.
"Owwww" she growled out as she pulled her hand back and cradled her hand in the other awkwardly with her cast hindering free movement.
On instinct Sam reached out for her hand, but she pulled away. "Don't touch me" she bit it out between clenched teeth before roaring away, slamming a door in her path.
"I'm not sorry" Peck replied to his growl as he spun to face her and let it free.
She left him alone with that, his thoughts consuming him in a full state of awakeness.
Andy sat down on the end of the bed as her brain tried to absorb what she had just seen, and touched.
Sam was alive.
He was here.
A vague flash pulled through her mind from the warehouse. She hit the ground and heard the shots as pain seared through her entire body.
After a small amount of time had passed, Andy heard him say "I've got you McNally" before she was hoisted up and surrendered back to the darkness. He'd been there...
"Hi" Gail stammered from the doorway as she quietly re-shut the door after walking in.
Andy didn't say anything, just looked up at her with her heart on her sleeve.
"So, surprise". Gail took a seat next to Andy, silence following her sarcastic comment.
"You knew". Andy stated the fact, she wasn't asking for confirmation.
"After a while yes. After his funeral".
"And you didn't say anything" Andy sort of whined it out, a squeak in her tone.
"I wanted to, but I couldn't Andy. I'm sorry".
"Who else knows?".
"Just Callaghan and Cruz".
"And Sarah?" Andy immediately thought of Sam's sister and what she had to endure.
Gail shaking her head told her that even Sam's sister didn't know that he was really still alive.
"Why all of this? Why all the heartache if he's still alive?".
"Andy, Sam was really shot that day. He did nearly die, but he took the opportunity to set everything in motion to do this op". Gail said looking really honest in the moment.
"To do this op?" Andy echoed, her mind barely registering it.
"It's not what you think".
"Oh riiiggghhttt. Sam pretends to be dead and let's everyone believe it so he can do his job. Great". Andy hadn't intended on starting to cry, but she couldn't help it.
"Andy, Sam did it to keep everyone close to him alive. In his eyes, it was an even trade".
"It doesn't justify it Gail. Do you know what Oliver went through? What I went through? No, and it can never be taken back".
"I know, but Andy, Sam did what he thought was the right thing". Gail's eyes averted to the doorway, Sam hovering and looking like he'd rather be somewhere else. He somehow managed to open the door without either of them even noticing his appearance.
"Got a minute?" Sam spoke to Andy, but didn't look at her. He couldn't bring himself to make eye contact.
Gail stood up and looked between Sam and Andy before rolling her eyes.
"I'll be downstairs" Gail said and left them alone. Her look on the way out telling Sam to play nice.
"You okay?" Sam stepped into the room and closed the door.
"Am I okay? That's what you really want to say? Now?". Andy choked it out, her tone missing the cold she had tried so desperately to lock in her words.
"No, not really"
That made her head turn to face him, Andy's face revealing more than she could handle right now.
"I'm sorry okay, I didn't have a choice" Sam said it meaningfully.
"There is always a choice Sam, another option, another way out". That came out cold. And really detached.
"Not this time" Sam barely said it out loud.
Andy bit into her lip to keep her words from breaking free. It was probably something colder than before.
"What are you doing?" Sam asked when she stumbled to her feet and made an attempt to look for something.
"I'm leaving Sam".
"And going where? They're looking for you, and when they find you..."
"Who's looking for me?"
"Andy, just because I wasn't there, doesn't mean I don't know what you were working".
"So you were there, when I saw you?" Andy seemed to lose some of her fire when Sam nodded and looked down. His confirmation made her spark flare right back up a second later "You Jackass".
Her voice rose a tad, but it wasn't enough to be called yelling.
"Why did you do it? Why did you pretend to be dead and put everyone through that? Put me...". Andy cut the rest of her sentence off when she realized how selfish she sounded.
Sam didn't say anything, just whipped a piece of folded paper out of his back pocket and held it out to her.
"That's every reason. One-Tommy McNally, Five-Oliver shaw, Six- Noelle Williams, Eight- Steve Peck, Eleven- Jerry Barber, Nineteen- Andy McNally, Twenty- Dov Epstein, Twenty-two, Traci Nash". Sam suddenly stopped talking, his breaths becoming increasingly ragged as his jaw clenched when his lips ceased their movements.
"What?".
"It's a list. Four people related to that list are already dead, how many more...?".
Andy's hands quivered holding the tattered page.
"A hit list?" Andy said, her eyes grazing over it before looking back at Sam.
"We don't know". Sam sounded so... Unsure saying that.
Andy didn't unfold the paper, she held it out to Sam for him to take back because she didn't need to see who's names were on that list, Sam had already told her.
"It's sixty-eight names, from surrounding divisions" Sam added when he took the paper back and shoved it into his back pocket.
"So, you just decided to...". Andy whimpered out turning away from him to take a seat on the edge of the bed.
Her mind was still trying to grasp the concept of Sam really being alive.
Sam didn't follow, he kept the space between them.
"I did what I needed to".
Andy rolled her eyes and huffed out a sarcastic sigh. "Why you? Why like that Sam? With no regard for what it would do to anyone".
"Andy, I don't expect you to understand okay, but this... This is one cover that may end up the way it started".
Sam stood a little straighter and taller saying that, he wanted her to know and understand that it wasn't over yet, not by a long shot.
"This isn't over is it?" Andy could still read him like a book.
Sam rolled his lips together, shook his head and dropped his gaze. He took two small steps back and raised a hand to run it through his hair before he simply turned on his heel and walked away.
Both Sam and Gail left Andy alone after Gail brought her coffee. Gail was also oddly quiet and withdrawn, Andy figuring that it had something to do with the case.
Andy lay down, her head making a dent in the pillow while her mind surged over everything.
Sam was here, alive and she should feel better about it, should be happy and over the moon; but instead she felt way less than anything remotely close to ecstatic.
Andy's face and wrist and ribs still throbbed, the marks deepening in color to mar her skin in purple and black. She'd checked them in the mirror again earlier and they were worse than they had been when she first woke up. Maybe it was because her vision had stopped swimming, or maybe they were really bad. She wasn't quite sure.
But, thinking about it now in the silence, her injuries came nowhere close to her aching heart.
The dull thud it wore was worth more than cracked ribs, an aching wrist and a throbbing cheek bone.
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Jelly Bean Jenna©