A/N: I'm sorry this story has ground down to such a slow pace. I was really hoping to have it completed before the new season, but life has other plans. I have the whole thing outlined, I just haven't been able to find time to write it. Please bear with me :) and keep those reviews coming. I love hearing what you think.

Chapter 12: The Little Things Give You Away

The apartment was completely dark when Nick let himself in. His head was spinning a little from the beer and his conversation with Dov. He didn't bother turning on any lights, just toed off his shoes, tossed his bag and coat in the closet and stumbled over to the couch that was his bed right now. Some stuff happened while you were gone. Dov's words repeated themselves in his mind as he stretched out on the couch. The thousands of possibilities ricocheted off the inside of his skull, each more preposterous than the one before. He had promised to talk to Gail, and he knew now he wouldn't be able to sleep until he did.

Sighing heavily, Nick rose to his feet and crossed the apartment , pausing for a long moment in front of Gail's closed bedroom door before raising his fist and knocking. "Gail? Are you awake?"

He could hear movement on the other side of the door, but the light stayed of and she didn't come to open it.

"Gail?" He tried again. "I know it's late, but we need to talk."

The door came open so suddenly Nick took a step back. He could only just make out the familiar lines of Gail's face in the pale light filtering in from the city outside, but even in the dimness he could tell her cheeks were damp with tears. Without even thinking about it, he raised one hand to cup her face, wiping away a tear with his thumb. "What happened?" He asked softly, tucking her shoulder length hair behind her ears with gentle fingers so he could better see her face.

She shook her head. "Nothing." She said in a hoarse voice. "I'm fine." She stepped back, severing contact, and folded her arms over her chest. She cleared her throat and when she talked again all the emotion was gone from her voice. This was the Gail he had been sharing an apartment with the last few days, cool, detached, and only barely concealing her anger. "You wanted to talk?"

"It can wait." He reached out for her, but she took another step back, almost disappearing into the shadows of her room. "Tell me what happened."

"I said it was nothing."

"Gail…"

"Leave it!" She snapped, her control slipping for a moment, anger suffusing her voice.

It was not a request, and before Project Dakota, Nick probably would have let her have her way. He and Gail only worked when he didn't push her too hard. He had always depended on the Peck bluntness to get the better of her if there was something she wasn't happy about. But five months in a van with Andy McNally had taught him that some women didn't share their thoughts so easily, and made him realize that the Gail he knew years ago, the one he had once wanted to marry, didn't exist anymore. This Gail was secretive and cut off, and he realized he had been a fool not to notice that earlier.

"No." He said, taking a step towards her, and then another when Gail didn't step away. "You're crying. You don't cry." He softened his tone, "Please. I want to be here for you."

Gail laughed. "Like you were there for me when a man grabbed me from Andy's apartment? Like you were there five months ago when I thought I was going to lose my job? Oh wait! You mean like how you were there with me for three months of trial and press coverage that made it so I couldn't even come home without someone bombarding me with questions about it?" Tears flowed freely down her cheeks, she was too angry to check them.

Nick's head dropped for a moment, shame washing over him. "You're right." He said softly. "I was a dick." He looked back up at her, hoping she could see the earnest intensity in his eyes even in the mostly dark apartment. "But I'm here now. I'm right here and I want to make it up to you."

"I don't want to talk about it."

Her words stung, but he knew it was no more than he deserved. "Okay." He turned to leave, resolving to start apartment hunting in earnest first thing the next day.

"Where are you going?"

He stopped and turned back to her, a spark of hope building inside his chest. "I thought…"

"I said I didn't want to talk." Gail said, holding out one hand towards him.

In two steps Nick had her in his arms, her familiar body pressed against his chest, her scent filling his nose as he buried it in her silky hair. Gail's lips found his and there was an urgency in her kisses he had never felt before.

"I missed you." Gail panted, tugging at the bottom of his shirt.

Nick raised his arms letting her push it up over his head. This was a new side of Gail. She'd never been a prude, but he was used to taking the lead in this department. He wasn't sure what to think of this woman raking her nails down his bare back as she laved his dusky nipple with her tongue sending a jolt of pleasure to his groin. Oh my!

She moved her mouth to the other nipple, leaving the first wet, cold and wanting. Nick had never appreciated the sensitivity of his nipples before. A jealous voice in his head asked why Gail was suddenly a nipple-girl, but then she clamped her teeth down over the over-sensitized flesh and all thought but that this was something he didn't want to stop were flushed from his mind.

He reached for the buttons on the front of Gail's shirt only to have his wrists captured in her surprisingly strong hands.

"No." She said in a husky voice. She took a sudden step back, keeping his wrists trapped in her grip but otherwise severing contact. Her eyes were guarded and her sensuous mouth set in a thin line. "Keep your hands to yourself. This isn't about you." The last part was said under her breath, as if it was for her ears alone.

Nick stopped trying to touch her, letting his hands fall limp in her grasp.

Gail released his wrists and busied her hands with his belt, her mouth returning to his chest.

"You're going in today?" Andy asked as Sam tossed an apple and a bag of Fritos into his duffel bag.

Sam looked up, his dark eyes holding hers for a silent moment before he answered. "Yeah. You okay here?"

"Can I borrow your truck?" Andy asked, unconsciously gnawing at her bottom lip. She knew what his truck meant to him, but she had things to do and wasting half her day on the TTC was not how she wanted to spend the day. "I have some insurance stuff to take care of." The lie tripped off her tongue with surprising ease. Maybe she had learned something from her months on the task force after all.

"Can you be ready in five?" Sam asked, screwing a lid onto his travel mug.

Andy jumped up and, acting on impulse, kissed him briefly on the lips as she passed him. "Three minutes is all I need." She called as she disappeared in the direction of her room.

Sam watched her go, his brain turning over her request slowly, trying to decide if he should call her on the lie. He knew full well that she had finished all of her calls to insurance the day after the fire and there was no way they had gotten back to her this soon. On the other hand, if she was lying to him, he told himself she had a good reason. She must. Right? His inner voice did not sound sure.

"Ready." Andy said, flashing the brightest smile he had seen from her in months.

His heart flipped in his chest and he knew he would let the lie slide. After everything, she deserved to be happy and he was content just witnessing her joy. "Keys," He said, holding them out to her.

"I get to drive?" Andy asked, her eyes sparkling with delight.

Sam nodded, fighting a smile of his own. She was so cute when she was excited. Part of him wondered why he hadn't let her drive more often. Then again, if he had, she probably wouldn't be this excited. He followed her out to the truck, pushing down the questions he wanted to ask about what exactly she was going to do with his truck that she didn't want him to know about.

Andy cranked the radio, some cheery top 40 song that made Sam roll his eyes at her as she sang the five words she knew at the top of her lungs. She felt good today, better than she had in months, better than she had since Jerry died and everything changed.

It didn't make sense. Her perfect apartment was gone and she was being accused of setting the fire, she wasn't allowed to work, and if something didn't change soon she may never be. Sam slept with Gail, and she wasn't sure if she would ever be able to erase the image of them from her mind long enough to forgive him. And yet, despite it all, she felt light and happy.

She had a plan. It wasn't a perfect plan. It would take all her charm and a truckload of luck, but it was a plan.

Sam watched Andy out of the corner of his eye the entire drive. She wasn't much of a singer, but he thought he could listen to her for hours if it meant she would look this happy. The truck rolled to a stop at a red light and Andy flashed him a broad smile. I love you. For a moment Sam thought he might have said the words aloud, they had risen unbidden to his mind, but then the light turned green and Andy's attention returned to the road and he swallowed the words. Now was not the time. Last time he'd told her he loved her she hadn't even believed him. The next time he said it, the timing was damned well going to be right.

Andy pulled into a parking spot in front of fifteen division but didn't kill the engine. It was strange being so close but knowing she couldn't walk through those doors. "Do you want me to pick you up?" She asked.

Sam shook his head. "No, Oliver'll give me a lift."

"Okay," Andy nodded. "Have a good day."

Sam studied her face for a moment and Andy wondered for a paranoid moment if he knew what she was up to. "You too." He said at least, leaning in and brushing his lips briefly against hers before pulling back and climbing out of the truck.

Andy watched him until he disappeared into the station, her earlier happy mood deadened by guilt. She knew she couldn't tell him. If she told him, he would either have to stop her, or might be held responsible for what she was about to do. Still, it felt wrong to colour this far outside the lines without Sam at her side egging her on.

She turned up the radio loud enough to drown out her thoughts and pulled back out into the street. The management office was on the other side of the city and by the time she wove her way through ninety blocks of rush hour traffic and found what seemed like the last full sized parking spot in the lot, she had almost managed to forget all the reasons she should just turn around and go home.

Andy took one last look in the rear view mirror before opening the door of the truck. She looked calm and professional, and with any luck no one would look too closely at her badge. Frank would send her to Fraud for life if he found out what she was about to do, irony be damned. But it was the only plan she had.

Sam half expected Andy to be gone when Oliver dropped him off after work. The niggling feeling that the something she was hiding had to do with them had refused to leave his mind all day, no matter how many tickets he handed out to irate Toronto drivers or how many times he played their conversation, her forgiveness, over in his brain. He certainly didn't anticipate walking into a war room.

He stood in the entryway, mouth gaped slightly open, for almost a minute before Andy noticed and beckoned him in. "Sorry about all of this." She said with a rueful smile, turning back to writing on the blue legal pad balanced on her knee.

"What exactly is all of this?" Sam asked, surveying the stacks of paper covering most of his living room floor.

"Research." She replied cryptically, not looking up again.

Sam rolled his eyes. For all Andy's sometimes ceaseless chatter, she was infuriatingly uncommunicative sometimes. "Can I help?"

She held up a finger indicating he should shut up and wait. She wrote a few more words, stared at them, scribbled one out and then rewrote it, her brow furrowed in concentration. Her lower lip was captured between her teeth and Sam couldn't keep his eyes off her mouth. She had beautiful lips. As much as he teased her about her inability to be silent, Sam had always loved that mouth. Everything about it. Even the ridiculous things that often spewed out.

At last she set down her pen and raised her face to his. "Sorry. What did you say?"

"Can I help?" Sam repeated his question, resisting the urge to tease her. She didn't look like she was in the mood for a laugh.

"Know anything about building inspections?" She asked, a slightly plaintive note in her voice.

Sam carefully cleared a space on the couch and sat down. "I know a little. What are you looking at?"

Andy reached for a stack of papers and handed them to him. "Reports from my building's management company. They do checks of the alarm system every six months. These are from the last three years, but I can't make heads or tails of them."

Sam could feel his eyebrows rising. He wasn't sure if he was impressed or alarmed. "How did you get these?" he asked, half-dreading the answer. If Rosati found out Andy was using her badge to look into her case they would all end up stuck behind desks at Fraud for the rest of their short-lived careers.

"I sweet talked the secretary at the management office." Andy said, looking every bit the cat who ate the canary.

Sam flipped through the papers, his practiced gaze picking up the pertinent details. It looked like three years of reports from six different buildings all run by the same company. He wondered briefly if Rosati had already looked through these, but shrugged it off. Even if she had, what Jo Rosati didn't know wouldn't hurt her and a fresh pair of eyes never hurt anyone. "Looking for anything specific?" He asked, snagging a highlighter and a blue pen off the end table.

"I don't know." Andy said, moving two stacks of paper off the couch so she could settle beside him. "There's something here. I know it. I just…"

"Don't know what yet?" Sam finished for her.

She nodded. "Exactly."

"Then we better order pizza." Sam said, pulling his phone out of his pants pocket, "it's going to be a long night."

Andy leaned in and planted a quick, chaste kiss on his lips. "Thank you." She whispered before pulling back and burying herself back in her copy of the building inspection reports.