A/N: Little chapter tonight and painfully smut free... awww!
The patrol was routine that morning. They stopped a couple of shoplifters at a convenience store and were rewarded by the store owner with an ice cream each. They sat on the bonnet of the car by the park and ate in companionable silence, a mode of operation he was sure Andy didn't have but then she was surprising him a lot lately. He had gone from thinking it was a bad idea to sleep with her to not being able to think of anything else but sleeping with her. How he could get her into his bed, into her bed, on the couch in front of the fire, on that weirdly shaped chair in her room, in the shower, the bath. God, in the squad car, though he wasn't sure how logistical that one was.
He chanced a glance at her and saw her run her tongue around the rim of the cone to catch those melting drops. A few fell onto her hand and she licked her fingers then looked up at him and smiled. She ran her tongue over her sticky lips and Sam had to look away.
"Is that a blush Officer Swarek?" she whispered barely loud enough for him to hear. Sam chuckled and shook his head. "Why I do believe it is." She went back to licking her ice cream and he finished his own.
He had expected her to keep pestering him for answers, to open up and explain all his thoughts and feelings but instead she seemed content to just be with him. To sleep with him without questions of where it was leading and that was all he could offer her right now anyway. His head was spinning full of thoughts and anger. Some things he wanted to tell her, to share with her but he didn't know how. Sometimes the art of forming words from thoughts was beyond him. When he was angry he could shout and roar with the best of them, but more often than not, it was the quiet rage that he found difficult to articulate.
When they finished their cones they got back into the car. Andy pulled out a small tub of hand sanitizer from the glove box and dry washed her hand. She offered him the same. He held out his palm and she squirted a small bead into the centre.
"Thanks." He rubbed his hands together to get rid of the sticky ice cream. "So…how did your dinner go last night?"
"I was wondering when you were going to ask me that." She smiled at him and he shrugged.
"Just askin'"
"It was lovely actually. Much better than I thought it was gonna be."
"Oh?"
"Jealous?" she teased with a crooked smile.
Without pause he replied. "Should I be?" He stopped the car at a traffic light and looked over at her. His face was free of all expression.
She looked at him for a moment then a smile crept across her lips. "Not in the slightest."
He didn't realise how much he wanted to hear her say that until the words tumbled past her lips. They were the sweetest words he had heard in a long time.
"Good," was all he managed to reply with before the light turned green and he had to concentrate on the road again. He glanced over at her and saw her looking out the window. She was smiling with unfocused eyes. Her shoulders shook with a chuckle. "What?"
"We got in so much trouble throughout high school."
"You? A troublemaker McNally? I don't believe it."
She swatted his arm for the sarcasm in his voice and he waggled his eyebrows at her.
"I wasn't a troublemaker…maybe a trouble finder…a trouble follower?"
"A trouble magnet?"
"Something like that. But I was never arrested or anything!"
"Probably because you were never caught!"
"No!" Andy laughed. "Because my dad was a detective!"
"Right, should have known." Sam smiled at her.
"So…what's the worst thing you did in high school?"
"Me? Nothing. I kept my nose clean."
"Well I don't believe that for a second."
"I was too busy playing hockey and chasing tail to get into trouble." He smiled at her again and this time waggled his eyebrows.
"Car 15 – oh – 9 location report."
"This is car 15 – oh – 9, we're on Dupont and Ossington travelling west."
"Residential visit needed, 51 Hounslow Heath, 10-52 en route, possible 10-11."
"Copy that, we're on the way."
Sam had driven through the streets with the siren on and his foot planted on the accelerator. The ambulance had beaten them to it and was parked in the drive. They hurried out of the car and into the house where the front door was open. Sam knocked on the door but continued into the house.
"Hello? Police!"
"In here." A woman came rushing out of the living room to greet them. She was an elderly woman, well dressed but dishelved. Her face was red and puffy from crying. She had a wad of used tissues in her hands and was wringing them out, ripping them to shreds. "She is in here."
"What's happened ma'am?" Andy asked as they followed her into the living room.
It was a room, decorated with family pictures. A long couch lined the wall under the window and a puffy miss matched chair sat in the corner. There was a rocking chair by the fire and a small TV on a stand on the other side. A young girl was lying on the couch. She had two black eyes, a cut across one of her cheeks. Dried blood stained her porcelain skin down her neck and the small pink shirt she was wearing. Her grey skirt was ripped and torn and she held up over her knees with shaking hands.
"I came home from work. She was lying on the floor!"
"And you are her…?" Sam asked. Andy crossed the room to kneel before the girl. The EMT was trying to check her wounds but the girl was trembling. Her eyes wide with fear.
"I'm her grandmother. Her parents are dead and she has lived with me for the past 4 years."
"Honey? My name is Andy McNally?"
"What's her name?" Sam asked her grandmother.
"Holly, her name is Holly."
"Tell me what you found?" Sam asked as Andy tried to reach the girl.
"I was working at the hospital. I'm a surgical nurse. I told Holly I would be home after lunch. When I came home I found the front door open. I called out to her but I found her lying just there."
She pointed at the rug in front of the fireplace. Sam looked over and saw a couple of puddles of blood. He gritted his teeth and focused back on his notebook and the notes he was writing there.
"Was she awake?"
"No," she said with a sob. "I tried to wake her, I moved her to the couch and I called 911."
"Okay, Ma'am…have you checked the rest of the house?"
"What? No!" she voice was trembling. Sam put a hand out to reassure her.
"I'll just take a look around. You wait here."
Sam stepped up to McNally and bent down to her. "I'm going to check the rest of the house."
"Yes sir." She said over his shoulder.
When Sam walked out to check the house Andy turned her attention back to the girl. "Holly, can you tell me what happened?"
The girl trembled. Her eyes were unfocused and she didn't seem to be aware that anyone else was in the room. One of the EMTs had a penlight to test her eyes but couldn't get a reading.
"We need to take her in for a full examination." The EMT said as he stood up and Andy stood up with him. They took a few steps back to talk in private. "She has been beaten. Contusions on her scalp, a black eye…blood on her legs," he added and they both looked back at the girl. "I've called ahead, they are expecting us. Sooner we get her there the better."
"Okay." Andy stepped over to the grandmother who was leaning against the door. "Mrs…?"
"Daltry. Amanda Daltry."
"I'm officer Andy McNally, Holly will need to be taken to the hospital."
"Oh god!"
"Can you help us get her into the ambulance?"
"Of course!" Amanda crossed the room to Holly's side and wrapped her up in a hug. The girl didn't even flinch. One of the EMTs brought in a heavy blue blanket and wrapped them both in it then ushered them out to the bus. Andy stood in the doorway when Sam returned to her side. He was talking into his shoulder radio.
"10-35, Crime scene unit required at 51 Hounslow Heath. Over."
"Copy that, over and out."
"house is clear, he said to her. No signs of forced entry on the windows or doors."
"She let them in?"
"Possibly, could have just answered the door and they barged in."
"No chance of seeing CCTV footage in a residential area."
"More chance of a witness though." He spoke softly and a hand came up to rub his face and ran through his hair. "CSU is on the way."
Sam pulled the car into the lot and killed the engine. He let his head fall back onto the head rest and closed his eyes. Andy sat next to him. Neither of them seemed willing to move.
"You ok?" he asked. He was surprised the words made it passed his lips. He had been thinking it since they left the house, the crime scene unit was combing it for evidence and Jerry was watching over them to make sure nothing was missed. After being out on the streets for 12 hours straight Jerry pushed them out and told them to go back to the barn and sign out. She had been quiet since she saw the girl lifted into the back of the bus. He had kept busy, walking the scene with Jerry but she seemed to want to wait by the door and watch the streets.
"Me? Yeah, I'm ok…tired."
"Yeah."
"How about you?"
"Wrecked." He looked at her sideways and smiled. She smiled back. "Do you…want to…grab some food and come back to mine?"
She rolled her head to look at him. His eyebrows were raised as he waited for her reply. A million possibilities flew through his head, her rejection, her excuse, his having to go home alone. But when that sultry smile crept across her lips he felt himself breath again.
"That sounds…wonderful." She said then added, "On one condition."
"Anything." He pulled the keys out of the engine and unbuckled his seatbelt. His hand pulled on the door tab and he opened it.
"I need to get home to get a shower and a change of clothes."
Sam smiled. He stepped out of the car and she followed. "Sounds good to me."