Unacceptable Nap Locations

Summary: Sam's ability to sleep anywhere became a running joke with Team One. The team found him asleep in some strange places during their shifts and off shift too. The first time Ed found Sam sleeping he laughed and told Sam that it was an unacceptable nap location. After a few times of finding Sam asleep in odd places the Unacceptable Nap Location list was born. That list was growing.

Setting: These will be tiny snippets throughout the timeline. Like Alphabet Injuries, each chapter will be a stand-alone snippet.

Special nod to musicaldolphingirl2011 who suggested I do a story about how the unacceptable nap locations list got started and then do little snippets of various locations that are on the list.

This set of stories I will use as a place for my muse to go when I'm blocked on my longer stories. So not exactly sure how often updates will be coming. Could be fast or slow depending on how the other stories are going.

I do not own Flashpoint or any of the characters from that series. I do own my original characters (OC).

Unacceptable Nap Location List Is Born

SRU HQ – Briefing Room – 2:00 am

Ed walked into the briefing room. It was two am on the seventh day of shifts. They had pulled extra duty this week covering for Team Four which was down three men. Two were out ill and one had decided to move on to the Special Victims Unit as a detective. Team Four's new rookie Nicolas Hudson was due to start next week.

The back to back shifts for the last seven days had been tough on all of them. But perhaps most taxing on their rookie. Sam had been thrown into so many new situations. Sam screwed up and did not follow protocol several times. But Ed was now trying hard to act more as a mentor than ogre. He was not always successful and today he had screwed up again in that regard.

It was only about a month ago the team had the extremely painful realization of how they had been treating their rookie. That meeting at Greg's home had been enlightening. There were so many things about Sam that they had all turned a blind eye too.

He was good. He was green too. But Sam needed mentoring to help him transition from soldier into urban police officer. It was a slow process. Things were better but there were still bumps in the road. Like today. He had been such an ass to Sam before SIU took Sam away for the interview.

But his biggest pet peeve with Sam was the rookie's almost nonexistent regard for his own safety. That kid took some damned unacceptable risks to protect others. He and Greg talked often about that very fact.

Ed stopped and looked around. He sighed and started to turn to head out. Sam was not here either. He wanted to speak to him about an upcoming warrant call. He wanted to get his input on Sierra location.

That was one skill Sam excelled at. It took him seconds to assess the right place. It might go a ways in smoothing over his screw up with the rookie. He needed to begin to allow Sam to routinely choose his positions. If he had done that today then maybe things would have been different.

Greg asked "Eddie what are you doing?"

Ed turned back to Greg "Looking for Braddock. You haven't seen him have you?"

Shaking his head Greg said "No have you checked the gun range?"

Ed nodded "Yeah I checked there, the 360 shoot room, the cage, the locker room, the track and Spike's tech room. You don't think he just quit and up and left do you? I lit into him pretty damned hard before SIU took him."

Greg took off his hat and rubbed his head. He didn't think Sam would be the type to just take off without telling them he was quitting. He looked at Ed "No I don't think that. You want Kira to page him over the loudspeaker?"

"No. I don't think that would go over well with him. It's lunch time anyways. I'll just keep looking. He has to be here somewhere" Ed stated and then left the room.

Greg hollered after him "Let me know if you need help looking."

"Will do" Ed called back over his shoulder.

SRU HQ – Locker Room – 1:45 am

Sam sat on the bench trying to relax. He had screwed up again in that last call. He had moved position without telling Ed he was moving first. Ed was sure to come down on his ass about that one again.

While he had waited for SIU to come get him Ed had laid into him damned hard for not informing him and Ed also had issue with where he had moved to. Sam suspected Ed raged about it in debrief. He fully expected Ed to ream him again since he missed debrief being at SIU.

Sam knew he should have remembered to announce his position change but the situation unfolded so quickly. He had acted out of instinct to ensure he covered the team and did not leave them open. It was how he survived and kept his unit alive in the field. Instinct was a good thing in Sam's mind.

Ed had other thoughts though. Ed called it unacceptable risk.

In his mind though it was not unacceptable risk. It was necessary risk to keep them alive. It kept Greg alive today. So what if it put him in the direct line of fire. It saved Greg and that was his job.

Sam could not allow any of his team to get hurt or killed on his watch. He already carried the burden of several unit members' deaths. He did not think he could bear the weight of another. Especially not after killing Matt.

Besides, Greg was way more important than him anyways. Greg saved people every day by talking to them. All he was good for was point and shoot. He sucked so badly at negotiation he probably couldn't negotiable himself out of a paper bag.

Crap, his mind was all over the place. It was because he was tired; so very tired. Sam knew he needed to get more sleep. There were only so many hours in a day though.

With back to back twelve hour shifts that usually ended up extending an hour or more due to calls. Plus two hours pre-shift workout. That left roughly eight to nine hours to sleep.

But that time also included drive time to and from work, time to grab something to eat, showering and actually eating. That left about seven.

Sam then subtracted the time he spent reading and studying all the manuals. There was so much he had to learn. This job was what he wanted but it was so different than his point and shoot soldier days. After he deducted that time he was left with roughly five hours to sleep.

That wouldn't be so bad if he could actually sleep uninterrupted for those five hours. He had lived on basically that or less for weeks in missions. But then his sleep had not been constantly interrupted by nightmares. Sure he had occasional nightmares in the field but not relentless nightmares.

Since he had killed Matt he had not had a single nights' sleep without constant nightmares. He would wake from nightmares over and over. His heart would race and he would be drenched in sweat. His sheets would be too damp to sleep on and he would have to remake the bed or move to the floor. Usually he just moved to the floor.

Getting back to sleep was difficult after a nightmare. Memories of Matt would come to him. More often than not he would have one or two crying jags as the memories overwhelmed him.

He missed Matt so very much. Sometimes it hurt so much he would pick up the pearl handled colt and contemplate ending the pain.

But every time Matt would talk to him and remind him to keep moving forward. Matt told him to find a place where he could belong. Sam knew it wasn't really Matt talking to him but Matt's memory. But he liked to think of it as Matt talking to him. It hurt less that way.

Sam looked around the locker room. He needed a quick cat nap. He didn't think he could do it here. If Ed found him it would just be one more thing to ride his ass about.

He stood and headed out of the locker room in search of a quiet place he could take a quick twenty minute nap. Lunch ended in a half hour so he should be okay taking a twenty minute cat nap. He would always hear the claxon alarms if they got a hot call before then.

SRU HQ – Outside Conference Room Three – 1:50 am

Sam smiled. He had been in conference room three once. It was the soundproof room. It would be perfect because it would be quiet and the alarms still sounded in it.

He tried the door. It was locked. Sam debated whether or not to go ask Kira for the key. If he did Ed might find out and ask him why. Sam really didn't want Ed to know he was tired and not sleeping at night. That would look bad and he would want to know why.

Sam wasn't about to tell Ed he had constant nightmares. He had snowed the psychologist on that point already. So he could not admit it. It would also make him appear weak. Being weak was unacceptable.

He pulled out his lock picking tools and quickly picked the lock and then slipped into the room.

SRU HQ – Inside Conference Room Three – 1:51 am

Sam grinned. This was perfect. He headed to the opposite side of the room. He would be mostly hidden if anyone came in and he would have time to react.

He laid down and put his arm under his head.

Sam was asleep in seconds. It was something his was trained in. He had the ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat and figuratively sleep with one eye and one ear open. He could be instantly awake if there were a threat.

The only threat Sam felt he had to worry about was being discovered sleeping by Ed.

SRU HQ – Outside Conference Room Three – 2:10 am

Ed had searched everywhere except conference room three. He had even gone up to the roof where the rookie liked to stand and look out at the city. He didn't quite understand why he did that. But it was a pattern he was beginning to see.

When the rookie was upset he would often go up there to calm down. That was okay with him. Everyone needed a place to go to get their emotions under control.

Ed liked it better when Sam went to the roof instead of tearing into the heavy bag. The rookie did a lot of that. They had to change out the heavy bad several times since Sam joined SRU.

He inserted the key. Kira had said Sam did not ask for the key. But this was the only place he could be if he hadn't in fact quit and just walked out.

If that was the case, then it would lie squarely on his shoulders.

He had ridden Sam hard for moving positions without telling him and for putting himself in the line of fire in the process before Sam was taken away by SIU. Sam had been cleared by SIU and rejoined them just before lunch.

Wordy had already reamed him about laying into Sam about Sam's decision to move during debrief. Wordy had seen what he had not seen. Sam had to make an instant decision. There was no time to call out positions. It was the right thing to do and saved Greg's life.

He had avoided Sam when Sam returned from SIU. Ed had needed time to get his own thoughts in order. That's when he decided he would get Sam's input for the upcoming warrant call. Ed hoped that it would get them passed the earlier ugliness. It would be a way to show Sam he valued his skills.

But in order to do that he had to find the rookie first.

Ed opened the conference room door. He scanned the room quickly and found no one in the room. Ed was about to close the door when his eyes caught the sole of a boot near the opposite wall. What the hell?

He moved silently into the room. Or so he thought. For a split second he saw Sam on the floor with his eyes closed. He could swear Sam was asleep. But the next second, Sam was standing at attention and appeared wide awake.

Sam shot up hearing someone enter the room. He faced the door as his body snapped to attention. Ah crap! It was Ed. The last team member he wanted to find him sleeping. He had such damned bad luck. Sam knew Ed was going to lay into him for this so hard.

Ed saw the surprise followed by dismay cross the rookie's face. It was so fleeting before it was covered with a neutral mask and the rookie was at rigid attention. Damn.

He asked "Sam what are you doing in here on the floor?"

Sam's mind raced. He had nothing he could say. He spoke the truth "Taking a cat nap Sir."

"A nap?" Ed asked surprised at the answer.

"Yes Sir" Sam answered in monotone.

"Why?" Ed queried. But he could see why. The rookie looked like he hadn't slept in a week. Hell he always looked like that. Those dark circles under his eyes were almost a constant.

Sam relaxed his body slightly and answered "Been a rough day Sir."

Ed nodded "Yeah it has. Been a rough several days. I'm so wrung out it isn't funny. Makes it hard to think clearly sometimes."

Sam was surprised at Ed's answer and that Ed was not laying into him. He didn't know what to say so remained silent.

Ed saw something akin to surprised cross Sam's face. Sam probably thought he would lay into him again. He needed to do something to begin to change Sam's expectations of him.

Humor. Ed thought he should try humor.

So Ed laughed and smiled. Amusement was clear in his eyes, expression and voice as he said "God I could really use a nap too. But you know Samo, conference room three is unacceptable nap location. I mean the floor is so hard. How the hell can you sleep on the floor?"

"Practice, slept in a lot more uncomfortable places" Sam answered relaxing even more at Ed's relaxed demeanor.

Sam was a bit confused. Ed was not angry or yelling at him. It was confusing but nice too. He had seen Ed joke with the others before but never with him.

Ed nodded, yeah a Special Forces soldier was bound to have slept in some very uncomfortable places. Seeing Sam relax a bit, Ed pushed forward with his idea to show Sam he valued his abilities.

"I wanted to get your input on our warrant call later this morning. We need to place two snipers and you have a good eye for that" Ed said as he moved into the room and sat down at the table.

Ed opened the file he had been carrying with him all over as he searched for Sam. He slid two aerial photos across the table toward Sam and asked "Where would you suggest?"

Sam was stunned. Ed was actually asking his opinion on position. A hint of a smile teased at the corner of his mouth. He pulled out a chair and sat down.

As Sam reviewed the photos he thought, maybe, just maybe things might work out here after all. He might have just found someplace to belong.

Neither of them knew it at the time but the Unacceptable Nap Location list had just been born.

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AN: Hope you liked it. As with Alphabet Injuries I'm open to suggestions, places or scenarios that can be added to the unacceptable nap location list.