A/N Here is my first attempt at a multi-chapter fic for Rookie Blue, though I am not sure yet how long it will be. It is a little darker than the series of one-shots I have published, though it does follow from the last one, Eight AM – in other words, Sam and Andy are together. I hope you enjoy. Any feedback is welcome.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Rookie Blue, ABC or GlobalTv. I'm just borrowing the characters for my own amusement. Though if I ever run into Ben Bass on the streets of Toronto... Oh, who am I kidding? I'd be too tongue-tied to get out a hello!

Arriving at the scene, Sam pulled the squad car up onto the sidewalk, furrowing his brow. There were two other cruisers with their lights flashing – he was suddenly questioning why Oliver had demanded his presence for a simple assault. That was until he started crossing the park and saw her sitting there on a bench, Nash seated beside her with a comforting hand on her shoulder. The bruises were already obvious on her face, her neck, down her arms; dried blood was caked around her nose, a bad cut bleeding over her right eye. His fists clenched. And instinctively, he glanced back over his shoulder towards the squad cars. The back door to one was open, a man sitting inside with his hands cuffed behind his back. So Sam spun on his heels and started like a bat out of hell towards him.

"Sammy! C'mon, Sam, stop. Don't..."

"What the hell happened?" he demanded, his jaw tightening. He stopped and turned towards Oliver, his expression impatient.

Shaw quickly gave him the run-down: Andy had been out walking back from a small neighbourhood grocery store nearby when she had come upon a guy beating up his girlfriend at the edge of the park. She put in a call to 9-1-1, and then tried to intervene. The guy had threatened her and since she was unarmed, she had stayed back until he had appeared to take off. At that point, she had gone to check on the victim, only to get jumped from behind. She had been in the midst of fighting the guy off when Shaw and Epstein arrived on the scene, but not before she had been roughed up pretty good.

"Jesus," Sam swore under his breath. He looked back towards the cruiser angrily. "That him?"

"Yes, but—"

Swarek just nodded, and then he started his path towards the squad car once again.

This time Oliver reached out and physically grabbed him. "I'm telling you, it won't do you any good. Now, as you can see, we really didn't need any more back-up. The reason I had you called is because McNally's refusing to go to the hospital. You have a way of getting through to her." Shaw lowered his voice. "And I couldn't help noticing that this place is a hell of a lot closer to your house than it is to her apartment."

At that Sam stopped in his tracks. He noticed the curiously quirked eyebrow of his long-time friend and sighed. Andy has spent the weekend fighting the flu, and although her fever had broken just after three a.m. that morning, Sam had insisted she call in sick to their first day back on rotation. She had argued weakly, but he had won – and so he spent the day riding alone, and she had spent it curled up at his place. Apparently she had decided that she was feeling well enough to have some real food, only to discover that he had failed to do any grocery shopping over the weekend. "Not now. I have to get her to the hospital." He left Shaw before any more questions could be asked, and headed towards where Andy and Nash were sitting. Seeing him approach, Traci vacated her seat, meeting him a few feet away. "How is she?" he asked.

"Shaken. She needs to go to the hospital, but so far she's refused."

"I'll take her. When you get back to the barn, tell Jerry I'll bring her in after to sign her statement."

Nash nodded, then headed over to where Shaw, Epstein and Diaz were standing.

Sam took a deep breath, then he tentatively approached Andy. "Hey," he said, putting a hand gently on her shoulder.

She flinched and glanced up at him, her eyes glassy. She was definitely in shock.

"It's okay, sweetheart," he assured her. "I'm gonna take you over to General and get you checked out, okay?"

"I'm fine," she replied flatly, dismissively.

"Yeah, well, you're bleeding. So I'd kind of like a doctor to tell me you're fine."

She did not argue any further. It would have taken too much energy. So Sam helped her up and across the grass to where he had parked his squad car.

The short drive just a few blocks to Toronto General was silent. Andy was in her own little world, lost in her thoughts. If Sam had to guess, they were dark thoughts. True, in her eight months as a cop, she had already shot a man, she had had Ray Don Swann's hands around her neck, and she'd been held at gunpoint. However, she had never been assaulted – let alone when she was off the job and unarmed, expecting to be safe. After he parked the cruiser, he reached over to lay a hand on her shoulder to tell her they were there, and she visibly flinched once again.

Andy shrunk back, embarrassed, when she realized where she was and that it was Sam who had touched her.

"Let's get you looked at, all right? Then I'll get you home."

Once inside, Sam flashed his badge at the triage desk, and along with the uniform, it got Andy seen fairly quickly. He was almost relieved when she asked him to stay with her, knowing it was progress that she was not pushing him away.

They had been together for just over five weeks. Sam was pretty sure they had been the best five weeks of his life. They had spent most of their time together off duty, and had been permanently partnered while on the job. Nobody knew about their relationship – well, nobody had known, at least to the best of their knowledge, before tonight. They had been good about keeping things professional while in uniform, though Sam usually tried to sneak a kiss or two when they were out on patrol between calls. He was happy, but to him, what was even better was that Andy seemed genuinely happy. He could tell she was not second-guessing herself anymore. In fact, she seemed more self-confident.

"Before we take you down for x-rays, is there any chance you could be pregnant?"

Sam escaped his musings at the question the intern had asked. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline.

"N-no. I mean, I don't think so," Andy replied quietly. "My boyfriend and I are careful. But I guess nothing's foolproof."

"We'll run a quick test then," the doctor said. "I'll send someone right in."

Left alone, Sam sat down on the edge of the stretcher Andy had been parked on in the trauma room. "How're you doing?" he asked.

"Better than the woman who got the crap beat out of her. Can you find out how she is?" she pleaded.

Sam nearly shook his head incredulously at the complete lack of regard for herself. He decided quickly that if she was not going to be concerned with her own wellbeing, then it was up to him. "Let's just worry about you for right now, huh?"

Three hours later, after confirmation that she was not pregnant, a series of negative x-rays and a few stitches over her eyes, Andy was discharged with instructions to take it easy for the next few days. Sam escorted her back to Fifteen Division, where, unfortunately, things were not as simple as having Andy sign her statement for Jerry. Best pulled her into his office, concerned about making sure everything was by the book since she had gotten involved as a concerned citizen and off-duty cop, and not as a first-responder.

Swarek decided to busy himself with paperwork while he waited to take his girlfriend home, though his gaze spent more time affixed to the window of Frank's office than to the reports in front of him. The longer she was in there, the angrier he was getting that some creep had gotten his hands on her. He finally tried to distract himself by calling the hospital for an update on the woman Andy's intervention had saved. And by the time he hung up the phone, he saw both Andy and Best standing up in the office, their body language suggesting a conversation more personal than official.

Sam stood up and headed up the stairs to the Staff Sergeant's office. He hesitated only a moment before rapping on the door.

"Come on in," Frank called.

Sam walked inside, trying not to cringe at the sight of the darkening bruises on Andy's skin high-lighted by the harsh fluorescent lights. "Sorry to interrupt, but it looked as if you were just about finished."

"We were. What's up?" Best asked.

Sam glanced over at Andy. Her gaze was averted, and he could tell that she had little interest in whatever he was about to say. He was suddenly questioning what he had originally come up to say. Instead, he cleared his throat. "Um, I was just going to suggest that I take McNally home. She's been through enough tonight, don't you think?"

Frank nodded. "Agreed. And Andy, I want you to follow the doctor's orders and take the rest of the week."

At that, Andy finally acknowledged the two. "But sir—"

"It's not open for discussion. From what Swarek told me this morning, you're just getting over a nasty flu, and now the assault. Take the time, take care of yourself." His commanding tone softened then. "But if you need anything, you call."

"Thank you, Sir." She looked at Sam then. "I, uh – I'm just going to go to the locker room and clean up a bit."

He nodded. He chewed on the inside of his lip as she walked out of the office past him, his own feet failing to take him down the same path.

"Something on your mind, Sam?" Frank asked as they were left alone.

Sam hesitated for a moment before turning back to his boss – who also happened to be an old Police College buddy. "She was assaulted, Frank. Tell me he's going down for that."

"William Cormier actually looks good for a couple cold homicides. I'm handing the case over to Headquarters, considering putting Callaghan on it might be considered a conflict of interest." Frank raised his eyebrows then. "Kind of like having one of the victims spend hours alone with the man she's sleeping with – who also happens to be a uniform – before signing her statement."

Swarek sighed.

Frank walked around and sat back down behind his desk. "I don't care if she was off-duty, one of my cops got hurt tonight. You can bet I'm going to make sure the man responsible pays for that. And fortunately, I have four other officers to back her up if some defence attorney decides to get cute." He looked at Sam pointedly. "I have no problem with you and McNally being involved, so long as you keep it out of my Division. You hear me?"

"How'd you –"

At that, a smirk crossed Frank's face. "Please. How long have we known each other, Sammy? You're smiling. You never smile. But the last few weeks..."

Sam rolled his eyes. "But how'd you know it was McNally?"

"Retraining. I never knew about a problem between you and Callaghan, but suddenly he's dating your rookie and you're trying to kill him. Then they break up and you're smiling. It doesn't take a white shirt."

"I pulled my application from Guns and Gangs," Sam admitted then.

"Yeah, well, I was never that eager to hand back one of my best cops to them, so if McNally's responsible for all of this, I'm fine with it. Just –"

"Keep it out of Division. Yeah, I got it." He turned to leave.

"Sam?"

"Yeah..."

"McNally was assaulted tonight. I know you're pissed off. So am I, so is everyone else. But for you, it's not just because you're her partner, but because of whatever else is going on. But what she needs right now is for you to take care of her, not for you to do something stupid. I definitely don't need you to do something stupid."

"I want this guy to go down. I'm not going to risk doing something that could prevent that from happening."

"You just keep telling yourself that whenever you look at her. But I know you, you've got a temper."

"Look, I'm not going to lie. I'd love to go down to holding and do to that son-of-a-bitch what he did to Andy tonight. But what matters more to me right now is getting her home and making sure she's okay. I won't interfere with this case. You've got my word." Sam nodded, then pushed open the door and headed out.

He made sure Andy was alone, and then slipped into the women's locker room. He furrowed his brow at noticing her jump by the intrusion. "I put in a call to the hospital. Cassie Valens is stable," he said from the doorway.

"Thank you," she replied quietly. She pulled on a TPS jacket someone had given her at some point during the evening and closed her locker. "Can we go?"

"Yeah. Whenever you're ready."

However, he did not take her back to herplace. Fifteen minutes after leaving the station, Sam pulled his truck into his own driveway. Andy was too numb after the evening's events to question him or to argue. So she slowly followed him up the front steps and in through the front door, only then finding herself a little unnerved by the silence that had fallen between them since they had left the hospital parking lot.

The quiet persisted until Sam had closed and locked the front door behind them. Then he turned to her, his eyes dark. "What the hell were you thinking?" he finally exploded.