*I feel the need to mention that I actually wrote this while I was in serious RB withdrawl this past winter. Now that the show is back on, my interest was renewed. Also, I know very VERY little about a typical day in law enforcement. And my writing will no doubt reflect that. I will be working with some cop friends to remedy this, sometime in the future. And also, I'm still trying to figure out this posting business. Bear with me.

*This takes place in the present, or at least after Takedown. Andy has moved in with Luke. Her partnership with Swarek has smoothed itself out for the time being, and they're actually on the road to being real friends.

"McNally, keep up," Sam yelled over his shoulder as he started the last quarter mile back to his house. In a tiny corner of his heart he felt a little guilty, listening to her panting behind him. The sun was hot, even this early in the morning, beating down on his shoulders. A gentle breeze offset the heat, filtering through the leaves above him.

McNally was jogging slowly up the hill behind him, her arms swinging gently, feet slapping the pavement as she plodded. Earlier that month, she'd been chasing down a suspect who had eventually outrun her. She'd been embarrassed and had mumbled something about getting back on the treadmill. Jokingly, Swarek had said that she was welcome to run in the mornings with him if she thought she could pull herself out of bed that early. She replied with a sarcastic-sounding, "yeah, maybe I will." Imagine his astonishment when he opened the door one early morning to see her standing there, awake, if not exactly eager. They began running, doing 3 runs the first week, 4 runs the next week. Sometimes they took a day off, sometimes they did two in a row.

For the first two weeks, he'd taken her on his "easy route." Nearly 3 miles, they ran down his street for twelve blocks and then down one more into the park. After making a loop through the park, they ran back. Today, however, he'd surprised her with his "not so easy route." Instead of looping through the park, Sam changed it up by veering onto one of the city's recreational trails. This time, the entire run was around 5 miles. Jogging in place, he turned around and whistled at Andy as she walked the last twenty yards.

"Was it good for you?" he asked, grinning at her as she held her side and glared at him. As she passed, she gave him a small shove with one hand and then sat down hard on his front steps. He chuckled at her and wiped some sweat off his forehead.

"You're an asshole, you know that?" She leaned down, holding onto her toes in a stretch. As she progressed through her stretching exercises, he bounced in front of her, plucking his damp shirt away from his body. She resented how even though he had sweat through his T-shirt, he still looked fresh and ready to do another 5 miles. She, on the other hand, felt like someone had turned her inside out and left the ugly on the outside. Her ponytail was hanging limply down her back, sweat streaming from every pore, and she had the suspicion that her deodorant had stopped working after the first fifteen minutes.

"Come on. At least run down to the coffee shop with me." He leaned down and tried to grab her hand to pull her up. She slapped his away. "I'll buy you a muffin. And you can sit in a chair when we get there." She stood up, turned around, and stepped up onto his bottom step with her toes, stretching her calves. Holding the railing, she rolled her head side to side, trying to loosen up her neck and shoulders.

"I'm not going anywhere with you, you sadist. You could have told me that we were going longer today, you know." He clapped a hand on her shoulder and pulled her off the steps. As he turned her toward him, he put his other hand on her other shoulder and dug his fingers in, rubbing away the tension in her neck. Okay, she relented, as her head fell back a little, her eyes half closed. Neither one of us smells that great. No need to feel embarrassed.

"Quit whining. It's just a few blocks. We can walk back, and then I'll drive you home." Andy glared at him again and shook her head, rolling her shoulders when he removed his hands. He bent down a little closer and raised his eyebrows. "How are you ever going to make it when we kick it up to 8 miles?" At her glare, he added, "at least it's our day off; you can sleep when you get back to your place." She rolled her eyes at him.

"If you're going to drive me home, you might as well just drive me to the coffee shop." She smiled stiffly. "And, you can stop laughing at me. I used to run in high school when we trained for sports, and I ran at the academy. I just haven't really gone out since I started training. It's not as if you're known for your athleticism either, you know." They started walking down the sidewalk. "I know we're supposed to stay fit, but I never hear Williams or Shaw comment on your ability to leave your fellow officers in the dust." They picked up the pace into a slow jog and she looked over at him. He gave her a tiny smile.

"Well, why would they want to talk about someone outrunning them?" He shrugged. "When I was undercover, it was less of a big deal. Now that I'm back on the streets, I find it a little more necessary. You know, gotta catch the bad guys." He looked over at her, smiling. "Besides, running is kind of peaceful, if you let yourself get into it."

"We're not really going to do 8 miles, are we?" He laughed, and turned his head forward.

"We'll work up to it."

-o-

Five minutes later, Sam was waiting in line. The coffee shop smelled like Starbucks but the coffee was better and they had the market cornered on inappropriately fatty baked goods. He'd been in the place a few times before, never really staying long. The furniture was all heavy-looking dark wood. The art on the walls tagged with the artists name and place of residence; all within 100 miles or so of the city. There was earthy-sounding acoustic guitar coming from speakers mounted in the corners of the room. The large windows were framed with a border of stained glass squares in every imaginable color. Sun shining through them made the store seem warm and comfortable.

He glanced out the open door, intending for it to last an instant, but the look turned into a long moment as he saw Andy sitting at one of the street-side tables, one leg crossed over the other, swinging her foot while watching the traffic. She smiled and gave a quick wave when she turned her head and found him staring at her.

After training together, even after spending all this time, he never really tired of Andy's company. There was still a touch of naivety but that could be refreshing in their business. Some didn't see it that way. Some saw it as an amusement, or a detriment to the case at hand. But sometimes that innocence, that belief in the basic good could help propel a person, and in her, Sam had seen that as a strength. This quality in her had changed some during her training. She questioned people more than she used to. That instinct of hers that told her to give people the benefit of the doubt had not quite disappeared, but it was endangered. For McNally, as a cop, it was probably an asset, but for McNally as a person, he felt guilty for helping to dispel that trust.

"Can I help you?" He turned back to the counter.

"Yeah. Sorry about that." The woman at the counter smiled at him. Light streamed through the stained glass and cast purple and blue light over her hair. Her name tag said "Kate". She looked to be in her thirties. Her dark blonde hair was thick, waving past her slim shoulders, and her eyes were slightly teasing as she spoke to him.

"It's no problem. What would you like this morning?"

"Yeah, I'll have two regular coffees. And an onion bagel and a muffin."

"Anything on the bagel?" He held up a couple of cream cheese packets he snagged from the condiment counter. "Okay, then, what kind of muffin?" He looked in the glass case and froze. There must have been a dozen different varieties. Sheepishly, he looked back at her. She raised her eyebrows, questioningly.

"Which kind is best?"

She smirked at him and started naming them off. After a few seconds, he held up a hand and grinned at her.

"I'll just take your favorite. I trust your judgment." She flashed a big smile at him and winked at him as she put a banana walnut muffin into a paper bag along with his bagel. She handed it over after he paid his bill.

"You can pick up your coffee at the end of the counter." He took the bag and looked down when he felt her fingers graze his palm while giving him back his change and receipt. Sam raised his eyes to her again, the eye contact lasting until he walked to the end of the counter and she had to turn to the next customer. For a moment, he observed her, watching her as she did her job, beaming and cheerfully helping the people in front of her. She glanced over in his direction once and he caught her eye, just long enough to let her know that it wasn't a coincidence.

"Sir, your beverages?" The teenage boy in front of him was setting two coffees on the counter.

"Thanks, man. Can you do me a favor and give this to the woman at the till?" Sam scribbled his name and phone number on the back of his receipt, folded it up and handed it to the boy. Holding the bag under his elbow, he grabbed the two coffees and walked out of the store

* Note: Not only am I American and use miles because I am fundamentally unable to comprehend kilometers, but I am also extremely useless at coming up with fictitious names for books, movies, stores and of course, coffee shops. I beg readers to submit their ideas for names for this shop