Chapter Forty Three.

"Sooooo...what are you going to do...?" Oliver deposited the selection of delivered pizzas on his kitchen counter, and collected a trio of beers from his fridge. He took a seat across from his friends, passing them each a bottle and took a swig of his own before making a show of picking up and shuffling the cards in front of him. He peered over at Sam when he heard no response, and was met with what he knew was only an attempt at a blank, unaware stare and stopped shuffling. "Sam...seriously...this is...this is serious. You know what I'm talking about..."

"Will you just deal already..?"

"You need to talk to her...She needs to know, and it needs to come from you – not from the jungle drums of fifteen...you."

Sam pointed the beer bottle in his hand at his friend, along with a wide smile. "You do know that we actually need the cards to play right..?"

"Sammy..."

"He's got a point...Traci said..." Jerry's words died on his tongue at the slack jawed, wide eyed glare that Sam aimed his way, his eyebrows knotting in confusion.

"I'm sorry...you talked to Traci? You told Nash...?" Sam eyeballed his friend in disbelief, his fingers tapping against the beer bottle in his hand a clear sign of his agitation.

"I might have...mentioned something. Sam – you're missing the point..."

"Oh... I'm missing the point?" He glanced back and forth between his friends; his mouth opened and closed a few times in an attempt to form a sentence before he eventually settled his glare on Jerry. "What is the deal with everyone needing an opinion on my life...I'm dealing with it. Have you forgotten how much those two talk? If she says anything to Andy it's on your head..."

Oliver began dealing the cards in his hand in an attempt to diffuse the building tension before he spoke again, he knew they were pushing their luck – it was a miracle they had got him here in the first place, but he wasn't ready to completely let it go yet. "You're family...both of you – we have opinions because we care. She is going to find out...I just think it would end better if it was from you." He dropped the deck of cards on the table, picked up and studied his hand. "How are you going to have the conversation with her if it goes south...How are you going to explain that away?" He chanced a look back across the table and found Sam gripping tightly onto his own cards, a lot of eyebrow being aimed in his direction. "I'm just making an observation..."

"She's been through enough – ok? It's not up for debate – are we going to play, or am I wasting my time...?" The edge in his voice was enough to let Oliver know that he had pushed it as far as he could, and he aimed a sideways glance at Jerry, picking up on the minutely perceptible nod of his head that let him know that they were letting it drop.

A defeated sigh, and a slump of Oliver's shoulders let Sam know he was off the hook before a resigned smile was aimed in his direction. "Oh...we're playing."

Sam slowly pushed open the front door to Andy's condo, and stealthily crept in through the gap. The sight greeting him on the other side of the door melted his heart a little, Andy curled up, blanketed, and snoring softly on the sofa in his grey sweater (which she had now completely claimed as her own – not that he minded one iota), her short, short PJ shorts were just in view with one long leg peeking out above the blanket and the most ridiculous ice-cream printed knee high socks pulled all the way up. He made himself comfortable sitting on the coffee table just watching her for a good few minutes, her peaceful sleep filled oblivion – before taking the cap off one of the coffees he had collected on his way home and waving the sugary caramel scented caffeine concoction under her nose. "McNally...wakey, wakey...It's time to get up sweetheart..."

He shuffled a little closer when she didn't stir, gave up his spot on the table and crouched down next to her – tucking some unruly hair behind her ear and kissing her softly on the cheek before tugging gently on her earlobe with a smile. "Andy...I brought in breakfast...picked up coffee, your favourite chocolate swirls and juice...you're going to be late for work."

He waved the coffee under her nose some more, and when that didn't work he planted it on the table behind him, pulled himself to his feet and smacked her on the butt – smiling to himself when he heard her grumpy groan into the sofa cushion as he walked away back to the kitchen to pick up the other goodies he had deposited there. He had to bite the inside of his cheek to hold back a grin at the pout and the bleary eyes he was met with when he turned back around and eyed her from the kitchen counter. "Sometimes you really suck...you know that?"

"Good Night?" He smiled a little...couldn't quite hold it in, and got a pointed eyebrow back in return. She hmmmppphed and flounced around on the sofa for a few seconds, all elbows and knees before reaching for and devouring the coffee left for her and Sam made his way back over to her – perching on the arm of the sofa, his smile expanding. "I thought you and Nash could hold your liquor..."

"I can hold my drink just fine thank you...this is not hung over." She hid a smile behind her coffee, and shuffled up a bit on the couch so she could peer back up at Sam. "Trace has already left...she had to pick up Leo...I've already made her breakfast...I just..."

"Needed to sleep it off a little...?"

"No...!" Andy swiped a mock offended slap at his thigh, but he caught her hand...pulling her closer to him and kissing her hello properly. She interlaced their fingers, and squeezed his hand when he loosened his grip on her and let her pull away, a small smile and an blush creeping onto her face. "Did you win...?"

He smiled back at her, squeezing at her hand in return. "Enough to buy you breakfast, and take you out to dinner tonight."

"Oh really...? Where are we going...?" Andy gradually worked her way up and onto her feet and deposited herself onto his lap, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and Sam's arm looped around her waist to pull her a little bit closer.

"Where do you want to go?" He nudged along her jaw with his nose until she lifted up her chin to give him access and he started placing gentle kisses along the column of her neck, following her pulse.

"I don't...umm...King's Noodle's.." It took a few seconds for her to force a response out, breath catching in the back of her throat because of the attention that Sam was currently levelling at her skin and it came out mumbled and breathless. He stopped as soon as he heard her suggestion, pulling away and looking at her with a disbelief written across his face. "What?...I like Chinese food."

"McNally – I took half of Oliver's pay cheque, I am not taking you to King's Noodles for dinner..." He raised an eyebrow at her in challenge, and a small smile appeared at the flustered, pouting expression he got back.

"I didn't...I don't..."

"Think fancy restaurant...nice wine...nice dress..." he kissed his way along her jaw, back to her mouth and kissed her once softly before nudging at her nose. "...get the idea..."

"Oh, ok...you mean like a date night..." She smiled wide and bright, knew exactly the dress she was would wear.

He smiled back at her, dimples digging in and allowed her to steal a brief kiss before he nodded back in answer. "What's it going to be...?"

Andy pulled her bottom lip through her teeth, and huffed out a sigh. "We may not be able to get a reservation..."

He shook his head good-naturedly at her, and raised a questioning eyebrow. "Where do you want to go?"

"Vi Pei?"

"It's a date. I'll pick you up at 8 – and I'll sort out the rest." He tangled his fingers through her hair, pulling her back towards him but she planted a palm on his chest and pushed him back with a look of confusion.

"Pick me up?"

"Yes..."

"Where are you picking me up from?"

He looked at her for a second as though she had momentarily lost a few brain cells but held back on commenting, and went with answering her instead. "Here."

"Why won't you be here...?"

"I have to...I have an appointment that I need to get to. It's closer to my place then here, so I can stop off there and grab some stuff and just pick you up on my way back through to the restaurant..." His words tailed off at the way she was studying his expression, and he smiled quick and small and hoped she wouldn't push it.

"An appointment for what...?" she dropped her hand from his chest, searching out and finding the arm that was wrapped around her and taking hold of his hand.

"Just some work stuff...I have a meeting, it's not a big deal."

"Like a when you're coming back to work meeting...?" She smiled hopefully at him, and his chest got a little tighter. He didn't want to lie to her... technically it was to hash out a plan of action so that he could kick Callaghan into the next century and still be able to come back to work, so technically not a lie...technically not lying...he couldn't bring himself to say it though, so offered a small nod of his head in agreement instead – sweeping some of her hair aside that was obstructing his access to her skin, and nuzzled at her neck, dropping a few kisses into the mix for good measure until she froze and wrenched herself out of his grip all in the space of thirty seconds. "Shit...Sam! I'm going to be so late..." He watched her power towards her bedroom, socks sliding across the floor, and her legs following with all the grace of a baby giraffe and the sight forced an unconscious small smile into residence, but it didn't do anything to calm the churning in his stomach.

Andy unceremoniously plonked herself down in the chair next to Oliver once she made it to Parade, she had made it with a little bit of help from Sam as a chauffeur, with exactly seven minutes to spare and she smiled widely at the man sat next to her - Oliver tried his best to ignore her, until she bumped shoulders with him and he peered over at her with a raised eyebrow. "Do you need me to shout lunch today? I heard you might be a little low on funds..."

"He cheated – it's going to take a lot of lunches to make up for those moves McNally."

"I can shout lunch...you're buying me dinner...a very nice dinner...a dress up restaurant dinner..." He narrowed his eyes at her, and she bit back a giggle – peering up when she caught sight of a suit in the corner of her eye, and heard Luke clearing his throat in an attempt to announce his presence.

"Andy – have you got a minute?"

Oliver's eyes widened as he peered back and forth between the pair, and tried to kick his brain into gear to think of a reason...any reason...why it would be an extremely bad idea for Andy to have a conversation with Luke – one that he was allowed to mention out loud, and the best he could come up with in the small amount of seconds that he gave himself was "Parade time Callaghan...no can do..."

"I cleared it with Frank, and I'm sure you can catch her up...we need to talk about the testimony for next week." He smiled back at Oliver, and Andy peered back at him curiously – she had never known Oliver to have tension with anyone, but in that moment he looked like he wanted to throttle Luke with his own tie – not that she would have had a problem with it, but it just surprised her.

Andy pulled herself to her feet, a perplexed and small 'Ok..." issued in response, and followed Luke out of the room – glancing back at Oliver in confusion one more time, and eventually following Luke into the interview room that had become the temporary home of all the undercover paperwork and evidence that she had pulled together on the Krzeminski clan. She may have put the guys that attacked her behind bars, but next week was the turn of all the others – and as much as the idea of having to go through all the details with Luke didn't exactly thrill her, she was looking forward to getting it done and moving on. She closed the door behind her, and turned to face him with a shrug of her shoulders. "Where do you want to start...?"

Andy passed the final file back over to the detective, with a sigh. "That's it right...? There's nothing else I've forgotten about?"

"Nope...we're good, I think we covered everything." He offered her a small smile, and he pulled himself to his feet as she stood to leave, his voice stopping her before she pulled on the handle to open the door. "Andy, I know this can't be easy...it's an awkward situation – I just wanted to say thank you for not letting it affect the way we work together. For what it's worth I just told them what happened...everything else that's happened since is action that they're taking – not me."

She looked back at him, completely confused – and turned back around, arms crossed defensively (defense always seemed to be her go to response with Luke these days) when he didn't elaborate. "What are you talking about...?" When she didn't get a response, she tried to nudge him in the right direction. "Luke...?".She saw after a few seconds the confusion on his face merge into an expression of realisation and he sat back down in his chair.

"He hasn't told you has he?" He agitatedly drummed his fingers on the edge of the table, and tried to hold back on an exasperated sigh.

Andy aimed an impatient eyebrow at him. "Who? And tell me what exactly?"

"Internal Affairs – they're...Sam's under investigation. I gave them a report – a report that they asked for, on what happened on the lead up to everything that went down in the warehouse that day, and they started a disciplinary investigation."

"They're...Sam's...Sam's up for a disciplinary?" She had heard what he said, just couldn't actually quite process it until she said the words out loud. "Since when...?"

"Last week...Frank told him last week, I thought you knew...I thought you..."

"Right...Of course you did...why would I not...I..." She couldn't finish her sentence, all of her focus transferring onto the fact that she needed to get out of the room and as far away from the what appeared to be sympathetic, although was probably anything but, smile that Luke was aiming at her. She turned on her heel, pulled the door open and strolled as calmly as she could back out into the hallway and her feet took her on auto-pilot towards the coffee machine and the kitchen, which is where Oliver found her ten minutes later.

It took her ten minutes to realise that there was somebody else there, and that they were talking to her – the sound of her pulse roaring in her ears completely covering any kind of external sound, and her focus on trying to stop her hands from shaking closing her off from everything else that was happening around her. She jumped half a mile out of her skin when she felt the warmth of Oliver's hand land between her shoulder blades, her head whipping back so fast that she almost gave herself whiplash, and her expression must have been an open book because Oliver's smile fell as soon as she looked at him. "Did you know...?"

She knew he knew – could tell completely by his expression, and he looked away...busying himself with the tower of paper cups on the counter next to him. "Know what...?"

"Oliver!" She cringed inwardly at the high pitched squeak that emerged in disguise as her voice, reached out and tugged on his arm until he looked at her again, the rest of her sentence coming out in a hiss "...you know exactly what I'm talking about...why didn't you tell me?!", to which she was met with two hands raised in surrender.

"Not my place...I told him to talk to you, but he didn't want you to worry..." Oliver pulled his shirt out of her grip and pried the now steaming hot coffee cup out of her white knuckle gripping fingers before she squeezed it hard enough to spill scalding liquid all over them both. "He has his reasons...McNally..."

"Worry! I...He...Why...Who else knows? Am I the only person who didn't have a clue? I thought he...wait...What's going on this afternoon...Oliver...?" She could hear the words tumbling out of her mouth, and could tell by the expression on the face of the man opposite her that she wasn't making any sense – but her brain was still having problems connecting with any other part of her body.

Oliver reached out and wrapped a gentle hand around her elbow, guiding her away from the prying eyes still left in the station and in the direction of their squad car. "McNally, you are going to buy me breakfast and we are going to have a talk...away from here,"

"Oliver, I want to know what..." She tried to keep the waiver out of her voice, but the pitchy tone of her words gave her away.

"I know...just keep walking, I will drive – you can buy, and we will talk."

A/N...Thank you for the amazing reviews and alerts following the last update - I don't feel like I deserve them after making you all wait so long, but they totally made my month! Here is another update for you as my way of saying thank you - you guys are all totally AWESOME!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx