A/N: I apologize for having been so absent in my writing, but real life has been interfering with my writing, and let's just say that inspiration hasn't really been present for me.

This is the last one-shot that I have planned right now, so next up I'm planning to finish "Through the Pain" and then "Wounds" ... I promise I haven't forgotten about those stories ;)

This story has been laying on my computer for quite some time, and deals with an accidental shooting in season five, and how it impacts Sam and Andy and ties in with what happened in the season finale.

Hope you enjoy!

Sam's feet are heavy, as he walks the distance from the Nurses' station and to where his best friend is crouched over in a chair.

"Where is she?" Sam demands to know the second he reaches the spot, where Oliver is sitting in a very uncomfortable chair.

"In exam room one..," the words have barely left his mouth before Sam makes it for the designated room. Oliver however abruptly stands, reaching out to grab hold of his friend's arm. "You need to give the doctor the space to check her out.

"Space?" Sam all but spits that very word out of his mouth, knowing how damaging it can be – especially to the relationship that he and Andy can now claim to have.

They talk things through now – instead of bottling them up inside. Sam tries to let Andy know when something is bothering him, and she's trying to let him lead her again – neither has been easy, but they're doing it, because they're each other's story.

"I thought you were working the desk today?" Sam furrows his brows in confusion as to why Oliver is even at the hospital right now.

"I was..," Oliver hedges. He is not looking forward to telling his friend, who exactly McNally had been patrolling the streets with today. "I mean, I am." He corrects himself.

"Obviously," Sam quips. "Who was she riding with?" he asks folding his arms across his chest making the brown leather jacket that he's wearing creak.

"Sam..," he knows what kind of storm his answer will kick up, so he tries to work around Sam's question, but by the look in his friend's eyes, Oliver knows that it's a lost cause.

"Tell me."

"Collins," Oliver answers noticing how Sam's eyes have immediately turned black, his lips are thinned out and his breathing has picked up.

"Collins." Sam states matter-of-factly.

"Collins," Shaw nods his head in the positive.

"Collins."

"I think we've got the chorus down, buddy. How many verses are we doing?" Oliver tries to joke, but it falls on deaf ears.

"You mean to tell me, that Andy got shot..," Sam halts mid-sentence to wet his lips before being able to continue. "While Collins was supposed to have her back?"

"They were partnered today; yes." Oliver says trying to make his friend see that it could have happened to anyone. Sam and Nick are civil with each other, but it's no secret that it's been difficult for them to work together on cases due to what had happened after Andy had returned from the task force.

Shaking his head, Sam tries to focus on Andy's wellbeing and not on the fact that Collins had been with her when it had happened. "She took it in the vest?" he asks.

"Yeah," Shaw nods his head in the affirmative. "She'll be sporting a couple of bruised ribs for a while, but that should be it." He pats Sam on the arm in a reassuring gesture, knowing that on the ride over, he's probably had all kinds of scenarios running through his head.

"So, she'll be okay?" Sam asks no one in particular.

"Yup!" Oliver exclaims. "Hey, at least she had her vest on – unlike some people we know." He quips making Sam's lips curve up in a semblance of a smile.

"Don't remind me." He replies rubbing at his tired face. "So, where is he?" Sam asks looking around the waiting area without being able to see their colleague. "Collins?" he emphasizes when Oliver doesn't answer his question at first.

"He went to get us some coffee, while we were waiting for the doctor to finish her examination."

"I see," Sam nods his head, which makes Oliver raise his eyebrows in a subtle warning. "What?" he asks, holding his arms out in an 'I'm innocent'-gesture.

"You know exactly what, buddy," he says. "Don't let what happened between the two of them, ruin what you and Andy have now. You guys have worked much too hard in the past couple of months to just let it all fall apart now."

Oliver is right – of course he is.

The thing is that Collins has never been one of Sam's favorite people – even before he and Andy had had whatever they had had together. Knowing they had slept together hadn't exactly made the guy more appealing in Sam's eyes.

He is protective over Andy, he knows he is. This is also why he reacts when someone, who's supposed to have her back, doesn't.

Sam had been tied up in court all day, and it hadn't been until a break, that he'd noticed the dozen or so calls from Nash on his cell, that he'd realized that something must've been wrong.

He had been right.

Something had been wrong.

Very wrong.

Andy had been shot.

"You were very lucky, Officer McNally." Doctor Allen tells her in a slightly chastising tone of voice. "If it hadn't been for this," she says holding up Andy's Kevlar that now has an extra hole in its lining. "Then you'd be lying on an operation table right now."

Zipping up her blue hoodie, Andy nods her head at the doctor's words. She if anyone knows what not wearing a Kevlar can do to your body. Or rather she's seen what it had done to Sam's several months back. "I know."

"You're to take it easy for the rest of the day," the doctor tells her.

"How about work?" Andy immediately asks not wanting to miss a day of work because of this.

"I'll leave that decision up for your Staff Sergeant, but it might not be a bad idea to ride the desk for the first couple of days. Those bruises will smart." She warns her.

"Okay, thank you, doctor." Andy attempts to take a deep breath, but winces slightly at the pain that's radiating from her ribs. It isn't until she looks up; that she notices that it isn't just her and Doctor Allen that are in the room anymore, Sam is standing in the doorway looking very concerned.

"Can I help you?" the doctor asks upon seeing a strange man in the room, and unlike the other two police officers that she'd encountered in the waiting room, this one isn't wearing a uniform.

"No." Sam brushes past her en route to where Andy is sitting on the examination table – not caring about anything, but making sure, that she is all right.

"Hey..," her voice is barely a whisper when Sam cups her cheeks in his hands. His eyes run all over her body, needing to make sure that every limb is accounted for.

"How do you feel?" he asks when the door closes the door behind them, leaving them alone to talk. "Are you in pain?"

"I'm okay," Andy tells him. "My vest took the brunt of it," she says, looking to where her Kevlar is laying. Following her gaze, Sam can't help but think about what could have happened – had she not been wearing it.

"What happened?" he asks sitting down next to her on the table.

Turning her body towards Sam, wincing slightly, Andy tells him that she and Nick had been called out to a 273D; domestic violence.

They had been able to calm both the husband and wife down when their son had entered the kitchen carrying a gun, pointing it directly at the uniformed officers. Andy had been standing closest to the doorway, where she'd tried to talk the kid down and get him to hand over the weapon, meanwhile Nick had been busy, calming down the mother and father.

Just when Andy had seemingly gotten through to the kid, his father had decided to open his big mouth and spew garbage about how silly the boy was behaving when the gun had accidentally gone off.

"The situation got contained pretty quickly after that though," Andy says softly, her eyes narrowing at Sam, and the way that he refuses to look into her eyes.

"The situation got contained?" he asks in disbelief.

"Yes."

"Let me get this straight," Sam stands, needing to create some distance between them. "You get shot, your partner doesn't back you up, and you call that containment?" he asks in incredulity.

Gritting her teeth, Andy says, "He did back me up, Sam."

"Really? When? After the damage had already been done? You should never have been put in that situation in the first place, Andy."

"If it hadn't been for Nick, that kid might have shot a second or third time. He defused the situation, which is what I'd expect out of any partner on the job. No one's perfect, Sam. Not even you." Getting up from the examination table, she walks to a nearby chair where her duffel is laying, which she begins to zip up – not having the energy to go another round in the Nick debacle.

"I've never claimed to be perfect," he says but stops mid-sentence when he notices that Andy now has the straps of her duffel in her hands. "What are you doing?"

"I need a ride back to the station."

"You going back in?" Sam asks confused.

"I need to write up the report," Andy says walking to the door.

"We're in the middle of something here," he says to her back.

"I know," she sighs turning around to look at him. "But it's the same argument we've had before. I can't change what happened between Nick and me. I'd wish to God I could, but I can't."

"I know."

"Do you?" Andy asks with an arched eyebrow. "Because I feel like I spend half the time apologizing for what happened between Nick and me, and the other half trying to make amends for it. To you, to Gail and to everyone else, and I can't go back in time and undo it. But I'm getting really tired of having to justify myself when all I want to do is to move on – with you."

Hands planted firmly on his hips, Sam sees how much their past is costing their present. "You're not the only one, who made choices last year, Andy. I did it too."

"So what do we do about it?" she asks.

"I don't know," he shrugs his shoulders feeling at a loss as to how to navigate the road from here on out. "Let me give you a ride back to the station at least." Sam says right when his cell phone begins to ring. "It's probably the court." He sighs.

"You should get that then," Andy says. "I'll catch a ride with Oliver."

"Andy..," Sam starts to say, but she holds up at hand to pause him.

"It's okay; let's just talk later, okay? I need to get the paperwork out of the way, so I can go home. You need to get back."

"Aren't we reverting back to how we used to deal with things?" Sam asks, feeling like there's this big void between the two of them all of the sudden.

Andy just shrugs her shoulders before opening the door and closing it behind her.

"Great."

A couple of hours later, Andy is sitting on the bench in front of her locker with her head in her hands wondering how they could have backtracked so quickly.

"Everything okay over there, McNally?" Traci asks closing her locker.

"It's Sam."

"There's a shocker," she retorts with a smile before sitting down next to Andy on the bench. "Talk to me – what happened?"

Sitting up straight, Andy tells her about her and Sam's argument at the hospital and how they left things. "I just don't know how to deal with this anymore."

"Try and see things from his perspective for a moment," Traci advices her friend. When Andy shoots her a disbelieving gaze, she emphasizes her point. "Sam probably feels about Nick, like you feel about Marlo. You don't have to face Cruz anymore, but he is forced to run into Nick every day."

"We agreed when we got back together that the slate would be wiped clean. I just don't know what to do anymore," Andy winces slightly when she breathes too deeply, which smarts her ribs.

"Andy, are you in pain?" Traci asks concerned.

"It just smarts a little," she shrugs off her friend's concerns.

"Okay," Nash sighs realizing that she won't get anywhere with telling Andy to go home and relax instead of sitting on a bench in the women's locker room. "You remember a couple of weeks ago when Marlo was back for the hearing, and you saw her and Sam talking in his office?"

"Not likely to forget it."

"Well, imagine feeling like that e-v-e-r-y d-a-y," Traci spells out the words for emphasis, needing to make Andy see where Sam is coming from.

"I haven't thought of it like that," she admits. "But what do we do? How do we move past all of that?" Andy asks, needing some kind of guiding principle to steer by.

"First off, you and Sam both need to come to terms with the fact that you spent most of last year with other people and that that has an effect on the relationship you now have. But you need to deal with it, listen to each other and not walk away when you're in the middle of an argument."

Nodding her head, Andy takes in everything that Traci has just told her, and realizes that she and Sam still have a long way to go before they're sailing smoothly.

To say that the day had turned out differently than Andy had imagined it would this morning when she'd woke up would be the understatement of the year.

She's standing in the shower, shielding her bruises from the sprays of water coming from the shower head to avoid any pain.

The ride home in the truck had been quiet – eerily so. Their argument in the hospital room had still lingered, and neither one of them had been able to break the ice.

The events of their past still had a ripple effect in their present.

So, even though they were committed to each other, the ghosts of Andy's relationship with Nick, and Sam's with Marlo still existed.

After having dried off, Andy puts on a pair of panties as well as a pair of shorts and a black tank top.

Standing in front of the mirror, she is running her fingers through her wet tresses when she feels Sam's presence in the room with her.

So, it isn't surprising to Andy that when she turns her head towards the doorway, that she finds Sam leaning against the door frame. His arms are folded across his chest, and his jaw is clenched letting her know that their argument is bothering him too.

"You ready to talk about it?"

"Are you?" Andy retorts.

Sighing audibly, Sam pinches the bridge of his nose realizing that despite their best efforts they have to talk this whole thing out. Namely the effect that Collins and Marlo still have on their relationship – despite the fact that they're both in the past.

"I wouldn't be standing here if I weren't," he replies shutting off the lights in the bathroom after Andy has moved into the bedroom.

"Fine," Andy nods her head. "I know that me working with Nick has to be difficult for you, Sam, but you have to find a way to deal with it."

"I know."

"You do?" she asks beyond surprised that he has just agreed to what she's said. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, Andy looks up at him with questioning eyes.

Chuckling lightly, Sam rubs his chin before sitting down next to Andy on the bed. "Oliver told me in no uncertain terms that I was being an idiot and that if I didn't get down on my hands and knees and apologized to you, that he'd never speak to me again."

"Really?" Andy asks, unable to keep a smile from forming on her lips.

"Yeah, as tempting as it may seem, I think I'd better stay on his good side," Sam says, reaching over to tuck a strand of hair behind Andy's ear.

"I don't know what I'd do if I had to work side by side with Marlo every day, but Nick is just a colleague and I'm trying to maintain my friendship with him. What we have," Andy says pointing her finger between the two of them. "Is what's most important to me."

"I feel the same way," Sam nods at her words. "It's like what I told you when we got back together, Andy. I don't want to waste any more time. I almost lost you last year, and I never want to feel like that again," he says.

Suddenly a wave of melancholy crashes in on Andy, and it's not the events of today that are to blame for it. It's the idea of her almost having lost Sam when he'd been shot, and the fact that he hadn't been wearing a vest.

"Hey," he tips her chin up with a finger making Andy look him in the eyes. "What's going on in that head of yours?"

"I did lose you," she says feeling a tear run down her cheek. When Sam just looks at her with bewilderment in his eyes, Andy adds, "You flatlined, Sam! I had to watch them shock you three times before they were able to bring you back."

"Andy..," Sam begins to say her name, but she gets up from the bed, needing some air from the sudden harsh memories that her words have just invoked in her mind.

"You didn't have your vest on, Sam! It could've all ended right there! You might as well have been wearing a sign that said; 'Shoot me'!"

Andy's face is wet from tears when she buries it in her hands, unable to look at Sam any longer, and the understanding that is reflecting in his eyes.

Next thing she knows, she's wrapped up in his arms. His mouth is at her ear, whispering, "I'm sorry for having put you through that, Andy. All I can say is that I'm here now, and that I'll never take life for granted like that again."

Nodding her wet face against his shirt, Andy sniffs as she soaks up his words. "I'm scared, Sam," she speaks against the cotton of his shirt. "I'm afraid that this is all a dream, that we're not really together, and that you didn't regain consciousness in the hospital."

Cupping her cheeks, Sam tilts her head back and makes her look him in the eyes. "I'm right here, and this time I'm not going anywhere." He promises, nudging his nose against hers before pressing their lips together.

"Give me your hand," Sam says a couple of minutes later, holding his hand out, palm-side up.

"What?" Andy asks, drying her tears away with the back of her hand.

"Give me your hand."

When she makes no move to comply, Sam grabs the back of his shirt and pulls it off of his body before throwing it into a corner of the room.

"What are you doing?" Andy asks, her eyes immediately flitting to the scar that'll forever bear testament to the fact that Sam had been shot.

"Give me your hand."

Rolling her eyes at his persistence, Andy places her hand in Sam's. "Now what?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.

Tucking on her arm, Sam curls an arm around her waist before bringing her front against his. He entwines their fingers, and places them on his chest.

Andy can feel his heart beating strongly through his chest.

"I'm right here, Andy."

"Right here," she repeats his words getting lost in the thumping of his heart.

Pressing his lips against her forehead, Sam says, "I love you."

Closing her eyes, Andy takes in everything that has happened today. Her shooting, their argument in the hospital – not to mention her fear of losing Sam now that she finally has him.

"I love you too," she whispers. "Don't take this the wrong way, but can we just hold each other tonight?" Andy asks.

"Come on." Sam leads her to the bed by her hand, and lies down first, tugging on Andy's hand when she doesn't automatically follow him down. "Is something wrong?" he asks.

"No." She shakes her head in reply before lying down next to him, placing her head on Sam's chest, her legs tangled with his.

"Do they smart?" Sam asks, rubbing her back in soothing motions.

"Only a little," Andy shrugs her shoulders small, letting the beating of his heart lull her into a deep sleep.

A/N2: I'd love a few words in the box below ;)