A Parent's Prerogative

by MoxiesdenLovesShandy

It's the new year for Sharon, Andy, and the rest of the team. After celebrating the holidays, the team gets dealt a new case that involves a critical missing of a young boy. The team races against the clock to find him and return him to his mother. Meanwhile, the case may have ties to a local mob boss which could bring problems to our favorite foster parents.

1. Chapter 1

DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

A/N: Hello everyone! I am back with another story. This takes place about a week after the last chapter of Bonding Before Christmas. It's the new year for Sharon and Andy and the rest of the gang.

Chapter 1

Provenza was sitting at his desk the Tuesday after New Year's Day working on his crossword puzzle when his desk phone rang. "Lieutenant Provenza, Major Crimes, How can I help you?" he said as he answered his phone. He was listening to the other person on the line tell him something and then he hung up. "Patrol wants us to meet them at the corner of 3rd and Vermont Ave. Apparently there was a carjacking in the parking lot of the Rite Aid and the perpetrator took off with the lady's car and her child who was inside the car at the time" Provenza said as he stood up and quickly put on his suit jacket. Julio, Amy, Mike, and Andy all stood up as well. Andy knocked on Sharon's office and then entered. "Provenza just got a call from Patrol about a possible carjacking with a child inside the car" he said to her as she sat behind her desk. Her phone alerted her to a message and she looked at it. "I just got the information about it now. Go to the scene and find out what happened" she said as she stood up and they both headed out of her office. Andy and Sharon joined Provenza, who was waiting in the hallway, and they walked to just before the elevators. "Be safe gentlemen, and let me know as soon as you know something. We will need to set up a command center if it is a critical missing" Sharon said to Andy and Provenza as she headed for Chief Howard's office.

Andy and Provenza headed down to the cars and they got inside a vehicle. Andy drove while Provenza was on the phone with Mike. "3rd and Vermont, Mike" he heard Provenza say to Mike on the other end. They went lights and sirens to that location. "What a way to start off the new year" Andy said to Provenza when he hung up his phone. They arrived eight minutes later at the Rite Aid parking lot. Provenza saw Patrol speaking with the lady who was very upset, to say the least. As both Andy and Provenza walked up to the lady and the patrol officer, they heard what she was saying. "Please you have to find my son. He was in the back seat of my car" the woman said. Provenza showed his badge as he approached them and he nodded to Andy to ask what Patrol had while Provenza spoke with the woman. "Uh, ma'am, I'm Lieutenant Provenza, a detective with the LAPD. Can you please tell me what happened?" Provenza asked the woman. "I went inside the store to pick up a prescription for my boy, Tommy, who stayed home from school because he was sick. I was just getting back into my car when a man approached me with a gun and told me to get out of the car. He proceeded to get inside and he drove off, with my boy in the back seat. Please you need to help me, please help me find my boy" the woman started to cry and Provenza ended up holding the woman as she broke down. Two other patrol officers went over to Provenza and led the woman to the side.

Provenza then walked over to where Andy was talking with another Patrol officer. "Anything?" he asked Andy. "We got the make and model of the car and Mike is running it now to see if there is anything inside the car so that we can track it. We also have the description of the male driver that the woman gave to the officers who first arrived on the scene" Andy said to Provenza as they walked towards where the car was parked. "Here is the boy that was in the back seat, his name is Tommy Miller, age 8" Andy said to Provenza as he handed him a photograph of the boy that Patrol had given him. "Cute kid" Provenza said as he looked at the photograph. "Yeah. I have Buzz searching for video footage showing anything in the parking lot, maybe the cameras caught the whole thing on tape. How's the mom doing?" Andy said to Provenza. Provenza looked back at her and then turned back to Andy. "She's clearly distraught over the whole thing. We're going to need to get a complete statement from her eventually. In the meantime, I'll call the Captain and let her know what we have" Provenza said to Andy as he walked away. He dialed her phone number and waited for her to answer the phone. "Yes Captain, we have a critical missing on our hands" Provenza said to her.

"What do we know so far, Lieutenant?" Sharon said over the phone. "Well Captain, video surveillance from the store captured the whole thing on tape, Buzz is currently looking it over with Amy right now. Mike is checking on the vehicle to see if it is equipped with a tracking device of some sort. The missing boy's name is Tommy Miller, age 8. His mother kept him home from school today because he wasn't feeling good. She was here filing a prescription for him" Provenza explained to Sharon. "Is Patrol pursuing the vehicle?" Sharon asked. "They are on the lookout and an Amber Alert has been issued across the county and state" Provenza stated to her. "Okay, thank you Lieutenant" Sharon said to him. Just then, Mike ran over to where Provenza was standing. "We can track the car!" he said to Provenza. "Uh, Captain, Mike is saying we can track the car to see where it is at" Provenza told Sharon. "Good" she said back to him. "We will let you know what we find out Captain" Provenza said to Sharon and then hung up his phone.

Mike got out his mobile laptop and brought up the application on the computer. "I've spoken with OnStar about the car's information and they gave me the vehicle's id number to trace with this software we have. We should be able to get a location fairly quickly" Mike said to both Provenza and Andy. They watched the screen narrow down the location of the missing car. "There it is. At Mariposa Avenue and Nash Street" Mike said to them and then closed his laptop. "Go, Go! Lights and sirens everyone!" Provenza shouted to the team as he quickly walked over to where their car was. "Officer Hinckley, please take Ms. Miller down to our office and have her wait there for us" Provenza said to the Patrol officer. "Yes sir" Officer Hinckley stated and then walked over to where the woman was sitting down. Provenza and Andy got in their car and Andy drove over to the location of the missing car.

Provenza pulled out his phone again. "Captain, we are headed to Mariposa Avenue and Nash Street now. Patrol is bringing the mom back to the PAB" Provenza said to Sharon. Sharon was sitting in Chief Howard's conference room and they were looking at the video screen on the wall of the different cars heading towards their destination. "Lieutenant, we are tracking you now. Please be careful approaching the vehicle, consider the subject armed and dangerous" Sharon said to him. "Yes Captain" Provenza said to back to her. They arrived at their destination and waited for Mike to get on the radio to let them know where the car was exactly located. Andy and Provenza got out of the car and drew their weapons as they followed Mike, Amy, and Julio. Buzz was behind them all filming the scene. The patrol officers blocked all of the exits of the parking lot they had arrived at. "Mike?" Andy shouted to him. "It's over here" Mike said as he pointed north and headed that way. All of them headed to where the car was possibly located. "There, two cars down, the black Chevy Malibu on the left" Mike said to the rest of the team. Andy and Julio moved forward to the front of the cars while Amy and Mike moved to the back of the cars, weapons drawn. Andy reached the car first and looked inside the front seat. It was empty. "The car is clear!" he shouted back to the team. He tried opening the car to see if it was unlocked and to his surprise it was. Julio opened the passenger door and looked in the glove box for the trunk release button and pushed it. The trunk opened up and Mike and Amy looked inside. It was clear as well. Andy and Julio then opened the back doors. The car was empty.

Andy stood back up and shook his head at Provenza. "It's clear" he said to him as he approached the car. "Dammit!" Provenza said as he looked around at all of the other cars in the lot. "Well, where did the suspect and the child disappear to?" Provenza said back to Andy and Andy shrugged his shoulders. Just then a plane took off from LAX airport and flew over the group. "Julio, Amy get over to LAX now and speak to whoever is over there to see if Tommy Miller was seen on their cameras with an adult male" Provenza told them. "Yes sir" Julio said back to him and then he and Amy left the scene. Andy was looking in the back seat of the car for any possible clues and he found a toy that must have gone underneath the front seat. He pulled it out. It looked like one of the robot toys he and Sharon had bought for Matthew for his birthday and for Christmas last week. Provenza walked up to him to see what he found. "Matthew has the same robot toy" Andy said back to Provenza. "Why would someone take this kid?" Andy said as Mike joined them. Provenza shook his head. "You're sure this is the car" Provenza asked Mike. "Yes, Provenza. The registration found in the glove box goes back to Ms. Miller" Mike said as he handed him the registration card.

"Call the Captain back, let her know what the status is" Provenza told Andy. "Sure" Andy said back to him as he nodded and then pulled out his phone. Provenza then walked to the side of the car and looked over at Mike. "Get SID over here now and dust this for prints, maybe the person who carjacked this car has a record" Provenza told Mike. Mike pulled out his phone and dialed a number. Buzz was still filming the car. "Buzz, I need you to see if this parking lot has any type of video or way of tracking who enters and exits" Provenza told him. "Right away, Lieutenant" Buzz said to him and then left the car. Andy called Sharon's cell phone. "Hey, we found the car, it was empty. There's no sign of the kid anywhere. We did find a robot toy in the back seat that the kid left behind. It's the same kind that Matthew has" Andy said to Sharon. She knew that any critical missing would be a hard case to deal with but this one was going to be even harder. Tommy Miller was around Matthew's age. "Sharon?" he said to her over the phone. "Okay, LAX is right down the street from your location" she said to Andy. "Yes, Julio and Amy are there right now" Andy said back to her. "Alright, have Mike wait for SID to come there. I want you and Lieutenant Provenza to head back to the office. We need to interview Ms. Miller" Sharon told Andy. "Sure Captain" Andy said and then hung up his phone.

Andy walked over to where Provenza was standing. "Sharon wants the two of us back to interview the mother with her. She wants Mike to wait for SID to come here" Andy informed Provenza. "Alright, I have Buzz looking at possible surveillance cameras here" Provenza said to Andy. Buzz came back to their location. "Okay, they have video footage of each car entering and exiting the parking lot, but that's it" Buzz informed the Lieutenants. "Okay Buzz, get that footage and then head back to the office" Provenza told Buzz. Then Andy and Provenza started walking back to their car. Provenza removed his bucket hat once inside the car and threw it to the floor in frustration. "This is turning out to be one hell of a day" Andy said as he saw what Provenza did out of the corner of his eye. He then shook his head and drove back to the PAB.

TBC