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: Here is the next story and it picks up right where Minutes Turning Into Hours left off. I hope you all enjoy this one!

Chapter 1

Lieutenant Andy Flynn drove his car to the crime scene and he arrived 20 minutes later after hanging up with Provenza. Mike had called him, waking him up from his slumber, which in turn woke up Sharon. Andy had finally gotten some sleep around midnight only to be up again at 3. He had spent the next ten minutes trying to convince Sharon to get back into bed, which is where he wanted to be right now.

He parked his car and paused for a minute before stepping outside and walking towards the crime scene. Amy met him at the crime scene tape and showed him where the rest of the team was located. He stepped into the backyard of the house and saw the LAPD dive team in the pool, retrieving a body.

"Ah Flynn! Nice of you to join us here," Provenza sarcastically said. "Yeah, well, it wasn't easy trying to convince Sharon to stay home, even on Doctor's orders," Andy scratched his head as he watched the divers remove the body. "So what do we have?" he asked Provenza.

"Well, the owners of the house discovered this body here in the pool, earlier this morning. Julio is speaking with them now," Provenza pointed to where Julio was with the owners. "Did they know who it is?" Andy asked, in a hopeful voice. "No, unfortunately not," Provenza muttered as he watched Kendall look over the body.

"This body is in complete rigor and it looks to me like it is completely frozen," Kendall stated as he moved from the head to the legs of the body. "You got a time of death?" Provenza asked him. Kendall looked up at him and shook his head. "The body is going to have to be thawed before we can determine that, Lieutenant," he signed some paper on the clip board that another attendant handed him and then returned to the body.

"Great! A frozen, dead body in someone's pool that owners can't identify, this is just perfect!" Provenza quipped as he took his white, bucket hat off of his head and crumpled it in frustration. Andy watched his friend and shook his head. He looked around the back yard and found Mike looking at something along the fence line.

"You got something Mike?" Andy asked him as he approached the fence. "Not sure, I'm wondering how the body ended up in the pool, if all the gates to the yard have locks, and none of them are busted," Mike stated as he dusted the fence gate area where the locks were located. "Maybe we can get some sort of print, and start that way?" Mike stated as he pulled some prints off of the area and placed them onto a white card.

"Alright Buzz! Did you get the owners statements?" Provenza asked him as he walked over to where Julio and he were standing. "Uh yes sir," Buzz answered. "Good," he answered and then turned to Andy who was approaching him with Mike.

"Flynn, go with the body to the morgue and find out when Doctor Morales will be able to get everything done. Mike, take those prints back to the office and run them, see if anything pops up. Amy, check with missing persons, see if anyone matches the description of our dead body here. Julio, you and Buzz head back to the office and see if we can make heads or tails over the owners' statements," Provenza barked out the orders of the early morning, and everyone went their separate ways.

Andy walked back to his car when his phone alerted a text message to him. He pulled out his phone and saw a message from Sharon. He shook his head. It was 4:45 in the morning and Sharon was asking him about the crime scene. 'You're supposed to be sleeping dear' he texted back to her and then opened the door and slid into the driver's seat. 'Humor me please?' she responded. He shook his head, placing the phone down while starting the car.

He then picked the phone back up and dialed her number. She picked up on the second ring. "Why are you up?" he asked her softly and he could tell she was smiling. "Because you left our warm bed in the middle of the night and I missed you," she teased him and he smiled. "Well, duty called and you're supposed to be resting and not worrying about work," he told her as he placed her on speaker and started to drive towards the morgue.

"So what's the call out?" she asked him as she laid in bed. "And I am resting in our nice, warm bed so don't worry about that," she added. Andy chuckled. "Oh are you now? Seems to me like you wanted to know about the crime scene," he told her. "Well, I just wanted to know why my husband had to leave?" she teased him again. Andy took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down before they continued this banter over the phone.

"So, the body discovered in the backyard pool in the Pacific Palisades was completely frozen, according to Kendall. I'm on my way to the morgue right now to get some sort of timeline from Doctor Morales to see when he can get a cause of death to us," Andy informed her as he continued to drive. "Hmm, the body was completely frozen? That's a little odd. Could the owners of the house identify the body?" she asked as she shifted in bed.

"No, they don't know who the body is," he told her as he took I-10 towards downtown LA. He heard her sigh into the phone. "Look, get some sleep and I'll check in with you later this morning, maybe after I know some more information on this," he said knowing that she would not listen to him but hopeful that if he said he would call her later, it would help in coaxing her. "Okay, be careful driving," she told him. "I will, love you," he replied and he could tell she was smiling. "I love you too," she said and then they hung up their phones.

Andy rubbed his hand over his jaw as he drove down the highway. Minimal traffic was on the roads and he saw the skyline of the city, buildings with their lights on still. He made his way off the highway and exited at Maple Avenue, taking that to 5th Street then turning onto Main Street and headed into downtown.

He pulled into the morgue parking area for police vehicles and exited his car. He walked into the other entrance and waited for Doctor Morales. He saw Kendall walking down the hallway. "Hey Lieutenant, your body was just brought in and Doctor Morales is taking a look at it right now, he should be out shortly," Kendall told him. "Thanks," Andy stated as he continued to sit there.

He thought back to when Sharon had taken over the Major Crimes division. He had been pissed that day, not only because Larry Martin was killed in their custody, but also because Sharon kept her promotion a secret from him. He had later apologized to her for his outburst there and she had forgiven him. His memory was interrupted by Doctor Morales as he stepped into the hallway.

"Lieutenant, please step inside," Doctor Morales held the door open for Andy. "So anything you can tell us right now, Doc?" he asked him as he stepped closer to the body. It was completely frozen. There were icicles and frost all over the body. "Well, I'm not sure how the body got to be completely frozen, but I will tell you that I won't be able to do an autopsy for another few days until it's completely thawed out," Doctor Morales stated as he poked the body with one of his tools.

"Did you find any ID on him?" Andy asked as he watched the doctor. "No, his jeans pockets were frozen but I was able to break off some of the ice to search his pockets and they were empty," Doctor Morales looked at Andy. "How about fingerprints?" he asked. "Well, that may be difficult as well," Doctor Morales sighed as he moved to show Andy the body's fingers. "They're frostbitten," he showed him.

"But, hang on because I could warm them up, it will take a couple of hours to do so, but I can warm up his hands and then maybe we could get a good fingerprint to run," Doctor Morales suggested as he took out the hair dryer. "Can you let me know when you're able to run them?" Andy asked and Doctor Morales nodded. "Sure, by the way, how's the Commander doing?" he asked Andy as he was about to leave the room.

"She's doing okay, trying to get her to obey Doctor's orders and rest is challenging," Andy shook his head as he chuckled a little. "Give her my best," Doctor Morales stated and then Andy left the room. He exited the way he came in and decided to move his car to the PAB parking lot.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Sharon was lying in bed, wide awake, wondering about how this frozen body could have come to be. She stood up out of bed, a little shaky at first but then gained her footing and walked over to the chair where her laptop was. She picked it up and brought it back to bed with her. She logged on when the startup screen came up and ran a search on Google.

She then heard a knock on her door. She moved the laptop to the side and pulled the covers up and around her. "Come in," she cleared her throat and Matthew walked into the room. "Good morning sweetie," she told him as he climbed up onto the bed and joined her. "Where's Dad?" Matthew asked as he noticed Andy wasn't there.

"He got called into a crime scene early this morning," Sharon told him as she moved the laptop to the other side of her, allowing Matthew to lay down on her right side. "It's a little early for you to be up, is everything okay?" she asked him and he nodded. She pulled the laptop back on her lap and started typing into a word document as she continued to do some research online.

"I'm going to call Doctor Joe's office this morning and see when he is available to talk with you," Sharon told him as she scrolled down a list that the search engine brought back to her. "What is he going to ask me?" Matthew asked her as he laid there. Sharon put her laptop to her side again.

"Well, he's going to ask you what's been going on lately and how you've been doing. I would be very honest with him, Matthew, because like your father and I, he's there to help you, and the more you tell him what's troubling you, the more he'll be able to help," she told him and he understood.

She watched him lay there and wondered what really was troubling this kid when her phone alerted to a text message. She picked it up from the night stand and saw the message was from Andy. 'Done at the morgue, really no answers yet, Morales says hello' the message stated. 'Hope you are sleeping' was the next message he sent her. She smiled and shook her head. 'I'm up, hanging out with Matthew in our room' she responded.

'He's very lucky to have such a wonderful mom' he replied to her text as he was walking from the elevator to the office. He glanced at the time on his phone and then made his way through the door into the office. Mike was sitting at his desk, running the fingerprints he had picked up off of the fence area. Provenza was sitting at his desk, reading the newspaper.

"Glad to see you have better things to do than trying to solve this murder," Andy said sarcastically as he passed Provenza on the way to his desk. "Just waiting to hear what you have to say," Provenza quipped from behind the newspaper. "Did Morales give you a timeline?" he asked him. "Well, the body is completely frozen, so for him to do an autopsy, it's going to be a couple of days before the body gets thawed out for him," Andy explained and Mike looked up from his computer screen to listen to Andy.

"Anything yet on the prints you lifted?" Andy asked Mike as he walked over to Mike's desk. "Not yet," Mike replied. "We need to identify the frozen body first," Provenza stated. "Yeah, Morales is trying to heat up the guy's fingers by running a hair dryer over them. He's supposed to call me later and let me know if that works," Andy answered him. "It should, unless the fingers fall off," Mike chimed in and both Andy and Provenza gave him a look.

Julio and Buzz were in the Electronics room going over the video of the owners of the house. "I don't think they're involved," Buzz stated as they watched the video. "What makes you say that?" Julio asked him. "Because, they're too frantic and not calm at all," Buzz answered him. "In my Reserve Officer Training, when you take a statement," Buzz started but Julio stopped him. "I get it Buzz, you don't have to go into your training," Julio told him.

Amy walked back into the office and placed some folders on her desk. "And what did Missing Persons have to say, anything?" Provenza asked her as they all turned around when she walked into the room. "Well, they have about 30 missing people that have been reported to them in the last 6 months and 5 of them meet the criteria of the body that was discovered in the backyard pool," Amy told them and then handed out the folders to the Lieutenants.

"Mitch Robinson, missing for two weeks, from Westchester, worked at LAX as a food vendor," Andy read the report that was handed to him. "Says here his boss reported him missing, no family in the area," he continued and then placed the information on the Murder Board.

"Brad Hammel, missing for one month, lived in University Park and taught at USC part time," Mike read his report as Andy wrote the information on the board. "This is interesting, USC didn't know he was missing because he had requested a sabbatical a week before and it was granted," Mike continued. "Who reported him missing?" Provenza asked. "According to the report, his parents, who live in Salt Lake City," Mike replied.

"Barry Nelson, missing for two months, from Brentwood," Amy started to read. "That's close to the Palisades," Provenza pointed out. "Worked as a mortgage broker and was reported missing by his wife," Amy continued. "Ah! See? There's always a wife involved!" Provenza stated and Andy shook his head at him. "Missing Persons interviewed the wife and they ruled her out, sorry Lieutenant!" Amy added. "That doesn't mean anything, and what do they know?" Provenza mulled over that fact.

"Who's next?" Andy asked as he turned around from the board and looked at them. Provenza picked up a folder and started to read the information. "Okay, John Moore, is the next missing person. Last seen in Griffith Park over a week ago and was reported missing when he didn't return from his morning run," Provenza read and handed the picture to Andy.

"He was reported by his partner," Provenza continued and then looked up at Andy, Mike, and Amy as they stood around. "What?" he asked them. "Just waiting to hear you say "it's always the partner!"," Mike added.

Provenza closed the file folder and placed it on the pile that they already looked at, leaving one more folder to go. "Okay, last one is Michael Anderson, reported missing by his coach when he didn't show up for morning practice," Mike read. "An athlete?" Andy asked and Mike read further down in the report. "Apparently he plays for the Ontario Reign," he stated. "That's the American Hockey League affiliate to the LA Kings," Andy pointed out.

"The team is from Ontario, California, which is a long way from where the body was discovered," Mike added as Andy wrote the last information up on the board. "If the body is this Michael guy, what was he doing so far away from where they play hockey?" Andy asked and Mike was on his computer running another search. "This might be why. The Ontario Reign, according to their schedule, was in Bakersfield the day before Michael disappeared playing the Bakersfield Condors," Mike stated from his computer.

"So, if this is his body, why was he in the Palisades?" Provenza asked but no one answered him. Buzz and Julio stepped out of the Electronics room and joined everyone else in front of the Murder Board. "Anything else from the interview?" Provenza asked them. "No sir. Buzz doesn't think those people where involved," Julio said as he turned to Buzz.

"Oh really? And why is that Sherlock Holmes?" Provenza asked Buzz. "Well Lieutenant, in my Reserve Officer's training class, there are tell tail signs that someone is telling the truth," Buzz stated and Provenza rolled his eyes. "And you think these people were telling the truth?" Andy asked Buzz. "Yes, sir, I believe they were," Buzz answered him.

"Fine, fine, we have a list of potential people this frozen body could be," Provenza stated and brought everyone's concentration back up to the Murder Board. "Now we just have to wait for Doctor Morales to call us with some good news," Andy stated and then walked back to his desk. Everyone else did the same and sat down at their desks, waiting to hear back from the Doctor.

Meanwhile, Sharon was getting things ready for Matthew to take for his lunch to school. Emily was up and agreed to drive Matthew that morning. "So are you ready?" Emily asked Matthew as she walked into the kitchen. Matthew nodded as Sharon handed his lunch box over to him. "Let me just put this in my backpack and I'm ready to go," he told her.

Emily then watched her mom gather her purse and gave her a quizzical look. "Where are you going?" she asked her. "Well, I thought I would go with you," Sharon simply said. "Do you think that's a good idea?" Emily asked her as she shook her head. "I'm tired of being in this house, going with you to take Matthew to school isn't going to harm anyone, besides I went there yesterday morning with Andy when he took him to school," Sharon tried to reason with her daughter.

Her mom did make her point with that one, Emily thought to herself as she stood there. "Fine," Emily huffed, defeated by her mother's logic. "Good, because I would like to speak with his principal as well when we drop him off at school," Sharon stated and walked to the back door where Matthew was waiting. Sharon locked the back door and walked with Emily to her car. They all got inside and Emily drove to Matthew's school.

Sharon texted Andy to let him know they were taking Matthew to school. She didn't ask him about how the case was going because she didn't want it to seem like she was pestering him for details. She figured he would eventually tell her when they found out more information from Doctor Morales. She was glad to see Andy's reply message so quickly.

'What? I thought Emily was driving him to school this morning?' he responded to her text. 'She is, I'm just along for the ride' she reassured him as she shook her head. 'Sharon, please take it easy' his text pleaded with her. 'Just going to his school, speaking with the principal about yesterday, and then I'm coming back home' she told him, knowing that he would be concerned about her.

He changed the subject because he started to feel frustrated even more as he sat at his desk reading Sharon's text messages. 'I miss you' he told her. 'I love you' he added next and sent that one. 'And I want you to be safe' he sent her with a red heart emoji after that message. She smiled as she read them and realized they were already at Matthew's school when she looked up from her phone.

'I love you and I miss you too. Please be safe at work' she replied to him and added a kissing emoji to her message. Emily got out of the car and Matthew did as well. They both waited for Sharon to get out and then all three of them walked towards the school entrance. "Take Matthew to his room while I go to the office to speak with the principal," she told Emily and then looked at Matthew.

"Please don't get into any fights today, listen to your teachers, alright?" she told him. "Yes Mom," he answered her and then left with Emily. Sharon turned around and headed towards the office. As she walked inside, she saw the secretary sitting at the front desk. "Oh, Good Morning Mrs. Flynn, what can I do for you?" the secretary asked her.

"Well, I was hoping to speak with Principal Gottardo for a brief moment if she's available," Sharon asked her as she stood there waiting. "Um, she's in her office, let me go get her, just a moment please," she got up and walked towards the small office. A few seconds went by before the principal walked out. "Ah, Mrs. Flynn, I trust you heard what happened yesterday afternoon?" Principal Gottardo stated.

"Yes, that's what I wanted to talk to you briefly about," Sharon told her and she nodded. "Here, come into my office," she gestured for her and Sharon stepped inside as Principal Gottardo made her way around her desk and sat down.

"I just want you to know that Matthew is not a troublemaker. We sat down with him last night and explained to him why fighting would not be tolerated," Sharon spoke to her and she listened. "Well, I'm glad you and your husband are taking an active role in Matthew's life," she told her. "This has been a difficult couple of days for him, ever since I got injured on the job and I know he is holding a lot of stuff in," Sharon started to say but stopped to compose herself.

"Mrs. Flynn, don't worry. The only discipline Matthew is getting is eating lunch and recess in my office. He'll be okay," she smiled and reassured Sharon. "Thank you," she said and then stood up from her chair and the principal walked her out where Emily was waiting for her. "Thank you again," Sharon told her and then walked out of the office with Emily and they headed back to the car.

Emily drove them back home and when they got home, Sharon sat in the kitchen at the table. "Could you go upstairs for me and grab my laptop and bring it down here?" she asked Emily and she nodded. Sharon pulled out her phone and dialed Doctor Joe's number. He answered his phone on the third ring.

"Hello, Commander Flynn, what do I owe this pleasure of speaking with you," Doctor Joe said over the phone. Emily came back down with her mom's laptop and placed it on the kitchen table as her mother was now on the phone.

TBC