The Ambush
by ImaginationOnFire
.
"The Chemistry Test" (also on this site) is the beginning of the story.
"The Ambush" begins three months after the end of "The Chemistry Test."
(I apologize for these idiotic centered dots. I've done everything I can think of to create extra hard returns, but with no luck. Think of the story like birthday cake: It may be a little crumbly, but it will still taste good.)
.
.
CHAPTER ONE
.
"Oh, come on, just tell me!" Louie Provenza begged his friend, Andy Flynn.
The pair were hanging out at Flynn's apartment, watching the Dodgers-Rockies game on TV.
"Seriously! Are you seventeen?" Flynn objected.
"Look, it's obvious you and the Captain are closer. I just want to know how close."
"You gonna tell me about you and Patrice?" Andy shivered. "No. Forget I said that."
"Ha! Ha!" Provenza smirked.
"Louie, no," he said firmly. "Sharon thinks I'm a stand up guy. Why would I screw that up?"
Provenza snorted.
Andy sighed audibly. "Let me ask you something."
"Shoot."
"You propose to women often," Andy smiled at the jab back at his friend. "How do you know when it's time? In our day, you dated a woman for a while before you asked. But now, people are buying houses and having kids before they get married. If they get married at all."
"Yes, but the Captain is your age, Andy, not a twenty-something. And, damn, you are close if you're getting ready to propose."
"Look," Andy admitted, "I've seen Sharon at her best and worst. And I can't stop thinking about her. And I don't wanna be with anyone else. What else do I do?"
Provenza softened, and the joking was gone from his voice. He laid his hand on his friend's shoulder.
"You ask her to marry you," Provenza replied solemnly. "It's time."
.
.
A few miles away, Sharon Raydor soaked in a warm bubble bath, a luxury she regularly enjoyed. As she rested her head against the bathtub, she let her mind relax and drift.
Andy… He made her happy, not because he did something in particular. He made her happy by accepting her as she was and slowly, surely coaxing her out of her fortress.
Andy… He was such a gentleman. They could spend the evening kissing on the couch, and he would refuse to ask her to go further than she wanted to. He obviously wanted her but was waiting for her invitation.
She wanted him, too, but she hoped for some level of commitment; and she wasn't sure how she was going to reconcile those conflicting needs.
.
"I love you, Sharon," he'd greeted her last week. She'd invited him over for dinner, and he surprised her with a bouquet of her favorite flowers.
"I love you, too, Andy."
She kissed him, and thank goodness, she could turn the oven down to keep dinner warm, and Rusty was getting home late so they could appear to have waited on him intentionally, and they weren't hungry, anyway — well, not for food. And there they were again, on her couch, arms and legs tangled up, hearts pounding and breathless. She unbuttoned a few buttons on her blouse and showed Andy how to set her on fire. Mmmm, she thought with a smile, he's one fast learner—
—Her phone rang, interrupting her daydream. Hopefully, it was Andy calling.
It wasn't. It was Dispatch, and it was going to be a while before Sharon would be able to return to a bubble bath or thoughts of Andy.