From the moment Brenda had entered her girlfriend's home, she had known that something was wrong. Even if she hadn't, Rusty's brief nudge and whispered "She's been twitching ever since I left the squad room and I don't know what to do about it" would have instantly clued her in. And even that was unnecessary, considering that Sharon jumped about five feet in the air when the phone rang, picked at her food, and continued to be even squirmy-er than usual through the rest of dinner.

By the time Brenda had cleared the plates and Sharon had settled onto the couch Rusty had yanked out the biggest bottle of wine he could possibly find and set it down in front of Brenda with a resounding thud before scampering off to the safety of his bedroom. Taking the hint, Brenda popped the top off and poured Sharon a large helping before settling down next to her and placing her hand on Sharon's knee.

"Will you tell us what in the world is going on, Sharon? Rusty is worried sick and I've never seen you like this, not even when the lawsuit was going on."

Sharon signed and sat back, taking a long drink of her wine before going into detail about her day: their case, Nicole's visit, Andy's strange behaviour throughout the day, and it cumulated with: "His daughter invited Rusty and me to go to The Nutcracker with them, again. But before that, she…"

Brenda sat up straighter and put a hand on her girlfriend's arm in the hopes it would calm Sharon's fidgeting, then put an arm around her shoulders and tucked the older woman into her side. When she felt Sharon calm down just a bit (it still surprised Brenda how much a simple cuddle could soothe her girlfriend), she asked: "What did Nicole do, Sharon?"

She felt the older woman sigh before feeling her mumble something into her neck. Brenda poked Sharon's side, causing the older woman to sit up and glare at her before speaking more clearly.

"She asked me what I did to keep my work relationship and romantic relationship with her father separate."

Brenda blinked twice and opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out.

"I know, I know," Sharon replied, curling back into Brenda's side, "I have no idea where she could have gotten that idea from – while we do enjoy spending time together, I've made it very clear to him that our relationship is strictly platonic. Besides, he has too much of some things and not enough of others," she added as her hand drifted down to cup Brenda's breast and her she began to nibble at her girlfriend's neck.

"While I appreciate what you're doin', Cap'n, we are having a serious conversation over here," Brenda said as she shrugged out of Sharon's embrace. Both women sat up, and Sharon sighed.

"I know. And I know I need to bring this up to Andy, just to make sure we're on the same page about our relationship. I do enjoy spending time with him; he's one of my closest friends and best allies. But he definitely isn't you," she added with a smile, and leaned in for a kiss, which Brenda happily reciprocated.

"I have no doubts that you'll fix this up. But I know Andy well, and if there's even a glimmer of hope he'll keep hangin' around until he gets a definite answer. Maybe we should tell him together – he respects me and I know that if I'm around he'll definitely back off."

Sharon smirked. "My, my, are we being a little possessive here, Chief?"

Brenda wrapped her arms around Sharon and pulled her in for a longer, deeper kiss. After Sharon pulled away for air, Brenda slowly trailed her hair down Sharon's ass and squeezed it. She relished Sharon's shiver as she replied, "I just like showin' off the fact that you're all mine," before pulling Sharon in for another kiss.

Sharon smiled before taking Brenda's hand and tugging her towards the bedroom. "Let's take this somewhere personal before Rusty walks in and demands I pay for more therapy sessions."

Brenda giggled, and followed her girlfriend for an enjoyable evening.

I am going to kill my girlfriend, Sharon Raydor thought to herself as she tuned out the conversation going on between Andy, Rusty, and Nicole. Brenda had been surprisingly agreeable to having dinner with Andy and his daughter (and Sharon thought it was better than Brenda's post-coital plan of 'kiss you in the middle of the squad room' – as much as she would have loved to have seen the looks on her squad's faces, the blowback she would have gotten over Provenza's inevitable heart attack was too much to bear). She was also surprised at how agreeable Andy was to having dinner, and it helped to re-nurture a healthy fear of Darth Raydor in the man. She smiled politely as both Andy and Rusty gave her identical looks of concern – while she did adore both of her boys (and it was nice to be able to think of men other than her sons as sexless beings who just wanted what was best for her) – she really wished that her girlfriend would show up so they could get the whole mess of revealing their relationship to Andy and his daughter over with.

Not that dinner was going to happen anymore; Brenda had called at about 5:30 saying that the DA had dropped what he called a 'ticking time-bomb' of a case on her team earlier in the afternoon and to start dinner without her. And end it as well, Sharon thought ruefully as Rusty stood up and offered to collect plates, then gave her a look of concern as he noticed she had only picked at her food. Sharon squirmed again as she glanced at the door. Traffic must have been a real nightmare, or Brenda had simply forgotten as usual. She went through the motions of washing the dishes as Nicole prattled on about all the wonderful things her father had been doing ever since the wedding, tuning back in as Nicole proudly stated, "I call that The Sharon Effect."

Sharon smiled at Rusty as he excused himself; best keep her son out of it before he said something incriminating or died of embarrassment. Time to get the hard part over with, she noted as Andy began to speak to Nicole.

"You've got the wrong idea about Sharon and me."

Please hurry up, Bren, Sharon prayed she about melted into the floor following that statement and Nicole's incredulous look. This was not going well at all.

"What I mean to say is…"

"Andy and I are – " Sharon interrupted, but abruptly stopped when the front door opened and a familiar blonde tornado breezed in.

"Lucy, I'm home!" Brenda chirped as she banged through the front entrance and unceremoniously dropped her purse on the front table before making her way over to where Sharon was standing, wrapping her arms around her and kissing her on the cheek. "I would have gotten here earlier but the DA was breathing down my neck about this case, and there was a four-car-pileup about five miles away. I came as quick as I could," she added, punctuating it with another kiss on Sharon's cheek. The older woman blushed and smiled as she took in the looks on Andy and Nicole's faces – no, this way was much, much better, especially since she knew Brenda would be laughing at the shock on Andy's face for the weeks to come.

Nicole looked at her, at Brenda, and then at her father. "Dad?" she asked, seemingly unsure of which person deserved her attention the most. Sharon simply tucked herself into Brenda's shoulder so that Andy wouldn't see her giggling incessantly – best to have her subordinate think she was laughing at the situation, and not at him.

Unfortunately, Andy's response didn't help. "Ch-Chief?" he choked out, and Sharon went into another hopeless fit of giggles, earning a confused stare from Andy and a pinch from Brenda.

"Yes, Andy, it's me," Brenda replied smoothly, "I would have gotten here earlier but as you know, things happen."

"Bu-but-"

"What, you think I'd miss dinner with you and my girlfriend?" Brenda added, turning her attention to Nicole, "And when I heard your daughter was coming too, well, I wouldn't miss interrogating her about what it was like growing up as your dad! You must be Nicole. Sharon has mentioned so much about how wonderful you are."

Finally regaining her composure, Sharon turned back to the flabbergasted Flynns. "Yes, I am dating Chief Johnson. We've been together for a while – almost three years. I know it took a long time for it to come out in the open, but it's here now."

She turned to Nicole. "My dear, I'm sorry you had to find out this way, and I'm sorry I couldn't help with your problem, but please know that your father is one of my dearest friends and he is a wonderful man who just wants you to be proud of him." At this point Rusty chose to come in to try and break the awkwardness, but in between Andy and Nicole's stunned stares and Rusty's forced 'Oh, Brenda, you showed up,' and subsequent attempt at small talk only exacerbated it. By the time the four of them had left the apartment Sharon was sure that the Andy problem was well taken-care of, even if that meant sacrificing some of the closeness they had shared. And it was better to keep her subordinates at arm's length – as much as she adored all of them, professionalism was always the best policy.

After the show had been over and done with and everything was back to normal (well, as normal as humanly possible), Sharon shared her thoughts with Brenda as she changed into her nightgown and crawled into bed. Surprisingly, the blonde agreed. But…

"I still want to kiss you in the squad room," Brenda said, pouting.

Sharon giggled. "And one day, you will," she said, softly kissing Brenda, "But if, and only if, you promise to take the flak I'll get from Pope and Taylor about why half of my detectives have suddenly had heart attacks."

Brenda smirked, turned out the light, and both of them curled up for a well-deserved sleep.