A/N: This story takes place in 2006, 10 years before the current events of season 4 of Major Crimes and about a year or so prior to the events of season 5 of The Closer. As such, it cancels out a lot of what we now know to be canon. That being said, the events of this fic are not so far off from the canon of Major Crimes that it would be considered AU. The main pairing is Andrea Hobbs/Sharon Raydor, with guest appearances by Gavin Baker and his partner. The rating of this fic will change later on to M. As always, if any of this isn't your cup of tea, please move on to another tea party as nonsense comments will not be tolerated. I must proclaim my unending gratitude to kayryn (and her fabulously sassy cat Boston) and authorjazmyne for their support and suggestions as I was writing this; thank you thank you THANK YOU. On one final note: this started out as a 300 word ficlet to satisfy my need to take a quick dip back into the writing pool. The final result is much longer than that initial word count.

"Captain Raydor?"

The DDA's voice was impossibly empathetic and kind. Sharon turned to face her companion and noted that she took very controlled steps towards her until a bare few inches separated them; she also noted that the blonde's eyes seemed to dart between the floor and meeting Sharon's gaze.

Sharon's hands left the cool ceramic of the sink and took their place hastily wiping smeared mascara from under her eyes and smoothing down invisible fly-away hairs around her face. Her back straightened to a level of uncomfortable rigidness and her calves became taut with the effort to keep herself standing up. She felt a wave of embarrassment crash over her at being caught looking much less than her best by the, admittedly, very striking young woman who looked very authoritative in her navy blue pantsuit.

"Yes, DDA Hobbs, can I help you?"

"I think that ought to be my line," her companion responded.

Words from earlier, words she'd unintentionally heard, crept up from the back of her mind. The sneers and robust laughter, crude jokes, and crueler assumptions about her personal life, her capacity for love, and her commitment to her fellow officers filled her mind again. They were words that she'd heard and rebuffed countless times before, yet had been unable to shake off today, unable to stop them from slicing right through to her.

Sharon bit down, hard, on the tip of her tongue and drew from that sharp tool the faintest secretion of blood. Proof that she was, indeed, human. Proof that she was alive. Proof that this too would pass.

Next to her, DDA Hobbs nervously tucked a handful of thick, blonde hair behind her ear and cleared her throat. Sharon noted that a faint blush coloured the tops of her handsome cheekbones.

"Look, um, maybe this isn't very professional of me, but don't take anything that those hotheads say seriously. They're trigger-happy morons. I mean, I'm not saying that all cops are. Just those idiots," Hobbs clumsily said.

Sharon's eyes widened and her embarrassment grew. "I...I wasn't-"

"It's fine. I mean," Andrea said, tugging at the hem of her jacket "the men that I work with do it too. They like to think that they're so evolved and so enlightened, but the moment my boss acknowledges me for winning more cases than any of them, their misogyny comes out to play. It's quite amazing actually how quickly it takes for grown men to start acting like entitled children," she said dryly.

Sharon crossed her arms in front of her defensively. "I didn't realize that they were speaking loud enough for you to hear them in your interview room," she said quietly.

"They weren't. I was in the breakroom, actually, when it happened." Andrea's mind cruelly took the opportunity to note that Captain Raydor hadn't even registered her presence in the breakroom, despite her doing her absolute best to catch the captain's eye, like the crush-ridden idiot she was, before the lieutenants had gone off on their idiotic rants.

"I, uh, well..." She smiled sheepishly. "I needed a refill on my coffee, and they keep the good stuff in your breakroom...so…" she trailed off and cleared her throat. She certainly wasn't going to admit to Captain Raydor that the reason why she took the elevator up to her floor for her coffee break was, in fact, out of a foolishly placed sense of hope that the two of them might bump into one another. Nor was she going to admit that she was also foolish enough to hope that, just maybe, the captain might be enticed to exchange words with her outside of the scope of their work. "Anyway, I saw you quietly sneak out shortly after O'Brien started. I gave him an earful before I followed you out here. He is such a prick," Andrea rambled.

Sharon looked up to meet DDA Hobbs' eyes and smiled. "You gave him an earful, huh?" she asked softly.

Andrea nodded silently.

"We've worked together on what...three cases? You barely know me," Sharon stated rather matter-of-factly. "I'm sorry, that sounded very ungrateful of me," Sharon amended. "What I meant to say was, I'm not used to that sort of...thoughtfulness. Especially not from people I work with.

"Well, I mean, we women have to look out for one another, right?" Andrea said. "And, anyway, we lawyers are always looking for a fight after all," she said, self-deprecatingly.

"Well... I... Thank you," Sharon said, still slightly stunned.

"Oh, yeah, don't mention it," Andrea said. "Um, you know, it was just the decent thing to do."

Sharon's hand reached out to briefly caress Andrea's biceps. "It was more than just decent. Thank you, DDA Hobbs," she said.

"Andrea," Hobbs amended. "DDA Hobbs… " Andrea shrugged her shoulders and furrowed her brow. "It's very formal. No one calls me by my first name around here, but I'd like it if you did." She inwardly cursed her fair complexion as she felt the heat rise in her cheeks and neck, creating an unmistakable blush to cover her skin from her collarbone and up.

"Well then, thank you, Andrea," Sharon said. "And please, do call me Sharon. You're right, we ladies have to support one another." She gently squeezed the younger woman's biceps one last time before excusing herself and exiting the restroom.

The moment the feisty captain left the confined space, Andrea let out a breath that she wasn't consciously aware of holding in. Her biceps burned where Sharon's hand had just been precious moments ago. She let her head fall back and her shoulders drop as she sighed, "Fuck me," in a low whisper.

She tucked her hair behind her ears nervously as she critically surveyed her reflection in the mirror. Her forehead was slightly damp from nervous sweat, and her cheeks and neck were magenta. "Pull yourself together," she muttered to herself before running cold water over her burning hands. After she was done drying them, Andrea used the paper towel to dab away the evidence of her nerve-stricken embarrassment around her temples and neck.

Her mind attempted to drift towards less distracting thoughts as she smoothed her frizzy hair out, but it was no use. The way that Captain Raydor's melodic voice had uttered her name occupied her thoughts completely.

"Straight and married, you idiot. Straight and married," she murmured to herself. She was no fool, she knew that the captain's surname was not the name she had been born into, and yet for whatever reason, her heart still wanted what her mind knew could never happen.

"Move on," she whispered as an order to herself as she took one last critical look in the mirror before stepping back out into the buzzing chaos of the LAPD Police Department.