A/N- I've been working on this for a, ummm, rather un-Godly amount of time, off and on, and I started it before the third season started. I've tried to correct everything to fit into canon, ie: Cat Raydor is now Emily, Ricky isn't a total jerk, ect. I hope you enjoy this, because I loved, loved, loved writing it. The whole thing is done, so updates should be regular (: Let me know what you think!

Rusty was sitting at a table with two of the other boys from the chess club. Despite the fact that they had graduated and he had been absent for the better part of the school year, they still got together to play chess in the park. There were several of the kids from St. Joe's there, actually.

He felt his phone buzz in his pocket; someone was calling him. He was tempted to ignore it, but he slipped it out and glanced at the number. It was Buzz. He frowned.

"I'll be right back, I've got to take this." He waved his phone at his friends and ducked away, behind a nearby tree. "Hello?"

"Rusty?" Buzz sounded breathless.

"Yeah?" He said slowly. "Are you okay?"

"Rusty, it's the Captain." Buzz sounded tense.

He leaned back into the oak. The ground seemed to be sliding out from under his feet. "Buzz-" His voice came out unnaturally high pitched.

"Lieutenant Provenza is coming to pick you up. You're going directly to Cedars. We're all on our way."

"What happened?"

"Rusty," Buzz's voice softened. "Rusty, the Captain was shot."

"Oh my God!" The words echoed in his ears, and someone turned to look at him. "Oh my God, Buzz is she-"

"I don't know. I'm sorry, but I don't know. Flynn is in the helicopter with her."

Rusty nodded, even though he knew Buzz couldn't see him.

"Rusty, the Lieutenant will be there soon."

"Okay." He ended the call and walked back to the stone chess tables. His backpack was on the grass; he picked it up and swung it over his shoulder.

"Rusty? Are you okay?" It was Kris, of all people. She stared at him.

"It's my mom." The word slipped out. "Not- Sharon. Sharon's been hurt." He grabbed his chessboard, and waved goodbye before hurrying towards the front of the park.

Footsteps sounded behind him. "Rusty! Wait up!"

"Not now, Kris." He pushed past the shrubbery between him and the sidewalk.

She followed him. "Rusty, what happened?"

He paused and faced her. Her face was crinkled with worry, and he sighed internally. She had been so nice, even after he'd run away from her. "Sharon was shot, Kris." He glanced towards the street, looking for Provenza's cruiser.

Her mouth dropped. "Is she going to be okay?"

"I don't know. She's getting life-flighted."

"Oh my God."

Rusty could see Provenza's car turning the corner. "I gotta go."

"Rusty-" Before he could do anything, Kris hugged him tightly. "Good luck. Call me, okay?" She looked up at him, and he nodded. Maybe they could be friends again. Just friends.

Before she could do anything else, he pulled away and ran across the concrete.

"What happened?!" Rusty yanked the car door shut and Provenza slammed his foot down on the gas. The car screeched away, sirens screaming.

"Someone was waiting for her." The man's eyes were glued to the road. "We got a tip-off on our case, and left to go check it out. We had just gotten past the doors, and. . ." he trailed off. "Someone was waiting for her. Shot her right when she came outside. The guy's alive, Taylor's questioning him, but I have no idea why he did it."

"Is she going to be okay?"

There was a long silence. "I don't know, kid."

Rusty stared out the window. "Did someone call her kids?" He wasn't the only other person in Sharon's life.

"I think Tao did."

"Jack?" The only way to battle the terror welling up inside was to fight it with logistics.

Another silence. "I don't know. Frankly, I don't care. He's not important now, Rusty. Don't worry about him."

"Okay."

They rode in silence until they reached the hospital, where Provenza parked illegally, his LAPD parking pass displayed on the dash. Rusty swung the car door open and jumped out, but waited for Provenza. The logical side of his mind was still in charge, telling him he'd find Sharon faster if he stuck with the lieutenant.

They walked inside, and stepped up to the nurses' desk. Provenza flashed his badge, and they were on their way again. He reached over and tapped Rusty's shoulder.

"Hey, kid, stay with me."

"Huh?" He was in a daze.

"Stay with me. Don't go passing out on me or anything."

"Yeah."

They made their way up to the second floor, where they saw a waiting area filled with the detectives of Major Crimes Division. Pope was there, too, and a few men Rusty didn't know. He saw a blonde haired woman behind Flynn, and he ran to her.

"Brenda!"


"Lieutenant, do we have any leads on the Matthews case?" Sharon tapped the murder board with an Expo marker. They had just come from lunch, hoping a break might help. They had been working the case all weekend, and Monday morning hadn't brought any new information.

"No, ma'am." Provenza leaned back in his chair.

"Ballistics has nothing, SID has nothing, tox screen is clean," Tao called from his desk. "I can't find anything weird on his phone."

"Not affiliated with any gangs," Sanchez added. He rolled his chair over to Flynn's desk and pulled the beanbag out of the man's top drawer, tossing it back and forth between his hands.

Sharon sighed. "Nothing?"

"Nothing." It was a chorus.

She took a step back and sat on the edge of Provenza's desk. He grumbled at her, but it was half-hearted. She smirked at him.

A phone rang, and they all reflexively glanced at their own respective cells and landlines.

"It's me." Flynn picked up his desk phone. "Major Crimes, this is Flynn. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Can I have your name? Oh, yeah, sure. What? Hold on." He mumbled something as he scrawled something on a sticky note. "Yeah. Hey, wait-" He looked up at them. "A tip."

"Supposedly," Provenza said, flicking his newspaper out across the desk. "We've got one earlier, but it was just some idiot screwing around."

"No, this sounded decent. Some chick said she'd seen Matthews Friday night, at uh-" he paused to read off the address he'd written down. "Some nightclub, I guess. She said she's a waitress there, and she'd talk to us if we meet her there. Didn't want to give me her name or anything, though. Sounded skittish."

Sharon glanced up at the murder board. "Let's go. There's nothing we can do here, so we might as well see if this woman has anything to tell us. I'll come with. She might be more likely to talk to me and Amy." She slid off the desk and swung her jacket off the side of the rollaway whiteboard. "Everyone can come. There's nothing here and who knows what kind of trouble a scared witness could get into. We don't want any problems." She smirked at them, knowing her excuse to get them all outside was perfectly transparent.

Despite the seriousness of the case, they were all smiling as they made their way downstairs. It was May, sunny and warm, but not too hot, with a cool breeze blowing in over the ocean. Sykes shoved the door open, nearly closing it on Buzz, but catching it in time. Sharon closed her eyes when she stepped out and breathed deeply. The trees were in full bloom, and the air smelled like flowers. She'd been inside for far too long. Maybe she could convince Rusty to eat on the patio with her.

"Hey, Captain!" A voice came from behind, by the building they had just left.

She turned, hand reaching for where her glasses usually hung from her blouse. Had she dropped them?

A flash of light caught her eye, and she looked up in time to see sunlight sparkling off the barrel of a gun, pointed at her.

"Captain!"

"Put the gun down!"

"Sharon!"

There was a loud crack, as loud and painful as lightning. She looked down in surprise. There was a brilliant ruby dye spreading across her shirt.

She was disappointed; Gavin had just given her the blouse for her birthday. Maybe the dye would wash out. She touched it with one finger, and her whole hand came away warm and slick.

There were voices, and suddenly she was looking up at Flynn's face, backlit by the sky.

"Sharon!"

After a split second, reality seemed to strike, and she gasped with sudden panic. Bleeding. She had been shot. Oh, God, it hurt. Oh, God. Jesus. Jesus save me. Stop the bleeding. Rusty. Rusty and Ricky and Emily. Oh, God. Oh, God.