This is just a little something I've been umming and ahhing about for a while. This is going to be a veeeeery slow burn Brenda/Sharon pairing. With a (hopefully) interesting case wrapped up in it too. I just miss Brenda so much I just had to start writing this. Warning for violence in this chapter. Nothing overly explicit but I like to warn anyway.


She could feel the beat of the music, deep in her chest and she knew that her ears would be ringing tomorrow. The alcohol flowing through her veins gave her a pleasant buzz, just the right side of too much, Enough that her laughter came easily but not so much that she would make a fool of herself. And she could feel the bodies pressed up against her as she danced, the packed floor offering little in the way of space to move. But suddenly she couldn't breathe. The bodies were packed in too tightly around her, constricting the movement of her chest. She pushed, struggled, tried to find a way out of the heaving crowd but she was just met with resistance.

A wave of darkness washed over her and she blinked, trying to clear the blurriness that was preventing her from seeing. When she finally managed to focus her eyes, the first thing she noticed was the absence of the music. All she could hear in the silence was heavy breathing, panting. Was she making that noise? She still couldn't breathe. Something heavy was pressing against her chest. She blinked again, and a white hot wave of fear washed over her as she made eye contact with the something, no the someone, who was causing her inability to breath properly.

Despite the fogginess clouding her thoughts, somewhere deep inside she knew she had but one chance to gain the upper hand. The person on top of her was shocked, and she used this surprise to kick her legs up underneath him, knocking him off balance and he fell off of what she now realised was a bed. She sucked air into her lungs greedily, her chest burning with the effort and it took her a moment before she could even think about moving.

The man growled angrily, springing up almost immediately and the woman struggled to roll off of the other side of the bed. She fell to the floor with a grunt and looked around the dimly lit room, trying to find something she could use as a weapon. But he was too quick, and before she even had a chance to move he had grabbed a fistful of her hair and pulled her up. He snarled at her before he slammed her face into the wall, once, twice, three times before her vision was distorted and her mouth was full of blood.

"It's not supposed to be like this," the man shouted, flinging her back onto the bed, "You've messed it all up," he sounded desperate, close to tears . He clambered on to the bed, straddling her hips and closed his hands around her throat, his eyes wild as he yelled obscenities in her face.

"Pl-please," she managed to plead before she could no longer form words. Choked gasps managed to escape her lips as he tightened his grip, lost in his frenzy. She could feel the last of the oxygen burning away, could feel the fire in her lungs as she fought to take a breath. Her fingers clawed at his hands, desperately trying to get him to loosen his grip but she could feel her consciousness beginning to slip away.

Frantically she flung her hands outwards, scrabbling for something, anything that could help her. Her fingers hit the end of the bedside table, then she found the cord of a lamp. Stars danced behind her closed eyelids but she found the strength to grab the cord and the lamp fell into her hand and she brought it down with all her might on to the back of the man's head. The impact stunned him momentarily, and his grip on her neck loosened just enough for her to suck in a fortifying breath. She raised the lamp once more, and it made a sickening cracking sound as she slammed I down on to the base of his skull.

He fell limply on top of her and the lamp fell out of her hand, the bulb smashing as it hit the floor. Her chest heaving, she used all of her strength to push the man off of her and he fell to the floor, still unmoving. She stumbled off of the bed, her pulse pounding in her ears as she tried to orientate herself and find the door. Her hands were shaking as she fumbled with the chain, throwing worried glances over her shoulder at the still unmoving man slumped on the floor.

The overwhelming dizziness she had felt when she had first woken up was making an unwelcome return and she was afraid she was going to pass out and she let out a terrified whimper at the thought of not being able to get away. Finally she managed to get the door open and she ran out on to the landing of a motel complex. She staggered on unsteady legs towards the stairs, grabbing desperately at the rail to stop herself from falling. She was too panicked to notice the crunching of glass beneath her bare feet, her brain was too numb to register anything but the overwhelming need to get to someone, a phone, anything that could help her.

The flashing neon vacancy sign served as her signpost to the reception and as she made her way across the tarmacked car park it felt like she would never get to the glass fronted door. Her heart sank as she realised the door was locked and the lights were out and she banged on the door until she realised there was a buzzer. She rang it frantically and it seemed like minutes passed before the lights in the reception flicked on.

"Jesus Christ, enough with the buzzer. I'm coming, I'm coming," a sleepy voice came from the other side of the door.

She looked up at the motel owner desperately as the lock clicked and the door swung open, and he swore under his breath as he took in the state of the woman before him.

"Help," she could barely whisper, her vocal chords bruised from the choke hold her attacker had had on her. "Please," she managed to get out before a wave of dizziness caused her to pass out at his feet.


Sharon Raydor looked impeccable as she stepped out of her car in the early morning light. Despite having gotten called to a crime scene just half an hour earlier, her hair was as perfect as ever and she had a sharply cut navy blue suit on, sensible black heels and her signature lipstick. She didn't relish getting called out at 4am, especially on a Saturday when she would have to fight for the overtime for her team, but professional as ever, Sharon oozed confidence as she stepped under the crime scene tape that surrounded the motel's reception and car park. It was a sleazy looking place, she mused, as she looked around the parking lot. Only four cars and a motel with this many rooms meant they didn't get much business. No doubt the crime scene tape would hurt the place further.

"Lieutenants," she greeted as she walked up to and unusually anxious looking Flynn and Provenza. Mike Tao was over on the other side of the lot by a stairwell, pointing out something to Buzz.

"Captain," Andy replied, not quite making eye contact with Sharon as Provenza gave a gruff nod. Sharon didn't think much of it, she knew early mornings did not go down well with the older Lieutenant.

"Can you fill me in please, I didn't get many details over the phone. Detective Sanchez seemed in a hurry," Sharon explained, her eyes wandering over to the detective, who was standing talking to a man the brunette presumed was the motel owner. Sharon could tell that Sanchez was agitated, and she could see that Amy had her hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down. Andy cringed, it seemed Detective Sanchez hadn't told her much at all.

"That's because the uniforms who got here first didn't do a very good job of securing the crime scene and SID have spent the last hour trying to play catch up," Provenza huffed, and Andy muttered something offensive about rookies under his breath.

"The facts please, gentlemen, before we start throwing out accusations," Sharon said sharply, causing both men to stand up a little straighter.

Andy flipped to the front of his notebook squinting to read his own writing, "About 3AM the motel owner came to answer the buzzer, someone was going crazy pressing it and when he opens the door the… victim," the pause is too quick for Sharon to notice, but Provenza does and he cringes at the word. "She's all banged up, faints at his feet. So he calls 911, patrol gets here before the ambulance and they put up a perimeter around the car park and the road leading into it, I think, well they assumed she'd been thrown out of a car."

"What they failed to notice is the blood over on those stairs," Provenza pointed behind him to where Mike and Buzz were filming, "It was only when we got here that Tao noticed, followed the blood up the stairs and into a trashed motel room."

"Oh my god," Sharon ran a hand through her hair and grimaced, "So that crime scene was left alone for over an hour. I'll need to speak to those officers as a matter of urgency."

"There's another set of stairs, too, the go off round to the back of the complex, so anyone could have come and gone unnoticed," Andy added, flipping his notebook closed and Sharon sighed. She just hoped that the officers' negligence hadn't compromised their crime scene.

"Cameras?" Sharon asked, though she already had a sinking feeling in her stomach.

"Motel owner says they've been out for months," Provenza rolled his eyes, "No money to fix them and apparently most of his clients prefer it this way."

Sharon crossed her arms and surveyed the car park again, "Yes it does seem like a place one would go if they wanted to not be seen. Was the victim able to give a statement before she was taken to the hospital?"

Andy shook his head, "She remained unconscious until the ambulance took her to Cedars, but at least those patrol officers did one thing right."

"Hmm, and what was that Lieutenant?" Sharon asked, her interest suddenly piqued.

"It's the reason we were called in Captain, one of the officers recognised the victim as the wife of an LAPD deputy chief," Andy explained.

"W-who, which department?" Sharon attempted to swallow the sick feeling that had risen in her throat. She couldn't help but lose a little bit of her composure at the revelation. Crimes of this nature were awful no matter who they happened to, but that fact it had happened to the wife of someone she worked with was a punch to the gut.

Provenza cleared his throat and looked at Sharon with a pained expression on his face. "Deputy Chief Howard, Captain," he said, and Sharon's mouth dropped open in shock, "The victim is Brenda Leigh Johnson."


Thank you for reading :)