Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or M/C, but if I did, this is what would happen.
A/N: So, I needed to do something to purge the angsty mood I was in and this was the result. It starts out a bit angsty, but I promise it gets better. Anyways, enjoy!
Fight Night
It had been a long day. No, correction, it had been a long few days. Her ex-husband had decided to grace the Major Crimes division with his presence to defend their murder suspect and had been making life a living hell for the last few days. Sharon was about to explode, but not at Jack. He didn't warrant a reaction from her anymore. He was out of her life and although she still had to deal with him on a professional level from time to time, she knew he'd be out of their hair in a few days and that would be that.
No, Sharon was about to blow up at Andy. Ever since Jack had showed up in the murder room three days ago, she'd had to keep Andy on a short leash. Every time Jack made some sort of low blow comment towards her, Andy looked like he was ready to jump out of his chair and fight him and he probably would have a couple times if Provenza hadn't been there to stop Andy from making an impulsive decision that she could guarantee he'd regret later. Jack wasn't worth getting into a fight with. She just wished Andy could see that. She and Andy hadn't talked much beyond a professional level over the last few days. He'd tried once, but she had shut him down and told him they'd talk about it after the case was finished. So, tonight Sharon had invited Andy over to the condo so they could talk. Now, that the time had come, Sharon wasn't sure she could keep a lid on her emotions any longer.
"Well, it's obvious that you're pissed at me. And I have a feeling I know why," said Andy.
"I should hope so," replied Sharon.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Andy asked her.
"I think you have a pretty good idea what I'm talking about," replied Sharon.
"What was I supposed to do Sharon? The guy was saying horrible things about you and making a low blow comments towards you every chance he got over the last few days. I'm not going to just sit there while he spews all those hateful things toward you," Andy told her.
"That's exactly what you should've done, Andy. I could care less what Jack has to say about me. He lost the power to hurt me with his words and actions a long time ago. What I can't have is you flying off the handle every time he shows up and makes some asinine comment towards me. I don't need you to be my knight in shining armor riding in to defend me every time Jack makes some stupid comment about me," replied Sharon.
"Well, excuse me for giving a shit, Sharon. That piece of shit gets to say whatever he wants about you, but the second I try to put a stop to it, you get pissed off at me. I can't believe this," said Andy incredulously.
"It's not about that Andy! It's about the fact that you're playing right into his hands! He wants you to react!" Sharon exclaimed.
"What other option is there, Sharon? I'm not going to sit idly by while he insults my girlfriend!" Andy exclaimed.
"And there it is!" Sharon told him.
"You know what? I can't do this right now. I need some air," Andy told her as he headed towards the front door.
"While you're doing that, maybe you should consider the difference between a personal and a professional relationship," Sharon frustratedly told him.
"Fine," Andy ground out as he began closing the door behind him.
"Fine," Sharon let out weakly as the door shut.
At that moment, Sharon felt like she couldn't breathe. She grabbed the countertop for support as she leaned over and tears fell from her eyes as she began to cry.
Meanwhile, Rusty, having heard the entire argument, came out of his room. He walked down the hall towards the bathroom to grab a box of tissues before making his way towards the kitchen where Sharon was standing at the raised peninsula with her back to him. He put his hand on her back to let her know he was standing there before he slid the box of tissues towards her.
Sharon grabbed a couple tissues from the box before turning around to look at Rusty.
"Thanks. I'm sorry you had to hear all that," Sharon told Rusty.
"Don't apologize, mom. It happens and let me be the first one to say that the fight you two just had needed to happen," said Rusty.
"What?" Sharon asked confusedly.
"The fight you and Andy just had needed to happen. Both of you have been steaming about it for days now and when that kind of pressure builds up, it's gotta go somewhere," Rusty pointed out.
"Did you just compare Andy and I to a pressure cooker?" Sharon asked Rusty.
"Not exactly, but the analogy seems to apply to the two of you over the last few days. The point I'm trying to make is that's probably the healthiest argument I've ever heard two people have. Nobody broke anything and there were no loud crashes against the wall. Just two people airing out their feelings about a situation. Seems pretty healthy to me," said Rusty.
"I think it was a little more than that, Rusty. Andy and I were shouting at each other loud enough that you could hear us all the way from the other end of the condo. That's not okay," Sharon told him.
"Should it happen all the time? Definitely not. What's important though was that neither of you were shouting angrily at the other. Believe me, there's a difference," said Rusty.
"I'd say both Andy and I were pretty upset with each other," replied Sharon.
"Yeah, but there's a difference between being upset and frustrated with each other and being angry at the other person. What I heard was two people who were frustrated with how the other person chose to handle a particular situation," Rusty pointed out.
"How did you gather all of that from hearing one argument?" Sharon asked Rusty.
"It was from more than just that argument, but the bottom line is that Andy was pissed off about Jack saying insulting things about you. You were pissed off at Andy for reacting to Jack's nonsense. Andy got frustrated about that because he didn't understand what the big deal was with him defending you and you got frustrated with Andy because he made an already difficult professional situation even more difficult by bringing his personal feelings for you into the workplace, which frustrates you to no end because it makes it more difficult for you to do your job. Am I close?" Rusty asked her.
"Startlingly so. I'm gonna go take a bath now. It's been a long few days," said Sharon as she stood up and began making her way towards the hall.
"Mom?" said Rusty questioningly.
"Yeah?" Sharon asked.
"Cut Andy a little slack. The last few days couldn't have been easy for him to deal with," Rusty told her.
"Yeah," replied Sharon before she made her way down the hall towards the bathroom.
Meanwhile, while Andy was walking down the hallway towards the elevators, he dialed the number of his sponsor, Stan. After a couple rings, Stan answered.
"Andy?" Stan asked questioningly.
"Hey, Stan. Can you meet me for coffee?" Andy asked the man.
"Sure. Where are you at?" Stan asked him.
"I'm in Los Feliz right now. There's a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on Hillhurst if you wanna meet there," Andy suggested.
"Sure. I'll be there in about 15 minutes," replied Stan.
"Thanks, Stan. I really appreciate it," Andy told him.
"No problem. Is everything okay, Andy?" Stan asked him.
"I'm not gonna go buy a bottle of booze, if that's what you're asking. I just need somebody to talk to. Someone who can give me some advice," replied Andy.
"Okay. I'll meet you there in 15 minutes," said Stan.
"Thank again, Stan. I know it's kind of late," said Andy.
"No problem, Andy," replied Stan before the two men hung up.
About 15 minutes later, as Andy sat sipping his coffee at a table inside The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, he saw his sponsor, Stan walk towards his table.
"Hey, Andy. What's good here?" Stan asked him.
"This decaf Jamaican blend is pretty good. If you're looking for tea, the green tea here is good too," Andy told him as he followed Stan as he got in line to order.
"Does that girlfriend of yours have you drinking tea now?" Stan asked jokingly.
"Sometimes. Believe it or not, it's not as horrible as you think," replied Andy.
"I think I'll just stick to coffee," Stan told him before he ordered a Columbian blend.
"Suit yourself," Andy told him as the barista handed Stan his cup of coffee.
As Stan and Andy found a table to sit at, Stan asked, "So, what's up? It's not often I get a call from you in the middle of the night needing to talk."
"Sharon and I got into a fight and I left," Andy told him.
"Woman troubles. You're asking the wrong guy, Andy. I've been married and divorced twice and half the time, I'm not sure if I'm doing it right or screwing it all up with the third one," said Stan.
"Well, it was either you or call my idiot partner who has been married and divorced more times than you have," Andy told him.
"So, what happened?" Stan asked him.
"It's been building for the last few days actually. Her ex-husband is a lawyer and every so often he ends up defending one of our suspects as a court appointed attorney. Anyways, her ex has been hanging around the last few days taking care of business with his client, but when he's not doing that, he insists on making low blow comments about Sharon every chance he gets. She's been pissed at me because I react to the horrible things he says about her and now that the case is over, we finally got a chance to talk about it and it turned into this whole argument," Andy explained.
"This guy sounds like a real piece of work. You didn't punch him, did you?" Stan asked.
"No. Not that I didn't want to though. If it wasn't for my idiot partner stopping me, I probably would have," replied Andy.
"It's probably good that he did. Otherwise, Sharon probably would've been even more pissed at you," Stan told him.
"Yeah. What I don't get is why it's such a big deal that I tried to defend her against the vile things he was saying," said Andy.
"She's your boss, right?" Stan asked.
"Yeah. What does that have to do with anything?" Andy asked.
"Well, from what you've told me, her ex sounds like a difficult guy to deal with," said Stan.
"That's the understatement of the year," replied Andy.
"So, my guess would be that having to deal with her ex husband was probably already a difficult enough situation for her. Then, every five minutes, she has to worry about you getting into a brawl with her ex in the middle of the police station. All of that couldn't have been easy for her to deal with. Plus, trying to balance both a professional and personal relationship probably isn't the easiest thing in the world for either one of you-" Stan began before Andy cut him off.
"And I made a difficult situation worse for her by bringing my personal feelings into a professional situation," said Andy.
That would be my guess," replied Stan.
"That's what she was trying to tell me before I left. I'm such an idiot," said Andy.
"Maybe. Chances are she'll forgive you if you apologize though. I mean it was a pretty tricky situation for you to navigate," replied Stan.
"Yeah. Thanks, Stan. I have to go," said Andy as he pulled out his keys and got up to leave.
"Good luck," Stan told him.
"Thanks," said Andy as he walked out the door and towards his car.
About ten minutes later, Andy found himself standing at the front door of Sharon's condo. As he waited for an answer after knocking on the door, he hoped she'd listen to him long enough for him to apologize for being a complete idiot. He didn't have much time to think about that though because the sound of the door opening broke him out of his reverie.
"Back so soon?" Rusty asked jokingly as he opened the door.
"Yeah. Is she still speaking to me?" Andy asked.
"Can't say for sure, but my money's on yes. Come on in," said Rusty.
"Thanks," replied Andy as he walked into the condo.
"She's in the tub," Rusty told Andy.
"Okay, thanks," replied Andy as he walked towards the hallway.
"Andy?" said Rusty questioningly.
"Yeah?" asked Andy as he turned around to face Rusty.
"I went to bat for you with her. Don't make me regret it," said Rusty.
"I really appreciate that, Rusty. Thank you," said Andy.
"Yeah, yeah. Go make up with her or whatever it is you old people do after you have a fight," Rusty told Andy.
As Andy made his way down the hall towards the bathroom, he was trying to decide the best way to go about this. He settled on knocking on the door first to see if she even wanted to talk to him.
"Sharon, it's me. Can I come in?" Andy asked her.
"Yeah," replied Sharon before Andy opened the door and stepped inside.
As he closed the door behind him, they both said, "I'm sorry."
"No. Me first," Andy told her as moved to sit on the edge of the bathtub.
"Okay," replied Sharon as she motioned for him to continue.
"Sharon, I am so sorry for what I put you through over the past few days. The situation was probably difficult enough for you to deal with as it was and then I went and made an even bigger mess of it by letting my personal feelings for you take over in a professional situation. I'm sorry for being such an idiot," Andy told her.
"You're not an idiot, Andy. I let my frustration with your behavior over the past few days cloud my assessment of the situation as a whole and as a result, I came looking for a fight tonight. It was petty and selfish and I'm sorry. It couldn't have been easy having to deal with him baiting you at every turn the last few days," replied Sharon as she rubbed her thumb along the top of Andy's hand.
As Andy put his arm around Sharon's shoulders and gently pulled her towards him, he kissed the side of Sharon's head before he said, "Can we agree to at least try not to have stupid arguments like this again? Cause I hate fighting with you."
"Me too," replied Sharon as she snaked her arm around Andy's back and rested her hand against his hip.
"If this tub was bigger, I'd get in there with you," said Andy as he leaned his head against Sharon's.
Sharon smiled at that before she said, "How about you go grab my robe over there and I just get out?"
"That works too," replied Andy as he smiled at her before walking over to the counter to grab Sharon's robe while she got out of the tub and quickly dried herself off with a towel.
As Andy walked towards Sharon with her robe, Sharon dropped the towel so she could slip into it. As Andy slid the robe up her arms and over her shoulders, he whispered, "Not a bad view."
As Sharon closed her robe and turned around to face Andy, she said, "That was kind of the point. Has anyone ever told you what best part about a fight is?"
"What?" Andy asked as he wrapped his arms around Sharon's waist and settled his hands against her lower back.
"The making up," replied Sharon.
"I thought it was the making out," Andy joked as he leaned his forehead against Sharon's.
"That too," replied Sharon as she smiled at Andy before she kissed him.
When they broke apart for air, Andy whispered, "It would probably be best if we moved this somewhere else."
"Yeah. Wouldn't want to end up on the floor of the only bathroom. That could get embarrassing," said Sharon.
"Not to mention, uncomfortable," replied Andy.
"Yeah. The bed's probably our best bet," said Sharon as she pulled Andy towards the door.
"Lead the way," replied Andy as Sharon opened the door and lead him down the hall towards her bedroom.
Once the door to the master bedroom was shut, Andy whispered, "So, are we making up or making out?"
"Both," replied Sharon before her lips crashed into Andy's in a very passionate kiss.
After that, neither of them had any doubt what the best, and really the only good part about a fight was. Yes, the making up was definitely the best part.
A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this story! As always, leave me a review to let me know what you thought of it.