Disclaimer: James Duff owns the characters. I'm just playing in this sandbox until I find another one. Love the toys in this one tho! All mistakes are mine as I have no beta.

Summary: This story takes place some time in mid-season 3. Right before the Nutcracker evening. You know which one. Sharon and Andy need to temporarily go into the witness-protection program and choose to do so together, pretending to be a married couple. 100% Shandy.

Rating: MA, adults only to be on the safe side.

SSSSSSS

Sharon woke with a jolt when the car came to a stop.

"Hmm. Did I fall asleep?"

"Yes, you slept for about 20 minutes. By the looks of it you really seemed to need it though" Andy said gently. "We're here. Home. I guess in a way one could say that." He continued.

"Hmm, yes. Very odd way indeed. Still, I'm glad to be doing this with you Andy, rather than without you." Sharon smiled at Andy, completely unaware of what the effect of that smile was on him.

"Yes, well. Let's get settled in our new home then, shall we Mrs. Johnson?"

Andy said, trying to make light of their situation for the next few weeks, or until they managed to catch the dirtbag who had threatened Sharon's life, and tried to shoot him in broad daylight a few days ago. Sharon merely pursed her lips, and looked out the car window frowning a bit. She seemed tense and upset about their situation again.

Andy felt a twinge of disappointment watching her frown. He did not find the idea of living in the same house with Sharon for the next few weeks repulsive at all, quite to the contrary actually if he was honest with himself. He was actually looking forward to spending time with her every day. Although Andy felt that they had become good friends over the course of the last year, he had been silently hoping that Sharon would one day start seeing him as something else than a good friend.

"Ok, from now on, outside of the house cover names only Drew. Let's go meet the neighbors" Sharon said, completely oblivious to the track that Andy's thoughts had taken and the admiring glances he was giving her. She opened the car door, all the while surveying the neighboring houses and people out and about enjoying the warm fall afternoon.

"Oh hello! You must be the Johnsons!" Sharon saw a beautiful blonde woman waving at them from across the neighboring yard. She smiled in return and started walking towards the approaching woman.

"Yes we are indeed! My name is Shannon and this is my husband Drew" she said, keeping the smile on her face and turning to Andy to introduce him.

"I'm Ann. It's so nice to meet you. We saw the moving truck deliver your things yesterday, so we suspected that you would be arriving either today or tomorrow. Howe very brave of you to give the keys to the company and letting them deliver everything for you before even getting here yourselves. Me, I am not sure I'd ever be brave enough to do that."

"Oh yes, we have full trust in the company, and after all, what are husbands for if not for moving furniture wherever it belongs after it has been delivered – right?" Sharon smirked at Andy, noticing how he was getting a slight blush on his cheeks. She suddenly became aware that their neighbor Ann was exactly Andy's type. Blond, tall but curvy, blue-eyed and all smiles. All of a sudden she felt irritated by Andy's obvious physical reaction. They had just arrived here and he was already checking out the neighbors. She was slightly taken aback by her own emotional reaction to Andy being attracted to this woman, but they were supposed to be pretending to be a married couple and that was getting off to a pretty pathetic start.

"Hello Ann, very nice to meet you" Sharon heard Andy say and watched that brilliant smile of his light up his face. Oh yes, he was definitely attracted to their new neighbor. She had a feeling that Ann was ogling him from head to toe as well as they exchanged pleasantries and as Andy explained to Ann that they had just arrived from California and had therefore had a very long day with the flight and drive from the airport. Sharon couldn't help but feel a tinge of jealousy when she noticed that Ann's pupils were becoming dilated and she was starting to get a rosy color to her cheeks, same as Andy. She decided that she didn't want to deal with this on their first day here.

"Well Ann, it was lovely to meet you and I hope we can get to know each other better after Drew and I have had some time to settle in and unpack our suitcases. What do you say Drew, should we go inside and see if the furniture is where it should be?" she asked, laying her warm hand on Andy's shirtsleeve and giving him her signature 1000 Mega Watt smile.

"Yes, let's do that" Andy stammered out, and it seemed to Sharon as though he had become very flustered all of a sudden. They said bye to Ann, promising to come over soon for a cup of coffee and to meet her husband Bill.

"Well that was nice wasn't it? Friendly neighbors if nothing else here in Washington" Andy said as he smiled at Sharon's back. He lifted their suitcases out of the trunk of the car as Sharon was digging for the keys to their new home in her purse.

She hummed in response, and seemed to have a tight expression on her face when she was inside and turned around to put the keys on the small table near the door. She was also suddenly avoiding eye contact with Andy. She wanted to make a biting comment about how beautiful their new neighbor was, but decided to hold her tongue. It was none of her business. Yes, they were pretending to be a married couple for the sake of their cover, but Andy was not her husband or boyfriend. They were not a couple. Sharon was not even sure if she was more upset with herself for feeling irritated, or with Andy for being a man and being attracted to a beautiful woman. She decided she needed to put all thoughts of irritation out of her head right now. After all, Andy was free to pursue any women that he wanted, and Ann was married anyway.

"Sharon. Hey, you ok?" Andy asked carefully, wanting to touch her hand but deciding not to because of the tight expression on her face.

"Yeah, fine. Though it's Shannon remember? I think I'm just going to unpack the groceries and then head to bed. I don't feel like eating tonight" she continued, automatically correcting Andy to use her cover name although they were inside.

She didn't want to look at him, not with that blush lingering on his cheeks and thoughts of Ann in his head. Where were these feelings coming from? She did not understand why she felt this irritated all of a sudden.

"Oh, ok. Sure" Andy shrugged his shoulders, thinking that Sharon was probably very tired because of the traveling, and the additional stress of not being allowed to contact any of her three kids was most likely not helping either. Sharon was not the kind of a person to sit around and do nothing about a threat against her, yet that was precisely what she would have to do until the dirtbag was caught.

"Here, let me help you with the groceries" Andy was glad that they had thought to stop on their way to their temporary home and do a little bit of grocery shopping. They had been assured that their accommodation would have a fully functional kitchen, but they had been quite sure that that did not mean that it would come with groceries. They unpacked the grocery bags in silence and after that Sharon made her way up to the second floor of the house to choose a bedroom.

Without asking, Sharon let Andy have the bigger one with the double bed, and chose the smaller room down the hall for herself. After unpacking her suitcases, she realized that although there were two bedrooms, they shared a bathroom with Andy. Oh god, she thought. This was something she had not expected to have to do. This would make living with him a lot more intimate than she had planned.

"Andy?"

"Yeah?" she heard Andy call from downstairs.

"Uhhh, there's two bedrooms up here. I let you have the bigger bedroom since I don't really have a lot of things with me. But uhhh.. "

"Oh you can have the bigger bedroom if you want" Andy called out, coming up the stars to see the second floor for himself.

"No it's fine. You can have the bigger room, but I've just realized that there's only one bathroom." Sharon let her voice trail off. She was already feeling sorry for bringing it up like this. What was she thinking? Why was she making such a big deal out of sharing a bathroom?

"Oh, well. Uhhh. I guess we'll just have to make do with this then" Andy said in a quiet voice peeking into the bathroom in front of which Sharon was standing. He shrugged his shoulders for the second time since entering the house and had a sheepish expression on his face. All of a sudden Sharon felt flustered and stupid for bringing it up. What did she expect Andy to do? This is what they had and this is what they would have to live with for the next few weeks. Hopefully it would only be for a few weeks. Who knew, they might even catch the dirtbag tomorrow and that would mean that Sharon and Andy would be able to go back to their real lives in LA.

"There is another bathroom downstairs, isn't there?" Sharon asked, realizing how desperate she was sounding even to her own ears.

"Yeah but it's not a full bathroom, just a toilet with a sink in it. So this is the only bathtub in the house right here."

"Ok, well, we'll just make the best of it then" Sharon quickly added, not wanting to discuss this any more and regretting that she had mentioned it in the first place. Again, she didn't want to meet Andy's eyes for fear of thinking that he would think that she was being fussy. "I'm just going to unpack and head to bed then" she continued and slipped into what was now her room at the end of the hall. Andy followed her, sensing her unease and wanting to make her feel better somehow. He leaned against the doorframe.

"Hey, it's hopefully only for a couple of weeks and then we'll be back in LA, back to our regular old boring lives" he gave Sharon a lopsided grin, thinking that their regular lives were anything but boring.

"Yeah, you're right. I guess I'm just upset about this whole situation" Sharon was thinking out aloud. "It's frustrating to have to run and hide like this, instead of trying to catch this criminal who is after me. And now he's after you too because of me" she added sadly.

It was one thing for her to get threatened and followed, but to have Andy's life put in jeopardy because of something that she had seen was just unfair. Andy had had nothing to do with this mess. The guy had just seen Andy giving Sharon a ride home, and apparently decided to try to kill him, but then he had failed and now Andy had seen his face as well, putting Andy in danger. But here they were. Playing house and hoping that the FBI would catch the thug so that they could go back to LA. In the meanwhile, there was nothing to do but try to make the best out of it.

"It's going to be alright Sharon. We will manage this together."

Sharon just hummed, not giving him a real answer. She attempted to smile, but the smile did not quite reach her eyes, so she avoided looking at Andy again, so she did not see the hurt expression in Andy's eyes. He was starting to get the feeling that she would rather be anywhere else than in this house with him, and that saddened him. Wishing her a good night he silently made his way downstairs to fix himself a sandwich and to watch a bit of TV before turning in for the night.

SSSSSSSSSSS

On Monday morning, it was time for both Sharon and Andy to get ready for work. According to their cover story, they had moved to Tacoma because Drew had received a good job offer from a local upcoming security firm. Sharon had grumbled about it for a while and then accepted that it was the way of the world that wives and families would go where the husband's job led them. She had been fiercely independent for such a long time that it was hard to imagine her ever wanting to follow a man to another state, but a cover story was a cover story. She supposed that one story was as good as the other, as long as it kept them safe. It had been much harder for the bureau to find a job for Sharon since she had always been a cop, and they had not wanted to place both Andy and Sharon in the security business. So they found her a job at small law firm. Given that they would most likely not be in their respective jobs for long, Sharon didn't really mind the idea of seeing the inner workings of a law firm after so many years in law enforcement.

"So, you ready to make your entry into the world of lawyers today?" Andy asked as they were having breakfast. He had come down from his room to find that Sharon had prepared a bowl of fresh fruit, yoghurt and granola for him.

Taking a shower had been torture for Andy because Sharon had been in there a few minutes earlier and he could still smell her peach shower gel in the air. He had had a very hard time focusing on taking a shower and not daydreaming about Sharon's naked body under the shower, lathering peach smelling soap on her… Oh god. Stop Andy. He had to stop thinking about her like this. This would land him in trouble with Sharon if she had any idea what was going through his head.

"Yes, it will be interesting to see how they put together their cases and prepare for court." She smiled at Andy. She had for the most part gotten over the fact that he had been so obviously attracted to their neighbor Ann. They had spent a quiet weekend at home, both lost in their thoughts. They had ventured out to the local mall once to get a few necessities for the house. Although furniture was provided, there had been a few things Sharon had wanted to get that she'd be able to take with her to LA when this was all over. Andy had found an AA group that was a short drive from their house, so he had gone to a meeting on Sunday night.

"How about you? Ready to tackle the interesting world of private security?"

"I think it might turn out to be a bit boring, but at least the past decades in the force have taught me how criminals think, so it shouldn't be too demanding on an intellectual level" Andy could not help but linger on Sharon's eyes. The brilliant green of her irises went so well together with the green and black blouse she was wearing under her jacket. It was one of his favorites and he was always delighted when he saw her wearing it in the office.

"What?" Sharon had a puzzled expression on her face.

"No nothing. Just thinking that you look nice this morning" Andy added as an afterthought. Was this going too far? Friends were allowed to complement each other like this, right. He felt himself blushing. He shouldn't say things like this to his friend and boss. They might be in unusual circumstances right now, but eventually they'd be going back to LA and he didn't want to risk their friendship. All of a sudden he could not meet Sharon's gaze and found the granola fascinating.

"Why thank you Mr. Johnson" Sharon smiled and said in a sultry voice. "You don't look too bad yourself Drew" she added, and on an impulse touched his hand lightly. What was she doing? Was she flirting with Andy? Oh gosh it was easy to hide behind these fake identities. She'd have to be very careful not to cross any lines here. They were pretending to be husband and wife, the keyword here being pretending. Andy didn't see her in that light at all. She was not his type. Sure they were friends, but at the end of the day he liked busty blondes at least 20 years younger than Sharon.

He suddenly noticed the old wedding ring that she was wearing. The ring that Jack had given her two decades before. He frowned. He did not like Sharon wearing a ring on her hand that had been given to her by that jackass, not when the divorce was final and that part of her life was over.

"Sharon…"

"Yes?"

"You're wearing your old wedding ring…" Andy trailed off. Of course she would wear it as a part of their cover story. She was after all, a married woman for all intents and purposes. He wanted to kick himself for bringing it up.

"Yeah I... Ah, it's just that when I was married I did wear it, so I thought… since we are supposed to pretend to be… ah" she didn't really know what she was saying. She pulled her hand away, and Andy missed the warmth instantly. She had already worn it when they had left LA on Friday morning, but apparently Andy hadn't noticed it until now. "You didn't notice it on Friday?" she finally managed to blurt out.

"No I… I didn't notice but if you want to wear it. I mean, it's like you said, we are supposed to be husband and uh, wife. Right?" All of a sudden Andy had no idea what he was saying and why he had brought the entire topic up. Of course she would wear the ring, because she was supposed to be his wife. Stop now Andy. Nothing good is going to come out of this, he thought.

But once again his mouth was faster than his brain. "I just, I guess I don't want you to be thinking of Jack when-" oh god he thought. This is even worse. Stop right now. He stood up abruptly and rinsed his now empty bowl in the sink.

"Never mind" he mumbled to himself.

Sharon stared at his back in silence. After two somewhat tense days at home, this morning had started so pleasantly with breakfast. Why had it turned so awkward when he had brought up the ring? She got up as well and put her cup down on the counter.

"Right. Well-" she said, clearing her throat and pursing her lips a bit. "We should probably get going. And uh, we can talk about this more in the evening." She wanted to pat him on the back, squeeze his shoulder or something, but she just clenched her hands into fists and walked towards the door, expecting him to follow since he was giving her a ride to work.

"Yeah ok, Sharon, I mean Shannon. We will talk in the evening then" Andy managed to get out, thinking that at least sounded somewhat civilized and not as Neanderthal like as the last few sentences that had come out of his mouth.