Dancing in the Rain
By Kadi
Rated K+
Disclaimer: This is my favorite sandbox to play in, but none of the toys are mine. I am only borrowing them for a while. I promise to give them back!
A/N: My dear Babi asked for a short Shandy fic… I hope you enjoy it!
Summer was drawing to a close, but the day had been warmer than most. Humidity hung thick and heavy in the air; it pressed downward, threatening to steal the very breath of the citizens that moved through the streets of Los Angeles. On the horizon storms clouds were building. They moved inward over the pacific, but seemed drawn farther north before making land fall. Rain was falling over the National Forest, but the promise of it teased the city.
Tempers were high as heat settled. It was oppressive. There were traffic jams and a rash of road rage incidents. Calls logged through the LAPD dispatch system seemed to indicate an upswing in crime throughout the city. Murder, it seemed, was no exception to the crime wave. Major Crimes picked up a couple of cases that, ordinarily, might not have been assigned to that division, but Robbery-Homicide and other divisions throughout the city were maxed on caseloads. Everyone was feeling the heat, in a multitude of ways.
The ill-tempered mood had seeped into the Major Crimes murder room. What began as sarcasm with the occasional barb traded, primarily between the two senior most lieutenants, quickly grew to all out upheaval when the building's central air unit stopped working. As heat took over the building, and the air in the Murder Room became thick, growing at first tepid and then toasty, Flynn and Provenza had given in to their foul moods. The squad was accustomed to their antics, but the all out show of temper between the two was rare. It was obvious, though, to those who had known them for so long that they were taking their bad tempers out on each other to prevent anyone else becoming a target.
That had not stopped their frustration from spreading to the others. At the height of the day, when tempers had been at their hottest, and even the usually laid back Tao started laying down a layer of extreme sarcasm, it came to a head when Sharon threatened to send both Flynn and Provenza home if they could not rein it in and act like the mature professionals they were supposed to be. When Flynn had snarled at her, replying that he would gladly take it if it would get him away from Provenza, she threatened to tag on a week's suspension. It had surprised everyone, shook them out of their stupor, especially when it seemed as if the Captain and Lieutenant would go head to head in a fit of mutual temper.
Not since the Captain's FID days of years past had the two of them regarded each other with such contempt. The Captain, it appeared, was not immune to the current mood. The timely arrival of DDA Hobbs had saved them from the brewing argument, but the threat of it remained in the air. It made the others wary enough to hold their tongues, and to mind their own tempers.
The team wrapped the case and the paperwork in record time. Everyone wanted out of the building. When they left, they scattered as they returned to their respective homes and families, looking for cooler settings, as much emotionally as environmentally.
The air conditioner in Andy's car was a welcome balm, but the traffic that he got caught in on his way home did little for his current emotional state. By the time he reached his house Andy's mood was no better than it had been when he left work. All he wanted was to step into the shower. Afterward, clothed in an old t-shirt and a pair of beach shorts, he dropped onto his sofa where he was content to sit and brood while the news ran through the sports highlights. He would have liked to have stayed there all evening, and that had been his plan, but a pounding at his door drew his attention and his irritation.
Andy scowled at the door and considered ignoring it. If history was repeating itself he had a pretty good hunch that Provenza had probably taken his mood home and Patrice had put him out until he was in a better one. At least, that was what had happened with the last woman that his partner had lived with. Andy heaved an aggravated sigh as he stood up. No doubt his partner had showed up with a six pack of beer and he was supposed to sit there and watch him drink it while listening to him grouse about being in one of Andy's less comfortable chairs and not his favorite recliner.
It was not Provenza that he found standing on the other side of his door, however. His brows climbed toward his hairline as he was faced with an irate looking Sharon. He barely had a moment to register his own surprise at her being there before her eyes seemed to sweep over him. A single, well sculpted brow arched. "Oh gosh, you are still alive aren't you?" Her tone was at once simpering and full of sarcasm. Andy scowled as she turned to walk away, rather than step inside his small house.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He stepped out onto the narrow porch, and reflected idly that even the wood was warm beneath his bare feet. Humidity seemed to hang even heavier in the air than it had before. He felt the weight of it. The contrast to his much cooler home had his scowl deepening.
Sharon stopped. She turned slowly. Her movements were measured, as was her tone. She lifted her wrist and looked at her watch. "Were you not meant to be somewhere an hour ago? That, coupled with the fact that you have not been answering your phone could provide a worrisome conclusion. I am, however, delighted to see that you are perfectly fine."
Andy blinked at her. His hand swept out as he waved, in frustration, back in the general direction of downtown. "Are you kidding? Not three hours ago you were threatening to suspend me!" Given that, and the fact that they spent the rest of the day more or less giving each other a very wide berth, Andy had not imagined that their plans for the evening were still on. Especially not when Sharon had dismissed everyone and left without so much as looking at him.
"Yes," she stated calmly, using the tone that she knew full well would drive him insane. He hated when she let her voice drop to that slow, measured tone. "As a matter of fact, I did, for acting like a belligerent horse's ass," she stated, and purposefully used his own phrasing. "That little exchange took place at work," she stated more slowly, while she waited for him to make the connection. "I was unaware that I should expect to be stood up while you sulk." She was angry with him, and she despised the fact that she was upset at all, much less with Andy of all people. "If you were no longer in the mood to go out, you could have at least answered your phone," she pointed out, "or called me to begin with."
He realized now that she had changed. Her dress was not one that she would normally wear to work. Her hair and makeup had also been softened. She was dressed for a date. A date that he had not picked her up for. His stubborn pride chose that moment to rear its ugly head, though. Andy shook his head at her. "I might have done that if I had any idea that you still wanted to go out after the day we had, and my damned phone is probably still on silent." He had turned it down while he was in the interview with their suspect and obviously forgot to turn it back up. "You've got the number for my house phone," he pointed out stubbornly.
"Hm." Sharon simply turned again. "I am not going to stand here and argue with you on your front step. I am going home." Where she fully intended to change, again, and indulge in a little sulking of her own - quite possibly while sitting down with a glass of wine.
"Okay. Fine." Rather than allow her to leave Andy reached out and grabbed her arm. He pulled her into the house and pushed the door closed behind them. "We can stand in the front room and fight." The part of him that was a stubborn horse's ass had him pointing a finger at her, "but just for the record, you picked this one." Not that they had ever fought before, not like this, and certainly not since they began dating. This would be the first, as far as their personal relationship was concerned. They had tangled plenty of times over the years, however, and always in a professional setting. Which, Andy supposed, she was right... that was exactly where they had tangled this morning. He just wasn't ready to admit that she was right. Not yet anyway.
Sharon's brows shot up in surprise, both at being manhandled and at having him put the blame for their current argument on her shoulders. "You stood me up," she reminded him, and made sure to enunciate every word very carefully. "Not to mention the fact that you suddenly have a very hard time separating our professional relationship from our personal one, something that we discussed at length before this," she stated, and gestured between them, "ever started." Sharon folded her arms across her chest and tilted her head at him. "Would you like to try again?"
Very suddenly Andy was reminded what it was about her that used to drive him crazy. The tone, her stance, and the very way that she was looking at him sent him back several years and they could have been standing toe-to-toe in any situation involving FID; any situation that would have resulted in him being tossed into one training seminar or another, and which one usually depended on what he had done, and how long could be attributed to how vehemently they argued about what he had done. It was the superiority that had once driven him to drawing a picture of a witch on the Major Crimes murder board. She was cocky and stubborn back then. He was cocky and stubborn all the time. Actually, looking at her now, he realized that she had not changed much. It was his perception of her that had changed. He got to know her better. It allowed him to see beyond her current cool exterior and the agitation that she was projecting. Andy scrubbed a hand over his face. "You know, with the way that you practically sprinted out of the murder room, I just figured that it wasn't such a great night for a date."
"Oh?" Her lashes fluttered. Her calm was very deceptive and they both knew it. "Is that a little bit like assuming?" She put extra emphasis on the first syllable of the word.
"Sure," he deadpanned. Andy gave her a bland look. "Something that I think we're both pretty guilty of at the moment. You assumed," he tossed at her, putting the same emphasis on the word that she had, "that we were going out tonight after the day we both had."
Sharon opened her mouth to respond, but stopped. She was poised, a finger pointed at him and found that there truly was no defense for that. It was exactly what she had done. They had not discussed otherwise, despite the truly foul day that they both had. Her mouth snapped closed and her hands fell to her hips. Her lips pursed and her eyes narrowed. "Are you trying to tell me that your entire point of view at this point boils down to I know you are, but what am I?"
Andy's eyes narrowed for just a moment. He crossed his arms over his chest. "You started it."
Her teeth clenched together. The force of it made her jaw ache, as did her throat as she struggled to suppress her response. Sharon lowered her head and covered her face. Her lips twitched. Finally she shook her head. "This is, without a doubt, the most ridiculous argument that I have ever had with anyone."
He rocked back on his heels while he thought about that statement. Andy nodded slowly. "Probably. Except you say that about all of our arguments. I'm trying to decide how I should take that." He shrugged at her. "You know, it works out great in theory... the whole keeping the two separate, work and personal, but sometimes we're just not going to want to be around each other because it's going to overlap. We don't want to bring our personal stuff to work. I was always good with that. We don't want to bring it home either, believe me, I learned that one the hard way. I would expect something like today to follow us. We haven't gotten into it like that in a really long time. It was pretty natural to think that we would want to cool off before we saw each other again."
"Quite possibly." She would concede that point. "But you cannot just naturally come to the conclusion that because we disagree at work that the argument is going to carry over into our personal life." Her brows arched. Sharon smiled at him. "If that was the case, then you and I would never have made it to standing here now."
Andy couldn't disagree with that. He shoved his hands into his pockets and smiled a little sheepishly. His gaze lowered to the floor while he thought about it. They had some spectacular arguments in their time. There had been a point when they could barely stand the sight of one another, much less the idea of being in the same room together. He tried to imagine what his response might have been back then to the idea that they would be here now. He was pretty sure that he probably would have had the person suggesting it tossed into a psych ward for careful examination. He lifted his head slightly and looked up at her, that small smile still playing at his lips. "Guess I blew it."
He had a way of disarming her. It used to drive her mad. Now she just accepted it as an ability that was uniquely Andy's. He could look at her, as he was now, with that slightly boyish grin, but she could always see beyond it. She saw the worry in his eyes, and the way he shifted his weight, fidgeting while he waited for her to answer. Sharon exhaled a quiet breath. "No." She took a step forward and tugged lightly on the front of his t-shirt, where she would have played with his tie, had he been wearing one. "I think we just have to toss this one up to being an incredibly horrible day." Sharon rolled her eyes at him. "I was spoiling for a fight too," she admitted, "or I would have called the landline when you didn't answer your cell."
Her smile grew a little sheepish, and she looked up at him through her lashes. Her eyes were sparkling, and when she shrugged a single shoulder at him, Andy reached out and laid his hand against her hip. He drew her just a step closer. "If we can't fight with each other, who can we fight with?"
Sharon's head inclined while she considered that. She knew that he was only teasing her, but his words carried some truth to them too. The day had taken its toll on both of them, and they had looked for someone to express that too, even in the worst way possible. They had chosen the safest option; that was not to say that they had chosen the weakest opponent, but rather, they had both chosen the one person who would allow them to be who they were, even at their worst, without fear of any true reprisal or judgment. It was why, too, that he and his partner had been sniping at one another. "You are right about that," Sharon told him. His surprised look had her moving closer. "The thing is, I really do not want to fight with you, not anymore. I am going to suggest that we call it a day, and a bad one at that." She lifted her face and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. "I am going to go home," she continued. "We can reschedule tonight."
"Are you sure?" He tilted his head at her. His arm circled her waist. He wasn't letting her go just yet. "It'll only take a second to throw something on." She was already dressed, and if he didn't miss his guess, the dress was new. That made him feel like even more of a heel. "We can head down to the docks, have dinner on the pier…" The ocean breeze would be a nice respite, he thought, and he could already imagine the way the sunset would catch the highlights in her hair and light them aflame.
"I am." She laid her hand against his chest and smiled warmly. "As wonderful as that sounds, I think we both deserve a break after today. Right now I am thinking that a long soak in the tub and an early night is probably the best thing that I can do." She watched his eyes change colors and his lips purse. Sharon laid her finger against them before he could offer her the use of his tub. When he grinned against her finger she shook her head at him. "At home," she added, with no small amount of emphasis.
Andy simply shrugged at her. "Can't blame a guy for where his mind goes." He pulled her closer and dropped a kiss onto her mouth. It was quick, and almost chaste. He reached around and pulled the door open. The least he could do was walk her out. In the few seconds it would take to get to her car, he wondered if he could come up with an idea that would change her mind.
It was no act of his, but rather nature that decided to offer a helping hand. They stepped out onto the porch to a world that had turned sodden. While they argued the skies had opened up. The air had cooled and grown damp, while rain fell in thick sheets. It was no raging storm, but a steady downpour, with a light enough breeze to relieve the oppressive heat of the day. Andy slanted a look at the woman beside him. There was a crooked grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. "So, about that tub…"
She arched a brow at him. Sharon cut a sideways look at him. "Yes," she said at length, "what about it?" The cooler air was more a balm than any air conditioning unit could have been. It was clean and natural. She closed her eyes as she inhaled; Sharon let a smile curve her lips. When she opened her eyes again, they were shining happily. She loved a good rainstorm. Without saying another word she stepped out of her shoes, and then she stepped off the porch and into the falling rain.
She pulled Andy with her, and the first caress of cool rain against his face and shoulders drew a breath from him. His neighbors were going to think that he had lost his mind, he was sure. If not for the woman that had turned and stepped into his arms, he might have protested the idea of standing in the middle of a downpour. She seemed perfectly content with it, however. When she swayed against him, he shook his head and laughed. "You're insane," he decided.
"You love me anyway." They were both already drenched. Her hair was a lost cause. The dress probably was too, and she didn't care. It simply felt too wonderful. Her hair would dry, and dresses could be replaced. Moments were fleeting. Once they passed, they were gone. They needed to be reached for, enjoyed, even if they could not be held on to. This was not a moment she was willing to allow simply to pass.
"Yes I do." The freedom to admit that to one another was still very new. They were still learning a lot about each other, but what he did not have to question were his feelings for her. He must love her, he thought, to go so easily from arguing to dancing in the rain. When her face lifted toward him, he lowered his. If the neighbors were watching, he decided, so be it. They would see a pair of fools, but love-struck fools at that, to be dancing and kissing in the rain.
Without her heels she had to stand on tiptoe to sweep her arm around his neck and lean into him completely. When he lifted her, so that her toes only barely touched the rain soaked grass, she smiled into the kiss. What she always loved most about a good rain was the way that it left the world feeling cleansed, all fresh and new. It was like that for them at the moment, Sharon decided. She was allowing the rain to wash away the unpleasant emotional grime of the day, to leave them fresh and new.
She had heard someone say once, what was love, if not a walk in the clouds… to them she could reply, it was moments of complete joy, here on earth. It was sun-kissed days, slow walks, and lazy afternoons. It was romantic dinners and moonlit strolls. Love was fighting with your best friend, with the security to know that you could, and dancing in the rain as if no other moment could matter more.
~FIN