Prompt: Then and Now

"Flynn, you coming?" Provenza called over as he grabbed his coat.

"Nah, you go. I've got some paperwork to finish," Flynn shot back, not even looking up.

"Paperwork, my ass," Provenza grumbled as he left his desk.

Andy looked up briefly at Provenza's retreating back, then returned to the papers on his desk. The old man had been in a funk for weeks, and it irked Flynn that Provenza was drawing a line in the sand. Situations change, workplaces change, bosses change, it's the nature of the beast. Some days is took everything Flynn had not to cut Provenza off at the knees and point out what everyone else saw - that the new management was giving the old geezer more power and less responsibility than the old guard.

Slowly the younger detectives left, off to home or a night on the town. It had been a long week, though not as grueling as some. They had only caught one murder, and that had been a pimp who was ultimately brought down by 'his girls'. It was hard to get choked up over that one, but it demanded the same thoroughness as all the other cases they dealt with, including the mountain of paperwork needed to finish up the files.

"Aren't you leaving, Lt?" Sanchez asked on his way passed.

"In a bit. I'd rather not have to face this on Monday morning."

"Understood, Sir. Would you like me to turn off the overhead lights on the way out?"

"Yeah, thanks. They're starting to give me a headache anyway. Time to shut this place down for the weekend."

"Well, you have a good weekend."

"You too, Sanchez," Flynn waved him off, and adjusted the light on his desk just as the overheads were turned off.

They might be considered the 'elites' in the LAPD, but one of the problems being so elite was they all had their preferred way of taking notes that belied their years of active service, and Flynn was getting pretty tired of reading Provenza's chicken scratch when he could see the thorough prose of Skyes already inputted into the system through her tablet. At least Provenza wasn't taking his anger out on the cases. He still picked up on things the others missed from time to time, and was just as sharp as ever - even if he was a mean bastard about it.

"Have I told you how much I appreciate you doing this?" came a voice from behind him.

Without looking up, Flynn smiled "Every week, like clockwork."

"Well, I do."

"You're welcome."

Flynn couldn't keep the grin off his face as he heard the hum behind him fade into the office. Paperwork wasn't his favourite way to spend an evening, but he enjoyed their time to just be colleagues without all the politics and jockeying for position that happened when the full team was in. Besides, he knew how hard it was for Sharon, going from the decided enemy of the team to their new leader. She made a point of walking gently even in those stilettos, which in turn made Provenza even more determined to jump at her every chance he had. If the level of respect for his abilities wasn't so high, she would have Provenza drawn up on charges of insubordination every other hour. But that wasn't her style.

After another half hour at his desk, Andy was ready to turn off his laptop and put the completed reports in the file for the box. He was about to lean back and stretch, when a sandwich invaded his peripheral vision.

"What's this?" he asked.

"I'm assuming that's rhetorical?" she giggled.

Andy smiled. Sharon was completely professional in the office at all times, so for her to giggle meant she was relaxed and out of professional mode. He always liked it when they got to this point in their evening. He also noted her appearance. Gone were the shoes that looked impossible to walk in, as was her suit jacket. Instead she was in her stocking feet with the sleeves of her blouse rolled up and her usually immaculate hair, piled in a messy heap on the top of her head.

"Not tuna, I hope," Andy replied, earning him outright laughter.

"Oh my god, do you remember that? I don't think I've eaten tuna since that day."

"What I remember is you in that awful orange suit, having to climb into that dumpster by the docks." He took the wrapping off his sandwich and spread out his legs.

Sharon pushed the items on Amy's desk aside so she could sit on the end, grateful she had chosen pants that day. "I don't think I ate fish for an entire decade after that. God, what they made the new recruits do. Sometimes I wonder if I was punished more because I wasn't one of the guys."

"Of course you were," he replied nonchalantly, "it was the 70's."

"Mmm.." Sharon nodded, then took a bite of her own sandwich.

"But you weren't alone. I helped, if you remember."

Smiling at him, Sharon nodded. "Yeah, you were a real gentleman. You even held my hand as I climbed down into a stinking bin full garbage, that probably had been sitting in the sun for two weeks."

"Hey, I got in there too, don't forget."

"Yes you did - after the bin became like quicksand and nearly sucked me in."

"Oh" he shook his head, "I remember that part different. I got in that can and spent half my time making sure you didn't fall over. Your hair was up, like it is now, and I tried my hardest to get some of the fish guts off before you noticed. You didn't scream though, and that's what the others thought you would do."

"I had to work doubly hard to prove I was half as good. Has it changed that much, do you think?"

"Women in the force? Yeah, I think so. And I think you did a lot to improve things."

"When I joined IA? You felt so betrayed by that, didn't you." It was a statement, not a question.

Andy looked down at his feet for a while. "Yeah... well I was hitting the bottle pretty heavy by then."

"Did I make it worse?" The mood between them had shifted considerably.

"At the time? Yeah, I was prepared to blame you, but no, it wasn't you. I was angry at a whole lot of things."

"I'd already slept with him by then, you know" she said softly, not sure what Andy would say next.

"I did the math after, but at the time I felt you deserted me."

"I'm sorry. I don't think I handled things very well back then myself."

"Aw Shar, I was a drunk, and you were pregnant and engaged to someone who didn't deserve you. We were both pretty stupid about things. After I got sober, one of the things I always regretted was introducing you to Rick in the first place."

"Don't. Don't ever do that. It's not your fault he turned out to be such a jerk. And besides, without him I wouldn't have my kids. I don't regret that for a minute."

"I was pretty proud of you, you know. I didn't say anything at the time, but I was really proud of the way you walked out on him with those two little kids. That had to be hard for you, but you did it."

"Hmm..." she smiled ruefully, "the negativity at work felt like a vacation compared to what he was giving me. At least the kids were never put in a bad situation."

Andy nodded, knowing she had more to say.

"You know the really awful thing, is that I didn't see any of it coming. I was a professional investigator, and I didn't even notice that my husband was cheating on me and trying to wipe out my bank account."

"Shar," he looked up quickly, "don't do that to yourself. Don't. Look, how many of us can figure out what's going on with each other but we're blind when it comes to ourselves? I've seen it a million time. We think we'll catch anything suspicious in our own families and we don't. Or worse, we become suspicious of everything and ruin some good things. So you didn't see him cheating at first. You did eventually, and you stopped it. Look Shar, you had two small children, you were working fulltime, and you were trying to keep a family together without any help from your husband. That's a lot, even for the great Sharon Raydor to handle."

Sharon smirked. "I used to watch you, you know."

"Watch me what? At work?"

"No. I know you sat outside my home some nights. I know you were there to protect me. I didn't say anything, but when I was transferred to this department, I figured you would be either the first or the last to support me. But back then, I knew I still mattered."

"Once partners, always partners."

"Not always."

"Always!"

Sharon smiled at the strength of his conviction, and they both ate in silence for a few minutes.

"Why did you call me personally when you were attacked a few years ago?" she wanted to know.

"You want the official version or the real one?"

"Real would be nice."

"Okay, well officially, you were FID, and even I do things by the book occasionally." That earned him another giggle. "But unofficially... unofficially, you were the first person I thought of. If I was going to buy it, I wanted to say goodbye to you and apologize for the way I'd treated you all those years."

"Andy, it wasn't you, it was the alcohol."

"Nah, I'm not giving myself that excuse. I was a compete bastard to you, I yelled at you and you were only doing your job. I resented like hell that you and me were on opposite sides when we'd started out together."

"Your jacket was pretty thick by the time it got to me. I know that was your doing, but sometimes I wondered if I could have kept you inline if I'd stayed with you rather than asking for the transfer."

"Yeah, you probably could have. But that's a hell of a load to put on my partner. I had to clean myself up."

"And you did. I'm really proud of you, you know. But sometimes... What do you think would have happened if we had helped each other instead of being miles apart?"

"What would have happened? Oh, I don't know. I guess I should say I would have stopped drinking immediately and you would have had someone you could count on to help you at work. The truth is probably a lot different."

Nodding, Sharon looked a million miles away. "Yeah, we would have been in bed together in no time."

Now it was Andy's turn to chuckle. "No one should make dress blues look as sexy as you do."

"Flatterer you. Some of those nights when I saw you outside my house, I really wanted to invite you in."

"I would have come" he said earnestly, looking her in the eye.

"I know, that's probably what kept me from doing it. It would have created even more problems."

"So your choice has been to stay celibate since Rick."

"Not celibate, just single."

"Oh, that's something I really didn't need to know."

"Need to know or want to know? It's still here, Andy, and we both know it."

"Yeah, it's still here. You'd think with everything we've done to each other and have had happen, that it would be long gone."

"I like how it's matured, don't you?"

"You think I don't want to sleep with you anymore? I'm not that 'matured' you know," he smiled at her.

"Neither am I. It's not the right time, but while we wait for it to be right, it's nice to know I have my partner back. It's wonderful just to have you walk down the hall with me again, talking about the case or anything else that is going on. I have missed you for a very long time, you know."

"I've missed you too, Shar. And it feels right to be your Man Friday. There's something really poetic about that."

"Helping each other avoid the cannibals?" she laughed.

"Got that right."

He stood and pulled her down from the desk and into his arms. Sharon breathed deeply, enjoying being wrapped in such strength.

"You know," she started, "it wasn't right back then, it's not the time now, but someday... someday it will be the perfect time."

"Someday soon... that's a promise." He looked down and kissed her gently on the lips, as only friends-who-will-be-lovers-some-day could.