The drive to the dinner theatre was noticeably quiet. While Sharon seemed to shuffle through her bag every now and again, Andy snuck glances at her at the traffic lights. He was used to the quiet with her in other circumstances but for some reason he felt like something was different this time. When she wasn't looking in her bag she seemed at a distance glancing out the side window.
"So is Rusty interested in Astronomy now?"
"Hmm?" She asked finally looking back at him.
"Before you came out of your room, out of nowhere he asked me what I thought about the Space Program."
"Oh..." She replied shaking her head in hand.
"Is he thinking about studying science?"
"Only the science of driving me crazy."
Andy laughed at her and was pleased that the silence that seemed like a third wheel had finally left. She was beautiful, this person who had always been there for many years now had flown into his world in a whole new way.
He didn't know when or how but something felt different. The acceptance and anticipation in spending time together, the natural way they were drawn to work side-by-side - it was something that happened in spite of their conscious efforts. Andy wasn't sure why tonight of all nights he had bought her flowers but he felt that something had shifted since they discussed her divorce. An obligation was gone that no longer predisposed either of them to be coy, was now tentatively balanced against their own journey to some type of deeper connection.
He wasn't sure but he felt she was at least sending some signals that things between them may be evolving. She had dressed more formally for their dinner this evening then she had previously, and she seemed more affectionate - but at the same time she also seemed to become very aware of her affections and shy back just as quickly.
He never saw her as someone who would be nervous with dating - if that's what this really was, but he imagined the divorce and their positions in the workplace meant her guard was firmly in place. She wasn't alone in her caution. He hadn't considered pursuing anything more than the casual dating scene for a while. Becoming his boss and then his friend only made the fragility of whatever this relationship was even more concerning. But putting aside all those concerns, his only objective for the night was to ensure they both enjoyed themselves. Tonight wasn't the time for enquiring about relationship status.
"It looks like this place has a chauffeur service. Wow they've done some lovely work renovating - it looks very old Hollywood."
"My mother used to come here back in the day and sing the odd song or two. Actually I think this was the place where she met my father, or maybe it was my uncle - they dated first, much to my father's continued amusement."
Andy remembered a picture of Sharon and her mother in the photo album she had shown him. Sharon's mother shared a lot of physical traits with her daughter, most telling was her illuminating smile. But when he tried to picture her mother taking the stage to perform all he could think about was Sharon, and he smiled at the thought of Sharon Raydor of all people singing.
"And will you be making it up on stage Ms Raydor?"
Sharon rolled her eyes at him and laughed.
"Oh no, I'll leave the performing to the professionals."
"Too bad, it would have made interesting viewing at our next Christmas party."
Andy pulled the car up to the entrance, and before Sharon could respond he was out of the car, walking over to her side and opening the door for her. She took the hand he offered and looked at him through her eyelashes, trying to shake off the amused but annoyed grin that was forming.
Andy gave the attendant his keys and looped his arm with Sharon's.
"You don't have to worry Sharon, whatever happens tonight - be that singing; line-dancing or musical chairs, I will not tell a soul."
"Musical chairs?"
"It's dinner theatre, anything can happen." He said as they entered the auditorium.
"You may have just invited a lot of trouble to our night by saying that."
He just smiled at her, and as he let go of her arm he gently took her hand. The care in which he took her hand did not go unnoticed by Sharon. His thumb gently caressed her knuckles and when he noticed her settle in the moment he tilted her hand and ushered her to a table.
The theatre was beautifully ornate. Set against the walls were beautiful wooden booths lined with stylish cream coloured leather panels, with the odd dark grey triangle panel in between. As they got closer to the stage the floor lowered and on each side of the wall stood two bars, both decorated in shades of cream and grey, with only the bar top in a deep purple to break up the colour scheme. In the centre of the theatre was a beautiful black grand piano where a young man in a tux was playing Sinatra's hits.
Surrounding the piano were several dark tables with matching chairs, but Andy noticed Sharon's eye was immediately drawn to one of the booths closer to the stage that had only now been made empty.
"That one?" He said pointing out the booth.
"Perfect." She replied leading the way.
As she began to sit down another couple appeared beside them. They were about the same age as Sharon and Andy but dressed as if they were props from the theatre that were overlooked during the renovations.
The woman wore an emerald green wrap dress with a mountain of greying blonde hair piled on top of her unamused face. Her partner, equally unamused by Sharon's presence at the booth wore a black tuxedo with a slightly wilted flower clasped to his collar.
But what confused Sharon the most was the shiny obstruction he wore on his head. She knew it was supposed to be hair but the piece seemed a couple of sizes too big for the narrow head it sat on, and as the man stiffened his lip and raised his nose at her, she waited with baited breath for the toupee to move on its own accord.
"Can I help you?" Andy asked as he moved past the other woman to stand at Sharon's side.
"Your girlfriend is sitting in our booth." The man with the ill-fitting wig remarked.
Andy sighed and avoided eye contact with Sharon for the moment as he looked this peculiar man over. If they weren't ready to define what they were he certainly wasn't ready for a stranger to make the call.
"And you are?"
"We are..." the woman in green interrupted.
"We are, Mr and Mrs Reiner and every Friday night the owners reserve this booth for us - tonight is no exception."
"Listen lady..."
Sharon cleared her throat and quickly exchanged a glance at him that said, it's not worth it.
"Mrs Reiner, how are we meant to know if the booth is reserved for you? I don't see a sign anywhere."
"A sign? My family have been providing this establishment with catering services for over thirty years, we don't need a sign - my very presence here is enough."
"Don't worry I'm getting out of your booth." Sharon said as she began shuffling her way off the seat.
"And while you're on your way maybe you can stop staring at my husband."
"Oh don't mind her Rachel, look at what she's come into the restaurant with, it's no wonder she's distracted." Mr Reiner commented as he winked at a highly perturbed Sharon.
"Excuse me?" Andy asked stepping past Mrs Reiner and coming within inches of Mr Reiner's face.
Sharon was remarkably quick for a woman wearing a dress and heels such as hers and was by Andy's side in a matter of seconds gently touching his arm. He felt her presence and immediately slowed down.
"You know what? You, your wife and your hair can keep the booth. I've wasted enough time with you two as it is."
Andy ignored the horrified look Mr Reiner was giving him and held out his hand towards Sharon.
"How would you like to sit closer to the piano Ms Raydor?" He asked in a playful tone.
She smiled at him and gracefully took his hand.
"That would be delightful." She replied mimicking the same playful tone he had asked her with.
As soon as they were a comfortable distance away from the Reiners it became difficult to restrain their laughter at the whole ridiculous situation.
"Oh god can you believe the nerve of those people? And what was with their outfits? Hey Sharon you don't think they are part of some comedy act and they were trying their routine out on us?" He asked as he pulled a chair out for her.
"Oh god I hope so, I'd like to think that hair piece he was wearing was some kind of a joke but then again, you remember that hideous thing Marcella Brewster wore?"
"If I ever start losing my hair please just encourage me to wear hats."
Andy tentatively touched his own hair, reassured that he still had a mess of it still sitting there. Sharon watched him as he took his seat and tried not to laugh at his little insecurity.
"Some how I don't think you'll have that problem. You know this isn't the first time I remember you having a run in with a disgruntled toupee." She said as she picked up the menu.
"I don't know what you are referring to." He said knowing exactly what she was referring to as he suddenly became interested in the finer details of the menu.
"July of 97, one particularly hot summer if I recall, and I remember one day the air conditioning decided to shut down across several floors including mine. Everyone seemed agitated and several members of your department thought a trip to the local bar would be a way to break the tension. My supervisor had told me to tag along but to keep my distance and keep an eye on one officer in particular."
"Oh god," he said, as pinched the bridge of his nose.
Sharon put her menu down as a waiter approached and ordered a white wine for herself and a sparkling water for Andy.
"Hold up, our first meeting was because you were sent to spy on me?"
Not realising how loud he was Andy waved his hand and smiled to the few faces that popped up wondering what all the fuss was about.
"In a matter of speaking…"
"You realise if you hadn't have been at the bar in the first place the fight would never have happened?"
"Oh I'm sure you would have found something to fight about. No one seemed to be in a particularly good mood that day, myself included."
Everyone was hot and impatient as they waited for their drinks, four of them sat around a small table under a dingy looking ceiling fan that turned at an incredibly slow pace. The place was crowded but mostly populated with men, so when the leggy auburn-haired beauty complete with short skirt and sleeveless shirt entered the bar she could hardly remain covert.
He knew he had seen her around the halls enough to know she was a cop, but he had never met her or knew what division she worked in. He was ten seconds away from getting out of his seat and offering to buy her a drink when a group of three men made their way over to her first.
He remembered seeing her look over to him and they had shared the briefest of eye contact. He wondered if she had also noticed him at work and was trying to make the connection.
The men that approached her worked for a nearby trucking company and appeared pretty rough by anyone's standards. She appeared to be laughing at whatever it was they were saying but at the same time she kept looking in his direction, and despite the effects of the heat, even he could see she wanted out.
"Hey there you are!"
This was the greeting of a man who did not know a woman's name.
"I've been waiting for ten minutes already, what took you so long?" He continued.
Her face lit up instantly.
"Andy Flynn, don't you know never to keep Sharon Raydor waiting." Someone from across the bar yelled.
She smiled at him and lifted her hands in amused agreement.
"I almost gave up on you. I thought we were meeting somewhere else" she replied.
She had this playful look in her eyes like they had been dating for months and this was her amused reaction towards his continued tardiness. She was a natural at playing this game of pretend, and he wanted to continue playing it - but the setting and the players around them were all wrong.
"Listen buddy, why don't you go back to your lively friends over there I haven't finished talking with Sharon yet."
This was the voice of the toupeed douchebag he was about to thump.
"No, I'd like Andy to stay, we have a lot to discuss." She interjected, keeping her eyes firmly on Andy.
"With all due respect I don't like his face." He replied.
"The feeling's mutual, now leave her alone."
"Boys, I'm going to get a drink, excuse me." She said as she tried to move past Mr Toupee.
"I'll get it for you, what do you want?" Mr Toupee asked stepping in front of her exit from the group.
"I prefer to get my own drinks if you don't mind."
She tried to move past him but he kept blocking her path and laughed at her every time she tried a new direction.
Andy watched Sharon closely, he could tell how aggravated she was getting and that at any moment she might just thump the guy herself. So taking the initiative he pulled the toupee off the slightly smaller man's head and flung it across the other side of the bar.
Sharon had gasped and covered her mouth in an attempt not to laugh. Seeing the look on her face, Mr Toupee seemed ready to take out his aggression on both of them, so Andy decided to take the initiative himself and thumped the guy squarely in the jaw. He grabbed Sharon's hand and ran with her out the door and across the road to a local bookshop to hide.
"We're cops, we aren't supposed to hit and run like that. Do you have any idea how much trouble we will be in?"
Andy looked back at the annoyed woman next to him and pulled a magazine off the shelf and started using it as a fan.
"You don't have to worry Sharon - nice to meet you by the way..." He said as he extended his arm to shake her hand.
She took his hand cautiously and shook it slowly.
"...no one in that bar is going to be telling IA on us, they're all buddies of mine"
"Andy, I am IA, what division did you think I worked for?"
He dropped her hand and muttered something under his breath that Sharon still wasn't sure on till this day. After his initial shock wore down she thanked him for his assistance but told him that if he ever did something like that again she would have to write him up.
She remembered the look of confusion on his face as he tried to comprehend that the cute lady at the bar he tried to rescue - who probably didn't even need rescuing, actually belonged to Internal Affairs.
She handed him her phone number and told him that while she admired him stepping in to help her she was already well aware of the reputation he was gaining, and that if he was ever in trouble again that he should call her, and over the years he did so - many times.
"You know I don't think that man ever got his toupee back." He said absently taking the drink the waiter passed to him.
"What? Really?"
"Yeah, when I finally got back to work that day I heard a couple of the boys laughing about it. Apparently one of them caught it as it flew through the air and it continued to be thrown from one cop to the next."
"Oh god, we could have started a riot."
"Oh it's we now is it? I remember at the time you firmly assigning the blame to me."
"Well, you did hit the man."
"Right before you were thinking of doing the same thing."
They both looked at each other vainly attempting to maintain their stance but failing miserably and irrupting in fits of laughter.
As they ordered their meals a couple of performers started making their way to the stage. The first couple sang duets and popular show tunes, some of them good, some of them a little too over the top for Sharon's taste.
Andy tried to make it look not so obvious, but he found himself looking in her direction more than the performers as he became enthralled in how she reacted to their various efforts. When she liked a song her eyes lit up and she appeared wistful as if she was replaying a fond memory.
Occasionally she would appear surprised by one of the performers and her eyebrows would rise to new heights as she would look over at Andy to confirm his own surprise; and then her second-hand embarrassment would kick in on behalf of one of the more amateur performers and she would tuck in her bottom lip and suddenly look down as she found the tablecloth more interesting - but it was the magic show that garnered the most interesting reactions.
Sharon was so intrigued by the performance she kept leaning forward to get a closer look and at one point she almost knocked over their drinks.
"I never took you for a magic fan Sharon."
Andy moved their drinks over to his side of the table to avoid another leaning incident but he started to wonder if Sharon was even listening.
"Hmm?"
"Magic, I never knew you had such an interest in it."
Sharon moved her chair closer to Andy's. Whether it was an attempt to get closer to seeing the stage or just so she could talk more easily he wasn't sure.
"I guess it's the art of deception that intrigues me. I want to get inside the mind of the magician and figure out his secrets and why he takes so much pleasure in creating mystery."
"Well if I didn't already know you I think you just gave away a big clue as to why you became a detective."
"Oh?" She asked as she took a sip from her glass.
He moved within a couple of inches from her and whispered, "insatiable curiosity - you need to know why things are as they are, you need to put a name to what is going on around you."
"Hmm, I guess I do." She replied, avoiding his eye contact and watching the magician pack up after his final performance.
"I have to say I'm curious too,"
That got her attention away from the performers and she now found herself drawn to the gaze of Andy Flynn once again.
"Back in the 90s when you followed me to that bar you ended up giving me your number - was that really standard procedure for internal affairs or did you have an ulterior motive?"
Some where between the words 'standard procedure' and 'ulterior motive' Sharon felt the detail of the tablecloth beneath her hands become intriguing. She tried tucking her bottom lip to stop herself from smiling but it didn't help and eventually she had to look up at the eyes that were patiently waiting on an answer.
"Standard procedure? No, not really. Though I thought if I kept in contact with you I could at least attempt to influence your behaviour."
She still wasn't completely looking at him and while he thought in some circumstances this might be funny, he was now worried that she was feeling uncomfortable. So in his own unique manner he attempted to lighten the mood.
"So how do you think that worked out for you? I mean you are sitting next to the LAPD's most well behaved officer for two years straight now. Provenza even made me a certificate - of course he charged me 50 cents to print the damn thing out, but hey you can't put a price on that kind of achievement."
"50 cents? That's exorbitant." She replied rolling her eyes.
"I mustn't be that good of an influence on you if it took almost twenty years to get any results."
"You're forgetting I'm a slow learner. I guess I needed to wait till you became my personal tutor before the impact of your presence really made a difference."
The idea of her as a tutor to Andy seemed laughable at first and then her mind wandered. She tried to imagine a very young Andy Flynn as he sat in school making jokes with his equally rambunctious friends.
He was the class clown - the troublemaker, and she would be the studious one sitting in front tapping her pencil waiting impatiently while the teacher struggled to settle the class. While paper planes flew the course of the classroom and insults would be launched from one side of the room to the other, she imagined herself rising from her chair and standing right in front of Andy till he looked her way.
He would of course look her over, make some smart ass response and expect her to back down, then she'd do the unexpected and sit on his desk till she had his full attention.
For the rest of the school year they would test each other with increasingly ridiculous insults till the teacher had enough of them both and assigned her to tutor him one on one. Eventually he replaced his comebacks with lingering gazes, and she replaced her retorts with regrets and aspirations.
Oh god, she thought.
The sudden realisation hit her like a ruler to a desk - her whole relationship thus far with Andy had been working to this point. How long had they really been flirting the line between begrudging friendship and curious fraternisation? This wasn't an outing any more - maybe none of them were. Rusty was right, like it or not they were dating.
TBC
A/N: Ever since I started liking this pairing I've always wanted to know how Andy had Sharon's phone number from The Closer days. So this is basically my attempt to answer that question, as well as make a reference to that hilarious season 3 episode 'Frozen Assets'.
