Note: This story is a very slow burn so sit back and enjoy the ride.

The restaurant was not up-market but nice all the same. Located just off Melrose, the crowd seemed to consisted mainly of people on their lunch breaks. Sharon Raydor let her eyes wander around the large, brightly lit space. It was a habit that after decades working as a police officer she would never shake. To have a lunch break was a luxury not often afforded to the Major Crimes division; to have one outside the office for longer than an hour was near enough unheard of. But here she was, away from the office and with a precious afternoon off work, flanked by Andy Flynn on her right and her son Ricky in front of her. A rare afternoon of precious family time. She spotted Rusty as he walked into the restaurant, his cheeks flushed like he'd been running, and then relief filled his face when he saw his mom.

"Sorry I'm late," he apologised when he reached her. "Traffic." He bumped Ricky against his shoulder as he slipped in the vacant chair and dropped his backpack under the table.

"You look awful," he smirked.

"No, you look like you're about to win a beauty pageant," Ricky joked in return. "What happened to your hair?"

"What happened to yours? At least I've still got mine!"

"Boys," Sharon smiled. She loved the interaction between her middle and her youngest child. Whatever reservations Ricky had had when she'd first planned to adopt Rusty had long since vanished and they were friends now. Brothers, even.

"Sorry, mom," they uttered at the same time.

To hear those words coming from both their mouths made this afternoon already better than she could have imagined.

"So, what are we having?" Andy asked as he handed out the menus. His hand briefly covered Sharon's and she smiled at the touch. "It's not very often we get to eat out for lunch so I plan to make it worth my while."

"I can't believe you actually managed to get the afternoon off," Ricky said, his eyes fixed on his mother. He'd experienced plenty of Christmases, birthdays and other occasions where Sharon had worked so having this rare occasion seemed extra special.

Sharon pursed her lips and looked at her son from over the rim of her glasses. "Sometimes being the boss has its perks."

"Taylor's your boss," Rusty countered and Andy openly laughed.

"Taylor thinks he's our boss, kid. Right, I'm having steak." He put down the menu. "Anyone else?"

Ricky also chose the steak, Rusty opted for, rather predictably, a hamburger and Sharon settled for the pasta and a side salad. When she gave the young waitress their order and watched her walk away, she sighed in relief and leaned a little further back in her seat.

From across the table she saw Rusty looking at her. He had that look he always got when he was worrying about her. She knew he was worried.

The past few days had been rough. Demons from a time she thought she'd left behind long ago had come back to haunt her in the shape of the unsolved murder of a police officer, a DDA and her bodyguard and the recent murder of a young woman and her three year old son. They were all connected but it had taken her to the very last moment to realise just what had brought the past and the present together. The investigation had dragged up painful memories and had brought her face to face with people she never had thought she'd see again, least of all Daniel Price, Peter Goldman and Mark Hickman.

To discover that the recent killer had been amongst them all along, had fooled them and lied to them, had been more devastating than anything else Sharon could've imagined. She wasn't sure she'd ever be able to forgive herself for trusting Stephanie Dunn, for failing to realise sooner that the Detective was responsible for the murder of her own husband years ago as well as the murder of DDA Grey. For the first time in her career, she had come to question her judgment. How had she worked alongside a woman who was responsible for the death of a three year old child?

Sharon rubbed the bridge of her nose. The headache she'd had ever since this case had started had still not fully gone. The ache was dull and lingered behind her eyes. She hadn't been able to suppress it with painkillers or caffeine and had eventually just grown to accept it. When she looked back up she found Rusty still watching her, concern flickering behind his eyes.

She slowly grew aware of the conversation Andy and Ricky were having about San Francisco and caught the end of what sounded like, "We'll have to come visit some time" when Ricky described the views over the Bay from the Golden Gate Bridge.

"I've been meaning to go down to San Francisco ever since Ricky moved five years ago," Sharon laughed. "So far, all we've ever managed is Ricky coming to Los Angeles."

"You should come!" Ricky looked from his mom to Andy and back. "Take a vacation. It won't kill you." He chuckled. "Or anyone else for that matter."

"You know what, maybe I will."

Ricky's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Are you going to show us around?"

"I'm not exactly a tour guide but I know a few nice places."

"Can I come?" Rusty piped up and Ricky looked at his brother.

"No, you can stay in LA." Then he grinned. "Of course you can come."

"Cool." Rusty looked at Sharon and Andy. His mom seemed more relaxed, like the thought of a vacation had eased some of the tension out of her face. She was leaning in towards Andy, her shoulder against his.

The waitress returned with their drinks and the message that their food would only be a few more minutes and then she disappeared again. Sharon pretended not to notice how Ricky's eyes lingered a moment too long on the woman's legs and instead sipped from her water. Under the table, her other hand found Andy's. Tonight, when they'd get home, they'd probably end up watching a movie together and eating popcorn and, for a little while at least, work would be far from her mind.

Sharon enjoyed listening to hearing her son talk so when Andy questioned him about his work, she was fine to just sit back and listen as Ricky explained. He worked in computers and webs design and all that kind of flashy stuff she'd never really understood but he was passionate about it, the same way Emily was passionate about her dancing or Rusty about his journalism. Her children were all so different but they all had a passion.

Ricky was in the midst of sharing a story about working for a rather large business when the waitress appeared at their table with their food. She smiled as she told them to enjoy their meals and disappeared again.

The food tasted great and Sharon even stole a couple of fries from Rusty's plate when he wasn't looking. The atmosphere was warm and comfortable. Rusty, Andy and Rick did a good job at keeping the conversation going, allowing her the precious moments to observe and watch them.

"Who were you with when I called you earlier? You said it was a friend, so not Gus then?" Sharon asked once they'd all finished eating and Rusty was about to empty his glass of diet coke. "Was it a friend from school?"

"No," Rusty answered quickly. He chewed the inside of his cheek. Brenda had said that her being back in Los Angeles wasn't a secret. But did that mean that he really should be the one to tell Sharon?

"It was just someone I..."

His sentence was cut off by Sharon's phone ringing, almost immediately followed by Andy's. They shared a look before glancing at their screens. Provenza was calling Sharon, Sykes' name flashed across Andy's screen.

Andy picked up his phone. "Well, this isn't gonna be good."

"Lieutenant?" Sharon asked as soon as she answered. "What is it?"

Green eyes widened behind her glasses and she sat up straight. The napkin she'd placed in her lap fell down to the floor and her hand shot out to Andy's arm. Her eyes then darted to her watch.

"How long?" A few moments of silence followed and then she said, "You know what to do. Get the command post up and running, get all available patrol cars to start a search in the local area. Has the Amber alert been sent out?"

Rusty's heart sank. An Amber alert was never good.

"We can meet you there in half an hour," Sharon said, making eye contact with Andy and he nodded. "I want everyone out there doing everything that can be done, understood?" The undertone in her voice was severe. "I want this little boy found. Alive."

She stood up from her chair, picked up her blazer and turned to her sons. "I'm sorry," she apologised as next to her Andy fixed his tie. We have to go." She singled out Rusty. "Tell me about your friend later, yeah?"

He nodded and solemnly watched as Sharon and Andy left the restaurant.

The drive towards the crime scene was quiet. Andy hadn't switched on the radio or the scanner, something Sharon was grateful for. It allowed her to organise her thoughts and plan her moves in silence. She knew she had to plan ahead and cover all possible scenarios, including the ones she didn't want to think about.

Andy cut through the silence. "Ricky's a good kid, Sharon."

His voice startled her, almost as if someone had woken her from a daydream, and she blinked a couple of times before nodding in agreement. "He is. But he wasn't always."

Ricky had been her problem child. He had struggled more than Emily with the fact Jack would often be absent for months. He was a teenager when he started protesting to some of the rules Sharon had in their house and would try and push her to see if she'd give in.

Sharon had known Ricky needed more time than Emily to realise and understand as well as accept what was going on between her and Jack and why he had left. Perhaps it was because Emily had always had a better intuition and she'd sensed something was wrong, or maybe Ricky had just been unwilling to accept that his father wasn't the man he once was.

It had all come to a head one night when Ricky accused her of not letting him see his dad after Jack had failed to turn up for another planned weekend with his children and Emily had jumped in between them and shouted, "Dad's a drunk, Ricky. He cares more about booze than he does about you." The tears in her daughter's eyes as well as the look on her son's face as whatever image of his father he had left was shattered, was one that Sharon would never forget.

From that moment on, Ricky's view of his father changed and he saw Jack for what he was; a drunk with a gambling addiction who had abandoned his family. Both he and Emily just grew to accept the disappointment whenever Jack didn't keep an appointment. After missing Thanksgiving, Christmas and every single school play several years in a row, they expected nothing less.

And right now she was heading out to a crime scene where a mother was anxiously awaiting news about her missing child, desperate to just hold him in her arms again, and the sharp pang of anger towards Jack shot through Sharon's chest. He had never cared about his children's wellbeing at all. It had only ever been about his own selfish needs. The man she married, the man she had once loved, had changed into someone she no longer recognised.

Andy rolled up along the kerb and parked behind another cop car. The scene Sharon encountered when she got out of the passenger's side of Andy's dark blue sedan was one of organised chaos. The command post had been put up in the middle of the street and people were walking in and out, crossing the lawn towards the house she guessed was where the parents of the missing boy lived. She spotted Taylor talking to several camera crews and her heart rate quickened when she saw Chief Fritz Howard give instructions to some of his SOB officers. Had there been a development that warranted his presence here? It was only when she came closer that she realised that the people she believed to be SOB were actually FBI Agents and Fritz had clearly been drafted back into his old position as FBI liaison. When he spotted Sharon and Andy he waved for them to come closer. From inside the command centre Provenza appeared.

"Captain," Fritz greeted.

"Chief."

"We have sent out officers for door to door enquiries. An FBI team is running images from traffic cams. We are looking for a silver SUV with tinted windows that was last seen in this street two hours ago. One of the neighbour's reported seeing it near the playground yesterday too. No description of the driver."

Sharon nodded and looked at Provenza. "Lieutenant?"

"Oliver Grey, aged six. He was last seen playing in his family's front yard around 12 o'clock this afternoon. We've got the K-9 unit out and the dogs have picked up a scent but nothing so far. Like Chief Howard said, we are looking for a silver SUV. Roadblocks are in place and traffic police is pulling over every car that matches the description. Nothing so far."

"Captain?" Julio interrupted them. "I got a list of known sex offenders living in the area. There are three and all are the lowest grade. I've contacted their parole officers and they are on their way down but I don't think any of these perverts is our guy."

"Why?" Sharon wanted to know.

"Two have a preference for little girls and the other teenage boys. Oliver doesn't fall in their target group."

"And paedophiles don't usually change targets," Sharon sighed. "Thank you, Julio." She looked back at Provenza. "How's the mother?"

"In shock. Amy's with her. We've called for a doctor because Amy thinks she's about to have a mental breakdown."

Sharon turned to Andy. "I want you to make a list of anyone who has had access to Oliver in recent times." He just nodded and walked away. Sharon then fixed her gaze on Provenza again. "What are our chances?"

"Only two hours missing..." He didn't have to finish that sentence. The first 24 hours were critical but sometimes that didn't matter. "I am about to talk to the woman who saw the SUV yesterday. If we can figure out where it came from then maybe we can find some camera footage somewhere. I'm taking Buzz with me."

"Good luck," Sharon said and then turned towards the house. The front door was open, silently inviting her into the world of devastation that lay behind it. She took a deep breath, pushed her hands into the pockets of her blazer and slowly walked up the front porch steps.

It had been eight hours but going home whilst little Oliver Grey was still out there wasn't an option for her so instead she locked the door to her office, drew the blinds and covered her head with her hands as she sat at her desk. Outside the four walls of her little private space, her people were organising the evidence they'd gathered over the last few hours and were creating a timeline.

She rocked herself on her elbows, desperately willing the headache that thumped behind her eyes to go away. She had some Tylenol somewhere but even just looking for it felt like too much effort. She was tired but when the knock on her door came, her head whipped up and she softly called for whoever it was to enter. When she saw Amy appear in the doorway, her eyes darted past the young detective and saw the men stand closely together, their faces solemn. Her heart sank.

"Captain?" Amy's voice was fragile. "We just received a report from the coast guard." She swallowed hard. Her eyes had lost their usual shine. The strain of the long day was visible on her face. "They found a body in the water."

Sharon didn't ask. She couldn't bring herself to. So she just looked at the other woman and when Amy averted her eyes, she knew.

Their critical missing had just become a murder investigation.