Chapter 2

"God damn it, a F.I.D. investigation?" Brenda sighed. Just what she wanted first thing in the morning.

"Don't sound so excited," Detective Boswell from the F.I.D. division walked up behind Brenda. "We don't like it much either."

Brenda turned to face him, remembering him from previous investigations with F.I.D.. But where was the woman in charge? Brenda was ready for another F.I.D. vs. Major Crimes showdown and she needed her able bodied opponent.

"Where's the Capt'n?" Brenda asked, glancing around the scene, waiting for the in control brunette to pop up at any time.

"She's not on this case, Chief," Boswell informed Brenda. "If you have questions you can refer to me."

"But…" Brenda's brow furrowed, her forehead wrinkling from lack of comprehension. "She's the head of F.I.D." God damn her, Brenda inwardly thought. Even if they hated one another, they had a better rapport than Brenda had with Boswell. He was an old stick in the mud.

"Yes, but the head of F.I.D. doesn't need to work every case." He quipped.

Brenda shook her head, trying to wrap her mind around the current situation. Captain Sharon Raydor was not present; Brenda would have to work with Boswell. She could do this. "All right, Detective, give me the facts." She rubbed her forehead, nodding for Provenza and Flynn to follow behind her.

Perhaps this day would be easier without Captain Raydor hot on her heels.

...

"We've caught it at a good time. It's not quite to stage two; we can treat it with chemotherapy, aggressively, to get the mass down before we operate." Doctor Gabrielle Suarez smiled over her desk at a rather stoic Sharon Raydor. "Please, Sharon, relax."

Sharon rolled her eyes slowly, finding it hard to do anything relaxing with her heart thumping wildly in her chest.

"I'm going to prescribe you some medications," Doctor Suarez, realizing that her patient was not going to relax any time soon, clicked her pen and reached for her prescription pad. "I need you to start taking these for a week before we start treatments. They'll help with the nausea involved." She explained as she wrote.

Sharon nodded, her mind running a mile a minute. Treatment. She was about to undergo treatment.

"Sharon," Dr. Suarez was trying to get her attention.

"Hmm?" Sharon hummed, realizing that her mind was wondering. She hadn't heard a word the Doctor said.

"You really do need to slow down. I know you have a high profile job, but you don't need to be a superhero. You're human. I trust you'd like to be alive when your son graduates high school." Dr. Suarez – who was actually a mother to a girl in Lucas' class and with whom Sharon had attended PTA meetings – eyed Sharon squarely and handed over the prescription sheet.

Sharon nodded. Oh God, Lucas. This was so unfair to him.

"Thank you, Gabrielle," Sharon wearily heard herself say, but then shook her head, "well, I suppose you're my doctor now, so thank you, Doctor."

Gabrielle leaned forward and grabbed Sharon's hand. She could feel it trembling in her grasp. "We can stay on a first name basis, Sharon."

"All right, thank you Gabrielle. I will get this," She removed her hand from her doctor's and waived the piece of paper.

"Today," Gabrielle sternly eyed the strong willed woman seated across from her. She was very private about her life, yet Gabrielle had always admired her strength. She knew she was a successful Captain who worked for the LAPD and she knew that Sharon was embarrassed to have any weakness show. This whole situation made her look like a dog with her tail between her legs. She was crestfallen.

Sharon stood up, her legs unsteady as she did so. Without making eye contact with Gabrielle she gave her a half-hearted salute, "you have my word."

And with that Sharon Raydor walked out of the Doctor's office, waiting until she was holed up in the downstairs lobby bathroom before she broke down into tears.

...

"Chief Johnson, with all due respect, there is no way for you to acquire that information without a search warrant." Boswell blandly countered Brenda. He clearly did not know who he was up against.

"For Heaven's sake," Brenda cried. She turned quickly around, her team hot on her heels as she walked away from the horrid F.I.D. team. "Is it entirely awful that I actually miss Capt'n Raydor? At least she'd help us 'stead of hinderin' us." When Brenda got angry, the country got thicker.

"Well, Boswell's right," Gabriel appeared at her side. "We'd have to get a search warrant."

"Then let's get a search warrant," Brenda eyed him. "Provenza, call Tao and have him look this guy up. We'll get a warrant in front of the judge by this afternoon." Brenda had a plan. No one stopped her when she was on the trail for a suspect.

"Actually, Chief Johnson, F.I.D. would have to put up the warrant to the judge. This is, after all, F.I.D.'s investigation. Not Major Crimes." Boswell had followed her. That man, Brenda growled inwardly to herself.

"Fine, all right then. Major Crimes, we have better things to do. Back to the station."

"But we can't just leave, come on Chief Johnson," Flynn was messing around, but Brenda was in no mood to deal with him. She kept walking, not waiting to see if her team would follow.

"F.I.D. can have this damn investigation." Brenda cursed under her breath. She knew exactly where she was going upon her arrival back at the precinct.

...

"To what do I owe the honor of your presence, Captain Raydor?" Chief Pope looked with disdain upon the woman he despised.

She wished then that Brenda had won the position as Chief of Police, though she no more wanted to divulge her personal information to Brenda than she did to Chief Pope.

"Chief Pope, I…" she had no words for this moment. She picked at the edge of a folder she had compiled for the Chief. She wanted to just set it on his desk and run away, but she needed to explain.

"What is it, Captain? I don't have all day." He rudely returned to his computer, not even making eye contact with her.

Damn him. Sharon stepped closer. "Chief, I'm not sure how best to say this, but I… well as the head of F.I.D., I've put together all of the necessary paper work." She placed the folder on to his desk and stepped away.

"What is this?" He picked up the folder and opened it.

She watched as his eyes scanned the page. They squinted, as if having to do a double take to fully understand what was before him. "Captain," his voice was softer, surprised.

"Chief, this will not change anything. I simply have to inform you in case…for legal reasons." Sharon shifted awkwardly.

Chief Pope eyed her. He knew that Captain Raydor was one tough woman, but he had never expected this. He also knew that she never gave up. She was persistent and damn good at her job, even if he would never admit it out loud. "Very well then," he nodded and closed the folder.

"Thank you, Chief." Sharon nodded, sounding relieved. She turned to leave but as she reached the door she glanced back at Chief Will Pope, adding, "I trust that this can stay between the two of us"

Chief Pope nodded, "by law it has to."

"Of course." Sharon nodded again and then made her escape.

...

Sharon could hardly keep her gaze off the blonde as she strode in to F.I.D., an indignant look on her face as she started to lay in to Detective Boswell. Sharon could only guess that Brenda had disapproved his handling of F.I.D.'s investigation that morning. But, Sharon reasoned, she simply could not have made it to do things herself. She trusted Boswell to do well with the case. He was a damn good detective and a stickler for rules. She admired him, and knew Brenda would hate him. Perhaps that's why she'd sent him.

She watched as Brenda nearly backed Boswell in to a corner before she turned, her eyes colliding with Sharon's prying gaze. Sharon had been caught. She swallowed and looked back down at her desk. She noticed that she'd laid her purse down and inside was the awful orangeish-yellow prescription bottle. She tucked it deeper in to her purse just as her office door flew open.

"Capt'n Raydor, so nice to see you here at the office." Brenda's Southern twang hardly sounded pleased to see Sharon. In fact, Sharon was certain Brenda was speaking through a clenched jaw.

"Well, it is my office, Chief Johnson," Sharon responded through a forced smile.

"Where, might I ask, were you this mornin'?" Brenda's voice evened back to a normal speech level as she came to a halt in front of Sharon's desk, arms crossing over her chest.

"I was out," Sharon shuffled the files on her desk, glancing up when Brenda made no response. She wanted a better explanation from Sharon. "I hardly think it is any of your business where I was this morning."

"It is my business when the head of F.I.D. doesn't show up for an investigation involving officers." Brenda snapped.

"Detective Boswell wasn't good enough for you?" Sharon raised an eyebrow over the folder she was holding.

"Listen, Capt'n Raydor, when an officer is shot I expect you to be the first person on the scene. It is your job." Brenda placed her hands on the older woman's desk, leaning forward as if that might assert her power further.

"I do paperwork, Chief. I can get information from the scene through my men. I don't always have to be on the scene unless I need to double check evidence. I trust that the men and women of F.I.D. can do their jobs." Sharon retorted coolly, calmly. She could tell it drove Brenda mad.

"Where were you?" Brenda was just busting at the seams to find out why Sharon had been absent.

"I didn't realize you actually enjoyed having me around." Sharon smirked.

The comment sent a rouge streak through the younger woman's face and she stood back up, crossing her arms in a way which armed her against Sharon Raydor's verbal ammunition. "I don't." Brenda quickly stuttered.

"Good, then you'll be seeing more of Detective Boswell. I have other things going on, so if you wouldn't mind…" Sharon opened another file and logged back on to her computer system for effect, as if to appear busy.

Brenda opened her mouth to make some sort of come back, but only ended up closing her pretty little lips in to a thin line before storming, upset, out of Sharon's office. Sharon's eyes moved upwards to follow the poorly dressed Chief, gaze catching on the feminine sway of her hips. Her line of vision was only disturbed when the smaller woman slammed Sharon's door closed. From then on Sharon could only see the set jaw and frustrated look on Brenda's face as she made her way back to the elevators.

Sharon wondered how she was going to keep Chief Brenda Leigh off her case for the next…however long this treatment would take.

She did not want to explain herself to her son, let alone Brenda Leigh, but she had a feeling that Brenda would get the truth out of her. She was not looking forward to that day.