- 3 -
Since nobody except Rusty and Andy was in any state to drive, everybody was loaded into their two cars and in a flurry of elbows meeting stomachs and muttered curses, they were off to the crime scene. Sharon's head was swimming, so she busied herself with staring out of the window, trying to calculate the number of drinks she'd had in her mind. Unfortunately she kept getting sidetracked by Andy who had decided to use the brawl in his backseat to try and lace his fingers with hers. Which was completely inappropriate given the fact that half their squad was engaged in a drunken argument just behind them.
"Why do you take up so much space, sir?" Sykes' tone conveyed more exasperation than anyone would have thought possible. Provenza's reaction consisted of a grunt and an annoyed huff. Tao was curiously silent, but then Sharon had spotted her sister having him do shots with her at some point and he was not known to hold his liquor particularly well. On the one hand she was relieved that Dott and Ellie were in the other car with Rusty, Sanchez and Buzz but on the other hand she feared for her foster son's safety. Who knew what shenanigans they were up to right now. Then again, given Rusty's driving skills, she wasn't sure that she would not be mourning half of her team and a sister by the end of the night.
"You okay?" Andy's voice was low and intimate and it sent shivers down her spine. It didn't actually matter what he was saying whenever he was using that tone, but it had rather helped that night six weeks ago that he had confessed his feelings for her.
"I'm fine," she said. She was technically one drink away from drunk, but she found it wiser not to tell him that. At least they weren't on call tonight, so she wasn't to blame for their unfortunate situation. If Taylor hadn't so graciously volunteered them, nobody would have ever been the wiser when it came to their questionable drinking. She snorted and glanced at the three people in the backseat. Provenza's face was red, Sykes was telling a story, waving her arms uncharacteristically while Tao was either asleep or dead.
This was not going to be fun.
"Andy, you'll have to take a bit of a lead in this," she told him quietly and he smirked as he safely drove them through the night. A team just isn't complete without a recovering alcoholic. She grimaced at that thought as it sounded inappropriate somehow. Her mind, however, wasn't exactly in the right state to figure out why. She winced at that discovery. Priding herself in being the epitome of propriety in a sober state, she had long since found that it was the first thing that alcohol would take away from her. It was a bit of a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hide situation. Or in her case, a Sharon Raydor and Dott Emerson situation as her sister loved being inappropriate. (Or maybe she was just drunk more often.)
"You are favoring me already," Andy teased her. "Allowing me to take the lead and all."
"I favor you because you are the only member of this squad who isn't drunk," she said sternly.
"I know. I was kidding," Flynn told her. "You're rather cute when you're drunk, Sharon."
"Inebriated," she corrected him hastily. "Slightly inebriated, that is."
She hiccupped and Provenza laughed, startling Tao who was apparently not dead after all. Which was a good thing. Or so Sharon hoped.
"We're almost there," Flynn announced. Fortunately, Rusty had taken the lead, using her GPS system. She had had to learn the hard way that Andy was old school and therefore insisted on abstaining from that particular kind of modern technology, claiming that he knew Los Angeles like the back of his hand. If that was the case, he didn't know the back of his hand very well.
She opened her purse and retrieved a small box of breath mints. Having popped three into her mouth, she held it out to Provenza first.
"Everyone have a-"
"And then he was just off like-" Sykes made a grand gesture with her hand and knocked the open container out of Sharon's hand, spilling its contents all over Provenza who reacted as if it weren't breath mints but poisonous insects in his lap. One of his flailing arms hit Sykes in the face, causing her to complain to Tao whose gaze remained unfocused. Sharon rolled her eyes and decided to ignore the tumultuous circumstances behind her.
Rusty didn't mind Sharon being a bit drunk. Truth be told, he actually relished it. While it was great to have a mother figure who was in control of her bearings, he really, really enjoyed seeing her come undone like that. He would certainly hold it against her whenever he'd see fit in the near future, an event he was very much looking forward to. He would have probably stuck to her side to make sure she was alright under different circumstances, but Flynn seemed to have appointed himself to the task already. Judging from the bogus excuses he had been making up lately to come round the condo, he and Sharon were now either more than just friends or he was a very lonely and hugely pathetic person.
He watched the squad march towards the body that was slouched against an old Mustang, obviously having been shot. There was very little to see from his vantage point, but he had long since ceased being too interested in seeing the gruesome images his foster mother had to deal with every day. A hand was placed on his shoulder and when he turned around, he found Ellie's painted lips smiling at him. She remined him faintly of a shark.
"Hello, young man. Have you been confined to the sidelines?" she sang.
"Yeah. Sharon is kind of strict like that." She didn't look drunk at all, but maybe that was just the fact that she was more used to it than the rest of the group.
"Do tell," Dott appeared in his line of sight, giving him that dazzling smile the beginnings of which he had sometimes seen on Sharon's face before she remembered that she didn't like to show her feelings too obviously. In many ways, Dott seemed to be Sharon's evil twin which Rusty found extremely fascinating. "Is Lieutenant Flynn married?"
The woman didn't beat around the bush, that much was for sure. Ellie let out a high-pitched scream that caused Rusty to take a startled step back. "You like him? Dott you like him? Oh!" She clasped her hands together. "Rudolf, your aunt hasn't shown any interest in a man ever since that ill-fated affair with the author of those dreadful-"
"Don't remind me," Dott said in a grave voice that reminded Rusty of Sharon when she insisted that his room had to be cleaned now, not tonight or tomorrow. "And his name is Rusty."
Ellie pursed her lips. "No offense, child, but what kind of name is that?"
"Ellie!" Dott admonished her. "Get a grip." She turned back towards Rusty. "About Lieutenant Flynn..."
Rusty had been hoping that she wouldn't get back to that and he shrugged. "No, he is not married." Dott's face lit up and he could tell instantly that she was attracted to Andy. Who was very likely to be in a relationship with her sister who very obviously didn't want anyone to know. Rusty bit his lip. The whole situation was extremely unfortunate, to put it mildly. Without giving it too much thought, he blurted out the first thing that came to his mind.
"Yeah, but you really don't want to date him." He sounded defensive even to his own ears.
Dott raised both of her eyebrows prompting Rusty to shudder. The similarities between her sister and her were rather disconcerting. "Why? He seemed like a really nice guy to me."
"He's-" Rusty was scrambling for something that would put her off, something that would convince her that Flynn was not the eligible bachelor she made him out to be. On the other hand he didn't want to say anything nasty about Flynn because he really was a nice guy. Just last week Sharon had nearly walked into a glass door because she had her head in the clouds nowadays because of him. Suddenly it dawned upon him and he shrugged nonchalantly.
"You know how it is," he said with what he hoped looked like a shy grin. "He and Provenza-" he motioned towards the two men standing next to each other. It was pure luck that tipsy Provenza had momentarily lost balance and was leaning slightly into his partner at this very moment. "You know. They're an item."
Ellie howled with laughter and Dott let out a deep sigh. "Of course. The good ones are always either taken or gay. Or both." She pursed her lips in disappointment. "Is Sharon okay with that? I mean with two of her officers being in a relationship?"
Rusty almost laughed out loud. She'd be a hypocrite if she wasn't. But then again, there was no other inter-office relationship other than hers. (Or so he hoped.)
He was saved from telling any more stories that were pure fantasy by Ellie who grabbed his arm. "What's happening over there? Let's go, let's go!"
"Sharon told us to stay back," Rusty warned, but Dott just grabbed his other arm.
"Don't be a bore, kid. We need to check out what's going on!"
"Honey," Ellie cooed, feeling his upper arm. "Do you work out?"
"Ellie! Cut it!" Dott said. "I thought we agreed that you wouldn't come on to anyone under twenty-one anymore."
Sharon's hiccups weren't going away and despite her very minty breath, Andy kept catching weird looks from the coroner and the uniformed officers guiding the scene. Maybe they were due to the rest of the squad, though, as Sanchez didn't say a word even when addressed. Instead he was grinning constantly, an absent, blissful look in his eyes that was more than just a little uncharacteristic. Buzz was filming his shoes without noticing it while Amy Sykes was gulping down coffee in a bid to sober up. Good of her, Andy thought. Youth and ambition were probably what made her do it, two traits Provenza certainly didn't possess anymore. The man was leaning heavily on Andy, looking around aimlessly while he yawned.
"Who reported the-" hiccup "crime?" Sharon asked, trying to preserve her dignity by ignoring her obvious state.
"This young lady over there, Ma'am." One of the uniformed cops who, according to his name tag, was called Simmons answered. His rigid posture, hands folded behind his back, feet wide apart and chin up, gave away that he was probably ex-military.
"At ease, before you sprain something," Sharon said, smiling up at him from under her lashes. Andy could tell from the sudden silence around them that he wasn't the only one who was hugely taken aback by this comment. Sharon looked shocked for a moment then obviously decided to just ignore her own indiscretions. She turned around to face her squad in order to pick someone to interview the young woman but found only a group of hopelessly inebriated individuals, so she nodded at Andy.
"I'll go and ask her a few questions. You take care of this, Lieutenant. Whoops. Sorry." She patted Simmons' shoulder that she had inadvertedly bumped into and walked on. With a mixture of amusement and jealousy, Andy realized that the faint blush on the young man's cheeks had less to do with embarrassment than with the fact that he was pleased because he thought Sharon was flirting with him. He cleared his throat and gave him the darkest stare he could muster.
When Sharon approached the young woman Simmons had pointed out to her, she froze in her tracks, heaving a sigh. Around the petite brunette, Ellie and Dott were grouped, patting her shoulders, wiping her tears away and holding her hands. Rusty stood next to them with a thoroughly puzzled expression. Sharon gave him a reassuring look and saw a flash of guilt in his eyes at the sight of her. If she managed to remember it later, she really needed to find out what it was that he was feeling guilty about. She leaned into the young woman and gently nudged Ellie's hand away from her face.
"Good evening, my name is Captain Sharon Raydor of the LAPD," she introduced herself to the witness.
"HA!" Ellie interrupted with a giddy expression. "CAPTAIN SHARON RAYDOR! That sounds so badass, Sharon!" She scribbled something down on the notepad she was carrying around with her. Sharon sincerely hoped that the other woman would not comment on her every words from now on or else she might go mad.
"What is your name?" she asked softly.
"Gretchen Miller," the girl said shyly. She couldn't be any older than Rusty, Sharon noticed and even after a little too much wine her maternal instincts kicked in just as well.
"Do you want me to call your parents for you?"
"She asked in her soft, deep voice, her motherly heart pulsating with concern for the young doe whose big brown eyes had witnessed such brutality, whose slender hands were trembling-"
"Ellie!" Sharon said sharply.
"Oh sorry, am I thinking aloud again?"
Sharon blinked, trying to chase the vertigo away. This was not the moment to experience any more symptoms of her tipsyness.
"My parents are out of town. I don't want to worry them," Gretchen said quietly, looking down at her folded hands.
"Do you know the man over there?" Sharon asked her gently, waving in the general direction of the body.
"Which one, Ma'am?" The girl looked up at her with her - indeed pretty large - brown eyes. "One of the older gentlemen or the Hispanic one with the goofy look on his face?"
Dott leaned in long enough to sarcastically say: "The dead one, love."
"Oh!" The girl's eyes filled with tears as if she had only just remembered that there was a murdered guy not far from her. Sharon was beginning to shiver with the cold air in the parking lot. She looked around for shelter but saw only the blinking lights of the city beneath them. They were at the edge of the woods, a small lavatory building the only landmark in sight.
"The leaves whispered in the distance, the nightly wind bringing an ominous chill. She looked at the young man standing next to her. The shock of blond hair, the kind eyes and the broad shoulders of a child turning into a man-" Ellie whispered while scribbling furiously.
"Excuse-!" Rusty began, obviously not happy with being cast as the unwilling love interest, but Sharon silenced him with a quick hand on his arm.
"Did you know the deceased?" Sharon clarified, beginning to get a little short-tempered with the girl.
"Oh no. I didn't." She shook her head, almost causing Sharon to hum with disappointment. Sometimes she thought that talkative witnesses were the worst, forcing her to filter from their stories of their family, friends and neighbors the details actually relevant to her case. However, this young woman was an obstacle in herself.
"How did you find" hiccup "him?"
She definitely wasn't on top of her game either.
The girl dabbed at her eyes with a pink handkerchief. "I stopped here because I wanted to call my boyfriend to tell him that I'd be home soon and then I saw him there." Without warning, she burst into tears.
"Delicate like thaw, a tear runs down her rosy cheek as she looks up at the experienced old woman across from her... AHHHHH!"
Much to Sharon's satisfaction, Dott had hit Ellie over the head with her purse.
"That's my younger sister you're talking about!"
It was going to be a long night.