The Good Wife - Chapter 3

by: Kadi

Rated: M

Andy was still working on his first cup of coffee when the pounding on his door interrupted him. He walked over and pulled it open, rolling his eyes when he found his partner there. "What?" He turned away and walked back to the kitchen. He poured another cup, and reached for his tie.

"You're an idiot." Provenza walked into the apartment and pushed the door closed, loudly, behind him. "I thought we talked about this a few years ago?" He scowled darkly at the other man. "We agreed you were going to stop chasing that particular skirt. Stick to the younger ladies, the ones who weren't married, didn't have a lot of baggage, and couldn't end your career."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Flynn scowled at him, although he knew full well. What he wanted to know was how his partner knew about it. "Do you see any skirts laying around?"

"No, and maybe that's the problem." Provenza helped himself to a cup of the too strong coffee his partner had brewed. "I spoke to Rusty," he said.

"Of course you did," his cup landed hard against the counter top. "Because the damned kid can't keep his nose out of things that have nothing to do with him." It wasn't really the kid he was irritated with, but it was as good a target for his annoyance as any at the moment.

"The kid is worried about his guardian," Provenza stated with a scowl. "Rightfully so. She's got enough going on right now without you making it worse. Has it been so long since you got divorced that you forgot how much hell a vindictive ex can inflict on you?"

Andy snorted. "No, I remember every time I have to see the vindictive ex." He shook his head. "In this case, I am the hell that the ex is inflicting on her." He tossed what was left of his coffee into the sink and began working on his tie, knotting it with quick, jerky movements of his hands. "He's accusing her of having an affair. With me, for the last twenty-some-odd years. The bile he's spewing is that Beth is mine, and living with that lie all of these years drove him to drink and gamble his life away. The rotten son of a bitch wants to destroy her, and he knows that the best way to hurt her is to go through the kids."

Provenza knocked his knuckles against the counter top and considered that. It fit with what Rusty had told him, at least in the limited information that he had, and he figured that had to do with the Captain only giving him the barest of facts. What she didn't tell the kid is what the three of them knew all too well, it might not have been an affair, but it had come damned close a number of times. Then there was that thing that his third wife had used against him, that excuse she gave him for why he was such a rotten bastard. He never put much stock in it before, since she really was kind of crazy, but thinking about it now… he hated to give her any credit, but there was some truth in the words. "You know, Flynn…" Provenza grimaced. He hated thinking about any of this. This was going above and beyond as far as he was concerned. "You can cheat without actually… you know… cheating. Have the two of you considered that he might actually have some grounds for… you know, the infidelity claim?"

The dark look he shot his partner might have seared him alive, but that the old man was used to it, and had a thicker hide than most. Andy finished knotting his tie and jerked it roughly into place. The material chaffed against his neck, through his dress shirt, at the force he used. "No, we haven't," he bit out. "I might have kissed her a couple of times, but it never went any farther than that, she wouldn't allow it. She was still a married woman, and even when I could forget it, she wouldn't. We were friends, and only barely that. That's as far as it ever went."

"Okay, okay," he put his hands up and took a step back. That was one way to piss his partner off. Bring up the past and remind him how crappy it was. "I'm just putting it out there. I might not be the only one who thinks it." He leaned against the counter and watched his partner stalk around, getting ready for the office.

"They can think it if they want to," he snarled. "Nothing ever happened. Not for lack of me trying, but hell… if he didn't want her getting close to someone else, he shouldn't have left her alone all those years. He left her, not the other way around." Andy clipped his gun, in its holster, to his belt with a sigh. His anger turned to bitterness and he shook his head. "She spent a lot of years waiting for him to get his act together, and he wouldn't. I think she's probably right, it's the money he wants. She stood up to him this last time. He came back, and she let him. She gave him a chance and he blew it, again. Only this time, he actually opened his eyes and saw the line she was drawing in the sand. She didn't cave, she didn't bend, she gave him enough rope and he hung himself with it. His ego couldn't take it, and it can't take the fact that the bank of Sharon is officially closed to him, so he's after a settlement. She'll give it to him, before it's all said and done, if he pushes her hard enough, and he knows that." Andy reached for his badge and clipped it onto his belt as well. "She won't do it to save herself. She's not even going to do it to save me, but she'll do it for the kids. Before it's over with, she's going to have to tell Elizabeth what the asshole has done, and if we know Sharon, she'll do it sooner rather than later, so that she can mitigate the damage of Jack getting to her first. Or it someone else breaking it to her."

"I… wouldn't be so sure," Provenza said at length. He lifted his coffee cup and drained it before placing it in the sink with Flynn's. He walked around and sat on one of the stools at the bar that separated the small kitchen from the only slightly larger living room. "Not about the rest, I figure she'll tell the kids, it's not the kind of thing you can keep hidden long. Kids are nosy, if they get even a hint of it, they'll keep at her until they get all the details. I really don't care about that." He waved a hand. "The other part, the settlement, I don't know. There could be grounds for changing his mind. After I spoke to Rusty this morning, I made a call to our favorite high powered attorney. I gave him a little insight into a few things I know about a certain former public defender that we both despise, a little ammunition to add to the fire, so to speak."

Flynn's brows drew together. "What are you talking about? What insights?" He knew his partner didn't like Raydor, but he figured that was just his general dislike of lawyers.

"Oh, some names, some dates…" Provenza waved a hand in the air. "A few incidences I witnessed some years ago… nothing spectacular." He smirked, and it was a nasty upturn of his mouth. "Let's just say that when Gavin Baker gets done with our, not so friend, Jack, he's going to wish his wife had stayed in Internal Affairs and that I didn't… tolerate her, as much as I do."

"Is that right." Andy's hands landed on his hips. A slight smile quirked his lips. "Tolerate her, huh? Okay. Do tell… what ammunition have you given Gavin that is going to turn this whole thing around."

"Well." Provenza rubbed his hands together. "It was a long time ago, but I was on this case… and it was a dooze. A cop shot another cop, caught him with his wife. All very scandalous and completely embarrassing. We got the call in the middle of the night, and back then, the rules were a little more… in the air. It wasn't clear if it was a homicide or what, so Internal Affairs got rolled out too. The Captain was just a sergeant then, and it was before she started changing how IA and FID did things, so… anyway, we got there, and the wife was all in shock and barely coherent. Internal Affairs decided we'd split the case, Homicide would take the wife to the hospital and get her checked out, then take her statement. So anyway, the case is not important. It's just the reason I ended up at the hospital in the middle of the night. The thing is, I was at Malone's a few hours before. It was right after I split up with wife number 2, so I was spending a lot of the time with the boys down at Malone's. Now, I'm not one to go getting involved in other people's marriages."

Provenza pointed a finger at Flynn and shook it, "But, I do remember, quite clearly, that Jack was at Malone's that night. With a pretty little blonde from Hollywood Division. Well, Harry, you remember Harry right? The bartender that worked on the weekend. Anyway, so Harry makes this comment to Jack about his wife and what she will do to him if she catches him down there, and with another woman. To which our pal Jacky boy tells Harry the bartender that the wife is at work, and wouldn't care anyway. She's too busy busting other cops, and when she's not, she's too busy with the kids to care. Whatever, that's fine, a disgruntled husband is going to spew a lot of crap about the wife, I've done it. You've done it. We've all done it." He held up a hand when it looked like Flynn was going to interrupt. "Except, I get to the hospital with my partner and our victim's wife, and guess who we run in to?"

"Sharon." Andy frowned. "What, she came down to take over the case?" It wouldn't be the first time, and that would explain why the case stood out for his partner among thousands of others.

"No." Provenza clasped his hands in front of him and rocked back on his heels. "She was there with the kid. The little one, the girl. Middle of the night, and she's pacing the ER with a crying baby, while the other one is asleep in a chair nearby. She wasn't at work, but she was busy with the kids alright. Turns out, she had been off work for a few days, both kids had been sick and the little one had it worse. She spiked a high fever and the Captain ended up in the ER with her, while her husband was off playing with the pretty blonde…"

Crowded emergency rooms were not his idea of a good time, and Lieutenant Provenza was beginning to think that maybe he had gotten the short end of this stick. That kid from Internal Affairs had stiffed him, and he was going to have to get even at some point. For the time being, he and his partner were stuck with the victim's wife and she definitely wasn't talking. She wasn't doing a whole lot more besides sniffling and staring into space. Now, because they thought they were getting off lucky, they were stuck in the ER full of sick idiots and crying kids. He'd rather be at home in bed. Even if bed was currently a sofa at his buddy's place while he and Sue figured out if they were filing or what.

A shrill cry made him wince, and he glanced over at a woman that was bouncing a toddler in her arms. She stood up and paced a few lengths in front of the chairs they were occupying and tried to soothe the child. The kid wasn't having any of it, she batted the woman's hands away and threw her head back to let go with another shrill sound. Her cheeks were flushed, and smeared with tears and snot, which she further smeared when she dropped her face to the woman's shoulder and rubbed it there while whining pitifully in between her louder cries.

"Mom, can't we go home?" The unhappy grumble came from the sleepy child that was curled on a chair nearby. He had a blanket wrapped around up and he blinked, blearily at the pair before laying his head down again. "I'm tired."

"I know, Ricky." She shifted the toddler in her arms and reached down to draw the blanket up beneath his chin. "Close your eyes baby. You can nap until they call for us."

He would not have recognized her, but for the voice, not with her hair pulled back into a sloppy, loose bun and wearing that oversized sweater and leggings. There was no makeup to speak of on her face, but the voice was unmistakeable. He had dealt with her a few times, and he had come to learn that the soft inflection was completely deceptive. He realized with some surprise that the tired mother with the kid that just needed to shut up was the Sergeant that was becoming the bane of his existence.

Provenza's eyes narrowed and he shifted uncomfortably in the hard chair he was occupying. The unsettling feeling in the pit of his gut had less to do with the ringing in his ears thanks to the crying baby, and more to do with the fact that he had laid eyes on the woman's husband just a few hours before. She sure didn't look like she was at work, and he had a feeling she didn't know why the husband wasn't here, helping, or at least at home where he could keep an eye on the kid that wasn't sick. His brows drew together in a dark scowl. It was none of his damned business. Except he didn't like idiots on principle.

"When is that going to be?" The little boy was whining. "I don't feel good, mom. I want to go home. My head hurts." He rubbed at his eyes and yawned widely. "Can't you call daddy to come get me?"

"No, Ricky." She sat down beside him and resettled the crying toddler on her lap so that she could run a hand over the boy's head. "Daddy is working tonight. We'll go home soon."

She looked up and that was when she met his gaze, and realized that she was being watched. He saw her face pale, not that it was possible for her to lose anymore color, or so he thought. Apparently he was wrong about that. She blanched, and looked away, embarrassed. She bounced the crying toddler on her knees and stroked the other one's hair with her free hand. He didn't know what possessed him to get up and go over there, but he told his partner to keep an eye on their witness and he walked over to drop into the chair on her other side. "Sergeant, fancy meeting you here. Full moon draws out all kinds, I guess."

"Lieutenant." She regarded him cooly, or at least she attempted to. "I'm afraid you're going to have to go try elsewhere if you're looking for an argument. I simply haven't got the time or the energy to indulge you." She frowned at him. "Why are you here anyway?"

He waved a hand at the woman with his partner. "Witness is in shock. We need to get her checked out before we get her statement. Make sure she's not impaired. She saw her husband shoot her boyfriend. Both of them are cops, so… your guys are there, our guys are there. It's an unholy mess, and I got the short end of the stick. Tell me something, if a guy shoots another guy, for messing with his wife, is it homicide or not? Does it matter what his job is?"

"You're asking the wrong person." She sighed tiredly and lifted her daughter to shift her in her arms again. "I'm sorry, Lieutenant, but now really isn't a good time."

"What? You got something else to do?" He made a face at her. "Looks like that one is asleep again," he nodded to the boy. "This one doesn't care if I pick your brain. Do you?" He didn't get close enough to catch any germs, but he caught her attention and she stopped screeching, at least. She continued to whimper and sniffle, but it wasn't threatening his eardrums anymore. She stared back at him, green eyes and dark curls, and pretty except for the flushed, blotchy, and damp skin. "See. She thinks you should answer me."

The Sergeant sighed. "I don't know what you want me to say. Anytime an officer fires off his gun he should be held accountable for the result, and it should be deemed justified or not. When it's not, he should be held responsible and made to face the consequences. Otherwise, we're no better than the people you investigate on a daily basis. If the officer shot a man, and killed him, for sleeping with his wife… then yes, that is homicide, but it becomes murky when he could be investigated by his colleagues. We get involved to keep the lines clear, and to make sure that the DA's office has unquestionable evidence."

"Huh." He nodded slowly. "So what they've been saying is true." Provenza slanted a look at her. "You have been drinking the kool-aid."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Yes, Lieutenant. I have been drinking the kool-aid, I've gone over to the dark side. I've joined the rats on the sinking ship of police despair," she said it so blandly, that it was obvious she had said it before. "Is that all you wanted to know?"

"For now." He sat back in his seat. "But I'm just going to keep sitting here, at least until they call you back, because that one likes me." He nodded to the toddler, "and as long as she likes me, she's not threatening to burst my ear drums, or giving me a headache."

"She doesn't know any better." Sharon shifted the baby on her lap again and tried to get her to lay with her head on her shoulder. The baby wasn't having any part of it. She lifted her head and continued to stare at the stranger. "Otherwise, I'm sure she wouldn't be the least fascinated."

"That might have stung, just a little bit, if you didn't look like you were about to fall over." Provenza made a face at her. "But you just keep trying."

"Raydor." A nurse appeared from behind a closed door, holding a clip board and looking around the crowded ER waiting room.

"Right here." Sharon stood up with her daughter and managed to, expertly, juggle her, the baby's blanket, and a diaper bag. Then she shook her son awake and maneuvered him and his things toward the nurse. "You've been saved, Lieutenant."

"My relief is more immense than you could ever imagine," he snarked at her back. He watched them go and tapped his fingers against his knees. Then he got up and walked back over to rejoin his partner and their witness. She wasn't the only wife stuck taking care of a sick kid while the husband was messing around on her, and he had no doubt that the husband was messing around after what he saw earlier in the evening. But, that husband was a sleazy, slimy excuse for a lawyer. Maybe he'd just keep a closer eye on the goings on at Malone's. At least for a little bit. A person never knew when a little extra information might come in handy.

He smirked at his partner again. "You see, you might not have been having an affair, but someone else was. Her name is Sarah Lewis, and I know that Jack had a thing going with her for a few years. She's still a cop, married now and with kids of her own. But she owes me a favor, so I'm cashing it in. Gavin won't ask her to admit to the affair, but he is going to ask her to corroborate a witness statement that Jacky boy was neglectful of wife and children even before he split."

"Remind me to never piss you off." Flynn shook his head. "The things you know about all of us could keep half this city busy for years after we're all dead and buried."

"One of the advantages of having been around for so long," Provenza stated with a grin. "I did't have to work in Internal Affairs to know where all the bodies are buried, and where all the nastiest little secrets are hidden. Now let's go, I'm starving and we've got time to stop for breakfast. I'll drive." He started for the door and waved at his partner to join him.

"So what," Flynn grabbed his jacket and followed him. "Guy is stepping out on his wife while she's taking care of sick kids, and you decide you don't like him? There's got to be more to it than that."

"I don't care if a guy wants to cheat on his wife, it's none of my business," Provenza shrugged. "But I don't care what side of the field she was playing on, she was still a cop. Wicked Witch or not, she didn't deserve that, or what he's doing now."

"Hey," Flynn tapped his shoulder. "We should stop and get her a new broom. Might cheer her up."

"While we're at it, we can get you a little red cap," He smirked. "You know, to go with your flying monkey suit."

Flynn pulled open the passenger side door to slip into the car. "Like you're any better these days."

"Just for that, you can buy breakfast," Provenza grumbled. He scowled at him. "I'm not the one walking around like a love sick puppy. That's all on you, my friend, and I suggest you put it aside, at least until all this is over and done. Then you can go back to being the idiot that you are."

"Don't be cranky because she likes me best," he grinned.

"Shut up," the older man groused. "You're going to make me sick." He pulled out of the parking lot. "She most definitely likes me best. You, she just keeps around because no other division will have you."

Flynn laughed as they headed toward the diner that lay between his place and the station. "That's probably true."