Sharon was driving back to the office. The traffic was slowly and she was stuck at a red light. Her phone call to Nicole had left drained from all the last energy she had left. The young woman had wanted answers that she still couldn't give her like if her father was going to be okay. She stared out of the window. Her fingers dried the tears in her eyes as she silently sniffed. She still had trouble believing that Andy was under surgery. She felt terrible. If only she had known what that day had in store, she wouldn't have dismissed him just hours before. She thought about the night before. How, despite everything, she ended up having one of the best nights in a very long time, other than the Nicole's wedding of course, and it was ironic that Andrew Flynn had been there for both nights. The same Andrew Flynn that had made her work extremely difficult when she started in IA. The grumpy and always sarcastic and bitter lieutenant who she now considered a friend and maybe a bit more. The horn from the car behind her made her jump and she slowly moved the car forward keeping up with the traffic.

She exhaled deeply. She wasn't supposed to be having these thoughts about her lieutenant, she was just asking for trouble and with everything that was going on in her life at the moment, she didn't know if she could deal with a new and inappropriate romance. But she could still remember the night before.

"I still don't get it" Rusty asked her from where he was leaning against her bedroom doorframe as he saw her struggling with the hook of her bracelet. "Why are you going out on a date with lieutenant Flynn?"

She rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration "For the last time: it is not a date"

"Yeah, yeah..." he replied in condescending tone "You're all dressed up and nervous. It is so a date"

"I am not nervous!"

He looked down at her trembling hands as they were still busy with the bracelet. She followed his gaze and stopped what she was doing. "I'm just going with him to his step grandsons' performance. He wanted my opinion since my daughter is also a ballet dancer" Even now she knew that the excuse Andy made sounded so false.

"So why the dinner before?"

"He wants to thank me for going with him" she sprayed some of her favourite perfume on her wrists and collarbone.

"I'm telling you, something is going on" They heard the doorbell rang, Flynn arrived punctual.

"Will you please open the door while I put my shoes on?" Sharon asked while sitting on the edge of her bed and slipped her toes in the blue high heeled shoes. She got up and checked herself at the mirror one last time. She had a long sleeveless electric blue dress completed with a matching throw. She knew that even if it was LA, there was going to be a light breeze in the cold December night so she also put a black light coat. She picked up her handbag and went to greet her lieutenant.

Andy was talking to Rusty her had a long coat and a white scarf. Underneath all, she could see a three pieced black suit and a perfectly knotted blue tie that quite coincidentally matched her dress. Sharon could help noticing that her lieutenant had cleaned up quite nicely for the evening.

"Andy" she got the boys attention.

"Hi" Andy gasped. Sharon looked beautiful. She might have been his captain, but he wasn't blind. He was a hot blooded man who could recognized a gorgeous woman when he saw one. "You look great" he complimented her and in his stupor he might have sounded shocked.

"You don't have to sound so surprise, lieutenant" she joked.

"No, I mean..." he was stammering.

"I'm just messing with you" She smiled at him and maybe even flirting. Rusty just rolled his eyes at them.

"These are for you" he gave her a bunch of flowers so fast, like he had just realized they were in his hand.

"Oh... mmm... thank you" She took them from him and passed them to the teenager boy. "Rusty, could you please put them in water?"

"So a date" he mouthed to her making sure the man wasn't looking at them. Sharon just scolded at him with her stare, like only a mother could do and turned around towards Andy "Shall we?"

He nodded and opened the door for her.

The restaurant he had chosen wasn't too far away from the theatre. It was classy, but not in a romantic kind of way, which was good she mused. She wondered how he had managed to get a table on such a short notice, but she knew that with Flynn (or Provenza) it was better to leave those questions unanswered.

They gave their orders to the waiter and took a sip from their glass of water. Flynn looked nervous for some reason and Sharon wanted to find out more about what was happening with her evasive lieutenant.

"So..." she hid her lips behind the rim of the glass "Are you finally going to tell me what's really going on here?"

"I don't know what you're talking about" he took another long gulp from his drink.

"Andy... okay... let's say we leave it alone..." she eyed him "...for now!"

They talked about everything from how Rusty was doing to Andy telling some old stories involving him and Provenza. Soon they laughed the dinner away and it was time to meet his family at the theatre. Sharon went to refresh herself in the ladies' room while Andy paid for dinner. When they were both ready they walked the short trip to the theatre. Andy offered his arm so she could walk steadily on her high heels.

"Dad" his daughter greeted him when she saw them arrive.

"Hi sweetie" he kissed her cheek tenderly and Sharon smiled at father and daughter.

"Hi Sharon. It's so good to see you. I've been bugging dad to invite you over for some of our outings for ages. I don't understand why he is keeping you away from us"

Sharon tried not to frown at the young woman's words and turned to look at Andy who just nervously cleared his throat. "Yes... well... shall we go in? Where are Matthew and the kids?"

"They are behind stage. Matthew will be joining us soon. Dad..." her daughter sounded nervous. "Inside there is mom with Doug and also Scott managed to come from uni..."

"Scott is here?" Flynn's face lit up at the mention of his son's name.

"Yeah, just please... ignore mom... if she's going to be as snappy as she is in the therapy sessions and just don't want another fight between the two of you"

"Hey, if she ignores me, I'll ignore her I have no intention of causing trouble."

She gave him a small smile, she just wished her parents would get along, just once. She told them to follow her towards their seats at the balcony. Sharon could see that was nervous. It was easier to him to talk to his daughter, she was older and really easy going, but the story was different with Scott. He was only a little boy when Andy began having trouble with his drinking, so he couldn't really remember him. He was just the guy that showed up at important events. He had a better relationship with his mom's second husband, Doug, and that drove Andy crazy.

Sharon took his right hand in hers and gave it a small squeeze. At first he was surprised by the gesture, but then he smiled in gratitude. She had done the same when his daughter got married.

"Well, look who's here" a blonde woman exclaimed. "It's about time you arrived. I was nearly going to think you were going to bail on us… on your grandson… not that would have been surprised me"

"Mom" Nicole glared at her. "Dad is perfectly on time. You've promised you were going to behave!"

He felt Sharon squeeze again his hand and he managed not to snap.

"Hello Anna" Andy greeted her with a false smile trying very hard to ignore his ex-wife's attacks. He knew what she was trying to do. She wanted him to get angry so he would something stupid, well he was going to give her that satisfaction. "Doug" he nodded towards her husband. He really couldn't stand the guy he was false, acted like he was superior to everybody else and cheap, he guessed Anna finally found the perfect man for her.

"Hi Scott" he waved at his son who just nodded in response.

"I see you finally brought your girlfriend with you… what was it again? … Karen?"

"It's Sharon and…" he stopped when he felt Sharon's other hand on his arm.

"Andy," she wiggled her eyebrows. "Could we talk in private please?"

She was wearing a smile, but Andy could recognize that glare anywhere. "Sure" he gulped. "We'll be right back" he told the others while guiding Sharon out in the hall with a hand on the small of her back.

Once they were out of range to be heard, Sharon turned towards him. "Girlfriend?" she asked unamused.

"Before you start shouting" he put his hands up in surrender. "I didn't tell them we were together… well, not exactly…" he looked guilty.

"And what exactly did you tell them?" she put her hands on her hips.

"I told them you were my friend, like we agreed and then Anna thought I meant friend as in… you know… friend" he did some air quotes with his fingers. "I was going to correct her, but then Nicole told me how she was so happy for me. She said that you've made her such a good impression on her at the wedding and that she thought you were perfect for me and then Anna started making some comments and I don't know how I ended up going along" he stopped his rambling. "I'm sorry" he sighed. "I shouldn't have brought you here on false pretences"

"Andy… you can't just keep lying to your family. What if I have said no? What were you going to do?"

"Actually Provenza came with a plan so I wasn't going to ask you, but…" he felt embarrassed by the all situation.

"But?"

"I didn't want to disappoint Nicole." He confessed. "She wanted you to come so badly and I want to spend the holidays with her. I guess I've made a mess of everything." He looked down beaten.

Sharon kept his eyes on him. She shouldn't get involved, she should just leave and make him deal with everything, but she knew he had done for his children. He was driven to build a relationship with them that he had lost sight of what was wrong and what was right. If only Jack had the same determination with their kids.

She sighed wondering if she was crazy. "Okay, I'll play along." She saw him lifted his eyes surprised and hopeful. "But…" she pointed a finger at him and gave the famous Raydor glare. "only for tonight. Then you will tell your family the truth, is that clear?"

He quickly nodded. "Thank you for doing this"

"Well, it's only sit on a chair for a couple of hours, how difficult is it going to be?"

"I'm sorry for lying to you" he told her sincerely.

"You didn't exactly lie… you've just omitted the complete truth." She told him. "but I accept your apology. Andy, just don't let it happen again" she put a hand on his arm. "If there's something bothering you, you know you can come to me, right?"

"I know" he smiled at her.

"Okay" she smiled back. "Now, I think Nicole is trying to get our attention" she saw the young woman waving at them from over Andy's shoulder. "Shall we?" she put her hand out for him to take and together they made their way back.

Since her plan to make Andy angry by criticize him every now and again wasn't working, Anna decided to threw her witty remarks at Sharon hoping that Andy's white knight complex would kick in.

"At least you're not as young as some women Andy used to go out with. I guess older women are the only ones that he can keep up with… if you know what I mean" she snickered during the break, making sure that her daughter wasn't there to hear her.

Andy was nervously fidgeting on his seat and wanted to snap back, but Sharon stopped him. "Leave it alone, she just wants to get under your skin" she whisper in his ear. "Besides, I can take care of myself, don't worry" she grinned and Andy nodded. He just wanted the night to be over.

After the Nutcracker was over, they all gathered around the hall. Sharon met Andy's step grandsons who were two really cute and well behaved kids. Matthew's first wife had died in a car accident a few years back. He had met Nicole at the kids' school where she was a teacher. The two got to know each other and fell in love. She knew that they were in the process of having Nicole legally adopt the boys and she could help but think of Rusty wondering if she could ever adopt him.

"Why don't you come over to our place?" Nicole invited them. "We've hardly talked to each other."

"Nicole, I…" he hesitated. "I don't think that's a great idea." His eyes fell on Anna and Doug. He wanted to put as much distance between them and Sharon. "We've got work tomorrow and it's going to be another early morning" he gave as an excuse.

"Just an hour" she insisted "For a coffee."

Andy looked at Sharon who, after a while, just nodded.

"Okay" he said. "But just for a quick visit"

They drove behind Nicole and Matthew's car and they had small talk about the ballet. Sharon told him that they boys had been really good and they could probably have a future career in ballet dancing. Andy groaned. His first grandkids had to be interested in something he knew nothing about while ignoring completely sports like baseball or basketball. Sharon just chuckled teasing him.

After a quick drink and a few small talks exchange between Andy and his children, he and Sharon got up to leave. The kids had long gone to sleep after their big night, but they had enjoyed meeting Sharon who told them that her daughter was a professional ballet dancer in New York.

"Well, thank you for inviting me Nicole, it was nice of you" Sharon thanked her.

"No problem, it was great seeing you again. Dad is different when you're with him, he looks… I don't know… happier!" she smiled.

Sharon blushed at her comment and let it slide. The misunderstanding was something that Andy had to clear. "Your dad is really trying to make things right between all of you, I hope you understand how lucky you are. Some people just give up" she told her.

"I know, it's good to have him around and get to know him better"

Andy walked towards them and helped Sharon with her shawl and she smiled in thanks.

"Oh look!" Nicole exclaimed. "You two are under the mistletoe. Come dad, kiss your girlfriend"

Andy looked up nervously and just like Nicole said above their heads was the incriminating Christmas decoration. He looked back down to Sharon who had a frightened expression on her face.

"Nicole, really it's just a stupid Christmas tradition" he tried to get out of it. "We really must go"

"Oh, come on dad. What are you afraid of?" she teased him. "It's not like I haven't seen you kiss someone before"

Andy really didn't know how to get out of it. He just couldn't make out with his boss in front of his family. Sharon had been silent through all the exchange and she was really helping.

"I…" he leaned down and gently placed a kiss on Sharon's cheek hoping that she wasn't going to slap him for it.

"Ah, I knew!" his ex-wife exclaimed making everyone look at her. "You two are not really together, are you? No couple would kiss like that. She's just one of your lies, isn't she, Andy?"

"Dad…" Nicole gasped confused.

"I was going to explain everything after tonight" he finally confessed. He was hoping to have a that talk in different circumstances.

"Why lie?" she asked disappointed.

"I never really told you that Sharon was my girlfriend. I just said she was a friend… but I admit I shouldn't have gone along when you all thought otherwise. I… I just wanted to be the man you thought I was… the one you were proud of. I'm sorry"

"Is she really your boss or is she just a cheap escort you've hired?" Anna ignored his apology.

"Anna" he snapped "That's enough. You been rude to Sharon all evening and I think you should apologize"

"I'm not the one who went along with your charade" she puffed.

"Andy" Sharon called him. "I really need to get back home"

He locked his eyes with hers and he could see how uncomfortable she was and also a hint of hurt, he really felt bad for putting her in this position. "Okay" he whispered to her. He turned towards his daughter. "I hope you'll let me explain everything to you tomorrow" he begged.

"I don't know dad" she was hurt for him lying to them. "I just need a little time"

"Okay" he nodded sadly, but he understood.

Sharon and Andy left Nicole's house. The drive back was mostly spent in silence. Andy tried to apologize many times, but Sharon just told him everything was fine and it wasn't his fault his ex-wife had been rude. Once they arrived at her apartment, he made sure she entered her condo safely. He tried talking to her again, but she just gave him a quiet goodnight and closed the door behind her. That wasn't exactly how he hoped the night would end.