They rushed towards the balcony door and looked through the window. They saw people running and screaming and they heard other shots being fired. Provenza and Sanchez were taking cover behind the bar counter while trying to fire and the armed men in ski masks. The shooters started threatening the civilians, taking them by force and having them kneeling in the middle of the ball room. The officers had no other choice than to surrender, slide the weapons out and came out with their hands up. Provenza made some kind of comment which got replied with a punch to his face. Flynn groaned angrily and made a movement to draw his weapon and open the door, but Sharon's hand on his arm stopped him.

"What are you doing?" he hissed resentfully. "We need to go in"

"No, Lieutenant" she called him by rank telling him immediately that she was his commanding officer and no matter what had happened between them during the evening, now it was time to go back to their titles. "We need to hide for now and assess the situation" she dragged him away from the window and behind a column.

"I can't just stand here while my partners are in there" he tried to get free from her grip.

"Andy!" she exclaimed, hoping he was going to calm down. "If you go in now and start shooting you will only get yourself killed" she made him understand. "Let's figure this thing out" she sighed running her hands through her hair and leaned her back against the column. "I left my bag inside" she muttered.

"Huh?"

"My bag" she turned around. "I left my bag inside. My phone, my gun and my flat shoes are in there"

"You carry your shoes in your bag?" he frowned.

"Andy!" she exclaimed making his focus.

"Right" he lifted his leg up and leaned down to retrieve a second small hand gun from his ankle holster. "Here, you can have this one" he handed her the gun and then he double checked his. The secure was off and he had a full charger and a spare one in his jacket. "Careful, though. I don't have extra bullets, so you've only got six shots"

"Well, let's hope it doesn't come to a shootout"

"I haven't heard any sirens yet, Do you think they know what happened?"

"I don't know, it depends if someone managed to give the alarm" she wondered why it was silent too. She peeked from behind the column to take a look, but one of the shooter must have closed the blinds.

"Damn" she cursed.

"Good job I have this" he retrieved his phone from his pants and dialed 911.

"911, what's the emergency?"

"Yeah, this is Lieutenant Andrew Flynn, badge number 2805 with Captain Sharon Raydor. We're at the New Year's party with the Governor and we have a hostage situation."

"Let me patch you through SWAT"

They waited a few seconds and Flynn passed the phone to Raydor. "Hello?"

"Yes, this is agent Danny Foster, who am I speaking to?"

"This is Captain Sharon Raydor, Major Crimes. We have a hostage situation at the Governor's party"

"We were just about to come and check it out. The outside team missed their latest check up call. What's the situation?"

"My agent and I were at the balcony when they started shooting. I saw three agents down and others taken hostages with the civilians. In the main ballroom I saw six shooters, all in ski mask, but I'm sure they have other men posted"

Flynn looked at her in surprise and admiration, wondering how she managed to see and remember all that. His focus had only been on Provenza and Sanchez.

"Okay. We'll be there soon and try to negotiate. I would normally suggested to stay where you are and let us deal with it, but if we can have eyes in the inside that would be great"

"We'll see what we can do. I won't put other in dangers" she locked her eyes with Flynn's.

"Okay, I'll let central know to connect you to my phone. Please, give me an update in half an hour"

"Sure" she nodded and close the phone call. Fortunately Andy's phone had a still a full battery. She still had her back against the column and she tried to ignore how close Andy was. She could feel his breath on her face and if the circumstances had been different she would have loved to have his body against hers as he pushed her up against the column, hands on her hips and his lips devouring hers.

She closed her eyes shaking her fantasy away.

"So," said Flynn "What's our next move?"

"SWAT will arrive soon trying to make contact with the terrorists, but we need to get more information without getting ourselves capture or killed"

"Okay," he nodded he was ready for some action. "We can't obviously go through the main door. I saw a small window at the far left, it might lead to another room"

She nodded and followed him carefully to the window. Luckily it was opened and they saw that it led to a small empty dark room.

"It's secure" he whispered as he climbed over the window sill and then offered her a hand to help her get inside.

"I was certainly not expecting jumping and climbing tonight" she commented as she took her heels off and put them in a corner.

He lightly chuckled. "Now I understand the flat shoes comment"

"This is something you men have it easy." She looked around and studied the room. Nothing interesting they could use. "Nothing here. Let's try to move on" she nodded towards the door.

Flynn slowly walked towards the door and was ready for anything that might be on the other side. He was about to turn the doorknob, when he heard voices approaching. He put a finger on his lips telling Sharon to be quiet and still.

"This wasn't part of the plan" someone, a man, was shouting. "I'm not a cop killer"

"What were you expecting?" somebody else hissed back angrily "A welcome party. We had to take care of the guards outside and the Governor's secret service, but I was surprised about the officers undercover, that was not part of Malcolm's plan."

"Yes well, I don't think Malcolm has it together. He seemed kind of nervous"

"We only need to stay here and wait for the money then it's over"

"I don't like it man, I just don't like it"

"Stop being a wimp and be useful. Stay here while I check how it's going with the Major"

They heard steps walking away which meant that only one shooter was left behind the door and apparently he was the weaker one too. Andy and Sharon looked at each other and understood what they had to do. Andy counted to three with his fingers and then opened the door. Sharon stumbled outside like she was drunk.

"Hey, can you help me?" she stammered her words and started laughing without reason.

The white and skinny man looked startled and jumped. "Hey lady, you can't be here" he said nervously.

"I think I had too much to drink. I've lost my way to the party" she leaned against the door frame.

"You can't be here" he said approaching her. Sharon walked inside the room and he followed her. In all happened in a flash. Andy quickly disarmed the man and punched him in the face dragging him inside the room. Sharon closed the door, leaving them hidden from the others. The man gasped and tried to fight back, but Flynn soon had him restrained and sitting on a chair.

"Stay right there, you scumbag" he hissed.

"Look guys, I don't want any trouble." The man soon exclaimed squirming in his chair.

"You should have thought that before taking any hostages and shooting cops." He kicked him in the leg when he saw him trying to get up.

"Lieutenant!" Sharon exclaimed. "We may not be at the precinct, but this man still has rights" she told him.

Flynn snapped his head towards and gave her his "Are you serious?" glare.

"Now," Raydor stood in front of the man. "Let's see what you can tell us"

"How do I know you won't just shoot me after I talk?"

"Listen pal, for now you're the only one we got here. You know what that means?" Flynn approached him leaning dangerously above him. "That everything will be pinned on you. Life in prison and you'll be lucky to see the light of day"

"I was only supposed to make sure they got in, I didn't know all this was going to happen" the man started sobbing. "They promised me 5 grant if I could get them inside the party. I work here as a cleaner. It seemed like easy money."

"How many are there?" Sharon asked.

"10" he quickly responded. "I saw 10 of them get inside plus Malcolm, the leader"

Sharon and Andy nodded.

"Okay, you just stay here" Andy snapped the cord of a telephone and tied the man's feet to the chair and then stuffed his mouth with a napkin. "There you are, all wrapped up and ready for jail" he lightly patted his cheek smirking.

They exited the door leaving the man inside. "We'll cover more ground if we go separate ways" Sharon suggested looking both left and right in the corridor.

"You're kidding right?" Andy glared at her like she suddenly had grown two heads. "There's no way I'm leaving you without backup"

She rolled her eyes. "You know I'm a police officer too? I did the academy, training and everything." But she couldn't help feeling a bit touched that he wanted to protect her.

"Look," he waved at his right. "We know that going that way will only lead us to the ballroom which is a bad idea. We'll both go left and see where it takes us"

She nodded and followed him down the corridor. They slowly made their way down, passing some empty rooms and checking every corner before moving forward. They stopped in front of a door. They had reached the end of the corridor.

"I wish we had the blueprint of the building" she said.

"Maybe you can ask for it when SWAT calls back, even though there should be one on every floor showing the emergency exits"

They suddenly heard a noise coming from inside the gentlemen's bathroom. It all happened so fast. Sharon felt someone behind her and a hand covered her mouth silencing her screams.

A/N Happy Major Crimes Monday! Here's an update! Thank you all for reading and reviewing! :D