Heart or Blood 4
The soft opening of the door drew Sharon Becks attention towards the door which meant that Raydor was greeting with a glare as soon as she came in.
"Hello Ms. Beck, I'm Sharon Raydor. We've talked on the phone before. I thought that we should talk before bringing Rusty to you." Raydor stated as she sat down at the table.
"I have no interest in talking to you. Just bring me my son and get the paperwork started for me to get custody back." Sharon Beck snapped.
It took a minute for Raydor to keep her temper under control. She didn't know why the woman was so angry with her but for Rusty's sake she had to at least try to keep things civil.
"I understand that you wish to custody back but for now that isn't possible. The judge will have to rule on that. But it might make things easier for Rusty if we could settle any issues. I …understand that you want Rusty taken out of my home and put somewhere else. But that would not be a good idea since it would confuse the custody issue. I do want you to understand that I am not competition…"
"I know." Suddenly Sharon Beck was as cold as ice. "I've kept close tabs on my son and I've notice that you and your team have gotten quite close to Rusty. Now that Daniel is out of the picture I'm the only thing that could make things difficult if you decided to adopt him. So I thought that I should come here so that we could work out an arrangement."
"An arrangement?" Raydor's face was blank but inside she felt sick. She had a feeling that she knew what sort of arrangement that Sharon wanted.
"Yes. I happen to know that you come from a wealthy family so I want eight thousand dollars. You give me my money and I'll give up my rights to Rusty so that you can have him."
"What would you tell Rusty?"
"I'll tell him that he's better off with you."
Raydor couldn't stand it.
"He's your son! How could you come here and basically sell him to me?"
"Because I have no use for him and you do. I'll give you some time to think over my offer. I'm going to my hotel. I've already given family services my number so if you need to speak to me…"
With a smile Sharon Beck left the break room, leaving Raydor staring at the wall in horror.
Rusty sat in the squad rooming thinking about the events of the day. Seeing his mother just when he was sure that he found a home with Sharon pushed him off balance. His confusion was just made worse by the fact that he was not sure that he wanted to leave. Even while on the street Rusty's loyalty was always to his mother but now it was not so simple.
While Rusty was lost in his thoughts the team watched him struggle. Finally Provenza stood up and went to the boy.
"Nice to see your mother again, isn't it Rusty?"
Rusty turned to Provenza but he looked anything but happy.
"Yeah. It's great."
Sykes jumped into the conversation.
"Maybe you could go to dinner or something. It might be nice to get to know your mother again.
"I'd be happy to take you both to dinner. Especially since it didn't work out last time. "Flynn volunteered.
Then, realizing what he said, Flynn winced.
But before anyone could say anything Sharon Beck came into the room.
"Rusty, I'm going to go to my hotel room now but I wanted to stop by to give you my number. Maybe if Raydor will let me I'll take you out to dinner tomorrow. Is that ok?" Sharon's smile was sweet but the team had the feeling that something was amiss.
"Sure. I'll talk to Sharon about it. Flynn's volunteered to take us out so it's not going to be hard to arrange."
Sharon Beck's eyes narrowed at Rusty's use of Raydor's name but she just wrote down her number on a piece of paper. Nodding her head at the rest of the team Sharon left the room, passing Raydor on the way in.
Rusty sat there in his seat, staring at the piece of paper in his hand. This was lucky for Raydor because she wasn't sure that she could hold it together if he looked at her.
But the team could tell that something had happened between Sharon Beck and their Captain.
