To the guest who hoped for a longer chapter, well, here it is. :)


Part IV - Cool Heads

They rode up in the elevator to their floor together, but in silence. Once they were inside of the condo, Andy shrugged out of his jacket and slipped off his shoes before, wordlessly, he made his way into the kitchen, probably to make them some tea, as he usually did after a long day. Sharon had taken the time to get into more comfortable clothes, a pair of leggings and a long-sleeved top, and was now sprawled on her back on her living room couch waiting for Andy to get back. She took it as a good sign that they both took their time to go through their after-work routine before diving into what she hoped would not be another argument.

When he walked back in, a tray with indeed, tea on it, in his hands, his tie now loosened, too, she asked, "May I first get something off my chest?"

Andy gave her a surprised look, his step faltering fractionally before he shrugged and, a bit warily, said, "Sure."

"Ouch," she let out, sighing, and he suddenly came to a full stop, just a step away from the coffee table, to give her a puzzled look.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that," he told her, positive he had not heard what he thought he had heard.

"Ouch," she repeated, almost pouting now.

Andy just looked at her for a moment. When he realized he had heard her right the first time, suddenly, he burst out laughing.

"It's not funny," she traced her fingers tentatively over her bruised cheek. "It really does hurt," she complained.

"Sorry, I thought it might," Andy said, having succeeded in stopping his unexpected laughter, 'ouch' being a word he had never heard her use, and certainly not over a pout of all things. "Which is why you'll be glad to see this," he said optimistically, putting his tray down on the coffee table and taking something wrapped in a clean kitchen towel off of it.

"Oh, an ice pack," she said in surprise, accepting the item when he offered it to her. When she put it over the side of her face, she let her head fall back over the armrest and groaned in relief before saying, "I'm still not too happy with you, but God," she groaned again, "I love you."

Andy chuckled at her. "Well, that's good to know," he told her, moving in between the table and the couch to sit down. "Scoot," he ordered, tapping her feet.

She silently obliged his request and pulled her knees up to make room for him. When he sat down, he reached for her feet and draped her legs over his lap. She still kept her head back, letting him do as he wished, so, concerned, he asked, "Got a headache?"

"No, thank goodness," she said on a relieved sigh, finally lifting her head and resting it on a pillow to look at him. "However, this," she indicated the bruise underneath the ice, "started throbbing again on my way home."

"Mhm," he said in acknowledgment as he looked down into his lap and, slightly absentmindedly, started rubbing one of her feet.

When, in response, she wiggled her toes, he ceased his movement and looked at her. "What?" he asked, her sudden smile confusing him.

"Nothing, I'm just glad you've calmed down," she told him, shifting on her pillow slightly, to have a better look at him.

"Well," he started sarcastically, "the night's still young," he told her, giving her a pointed look.

She frowned slightly. "I will not apologize for pulling you off the case," she told him evenly, and the fact that there wasn't a trace of her earlier agitation in her tone of voice made her confident that she was past wanting to bite his head off.

He scoffed, but said, a touch of amusement to his words, "I know."

That put a puzzled look on her face and Andy felt her legs tense up in his lap. "Did you expect me to?" she asked carefully, not sure what to make of his scoff.

His eyes widened for a moment. "No," he told her honestly. "You did what you had to do," he admitted, glad to feel her legs relax again. "Besides," he added on a lighter note, "the case was basically over, wasn't much left to take me off of anyway, and I was still stuck with all that paperwork."

A corner of her lips quirked upward but she shook her head at him in disapproval. "Is that why you allowed yourself to lose it like that?" she asked.

The quiet, low voice, she posed her question in, had Andy sigh. He let his head fall over the back of the couch, holding back a groan, and looked at her sideways. "Can you really blame me, Sharon?" he asked quietly. "He hit you, he hurt you, I only wanted to protect you."

"Uh-uh," she disagreed, pointing a finger at him. "You wanted revenge," she told him.

He opened his mouth to argue, but then promptly closed it. She was right. Julio had managed to restrain the guy before he could try attacking her again, or anyone else for that matter, and when he hit back, it was out of his sudden urge to hurt him back, not out of necessity to protect anyone. Even if he weren't willing to admit it, the tape of the entire incident most certainly proved it. It was one of the reasons why FID was so fast to, albeit unofficially, close their investigation today.

"And therein lies our problem," Sharon said, dismissively waving a hand at him as if she had read his thoughts.

Resigned, he lifted his head and focused on her feet again, taking a foot into his hand to resume his earlier ministrations on it.

"It's hard," he admitted in a low rumble. "You know," he lifted his gaze off her feet and set it on her face, "it's been a while since I last lost it like that," he told her, a touch of wonder to his words now.

"I know," Sharon told him, the soft edge her tone of voice took on letting him know she understood his regret over it, too. "And I know we've never been in this kind of situation before," she briefly lifted her ice pack, indicating her injury again, "but I can't do my job if I have to worry about you going off whenever I interview a suspect," she paused and added, "who may or may not become aggressive."

"I know," he said, but she went on over his words.

"Not to mention having to worry about FID breathing down our necks," she said. "Andy, there's a reason why interoffice romances have to be reported!" she added, pinning him with a hard look and unable to keep her voice from raising ever so slightly.

"I know!" he said again, more loudly this time. "But you can't expect me to just not react when somebody takes a swing at you!"

"I can't," she said simply, shrugging even, her voice no longer raised either. "But I think it's fair to expect you think before you do," she informed him, the sentence sounding more like a question and escaping her in a slightly more clipped manner than she would have liked it to.

"Yeah," Andy grumbled. "Well, it was hard to think when my first impulse was to punch the living daylights out of the guy for laying a hand on you," he bit out somewhat angrily.

"Well," she made a conscious decision not to join his renewed frustration, "maybe a week of anger management classes will help you figure out how not to act on that impulse," she told him, offering a smile, or actually half of it since one corner of her mouth was covered by the hand holding her ice pack in place.

Andy groaned and squeezed her foot tightly for a brief moment. "I can't believe you let them sentence me to that," he told her, giving her an incredulous look.

"I did not let them do anything," she immediately responded, a bit too defensively considering that she really had no say in FID's decision. "However, I do believe their punishment might have been different were the two of us not together."

"There's my slap on the wrist then," he muttered, shaking his head, but finally resuming his foot rub.

"Yes," Sharon agreed. "It could have all played out much worse though," she added over a pointed look.

It was true. FID had not only seen Buzz's recording of the incident, but they had also interviewed their entire division, including him and Sharon and also their suspect. Thankfully, as stupid as their suspect seemed to be, he did not even think of suing him and the LAPD for excessive use of force, which was definitely a helpful circumstance. Andy knew that FID had talked to their team members about his and Sharon's relationship, not just about the incident, even if they kept mum about their interviews. While he also knew that this was actually the first time their relationship managed to pose an actual issue at work and that the team had probably corroborated as much, it wasn't hard to guess that that same relationship was why they ultimately decided to send him off to anger management next week. They had probably drawn the same conclusions as Sharon just did. No wonder, considering how long she had headed the division.

He only nodded and grunted in begrudging agreement, before finally meeting her gaze again and asking, "So what's your verdict?"

She considered his question for a moment, giving him a long look. "Will you promise to try not to repeat today's performance?" she finally asked in reply.

He smiled briefly and instead of an answer, offered something entirely different.

"It's strange," he told her, absentmindedly almost. "I can handle suspects yelling at you or getting in your face or," he waved a hand through the air, pausing his foot rub for a second, "well, you get the picture." She smiled, because, yes, she does. "And I know you can handle yourself at work just fine, I do," he said the last two words almost imploringly, "but today, the moment I realized that scumbag actually hit you," he paused and took a quick breath, "I don't know, I just saw red. And I know the guy didn't seem to punch you on purpose," he had realized that when Buzz had pulled up the recording of it for FID and he got a look at it from a less biased angle, "but even if he had only," he put air quotation marks around that last word, "pushed you, I'd be lying if I told you I wouldn't have acted the way I did," he finished on a shrug.

Judging by the way his eyes started wandering aimlessly in front of him, focusing on nothing in particular, he seemed to have more to say, so Sharon stayed quiet, despite his silence, allowing him to finish the obvious search for words he was on, and soon enough he did go on.

"I know you were pissed because I let us," he waved a hand between them, "affect me like this. I know you always talk about objectivity, having to conduct ourselves professionally and whatnot, but what can I say?" He gave her a sad look. "I guess today proved that, when you get hurt at work, I throw objectivity out the window."

Sharon sighed. "I know how protective you can get, Andy. Whether he punched me or pushed me is irrelevant here because I know your protectiveness would have kicked in anyway," she told him quietly. "I am not holding that against you," she added, meaning the words despite the trouble it got them into today. "The problem today I think, wasn't so much the fact that you attacked our suspect or disobeyed my orders, because whatever we may be telling ourselves, we couldn't have known for sure we would act by the book in a situation like this. Especially with your penchant for trouble," she said that last part on a teasing smile and he rolled his eyes in response. "And as much as I hate to admit it, that's simply fact. Next time, we at least know what to expect." She shrugged on that last sentence before going on. "But what the real problem today perhaps was, was the fact that you actually expected preferential treatment from me afterwards."

Andy's eyebrows shot up. "I don't expect that from you," he instantly argued.

Sharon actually smiled. "Well, maybe not right now, but a few hours ago, you sure did," she told him.

For a moment he just looked at her, blankly. On reflection, he had to admit that, in his anger, he actually had expected it. He was going to name his status of being her boyfriend reason enough not to call FID. And had he been less riled up, he would never have even thought it, let alone tried acting on it. Sure, he'd still be pissed off at FID, because by now it was just ingrained in him to be defensive around that division, whether Sharon worked there or not, but he would most definitely not expect her to sweep the incident under the rug.

Suddenly, realization dawned on him.

"You called them to cover our asses," he told her incredulously, his gaze falling into his lap as he started his ministrations on her other foot now.

She shrugged and gave him a quick, probably involuntary smile, not that he could see it. "Yes, I did," she confirmed without hesitation, in what almost sounded like relief.

"To prove there really was no preferential treatment," he added, looking up at her with an impressed expression on his face now.

"There isn't, Andy," she told him quietly, almost imploringly. "There can't be," she added. "Not if I want to keep doing my job the way I'm supposed to."

Andy hummed. "I should have known," he said just as quietly.

By immediately reporting the incident to FID herself, she made sure nobody would be able to accuse them of trying to cover any of it up should their suspect file a formal complaint. It wasn't against the rules to wait for FID to get called in in the more usual and slower ways, but she did it herself because she wanted to make sure that their relationship was not put up to discussion any more than it would absolutely have to be. While Andy doubted anyone would ever really dare accuse Sharon of trying to cover something up, he could understand that she would still do whatever she could to make sure their integrity remained untouched on the off chance that somebody would dare. It was a way of protecting the entire division, too. Should any rumors about the head of the elite Major Crimes Unit letting one of her Lieutenants get away with beating up on suspects start circulating, they now had at least one fool proof way of shutting them immediately down.

It was sort of funny. For somebody who really did not aspire to join the politics the position of Assistant Chief offered, Sharon sure knew how to play the political game well.

"Yes," she said and didn't even bother hiding the hurt that seeped into the word. While she knew his temper had gotten the better of him, it did hurt a little that he would imply she was throwing him to the dogs. Did he really trust her so little? The question again echoed through her mind, but she wasn't ready to address it just yet.

The way he gently ran a hand down her leg and stopped his massage, let her know he recognized the hurt, but suddenly he scoffed. "Funny how a guy hits you square in the face but it's me who ends up hurting you," he told her regretfully.

She sighed, effectively agreeing with his words. "I thought I'd proven years ago, long before any of this," she waved a hand between them, "started, that I'm always on your side," she quietly told him.

"You did and it's not like I don't trust you or anything, that's never been an issue," Andy was quick to assure her, squeezing her calf briefly. The matter-of-factly way he said that in, had her take a quick breath of relief, the heavy weight of her earlier worries finally lifting without her even having to bring it up. At first Andy just went on, "But you know ho-" but cut himself off when he noticed her reaction. He gave her a puzzled look. "What?" Apparently guessing correctly where her thoughts had gone, he asked, "You thought I didn't?" He sounded rather incredulous.

She only shrugged guiltily, offering him an almost watery smile, the gesture the best admission she could give him at the moment.

He shook his head, at himself probably. "No, Sharon," he said gently, the gravelly quality his voice took on, a clear sign that he was getting emotional, too. He ran his fingers down her shin in what one might have qualified as an apologetic caress and added, "I think we all, not just me," he looked up at her, "realized long before you ever took over Major Crimes that we could trust you." He offered her a crooked smile before going on, suddenly speaking a tad more loudly and with a bit of amusement. "Come on, you're a detective. Who sells his house," over his next words he smirked, "moves in with his girlfriend and goes house hunting with her," the corners of her mouth quirked upwards slightly, "if he doesn't trust said girlfriend?"

Her mouth finally formed a full, amused smile, knowing he was trying to reassure her again and was not really mocking her. "A mooch maybe," she quipped, barely holding back her sudden laughter.

But Andy stayed serious, his earlier teasing now gone, and gave her a bland look. "That was not my point," he grumbled.

She sobered and admitted, a tad defensively even, "Well, with the way you were acting today, I wasn't so sure anymore."

"You can be sure, Sharon," he assured her thickly and she nodded. He found his normal voice before adding, "I didn't mean for you to feel like that, but you know how we get," there was a touch of regret to his voice, "mention FID or IA and we instantly think everyone's out to get us," he said, waving a hand through the air and shaking his head.

She chuckled. "True," she agreed, knowing that even with her as mediator and under much less personal circumstances, IA simply was a sore spot for her division. "Although," she went on more seriously again, "I have to admit," she paused, "I may have been more open to conversation with you today had your implication not hit a little too close to home."

There was no denying that, had it been one of her other team members, she'd have let them give her their side of the story much sooner than she had let Andy do so, regardless of any of their comments.

He considered her for a moment with a raised eyebrow, then suddenly waved her off. "Nah, it's good that you wouldn't let me talk. I'd only have run my mouth off even more and it'd all be an even bigger mess," he told her.

"It's not a mess," she argued, silently agreeing with the first part of his point, since yes, he probably wouldn't have had anything smart to say at the time, and, at his raised eyebrow of disbelief, added, "It's work." She shrugged. "Mixed with a little bit of us," she told him over half a smile. "We were bound to get tested at some point."

"Tested?" Andy scoffed, and she had to laugh, because it was a rather cliche thing to say.

"I'll have to get a grip on myself in the future then," he told her somberly, when she stopped laughing.

"Which is why I'm glad you're stuck with anger management now," she told him and he frowned at the words. "Even if something like this never happens again," she went on, ignoring his frown, "now that we know it's a bigger issue than we thought it might be, I'd rather try at least something." She shrugged and added, "I can handle FID just fine, but I don't want to have to because of our relationship. Not if we can help it."

"Well, then," Andy started, shrugging, "to answer your question," he said and she gave him a momentarily puzzled look before she realized what question he was referring to, "I guess all I really can do is promise to at least try," he added, sounding rather irritated with himself for not being able to promise more.

"Then you are forgiven," she told him lightly, giving him a wide smile.

"I love you, too, by the way," he suddenly told her, probably in reply to her earlier voiced sentiment, and, despite her surprise, she smiled again at the words.

"So, how mad at me are you?" she asked in reply, wiggling her toes to get him back on track again.

He looked up and frowned. "I wasn't angry with you," he muttered, suddenly sounding exactly that, angry. "It's just this whole situation," he added, frustrated, looking around the room. "It was that dirtbag who pissed me off." He looked at her. "I was only stupid enough to take it out on you," he told her, shaking his head.

"I know," she told him softly, pulling her legs off his lap to sit up next to him.

He chuckled. "So you're calling me stupid?" he asked, watching her as she made herself comfortable.

"Not you," she told him on an easy smile. "Just this Lieutenant of mine, who couldn't get a grip on himself today," she clarified.

Andy didn't laugh at her silly joke. "I guess," he started somewhat begrudgingly, "I should ask Julio for advice."

"Let's see how those anger management classes go first," she said, holding back a smile. Julio's and Andy's temper issues were miles apart from each other.

"I think avoiding those will be incentive enough to refrain from flying off the handle again like that," he muttered, although there was a bit of amusement in his voice now.

She snorted. "Well, whatever works for you, Andy," she told him.

He only shook his head at her and finally laughed, too, glad to see her in a better mood. He was in a better mood now, too.

Having pulled herself together she suddenly informed him, as if he hadn't known by then, "I, on the other hand, was mad at you." She scooted closer to him and put her ice pack down on the free spot next to her.

"Yeah, well, no wonder," Andy told her on a guilty smile. "I punched a suspect, I fought my Captain's direct order and then I spoiled for a fight with my girlfriend in the middle of a packed restaurant instead of eating lunch with her," he listed the things off on the fingers of one of his now free hands.

"Mhm," she hummed, leaning against his shoulder now. "I don't remember the last time I had to yell at any of my team members, least of all you," she told him in a far away voice as if she was searching her memory for exactly such an event.

She really hadn't had to raise her voice at any of them in Major Crimes in years, he realized. He had no idea, and if he were to ask, he would find out that neither had she, when she had last addressed him by rank and surname at work either.

"Yeah," he said, somewhat ruefully. "I guess all of it going down in front of the team didn't help either?" he added, grimacing regretfully at her.

While he hadn't exactly clashed with any of his team members other than Provenza today, there was no denying that everybody felt incredibly uncomfortable with the suddenly chilled and exclusively professional air around him and Sharon. He doubted any of them recalled the last time either one of them had raised their voices at each other. It shocked him and Sharon, so it came as no surprise that it would shock the rest of their division as well.

She looked at him and offered a warm smile. "Not really," she agreed quietly. She suddenly chuckled, covering her mouth with the back of her hand, and said, "I hope they're not too traumatized."

Andy grinned and waved her off. "Nah, they just have one more reason not to get on your bad side," he told her, making her laugh softly.

"I do hope that doesn't happen again though," she told him, more seriously now. "It put a strain on not just our work relationship, but on the squad's as well."

She took a breath in preparation to say more, but Andy quickly interjected. "And you like keeping certain things private," he told her. When she nodded, he muttered, "Trust me, I do, too. And I absolutely hate having to share any of them with FID."

She sighed, relaxing a little more against his shoulder. "All the more reason we try better next time," she told him.

"I really hope there won't be a next time," Andy said absentmindedly, "but, yeah, in case there is, I'll try," he told her, giving her a look that said that was a promise.

"We'll try," she corrected, raising a pointed eyebrow at him. She had let their relationship become a bit of a problem, too, it wasn't just him.

He smiled and briefly closed his eyes as he nodded. "We'll try," he repeated.

With that, they fell silent for a few moments, Sharon's head now resting against the side of Andy's arm, while he absentmindedly stroked the back of her hand, enjoying the now cleared air between them.

"Tea's gone cold," Sharon suddenly said, pulling them out of their cozy silence.

Andy looked at the table. Not only had it gone cold, they hadn't even touched it. "Want me to make another batch?" he asked. "Or reheat this?" he added, already getting ready to stand up.

"No," she let out on a long sigh, worming an arm behind his back and snuggling into his side, not letting him go anywhere. "This is relaxing enough," she told him.

He relaxed and smiled before dropping a kiss into her hair. "I think so, too," he told her, wrapping an arm around her.

TBC


A bit of an unexpected end, I know, but bear with me because the conversation continues in the next chapter. By the way, do you wanna have Rusty react to Sharon's bruise? If not, I think I'm ending this with Part V then. :)

And to all those who had hoped for a screaming match here, sorry if I disappointed by not giving you one. XD