*WARNING the following contains detailed description that wasn't easy to write and also to read again. But it's a needed part for the story. Be conscious of what you're going to read.

They had been working for weeks on the case, with false information given by anonymous calls to the Major Crimes Division. They started working opinions twice already, reconstructing every move of the suspect and recreating every possibility for that double homicide to happen, until they arrived to a very nasty discovery that included also a kidnapping of two minors. The victims were two young Latinos, and at first they had imagined a racial motive for a murder, but it led them the wrong way. They started from the basics again: a young couple of 25, she was from Mexico, while he had a mother from LA. It was determined that they weren't involved in any gang, with any drug dealer or anything. She was attending medical school and he was finishing his law school.

According to both families they had married young and moved into a condo in LA to finish school and raise their family. Everything seemed normal from the outside but in the inside, digging in their pasts, the team had discovered stories of abuse, incest and unwanted pregnancy. The girl, Tamara, had given birth to twins six months before being murdered with 25 stabs in her abdomen. Her young husband, James, was found tight to a chair, with eyes and mouth tape closed. He had been stabbed three times in the back and twice in his stomach then eventually strangled with a steel wire.

It was brutal and sign of something intentional. After weeks researching for anything to catch the murderer they had focus all their attentions on Tamara's brother, who had resulted in being the father of the twins and involved in a consensual relationship. Then Tamara met James and put an end to that incestuous relationship which made her brother very angry, so much to bring him, several years after, to abuse of her during a night causing her to become pregnant. What the families had described as 'moving to Los Angeles for their studies' had really been, 'running away from their families to finish school and raise the twins as their own'. Six months after, that dream broke and two young lives were put to an end, but what about the two twins? Nobody could find the babies.

They had investigated and questioned the brother so many times. He continued to say he did not know where his nephews had gone. At some point it was revealed to him they were his own children and he did not have a single reaction to the news, most likely he already knew but his obsession was Tamara. They didn't have much evidence against him, but after days of researching Tao had noticed one single detail that changed everything.

Browsing through Tamara's facebook account, in search for anything to help them, she had posted photos of their new condo. Compared with the photos of the crime scene, one frame on the table at the entrance had been moved and that frame was the killer's wrong move. He had pressed his lips in a kiss on Tamara's side of that photo, leaving DNA on it that resulted being from Brandon, her brother, making his alibi of being in a casino in Nevada to be unsteady. They later found he had paid someone to use his cards there and make it seem like he was playing for the whole weekend.

Sharon seemed exhausted from the whole story. They had worked together as Andy spoke few words and she completed his sentence with the facts. She was starting to remember, but remembering all that was painful twice: the first time she followed the case, and now again as it all came back. "Don't stop, Andy! It's coming all together in my head," she said.

After finally confessing what he had done and admitting it was for jealousy because of his sister choice to leave him for another man, Brandon made clear that he only intended to kill James but Tamara got in between and he stabbed her because of his anger. To his own words he loved her more than anything else, and if she couldn't be his she wouldn't be any other. This admission still wasn't clear where the babies had gone and Brandon claimed to never have touched them. He didn't care of them he only wanted her.

"And then the day of your accident we…" Andy was going on
"…found the babies." Continued Sharon, "buried alive in the construction site Brandon was working on," Andy nodded. It was a devastating revelation to Sharon. As a woman she felt disgusted to the image of finding two babies of six months buried, for a mistake their own biological parents had done. As a mother she felt angry and sick, all emotions were mixed in her heart, because this was a side of her she could never hide at work, the compassion of a mother for such a terrible situation. In any of their cases involving a mother and her child, when wrapping it up, Sharon's habit had been to come back home to Rusty and hug him for countless minutes, without saying anything, because she needed that physical contact of mother and son. At the beginning, for Rusty it was weird and he would ask why, but after a few times he understood she only needed to be hugged back. "Those poor babies," a tear fell down her left cheek.

Andy was afraid all this would make her heart beat go crazy. He was watching her vitals and instead it looked pretty steady, it seemed like it was a normal day at work for them discussing the case and coming up with theories, when everyone was angry for what had happened but no one ever showed it. Monitoring Sharon during this conversation, felt for Andy as if he was looking at her soul as glass and through it he could see anything, she was feeling crystal clear.

"You remember what happened next?" he asked.

"Brandon was in interview room. We notified him we found the bodies, then he went mad and… no we came out. Buzz had to show us a video he found, but we never saw that video right?" Andy nodded. "We were going to his desk but then happened something…" Sharon tried to remember but needed some help from Andy.

Those few moments Brandon was left alone with his lawyer and a guard, he faked a pain and when the guard went close to check he had stolen his gun and ordered him to take off the handcuffs. His lawyer had tried to run out but Brandon had shot him first and the guard after. His plan was to get out of there treating to shoot anyone in his way. By the moment he came out of interview room, they all had their guns aimed at him, but unfortunately Rusty was walking with Taylor and were taken hostage by him. Sharon had ordered everyone to put their guns down and Brandon forced her, Taylor and Rusty into her office, locking themselves inside.

"We tried to have him put down the gun, but he wouldn't do it!" now Sharon was crying. In her memory it was connecting everything and suddenly she remembered another detail "Taylor! Oh my God, Andy. Where is he?" Among all the people she had met at work or went visiting her, Chief Taylor had never been one of them. He never called. He never was here to see her.

"He's still in intensive care. He had surgery twice already!" Andy replied.

In the chaos of everything, while Sharon and Chief Taylor attempted to take Brandon's gun and keep Rusty safe, they have fought with him, both unarmed. From outside the office Provenza was screaming he had no way to get out of there, causing Brandon to get more and more angry. He started to throw everything he found in his way: all Sharon's frames from the desk were thrown on the floor, breaking next were all her papers. Her primary preoccupation was Rusty being held by Brandon, she could not risk him to be injured or killed.

It had passed an hour already, with Sharon trying to talk to him like a mother, more than a captain of police, and trying to make it seem like she understood completely why he had to kill Tamara, her husband and the kids. But eventually, Taylor made a wrong step by trying to get closer to him and Brandon had shot him twice in his chest. Following the shoots, they break into Sharon's office to find Rusty on Taylor's body trying to stop the bleeding from his wounds and Sharon fighting with Brandon to take the gun.

"After he shot Taylor, Rusty trod on his foot. I was trying to disarm him" in her voice Andy perceived a tone of disappointment, in her abilities probably, or maybe she felt responsible for Taylor's injuries since she had ordered everyone to put down their guns and left theirs out of the office. But as a mother, she wanted to save her child.

"It was just a matter of seconds. After we burst into the room, he pushed you hard and you hit your head against the desk. There was a lot of bleeding and I thought I'd lose you!" Andy kissed her hand. He closed his eyes and didn't let go for a bit.

"What happened to Brandon?" Sharon asked. She couldn't know what happened after she got hurt, but had imagined that after having killed a guard, his lawyer and shot to a police officer it wasn't going to be easy on him.

"He tried to shoot us and we shot him first." Andy didn't say more but Sharon just knew he had died. So the case had wrapped to a couple brutally murdered, two babies buried alive and their killer shot by the police after committing more murders and an attempted one. Not the conclusion they had wanted, but a conclusion nevertheless.

"I let my mother instinct prevailing and look where we are?" Sharon was disappointed in herself, but when it was about her children she immediately stopped being Captain Sharon Raydor and be simply Sharon and with Rusty involved this distinction had often shown.

"Anyone of us would have acted like this, even if Rusty isn't our kid. If my son was involved into that I would have sold the guy my soul to save my son's life! You acted good and like any of us would have. Like Chief Taylor would have too. You're not responsible for this. You did your job fine, no great and for what it values, I wish I was the one in that bed right now. You really scared me, you know?" Andy stood up and pressed his forehead against hers.

For how weird it could seem, telling her the truth had made her calmer and feeling better. Being able to control her memory and feelings, was something important to Sharon and for Andy was important to make her at peace.

"You gained your place back on the bed with me. So would you sleep with me again, Lieutenant?" Sharon didn't really wait for a reply and pulled him down to lay on the bed with her. He took his space and she put her head on his heart. "Thank you, Andy. You helped me, and you said the truth," he moaned with his eyes closed. "And I'm glad you insisted on staying, I feel protected with you!"

Sharon closed her eyes too, taking a deep breath and inhaling his scent. "Haven't I told you already?" he whispered, "I'm with the good guys, after all!"

They both smiled lightly, in the arms of the other, letting the exhaustion of those days to knock them into a deep sleep and feeling like any noise or light from the outside vanished. Leaving just two souls in love to protect each other.

− FIN –

I would like to thank you ALL for reading, and reviewing and showing so much appreciation for this story. I'm overwhelmed. A big shout out thanks to Narcissanerea, gingersnapped907 & Kadi219, for their patience with my mistakes and also explaining me the correct ways of saying this or that. And you all, readers, you've been fantastic and supportive and, who knows maybe I'll write again! THANK YOU!