DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

A/N: Happy Thanksgiving everyone who celebrates! Here is the latest chapter. Enjoy and thank you all for reading and writing a review.

Chapter 7

As they both lie awake in bed together, Sharon reaches for her phone. "What are you doing?" Andy whispered to her. "I know it's 2 in the morning but we need to let Provenza know what happened" Sharon whispered back to him as she fully sat up in bed. Andy groaned and got up as well. He rubbed his hand over his face. "And I know that if I call him, he will answer right away" Sharon added as she looked at Andy. The phone rang twice before Provenza answered it. "Captain, is everything okay?" Provenza said to her. "Lieutenant, we have had an interesting night over here at the condo" Sharon began to tell Provenza what happened with the smoke alarm and fire in the dumpster.

"Ye gods, is everyone okay over there?" Provenza asked Sharon after listening to her explain what had happened. "Yes, we are all okay here" Sharon said back to him. "Wait, why are you calling instead of Flynn? Did something happen to him?" Provenza asked her. "No, he's fine. I called you because I knew you would answer me" Sharon said to him. He knew her assumption was correct, that's why he answered when he saw the caller id on his phone. "Do you think it's Croelick?" Provenza asked her. "He'd be stupid to do that, wouldn't you think Lieutenant?" Sharon said to him. "Especially because he would know we would be on him, right?" Sharon added and asked Provenza. "I'll send a patrol car over there again now, and we can regroup just the three of us in the morning if you'd like, Captain" Provenza said to her. "Thank you Lieutenant" she said to him. "Try to get some rest, Captain" Provenza said and then hung up.

While Sharon was on the phone with Provenza, Andy had pulled out his laptop and started conducting some searches of his own. "What are you doing?" Sharon said to Andy as she hung up her phone and placed it on the night stand again. "I'm trying to determine how Croelick knows about our kids" he said to her as he was typing on the laptop. "We know he knows about Matthew as he told us that he saw the three of us walking into this building" Andy added as Sharon listened to him. "I don't believe I ever told him about my children when I arrested him all those years ago" Andy said as he was pulling something up on his laptop to show Sharon. "Look at this" Andy pointed out to Sharon as he turned his laptop to show her. "What am I looking at and how did you get that on your laptop?" Sharon said to Andy. "Mike had installed a program that feeds into our electronic database to view video files of our individuals we interview" Andy started to explain to Sharon. Sharon looked at Andy and she was surprised by that. "What? Mike installed this before I had my blood clot surgery last year" Andy said to her. She moved closer to him. "That way, when I was home with Patrice and you were at work, I could sort of keep an eye on you, you know, to make sure you were okay" Andy said to her. "That's a little creepy, but thoughtful none the less" Sharon said to him as she kissed him on the cheek.

When he turned his laptop around, it showed the video of Croelick in their conference room after they had left to join Buzz in electronics. Andy had paused it on the still picture of Croelick standing up looking through the glass windows into Sharon's office. "Dammit" she cursed under her breath. "How could I have been stupid not to close those blinds in my office" Sharon said to Andy. Sharon was sure that Croelick could see the family photos of Sharon's kids on her desk and on her cabinet. Andy pressed play and they saw Croelick go back and sit down at the table and pull out his phone. "Can you see what he is doing on the phone?" Sharon asked Andy. Andy tried to blowup the picture and see if they could see anything he was doing on his phone. "I can only get one angle of the picture on the laptop" Andy said to her.

"Okay, so he might of seen the children's pictures on your desk but that still doesn't explain his comment to me in the room before you joined us" Andy said to her as he couldn't see what Croelick was typing on his cell phone. "He could deduce that I have children by seeing their pictures on my desk, I'll give him that, but how does he know about your children and ex-wife?" Sharon said to him. She shook her head. "I am not thinking straight" she said to him. Andy closed his laptop and placed it on the night stand. "Come here" he said to Sharon as he sat back against the headboard of their bed and gestured for Sharon to follow him. She moved to him and leaned against his body as he wrapped his arms around her. "Close your eyes, and get some sleep. We will look into this in the morning" Andy whispered to her as he soothingly rubbed her arms with his hands. Sharon settled in and within a minute, she was relaxing and drifting off to sleep. Andy felt himself nodding off and finally gave in to some sleep.

Andy heard the door to their bedroom open slightly and then close. He opened his eyes and saw Matthew standing on his side of the bed. "Andy?" Matthew whispered. Andy sat up a little bit without disturbing Sharon who was still sleeping against him. "What is it buddy?" Andy whispered back to him. He looked at Matthew's face and saw that he had been crying. "I had a bad dream" Matthew said back to Andy. "What happened?" Andy asked him. "There was a fire" Matthew said back to him. Andy gently woke Sharon up. "Hmm?" she said still groggy. "Matthew had a bad dream, can you move over a little bit" Andy said to her in a low voice. Sharon moved over, but maintained her sleeping position on Andy's side. "Come up here Matthew" Andy said and Matthew climbed up onto their bed. Matthew slid into Andy's other side and settled down. He fell asleep almost instantly. Andy heard Moxie shake his collar and settle down on the floor next to their bed.

The sun rose again and started to creep its way into their bedroom. Sharon started to stir and when she woke up, the sight before her eyes brought a smile to her face. Andy was laying on his back and Matthew was snuggled up into his right side, sleeping. She remembered Andy saying something about Matthew having a bad dream during the night. Sharon lightly rubbed Andy's chest with her hand and he opened his eyes. She smiled at him and he smiled back at her. "Good morning" she said to him. "Morning beautiful" he said back to her as he gently caressed her face with his free hand. Andy then looked down at Matthew sleeping, clinging onto Andy's shirt. "He's out like a light" she said to him in a quiet voice. Andy settled his head back against his pillow as he gently caressed Sharon's right arm as she was sitting beside him. She leaned down and kissed him, then she got up to get dressed.

Andy gently pried his shirt from Matthew's grip and moved out of the bed. Moxie got up and greeted Andy as he came around the bed. Andy stretched his back and tried to work out the kinks that had formed overnight. Moxie shook his head and also stretched. "Do you need to go out?" Andy asked the dog. Moxie came over to him and was wagging his tail. "I'd take that as a yes" Andy said to himself. Andy threw on a sweatshirt over his shirt and put some shoes on before taking Moxie outside. Sharon came out of the bathroom and saw Matthew still sleeping on their bed. Andy and the dog were no longer there. She knew he must have taken the dog outside. Sharon decided to let Matthew sleep a little longer and headed into the hallway towards the kitchen. Rusty was already awake on the couch, eating a bowl of cereal. "Morning Rusty" she said to him as she passed him as she headed in the kitchen. "Morning" he said with his mouthful of cereal.

Andy took Moxie outside the condo and the dog was sniffing along the sidewalk and parts of the grass. Andy watched Moxie do this and then looked up at the surroundings. He saw the patrol car on the other side of the street and waved to them. The officers in the car waved back. Moxie was done and they headed back inside the building. Andy opened the front door to the condo and Moxie ran inside, heading for the kitchen. Andy followed Moxie, saw Rusty was up and eating breakfast on the couch. As he made his way in to the kitchen, he saw Sharon was there leaning against the counter. He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a kiss on her cheek. "Matthew is still sleeping" she said to him as she was preparing breakfast. "What are you making?" he inquired as he put Moxie's food in the bowl and placed it on the floor for the dog to eat. "Low-fat cinnamon raisin French toast" she said to him as she smiled. "I saw a recipe for this the other day and wanted to try it, besides it is low-fat so I thought it would be good for your diet as well" Sharon said to him as she started cooking the food.

He smirked back at her, even though he hated being on this new diet, he has lost some weight and was feeling pretty good now. "I'm going to go get dressed now" he said to her as he made his way back down the hallway. He walked in their bedroom and Matthew was still sleeping. Andy got dressed and by the time he was done, Matthew was waking up. At first he didn't know where he was at but then realized he was in Andy and Sharon's bedroom. "Morning kiddo" Andy said as Matthew climbed out of bed. Andy was now in the bathroom, getting ready to shave when Matthew joined him. Matthew looked at Andy as he started to put shaving cream on his face. Andy looked over at Matthew. "What are you doing?" Matthew asked him. "I'm shaving my face so that it looks clean and smooth for Sharon" Andy said. Matthew looked at him with a weird look on his face. Andy wiped the shaving cream off to show him. He bent over so that Matthew could get a closer look. "Do you see all this stubble on my face?" Andy said to him. Matthew nodded. "Well, I shave it off so that it's smoother to touch. But, sometimes I keep it because Sharon likes it" Andy said to Matthew, hoping he understood.

Matthew watched Andy begin to shave again. "Does that hurt?" Matthew asked him. "No, it doesn't as long as you are gentle with the razor" Andy said as he continued shaving. He looked back at Matthew. "Why don't you go and get dressed. Sharon is making breakfast" Andy said to Matthew and Matthew got up and went in Rusty's room to change his clothes. After Andy was all done he went in Rusty's room to see if Matthew needed help but he was glad to see that the kid was already dressed, he was just putting his pile of clothes in the laundry basket that was in the room. "Come on, let's go eat" Andy said as they both headed towards the kitchen.

Sharon, Andy, and Matthew all ate breakfast at the table. Rusty got himself ready and said he was meeting Gus later that morning. Provenza had texted Andy's phone asking him what time would be good for them to go over a few things regarding the possibility of Croelick still hanging around. "Provenza wants to know what time is good for you" Andy said to Sharon. "And he is also bringing Patrice with him. She said she could keep an eye on Matthew as we discuss business" Andy added. "Tell him in an hour is fine. Where are we meeting?" Sharon said back to Andy. "They are going to come here" Andy told her as she started to clear the table. He got up and helped her clean up the kitchen as Matthew got up and went over to the living room to play with Moxie.

An hour later, Provenza and Patrice came over. This was the first time Patrice was meeting Matthew. "Hello Matthew" Patrice said to him as she walked in the living room. Matthew was shy. Sharon explained to Matthew who Patrice was. "This is Lieutenant Provenza's wife" Sharon said to Matthew. He walked over to Patrice. "Hi" he said in a quiet voice. "What book are you reading there?" Patrice asked Matthew as she saw him holding a book. "It's about lizards" Matthew said. "Oh, those are my favorite" Patrice said to Matthew as she looked back at Sharon. Sharon smiled at Patrice. "Why don't we go in the kitchen and you can tell me all about lizards" she said to Matthew and Matthew went with Patrice. Sharon then turned her attention to her two Lieutenants who were sitting in the living room. Moxie came up to Provenza and wanted him to pet him. "I'm not a dog person" Provenza told Moxie as he looked at him. Moxie looked at Andy. "It's okay" Andy said to Moxie as he petted him as he sat next to Andy.

"Is patrol still sitting out there?" Andy asked Provenza. "No, I told them they could go back to the precinct" Provenza said to Andy. Sharon joined them in the living room. "So do we know if Croelick went back to Fresno?" she asked Provenza. "No Captain, we don't. I called Fresno police to have them drive by his place and let me know if they see him there, but they don't have the manpower to conduct a well-being check right now" Provenza said to Sharon. "We sort of found out how he knew about Sharon's kids, but we still don't know how he knew about mine" Andy said to Provenza as he pulled out his laptop and showed him the video. "I don't think he is a threat to our children, Lieutenant but it is still creepy just thinking about it and considering last night's smoke and fire in the dumpster here" Sharon said to Provenza. "Well Captain, the fire department ruled it as an accident. Do you want us to do our own investigation, off the record, of course?" Provenza asked. Sharon looked at Andy and then back at Provenza.

"By the book, but off the record, Lieutenant" Sharon said to Provenza as she got up to see how Matthew and Patrice were doing in the kitchen. She walked over to the table where they sat and joined the two. Matthew was telling Patrice all about lizards and how some lizards can change colors while others can regrow tails. Patrice looked at Sharon as she sat down. "Wow, that is very interesting Matthew. I did not know that about lizards" Patrice said to him. "Did you know that the largest lizard is the komodo dragon?" he said to Sharon as he pointed at the picture and showed her. "No, I did not know that Matthew" Sharon said as she smiled at him.

Provenza looked at Andy as he was checking his laptop. "We are going to need that report from the fire department" Provenza said to him. "Yeah, and how are we going to get that from them?" Andy said. "It's not like we can just look it up ourselves" Andy added. "Hold on, we can look it up" Provenza said as he pulled out his phone and started to dial a number. "Who are you calling?" Andy asked him. "Mike, it's Provenza. No we didn't catch a case, officially. I need to ask you something" Provenza said on the phone as he looked back at Andy.

About twenty minutes later, Mike entered the condo and carried a bag of computer equipment with him. Andy had answered the door and showed him to where he and Provenza were sitting. Sharon looked back from where she was in the kitchen with Patrice and Matthew and wondered why all of a sudden Mike was here. She got up and walked over to where they were in the living room. "Hello Mike" Sharon said to him. "Hi, Captain" Mike said hesitantly as he was setting up the computer equipment. Sharon walked over to where Andy was sitting and whispered in his ear. "What's going on sweetie?" she asked him. "Mike is just helping us, unofficially, find some information" Andy said to her. She looked at him with a worried look on her face. She looked at Mike who was talking with Provenza while setting something up. "Okay" she said to Andy as she went back to the kitchen.

Mike had brought over some equipment to hack into the Los Angeles Fire Department's intranet which is where all of the fire reports were kept. "Are you sure this is legal?" Andy whispered over at the both of them. "We are not going to get caught" Mike said to him. Andy didn't want to know why Mike had this computer equipment with him nor did he want to know why Provenza knew Mike's hacking abilities. The less he knew the better his chances were when Sharon started asking questions, which he knew she would. "Okay, let's see what we can see here, shall we" Mike said as he started to navigate through the system. "Here is the report from the dumpster fire last night. I will print it out" Mike said and he entered some information on the keyboard and about a minute later, the report printed from the printer that Sharon had at her desk. "See, piece of cake" Mike said to Provenza and Andy as he handed the report to them. Mike then disconnected everything.

Andy looked over the report first and then handed it to Provenza. "It says here the bin was melted around the middle" Andy said to them as he kept reading. "There was minor damage to the insulation above the dumpster" Provenza stated to them. "Why was the dumpster melted around the middle?" Mike asked the two of them. "There had to be some sort of starter concentrated in the middle of the dumpster" Mike added to the investigation. "Yeah, but what, there is nothing else listed in this report" Andy said to Mike. Mike shrugged his shoulders. "We could go down there ourselves and have a look around" he said to Provenza and Andy as he held up his evidence bag he always carries around with him.

"We'll be back" Andy said out loud as they were headed for the front door. "Wait, where are you guys going?" Sharon asked them as she followed them to the door. "You said you wanted us to investigate off the record, right?" Andy asked her. She looked at him and knew they were up to something. "Right" she said to him and he winked back at her. The three of them headed downstairs to the dumpster, leaving Sharon wondering what her three Lieutenants were getting in to. She shook her head as the door closed behind them and headed back in the kitchen.

"So tell me about your new house, when are you moving?" Patrice said to Sharon as she came back and sat down with them. "It's very lovely, I can show you some pictures of it on my phone. We move this Wednesday" Sharon said to Patrice as she showed her the pictures of their house. "Oh my goodness! Sharon this home is gorgeous" Patrice said as she flipped through the pictures. "That entranceway, wow!" she added. "There's a pool too!" Matthew said to her as he was coloring in his book. "That's great, do you know how to swim Matthew?" Patrice asked him. "Um, no" he said shaking his head. "Hmm, well we will have to teach you then" Sharon said to Matthew smiling at him.

Andy, Provenza, and Mike made their way down to where the dumpster was located and saw the mess that the fire created. "Yep, I would say this is definitely melted in the middle" Mike said as he pointed to the area he was looking at. Mike then peeked over the side of the dumpster for any sort of clues. Andy was looking around the outside of the dumpster for any clues that the fire department missed. He then looked up at the ceiling to see if there were any cameras in the area. All of the times that he has been at Sharon's condo, he has never been to the area that held the dumpster. He walked back around to join Provenza and Mike. "There's no cameras in the area, well that I can tell at least" Andy said to them. Mike was holding onto the dumpster with one hand, wanting to get an even closer look. "Hey, can one of you help me here?" Mike said to Andy and Provenza. They both looked at each other and Provenza took a step back. Andy looked back at him and stepped towards Mike. "What do you need?" Andy asked Mike as he came up next to him. "There's some residue located on the inside of the dumpster where the fire was. I need to get some samples of that and it should tell us how the fire was started" Mike said to Andy.

"Ah, be careful Mike" Provenza said to Mike as he was climbing into the dumpster with the help of Andy. Mike was able to scrape some of the residue off and placed it in a sample jar. "I can have the lab run this and we should know a lot tomorrow" Mike said as he climbed out of the dumpster. "There's no cameras around here?" Mike asked. "I took a look around, I didn't see any" Andy said to him. Just then a janitor came walking by the gentlemen. "Hey, what are you doing there?" the janitor questioned them. "Official police business sir, nothing to worry about" Provenza said to him and flashed him his LAPD badge. The janitor went about his business. Andy smacked Provenza on the shoulder. "What are you doing, this is not official police business" Andy said to Provenza. "Relax Flynn, he's not going to tell anybody anyways so it does not matter" Provenza said back to Andy.

"Do you think we could get fingerprints off of this dumpster?" Andy asked Mike. "I'm sure we could, the question is how many fingerprints can we get" Mike said as he pulled out his fingerprint dusting kit from his bag. After he was done collecting the fingerprints, the three of them headed back upstairs. Andy opened the front door to the condo and they made their way back inside to the living room. Sharon and Patrice were still talking and drinking hot tea now and Matthew was watching a cartoon on the TV. Sharon heard them come back in and asked Matthew to turn the TV off so they could continue to work in the living room area. Matthew did and he went back to where Sharon and Patrice were, Moxie following him there.

Mike gathered his things back up and placed them all in his duffle bag that he brought with. "I'll see you guys tomorrow at work" Mike said as he started to head out the door. "See you tomorrow, Captain" Mike said and then he left. Andy winced when he came back to the couch and sat down. Provenza saw it. "Are you okay?" Provenza asked him as he saw his friend hold his side. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just my rib hurts on this side every once in a while, since that bullet grazed my vest" Andy said as he looked back at Provenza. "Does the Captain know about this?" he said in a low voice. Andy looked at him and shook his head no. "When are you going to learn?" Provenza said in a lower voice as to not attract attention from the ladies in the kitchen. "I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, and Sharon's coming with me so, I'll tell her then" Andy said. Provenza just shook his head.

Sharon walked over to the two sitting on the couch. "So, do I have to ask or is everything okay?" she said to them as they looked at each other. "Everything is fine" Andy said with a smile. Sharon knew something was up but decided to ask Andy later. Patrice walked passed Sharon. "Are you all set to go Louie?" Patrice asked him. "Oh, um yes Patrice" Provenza said as he stood up and went around the couch to join her. "Louie is taking me shopping after we leave here" Patrice said to Sharon as she looked back at Provenza. "Have fun shopping!" Sharon said to Patrice and walked the two of them to the door. "Thanks for coming over Lieutenant" Sharon said to Provenza. Andy stood up and joined them at the door. "Good luck tomorrow morning" Provenza said to Andy and shook his hand. Patrice and Provenza then exited their condo and headed to their car.

Andy closed the door and walked back to the living room with Sharon. "Why was he saying good luck to you?" Sharon inquired as she sat down on the couch. Andy joined her there. "Oh, well, because of my doctor's appointment tomorrow morning" Andy said to her as he carefully moved his arm around her. Matthew came over to them sitting on the couch. "Matthew, would you like to go and do something this afternoon?" Sharon asked him. "Like what?" Matthew asked her. "We could go to the park" Sharon suggested. "Can Moxie come with us?" Matthew asked them. "Sure buddy" Andy said as he got up from the couch. He hesitated before standing all the way up. Sharon saw this and was at his side in seconds. "Are you okay?" Sharon asked him. "I'm fine" Andy said in a hushed tone. Sharon looked at him with concern on her face. Andy walked away from Sharon and headed towards the kitchen to pick up Moxie's leash. Sharon shook her head at him and proceeded to get Matthew ready to go to the park.

Minutes later, they arrive at the park and Sharon opens Matthew's door for him and he gets out of the car. He holds Sharon's hand as they make their way towards a playground. She looks back at Andy who has the dog on the leash and is walking towards them. "Where are you going?" she asked Andy as he walked passed her and Matthew. "I was just going to walk Moxie around the park" Andy said to her. "If Matthew wants to play in the playground, you can stay here with him. I'll be back in twenty minutes or so" Andy added. Sharon looked back at him. "No, you are staying in my sites, Andy, unless you want to tell me what's bothering you" Sharon said as she looked at him. "Alright" Andy said as he took her hand in his and they went to go sit on a bench to watch Matthew play. Moxie walked with them and also sat down.

"Promise me you won't get mad" Andy started to say to Sharon as they sat down. "I don't like the sound of that" Sharon said to him. "It's not bad. Okay, ever since that bullet grazed my vest, my rib in that area has been hurting every once in a while" he said to her. Sharon's face showed concern right away. "Does it hurt you right now?" Sharon asked him. "No, it comes and goes" Andy said to her. "Andy, didn't you think with all of your health problems you should have told me about this when it happened?" Sharon said to him. "It didn't hurt until a couple of days later, and it went away" Andy said to her. Sharon looked to see where Matthew was playing and then looked back at Andy. "Are you mad?" he asked her. "Why do you keep hiding your health problems from me?" Sharon asked him. Her face looked completely hurt and Andy hated that. "Because I didn't think anything of it and it didn't really bother me until this morning when I helped Mike climb into the dumpster" Andy said to her. Sharon took a deep breath. "You will be telling the doctor tomorrow morning" Sharon said to him and Andy nodded. "And I will be going with you" Sharon added and Andy nodded to that too.

Matthew spent two hours playing at the park when Sharon looked at her watch. It was getting late and they needed to figure out what they were doing for dinner. It was just going to be the three of them since Rusty was still hanging out with Gus. Sharon walked over to get Matthew as Andy stood up from the bench. He looked to see Sharon speak with Matthew and then he glanced around the park at everyone else. There were people tossing the Frisbee around and others having a good time. The playground was packed with kids playing. He then looked over to their left and he saw Croelick standing off in the distance. He looked over to where Sharon was at and then looked back and Croelick was still standing there. Sharon came up to Andy with Matthew by her side. "Croelick is here watching us" he whispered to her. Sharon eyes panicked as she looked around them. As Andy was looking back at where Croelick stood, Croelick started to walk away towards the parking lot on the other side. "He's getting away" he said to Sharon as he started to walk his direction but Sharon held him back. He looked at her but Sharon just shook her head and he knew what that meant, stand down.

TBC