Chapter 9:

"This is ridiculous," Sharon said, annoyed. She tried to close the door but Richard stopped it with his hand.

"You're still using my name after 20 years," he said. Sharon rolled her eyes. "Look," he said quickly to avoid an argument, "I just want us to make peace. Nothing more." Sharon stared at him quietly, trying to decide if he was being honest or not. "Well, maybe a little more, who knows… you could never really resist me," he added and smiled arrogantly again, looking up and down her body.

Sharon heard footsteps behind her and turned quickly. Flynn approached them, frowning. "So that's the asshole?" he asked. She turned back to Richard, nervous.

"Fine, we'll talk," she said hastily and tried to close the door again.

"Wait, aren't you going to introduce -" Richard disappeared behind the closed door.

Sharon turned to Flynn and leaned on the door, trying to look indifferent. He stared at her for a while, waiting for her to speak, but she just shook her head and tried to prevent the tears from rolling down her cheeks. The worst thing to do, in her opinion, was to cry in front of people.

"He doesn't look so scary," Flynn said eventually and smiled a little. Sharon smiled bitterly and leaned her head on the door for a moment.

"Maybe you should go too," she said quietly.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay? On you couch," he said, adding the last part quickly.

"You would do that?" she asked, surprised.

"You would too, if you saw the disturbed look on your face," he said softly, and Sharon dropped her gaze.

(***)

The next day, Sharon didn't hear a word from Richard. It bothered her, because she knew he wasn't going to leave her until he gets what he wants, and she was sure he wanted something. She tried to ignore the thought of him all day, without much success.

After work she went home alone, since Flynn had an AA meeting. He offered to skip it and accompany her, but she wouldn't hear about it. Eventually, they settled on him coming over after the meeting.

Sharon was sitting at the table with her laptop, checking the time every few minutes. Flynn was supposed to be there half an hour ago, but she didn't hear from him. She figured the meeting lasted longer than expected, so in the meantime she made sure the door was locked and tried not to think about Richard.

Her iPhone startled her when it rang. The screen showed "Lt. John Martin". She wondered for a moment if she should take the call after evading him ever since he asked her out. Eventually she decided to answer. "Lieutenant Martin, hi," she said.

"Sharon… where are you?" he asked right away, skipping the small talk.

"I'm… home, why?" she asked in confusion, thinking that it was a weird way to ask her out, if that's what he was doing.

"FID was just called on a scene where an officer was attacked," he said, pausing for a second. Sharon felt her heart sink. There's only one reason for him to call her with that information.

"It's someone from my division, isn't it?" she asked in fear.

"Yes, actually… It's Lieutenant Flynn. And he was with special agent Howard, but he's the FBI's concern."

Sharon got to her feet quickly. "Wait, they were both hurt?"

Martin told her to meet him in the hospital and get all the details there. She grabbed her purse and jacket, and headed out quickly, almost running.

By the time she reached the hospital, the whole squad was there, standing outside Flynn's room. Sharon scanned them for a second and saw Provenza talking to Martin. She approached them and they stopped talking. "Captain Raydor -"

"I want to know all the details," she cut Martin off anxiously, to Provenza's surprise.

"Okay…" Martin said slowly. "Lieutenant Flynn was at an AA meeting –"

"With agent Howard," Provenza interrupted him. Sharon nodded and looked back at Martin.

"Anyway, after they said goodbye, agent Howard went to his car, which was parked somewhere else because he was late and couldn't find a parking space near the –"

Provenza was too impatient to listen to all the little details. He took a step forward and cut Martin off again, saying, "Flynn was attacked in the parking lot by two guys and when he shot at them, agent Howard heard it and ran back to help him. Now they're both injured."