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.
Chapter 10
Provenza was sitting at his desk when Mike and Buzz walked back in to the Murder Room. "Anything yet, Lieutenant?" Buzz asked Provenza as he handed him a cup of coffee. "Flynn just texted me, they are taking her for an MRI. The doctor says he thinks it's just a mild concussion" Provenza said to everyone. "Why the MRI then?" Buzz asked. "They need to rule out if there is any swelling or bleeding around the brain. A blow to the head can cause a lot of symptoms, it's just a precaution" Mike explained to the team. Provenza sat back in his chair and thought about something. His desk phone rang a minute later. "Lieutenant Provenza, Major Crimes" he said as he answered his phone. "Lieutenant, it's Captain Manning, Hollywood Traffic Division" the person on the phone said to him. "Yes, Captain Manning, what can I do you for?" Provenza said to him over the phone. "Understand your Captain and Lieutenant got into a car accident this morning" he said to Provenza. "Yes, that's right" Provenza said back to him, getting irritated over the phone. "Wanted to let you know that we found the car and the driver who hit your Captain and Lieutenant" Captain Manning said. "Well, that's great news Captain. I'm wondering if one of my detectives could stop by and interview the subject. You see, we are currently working on a case and I want to rule out any connection" Provenza informed Captain Manning. "No problem, Lieutenant, he's going to be here for a while" Captain Manning said and then Provenza hung up his phone.
"Hollywood Traffic has the punk that caused the crash this morning. Julio, you and Amy go interview the subject there and see if there's any connection with our current case" Provenza said to them. "Yes sir" Julio said and both he and Amy stood up and left the office. "In the meantime, Mike, did you get any information on the driver, just so we know who and what we are dealing with?" Provenza said to Mike. "Yes, his name is Michael West, 17 years old, and his father owns the car he drove" Mike said to Provenza. "No priors" Mike added as he leaned back in his chair. "So he borrows the car to go joy riding in the morning?" Buzz asked them. "We should find out soon enough!" Provenza said back to Mike and Buzz, as he texted Andy the news.
Andy was still sitting in the room in the ER when he phone buzzed alerted to a text message. It was from Provenza stating that Hollywood Traffic got the person and he was sending Julio and Amy there to rule out any connection to D'Angelo. Andy texted him back. 'Glad to hear we got the dirt bag' was the message he sent back and then placed his phone back in his pocket. He glanced at his watch, it had only been fifteen minutes since they took Sharon for the test, but to Andy it seemed like hours. He knew that a general MRI test would take about thirty to forty minutes. He would wait forever if it meant that Sharon would be okay. He looked back at her ring he was holding. "Please let her be okay" he said out loud to himself. He loved her hands as he continued looking at her ring in his hand. They always fitted perfectly into his whenever he would hold them. The nurse entered the room again. Andy looked up as she entered. "Can I get you anything while you wait? Coffee, tea, water?" the nurse asked Andy. "I'm fine, thank you" Andy said back to her and then she left the room. Truth was Andy was too nervous to drink anything while he waited for Sharon.
Andy knew that he should probably let Rusty know what happened to them this morning. He also knew that Sharon wouldn't want her kids worrying about her. He decided to text Rusty a simple message. 'Your mom and I were in a small car accident this morning. Nothing major' he said in his text message. He knew Rusty was in class and wasn't able to respond right away. Andy continued to wait.
Sharon was lying on a table that they moved into the MRI machine and was told that she had to remain still for them to get good pictures. As she laid there on the table for what seemed like hours to her, she thought about all of the things she still wanted to do with Andy and their family. She counted the days on how long they had Matthew in their foster care which was 68 days so far. She also went through how her and her team were going to piece together D'Angelo's involvement in the kidnapping. Yes, she realized as she lay there, that there couldn't be anything wrong with her brain if she was able to go through all of these different things as she was in the machine. "You did great, Sharon. Got some really good pictures too. We are now going to move you out, okay?" the MRI technician said to her over the speaker. "Okay" she replied back to them. The technician and the nurse came in to the room and moved her out of the MRI machine. Sharon then slowly sat up and with the help of the nurse, transferred herself back onto the hospital bed. She was headed back in to the room where she left Andy.
Andy's head perked up when he heard someone coming down the hall and then he saw Sharon being wheeled back in the room and he stood up and smiled at her. When they settled her back in, he took her left hand in his and placed both rings back on her finger. She smiled at the gesture. "How are you feeling?" Andy asked her. "Better, my head doesn't hurt as bad as it did when we got here" Sharon said to him. He looked in her eyes as she seemed to be returning back to him. He smiled at her as he bent down and kissed her forehead. "I love you" he said to her. "I love you too, Andy" she said back to him. He held her hand in his as he took a seat next to her bed. They waited for the doctor to return with the results.
About five minutes later, Doctor Rosenberg came back inside the room where Sharon and Andy were waiting. The nurse accompanied him. "Okay, Mrs. Flynn, there's nothing abnormal we see on your MRI" he said to her as he placed the pictures up on the light board for them to see. "Everything here looks normal, no signs of swelling which is very good" he continued as he pointed to an area on the picture. "That's great news" Andy said to Sharon and the doctor. "Does your head still hurt, Mrs. Flynn?" Doctor Rosenberg asked her. "No, not as much as it did earlier" Sharon answered. "Good, I want you to keep taking Tylenol for the pain, if needed" Doctor Rosenberg said to her. He then walked over to where she was sitting and checked her eyes again. "I just want to check your pupils to see if they are reacting normally now" Doctor Rosenberg explained to her. He then shined a light up at them to see the reaction they took. "Much better response than before" he said out loud and the nurse took note of it. "Okay, the nurse here will give you some information about concussions and I am going to release you" Doctor Rosenberg stated to both of them. "If your headache gets worse, you start to have sharp pains or if your symptoms of confusion or dizziness come back, please see your doctor or come back here, alright?" Doctor Rosenberg said to Sharon. "Okay, thank you Doctor" Sharon said to him and then the doctor left. "Okay, here is some paperwork on mild concussions and what to do for them. You need to be monitored for the first 24 hours just to make sure that you don't lose consciousness. When you go to bed tonight, you need to be woken up regularly, maybe every two hours, just to make sure you are able to waken normally" the nurse explained to Sharon and Andy. "Thank you" Andy said to her as she handed him the paperwork. "You are all set then. I hope you feel better" the nurse said and then left the room and closed the door.
Sharon and Andy looked at each other. "Come on, let's get you dressed again" Andy said to her as he helped her take her gown off and put her clothes back on. He then placed the necklace around her neck and gave her the bracelets back. Once she was all dressed again, he handed her weapon back and she placed it on her belt again along with her badge. They then left the ER and headed back to their car, which was still parked outside where Andy had left it. He helped Sharon sit back in the car and then he proceeded to get in and then drove them to the PAB. Andy glanced back at Sharon and saw her leaning her head back and her eyes were closed. "Are you okay?" Andy asked her. "Yes, I'm fine" she said to him. "Don't worry Andy" she said as she took hold of his right hand and held it the rest of the drive in to work.
It had been four hours since they left their house this morning when they finally arrived in the parking garage. Once the car was parked, Andy got out and opened the door for Sharon. He then helped her out of the car and grabbed her bag for her. They walked hand in hand towards the elevators and then headed up to their floor. Once they entered the Murder Room, Provenza stood up and walked over to them. Buzz and Mike stood up as well and Sharon gave them a wave to stay where they were. "Captain, how are you feeling?" Provenza said to her. Sharon looked at him and smiled. "I'm fine, Lieutenant. I hear Hollywood caught the person that hit us this morning" Sharon said to him as she continued to walk in to her office. "Yes, I sent Julio and Amy over there to interview the guy just to make sure he doesn't have ties to our latest case" Provenza said to her as she sat down behind her desk. Andy handed her bag to her and she placed it on the floor next to her chair. Sharon took a deep breath. "Good, okay so we need to figure out how we can tie D'Angelo in to the kidnappings without the help of Dan Miller and Jimmy Caputo" Sharon said without skipping a beat.
Meanwhile, over at Hollywood Traffic Division, Julio and Amy were interviewing Michael West in one of the rooms there. "Michael, heard you got into a traffic accident this morning, want to tell us about it?" Julio said to him. Michael just looked at Julio and didn't say anything. "Do you know who's car you hit this morning?" Julio said as he was starting to get a little angry. Amy looked at Julio and then back at Michael. "No" Michael said to him. "You know you went through a red light, right?" Amy said to him. "And then after you hit a car, and cause an accident, you left the scene" Amy continued. "That doesn't look good for you, Michael. Plus the car you hit was a LAPD police car carrying a Lieutenant and a Captain inside" Amy explained further. "Are you going to let my dad know?" Michael asked as he listened to what Amy was saying to him. "Well, you are under 18 and we do have to notify your parents about this" Amy said to him. "You were driving your dad's car, weren't you?" Julio asked him. "Yeah" Michael said. "Did you take it without permission?" Julio asked him. Michael nodded to him.
"Did anyone tell you to hit that car this morning?" Amy asked him. "What? No. I was late going somewhere and the stupid light changed but I thought I still had time to turn right but I didn't see that car" Michael said to them. "Do you know Ricky D'Angelo?" Amy asked him. "No" Michael said as he shook his head. "So what happens next?" Michael asked them. "That's up to traffic division now" Julio said to him as he and Amy stepped out of the room. Julio walked over to Captain Manning who was standing in the hallway. "Thank you" Julio said to the Captain as he shook his hand. "He's not tied to our case, so he's all yours" Amy said to the officers. Captain Manning then handed over some paperwork to Julio. "Here is the information about the insurance on the car and other info your Captain may need" Captain Manning said to Julio and Amy. "Thanks" Julio said as the both of them left their office and headed back to the PAB.
Provenza received a text from Julio as they left Hollywood. "Julio says the guy that Hollywood picked up is not related to our case. Just a kid late for something and took his father's car without permission" Provenza said as he stood up and walked over to Andy sitting at his desk. Sharon came out of her office and joined the two of them there. "What an idiot" Andy said to Provenza. Sharon placed her hand on Andy's shoulder. "So we were just simply at the wrong place at the wrong time" Sharon said to them. "Yes, and because of Mr. Joyrider, you have a concussion" Andy said to her. Sharon shook her head. "It was an accident, Andy" she said to him as she patted his shoulder. "Here's the paperwork needed for the accident, the motor pool will need it so they can fix the car" she said as she handed the paperwork to Andy. Andy looked at it and sighed. He then turned around in his chair and watched Sharon go back in to her office and sit down behind her desk. "It could have been a lot worse" Provenza said to Andy as he watched him watch Sharon. "Yeah, I know that" Andy said back to him and then turned around in his chair and proceeded to fill out the paperwork. He knew that it could have been a lot worse, and he was thankful every moment that Sharon was okay.
TBC