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: Thank you everyone for the wonderful reviews that you have left on this story. I really appreciate them!

Chapter 14

Andy looked at Sharon one more time before he opened the door to Doctor Peters' office. He stepped inside and waited for Sharon before he walked over to the receptionist. "Hi, I have an appointment with Doctor Peters at 7, the last name is Flynn," Andy informed her and noticed that Sharon was right by his side. "Have a seat, Doctor Peters will be right with you," the receptionist told Andy. He nodded and Sharon led him over to a set of chairs in the waiting area.

"Andy, if you don't want me to go in with you, I can stay out here," Sharon informed him, noticing his right leg was bouncing as he sat in the chair. She placed her hand on his leg to calm him down and he stopped. "Sorry," he mumbled as they waited. Andy realized that he didn't answer Sharon's question as the door to the office opened and Doctor Peters was standing there.

"Lieutenant, it's good to see you again. Come on in," Doctor Peters gestured for Andy to follow him and he stood up, but noticed that Sharon was still sitting down. "Please come with me," he said to her, quietly. She nodded and stood up to join him. Doctor Peters looked at Andy and Sharon as they stepped inside his office.

"Hey Doc, it's been a while since I've been here," Andy shook his hand as they stepped inside the office. There was a couch and four sets of chairs along with a desk in the corner. The room looked cozy, not how Andy had remembered it when he attended family counseling years ago. "Yes, it has Lieutenant," he told Andy and looked over at Sharon. "And you are?" he inquired to her and Andy interrupted. "Oh, sorry Doc, where are my manners. This is Sharon, my wife," Andy introduced her.

"Nice to finally meet you, Sharon. I've heard a lot about you through the years," Doctor Peters told her which surprised Sharon. She knew that Andy had mentioned her name when he was attending family counseling with Nicole and his ex-wife, but she didn't know to what extent he had mentioned her. Sharon smiled at his greeting and then followed Andy to the couch where he had sat down on.

"So, Andy, from what I gathered during your phone call, you wanted to discuss some things that had been troubling you recently," Doctor Peters sat down across from them. "Uh, yeah, that's correct," Andy clasped his hands together as he sat there. Sharon reached over and touched his left hand, which he released and she held his hand in hers. He took a deep breath before he started.

"Two weeks ago, Sharon got shot on the job, and," Andy closed his eyes and Sharon squeezed his hand gently, letting him know she was there. "And I was good, I mean, we were at an apartment building, going to talk to one of the suspects that we were investigating, and I knew something was up when the guy answered the door and told us to hang on a second," he continued as he looked at the doctor.

"Why didn't I do something right then, I don't know, and I've asked myself that, but I just stood there waiting for the guy to return and I glanced at Sharon who was across from me at that time. The guy came back, opened the door and started shooting," Andy told him as the doctor took some notes down on a pad of paper. Sharon watched Andy as he continued to recount that afternoon.

"I got Sharon out of there as quickly as I could and into a stairwell, but instead of going down the stairs, I headed up the stairs, pushing Sharon up as well," he continued as his right hand went up to his face. "I get her safely to an open room and shut the door behind us, meanwhile the two guys were still shooting at us, I think I fired my weapon a couple of times and I know Sharon did as well," he said as he looked at her.

"Long story short, she's shot in her arm and I didn't realize at the time but also her side had bullet fragments from one of the bullets going through her vest. I ended up getting us out of the building as they were still shooting at us and I get her to our car and drive her to the nearest hospital," he ended his explanation.

"Is that all that happened that day, Andy?" Doctor Peters asked him but Andy didn't understand the question. "What do you mean?" he asked him. "Well, getting shot at close quarters, or any case is quite traumatic to begin with, everybody's body reacts differently, it seems like you kept your cool under the pressure and got Sharon to safety," Doctor Peters explained as Andy shifted on the couch.

"But, I'd like to know, once you got her to the hospital, was there any other traumatic experiences that occurred? What I meant by that is were there any complications once you got her there, or did anything happen while you were at the hospital?" Doctor Peters tried to clarify his question.

"Uh, yeah, that night after she woke up the second time in her room, we talked and then she went back to sleep. I had fallen asleep by her bedside and woke up to alarms ringing. Nurses and a doctor rushed into the room and worked on stabilizing her," Andy spoke and turned his head to look at Sharon. She looked at him and gave a slight smile to assure him that it was okay to talk about it.

"How did you feel when that was happening, as you watched them work on your wife," Doctor Peters asked him and Andy took a deep breath. "I couldn't breathe," his voice staggered. "I felt like my whole world was crashing, my chest tightened, I lost my footing but the nurse placed her hand on my arm to steady me," he added and cleared his throat. "I felt like I couldn't protect you," he turned to Sharon.

"Andy," Sharon whispered as she listened to him speak to the doctor. She didn't know what happened because Andy never told her what he was feeling when that occurred. "That's normal to feel that way, especially when you watch someone you love being worked on at the hospital," Doctor Peters told him. Andy looked at his hand, intertwined with Sharon's as the doctor spoke. He didn't want to look at Sharon because he knew if he did, he would certainly see tears forming in her eyes and he couldn't take that right now.

"Andy? Do you still feel that way now?" Doctor Peters asked, trying to get Andy's attention back to him. "Um, no, not really, I mean," Andy paused for a minute before speaking again. "I need her to be alright, and once I know that she will be, then, I think I'll be able to be myself again," he added. "I still have nightmares about the incident itself, but other things are creeping in as well," Andy said. "We'll get to the nightmares in a little bit but I want to touch on what you just said for a moment. You don't feel like yourself right now?" Doctor Peters leaned forward in his chair and looked at the couple sitting on the couch.

"I do and I don't. I want to make sure she is safe and not doing anything to jeopardize her health recovery, and I think by doing that and making sure that she's following her doctor's orders precisely, she's going to start to regret me," he answered him. "I know what it's like to be hovered over as you are recovering from an injury," and as soon as he said those words out loud, he wished he could have taken them back immediately.

Sharon sat upright and looked over at Andy. "Is that what you think I was doing? Hovering over you?" she asked him, not wanting it to come out accusatory. Andy took a deep breath and shook his head. "That's not what I meant," he told her, looking at her. "Then what did you mean?" Sharon asked him, still holding on to his hand, more so for her sake not his.

"How many times have I been injured on the job? At least seven or eight times, I've lost track, but I know you were there for me during each of those times, making sure that I recovered from my injuries or illness, making sure that I followed the doctor's orders and instructions, right?" Andy said to her. "Yes, and how many times did you resist or try to resist in me helping you?" she asked him and Doctor Peters let them talk to one another, not interrupting them. "A majority of them," he mumbled.

"Do you regret Sharon helping you in your recoveries over the years?" Doctor Peters asked him. "No, gosh no," Andy answered and looked at her. "Andy, I would never regret you or resent you from wanting to take care of me," Sharon told him and squeezed his hand gently again. "You're my everything," he confessed to her.

"Are you afraid of losing her, Andy?" Doctor Peters asked him. Andy cleared his throat again. "Doc, I know she would be fine without me, she'd be able to go on each day and carry on, but I don't think I would be able to do the same. It would definitely be a struggle," Andy sighed. Doctor Peters, knowing Andy's background as an alcoholic asked him another hard question.

"Would you crawl into a bottle again if that did happen?" he asked him and Andy wasn't stunned by his question. He knew it would come up. "I'd have to take it one day at a time and I would do my best to get through the day, and if I had to go to meeting after meeting to do so, I would," Andy answered him as honest as he could be.

Doctor Peters sat back in his chair and glanced at the clock. They had still had some time before the session ended and he wanted to see if anything else was underlying with Andy. "How's your marriage between the two of you?" he asked and both Andy and Sharon looked up at him. "Excuse me?" Andy said, irritated at him asking that question but Sharon placed her hand on his back to calm him down.

"Well, besides having a stressful job between the two of you, I'd like to know if there is something else that is or could act like a trigger in your life and marriage," Doctor Peters explained. "We have a nine year old son that we adopted, Matthew's his name and he's been giving us a hard time lately," Sharon told him as Andy sat there.

"That's quite an adjustment, going from adult children to a nine year old," Doctor Peters stated. "Yes, it was, and I had my doubts in the beginning, when we became emergency foster parents to him, but then, he grew into our hearts," Andy informed him. "What type of doubts did you have?" Doctor Peters asked.

"That I'd make the same mistakes I did with my kids, with him," Andy said. "But Andy, wasn't it the mistakes in your first marriage that caused the mistakes with your children back then?" Doctor Peters asked. "That you weren't emotionally ready to be married and have children with Sandra?" he added and Andy sat there wondering where Doctor Peters was going with this. He didn't want to go down the past as Sharon sat there next to him.

"It seems to me, just by watching the two of you together, and all that you spoke about Sharon years before when you attended these sessions with Nicole, Charlie, and Sandra, that your marriage to Sharon is healthy and strong, so you're not going to make the mistakes that you did previously, and you're not going to fail Matthew," Doctor Peters looked at Andy, hoping that his message would assure him. Sharon watched Andy as those words sunk into his head. There was silence for a couple of minutes before Doctor Peters spoke again.

"Okay, let's talk about these nightmares for a minute," Doctor Peters stated and Andy nodded, shifting on the couch as his back was starting to hurt from sitting in the same spot. "What kind of nightmares are you having?" he asked Andy. "About the incident with her getting shot, sometimes she's at the hospital and the outcome is not the same," Andy stated and then hesitated before telling him about his most recent nightmare. He knew he didn't want Sharon to worry about him when he confessed about Croelick.

"The latest one I had was different though, it wasn't about the incident or Sharon in the hospital," Andy started to say. "What was it about then?" Doctor Peters asked. Andy sighed and blew air out of his mouth as he thought about how to tell the doctor and Sharon this. "Uh, well, Sharon and I were at the park with Matthew, and Matthew was playing on the swings. Sharon was watching him and I saw someone starting to approach us," Andy started. "Who approached you?" Doctor Peters asked him.

Andy looked at Sharon and then at the doctor. What could he classify Croelick as? he thought to himself. "A guy from our past, well more my past but, you see Doc, I arrested this guy, he got out on a technicality and showed up last year and this year again, in one of our cases," Andy said and Sharon knew he was talking about Croelick. She shook her head slightly and closed her eyes briefly.

"So this is the guy that was in your dream?" Doctor Peters wanted to clarify and Andy nodded. "I tried calling out to Sharon, in my dream, but she couldn't hear me. I looked to see where Matthew was and he was still on the swings. Croelick, that's the guy's name, approached me but I didn't have my weapon and then the two of us start to struggle. He tells me that he's going to watch them burn and so am I. I fell on my back and watched him get closer to Sharon, I yell louder but then I wake up," Andy finished.

"Is that what you were mumbling in your sleep this morning?" Sharon asked, remembering waking up to Andy's restlessness. Andy nodded. "And is that why you didn't want to tell me about your dream when I asked you this morning? Because you thought I would be upset with you bringing Croelick up again?" Sharon asked him, trying not to sound mad. Andy sighed and ran his right hand through his hair.

"Well, hold that thought right there, I'd hate to interrupt but our time's up already," Doctor Peters informed them. Sharon looked at the doctor and Andy looked down at the floor. "Andy, I think you would benefit from another session, and Sharon, you're more than welcome to come with him as well to the next one," Doctor Peters informed them both.

Sharon wasn't mad as they were leaving the doctor's office, but as they walked back down that hallway towards the elevators, the silence was killing Andy. "Please talk, say something?" Andy spoke to her as they rode down in the elevator. "What do you want me to say?" she asked him and that's when he saw the hurt in her eyes.

He took a deep breath as they stepped out of the elevator and headed over to where they had parked the car. This is exactly what he didn't want and was trying to explain to her at dinner tonight. "You're mad at me?" Andy said, straight to the point as he opened her car door. She stepped in and sat down. "I'm not mad at you," she muttered as he closed her car door and walked over to the driver's side.

Andy slipped inside and eased behind the steering wheel. He didn't start the car because he thought Sharon and him should clear the air first. "I'm not mad at you, Andy," Sharon told him but her voice faltered into a whisper. "I just wish you would have told me about your dream this morning when I had asked you, that's all," Sharon stated and he nodded. "I'm sorry," he muttered as he looked her in the eye.

"Don't you trust me?" she asked him. "Of course I do!" he pleaded with her in a voice barely above a whisper. He took her hand in his and held it between his two hands. "Sharon, I trust you with everything," he added. "Then how come you didn't tell me when I asked you this morning?" she said, taking a deep breath of her own.

"I didn't want to bog you down with a stupid dream, or worry you too much because you need to focus on recovering and getting better," Andy told her, lowering his chin to his chest, hanging his head. "Andy?" she lifted his chin like she had so many other times before. "Hmm?" he grunted, now looking at her again. "You can always tell me whatever it is that's bothering you or whatever you dreamt about," she said and he nodded, hesitantly.

"Let's go home, see how the evening went with the rest of the gang, okay?" Sharon told him and he started the car. "Yes ma'am," he gave her a smile. She smiled back at him and all of a sudden, it seemed like everything was right again between them.

TBC