"Sir?"
"Yeah Sanchez, what's up?" Andy looked at the Detective, then returned his gaze to the coffee on the counter.
"Well Sir, I'm just wondering what we're supposed to do with Lt. Provenza."
"Do with him? What are you talking about."
"I know you saw it too, you gave him a look when the Captain asked you to go into the interview room. He's purposefully trying to cut the Captain out of this investigation."
"Yeah..." Flynn sighed wearily.
The two of them remained in silence for a few minutes. Flynn stirring his coffee and contemplating what to do about the situation, while Sanchez watched and waited.
"Here's the thing, Sanchez, the Chain of Command is the Chain of Command. We don't break it. The Captain is our Division Head, and that's the way it is."
"Understood, Sir."
"Provenza will come around."
"You think so?"
Andy moved over to slump down in one of the seats at a table, and Julio joined him. "He better, Julio, that's all I got to say. It's like being in the middle of a tug of war, each side wanting to win and I feel torn because I know what both sides are trying to do."
"I'm not seeing much tugging, Sir. I see the Captain doing her job as always, and I see the Lieutenant trying to undermine her."
"He needs his ass kicked, the old bastard," Andy said before taking a gulp from his coffee. "I could not believe he pulled that bullshit with Sykes this morning. She's having a hard enough time trying to find a place in this division, and he keeps pushing her."
"He's pushing both of them."
"Yeah, and doing a damn find impersonation of a chauvinist while he's at it. You should have seen her, Julio, she was practically quivering to keep her temper in check."
"I saw her face. That was enough for me. Sykes was caught in the middle, too."
"Yeah she was, but she had the smarts to look over at the Captain for approval before following Provenza's order, technically making it the Captain's order. Raydor though... she was keeping it controlled, but it wouldn't have taken much to push her over. See, I get where he's coming from. Taylor is a rat and he had no problem sticking Provenza's face in it the first chance he got. He should have been told up front and in private that he wasn't going to run the division. That's just common decency, and Taylor is short on decency. But this anger Provenza has at Raydor, like she did this to him personally, that's just over the top. She's just doing the job she was given to do, like she did before. She's got this new division to figure out, and then taking that kid into her home. The last thing she needs is her Second in Command trying to push her out of the way."
"What's your solution, Lieutenant?"
"There's on only one from what I can see, and that's back up the Captain until she does something really wrong."
"And then what?"
"And then... I haven't got the foggiest, Julio. From what I know of her, she's a good manager, she's good with her staff and she's fair. Her detective skills might be a bit out of practice, but they're there. She's running hard to catch up, and the last thing she needs is to be hit between the eyes."
"Sounds like you're already comfortable working with her."
"She's alright, you know what I'm saying? She's smart and she doesn't let people's attitude throw her, not even mine. That's why her reaction today to Provenza was so surprising. If he can get to her after just a short period of time, how tightly strung is she?"
"It can't be easy with that kid around 24/7. If I had ever spoken to my mother like that when I was a teenager, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you."
"Me either. I don't know what she was thinking taking him into her home like that. Me, I would have dropped that piece of ungrateful garbage on his sorry ass in a group home and walked away. He never seems to miss an opportunity to put her down, and she just takes it like it's nothing. No one can keep that up. Add Provenza to the mix, and I gotta tell you, I'm a little worried."
"You think she won't be able to handle the stress of the job?" Julio asked.
"Yes and no. She strikes me as the kind of person who will keep it to herself and try to deal rather than ask for help."
"So what are you going to do about it, Sir?"
"I tell you this, Julio, I'm going to try to snap Provenza out of this funk he's in, tell him how he's now free to do the stuff he loves rather than the paperwork he'd been complaining about for weeks."
"And the Captain?"
"If Provenza won't step up to the plate and be her proper Second in Command, then I'm going to do it. She'd hate me saying it, but she needs someone to help her through, be her sounding board, give her hints on how things work. Hell, I'll even bring her coffee and force her to eat if that's what she needs to keep on top of things."
"Understood, Sir," Julio told him again, a little surprised at Flynn's passion.
"That goes for you too. If she needs some clarification or some suggestion on what's worked well in the past, just offer it to her. She says she wants to hear ideas, so go with that. Provenza will come around when he sees the entire division isn't taking his side."
"He's pretty stubborn, Sir. That's going to take some time."
"Yup, but it's either that or let Major Crimes be destroyed from the inside, and I'm not going to see that happen." Andy's phone buzzed in his pocket. Taking it out he smirked as he read it. "Got a text from Hobbs. Gotta go. Hang in there Sanchez, we'll get this division through."