21
It's been a long day and Andy's tired, rubbing his eyes as he scans another one of the documents from the ten boxes that have been brought over. They split them up between them but there are still too many. Sometimes he hates police work. Mostly when it is as tedious and tiring as going through credit card reports to find clues as to a suspect's whereabouts. And of course these aren't their suspect's own credit card statements because that would be far too easy. Sharon approaches his desk looking relaxed as being meticulous comes to her a lot easier than it does to him. He smiles at her and accepts the cup of coffee she is holding out to him while she sticks to her tea. He can smell the honey in it from where he is sitting.
"Found anything?" he asks, stifling a yawn.
"No." Sharon lowers herself into Provenza's empty chair and blows the steam off her mug. Her free hand is resting on her stomach.
"Sick again?" he asks her and she nods, grimacing. "I wish I hadn't lost my lunch over the strangled guy."
"The smell was horrible." Andy tries to comfort her. For a moment they sit in that comfortable silence that comes with being the only ones left in the office, then Sharon takes a casual look around and rolls her chair over towards Andy's so she can rest her head against his shoulder.
"All the cream in the break room seems to have vanished. Do you have anything to do with that, by any chance?"
Andy grins. "Guilty. I saw you gagging over it and decided that you didn't need anything else to make you nauseous."
"Thank you."
He is a little surprised that she doesn't admonish him over meddling with the office's food supplies on her behalf but then he saw her cover her mouth and run when Provenza used whip cream on his coffee. She sneaks her hand into his and leans in to kiss him softly in the corner of his mouth. He likes these little displays of affection when she is sure no one is looking. When the team is around she can be downright standoffish in her attempts to not let anyone see how close she is with Andy.
"Do you want to go home for the day?" he asks. "It's almost nine and it would be a shame to waste the opportunity of having your condo to ourselves. We could pick up some dinner on the way home."
She hesitates and her eyes linger on the stacks of files on Andy's desk but then she nods. "Okay, but I don't think I will be fun company tonight. Thinking about food makes me nauseous and I am exhausted."
He reaches out his hand for her cup.
"Rest for a moment, honey. I'll rinse these and then we can go."
When he returns, Sharon is staring at the autographed baseball on Provenza's desk. She looks deeply immersed in her thoughts while her hand is caressing her stomach. He can see she's connecting with their baby, not trying to keep the nausea at bay this time. He is beginning to spot all those subtle differences in her behavior and it makes him feel like he is the only one who is in on her many secrets. Approaching her, he kisses her cheek, placing his hand on top of hers. He hates it when she's going to crime scenes now, always worried that a suspect will jump out from behind a corner and hurt her and the baby.
"Provenza took me aside today and gave me a lecture on how I should stop hovering over your shoulder all the time," he tells Sharon with an amused tone creeping into his voice. "He says if I got any more protective, I might as well propose to you in front of everyone."
"Yes, you should stop that," she says absent-mindedly which surprises him. He follows her gaze towards the baseball and watches her reach out, stopping just before her fingertips touch Provenza's greatest treasure. "How will Provenza hold up, really?" she asks without looking at Andy.
"Excuse me?" he asks, not understanding what she means. She looks up and gets to her feet, looking distant.
"He had a hard time accepting our relationship. How will he react to the fact that we're having a baby?"
He now realizes what she means. "I am not sure. He'll probably hate it at first but then he's always come around." He shrugs. "He doesn't have a choice, really."
Sharon looks up at him. "I don't want to come between the two of you, Andy."
He is touched by her concern and wants to wrap his arms around her. He knows, however, that something like that would not be subtle enough for the workplace and she'd probably resist although no one else is there.
"Nothing can come between Provenza and me." He wants to call her sweetheart but he knows that she finds it a little patronizing, so he doesn't. "I couldn't get rid of the old bugger if I wanted to. And besides," he grins encouragingly. "What are you going to do? Leave me so I can be with Provenza?"
She smiles and he can tell that she's relieved besides herself. "We should somehow let him know that we want him to be a part of our family," she muses.
Andy raises his brows. He always thought that the dislike between Provenza and Sharon was mutual. Now he realizes that she has a soft spot for his best friend.
"Should I be jealous?" he asks, only half-joking.
Sharon seems to find the idea insanely comical because she chuckles. "Not really." She takes his hand and places it back on her stomach. "Can you take us home now?"
With the urge to kiss her, he is suddenly very eager to get her out of the LAPD building and is quick to grab his jacket and kill the lights. The walk towards the elevator and as they wait, he feels her lean into him slightly, reaching for his hand. She smells good, he thinks. He'll never get enough of her scent and he inhales it deeply. The elevator doors open to darkness that quickly envelopes him, her scent fading from his nostrils to be replaced with antiseptics that make his eyes burn.
One minute ago she had been desperate to see Andy, but now Sharon suddenly dreaded going in. She wasn't prepared to see him pale and unconscious, she realized now; she knew that she' would immediately begin to wonder whether he would make it or not. Sharon gasped when in the midst of her turmoil of emotions, her uterus contracted painfully. She leaned against the wall for support and pressed her palm against the mound of her stomach that was half concealed by the blue scrubs that were mandatory attire in the ICU. She was surprised when Christina handed her a water bottle.
"You're having contractions, Sharon, aren't you?"
Her heart sank at the discovery that her pain was that obvious but she couldn't deny it. Christina unscrewed the cap for her and urged her to take a drink with a wave of her hand that reminded her strangely of Andy. She looked young for her age but the more time Sharon spent with her, the more similarities she discovered between her and her father. She took a sip of water, only noticing now how thirsty she was.
"Strong Braxton-Hicks are often caused by dehydration and I haven't seen you drink anything since you got here," Christina explained. "You have to be careful so they don't develop into the real deal."
Sharon was astonished and it had to show on her face because the girl smiled nervously. "I've been doing an internship at Cedar's all year. Spent most of my time in the maternity ward and with the kids in pediatrics, so I picked up a thing or two."
"I think you're right," Sharon said. "Thank you for the advice."
They shared a nervous smile that spoke of the fact that they both were still slightly uncomfortable in the other's presence despite the fact that they had taken an unexpected mutual liking to each other the instant they'd met. Neither of them could explain where it was coming from, but both felt drawn towards each other, perhaps as a result of their shared pain and concern for Andy.
"So do you want to be a doctor?" Sharon asked. A year-long internship seemed lengthy. Especially at nineteen, when everyone else was going off to college.
Christina shrugged.
"I am not sure yet. I am going to try something else and then attend UCLA next year. Maybe I'll travel. Europe or something. Dad's got relatives in Italy."
"I know some people in Paris and London if you need a place to crash there," Sharon told her. "My kids toured Europe, too, when they were your age. They loved it."
Christina's eyes lit up. "That sounds great. I will be on a budget, so I guess that would be very helpful." Sharon studied her features. The delicate little nose seemed to come from her mother's side of the family but her lips and especially her eyes looked familiar. Her physique had something fragile and delicate but her gaze was unwavering and there was strength in those thin arms, Sharon could tell. She looked at the spiky hair that looked as if Christina had cut it herself, some strands longer than others without a recognizable pattern. The dark brown color seemed natural, though. Her ears were pierced multiple times, but she wasn't wearing any earrings right now.
"Do you know whether you're going to have a boy or a girl?" Christina asked abruptly. Sharon couldn't tell how exactly she felt about the news, but she seemed eager to deal with it in some way, in which hers differed considerably from James' and Rusty's early reactions. There was something broken about her that she made up for with strength and poise.
"It's a girl."
"Is she healthy? I mean, you and dad... you're not exactly twenty anymore."
"Yes, she is fine. I had every test run that there is and she seems perfectly healthy. I won't stop worrying before I've counted all of her fingers and toes, though."
Christina smiled. "Don't worry. If all the prenatal tests come back negative, there is a pretty good chance that she's perfectly alright."
Sharon returned her smile without even thinking about it. "You know, I think you should be a doctor. You have something very reassuring about you."
Surprisingly, a dark shadow crossed Christina's face, but before Sharon could say something, the door was opened and a nurse beckoned them inside. The air held the overwhelming smell of antiseptics that seemed to crawl into her respiratory passages to leave them sore and dry. Her feet in Brenda's simple ballerinas caused a creaking noise on the spotless linoleum and the unforgiving light made Christina's face look almost greenish. She wasn't sure who'd reached out first but their hands were suddenly in each other.
Andy was behind another door, his bed surrounded by machines. Sharon had seen her father die of a heart attack and the smells and sights threatened to put her right back into the Utah hospital where she'd had to say goodbye to him. The memory alone brought tears to her eyes which burned only more when Christina squeezed her hand in silent support. Andy's eyes were closed and his breathing was aided by a machine. The constant beeping of the heart monitor was reassuring but unsettling at the same time as it provided the acoustic backdrop to her painful memories. They split up and approached the bed from either side. Andy's right leg was wrapped in gauze where they'd been operating on the thigh where the bullet had hit. He looked just as pale and lifeless as Sharon had imagined him to and it broke her heart to see him helpless like this.
Moments like this one always put things in perspective. A future planned together could be water under the bridge in a heartbeat. If that monitor showed a flat line, everything they'd accomplished together would just evaporate into nothingness. She looked over at Christina whose face was an expressionless mask except for her eyes that showed all the emotions Sharon was having. She couldn't let Charles' enemies ruin her life, Sharon thought with renewed vigor. She could not allow them to threaten the people she loved and the life she had built after years of carefully hiding behind her protective walls. Her happiness was at stake here and she would not let them take it away from her. She leaned in and kissed Andy's forehead then took his hand between hers and pressed her lips to his knuckles.
She's his little girl again without the earrings and the black eyes-shadow and even the morose look in her eyes cannot hide the fact that she's scared. Andy sits down on her bed and looks at her thin body clad in oversized beige pajamas. The black nail polish on her toes is chipped and for some reason it breaks his heart to see it. It reminds him of the fact that things can break, that souls can be damaged and that his daughter is burdened with a heritage that makes her even more vulnerable than many others.
"What are you doing here?" she asks him darkly. "I told you not to come."
She turns away from him and pretends to look at the sky through the window. Being inside with her, he finds it difficult to remember that the streets are baking in the July heat outside.
"I wanted to see you," he says but his voice doesn't sound calm or reassuring at all. He's scared that all of this is his fault, that she never wants to see him again. "How are you feeling?"
She huffs. "Just peachy of course. I love being trapped with all these idiots here. Group therapy is so much fun." The sarcastic tone in her voice makes Andy cringe as it reminds him of her mother. The silence that hangs over them is laden with guilt and unspoken accusations so he is eager to break it somehow.
"I have a new boss," he says. "Captain Raydor just transferred. She's such a pain in the ass sometimes."
When she was little, Tina used to love his war stories from work but now she just purses her lips and doesn't answer. That girl sitting opposite him on the metal bed seems distant, like a stranger. He remembers the small child that could always be bribed with chocolate and hugs and wonders when exactly she vanished. The first few years of her life are hazy in his mind as he was always drunk but at five she was bright and smart and funny. His heart breaks at the sight of her all sullen and broken.
"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" he asks desperately. "Anything?"
She looks up at stares into his eyes. "Yeah. Fuck off and never come back."
It hurts although they have warned him that she might be like this. Withdrawal isn't fun, he knows better than most.
"Sweetheart-" he begins but she cringes as if he had just insulted her.
"Don't call me that to cover up the fact that you're a crappy father! Just leave me alone!"
She lies down on the bed and curls into a tiny ball of anger and insecurity. "Just go. Please." Her voice is now small and laden with tears. Andy feels shattered inside but he can't enforce his presence on her if she doesn't want to see him.
"Please call me if you change your mind," he almost begs his daughter. He takes her favorite chocolates from his pocket and places the box on her nightstand, then leaves.
"You sure you're up to this? You've been sitting with Andy all night. You and little Miss Flynn need some sleep." Provenza looked tired in his crumpled clothes, holding on to a cellophane cup of coffee for dear life.
"Little Miss Flynn, who might also be little Miss Raydor by the way, is far from tired right now," Sharon said stubbornly. "And I am fine. I was dehydrated which was where the contractions were coming from, but now I'm okay. I haven't had any for hours."
Provenza blinked against the beams of the mid-morning sun and took another sip of his coffee. "Andy would kill me if I let you run off on your own," he growled.
"Oh, come on, Lieutenant. She's not on her own!" Brenda Leigh Johnson threw her hands in the air in exasperation. Sharon felt a little like a teenage girl begging her father to allow her to attend a party and it amused her. Andy was still stable and though not awake yet, his prognosis was good after making it through the night. She knew he was safe with Christina and Provenza by his side and she'd instructed both of them to call her immediately if anything changed.
"Well, do whatever you want," Provenza grumbled. After learning that Andy would be okay, he seemed to have reverted to being his old self which was strangely reassuring given the circumstances. He looked scandalized when Sharon leaned in and placed a hasty kiss on his cheek before she turned around to leave.
"You ready?" Brenda asked when they arrived at the station some twenty minutes later.
"More ready than I've ever been," Sharon replied, fully aware of the fact that she sounded grim. Although Brenda was the one who didn't work for the LAPD anymore, she could tell that her team's surprised faced were owed to her. Not her presence, so much, but her attire as she was still wearing the maple leaf dress. She did have a spare suit in her office, but no part of it actually fit anymore so she would have to walk into the interview room looking like a character from a Disney movie.
"Captain!" Sykes rushed towards her, closely followed by Sanchez and Tao. "How's Andy?"
"He will be fine," Sharon answered, still relieved whenever she said it out loud. "He was shot in the thigh and lost a lot of blood, but we got him to the hospital in time. He's resting now with Provenza and his daughter watching over him." She schooled her features as a gentle reminder that her presence was about work.
"What did you find out this morning?"
Tao stepped forward in the calm and efficient manner of his. "We have someone in interview room two. His name is Sergej Nowak. He was convicted for a triple homicide last year in San Diego. He didn't have personal motive so it is believed to be a mob hit. The victims were a Mr William Pearson, his wife and his teenage daughter. Mr Pearson was in debt to an investment company in New York." He raised his brows meaningfully. "That's when we decided he was worth a look."
"Good work," Sharon said, nodding her gratitude at her detectives. "I'll go in."
She knew that involving Brenda again was technically against the rules, but then she didn't care much right at the moment. She needed names and she needed them now to end all the madness. If Brenda's skills got her that information, she was willing to deal with the fallout later. The other woman seemed to get it and looked down at herself.
"I have a spare suit," Sharon explained, gesturing towards her office.
Ten minutes later, what was left of the Major Crimes squad assembled in the media room with Buzz to watch the interview. Sanchez couldn't stop grinning at the sight of Sharon Raydor in a cute dress while Brenda Leigh Johnson was wearing one of Sharon's conservative black suits. If anyone had told him two years ago that they would one day end up swapping clothes for an interview, he'd have laughed out loud. Nowak's face looked a little gaunt and one couldn't be sure whether the prominence of his cheekbones was due to his time in jail or his natural physiognomy. His eyes were light blue but not as cold as Karkaroff's while his lean but muscular body and shaved head gave him an air of calm powerfulness.
He regarded the two women with mild interest when they entered. "I am Captain Sharon Raydor, this is Mary Flynn," Brenda told him, the lie effortlessly rolling from her lips. Sanchez looked at Tao who looked slightly amused himself.
"Why are they doing that?" Sykes asked, obvious in her ignorance but eager to learn as usual.
"I don't know," Sanchez admitted. "but I'm sure there's a reason."
"Well thanks..." Buzz murmured sarcastically, his eyes trained on the screen where Sharon gave a sweet smile and Brenda narrowed her eyes.
"Mr Nowak, you're here because you killed a family of three last year." Brenda's gaze didn't waver or stray while Sharon was inspecting the slim file they had been given.
"And I remember being convicted for that, so I am afraid the rule of double jeopardy applies." He sounded educated while there was still a hard edge to his words that was the last hint left of a Slavic accent.
"You never disclosed your motives for killing them." Brenda leaned back in her chair, looking unusually tomboyish with the rolled-up sleeves of Sharon's suit jacket and her hair pinned back in an unruly bun.
"And I am not planning to now." Nowak said softly.
"It says here that you had a hard time settling into the penitentiary," Sharon said in a quiet voice. "Is that true?"
Nowak looked at her for the first time, his forehead creasing. He was probably wondering what she was doing here, especially as Brenda had introduced her without adding a rank. Sharon caught his questioning gaze and smiled politely.
"I'm sorry. Captain Raydor didn't introduce me properly. I'm a psychologist."
Brenda rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Their presence is now mandatory when we talk to prison inmates." She adopted a saccharine smile. "But I do always follow the rules."
Sanchez could tell that the exasperated look Sharon gave Brenda was genuine and he hid his chuckle behind his hand. They seemed to have become friends but there were still traces left of their past adversarial relationship.
"I find the company inside a little less than riveting," Nowak told Sharon without sparing Brenda as much as a glance. Sharon smiled at him again, making Sanchez wonder whether he'd ever seen her smile that much at work before. She was a little more relaxed when she met her squad outside work but at the office she usually kept a straight face and her emotions to herself.
"I see that." Sharon flipped through the file. "An educated man like yourself."
"Would you mind keeping the chit-chat to a minimum?" Brenda's eyes were shooting daggers at Sharon much like they had back when she'd been auditing Major Crimes. Sharon raised one hand in defeat and made a note on the little notepad that was also a strangely misplaced reminder of her time back in FID. Nowak's eyes lingered on Sharon for another moment before he turned back to Brenda.
"I would like to know who you were working for, Mr Nowak," Brenda said almost harshly, her gaze intense. "We have reason to believe that someone else like yourself is roaming the streets right now, threatening another debtor and his family."
"I do not know what you are talking about." Nowak turned his palms upward.
"Oh, screw this," Brenda spat. "We both know that you were working for Gingham Investments in New York. Elusive little company, really. No listed founders, at least none that actually exist, and ties to the Polish mob." She clicked her tongue. "You were a hired gun, Mr Nowak, and I would like to know who paid you for offing the man who couldn't pay back his debt."
"Me? A hit man?" Nowak laughed. "That's beyond absurd."
A small chuckle from Sharon made Brenda's head snap towards her. "Mrs Flynn would you please keep your merriment to yourself?" she hissed at her.
"Sorry," Sharon murmured, establishing eye-contact with Nowak at the same time.
Brenda spent the next fifteen minutes playing bad cop by yelling at Nowak, slamming a notepad and pen down on to the table in front of him and effectively being obnoxious and occasionally insulting Sharon who looked increasingly uncomfortable.
"Good cop, bad cop," Sykes said in wonder.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Buzz said, making the woman blush slightly.
On the screen, Sharon was trying to interrupt Brenda's rant by saying something but it took her a while to find a quiet moment to chime in.
"Captain, shouldn't we offer him the deal?" she asked, causing Brenda to explode with rage.
"Mrs Flynn. A word. Outside!"
She dragged her outside and they could hear her loud, angry voice filtering through the door, well-picked up by the microphones in the interview room and therefore heard by Nowak, too. "Why can't you people just shut up and let us do our jobs? I almost had him there and you disclose information about the deal! Are you insane?"
A moment later Sharon entered the room on her own. "Captain Raydor will be back in a minute," she said, avoiding Nowak's eyes with what looked like shame. "Maybe I could ask you a few questions in the meantime?"
"Yes."
Answering Sharon's questions calmly, he told her that he'd grown up in Warsaw and had then moved to the USA in his early twenties where he'd gone to college and had received his degree before he had started working for an investment firm. Sharon listened patiently and asked some follow-up questions that spoke of genuine interest. Brenda entered the media room and gave the others a triumphant grin.
"How was I?" she asked.
"You have the obnoxious officer down to an art, Chief," Tao said appreciatively. "I don't know what's more unsettling. Seeing you like that or seeing Captain Raydor like this." He gestured towards the monitor.
"We had to use the cute dress somehow," Brenda murmured, already concentrating on the conversation going on.
"You mentioned something about a deal," Nowak finally said, causing Sharon to avoid his eyes uneasily.
"I'm not supposed to-"
"It's okay, Mary. May I call you that?"
"Mary? How did you come up with that?" Sykes asked curiously.
"It's her middle name." Brenda waved her comment off to be able to hear everything that was going on inside the interview room.
"Do you also want to know where Flynn as a last name comes from?" Sanchez teased and Sykes stuck her tongue out at him.
"Well," Sharon made quite a good show of appearing shy. "We could have you transferred to another facility, you know. One that provides for more privacy and might cater a bit better to your need of intellectual stimulation. I would have to evaluate you, though, but from what I've heard so far, you'd absolutely qualify for that program."
"Why does someone like that become a hit man for the Polish mob?" Tao mused. "He seems like a pretty nice guy actually."
"He killed three people in cold blood," Buzz reminded him.
"And all I have to do is give you the names?" Nowak asked. "How can I be sure that I won't be assassinated for giving them away?"
Sharon smiled. "Oh, that. We can have you transferred to the new facility under a false name. We are actually legally obligated to do so in order to make sure you're not going to be released into a hostile environment. It is called the Johnson rule."
Brenda growled but kept otherwise silent as she, along with everyone else, knew that this was Sharon's comeback for the rule following comment.
Nowak looked pensive now then pulled the notepad and pen near and began to jot down names. He looked up again and smiled at Sharon.
"Nice dress, by the way."
The light burned his eyes and his lids were heavy, both of which were reason enough to keep them shut and go back to sleep, but there was an overwhelming desire to return to a conscious state and so he fought to sharpen his vision. He was in a regular hospital room, sunlight streaming in through one of the windows. Someone was holding his hand and when he turned his heavy head with some difficulty, he found his daughter Tina sitting there.
"Hey dad," she said, her eyes bright with unshed tears. "You're awake!"
He blinked and groaned. "I feel like I was hit by a train."
"You were shot," she replied, her voice quivering. "Someone was trying to harm Sharon and you tried to defend her."
The memories returned in one swift wave and his whole body tensed. "Is Sharon okay? Where is she?"
He remembered the bullet hitting him and then quick, sudden nothingness, but he had no idea whether the assailant had fled or proceeded upstairs.
"She's okay. She was here all night watching over you," Tina quickly told him. "Now she's at the station interviewing someone to find out who the people behind this are."
Thinking clearly was hard as the thoughts were sloshing around his brain like a sluggish mass. There was something he would have to deal with but he could not remember what it was for the life of him.
"You didn't tell me that's she's having a baby. And she's so far along already."
He closed his eyes with a pang of guilt. That was it.
"I'm sorry," he rasped. "I didn't know how to tell you after what happened last year. You didn't want to see me and I thought putting it in writing wasn't the best possible way."
Tina gave a sad smile, a small tear rolling down her cheek. "I was angry, dad. I was in denial about the drugs. I hated everyone, not just you. And afterward I felt so guilty for accusing you of all those nasty things."
"It was my fault, Tina. I should have been there for you more."
Her shoulders sagged as if the burden she was carrying suddenly manifested itself in a heavy weight resting on top of them. "Dad, it doesn't matter. You were an addict and I became one, too. It might be hereditary or the way I grew up but, like you, I am clean now." She avoided his eyes now. "The thought of you actually helped me get through it. I thought if you could stay sober after years of drinking, I could stop taking ecstasy after a year of doing so. And I did."
He squeezed her hand back to the best of his ability. "I'm proud of you, Tina and I really, really missed you."
A smile broke through her sad expression. "I know. I never wrote back but I got all your cards and emails."
He was exhausted and also relieved, so he closed his eyes for another moment before he opened them again.
"She's nice, your Sharon," Tina said. "A little different than I imagined her to be after what you wrote about her. Didn't seem like the type to wear dresses with maple leaf patterns." Andy was too tired to openly question it but the absurdity of Sharon in such attire did register with him. "And she's not half your age which is always a plus, too."
He grimaced at the quip but she laughed. "You need to get well soon, dad, or the white-haired guy outside will suffer a heart-attack."
As if on cue, the door opened and Provenza stuck his head in. His eyes brightened at the sight of Andy being awake, but he adopted a slightly sullen expression despite it. "Well, sleeping beauty!" he droned. "Do you finally grace us with your waking presence?" He walked in and sat on the chair Sharon had vacated a few hours prior.
"Your sweetheart and our boss just called. They identified the people behind the investment scandal this morning. FBI's got them in custody and one of them already confessed."
Andy felt awash with relief and turned towards his daughter just to see a quizzical, almost scandalized expression on her face.
"Sharon is that horrible new boss you were talking about?!"
Victor Karkaroff swore and kicked over the chair in his cell. Their cover was blown and the protection that had kept him silent so far, was no longer existent. He didn't have a choice now but set things into motion. Slowly, he walked towards the door and banged his fist against it.
"I want to see my lawyer!"