You Know What?

A hand on her shoulder shook her out of her thoughts. She was sitting behind her desk, her chair's back facing the murder room as she was looking through her office window. She turned around to face the owner of the hand whose footsteps she managed to overhear.

"I thought you left," she said, smiling at him, genuinely surprised to see him.

Andy took his hand back and rubbed the back of his head with it and shrugged. "The rest of the team called it a day, but I figured I'd stick around."

"Rusty took Gus back to his hotel," she said pushing her chair back a bit, so she could get a better look at him.

"Yeah, I know. I saw them on their way out." He leaned against the edge of her desk. "The guy looked pretty shaken up."

She let out a sad sigh, looking down now, "To say the least."

"The kid did one hell of a job," he repeated both his and Provenza's earlier words, looking up from her to face the view she had been so busy contemplating before he interrupted her.

"He did," she agreed, nodding her head proudly.

He remained quiet for a moment and it made her look up again. "Something the matter?" she prodded.

He met her gaze and regarded her for a second. He seemed to be considering whether to say anything or to just keep his thoughts to himself so she lifted an eyebrow in the hopes of nudging him into speaking up. It did not do the trick for he looked away and mumbled, "It's nothing."

"You sure?" she asked, following his gaze.

He nodded. "Wanna get out of here?" he asked, giving her a hopeful look.

He still seemed off, almost in complete contrast to his excellent mood from a few hours ago. He was almost brooding now, and she wondered why, but she nodded anyway. He'd tell her eventually. "Let's go," she told him, getting to her feet and collecting her things.

Their walk toward the elevator was a silent one, and the silence only stretched when they entered an already occupied elevator. By the time they reached the parking lot, Sharon felt slightly unnerved. She was used to silences with Andy. But not to uncomfortable ones such as this one was turning out to be.

Before she could do something about it, Andy spoke. They were halfway to her car now, both looking in front of them. "That was an awful lot he just dumped on you to deal with." There was only the faintest trace of irritation in his voice.

So that was his problem. She gave him a look, noting the frown that settled on his face. "You'd rather he had told him himself?" There was a note of genuine confusion in her own voice.

Her words wiped his frown off his face almost immediately and he turned his head quickly to focus on her. "Of course not," he said, a hint of an apology to the words, although when he continued there was a bit of annoyance in his voice, too, "but a heads up would have been nice, don't you think?"

She couldn't help but shake her head in amusement and when she even smiled at him, he gave her a thoroughly puzzled look. He had no idea how endearing she found this recently discovered protectiveness of his and for now she had no intention of letting him in on her little secret, so she offered his question a reply instead, "It wouldn't have made the notification any easier."

He narrowed his eyes at her, obviously still thrown by her smile, but took note of her words. "True," he admitted.

She regarded him for a moment. They came to a stop, having reached her car. "Would you like to come over?" she asked, deciding that she would like to indulge in his company a while longer. She also had a feeling he had more to say on the matter, so she would indulge him in this protective streak of his, too.

This threw him even more, "What about Rusty?" he asked, eyes wide with surprise.

"What about him?" she asked flatly. The tone she used said that, as sensitive as she could be to Rusty's current unease about the idea of them dating, she had no intention whatsoever of walking on eggshells around him.

There was also a note of hope in her voice and he held out a hand, wiggling his fingers, beckoning her to take it. "You sure?" He did not want to make the kid any more wary of the situation than he already was.

She took his hand and gave him a smile. "He'll never come around if I hide you," she told him, squeezing his hand.

"Well," he offered her a goofy grin, "I have no intention of hiding then."

"Good, neither do I." She fished her car keys out of her purse before matter-of-factly adding, "I doubt he'll be home soon, anyway." Rusty had seemed reluctant to leave Gus on his own right away and had mentioned making sure he at least had something to eat before leaving him on his own. She couldn't help the swell of pride that washed over her at the mere thought of how responsible a consideration that was on Rusty's part.

"Is that so?" Andy asked, quirking an eyebrow at her and taking a purposeful step towards her, with every intention of invading her personal space. He knew perfectly well what she meant by that, what her invitation entailed, or rather what it didn't entail. He was more than aware of what she was and wasn't comfortable with for the time being, he was okay with it, too, but that would not prevent him from testing the waters every now and then. Besides, one of the reasons why he believed they worked so well together so far was that they kept each other on their toes, so he really couldn't disappoint in that regard either now, could he? And that it was fun as well, was only an added bonus.

She put up the hand holding her car keys to press her first three fingers against his chest, and suddenly all of his cockiness disappeared, and he worriedly thought she'd push him away. They were still technically at work, he remembered, but when she offered him a provocative smile, and started rising on her toes ever so slightly, his worry started dissipating. When she pressed her soft lips against his, he forgot what he was worrying about in the first place.

"That is so," she confirmed, pulling away and dropping back fully onto her feet, before he could even think about reacting and catching up with her actions.

He practically gaped at her, jaw dropped. In disbelief, awe? He couldn't say. He had hoped she would play along, had been fairly certain she would, but did not expect her to play along like that. He thought work, even after hours, was off limits. He was pretty sure she even explicitly mentioned their workplace parking space, and now this.

The touch of her hand as she gently closed his mouth and her mirthful laughter suddenly snapped him out of his befuddlement but it took him less than a second to decide on his retaliation. He promptly let go of her hand to bring his own up to her neck, under her soft curtain of hair, and crashed his lips into hers. He smiled against them when she all but melted into the kiss and lifted a hand to his side, squeezing it gently, pulling herself closer to him. Maybe this particular rule of hers was a negotiable one after all, he thought, reveling in the feel of her.

When they pulled apart, both equally flushed and slightly out of breath, she shook her head at his grinning, self-satisfied face. "You know what?" she asked, rather sharply, this time actually lightly pushing him away as she took half a step back. "Maybe we do need a chaperone."

It was a well-placed dig, he knew. Not a surprising one though, since one could always rely on Sharon Raydor to speak her mind one way or the other, and sooner rather than later, too. But instead of even pretending to feel ashamed of his maybe not so smart remark, he smirked happily at her and shoved his hands into his pockets. This 'old-fashioned' dating thing they had going really wasn't half bad. "No, I'm good. But maybe you do," he told her, a suspiciously confident air about him now.

"And why is that, Lieutenant?" she inquired in the most professional voice she could muster.

He pointedly looked at the hand still lightly pressing against his chest. "You can't keep your hands off of me, Captain." he quipped, a cocky grin gracing his features as he quirked an eyebrow at her.

She instantly pulled her hand back, almost shyly, clumsily even, but she smiled and there was a note of teasing in her voice when she spoke, "So you're not coming over?"

He laughed then. "You'll need more than a chaperone to get rid of me," he told her, stealing a quick last kiss before turning around. "I'll grab some dinner on my way. See you in a bit," he threw over his shoulder and made his way toward his car.

She shook her head in amusement and turned to her own car. "See you in a bit," she repeated, absently waving a hand through the air, although she doubted he could hear her anymore.

Dating Andy Flynn was certainly proving to be interesting, she thought, backing out of her parking space.

Now, if only her youngest son would see it that way, too.

Of course, she's probably biased. ;)

In other news, I'm nearly done. :O Only one more letter to go! :'( Got any ideas about what I should write about after this? XD

Also, hit the reviews, please, I'm particularly eager to hear your thoughts on this tidbit!