This chapter has been reviewed by Sarah.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own words and surely the mistakes. These two characters were created by James Duff for The Closer/Major Crimes, I just borrowed them for my story.
It's a fictional story that possibly violates all reasonable concepts of what these two would actually do, but that's the fun of writing a fanfiction.
Sharon woke up in the middle of the night, the thunders striked in the sky. She slowly opened her eyes and felt all the pain rushing through her body.
She counted her wounds. The burns on her stomach and the stab in her leg. Her left arm was wrapped in a brace and immobilized to her body. She started remembering everything that Melody had done to her, and the break of her bones was still a vivid memory in her brain. She had a few bruises all over her right arm but it was free to move, although her hand was being strongly squeezed by another.
Sharon looked quickly at the end of that arm and found Andy asleep on the side of the bed. He had his forehead pressed against his left arm and on the bed, and he was softly snoring. She smiled tenderly, his snoring had always made her smile, even if he said he didn't snore. It was a sweet moment and when she finally remembered all that had happened, she knew she didn't have to fear anything anymore. In her head she could hear his voice trembling and saying I love you into her ears, and stay with me. He really feared finally losing her.
"Hey, you woke up," Andy said, smiling at her. "Do you feel any pain?" He stood up and leaned to softly kiss her. After eating tasteless food for days, his lips were the most wonderful flavour she could enjoy.
"I'm thirsty," her voice was low and hoarse. She felt like was stuck in her throat. Andy quickly poured some water into a plastic cup and gave it to her, holding her head until she finished it. "Andy what happened after you found me?" She asked him.
Andy sat down and held her hand again. "We brought you here with an ambulance, and the doctor had to work some magic on your leg. You had lost a lot of blood and there was an infection going through your wound, but they managed to stop it and stitch it, and then-"
"No, Andy. I meant to the case. To Melody."
"Oh, her." Andy rubbed the back of his neck. "Well we took her in custody, and the FBI interrogated her for countless hours. She didn't say a thing. Until…"
"Until?" Sharon was getting impatient on the emptiness of his words. She needed straight facts and all the truth.
"She only wanted to talk to me," he admitted it. "But I did not. I never left you. I never will. It's not my case. I'm out of it. My place is here with you. You have to recover and then we can go on with our lives. Happily ever after…" He sounded nervous and still trembling. Uncertain of what she thought about their future together, but he didn't want to discover it that night.
Sharon looked at him, "Andy. You need to talk to her. If she will do it with you only, you need to."
"All that I have to do now is to let you rest and stay right here next to you," he placed his chair closer to her bed and held her free hand into his own. He started kissing it. "I will never leave you again," he smiled and told her to rest. Sharon didn't want to but she knew he was right, she needed to rest and so he did.
When she woke up again it was sunny and the light was entering from the windows. It was almost blinding. She noticed a lot of flowers around and at her feet a pink balloon, which had been tight to the footboard. Provenza, she thought smiling. He had a thing for balloons.
"Good morning," she said to the man sitting next to her. She was confused, he wasn't Andy, and she had never seen that man before. "Who are you?"
Before the man could answer, a familiar voice gave her a greeting. Chief Johnson had rushed entering with a coffee in her hands, and Sharon was happy to see someone she knew. It was uncomfortable to wake up in a hospital room, with a man she didn't know anything about. "Good morning Sharon. This is Agent Brant, and he's here to ask you some questions, but I am sure that Agent Brant will wait a few longer for you to wake up. Won't you, Agent?" Chief Johnson was, as always, pleasantly asking him to step back and walk out. She knew Sharon needed a few moments to wake up fully and understand what was happening and where Andy was. The doctors had made sure that no one was going to stress her out, so she could rest..
Brenda's eyes followed the man as he walked out. When she was sure he was out of earshot she talked to Sharon. "Lieutenant Flynn asked me to be here with you, he went downtown to talk to our suspect. Now, what you have to do," Brenda put down her bag and her coffee and got close to Sharon. "Give him details, just a few so the FBI will be happy and stop bothering you. We have enough almost enough evidence to convict her, but your testimony is going to be last piece we need to close this case."
Sharon was still half asleep and a bit dazed by the medications, but she understood clearly that Chief Johnson was asking her to tell the truth, but just leave out a few details that she could have instead revealed to Major Crimes, to solve this case. "I don't want to lie to the FBI," she had then said.
"Oh you don't have to, just take time and give it to Andy to make her confess!"
"Why aren't you there with him?"
"Oh there was a little problem of conflicts and words have been said," Sharon looked at her puzzled. Brenda took a deep breath before speaking again. "I fought with my husband over this case and Pope sent me away!"
"Oh!" Sharon had it clear that her hot temper had once again made her being exonerated from a case. She couldn't help laughing at it. It hurt her wounds to do it, but it felt good inside her soul to be able to laugh after such terrible times. "Okay!"
Sharon did as promised. She gave Agent Brant a few details, on how Melody had pretended to be her sister the whole time, on her obsession with Andy, on her tortures and her crazy thoughts about her life with Andy. Agent Brant also took pictures of all her bruises and wounds, and it had been a very humiliating moment for Sharon, to get partially undressed for him to take a picture, but thankfully Brenda had been there supporting her all through it.
When Agent Brant had left, she had revealed a lot more details to Chief Johnson. She told her about the accomplice and his death, she described how Melody killed Beth in front of her and all the tortures she had done on her and the previous victims, in great details. By the time Andy had finally come back, she was exhausted by all the talking.
"Andy can I go home now?" Sharon was tired just laying in a hospital bed, she wanted her house, her things around.
Andy waved goodbye to Brenda and moved closer sitting next to Sharon. "Not tonight, they want to monitor you to see that everything is okay. But tomorrow I promise we will go home."
Sharon snorted. "Food isn't even good in here," she sounded like a spoilt child and it made Andy laugh. "Okay, jokes apart. How did it go?" Sharon wanted to know how his conversation with Melody had gone, and she had noticed his weird behavior. He seemed uncomfortable and sad. "Andy? What's wrong?"
Andy let go of a breath, "it didn't go as we expected!"
He ended up telling her everything. He had arrived to the district and his plan had been to make Melody confess everything and drive back to the hospital to Sharon. He wanted to put an end to the whole drama of their lives. But when he had arrived every thing had gone completely different than his imagination. Melody had talked for hours about her love for him, and her plans for them to live a life together, without ever confessing anything and they didn't have any evidence to pin her to the homicides. He had tried to tease her, naming Sharon, but Melody had been impassive, even when confronted to her twin sister's death, she had said "Everyone has to die one day".
"But she confessed them to me, she told me she had killed them," Sharon was getting nervous.
"It doesn't matter anymore," Andy went on with his story and told her that once they understood she wasn't going to confess, all they could do was arresting her for kidnapping and torturing of Sharon and send her to county jail, waiting to transfer her to another prison. "Beth's husband has been informed of her death and he was approved a temporary guarded release to arrange her funeral. But he used his time out for another matter." Andy moved a hand in his hair. "He killed Melody with a knife on his way out of jail. He was coming out and she was coming in. Talk about a bad family reunion!" He looked sad, it was over but not the way he had wanted. In his heart Andy was happy that Sharon was safe and free to go back to her life, but he had also wanted to give justice to the women who had been killed because of him. He had wanted it for Lynette.
He leaned towards Sharon and took her hand in his, "I am sorry for everything you have gone through. I am sorry for all of this," he gestured to her body and her wounds. "But I promise you I will spend the rest of my life making amends for it," he kissed her hand and then moved it to his cheek. He wanted to feel the warmth of her hand on his face.
Sharon couldn't be angry at Andy. She had said it to him before that they had chosen to be together despite everything, and it wasn't his fault. He hadn't looked for it. But a soft voice into her head was screaming that after all she had gone through, this relationship had become toxic and was killing her. She had tried to silence that voice before, but its screams was too loud now to ignore it any longer. She fell asleep, tormented by this voice and nightmares.
She dreamt of what it would have happened if they hadn't found her, if after killing Beth, Melody had killed her too. And then she dreamt about a past that was different from it, a past without Andy, in which her grown-up children had married and had had children and she was happily playing with her grandchildren on the carpet of her living room. It was a past that she liked, and a dream that she enjoyed living. She woke up sweating, the morning after, and was alone in the room.
She found a note on the tray next to her: I heard you will be released at the noon. I will be there and bring you home finally. Love, A. Sharon tried slowly to stand up and sit on the bed. Her wounds hurt badly but she needed to learn to live with the pain until it was finally gone. She walked to the wardrobe in the room and picked something to wear, it was still early before the time to leave but she wanted to occupy her time and mind with something.
When the time to leave finally arrived, Andy walked into the room with a bouquet of flowers, "knock knock. It's time to go princ… oh hi!" He found a man standing in the room instead of Sharon. She couldn't have left without him and he didn't seem like a patient.
"Oh Andy," Sharon came out the bathroom with a few things in her hand and put them into her bag on the bed. "Andy this is Anthony. Anthony this is Andy." She introduced the two men, she looked so nervous. "Anthony came here to help me go home."
"I thought I was driving you and-"
Anthony grabbed the bag Sharon had just closed, "I'll wait for you outside." He kissed her temple before to leave and walked out passing next to Andy. "Nice meeting you," he shook his hand and so did Andy but he was very confused.
Sharon waited for Anthony to close the door, "Andy we need to talk!" She tried to be honest with him, and tell him all the truth, about her dreams and her fears.
"So you are breaking up with me, because you dreamt that you had a better life without me?" He hadn't seem to understand it, or maybe he had but he didn't want to see the truth. It hurt and it was worse that he had just met a man who was going to take his place in Sharon's life. He felt used, like a handkerchief, and thrown away for a better model, a more stable and charming man, who wasn't going to cause her any problem or issue. "No, please. You don't need to explain anything anymore." He put down the flowers and walked to the door. He put his hand on the knob and turned it, "I am happy to see you are doing better. Goodbye Sharon!" Andy walked out of the door, leaving it open.
She had wanted to run after him, to tell him it was all a joke, to tell him that she couldn't live without him, that she wanted him to go home with her, but she couldn't, she shouldn't. He needed some time and space, and she needed to put her life back on track and start over again without him.
The voice in her head had quieted down, but inside her heart she was screaming.