TEN

"… no surveillance cameras on the FID floor..."

"... confidentiality issue…"

"… the camera on the exit of the underground parking was switched off due to maintenance today…"

"… could still be in the building…"

"… apartment is empty…"

"… are searching it as we speak…"

Despite being acutely aware of the frenzied chaos around him, Andy somehow could not move a muscle. It was as if his body had been drained of any ounce of the energy it had once possessed. He was oddly aware of his breathing as every breath seemed to take a conscious decision and physical effort. Chief Johnson was pacing back and forth between the middle of the room and the murder board. Tao was attacking his computer keyboard at a dizzying speed. Sanchez was briefing a bunch of uniformed officers while Gabriel was on the phone with someone, voice low but urgent. All the individual noises in the room merged into a deafening crescendo and for a moment, Andy was unable to tell them apart. He felt lightheaded and vaguely nauseous, the cheese sandwich suddenly like a brick in his stomach.

He was snapped out of his haze by a heavy hand on his shoulder. Without turning around, he knew who it was.

"Let's go to the break room," Provenza simply said and it seemed pointless for Andy to object. He was, as of right now, completely useless to the search for Sharon and everybody knew it. He was almost surprised when he managed to get up from his chair and walk out of the room without incident. The familiar sound of their footsteps on the linoleum seemed to tether him back to reality and the jumble of thoughts and sensations cleared a little. Inside the break room, Andy spotted Sharon's half empty coffee cup still sitting on the counter. It was not like her not to clean up after herself, it occurred to him randomly.

Provenza marched over to the fridge and took out two cans of coke that he placed on the table before laboriously settling into one of the plastic chairs.

"Drink. Sugar and caffeine can cure almost anything."

With that he opened his own drink and began to sip it. Andy did as he was told. The first taste of the sweet soda felt good, the liquid cold in his mouth. It didn't exactly cure Andy from the overwhelming shame and concern, but it did clear his mind a bit.

"You are aware that there is nothing to blame yourself for, right?" Provenza asked, but Andy just shook his head.

"I was supposed to watch her and I left her with Elliott, Provenza. How could I not be to blame?"

Provenza snorted. "Elliott was always her number one fan and everybody knew it, Flynn. How were you to know that he cannot be trusted? The Captain is also not a two-year old that you can't leave on its own for five seconds."

If their positions had been reversed, Andy would have said the exact same things and meant them, but their positions were what they were and so Provenza's words didn't alleviate his guilt in the slightest. They were silent for a moment, since neither of them was particularly good at this. They could comfort witnesses or victims, but when it came to each other, a certain awkwardness descended upon them. When Andy looked at Provenza, he felt a bout of gratitude still as he could clearly see concern in the other man's face. There was a certain expression there that bordered on the helpless and appeared only when Provenza was affected enough by something for his mask of grumpy indifference to slip.

"Thanks for not trying to drum into me how I would be better off without her or something," Andy finally said.

Provenza shrugged. "You said that you've had it with the comments."

Andy chuckled despite himself. Provenza was quite something. Despite his partner's perpetual grumpiness, he was loyal and knew very well when his friend needed his support. Suddenly, he felt the urge to tell him everything.

"I am so worried for her, Provenza," he blurted out. "He manipulated her car! What if he really wants to hurt her?"

"We don't know that. And the Captain is tough, Flynn," Provenza said with emphasis.

Andy's shoulders sank. He couldn't have this conversation if his partner was not aware of all of the dangers this situation posed for Sharon. His eyes flitted towards the door to check whether it was firmly closed and only barely resisted the urge to stick a chair under the handle to make sure that it stayed that way. This was as much privacy as he could hope for.

"Look, Provenza, I am not supposed to tell you this and you can't tell anyone about it, okay?" He looked at his partner imploringly, trying to convey how absolutely vital his request for confidentiality was.

Provenza leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. "You mean that she is pregnant?"

For a moment, Andy was rendered speechless.

"Come on!" Provenza protested, having picked up on his incredulity. "As if your googling and her throwing up all the time could mean anything else."

Andy felt oddly relieved that his partner knew already. "Do you think anybody else knows?"

Provenza shook his head and gave a dismissive wave. "Nah. We all know I'm the best detective around here."

Flynn brought his hands up and rubbed his face as his partner continued: "The bigger problem is how you're going to get that rocking horse back. Sandra will fight you tooth and nails for it and you know it."

Sometimes it still shocked Flynn how well Provenza knew him.

"It's not that kind of situation," he finally said.

"Oh no? You're not telling me that you're not doing this together, are you? Everyone can see that you two are in love."

Andy snorted even though the implication that - at least in Provenza's opinion - he was not the only one who felt that way was not lost on him.

"That's not what I mean. Sharon had a miscarriage years ago. There was so much damage that her doctor told her that she wouldn't be able to get pregnant again. And now that she miraculously has, there is a high risk of another miscarriage. She says that she lost a lot of blood last time, so if she miscarries again, it will likely put her life at risk." He took a deep breath. "This is what I am so worried about, Provenza. The situation would be bad enough as it is, but what if he hurts her? What if she loses the baby and we can't get to her quickly enough before she loses too much blood?"

He ran his hands through his hair nervously. Saying it aloud was no comfort to him. Instead, it seemed to make everything worse.

"You know how these things are, Provenza. I can't stand the thought of her bleeding out somewhere!"

He got up abruptly and began to pace the room. His nervous energy had returned and all he could do was try and walk if off. Provenza turned in his chair to be able to look at him.

"That's a shitty situation, Flynn."

"Thanks for pointing that one out," Flynn said bitterly.

"So I gather that her doctor's medical opinion is that she should not have the baby?"

Andy nodded numbly. "That's what it is."

"Damn," Provenza said. "And there is no hope whatsoever?"

Andy shrugged. "I don't think so, but we haven't discussed the specifics yet. It was too much of a shock. Especially with everything else that is going on."

Provenza nodded solemnly. "I get it. But may I point out that the suggestion comes from the same doctor who told her it was impossible for her to ever get pregnant again?" Andy furrowed his brow, but didn't interrupt. "I mean, maybe you want to get a second opinion before you decide anything."

Andy shook his head decisively. He was not going to go down this road. "We can't risk her life over this, Provenza! I'm not prepared to risk her life over this!"

"You can't bear the thought of losing her." It was unlike Provenza to be this insightful, so Andy just stared at him for a moment.

"Yes," he then said. "These past few days… It took this crisis to make me realize what she means to me."

"I get that this goes far beyond the mutual interest," Provenza agreed. "We'll find her, Flynn. We'll find her and get her back to you alive and well."

It was even less like Provenza to make promises he wasn't sure he could keep. Even if he did not show as much of it as someone else would have, Andy understood, Provenza felt for him. Despite everything, that alone gave him some measure of comfort.

Now that he had opened up about so much, Andy didn't see a point in not laying all the facts on the table.

"I am going to lose her anyway. One way or another. She got an offer for a job in Boston and after that photo has been made public, I don't see how she would not take it."

Provenza's eyebrows rose. "Ye Gods, do you have any more things to tell me?"

Flynn shook his head dejectedly. "No. I guess that's it."

"So, you're in love with a woman whose health is in danger, but who might leave you anyway to take a job on the other side of the country and you'll need to have a pregnancy terminated that you seem to be weirdly okay with," Provenza summarized, weighing his head.

"Not helpful," Flynn managed in response. Put like that, his situation sounded even worse than it had seemed before.

Provenza rose from his seat and stood in front of Flynn, grabbing him painfully by the upper arms.

"Thanks for pouring your heart out to me, but now you need to focus," he said. "We need to find her and find out whatever the hell Elliott is on about. And once we have her back, you two will go about your options and sort this out. At least get some clarity."

It was a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless to know that at least he had Provenza in his corner.

Andy still hated Martinez, but it turned out that he at least wasn't quite the confident womanizer he had taken him for. Asked after his pursuit of his boss, his face turned a dark, satisfying shade of crimson with shame, his confidence crumbling instantly.

"That was a mistake," he admitted immediately. "I mean, it was completely inappropriate of me to ask her out to dinner and then insist when she turned me down. It was really stupid."

It was clear from Chief Johnson's facial expression what she thought of that kind of behavior, but she seemed to remind herself that she was racing against the clock and therefore not in a position to give him a piece of her mind on harassment.

"So, Sergeant, what was that altercation with Sergeant Elliott in the break room about?"

Martinez took a deep breath and blew out the air in his lungs. "That was actually really weird," he said. "If I may say so, Elliott is a bit of a teacher's pet for the Captain. He somehow heard of what happened when I tried to ask her out and had been bugging me about it ever since. That day, he suddenly accused me of trying to undermine her or something. I mean, what could I do, right? It was only when we could hear from outside that someone was coming in that he suddenly jumped me and started yelling about her never going to have an affair with a fellow officer. As if there was any need to tell me that!"

"So you don't know why that happened? Why didn't you report him?"

Martinez snorted. "And explain again what had prompted our discussion in the first place? Look, I am really trying to forget about that whole thing and I was hoping that Captain Raydor could, too."

The Chief looked up at the camera, then looked at Martinez again, lips pursed. It was clear from her body language that she didn't find Martinez very sympathetic.

"What else can you tell us about Sergeant Elliott?"

Martinez looked uncomfortable for a moment. Probably the FID rule of people inside the department sticking up for each other because nobody else ever would.

"Look," the Chief bent over the table and fixed Martinez with a stare. "We have reason to believe that Captain Raydor was kidnapped by Sergeant Elliott. Anything you can tell us could help find her."

Martinez looked completely taken aback for a moment. Despite Elliott's recent behavior, he didn't seem to have taken him for that type of person.

"Okay," he said, visibly trying to gather his bearings before he responded. "He has changed recently. His mom is sick. Some sort of mental illness and I think he was terrified that he would get it, too. A few months ago, when she was first diagnosed, he really fell to pieces about it and the Captain has been looking after him a little bit. She does that with all of us. Seems to have an uncanny ability to sniff out personal problems and then talks to people about them."

Chief Johnson looked mildly horrified by the notion that this could be part of a superior officer's job. Flynn could emphasize. Sharon was responsible for a far greater number of officers than Chief Johnson and it seemed impossible for her to do her job as the LAPD's resident nightmare and still take care of her people at the same time.

"Maybe that makes it easy to mistake her behavior for romantic interest?" Chief Johnson asked pointedly. Martinez looked ill for a second, but then nodded.

"Yes, maybe," he said evasively. "I don't think that was Sergeant Elliott's problem, though. It seems to me that he looked up to Captain Raydor. She is some sort of maternal figure to him and he could get really riled up if someone said anything against her or developed a more…" he hesitated. "… romantic interest in her."

"Were you aware that Captain Raydor is in a relationship with Lieutenant Flynn before today?"

Flynn could see Tao wince at the term 'relationship', but he didn't say anything.

Martinez shook his head. "I really had no idea. She did seem in a very good mood lately and she stopped handling things that had to do with the Lieutenant, but I thought that she was just finally… well, fed up with his antics."

Chief Johnson rolled her eyes towards the camera as if to tell Flynn that she agreed with Martinez for a change.

"You share an office with Sergeant Elliott. He has a reputation of being by the book and reliable. Did you notice any changes in behavior very recently?"

Martinez had to chew on that one for a moment, the shook his head thoughtfully. "Not before the break room incident, no. He seemed a little beside himself because of that thing with his mother, but I guess that is not unusual in that type of situation. She is now in some sort of institution, so he has to sell her house and all that. But he never seemed like he would cut our captain's breaks. I mean, that is just-" He trailed off, but his disbelief did not need to be voiced.

The Chief finished up the interview and he walked out of the monitor room, stumbling towards his desk. While the interview had shed a little bit of light on Elliott's background and seemed to exonerate Martinez, Andy was disappointed that it hadn't turned up any leads. The moment that he had burst back into the murder room after having run the entire way from FID (including those damn stairs) was now six hours in the past. There was a warrant out for Elliott. All available units had been dispatched to look for him. They had had people check up on his apartment, but found it empty and - so far - devoid of anything that looked suspicious. He quite couldn't get into his head how lucky Elliott had been: No cameras to pick him up, no witnesses around. It was impossible that he could have planned it exactly the way it had happened, of course, but it was almost eery nonetheless. The worst thing was that they had no idea what exactly he wanted, so they couldn't tell in how much danger Sharon really was.

Someone was taking dinner orders, but he couldn't imagine forcing a single bite down. He was now almost sure that Elliott had seen the opportunity he had been looking for and had riled him up on purpose in order to get Sharon alone. Was he really that transparent? Was it so obvious that he was easily angered? That it took only a few choice words to make him storm off like a moody teenager? The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like coincidence. Elliott couldn't have known whether his little game would work, so whatever he was doing couldn't have been planned. He had been lucky when it came to the circumstances, but he must have either have lined up a place to take Sharon to beforehand or just gone somewhere he knew to be available.

Flynn suddenly perked up. "Did Martinez say that Elliott is in the process of selling his mother's house?"

"His mother's empty house," Provenza supplied. "He damn well did. Tao, what can you do about that address?" he called across the murder room.

"Already on it!" Tao called back. The room was suddenly filled with that crackling tension that could signal an impending break in a case. Even if the chief was silent for once, all eyes fixed on Tao. Flynn's hands had started to shake. What if he was on to something? Could it be this easy? While time seemed to stretch into eternity, he knew that only a few minutes could have elapsed before Tao raised his fist in victory.

"Got it! Elliott put down his mother as his emergency contact. It's in his HR file!"

"Okay, Provenza, Tao, Sanchez, you're with me!" The Chief called. "Sergeant Gabriel, call in the cavalry in case he is armed and dangerous. Lieutenant Flynn-"

She turned to him, handbag slung over her shoulder, clearly about to tell him to stay put, but when sshe saw his face, she nodded for him to follow instead.

When he was almost past her, she leaned in so only he could hear what she was saying to him. "You'll be an observer, Lieutenant. Is that clear? I know she is your girlfriend and all, but-"

„She is not my-"

The Chief huffed in that exaggerated way that way so uniquely her. "Spare me, Lieutenant and get in the car."