This will be the last chapter, but I plan to continue the story with my next upload as a continuation. The new story will have "Sequel to Implied Consent" somewhere in the title or description😊
"Don't make me go ROOM TO ROOM looking Captain" he shouted.
Andy's bedroom door cracked open, and he spun around to face it. "Hiding? Really?" he asked.
He'd never have admitted it, but he was shocked seeing her come out of Flynn's bedroom, dressed very differently from the way he was used to seeing her. The attire was not inappropriate at all, but very "Not-the-Captain" casual.
"Nonsense Lieutenant, I was just washing my hands to help Andy in the kitchen. What makes you think I was hiding?" she responded.
"Oh... I don't know... maybe the fact that Flynn denied you were here, and the fact that it took a few threats to bring you out perhaps?" he said with both eyebrows raised in question. Sharon turned a little, attempting to hide the blush that crept across her face.
"What in GOD'S NAME are the two of you doing?" he demanded as his eyes flicked between the two faces in front of him.
"Sharon told you old man... we were about to make dinner." Andy told him, trying to hide a smirk. He locked eyes with Sharon and offered her one of his trademark crooked grins. She smirked back at him, and the twinkle in her eye told him she was enjoying Provenza's apparent discomfort.
"How man TIMES do I have to TELL you not to CALL her that Flynn?" he barked.
"Lieutenant, the last time I looked at my birth certificate, that was still my name" Sharon reinforced for him.
He rolled his eyes heavenward, completely exasperated and decided that he was not likely to get any sense out of the pair of them any time soon. To express precisely how he felt, he threw his hands in the air, looked them both in the eyes and declared "IDIOTS. Both of you. Nothing good will come of this. Mark my words." He then huffed twice, and promptly made his exit.
It took them both a couple of minutes to register that he had really left, and they both burst out laughing. Sharon pointed out that although they hadn't really needed him to know their business, it really HAD been a little fun watching the horror spread across his face. They both knew him well enough to know, that although he was personally horrified by the meaning of his suspicions, he wasn't the kind of man who would share it with others. He'd keep it to himself, and they wouldn't need to ask him to.
"You should have seen him. He was like a bloodhound. He walked in and I can tell you exactly where he stood when he realised he could smell your perfume." Andy was almost breathless with laughter. "I thought his head was going to explode."
"I argued with myself on the other side of the door, trying to decide whether he would really search every room. Then, when I realised he would, I had a couple of terrible thoughts about what he COULD see if he walked in, but decided I had better just come out." She added with a snort. "All he really knows is that we were both here in your house organising dinner. He didn't need to suspect anything more than that or we'd never hear the end of it."
Andy instantly stopped laughing. "What do you mean what he COULD have seen?"
"Well" she chuckled, "the witch in me wondered if I should pull back the covers, pull them over myself and pretend to be asleep, and just let him think whatever he wanted. He would have had an absolute coronary, AND it would have been entirely his own fault for being so suspicious about something that's none of his business."
"Well, in one sense I would love to have seen his reaction to finding you asleep in my bed. On the other hand, there may have been two of us having a coronary after finding you there, although the two coronaries would have been for very different reasons" he told her with a completely straight face, before his shoulders started to shake with the laughter he was suppressing.
"Is that so Lieutenant Flynn?" She asked as she linked her hands behind his head a second time, and drew him downward to her lips.
"Mhmm" was all he managed for the next few minutes.
Extracting himself from her grip, he dragged her toward the kitchen. "If I don't start dinner now, it may not happen." he added.
"What are we making?" she wanted to know. "You never did end up telling me what you planned to make."
"Well, my specialty has always been my grandmother's lasagne, with my own vegetarian twist, so if that's ok, that's what i planned."
"How long have you been vegetarian Andy?"
"Uh, I'm not a hard-and-fast vegetarian, I just decided to minimise meat products in favour of the health benefits" he shrugged as he answered.
"Very sensible!" she said. "I often opt for vegetarian dishes by choice, but don't consider myself vegetarian. Can I help you with anything?"
"I'm good." he told her. "I've heard you only have a kitchen because it came with the house. That's terrifying Sharon. How are those kids of yours normal?"
"I always made their lunches" she laughed "and you wouldn't believe how easy it is to survive by making excellent menu choices."
"Good grief woman. It's like I don't even know you!" he chuckled. "You can stay where you are and watch, if you don't touch anything."
"Nothing at ALL?" she asked, looking up at him through her lashes.
"You're definitely trouble" he told her. "Where was this side of you hiding all these years?"
"I have no idea what you mean Lieutenant" she answered, biting her bottom lip.
"Trouble. Capital T." he pointed at her as he moved around the kitchen putting the lasagne together. He put it into the oven and set the timer for the half an hour he knew it would need to cook.
His head was reeling. He couldn't believe that he had never seen this particular side of her in all the years they 'd known each other. They'd been friends now for quite a while, really good friends in fact, but this playful side of her was something altogether new. He wondered why it felt so comfortable, when only a couple of days before he'd been so certain that he had to keep his feelings hidden. He had been so sure that she couldn't possibly be interested in entertaining thoughts of a relationship with a second alcoholic, that he didn't even consider it possible.
Her head was on fire. She was having a difficult time believing the way she was responding to him. Having grown up rather studious, then marrying Jack so young, she really had very little experience in personal relationships of any romantic nature, yet she found herself coming very close to throwing herself at him. She wondered how she had banished her tendency to overthink every action, and why it felt so natural to want to be close to him. Sure, they'd been good friends for a while, and she was more than comfortable going out to dinner, or to functions with him, but this had developed a whole new level entirely. She marvelled at the fact that although Andy was a self-confessed alcoholic, like Jack, that was the only trait they really had in common. He was nothing like Jack. This goofy, smartass, rarely-too-serious man managed to set her on fire with just a look. How had she missed the signals? Then she chastised herself for wondering, because she knew the answer. She didn't know what the signals WERE, and if she had picked one up she'd have had no idea what to do with it.
Lost in her own thoughts, Sharon chuckled a little at her own naivety.
"What's so funny?" Andy asked her, bursting the mental bubble she had trapped herself in.
"Oh... nothing really. I was just thinking about the fact that I haven't been this relaxed in a very long time, despite your partner's rude interruption." she answered, smiling.
"And that's funny because?" he asked as he reached out to pull her closer.
"Well, it's funny because you had this playing around in your head, and I really shouldn't have been shocked when you said what you did the other day about wishing it were true, but I was. I'll tell you why I was, and why I was laughing. Andy I was clueless. Not only had I not given it any thought at all, but as far as signals go, the only ones I ever recognise are traffic signals." she said and blinked with a little embarrassment.
"So, you genuinely had NO idea at all how I felt?" he wanted to know. He had thought she must have had some inclination at some point surely.
"Not until the words tumbled out of your mouth." she sighed. "I'm hopeless aren't I?"
He moved them over further into the living room and hit play on the CD player.
"Dance with me?" he asked her, and pulled her closer. There was no resistance. Sharon hummed barely audibly, and rested her head against his shoulder.
"I don't think that hopeless is a word I would ever use to describe you" he said as he rested his cheek on the top of her head. "You're focused, unlike me. You can be somewhat single-minded when you're focused, which is a good thing in our line of work, and if that makes you a little oblivious to the world around you, it's not hopeless at all."
"Hmm. Sometimes though, I think it prevents me from seeing what's right in front of my face" she told him. "For example, for this to feel as comfortable as it does, means that on some level it's been there all along, right in front of my face. If I'd been paying attention, I could have seen it earlier."
"It doesn't matter a bit. It's not something you can put on a timer Sharon. I'm still a bit mind-blown that you saw it at all, and feeling rather astonished that we're here right now, like this."
He tilted her chin so that she would look at him, and she smiled. When he moved to kiss her again, she surprised him by responding somewhat urgently.
The timer on the oven buzzed to let him know dinner was done.
"It turns itself off" he mumbled into her lips. "You know, if we don't eat soon, it's going to be very late by the time I get you home."
She brought a hand back from behind his neck, to caress his cheek, looked into his eyes and said "It could pass for breakfast."
What she'd said, took a moment to register. He gave her a slightly quizzical look, with his head tilted a little to the side. "You know, Captain, that statement could be seen as implied consent."
She stifled a high-pitch squeal, as he picked her up. Nuzzling her head into his neck, she hummed as he carried her to his bedroom.