Here are two additional scenes for 6x04. The first one explores the team's concern for Sharon, the second one is all Shandy.

As always, thank you, escapewithstories, for all your help on these.

Gonna leave you to it now. Have fun! :)

The first one

There were times during an investigation when the team would fall into a lull–until a warrant came through, or some test results arrived, or a suspect was delivered to their interview room–but not this time. This time, they still had plenty to do, and had been at it non stop since their Commander was taken to hospital. Currently they were regrouped in the murder room for the first time since she had collapsed, and they were supposed to brief each other on the latest collected information before deciding how to proceed, but found themselves doing nothing of the sort. Provenza had called Mike earlier, informing the younger Lieutenant, and subsequently everyone else, that he was on his way back from the hospital. Now, all eager to grill the man on Sharon's condition, work suddenly didn't seem nearly as important. What little they knew so far was that Sharon was alright, or at least better than she had been the last time they had seen her, but their patience regarding not knowing what exactly had managed to bring down their seemingly indestructible commanding officer had finally run out, and there was no way they would return to work until Provenza showed up with hopefully even better news.

Typically, at this point in their investigation, they would be reporting to their Commander, theorizing, bouncing ideas off her and each other. However, it was obvious by the way each of them kept throwing concerned glances towards her office that they were all painfully aware that would not be happening today. Only their newest colleague, Detective Paige, seemed to not succumb to that knowledge, naturally, of course, for she hadn't been working with their boss nearly as long or close as they have. She was standing in front of the murder board, the way she was frowning at the board with her head tilted to the side in concentration indicating that she was racking her brain trying to find some angle they hadn't explored yet.

It was Julio who lifted the heavy silence they momentarily lapsed into, and although he spoke quietly, his words made the youngest Detective jump on the spot and turn to look at him. He was hunched over, his elbows resting on his thighs, and his gaze dead set on the spot his boss collapsed in. "That was scary."

Amy agreed with a nod. "Her tests are taking forever," she said, her obvious worry only intensified by this fact and its implications.

Mike seemed to be thinking along similar lines. "It could be all kinds of things," he said, nervously fiddling with his glasses. "Dehydration, exhaustion," he put his glasses back on, "complication from the flu like pneumonia or hy-"

Wes interjected, a bewildered look on his face. He held his hands up, as if in surrender, but it was really in a plea to stop Mike from continuing his list. "We get the picture, Lieutenant."

Mike shrugged apologetically, scratching the top of his head awkwardly. "Just saying…"

Julio suddenly half-scoffed, half-chuckled, not paying Mike and Wes much attention. "Funny," he said, no real humor in the word, "I thought passing out was Lieutenant Flynn's thing."

It drew a few dry chuckles out of the rest of them, but Paige looked at them with a frown. "How many times did he collapse?" The crease on her brow deepened, and as she waved her pen through the air, she added, "I know he had a heart attack here, but…"

"Since the Commander took over?" Buzz asked, not waiting for a response. "Here in the murder room?" he added rhetorically, then shrugged and glanced over his colleagues questioningly. "Three times."

"And," Provenza suddenly walked into the murder room in a quick stride, shrugging out of his suit jacket on the way to his desk, "he was a pain in the ass patient afterwards each time." He smirked when the team laughed, albeit nervously, and proceeded to drape his jacket over the back of his chair. "However," he said, half-amused, half-worried, "judging by the update I just had to give Sharon, and," he finally took a seat behind his desk, "Flynn being on the verge of another heart attack trying to get her to take a day off, I have a feeling she won't be any better."

Only Provenza would dare voice that assumption about their Commander, and the fact that he did seemed to be permission for the rest of them to laugh again, slightly more genuinely this time. It was Amy who sobered fairly quickly though, and asked the burning question on their minds. "Do they know what's wrong?"

Provenza sighed. "The doctor came in with the results and kicked us all out of her room, so," he shrugged, "I think they do." Fishing his phone out of his pocket, hopefully, he added, "Flynn should fill me in when the doc's done."

Amy swallowed and her eyes went wide. "So they're not releasing her yet?"

"Oh," Provenza's tone was ominous and his eyes were set on Sharon's empty office, "if Sharon Raydor has any say in it, she'll be out of that hospital bed before we're out of the murder room today."

Julio looked around the room, an optimistic smirk on his face. "Seems to me she's all good again then."

Everyone but Mike chuckled. "Aside from the whole passing out thing," he eyed Julio blandly, "sure, perfectly good."

"Anyway," Provenza said with a touch of finality before Julio could respond, and he tore his gaze away from Sharon's office, "she expects us to continue as usual, and," he paused, giving each of them a pointed look, "to keep her updated."

Nobody even tried to continue as usual. Instead Buzz said, somewhat warily, "Lieutenant?"

The concern in the young man's voice had Provenza turning to look at him. When he met his equally worried face, Buzz railed off, swallowing a feeble smile in lieu of his actual inquiry, so Provenza swept a gaze over the rest of his team. They were all, even their two newest colleagues, wearing matching expressions and suddenly the nervous energy that had kept him going ever since Sharon was wheeled out of the murder room was replaced by a feeling the word 'worry' couldn't even begin to describe. Because of his partner alone, Provenza had gotten very well acquainted with this feeling, but that didn't prepare him any better for it. The fact that Sharon Raydor had made it to the list of people who would elicit such a depth of emotion, part of his sarcastic self would consider ridiculous, but in the face of his and his team's concern he didn't find it in him to even try to crack a joke about it. Instead, trying to sound as comforting as he could, considering he really wasn't good at that kind of thing, he finally said, "Rusty's with her. Flynn's with her. If anything happens, and," he shook his head, "I highly doubt that anything will, they'll let us know immediately. In the meantime," he continued pointedly, "let's get back to work. Besides," he cracked a sly smile suddenly, a quip popping into his head after all, "she'll be here to boss us all around again before you know it." Under his breath, but loud enough for everyone to still hear him, he added, "Probably by the end of the day, too."

It had the desired effect and his teammates offered up a few smiles. Just like that, they heeded Provenza's order and returned to work.

After all, once their boss did return, and they were now much more hopeful that she would do so soon, she would not be pleased if they had no update to give her.

The second one

Admitting and regretting that she didn't take any notes like Andy had during his ordeal in hospitals, Sharon resorted to sharing all the documentation her doctor had sent her home with. She was going to sit back down on her chair once she retrieved it, but having had enough of giving her space, Andy pulled her down next to him and so they spent the next half hour sitting there shoulder to shoulder going over everything they knew about Sharon's condition.

It was when there was nothing technical left to go over and they fell into an exhausted, somber silence that Sharon sighed and revealed something she only then became fully aware of. "This is what it feels like then…"

Andy tossed her file over to the chair and looked at her, the expression on her face cluing him into what she was talking about. "To be scared of dying?" When she smiled ruefully, he nodded and added a contemplation of his own. "And this is what it feels like to get the crap scared out of you?"

He was smiling crookedly at her, teasing, but there was worry and fear in his eyes, too, and Sharon wondered how long it would be before they went away. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. "Pretty much."

He took to fiddling with her engagement ring with his other hand and sighed. "We're gonna have to tell the kids."

Sharon hummed affirmatively, leaning her head against his upper arm. She was not looking forward to that at all, and she had a feeling Rusty would actually freak out the least. Ricky and Emily always had overprotective tendencies and she was already bracing herself for those tendencies to kick into a higher gear than usual when she told them and they flew down for the wedding. At the same time, however, there was a tremendous feeling of longing to see them in her. The prospect of having them visit never ceased to make her giddy with excitement, but this time it was different. She didn't just want to wrap her arms around them, savor their company and get caught up on everything distance forced her to miss out on. She wanted to take comfort in them, draw strength and courage from them the way she could from having Andy and Rusty by her side. That desire in and of itself was not new to her, but her current circumstance of uncertainty made it more overwhelming than usual. The intensity of it forced tears to form in her throat and before she could even try to hold it back, a choked sob escaped her. She tried to hide her face in Andy's arm, but he had already let go of her hand and wrapped the arm around her shoulder, tucking her safely into his side.

"It's okay," he said quietly, rubbing his hand over her arm soothingly. "They'll be here before you know it."

How he could always tell where her thoughts went was a question that crossed her mind more than once over the course of their relationship, and its answer eluded her just as many times, but the fact that he did just then only reinforced her tears. Clutching his robe tightly, she clung to him desperately, and sought shelter there as she gave up on holding back her tears altogether.

Andy held onto her just as firmly. Wordlessly. His heart was breaking for her, but there was nothing more he knew to do to ease her pain. Or his own. Sharon, the fiercest person he knew, who had been the one to help mend him, was falling apart in front of him and he couldn't bear watching. Anger bubbled inside him that her body would betray her the way his own had betrayed him. His body, he had abused over the years, taken for granted for decades before he even spared taking proper care of it a fleeting thought. That it eventually did let him down seemed more inevitable than surprising. But Sharon's? She had no lifetime of bad habits that put her at risk, no string of physical injuries that added strain to her body, nothing. It decided to give out on her on a whim. Now that so many things had finally fallen into place for her, it felt like a bad practical joke was being played on both of them. Only it wasn't a joke. Not even remotely, and laughter was the farthest thing from Andy's mind. He was utterly terrified just at the idea of losing her, especially now when they were so close to being officially pronounced each other's. That she must have felt the same way when he had faced his health crises, and that she got through it without ever crumbling, only tugged harder at his heartstrings. Desperate, he pressed his lips to her hair and took a deep steadying breath, but it didn't have the desired effect. Instead, he was hit with the scent of whatever mysterious cosmetics she used during her nightly routine, but it was a scent he always distinctly associated with her that reached his senses and pushed him over the edge, making him succumb to the weight of his emotions, too.

After a while, neither knew how long, Sharon murmured, "You deserve it."

Andy lifted his head, as did she, and looked at her in puzzlement for a moment. Once he caught on, he couldn't believe that those were the things she was contemplating right now, but said, "You, or my kids," because those were the only things he could not fathom he could have possibly ever deserved to have in his life, "I don't think I do."

She shook her head. "Everything, Andy," she said resolutely, "you are more than worth it."

He could care less that her face was still tear-stained, or that his was, too. All he could do in that moment was lean in and capture her lips in a searing kiss. She responded instantly, and for a few moments they lost themselves in it, found solace in it, but when her hand came up to his cheek, he covered it with his own and pulled back. He wasn't allowed to speak, however, because Sharon beat him to it.

"You know why," her tone went higher over that word,"I care about you so much?"

Andy just stared at her because she suddenly sounded so… happy? Elated? Confident? Optimistic? All of the above? He couldn't settle on just one word, but his heart swelled up at the mere notion that it had something to do with him.

Sharon took his silence as answer enough. "Because you," her fingers twitched against his cheek, "care." She shook her head again, in disbelief that he did not see what she saw every day and couldn't get enough of. "You are good," she stroked her thumb over his damp cheek, "kind and generous. You're persistent," the small upward tug of her mouth made Andy roll his eyes at her because what she really meant to say was 'stubborn', "and patient, and hardworking, and loyal to a fault." She leaned in and quickly brushed her lips against his before removing her hand from his face. "And those are just a few in a long list of things I love about you."

Deeply moved, Andy barely mustered a watery smile before dropping his gaze to her hands and clasping one of them between his. "Careful," he finally said, his voice both hollow and gravelly, "if that gets back to the PAB, my reputation will be shot to hell."

She laughed one of those short bubbly laughs he absolutely adored, but ducked her head to catch his eye and told him seriously, "Those are also the things that make you an excellent police officer."

It wasn't so much the words that created a lump at the back of Andy's throat, or even the fact that they came from her. It was those expressive, determined eyes of hers, so open and genuine, and so filled with love, for him of all people, that did him in. He couldn't imagine anything ever, least of all her heart that he loved so much, being something to threaten dulling them. He swallowed hard, making a conscious effort to push back his tears and escape his desolate thoughts. Instead, he put on a smirk. "Even when I get into trouble?"

"Even when you get into trouble," she confirmed on another laugh, and Andy finally laughed with her.

Not letting go of her hand, he suddenly stood. "Ready to call it a night?"

Allowing herself to feel her exhaustion for the first time that day, on a groan Sharon said, "Yes," and took to her own feet.

Her hold on his hand slackened as she prepared to walk to her side of the bed, but Andy's grip remained strong, and he tugged on it. When she paused, he grabbed her other hand and gently pulled her towards him. He was looking at her so intently that Sharon's gaze faltered and she gladly let him pull her into his embrace, or else she would have teared up once more. His breath was hot against her ear and his voice low and thick when he said, "I love you," he tightened his arms around her, "and we're gonna figure this out, okay?"

'What we're dealing with.' Andy's earlier words suddenly flashed across Sharon's mind and she welled up all over again, her chest constricting for entirely different reasons compared to back in the murder room when she collapsed. There was a time when she blindly trusted the promise of support behind words like those. Then there was a time when she took it for granted and found herself desperately hoping for it when it disappeared, before being let down by it one last time and completely giving up on believing anyone other than her parents and children would ever truly mean it. But then, five years ago, this man in whose comforting arms she just stood wormed his way into her life, and he proved, both in her personal and professional life, that she could trust that promise again. So that's what she did just then, trust. Not blindly or foolishly the way she had with another man decades ago. It was a well-educated kind of trust, but it was wholly encompassing and there was not a single seed of doubt in her mind about it. The realization felt liberating really, and for a second she found herself wanting to apologize for ever considering postponing, or even cancelling, their wedding. But Andy would have just brushed it off, so instead she nodded against his chest and, because she knew with absolute certainty that she did not have to ask, stated, "You're coming to my next appointment."

She felt Andy's smile against her neck before he placed a kiss there. He pulled back just enough to be able to look at her. "Good," he brushed his thumb against the single tear that managed to escape beneath the rim of her glasses and run down her cheek, "because once I'm your husband there will be no keeping me away from them. Besides," he tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at her only half-jokingly, "you clearly need somebody taking notes for you."

She threw her head back in a light-hearted laugh and smacked his chest playfully. "Yes," she said, her laugh morphing into a soft, besotted smile, "that is," the way she dropped her eyes to her hand and ran her fingers along the collar of his t-shirt made her next words an understatement, "precisely what I need you for."

He matched her smile, delighted at her response, and captured her hand to press a kiss against her knuckles. When it drew another smile out of her even as she shook her head at him, he released her hand and finally let her walk to her side of the bed. Once under the covers, Sharon forewent her pillow and instead found a cushion in the form of the inside of Andy's shoulder. When her feet slipped between his calves, he let out a long, tired, but content sigh and wrapped his arm around her. They would both drift toward their respective bedsides come morning, but he would hold onto her tightly until then. As much as he wished it would, his hold would not ease her ailment, but it was already relaxing them both and allowing sleep to take over. Andy was just at the precipice of slipping fully under, when Sharon's low, sleepy voice that made him wonder whether she was even awake anymore, put a smile on his face.

"I can't wait to be your wife either."

Thoughts? :D