DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 7

Later that morning, Andy woke up and looked at his phone. It was now 8:15. He rolled over but both Matthew and Moxie were not in his room anymore. He rubbed his eyes and picked up his phone again, sending a text to Sharon.

'Good morning sweetheart,' the text said and Andy sat up and went in search of Matthew. He didn't have to look far as he saw the boy was in his room, sleeping in his bed with the blanket from their room. Moxie was with Matthew and started wagging his tail when he saw Andy step into the hallway.

Moxie stood up and jumped down from the bed and stretched his body before he walked over to Andy. "Hey, want to go outside?" he asked the dog and Moxie got super excited and ran down the stairs. "Okay," Andy chuckled as he watched the dog fly down the stairs. He glanced back into Matthew's room and saw that Matthew was sitting up on his bed.

"Morning," he told Matthew and Matthew gave him a wave as he stretched. Andy went downstairs and followed Moxie to the back door where he was waiting to be let outside. His phone chirped along with the birds as he stood out on the back patio, watching Moxie run along the back fence. He took his phone out of his pocket and started to read the text message from Sharon.

'Hmm, good morning my love, I'm just sitting outside on our patio watching the sun filter over the rolling hills. We have a spa appointment in an hour and then we will be heading back to LA. Probably looking around a 6 o'clock arrival' and her message ended with a smiley emoji. He smiled at her message and wrote back 'Great, can't wait till you're home and I can wrap my arms around you' and he also added a smiley emoji as well before he sent it to her.

Andy looked up from his phone and saw Moxie was standing in front of him wagging his tail. "Are you all done out here?" he asked the dog and Moxie kept wagging his tail. "Ready to eat?" he asked Moxie and Moxie jumped and got excited as he followed Andy towards the back door of the house. Opening the door, Andy stepped inside and Moxie raced in and followed him to where his food was kept. Andy placed Moxie's food in his bowl and placed it down on the mat. Moxie ate his food while Andy went into the kitchen.

Matthew was sitting at the kitchen table, his hair almost standing straight up and messy. "What would you like for breakfast?" Andy asked as he looked at him. Matthew just shrugged his shoulders and continued to sit there while Andy made his way over to the coffee maker and started to make himself some coffee.

"How about some cereal?" Andy suggested but was met with another shoulder shrug from Matthew. Andy looked at the boy and shook his head. He made his way to the pantry and pulled out the cereal boxes of Lucky Charms and Honey Nut Cheerios, carrying them back to the kitchen table.

He was surprised to see Matthew carrying two bowls and spoons over to the table. Andy placed the boxes on the table while Matthew sat back down and reached for the box of Lucky Charms. Andy then went to grab the carton of milk and brought that back to the table as Matthew's bowl was overflowing with Lucky Charms.

"Whoa, I think you have enough there buddy," Andy chuckled as he sat down and joined Matthew. Matthew reached for the carton of milk and poured that into his bowl, making more cereal fall out of the bowl.

They both sat there in silence as they ate their bowls of cereal until Andy asked Matthew a question about homework. "Are you sure you have all your homework done? Because your mom is coming home later today and I don't want you rushing around at night because you forgot to do something," Andy asked him.

Matthew thought for a moment and then shook his head and continued to eat his cereal. Andy thought to himself that he would double check Matthew's homework folder after they were done eating.

Meanwhile, back in Napa, the three ladies were all ready for their spa appointments as they walked into the Mandara Spa at the hotel. "Good morning ladies, how can we help you?" the woman behind the reception desk asked them as they walked towards her.

"We have our spa appointments this morning," Andrea told her. "Certainly, what are the names?" the woman asked as she clicked on her computer screen. "Hobbs, Flynn, and Provenza," Andrea answered as Sharon and Patrice stood behind her. "Ah, yes, if you ladies would follow Karen here, she will show you where to go," the woman smiled as they followed Karen into another room.

Karen showed them to a locker room area, where they changed their clothes and into the robes that were provided to them. Then they went into another room where glasses of sparkling water were provided to them as they waited for their massages to start. Sharon couldn't wait for her massage to relax her.

Later on, that morning, back at the Flynn house, Matthew was upstairs in his room, looking through his school backpack. He pulled out his homework folder just to make sure he didn't have anything he needed to do before tomorrow. As he looked through his folder, his eyes got wide. "Oh no!" he whispered to himself.

There was an assignment that was due tomorrow but he didn't know how he was going to be able to finish it. He started to panic and worried that Andy was going to be mad at him. 'Always tell us the truth, no matter what' is what Sharon had told him long ago. He took a deep breath and brought the folder with him downstairs.

Andy was sitting in the den, working on his computer, when Matthew knocked on the door frame. "Dad?" Matthew said, not wanting to disturb Andy. "Yeah buddy?" Andy asked as he type a few words on the keyboard. "Um, I have a slight problem," Matthew told him, hoping that would help lessen the blow of missing an assignment.

Andy looked up from the computer and looked at Matthew. "What is it?" he asked him and saw Matthew take a deep breath as he held his assignment folder in his hands. Andy looked at the folder and knew it had something to do with school. "Uh, I need to make a volcano display," Matthew told him as he stood there.

"Oh, well, that's not a problem," Andy turned in his chair to face Matthew. Matthew pulled out the assignment paper from the folder which showed what the display needed to have. Andy glanced over it and nodded. "When is it due by?" he asked Matthew.

"Tomorrow," Matthew mumbled quickly as he looked at Andy. "Tomorrow?" Andy choked out as he sat back in the chair. "We could have worked on it over the weekend," Andy said, not trying to scold Matthew for not remembering his assignment. Andy saw Matthew's eyes and knew he was sorry. "Okay, not a problem, we can work on it and hopefully finish it before your mom gets home," Andy said as he stood up and tousled Matthew's hair as he walked out of the den.

"Let's get ready to go to the hardware store and get the supplies that we need for this," he told Matthew as he walked up the stairs to grab his wallet. Matthew grabbed the sheet of paper with the supplies needed and waited for Andy in the kitchen.

Andy came back down the stairs, looking around the hallway and then saw Matthew standing in the kitchen.

"Ready?" he asked Matthew as he grabbed his car keys that were on the kitchen counter. Matthew nodded and joined his dad at the back door. Andy turned and looked at Moxie. "You stay here, we'll be right back," he told Moxie as Moxie was wagging his tail. Matthew walked out of the house and Andy closed and locked the door behind them.

As Andy and Matthew made their way to the local hardware store, Sharon, Andrea, and Patrice were enjoying their relaxing spa time. The three were sitting in chairs as they got their pedicures. The pedicure technician was making small talk with Sharon as she massaged her feet, while Patrice was deciding on what color she wanted her toe nails painted.

Another girl brought in a tray of sparkling water and handed a glass to Sharon, Andrea, and Patrice, as well as other ladies who were in the spa. Sharon turned her attention to the technician as she spoke to her. "So how do you ladies all know each other?" she asked as she started painting Sharon's nails red.

"Oh, well we all know each other from work," Sharon answered as vague as she could be. "Any other plans scheduled for today or are you all heading back home?" she asked Sharon as she moved from her left foot to her right foot. "No, we are heading home today. It's been very relaxing here but I have to get home to my husband and kids," Sharon told her.

"You left your husband in charge of the kids? Hopefully the house is still standing!" the technician joked and Sharon laughed. "Oh, I'm sure everything is fine there," Sharon said as she sipped her glass of water, thinking about Andy.

About a half hour later, back in LA, Andy and Matthew arrive home from the hardware store. They bring in all the supplies they bought and cleared off the kitchen table so that they could begin to work on Matthew's project.

"Are you sure we can work on this in here? Won't Mom get mad if we get the kitchen all dirty with this stuff?" Matthew asked Andy as he pointed to the brown paint and plaster. "That's why we lay down the plastic drop cloths first, to cover everything, that way it's an easy clean-up before your mom gets home," Andy chuckled and tousled Matthew's hair.

They laid down the plastic drop cloths on the kitchen floor and the table. Matthew placed the poster board on the table as the base for the volcano. Then they both placed googles on the eyes and wore gloves. "Ready?" Andy asked him and Matthew gave him a thumbs up.

Andy started to mix the plaster with water in a bucket and when it was ready, he then started to make the base of the volcano on the poster board. "How high do you want this volcano to be?" Andy asked as they were molding the volcano. "Maybe as high as a ruler?" Matthew shrugged as he added more clay and plaster to the volcano. "It should be hollow in the middle," Andy told him as he helped with the sides.

An hour later, the volcano was built, they just need to wait till it hardened before Matthew could paint it brown. Andy glanced at the clock, and calculated in his head that they would have enough time to finish this and make sure the kitchen was clean, before Sharon came home.

"Is there anything else you might have forgotten to do for homework while we wait for this to set?" Andy asked Matthew as they took off their gloves and goggles. Matthew stood there and thought about it. Andy shook his head. "Bring me your backpack and take-home folder," he told him and Matthew ran up the stairs to get them.

Andy stood there in the kitchen and watched Matthew leave before he ran his hand through his hair and sighed. He looked over at Moxie, who was laying on the kitchen floor, wagging his tail when Andy looked at him.

He heard Matthew come barreling down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Here," Matthew said as he handed the backpack to Andy. Andy placed it on the kitchen counter and looked through it. He pulled out Matthew's math folder and saw assignments that were returned to him, all graded. He then pulled out the spelling folder and saw the same thing. He did not see Matthew's take-home folder from earlier today.

"Where's your take-home folder?" he looked up and asked Matthew. "It's in the den," Matthew stated and ran to the den to pick it up from the computer desk in there. He brought it back to Andy without saying a word. Andy looked at him and then went through the folder. "You know, we don't have to tell your mom that you forgot to do this assignment," Andy told him as he shuffled through the folder, satisfied that this was the only thing Matthew forgot to do.

"But Mom always says to tell the truth, remember?" Matthew said. Andy sighed and rolled his eyes. "Yes, and she's right about that, but," he started to say as he looked at him. "We don't have to tell her that you forgot to do it, we could show it to her when she gets home and tell her you had to do it for school," Andy fumbled with the wording as he packed Matthew's backpack with the folders that he took out. "That's the truth, right?" Andy asked and Matthew nodded in agreement.

Just then, Andy received a text message from Sharon. He looked on his phone and read the message. 'Heading home, can't wait to see my boys' it said. 'Miss you' Andy responded to her and looked back at Matthew. "Okay, so while we let that dry, what else can we do?" he asked him.

"Lunch?" Matthew responded as he walked over to the refrigerator and opened the door, peeking inside to see what he wanted. Andy followed him and watched him take out some leftover containers. "I don't know if that's still good," Andy opened the container that Matthew pulled out and looked it over.

The container held taco meat from the previous week. He lifted the container to his nose to smell it. "It smells okay, what do you think?" he asked Matthew who stood there watching him. "I'm game," Matthew shrugged his shoulders and Andy laughed. "It's not my fault if you get food poisoning after eating this," Andy told him as he took the container and placed it in the microwave.

"Are you going to have any?" Matthew asked as he got the rest of the ingredients to make tacos out of the refrigerator. "Uh, no, buddy," Andy stated as he peered over Matthew to see what else was inside the refrigerator. "I think I'll have a salad because I was thinking about making grilled salmon for dinner, when your mom gets home," he added.

"Can we have those cut up potatoes?" Matthew asked, moving to the counter and setting up his tacos he was making. "The ones with garlic and onions?" Andy asked for clarification. Matthew nodded his head. "Sure," Andy smiled.

After they were done eating lunch in the family room, Matthew had left his plate on the coffee table and had walked into the kitchen. Moxie took that opportunity to lick the plate clean. Andy heard the clanging of the dish and fork. Turning around, looking at Matthew who was looking over his project.

"Did you leave your plate in the family room?" Andy asked as he turned the water from the kitchen sink off. Matthew didn't say anything and quickly went into the family room. There he saw Moxie licking his plate clean. Matthew shook his head. "Did you enjoy that?" Matthew asked the dog and Moxie just kept licking his paw after cleaning the dish for him.

Matthew brought the plate and fork back into the kitchen and placed it in the sink. "Moxie licked it clean," he muttered to Andy. "Of course, he did," Andy chuckled slightly, rinsing the dish off and placing it in the dishwasher.

"I think it's dry," Matthew touched the base part of the volcano. Andy walked over to the table after wiping his hands with a towel. Looking it over, he agreed with Matthew. "Okay, next step is painting it brown," he told him.

Matthew put on his rubber gloves and reached for the paint brush while Andy opened the small can of brown paint they had bought. "Alright, take it nice and easy here, just paint the volcano brown and we can paint the base green," Andy suggested and Matthew nodded as he dipped his paint brush into the can of paint.

After Matthew was done painting the volcano brown and the base green, he waited again for it to dry. "This is taking forever," he huffed. "When do we get to cause the eruption?" he asked Andy who walked back into the kitchen. "Is the paint dry yet?" Andy asked him as he moved over to see the volcano project.

"No," Matthew watched the volcano. "Can I go play outside in the backyard?" he asked. "Sure, why don't you take Moxie out there with you and I'll put away the paints," Andy told him and Matthew ran off towards the back door. "Come on Moxie!" he yelled out to the dog. Moxie came bounding into the kitchen from where ever he was and ran out the door with Matthew into the backyard.

Just then, Andy's phone rang. It was sitting on the kitchen counter. He knew it was Provenza calling because of the ring tone that was playing. "We better not have a case," Andy answered the phone. "We don't Flynn, I was just calling to see how Matthew was doing with his thumb," Provenza told him. "See, I knew the kid turned you into a softy," Andy teased over the phone.

"Ha ha, so how's it going?" Provenza asked. "Matthew's thumb seems to be better today, it's still bruised but doesn't seem to be bothering him," Andy said as he placed the lids on the paint cans and placed the paint brushes in the sink in the mud room, figuring he would wash them later.

He took the two paint cans and walked outside to the backyard. He saw Matthew running around with a ball and Moxie chasing him, all the while still talking to Provenza over the phone. Provenza was talking about how he heard that Jamison was finally retiring from the LAPD. "Finally, I never liked that bastard," grumbled Andy as he placed the cans on the shelf in the garage. "He didn't like you either Flynn," commented Provenza as Andy stepped back outside into the yard.

"Did you want to come over?" Andy asked but Provenza declined the offer. "I need to make sure the house is clean when Patrice comes home later today," he told Andy. "You should too," he added. "I should too what?" Andy asked as he sat down on the bench that was in the yard. "You know, make sure the house is in order for when Sharon gets home," Provenza told him.

"Not a problem, we've got that covered," Andy said and Provenza laughed into the phone. "Okay Flynn, see you tomorrow then," Provenza said and hung up the phone. Andy shook his head as he placed his phone into his jean pocket. He looked up to see Matthew tumbling on the grass and Moxie licking the boys face.

A windy breeze blew by him and he turned his head. The smell of burning wood caught his attention. He shook his head. 'Who would be burning firewood at this time of day' he thought to himself. His phone rang again, alerting him to a text message. He pulled out his phone and saw Nicole had sent him a message.

'Just letting you know we got back home, Dad' she had sent and Andy replied. 'Good to hear, sweetie' he sent back to her. Nicole, Dean, and the boys went up north for the long weekend to visit one of her college roommates who was married with kids of their own.

"Do you think it's dry now?" Matthew asked, breaking Andy from his thoughts. "I don't know but let's go in and see," Andy stood up from the bench and walked towards the back door. Another windy breeze blew by both of them. "Is there a fire somewhere?" Matthew asked as he stepped back inside the house with Moxie following him. "I don't know," Andy turned, closing the door, and paused for a moment.

"Dad, I think it's dry now!" Matthew shouted in the kitchen. Andy walked into the kitchen to join him. "Okay, are we going to put up the village and people that we bought?" he asked the kid. "Oh, yes, I forgot about that," Matthew said and went to grab the bag from the store that had the pieces inside.

A few minutes passed and they were finally ready for the volcano eruption. Andy had set all of the ingredients out on the kitchen island and read the directions. "Okay, we just need a little bit of vinegar," he told Matthew. Matthew placed the baking soda, the dish soap, and the red food coloring into the bottom of his volcano. They both placed their goggles on and got ready to watch the volcano. "Are you ready?" he asked Matthew and Matthew nodded, giving him a thumbs up sign.

Andy poured the vinegar into the volcano and it erupted, all over the place. Andy and Matthew ducked onto the floor. There was red food coloring all over the kitchen walls and red soap flowing out of the volcano, down the kitchen table and onto the floor. The red soap was dripping down the plastic drop cloth that was covering the table and the floor.

Matthew stood up and looked over everything with his jaw open. "Wow Dad! That was awesome!" he said. Andy stood up and looked around the room. "Shit," he mumbled under his breath as he saw that the color red was everywhere. "How much baking soda did you put in it?" he asked Matthew as he grabbed the roll of paper towels and tried collecting the red soap that was making its way, like the red blob, from the drop cloth, across the kitchen floor.

Moxie started barking at the red blob before moving out of the way as Andy cleaned up the mess. "The whole box," Matthew shrugged his shoulders as he answered the question. Andy couldn't get mad as he looked at Matthew, covered in food coloring and tiny bits of caked on baking soda. "Your mother is going to shoot us," Andy said as he handed a paper towel to the kid to wipe his arms.

"Well, she may not shoot you, but she will definitely shoot me," Andy changed his wording from before as he saw the red food coloring had gotten all over Sharon's pictures that were hanging up on the wall by the table.

The volcano seemed to stop erupting, which then gave them a chance to clean up their mess. "Okay, we need to make sure that everything, every inch in the kitchen is clean from this mess," Andy told Matthew after he wiped the boy's goggles clean from the baking soda bits. They both got to work wiping down the kitchen walls, pictures, table, and floor.

Hours had passed and Andy looked up from slicing the potatoes to see Sharon walking into the kitchen with her suitcase and small bag. "Hmm, I'm home," she smiled and Andy smiled back, placing the knife down on the counter and pulling Sharon into a hug. He kissed her and she kissed him back. "I missed you," she heard him mumble against her lips and she smiled, pulling away to look at him.

"I missed you too," she ran her hands through his hair and down his neck. She noticed a red mark on his neck below his ear. "Why do you have a red mark there?" she asked him and he shrugged his shoulders and pulled her in for another kiss.

"What are you making?" Sharon looked at the potatoes Andy was cutting up and saw the fish being prepared in one of her large mixing bowls. "Matthew wanted those cut up potatoes tonight, plus I know they are one of your favorites," Andy winked at her and she smiled. "Oh, its good to be home," Sharon said and turned around to see Matthew coming into the kitchen.

"There's my boy, how are you?" Sharon asked Matthew as she took a look at his thumb. "I missed you, Mom," he told her as she looked over his thumb. "Oh, my sweet boy, does your thumb hurt you?" she asked him as she brushed his hair to the side. "No, not really," he told her. She turned and smiled to Andy who smiled back and then continued what he was doing with prepping the food for dinner.

Sharon walked into the family room with Matthew, who was telling her all about the weekend and what they did. "Well, I'm glad you had fun with your dad. Is all your homework done?" she asked him. "Yep, I had to make a volcano for science class and dad and I worked on it together," he said. "Oh, that sounded like fun," Sharon said. "It was," Matthew smiled.

"Do you want to see it?" he asked her and took her hand, dragging her into the dining room where it sat on the dining room table. "Wow, you did a great job on this," Sharon said, looking the volcano over and saw the little village and people that were standing at the base. "Yeah, we made it explode earlier!" Matthew told her. "Oh, you did?" Sharon cautiously asked. "Uh huh," Matthew replied. "But don't worry, Mom, we made sure to clean everything up," he smiled. "Well, I'm glad you did," Sharon told him and walked back into the kitchen.

She walked up behind Andy who was at the kitchen sink and wrapped her arms around him. She leaned in and spoke into his right ear. "So, you built a volcano and it exploded?" she said. Andy stopped what he was doing and nodded slowly. "Huh, is that why there's a red mark below your ear?" she asked him again and he nodded slowly.

"Well, I'm glad you two had fun over the weekend," Sharon said which surprised Andy. "You're not mad it went everywhere?" Andy asked her. "You cleaned it up right?" she asked. "Of course," Andy told her. "Then why would I be mad?" Sharon turned around and walked towards the hallway. Andy smiled as he watched her, then glanced at Matthew, who appeared from the dining room.

"I told Mom that we got the volcano to explode," Matthew told him. Andy walked over to where he was standing and tousled his hair. "Of course, you did," he chuckled and glanced over at the wall, making sure there was no evidence of what had happened. It was then he saw some red marks on the glass of one of the pictures. He must have missed that before when they were cleaning the wall.

Sharon walked in on Andy wiping one of her pictures with a paper towel. "What are you doing?" she asked, standing there with her hands on her hips. "Uh, nothing?" Andy stopped and looked at her, and decided to give her his charming smile at that point. Sharon walked over to him. "You missed another spot over there," she said, pointing to the wall switch, and smiled. Andy hung his head, shaking it a couple of times, and gave her a kiss before wiping the other spot.

The End