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 9
As Sharon turned around and headed towards the elevators again, she passed by the hospital gift shop. She wanted to get Andy something that would cheer him up and she decided to step inside the shop. Her eyes went immediately to a small teddy bear that was holding a heart, which said 'I Love You'. She decided to get that and she brought it over to the cashier and paid for it. She then made her way upstairs, and back in to his room.
"Hello Lieutenant, my name is Corey and I'm going to be your physical therapist" Corey said to Andy as he stepped out of the wheelchair. "Yeah, great, nice to meet you" Andy said as he grimaced. "Okay, why don't you come over here first. We are going to do some shoulder extensions and see where you are currently at" Corey said to him as he gathered a strengthening ribbon and a measuring device. Andy looked over at his physical therapist, and shook his head. He walked over to join him as Corey pointed to a chair where he wanted him to sit.
After about thirty minutes of pure torture, according to Andy, he sat there on the bench inside the workout area, sweaty and trying to catch his breath as the physical therapist worked on his shoulder. "Are you okay?" Corey asked him as they lowered his left arm back to his side. "It's just painful when I raise my arm" he grunted to him. "I know, there was damage to your soft tissue surrounding your shoulder joint" Corey explained to him. "Like what tissue?" Andy inquired as they were taking a break from the exercise. Corey stood up and brought over a model of a shoulder to show Andy.
"Here, Lieutenant, let me show you what I'm talking about on this" Corey said to him as he brought the model back to where Andy was sitting. "The bullet entered here in your shoulder" he said as he pointed to the plastic model. "All throughout this area, where your bruising is, muscle and ligaments attach to the shoulder joint, they become flexible so that you are able to move your arm" Corey showed him. "When the bullet entered, it caused damage to these tissues, the muscle and the ligaments" Corey said as Andy looked at the plastic model. "The doctor performed the surgery to remove the bullets, and repair the tissue damage that occurred" as Andy listened to them. "My job is to help you get your strength back and get your range of motion back to being as close as 100 percent as we can get it" Corey said to him and placed the model on the table nearby.
Corey then sat back down in front of where Andy was sitting. "Now, you're not going to get your range of motion back to normal right away. We are going to gradually work on it so that one day, when I ask you to raise your left arm over your head, you won't be in pain and you'll be able to do it without my help". Andy looked down at his hands in his lap and then glanced back up at Corey. "When can I return to work?" he asked him. "Well, Lieutenant, that's a question for the doctor, however I will tell you that you are scheduled for physical therapy three times a week for the next three weeks" Corey informed him. Andy was not too happy to hear that but he knew that in order to get back in the field, he was going to have to endure this.
Meanwhile, Sharon had freshened up in the private bathroom inside Andy's room. She had changed her clothes and was now sitting on the couch in his room when her phone alerted her to a text message. It was from Rusty, he was wondering how Andy was doing. Sharon replied that he was currently in his physical therapy session. She glanced at the clock on the wall, Andy still had thirty more minutes of therapy before he would be coming back to her. Matthew's school was just a few minutes away from the hospital, so Sharon decided to leave and go pick him up. She had left a note on Andy's tray table, along with the teddy bear that she bought him.
She walked back down to the nurse's station. "Excuse me, I'm just going to be stepping outside for twenty minutes or so, my husband is currently downstairs at his physical therapy session, I don't want him to worry about me" Sharon said to one of the nurses. "Oh, don't worry honey, we'll let him know if he wonders where you went" the nurse replied to Sharon and then went about looking something up on the computer. Sharon then proceeded to the elevators and headed downstairs. She walked to the parking garage and followed the directions where Buzz had left their car. She found their car and then stepped inside and sat down in the driver's seat. She then made her way over to Matthew's school to pick him up.
Back in the physical therapy room, Andy was sitting upright on a table with an ice wrap around his left shoulder. The physical therapist told him he needed to keep that on for twenty minutes to help with the healing and any swelling that was occurring after his exercise. He sat there watching TV in the room. His left hand was laying across his stomach and he was playing with his wedding ring, thinking about Sharon.
In the Murder Room, things started to calm down after everyone had their written reports and handed them in to Provenza. Wally Parker was able to pick up the body of Randy Grey from the morgue and they didn't see Chief Davis the rest of the day. Sergeant Elliot from FID walked in to the Murder Room and saw Provenza sitting at his desk. "Lieutenant, how are things going?" Sergeant Elliot stated to him. Provenza looked up from his reading and saw Sergeant Elliot standing two feet in front of him. "Sergeant, if you're looking for your former boss, she isn't here, and I doubt she will be in tomorrow either" Provenza said, bothered by his visit. Out of all of the detectives in FID currently, Provenza tolerated Sergeant Elliot the most.
"Um, actually I'm here to see you, Lieutenant and to give you this report" Sergeant Elliot said to him as he handed Provenza the report that he was carrying. "What's this?" Provenza asked, a little skeptical about the report. "It's FID's finished report, clearing the officer involved shooting yesterday" Sergeant Elliot stated. Provenza reluctantly took the report from Sergeant Elliot's hands and started to skim over it. "What are you searching for, Lieutenant?" Sergeant Elliot asked him. "I just want to see where you put the blame on us" Provenza said as he paged through the report.
Sergeant Elliot shook his head. "You don't change, sir" he said to Provenza. "You know Sergeant, you're the only one that is currently in FID that we tolerate up here, and it's not because you used to be the Captain's favorite when she was in charge of you guys" Provenza said to Sergeant Elliot as he pointed at him. Sergeant Elliot had a small smile on his face. "Of course it's not, Lieutenant" he said to Provenza. "If you want to know, everyone has been cleared during the shootout, it was a no brainer, sir. But, we still had to do our jobs" Sergeant Elliot said to Provenza. "Thank you" Provenza said as he shook Sergeant Elliot's hand.
"By the way, how is Lieutenant Flynn doing?" Sergeant Elliot asked him. "Oh, well, he was moved into a regular room this morning and is probably driving the Captain and the rest of the hospital staff crazy by now" Provenza said as he laughed. "I'm going to stop over there on the way home, whenever I get out of this place, and see how he's doing" Provenza said to him. "Please let them both know I stopped by" Sergeant Elliot stated and nodded to Provenza. "Oh, I will" Provenza said as he watched Sergeant Elliot leave the room.
Back at the hospital, Andy was brought back to his room, where it was empty, much to Andy's disappointment. He saw the teddy bear sitting on the tray table along with a note from Sharon. 'Andy, after I freshened up I went to go pick Matthew up from school. We'll be back soon. I hope your first session went well. Love, Sharon XO' Andy read the note she had left him. As he settled back into the hospital bed, he held the teddy bear that she must have purchased earlier, maybe from the gift shop he saw downstairs. He sat back and closed his eyes as he was tired from the session, and hoped that Sharon wouldn't be gone too long.
Sharon had arrived early at Matthew's school so she decided to wait for him inside the building. As she waited there, the school children were dismissed. Sharon saw Matthew look over in her direction so she waved to him and he waved back and ran up to her. "Mom!" Matthew said to her and gave her a hug. "Hi sweetie" she said to him. "How's Daddy doing?" he asked her as he broke away from her. "He's doing fine, and is looking forward to seeing you" Sharon said as they made their way out of the school and over to the car. Matthew got in to the car and settled in the backseat. He then opened his backpack and pulled out his toy Batman figure. "I want to give this to Daddy so that he can be protected" Matthew said and showed the figure to Sharon. "Where did you get that?" Sharon asked him as she sat in the driver's seat and looked over her shoulder. "From home" Matthew said and then looked out the car window as Sharon drove them back to the hospital.
Meanwhile, Chief Howard walked in to the Murder Room and saw that Provenza was sitting at his desk. He looked up at him. "Well, everybody is visiting us. What can I do for you, Chief?" Provenza asked him as he placed his crossword puzzle down at his desk. "Did you hear from your Captain again this afternoon?" Chief Howard asked him. "No I didn't" Provenza answered and shook his head in the process. "Do you know if she will be in tomorrow?" he asked him. "No, but I could ask her when I stop by the hospital on my way home" Provenza said to him. "No, I'll shoot her a message on her phone, thanks" Chief Howard stated and then left the office. Provenza wondered what was going on, as it seemed a little suspicious to him.
Matthew and Sharon rode the elevator at the hospital up to the floor that Andy's room was on. They walked off and Sharon held Matthew's hand as she didn't want him wandering off. "Now, Daddy might be sleeping so let's be quiet when we walk inside his room, okay?" Sharon said to Matthew before they went inside Andy's room. Matthew gave Sharon a thumb's up and they proceeded inside the room.
As they walked inside, she saw Andy was sleeping so she pointed to the couch and Matthew went there to sit down. She walked over to the bed and gently caressed Andy's face. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Sharon. "Hi" he said to her. "Hi, look who I brought with me" Sharon smiled at him and then he looked over to see Matthew sitting on the couch. "Hey buddy!" Andy said to Matthew as Matthew stood up and ran over to the bed. "How are you feeling?" Matthew asked him. "Oh, I'm doing much better" Andy said as he adjusted his bed so that he was sitting more upright. "Look what I brought you from home" Matthew said to Andy as he held out his Batman figure toy. "Wow, you brought that for me?" Andy said as he looked at Matthew. Matthew nodded his head. "That way, Batman can protect you while you are in the hospital" Matthew said innocently.
Andy smiled and then placed the Batman figure next to the teddy bear. "How about I put him right next to this bear your mom left for me" Andy said as he placed the figure down on the tray table. "Matthew, why don't you sit down over here and start on some of your homework" Sharon said to Matthew and Matthew walked back to the couch and opened up his backpack. Sharon then turned to Andy and sat down on the chair close to his bed. "So how was your physical therapy session?" Sharon asked him. "Ugh, it was tough, my shoulder really hurt afterwards but I iced it after the guy tortured me" Andy said to Sharon, giving her his puppy dog eyes. "Oh Andy, I'm sure you were not tortured" she said to him, smiling as she shook her head.
She leaned in to him and gave him a kiss. He deepened the kiss and then Sharon broke away, smiling at him. "Maybe that should be your reward for being good during your sessions" she said to him. "Speaking of sessions, the physical therapist mentioned that I have sessions, three times a week for the next three weeks" Andy said to Sharon. "Well, that's good, isn't it?" Sharon asked him. "Does that mean I'm on desk duty for the next three weeks?" Andy asked her. Sharon sighed and took a deep breath. The one thing that Andy hated was being confined to a desk. "It all depends on what your doctor says" Sharon said to him but Andy wasn't happy with that response from her. He didn't reply. "Speaking of your doctor, did she come back to check on you again?" Sharon asked him. "No, the nurse said she'll be by later and hopefully she will let me go in the morning tomorrow" Andy said to her as he laid there sitting upright. Sharon grabbed his hand and held onto it as she looked at him and then over at Matthew who was doing his homework.
An hour had passed and Andy was now speaking to his partner over the phone. Sharon was going over Matthew's homework with him as they sat on the couch. Andy looked over at them from his bed and shook his head at what Provenza was telling him. "So what if Sergeant Elliot came up to our office" Andy said over the phone. "Oh come on, Flynn, the guy is on the rat squad" Provenza said to him. "Look, I'm just saying that he helped us out, me especially, a month or so ago and he really doesn't bother me anymore" Andy said to him. "That's because he's her favorite one" Provenza said, meaning that Sergeant Elliot was Sharon's favorite from when she was in charge of FID. "I'm her favorite, Provenza, not him" Andy said in protest. "Yeah, yeah, look I'm almost to the hospital now so I'll see you in a bit" Provenza said to him and then hung up his phone.
Andy looked over at Sharon who looked up briefly at him. "Provenza's on his way over here" Andy said to her. "Good, I've been meaning to ask him how the rest of the day went there" Sharon said to him as she continued to go over Matthew's math homework. Matthew was sitting next to her, watching her as she went over each problem, hoping that he had done them right the first time. "Good job, Matthew" she said to him as she handed him back his homework sheet. "Now, put this back in your folder before you lose it" Sharon said to him.
Matthew put his homework away and then stood up and walked over to Andy's bed. He was currently sitting upright and shifted in the bed as Matthew came over to him. Matthew looked at Andy and Andy, in turn, looked back at him. He knew Matthew wanted to ask him something by the look he had on his face. "What's up?" Andy said to him. "Can I watch TV with you?" Matthew asked him as Sharon watched the two in front of her. "Sure, what do you want to watch?" Andy said as he grabbed the remote control for the TV. Matthew surprised Andy and started to climb up onto his bed and then snuggled into Andy's side. "I missed you, Daddy. I'm glad you are okay" Matthew said to Andy. Andy looked down at him and smiled. "Me too, buddy, me too" Andy said to him and then glanced over at Sharon who was watching them from the couch. He smiled at her and she smiled back at him. Sharon then stood up, walked back over and sat in the chair next to them as they all watched the TV.
TBC