The night did not go smoothly. Sharon ended up spending a great deal of the night talking with Dr. Todd. Andy's heart rate was all over the place, and he was fidgety, nothing like he'd been before. Sharon could tell the doctor was a bit concerned, but they were still in a waiting game. Provenza stopped by at 6:00 the next morning and found Sharon out by the nurse's desk talking to the doctor.
"Is he awake?" Provenza, asked now hopeful. Sharon's slight shake of the head caused any hope he had to be lost.
"No, he had a rough night," Sharon sighed. "His heart rate was all over the place, and his blood pressure is doing strange things."
The doctor filled Provenza in on what he'd discussed with Sharon, and once they finished talking, Provenza followed her into the room again to sit with Andy.
"I really don't understand it," Provenza said shaking his head. "Patrice explained some things to me last night, but he should be awake by now."
"Yes," Sharon nodded, "I know. I really don't like how he was overnight. It was a bit scary."
"You should have called," he told her.
She sighed, "I know, but I didn't have much to say other than he was having a bad night. They didn't end up taking him to surgery or anything like that. I would have if it had been anything odd, but he had a bad night. I was here. No need to wake you for that," she said.
The two settled in, and she pulled the blanket up around her again. Provenza remembered he'd brought coffee and left it at the nurse's station. He returned, handing it to her, along with some breakfast.
"Here," he offered. "Coffee, and Patrice made some banana bread. Eat. The idiot over there needs you to be strong for him. So, anything else to report from last night?"
Sharon thought a moment, "I almost forgot," she got a slight smile. "I decided to irritate him by talking about Jack. It seemed to work. Before all this overnight stuff, the Jack talk got him to move his hand. I swear he changed facial expressions too, but it's a start. I'm sure he can hear some of this," she added.
Provenza shook his head at her, "That's low for you-tormenting the guy with dear old, Jack," he chuckled. "I should have thought of it myself," he added. Sharon returned the chuckle with a shrug of the shoulder.
"It worked," she said as she sipped her coffee. The two sat, watching Andy in silence.
"Tell me, Lieutenant," Sharon said a few moments later, "why are you so in favor of this," she waved between herself and Andy. "I know you and I have come a long way at work, but still, I know you've been giving him a hard time about our relationship for a long time. You give him grief about our being such good friends. Tell me, why are you now okay if we end up more than that, if we end up together?"
Provenza groaned, "Are we really going to talk about this now? I'm not one of the girls out for drinks with you."
"I know," Sharon grinned. "We can dish over a different kind of drink," she smirked at him, holding up her coffee. "I'm curious, please."
Provenza took a deep breath and looked at his best friend laying there in the bed, "He's never been happier than when he's around you. He's never been happier, and that's been with the stipulation or condition-whatever you want to call it-that they two of you were just friends. I never understood it, but he's never been happier. It almost irritates me to imagine his level of happiness with, well, more," he waved to her. "THAT, the more, I won't discuss," he grimaced, and Sharon offered a slight smile. "A few years ago, I thought he had a dumb crush on you. Honestly, I thought he'd get over it. He was going through a time with his family, kids weren't on the best of terms with him and all, but I thought he just saw a crush with you, something stable. For the longest time, I didn't want him to get hurt because I thought there was no way you would be interested in a guy like Flynn. Then, you up and invite yourself to the wedding, yeah, you tried to convince me we were just helping Flynn-you would go to the wedding, and I would occupy Rusty, but something changed. We could all see you actually liked the guy, and well, the next big step, you did what you should have done years ago, you divorced Jack, that idiot. You can say what you want, Captain, but we all know Rusty was only part of that thought process, even if you couldn't see it then. Since then," he shrugged, "well, you've grown on us, and I mean the two of you have grown on all of us. We're a better team with the two of you together, weird as it sounds. You two get each other, and you have this connection. You and I have our own connection when solving cases, but you and Flynn, you're both better when you are around each other."
Sharon listened and nodded softly after Provenza finished, "Thank you," she said. "I appreciate that. Are you worried about how this might play out at work?"
"Not in the least, Captain. Of all people, you'll handle it, and you'll handle him. And, you won't be a Gabriel and Daniels either-I know you weren't in charge then, but you saw it in the building. This," he waved between Sharon and Andy again, "is different. You aren't going to mess this up, either of you. That, you already did by being such idiots for the last few years. Now that you are clued into your own behavior, well, it, work, the team, you two, will be fine. For one thing, you're both old," he added, a twinkle in his eye. Sharon just rolled her eyes before she looked down and got quiet.
"I appreciate that, Lieutenant, I do. I just need him to wake up," Sharon shrugged, tears in her eyes.
He tried to relieve the tension, "You do realize that when he wakes up, he's going to be irritating both of us to no end, right?" he scowled. Sharon giggled, as she wiped away her tears.
"You're probably right," she acknowledged.
"I know I'm right! Remember when he was stabbed? Guy was a total pain in the hospital, couldn't wait to leave. Yelled at all of us in the hospital, well, maybe not you because you were trying to get him to shut up so our division could take the case. He even was discharged and went back to work. Who does that? Flynn, that's who," he said, shaking his head.
Sharon pursed her lips looking at Provenza, "You do realize he was so obsessed with getting back to work so he could fight with me? He might not have yelled at me in the hospital, but I got a double dose back at work. Remember, the case? He came in, screaming about that investigation, and we had it out in the conference room. Brenda was even there. It wasn't pretty. I felt horrible, knowing he had to be in pain, but he was insistent on going rounds with me then. He couldn't see that I was trying to help him, but I was following the guidelines of my job. The last thing I wanted to do was argue with him, but he came in spewing for a fight."
"Oh, I remember," Provenza chuckled. "Chief tried sending him home so many times that day. After you two went rounds in the conference room, and you left, he came out to my desk, and he started up again about you. Those were the days," Provenza sighed. "Even back then, Captain, I could tell he liked you. That was part of the crush phase, or what I thought was."
"What?" Sharon asked. "We fought all the time then."
Provenza raised his eyebrows at Sharon, "Exactly, ever heard of the little boy on the playground who pulls the little girl's hair-he does it to irritate her but secretly likes her."
Sharon looked over to Andy and back to Provenza, "Maybe I should retire. I'm a terrible detective," she dropped her head and groaned.
"Yeah, well not too long after that, he was on Cloud Nine with the beanbag incident," he said.
Her eyes got big, as through back to the event, "Beanbag-the gun? Really? I knew that was a turning point for the whole team. I remember coming in and everyone smiling at me, finally giving me a bit of respect. What do you mean?"
He sighed as he rolled his eyes, "Let's say he had more than respect for you after that. He had total giddiness. You know he has that in his drawer, right? Hasn't he told you?"
Her eyes got even wider, "He has the beanbag in his drawer? At work? Are you serious? It's been, what, six, over six years, right?"
He shrugged, "What can I say, other than that idiot is absolutely crazy about you. Get a clue, Captain," he shook his head.
"Oh," she shook her head, squeezing Andy's hand again, "I'm getting a crash course, and believe me, I might be slow to catch up to this, but I'm not going anywhere, Lieutenant. Just because I didn't figure out our relationship doesn't mean I have liked him myself," she winked.
He looked at her wide-eyed, "I really don't want to hear it."
She shrugged, "I won't say a word, Lieutenant, but I'll leave you with this-did you ever notice I started wearing more skirts and heels? In FID, I almost always had on pants, yes, a pants suit, but pants, and that was mostly a desk job, so I could have worn skirts. I take over a unit that is in the field often, where I go out with you too, and suddenly, I'm in skirts and heels," she shrugged. "But, I won't get into my feelings," she winked.
He made a face, and the two fell into silence again. It was quiet until they both noticed the machine alerting them his blood pressure was on the rise again. Provenza looked to Sharon, and she looked as worried as he felt, so he stood.
"I'm going to get the nurse. I'm sure they see this out there, but let's get one of them in here," he said. Sharon nodded, and just as he was leaving, the alarm on Andy's monitor went off, Sharon jumped up, and Provenza exclaimed, "Son of a!"