DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters. They belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 8

They were still driving and Sharon was still looking out her window. She smiled to herself mostly with what Andy had just told her minutes ago. They would go to the courthouse after Andy's doctor's appointment and get married then. It would just be something small, although she would love to have her kids there too. But since Emily lives in New York and she didn't know what her dance schedule was and Ricky seemed to be busy every weekend, she just decided to tell them after the fact. They both knew that Andy had proposed to her and she said yes. They really didn't push her further into asking about a date.

Sharon decided that she was going to text Rusty just to let him know that they were on their way back to LA and will be meeting him at the PAB. She knew that Buzz had told him to come with him there this morning as he needed to check on something but she didn't want them telling him exactly what was going on. She was going to do that in person. 'Just wanted to let you know that we are on our way back, apparently we caught a case that needs our attention. Please stay with Buzz' Sharon had typed to Rusty and hit the send button. Rusty replied with 'I'm sitting here next to Buzz twiddling my thumbs as he won't let me out of his sight. What is going on?' 'I'll explain everything when we get back' Sharon texted and closed her text app.

"Rusty wants to know what's going on" Sharon tells Andy. "What did you tell the kid?" Andy asked her. "That I would explain everything once we got there and to stay with Buzz" she said as she settled her head against the headrest. Just then Sharon got another text message, this time from Emily. 'Hi Mom, so how is your weekend going?' it said. Sharon took a deep breath and sighed. "Emily wants to know how our weekend is going" Sharon told Andy. "Tell her we caught a case and are now heading back to LA" Andy suggested. Sharon typed that back to Emily and waited for her reply.

Meanwhile Provenza called Sharon to tell them that they were stopping at the next exit for gas and whatever else they needed. She agreed with them and told Andy what was happening. He followed them at the next exit for Paso Robles and they stopped at a local truck stop/gas station. Sharon stayed in the car while Andy and Provenza got out and stretched. Julio was pumping gas in their car.

"Uh, listen Sharon doesn't want to wait for us to pick a date for our wedding" Andy said to Provenza. "Huh, I would have thought she would want a big celebration with her sense of occasion and all" Provenza said to him. "Yes, well apparently these past couple of weeks has changed her mind" Andy said as he scratched his head. "So when are you going to get married?" Provenza asked him. "Well, I have a doctor's appointment on Monday so I was thinking right after that, we head over to the courthouse" Andy said. "I was hoping you could be there, you know" Andy asked him and waited for his reply. Provenza looked back at him, "Of course!" he said as he shook Andy's hand.

They started to drive again heading over to Interstate 5 to take them straight into Los Angeles. This was a different route than what Andy and Sharon took up to Monterey but Sharon wanted to get back to LA as quickly as possible. Emily called her mother on the phone this time. "You're heading back already?" Emily asked her Mom in a worried voice. "Yes dear, we caught a case. Why?" Sharon asked. She could tell something was up the way Emily sounded. "Oh, nothing really it's just. Ok, don't get mad but Ricky and I are in LA right now" Emily said sheepishly. "You're where?" Sharon said as she startled Andy by touching his right arm.

"Well, we wanted to surprise you guys when you came home tomorrow but since you are coming back tonight, I thought I would let you know" Emily said to her Mom now who was shocked. "I thought Ricky was camping? He told me he was camping in Yosemite" Sharon said back to her. "No, he's right here with me in the condo" Emily said as she looked at Ricky. "Does Rusty know you are there?" Sharon asked. "Uh, yes but he told us he was hanging out with Buzz. We told him that was okay" Emily finished; she hated being interrogated by her mother. "Tell your brother that you both should go to my office and wait for me there" Sharon started to say and then added "and text me when you arrive at my office".

Andy looked over at Sharon who seemed to be on edge now, not that he blamed her. He was on edge too, but there was nothing they could do at the moment until they could get back to their office. Andy took Sharon's hand and brought it to his lips as he continued driving. "Everything okay" he dared to ask her. "Apparently both Ricky and Emily are in LA now as they wanted to surprise us" Sharon said and she continued to glare out the window. "Surprise" muttered Andy under his breath. "You didn't know about this did you?" questioned Sharon and she gave him a look. He continued to look forward and said "No I did not, this time".

When they arrived at the PAB, all of them went up to their floor. They were greeted by Acting Assistant Chief Howard as soon as they stepped off the elevator. "Captain, can I speak with you in my office for a second?" he asked her. Sharon nodded to the rest of her team, "I'll meet you guys in there" she said, and followed Chief Howard into his office. She noticed that he had moved some boxes around as she stepped inside. "First of all, are you and Andy okay?" he asked her as he sat down behind his desk. "Yes, we are fine sir. Andy sustained a knife slash on his arm, but that is all stitched up and healing" Sharon answered.

"Good. Next, I don't have money in the budget to pay your team overtime for the weekend" he started as Sharon was about to protest. He held up his hand, "So either you tell your team to go home, or they don't get paid for whatever they are doing right now" he concluded. "With all due respect sir, my team and I didn't go looking for a case like you are suggesting" Sharon said to him. "I'm not saying that Sharon, we just don't have money in the budget for this" Chief Howard said, "Oh and we don't have money in the budget for a surveillance team for Rusty either" he added. She glared at him giving her Darth Raydor look. "Is that all?" she asked him as she got up. He nodded and she walked out the door and continued to the Murder Room.

As she walked into the Murder Room, she was greeted by Rusty who stood up and along with Emily and Ricky, walked over to where she was. She gave them all a hug and said "Please go wait in my office". They all turned around and went to her office. She then addressed her team. "Chief Howard just informed me that there is no money for overtime to work this case now" she said as she looked at everyone. Andy huffed when he heard this. Julio and Amy just looked at each other. "Now, I see we have two options here. We can either go home and come back Monday to continue this investigation or" she started to say but was interrupted by Provenza clearing his throat. "I'm sorry Captain, I'm having a hard time hearing so I'm just going to sit down here at my desk and look over some paperwork" Provenza said as he sat down. Sharon smiled and looked at everyone else. Mike sat down and was running something on his computer and Amy grabbed additional paperwork that was lying around. "Thank you" she said to them and turned around to head into her office. Andy followed her inside and shut the door behind him. Sharon closed the blinds.

"So what's really going on here?" Rusty asked. "Yeah Mom tell us" Ricky said to her. She looked at Andy and he nodded. "Please have a seat everyone" Sharon started and her kids sat down. "Andy and I ran into someone from our past while we were in Monterey" she said to them. "Who?" Emily asked. "Philip Stroh" Andy said and Rusty jumped up the minute he heard that name. "Are you serious?" Rusty said. "I thought he was out of the country" Rusty continued. "Apparently not kid" Andy said and placed his left hand on Rusty's shoulder to stop him from pacing. That was when they all noticed the bandage that Andy had on his left arm.

"What happened to your arm?" Ricky asked Andy and then looked at his mother, then back at Andy. "Long story, Stroh found where we were staying, broke in, attacked us, I fought with him, he had a knife, we struggled and I stabbed him in the chest" Andy said to the three of them and then looked at Sharon. "Oh my gosh" Rusty said along with Emily. "So he's dead?" Rusty asked Sharon. "Yes honey, he's dead" Sharon said as she hugged Rusty and he hugged her back. "So, what's the case you caught that brought you back?" Emily asked them. "We don't think Stroh was working alone and apparently he had someone in LA keeping tabs on us for him" Andy said as he walked over to Sharon.

Just then Mike yelled out in the Murder Room "Hey Captain! I think I got something here" he said as he stood up and motioned for her to come out of her office. "Please just stay in here" she said to her children and then her and Andy walked out towards Mike's desk. "What do you have, Mike?" asked Sharon. "I asked our counterparts in the post office, the postal inspectors, to put an alert out to any mail that was heading out of LA to Stroh's apartment in Monterey" Mike started to say and Provenza just rolled his eyes at him saying "Today Mike, geeze". Mike looked at Provenza and continued "and they just sent me a copy of a letter they found heading to Monterey with Stroh's address." He showed the Captain on his computer. "Is there a return address?" she asked. "No, unfortunately not" Mike said.

"Where are we with the forensics examination on the notes that were discovered in Stroh's apartment?" Sharon asked as she was walking back to her office. "Still working on that Captain" Mike said to her as everyone watched her return to her office, including Andy. She closed the door and looked over some of Stroh's case files she had in her drawer.

It was getting late, and Andy knew that Sharon was getting exhausted. Provenza pulled him over to the side desks "Why don't you take her and the kids home, it's late and we really don't have anything concrete yet" Provenza said to Andy. Before Andy could protest his friend, Provenza added "I will call you both to let you know if something comes up. Plus we are waiting for the postal inspectors to send us the contents of the letter they intercepted." Andy nodded and patted Provenza on the back. "Thanks" he said as he headed towards Sharon's office. She was not going to like that they were handling her, Andy thought to himself.

"Hey Sharon?" he asked quietly as he opened her door and saw her kids sitting on the couch and spare chair all sleeping. He continued into her office and stood by her chair. He reached down to her shoulders "Why don't I take you and your kids home, it's getting late and the team will let us know if anything else comes up tonight" Andy said as he looked into her tired eyes. She nodded and quietly said "okay" and got up from her desk to walk around and wake her kids up. That was almost too easy, Andy thought to himself.

Sharon gathered up her things and walked out of her office with her kids. She stopped at Provenza's desk. "Lieutenant thank you" she said to him and smiled. "No problem Captain" he said back. "Please don't stay too late" she said to the rest of her team. Andy grabbed her hand and they walked out of the Murder Room towards the elevators and headed home.

When they got home, Emily and Ricky both said they would sleep out on the couch. They pulled out some sleeping bags from one of the closets and began to set up the living room for them to sleep. "Good night you two" Sharon said to Emily and Ricky and gave them both a hug and a kiss. Sharon then turned around and headed down the hallway towards their room. Andy was in the kitchen getting a glass of water when Rusty came in. "So Stroh's really dead?" he asked him. Andy turned around and faced Rusty. "Yeah kid, he is" Andy said and Rusty went up to him and gave him a hug. Andy was surprised by this gesture from Rusty but hugged him back. "I'm going to head to bed now" Rusty said as he walked away from Andy. Huh, how times have changed, Andy thought to himself as he put the pitcher of water back in the fridge.

He walked out of the kitchen and saw that Ricky and Emily were settling in for the night. "Good night you two" Andy said as he walked down the hallway to where Sharon was. He saw that her gun and badge were sitting up on her tall dresser. He took his gun and badge off of his belt and placed them next to hers. Sharon then stepped out of the bathroom and saw Andy was in their room now. She was dressed for bed. Since all three of her kids were here, she wore one of Andy's t-shirts and a pair of plaid shorts to bed. He thought she looked sexy no matter what she wore to bed and he gave her a big smile as she stepped out.

He stripped down to a t-shirt and boxers himself and brushed his teeth in the bathroom. He then joined Sharon in bed and wrapped his arms around her as he laid next to her. She ran her hands over his arms and noticed that he took the gauze off of his wound. She traced the scar that was starting to form there. "Does it still hurt you?" she asked as she closed her eyes. "No sweetheart, it doesn't" he whispered in her ear. He began to give her feather lite kisses along her ear and down her neck. She started to giggle, "what if the kids walk in?" Sharon asks as she starts to shift herself and move on top of Andy. "Your children are all grown up, I think they know not to walk in on us in the bedroom" Andy said as he pulled her in for a kiss on her lips. She smiled at him. "I love you" they said to each other. Sharon then rested her head on top of Andy's shoulder as he held her and they both drifted off to sleep.

TBC