The tennis ball hits midway up the 9-foot wall, comes hurtling down at speed, and at the last second is scooped up by Danny. Laying on his back on the floor in the family room, Danny tosses the ball up, tapping his converse sneakers against the floor while reaching out to catch the ball again. He nods his head in time with the song playing on his iPod, dressed and ready half an hour ago.

"Twenty minutes!" he yells out, briefly looking at the direction of his mother's room.

"What?" she yells back.

"If we don't leave in twenty minutes we'll hit traffic."

"I'm coming okay," and he can tell she's still in her closet.

"Jeans and the shirt I got you last season, Mom. It's a ballgame not prom! Women take forever to do nothing." He trails off so he is only muttering the last part, but Sharon hears him anyway. She stands in the hallway, hands on her hips and stares down at him.

"What are you ten?"

"Plus some," he cheekily grins.

"Get up, let's go."

"Really? You sure?" Danny stays on the floor, giving her a once over. "That your final outfit?" He gives her an appraising look, amazed that she did in fact pick jeans and, while she's not wearing the 'Dodgers Do It Better' shirt he'd gotten her, the blue v-neck is passable, but she's wearing some fancy dress boots instead of sneakers. "Overall you'll do," he grins. And waits. "Mom?" When Danny looks back at her face, Sharon's expression confuses him.

She's looking at him, but it doesn't look like she's seeing him. Danny jumps up, shutting off his iPod as he moves to his mom. "Hey, you ok?" He touches her arm, relieved when she blinks.

"What?"'

"Um, you spaced out. I've seen Lily do that but I just thought she was weird."

"Huh"

"Well, it's still weird but now I know it's genetic," he cracks a smile and she almost goes back into that distant look again. Sharon catches herself though, shaking her head slightly. For a moment there, well, he'd reminded her of Flynn.

"Mom, you've been acting, well off for a week now. Is everything ok? You're not having to deal with those Major Crimes pricks again, are you?"

"Daniel," her eyes go wide and Danny tries not to grin at her sudden snap back into being his mom.

"Wow, that's it? All I got to do is toss out a British curse and you're back? Ok, mental note taken." Sharon scowls, now mentally keeping her own notes of how much she does that with Danny. Was he like Flynn or was she looking for ways for him to be like, like his father? "So really, are you ready? Can we go?"

"What?" she asks, noticing Daniel moving toward the door.

"Now, go, yes?"

"Yes, we can go."'

"Keys?"

Sharon inhales, thinking why not let him drive. "Fine, but we're taking the Jeep," she holds up her hand to silence any protest. "Jeep or nothing." Daniel frowns, but snatches up the keys and heads to the garage, tossing her a glance as he goes so she sees that sneaky grin of his back in place. Sharon's stomach clenches at the thought of Flynn's traits being genetic. "Lord help me," she whispers as she follows him out.

Being fidgety isn't Andy Flynn's style, and it's a sensation he doesn't like at all. Toothpick in place, he makes himself lean against the wall outside the entrance to the ballpark so he doesn't walk a trail in the sidewalk. Instead, he just chews through half a box of toothpicks. Catching sight of Raydor and her son, his son, he kicks at the small pile at his feet to scatter the evidence of his nervous habit.

"Hey," he nods as they move within earshot, momentarily distracted from looking at Daniel by the sight of Raydor dressed down. She looks more human he thinks, which causes him to frown.

"Everything ok?"

"Oh, yea," he covers with a smile. "Hey, I'm Flynn," he addresses Danny.

"Daniel, this is Lt. Andy Flynn."

"Hey," Danny gives Flynn a steady once over. "You work with my mom?"

"Yea."

"Cool. So who's your favorite player?"

"Well, I'm partial to Gibbons," Flynn says as they head into the stadium.

Danny quirks his brow, "Gibbons? He's been playing for ages."

"Did you see that catch he made at the wall?"

"True that was very nice, but…"

Sharon falls back a step, observing the two and allowing herself a moment to hope for the best.

Well into the 5th inning, the male bonding between Andy and Danny has Sharon feeling a little left out. She sits back and watches as the two lay out their cases for how the current batter will do based on a series of codes and number combinations that she can't even begin to understand.

"Are all men wired to know this stuff?"

"What stuff?" Flynn asks, glancing from the action on the field to her.

"RIB, IBB, AB, RIG…"

"Mom, there's no RIG," Daniel cuts in, not even glancing away from the game. At some point, he'd adopted the same pose as Flynn, elbows on knees, chin resting on the back of his hands, eyes intently on the game. With Danny in the middle of them, Sharon wonders if anyone thinks they are a family. "And it's RBI, runs batted in, I've explained this to you before."

"Must be a guy thing," she smirks. "I'm going to get a soda. Anybody want anything? Peanuts, crackerjacks?" Danny grins and rolls his eyes as he shakes his head at her silliness.

"Want me to go with?"

"No, you guys watch the game."

"Well, here then," Flynn takes his eyes off the game long enough to reach into his back pocket for his wallet. He pulls out a couple of bills, handing them to her, "Popcorn and a coke if you don't mind."

"Not at all," and he thinks she really means it.

After his mom is gone, Andy catches some sideways glances from the kid and braces himself. "So," Danny says, leaning back in his seat, "you work with my mom?"

"Uh, yea, I do," Andy nods.

"Some days I don't know how you guys do it. You know, Mom doesn't say much, but I can tell when something big has happened." Flynn looks at him, noticing that Danny is watching the game but isn't paying as close attention as before.

"It's just you and her now?"

"Lily's working on her master's at Stanford and Kate is in New York with her internship. So, yeah just Mom and me," he says, biting at his lip like his mother sometimes does. "Do you know what's going on with her? She's been distracted for a few days now."

"Distracted?"

"Edgy sorta." Danny sighs, bracing his feet against the top of the seat in front of him as he slumps further down in his chair. "I really hope she's not, but I just bet she's working with those stupid asses from Major Crimes again," he mutters.

Flynn maintains his self control as his years of conditioning himself not to react in order to get more out a person come in handy. He manages another nonchalant glance Danny's way and waits for him to continue. "I don't get what their deal is, but it's like they hate her. All she's trying to do it keep them out of trouble, but they fight her worse than the other people, you know the families."

"I thought she doesn't tell you much?"

"I grew up in a house with three girls. I know how to find out things. Besides, this is my mom. If she's upset I'm going to find out why." Daniel grins a slow, sneaky smile. "Besides, I saw a story in the paper the other day, something about a family suing the department for not protecting their son. Apparently he was dropped off in the middle of a gang stronghold. Two plus two always adds up to four."

"Fair enough." Flynn sits back, keeping his mouth shut as much as he can.

"I mean, you get it right? Sometimes you just screw up, but I don't get why they think she's out to get them. I know she can be annoying with her follow the rules, but," Danny glances around as if to make sure his mom is nowhere near, "well, I'll never admit to her but she has a point. And she's fair. Some days, some days," his young face turns hard, "I just want to hit them you know. I wish they saw how much it hurts her to fight both sides like that."

For a second, Flynn wonders if Raydor set him up, but one look at the kid tells him this is all Danny. He shuffles his feet, suddenly more interested in the ground beneath him than the game. Slight against his unit aside, he can't help but think that the kid is alright if he cares this much about his mother.

"I mean, you feel that too, right? Working in FID?"

"Uh," Flynn raises his head a little to catch Danny's gaze, "I don't work in FID." Danny frowns. "I work in," and for the first time in well, possibly his career, Flynn is hesitant to say. "I'm in Major Crimes." Danny blanches.

"Hey, little help," Sharon calls from the end of the aisle. Danny jumps up, grabbing the tray holding three sodas from his mother then stepping back so she can move down the row. She hands Flynn his popcorn, soon noticing that something isn't right.

"Here, Mom," Danny holds out Flynn's drink for her to take while he settles in her seat. She takes it, gives him a look then turns to Flynn, mouthing, "What?" He shrugs, takes the drink and slides back in his seat. Sharon glances at them, both with eyes on the game and straws at the ready. "You okay?" She asks Danny, holding out a pack of peanuts for him. He takes them with a nod. "Okay then, so who's batting?" One mumbles, the other shrugs and Sharon decides looking through the roster is her only option if she really wants to know.

Captain Sharon Raydor is no longer bothered by the silent treatment she gets from the detectives in Major Crimes. The silent treatment from her son, however, is a different story. Kate and Lily treated her to many hours of moody looks and incoherent mumbles, the hormones of their teenage years driving them all to the brink of insanity at times. But Daniel wasn't like that, or at least she thought he wasn't until he didn't even say goodbye to her when she dropped him off at school. In fact, after giving it a little thought, Sharon realizes Daniel is closing in on the record set by Major Crimes in that if he doesn't talk to her today, he will have given her a full 24-hour silent treatment.

The detectives' conversation stops in mid-sentence when she walks past them. They glance around as she settles at her desk, finally moving off to pretend they are working. But Sharon knows they'll reconvene in the break room or the tech room or some other place where she isn't until she shows up there. If she were much younger, and they all really were still in elementary school these hide and seek games might be fun. Sharon looks up, catching Louie Provenza's eyes. She smiles sweetly and he glares back. Nope, she thinks, not even if she were in elementary school.

Her phone buzzes at her from somewhere in her purse. Raydor reaches for it, thinking perhaps Daniel might have remembered his manners. Her shock at the name attached to the text is so profound that Detective Gabriel asks if she's okay as he passes by her desk.

"I'm fine, thanks," she nods, quickly covering her phone which is of course the dumbest thing to do in a room full of men trained to notice any sign of subterfuge.

"Okay then," he says unconvinced.

Raydor looks back at her phone to read the message again. "Had a good time last night with you and Danny. He's a really good kid." Searching the room, Raydor spies him near Johnson's office. Andy Flynn. She feels the smile breaking across her face, but hearing Provenza clear his throat she flicks her eyes back to the stack of files on her desk, silently cursing her momentary slip.

Raydor comes around a corner, stopping short at the sight of half of the Major Crimes detectives in the middle of the hallway.

"Gentleman," she says. Flynn's eyes dart from hers to the floor, then to his coffee cup and back to the spot above Provenza's shoulder. Tao, to her amazement, appears to blush and Provenza just snorts and humfps, moving his shoulder the bare minimum required to let her pass.

"You know it's true, Flynn," she hears the older detective growl. "Through and through bitch. Right?"

"Yeah, through and through," Andy mumbles and Sharon feels her blood pressure rise.

She distracts herself by checking her phone again, hoping her earlier message to Daniel had been returned. And it had. With one word. "Whatever." Raydor checks her watch, a little past noon. Good time for lunch. She grabs her purse and heads toward the door, firing off a message as she goes.

To: Flynn

We need to talk now. You know where.

Raydor paces in the Baybridge hotel room, too keyed up to sit any longer as she waits for Andy Flynn. When he knocks, she jumps at the door, swinging it open so fast she chastises herself.

"Sorry, couldn't shake Provenza," he says stepping inside. "So what was so important?"

She closes the door, then turns to face him with a scowl. "What did you do to my son?"

"Excuse me? Isn't that what did I do to our son? And the answer is nothing."

"Try again. He hasn't spoken to me since the game," she replies, hands on her hips in a defiant stance. Flynn mirrors her, annoyed that he's being interrogated for the second time today. He shrugs.

"Two days? What, he's a teenager. Aren't they supposed to be moody and stay mad at their parents?"

"If he has a reason, but Daniel's not like that." Sharon sighs, removing her glasses to pinch the bridge of her nose. "I thought you two were getting along fine. What did you talk about when I left?'

Flynn dodges her eyes and, thinking the room has suddenly gone warm, removes his jacket. He tosses it on the bed and loosens his tie. He'd thought dealing with Provenza's questions this morning had been hard. "He mentioned how you've been edgy lately. Wanted to know if I knew about anything at work that was bothering you."

"Work? What did you say?"

"He did all the talking," Flynn goes to the mini fridge and grabs a bottle of water. "So you talk about work issues much at home?"

Sharon stares at him, lips pursed. "I will not have you question how I raise my son."

Flynn holds up his hands, "I wasn't saying that."

"You know, I really am getting tired of having to constantly defend myself from you and your, your pals." She spits out, her composure slipping as Flynn's cool manner begins to grate on her nerves. "If all of you want to hang then fine, but I'll be damned if I let you take down the entire force with you. It has been very hard and taken a lot of good men and women countless hours, years even to try to build back the damage done by a few bad cops. You and your friends can think of me what you will, but I won't let you destroy all we've done to restore the LAPD's reputation."

"Wait a minute, how did we go from Danny's bad mood to yours?" Flynn catches his stupidity, trying to make up for it. "I didn't mean—"

"No, don't," Sharon holds up her hand to stop him, "you absolutely did mean that. I heard you this morning, all of you in your little huddle. I can't help that you see Chief Johnson as, as this flawless never does anything wrong," eyes burning Sharon's words are flying faster than her thoughts, "you can act like I don't know what you all call me, and you can think it has no effect but—"

Cautiously, Flynn sits down his water and walks toward her as she rants. As he nears the look in his eyes halt her words as she isn't sure if she's ever seen concern for her coming from him.

"Danny said he hoped you weren't working with Major Crimes again, said we were a bunch of asses." Flynn chuckles as Sharon's eyes go wide. "Guess I know where he gets that from. I'm sorry for earlier, whatever you heard. The guys, well, you come in breathing down our necks and questioning our every move. It ruffles feathers, gets under the skin you know?" She frowns and it's his turn to sigh.

"Look, I was getting it from Provenza, him wanting to know if I was going soft, if something was up between us."

"He doesn't suspect? You haven't told him about Daniel?"

"Only you, me and the lab tech know anything about that," Flynn reassures her. Sharon relaxes a little, but still has a hard grip on her glasses and a slight frown. "So the crack this morning?"

"It was either squirm and make him even more suspicious or call you a bitch and have him let it go," Flynn shrugs. "Which would you have preferred me to do?" She lets out a long sigh, working at the tension in her neck with her free hand. "He started all this anyway, the old dog. He's worse than a bloodhound when he gets on to something."

"Do you think he'll let it go?"

"I don't know." Flynn leans against the wall, watching her wince as she kneads a certain spot. "You ok?"

"Muscle's tight," she replies, "why did all this have to happen now?"

"Dunno," he says, moving closer and gesturing toward the bed, "sit down on the corner."

"What?"

He sits near the end of the bed, pointing to the two feet of space between him and the edge. "Sit with your back to me." She eyes him wearily. "I won't bite." Sharon frowns and Flynn flashes an innocent smile. "Promise."

"Fine." Sharon kicks off her heels and starts to sit down.

"Take off your jacket."

She huffs but does so. "I have my gun handy."

"Figured," Flynn quips, rubbing his hands together to warm them before lightly brushing her hair to one side. "Here?" he asks, feeling the knot midway up her neck. Sharon tenses, giving him his answer. "So Danny is holding a grudge against me since I told him I work in Major Crimes?"

"I guess so," she mutters, trying to relax but feeling her muscles tighten at the feel of Flynn's fingers against her skin. "But I don't know why he's mad at me."

"Long shot here, but I'd say consorting with the enemy."

"You're not my enemy although…"

"We work very hard to make you feel that way?"

"Yea," she whispers, dipping her head as he kneads an especially sore spot.

"Feeling better?"

"Mmm yea," she nods and he smiles. He works the area around her shoulder blades, moving toward the center of her back. Flynn hits a ticklish spot, and Sharon squirms, leaning back. The move brings him closer to her so that he catches a good whiff of her perfume. He breathes it in, his senses remembering the smell.

"You still wear the same perfume?" his voice is soft, close to her ear. Sharon hums her reply, dropping her hands from her lap. One lands on Andy's leg, and instead of jerking it away, she ends up griping his knee when he moves to her lower back and finds a tense muscle there. "You really need to relax."

"Yea, heard that before," she says in a breathy gasp. He grins, glancing from her hand on his knee to the expression on her face. He feels his heart beat pick up, knows hers has too from the pulse point in her neck that is jumping faster than before. Flynn wets his lips, concentrates on breathing. But each inhale brings with it the scent of her sweet perfume and of something else.

Flynn touches her hand, a light tap on the back of it. Sharon turns, her lips so close. "Sharon, I—" He doesn't get a chance to finish his thought, and it doesn't matter. Her lips are soft against his, hesitant. Remembering her threat from before, Flynn keeps his hands to himself, letting her lead. She twists some, gets a better line to him as she deepens the kiss. He takes the invitation, resting his hands at her waist and pulling her closer to him.

She caresses his cheek, grazes her fingers along the back of his neck, and plays with his hair. He nips at her lips, savoring the taste of her. She opens her eyes, the green overwhelming as she stares into him. When she starts to talk, he covers her mouth, pulling her into a deep kiss.

The ringing phone blasts through the intimacy of the moment like a gunshot. Sharon breaks away and lunges for her purse. Phone in hand, she's all business by the time Flynn drops his feet to the floor.

"I've got to go," she says, hitting the end button on her phone and stepping into her shoes. "And I suspect you will be getting a call shortly as well."

"Fine," he murmurs, standing up and grabbing his jacket. She heads to the mirror, finger combing her hair back into place before heading for the door. She's halfway down the hall when he catches up to her. "Are we?"

"No, I don't think," she hits the elevator button and steps inside when it opens right after. She doesn't look at him, and Flynn starts to brood. Crossing his arms along his chest, he lets the car descend in silence. He waits for her while she turns in the key, noticing her failure to look at him as she heads past him and out the front doors.

"Hey, what about Danny?" he calls just outside. Sharon stops, takes a breath and turns back. Her face is softer when she meets his gaze. "You know whatever happens—" She nods, walking back to him, and surprises him when she reaches to straighten his tie.

"Somehow this all seems to have gotten very complicated," she says, a wisp of a smile on her lips. Flynn lays his hand on hers, looking into her sad eyes.

"I'm sorry for being an asshole," he says and for a moment she can only look back at him in shock. "You ok?"

"Um, thank you," she finally mutters when she regains her voice. Flynn moves his hand and she drops hers back to her side.

"Can I see you later? You and Danny? Maybe we can go eat or something."

"Yeah, okay, maybe."

"Good, just let me know."

Sharon nods, starting to back away towards her car. "I will." She watches him smile as he heads to his own car, gets in and drives away. She starts to move when he leaves the parking lot, but continues to keep an eye on Flynn. As he drives away, she notices a car across the street with two very familiar men inside. Sharon feels her blood begin to boil as she races to her car.

Gabriel mutters a curse and sinks lower in the passenger seat. Sanchez, however, adjusts his shades and pretends to check out the view behind him in the mirror. "She made us?" he asks.

"I would say that's a yes," Gabriel's face crinkles as if in pain. "Why did we listen to Provenza?"

"Because Flynn wasn't acting normal for Flynn. At least he isn't drinking."

"He's going to kill us. You know this right?"

"If she doesn't kill us first," Sanchez replies, his eyes fixed on Raydor's car as she pulls out of the hotel lot and drives away from them.

"Provenza is going to be all over this. Stupid, stupid…"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sanchez gives Gabriel a long look, "I just saw Flynn coming out of a hotel. Alone."

Gabriel has a second of confusion, but catches up quick. "Alone, yeah, I can't disagree with you there."

"Think now's a good time to grab some lunch."

"Burger joint on McMarien?"

"Works for me."