Dark, the lamps throughout the street light the way. The heavy footsteps of her sneakers help her keep time in her head. She can hear her own heartbeat, but it's almost relaxing. Thump, thump, thump. Rhythmic. A trail along a wooded area. Relaxing to her, yes, but if it weren't for the lights that sat along the trail, it would be pitch black. Sharon Raydor, all of twenty two, takes a deep breath, the smell of the trees always relaxed her. She closes her eyes for a moment as she runs, opening them, she sees a dark figure along the path, boding. Sharon tries to run past him, telling herself to ignore him. The thumping of her shoes is met with the thumping of others. She glances back to see the large figure following her. She tries to run faster, but it only seems to be making her slower, and slower still until finally the large figure catches her.
Stumbling into the apartment she shared with her husband on campus. She rushes to the shower, turning on scalding hot water and removing her clothing. She stands beneath it, burning her pale flesh, only to take the washrag resting on the soap holder on the wall to scrub herself until her hands were beginning to bleed. Angry that she could allow something so sinister to happen to herself. How was she going to be a cop?
Sharon Raydor sits up abruptly, noticing the sunlight peeking through the blinds in the living room. She had fallen asleep on the sofa. She swallows, glancing to her infant daughter still sleeping in her car seat. Sharon adjusts herself on the sofa, placing a hand over her chest to calm herself. She picks up her iPhone from the coffee table, scrolling through it to see if there were any messages, one from Andy, letting her know they were finally at the station.
She stands, moving to the kitchen and making herself some tea. Sharon holds her hand out, noticing it shaking. She balls it into a fist, and flexes it open, hearing the front door open and close. The common trudge through the hall and the crash of Rusty's canvas bag hits the floor, "Quiet, Kate's sleeping." Sharon says quietly, loud enough for him to hear from the hall.
Rusty walks to the kitchen, which he was accustomed to doing every day after school. He stops when he sees her, "What happened to your girls' day?"
"Things came up, she was released."
"And..." He looks around, "Where is she?"
"With Andy. There was a break in her case. She wanted to thank the man who saved her." Sharon offers him a smile.
"That's great." Rusty nods slowly, "So why do you look like you've just seen a ghost?"
"Oh..." Sharon quickly shakes her head, putting her hand on her hip, "I'm fine. I was napping and...I had a bad dream, but I'm fine now. No big deal."
"You sure?"
"Yeah." She offers him a smile. "So, how was school?"
"Sister Alexander was really nice to me. Maybe too nice." He shrugs, sitting on a stool at the kitchen island, "She said it looked like I was ahead on my studies and she was really surprised. Said maybe watching the baby was a good thing for me." Rusty smiles, "She wanted me to ask you if I could take her into school in a few months for Family Life."
"Oh, is that what they're referring to sex ed as now?"
He nods, "She was going to make everyone do the whole bag of flour thing, but said I'm excused from the project."
"Why is that?" Sharon tilts her head to the side.
"Because it's a responsibility thing and since I took care of Kate for days, she says I can be excused." He smirks, "I'm not complaining."
"I'd rather you did all your assignments, but I guess it's fine." She nods, "After I finish this cup, I'm going to change her diaper, feed her, and then we're heading over to the Station. You're more than welcome to come with us. I hear the whole family is over there." Sharon teases.
Rusty raises an eyebrow, "I'd take you up on that, but I have some math to catch up on." He smirks, opening the fridge.
"Of course you do." She smiles, shaking her head. Sharon washes the mug from her tea and tends to her daughter, doing as she said she would. The groggy infant stretches, watching her mother the entire time. She moves her legs around and smiles to her. Sharon grins, "I've never seen anyone wake up so happily."
"She always does that. If she sleeps in bed with me, she usually slaps me in the face to wake me up." He laughs to himself.
Sharon chuckles, "Slaps you in the face?"
Rusty nods, "When she wants something, she needs it right then and there or she isn't happy." He snorts, "Sounds like someone else I know."
She rolls her eyes, "I don't slap people for things."
"No, you pull guns on them...or do that weird...mind thing."
"I do nothing of the sort." Sharon glances to him through the corner of her eye, "Make me sound like some kind of bitch."
"I didn't say you were a bitch. I'd never say you were a bitch." Rusty watches her.
"Bitch isn't necessarily a bad thing either." She smirks.
He rolls his eyes, "Whatever. I'm sure you'd like to slap people."
Sharon nods, "More than you know." She smiles, "When I go back to work, I'll probably send her to the daycare."
"All day?" Rusty makes a face.
"What's wrong with all day?"
"That's a long time for her, isn't it?" He tilts his head to the side, "Can I pick her up after school...or after club when I have it?"
Sharon glances to him, "You can do whatever you want, just make sure you let me know when you do. Don't do it if it will be too much, Rusty."
"I won't, I won't." Rusty shakes his head, putting his hand up, "Do you need me for anything?"
"Like what?"
He shrugs, "I don't know. Anything for Kate?"
"I've got it." Sharon smiles to him, "Thank you, Rusty."
Rusty nods slowly, "Okay." He stalks to his bedroom. Maybe Sharon didn't want him anymore. Everything in her life was changing and it wasn't just the two of them anymore. Hasn't been for almost a year, sure, but maybe she changed her mind about him. She kept talking about him going away to college, but was she only saying it so she could be alone again? Something was very wrong, whether it be with him or in her own life.
Sharon packs the infant up once more, gently placing her into her seat. Her emotions numb. Thousands of dollars, years of therapy, thrown out the window. This can't start again. The paranoia and fear must not return. She takes a shallow deep breath before carrying her things to the car, her daughter's car seat resting in the crook of her arm. She snaps it into the base in the back seat before sliding behind the steering wheel. She pauses a moment, swallowing. She takes her phone from her pocket, texting Andy that she would be there soon.
Andy picks his buzzing phone from his belt clip, rolling his eyes. "Eve, your mother is on her way."
Eve smiles to the man, sitting in in his chair behind his desk, "Got it."
Sanchez smiles toward her, having rolled his chair over to be across from her, "So, what do you like to do for fun?"
"I don't like fun." She smirks to him, "What do you like to do, Detective?" She props her feet up on Flynn's desk.
He shrugs, "I usually work. Mostly because I don't have anything else better to do."
"That's kind of sad."
"It is." Sanchez nods slowly, "Grab a few drinks with friends, watch a game. You should come over sometime."
"You think I'd like those things?" Eve smiles.
He shrugs, "Don't know unless you try."
"Well, maybe when the bruises heal, I'll consider it."
"Hey, Sanchez." Provenza watches him, rifling through his drawers.
"Yeah?" The man in question glances over to him.
"I think I have a bandage in here for that burn you just sustained." He smirks.
Sykes giggles, clapping her hands, "Very nice, Lieutenant."
Sanchez glances to him gruffly, wheeling back to his desk.
Buzz walks over to the young woman, "Ms. Raydor, Is there something I can get you? Something to drink?"
"What's your name?" Eve looks up at him.
"Buzz."
"As in Lightyear?" She grins, "I spend my day with five year olds."
"Sure." He smirks, "Something I can get for-"
"Are you a detective too?"
Buzz shakes his head a little, "No, I work the Audio Visual department. I film the crime scenes, interviews, interrogations, etcetera."
"Then why do they treat you like a butler?" Eve reaches up, gently patting his hand, "Show me to the vending machines?"
"Of course, Ms. Raydor." He holds his arm out, letting her take it as he slowly walks her in the direction of the Break Room.
Flynn smirks, "We're letting that guy in interrogation chill out for how long?"
"I figure a couple hours. Offer him something to eat, something to drink. He's homeless. I'll get him some clothes, offer him a shower in the gym. I think he'll trust us more then." Provenza folds his arms, sitting back in his seat, "It's the only way. He saved that girl's life. It won't go without thanks."
"And if he gives us nothing? He was in Vietnam. Kept rattling off his tag number to me during the arrest." Sykes nods, "I don't know if you're going to get anything from him unless we maybe show him Eve. Huge maybe there."
"Are you saying we let her sit in on the interview?" Flynn tilts his head in her direction.
"Precisely. If we show him that what he did was a good thing, after giving him a sandwich and something to drink, he might open up more." Amy stands, sitting on her desk, "Let's get something straight though. I don't think he's going to speak to either one of you guys. I think it has to be a woman."
"I can ask the Captain to-" Provenza leans forward.
"No, I mean...and no offence to the captain, a young woman. The way Eve Raydor just smooth talked her way past Sanchez-"
"Eve is not going to commit an interview." Flynn shakes his head, "Homeless veterans almost always have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or a form of it. There's nothing saying he isn't going to flip out on either of you and what then?"
"Fine. The Captain, sure, but I still think Eve should sit in and I don't mean to watch in Electronics. I mean physically in the room." Sykes nods.
"You might have something there." Sanchez nods, "Show a man something positive he did and he'll be more than willing to talk about it. We do it all the time. We tell cop stories every chance we get when we're with friends. Maybe this is no different."
Provenza watches the young woman, then nods, "Only if Eve Raydor is okay with that."
"Okay with what?" The woman in question sits back at Flynn's desk, "Thank you, Buzz." She smiles to him before he walks back to his desk, "What do I have to be okay with?"
"Sykes thinks it would be a good idea for you to be in the room with the Homeless guy." Flynn looks down to her.
Eve glances to him, then to the rest of the room, "Which one of you is Sykes?"
"That'd be me." Amy raises her hand.
"Oh." She smiles, "Yes, I'll do it. I wanted to do it anyway, but...I didn't know how procedure worked."
"Procedure says you probably shouldn't be there. It's a great risk to your safety."
"I'm all for it then." Eve shrugs, "What do I..." She adjusts herself in her seat, "Am I allowed to talk to him?"
"Um..." Sykes glances to Provenza.
Provenza glances to Eve, "I don't see why you couldn't. Just let him answer the questions, no matter how personal they start to be. If it gets to be too much for you, just get up and leave."
"Actually, Sir, I think maybe if we ask them first, and try to get him to answer them. If he doesn't, then Ms. Raydor can come in." Amy nods, "I think it would be our best bet. We just have to wait for the Captain."
"I'll watch Kate while you all are-" Provenza moves his hand in the air.
"He plans these things." Flynn motions to the man, "Go ahead, show Eve what you got."
He gives the other man a look, "It was supposed to be a surprise."
"Fine, let it be a surprise. You will still look ridiculous." Flynn smirks.
Sharon Raydor walks in with the baby's carrier, seeing her daughter behind her partner's desk and sighs with relief, "Flynn, my office, please." Her voice steely, obviously angry.
Provenza stands, moving to her, "Let me take that for you, Captain." He waves his hand closer, taking the carrier and diaper bag from the woman before she storms off to her office, "Someone is in trouble."
Flynn follows suit behind the woman, flinching ever so slightly when she slams the door, "Am I allowed to expl-"
"You didn't call me, or text me. Didn't do a damn thing to let me know that you were going to use your title to bail my daughter out of the hospital." Sharon tries to keep her voice calm, only raising it to emphasize her points, "You have opened the department up to-"
"I did not." He shakes his head.
"You did, Andy. Any time you use your badge to get someone out of something they're supposed to-"
"She was miserable." Flynn glares, motioning with his hand, "Look at her. She's smiling. She's comfortable. I sent Sykes out for her meds and she's fine."
"But she won't always be that way. What happens when the pain meds wear off? What about the mood stabilizers?"
"Mood stabilizers?"
"Yes." She glares, "She's been crying herself to sleep. I don't know what she did when you spent the night, but they've been giving her stabilizers so that she can get through the day without losing it."
"She didn't mention-"
"Because she doesn't know. She doesn't need to know."
"Maybe she does, Shar. Maybe she needs to know that she's taking something to take an edge off." Andy nods.
"No, because then she won't take it. That's how she is. When her father...She kept having panic attacks. They tried to give her something, but she wouldn't take it. Only reason I know that is because her doctor and I grew up together and she-"
"Violates HIPPA so that you can spy on your daughter."
"If I need to spy to make sure my daughter is okay, then yes. Yes, she does." Sharon nods, "Just because I know doesn't mean she needs to know I know."
He raises an eyebrow, "What?"
"No one needs to know everything about everyone. There are things I don't tell you about myself and I'm sure there are things you don't tell me about you."
"You know pretty much everything about me because of Internal Affairs." Flynn shrugs.
"I'm just..." She places a hand on his jacket, adjusting his collar, "There are things about me you don't know and I'm not ready to tell you just yet. I'm sure there are things about Kate that she'll keep from us. I'm sure Eve has secrets too. She used to cut herself when she was in high school. She has scars from it on her thighs. She had a breakdown. Spent a few days in a mental outpatient place. I like to know things about her in case I need to worry about it again." She nods.
He tilts his head to the side, "Are you okay?"
Sharon swallows, "Yeah."
"Sykes needs another woman in on an interrogation. Obviously, I forgot to wear my dress today-" Flynn smirks.
She smiles, laughing a little, "Stop. You know I'll do it."
"Good. I'm glad you agreed to that before I bring up this second part." He nods, "Sykes thinks the only way to get through to this guy is if he sees Eve. If he knows he saved her life, he may open up more."
"Absolutely not."
"Sharon, it's only a last resort. Eve wants to do it."
"You asked her already?"
"She was sitting there while we talked about it. Of course she heard it."
Sharon sighs, then nods again, "If something happens and she needs to leave, take care of her while I finish the interview."
"Of course." Andy kisses her tenderly then motions to the Murder Room as he takes her hand, "Come on, come see this stupid thing Provenza bought for Kate."