A/N: This might be the fastest I have ever updated a story. My self-imposed deadline is approaching (I would say fast, but it feels soo slow...although omg 10 days from tomorrow!), so I'm still going to try to post at least most of this by then. A big thanks to all of you out there reading and reviewing, for building my confidence to write these characters, and for keeping me extra-motivated!

No Such Thing as a Perfect Family (5)

"It's just a physical, Rusty." Sharon held out a hand for the fax, and she glanced over it one more time when Rusty gave it back. "I wouldn't spend any time worrying about it, it's probably just a formality." She placed the page back on her desk.

"It's Emma's idea, isn't it?" That alone was enough to put a note of panic in his voice.

"It is," she acknowledged, "but on occasion DDA Rios does make reasonable requests." A note of amusement sparkled in her eyes, sadly unreciprocated. "Don't worry about it," she advised again.

"How is this a reasonable request? I already had a million tests when this…thing first started," he protested, "and that was just a few months ago! Why does she want me to do it again? And when," he glowered, "where you planning to tell me about it?"

Sharon's eyebrows arched slightly at the accusatory tone. "I only received the memo this morning," she replied calmly, her expression hinting that he should tone down, "and as I said – Rusty, I consider it nothing but a formality. Just like several others you've had to go through in preparation for the trial. Nothing to get agitated over."

"Yeah, because my 'trial preparation' with Emma has gone just great so far," he said morosely. "Maybe you forgot what it was like the first time, Sharon, but I didn't. Or like, every time after that. She hates me!"

She sighed. "Emma won't be anywhere near when you do your physical," she assured. "So you don't have to worry about her antagonizing you or making you feel uncomfortable."

Rusty hunched his shoulders. "I don't want to do this."

Still standing by his chair, one hip leaning against her desk, Sharon regarded him for a moment in silence. "I'm sorry," she said finally, "but this is simply not a battle worth fighting. I can see that you don't like it, but that's just not a good enough reason to refuse the DA's office in this case."

"Right, because what I want doesn't matter." His eyes fixed the tips of his shoes.

Sharon crossed her arms slowly, with another sigh, and stared at him until finally he was forced to look up and meet her eyes.

"Rusty," she said patiently, "if there was anything about this that I thought would be in any way detrimental to you, I wouldn't let it happen. But honey, it's just a few medical tests. Tell me," she hoped her expression was persuading, "what would make you feel less worried about it?"

"If I didn't have to do it," he grumbled, then grimaced at her look. "Yeah, I know, not a battle worth fighting." He met her eyes again. "Are you sure she's not trying to say that you're like, not feeding me or something?"

A smirk of amusement flitted almost involuntarily across Sharon's lips. "I'd qualify that under 'highly unlikely'."

Rusty's shoulders slumped as some of the tension drained out of him. "I still don't want to do her stupid physical…"

She bit her lower lip, thoughtfully. "You can drive us to the clinic. And to a nice dinner place afterwards… of your choosing."

"That's bribery, Sharon," he informed her.

"I prefer to think of it as 'incentive'."

Only a few minutes later, she noticed Sanchez and Sykes walk in with the victim's girlfriend, and knew it was time for the final stretch of the case. Emma Rios arrived right afterwards, and when Sharon diplomatically asked Rusty to stay in her office, he not only agreed but looked as though he would've been happy locking the door behind her and pulling the blinds.

Sharon half-wished she could afford the same luxury.

The girlfriend ID'ed their suspect within seconds, and then all there was left to do was consider what deal, if any, they would offer the man, who was conferring privately with his lawyer. Having been swiftly brought up to date on the details of the case, Emma took advantage of the momentary lull to walk up to Sharon in the squad room.

"Did you arrange Rusty's physical?" The woman had all the manners of a bayonet.

"I'm going to call the doctor's office as soon as this case is over," Sharon replied with false cordiality, "if that's soon enough for you, DDA Rios?"

"That's fine." She ignored the Captain's twitch of annoyance. "Don't forget to ask for an AIDS test."

The look in Sharon's eyes could have frozen over an ocean. "Rusty was already tested when he first came to live with me," she said warningly, "so I want a good reason for that request."

"That was months ago," Rios was undeterred, "and you need a new test six months after the last… chance for infection. DCFS agrees on this, and it's already overdue," she added. "It's standard procedure and I want it done."

Her demanding tone set Sharon's nerves on edge, but in her current position she had to pick her battles. "Fine," she acquiesced, more curtly perhaps than was her usual manner, but her patience for Emma Rios was frighteningly thin these days.

"You can fax the results over to my office and DCFS."

"Lieutenant Tao." Sharon felt bad for startling him again, but abruptly walking off toward his desk had been the safest reaction. If DDA Rios tried to give her one more order, she was concerned about the possibility of a homicide right there in the appropriately-nicknamed murder room. "Do we have the receipt of Mr. Thompson buying the murder weapon yet?"

"We do," he confirmed. "Same type of knife, bought about half hour before the time of death window, with his credit card number attached..."

She didn't want to tell Rusty about the extra test. He was understandably raw about anything having to do with his year of living on the streets – and Emma Rios made things ten times worse by showing zero sensitivity to his feelings. His earlier reaction was proof of that… but doing the test without his knowledge felt wrong, too.

It was a detestable choice.

"Captain Raydor." She looked over her shoulder to see Buzz holding out her phone. "You left this in electronics earlier…it's gone off a few times, but I didn't know for sure who it belonged to until Lt. Flynn told me."

With a sigh, Sharon retrieved her cell. "Thank you, Buzz." A glance at the screen revealed that she had several missed calls and messages, which was not all that surprising given all that was going on. The gruesome murder of the financial director. A young serial killer having recently shot himself mid-operation. And of course the threatening letters. She was surprised the phone had stopped ringing at all. And at barely three o'clock, the day wasn't anywhere near over.

She glanced at DDA Rios, and silently prayed the woman would close her deal and leave, if there was any chance of getting through the rest of the day peacefully.

Unexpectedly, it wasn't DDA Rios who preempted that much-hoped-for peace – at least not directly. It was Lieutenants Flynn and Provenza who had unwisely brought up Emma's latest request just as Sharon was about to enter her office to pick up some files. With the rest of the squad room empty and quiet, and the door to her office nearly open, their loud voices had effectively terminated her dilemma about what to tell Rusty.

With the ensuing outburst, they both felt bad, but it was too late to do anything about it. She didn't really blame them, anyway… and was in fact slightly touched when they dutifully flanked her while she dealt with the consequences of their big mouths.

Not that their presence made much of a difference.

From the corner of her eye, Sharon once again noticed her cell vibrate next to her handbag; there were probably half a dozen LAPD departments cursing her unavailability at the moment, but the outside world would have to wait a little longer.

"I don't have AIDS, okay?" Rusty's eyes were bright with unshed tears. "I was always – I never – it's just not possible, alright?"

"I know." She held up both hands in an appeasing manner. "I know, Rusty. It's just standard procedure to redo the test after six months."

"That's stupid! It's not necessary, because I'm not sick!" He was half-pleading, half-angry. "Why is Emma doing this to me? What did I ever do to her anyway? Why does she hate me so much?"

"Rusty–"

"She's treating me like I'm still on the streets! I'm not some, some…"

"I know."

"Why are you letting her do this to me, Sharon?"

A few steps behind the Captain, Flynn and Provenza exchanged a grim look; the kid really knew which buttons to push when he was mad, that much was clear.

Luckily, the Captain was holding her own, too. "Rusty, none of this is made any better by losing. our. calm. You're overreacting – no," when his eyes widened in indignation, she held up a hand to prevent more protests, "just listen to me for a minute, please. I know you're upset," she said softly, "and I know, honey I know this is an unpleasant situation, but getting angry over it isn't going to help."

"Then what's going to help? Because I tried to be good about it and every time, Emma just finds something else!" He gave her a desperate look. "I don't have AIDS, Sharon!"

"I know. This is just a– "

"It's not 'just a formality'!" he interrupted desperately. "It's because Emma's still trying to make me move and those people won't take me in without these tests because I used to pick up men for sex on Sunset Boulevard!"

Sharon closed her eyes briefly. "Rusty–"

"It's true, isn't it? She's not letting this go!" He threw his hands in the air. "Because every day she's doing something else, like literally every day Sharon! Coming over to your apartment, bringing those people here yesterday, and now this! Is this what it's gonna be like from now on?"

Her gaze softened. "No, it won't. It's just a bad few days. This is a new situation, and we all need to adapt to it…"

"Then why did the Broods come here to meet me? Why the sudden tests?"

The phone on her desk went off, and he turned a resentful glare on it; after the slightest hesitation Sharon reached over and turned off the ringer from a side button, leaving only a flashing yellow light to indicate the incoming call.

"Rusty you know this is not my call," she said seriously. "Like I said, I don't think there's anything to be worried about – but I'm afraid this physical isn't open to negotiation," she finished a note more sternly. "We're going to comply with the request from the DA's office because it's the right thing to do, and this entire… scandal is unnecessary."

He just gave her the same half-angry, half-pleading look and kept pacing the far end of her office, far from reassured.

Lt. Andy Flynn was really wishing that in his approximately five decades on Earth he'd learned how to keep his mouth shut.

A great deal of troubles in his life might have been avoided by that. And at least one sensitivity training class.

He liked to think he'd gotten better at it in his later years, but on occasion he still spoke or acted before he thought, and more often than not it landed him in some kind of hot water. Usually with his trusted partner paddling somewhere in the vicinity. He didn't mind so much really, it kept things interesting and gave them something to laugh about after the invariable lectures from some indignant suit, and at the end of the day this was who he was, and there was that thing about old dogs and new tricks.

On this occasion, though, his big mouth had caused trouble for Captain Raydor, and for that he felt awful. In his and Provenza's defense, they hadn't imagined that a sarcastic quip about Rios's demands would end up causing world war three, but damn it, they'd known how touchy the situation was and they should've just kept their traps shut about the whole thing.

He understood the kid to some extent, really – although if he'd been on the receiving end of Rusty's barrage he'd probably have burst a blood vessel by now. Still, the boy made at least one valid point, namely that DDA Rios was acting like he was the criminal, and in her zeal to anticipate all the defense lawyer's tactics she'd successfully alienated her star witness beyond the point of no return. If she'd had any common sense, she might've quit trying to constantly steamroll over his wishes and shown a little sensitivity. Instead, she just kept making demands and systematically threatening the few things the kid most wanted to hold on to.

Obviously that was going to backfire spectacularly.

So he couldn't exactly blame Rusty for being philosophically (and vehemently) opposed to any idea that came from DDA Rios, especially if it once again painted him in the unflattering strokes she usually employed.

But man, was this conversation a train wreck hard to watch.

A dour look from Provenza indicated that his partner shared his general thoughts.

With the conversation in a 'you can't make me' kind of stage, the teenage motto from the dawn of time, they could tell even the Captain was feeling exasperated, although she was doing a good job maintaining a calm demeanor. Of course, she was the kind of person who only got calmer and more soft-spoken as she got angrier, so that didn't really say much about her state of mind.

So when the tension became too much and Rusty morosely mumbled some excuse to get out of the office, rushing off before Sharon was even halfway-done acknowledging it, and she made a tired move to go after him, Flynn tried to figure out something encouraging to say. Then her desk phone went off yet again, and she paused in her tracks and glanced uncertainly between the phone and the door...

"Why don't you let us give it a shot," he suggested with uncharacteristic diplomacy, and was rewarded with a grateful look.

Provenza shook his head in sympathy. "One good thing about getting old…don't have to deal with those teenage hormones anymore."

The Captain just sighed, and walked around the desk to pick up the phone. "Raydor."

In his hurry to get to anywhere that wasn't the squad room, Rusty didn't bother to look where he was going, so it was with some surprise that he slammed full-force into Buzz, causing the man to drop an armful of files and trip against a nearby table corner. "Sorry!" He felt bad, but he didn't want to talk to Buzz, and Buzz probably didn't want to talk to him, especially not now…but before Rusty could rush off again a hand grabbed his upper arm to hold him in place.

Provenza arched an unsympathetic eyebrow: "What do we say when we run over people?"

That of course was enough to evaporate Rusty's residual guilt over the incident, and he gave the Lieutenant a stellar teenage are-you-kidding-me look. "I said I was sorry!"

"Yeah? Well I still see about a hundred papers on the floor," Provenza grumbled pointedly, "so you must've not said it loud enough."

Rusty rolled his eyes, but he kneeled to help the young surveillance specialist with the papers.

When he finished organizing and handing back a large stack of them and Buzz said a quiet "thanks", he even muttered something that may have been an acknowledgment, or another apology, but in any case was too unintelligible to tell for sure.

Sensing that something was definitely off, Buzz looked up questioningly at Lt. Provenza, who saw fit to explain:

"Having a bad day. Captain's trying to get him to do a routine physical exam – horrible stuff."

Rusty glared at the sarcasm in the older man's voice, but didn't comment. He was trying to be good about it, he really was. But they just didn't understand. They didn't know what it was like. They didn't know the stakes.

"You know you're gonna have to do it anyway," Flynn put in, "so why not just make it easy for all of us and just go with it. The Captain's right, it's for your own good."

The last thing Rusty wanted was to discuss that any further with any of them, but the words were out of his mouth before he could stop them:

"Seriously? Did you not see those people yesterday!"

Oh had they ever. As a matter of fact, Provenza had derisively advised Raydor not to let the couple sit in direct sunshine.

"Okay, fair enough," Flynn conceded, "but no one's sending you to live with them. The Captain's doing everything she can to make sure of that, and you sure as hell aren't making it any easier for her with this kind of –"

"No one makes anything easy for me!" Rusty protested. "I don't get any opinion on my own life, like I have absolutely zero input anymore, Emma thinks she freaking owns me – and Sharon's letting her just do whatever she wants!"

"Don't start with that again," rumbled Provenza. "You know by now that's a load of bull. Hell, I've seen people who didn't go to the mat like this over their own kids…" He trailed off as he realized what he was saying, and Flynn shot him an annoyed look, but it was too late.

Rusty's expression closed off immediately. "Yeah, thanks. I'm aware of my situation. So because neither of my parents gives a damn, I'm public property, is that it?"

Provenza backpedalled regretfully. "Now, that's not what I mea –"

"You know what, forget it," the boy swallowed hard and struck a stubbornly defensive posture. "I'm not getting those tests, and I'm not going home with those people! I don't care what Emma wants, I'm not helping her hand over my…my leash to the freaking Addams family!"

"Kid, stop yelling," Flynn said in low voice.

"You'd be yelling too if that woman was trying to do this to you! I'm the one who's being threatened! I'm the one who's entire life has been messed up! How is it fair –"

He trailed off as he noticed the Lieutenant's gaze, and turned warily to look over his shoulder in the direction of Sharon's office.

Through the glass walls, they could see her sitting down at her desk, eyes closed in a pained expression as though she were fighting off a migraine. One hand was still holding the receiver, but she didn't seem to say anything for a while, then they saw her lips moving to ask 'when', and her brow furrowed further. She looked down at her desk without saying anything else for another few seconds, and then she said 'okay' and a few other words they couldn't make out.

Finally, she let her head drop against the back of her chair, eyes gazing skyward for a moment, then slowly replaced the phone in its hook and, clasping both hands above the desk in an almost-prayer like gesture, lowered her forehead against her interlaced fingers.

A/N: I know, I'm awful. In my defense for heaping all this drama on these poor people, I do believe life wouldn't stop just because they're having one crisis to deal with. Especially not the life of a police squad. So yup, threatening letters, cases, awful DDA from hell... and more! Welcome to real life which, as Rusty noted last chapter, is ... hrm, not a very nice lady. But the point of having a family, by blood or otherwise, is so you can help each other through this stuff even if it's not exactly smooth sailing. (at least not in my family!) And hence the title of this story ;).

Thanks again to everyone reading, and to those of you who take the time to review, I'm super, super grateful. You absolutely provide that extra motivation necessary to keep these chapters coming at a fast pace, and your comments always make me smile :).