Days turned into weeks, and weeks into a month and a half. Sharon never called, and Andy never went to see her. They let the heart-break and confusion fester like an open wound, hoping that with enough time and cordiality they might be able to save some semblance of a friendship. Enough, at least, to keep things dignified at work.
At first, Sharon was frustrated with her feelings for Andy and her need to stay in control at her job. A part of her knew that loving Andrew Flynn only ended with more FID reprimands, and a slow disintegration of respect for her as his commanding officer. The thought of that made her grit her teeth and return to the mantra that no man would be worth compromising her career. However, another part of her—usually the part that snuck out a little after midnight—knew she had made a colossal mistake. Oh, she missed him dearly. She missed every part of him: when he wasn't in her bed, when he didn't smile at her in the morning, and when he was standing right next to her in the office, stiff as a board, refusing to make eye contact. Especially then, when he was close enough to touch, but refused to do so. He'd become complacent under her orders, obedient and unquestioning. Sharon could tell she'd done some unrepairable damage, so she thought it best to swallow her own heartache and leave him alone. If he wanted nothing to do with her, he certainly didn't have to.
For the past six weeks, Andy had flowed somewhere between quiet, smoldering anger and exhaustion. While he hadn't exactly fought to prove her wrong, Sharon was the responsible party for ending their relationship. She had broken it off with him. And she clearly didn't regret it. She hadn't tried to communicate with him at all in recent weeks, and he took that as a clear sign that she was moving on. They tried the whole dating-where-you-work scenario, and it imploded. Simple, really. His fingers still twitched every time he watched her sit on her desk and cross her legs. He still woke up with an insistent erection every time his subconscious dared to dream about her naked and wrapped up in his sheets. He still wished he could walk her to the elevator. But if she didn't regret killing their romance, he certainly wasn't going to grovel.
Besides, he had other annoyances to occupy him now. Their new homicide involved the murder of a young paralegal who had been interning for a judge on the California State Supreme Court. And along with the implied headaches of trying to conduct on investigation in the middle of that shit-show in legality, some asshole lawyer—a friend of the judge's—had inserted himself in the middle of their investigation. He said he'd worked with the intern on a lengthy project, and thought he might be able to help. Much to Andy's dismay, that meant hanging around Major Crimes at all hours of the day, offering his unsolicited opinion on every lead they got. He didn't understand why Sharon—the Captain—didn't just kick him out. He followed her around more than anyone else. He must be getting on her nerves too.
"I can't imagine a woman like you has any trouble getting men to tell her exactly what she wants to hear, Captain Raydor." Marcken, the lawyer, joked to Sharon after watching an interview in electronics. What the fuck, Andy thought.
Sharon laughed nervously. "Well, Detective Sykes is a very skilled interrogator as well. My team knows how to handle a criminal who wants to confess. It has very little to do with me."
Sharon went to leave the room, realizing Marcken intended to follow her. Thank goodness they continued their conversation out of ear-shot, leaving Provenza, Andy, Buzz, and Taylor in electronics. "Whatever you say, Captain. All I know is, if you asked me to confess to murder, in that skirt, I just might." Marcken actually winked at Sharon and threw her a nobel-prize winning smile.
He can't be serious, Sharon thought. This asshole is actually hitting on me?! Remembering that Taylor had explicitly asked her to 'play nice,' Sharon swallowed her own outrage and smiled back at the lawyer.
"Well. Let's hope it never comes to that, shall we?" Sharon really wanted to get away from this guy, but needed to be polite. And frankly, he actually had been somewhat helpful in establishing a timeline in the young intern's death. Sharon could see Andy and Buzz were making their way back to the Murder Room in the corner of her eye.
"Have dinner with me?" Marcken was relentless, and clearly not picking up on any of Sharon's signs of disinterest. Sharon's face was shocked, and she immediately looked at Andy who had obviously heard that part of their conversation. Speechless, she forgot to decline the insistent lawyer's offer. "I…umm…" was all she could get out.
"Perfect! I'll call you tonight." Another cartoonish wink and Marcken planted a brief but aggressive kiss on Sharon's cheek, then he was gone. Sharon was left standing dazed and unbalanced in the Murder Room, praying Andy had miraculously gone deaf and blind sometime in the last five minutes. Given the clenched jaw and furrowed brow on the man's face, she realized she had no such luck. He was sitting, staring at nothing on his desk, just clearly not intending to talk to or look at Sharon. She walked all the way around the office, through the far conference room, and into her office just so she didn't have to walk by him. Jesus Christ, she cursed. Why. Whywhywhy did that have to happen in front of him?! He looked like he was about to put a fist through the wall. Or worse, she thought.
She decided to wait an hour or two and then call Marcken herself to explain that going out with him would be highly inappropriate. If that didn't work, she might have to pretend she's married, or ill, or gay. Anything really, to keep that creep away from her for the next few days.
She was so caught up in her own humiliation, she didn't even see Andy throw his chair into his desk, snatch his jacket, and make a beeline for the elevator.