DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.

Chapter 12

Croelick left leaving Sharon and Andy inside the interview room with Mike. Andy looked at Sharon who seemed to be a little shaken by all of this, although she didn't show it. Andy knew her well enough to know. "Hey, we'll find her okay?" Andy said to Sharon as he placed his hand on her shoulder. This brought Sharon back and as she looked at Andy, she placed her hand on top of his. Mike's phone rang and he answered it. "Yes Amy" Mike said. He listened for a second and then spoke to Sharon. "Amy thinks Missy is at her other job at the housekeeping place, they are heading over there to see" Mike said to Sharon. Sharon nodded. "Tell Amy we will meet them there" Sharon said as she left the room. Andy looked at Mike and then walked out of the room and followed Sharon. "You sure you want to go out?" Andy said as he caught up with her. Sharon turned around slightly as she continued to walk towards her office. "I don't need you handling me, Andy" Sharon said to him. Andy stopped as she continued to walk. "I'm not" he said to himself.

Sharon came back out of her office and addressed her Lieutenants and Buzz. "Everyone, vest up, I want us to be safe. Buzz, bring your camera" Sharon said as they all got ready and headed down to the cars. Provenza came out of electronics and stopped Andy before he could join Sharon. "I just wanted to let you know that Chief Howard said that her detail will be there but invisible" Provenza said to him. Andy nodded and then headed towards the elevators to meet up with Sharon, Mike, and Buzz. They all made their way down to the cars and headed out to meet up with Amy, Julio, and the SIS team. Sharon got in the passenger side as Andy sat in the driver's side. Sharon was looking at her phone once she was settled. "Nicole said that Matthew is fine and everyone is playing with Moxie" Sharon said to Andy as he started the car. "That's good" Andy said as he drove out of the parking garage. They followed Mike, Provenza, and Buzz in their car towards the location of Missy's work.

"Please be careful, Sharon" Andy said as they made their way through the streets of LA. "I know your doctor told you to take it easy and I did as well, but I didn't think you would want to stay back at the office" Sharon said to him. "I wouldn't, besides someone needs to keep an eye on you" Andy said to her. This made her chuckle a little bit, which was welcomed after all the tense moments that have happened in the last 24 hours. Andy was going to tell her about the detail but he decided it could wait, they needed to concentrate on finding Missy right now. They pulled up at the location behind Mike, Provenza, and Buzz. Sharon got out and Andy did as well. They met up across the street from the business. "Captain, I called ahead and the person who answered the phone says that Missy is inside getting ready for her job" Amy said to Sharon. "Okay, I want everyone to be safe when approaching the place. We are going to follow SIS inside" Sharon said to them.

Andy stayed close to Sharon as he wasn't going to let her out of his sights. They were heading to the front of the building along with Cooper, Mike, and a couple of SIS officers. Provenza, Julio, Amy, and other SIS officers went around the back. Buzz stayed off to the side, waiting patiently. Sharon and Andy followed Cooper in the front door of the business and the secretary was at the front office. "Is Missy Braxton here?" Cooper asked the girl. "Yes, she's in the back with the rest of the crew getting ready for a job" she told him. "Can you have her come out here, please?" he said to her. She nodded and headed towards the back of the office. Sharon got on the radio and informed the rest of the team. "Missy left" the secretary came back and told Cooper. "What?" he said and then looked back at Sharon. "We need to check" he said as the secretary let them in to conduct a search. Andy stuck close to Sharon as they made their way through the business, meeting up with the rest of the team. Andy noticed the side exit that led to the fire escape. The door was open and he went outside and saw the ladder was already down, no Missy in sight. "Dammit" he cursed himself.

Sharon was standing with Cooper inside when Andy came back in to the lobby. "I'm sorry Captain, I thought we had everything covered" Copper told Sharon. "Not your fault, Lieutenant. She's on the run now" Sharon said to Cooper as she walked over to Andy. "Now what?" Andy said to her. "We head back to the office" Sharon said to him as the rest of the team gathered outside the building. "Captain, my team will track her movements again. When we get her in our sights again, we will let you know" Cooper said to Sharon. "Thank you" Sharon said as she stepped outside. "Thanks" Andy said to Cooper. "We will keep an eye on both, Lieutenant" Cooper said to Andy as they exited the building.

Sharon headed for their car as Andy caught up with her. She didn't say anything as she sat inside and waited for Andy to start the car. He glanced over at her when he placed the key in the ignition. He started the car, still looking over at her. She was looking out the window, not saying a word. "Sharon?" he said to her quietly. "Just drive, please" she said back to him, barely above a whisper. Andy nodded and drove back to the PAB. They arrived back at work, Sharon still silent as she walked back into the Murder Room. Andy followed behind her. It was getting late and they really didn't have any more leads for Missy's whereabouts. Sharon retreated back to her office and closed her door. Andy looked over at Provenza and headed back to his desk to sit down. Provenza waited a couple of minutes before knocking on her door.

"Come in" she said and Provenza entered her office. "Captain, I just want to let you know that we will not stop until we catch Missy, don't you worry about that" Provenza said. "I appreciate that Lieutenant, but it is getting late, why don't you go home and have everyone else do the same" Sharon said to him. "Yes Captain" he said to her as she turned her chair around to face her windows behind her desk. He then left her office, closing the door behind him. Andy got up and followed Provenza over to his desk. Provenza turned and looked at his best friend. "She's dismissed everybody for the night. Come back tomorrow morning and we will start all over again" Provenza said to everyone. He then went up close to Andy. "We've been through this before with the letter writing, just be careful and watch your backs" Provenza told Andy. "Did she say anything else to you?" Andy asked him. "No" he answered him as he gathered his stuff to leave. Andy turned around looking into Sharon's office. This was going to be a long night he thought to himself as he headed back to his desk. He decided he would wait until Sharon was ready to leave.

Her office door opened behind Andy and Sharon stepped out and went over to him. "What do you say we go pick up Matthew and Moxie and head home" she said to him as she leaned on his desk. Andy looked up at her and smiled. "Sounds good. Do you want to stop on the way and get some dinner, we didn't get to eat our lunch today" Andy said as he put his suit jacket back on and turned around facing Sharon. He stood before her looking into her eyes and she was looking back into his. She reached up and smoothed his tie downward towards the end. She had a worry look on her face again. He reached over to her and picked her chin up with his hand. "Everything is going to be fine" he said to her. She nodded and they headed out. Everything will be fine, Andy thought to himself, after all, Chief Howard had placed a protection detail on Sharon, which of course she didn't know about, which of course if she did find out about it, Andy would get the brunt of it. "Everything okay?" Sharon said as she looked over at Andy while they were in the elevator. Andy was lost in thought when Sharon brought him out of it. "Yes, everything is good" he said to her, reassuring her and himself for that matter.

"Is Rusty going to be home tonight or is he with Gus?" Andy asked as he started the car and they drove off headed towards Nicole's house. "He is at the condo already, packing up boxes for the move" Sharon said to him as she grabbed a hold of his hand on the gear shifter in the car. She intertwined her fingers with his as they continued to drive. They had stopped at a little Italian restaurant close to Nicole's house that they have been to on occasion and had a quick dinner there. After they were done eating, Sharon texted Nicole telling her they were on their way to pick up Matthew and the dog.

When they arrived at Nicole and Dean's house, Nicole answered the door and Sharon and Andy walked inside to the family room area. All of the boys were watching a movie and they were all sitting on the couch together. Dean was sitting on the chair with the ottoman and Moxie was laying on the floor next to him. "Grandpa! Grandma!" the boys said with excitement. "Hi guys!" Andy said as they gave him and Sharon a hug. "Hi Sharon, Hi Andy" Matthew said as he came over to them. "Hey Matthew, are you all set?" Andy asked him. Matthew went over to get his backpack from the coffee table and made sure he had everything for school in his backpack. Sharon spoke to Nicole and Dean by the front door. "Thank you again, so much, for doing this. We have a case now that is really troublesome" Sharon told them as she didn't want to give too many details out. "Anytime you need anything, please let us know" Nicole said back to Sharon. Sharon grabbed the dog's leash and Andy and Matthew followed her out of the house towards their car. Matthew turned around and waved to Nicole. "Bye!" he said to them as he walked with Andy.

They arrived at the condo about twenty minutes later and settled in for the night. Moxie went to lay down next to the couch. Matthew placed his backpack in the kitchen and sat down at the table there. Sharon had told him in the car that she wanted to speak with him about something. "Did you tell Sharon what I told you about school?" Matthew asked Andy as he was also in the kitchen. "I did buddy. We want to help you Matthew, okay and sometimes we need to tell each other what is going on so that we can all help one another" Andy tried explaining to Matthew.

Sharon had gone into their bedroom to change her clothes into something more comfortable. As she went down the hallway, she spotted Rusty in his room. "Hey" she said to him. Rusty turned around from the boxes. "Hey, is everything alright?" Rusty said back to her. Sharon wanted to tell Rusty about the letters and Croelick. She sat on his bed and spoke to him. "So, these letters, they were addressed to Croelick but they were about you?" Rusty asked her. "Yes, you see, she wrote him letters while he was in jail and seemed pretty upset again that we were speaking to him last week about those fires. She's very upset with me, although I can't figure that out, but I don't want this to interrupt our current life. We are going to move as planned on Wednesday and hopefully we can catch her before she does any more harm" Sharon said to Rusty. "Okay, I placed all of the kitchen items, minus a few dishes and other items we need in boxes earlier tonight and now I am working on boxing items in my room" Rusty said to her. "Thank you Rusty" Sharon said as she left his room. "No problem" Rusty said.

Sharon headed towards the kitchen where Andy and Matthew were sitting at the table. "Okay, Matthew I would like to know what happened this morning at school" Sharon said to him in a sweet voice. Matthew looked at Sharon and then looked down. "I don't want to get in trouble" Matthew said to her. "Oh, Matthew, you're not going to get in trouble. I'm sorry if I came across that way in the car but I just would like to know what happened, that's all" Sharon said reassuring Matthew as she looked over at Andy for any help he could give. "Remember what I told you earlier, Matthew, we want to help you" Andy said to Matthew. Matthew nodded and now had tears in his eyes. "I miss my mom" he said quietly to them. Sharon looked over at Andy again and then looked back at Matthew and placed her hand on his back. "Of course you do" she said to him. "What happened at school?" she asked him again. "The teacher gave us an assignment to do in school and it was supposed to be about our parents. I told Martin who sits next to me that I don't have a mom or dad anymore and he called me a weirdo" Matthew said as he was practically in tears now. This broke Sharon's heart right there as she looked at Matthew and then back at Andy. She leaned over to grab some Kleenex from the table and wiped Matthew's tears from his face. "It's okay" she whispered to him. "Did you tell your teacher?" Sharon asked Matthew. Matthew nodded his head no. "I didn't want to do the assignment, that's why I went to the nurse's office" Matthew said quietly. "I'll speak with your teacher tomorrow" Sharon said. "No! Please don't" Matthew pleaded with her. "Okay" she said back to him. He had stopped crying. "Why don't you go get ready for bed and then come back to the couch and I will read you a story" Andy said to Matthew. Matthew got up and headed down the hallway.

Sharon stood up from the table and went over to the sink in the kitchen. Andy followed her there and looked at Sharon grabbing her hand in his. "So many things going on, sometimes we forget what brought Matthew here with us" Sharon said to Andy. Andy pulled Sharon into a hug and reassured her that everything would work out. He then kissed her on her lips, but before they could get carried away, Matthew came back already for the story Andy had promised him. They walked over to the couch and Matthew handed Andy a storybook Sharon had picked up for him while they were shopping at Target the other day. It was about the First Thanksgiving. Andy read the book out loud to Matthew and Matthew needed up falling asleep, halfway in to the book.

Andy got up, not disturbing Matthew and headed down the hallway to see if Rusty was still packing up boxes. "Hey, you almost done here cause Matthew is sleeping on the couch" Andy asked him. "Yep, all done here" Rusty said as he left the room. Andy followed Rusty back to the couch. "I can pick him up Andy, with your rib I don't want you to aggravate it" Rusty said to Andy as he picked Matthew up from the couch. "She told you, didn't she" Andy said to Rusty as he followed him back down the hallway. "Yes" Rusty said as he placed Matthew on the bed. Moxie followed and Andy closed the door to the room. "Speaking of your mother, do you know where she is at?" Andy asked Rusty. "She's in the bathroom" Rusty said as he went back to the couch. "Thanks, good night" Andy said as he stepped inside their bedroom.

Andy walked over to the bathroom and opened the door slightly. He saw Sharon relaxing in the tub. He then walked in the bathroom and sat down next to the tub, careful not to disturb her. "You know, you could join me" she said to him as she opened her eyes and smiled. Andy chuckled a little bit and smiled back at her. He loved it when she smiled at him, and with everything that happened today, he was glad she was still smiling. She scooted forward as he stripped out of his clothes and slid in behind her. She then relaxed in his arms as he held her to him. They sat in the tub until it was time to get out. They dried each other off and Sharon slipped on her nightgown and headed back in to their bedroom. Andy quickly slipped on a pair of boxers and a t-shirt and followed her. She was already lying in bed when he joined her and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him. She tried to relax when he held her but she couldn't. Her mind was on a lot of things. Andy rubbed the back of her arms with his hand to try and get her to relax. They needed to find Missy and they also needed Croelick to go away.

TBC