The smell of hot iron burned in Brenda's nose. David was up already as she struggled to stand, feeling more than a little like she'd just gone through the spin cycle in the washing machine. The rest of it happened so quickly: Sanchez fired, Provenza fired, the fish tank smashed and the bad guys lay slain.

Drew Gibson, multiple gunshot wounds to the torso and all, was slumped against the bookshelf gasping his last miserable breaths.

Brenda dropped to her knees in front of him and grabbed him forcibly by the lapels. "Do you know Sedona Gibson? Do you know Sedona Gibson?"

Drew Gibson sputtered and managed to spit a clot of blood into Brenda's face. She snarled and shook him again. "Do you know Sedona Gibson?"

"She was a whore." Gibson snickered and Brenda let him drop, shoving him back into position, let the miserable wretch bleed out. She wasn't concerned about him in the slightest and didn't feel bad about it at all.

"I feel terrible about the fish," Provenza muttered as he started to look through the room, "I'll cry about it later."

"We have to find something, anything that'll tie Drew Gibson to Sedona's murder before the vultures from FID take the crime scene." Brenda declared, not missing a beat as she pulled the sofa cushions off.

"White heroin, Chief." Sanchez held up a bag of white powder.

"Now if we could just find a syringe…"

"Ma'am?" An officer cleared his throat from the doorway. Brenda looked up and she knew that her time was up.

"That was fast. Y'all just trailin' behind me now?" She huffed, pushing past him. She walked out the door and down the steps and straight down the path where a uniform lifted the tape for her. She walked right over to Provenza's car and stood there.

She wasn't sure how long she stood there watching the house in a stunned sort of disbelief. Her legs and arms ached from their impact with the floor and she'd done her best to wipe off the blood but she could feel it drying on her skin and clothing.

Sharon strode up to her. Of course she'd show up to this party. Brenda was on a very short leash.

"Why aren't you downtown? Your interview with FID takes place right away."

Brenda felt her heart break a little. Sharon was the epitome of professionalism and refused to ever let her personal feelings leak into any aspect of her work but she couldn't at least ask her how she was? The first thing out of the woman's mouth was lip about not running down to headquarters like some obedient little puppy dog. She immediately felt like crying but wouldn't give Sharon the satisfaction. Brenda could go the professional route too but damned if the woman thought she could just show up for another booty call anytime soon.

"I never discharged my weapon."

"Good." Sharon couldn't help the small smile, "at least you won't be the subject of another lawsuit."

"Day's not over." Brenda muttered. "Look, Captain, I just have to get back in there and find something to link Drew Gibson to my murder victim."

"You know the drill, the crime scene is mine for 48 hours."

"I don't think I can wait that long."

Sharon cocked her head to the side for a moment, "how badly do you want the evidence?"

Brenda's mouth fell open as she turned to Sharon again. "What are you saying?"

"If I were to find the evidence that you're looking for and get it to you before the 48 hours is up will you tell Detective Sanchez to talk to me?"

"You're blackmailing me?"

"You have the idea, yes."

Of all the insensitive things! Sharon's suggestion rubbed Brenda wrong in so many ways. She scoffed, "get the evidence and we'll talk." She frowned and pushed herself off the car. She needed to change and she needed to walk away before she was sanctioned for slugging the head of FID at her own crime scene.

Sharon locked eyes with a uniform and motioned to Brenda, "would you take her downtown?"

"Yes, Captain." He nodded.

"I'm not an invalid, Sharon." Brenda snapped with annoyance.

"For heaven's sake, Brenda, you were nearly shot. Please, humor me and take the escort."

"Why, Captain, I didn't know you cared."

Sharon watched Brenda climb into the passenger's without so much of a backwards glance. Sharon watched the patrol car pull away from the scene, I love you on the tip of her tongue. Once the car had faded into the distance Sharon let out a breath, Brenda was safe, she was away from the guns and the drugs and Sharon could breathe again.

About midway through the drive back to hq her cell phone vibrated. She looked down at the phone to see that it had actually rung several times. She put the phone to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Oh, thank god you're alright!" Fritz said as soon as she'd answered. "I was afraid when you didn't answer your phone that something was wrong."

Brenda rubbed her eyes. "No… well, I didn't get shot anyway…"

"If there's anything I can do for you, just name it."

"Actually…" Brenda sighed, "if it's convenient… could you swing by my house and grab me a dress? I'm kind of covered in blood."

"Sure, of course."

"Thank you, Fritzy." Brenda smiled, "there's a hide-a-key underneath the third stepping stone. Thank you." She dropped the phone back into her purse and she leaned back with some amount of defeat.

The uniform glanced over at her. "Are you alright, ma'am?"

"You know, whoever said women were more sensitive than men never met my girlfriend." Brenda grumbled and started rooting around in her purse for anything chocolate and-or sugary. She'd probably have settled for licking the tinfoil wrapping of a ho-ho.

The officer had the good sense to remain quiet for the rest of the ride, made long and annoying by rush hour and an accident on the freeway.

Back at the LAPD Brenda indulged in a shower in the locker room. She let the water cascade over her body and tried her damnedest not to start crying. She wouldn't cry here, no one needed any extra reasons to doubt her validity as an officer.

By the time she stepped off of the elevator onto her floor Fritz was waiting there. He embraced her as she stumbled and she accepted the hug gratefully. "I hope I brought the right dress."

"I'm sure it'll be fine."

Sharon emerged into the hallway and stopped short upon seeing Brenda and Fritz. The hug sent a surge of jealousy through her and she turned away, waiting for them to finish. Brenda caught sight of Sharon over Fritz's shoulder. She let go of Fritz and thanked him for the dress.

He gave her shoulder a squeeze, "you should get out of here and get some sleep soon."

Brenda waved him off. Sharon approached as soon as Fritz was gone. She held up the two evidence bags. "A syringe and a box of Ambien." Sharon held them up. Brenda went to grab them and Sharon pulled them back, "where did Agent Howard get that dress?"

"He swung by the house for me." Brenda scowled.

"He swung by whose house? My house?"

"Our house." Brenda smirked and grabbed the evidence out of Sharon's hand.

"As we agreed?"

Brenda took a deep breath to calm herself down. "He's still finishin' up his FID interview."

"Please tell him I will be waiting in the conference room." Sharon turned on her heel and clicked down the hallway.

"Oh, that woman…" Brenda muttered as she stalked off to the bathroom to change.

The day that had gone from bad to worse to terrible in a matter of six hours didn't show any signs of picking up from the nose dive that it was in at nine that night. Suddenly she was caught between a rock and a hard place: trying to decide between being with a crying woman and having to go face-to-face with her unfeeling girlfriend. She'd never been good with crying women and she supposed she'd have to bite the bullet eventually.

Brenda strode into her office, shut the blinds and took a seat at her desk, "Captain, this really isn't a good time."

Sharon stood and walked over to Brenda's slouched form and pulled open the desk drawer to reveal the treasure trove of sweets therein. She reached in and extracted a package of devil dogs and held it up to her.

Brenda accepted it begrudgingly and slid the drawer closed.

"Okay," Sharon began in a low, husked tone that was usually only reserved for when she was in the mood. Brenda assumed it was some sort of 'too little, too late' mollifying gesture. "When you dropped Turrell Baylor off at his house and before you drove away… Detective Gabriel said something to you and it was important because Detective Sanchez refuses to repeat it. The Baylor family attorney knows about this conversation and I still don't."

Brenda dropped the devil dogs into the trash in frustration; Sharon didn't even bat an eyelash. Brenda rocked slightly in her office chair, listening to the minute squeaks as it moved on its spring. She chewed a fingernail nervously. Finally, unable to meet Sharon's gaze, Brenda admitted, "after I let Turrell go… and before we drove away… Detective Gabriel asked me if I thought we should stick around…"

Sharon nodded. The full weight of the shit that Brenda was finally beginning to become clear to her. She straightened, "I see. You told him to go."

The look of veiled disgust on Sharon's face was overshadowed by Sanchez's words still echoing through her mind. She lifted her gaze to Sharon's and nodded once. "I did."

Sharon looked away for a moment. She looked through the blinds at Brenda's team and then looked back at the blonde. "That's the lawsuit, isn't it? Detective Gabriel asked you the twenty-million dollar question but the thing is… how does the plaintiff's attorney know how you answered it?"

Brenda studied her for a moment, not wanting to believe the only conclusion that could be drawn. "What are you thinkin'?"

"Somewhere in your division, you have a leak."

Brenda considered this for a moment, looking through the window at her squad milling about. Surely no one in her squad would have leaked the information. They all trusted her enough to come to her if they had a problem with her conduct… didn't they?

Brenda sighed and selected something else from her candy drawer.

"Captain," she said, mouth full of Twix. "Would you close the blinds for me for a minute?"

Sharon pursed her lips a little but acquiesced to the request.

"I'm fine, by the way, in case you care."

Sharon turned, "what do you mean?"

"You know… that little thing earlier where I nearly got shot but by some miracle survived the whole ordeal? I'm fine, don't worry about me."

"I'm always going to worry about you."

"Funny way of showin' it…" Brenda mumbled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sharon scowled.

"What I mean is you showed up on the scene, didn't even ask me how I was, didn't smile at me a little bit. You just blackmailed me." Brenda spat, "that was insult to injury, Sharon."

"I can't very well just walk up to you at a crime scene and pull you into my arms! We have professional standards to uphold. Not to mention the fact that I'm currently conducting a transparency audit of you and your entire squad."

"Certainly didn't stop you from fucking me in the kitchen the other night. You were not even attempting to hold up 'professional standards' that night, you were trying very hard to get me on my back."

"I've never had to try very hard." Sharon scoffed. "It's kind of your default..."

Brenda's mouth fell open, "I cannot believe you just said that!"

"If the shoe fits." Sharon shrugged.

"You know what drives me crazy?" Brenda fumed, "we wouldn't even be having this argument if you had just asked me how I was. For heaven's sake, a text with one of those little frowning emoticons would have made me feel better!"

"And if anyone questions the objectiveness of my audit and subpoenas my phone records, I can promise you that all calls and texts from me to you since the onset of this audit have been during normal working hours and have remained professional."

"To hell with being professional!" Brenda snapped. "I was almost shot! I wanted a hug!"

"That is so short-sighted of you. My god, if it were up to you you'd be with the city attorney, there would be sexts from me on your phone – because it is completely beyond you to delete them when done – and we'd be all over each other at the office. You know where all that would get you? It could get you into prison. Is that what you want?"

"One hug? One frowning emoticon? Climb down off your cross, Sharon!"

"I just want to be careful because I don't want to lose you! I don't want you to go to prison! Is that wholly unreasonable?"

Brenda huffed, crossing her arms defiantly and giving a small shake of her head, "no, it's not, except that you've already lost me."

Sharon faltered and furrowed her brow. "What… what?"

"I mean, I'm done. I'm sick of this argument 'you're-too-professional-I'm-too-unprofessional.' I almost died today. When I needed someone you weren't there."

"Brenda…" Sharon started slowly, "when I heard about what happened I couldn't breathe, all I could think was how I nearly lost the most important person in my life. I love you."

Brenda held up her hands in defeat and shook her head, "I need someone who can show concern for me, not just feel it."

"That's fine – because I need someone who can trust me a lot more than you do." Sharon pursed her lips, knowing she was on the verge of tears. "I want you out of my house."

"My things will be out by the end of the day tomorrow." Brenda said coldly, looking down at the blotter on her desk.

Without another word, Sharon turned and walked out of the office, shutting the door behind her. She took quick, deliberate strides as she left, ignoring the gazes of Major Crimes. Their concern did not faze her; she was not one of them, she was no longer romantically linked to their Chief and, God help them, they better fear her.