Sharon groaned when Brenda's phone started to ring. "Don't answer it. I haven't had a day off in two weeks."

"You probably won't get your call for another hour. You could get some sleep."

"I won't be able to get back to sleep. I'll know." Sharon grumbled pulling the pillow up over her face and whining.

**

Sharon clipped down the hall toward the interview room. The morning hadn't started out as annoyingly as she'd expected it to. She got up, showered and had a cup of coffee before her summons came in. Inevitably Major Crimes pissed someone off and she and had to hear about it and then go lecture the squad.

"Pardon me for interrupting," she smiled diplomatically. Buzz and Tao looked at her guiltily, like mom just caught them spoiling their dinner with cookies. "Did Major Crimes tell a Dr. Par that he could not treat cancer patients at his office tomorrow morning?"

"Yes, we're still processing the scene."

"And Lieutenants Flynn and Provenza were left behind to… talk the doctor into cooperating?" Sharon narrowed her eyes.

Buzz looked away sheepishly and Tao answered slowly, "well… yes… why?"

"Because Chief Pope is driving in right now to talk about how he would like Major Crimes to… proceed."

Sharon turned and left the interview room, glancing at her watch and starting to pace a little. "Everything alright, Captain?" Gabriel asked.

"No… well, yes…" Sharon laughed a little, "I don't know anymore. I'm just running interference between Chief Pope and Chief Johnson, like usual."

Gabriel nodded. Sometimes he even felt bad for the long suffering Captain.

"Oh, I'd like you to meet my girlfriend, Ann." He gestured toward her. "Ann, this is Captain Raydor."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ann." Sharon extended her hand and they shook. "Are you also in law enforcement?"

"I'm in law school. I just transferred actually."

The tell-tale click of Brenda's kitten heels in her short stride and hurried pace pulled Sharon's attention away from Ann.

"Sharon, what's wrong?"

Sharon offered Brenda a soft smile. "Let's not use the word wrong. Let's say the situation has become complex."

"What situation?" Brenda demanded.

"Am I the only one who remembers that federal lawsuit we settled? Absentee appointment of a special master, the HIPPA statute-" Pope boomed as he walked past the group on his way to Brenda's office.

"Excuse me!" Brenda snapped, following after him. Sharon and Taylor trailed after them, if somewhat reluctantly. "I'm not asking for patient information!"

"Do you know how long it takes to get a warrant with a special master?"

"12 to 16 hours."

"And it has to be done through the DDA's office-"

"Which," Sharon interrupted, "is why I called DDA Hobbe's and asked her to rush it through to tomorrow."

"There! Happy?" Pope demanded with exasperation.

"No! I'm not. That only gets the special master appointed. It could take days, weeks even to sort through what we need and if Dr. Brady was killed because he was providing medications for 'fictitious patients' – which is what a nurse just fired told us was happening."

"This nurse was let go. Could be she's holding a grudge." Taylor interjected.

"Something you would know about." Pope muttered.

"What?"

"Pardon me." Sharon said quickly, hoping to derail Brenda's angry response before it pulled into the station. "Commander Taylor, you've got good news."

"Uh… yeah, Flynn and Provenza, they got Dr. Par to come downtown, hopefully you could talk him into being more helpful."

"And am I supposed to something in return for the honor of Dr. Par's company?"

"This doctor's office is a legal minefield."

"I don't have time to process the scene before tomorrow morning."

"Then look for the missing drugs, find out what they might have to do with this murder, establish a timeline. Let the system work." Pope turned to Sharon. "Try to help her understand, okay? Maybe she'll listen to you."

Pope turned and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

"When is Dr. Par arrivin'?"

"Uh, any minute." Taylor answered. "Look … you heard the Chief's orders to give this man back his infusion room… I, uh, I may have neglected to mention that to Dr. Par before I invited him downtown."

"Thank you." Brenda nodded, finally starting to calm down. "Thank you, Commander."

"Gives you a fighting chance, right? Anyway, good luck." Taylor excused himself.

Sharon and Brenda stood still and silent in the office for a moment. Sharon could see the thyroid cancer pamphlet on her desk and knew this was going to be hard going.

"Sharon, I thought you were still monitoring Major Crimes because of the leak. Is there some other agenda I don't know about?"

"Chief Pope didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"I'm now supposed to inform the DA's office every time Major Crimes rolls out for a homicide." Sharon smiled apologetically, "I thought you knew."

"I didn't…"

"Excuse me, Chief, Wally Sanders is here." Tao poked his head in.

"Who is that?"

"The drug rep."

"Oh right. Yes, of course. I'll be right there." Brenda ran her hands through her hair. Once they were alone again Brenda whispered. "God help me, Sharon. God help me."

"You'll be okay, Brenda," Sharon said soothingly. "This is just another case. You just have to do your thing; you're amazing at what you do."

"Does Pope really want a DA involved in all of my cases from the very beginning?" Brenda shouted, "why?"

"He believes he's about to be appointed to his own full term." Sharon shrugged. "He will move upstairs. He will be further removed from day-to-day supervision of divisions."

"So now he's saddling me with as many babysitters as possible, is that it?"

"Don't shoot the messenger, darling. I'm keeping the DA's office busy with the special master. DDA Hobbes won't even be able to cross the street until tomorrow afternoon." Then Sharon added, "at the earliest."

"Well it's nice to know that you and Commander Taylor are running interference for me." Brenda snapped. Sharon pursed her lips and after a moment's consideration Brenda turned back to her girlfriend. "Thank you."

Sharon shook her head. Brenda was going to crash and burn before the end of the case. She was far too emotionally attached to the subject at hand. Sharon just hoped that Pope and Brenda's tempers wouldn't clash to the point where Brenda went home jobless.

Coming back up from her office with the form for Brenda to go over which needed to be handed over to DDA Hobbes, the elevator doors slid open and Gabriel and Ann stood there together.

"Oh!" Sharon said, startled, hurrying to move out of the way. "Ann. Are you leaving so soon?"

Ann smiled wryly, "ask Chief Johnson how soon it feels."

Sharon smiled knowingly, "you didn't catch her at her best today. She's usually at least 10% less of a bitch on a good day."

Ann looked to Gabriel, surprised by Sharon's words. "The Captain is engaged to Chief Johnson."

"Ah." Ann nodded. "They should nominate you for sainthood." She turned back to Gabriel. "I'll see you at home. Nice to meet you, Captain."

Sharon was smiling when Gabriel looked at her. "You live together."

"Uh, well, yeah. We've been dating for a year now, I felt like it was time. I haven't told my family yet… I'd actually appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone else around here… know what people think about lawyers."

"Married one myself." Sharon admitted.

"Really?" Gabriel blinked in surprise.

"My undergrad was in pre-law, that's how we met. Well, technically he passed the bar and then he spent the next ten years drinking in one until he gave that up for gambling."

"So you're divorced."

"Yes, there was life before Chief Johnson." She smiled, "oh, Detective, this is DDA Hobbe's application for special master. It needs a signature and it needs a little more information. Would you mind walking Chief Johnson through it for me? My presence in Major Crimes mostly just upsets her and considering the circumstances of the case…"

"Yeah, I will get it to Hobbes myself."

Sharon got back into the elevator. She was going to go home and she was going to relax if it killed her.

"Sharon?"

She looked up, puzzled at hearing her name instead of her rank. "Josh?" She smiled. He jogged to catch up with her and they hugged. "It's been a while. I hear you're brainwashing my son."

He laughed, "and I make no apologies. What are you up to?"

"Well I'm certainly not sleeping in on a Sunday morning and lounging around in my pyjamas – but I do get to go home for now."

"Can I talk you into lunch or do you have to get home to Brenda?"

"No, no, she's working. She'll be at it for God knows how long. I'd be delighted to have lunch with you."

**

"I'll have the lobster roll, thank you." Sharon said, handing back the menu to the waitress.

"Same." Josh handed over his as well.

Sharon sipped her water. "So, I have a question about James."

Josh laughed, "I don't want to get into the middle of this argument you're having with your son. It's none of my business."

"No, I have a real question." Sharon insisted. "Hiring Angela was one thing because she went to Stanford Law and she had excellent grades but James has a BA in graphic design, did you just hire him because he's my son?"

"Your son, Angela's brother… I needed an assistant and Angela mentioned that James was looking for a job. I interviewed him along with a handful of other applicants – most of which held liberal arts BAs, this is a bad economy for liberal arts kids – and based on job history and Angela's recommendation I chose James. Does that answer your question?"

Sharon considered this for a moment, nodding.

"Plus Angela's a good lawyer, Ted was a good lawyer when he was sober enough to show up… you would have been an excellent lawyer if you hadn't jumped ship for law enforcement… so, yes, maybe I believe in James's lineage."

"I just don't want him to give up on his art. I don't want him to regret not fighting harder to find a job in his field." Sharon sighed.

"He's a smart kid, Sharon. He'll figure it out." Josh reached across the table and put his hand over hers. She nodded and put her other one over his.

"You're right…"

"But hey, let's talk about you and your pending nuptials." He smiled, "am I invited? I haven't gotten a save the date yet."

Sharon shrugged, "we haven't set a date yet but of course you're invited."

"Want me to give you away?" He teased.

She chuckled, "you have given me away more than once."

"Not entirely of my own volition though." He smiled, "why the hold up? Are you two waiting for something?"

"No… we just have a lot on our plates right now. We're still dealing – professionally and personally – with the fallout from the federal lawsuit."

"Personally?" He raised his eyebrows.

"Our boss has assigned me to report all of her actions back to him. He's doing it deliberately to drive a wedge between us; it's not completely working."

"But sort of?"

Sharon shrugged a little, "Brenda gets frustrated very easily and she does tend to shoot the messenger. It can get annoying and I've had to put off almost all of my regular workload onto my subordinates."

"Well… good luck with that."

**

"Sharon?" Brenda called, dropping her purse in a heap near the door.

"Upstairs, sweetie."

Brenda climbed the stairs, stripping off her blazer. She poked her head into the bathroom. "Oh, taking a bath."

"I'm intent to enjoy my Sunday." She smiled serenely at Brenda. "I finished a book, went for a long run and now I'm having a soak."

Brenda sank down next to the bathtub.

"What time is it?"

"Four thirty."

"Done with the medical records already?"

"No." Brenda frowned. "Will sent us home belly-aching about overtime. He's so cheap, we have a murder victim and we're not allowed to investigate just because it's a Sunday."

Sharon reached out for Brenda's shoulder. Brenda giggled, "you're getting me wet!"

"Oh. Now there's an idea!"