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 19
Matthew sat in front of his teacher next to his parents as they settled in for their meeting. "So I understand you wanted to speak to me about the last math test that Matthew took," his teacher said as she sat at the table with them. "Yes, something was brought to my husband's and my attention this past Saturday and we both felt that it needed to be addressed with you as well," Sharon told her.
"Oh, well, sure, I have his test right here," the teacher said as she pulled it out of a folder and laid it on the table. "Matthew, do you have something to say to your teacher?" Sharon asked and looked at him as he sat next to her. Matthew looked down at the table and then back at his teacher. "I'm sorry Miss Filar, I didn't mean to forge my dad's signature on the test," Matthew came clean and his teacher was a little bit shocked.
Miss Filar looked at Matthew first and then at Sharon and Andy. "Matthew, I can't believe you would do such a thing," she said to him as she crossed her arms in front of her. "I didn't want my parents to know that I had failed that test," Matthew muttered, not looking at his teacher. "Why didn't you tell me when you were on the playground Friday?" she asked him but he didn't answer her, he just sat there.
Miss Filar then looked to Sharon and Andy for some answers. "Miss Filar, my husband and I knew that something had been bothering Matthew for about a week, and we asked him if everything was alright with school and other things and he fooled us, and he is being punished for doing that," Sharon informed his teacher.
"Right," Miss Filar stated and looked at the clock. It was almost time for school to start and the rest of the kids would be showing up soon. "Matthew could you go over by the book library in the corner for a couple of minutes while I talk with your parents, please?" Miss Filar asked him and he stood up from his seat and went over to the book library in the room. He fiddled with some books while trying to keep an eye on the adults.
"Mr. and Mrs. Flynn, I just want to say I appreciate you coming in this morning and letting me know what exactly happened. I am glad that Matthew finally told me. I had been worried about him when I saw him sitting alone on the playground on Friday. You see, that rarely ever happens, because Matthew has a lot of friends in class. He's been through a lot, and I'm wondering if he should see someone professional, to just talk about things that might be on his mind," Miss Filar said to them.
Both Sharon and Andy looked at each other while Sharon squeezed his hand gently as Matthew's teacher spoke. "With his background and everything else that had happened to him," she continued but Andy interrupted her. "So, you think the reason he did this was because he was acting up due to being an adopted kid?" Andy stated, in a somewhat mad state. "Andy," Sharon almost scolded him right there and gave him a look.
"Look, I'm not telling you how to be a parent, but, my father was in law enforcement as well, just like the both of you, and when I was growing up, I acted out a lot because of the uncertainty that was brought on whenever my father would put on his uniform and walk out our door," she said and Sharon listened to her while Andy just sat there. "I just think it would benefit Matthew if he had someone else to talk to him, besides his parents, that know what he could be possibly going through," she ended and then the bell rang.
"That's the first bell, meaning the kids should be coming into the room soon," Miss Filar stood up from the table and so did Sharon and Andy. "Thank you, Miss Filar. We will certainly look into your suggestion," Sharon told her and she shook her hand. "Yeah, thank you," Andy muttered and shook her hand anyway. Sharon turned around to see what Matthew was doing.
"Matthew," she called him over to where they were standing. "Your dad and I are leaving now, be good, be kind, and be safe," Sharon whispered to him as she gave him a hug. "Emily and I will come pick you up today when you get out of school," she told him and he nodded. He then went to his desk and placed his back pack on top of his desk and started to take things out of it, placing the items inside his desk.
Sharon and Andy waved to the teacher as they left and the rest of the kids started to enter the classroom. They walked out of the school and back to the car, the whole time Andy was holding Sharon's hand in his. "You didn't have to jump down his teacher's throat when she suggested that Matthew see a psychologist," Sharon told him. "I didn't jump down her throat," Andy protested as they continued.
"Do you think he needs to talk to a psychologist?" Sharon asked Andy as they walked up to the car. "I don't know. If the kid needs someone to talk to, then maybe it's not a bad idea," he sighed and shrugged his shoulders as he held open her door for her to get in.
He joined her inside the car a few seconds later. "Remember when I had called Doctor Joe, when we first brought him to the PAB?" Sharon asked as Andy started the car and drove her back home. "He seemed to open up to him from what I remember," Andy added. "Maybe that's not a bad idea," she stated as she looked out the window.
Forty minutes later, they pulled into their driveway and Andy turned the car off before he turned to Sharon. "Now, promise me you'll let Emily take care of you while I'm at work, don't worry about work or if we get called to another case, or anything like that, okay?" Andy looked at her and gave her a small smile. "I promise," she told him and leaned in to kiss him.
They got out of the car and headed inside the house. Ricky was now up, dressed, and standing in their kitchen when they came in. "There's the happy couple!" he greeted them as they entered the kitchen. Andy shook his head and let out a small chuckle as Sharon greeted her son. "Morning trouble maker!" she gave him a hug and he gently hugged her back. "Mom," he muttered.
"Where's Emily?" she asked him as she leaned up against the island. "She's upstairs taking a shower, and I'm going to leave here around 11 to head back," Ricky said to them. "Okay, well I was hoping to talk to your sister before I left for work, but I'll just text her later this morning," Andy told them. He needed to be at the range before 10 to get his weapon back from FID.
"What did you want to tell me?" just then Emily walked into the kitchen, her hair still in a towel but she was dressed otherwise. "Oh, well," Andy said and looked at Sharon. "Um, why don't you walk me out?" he told Emily. "Behave yourself, I love you," Andy told Sharon and gave her a quick kiss. "I love you too, good luck at the range," she told him and he gave her a wink.
"Ricky, thank you," Andy shook Ricky's hand and gave him a firm handshake in return. "Take care Andy," Ricky told him and then watched his sister and his step-father walk towards the back of the house. "What do you think he's telling her?" he asked his mother as they stood there. "Oh, I'm sure it has something to do with me," she shrugged her shoulders.
"Hey, so I know your mom can be stubborn, but she and I made a deal to let you take care of her while I'm at work. So, if she gives you a hard time, call me," Andy told Emily as he stood by the back door. "Don't worry Andy, I think I can handle Mom," Emily chuckled. Andy shook his head. "Okay," he smiled and then exited the house. He walked back to his car and got inside. He had plenty of time to get down to the range and qualify. He backed down the driveway and headed to work.
Meanwhile, Emily returned to the kitchen to her mom and Ricky sitting at the kitchen table. "So, how was the meeting with Matthew's teacher?" Emily asked her as she sat down to join them. "Oh, it was fine. She's very nice," Sharon said but held back on mentioning a psychologist. Emily looked at Ricky and he shrugged his shoulders subtly.
"Well, I'm going to get going now," Ricky stated as he stood up from the table. "Now, I thought you were going to leave around 11 this morning?" Sharon started to get up but Ricky encouraged her to sit back down. "Oh, well, I want to leave you two women alone to talk about gossip or watch Hallmark movies, you know, girl things," Ricky told her as he bent down and kissed her cheek.
"Oh, I'm going to miss you Ricky," she stated as he pulled back. "Emily, take care of mom, don't let her finagle her way into working today or this week," Ricky pointed at Emily. "I won't," Emily chuckled and looked at Sharon. Ricky then went upstairs to get his bag from the guest room.
"So what did Andy say to you when he was leaving?" she asked her daughter briefly. "Hmm, nice try Mom but I'm not going to divulge that information," Emily told her and Sharon was shocked. "My own daughter, is turning against me?" she gestured with her hand against her chest, motioning that she was hurt. "It's not like that Mom!" Emily gestured with her hands on her hips.
"And now my son is leaving early," Sharon added as Ricky came back with his duffle bag and messenger bag slung over his shoulder. "Mom, come on, you know I was leaving this morning, don't try to guilt me now," Ricky hammered back as he stood there looking at her. "I know dear, I'm not trying to guilt you or anyone for that matter," she said as she glanced at Emily.
Sharon stood up and gave Ricky a hug. "Be careful driving. Please call me when you get back to your place," she told him. "I will Mom," Ricky told her and then he went over to hug his sister. "Bye, take care of mom," he hugged her slightly and she walked him to the door. "See ya!" she waved to him as he walked out to the driveway and got into his car.
Emily then turned around and saw her mom tidying up in the kitchen. "Mom! What do you think you're doing?" she asked her. "I just wanted to put some things away," Sharon said innocently. "No, I will do that, you need to rest and relax! Now, go sit down either in the kitchen or the family room and I will be there in a couple of minutes," Emily told her. "Fine," she huffed and went to sit back down at the kitchen table.
Meanwhile, Andy pulled into the PAB's parking garage and parked the car in their usual spot. It felt strange to him not to have Sharon there as he got out of the car and headed towards the elevators. He pressed the call button for the elevator and waited for the doors to open. He stepped inside and pressed the button for the floor where the range was located.
When the elevator doors opened again, Andy stepped off and headed down to the range office where Sergeant Elliot was waiting for him. "Lieutenant, good to see you again," Elliot said as he shook Andy's hand. "Here's your weapon back so you can go qualify," he said as he handed Andy's weapon, unloaded to him. "Thanks," Andy muttered and then went to the range master to grab a box of ammunition before heading to one of the range slots.
Andy stood there and loaded his duty weapon. He then placed his eye and ear protection on before the range master walked over to him. "Okay Lieutenant, you know the drill, 120 is passing, and 150 is the highest. Good luck, whenever you're ready," he told him and Andy nodded. He then placed his weapon back in his side holster and waited for the target to turn.
Andy went through the course of fire, and when he was finished, the target came back to him and it was scored by the range master. "148, very good Lieutenant!" the range master told Andy and marked his target and slip with the words 'Qualified'. "Thanks!" Andy said as he cleaned his weapon, reloaded it for duty carry, and then placed it back in his side holster.
As Andy was walking back to the elevators he waved at the range master, who was sitting inside the office, and continued to walk towards the elevators. He pulled out his phone to see if there were any messages from Sharon or Emily, but there weren't any. He sighed and then stepped back onto the elevator and went to the ninth floor.
He stepped out of the elevator and headed to the office. When he walked inside, everyone was there sitting at their desks working on other paper work. "Flynn! Glad to see you are back," Provenza said as he looked over his crossword puzzle. "Yeah thanks," he glanced at his friend as he made his way to his desk.
He looked at Sharon's office for about a minute before he was greeted by Julio. "Lieutenant, how's the Commander feeling, sir?" Julio asked and shook Andy's hand. "She's doing okay, trying to get her to listen to the Doctor's orders, but you know how stubborn she is," he told him and he nodded. "Yes, I do sir," Julio chuckled and then returned to his desk.
Meanwhile, back at the house, Sharon and Emily were sitting around the family room watching a really sappy, love movie on the Hallmark Channel. "Why is it that every movie either involves a man who is looking for love and finds it with his best friend, or a woman popping into a strange town, and finding love there?" Emily asked out loud. "Don't forget, there's always a dog involved too," Sharon said as she wiped a tear from her eye.
"Mom, are you crying? Seriously?" Emily asked her as she was now focusing on her and not the movie. "It's a good movie so far," Sharon simply said as she wiped another tear. A half hour later, Emily was blowing her nose and wiping a tear from her eye as well.
Sharon looked over at her and passed her the box of Kleenex. "See, I told you it was a good movie," she smiled at her daughter and they both laughed a little bit.
Back at the office, it was still quiet, which gave the team some extra time to look over whatever cases they had and finish reports that needed to be done. Andy sat at his desk and pulled out Croelick's folder again from his drawer. Now since they turned over their robbery subjects to the FBI, maybe he could finally figure out how Croelick was involved in the forest fire and the dead girl's body.
He started to do some research on the computer when Andrea Hobbs walked into the office. "Morning everyone," she greeted them all and then spotted Andy at his desk. "Lieutenant Flynn, just the person I was looking for," she walked over to him, carrying a folder with her. Andy looked up. "Oh, hey Andrea," he placed Croelick's folder back into his desk drawer and closed it. "Is this a bad time?" she asked him. "No, what do you need?" he asked and then gestured for her to follow him into the conference room.
They walked into the conference room and Andy leaned on one of the chairs. "What's up?" he asked her. "I just wanted to let you know that I filed charges on Blake Harper and Leon Murphy this morning for attempted murder of a peace officer and assault of a peace officer with a semiautomatic weapon," Andrea told him. "They were at the arraignment and they both pleaded guilty," she continued as she handed the folder to Andy and he read it.
"I won't need your or Sharon's testimony since there will not be a trial," she added. "Well, that's good news then," Andy let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding since he started reading the document. "How's she doing, by the way?" she asked him and he glanced up at her. "She's okay, Emily's with her right now. I'm sure later in the week, she'll be getting stir crazy. At least that's how I was, but, uh, you should call her, I'm sure she'd be glad to hear from you," Andy told her and then handed the paper back to her.
"And how are you holding up?" she asked him, noticing something was off with him. Andy took a deep breath before he answered her. "I'm okay, hanging in there, you know," he shrugged his shoulders as he stood there. "Maybe you should talk to someone?" she stated and he looked at her. "Just a suggestion, you don't have to take my advice," she added, noticing that Andy's expression on his face had changed.
"I should get back to my office. Take care, Lieutenant and tell Sharon I'll give her a call," Andrea left the room and headed back to her office leaving Andy standing in the conference room, just thinking.
A minute or two later, he sat back down at his desk and contemplated on what he should do. He could contact behavioral sciences and see someone from there, maybe it was good to talk about it with a third party. He shook his head because he didn't want to relive everything again. He and Sharon were good, they spoke about what they were feeling since the shooting, and he had to get her better. He decided on concentrating on that for now, besides, they also had to discuss whether or not Matthew was going to see Doctor Joe again.
TBC