While You're Making Other Plans
by Miss Shannon and Glistening Sun
Author's Note: Thank you all so much for the reviews, fav and follows for our first story! Here is chapter 2, this time from me, Glistening Sun :-)
2
They drove in together. Because it was a Saturday and because by now, everybody in their division knew they that they were not only dating but as good as living together. But also because Andy was worried about Sharon. Whatever it was, something was wrong with her and when he had seen her sway while walking towards the kitchen for a cup of tea, he had quickly put an arm around her waist and told her, in no uncertain terms, that he was driving. Quite uncharacteristically she hadn't resisted and instead sighed, grateful for his steadying presence.
Surely she couldn't be? Not at her age? But then the symptoms were there and it all felt so familiar. The nausea for one, but the tenderness in her breasts and then that craving for peaches. Anything with peaches. She looked over at Andy and tried to imagine his reaction if what she thought was true. He had seemed … unaware earlier on, almost to the point of being ignorant. He had two children. Surely he knew how this worked – even if he always behave liked an awkward teenager when she so much as dared to mention her period? Or did he just think her too old and too … Sharon told herself to stop thinking like that and instead closed her eyes sipping ginger tea from the travel mug. Ginger still soothed the nausea. Just like it had back when. No! No!
Andy was always impressed by what she could do with make-up. He knew her well, so he could tell from the lines on her forehead and the way her mouth set that she still wasn't feeling well. To anyone else though she looked just as polished and put together as always. It was deceptive. Had she been trying to tell him that she was pregnant? Surely that couldn't be the case? Well, they hadn't exactly been careful, but then they were old. Weren't they? Surely they were too old to still have children? At the next traffic light he turned to take a good look at her, his girlfriend. Did she look pregnant? Well, he probably wouldn't be able to see anything yet, it should still be too early. That much he remembered. Sharon was sick. That had to be it. And truth be told, that worried him even more.
He was startled when Sharon turned away from her mug and looked back at him.
"You're staring," she said and cocked her head, looking at him quizzically. "Don't worry, my stomach's pretty much empty now. No danger for your car," she tried a joke but it fell flat. She didn't feel like joking and he was too worried for her to laugh.
Sharon making flat jokes was what got to him most of all. Sick. She was sick. He knew that something was going on in her mind. He could see it.
"You look beautiful," he said, because he didn't know what else to say and because she did. She really did. It earned him a dry laugh.
"No, I mean it. Beautiful."
"And?"
"Nothing. You said to forget about it, didn't you? I hope this case doesn't take all day, I was really looking forward to some alone time with you." He reached out and cupped her face.
"Me too, Andy." His hand against her face felt good, warm and reliable. She forced herself not to sigh and gave him a smile instead, "Me too."
Andy leaned in for a quick kiss to her cheek, his lips moving at her ear making her shiver. "Well, let's see if we can't push this case off on robbery/homicide. They're always complaining about us stealing their cases anyway."
"Lieutenant Flynn. We do not steal cases and neither do we push them off on other teams," she tried, starting off sternly, but ending up giggling. She loved that Andy could do this to her, make her laugh and make her giddy and feel so much younger than her age. She felt better now, the ginger tea had helped settle her stomach at least a little and they were back on familiar territory. Work. Teasing each other. She would just forget about the rest.
"I agree, that Captain of ours … she's a rule follower, you know. She wouldn't dream of doing that, but then there's the rest of the team and we know how to do both."
Andy punctuated his sentence with kisses against her cheek and her neck. "All she'd need to do is follow our lead and we'd all be back at home this afternoon. I hear that Lieutenant of hers, you know the one who's always making eyes at her, had something special planned for her."
Their conversation was interrupted by the angry sounds of car horns. Andy nudged her one more time and then pulled back. "Geez, idiots! It's a Saturday – and I don't think our dead guy is gonna go run anywhere."
/
The crime scene was already cordoned off with the familiar yellow tape and the team had started their work. The moment he spotted them, Provenza approached with a determined air, his jaw set rigid.
"Oh, at long last the Captain graces us with her appearance. Please come through to see what we have been working on all morning, Ma'am." Sharon squared her shoulders and gave the older Lieutenant a court nod, walking towards Amy who was eagerly waiting to show her around the crime scene. It all felt warmly and comfortingly familiar, a bright and happy Amy, a grumbling Provenza with his white hat askew. Just because she had some crazy idea didn't mean that the rest of the world would change.
"Hell, where have you two idiots been? I told you to hurry up and get the captain here as soon as possible. You think I've been joking?"
"Well, we're here now. So what's going on?"
"Going on? See for yourself and then your precious girlfriend can do me the favour of dealing with Taylor and the press and the police commissioner and God knows who else!"
"That bad?"
"Yeah, while you were busy screwing the wicked witch."
"We were not …", Andy started to protest remembering how he'd held Sharon in the bathroom earlier. It couldn't be further from the truth. Provenza was obviously in one of his extra-cranky moods and he wished he'd been more insistent making Sharon to stay home. She had looked better when they had arrived – and she wouldn't want him to get into a shouting match with Provenza at a crime scene, so he merely added, "You know that is none of your business. Leave the Sharon alone and tell me what happened."
"It's Sharon, uh?"
"Which isn't news to you!" Andy could feel his blood pressure rising and part of him was concerned about Sharon. What was this case that it had already gained the attention of Taylor, the police commissioner and the damn press?
They followed the path Amy and Sharon had taken earlier, through the large landscaped gardens and finally entered the house from the back door. The stench that assaulted them upon entering the living room was hard to bear even for seasoned homicide detectives; the smell of death and putrefaction almost turned Andy's stomach – and he wasn't particularly sensitive when it came to these things. This certainly wasn't a recent murder.
"Morales says the lady's been dead for at least two weeks, aircon was off. Cleaner found her earlier this morning."
They could hear Amy's chipper voice before they saw both her and Sharon. The sight almost broke Andy's heart. Amy was happily chatting away talking about all the more gruesome aspects of their case, pointing here and there, seemingly unaware of the older woman's predicament. Her face had taken on the ashen complexion of the earlier morning and she pressed a handkerchief against her mouth, the other hand over her stomach. Sharon was desperately trying to keep upright, to keep down the contents of her stomach, but when she saw Andy, and questioning smile, she lost the last bit of control she had been hanging onto and stumbled towards the large glass doors. She only just made it outside before being violently sick all over the wicker furniture with its creamy pillows.
"It's okay, I'm fine. Just continue working the crime scene, I'll be with you in a moment." She waved off the concerned squad members coming towards her.
"Captain, oh no! Well, it does smell horrible in there. Good thing Rios isn't on this case!" If she'd had the strength, Sharon would have rolled her eyes, instead she threw up again. Only bile and she was still feeling sick.
"Sykes, you heard the Captain, go inside and finish your job." In moments like these, Sharon was grateful for her second-in-command.
"Flynn, take care of your girlfriend, will you?" Well, maybe not.
But Andy didn't need telling. He put a gentle hand on Sharon's shoulder, handing her a tissue to wipe her mouth and was surprised when she briefly leaned into him like she had earlier that morning. She took a deep breath and then looked at him with that same unsure look.
Sharon had only been sick at a crime scene once before, and coincidentally that had been while she was pregnant with Emily. She hadn't even known she was pregnant then, but she remembered that stench of decaying human flesh … and how her usually strong stomach had just turned on her.
"Let me take you home, Sharon." Andy pleaded knowing it would be futile and sure enough, Sharon shook her head.
"You're not well. You haven't been well in a while. Provenza said Taylor, the police commissioner and the press are already onto this. Let us face the music and you go home and rest."
"Andy, honey, I'm not sure resting is going to make me any better," she said softly and looked into his eyes. "For now, all I need is fresh air and maybe another cup of tea."
"I don't want Taylor to tear into you."
"Oh Andy, don't worry. I can hold my own with him, and the police commissioner." That was true, but not here, not with that smell that was already making her gag again. She needed to go to the station and freshen up again.
"How about I make you a deal, Andy. You take me back to the station now and then the team can brief me when you get back."
Andy knew when he won and he knew this was as far as he was going to go with her.
"Let me just go inside and let Provenza know you caught a stomach bug."
He heard her laughter as he took a deep breath before walking back into the house.
"Stomach bug, my ass," Provenza muttered to himself , "I know a hangover when I see one. Stop covering for your girlfriend."
/
Sharon was waiting for him in the car. He could see that she had helped herself to one of the water bottles he kept in the trunk and was staring off into space.
"You shouldn't feel bad about yourself. I've seen seasoned detectives loose their breakfast over less."
She gave him that smile again, "I only threw up at a crime scene once. Decades ago when I was a rookie!"
"Back to the station, then?" he prompted and when she nodded, he put the car into drive and quietly pulled into traffic. After a while he felt Sharon's hand on his and lifted it to his lips for a kiss. She hummed, resting her head against his shoulder.
"Can we stop by the pharmacy on our way? I need to get something to settle my stomach." That, and something else she hadn't thought she would ever again be in need of.