While You're Making Other Plans
By Miss Shannon & Glistening Sun
22
Sharon's face was white. Not white because of shock, but white with anger Gavin quickly learned. He had never seen her quite like this and when she took a deep breath and brought out her lowest, most deadly voice, he could only look on in awe.
"No, I will most certainly not pick you up from the bar. I don't know in what world you think it appropriate to call your Captain because you're too drunk to drive."
Gavin heard the old man's loud voice from the phone, but Sharon interrupted him before he could go on.
"If Andy refuses to pick you up, then that is on you – and I couldn't care less that you don't want to call Patrice. In fact, I have half a mind to call her myself!"
She shook her head and ran a calming hand over her stomach smirking at Gavin while the voice on the other side changed to loud vigorous shouting.
"Lieutenant Provenza, there is absolutely no way you can justify this kind of behaviour. Now, I was willing to tolerate your general lack of respect, and your refusal to accept that the man you consider your best friend is going to be a father. Do you even know how much you're hurting Andy with your stubbornness? I swore to myself a long time ago that I would not get involved in your friendship. But this is where it stops. I don't know what you talked about yesterday, but you need to apologise to him and no, I will not play your go-between. You broke it, you fix it. Is that clear?"
She pulled the phone from her ear and was about to hang up, when another thought crossed her mind. "And you better be sober when you have that conversation!"
"Wow." Reclining on his bed in her silk pyjamas with her protruding stomach, her eyes glowing with intensity in a face devoid of make-up she was a spectacular sight.
"What, wow?"
"Well, that was impressive. You would have made a great lawyer Sharon."
"Can you believe he called me to pick him up from the bar? Said Andy had hung up on him and wasn't answering his phone anymore. I'm his boss and I'm seven months pregnant. Do I look like the kind of woman who picks up drunk men in the middle of the night?"
Granted, it was barely past nine, but Gavin knew that Sharon had been that woman way too many times. First picking up her husband from bars while seven, eight, even nine months pregnant and with a toddler in tow, and later when she had spent a few years cleaning up after officers who had found themselves in drunken brawls.
"You don't, my darling. You look like a very irate, very pregnant mommy to be."
The reference to her pregnancy made Sharon smile, "I hope the two of them make up. They're difficult enough when they're having their little adventures, but I have a feeling the pair of them sulking is going to break apart my division."
"They're old friends, Sharon, they'll be fine."
"You know, I'm not so sure this time around. I don't know why it's so hard to believe I'm having a baby. I'm big enough," she pouted and looked at her stomach. "I'm exhausted, Gavin, but my Little Peach is suddenly restless. It's as if she knows her daddy isn't here and she's missing him.
"Maybe because her mummy's missing him, too?" Gavin enquired lightly reacting to the light in his friend's eyes when she said the word daddy.
Sharon bit her lip and smiled up at him, "Is it that obvious?"
"You know it's not too late to ask him to come over. My guestroom's big enough." He indicated the lavish room with a sweeping gesture. "Call him, mommy, and make both of you happy."
"But I'm angry with him," she pouted again gazing up at him through her lashes.
"You know I'm immune to that look, Shar. You're only punishing yourself by keeping him away."
"Hey, you're supposed to be my friend! You're supposed to back me up!" she playfully hit his chest and then leaned into him. "Just one night, then I'll take him back." She suddenly hissed pressing her hand against the side of her stomach, "We'll have daddy back tomorrow, my Little Peach. But tonight it's just the two of us. Girls night!"
"And me?" The lawyer tried not to look too hurt that Little Peach seemed to have taken up his place.
"You can start by acting as her godfather. It'll be easy, Gav, she reacts to deep voices. Just talk to her or better yet, sing her a song."
Shaking his head Gavin moved closer to her round belly. What an utterly ridiculous request though! He didn't even do Karaoke when he was drunk on the very best champagne and now she was expecting him to sing for her child? Thank goodness that baby was still safely inside of her so he wouldn't have to hear the piercing cries he was sure to elicit. He put his hand over Sharon's where it rested on her belly and noticed her grateful smile. The smile became watery and her hand turned under his to grab his fingers when he started humming.
"Darling, I think it's not just my goddaughter who's restless. You might have put your Lieutenant in his place, well, both of them actually" he said gently, "but now you two are much too excited to sleep. Let me call your silver fox for you. He can be here in half an hour and then you can sleep in his arms."
She huffed ungracefully.
"Half an hour and you know you'll be able to rest. I know he annoyed you with that protectiveness, but you've got to understand the man. Pregnant women do turn even the best of us into cavemen."
"Not you, Gavin, you're different," she protested mildly.
"I know I don't need to play that role because there's another man in your life who does it so very well. If he didn't I couldn't vouch for myself."
"Seriously?"
"And you're not having my baby either. Come on, you love him and you know you want him."
Sharon blushed, "Not that way, I mean, not right now."
In the end, Sharon drifted off while Gavin was busy rooting his cupboards for another bottle of peach juice. He found her curled in on herself with an almost angelic smile on her face and decided to let her sleep for as long as possible. He took her phone knowing she would hate him if she found out. He just hoped she wouldn't.
Early the next morning he found her phone flashing with a familiar name 'Lt Provenza'. He decided to ignore it. If it was important the old man would text and he was determined both his friend and her Little Peach would get their much-needed rest. He secretly adored that name for the child he was beginning to think of as his goddaughter - despite his reservations about children in his apartment. Soon enough his own phone showed a call from 'Grumpy'. He remembered that faithful evening of her first day running Major Crimes. Gosh, they had gotten absolutely wasted and she had programmed the number of her second in command into his phone deciding on Grumpy after she had repeatedly mistyped both Lieutenant and Provenza. Their chardonnay nights had stopped for a while after that because she had taken in Rusty. And now she was expecting another child. What a wild ride!
"Yeeees," he finally responded.
"Is the Captain with you?"
"Well, a very good morning to you, too."
"Ye Gods! Do you gay people always have to be so damn cheerful? Why isn't the Captain picking up her phone?"
"Well, because she's your boss and not your buddy driving you home in the middle of the night when you're too drunk to…"
"It wasn't the middle of the night. Listen, I know you don't like me and I can assure you, the feeling is entirely mutual. But trust me when I say she's going to want to hear this."
"You better be polite. If you don't, I'll personally see to it that she files a complaint about last night."
"Ye Gods, now let me speak to my Captain!"
Sharon, who seemed to have a seventh sense for when she was needed, chose that moment to waddle towards him with a questioning look on her face.
"It's Provenza," he mouthed and covered the phone with his hand.
She sighed and took the phone from him while rubbing sleep from her eyes. She had slept surprisingly well considering how much she had been missing Andy last night. "Good morning," she croaked into the phone and yawned.
"Captain, you sitting down?"
"Lieutenant, what it is? It's a little early for your antics."
"Flynn's missing."
Sharon stretched and rolled her eyes, "So Andy still isn't picking up the phone and you're telling me he's missing? Please, Louie…"
"No, I mean he is actually missing. Patrice talked to him last night and she arranged for us to have breakfast today, to, you know, make it right." Sharon couldn't help but smile – the longer she knew Patrice, the more she liked her. It was exactly what she would have done if she hadn't been so annoyed with Andy for being overbearing. "I went to the condo and he wasn't there, everything was flooded."
"Well, we had a leak in one of the pipes above, oh, anyway, I'm sure Andy told you all about that. Maybe he has decided he didn't want to meet with you yet."
"Captain, there was nobody there."
Sharon could feel the muscles in her stomach tense and gratefully sat down when Gavin pulled up a chair for her. "They probably decided to stay at Andy's place."
"We have checked his house, but nobody was there."
Air left her lungs in a rush and she felt faint, only too grateful to be sitting down, "What are you trying to tell me, Lieutenant?"
"Captain, if they are not with you, both Andy and Rusty have disappeared. Both of their cars are gone."
"They might have decided to go to a hotel," she tried to argue logically while trying hard to shake of that feeling of premonition. "Nobody has used his house in a while, they've probably gone to a motel or are staying with a friend." But they would have told her about that, both of them! They were far too concerned about her not to keep her informed. Or not? Maybe Andy, her stupidly protective idiot Andy was still concerned about her blood pressure. Well, this certainly wasn't helping it!
"You really should have called them instead of me, Lieutenant."
"I did, Captain, several times and I got their voicemail. I had Tao track their phones. The last time they were active was at the condo about eight hours ago."
"Oh my God." That had been right around the time when Gavin had been trying to convince her to call Andy. "Oh God." The low, wavering voice made Gavin move closer and put a steadying hand on her shoulder. He watched her intently.
"Sharon, listen, Julio is on his way to pick you up and bring you to the condo. I'll meet you here. The team is here … SID is here. There is evidence of tampering with the door and with the water pipes above your bedroom."
Gavin caught Sharon only just in time as she silently slipped off the chair, his phone clattering to the ground unnoticed.