The prompt was: "Well... you grabbed my hand first."
They were walking on the beach, letting the quietness wash over them. It had been a few hard days.
Each and everyone of them reacted differently to each case. Amy was particularly moved by feminicides and rapes. Provenza needed for the crime to make sense : greed, lust, whatever but it had to mean something. For Andy and her, it was children.
Maybe because they were both parents or it was just their sensitivity. They both had been greatly disturbed by Alice's murder and maybe even more by the lack of empathy of her former employer.
They needed to wash the day over and move on. So they did what they usually did in cases like that. They went out to eat together, spoke about their kids, their memories from back when they lived in the East Coast, they just talked about everything and anything. Once they finished eating neither of them felt like going back home so they decided for a walk. They let their feet lead them and soon they found themself walking shoeless in the sand. The sun was setting, the sky was dark and looming over them. No orange hues tonight, no, the sky matched their mood.
The crash of the waves was loud and overwhelming. They couldn't talk if they wanted to. Instead they keep walking, side by side, lost in their closeness and their thoughts. The wind blew and Sharon's hair was sent all over her face. She meant to move her right hand to shove it away but noticed at that moment that Andy and her were holding hands. She looked at him, inquisitive and saw him shrug. "Well… You grabbed my hand first."
She knew she should have overthink it, analyzed it, and been more cautious. No, she shrugged too, arranged her hair and grabbed his hand back.
The atmosphere was pleasant, convivial, even jovial. It wasn't that often that they had to deal with "only" robbery. No murder, no kidnapping, just a good old theft. Sure it was Queen Elizabeth's crown but a theft was a theft. The stakes were both very high and very low, leading to a very peculiar atmosphere in the murder room.
Sharon was listening to Tao's explanation, trying very hard not to let her mind drift. She might not have succeeded as she felt all pairs of eyes on her, no one was talking anymore. She cast them an inquisitive look, wondering what she missed when she noticed they were all looking at the same point, somewhere near her right hip. As her eyes moved down, she heard Provenza's "Yeee Gods, it's not enough to know that you're together, now you have to hold hands here."
It finally registered in her mind: the pleasant sensation she was concentrating on, instead of Mike's word, was Andy caressing the back of her hand with his thumb, like they did when alone. She pulled her hand abruptly away, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks.
"What?!" He said, defensive. "You grabbed my hand first!" She couldn't help but laugh at his very Andy justification.
Since the shooting, she felt.. she felt.. It was hard to describe. The good word might be reckless. She didn't care anymore about anything.
No it wasn't true. She was worried sick about her children, much more than usual. She had deep concerns for Andy's health and couldn't bear the idea of anything happening to him, that thought was enough to trigger a panic attack. She was unwell. She had always been someone very anxious, with trouble sleeping but since it happened, it was incredibly worse. The only thing, weirdly, that didn't cause her any anxiety was her job.
She was… fed up about politics? Not invested Having enough proved herself for a lifetime? Finally entitled to a little happiness? She just wanted to do her job in peace and was about to quit at the slightest irritation. If Winnie Davis wanted trouble, she would not find it. She would receive a resignation letter. Sharon was done. She neither had the motivation nor the energy to deal with it.
But here she was, at the LAPD annual charity ball, trying to enjoy herself. Andy had insisted they arrived separately, not to rise suspicious. Well, fuck suspicion.
She went to him, grabbed his hand and let him to the dancefloor. Everyone could think what they wanted, he was hers and she wasn't afraid of showing it anymore.