Notes: Welcome to the next installment of the series! As far as time we're sitting in April of 2005 - about 2 months before Brenda comes to LA and the Priority Murder Squad in June. This is going to be more of a standard story instead of the "moments" we did in the last part. Let me know what thoughts are as we kick off! Thanks!

Andy lets out a grunt as the foot connects with his chest, kicking him with enough force to force all of the air from his lungs. His back connects harshly with the railing before his weight carries him over the edge. The short free fall to the floor only takes an instant but it feels like forever as he tries to draw a breath in that moment. If anyone asked him later he would have sworn he could feel every empty space in his body compress and hear the crack of bone when his back hit the tile floor. His head snapped back in the next few milliseconds and smacked against the surface with even more force, sending a sharp pain through his head before causing him to black out.

Across town Sharon wakes with a start and a quickly drawn breath. Her hand flings out and grips the other side of the bed, her eyes wild when she finds Frank's soft fur and not her husband's solid chest before she relaxes when she remembers Andy was working late. She sighs as she wrestles herself out of the tight swaddle of sheets she had managed to work herself into before taking a few deep breaths to calm her frantic heart. She listens to the tick of the clock and the quiet of the night for a few moments before jumping when the phone begins to ring, assaulting the silence. She quickly picks up the handset and lifts it to her ear.

"Hello?" She murmurs as she sits up a little more. Her fingers curl tighter as she listens to the voice on the other end, "What hospital were they taking him to? … Thank you."

Sharon hangs up the phone and swings the covers to the side, getting out of bed. She quickly makes her way into the closet and grabs a pair of jeans to put on along with a pair of sneakers. She dresses and throws her hair into a messy bun, grabbing her glasses off the bedside table before rushing down the hallway towards the front door. Her purse is quickly slung over her shoulder and she scribbles out a note for the kids before hanging it on the fridge in the place they knew to look.

When they had decided they no longer needed to call a babysitter at nights when they left Sharon had established a specific place for notes on the fridge so the kids knew exactly where to look for information if their parents both had to leave in the middle of the night. Sharon grabs her car keys before quietly making her way down the stairs and out to the garage. She manages to leave the house as quietly as possible and make her way to the hospital they had taken Andy to. The car gets parked in the lot outside of the emergency room and she takes a moment, staring at the red signage for the emergency bay. It had been a few years since she'd been called to the hospital for her husband. None of the other incidents had been as bad as him getting shot in '92, mostly just for her to come pick him up and take him home. But it had still been a few years, none the less, and this one sounded bad. She manages to drag herself out of the car before making her way inside and to the nurses station.

"Can I help you?" The nurse asks.

"My husband was brought in earlier," Sharon tells her, "Andrew Flynn?"

"It looks like he's been admitted," The nurse tells her after typing into the computer in front of her, "His room is on the fourth floor, but he's currently in radiology for testing."

"Do you know what happened?" Sharon asks, "I was only told that he was injured in pursuit of a suspect."

"On his file it says that he sustained a fall…doesn't say how high though…" The nurse reads, "He was unconscious still when EMS got to him, but woke up en route. 4581 is his room number."

"Thank you," Sharon offers a strained smile before making her way towards the elevator. She punches the button for the fourth floor once she gets into the elevator car, her foot tapping anxiously against the floor as she watches the numbers climb. Once she steps out she takes a moment to read the signs before heading in the direction of the room number that the nurse had given to her. She mumbles the number quietly as she walks through the hall and counts the number plaques. Sharon sighs softly and walks a little faster when she sees his partner, Brian Waters, sitting outside one of the rooms, "Brian."

"Sharon, thank god," Brian responds as he stands up from his chair.

"How is he?" Sharon asks as she gets closer.

"They took him down to radiology to do some scans. I thought it would be good to wait for you here," He explains as they step into the empty room, "He took a pretty nasty fall."

"What happened?"

"We were in pursuit of a suspect, Andy was taking point. He followed the guy up the stairs and got kicked over the bannister on one of the landings. It was probably…eight feet or so," Brian describes to her, "Hit the ground pretty hard."

"What about his neck?"

"They didn't think he'd broken his neck, that's why they were taking him to radiology. To get confirmation of his injuries," He recaps. Sharon nods and sighs, chewing on her thumbnail, "Oh, I grabbed these for you. So they didn't get lost."

"Thank you," Sharon replies as Brian holds out a manilla envelope to her. She takes it from him and peers inside to find Andy's wallet and jewelry. She rolls the envelope up and tucks it in her purse before looking up as Andy's bed is wheeled back into the room, his doctor following close behind.

"You must be Andy's wife," The doctor comments as he offers his hand out to Sharon while the nurses get him settled and hooked back up to the monitors, "Doctor Anderson."

"Yes, Sharon, nice to meet you," Sharon responds as she shakes his hand before looking over at Andy's sleeping form. She could tell he was in pain from the furrow in his brow and the way his hands were clenched at his side, "How is he doing?"

"Pretty well given the fall he took. We just did some scans down in radiology, so I can give you more of a visual to help describe what's going on," The doctor tells Sharon before getting out one of the films that he had brought with and sticking it up on the light board before turning it on, "This is the xray we took of his chest. You can see right here that the kick to the sternum left some hairline fractures to the bone itself as well as a couple of the middle ribs. His back is another story..."

Sharon watches as he switches out the xray with three other films before starting to talk again, "Andy sustained most injuries to his back. He has a slight dislocation between his T12 and his L1, most likely where his back hit the railing after he was kicked. It's also caused some bruising on his kidneys. And then he has some fracturing on T8 through 10..."

"He broke his back is what you're saying," Sharon interrupts, her arms wrapping tighter around herself.

"Don't be alarmed," He reassures her, "I know I'm using words like fracture and dislocation, but Andy is not going to be experiencing any paralysis from this fall. There's swelling through the spinal column but that's to be expected. The cord is intact and unharmed."

"Okay, so he has a dislocated disc...and then three of them have fractures," Sharon repeats.

"Right, there's a bit more rib fracturing in the back as well. Between the impact on the front and then hitting the floor on the back, I'm concerned about some internal bruising. It doesn't seem like there is any bleeding at the moment, but things could change," The doctor indicates on the film, "Luckily it doesn't look like he has much in the way of cranial injuries outside of a pretty serious concussion."

"What does it mean as far as treatment and recovery?" Sharon asks.

"Right now we have him sedated. Your husband was able to tell us he didn't want opioid pain relief when he was brought in," he explains.

"He's a recovering alcoholic," Sharon shares, "He doesn't like taking opiates with his history of addiction."

"I'd like to keep him here for a couple days, make sure that the swelling goes down and that we don't have any spontaneous bleeds. It'll also give us time to make sure we develop the right kind of pain management plan for when he is discharged. When he does go home he's going to be in a brace to maintain the stability of his injuries and help him heal."

"How long before he's a hundred percent again?"

"At least eight weeks with the brace, and he'll need some physical therapy after that," Doctor Anderson explains as he pulls down the films, "I wouldn't be comfortable being more firm on dates until Andy starts to heal."

"Of course," Sharon nods, "Is there anything else?"

"Not right now. We'll be in and out, but press the call button if he starts to wake up. We don't want him to come too far out right now, but we do want to see how the pain management is working."

"Thank you, Doctor Anderson, for the thorough explanation," Sharon offers a small, weak smile.

"Of course," The doctor smiles and shakes Sharon's hand again before leaving the room. Sharon sighs and turns around to stand closer to the bed, reaching down to take Andy's hand in hers, her thumb trailing softy over his knuckles.

"Sharon, is there anything else that I can do for you?" Brian asks.

"No. I think I'm okay right now. Thank you though."

"I'll come back later in the morning to see how he's doing," Brian assures her, "But call me if you need anything, or if anything changes."

"I will," Sharon nods. Brian squeezes her shoulder before leaving the room, pulling the door closed behind himself. She lets go of Andy for a moment to pull a chair closer to the bed before sitting down and taking his hand in hers again, "Oh Andrew, Andrew, Andrew."

Sharon sits next to Andy's bed with her head propped up on her free hand. She sighs softly as she watches him sleep, eventually succumbing herself. She manages to get a few z's in before she wakes up to fingers in her hair and a thumb stroking over her temple. Reaching up, she covers Andy's hand and squeezes before sitting up and looking at him.

"Hi," She whispers, "How are you feeling?"

"Bad," Andy grounds out, "My back…"

"You're pretty banged up, even for you," Sharon replies as she reaches over to press the call button, "Do you remember what happened?"

"Yeah," Andy mumbles and wraps his fingers around Sharon's hand, squeezing tight. She squeezes back and rubs his arm softly.

"I know you don't want to take any opiates, and the doctor's going to work with you on a pain management system, but…"

"Nuh uh," Andy groans.

"Andy, you have fractured discs in your spine, your ribs have fractures in both the front and back…You need to be able to heal," Sharon tells him.

"No," Andy growls, his hand tightening around hers as the doctor comes in with a nurse.

"Mister Flynn, it's good to see you awake," The doctor comments, "How are you feeling?"

"Not too great," Sharon answers as she looks at the doctor, "He seems to be in a lot of pain."

"We'll hopefully be able to take the edge off here in a moment," The doctor replies, checking Andy's chart before flipping the end of his sheets back, "Andy, can you wiggle your toes for me?"

"Wiggle my toes?"

"You have had quite a bit of back injury, we just want to make sure everything is in working order."

"It's just a check," Sharon tells him in a quiet voice and smoothes her hand over his forehead. She watches as he wiggles his toes a little bit before grunting and tensing with a curse. She shushes him quietly and brushes her thumb over his brow, smoothing out the pained wrinkles there, "Relax…"

"The short version of what we've diagnosed you with," The doctor starts, "is three fractured discs, a mild dislocation, about a dozen hairline fractures through your ribcage and sternum, and a concussion. And that's all on top of some bruised kidneys and muscle strain as well."

"That's all?" Andy grinds out, attempting some humor.

"It's going to be a rough few weeks ahead, but the good news is that we're not seeing any signs of paralysis, and you don't have any cranial or internal bleeds. We're going to do what we can with some non-opiate pain medication and some light sedatives for now, but if the pain begins to get out of control I want you to consider switching to…"

"No," Andy's head twitches to the side slightly, "No."

Sharon shakes her head as the doctor opens his mouth to argue. She sits up more and presses a kiss to Andy's hand as she looks down at him, "I'm gonna be here okay? But you need to rest and you need to heal."

"It fucking hurts," Andy chokes out.

"I know," Sharon murmurs as the doctor takes Andy's IV and slowly adds an additional injection to it. Andy's eyes quickly droop closed and his body relaxes into the bed. She kisses his hand once more before setting it down on the bed, keeping a hold on it.

"The doses we are giving him right now are small so we can continue to monitor his concussion. Later tomorrow morning we'll want to get him fitted for a back brace and then actually get him up out of bed."

"Out of bed so soon?"

"The longer he stays in bed the more he's going to have to make up on the back end," The doctor tells her. Sharon nods and sighs as she looks at her husband's sleeping form, "Press the call button if you need anything."

"Thank you."

Andy ends up spending three days in the hospital before he's released to go home and recover on medical leave. The doctor had projected at minimum six weeks of leave to the department before he'd be able to return on desk duty and referred Andy to a specialist that would help take him through his recovery.

Sharon sighs as she helps him settle on the couch and put his feet up before standing in front of him with her hands on her hips as Frank dashes into the room and hops up into his lap.

"He's missed you," She comments as Andy ruffles the cat's ears.

"I think the feeling is mutual," Andy mumbles as he drops his head back. His concussion was still playing with his ability to stay awake for long periods. Getting signed out of the hospital and listening to all of the instructions from the doctor had been mentally taxing and had drained a lot of his energy stores, "You didn't have to take the whole day off."

"We're not having this discussion again," Sharon shakes her head and rolls her eyes as she goes to grab a blanket out of a trunk they kept in the living room, "You're stuck with me until next Monday."

"We have to move three kids across the country at the end of the summer," Andy reminds her. Nicole was coming home for the summer and would need to be moved back to Philadelphia before school started again while Charlie was planning on attending Florida on a swim scholarship. Emily had been accepted into the Tisch at NYU to study dance and was ecstatic about the opportunity. But with the three of them going across the country to college, Sharon and Andy already had two weeks booked off in August to make sure that they had adequate time to get everyone packed and where they needed to be and graduation was in a month and a half.

"And I can still afford to take the time off to make sure you don't paralyze yourself trying to do something stupid while you're at home alone," Sharon retorts as she shakes the blanket out over him, "You still have a decent concussion and shouldn't be on your own anyway."

"You just want to baby me," Andy teases.

"Yes that is exactly what I want to do when I take time off work," Sharon rolls her eyes before leaning down and pressing a kiss to his lips, "Do you need anything right now?"

"No, I'm good," Andy replies, "I'm gonna take a nap."

"Okay," Sharon smiles and brushes his hair back from his forehead. She presses a kiss to his temple before standing up straight, "I'm going to do some paperwork, so just yell if you need me."

"I always need you," Andy grins tiredly.

"I need you too," Sharon smiles at him, stroking her hand over his cheek, "So maybe try not to get kicked down any more stairs."

"I'll see what I can do," And groans softly, "I can't say I'm enjoying it myself."

"Sleep," Sharon murmurs, "Heal."

"Mmmm," Andy hums and closes his eyes. Sharon presses another kiss to his forehead before going to her work bag and grabbing a bundle of files out of it. She sits down at the desk in the living room and flips the small lamp on before getting to work. She manages to get through a decent amount of her files before she stumbles across a memo that had been stuffed in with everything else.

Her eyes scan the page, picking out key words, 'leadership position', 'Captain or higher', 'high profile murders', 'special division'. Sharon bites her lip and looks over at Andy's sleeping form before folding the paper up and tucking it into another folder. She gets up and turns the light off before moving over to the couch and sinking down next to her husband, turning the tv on low.

Sharon's eyes start to get droopy themselves towards the end of the movie she was watching before she jolts as the phone starts to ring. Her eyes flick to the clock, noting that it was a little after three and that the kids should be home soon. She hears Andy start to stir as she gets up from the couch and goes to the kitchen to grab the handset.

"Hello?"

"Hi Sharon," Vicky replies, her tone surprisingly clipped, though Sharon suspected it wasn't directed at her, "Can I talk to Andy?"

"Mmm, let me check, he was just waking up," Sharon replies as she walks back through to the living room before holding her hand over the mouthpiece, "It's Vicky."

"I'll take it," Andy yawns and holds his hand out for the phone, taking it from his wife before wincing as he sits up a little more.

"You should probably lay down all the way for a bit today," Sharon tells him, her eyes narrowing as he rolls his eyes slightly with a nod.

"Hey Vick, ow!" Andy yelps as Sharon pinches his arm before walking off.

"Do you want to tell my why our son is now telling me that he wants to go to USC and become a cop?"

"He what?" Andy asks, turning his attention fully to the phone.

"He just got home from school and says he doesn't want to go to Florida anymore. He wants to go to USC and I quote 'get a degree in something and go to the academy'. Did you put him up to this?"

"No!" Andy responds, "I think I've done a pretty good job of dissuading any of the kids from trying to be police officers…at least I thought I did."

"Andrew…"

"What does it matter at this point? Kids change their majors all the time, Nicole has changed hers twice this year."

"Because you just got out of the hospital for getting kicked down the stairs! I've lost track of how many times you've been in the hospital over the years, not to mention how often you've been shot at or beaten up. How could you want that for your son!?"

"I don't want that for him, but it's four years from now. He could change his mind."

"He could, but that boy inherited your stubbornness so I find that highly doubtful."

"Arguing about this over the phone isn't going to do any good," Andy replies as he runs his hand over his face, "Just…leave it for now. If you keep pushing he'll dig his heels in about the whole thing. Come over with him tomorrow and the three of us can talk."

"Fine," Vicky grumbles before heaving a sigh, "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got kicked down the stairs," Andy replies dryly.

"Mmm, how's the nurse situation?"

"Not too bad right now," Andy replies as he tilts his head and watches his wife bend over and ruffle through a laundry basket she had sitting at the top of the stairs.

"Try not to paralyze yourself, Andrew."

"I thought I was doing a good job of that," Andy sighs dramatically before letting out a chuckle, "It'll be fine, Vic."

"It better be or I'm not beyond blaming both of you."

"I'll see you tomorrow," Andy responds before hanging up and tossing the phone down next to him with a groan.

"What was that about?" Sharon asks as she drops some clothes into an empty basket.

"Apparently Charlie doesn't want to go to Florida anymore. He wants to go to USC and enroll in the academy afterward."

"The LAPD academy?" Sharon questions as she stops what she's doing and turns around to face her husband.

"Apparently," Andy shrugs before wincing, "They were going to come over tomorrow so we can talk."

"You don't sound too concerned," Sharon notes as her arms cross in front of her.

"He wants to go to college first. He could change his mind. He could not change his mind. He could move into more of an administrative position after patrol."

"After patrol. He still has to go on patrol before he can move up. And Flynns don't tend to ride desks well in case you haven't looked in the mirror lately."

"I'll be concerned if he goes through with it, but until I talk to him and he signs up…I don't see the point of worrying when things could change."

"Hmmm," Sharon hums, dropping her arms and leaning down to gather the laundry she'd separated, "Charlie changes his mind about as often as you do."

[TBC]