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.

A/N: Here is my latest story that picks up right where "Being Bullied" leaves off. Enjoy and thank you!

Chapter 1

Sharon stood in the middle of the RACR room, listening to Lieutenant Tao explain the crime scene as she and Andy watched the video that Buzz took of the scene this morning. "So, Wally Parker, Randy's partner, called 911 when, exactly?" Sharon asked Mike as she continued to watch the video. "Um, he called at 3 o'clock this morning, Captain" Mike answered her as he looked through his notes. "If Kendall says that this Randy guy was dead for 10 hours before you guys got there, then where was Wally Parker that whole time?" Andy asked them as he turned around to look at the team.

"He was out of town and his flight landed at 2 am at LAX, Lieutenant" Julio stated to him as he read his notes. "Hmm, convenient that the partner was out of town" Andy said as he shook his head. "Where was Wally Parker before he flew in?" Sharon asked. "New York City, ma'am. He flew on Jet Blue flight 2023 from JFK, it landed a little after 2 this morning" Julio stated to Sharon. Sharon walked over to where Julio was sitting and looked at the printout of the passenger record from the plane. "So, his partner was in New York City when Randy got murdered" Sharon said. "Did we confirm that he was in New York?" she asked. "Yes, he stated that he saw a Broadway play with his friends Maurice and Gill, and when we contacted them, they confirmed his story" Amy said to Sharon.

"Okay, so we can rule out the partner, Wally Parker, for now" Sharon said to the team. "Was Randy Grey involved in any type of illegal activities?" Sharon asked as she fingered through the financial report on him. "Financials look to be ordinary, no big cash deposits or anything out of the ordinary like that" Mike answered her. Sharon thought for a minute before turning around. "Buzz, can you show me the bedroom scene again" Sharon asked Buzz and Buzz rewound the video and then played it at the scene that she requested. "Pause it right there" Sharon said as she looked at the screen. The scene was paused at the image of the writing that was located on the wall. "Are we sure this was written in blood?" Sharon asked them.

"We're still waiting for the forensics report to come to us, but I'm pretty sure it is" Mike answered her. Provenza's phone rang and he answered it. "Thank you" he said hanging it up. "That was Doctor Morales, he's ready for us to join him for a viewing of the body" Provenza said to Sharon and the rest of them. Sharon nodded and then returned back to the Murder Room with Andy and the rest of the team. "Amy and Julio, go to where Randy Grey worked, find out if you can discover anything else on our victim from his workplace" Sharon said to them. "Yes Captain" Amy said to her and then she and Julio left the office. "Mike, see what you can find from SID's preliminary report" Sharon said to Mike and he nodded as he sat down at his desk.

Sharon walked over to Andy's desk with him. "I want to go down to the Morgue, but I don't want to leave him up here by himself" Sharon said to Andy as she looked into her office to see Matthew. Andy was about to say something when Buzz interrupted him. "I'm sorry to interrupt Captain but if you want, I could keep my eye on Matthew if you and the Lieutenant want to go to the Morgue" Buzz said to Sharon and Andy. "Are you sure, Buzz? Cause I can stay here with him" Andy said to Buzz. "I'm sure Lieutenant, it wouldn't be a problem" Buzz said to Andy and then looked at Sharon. "Okay, let me just tell him where we'll be" Sharon said and then entered her office.

Matthew looked up from reading his book when Sharon entered her office. He was sitting behind her desk and he kind of enjoyed it. "Do you need your desk, Mommy?" he said to her. "No, sweetie, I don't need my desk at this moment" Sharon said and then cleared her throat before speaking again. "Um, Daddy and I have to go somewhere to look at something, we should be back in an hour, but Buzz is going to stay here with you" Sharon said to Matthew as Matthew looked over Sharon's shoulder at Buzz who was standing next to Andy outside her office. "Okay, but does he like Batman?" Matthew asked Sharon. "Oh, well, I'm not really sure. You can ask him if he does, Matthew" Sharon said as she turned around and waved for Buzz to join them.

Buzz entered Sharon's office. "Buzz, Matthew has a question he wants to ask you" Sharon said to Buzz and then nodded at Matthew. "Do you like Batman?" Matthew asked him. "Hmm, well Matthew, I do like reading about Batman. When I was a little kid, growing up, I read a lot of comic books, and one of them happened to be Batman" Buzz said to Matthew and Matthew smiled. Sharon was grateful that Buzz was going to watch Matthew for them. Sharon left the two of them to the discussion of Batman and joined Andy outside her office. "Okay, let's go" Sharon said to Andy and Provenza as she walked out of the office.

Sharon and her two Lieutenants were stopped in the hallway on the way to the elevators by Chief Howard. "Captain, I wasn't expecting you back here until tomorrow" Chief Howard said. "Yes, well, my team caught a case and we were headed back home anyway today, I thought I would stop here to see the progression" Sharon said to Chief Howard. "Hmm, well I will change your vacation request to reflect you being here now" Chief Howard said to Sharon. "Where's Matthew at?" he asked them. "He's in my office right now having a Batman discussion with Buzz" Sharon said to him. "Ah, okay. Well I need to head back to my office, Chief Pope wants to discuss something" Chief Howard said to them and then walked back to his office.

"What do you think the Pope wants to discuss with him?" Provenza asked Sharon and Andy as they waited for the elevator. "Who knows" Andy said as the elevator doors opened and the three of them stepped inside. "Maybe it has to do with who the new Chief will be" Provenza said as he glanced at Sharon. Sharon looked at Provenza. "I don't know anything, Lieutenant" Sharon said to Provenza as she shook her head. Provenza pouted as he stood there in the elevator. "Well, I'm sure we will find out sooner or later what that meeting is about" Provenza said as they stepped out of the elevator and down the corridor. "Why do you care so much about that meeting?" Andy asked him as Sharon walked ahead of them. Sharon stopped to gown up before she waited outside the examination room. Provenza and Andy did the same.

Doctor Morales exited the room and held the door open for the three of them to enter. "Captain, Lieutenant, back so soon from your trip to Spring Training?" Doctor Morales stated to them as they walked inside the room and the door closed behind them. "Yeah, well Provenza here called at 5 in the morning waking us up with this murder case, so naturally we came back to see, even for a half a day" Andy said to Doctor Morales as he walked closer to the body that was on the table. "Okay, well Mister Grey here died from blunt force trauma to the back of the head" Doctor Morales stated to them as he showed them the back of Randy Grey's head.

Doctor Morales then walked over to show them the x-ray. "If you see here, this line going across, it was caused by the book end as he was hit with it. The impact of it caused the severing of the spinal cord here" Doctor Morales said as he pointed to the x-ray. "So Randy Grey never saw it coming?" Andy asked. "No, your victim was taken by surprise. I did not find any defensive wounds on him" Doctor Morales said to them. "So, Doctor, once he was hit in the back of the head with the book end" Sharon started to ask Doctor Morales. "Hey never felt anything after the initial blow to the head" Doctor Morales stated and Sharon nodded. She glanced over at Andy and Provenza. "Do we know how tall the suspect had to be in order to hit the right angle?" Sharon asked Doctor Morales.

Doctor Morales looked at the body before answering. "Well, judging by how tall Mister Grey is, I would say your suspect is the same height as him if not taller" Doctor Morales answered. "So our suspect could be anywhere from 6 feet tall to" Andy started to say. "about 6 and a half feet tall, I don't think they are much taller than that" Doctor Morales said. "Thank you Doctor" Sharon said as she exited the examination room with Andy and Provenza following her outside.

Andy glanced at his watch and saw that it was closer to 3 o'clock in the afternoon. He walked over to be closer to Sharon as they waited for the elevator to take them back up to their floor. "Look, I think the team can handle this for the rest of the day" Andy said to Sharon and then glanced at Provenza, giving him a knowing look to jump in. "Ah, yes Captain. We can handle this, if you want to leave and salvage the rest of your vacation day" Provenza said to Sharon as they stepped in the elevator. Sharon looked at Provenza and then looked at Andy. "We'll leave at 5 o'clock today. I want to see if Amy and Julio bring any new information back with them" Sharon said to them. Andy sighed and looked disappointed. He was hoping that Sharon and him could spend some alone time together before they got back into work mode. They exited the elevator when it reached the ninth floor and proceeded back to the Murder Room.

Sharon walked back in to the Murder Room. "Mike, did you find anything on the report from SID that is useful right now?" Sharon asked him as she walked over to where he was sitting at his desk, glancing briefly at Matthew and Buzz in her office before turning her attention back at Mike. "Ah, yes Captain. The blood that was found on the walls matched our victim's blood" Mike said as he looked at Sharon. "Are we any closer to finding a suspect in this?" she asked him. "No Captain" Mike answered as Sharon walked away and headed towards her office.

When she entered her office, Buzz and Matthew were having a discussion on who is braver, Batman or Superman. Buzz and Matthew both looked at Sharon as she entered. "Don't stop on my account. I was just checking in to see how you were" she said to them. "Mommy?" Matthew said. "Yes, sweetheart?" Sharon said. "Are you and Daddy almost done here?" Matthew asked her. Sharon looked at Matthew and sighed. "Maybe another hour sweetie and then we will go home" Sharon said to Matthew. "Thank you Buzz for staying in here with him" Sharon said to Buzz as she walked out of her office with Buzz. "Oh, not a problem Captain" Buzz said as he returned to his desk.

Julio and Amy returned a while later to the Murder Room. "We spoke to Randy Grey's supervisor and he said that everybody liked Randy. He didn't have any enemies" Amy said to the team as they gathered around the Murder Board. "Was there something in particular that Randy was currently working on?" Sharon asked them. "His supervisor said that he handled their high risk accounts" Julio stated. "Meaning what, exactly?" Provenza asked. "Meaning, sir, that he dealt with their higher end investors" Julio answered. "Higher end investors, like who?" Andy asked. "Mostly CEOs of different companies, millionaires, that sort of cliental sir" Julio said to Andy and then turned around to face the board.

"So, what, this guy holds out on a return for some millionaire and that person doesn't like it so they kill him? That doesn't make sense" Andy said to the team. "Andy, you make a good point. Was our victim possibly involved in a Ponzi scheme?" Sharon stated to the team. "We would have to look at all of his financials in order to see that, Captain" Mike said to Sharon. "That could take days to track down" he added. "Let's get on that and also look into Wally Parker's financials as well" Sharon said as she started to walk back to her office.

Sharon smiled as she looked at Matthew when she walked in to her office. "Why don't you start packing up, give me and Daddy about ten more minutes okay?" Sharon said to Matthew. "Okay!" Matthew said as he got up from her seat and started to put things back into his backpack. Sharon sat down at her desk and gathered some information about this case. Provenza then knocked on her door and entered when she spoke. "Captain, I was just wondering if the team could leave a little early today since we were called out early this morning" Provenza said as he watched Matthew pack up his backpack. "Whatever you want, Lieutenant" Sharon said as she looked up at him. Provenza stood in front of her. "Technically, you were in charge today until I came back" Sharon added. Provenza looked at her and then nodded. "Of course, Captain" Provenza said and then started to retreat out of her office. "Have a good night" He said to her as he left her office. "You too, Lieutenant" Sharon said and then she stood up from her desk and walked over to where Matthew was at the table in her office.

"Ready to go home?" Sharon asked Matthew and Matthew nodded. Sharon then walked out of her office towards Andy's desk. Matthew followed her. Andy was sitting at his desk, reading over one of the reports on Randy Grey's finances that they had printed out. "Andy, are you ready to go home?" Sharon asked him as Andy looked up at her approaching. "Uh, yeah" Andy said as he gathered the report and placed it in a folder. He then placed the folder in his desk drawer and locked it. He smiled at Sharon and then followed both of them out towards the hallway. "Everyone, enjoy your night" Sharon said to her team as she walked out of the office.

Julio, Amy, Buzz, and Mike all looked over in the direction of Provenza who was sitting at his desk. "I asked her earlier if we could leave early and she said since I was technically in charge today, that it would be my decision to let us go early" Provenza said to everyone. They all looked at each other, waiting for what Provenza was going to say next. "So" Julio said. "So, since we all had an early start to our day and it looks like this case is going to be with us for a while, you all can go home" Provenza said to them. "Thank you sir" Julio said to Provenza.

As Sharon, Andy, and Matthew got down to their car, Matthew ran a little ahead of them. Andy unlocked the car and Matthew quickly got inside the car. "Someone's eager to get home" Andy said to Sharon as they walked. "Hmm, I think someone else might be a little eager as well" Sharon said to Andy as she smiled at him. He smiled back at her. "Can you blame me? I missed Moxie too!" Andy said to Sharon as he opened her car door for her. She slapped her hand against his arm as she stood there looking at him. "Ouch! Hey!" Andy said to her as he rubbed his arm where she hit him. Sharon looked at him and he smiled at her. "I'm always eager to get you alone, Mrs. Flynn" Andy said in a low, husky voice as he leaned in and kissed Sharon. Sharon smiled when they broke apart from the kiss and then sat in the car.

Andy then drove them home, fighting the LA traffic that was starting to form up again. When they arrived at their house, Matthew got out of the car first and grabbed his backpack, along with the blanket that was in the car and started towards the back door of the house. "Matthew! Wait for us!" Sharon called out to him as she stepped towards the back of the car to help with the suitcases. "Go, I've got this" Andy told Sharon as he grabbed her hand and looked at her. Sharon looked at him, grabbed one of the suitcases, and headed after Matthew who, by this time, was already at the back door of the house. As she got closer, she could hear Moxie barking.

Sharon unlocked the back door to be greeted by Moxie, who was very excited that they were home now. Matthew ran up to him and gave him a hug. "Moxie! I've missed you" Matthew said to the dog as he made his way further into the house. Sharon then followed the two in to the kitchen, where she placed her suitcase by the island. Andy then came in behind them, carrying two suitcases and two small bags. He placed them next to Sharon's suitcase. "Is that everything?" Sharon said to Andy. "I just have the cooler left" Andy said to her and then he turned around and went back outside to the car.

Sharon went through the mail that Rusty had picked up for them and left on the island counter when Andy came back in the house carrying the cooler. He placed the cooler next to the sink and started to empty it. "Matthew, could you bring your bag upstairs to your room?" Sharon asked him. He looked up from playing with Moxie. "Okay" he said as he laughed because Moxie wouldn't let him go. "Come on Moxie, you come with me" Matthew said as he stood up, grabbed his suitcase, and went upstairs. Moxie bounding up the stairs behind him.

Sharon then turned her attention to Andy who was still at the sink. She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, pulling herself close to him as she laid her head against his back. She let out a sigh. Andy turned around in her arms and caressed her face with his hands. They looked deeply in each other's eyes and Andy leaned down to kiss Sharon. "I want you" he said to her. "I know" she said, catching her breath after their kiss. "I want you too, but we're going to have to wait, at least until he goes to bed" she said to him as their foreheads met and he caressed her arms. Sharon was playing with the buttons on Andy's shirt when Matthew came back downstairs with Moxie.

Sharon broke the embrace they were sharing and started to get dinner ready for the three of them. Andy walked over to the bag that was sitting on top of the island. He was trying to think of anything else besides Sharon at that moment. "Matthew, looks like this is your solar system model kit" Andy said as he looked through the bag and pulled it out. Matthew looked over at Andy and joined him at the island. "Why don't we go into the dining room, and start this while Mom starts dinner" Andy said to Matthew as the two of them started to head to the dining room. Andy glanced back at Sharon who blew him a kiss and smiled. Andy smiled back and then proceeded with Matthew to the dining room.

After Matthew took everything out of the kit and laid it down on the dining room table, Andy was looking at the items. "You need some sort of base for all of this" he said to Matthew as Matthew looked at the items. The kit had all of the planets, labels, paint, and a booklet to go with everything. "I may have something in the basement that we could use for your base" Andy said to Matthew as Matthew looked at him. "Come on, let's go see" Andy said as they made their way down the basement. Moxie followed them down there.

Andy had set up his workshop down there after they had moved in to the house last year. There was a workbench, along with cabinets, and any kind of tool you could imagine. Andy was looking through the cardboard sheets, and poster board, until he found what he was looking for. Andy pulled out a peg board and showed it to Matthew. "This should make you model sturdy, and then we'll place a piece of poster board on top of it and paint it black, with white specs on it for stars" Andy said to Matthew as he placed the peg board on his workbench. Matthew was right by Andy's side watching him. "So, we just place it like this and secure it with the glue here" Andy said to Matthew as he showed him what he was doing.

Andy then looked around at the different paints he had on the shelves and found a spray can of black paint. "Come on, let's go outside and spray it" he told Matthew as he handed the spray can to Matthew while he carried the peg board/poster board combination. Moxie followed them upstairs. They walked through the kitchen towards the back door. "Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes" Sharon said to them as they passed through. She smiled as she watched the two work on the project together. It warmed Sharon's heart to know that Andy was willing to help Matthew with his school project. She knew that Andy would do anything for that kid, he told her himself that many times since fostering him and then adopting him.

Andy and Matthew made their way to the garage where Andy placed two saw horses up and laid the poster board down on top of them. Moxie was in the yard, watching them from there as Andy didn't want the dog in the garage when they spray painted the board. Andy placed his safety glasses on and gave a pair of safety googles to Matthew for him to wear. They had plenty of ventilation with the doors open. Andy then handed Matthew a mask to wear and he wore one too. He had Matthew stand back a little bit and Andy shook the spray can. He then sprayed the poster board with the black paint, making sure that all the areas were covered.

"Okay, we need to let this dry now, overnight" Andy said to Matthew as he took his mask off. He then placed the safety glasses and goggles in the place where he got them. He moved the poster board to one side of the garage and picked up the drop cloth that he had on the ground. "All right, let's go back inside, and we can start to paint the planets before dinner is ready" Andy told Matthew as they went back in the house.

They were sitting in the dining room when Sharon stopped by to see how they were doing. "Dinner will be ready in five minutes, so can you boys go wash up" Sharon said to the two of them. Matthew placed his paintbrush down on the newspaper that was covering the table and then headed to the bathroom to wash his hands. Sharon kissed Andy. "How's it going?" she asked him. "I think it's going well, we painted the base for his model, which is drying in the garage. This will be done by Wednesday for sure, barring anything else happening with this case we have now" Andy said to her as he stood up. He leaned down to kiss her. "Go wash up too" she said after the kiss ended as she patted him on his arm. She then headed back to the kitchen as the timer went off.

After they ate dinner and the kitchen was cleaned up, Sharon retreated to the den to look over some things she had brought home regarding their latest case. Andy and Matthew returned to the dining room to continue working on the solar system project. Matthew was painting Mercury while Andy was trying to decide what they could use on the poster board to display the planets. Andy decided that if he cut metal clothes hangers into different lengths, then that could depict how far away the planets are from the sun. While Matthew was painting, Andy stood up and walked over to the den. "Do we have any metal clothes hangers that we are not using?" Andy asked Sharon as he stood in the doorway.

Sharon looked up at him from her reading. "Yes, there are some in our closet, why?" she said to him. "I need them for this project" Andy said to her as he walked over to join her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and started to massage them. "How's Matthew doing with the project?" she asked him as she was enjoying the massage he was giving her at the moment. "He's painting Mercury right now" Andy said as he leaned down and kissed her neck. "Is it bed time for him yet?" he asked her and she started to smile. "It could be" she said as she glanced at the clock in the room. "Dad?!" Matthew called out to Andy and Andy closed his eyes. "I'll be right there" he called out to Matthew as he continued to kiss Sharon's neck. "Go, see what he wants. I'm finishing up here and then we can head upstairs" Sharon said to him and Andy moved away from Sharon, reluctantly, and went to see what Matthew needed.

"What's up?" Andy said to Matthew as he walked back in to the dining room. "I finished Mercury, but how is it supposed to dry?" Matthew said as he held up the tiny planet that he just painted. Andy thought about it. "Oh, I have an idea" he said as he went in to the kitchen and found the box of toothpicks that were in the cabinet and brought them back to the dining room. "We will place it on a toothpick and then stick the toothpick in the carton, like this" Andy said as he showed Matthew what to do. Andy looked at the planet that Matthew painted. "That looks really good Matthew" he said. Matthew was going to start on painting Venus but before he could do so, Andy stopped him. "It's getting late, so why don't we clean up here. We can leave the supplies here on the table, but cover the tiny paints up" Andy said to him and Matthew was disappointed. Andy picked up on it. "Hey, we will continue the project tomorrow night, okay?" Andy said to Matthew. "Okay" Matthew said quietly.

Matthew yawned as he got up from the table. "Come on buddy, you're getting tired" Andy said to him. "No, I'm not tired" Matthew said as he yawned again. They walked to the stairs. "Go up and get ready for bed. We'll be right there to tuck you in" Andy said to Matthew. Matthew then slowly walked up the stairs and went to his bedroom. Moxie followed him up there. Andy then turned to the den to see Sharon sitting there watching him. He smiled and she smiled back at him. "Let me just make sure everything is locked up down here and then I'll meet you upstairs to tuck him in for the night" Andy said to her as he made his way to the back of the house.

Sharon closed up her work in the den and then turned the light off in there. She made her way upstairs and checked in on Matthew. He was currently in his bathroom so Sharon went to his room, and placed his wolf and teddy bear on his bed. She then pulled back the covers. Matthew came back in to his room and saw Sharon was there sitting on his bed. "Did you brush your teeth?" Sharon asked him as he brought his clothes back to place in the hamper. Matthew shook his head and then went back to his bathroom to brush his teeth. Moxie followed Matthew back to the bathroom and when Matthew was done, he followed Matthew back to his room.

Moxie jumped on the bed and settled down at the foot of it as Matthew climbed into bed. Sharon pulled the covers up around him as he held onto his wolf. Andy joined them in his room after he made sure everything was locked up for the night. "Good night buddy" Andy said to Matthew. "Good night, I had a great time this weekend" Matthew said. "I'm glad you did, sweetie" Sharon said to him and kissed him good night. They then walked out of his room, closing the door behind them. Sharon grabbed Andy's hand in the hallway and lead them over to their room.

With the door closed, Andy began undressing Sharon and she did the same to him as she unbuttoned his shirt, one button at a time. Andy ran his hands through her hair and down her back. He slipped her shirt off and she did the same. Once they were undressed, Andy maneuvered Sharon over to their bed and they laid down. "I love you" he told her as he continued to kiss her lips and neck. "I love you too" she whispered back to him as she held him close to her. They continued to caress each other and held each other tightly as they made love to one another.

As the two of them laid in bed, Andy holding Sharon close to him as he gently ran his fingers up and down her back, Sharon thought back to the nightmare she had in the car. She worried about him, more so now than ever before. 'It was just a dream' she told herself in her head and relaxed into his embrace. "You okay?" Andy whispered to her as he felt a shift in her body. "Perfect" she said to him as she kissed his chest. Andy knew something bothered her and he also knew she would tell him when she was ready. She then kissed him passionately on his lips and shifted her body to lay fully on top of him. "I missed you" she said to him. "I missed you too, Sharon" he said to her as he held her gently on top of him. "Don't ever leave me" she said as she caressed his chest in between kisses. "I won't" he said to her as he pulled her head down and kissed her lips.

They made love for a second time that night and afterwards, they were both content holding each other close as they drifted off to sleep.

TBC