Expose

A Shandy fic based around some of the season 4 promos we've seen so far. A school assignment of Rusty's creates some problems for Sharon and Andy.

Chapter 1

Rusty paced around the condo nervously. How was he going to tell her about this? She was going to be so mad. Mad probably didn't even begin to describe how she was going to be. It had been a long time since he had done something that was going to cause this much trouble. The question was what kind of mad it was going to be. It would be so easy if she was the yelling and screaming type. He could handle that but yelling and screaming wasn't his mother's style. Not this mother anyways. No, Sharon would be more inclined to lecture or tell him how disappointed she was or she would just get really quiet. The quiet was the worst. He wouldn't know what she was thinking and he would just have to wait for whatever was going to come. No, yelling would be much better that quiet.

Rusty heard Sharon's keys turn in the door. He had thought she wouldn't be home until much later. She had texted him to say she was going to dinner with Andy. He thought that would buy him some more time. He quickly shoved the folder he was carrying into his back pack and ran into the kitchen pretending to look for something to eat.

"Rusty, are you home?" she called from the hallway.

"Uh, yeah just looking for something to eat." He answered her.

She rounded the corner into the kitchen.

"How was your day?" She asked

"Good, good, you know classes, homework to do. I thought you were going to dinner with Lieutenant Flynn?" He asked hoping to change the subject.

"I am, I just wanted to change first. Andy will be here soon."

Great, he was going to have to deal with both of them. His thoughts must have been obvious because Sharon gave him a long look.

"What's going on?" She asked

"What? Nothing." he tried once

Sharon just looked at him. She wasn't buying it. He knew better than to try and lie. Getting to the truth was her life he could never get away with lying to her, plus he didn't like to lie, especially to her.

"Rusty, has something happened. Oh God, is it Stroh?" She asked puling her phone out probably to call Cooper who Rusty isn't supposed to know has a team on him.

"No, Sharon it's not Stroh, I promise." He tells her taking a deep breath before continuing, "Ok, I need to tell you something but first you have to promise me that you won't get freaked out."

Sharon crossed her arms over her chest and looked at him.

"When have you ever seen me freaked out?" She asked him.

It was Rusty's turn to look at her.

"If your life wasn't in danger, or your driving." She countered back. "Come on Rusty what's going on? Did you get a ticket? Wreck the car? What?" She asked

"Its school related." He told her looking away.

"Rusty, whatever it is I am sure it's fine. The first year of college is hard. Did you make a bad grade? I know how hard you have worked. I'm not going to freak out over a bad grade." Sharon did her best to assure him.

"No, it's not that. My grades are actually really good. It's about an assignment for my intro to journalism class. We were given a semester long assignment to write an investigative piece on either someone we live with or a public figure. The only catch was the person we were investigating couldn't know that we were investigating them. We were supposed to help bring something to light that was otherwise unknown about the person." Rusty explained

"All right… I'm sorry Rusty I still don't understand what the problem is." Sharon said in confusion.

"Sharon, I wrote my piece on you." Rusty said quickly. "I figured you fit into both categories of a public figure and someone I live with."

"You wrote your piece on me? Now wait is this like when you had to write an essay on the person who influenced you the most?" She asked skeptically.

"No, this was something I really wanted to write. After everything we've been through together, after everything you have done for me, I really just wanted to find a way to say thank you. I thought this might be a way." He told her feeing somewhat embarrassed.

"Rusty, that is so kind thank you but you don't have to…"she started to tell him how he didn't have to thank him or do anything for him.

"You might not want to thank me yet." He told her flatly. "My professor really liked my paper. In fact he liked it so much he entered it in a competition without me knowing about it."

"Rusty, that's wonderful. I'm so proud of you. I still don't see what the problem is though." She said still confused.

"Well, I won the competition and my story is going to be published both in the school paper and in the LA Weekly Magazine's local people feature section."

"Rusty, this is all amazing! What are you so worried about? When do I get to read it? Do I have to wait until it is published?" Suddenly Sharon paused and Rusty could see the wheels beginning to turn in her head.

"Wait a minute, Rusty, you said this was an investigative piece. That you were supposed to bring something to light that was otherwise unknown. What exactly did you write about me?" she asked him her eyes beginning to narrow.

"Sharon, you have to understand I knew nothing about the competition. I never thought anyone but my professor would read it. Well maybe I thought I would show it to you when I was done. I wrote what I wrote to try and help you. Honestly, that was all I was trying do. The only person I hoped to bring into the light was you." He told her his voice beginning to sound panicked.

"Rusty, what did you write." Sharon said in a voice that she used to interrogate murder suspects. Yes, yelling would be better.

Rusty reached for the folder in his backpack and handed it to her.

"I'm sorry Sharon, for whatever trouble this might cause you, but I'm not sorry I wrote it because it's true and I love you." He said quietly and Sharon was pretty sure he could see the start of tears in his eyes.

Sharon took the paper from him and looked at the title:

The Heart of the Investigation: How Two of Los Angeles Lead Officers Fell In Love

"Oh God, Rusty, what did you do?" She barely whispered.

Yes, Rusty thought, yelling would be so much better. Just then he heard a knock on the door and the sound of Andy's voice coming down the hall.

"Sharon? Rusty? The door was unlocked." Andy said coming down the hall and quickly picking up on the tension in the room. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Um, I need to go I have studying…"Rusty said trying to leave the room.

"Oh, no you don't Young Man as a journalist you need to stand by your work." Sharon ordered him to stay and turned to Andy. "My son needs to explain something to you."

TBC