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: Hello everyone! Here is the next story, continuing off from where An Easy Day at the Office left. I hope you all enjoy it!

Chapter 1

Gridlock was the recipe for this morning's commute in the city of Los Angeles. Cars were lined up everywhere as Andy made his way through the streets to the neighborhood of Crenshaw, southwest of Downtown Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County Fire Department along with the Los Angeles Fire Department were on the scene of a recent house fire as Andy pulled his car up. As he got out of his car and made his way to the house, he flashed his badge to the officer at the crime tape and proceeded through. He saw Provenza and Amy standing at the front of the house that looked like it had heavy fire damage. "Glad you could join us this morning Flynn" Provenza said to him. Andy just gave him a look. "So what makes this fire a major crime?" Andy asked him as he looked around. "I mean if it's arson, shouldn't the investigators from the fire department be handling this?" Andy added as he turned to look back at Provenza.

"They did Flynn, but this is the fifth house in a two week period that's been lit up and there's a dead body inside of it" Provenza said to Andy as they walked into the crime scene, careful where they were stepping. They made their way to the body where Kendall and Mike were at. Buzz was filming the insides of the home and joined them at the body as well. "Kendall, tell me what we have here" Provenza stated to Kendall. "Well, you have a male, perhaps around 30-40 years old, that's all I can tell you right now, the body is badly burned" Kendall said as he examined the body. "Mike, anything?" Provenza asked. "Well, it looks like the fire may have started over here in the electrical box and then made its way through the walls, concentrating right where we are standing" Mike said as he pointed along the walls. "I'll need the reports from the fire investigators office on the rest of the fires and we will need to find out if our John Doe here was the one who owned this house" Provenza said to the team. "I'll get on that, sir" Julio said as he made his way outside of the house. Provenza looked around. Andy just shook his head. "So, if this fire was deliberately set" Andy started to say. "We have an arsonist and a murderer among us" Provenza added.

Sharon pulled up to the school with Matthew. She glanced in the rear-view mirror at Matthew before she got out of the car. He looked a little nervous as he watched the kids walk in to the school building. They talked on the way over to the school about the possibility of him staying after school here till Sharon or Andy came to pick him up. "Are you ready Matthew?" Sharon asked him. He looked back at her in the front seat and nodded. They both got out of the car. Sharon grabbed Matthew's hand and walked to where Cynthia was standing at the front steps of the building. "Hello Matthew" Cynthia said. "Hello" Matthew said back to her, still holding on the Sharon's hand. "Let's go inside, the Principal is waiting for us" Cynthia said as she led the way inside. Sharon started to follow her but noticed Matthew wasn't moving so she stopped. "Don't worry Matthew, everything is going to be fine, I promise" Sharon said to him so only he could hear her. "Okay" Matthew said and then proceeded with Sharon inside the building. They met with the Principal of the school and she welcomed Matthew. As Cynthia and Sharon spoke to the Principal in her office, Matthew sat in a chair in her office that was next to a wall that had pictures and plaques along it.

Sharon looked over at Matthew while Cynthia went through the DCFS list with the Principal. She waved for him to come over to where she was and he did. "Matthew, what is your favorite thing to learn about?" the Principal asked him. "I don't know" Matthew shrugged. Sharon looked at him and rubbed his back for reassurance. "That's okay Matthew if you don't know, that's why we are here to help you learn about all kinds of things!" The Principal informed him and smiled. Matthew smiled back but was a little unsure of things. "Everything is all set Captain" Cynthia said to Sharon as she started to make her way towards the main office of the school. Sharon nodded and she took Matthew through the office to the main hallway of the school. All three of them were going to walk Matthew down to his new classroom.

When they arrived at the classroom for Second Grade, the Principal knocked on the door and spoke to the teacher. She then introduced Matthew to all the kids in the grade and they welcomed him to their class. Sharon was glad with the ease of transition for Matthew and was hopeful that he would be okay there. Matthew waved to Sharon and Sharon waved back at him and smiled. "Don't worry Captain, we will take good care of him" the Principal assured Sharon as they walked back towards the office. "Oh, I understand that your school provides a day care option at the end of the school day till 6pm" Sharon stated to the Principal. "Yes, we do" the Principal said. "How much time in advance would you need in order for Matthew to attend that after school?" Sharon asked her. "Oh, well, normally we would need a school days' notice in advance but if something comes up in your day Captain, we can make arrangements for Matthew to attend the after school care" the Principal stated to her. "My division caught a case this morning, and I just want to make sure that if need be, Matthew could stay here till someone was able to pick him up" Sharon said to the Principal. "Of course" the Principal said to her. "Good luck Captain and let me know" the Principal said as she headed back to her office.

Sharon walked out with Cynthia back to the cars. Cynthia stopped Sharon before she got in to her car. "This school is very good, Captain, and they will take care of Matthew" Cynthia said. "Oh, I know. My step-grandchildren attend this school too and they just love it so I am hopeful that it will work out for Matthew here" Sharon said to her as her phone alerted to a text message. 'Body is heading to the morgue, meet you there? Hope everything good with Matthew at school' the message said from Andy. "I got to go, thank you so much Cynthia" Sharon said as she waved to her and got in her car. She took a deep breath and replied to the text message. 'Okay, Matthew is in his classroom, a little nervous. See you there' Sharon texted back to Andy and then headed over to the Los Angeles County Morgue.

Andy and Provenza were waiting outside Doctor Morales's examination room for Sharon when she arrived there. Andy saw her first as she walked in and met her halfway. She already looked worried. "Everything okay" Andy said to her in a low voice. "Everything is fine" she said back to him and smiled. Andy nodded and then followed her to where Provenza was waiting. She placed a gown over her clothes and by the time she was all set, Doctor Morales came out of the room. "The Doctor will see you now" he said as the three of them stepped in to the room. "I am soaking the hands in liquid in order to see if I can get you some fingerprints on your John Doe here" Doctor Morales said as he pointed to the two tubs of liquid on the bench. "Also I am checking dental records to see if we can identify him that way" he added. "Can you tell us how this person died, Doctor?" Sharon asked him. "Besides the obvious?" he snidely stated and looked at the Captain. "Well, it looks like your victim was attacked from behind, as there is a big indentation at the base of his skull" Doctor Morales showed them. "So he was hit with something" Provenza muttered. "Yes, more than likely that force is what killed your victim" the Doctor added. "So, whoever did this killed him and then set the fire?" Sharon questioned. "A little over kill if you ask me" Provenza stated. "Thank you Doctor" Sharon said as they all walked out of the exam room and back into the hallway.

"We need to know if our victim resided at that house" Sharon stated. "I already have Julio looking in to that Captain" Provenza stated to her. "Did any other homes have victims in them as well?" Sharon asked. "Well, this was the fifth house in two weeks according to the fire department, we will have to check their reports" Andy stated. "Alright, let's regroup in the Murder Room" Sharon said to both of them and then started to walk away. Andy looked at Provenza who just shrugged his shoulders and headed for the elevators to catch up to Sharon. Provenza shook his head at them. "Idiots" he muttered to himself.

"Uh, Captain!" Andy stated to her as Sharon was stepping on to the elevator. He then joined her in the empty elevator and as the doors closed, Sharon grabbed his hand and held it. "Did everything go okay at the school this morning?" Andy asked her as he looked back at her. "Yes" she said as she cleared her throat. "The Principal and his teacher seem to be wonderful and when he walked in to the classroom, all of the kids welcomed him, so I hope this will be a good place for him" Sharon said to Andy. "Oh, and I asked the Principal how much notice they would need to let Matthew attend after school care and she said they would need a school days' notice but she said Matthew could attend today after school" Sharon said to Andy as the doors opened to their floor. Andy followed Sharon to the Murder Room and as they walked inside, Amy and Julio were at their desks looking over the reports from the arson investigator.

Sharon went to her office to put her things away before joining them at the Murder Board. Andy placed his suit jacket on his chair and went over to the board to help put up pictures of the different crime scenes. Provenza walked in the room and sat down at his desk, while Buzz and Mike came out of electronics and set something up on Mike's desk. Sharon looked out of her office window and joined her team. "Okay, what do we have" Sharon stated to the team. "Five different houses, all within a 10 mile radius were burned down, in a two week period" Amy stated. "What did the fire investigators say in their reports?" Sharon asked. "The fires were all investigated as arson, ma'am" Julio said. Julio looked through the report on his desk again. "Were there any victims in the other fires?" Sharon asked. "No, this was the first victim ma'am" Julio said. "And all of these house fires were set the same way?" Sharon questioned. "Yes, according to the reports, the fires started at the electrical boxes in the homes and then traveled to the rest of the house, as it went up in flames" Mike stated to the Captain.

Sharon stared at the Murder Board and moved closer to it. "How can they be sure that all of these fires were started by the same person?" she asked. "Because, they were all started the same way, and all of them used the same incendiary device, a white phosphorous powder" Mike stated as he read the report. "Did the investigators have any one on their radar for these arsons?" Sharon asked her team. "Yes ma'am, they interviewed a Michael Henning, who was employed as a chemist for Bird Chemical Company located in Ladera Heights, but they released him as he had an alibi for when the fires were started" Julio stated as he looked over at the rest of the team. Sharon sighed. This case was going to be a long one. "Why did they interview him in the first place?" Sharon asked Julio. "According to the report, he lived in the area of the first two houses" Julio answered.

"Were there any fingerprints left anywhere in these houses that could lead us to somebody?" Sharon asked the team. Mike quickly looked through the report on his desk. "Ah, yes Captain, there was a partial of a fingerprint found at the house on Potomac Avenue" Mike said. "Do we have that fingerprint" Sharon asked Mike as she walked over to his desk. "It looks like it is down at the fire investigator's office. I will head down there and bring it back here Captain" Mike said as he got up. "Take Buzz with you Mike" Sharon said and nodded to Buzz. Buzz followed Mike out the door. Sharon turned around and looked at Andy.

"While they go pick up the partial fingerprint, do we have any arsonists in our databases that were released recently or under investigation still?" Sharon asked Andy, Provenza, Julio, and Amy. Andy looked at Provenza and Provenza looked back at him. Andy shook his head, because he knew the name that Provenza was going to say. "Yes, Captain, as a matter of fact we do have our own little firebug, but we haven't heard from him in a really, really long time" Provenza stated. "Who is that, Lieutenant?" Sharon asked. "Bill Croelick" Provenza said as he looked at Andy. Andy looked back at him and then at Sharon. Sharon looked at Andy. "Who is Bill Croelick?" she asked him. Andy just looked at her. He stood up and walked over to Sharon. "I think we need to go to your office, Captain" Andy said to her as he sighed. She did not look pleased and motioned for Provenza to join them in her office. Once everyone was inside, Sharon closed the door.

TBC