up with Raydor. Provenza also takes Rusty in for a week when it's too dangerous for him to live with Raydor anymore due to Wade Weller and congratulates him on his testimony in the trial, trying to cheer him up. When Rusty admits to the squad that he is gay, like the rest of the squad, Provenza tries to act surprised but clearly isn't, having grown close enough to Rusty to tell already. Of all the squad besides Raydor, Provenza is clearly the one whose opinion Rusty values most as he pulls him aside to make sure Provenza is okay with it. Provenza, who has been shown to be politically incorrect in the past, cares enough about Rusty that he doesn't care as long as he's not flamboyant, but tells him that being gay is the one thing that he really can't offer Rusty any advice on. When Rusty's mother comes back to ask him to help her get out of jail, he goes to Provenza and asks him for advice, not telling him what his mother said. While Provenza gives advice, he is left concerned by the boy's encounter and gets the security tape of the visit to see what happened. When he sees what Sharon Beck said to Rusty, concerned, he informs Raydor about it and shows her the tape. In another instance, when Emma Rios wanted to interview Rusty in preparation for the Phillip Stroh trial, Provenza was there to support him and stood up to Rios when she got rude and degrading with the young man. Rusty later agreed to talk to Rios but asked Provenza not to be there and to keep Raydor away too as he was worried about their negative opinions of him if he discussed his past with Rios in front of them. He asked Provenza to pretend keeping Raydor away was his idea instead of Rusty's and Provenza reluctantly agreed. When a decision had to be made about Rusty's future after the threatening letters came to light, Provenza acted as his advocate when Raydor decided to stay out of it. While Taylor and Raydor didn't want Rusty to know about the option of using him as bait to catch Wade Weller, Provenza pushed for him to know, knowing that he deserved the chance to make his own choice. While Provenza was prevented from telling Rusty due to Raydor and Taylor's insistence,