The One That Stayed

By Kadi

Rated K+

Disclaimer: This isn't my sandbox, but I do enjoy playing in it!

A/N: This is what happens when I am sitting at work and Katy Perry starts playing on my iPod. I don't usually write song fluff, but this one latched on and refused to let go until it was finished. Based on the song The One That Got Away.

It was a truly lovely day. The sun was shining brightly and a clean ocean breeze had wafted gently across the coast. The day had been warm, but comfortable. They could not have asked for better. It was the perfect day for a wedding, especially one with an outdoor reception.

They had chosen a country club in the hills for the location. Wherever they looked the view was beautiful. The city was laid out to their south, and to the west there was a perfect view of the ocean. They had the mountains to the north and east. There was a large white tent covering the main banquet area and dance floor, and at its pillars, ribbons of silk and chiffon were lifted to dance in the breeze. There were other tables set up outside of the tent, and people mingled here and there across the rolling green grounds that they had rented for the day.

Sharon had found a spot in the shade, beneath a tree that was filled with white blossoms. There were several of those along the edge of the grounds. Spring had given them a little natural beauty to add to their decorative scheme. They had kept it simple. There were red and white roses, with white bunting and drapery. Simple elegance, that was the description that they had given the wedding planner. He had certainly earned his commission. Sharon's gaze swept across the grounds. There was a soft smile playing at her lips. The day was filled with so much laughter and joy, there was love and light; it was everything that the start of a new life should be.

She watched her children standing together. The three of them brought such joy to her. That family had expanded over the last few years. They had added a few others. There were people in their lives that they had acquired, people that they could not imagine living without now. Rusty and Gus looked very dashing in their tuxedo shirts. Both of them had shed their jackets in deference to the warm, afternoon sun. Their sleeves were rolled up and it was not too long ago that she had watched them dancing. Those two provided a great deal of enjoyment and frustration in her life. Sharon wasn't sure if she could count how many times they had broken up and gotten back together now. They were both stubborn and passionate people, and they both had insecurities and similar hurts.

At the heart of it, they were friends. Even when they were not romantically involved, Gus was a fixture in their lives. Gus was family. Sharon could not imagine a day when that would not be true. Tragedy might have brought him into their lives, but they had folded him amongst them, and offered him the family that he had lost.

Ricky and Emily were the children that she had given birth to. With them she had a wealth of memories and experiences. It did not mean that she loved them more, or Rusty any less. It was just different. Her head tilted as she watched her older son. He stood talking with his father. He was laughing, but Ricky's expression was slightly stilted. He looked a little awkward standing beside Jack.

Jack.

That was another source of frustration for her. He had shown up at least. There had been a brief moment of panic just before the wedding when they thought he might actually not be there. Sharon was prepared to be furious. She was ready to hunt him down and drag him to the church where their daughter had been married by his ear if need be, reciting every terrible and disappointing thing that he had ever done to their children. She would make sure that he knew, without a doubt, just how lacking he had been as a father, and a husband.

What she hated most about it was the fact that Emily had seemed resigned. It was almost as if she had expected it. Emily was determined that nothing would spoil her day. She would not allow there to be even the smallest moment of darkness. She was prepared to greet the situation with grace and elegance. Sharon could not be more proud of the woman that she had become.

Jack had arrived. He had been filled with apologies and excuses but he was sober, and he was not hung over. He was there, and he would walk their daughter down the aisle.

In another life,

I would be your girl,

We'd keep all our promises,

Be us against the world

Perhaps it was everything that the day entailed, but Sharon could not help the direction that her thoughts traveled in. She wondered what life would be like now, if Jack had never left all those years ago. If she listened carefully she could almost hear the loud cadence of Jack's laughter. Not much had changed over the years. He was still loud and boisterous. He still knew his way around a punch line. Just as he had when they met, and when she fell in love with him.

When Sharon closed her eyes she could picture her own wedding. She could see him, the young man that he was then, standing amongst a group of his friends and male family members, laughing and joking just as he was now. Sharon hummed quietly and a small smile curved her lips again. It made her feel just a little wistful to think back on those times. How different would it be now if their marriage had worked?

Would Jack have sat with her today? She could almost imagine that he might be holding her hand. He would smile and laugh, and tease her about how emotional she could be at weddings. They would reminisce about how tiny their girl was the day that they brought her home from the hospital. They would talk about how bright and cheerful she was as a child, how beautiful she was at her first dance recital. They would be awed and proud of the stunning woman that she had become.

Sharon felt movement beside her. She tore her eyes away from the group that was comprised of her son and his father, his cousins, and his stepbrother. She felt an arm brush against hers. Sharon leaned into it and let her chin rest against the shoulder of the man who had joined her. His lips touched the top of her head and she hummed again. Whatever their life might have been, Jack would still be Jack. It was hard to picture him in her life now, because the road that they had traveled was always laid out before them. She couldn't see it as a girl, as a woman who had lived those years and was now looking back, she could see the inevitability.

The reality that she was living was much better than that daydream.

"How are they?" Sharon wrapped both of her arms around his and glanced up at the man who now owned her heart.

"Driving the sitter crazy." Andy leaned against the tree beside her with a sigh. "I think Michael and Tommy might have scored another piece of cake when no one was looking." He shook his head, but there was a crooked grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. His daughter's stepsons were on a sugar high and for her sake he hoped that it wouldn't last long. "Madison is asleep," he said of the youngest grandchild, Nicole and Dean's two-year old daughter. "Joey is running around behind the older boys, trying to keep up."

Joey.

A low, soft chuckle was her only response. She could picture just that. Joey always wanted to be where the older boys were. He was only five, but he idolized his cousins. Sharon's lips pursed as she thought of the grandchildren, his, and hers, theirs now that they had joined these two families together. She didn't like to compare Andy and Jack. They were different men. They had different temperaments, different priorities.

Jack was the fun-time grandfather. He liked to sweep in once or twice a year with extravagant gifts. He rarely called, and he didn't send cards. Sharon wasn't sure that Joey really thought about him at all, at least not until it was time for some major holiday or other special occasion. Jack rarely remembered that he had a family, not until it was time for him to put on a show for someone. Like he was currently.

He was Grandpa-Jack, while Andy was pop-pop. He was the one who was present in Joey's life. Sharon wasn't exactly sure how many times he had strained his back or knees getting down on the floor to wrestle with that child, but it didn't matter. It never stopped him. He would enjoy those moments as long as he could, he told her, just as he did with Michael, Tommy, and Madison.

Andy was the one to read stories at bedtime, to show Joey how to toss a baseball. Just the other night she had caught him teaching the little boy how to beat his Uncle Rusty at chess, not that either of them really could, but Rusty would always let Joey win.

Joey was Emily's child. When her boyfriend had decided that he didn't want to be a father and cut her out of his life, it was Andy who had planted the idea for her to move back to Los Angeles. Emily had loved her life in New York, but while she had friends, her family wasn't there. She could do very well on her own, but in Los Angeles there was a support system just waiting for her. When Emily made that decision, it was Andy who suggested that she live with them until the baby was born. Sharon was already considering it, but it was Andy who had given voice to it, before she even realized that he was on the same page with her.

When Joey was old enough for Emily to return to dancing, Andy decided that she didn't need to rush to move out right away. She could take her time finding a place of her own and re-establishing her independence. He had not belittled her. He never suggested that she wasn't perfectly capable of standing on her own, of being an able single parent. He and Sharon had room for her. They would always have room for family.

Jack hadn't understood why Emily was even attempting single motherhood. His first suggestion was that she have an abortion. Later he had voiced opinions on adoption, never to Emily, however. He was at least smart enough to know that Sharon would have had his head for even considering it. As it was, she had refused to acknowledge his existence for several months. She wouldn't speak to him, and she wouldn't look at him. Sharon found it hard to believe she had ever loved a man that would consider their first grandchild to be so unimportant.

When Joey had the flu at only eighteen months old, and Emily was busy with rehearsals, Andy had used vacation days to stay home with the boy. Emily's career was finally taking off again. She was making a name for herself on the west coast. Sharon was buried with budget meetings and performance reviews with Chief Taylor and other department heads. For Andy it was an easy decision. He had learned from the mistakes of his past. There was nothing more important than his family.

Now, while Emily was dancing with her new husband and having fun with her friends and siblings, Andy had slipped quietly away from the reception to check on the kids. It wasn't only for Emily, he had done it for Nicole and Dean as well, but it was the man that he was. There could be no bigger difference between those two men and who they were to this family. Andy was part of it. Jack came and went as he pleased. Andy put the family first. Sharon wasn't sure that Jack had done that, even when their marriage was new and their lives were just starting.

Sharon hummed again. Her cheek rubbed against the material of his shirt. Like the boys he had shed his jacket. Unlike them, he had opted for a vest rather than a cummerbund. Sharon had always enjoyed seeing him in a three-piece suit. The three-piece tuxedo had been no exception to that. Today he had sat with her. He held her hand while she watched her daughter say her vows. He smiled and winked, and teased her at how emotional she got at weddings. He would never tell a soul that she kept him up most of the night while she poured over old photo albums and stared at baby pictures. He listened to every story, and they weren't his memories, but he sat with her while she shared them.

In another life,

I would make you stay,

So I don't have to say,

You were the one that got away.

The one that got away.

She couldn't make Jack stay, and she couldn't change the regrets and the hurt, or the wondering that all of them did as a result of that. The woman that she was now, with the life that she was living, was glad that she couldn't shape them in to something that they probably never would have been. The simple truth was, Jack didn't get away. She did. Sharon was thankful that Andy had found her. She was grateful for the man that he was, and the patience that he had showed in waiting for her. She could only hope that he felt it was as worth it as she did. As her finger swept over the familiar weight of the ring that he had placed on her finger a couple of years ago, she had a feeling he might just agree with her.

Sharon felt his sigh before she heard it. Her gaze followed his. Emily was wrapped in the arms of her new husband. She chuckled quietly and lifted her head. Sharon turned her face into his neck. Her lips were soft against his skin. "Stop it," she warned gently, teasingly. He was not Emily's father, but Sharon didn't think that mattered. He still worried about her. When she began dating, he had scowled at the young man that was trying to win her heart.

That was a few years ago. Funny, that relationship had started with a wedding too. He was good for Emily, this man that she had chosen. Andy thought so too, although it was hard to let go. He worried. So did Sharon. They would be okay, though. He was as good to her as he was for her. He adored her, it was clear for everyone to see, and he loved Joey too. He had no children of his own; at least, he hadn't before today. He worried at being a good father. He was open about his hopes and worries. He wished he could be even half the father to Joey that his stepfather had been to him, that Andy had been to Emily.

That was why Jack had walked her down the aisle, but it was Andy that she had chosen when it came time to dance with her father. Emily would never have it in her to cut Jack out of her life completely, but now that she was a parent, she understood so much better just what it meant to be a good parent. Joey came first for her. He always would. Today was her day, but she built it around her son. She had taken that relationship slowly, and cultivated it carefully.

Sharon felt Andy sigh again. He pulled her in front of him and wrapped his arms around her. She rested her back against his chest and folded her hands over his where they rested against her stomach. She felt his lips touch her neck a moment before his chin rested against her shoulder. "They are going to be okay," she said.

"Yeah. I know." Funny that he was the one worrying about it. Mother hen, that's what Provenza called him. He might just be right. Andy held his wife in his arms while they watched her daughter enjoy the day. "He's one of the good ones," he said.

"He is." Sharon agreed. More than that, she trusted the woman that Emily had grown into. Sharon was more than happy to welcome another into her family. They had been friends first, Emily and this man that she had chosen. That held a lot of potential. Sharon thought that just maybe it was something that she knew a little bit about. Her best friend was holding her now.

Retirement had come much easier for both of them with the grandchildren to enjoy. There was a time when she imagined that she would grow old with another man. That was another life ago.

Sharon turned in the arms that were holding her. She smiled up at him. "As I see it, we have a couple of choices. We can find a room and have our own party," her lips curved into a saucy smile, "or we can be responsible and take the grandkids home so that the kids can have their fun. What do you think?"

"Hm." He grunted quietly. Andy pretended to think about it. His hands settled against her hips and he pulled her close. His bent and he captured her lips in a quick kiss. "Let's go. The sitter has it covered for a while."

She laughed as he grasped her hand and tugged her along toward the country club. They were not old yet. It had been a good day. It was about to get even better.

~FIN