I own nothing of Major Crimes. I only borrow the characters from time to time.

Treasured Moments

We stood at my door doing the awkward goodnight dance, wanting more than a peck on the cheek but neither feeling comfortable making the first move. He held my hands and gently swayed them back and forth. His eyes had a dark warm glow sprinkled with a bit of stardust and a look of longing meant only for me.

Andy bent down to give me a chaste kiss on the cheek, I shifted my head enough to make lip to lip contact. Caught off guard, he paused a second before he reached his hands into my hair and pulled me deeper into his kiss.

When we broke apart, he smiled as he tucked a wisp of unruly hair behind my ear, "that was certainly memorable. See you tomorrow?"

I stood in the doorway silent, with the tingle of his kiss still on my lips. I nodded my head as he closed the door behind him.

I brushed my hand across my mouth and smiled a giddy schoolgirl smile. That was certainly memorable, he said. Not exactly the reaction I expected from our first kiss, but very few things are predictable when it comes to Andy Flynn. Memorable is good, I thought, but then again, memorable can also be bad.

The analytical mind that makes me good at my career is the same analytical mind that sabotages my personal life. I am a hopeless over thinker.

I fix a cup of tea and grab my sweater. I sit in the lounge chair on the balcony, my sweater snugged around me. The aroma of peppermint tea permeates the velvet night air as the city lights twinkle below. I do my best thinking here, or overthinking as the case may be. What exactly makes a moment memorable?

I survey the memorable moments in my life. My first date, my first kiss, I smile at the memory of a sweeter, simpler time. My first… well…, it wasn't so great, but I still count it memorable.

The day the boy I thought hung the moon asked me to be his wife, and the day he became the man who jaded the stars and left me behind.

I can't help but tear up at the first time the children he gave me fluttered in my belly and when the doctor laid these wet, screaming pieces of my heart on my chest. I knew I would never feel love the same way again.

I held my children's hands on their first day of school. We walked to the door and I kissed them goodbye with their bright smiles beaming back at me. They didn't see the tears as I sat in the car watching those same pieces of my heart growing up before my eyes.

I watched them leave the house for the last time, no longer squealing youngsters, but grown adults who in my heart would always be the babies I prayed over at bedtime and rocked in the middle of the night. I watched another come into my life, not as a child of my womb, but as a child of choice, however no less a child of my heart.

There were the Christmases of footie pajamas and hot chocolate, the Thanksgivings with my family back home. The joy of a long overdue reunion and the heartbreak of a goodbye come too soon.

I've had memorable moments in my career, graduating from the academy, working my way up the ranks, the first time I saved a life and the first time I took one.

I took a sip of tea and let the warmth wash over me. I closed my eyes and breathed in a long breath. Andy was right, the first kiss from my last love certainly is and will always be memorable.