The Worst Case Scenario

By Kadi

Rated K+

Disclaimer: It isn't my sandbox. I just come here to play...

A/N: For the girls... they know who they are.

Chapter 1

The day was entirely too cheerful; much too bright for Sharon's liking, although that was a feeling that she had been struggling with for a while now. Had it not been for her own curiosity and sense of duty she would have stayed in her office, buried beneath a pile of reports while she distracted herself from the goings on outside those walls.

The invitation for coffee was unexpected when it came, but Sharon decided that Patrice was reaching out, trying to familiarize herself with all of the people in Lieutenant Provenza's life. They were living together, after all, and for all intents and purposes the relationship seemed permanent. It made sense that the woman would begin connecting to those people that he felt were important. Sharon supposed that as women who dealt with him on a daily basis, she was the natural place to start.

She only wished that Patrice had not chosen a trendy, outdoor café downtown for the meeting. Sharon plastered a smile upon her face, however, and cradled her cup in her hands as she sat across from the other woman.

"When the Lieutenant finds out about this he is going to be beside himself," she began, opening with a mild bit of humor.

Patrice chuckled. "Oh, I'm sure he will. Don't worry. I can handle Louie." Her eyes sparkled, and as she took a sip of her coffee she studied the other woman. The smile didn't reach her eyes. She seemed pensive. She was not as Patrice remembered from previous encounters, but she supposed there was a reason or that. Louie had been ranting for weeks about his partner and the Captain. He said that their little romance had finally gone sour. Flynn had screwed up. Now everything at work was awkward and tense; they were all paying for the idiot's mistake.

What his partner would not say was what exactly had happened. Louie was a little upset at that. How could he help him fix it if he didn't know what he had done? Whatever had gone on, Flynn was completely mum about the whole thing.

Patrice wasn't one to meddle unnecessarily, but the way that he talked about them before made it sound like they were finally doing something right. They were so happy and love-struck that it was sickening. He just wanted to shake them half the time to get rid of the dopey smiles. Then all of a sudden, without even a hint of warning, it was over.

So what the heck had happened?

As a woman Patrice knew that the best way to get any information was to go to the source. She hoped that she could get the other woman to open up. It wasn't as if they were friends, but they were close in age and now moving in the same circle, more or less. It might help to talk to someone who was close to the situation without actually being inside of it.

If nothing else it would shut Louie up on the subject. Maybe he could fix it. She didn't really know, but it was worth a try. After all, what could it hurt?

Sharon hummed thoughtfully. "You might be among the few who can." She leaned back in her chair and studied the cup in front of her. "I was surprised to hear from you," she admitted.

"Yes, I know." Patrice smiled knowingly at her. "I just thought… as two women who have to deal with the same man on a regular basis, maybe it would be a good idea to… join forces," she said with a laugh. "In a manner of speaking."

"Oh." Sharon felt the urge to smile. The corners of her mouth twitched with it. "Yes, he is definitely not going to like this." Her head tilted while she thought about it. "Can I tell him?"

Patrice laughed. That was better, the smile at least looked genuine. "Go right ahead. I know he can be a handful. It's just part of his charm."

Sharon snorted quietly and lifted a napkin to her mouth. "Charm. Hm." She shook her head. "That's not a word that I would have used."

"No, I don't guess that you would." Patrice thought about it. "Well, what else can we do? We have these men in our lives and as frustrating as they can be, we can't help but love them, right?" The comment was carefully placed, and although the other woman was quick to school her features, Patrice saw the pain that flashed briefly across her face. "I'm sorry," she said, "did I say something wrong?"

"No." Sharon looked down. Her coffee cup was suddenly the most interesting object nearby. "Not at all." She forced a smile. "I think I understand now." Patrice was looking for an ally. The two of them pitted against the dynamic that was Flynn and Provenza. Once upon a time she might have taken her up on it. "I'm sorry, I guess the news was a little slow to make the rounds. Andy and I are not… we're…" She had no words for what they were. Sharon looked up and shrugged. "Just friends," she finished quietly, if a bit lamely. After all, that is what they said they would do if things did not work out between them. Although she wasn't entirely sure that word really applied either. At least, not any more.

"I see." Patrice frowned. She smiled sadly, although she had already known, and continued gently, "I didn't realize. I guess that would explain why Louie has been so frustrated with Andy lately. The word idiot has left his mouth more times than I can keep count. Men can be difficult creatures."

"It's not his fault." Sharon was quick to say. Her gaze drifted away, growing sad. "I am sure that he is willing to take the blame, that's just the way that Andy is. I'm afraid that the fault was mine." She shrugged. "He did all that he could. I'm just not…" Sharon wasn't even sure which words applied. "It was complicated," she decided, and shrugged again for lack of any thing better to say or do.

"I'm sorry," Patrice said, and meant it. She leaned forward and placed her cup back on the table. She kept her hands wrapped around it and gazed at the other woman until she lifted her eyes. "It must be difficult?"

"It is what it is." Sharon looked down again. "That's not what we're here to talk about," she said, trying to divert the conversation. "I'm sure that we can think of far more interesting topics."

"Yes, I imagine that we could. But something tells me that you haven't exactly talked about it at all." Her brow arched. There was a knowing gleam in her eyes. She knew Sharon's type well, independent, strong, but wearing the scars of past romantic failings. Patrice was aware that she was divorced, recently despite a long separation. Louie didn't talk very kindly about the ex-husband. Patrice didn't have all of the details, or really any of the details. She knew the type though, the charmer, a user. He had gotten what he wanted from her and then he tossed her away. "You don't know me," Patrice said, "but I have a good ear. I'd be willing to listen, and with the advantage of not really being part of the situation."

"I couldn't do that." Sharon shook her head. The idea was tempting. She looked away again. "You are very kind, but I am sure that the situation will work itself out. It is just going to take some time."

"I might believe that if you were looking at me when you said it." Patrice arched a brow at her. She drew her hands away from her cup and folded them together. "Although from the look of you, I'm not entirely sure time is what you need."

It was surprise that made her look up. Sharon wished that she hadn't. The quiet understanding, the calm knowing in the other woman's gaze made her ache to speak all of the things she had been holding back. Who was she going to talk to? She had friends, yes, but none who really had a good grasp of the direction her life had taken the last few years. Sharon drew a thin breath and let it out slowly. "I'm not sure that I even know where to start," she said quietly.

"Usually the beginning is a good place." Patrice shrugged. She made a show of looking at her watch. "Well, wouldn't you know it, I have all day." She smiled warmly. "Go ahead. I can keep up."

Sharon felt herself smiling. Not for the first time she thought that she could really like this woman. The Lieutenant was lucky to have found her. It seemed that maybe he had finally met his match, and then some. Sharon took a deeper breath and straightened in her seat. "It was me," she said. "I am just determined to continue making the same mistakes that I made in my marriage. I could blame Jack for everything that went wrong between us, but the truth is that it takes two people to break a marriage apart. Yes, his addictions were problematic, and yes he left, but I made my own share of missteps over the years." Sharon shook her head, laughed a bit ruefully, "The most prominent of which was paying attention to everything but him. My children and my job were my focus back then, and it seems they still are. I took for granted that he would be there. I did that to Andy too."

Her heart ached for the pain in the other woman's words. It was hard for her to admit, Patrice knew. "I thought that you're children were grown?" She asked softly. "Rusty is the youngest, yes? He's in college now? I know it's harder when they're younger."

"Yes, he is." Sharon returned her gaze and tried to find the words to explain the challenges that came with parenting Rusty. "He wasn't comfortable with the idea of our dating," she said. "Rusty has been through a lot in his life. I understood his concerns. I hoped that they would lessen over time. They didn't. It was hard on Andy. He has been nothing but kind to both of us, and to deal with that level of mistrust... I can't really blame him. It was different when Rusty was just his Captain's son, the kid who would hang around the Murder Room and ask for advice. I think it surprised him, the uncertainty we faced with Rusty. It wasn't as if our spending time together was new. We were very good friends before we ever made the decision to become more than that, our families had already mingled a few times…" Sharon gestured between them, suddenly struggling to understand it too. "Once we began dating, it was as if Rusty didn't know him at all. He acted as if I was bringing a stranger into our home. I could have done more, I guess." She sighed and allowed her shoulders to slump. "I just didn't want to push him. Instead I pushed Andy away."

She looked down, and if Patrice wasn't mistaken, those were tears in her eyes. She reached across the table and touched her hand, briefly, lightly. "What happened?" She asked gently. "A man who loves you isn't going to give up that easily," she said, wanting to offer a measure of comfort. Perhaps it wasn't working before the issue with her son.

"Oh," Sharon gave a watery chuckle. She fought back the sting of tears in her eyes. "You don't know Andy Flynn." She looked heavenward and drew a breath, hoping that the tears wouldn't fall. "He said he wasn't going to ask me to choose. He knew that Rusty would come first, and should. Our kids were always going to come first for us, and that was how it should be. He wanted me to be happy. He didn't want to be the reason that I was hurting, and if Rusty was struggling, if our being together was hurting him, then that would hurt me. Since he promised he would never hurt me, if he could help it, he was going to take a step back and we'd be friends. Very good friends," she finished, whispering the last and looking away again. It simply hurt too much, the idea of being without him.

"Sharon." Patrice reached out and touched her hand again. This time she held it. "I am sorry," she whispered. "Louie was wrong. He doesn't sound like an idiot at all. Sounds like the right kind of guy to me." She gave her hand a squeeze when she felt it tremble.

"I suppose that makes me the fool for allowing him to get away," she whispered. Sharon drew her hand back and leaned back in her seat. She folded her hands in her lap and looked down. "It really is rather unfortunate. I suppose the awkwardness is the worst part. We are completely out of sync now, but I know that he's trying. It just isn't the same. He can't even look at me. I think…" She stopped talking when her voice hitched. Sharon took a moment to compose herself before looking up again and continuing. "I thought that I would be able to handle this situation, I thought we both would. I just didn't imagine that a failed romance at this point in my life would…"

"Hurt?" Patrice shrugged. "It's always going to hurt when the heart gets bruised. I think you're being a little hard on yourself, though." She lifted her coffee cup again and took a sip. "You roll the dice, they fall where they may," she told her. "That doesn't mean that you can't roll them again. You just have to ask yourself… does it hurt this much because you were wrong and your pride got bruised, or does it hurt because you love this man?"

"Oh," she breathed. "No. That's the problem. I didn't think that I would love him this much. I thought that I was done. I thought…" Sharon looked away again. Her eyes closed. "I know that it sounds foolish, but when you get married you expect it to last forever. I loved Jack, to distraction. In many ways I still do. That's why with Andy I knew that I cared about him, very much, and the time that we spent together was wonderful. The idea of moving into a romantic relationship was appealing. He was—is," she corrected, "an attractive man. He makes me laugh, and when we were together it was just… well, it was fun." Sharon exhaled softly. "We're more alike than many people can usually believe. The idea of being with someone that I like, that I could talk to about almost anything, it was… it was what I imagined being in a relationship at this late stage in my life would be like. I never imagined that I would fall in love again."

"You did." Patrice understood, all too well. She had been there too, and then Louie had come along. She lost her husband, and she raised her children, and then her granddaughter… Patrice pulled her mind away from those painful thoughts and offered a kind smile to the woman in front of her. "It felt good, didn't it?"

"Yes." Sharon allowed her gaze to drift while her smile became wistful. "It really did. I thought that… if I could feel that way, now, and if Andy…" Her jaw clenched. Tears clouded her vision again. Sharon blinked them away and drew a thin, trembling breath. "He said he loved me. I know that he does. But he's right. Our children are always going to come first. When I accepted that I was becoming attached to Rusty, I knew that he came with challenges. When I decided that I was going to keep him, I accepted that I would have to find a way to meet those challenges. He was already my son, even before I adopted him. I promised that boy a family, and I promised him a home. I told him that he would always be safe with me. In many ways he is still learning to trust that. His biological mother did a number on him," she said. Sharon wouldn't reveal much of his past; she knew how uncomfortable it made Rusty for people to know. There was a lot about it, however, that was simply fact. "There were men in and out of their lives, and in and out of their home, when they had one. His mother abandoned him, left him behind not once but twice, all for the sake of the man that she was with at the time. There is a part of Rusty that expects me to do the same thing. I had hoped that over time he would realize that wasn't the case. I hoped that he would understand that simply because my relationship with Andy changed, that didn't mean that who we were as people changed. I could love Andy and still be his mother. He just wasn't interested in being a part of it. If I spoke to Rusty about it, he became defensive. His attitude toward Andy was… a little bit appalling, actually. It was frustrating. I was as frustrated with him as Andy was, but he is my son. He isn't a malicious young man. He's just frightened."

Patrice hummed. She had met Andy. She didn't know him well, but she was beginning to. "I don't imagine Andy's patience was holding up, given the circumstances." Her lips pursed. "So rather than lose you, because he lost a handle on the situation, he removed himself from it."

"Yes." Sharon agreed. "That is it exactly. He was worried that he would damage what we had if Rusty continued to push him. It isn't that he's not a patient man, he can be. He's wonderful with children, he really is, and before we began dating, he was amazing with Rusty. He didn't stop being amazing with Rusty because we became closer; he treated him the same way that he always had. Rusty just…"

"Became a sullen teenager?" Patrice smiled knowingly. "I'm familiar with the phenomenon. Even if he had a reason to feel that way, that's what he was doing." She shook her head. "You know, sometimes the best way to deal with a teenager is to confront them. I used to think, give those kids an inch, and they will take a mile. Do you think that, maybe, you gave Rusty room to breathe and he sucked the air out of it?"

"He's my son," Sharon said again. "What am I going to do? He is worried about the changes in our lives, and I cannot just ignore that."

"No," Patrice told her. "I don't think that you should. But do you think that you deserve to be alone, and hurting, because Rusty doesn't understand that adult relationships do not have to harm him?" She smiled warmly. "Sharon, you love that boy. He knows that. I believe that he loves you too, or he wouldn't worry about you like he was; that you would get hurt or leave him. It's time to stop being patient. Prove it to him. Show him that you can love a man, and mother him, all at the same time without sacrificing either."

It sounded good. It sounded wonderful, actually. In practice, though, Sharon knew it would be much harder. She smiled sadly. "I think it's too late for that. I can't ask Andy to put himself back in that situation. It wouldn't be fair."

"Neither is letting him walk away," Patrice told her. "Sharon. Do you love him?"

She had already said that she did, but she nodded and answered quietly. "Yes."

"Then what you need to do is tell him that. You aren't asking him to walk back into the same situation. You're asking him to join you in a completely new one. You make things clear to Rusty up front. Make sure that Andy knows that it's okay to deal with him how he needs to, I think Rusty will come around a lot faster, and with more respect if he does." Patrice leaned forward against the table. "Have your cake and enjoy eating it too."

"I wish it was that simple." Sharon sighed. "At this point, I'm not sure that Rusty would really listen to much that I had to say on the subject."

"He's a teenager," Patrice reminded her with a smile. "They're meant to drive us crazy. We love them, but by god, we just want to shake them sometimes too. Think of it this way," she said, "what example are you giving Rusty by walking away from love because someone else is uncomfortable with it? We sacrifice for our children, but throwing away your happiness to appease his fears is not doing him any favors either. When he leaves home in a couple of years and you're left alone, what then?"

"That is a phenomenon that I am familiar with," Sharon said; she allowed her tone to dip, grow dry. "I've had the empty nest before, and I rather enjoyed it. Yes, I was sad to see Emily and Ricky leave home, and I miss them terribly, but I didn't feel alone. I was content with having time to myself." Whether that had meant she spent her time alone or with friends, it was still time that was allotted for her. She felt rather accomplished knowing that her children were chasing their dreams, healthy and happy, and with the best morals and values that she could teach them. Then Rusty had come along. She loved him enough that it didn't feel like a sacrifice to give that up for a few years. She knew that he would leave one day. She wasn't ready for that to happen yet, and neither was he, but when that time came, she would embrace it as an accomplishment for both of them, just as she had in the past. Sharon frowned as she thought through it. Was Patrice right? Did that mean that she had to embrace it alone? How much different, how much better would it be to have Andy by her side?

Good heavens but she wanted to raise grandchildren with that man. To grow older, and watch their children, hers and his, become parents. To dote, and laugh, and just enjoy life; they had talked about traveling once. She could almost picture them, happily retired, just picking a destination and flying toward it. There were so many things that she wanted to see and do, and experience. She could do them alone, and she was sure that she could even enjoy that. It was not what she wanted, however. She wanted him.

She wanted to be in his arms and in his heart. Most of all, she just wanted him to be able to look at her again. She wanted to get lost in his eyes. She wanted to feel the warmth of his stare, to have her stomach dance and her heart flutter. She wanted to not be able to wipe the smile off her face. She wanted to see his eyes crinkle at the corners when he was happy, and god but she missed that crooked grin of his.

The turn that her thoughts had taken startled her. It filled her with such longing, and such pain, that it stole her breath away. Sharon gripped the edge of the table and closed her eyes. Her chest clenched painfully. It made her feel just a little bit queasy, the sensation of loss that accompanied that longing.

It took a great deal of effort, but she lifted her pain-filled gaze and stared at the woman across from her. "I don't know what to do," she admitted.

"Yes you do." Patrice reached across and took her hands. "You know exactly what you need to do. You go and tell that man that you love him. You show him that he was right to let you go, because in the end, you're still his to hold on to."

Sharon closed her eyes again. This time the tears managed to gather on her lashes. "It may not be that easy," she said. Sharon wouldn't blame him for sending her away.

"No," the other woman agreed. "It might not be, but if you don't try, you'll regret that even more."

Sharon knew that she was right. "Intentions get us nowhere without action," she said quietly. She didn't know that it would work; she didn't know that they could piece their relationship back together. She wanted to try. She needed to try. She owed it to him, as much as herself, to reach out. "Okay," she said finally. Sharon drew a breath and let it out slowly. "I will speak to him."

It was a start. Patrice leaned back with a smile. She lifted her coffee again. It had gone cool, so she waved the waitress over. They would finish their coffee, and then, she had a little something to do herself. She would see about Rusty Beck and his little attitude. It was time, she thought, to finally invite him over for the dinner that she and Louie had been talking about for several weeks. She was also certain that Louie would find all this very interesting.

When he got over his initial shock, of course.

MCMCMCMCMCMC

After everyone was settled, Patrice smiled widely at the boy seated across from her. "I'm glad you could make it, Rusty. We've been meaning to do this for a while. You were such a big help with the move."

His cheeks flushed a light shade of pink. "I was glad to help." He wouldn't mention that the Lieutenant paid him. The truth was, he would have done it anyway.

"Sure you were." Provenza rolled his eyes at him. He was grinning though as he picked up a dish and passed it around the table. "How is your schedule shaping up? Were you able to iron out those classes you wanted?" Rusty had been in and out of the Murder Room all week, his head together with Buzz as they talked about courses and which ones he should take now and what he could put off for another semester. There was an intro to film class that he was thinking of taking, if he could make it work with the rest of his schedule. Buzz was beside himself with excitement at the idea.

"It's going to be okay, I think." Rusty took the dish of steamed, glaze covered green beans and spooned some onto his plate before passing it across the table to Patrice. "The film class is going to work out. I was able to get into a different history class that I thought was closed. They had a couple of drops so..." He shrugged. "Buzz was right, sometimes openings aren't posted. I emailed the instructor, and it worked."

"Good god, don't tell him that." Provenza snorted. "His head is big enough already." He held out the basket of rolls to Rusty, but when the boy declined, he shook his head. The kid was starting to pick up some of his eating habits from his mother.

"Be nice." Patrice made a face at him, but her eyes were sparkling. "Buzz is a nice boy."

Provenza pouted while Rusty laughed. "No siding with her," he warned, pointing his fork at Rusty. "You're here to see me!"

Rusty blinked. He stared at the Lieutenant and then asked, rather drily, "Sure I am. Did you cook?"

"Okay you two," Patrice laughed at the pair of them. They would spend the entire evening bickering if she let them, but she knew they would fully enjoy themselves. "Let's play nice." She tore a piece of her roll off and tilted her head at Rusty. "Speaking of schedules, I managed to finally have coffee with your mother the other day." From the corner of her eye she watched Louie's head pop up. She had not told him about the meeting.

"Good heavens, why would you do a thing like that?" He gave her a worried look. Provenza leaned forward in his chair. "You didn't mention it."

"Why wouldn't I?" Patrice smiled patiently at him. She waved a hand between them. "She's a very nice lady and I like talking to her." Patrice's attention was back on Rusty. "I'm a little worried about her, though. She seemed awfully sad. Is everything going okay at home, Rusty?"

Rusty swallowed hard and looked between the two of them. He reached for his water glass and took a drink before shaking his head. "What do you mean? Everything is okay. Did..." He stumbled over his words a bit. "Did she say something specific? Maybe she was upset about the case." He glanced worriedly at the Lieutenant before moving his gaze back to Patrice. "I mean, that happens sometimes." Sharon seemed okay to him. Life was finally getting back to normal, as far as he was concerned.

"I'm sure that it does." Patrice placed her fork down and folded her hands together. She looked across the table at Rusty. She studied the boy, long and hard. Beside her she felt Louie shift. From the corner of her eye she could see him frowning as he looked between the two of them. For the moment, she chose to ignore him. "I think, Rusty, she was more heart broken than truly sad, although I think a good deal of it was also disappointment." When he looked up at her, wide-eyed and so surprised, Patrice just gave him a hard, penetrating look. "I think if you dig down real deep," she said, managing to sound as calm and patient as ever, "you might just know why."

"I..." Rusty saw her brows rise. He put his fork down. Suddenly he wasn't all that hungry any more. He glanced at the Lieutenant before his gaze fell to the table. "I'm not really sure what you mean," he said quietly. "If Sharon is upset about something she hasn't mentioned it."

"No, she wouldn't. Would she?" Patrice shook her head at him. "Rusty Beck, I might not know you very well, but I've heard a lot about you. I expected a lot better. Of all the things I heard, and as much bragging as Louie has always done about you...frankly, I'm disappointed in you too."

"Patrice, what is going on?" Provenza looked between the two of them before frowning at his girlfriend. He knew that the boy could be a little bit impulsive at times, but he thought that they had all finally gotten that under control.

She waited for just a moment to see if Rusty would answer, when he didn't, Patrice sighed quietly. She turned her gaze to Louie and smiled. "You mentioned, more than once, your frustration with Andy and how he wouldn't tell you what was going on with Sharon. You know, why they weren't seeing each other anymore." She shrugged. "So I asked her. As it turns out, they didn't fight, and Andy didn't do anything wrong." That was one of the theories that Louie had, that his partner had screwed up some how and now everyone was going to have to pay for it. "He broke up with her. He called it off," she said. "Turns out he never signed on to deal with a sulking, selfish, teenager. Sharon can't really blame him for it; she said that she wouldn't stick around either. She kept hoping that Rusty would get used to the idea of their being together, that it would work itself out. When it didn't, Andy told her that he didn't want to be the reason she was hurting. He wasn't going to make her choose between them, because there wasn't a choice. Their children were always going to come first in their lives, that's the way it should be." She stared at Rusty's bent head and her gaze hardened. "She's sad because she misses him, and she's disappointed, because she really thought that by now Rusty would trust her enough to know that she would never bring someone into their lives that would hurt him. She thought that he would understand that no matter what, whenever possible, she would always choose him."

He looked up at her. His face had flushed with heat. Rusty glanced at the Lieutenant. The older man was looking shocked, and just a little bit dismayed. He could tell that he was thinking it over. Rusty shook his head and looked at Patrice again. "I never told Sharon that she couldn't date Andy. Not like she ever asked me anyway. They dated for a whole year before they even bothered to call it that, and all of a sudden, it's my fault that it's not working?"

With the way that he had suddenly become defensive, Provenza immediately realized that Rusty had something to feel guilty about. His eyes narrowed. He studied the boy. "Why would she need to ask you, Rusty?" The question was posed quietly, and just as calmly as he could manage with the thoughts that were running through his head. No, Patrice didn't know Rusty very well, but he did. He could just imagine the attitude that the boy had been tossing around if it had driven his partner away from what he wanted most. God knew Flynn was stubborn as hell. He didn't give up easily, and he wasn't one to walk away from a fight. When it came to his personal life, though, his family and his heart and the areas where he was most vulnerable, he usually took his beating and sucked it up. Breaking up with the Captain was just exactly the sort of stupid thing that he would do… to keep from making a bigger mess out of it later, and to keep from being hurt even worse.

Rusty stared at him. He blinked a couple of times, but looked incredulous. "Are you kidding? I live there. I think I deserve the right to know if she's going to start bringing guys around all hours of the day and night. Not to mention that he's there like… all the time. Seeing each other at work all day isn't enough?" Rusty shook his head. "Look, if they broke up, I had nothing to do with it. Sharon doesn't talk to me about her personal life; it's none of my business. It sounds to me like he did what they all do. He got what he wanted and he was over it."

The Lieutenant's reaction was immediate. His face has gone ruddy. He leaned forward against the table and pointed a finger at him. "Now, you listen here…"

Patrice reached over and placed a calming hand on his arm. Her head tilted at Rusty. "I didn't realize that your mother was dating that much," she stated calmly. "She seemed a bit embarrassed, actually. Her words were that she was a bit out of practice, or she might have seen this coming."

The carefully sympathetic tone was not lost on Rusty, but it was better than being yelled at. He sighed and shrugged. "No, not really. Actually, Sharon doesn't date, except Flynn. The only guys that ever came around before were Jack and then Andy." His brows drew into a frown. "Why? What did she say?"

"Oh, nothing much." Patrice shrugged. "It was hard getting it out of her at all, but once she opened up…I really think she just needed someone to talk to about it. Some of what she said is making a lot of sense now. That the worst part was that they said they would be still be friends, but she isn't sure how. I imagine it's just painful, but maybe that will work itself out." Patrice lifted her iced tea and took a sip. "Then she mentioned something about thinking that she learned all the lessons that she needed to from her marriage, but she was still making the same mistakes. I don't really know what happened there, so I'm not sure that I really understand it. What I did gather," she explained, "was that she feels like it's her fault. Rusty, if you never spoke to them about dating, why would she feel that way? Why would Andy feel like he needed to separate himself from your mother to keep from hurting her… over you?"

Rusty rubbed his hands against his jeans. He swallowed past the painful lump in his throat and stared at his plate. His stomach clenched and twisted. He never wanted Sharon to feel like that, and he didn't want her to be hurting over it. "All I said," he began, "was that if they were going to… be together, that I didn't want to see it, and if he was going to spend the night, I wanted to know ahead of time so I wouldn't have to be there. I told them whatever they wanted to do was fine, but I didn't want to be part of it. I'm really not looking for a father figure." Rusty looked up. His eyes glinted brightly. "I don't need his advice, and he doesn't need to play it up to me to look good to Sharon."

Louie was getting ready to blow his top, Patrice could tell. She held up a hand before he could. "I see," she said patiently. "So you made your mother feel like she couldn't be with a man she really likes in her own home, but she wasn't going to spend all of her time away from you either. You made a man who really cares about your mother walk away from her, because you felt insecure about your place with her. You asked her to choose, but there was never a choice. Rusty…" She shook her head and smiled sadly at him. There was disappointment in her dark gaze. "That woman loves you beyond reason, but you aren't always going to live at home, honey. One day you're going to move out. No one is asking you to right now, but one day you'll want to. You're going to live your life, just the way that you want to. When does your mother get to live hers?"

He stared at his plate. It began to blur. His jaw was tight and his throat was aching. Rusty shook his head. His hands gripped the seams of his jeans beneath the table. He drew a shaky breath, but didn't look up. "I just didn't want to see her get hurt."

"It's a little too late for that," she said. Patrice smiled sadly. "I just hope the advice I gave her worked. I hope she listened." She looked at Louie and shrugged. "I told her that sometimes, our kids are just brats. We love them, but we just want to shake them too. I told her to go and get her guy."

Provenza snorted. "You think she listened?" He sat back in his chair with a sigh. "She's stubborn." She wasn't the only one. He was fighting the urge to smile. Good god, he loved this woman. She walked right into the situation and took charge of it. He couldn't say that he wouldn't have done the same, just with a lot less finesse.

"So am I." Patrice smiled at him. "I think we can take care of Mister Beck and his issues with parental dating. Maybe she will find that his attitude has changed, and that will help her decide to mend the bridge that he tried to torch out from beneath her."

"Remind me never to make you mad at me," Provenza said. He slanted a look at Rusty. "Yes, I think we can take care of that attitude." He picked up his fork again and pointed it at Rusty. "It's time we had a talk… about a great many things."

-TBC-