Knowing
by Kadi
Rated K
Disclaimer: It will never be my sandbox, but I will always enjoy playing in it.
A/N: Just a drabble that takes place after Shockwave pt1. Written for kate04 and mindthebat.
"Where's mom?"
The words were haunting him. Even long after everyone was accounted for and the case was wrapped up. He heard it, that single, plaintive question. It was the same question on his mind, just with a different bend.
There were bruises on his arm, where Rusty had gripped his arm so tightly. Andy had lied to Sharon about them. He told her that he thought he must have bumped in to something. He wasn't going to tell her that it was Rusty. He wasn't going to tell her that her son had panicked, watching that explosion, that he had almost hyperventilated while they waited for the dust to clear and their team to be visible again.
He wouldn't tell her about the painful seconds that stretched between the sight of that bomb going off and the sound of her voice finally filling their ears as she called in her location and status. He wouldn't explain that he held his own breath, or that there had been a pain in his chest that had nothing at all to do with his blood pressure. Andy wouldn't describe counting the beats in his head as his heart pounded against his chest while he waited, or how he couldn't even feel Rusty gripping his arm until it left dark prints in his skin.
Sharon didn't need to know all of that. They were fine. She was fine. Those seconds had passed. She was okay. Despite the world teetering on the edge of oblivion for one, brief moment, they were all okay. It had not come crashing down around them. She didn't need to know because the world kept moving. It kept spinning.
Honestly… she already knew. It was the same thing she felt every time that she sent them out into the field. It was same emotion she experienced every time another lead about Stroh crossed her desk.
Sharon knew it all, entirely too well. So he didn't have to say a word. It was already understood. He just had to hold her. If her fingertips ghosted over those marks on his arm, and if she cast a sad look in her son's direction… well, he would pretend that he didn't notice.
That was the price they paid. They would live in the now. They wouldn't linger on yesterday, on what might have gone wrong. Now was all they had. Yesterday taught them that.
~End