Try to Love Again - Chapter 4

by Kadi

Rated T

Disclaimer: It isn't my sandbox. I simply visit it from time to time.

The weekend brought them another visitor. Friday evening found the Major Crimes team hard at work on their newest case. The sound of heels entering the Murder Room drew their attention. It was not the familiar staccato of the Captain's approach. For one, she was in her office buried behind a pile of paperwork while the rest of the squad was looking through information on witnesses and leads.

Rusty and Ricky were planning on a movie, but had dropped by to see if they could coax Sharon away to dinner first. While she was spending as much time with Ricky as she could, during his visit, she was also leaving the boys to their own devices as much as possible. It was still crucial that they get to know one another, bond as much as they could.

Ricky still had some reservations, Sharon knew they wouldn't all be erased over night. Getting to know Rusty for himself was the best way of allaying any lingering fears that he had. He was trying, she couldn't ask for more. It appeared to be working, the more time they spent together, the better that relationship became.

Sharon wouldn't leave the Murder Room for dinner, but Ricky and Rusty were getting dinner orders from the squad. They would bring dinner to her, and Rusty was used to feeding the entire team. He knew where to order from for the most variety of all their preferences. When the others looked up at the new arrival, Ricky joined them. His eyes widened. "Oh!"

She didn't expect to see him so soon. She was going to drop in on their mother. It was a surprise visit, after all. Emily had nothing planned for the weekend, and the company was on stand-down the following week while the production departments got ready to begin working on their fall show. She strode through the room, hair bouncing around her shoulders, skirt swaying around her knees. Emily dropped her purse on the first available surface, the desk of an older, white-haired gentleman that she only vaguely recognized. "Ricky."

The tone in her voice was enough to alarm. He leaned back when she approached, and wondered if he should listen to his flight or fight response. "Em—" She blew right past him, however. "Oh-kay…"

Emily was ready to deal with her brother, on behalf of their mother's ever so lonely heart but at the last minute, she spied someone else far more deserving of her attention. "Andy!" It was too long since she'd seen him, and really, she didn't expect to be quite so excited by it. Maybe it was the fact that she knew that there was something going on between him and her mother. Whatever the reason for it, her hazel eyes lit with delight and she bounced toward him.

"Hey!" He caught her, more than a little surprised at the greeting and swept her into a bear hug. She was no longer a teenager, but still such a slight little thing. He was assaulted by memories of dinners, lunches, and recitals during the two years that he and Sharon had been close before. Maybe they had been his substitute family for a while, and maybe it wasn't exactly right, but the memories were there, and they remained. Andy practically lifted her off the ground and dropped a kiss to the top of her head. Her laughter rang in his ear. He set her away from him and held her arms out from her body. "Let me see you."

"Yes, I know." Emily rolled her eyes at him, then tilted her head and offered a crooked smile. "I am the Mini-Sharon. It is my lot in life," she rolled her eyes and feigned exasperation. There really were worse things than looking like her mother, to be honest. "Let me see you!" She reached up and swept a hand over the strands of hair that were now far more silver than the salt and pepper it used to be. "You know, I think I like it."

At his desk, Lieutenant Provenza rolled his eyes. Oh yeah, they were just friends alright… and he was looking forward to getting married again. He felt quite a bit like throwing up. He cast a look at Sanchez and pantomimed just that. Then his eyes narrowed at the purse that had been dropped on his desk. The Lieutenant lifted his stapler and poked at it. His brows lifted and he smirked. He glanced at where Flynn was chatting up the Captain's daughter, then began to slowly slide the purse across his desk with the stapler.

Amy's eyes widened. She leaned forward against her desk. "Lieutenant," she hissed at him.

Provenza made a face at her and kept right on pushing the purse toward the edge of his desk. If she didn't want it in the floor, then little Miss Raydor should not have left it on his desk, he reasoned.

"I think I like this too." Andy reached out and tugged on a long, loosely curled lock of dark hair. At sixteen, she had worn it in a short, stylishly layered bob. He also remembered blond highlights and too much makeup. Both were gone. At twenty-eight, age had tempered her. She had inherited her mother's sense of fashion, he noticed. "Sharon didn't mention you were visiting." That was safe enough to say in front of the others, Andy thought, without giving away too much. She had talked about nothing else during the week leading up to Ricky's arrival.

Emily's eyes sparkled. "That's because I didn't tell her." She winked at him. "A little momma bird might have mentioned that one of my little brothers required an intervention. Or rather, an attitude adjustment. Somehow, I'm pretty sure, it's not the littlest one."

"Hey!" Ricky straightened and scowled at her. "You know, we talked about all that." He looked at Rusty. "Why does she all of a sudden like you best?"

Rusty shrugged at him, then he smirked. "Same reason your mother does."

"Funny." Ricky rolled his eyes at him. "Funny, funny guy."

Andy laughed. He walked over and pushed Sharon's door open. "Hey, Captain, I think you should join us out here. I may have found something that belongs to you."

Sharon looked up. She cast a confused look at him. Then her gaze moved beyond him, to the thin brunette behind him. "Emily!" A wide smile curved her lips as she rushed out of the office. "You didn't tell me you were coming!"

"Of course not!" She stepped around Andy, and turned so that she could be swept into a hug. "It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you. I wasn't going to let Ricky have all the fun. How long has it been since we've all been together, anyway?" There was nothing like being held by her mother. She hadn't realized just how much she missed her until that moment. Emily almost wanted to cry. For just a moment she turned her face into her mother's hair and inhaled the familiar scent. Now she was home. "I didn't want to wait until Christmas," she said, voice low and thick.

"I'm glad that you didn't," Sharon cupped her face. "Oh, I have missed you." She pulled her close again. Emily was right, it had been entirely too long since all of them were together, Christmas three years ago, if she had to guess, and this would be the first time that she would have all three of them together. Sharon could always count on Emily to read between the lines of everything that was happening around them. She had come home to help with the Ricky situation, and possibly to put Jack in his place as well, if Sharon guessed correctly. Oh how she adored this girl of hers. She was perfectly capable of handling all of it, and then some, but at the end of the day, Emily was her girl.

The sound of leather smacking against tile, along with a heavy thud, drew their attention. Both ladies leaned back from each other and turned toward the sound. At his desk, Provenza blinked owlishly. Then he made a good show of looking over the edge of his desk. "Oops."

They followed his gaze. Emily's purse was now on the floor. Sharon tilted her head at him. Her eyes narrowed knowingly, but he just stared, ever so innocently, back at her. Finally she rolled her eyes, even while Emily walked over to scoop it up, none the wiser for how it had gotten on the floor.

"Sorry about that!" Emily pulled the purse onto her shoulder and shook her hair back. Then she leaned on the edge of the desk, hazels eyes dancing at the way the older man's narrowed. She stuck out a hand and smiled brightly. "I'm Emily, I know you don't I? You look very familiar, but I'm afraid I'm terrible with names." She hooked a thumb at her mother, "Came by it naturally."

Where he stood, Andy snorted a laugh and quickly bowed his head. He tried to cover it by clearing his throat, but when he glanced up, Sharon was shooting a glare in his direction. It lacked true heat, but his little slip had not gone unnoticed. "Well, she's not lying."

Sharon rolled her eyes at him. "Making fun of your Captain does not get you any favors, Lieutenant. I'm going to remember this."

Andy shoved his hands into his pockets and grinned. "Yes ma'am, you always do."

"Lieutenant Provenza," Sharon walked over to join them. She lay a hand on her daughter's shoulder, and while her eyes sparkled, she did not make any move to maneuver her away from his desk. "You remember my daughter, Emily?"

"Yes," he stood up and held out his hand. "It's good to see you again."

"That's right!" She pushed away from the desk to shake his hand. "Last time we met, you came barging into mom's office over at the other place. Something about a Sensitivity training class. I think you were very upset about it."

"Yeah." The old Lieutenant's smile slipped. "Thanks for reminding me," he said drily. He shot a glare at his Captain. "Them were the days."

"Hm." Sharon had to press her lips together to keep from laughing out right. Instead, she curled a hand around Emily's arm and drew her away. "You haven't met Detective Sanchez, Detective Sykes," she indicated each member of her team as she introduced her daughter, one by one.

"And you," Emily said after the official introductions were made, "are Rusty."

"Yeah." He exhaled as he took a step forward. They were great on the phone or Skype, but he'd found that meeting Sharon's children in person didn't always go so great. Rusty rubbed his hands against his jeans before holding one of them out. "Hi."

Emily shook his hand, but then she tugged him close. She looped an arm around his shoulders. "So, as I understand it, you and I need to have a very long talk. You, little brother, are lacking in very important information. Particularly that which will help you to deal with a certain other little brother of mine."

"Really?" He didn't necessarily like people he didn't know touching him, but Rusty didn't squirm. Instead, he slanted a look at her, more curious now than anything. "How is that?"

"Well," Emily explained. "For instance, I know every stupid thing he's ever done, even the ones that mom isn't aware of."

"Hey!" Ricky scowled at her. "No, this is not open season on brothers. We should just agree to all move forward with a clean slate. I see no reason to start bringing the past into anything."

Emily turned slowly. Her brows lifted. A single corner of her mouth lifted into a crooked half-smirk. "That, little brother, is exactly the thought you should have had when you stepped off the plane." She said it slowly, deliberately.

"Okay, because that's not in any way creepy at all," Rusty leaned away from her. She had just channeled her inner-Sharon, and really, one of them was definitely enough.

Ricky was thinking much the same thing. He had the good sense not to comment on it, however. His shoulders slumped. "Great."

"Hm," Emily hummed. "Indeed." Then she glanced at Rusty and smiled again. She could sense his unease in the way he'd tensed when she touched him. She stepped away from him and clasped her hands in front of her. "Anyway," she explained for her mother, now that she had her brothers well in hand, "the Company has the week off. When I go back, we begin rehearsing again. Next week, Production is getting things ready for the fall show, and there was nothing to do but lay around my apartment and be a complete couch potato. I figured instead of sitting around and waiting for Rusty to call me because Ricky is being a complete dip, I'd just deal with it in person."

"I'm standing right here," Ricky stated.

"Yes," Emily said, drawing the world out. A smile tugged at her lips.

Sharon laughed. "Well, we're glad that you did." She took Emily's arm. "Come on, let's go talk in my office. Have you eaten? The boys were just about to go and grab dinner for everyone."

"I haven't, actually." She cast a look at her brothers. "Just whatever you were going to get for mom, is fine." She could trust her mother to order something good, but healthy. Emily paid them little mind after that, and slipped an arm around her mother's waist as they walked toward her office. "So, as I understand it, we've got some catching up to do…"

Ricky watched them go. He slanted a look at Rusty. "This is how it starts. It's always ooh and aww in the beginning. Then it's errands, lectures, and those two teaming up against you." He shook the phone, which he took out of his pocket to call in their orders, at Rusty. "You would think, now that it's two on two, it would be evened out. Oh no. We are still so many levels of outnumbered."

"I'm not even sure what the problem is." Rusty smirked as he shoved is hands into his pockets. "They still like me."

"What kind of wing man are you?" Ricky asked. "You're just going to leave me hanging like this?"

Rusty smirked. "Exactly. Rule number one," he slanted a look at the team, and tried not to grin too widely. "When you irritate the Raydor, it's every man for himself."

"Truer words." Provenza moved back behind his desk and got comfortable in his chair again. "You made your bed." He shook his finger at the Captain's son. "Now you get to untangle yourself from it. In the meantime, you two are going to order dinner and go get it. The rest of us are going to get back to work." He paused and directed a scowl at his partner. "That means you too, Flynn."

Andy shook the file that was already back in his hand. "Does it look like I'm knitting a sweater?"

"You don't want me to tell you what it looks like you're doing," Provenza muttered.

"We're on it." Rusty pulled out his own phone and took the list from Ricky. "I won't let you starve Lieutenant. We'll be back soon."

"Good man, Rusty." He turned his attention back to the case file on his desk. "Others could take lessons…"

"Ah geez," Andy rolled his eyes and dropped into his chair. If his partner was acting like this now, he could only imagine how it would all hit the fan once he and Sharon finally went public. That was something that would eventually happen, for now, this relationship was theirs. Besides, he had to admit, aside from the cranky sniping, it was kind of fun to keep his partner guessing.

Sharon pushed her door closed behind Emily and moved toward her desk. "Okay, what is really going on? You don't get on a plane and fly home on a whim. My little California girl has turned into a Manhattan woman, so spill."

Emily laughed as she dropped her purse on a chair near the door and walked over to take a seat in front of the desk. "I felt bad," she admitted. "Since you called me the other day and told me how everything went with Ricky and Rusty, I just felt so guilty that you were here with this all by yourself. I mean, it's bad enough that dad is being dad about the divorce, but for Ricky to act the way that he did… I was worried about you, mom."

"Hm." Sharon's heart ached. She leaned against the front of her desk and bent to cup her daughter's chin. "Suddenly my children have forgotten that I'm very good at taking care of myself. I've been doing it for a very long time, you know. Since even before you were born."

"Not at all." Emily curled a hand around her wrist. "I had every faith you'd whip them into shape, and you did. I can still worry. Especially when I'm so far away from it all. I should have planned this trip sooner. Ricky and I should have been here together to meet Rusty. I'm sorry, mom. It was incredibly selfish of me. We were rehearsing, but it was nothing important. I could have come home days ago. I should have come home days ago. I should have known that dad was going to get Ricky all tied up in knots over this, I've gotten very good at ignoring his crap, but…"

"Oh Em," Sharon stood and motioned her daughter up. "It is not your job to ride herd on this family." She pulled her girl into a hug. Sharon held her tightly. The ache in her heart moved into her throat. "Sweetheart, I appreciate the thought, but your brothers and your father are not your responsibility. I think it would have been nice, to have you here when Ricky arrived, but to be honest with you… it might have been overwhelming for Rusty too." Sharon leaned back and smiled at her, eyes bright with warmth and unshed tears. "You cannot know how much I adore you, or how proud I am of you."

"I love you too, mom." Emily's smile was a mirror of the emotion in her mother's face. "For the record, I like him." She nodded her head back toward the murder room. "Rusty. He really is a sweet kid. He looked like he wanted to run when I got here, but he didn't. I am going to have so many words with Ricky about that, and no, you can't stop me. Big sister's prerogative. I know Ricky turned his attitude around pretty fast, you've always been able to call us on our crap, even when we hated it. When I'm done with him, you'd best believe I'll be having a little chat with Jackson."

"Hm." Sharon tilted her head at her. "It doesn't help at all if I tell you that the situation is under control, or that I don't really need you riding to the rescue?"

"No." Emily took her mother's hands. "Dad and I need to talk. It's easy for him to pretend that everything is okay over the phone, or to attempt to manipulate me to his way of thinking. He needs to understand very quickly that I am not Ricky. I remember everything. Everything," she emphasized with a smile. "Like how he came waltzing back into our lives just when we started to be happy again. How managed to blow it all apart and then slink away when it was no longer convenient for him to be a family man anymore. You've always done a very good job trying to protect us from that, but mom, we're all grown up now. When it comes to dad, Ricky only see's what's on the surface. Maybe he's a little too much like dad that way. No, dad doesn't get to blow this family apart again. He can have Ricky and I in his life, if that's what he wants, but… he made his choice about you clear every time that he left. I don't care what he thinks. You get a turn, mom. You get to be happy."

"I am," she cupped her daughter's cheek. "The three of you make me very happy," she said thickly. Sharon shook her head. "Emily, you have a right to discuss with your father, anything you feel is relevant to your relationship with him, but don't do it on my behalf. Sooner or later he's going to realize that this divorce is going to happen. When that happens, Jack will make his way out of my life again. He's very good at it." It always hurt to admit, especially to her children, but Emily was right. She was old enough to remember every sad, embarrassing, and heartbreaking detail of her parents' marriage.

"Just the three of us?" Emily flashed a knowing look at her. "Something tells me that smile has a lot more to it than your three, very grown, very opinionated children." Her eyes sparkled. "When I said that I remember everything mom, I meant everything." She took both her mother's hands again and leaned back, getting a good look at her. She did look happy, if a bit tired. "It looks good on you. Even if I do think you're entirely too thin."

"Bless you child!" Sharon laughed and pulled her into another hug. "I'm so glad that you're here!"

"So am I." Emily hugged her back just as tightly. "I just have one question…" She leaned back, brows raised. "What is with that one old guy and his desk?"