Weeks had become months, and after spending a wonderful Christmas at home with all their children reunited, under a beautiful tree full of angels, the new year had approached too and it had passed in the office, overloaded with crime cases. It was so stressed that Sharon had sent Rusty to New York to spend it at least with Emily, and was happy to know that Ricky had joined them too.

They had been looking for a house, but yet nothing was exactly what they wanted. And it was starting to frustrate the both of them. "Andy, are you okay?" Sharon walked out from her office to find Andy rubbing his neck and trying to stretch his shoulders.

"Yeah, yeah. This case is stressing me. I barely sleep at nights!" He had stopped with the rubbing and was holding her hand. "But don't worry I am fine."

"Ehh, Captain," Provenza went closer. "I think we are all not doing much here, it's getting late and maybe it would be better if we could all go home and get some rest, maybe at fresh mind tomorrow…" Sharon agreed. They were on this case now for three days already, and at late hours, with all the fatigues of the day before and late nights, nothing was coming anywhere near to the conclusion.

As soon as he had collected his stuff, Andy knocked at her door. He had been doing this on a daily basis, even before they had started to officially date. He always took her bag with her laptop and walked with her to the parking lot where their cars were and then separate. At the beginning, it had started as a way to make her feel somewhat more accepted in the division, later it became a sign of friendship, and later on it had become their love affair routine, for a fugitive moment in which their hands would have had contact to each other, without anyone suspecting anything. "Ready to go?" He said entering and trying to grab her laptop bag.

"Yes, but allow me this time," Sharon had instead put her bag on her shoulder and grabbed Andy's things with her. She was concerned about his health and it wouldn't be so exhausting to bring her own stuff by herself for once.

Andy had tried to resist and convince her he could handle a bag but she had been insistent. "Okay," he replied to her, "but I drive home!"

It was a silent drive, Sharon had fallen asleep in the seat and hadn't even noticed Andy making a stop to grab some take out food. Despite being a very sensitive case making them scratch their heads constantly, she had been exhausted that at some point her body had just surrended to tiredness and shut down on itself. When Andy parked and turned off the engine, she finally woke up.

In the elevator, Andy had eventually managed to take her bag from her hands, as Sharon was laying her head with her eyes closed on his shoulder. "I am so tired I think I will go straight to bed," she whispered. "I don't even want to get changed into my pajamas," they reached their floor and Andy was keeping his arm around her waist.

"Can you take this?" He gave her the bag of food.

"When did we stop to buy chinese?" She questioned looking at the small boxes in the bag.

"Around your third and fourth noisy snoring in the car," he replied mocking her.

The house was empty, all lights turned off and it felt cold with no sign of life. They hadn't spent much time in it the past days.

Sharon closed the door behind her back and pointing her finger, still handling the bag, she said to Andy, "I do not snore, Andrew Flynn!" And she walked to the kitchen to turn on the lights and leave the bag on the counter.

"Ouch, full name. I am in big troubles!" He was being sarcastic, but he knew that Sharon only used full names when she was mad at someone. In this case, he knew she was only pretending to be mad at him, or probably too tired to actually be angry at him. With a smile on his face he pulled out the boxes from the bag, "Why don't you go and sit on the couch? I thought we can eat a little more comfortable tonight, and relax our old buttocks on there," he said grabbing some forks.

"Who are you calling old?" Sharon folded her arms

"Weren't you the one who could barely walk in the hall? How is it possible you are so awake right now?" He reached the coffee table and put down the food, while gesturing her to please sit on the couch.

"Because someone just said I have an old ass," she sat down but far away from him.

"Oh trust me no one is complaining about your ass, on the contrary everyone is…" he had a look over at her face and she looked in the mix of annoyance, surprised and very much angry. "This is probably a great moment to tell you I love you so much that words can't even describe, and that I would do anything for you."

"Great," she said with a high note of excitement in her voice. "Start with not saying anything more and," before he could grab his food, she had removed her shoes and put her feet on his legs. "Start massaging!"

Andy had obeyed without further discussing, thankfully he had eaten a snack at work before. He knew Sharon hadn't instead, and she was very hungry at the moment; while she was eating her ravioli he started to move his fingers with energy on her right foot.

Sharon hummed every time he touched a sensitive point on it, "Just so you know," she said swallowing a bite. "This is my idea of porn. Food and you massaging my feet," she had that naughty look that made him crazy.

"Well, we can make it hotter in here if you want," Andy slowly slid to her side, caressing her leg with his hand as he moved closer to her lips. As soon as he was a breath away from her lips, Sharon put a bite from her plate in his mouth and pushed him back.

"The other foot," she said still smiling at him snorting.

"Ah Sharon, you are going to kill me," he sat back in his place and moved on to massaging her left foot. Sharon was still laughing. "You talk about porn, all sexy and then you reject me. My poor heart, it can't take it!"

"Although," she had finished her meal and placed the empty plate on the coffee table, "I am feeding you!" Sharon went closer to him with a piece of roulade for him, "I cannot leave you starving," her voice had gone soft and deeper, and her eyes opened wide while she was rubbing her nose against his. Andy tried to swallow his bite as faster as he could, while Sharon started tracing kisses along his neckline.

As soon as he had finished, Andy streched with Sharon on the sofa, on top of her, while his hands wandered up her legs towards her hips. "I thought you said never on the sofa," he whispered.

"I am too old and tired to walk to the bedroom right now," she replied in another whisper while smiling to him.

They started to kiss passionately, like their lives depended on it, and Sharon's long and slender fingers ran through his shirt's buttons to throw it on the floor a few seconds after. The touch of her hands on his bare naked skin was the best feeling he could feel.

He loved her and he knew she loved him as well, but the way he loved her was more and beyond the simple physical need or his heart talking, it was something he never remembered to have experienced. It was that feeling of missing her when she wasn't near, and breathing when she gave him a smile. He had never noticed before, but it had happened long before they started to date or even being just friends; he had found himself smiling when she arrived at work, greeting everyone; and many times during the day he had turned on his chair just to see her, she had been busy writing her papers and never noticed he was looking, but he could have stayed there for long hours, if only the old man hadn't yelled at him to focus back on the case. Andy loved Sharon, and even more he loved to discover her little by little.

Positions had switched, Andy was now sitting, naked on the sofa and Sharon rocking her hips on him. It seemed like food wasn't the only thing she had been hungry for.

He was fully naked, while she still had her blouse on, unbuttoned and showing her black bra. Andy helped her in taking them off and now her beautiful body was fully on show to his eyes; she had a pale skin, and it was warming up on his touch and the thrusts, and it was perfect. His hands were solidly placed on her hips, helping the movements of her body, "Andy," she whispered with a very sensual voice and that was enough for him to quickly slide onto her, gently letting her slip down on her back, and then he started to move again. One hand gripped on the back of the sofa, and another holding her left naked breast; he leaned down to kiss her as his movements grew faster, close to his orgasm.

When he started to slow down, with just the sound of their breathing which synched together as though they were one. "I love you," Andy whispered so close to her beautiful smile. He kept on kissing her lips and suddenly Sharon bursted into a laugh. He moved away from her, "Well, I certainly hadn't expected this reaction,"

"No, no Andy it's not," she couldn't contain her laughter. When finally she peaced her enthusiasm she explained to him, "I was thinking we just jumped on each other as high school kids do on their first experience and," she started to laugh again. "Think if someone had walked through the door," Andy showed a shy smile on his face, he got her point but it was still not funny to be laughed at. "I am sorry sweetheart, it was fantastic and you are. I love you. Really," she was caressing him. "But I think it's better we keep our antics for the bedroom," she started to kiss him on the lips. Andy still had his eyes open and watching at her. "Andy, I am sorry I laughed at you. It wasn't for you. The whole situation made me laugh," she noticed he still wasn't so sure about her words. Sharon grabbed her blouse from the floor and put it on; Andy followed her. "I am so sorry, honey. I really didn't mean to. I love you so much," she wrapped into his hug.

"I guess it's okay, I just… didn't expect that reaction and it shocked me a little," he closed his grip on her body more tightly. Andy took a few moments to think about what she said before, "You know," he was now looking her in the eyes. "You are right, it's very funny. Maybe it's better if we keep it in our bedroom," he kissed her.

When they parted Sharon started to smile, "You said our," she noted.

-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-

The weeks passed, and still no sign of a good house. Work had still been its intense hours and Sharon and Andy was spending less and less time together at home. They arrived always so exhausted only to have a the energy just to eat something, get ready for the night and pass out in bed.

Andy had finally surrended and given Sharon back her side of the bed, and as much as she had told him no, honey that's yours now, he had insisted he actually found the other side quite comfortable. Lying to Sharon wasn't in his plans for a good relationship with her, but a small white lie to make her happy, he had allowed himself to say it.

The biggest problem for Sharon was that not only hadn't they been intimate for more than three weeks now, but that even that small chance of intimacy they had, had been wiped away by Andy spending his nights on the recliner. She always fell asleep in his arms, and constantly woke up without him by her side, and he was instead in the living room. Sharon hated that recliner for more than one reason: it was esthetically horrible, totally unmatching to the rest of the furniter, impossibly hard to clean and most importantly it was a serious trouble-maker for her only moments alone with Andy. Besides it had attracted Provenza like bees and honey.

The old man had been visiting them more and more often, from the usual Sundays of football, to the dinners with Patrice, and he had always been sitting on the recliner saying, "We need one at home, Patrice!" And Sharon had always motioned her friend to never go under that dark path with the recliner, or he would have done even less than what he was already doing. Or wasn't.

That night, Sharon had woken up all of a sudden and this time she was determined to get her man back in the bed. She didn't even need to check if he was elsewhere, she knew he was in the living room and that was exactly where she found him: sitting on the recliner, reading his magazine.

She grabbed it from his hands and put it on the coffee table. After a few weeks of moving them away from it, Sharon had given up and let Andy leave them on the coffee table, or the floor if he preferred, she was done trying to change his habit. "Come with me," she said taking his hand and guiding him towards the bedroom.

"Yes, ma'am!" Andy hadn't objected. They entered the room and Sharon closed it behind her, motioning him to go on the bed; she had then walked to it and sat down, right in front of him. "Sharon, I…" she put a finger on his mouth to silence his words.

"Do you love me?" She only asked.

"Of course I do, Love." He didn't need time to think, he was sure of his reply.

"Andy," she let go out of a breath. "I let you move the things in the kitchen, because they had to fit your cooking and style of organizing them. I don't cook that much, it's your reign in the house and I let you do it. You said you wanted a tv in the bedroom, and I hate to have it but I let you bring it in, and you barely even watch it in bed." She was now holding his hands in hers, trying to reassure him it wasn't a scolding, just making him notice things. "You didn't like the way the table was set so we moved things around for you to like it. You put your magazines on my coffee table,"

"Our coffee table," he corrected her as she always did with him when he said yours instead of ours.

"The coffee table. You do that, I don't like it but I accept you doing it." She took a breath and kept going, "you brought that horrible, horrible clothes-stand with the penguine because your grandsons gave it to you, and honestly Andy it's horrible-I know I said it isn't-but it's horrible. But it's okay, it was a gift, you like it and it's hidden here in the bedroom where no one else will ever see it. But please, please Andy let me get rid of that recliner." He was still holding her hands, listening to her reasons. He hadn't said much more, "I love you, Andy. And-I cannot believe I am saying this-I am losing you to a chair." Now it was Sharon to let go of his hands and move away from the bed. She was actually ashamed of her rant before, for pointing out all of the things she had done for him, all of the changes, and Sharon hated changes. "You don't even sleep with me anymore, Andy. And I don't mean just falling asleep in the bed, I mean also," she sighed, "do you remember when it was last time we made love?"

Andy had some thinking, "It can't be that long ago, how long can it be, a week maybe. A week and few days." He then replied.

"It's three weeks, and two no, three days!" She had a quick look at the alarm on her nightstand and midnight had passed since a few hours ago. "I miss you," she said. "I miss your body, how you always warm me up because I am always cold. I miss that you whisper I love you in my ears because you think I'm sleeping,"

"Oh, you heard that!"

"Yes! I heard that. I heard it the last time you said, and all the previous times. I heard it. And I will admit that I love to hear it, and that's why I never turned to say that I love you too. I love to hear you saying you love me." In the meantime, Andy had moved closer to her. He was now holding her from behind, and both were swinging watching out of the window.

He placed a kiss on her neck, on the naked skin that was showing from her robe, "I love you," he whispered. Sharon stood there, in his hug and smiling. "I will move the recliner to storage with the kid, first thing tomorrow." He only heard a feeble thank you coming from her, before they both moved into the bed to sleep. It was very late and the alarm would have rung in a few hours.

As promised, the morning after, Andy had given Rusty instructions to move the recliner into his storage; he had given him the code to the electronical locker and twenty bucks for the help.

By the time they returned to the condo in the evening, Sharon's old sofa-chair, that had been moved to Rusty's bedroom to make space for the recliner, had been placed back in its place, in front of the coffee table, like its twin matching one was on the other side. Sharon was very pleased and relieved to see that.

As soon as they had entered and turned on the lights, Andy moved to the coffee table and grabbing his magazines he put them in one of his drawers in the desk. Sharon smiled, knowing he was doing that only because she had confessed the night before.

It wasn't as late as previous nights, finally they were getting closer to a conclusion on their case and Andy had decided to treat themselves a little tonight, with a homemade dinner. "Go and take a shower, love. I'll do the cooking. We meet here in one hour!" Andy sent her to relax.

"Do I have to dress elegant?" She asked.

"Naked is preferred,"

"Rusty and Gus are having dinner with us," she replied.

"Then I guess we will need to be dressed, yeah!" He hadn't planned to have an intimate dinner, most probably Rusty would have been home and he was happy to hear that Gus was joining them again for dinner. On the other hand, having Sharon for himself and possibly naked, was a very appealing thought.

As they were just talking, Rusty entered the house with Gus greeting them both. "Oh, now I have to cook with my shirt on," they only heard a thank you from Rusty coming from afar from his bedroom.

Sharon had smiled, closing herself in the bathroom for her relaxing hot bubbles bath.

Two hours later…

Dinner had gone great. The food was delicious and the company very entertaining; two hours had passed fast in laughter and jokes on Rusty's hair. Sharon was happy to see her son more relaxed and that everything seemed to be going good with his boyfriend, but also she was very surprised at how comfortable Andy seemed around the two of them, discussing their plans for a week-end out of town, and he participated with suggestions and opinions without any problem.

"Goodnight," Sharon and Andy greeted Gus as he walked out of the door and immediately after Rusty who vanished in his bedroom.

"He thinks we are going to make out right away," Sharon said to Andy while starting to clear the table.

"Oh, but we agreed to keep it going just in our bedroom," Andy was giving everything a wash before he put them in the dishwasher. "Kids," he concluded. Sharon laughed to his last affirmation, he sounded so much like Provenza at times. A cranky old man.

The night went really smooth. They hadn't made love, but there was some kissing and he whispered his magic words into her ear and they fell asleep like this: Andy hugging Sharon, making her feel warmer and secured in his arms.

The rain had come to wet the town again, and another thunderstorm disturbed Sharon's sleep. She woke up and moving to her side, she noticed Andy was missing again. But now he couldn't be on his recliner. Something looked weird, though. Rubbing her eyes to see more clear, she noticed that his pillow wasn't there either, and a part of the blanket was all reversed on the floor from his side. She followed that line and popping up from the mattress, she met with Andy's eyes.

"Hello," he said. His voice trembling with pain.

"Andy, did you fall from the bed?" He was laying down, his pillow behind his head, his back on the floor and his legs drew up.

"No," he was trying to stretch his back.

Sharon hurried to get up and moved to him, she bent down on her knees next to him and put a hand on his chest. She was worried he was having a heart attack, or that his blood pressure had gone too high and he was feeling bad.

Andy unfolded his leg on the floor and put his hand on Sharon's back, "Honey, I can't sleep on your mattress," he confessed. The reason why Andy had spent more than three weeks on the recliner, was that Sharon's mattress was too soft, and with his injuries, and health problems it had become very hard to sleep on it. He needed a better position, one where he was on a more rigid surface and a bent position.

"Oh Andy, I had no idea. Why haven't you told me?" Sharon stood up and moved to her side of the bed. She moved the blanket to cover him fully and went back to him.

"It is your bed and I didn't want to bother you," he noticed she was trying to make some space for her by his side. "I figured I just had to get used to it, but with time passing it was harder and harder," Sharon now had wrapped his arm around her and put her head on his chest. "What are you doing, Love?"

She curled up in the blankets and clasped her legs to his, "I am sleeping here by your side. Your pain is my pain," she held tight to his torso.

"And my uncomfortable position should be your uncomfortable position? Sharon please, go back to bed. I don't want you to be in pain tomorrow. Tell you what," he tried to stand up but a long shiver of pain ran through his back. "Please, sweetheart!" He tried to convince her to move back to bed. Laying on the floor was a very unpleasant situation and she shouldn't have gone through it because his old cranky body was turning against his own younger soul.

In the background of thunders rumbling in the city of Los Angeles, Sharon felt protected by Andy. "The recliner is coming back to the condo, first thing tomorrow!" Andy couldn't avoid but smiling at the sound of those words.

"You don't have to, Sharon! It doesn't fit the style of the house, and you don't like it. It's okay, I can…"

"Shh, shh!" Sharon stretched out long his side, close to his ear. "I love you," she whispered.

Andy couldn't say much more but surrendered to her stubborness, and after she had told him what he said to her every night before she fell asleep, he held her in his arms, while her head was resting on his chest and let himself falling asleep. His breathing was a lullaby in Sharon's ears.

Some explanation: for the first time EVER I tried to make a little sex-scene description. I don't write smut. I don't even write sex at all, but I wanted to try.

Also I wanted to explain that it's not cleared who rejected who during those 3 weeks and 3 days but I just needed something to bring up tension with them and a reason for Sharon to hate that recliner even more. (Sorry I normally write Angst, I had to make a little drama in the rain for the sun to shine bright again :P)

Comments and reviews are always welcome.