Thanks again for the reviews! Especially the ones that took the words out of my mouth, haha.

Sharon and Andy ate dinner and talked for a while as Rusty drifted in and out of sleep. When Andy got ready to go, Rusty woke up and looked nervously at Sharon. "Mom? You're, like, staying with me, aren't you?" The thought of being so out of it with so many strangers around without Sharon being there terrified him.

Sharon leaned down and kissed his forehead. "Of course I am. I wouldn't even consider leaving you alone like this." Rusty nodded and went back to sleep. He'd barely been awake when he asked the question. Sharon was starting to worry about Andy being by himself overnight. He hadn't been alone at night since his heart attack, and she didn't like the thought of not being with him in case something happened. His doctor had said it was safe for him to be alone for extended periods of time, but she was still worried. "I wish you'd spend the night at Louie's and Patrice's," Sharon told him when he started to gather his things. "I don't like the thought of you being alone." Being so torn between her significant other and her child was definitely a first. Jack had never been around long enough for that to ever have been an issue with him.

"I'll be fine, honey. And do you honestly think I'd get any rest with them? They're like rabbits."

"Oh, my goooood! Andyyyyyyy!" Rusty whined from his bed. If his mind had to be so damn foggy, then why couldn't it be foggy enough for him to miss it when they were being disgusting? This shit wasn't fair. "Mo-om, where's that barf thing? I think I'm gonna need it."

Andy chuckled. "Sorry, kid. I thought you were asleep."

Rusty groaned. "I still hear," he grumbled.

"I'll keep that in mind. Speaking of which, cover your eyes while I tell your mother goodbye."

"Ugh, no problem." Rusty rolled over and pulled his covers over his head. "I can still hear. Keep it PG."

Andy laughed and kissed Sharon goodnight. "Love you. Need anything from home?"

Sharon nodded. "Would you mind bringing Rusty's bed pillow and a couple of his favorite blankets? He likes the brown one and-"

"I've got it covered. I'll come by around lunchtime tomorrow. I don't think visiting hours start until 10:00. Rusty? Anything else you want?"

"Yeah. You two to not be gross."

Andy grinned. "Sorry, kid, I can't help you there. Feel better." He turned back to Sharon. "My tongue still hurts, by the way."

"I am right here! Mom! Make it sto-op!"

Sharon laughed at the whiny, horrified lump under Rusty's blankets. "Thanks, Andy. Call me if-"

"I'll be fine, Sharon. Don't worry."

"I know. Love you."

A little while after Andy was gone, Caroline, Rusty's night shift nurse, came in to give him his last dose of his antibiotic for the day and another dose of anti-nausea medicine. Once that was complete, she took his vitals and helped him get ready for bed. "I'll be in here to monitor you a good bit tonight, and I'll have to wake you up a few times. If you need to get up during the night when I'm not in here, either press the call button or wake your mom. You don't need to be out of bed without someone with you."

"I can walk," Rusty grumbled.

Sharon gave him a look. "Rusty!"

Rusty rolled his eyes. "Fine. Whatever. Sorry."

Caroline gave him a warm smile. "I know it's annoying, but your medicine may make you disoriented. Humor me, okay?"

Sharon gave Rusty another look. "He will. I can assure you."

"Mom likes rules," Rusty mumbled.

"Good. So do I," Caroline answered. "Has Dr. Lowenstein been in yet?"

Sharon had to think for a moment. There had been several different people in and out of the room for much of the evening. "Yes, he has." She remembered him coming in soon before Andy arrived.

"Okay. Everything looks good, and we'll keep a close eye on you to make sure it stays that way. Do you need anything?" Rusty shook his head. "All right. Call for me if you need me."

"Mmmph."

"That was 'thank you' in grumpy-Rusty-speak," Sharon said, apologetically.

"Don't worry. I'm fluent in grumpy-speak." Caroline made a few notes on Rusty's chart. "I think we have some cots available. If not, I'm afraid you'll have to sleep in the chair. It pulls out and reclines, and I can doctor it up a little to make it more comfortable. It's really not too bad."

"Thanks. I think I could fall asleep on the floor right now, though." After being up and down with Rusty all night the night before and not getting a break all day, Sharon was exhausted.

"You're welcome. I'll be back soon." Once Caroline was gone, Sharon got her pajamas and started for the bathroom.

"Mom? Where're you going?"

Sharon turned around and looked at Rusty. He looked so small and helpless, and it was unnerving to see him so frightened. "I'm just putting my pajamas on, honey. I'll be right back." Sharon quickly got ready for bed and went back to Rusty. "How are you feeling?"

"Weird."

Sharon tilted her head. "How so?"

"Don't know. Just ugh. That medicine's no joke."

"I'm sorry you're feeling so bad." Sharon sat beside Rusty and held him close to her. She remembered, sadly, how surprised he'd been when she'd comforted him the first time he was sick with her. She'd been cautious about it at first, being torn between respecting his boundaries and wanting him to know she cared for him and would comfort him if he wanted her to, but he'd given in to her mothering surprisingly quickly and seemed to enjoy it.

"Glad you're here," Rusty mumbled, as he got comfortable against Sharon. He shivered slightly when he felt her cool hand on his forehead.

Sharon adjusted Rusty's blankets and held him more tightly when he shivered against her. "I'm not going anywhere, honey. Wake me up if you wake up at all tonight. Even if you don't need anything. I don't want you awake and by yourself."

"Mm-hmm."

"I'll be right beside you, even if there are no cots and I have to drag that ugly chair a little closer."

"Mo-om, lemme sleeeep!"

Sharon's hand went back to his forehead, knowing it calmed him when she did that. "All right. Goodnight, honey. I love you."

"Love you, Mom."

Soon after Rusty fell asleep, an orderly came in with a made-up cot and a couple of extra blankets. Sharon eased herself off of the bed, positioned the cot right beside the bed, and turned the overhead light off, being sure to leave the lamp behind the bed on. She all but collapsed into the cot. Despite being so tired, she slept fitfully, waking each time someone came in to check on Rusty. The fifth time she woke up, his bed was empty. The bathroom light was on, and she could hear him getting sick. Her body protested when she tore herself off of the cot, but she couldn't leave him alone like this. She pressed the call button and made her way to the bathroom. She was annoyed that he hadn't woken her, but that mystery was solved when she stepped in a bit of vomit near the bathroom door. There clearly hadn't been time for that. She hobbled the rest of the way to the bathroom, trying to avoid tracking vomit across the floor. Sharon squinted against the bright light of the bathroom as she dampened a cloth with lukewarm water and knelt beside Rusty. She was patting his back and gently wiping his face before she'd even thought about what she was doing.

Caroline found them a couple of minutes later. "Oh, Rusty." She gave his back a sympathetic pat and got some cleaning supplies from a cabinet, as she'd also found the evidence that he hadn't quite made it to the toilet.

"Sorry," Sharon whispered, nodding at the supplies in Caroline's hands.

"It's okay, this happens all the time. My vomit radar kicked in quickly enough to avoid stepping in it."

Sharon grimaced as she remembered the vomit that was still on the bottom of her foot. "Yeah, well, I wasn't so lucky."

Caroline smiled and gave Rusty a sympathetic look. "I'm going to let Dr. Lowenstein know he's been sick. He'll probably want to examine him." Sharon's eyes widened, as she was just now remembering what this could mean. "He's on two strong antibiotics, so that's probably why he's sick," Caroline quickly explained. "He's had a recent dose of anti-nausea medicine, but it probably wasn't enough to cover this, too. We need to make sure, though. The fact that he woke up in time to get in here-well, mostly, anyway-is a good sign. His mental state is the best indicator of how he's doing. If he's getting worse, then you'll be able to tell by how he's acting."

When Rusty's stomach finally calmed down, he leaned against Sharon and closed his eyes. The floor was freezing, but he didn't have the energy to get up. Or to even flush the toilet. He felt Sharon maneuver against his weight and heard the toilet flush, then felt her wipe his mouth with a wet cloth. It always felt amazing when she did that. "Okay, Rusty, as comfortable as this looks, you can't sleep on the floor," he heard Caroline say. He hadn't even realized she was there. She helped him rinse his mouth out and supported him as he got off of the floor.

Sharon stayed behind to wash off her foot as Caroline led Rusty back to bed. "I'll be right there," she assured him. She squirted some soap into the bathtub and ran a little bit of water, wiping off her foot as she waited. Once there was enough water, she turned it off and squished her foot around in the suds, making sure she didn't leave any remnants of vomit. Once her foot was dry and the water was draining, she went back into the room, where Caroline was asking Rusty questions to make sure he was sufficiently coherent. Dr. Lowenstein came in a few minutes later and assured Sharon and Rusty that he still seemed to be doing okay, but that they would keep an even closer eye on him for the next several hours.

When the first rays of sunlight started peeking through the curtains on Saturday morning, Sharon gave up on sleep. She'd dozed on and off, but hadn't been able to fall deeply asleep. She was exhausted, she just couldn't turn her mind off. Rusty hadn't been sick again, but she hadn't been able to keep herself from worrying about him. Feeling grimy, she got some clean clothes from her bag, quietly crossed the room to the bathroom, and quickly took a shower, hoping Rusty wouldn't wake up while she was gone. She felt a little better once she was clean and dressed, but she needed coffee. Caroline came in before she made it out the door. Sharon greeted her and told her she was going to get some coffee.

"If you don't mind waiting a few minutes, I'll get you some from the nurse's station," Caroline offered. "The machine coffee isn't bad, but ours is better."

Sharon nodded appreciatively. "Thanks." She made up her cot and pushed it out of the way. She knew Caroline was going to wake Rusty up, so she sat on the other side of his bed and held his hand. Once Caroline was satisfied and Rusty was sleeping again, Sharon sat in the chair beside his bed. Her self-control to keep herself off of google was gone, so she pulled out her phone. She knew that freaking herself out wouldn't help anything, but she wanted to know everything she could. Caroline came back a few minutes later with a large travel mug of coffee. Sharon had expected a styrofoam cup. "Where did-oh, my god!" Sharon couldn't contain her laughter when she saw that 'Viagra' was scrawled across the mug in large letters.

"A drug rep accidentally left this for us several years ago when he was here pushing a different drug," Caroline explained. "We don't get things like this from drug reps anymore, so we hoarded the good stuff. This one was the first one I could find. It's actually my favorite. It will probably last you for most of the morning. I just wouldn't dare use it outside of the hospital, where people don't understand where it came from!"

Sharon examined the mug and pressed her hands around its warmth. "Thank you." Another giggle escaped. "This is hilarious." She took a few sips of coffee and turned her attention back to her phone when Caroline left the room. As soon as the hour was decent, she texted Patrice with a couple of questions she'd come up with in the last couple of hours. She tried to disguise the fact that they were inspired by google, but Patrice's response let her know that she'd failed miserably. For the love of god, Sharon, if you don't stay off of google, I'm going to come take your damn phone away from you. Sharon chuckled. The text brought her back to reality. They texted back and forth a few more times and stopped after Patrice promised to visit that afternoon.

As the morning went on, texts from Gus, Andrea, and the rest of the team started coming in. Sharon didn't have much to tell them, as nothing had changed, but she supposed that was a good thing. Rusty was in and out of sleep, but he was coherent when he was awake. After hearing a panicked 'Mom' from him the first couple of times he woke up, Sharon moved from the chair to his bed. It was a tight squeeze, but she could make it work. Once she was situated, she brushed her hand over his forehead, pausing on the scar from where Philip Stroh had hit him with a shovel the night Rusty saw him burying women in the park. It was tiny and faded, and she would never have noticed it if she hadn't already known it was there. She hummed softly as she went through the papers in her lap, so Rusty would know she was there. She'd busied herself with paperwork from the most recent case, which helped distract her from worrying. Not completely, though. By the time Andy arrived at lunchtime, her thoughts had shifted from what might happen in the current situation to what might have happened if she hadn't realized how sick Rusty was quickly enough to reverse it. Things could've been very different if she hadn't been with him the morning before.

Andy put down the lunch he'd bought and the things he'd brought from home and kissed Sharon. Rusty was pressed into her side, still sleeping, and he half-expected him to sit up and start whining in protest about them being 'gross.' He looked Sharon over. Her hair was sloppily pulled back, she hadn't put any makeup on, which was unusual for this time of day, even if she had no plans to leave home, and she was pale and seemed tired. "You okay?"

"Fine," Sharon answered, trying not to feel annoyed. "Just didn't sleep well. Will you hand me one of the blankets you brought? I'll wait until he wakes up to give him his pillow."

"Sure." Andy gave her the brown one and watched as she tucked it around Rusty's shoulders and under his chin. She pressed her hand to his forehead and let out a concerned hum, obviously not liking what she felt. Now that Andy wasn't annoyed and thinking she was using the kid to avoid him, he realized how damn hot it was to see Sharon's motherly side in action. He chuckled to himself. Rusty would lose his shit if he knew what Andy was thinking right now. He pushed the 'hot' thoughts away and studied Sharon again. She looked exhausted. "Do you want to try to take a nap?"

Sharon shook her head. "I don't think I can. I can't stop thinking about what might have happened if I hadn't stayed home with him yesterday morning. There are some sad stories out there, where people's symptoms progressed too quickly for them to be able to do anything about it, or where they just thought they had a stomach virus, and it was too late for treatment to do any good by the time they realized they needed medical attention."

Andy understood and had been feeling guilty, himself. "I've been thinking about that, too, and I'm glad you were there. He'll be okay, but I certainly wasn't helpful. I honestly didn't think he was this sick."

Sharon nodded. She was still irritated with Andy about that, but he honestly didn't know. She didn't even know for sure until after he'd left for work the morning before. "I know. But some people I read about only had symptoms for hours before..." She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. "Rusty's symptoms obviously didn't progress that quickly, thank god, but how does that happen?"

Andy shrugged. "I'm no doctor, but Meningitis probably affects different people in different ways. Rusty has obviously been lucky, for which I am beyond grateful. It sounds like you got him here in plenty of time, and that's all you can do."

"But what if I hadn't?! What if we'd had a case, and I wasn't home enough to know how sick he was? Or what if I'd just assumed it was a stomach bug and left him at home by himself yesterday morning? He was so out of it, and he probably wouldn't have had the presence of mind to call me when he got worse."

"Sharon, please. You never leave him alone when he's sick. Even if you had for some reason, you would have kept close enough tabs on him to know that something was really wrong. Even if we had been swamped at work, you wouldn't have let that stop you from taking great care of him. You never have, before." Andy gave Sharon an innocent look. "Your hovering game is far too strong for delayed treatment to ever be a problem."

Sharon wanted to be angry with Andy for downplaying her concern at first, but he was frustratingly skilled at honing in on her weaknesses and then making her laugh when she wanted to be pissed off. The fact that he was wearing suspenders today didn't help anything, either. That had probably been a calculated decision on his part, but they served their intended purpose. The thought of tearing them off of him and doing dirty things with them occupied too much of her mind for her to think about being angry. Andy didn't need to know that, though. "I do not hover," Sharon scoffed.

"Hey, who said hovering was a bad thing? I think it's pretty hot." Andy handed Sharon her lunch and pulled the table around the bed. She had discarded the empty coffee mug there and forgotten about it. "What the...You trying to tell me something?!"

Sharon laughed. "God, I forgot about that. Rusty's nurse gave it to me this morning, filled with coffee. A drug rep gave it to them a few years ago."

"That's a relief." Andy picked it up and studied it before putting it back on the table. "It's actually pretty nice. It's so big."

Rusty woke up at the most inopportune time. The words 'it's so big' coincided disgustingly with the sight of the coffee mug bearing the word 'Viagra.' "Ugh, please tell me I'm hallucinating."

Sharon turned to Rusty when she realized he was awake. "What?"

"Surely, that mug doesn't say what I think it says," Rusty groaned. "Or I misunderstood Andy."

Sharon laughed again. "A pharmaceutical rep left this with the hospital a few years ago. Caroline brought me some coffee this morning, and this was the first thing she found to put it in."

"Tell her to look harder," Rusty grumbled. "That's just wrong...Ewwwwww, you drank out of that?!"

Sharon rolled her eyes. "You're right, Andy. He's going to be just fine." She quickly ate her lunch and dozed off, still holding Rusty, who was sleeping against her again. Andy covered her with another blanket, pressed a kiss to her forehead, and settled in the chair beside the bed with a book.

Yes, there's mention of Sharon and Andy being annoyed with each other again, but I'm still not "trying to break them up." Just because they haven't been up each other's asses the whole time doesn't mean they're breaking up. It means that real life isn't a fairy tale, and couples get annoyed with each other without breaking up. Also, once again, it's freaking fanfiction. It will be all right :)