Rusty couldn't help but watch how Sharon reacted to Andy's presence. More outgoing, smiling more, even opening herself up more to the rest of the family. It wasn't that she guarded herself, but she protect herself. Mostly from the likes of her ex-husband. He walks over, sitting at the playtable when his niece points to a chair, "Tough to get a spot at this restaurant." He glances to Sharon, who was sitting in another. Both of them with their knees bent in an attempt of fitting in the small, yet sturdy chair.
Sharon gives him a genuine smile, sipping from her mug of hot cider, "Parking is terrible too, but it's worth it." She motions to the scooting buggy that her granddaughter has been moving around the apartment for most of the day, which seems to be parked in the kitchen playset, next to the stove.
He laughs to to himself, getting a look from his niece. He picks his hands up in defence, "May I add, a very good park job."
She watches her granddaughter, "Well, that is your mother's face if I've ever seen one." She takes the piece of plastic cake from the toddler, "This looks great."
Rusty nods, holding his piece of plastic chicken, "Smells great too. How is this on calories?"
Sharon adjust her position, "We haven't had much of a chance to talk since you came in. I'm sorry." She reaches over, taking his hand. "How are you settling into college life?"
He shrugs, "There's a lot to do on campus. Parties and stuff off campus. Lots of clubs to join too."
"Have you joined any?"
Rusty smirks, "Well, I joined the chess team. Obviously. There's a few others too. I've even joined a gym." He laughs a little, mostly to himself.
"A gym?" She mocks shock, "I never thought I'd hear the day..."
"It's free and it has a pool. Everyone meets at the pool."
Sharon nods, "I love to swim. That's why I bought this particular condo in the first place. Swimming pool available nearby." She smirks, "Plus, I liked the scenery."
"I've actually gotten pretty good at it. There's a nutritionist there. I'm...I mean, I still drink coffee and soda and stuff, but I've been trying to take better care of myself."
"You've given up pizza?" She raises an eyebrow, "Chinese food?"
"No, but at least I've learned how to compensate." Rusty grins.
"When I went to college, I instantly gained the freshman twenty-"
"I thought it was fifteen."
"Not in my case." Sharon shakes her head, "However, I got better after that. Did the same thing you're doing, but they didn't offer gyms and such when I was your age."
"Not to mention a few years later and you had kids." Rusty glances to his niece, taking an empty plastic cup from her.
"Dink. Good." Harper nods to him, pointing to the cup.
"Yes, Drill Sergeant." He smirks, then looks back over to his adoptive mother. Her head looks like it's elsewhere, her body slightly more tense.
"Why are you asking how it happened, Jackson? You know how it happened. I can even tell you what the date was." Sharon folds her arms, looking to her daughter who was barely even a toddler, sitting happily in her playpen. Unaware of the tenseness between her parents. Unaware of their situation.
"Shit." Jack runs a hand through his curly light brunette locks. He barely wanted this in the first place. He places his hands on his hips, glancing through the window in their kitchen area. Their apartment was small, but whether he was making money at the racetrack, the poker table, or even at his job, they managed to get by. His broad back and shoulders covered with his beloved brown leather jacket. His muscular form and charisma is what attracted Sharon to him.
She swallows, watching him. The room grew quiet for a few moments until a happy squeal came from her daughter playpen as she tossed out one of her blocks. "Jackson, please."
"What do you want me to say, Sharon?" He turns, an angry expression on his face. "We're barely getting by as it is. Can't you do something about it?"
"Do something about what?" Sharon walks closer to him, standing next to him, "Talk to me. We can talk about this like civil adults, Jack."
"What is there to say?" Jackson looks to his wife, "Another kid that we can't afford? Couldn't afford the first one, and now another?"
She catches the smell emulating from his breath, "It's only seven and you've already been drinking?"
"So what if I was?"
"You're impossible when you're drunk." Her voice flat, angry around the edges. He knows that. It strikes him in the chest. Any time she was angry, it drove him wild.
Jack leans over, kissing her suddenly.
Sharon pushes him away, her eyes ablaze with anger. "No." She growls, frustrated with his intoxication. However, she knows this is the only time she'll receive the full truth from him, "Talk to me."
"What do you want me to say?" He shakes his head, attempting to search her face for clues as to what she wants to hear in his drunken haze, "We need a bigger place."
She turns away from him. "You're barely home anymore. We should be fine when it comes to money, but month after month, I'm worried we won't be when we're hundreds of dollars short of where we should be. You've been getting drunk on a regular basis...I think it's been months since I've seen you sober." She bites her lip, folding her arms, "Is there someone else?"
"Sharon..." Jack rolls his eyes.
"Please, be honest with me."
"No, there's no one else. You're the most beautiful on this entire fucking campus. Why would there be someone else?" Jack places his hands on his hips.
"We've been invited to dinners with friends and you never show. It's just...me with three couples and...you always say you'll meet me at these various places, but you never do. You don't call to let me know where you are or that you'll be home late." Sharon has tears in her eyes, unsure if these emotions come entirely from her pregnancy, or the situation at hand. She's usually good at containing herself, "They...They all think I deserve better, and I'm inclined to agree with them."
"What are you telling me?" He glances to her back as she's turned away from him. She looks so small.
"I'm telling you that not even ten minutes ago, I said I was pregnant again and all you've been able to say is that we can't afford it." She shakes her head, "Normal people are happy when their wives tell them something like that. Normal people that love their family." She swallows, "Do you even love me, Jack?"
"Of course I do. I love the hell outta you."
"Where is the money going, where did you get that stupid jacket, and why can't you ever be here spending time with your daughter and I?" The room was eerily silent. Quinn occupying herself in her playpen as if she could finally feel the tension in the room, "Especially your daughter, Jack?"
"Someone has to make money, Sharon."
"You spend more than you make."
"Not true." Jack shakes his head, "Few months ago, I hit the jackpot. That's where I got this coat from. Won it off some old Korean War vet, along with about ten grand."
"Right, and we didn't see any of it. So where did it go?" Sharon turns, looking him in the eye.
"I was on a streak, Sharon. You've got to understand my situation."
"Usually when someone tells me that I've got to understand their situation, they usually deserve to be behind bars."
"What?" He shakes his head, "Sharon-"
"I think I should stay at my mother's for-"
"Come on. Don't do this."
"Do you think I want to, Jack? Do you honestly think I want to leave?" Sharon shakes her head, "We have a daughter together and another in a few months. They need their father."
It breaks his heart, the way she's looking at him. Her eyes softened, matching her voice. She won't plead, he knows that. She's strong and independent, that's what drew him to her. Well, besides her killer body and legs that went on for miles. "Let me try."
"I shouldn't have to let you do anything. You should just want to do it, Jack. You should want to be here with your family." She looks him in the eye, "What happens when I have this one? Will you be unable to be located like you were for Quinn? I needed you to hold my hand...I needed you to want to be her father."
"I do." Jackson swallows, offering her his hand, "I love you, Sharon. I've always loved you and I always will love you. It's never going to change. Same with the kids." When she obliges him, he pulls her close to him, "We have a perfect little girl. I'm sure this one will be just as amazing." He kisses the top of her hair, "I'll try. Okay?"
Sharon nods with her face against him, attempting to contain her emotions and the tears that welled in the bottom of her eyelids, "Okay." She bites her lip, "Just one more incident, though. One more and I'm taking Quinn and we're going to live with my parents...because I can't take living alone pregnant with an almost two year old, trying to go to school, and doing whatever job I can get as a woman in Law school. It's incredibly hard for women to find work, much less one who can only work part time."
"Take a year off. I don't want you to overwork yourself."
"What will that teach Quinn? To give up when things are hard? As a woman, allow a man to further his career and his education at the sake of one's own?" She shakes her head, "Absolutely not."
"You and your feminism." Jack sighed.
"Damn right." Sharon smirks.
Jack leans his hand down next to his estranged wife, offering to help her up, "Excuse me, Captain." He uses her title, tilting his head to the side when he receives a look from her, "Can I talk to you for a minute?" He knows all eyes are on him, he can feel them burning a hole in his back.
Sharon looks up to him for a few seconds before nodding and following him into the bedroom of one of their grandchildren. She glances around, smiling ever so slightly before making eye contact with him, "What is it?" She tucks a few strands of her long hair behind her ear.
"First of all, I want to apologize for last night. It was both uncalled for and potentially dangerous. I'm sorry, Sharon." His blue eyes sincere as they met those of the woman in front of him.
"Thank you, Jack. Apology accepted." She nods, walking toward the closed door before her hand is grabbed.
"Wait, I'm not finished." Jack swallows, letting go of her hand when she gives him a look.
"If you're going to attempt to tell me why we should get back together again, you're really-"
"I wasn't going to." He offers her a smile, a cheeky grin. The type that only causes her to worry that he may try something else.
"You try every year and you're telling me that this year is different?" Sharon raises an eyebrow, folding her arms, "I have a hard time believing that."
"It is." Jack nods, "I was thinking earlier about when I asked you to marry me."
"This is sounding like-"
"Hold on." He laughs a little, "Wait a minute. I know what it's sounding like, but let me just get this all out. Then you can tell me that I'm a jerk."
"Okay." Sharon smirks ever so slightly, watching him. It was actually sweet when he tried to impress her. It never happened often, but when it did, the entire exercise always amuses her greatly.
He can't keep his eyes off of her and every time she enters a room, he is left breathless. Jack grins, watching her as she brushes her teeth in nothing but her undergarments. Red lace. She's perfectly proportioned and he watches her intently.
Sharon slowly turns, smirking around her toothbrush. She spits out the excess of toothpaste before rinsing off her toothbrush and setting it in the cabinet. She was spending more and more nights at his studio apartment. She didn't know how he could afford it as a Law student. She's younger than him. Everything he's managed to obtain by his own hand impresses her. She turns from the bathroom, slowly strolling over to him and sitting next to him in the bed. "I didn't know you were awake."
Jackson nods, humming his response. "Just watching you." He brings his hand up to rest on her hip.
"I have class in a few hours. Would you like me to make you breakfast or something?" She smiles, leaning down and kissing him tenderly, "You should brush your teeth." She hovers above his face.
He chuckles softly, kissing her again, "You know, I've been thinking about it. You've been here more than you've been in your dorm. Maybe you should just stay here."
Sharon pauses, sitting up more, "What?"
"Will you move in with me?" His tone hopeful as he gently strokes her side with his rough hand.
"Is this...are you joking with me right now or are you being serious?" Her eyes nervous as she attempts to search his face for a hint of a smirk, something, anything telling him that he wasn't being truthful.
"No." Jack shakes his head, "I love you...I love you a lot."
Sharon stares at him for a moment, leaning her face down again and kissing him deeply, "Yes, Jackson Raydor, I will move in with you." This wasn't a marriage proposal, it was something more meaningful than that. This was his space, something he's worked hard for, and he wants to share it with her. She'd heard stories of how he was before she was in his life and how much she's changed him for the better. Stories coming from his friends. She can't help but think that maybe he's changed her for the better as well, not that she needed it, but he brought her out of her shell.
"I remember this beautiful woman I met through a friend. This young woman without a care in the world except for her schoolwork. Smart as hell. Smart and beautiful, like some kind of oxymoron. You trusted me with your life. Then things happened with me, things I'm not proud of, and I ruined that for you. I ruined our marriage." Jackson watches her intently, knowing she can tell he's being honest. "I was thinking about when you moved in with me, and when I asked you to marry me, when you told me about the kids." He smirks, "And I've come to realize that I ruined all of that for you. I wasn't there. I just wasn't.
Sharon studies him, curious as to where all of this heartfelt feelings were coming from, "Does this have anything to do with what Quinn pulled you back here to talk about?"
"No." He shakes his head, "Well, yes. Partially." When she nods, he continues, "She helped me realize something I've known for a while. That, all in all, the one thing I want you to have is happiness. I love you more than anything, I always will. Knowing this, and knowing that I've been the one to hold you back for so long. I'm sorry for ruining things for you by being an asshole. Really. I mean it."
She swallows, watching him still. She sighs heavily, "Jack..."
"I've noticed how happy you are around the Lieutenant." Jackson smiles to her, "Happier than you've been in a long time."
"Andy and I are-"
He interrupts her, "Are you going to let me give you your Christmas present?"
Sharon falls quiet, waiting a moment before answering, "Yes." She bites her lip, her voice unsure.
"Good." Jack places his hands on her arms, a smile painting his face, "Let's get divorced."
