Y'all are awesome! Thanks for reading/reviewing/favoriting/following!
If I got any of the details of the St. Joseph's case wrong, I apologize (although I didn't include much about it, anyway.) I've seen every episode of the first five seasons countless times, but I haven't rewatched any of the Season 6 episodes since the night they each aired. The events of the cases from Season 6 will just be background noise, anyway, I'm still writing based on my thoughts before the last season aired. And I also probably didn't explain Emily's ballet status very well. I know absolutely nothing about the ABT, but I wanted her home for several days before the wedding, so I did my best. :)
The Tuesday morning before Thanksgiving, Sharon sat in her car in the pick-up area outside of LAX, eagerly watching for Emily to come out. She was staying for almost two weeks and wasn't going back until after the wedding, which was a treat. She usually only came home for a couple of days, if at all, for Thanksgiving, because of training and rehearsals for her upcoming Christmas performances. She could afford to take a smaller part in The Nutcracker this year after a couple of years of mostly lead roles in her performances, so she had more free time before she had to be back in New York. She'd also started to make a little bit of noise about moving back to LA, and Sharon hoped that this was a step in that direction. It would be easy for her to get in with a well-paying ballet company here. She had a serious boyfriend in New York, but his job consisted of traveling and working from home, and his parents lived in San Diego, so moving back to LA was a possibility for both of them. Sharon finally spotted a tiny, black-clad figure with her first-born's signature ballet bun approaching her car, and she jumped out to greet her. "Hi, my baby girl!" Sharon threw her arms around Emily and held her tightly. It seemed like it had been an eternity since she'd seen her the previous summer.
"I'm 34, Mom, do you really still have to call me that?" Emily laughed.
"With these stretch marks I got from carrying you for nine months? I can call you anything I want, young lady." Sharon smiled as she helped Emily put her bags in the back seat, then pulled her into her arms again. "I'm so happy to see you!"
"I know, July seems so long ago, now." Emily buried her face in Sharon's shoulder and held on to her a little longer than usual. On her last visit home, she'd gotten fitted for her bridesmaid dress, and this time, her mother had cancer.
"I'm going to be fine, honey," Sharon said softly as she continued to hold her. At 9:30 in the morning, there wasn't much pick-up traffic, so she wasn't worried about getting out of the way. Emily finally pulled away from her, so they got in the car and drove off. "Anywhere you want to go before we go home?"
"You're not working?"
Sharon shook her head. "I told you I was off for the rest of the week." Major Crimes had been struggling with the FBI for control of their case, but now that the boys were safe and her children were starting to arrive home for Thanksgiving, she had decided to let the FBI ruin their own Thanksgivings and enjoy hers with her family. Ricky would be arriving the next afternoon, and she couldn't wait to have all three of her children under one roof. She'd go back into Darth Mode on Monday and let Mason handle them until then.
"But are you, like, for real off, or the kind of 'off' where you disappear for crime scenes and the morgue and stay attached to your phone?"
Sharon chuckled. "I'm, like, for real off."
"Can we go to the beach, then? The weather in New York has been disgusting this week. I need some sunshine."
"Sounds good to me. It's been a little chilly this week, but it's beautiful today."
Emily rolled her eyes. "Chilly? What, 60 degrees? Mom. It was 17 degrees when I left my apartment this morning."
"Try growing up in the Pacific Northwest, where it's bone-chillingly cold and rains for most of the winter. At least you get more snow than rain. Snow is a little bit more bearable than freezing rain."
Emily nodded. "Okay. I'll give you that." As they neared the beach and Sharon was looking for a parking spot, Emily shed her cardigan, leggings, and boots and rooted through her carry-on for a pair of sandals. She'd stuffed her large coat in her luggage before she checked it when she arrived at the airport that morning, but she'd still needed the leggings and sweater in addition to her dress for the plane.
As they walked along the beach barefoot, shoes in hand, the warm sunshine and the sound of the waves crashing against the shore visibly relaxed them both. Sharon could tell that something was on Emily's mind, though, as they idly chatted. She hoped she and her boyfriend hadn't had an argument. Emily had no idea, but Sharon knew that her boyfriend was planning to propose to her in January. She would be finishing up her radiation treatments and getting the results, and it was close to Ricky's birthday, so she, Andy, Ricky, and Rusty had planned to visit Emily in New York that weekend. No one else knew he was proposing, though. She had initially planned the weekend knowing that she would want to be with all of her children after getting her test results, regardless of whether the news was good or bad. After Emily told her boyfriend about the planned visit, Emmett had called her to talk to her about asking a Emily to marry him that same weekend, since they would all be there to celebrate. Sharon was thrilled about it. She really liked him, and it was obvious that he adored Emily. He was supposed to come home with her for Thanksgiving, but had decided not to at the last minute. Emily hadn't given her any details over the phone, and Sharon was afraid that they were having trouble.
"Did Emmett decide to visit his parents instead of coming here?" Sharon finally asked after they'd been walking for a while. She was trying not to pry, but she was dying to know what was going on.
"Yeah, but he'll probably drive up this weekend. We just decided that we have the rest of our lives to argue about where we're going for which holiday and when, so for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, we're just going to stick with our own families' traditions." Sharon gave Emily a sidelong glance, wondering if she knew more about Emmett's plans than she was letting on. "I don't think we're getting engaged soon," Emily clarified, "but I hope we'll at least be close to that by this time next year. Emmett's so anal about finances and his career and stuff, it'll probably be a while before he's ready to get married."
Sharon quietly sighed in relief. "And what do you think?"
Emily shrugged. "I know I want to marry him, and I'm not in a big hurry, either..."
"But..." Sharon gently prodded.
"I don't know. I know I want to marry Emmett, I mean, I think I know that. I'm trying not to think like a stereotypical child of divorced parents, but you're the best judge of character I know. I'm not saying you should've known Dad was going to turn out to be an alcoholic and basically abandon us, but if you missed that before you guys got engaged, then there's no telling what I'm missing. I'm just afraid that there are some red flags about Emmett I'm missing now that will turn out to be a big problem later."
"Honey, I wasn't born being a good judge of character. It's something I picked up with the nature of my job and the experience of raising a family. One huge advantage you have over me is that you and Emmett already know each other as functional adults with careers. You know how he reacts to stress and career setbacks, and you can see that he is devoted to you through all of that." Sharon looped her arm through Emily's and gently indicated for her to stop walking and sit down. They settled beside each other in the sand and faced the ocean. "Your dad and I met our freshman year of college and got engaged a month before we graduated. It was a different time then. Most of the people I knew either got married during college or were engaged by the time they graduated. Your dad drank a lot, but I drank a lot more than I did after I started working, too. We were college kids. I just assumed that once we were out of school and had jobs, he would settle down like I did."
Sharon paused and stared out at the ocean for a few moments. "We got married the summer after his first year of law school and my first year as a police officer. He still drank a lot that year we were engaged, but he was still in school, so I didn't think much of it. Law school was a lot more difficult than undergrad, but the student lifestyle still allowed for him to drink a lot more than I could with early hours, twelve-hour shifts, putting in overtime hours to pay for his tuition, and being on call. I still just assumed that the more stringent hours of having a career and the responsibility that comes with starting a family would settle him down. There's more to marriage than hoping your husband isn't an addict who leaves you and only comes back when he needs something, but I think you guys are at a point in your lives where you would have an idea of that being a possibility. There's no way you can know everything about someone before you get married, and you will probably learn some darker secrets about him as the years go by, but that will be true of anyone you marry. We all have our dark sides, but people respond to them in different ways. Your dad wasn't willing to commit to overcoming his, and he let it overcome any love and commitment he felt toward me."
"And us," Emily scoffed.
Sharon gave her a sad smile. "Honey, his absence had to do with me and his addiction. Not you guys. I wasn't perfect, either, and I definitely said and did some things I shouldn't have. Nothing to warrant him leaving me, but we had our arguments. I didn't always exactly make our house a pleasant place for him to be the few times he was around. I did everything I could to help him straighten up, though, and while it worked sometimes, it never lasted very long, as you well remember."
Emily wrinkled her nose. "I also remember you making our house a little too pleasant for him. Ricky and I may have slept upstairs, but those floors must've been thin or something. I didn't realize what was happening at the time, but looking back, there are nights where you guys definitely weren't arguing."
Sharon's cheeks flushed. "Sorry, honey," she said wryly. "But that was definitely one of your dad's good qualities."
"Ewwwwwwww! Mom!"
"I didn't mean to gross you out, but I'm sure you've wondered why I let him come back home when he wanted to. A lot of it had to do with you guys, because I wanted to preserve your relationship with him as well as I could. But, I also missed him when he was gone. I missed him the way he was when he had a good job, wasn't falling over drunk, and emptying our bank accounts with gambling losses, anyway."
Emily nodded. They'd never had this conversation before. She knew her mom missed him when he was gone, but she'd always thought that had more to do with being the only adult in the house again and not having any help with her and Ricky. "What else did you like about him?"
"He was comfortable and familiar, and he knew me better than anyone else. He was one of those frustratingly intelligent people who rarely studied and made top grades, and I've always been attracted to smart men. I never had boyfriends in high school, and when he first showed interest in me, I was absolutely smitten. He was so good-looking and so charming. Girls were after him like nothing I'd ever seen before, and I was shocked that he liked me. By the time we were engaged, he seemed perfect on paper." Sharon ran her fingers through the cool sand as she spoke. Before she'd started getting nervous about marrying Andy, she hadn't thought about any of this in a long time. "His future seemed bright, we had so much fun together, he knew my quirks and made me feel comfortable with him, and his parents and I really liked each other. I was a naive 22 year old, and I was too excited about being engaged and planning a wedding to really think about what it really meant in the long-run and whether I was ready. My parents' misgivings about him should've caused me to slow down and think about it, too, but, at the time, I think that just added to his appeal."
"It's hard to think about Dad like that, but in a way, I guess he was kind of like that with us, too. He was always so much fun when he was home, unless he was drunk and yelling." Emily was starting to get restless, so she stood up, and Sharon followed suit. They started walking back in the direction from where they'd come. "It's also hard to think about Andy being an alcoholic," Emily continued. "Are you ever afraid that he's going to start drinking again?" She'd never had the courage to ask this before, but after their conversation, she got a little boost of courage.
"Not really. Long before I ever thought we would even be dating, I could see how committed he was to staying sober. He and your dad are both alcoholics, but Andy realized years ago that it wasn't worth losing his family. He's had difficulty with his ex-wife and children, lost his dad, and we often see highly disturbing things at work, and he's remained sober through all of that. Your dad hasn't been sober for longer than a couple of months at a time, and Andy's been sober for over two decades, now. I honestly can't see him falling off of the wagon at this point, but, worst-case scenario, let's say he does start drinking, for some reason. His children wouldn't speak to him, and he and I wouldn't be on good terms, either. I know it wouldn't be easy, but I would be willing to help him get sober again, and I know he would get back to the point where his love for his family and me comes before his desire for alcohol. Your dad never quite reached that point."
"I guess that makes sense. I even forget Andy's an alcoholic sometimes, but I'm also not the one marrying him next week. I just wondered if that ever crossed your mind."
"I did start having second thoughts a couple of weeks ago," Sharon admitted. "That's when I started thinking through all of the ways in which Andy is different from your dad, and I have no doubts, now."
"Good. I'm so happy you guys are getting married."
"Me, too." On the way back to the car, they passed a restaurant advertising weekday brunch because of Thanksgiving. Sharon glanced at Emily. "You interested? I could kill a Bloody Mary."
"Ooh, yeah. A Bellini sounds awesome." They were led to a table outside, overlooking the beach, and their drinks arrived shortly after.
Once they'd placed their food orders, Sharon took a long sip of her drink and studied Emily. "Do you feel any better about your relationship with Emmett? I got a little sidetracked talking about your dad, and we never circled back to that."
"A lot better. You're right, there's no way to ever know every little thing about him, but...He just feels right, if that makes sense. I don't feel the pressure to get married like you probably did before you and Dad got engaged, and I would be perfectly fine on my own, but I want to be with him."
Sharon nodded. "Those thoughts sound very familiar. With Andy," she quickly clarified.
When they got home, Emily collapsed on the couch. She'd been awake for almost ten hours, and it wasn't even noon in L.A. yet. Once Emily was asleep, Sharon covered her with a blanket and slipped out to the balcony to check in with her team. Yeah, she was "off," but...She needed to ease into it. When she got off of the phone, she went inside to clean up and get organized for her Thanksgiving meal. She didn't have a final headcount for Thanksgiving dinner, and she'd invited the entire team and Andrea, but the lull in the case meant some of them might have a chance to visit family at the last minute. It would definitely be a tight squeeze if everyone did show up, but she could make it work. Emily was a heavy sleeper, so Sharon played music from her phone as she started pulling things out of the refrigerator. Ricky had given her one of those Alexa things for Christmas last year, but she still hadn't taken the time to sit down with it and see what all she could do with it. It was useful when she, Andy, and/or Rusty were listening to music so they could take turns playing what they wanted to hear, but when it was just her, her iTunes collection still worked just fine. She didn't particularly enjoy cooking or cleaning, but music always made it more bearable. She found herself singing along as she sorted through ingredients and started putting things together.
"Have mercy, baby, on a poor girl like me, You know I'm falling, falling, falling, at your feet, I'm tingling right from my head to my toes, So help me, help me, help me make the feeling go.
'Cause when the loving starts, and the lights go down,
And there's not another living soul around,
You woo me until the sun comes up,
And you say that you love me."
Emily woke up a couple of hours later, and she could hear the washing machine and dryer running and smell food cooking. The sweet smell of laundry detergent and fabric softener mingled in, too, and that combination of smells had been her favorite thing about the house she grew up in. Their garage door was between the kitchen and the laundry room, so when she got home from ballet in the evenings, she could always smell Sharon cooking dinner. Between her and Ricky, it seemed like the laundry was never ending, so there was also usually the fragrance of laundry being done mixed in with the smell of food cooking, and she could smell it the second she stepped into the garage. She was groggy and a little confused at first, but the familiar, comforting blend of aromas reminded her that she was home before she even opened her eyes. She could hear Sharon singing in the kitchen and figured she was either cooking more or cleaning. She knew she should get up and help, but she remained lying down and listened for a few more moments. Growing up, she'd actually liked her mom's "old people music," and now there were songs she liked even more, simply because they reminded her of her childhood.
"Go away, so far away It's too late to turn back now, and it don't matter anyhow 'Cause you were right, I'm to blame Can't go on the same old way, can't keep up the same old game
Why can't you just get it through your head?
It's over, it's over now
Yes you heard me clearly now I said
It's over, it's over, now, I'm not really over you, you might say that I can't take it, I can't take it, Lord, I swear, I just can't take it no more."
Emily was about to get up when she heard Andy come in the door. Sharon wasn't expecting him or Rusty yet, so she went toward the door to see who came home early and why. Emily watched as Andy kissed Sharon and took his jacket off. While she remembered some happier moments between her parents, including some she'd rather forget, she never remembered them casually kissing when they got home from work. They were either crazy about each other or arguing. There never seemed to be much of an in-between. While Sharon and Andy were clearly hot for each other, which she'd also rather not think about, there also seemed to be a level of respect and concern for one another's well-being that she was fairly certain had never existed between her parents. Andy's appraising look over Sharon as she fiddled with his tie seemed to be more about assessing how she was, in general, than about judging her mood for his own sake or ogling her breasts, as Jack's would have been. Emily had never paid close attention to Sharon's and Andy's interactions before, but now that their wedding was approaching and things had been serious with her own boyfriend for a while now, she paid closer attention and was pleased with what she saw.
"You're home early," Sharon commented.
"Yeah. There's not much we can do, and the FBI is treating us like we don't know what we're doing. Now they're at a standstill, because guess who really doesn't know what they're doing."
Sharon nodded. "I'd be more worried if the boys were still missing, but everything else can wait until Monday."
"Yeah..." Andy's face brightened when he noticed Emily sitting up. "Hi, sweetheart! How was your flight?"
"Early," Emily moaned.
"I know. I thought you'd be asleep." Andy walked over to the couch and wrapped her in a warm hug.
"Yeah, I just woke up." Emily yawned and rubbed her eyes, trying to clear the cobwebs out of her brain.
"I can tell." Andy kissed the top of her head. "I'm glad you're home, honey."
