Rusty was sitting in the living room and playing chess by himself. Sharon was sprawled on the couch, the blanket over her face and her right foot dangling off the couch. The house was quiet and the light was dim. A few yellow sunrays invaded the room through the curtains and created patterns on the floor.

The previous night had left Rusty confused. He didn't need much information to understand that despite the façade she was trying to put forward, Sharon still had strong feelings towards Alfie. It scared him. He could see that Alfie's intentions were not pure; he wanted something from her. Sharon rolled on her side and her pillow fell to the floor. She sent her hand from under the blanket and groped around, moaned in frustration as her hand was not able to get a hold of her pillow. She threw the blanket aside and grabbed her head as the light from the window hit her eyes.

"Good morning, Sharon." Rusty said.

"Morning," she mumbled. "What time is it?"

"It's around 8." Rusty replied. "Did you sleep well?"

"Until I lost my pillow-" Sharon shrugged. "Who's winning?" She motioned towards the chess board.

"I am." Rusty grinned.

"Did my phone ring?" she asked and Rusty shook his head.

"So, what are we gonna do today?" Rusty asked. It was Sunday and it was Sharon's only day off, unless she was called out to a crime scene.

"I don't know. I guess we can just…"

"Sharon, why aren't you ready?" A voice called from the hall. Her mother was standing there, all dressed up.

"It's my only day off. I slept in." Sharon replied.

"Well, you need to get up now. We're going to church." Victoria declared.

"Church?" Sharon frowned.

"When was the last time you went to church?" Victoria raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Well, you know, Mom, I don't really have the time…" Sharon cringed.

"Nonsense!" Victoria exclaimed. "We're going, all of us!"

"I need to stay with Rusty, Mom." Sharon tried to excuse herself out of going to church.

"Rusty is coming with us" Victoria stated.

"No, mom. You don't understand, Rusty… Rusty doesn't go to church." She looked at Rusty. "He's not even Christian." Her mother always made her do despicable things like lying.

"Yes, that's true." Rusty came to her rescue. "I'm…"

"Jewish!" "Buddhist!" Rusty and Sharon called out at the same time.

"Yes. Mother, Rusty is a Buddhist Jew." Sharon sighed. Victoria didn't look pleased or convinced.

"Well, Rusty can use this visit to church to educate himself about other religions." she said. "Alfie is coming to pick us up." Sharon looked at Rusty who seemed to be nervous. She was quite sure that he was thinking about the events that happened on the previous evening.

"Rusty, can we speak at your room for just a moment?" she said and gently grabbed his arm.

"I know what you're thinking." She closed the door behind her, "I'll behave, don't worry." She offered her best smile but Rusty still looked weird.

"Sharon, you have to get ready!" they heard Victoria's voice.

"Oh, dammit!" Sharon called out. Her swearing was not something to be taken lightly, Rusty thought. He couldn't recall hearing her swear before.

"Sharon, you know, I don't mind going to church. I'm already going to a Catholic school." he said.

"It's not that." She said.

"I know. It's Alfie." Rusty said with confidence. She nodded slowly. "Sharon, I don't like him. Why did he come here? Why is your mother here? There must be a reason for their visit." Sharon felt as if he had punched her in the stomach. She was so focused on trying to manage her relationship with Alfie and her mother that she never stopped to think why they came to LA to begin with. Rusty was right. There must have been a reason for this visit. Something must have happened. The kids, she wondered. Or her father, maybe. Something might have been wrong with someone back home.

"Oh, my god. You're right." she said. "Listen, I need to speak to Alfie and find out why they both came down here, so I'll have to go to church. You don't have to come if you don't want to."

"It's okay. Maybe it will be an interesting experience for me." Rusty replied. Sharon grinned. It was clear to her that the church was not all that appealing or interesting to Rusty. He probably wanted to watch over her, make sure that she was okay.

It had been a long time since Sharon had visited church, but years of church-going engraved every word to every prayer in her mind. Something about the church, even though she didn't quite agree with what it represented, made her feel right at home. After the ceremony, Victoria stayed behind to chat with a friend who lived in LA and made plans to go to a lunch with her while Alfie drove Sharon and Rusty back home.

Sharon did not like the idea of inviting him into her apartment after the events of the previous evening, but she needed to find out the reason behind this spontaneous visit to LA.

Alfie didn't look surprised to be invited into the apartment. He seemed to be expecting it. Rusty didn't like leaving Sharon alone with him, but he went to his room so they could have some privacy.

"Alfie," Sharon uttered his name softly. "We need to talk."

"If it's about last night…" he started.

"No," Sharon replied. She thought she heard Alfie sigh in relief. Maybe he'd had enough of this relationship as well. "I want to know why you're here."

"The truth?" he asked.

"Nothing but the truth," she replied, and they sat down on the couch.

"It's this kid." Alfie replied. Sharon arched her eyebrows, but waited for him to explain. "Your mother and I think that having this kid around is not good for you."

"I don't see why you would think that. Rusty is a great boy." Sharon said.

"It's not his nature that we're worried about, Ron-Ron." He took her hand. "How shall I say it… We think that you took him in because you felt that it might compensate for what you didn't have."

"Alfie, I understand your concern but it isn't your business." The gaze in her eyes was sad and he could hear in her voice that she was hurt by his words.

"Maybe it's time for you to open the file, read it and put this behind you" Alfie suggested.

"I can never put it behind me," Sharon replied. "Alfie, when I told you about this, so many years ago, I thought you would understand, but truth is that no one can."

"You took this kid in because you think you know how he feels," Alfie replied. "And you want to give him what you didn't get. I understand it perfectly. And I think it's very noble."

"Then why are you trying to convince me to give him up?" She took a deep breath and held the air in her lungs for as long as she could.

"You know what I absolutely hate about you?" Alfie asked and continued without waiting for an answer. "I hate the fact that no matter how loved you are it's never enough for you and it will never be enough, because there is something missing in your life and it isn't a foster kid. It's her. And you need to go, open the goddamn file and finally bring this mystery to an end. Enough with this saga."

"I can't." Her voice was broken.

"What scares you so much? What are you afraid of knowing?" He never understood what was stopping her.

"I'm scared to find out there was a reason," Sharon replied.

"A reason for what?"

"A reason why she gave me away," Sharon replied. "Why would she give me away?"

"Who gave you away?" Rusty, who was on his way to the kitchen, walked into the living room. "Sharon, why are you crying?" He looked at Alfie with blaming eyes. Only then did Sharon realize that tears were rolling down her face.

"It doesn't matter, Rusty. I'm fine." She forced a fake smile.

"You're crying, so it does matter." He took a seat next to her on the couch. "It matters to me. Please tell me."

"My mother" Sharon replied. "She gave me away." Rusty's jaw dropped. He'd been living with her for months and he didn't even realize that they shared a similar experience. "My father and Victoria were married for a few years. They couldn't have kids of their own, so they adopted me." Sharon tried to put it in very simple words. "But Victoria could never really accept the fact that she can't have a child of her own. She never truly loved or accepted me. She made sure I knew she agreed to take me in, not because I deserved it, but because my father wanted it." Only now did Rusty realize that Sharon and Victoria looked so different because they were not biologically related.

"She does love you, Ronnie" Alfie interfered. "Why do you think she came here? I know she can be mean to you sometimes and she's bossy, but it's just because she doesn't know how to show you her love."

"It's too late for her to love me" Sharon replied coldly.

"It's hard to love someone who doesn't know how to accept love, Sharon. Your father never told you, did he?" Alfie asked.

"Told me what?"

"You were not adopted as a baby," he said. "You were three years old when they adopted you. He said that you refused to let Victoria bathe or touch or feed you. How could she show love to a kid who rejected it?"

"Why would he tell you and not me?" Sharon looked at him with disbelief.

"He wanted me to know so I could understand you." Alfie replied. "And he thought that if you knew the truth, it would do more damage than good."

"Then why are you telling me this now?" Sharon asked.

"Because now I understand you. It took me all these years to realize why you are the way you are. Why you push everyone away all the time," Alfie explained.

"That's not true. I don't push people away" Sharon protested.

"Sharon, even your career choice was meant to push people away. Internal Affairs? Come on, that position screams 'I'm unfriendly' so loud that I could go deaf." Sharon could have debated him over her career choice at IA, but she just listened. "You are pushing people out of your life because you are terrified that they will leave you. You always go first."

"Alfie, seriously, what are you doing here?" she asked the same question she asked at the beginning of the conversation.

"I'm here because I think you should open your adoption file. You need to go and find out who your birth-mother is and ask her" Alfie replied. He looked at Rusty. "Wouldn't you want to know why your mother left you?"

Rusty looked at Sharon, who seemed shocked by Alfie's straightforward and rather inappropriate question.

"Sharon," Rusty said, "Remember how you told me that I can't run away from my past?" She nodded. "Neither can you."