A couple of weeks ago, I saw a comment somewhere on social media (no idea who said it now) that Sharon's promotion to Commander is an anniversary we should celebrate, and I absolutely agree. In honor of the recent second anniversary of her promotion, here's a flashback to the first anniversary. She's alive and well and never had cardiomyopathy.

16–"I always want to kiss you."

April 2018

"Shar?"

Sharon fought through the haze of sleep as Andy pressed himself into her back. Before she opened her eyes, she recognized the raspy request that sometimes happened early in the morning before either of them were fully awake. After a refreshing night of sleep, she was happy to oblige, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out where they were at first. The smell of the room and the texture of the sheets were all wrong. Both were pleasant, they were just different...Oh, right. They were in Ireland on their honeymoon. After some drama with lost luggage and a struggle with adjusting their bodies to local time, they'd finally found their bearings a couple of days after arriving and were functioning like human beings again.

Sharon turned around to face Andy. "Hey." She could tell from the look on his face that her suspicion about his intent was correct, so she wedged one of her legs between his and started kissing him. "Now, this is my kind of wake up call."

Andy grinned against her lips. "You know me. Always happy to help."

"And they say chivalry's dead."

"Not on my watch."

Later that morning, they did a little sightseeing in town before landing at a beachfront diner for lunch. "What do you want to do this afternoon?" Andy asked as they waited for their food.

Sharon sipped her mimosa and looked out toward the beach. "I wouldn't mind just sitting on the beach. It's supposed to get colder tomorrow, and it's beautiful. I could live with another slow day before we do much of anything else." They had purposefully planned for their first three days to be in a smaller town so they could unwind and not feel like there were a lot of things they needed to see and do, but there was still enough to do to keep them entertained.

"Are you sure? We can ride horses on the beach, or there's a cliffs tour that's supposed to be breathtaking."

Sharon nodded. "We can find something else to do if you want to, but I could do without riding horses, and we can do the cliffs tour or whatever else tomorrow."

Andy shrugged. "I don't mind going to the beach, I just thought you might want to do something more special today."

Sharon tilted her head. That wasn't the first time that week he'd said something like that about today, and she knew he'd made reservations at the nicest restaurant in the area for dinner that night. She couldn't figure out why he was harping on this day to be more eventful than the others.

After lunch, Sharon and Andy went back to the hotel to change clothes. It wasn't warm out, but it wasn't too cold to make being outside unpleasant, either. Still, the thin-blooded Californians needed warm clothes and a blanket. After getting a couple of chairs from the hotel, they scoped out a spot on the beach. They spotted a few people up and down the coast, but they mostly had it to themselves. After reading and idly chatting for a while, Andy was getting restless, so they walked down the beach for a while. Sharon looped her arm through Andy's, and she stopped every few minutes to kiss him. "Hey, I wouldn't object to going back to the room if you're ready for round two," Andy teased.

"I don't know about that, but after this morning, I can't stay away from you."

"Glad to hear it. I haven't been able to decide whether you going right back to sleep was a good thing or a bad thing." Andy had let Sharon have the bathroom first afterward, and by the time he'd taken a quick shower, she'd climbed back under the covers and was unconscious.

Sharon squeezed his hand and rested against his shoulder. "Definitely not a bad thing."

"I think you were right about coming down here. This is the perfect way to spend today."

Sharon paused and looked up at Andy. "Why have you been so fixated on making today special?" She finally asked.

Andy raised his eyebrows. "Don't you think the anniversary of your promotion to Commander is something to celebrate?"

Sharon's eyes widened as she struggled to calculate what today's date was. He was right. "Oh, my, I completely forgot!"

Andy mockingly rolled his eyes. "I am surrounded by people with no sense of occasion."

Sharon drove her elbow into his side. "Well, someone distracted me from having any idea of what today's date is."

"Guilty." Andy nipped at her neck as they walked along.

Sharon's thoughts wandered back to the events of the last several months. She and Andy had decided to postpone their honeymoon to April when they realized Stroh was closing in on LA around the time of their wedding. Sharon had been too afraid to leave Rusty for such an extended period at the time, despite his security detail. She also would've worried the whole time and wouldn't have been able to enjoy the honeymoon. Not to mention that, on second thought, who the hell wants to go to Ireland in November? Now, with Stroh out of their hair and Sharon recently retiring by choice, both to keep herself out of further dangerous situations and as a distaste for the changing politics within the LAPD, she couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the anniversary of her promotion. Starting the morning in bed with the man she loved and having a lazy day in an idle Ireland town and on the beach was perfect.

Later that evening, after a candlelit dinner of the best food Sharon had ever tasted, she shivered against Andy as they walked back to the hotel. The wind had picked up, and she wished she'd worn her heavier coat until Andy wrapped his arm around her. The restaurant had been in the opposite direction from their hotel as they'd taken when they walked around that morning, so the shops and attractions around them were new. Sharon raised her head from Andy's shoulder when they passed a small pub. "Look, Andy, O'Dwyer's! We have to go in."

Andy shrugged. "Why not? It's still a little early."

They found two empty barstools, and Sharon looked around after ordering a Guinness. "My granddad was in his early twenties when he moved to the US, and I remember him talking about the pubs here that he loved. This looks almost exactly like the ones he described." The pub had a quaint feel to it, and it looked like it hadn't changed much in the last century or so. The first Guinness went down a little too easily, and after a martini and a couple of glasses of wine with dinner, Sharon had been feeling the effects before they left the restaurant. Andy was talking to a local man that was sitting on the other side of him, and after the second Guinness, she knew she should probably stop, but that didn't stop her from ordering a third. When in Ireland, right? She didn't realize how drunk she was until she got up to go to the bathroom. She grabbed Andy's shoulder to steady herself, and he looked up at her. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Just going to the bathroom." Her words were reasonably unslurred, or so she hoped, and she managed to make her way to the bathroom and back without incident. She'd splashed water on her face and felt a little more in control of herself, and the live music and atmosphere of the pub made that last beer seem like a good idea.

Andy ended his conversation and turned to Sharon when he realized she'd been quiet for a while. She'd added to the conversation a little bit at first, but then seemed to just want to enjoy the music for a while. She was swaying a little, and he could tell from her glazed-over eyes that it was time to call it a night. He quickly paid the tab and gently guided her off of her bar stool. "You ready to go? I'm tired."

"'Kay." Sharon leaned against Andy as they walked back to their hotel, more out of necessity than for warmth this time, but she had her wits about her enough to try to appear to be reasonably sober. She wasn't doing the best job of that, but she was trying.

When they got back to the hotel, Andy detoured to the gift shop. "What're you doing?" Sharon mumbled.

"We don't have anything to drink in our room. Thought you might want some ginger ale or water."

"I'm not drunk."

"When did I say you were? We just might get thirsty before tomorrow."

"Mm-hmm." Sharon crossed her arms and waited impatiently for Andy to get what he wanted and have them charged to their room. Her mind was muddled, and she just wanted to go to bed. When they got upstairs, she did the bare minimum of her nighttime routine, i.e. a quick brush of her teeth and washing her face just thoroughly enough to get most of her makeup off, and collapsed into bed. Her dress was crumpled on the floor in the bathroom. It had been itchy from the inside, so she'd worn a camisole under it, and she was still in that and her bra and panties when she fell into bed. This was why she hardly ever drank more than a couple of glasses of wine at a time. It still happened every now and then, but she hated it every time and always swore never to do it again.

"Hold on, Commander, let's get your bra off."

The sentence sounded so absurd, and it made Sharon giggle. Still, she didn't want to admit to being too drunk to care about having it on, so she protested. "I like my bra."

"Since when? Hold on, it'll just take a second." Andy chuckled as he unhooked her bra and pulled it out from her camisole. Drunk Sharon didn't make an appearance all that often, but said appearance usually had a tendency to take that of a petulant child.

Sharon waited for Andy to go to the bathroom before she took a few sips of ginger ale. She didn't feel sick, thank god, but her stomach felt heavy from so much beer, and the ginger ale settled it some. Next thing she knew, it was morning, and she had a headache and a disgusting taste in her mouth. It took a minute to recall the events of the night before, and she let out a low groan as she remembered what happened. The hell was she even wearing? Regardless of any pre-bedtime activities, she always put on a nightgown or pajama set before she went to sleep. She felt a sore spot on her thigh, and she pushed the covers down to investigate. A nasty bruise had formed sometime during the night, and she was drawing a blank on that one.

"Morning, sunshine." Andy struggled to open his eyes as he pulled Sharon close to him.

"Morning...Any idea where the bruise on my leg came from?"

"I think you got up to go to the bathroom sometime last night and walked into the table on your way. I just remember waking up to a thump and then the daintiest-sounding 'fuck' I've ever heard."

Sharon covered her face with her hands. "Oh, my god, I was drunk last night. Must've been the martini, those are never a good idea. I only had three beers at that pub...Didn't I?"

"Technically, but those glasses were enormous. They were probably more like one and a half beers apiece."

"Nice." Sharon wrinkled her nose and placed two restraining fingers against Andy's lips when he leaned down to kiss her. "You don't want to kiss me just yet. I didn't do the best job of brushing my teeth last night, and my mouth tastes like a sweatsock."

"You're going to have to try harder than that. I always want to kiss you." Andy gently moved her fingers so he could properly kiss her. "So, what'd you think of your first anniversary of being named Commander?"

"I feel just as accomplished as I did then, and I'm beyond happy to be retired and able to see my family and friends as much I want."