Building A Family

Chapter 11

"Daddy, wake up" Andy heard a voice whisper next to him. Then he woke up to see Caroline peering down at him. He looked at her, "Hey, Pumpkin" he said. "Is it time to get Ricky and Emily from the airport yet? Is it time for Santa yet?" Andy chuckled a little and heard Sharon roll over in the bed and sit up. "No, Baby we don't need to go to the airport for a few hours and Santa won't come until after you go to sleep tonight," Sharon told her but couldn't help and smile at the excitement in the young girl's eyes. Caroline climbed into their bed a laid between them, "Mommy, do you think Santa is going to bring me the princess castle I asked for?" she asked Sharon. Sharon smiled at her "We will have to wait and see." Sharon felt a rush of emotions each time Caroline called them Mommy or Daddy. It had started the night the social worker had been at the house.

Andy came home late in the evening after his meeting to find Sharon sitting on the couch in the living room looking at the Christmas tree holding a cup of tea. "Hey, how was your meeting?' she asked him. "Good." He answered her sitting down next to her pulling her legs up into his lap. "How did things go here? Did Caroline go to bed all right?" he asked. Sharon hummed a little and looked down at her tea. He put his hand on her chin and tilted her face up, "What happened?' he asked. "It was OK. At first she was a little upset that you weren't here to read her a story but then she settled down. But then…"Sharon looked back down at her mug and sighed. "Then what?" he asked her gently. "When I was leaving her room she said, "Mommy, will Daddy be here when I wake up?" Sharon looked back up at him her eyes full of concern. "Oh, Sweetheart, I'm sorry I wasn't here for that. He said pulling her all the way to him. "What did you say to her?" Andy asked. "I said, "Andy will be here if he doesn't have to go to work" it was all I could think to say." She told him. "Andy are we making a big mistake here? Is Cynthia right? Can we handle this long term? What if it turns into weeks or months? Or what if they don't find anyone? Then what?' She asked him.

Andy pulled back from her slightly, he brushed the hair out of her face and kissed her. "Right now we are just talking about until New Years? That gives us a couple of weeks to figure things out." He told her

"But Andy, she's getting attached to us. She called us Mommy and Daddy." Sharon said

"So we ask Joe how to handle that. He will know." Andy said, "What else are you worried about?" he asked her

"All of the things Cynthia said about our jobs and our age…I mean we can't drag a three year old to a murder scene in the middle of the night." She told him

"Sharon, in the last six months how many crime scenes have you been to in the middle of the night?" he asked her.

"Just one" she said

"Ok and if an emergency does come up we will figure it out, together. That's what we do." Andy said. Then he took both of her hands into his and looked her in eyes, "What else is it? I know there's more."

Sharon sighed and tried to look away but he brought her face back to him and he could see the tears starting to form in her eyes, "I don't know if I am more worried that they won't find someone or that they will." She said honestly. 'It's going to be hard to let her go"

Andy cupped her face in his hands again, 'Then we will get through that together too. Sharon, you aren't alone. If you are unsure about having a child live here for however long because you don't know that you want that for us then I understand that and we will find her a good place, but if you are scared of us getting hurt then that's not a good reason." His voice was soft and compassionate but firm. "She needs us for however long we have her."

Sharon looked at him and wondered when she would stop being amazed by him. "Ok, for however long" she smiled at him.

"Come on then we need to get some sleep. That girl gets up really early" Andy said with a laugh.

Sharon couldn't believe it was Christmas Eve already. She also couldn't believe that they had managed to get a couple of days off. No murdered Santas to worry about this year. She certainly would not want to explain that case to the three year old dancing around her living room to the Nutcracker Suite. Taking Caroline to see it had been the highlight of the last two weeks. It reminded Sharon of the first time she had taken Emily to see it. "When I open my studio she will be my first student." Emily said when Sharon told her. Sharon smiled at the thought of another ballerina in the family.

"You about ready?" Andy asked her coming into the kitchen. "You know the airport traffic is going to blow.'

"Andy, language" Sharon admonished him not for the first time.

"Sorry" He said with a grin before kissing her.

He looked back into the living room, 'You ready to go Pumpkin?" He asked Caroline

"Yes, I want to see Emily and Ricky again." She said with excitement

"And meet Angela. Ricky's girlfriend" Sharon said with a smile she and Andy had been shocked but thrilled when Ricky had called to ask if it was all right if he brought her with him. "I think it's serious" Sharon told Andy before calling her daughter to pump her for information.

"Hey Rusty, are you ready?" Sharon called up the stairs. It had dawned on them last night that they couldn't all fit in one car.

"Yep, you want to ride with me Caroline?" He asked her

"Yes! Where's Eric? Is he coming too?" She asked

"He has to work, hopefully he will meet us at church tonight. If not he will be here tomorrow" He told her.

Sharon smiled at her son. She had been unsure about his and Eric's relationship to start with but she could tell how much they cared about each other and their relationship seemed to be at such a mature place. She also loved having Eric around. His parents lived in Arizona so he enjoyed being having a family to be with.

"All right then let's go" Andy said a little impatiently

"Come on Caroline. Traffic makes Dad cranky" Rusty said picking the girl up and carrying her to the car. Andy shot the young man a look but when he looked at Sharon for backup she was trying to suppress a giggle. "Really, I get no help" he joked pulling her close and kissing her until she couldn't contain her giggle.

"Come on, children should not be subjected to this" Rusty groaned

Later on after they got back from the airport and ate lunch Sharon took Caroline upstairs for a nap Emily and Angela were sitting in the kitchen chatting. Rusty had made a last minute grocery run. Andy and Ricky found themselves in the backyard alone. "Andy, can I ask you something?" he asked in a voice that was more serious than her had ever heard Ricky sound. "Of Course." Andy said. "How do you know?" He asked

'Know what?" Andy asked him having a pretty good idea what he was asking

"When you are ready to commit your life to someone." Ricky asked quietly

Andy looked through the large window into the kitchen where Sharon had joined the other women. "I guess when you know that the worst thing that could happen with that person is better than the best thing that could ever happen without them."

Ricky looked at his stepfather, "Mom's lucky to have you Andy. In fact we are all lucky to have you."

Andy just smiled at his stepson knowing that he felt like the luckiest man on earth every day,

They stood there talking for a while until the women came outside. Andy looked over at Sharon who was glowing again. As wrong as it might have been to think it at that moment all he could think was how damn sexy she was and how badly he wanted her. "Hey, Sharon, we should probably go get ready for Church before Caroline gets up." Sharon looked at him for a minute and then read his meaning, "Yes, there are a lot of us to get ready." She said, "Emily, do you mind keeping an ear out for Caroline? Sometimes she wakes up scared still."

"Of course not Mom" she answered her

They had barely shut their bedroom door when Andy pulled Sharon to him tightly. His hands making their way down her backside over the jeans she had on. "Have I ever told you just how sexy you are at Christmas time?" he asked her moving his hands up to her hair as he kissed her. "Andy, we have a child down the hall who could be up any minute and a house full of them downstairs." She said in faint protest. Andy moved his lips to her neck. "Yes, and you asked your daughter to listen out for Caroline and then came up here with me. So don't even try that."

"Try what?" Sharon asked her voice faltering as Andy pulled her sweater off of her. She pulled his t-shirt over his head her urgency catching up with his quickly. In a matter of minutes he had her completely on fire. They both had to admit since Caroline had come they had less chances for this kind of spontaneity. "God, I need you." He said his voice full of desire. "I'm here" she whispered in his ear causing him to groan and push them both on to the bed.

They laid in each other's arms afterwards breathless. "Wow" Andy said "We should have a house full of people more often" Sharon just giggled and rolled out of bed. "I'm going to get a shower…by myself" she said kissing him as she left. When she got out of the shower she could hear Andy and Caroline whispering from the bedroom. "What are you two up to out there?" She asked.

"Well Caroline wants to give you your present tonight before church and I think she might be right."

"Really?" Sharon asked suspiciously

"Yes, get dressed and meet us downstairs" he told her.

Sharon was surprised when she came downstairs to find everyone including Caroline ready for church. "Emily got me ready. She gave me ballerina hair!" The little girl said with pride pointing to the bun on top of her head. "You look beautiful. Thank you Emily"

"So what's this surprise I am supposed to get tonight?" She asked

Andy held a box out to her, "Rusty, Daddy and I picked it out" Caroline told her.

Sharon opened the box to find one of those bracelets that she had wanted that you could add beads to. She immediately recognized ones the colors of Ricky, Emily, and Rusty's birthstones. She looked at Andy questioning the other three colored beads. "Nicole's" he said touching the green one, "Steven's" when he got to the blue one. "And that pretty purple one is me!" Caroline said with excitement. Sharon looked at her and smiled. "It's beautiful" she said "Put it on me Andy." He gently put it on her and pulled her to him and whispered in her ear, "No matter how long we have her she will always be a part of us." She put her hand on his face and kissed him, "Always" she whispered back to him.

"Wow, Mom, were Ricky and I that hard to get to bed on when we were little?" Emily asked coming downstairs after Caroline had asked her to do her bedtime.

"Well Christmas Eve is always a little harder." She told her

"Mom, were our toys this difficult to put together?" Ricky asked from the living room where he was trying to assemble the princess castle. "I mean how many stickers do princess need anyways?"

Rusty was sort of helping but his mind was clearly somewhere else, "Hey. Little Brother are you going to help or what?" Ricky asked

"Yeah, sorry, I'm just a little concerned I haven't heard from Eric yet. His shift should have ended three hours ago. " Rusty said

Sharon and Andy exchanged looks neither of them had told Rusty that they had heard that Eric's SWAT team had been called out on a domestic standoff. They both agreed it was better for him not to know until it was over. Sharon hated to see him worry but knew if Rusty was going to have a relationship with a cop much less a SWAT officer this was going to be a part of it.

Sharon had heard that it was over but didn't know any details. A little while later when she was in the kitchen she heard a knock at the side door that Eric always came to. When she opened it she immediately recognized the look on Eric's face. She had seen it so many times over the years. She knew without asking how the standoff had ended.

"I just finished with FID" Eric said his voice shaky. Sharon looked down at the holster where Eric's gun usually would be, it was empty. She knew what that meant. In that moment the police captain was gone and she was all mother. She hugged the young man tightly, "I'm so sorry Eric." She said when she released him the Captain in her started to come back, "Was it your first time?" she asked him. "Yes, Mam, it was actually the first time I have had to discharge my weapon at all." He told her. "Did the suspect make it." She asked him. "No" was all Eric could say before Rusty heard them and came in.

"Hey, you made it." He said then he saw the look on his boyfriend's face. He too had spent enough time around cops in recent years to know that look. "Let's go outside" Rusty said.

Andy came into the kitchen to see what was going on just as the younger men were going to the backyard. He sighed and looked at Sharon, "I take it the standoff didn't end well." He said. "No, Eric killed the suspect." She told him. "Damn" was all Andy could say.

"Do you think one of us should talk to him?" Sharon asked him. Andy looked into the yard where Eric was crying in Rusty's arms. "I think he's already talking to the person he needs right now." Andy told her. "I will talk to him later".

Despite the ending of Christmas Eve the next morning was completely magical. Sharon had insisted that Eric spend the night so there were eight people waking up in their house on Christmas morning including one very excited three year old. "Mommy, Daddy, Rusty, get up Santa came!" she screamed early in the morning. They ate breakfast and opened gifts. Andy could not take his eyes off Sharon all morning. She hummed and laughed and yes she glowed. He found himself wishing he could freeze this moment when all of her worries about the future seemed to have disappeared.

The rest of the family came over in the afternoon and a new round of excitement began with three young children in the house along with four more adults. There was more food and more presents. While they were exchanging gifts Nicole handed a small box to Chad their younger son and said, "Give this one to Grandma and Grandpa." The boy handed it Sharon who opened it and screamed in delight when she looked at it. She handed it to Andy and ran to hug her stepdaughter. Andy just smiled as her looked at the picture frame holding a fuzzy black and white ultra sound picture that said Baby #3 coming next summer.

After dinner the children had gone to play in Caroline's room and the adults were sitting around talking and it was Steven who finally brought up the subject of the young girl, "Dad, can you guys tell us what you are planning with Caroline?" he asked. Sharon and Andy looked at the rest of their children and could tell they all wanted some kind of answer. "We still aren't sure." Sharon answered quietly not looking at anyone.

"Not sure of what Mom?" Ricky asked

"We just aren't sure how we could do it." Andy answered for her

"So it's not about if you want to but if you think you can?" Emily asked

"Of course, Emily. Do you not realize that we love that girl already." Sharon said, "But we aren't sure that we can manage to raise a three year old and do our jobs not to mention we aren't exactly the prime age for preschool parenting."

"Sharon you know that you and Dad aren't alone in this right? You have all of us to help too." Nicole told her.

"Yeah, I mean I do live here" Rusty said

"And my new place is literally going to be two miles from here" Emily added

"I know nothing about kids but I would do whatever I could" Steven laughed

"Angela and I are an hour's flight away. We could be here on a moment's notice" Ricky told them

"Listen guys, we don't want to pressure you. It has to be your choice. Just know that if you want to make this long term or permanent we are all here to help." Emily said in a voice that sounded so much like her mother's.

Late that night after everyone left and the finally got an over tired and over excited Caroline settled down for the night Sharon found themselves alone for the first time all day. Andy found Sharon on the couch looking at the picture of Nicole and Dean's unborn baby. "I'm so happy for them she said with a smile." "Me too, I'm pretty happy for all of us." He added

"Andy are we crazy for even thinking about keeping her?" Sharon asked him turning the subject to Caroline

Andy smiled his lopsided smile at her. He knew he didn't need to convince her. All she needed was one last reassurance of what her heart already knew. "Maybe a little. But Sharon listen, you raised two kids by yourself. I completely screwed up my first go around at being a Dad. Now we have this little girl who needs a family and if you didn't notice we have a pretty damn good one. I think she's being given to us as a gift just like Rusty was. It might be crazy but I think it's our kind of crazy."

Sharon looked at him before kissing him. Then she looked him in the eyes and said, "Call Cynthia in the morning tell her when we meet on the third to bring whatever she needs to make this long term and hopefully permanent."

TBC