Oh, "guest." Thank you for providing a perfect example of why I've felt the need to provide some sort of explanation with almost every chapter. And a sincere thank you to all of the other reviewers, especially the ones who helped me out. Yes, I am well-aware that this story is slow-moving. Ironically, that fact was included in one of my prior "explanations." There are over 2,000 MC fanfics, so just about every plot line has been done over and over again. It would be rather difficult to come up with a unique plot that people would be interested in reading. The best way to make stories unique at this point is with details, and that takes a lot of space. I know the premise of Rusty being sick has been done a lot, but so has just about any other storyline I could've thought of, so I'm trying to write conversations, interactions, and subplot scenarios that we haven't seen yet, or at least that we haven't seen a bunch of times.
I will be speeding up a bit after this, though, but I was already planning to do that before the incident of the whiny guest. With that being said, I definitely appreciate nice "guests" who honestly don't have accounts! It's the ones whose "guest" statuses are probably a result of signing out of their accounts to post a ridiculous comment that I have no patience for. :)
On Tuesday morning, Rusty's nurse came in not long after Andy left to examine him and start his first antibiotic dose for the day. "Morning, Rusty," Bruce greeted. "Do I need to help you to the bathroom before we get started?"
Rusty shook his head. "Mom already helped me," he mumbled. He closed his eyes and let Sharon field a few entirely too personal and embarrassing questions. He didn't know what he was looking forward to more-feeling better or no longer having his toileting policed. He was too grateful for not having to answer the questions himself to be embarrassed about the fact that Sharon actually knew the answers.
After getting the antibiotic IV attached, Bruce gently examined Rusty and asked him some less-invasive questions. "Okay, Rusty, everything looks good, but we're going to draw some more blood this morning."
"Again?! Freaking vampires," Rusty muttered.
Bruce patted his arm. "A lab vampire will be in to do that soon, and I'll be back in an hour to remove your IV. Let me know if you need something before then."
Rusty looked confused. He'd gotten a steroid shot every morning so far. "What, no butt shot today?" Not that he was complaining. He didn't like being sick, needles, or people seeing his butt, and he'd endured entirely too much of all of that in the last few days.
Bruce smiled. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but the neurologist ordered a CT scan for you this afternoon. Dr. Tan wants to see how you're doing without the help of the anti-inflammatory. I believe she's coming to examine you again early this afternoon. Dr. Feldman will be in sometime this morning, as well." He made some notes on Rusty's chart and left the room.
"Why do they ask those questions all the time?" Rusty moaned, covering his face with his hand.
"Constipation is a side effect of the Compazine, so they need to make sure that's not a problem, and they want to make sure you're not dehydrated," Sharon answered. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's perfectly natur-"
"Ewww, just stop. And talking about it with my mom and total strangers, or with anyone, for that matter, is definitely not natural."
Sharon shrugged. "Hey, you asked the question. Not me." She slipped into a pair of sandals and found her infamous coffee mug. "I'm going to find some breakfast and coffee." She eyed Rusty's barely-touched breakfast plate from earlier that morning. "Is there anything at all you think you can eat? I can go to the cafeteria or to the diner across the street if you can think of something you would eat." Rusty shook his head. The water that was being forced down his throat was bad enough. "All right. I'll be right back." Sharon nodded to the cup of water beside Rusty's bed. "That water better be almost gone when I get back."
Rusty eyed Sharon's coffee mug when she came back in. "In this entire hospital, that's all you can find to drink out of?! Mom. That's just wrong."
Sharon smiled. "It was weird at first, but I'm actually used to it."
"Ugh."
Sharon got her breakfast sandwich out and began to eat. She normally stuck to plainer things in the morning, but she needed a little grease after the wine consumption the night before. She wasn't hungover, but she wasn't 100 percent, either, and the sandwich and coffee would counteract the effects of the alcohol just fine. "Do you want some fruit?" Sharon offered, holding out the container she'd bought in the cafeteria. If he didn't want it, she knew she'd pick at it throughout the morning.
Rusty wrinkled his nose. "My stomach feels like crap. I never thought I'd say this, but I can't wait to get that other shot."
Sharon threw her trash away and sat on Rusty's bed. "You're not getting that shot today, either. Blood tests will give them an idea of whether you're improving, but your symptoms are the best indicator, so they need to see how you're feeling without the help of medicine."
Rusty groaned. "How do they think I'll feel without medicine?!"
"Hopefully better than you did on Friday before it started kicking in. How's your stomach? Do you think you're going to get sick?" Sharon looked around to make sure a basin was within arm's reach.
"Don't think so," Rusty muttered. "Just feels gross." He pulled his covers up and lay against Sharon. He felt like a child, but being so close to her somehow made him feel a little better.
"Does your head hurt?" Sharon held her hand to his forehead, lingering for a few moments before drifting to his cheek. "Your temperature went up a little, but it's probably because you haven't had any medicine."
"Mm hmm...Not as bad as it did Friday, though." Rusty closed his eyes as Sharon's cool fingers stroked back and forth over his forehead, but he wasn't able to fall asleep. It didn't really matter, though, because a lab tech came in a little while later to draw blood, during which he shamelessly squeezed Sharon's hand so hard that he was afraid he'd hurt her, and Bruce came back soon after that to remove his antibiotic. Bruce came in two more times before Dr. Feldman arrived, and by the time he'd examined Rusty, it was lunchtime. Not being able to fall asleep was certainly less frustrating than it would've been to have his sleep interrupted so many times.
Andy arrived with lunch soon after Dr. Feldman left the room. He gave Sharon a worried look when he saw that Rusty seemed to be worse than he had been the day before.
"He's feeling worse today, but it's because the doctors need to see how he's doing without medicine masking his symptoms," Sharon assured him. She gave Rusty a rueful look as she removed the take-out container from the bag and shifted her gaze back to Andy. "I'd trade places with him in a heartbeat if I could."
Rusty rolled his eyes. "Mom. That is literally crazy."
Sharon gave Rusty her own eye roll. "No, what's crazy is that someone as smart as you are insists upon using the word literally to add emphasis." He'd been doing that more and more recently, and it grated on her nerves every time. "It would've been obvious that you meant crazy in its literal sense without putting literally before it." Rusty's face clouded over in confusion. "Like a couple of weeks ago when you said that you were literally heartbroken when Nick and Jessica broke up. If that were true, then you wouldn't have lived to tell about it, because your heart would've stopped functioning..." Sharon's voice trailed off and her eyes widened when she realized what she'd said.
It was Andy's turn to look confused. "Who are Nick and Jessica?"
"Um..." Sharon wracked her brain, trying to come up with an explanation.
Rusty heaved an exaggerated sigh. "We can't keep it from him forever, Mom, he's going to find out sooner or later. We might as well tell him how."
Sharon grimaced. "I don't know, honey, do you really think we're ready to tell him?"
Rusty shrugged. "As ready as we'll ever be. Waiting won't make it any easier, and I'm sure he'd rather hear it from us than find out on his own."
"Find out what?!" Andy looked befuddled. He couldn't imagine what the hell they could be talking about.
"Okay, I guess you're right." Sharon took a deep breath. "On nights that you've either gone to bed early or been away from the condo, Rusty and I have been, uh..."
"Just spit it out, Mom," Rusty encouraged. "Rip the band-aid off, it's less painful."
"We watch Badge of Justice, okay?!" Sharon released a shaky breath. "God, I feel like a weight's been lifted off of my chest."
That hadn't been what Andy was expecting to hear, although he wasn't sure exactly what he had been expecting. "So, uh, how did this start? Don't tell me it was just a one-time thing and meant nothing to you."
Sharon laughed. "I actually did only intend to watch one or two episodes so I could say enough to Mike about it to show that I supported him, but...I kind of got sucked in. Rusty caught me watching it one night and made fun of me, but he was obsessed with it by the next week."
"I'm obsessed?! Mom. I watch the show, and that's it. You, like, fangirl over it." Rusty turned to Andy. "You know when she's 'reading emails' or 'going over reports' on her computer at night? She's reading fanfiction."
"Rusty!"
Rusty gave Sharon an innocent look. "What? He was going to find that out sooner or later, too. Now, you don't have to panic every time he walks behind you when you're on your computer."
Andy chuckled. "I mean, if that's how you want to waste your time, then do it, but how can you stand it?! That Worth kid is a terrible actor!"
"But he's sooooo cute," Sharon and Rusty responded in unison.
Andy shook his head with an amused look on his face. "I can't believe this...So, anymore secrets I should know about?"
Sharon shook her head. "I think that about covers it."
Rusty looked thoughtful. "Well, there is one more..."
Sharon was confused for a few moments before she realized what he was talking about. "No, Rusty, we're definitely not ready for that one."
"Come on, Mom, it's actually kind of funny now. And, like I told you before, I was too traumatized to even see anything, or to remember seeing anything, anyway."
That piqued Andy's curiosity. "You can't say that and then not tell me what you're talking about."
Sharon held her hands up in defeat. "All right, fine. It is kind of funny, now that you mention it." She chuckled, remembering Rusty's horrified screams and hearing the thump when he'd hit his head against his doorway.
Rusty nodded solemnly and looked at Andy. "I've seen Mom naked."
"What?!" Andy broke into a fit of laughter. "How did that happen?!" In such close quarters, it didn't really surprise him, except for the fact that he had first-hand experience with how closed-bloused Sharon was. They'd been on the on-ramp for sex before his blood clot temporarily derailed him, but Sharon was still frustratingly closed-doored and wouldn't even change her socks without the privacy of a locked door. He couldn't have walked in on her naked if he tried then. Which, admittedly, he did try.
Sharon was laughing now, too. "The first couple of weeks Rusty lived with me, I sometimes forgot he was there when I first woke up in the mornings. I even almost left him at home a few times when I was really rushed in the morning and didn't have time to collect my thoughts before I had to be out the door. Anyway, I was in the beginning stages of menopause then, and I woke up in the middle of the night with a hot flash. The only thing on my mind was how quickly I could get my nightgown off and get a cold cloth." Even her panties had been miserably hot, so she had shed those on the way to the bathroom, too. "I was groggy and so desperate to cool myself off that the fact that the door to the hall was open and a sleeping teenager was across the hall who might wake up and need to use the bathroom at the worst possible time wasn't even on my radar." She and Rusty had barely been able to look at each other for a few days, but she'd felt that she owed him an explanation, and she'd certainly needed to reassure him that it wouldn't happen again. Giving her other kids the 'sex talk' had been nothing compared to that.
Rusty nodded. "And then I rammed my head into the side of my doorway trying to run back into my room and about knocked myself out. I could tell she was naked, but I was too drowsy and freaked out to focus on anything, thank god." He gave Andy a knowing look. "Just be glad you didn't join the party until menopause was past the 'beginning stages.' I found a pair of Mom's period panties a few weeks after that, and that might have been more traumatizing than the hot flash fiasco."
Sharon's eyes widened. "You what?! You never told me that! I'm so sorry, honey, that is disgusting!" She knew it was possible, though. Once her periods started slowing down and not being often enough to be predictable, she ruined several pairs of panties and usually just threw them away, unless they were some of her favorites. If that happened, she usually rinsed them out and buried them in her laundry basket right away, but she must've been in a hurry and stashed them in her laundry basket to rinse out later.
Rusty shrugged. "I tried to block it out. I was starting to like you a little bit, and it kind of scared me. I thought you were too ol-I mean, um, past that, uh, stuff, so I was afraid something was wrong with you. I googled it, though, and learned that you can still get those after meno-whatever has started."
"So, how exactly did you find them? I know I didn't just leave them out."
"I was about to do laundry and wanted to make sure I washed all of my uniform shirts, but I was missing one. I remembered leaving one on the bathroom floor one night, so I thought you had put it in your laundry basket." Rusty shuddered. "That wasn't all you put in your laundry basket."
Sharon's face was flaming from embarrassment. "Too bad that didn't break your habit of leaving your clothes on the bathroom floor," she muttered. She was far past the point of being embarrassed by 'period talk,' and, while she'd only met Andy's ex-wife a couple of times, it was clear that Sandra was the whiny type. Andy had probably gotten an earful of period woes when they were together. Still, she felt terrible. No teenaged boy should ever have to see his mom's 'period panties.'
Rusty shook his head. "I haven't touched your laundry basket without telling you I'm going to add some of your stuff to a load first in case you needed to get rid of something, though, I can promise you that."
Sharon glowered at Rusty. "You sure are talking a lot for someone who 'feels like crap,' young man."
"Because I feel too bad to do anything else, Mom. Even sleep. I have to have some kind of entertainment. And you guys act disgusting in front of me all the time. I have to take my opportunities for revenge when I can get them."
Andy was doubled over laughing and was starting to gasp for breath. "That's an important life lesson." He got up and pecked Sharon on the lips. "I've got a meeting tonight, so Patrice is bringing you dinner, and I'll see you guys in the morning. Give me your dirty clothes, and I'll take them home and wash them. Can't have your 'flannel pants of doom' supply running low."
Sharon rolled her eyes so hard that she had to blink a few times to regain her focus. "You two aren't nearly as funny as you think you are. But thanks for calling Patrice for me. There are some pretty good places to eat downstairs, but I'd like to see her for a while." She got up and started filling a bag with Rusty's and her dirty clothes, including the rinsed-out panties from the day she'd damn near wet her pants because Andy was being such a girl in the bathroom.
Andy looked into the bag with exaggerated movements. "Any 'period panties' I should know about?"
Sharon bit back a laugh and shrugged. No, just slightly peed-in ones, but don't worry, I rinsed them out. "I guess you'll just have to take your chances."
