By Sunday evening, all of the out-of-town family members were gone except Emily. She was flying out on Monday morning. With Andy watching football in the living room and Rusty studying in his room, Emily and Sharon were lying on her bed, looking through their phones at pictures they'd taken themselves at the wedding and at those various family members had sent them. "Aww, look at Claire on Ricky's shoulders!" Emily passed her phone to Sharon. "She had a ball last night."

"She sure did." Sharon gazed at the picture for a few moments, then flipped through the rest of the pictures Lauren had sent Emily. "She fell hard, too," she commented when she reached a picture of Claire asleep in William's lap. She passed the phone back to Emily and continued looking through her own phone at the pictures Andrea sent. She laughed when she got to a picture of Patrice dancing with Emmett. "I'd love to know what they're talking about."

Emily took Sharon's phone from her and looked at it. "Well, if he can survive Patrice, then I think he'll stay around for a while."

"You're not kidding. She looks a little frightening, there." Sharon retrieved a nightgown from a stack of clean laundry and lifted her sweater over her head while Emily continued looking through the pictures. She'd be able to hear if Rusty left his room, so she didn't bother to close the door. As she removed her bra, she could feel Emily's eyes on her. "It's not as bad as it looks," Sharon assured her as she removed her jeans and put her nightgown on. The bruising had actually gone down a lot, but she still didn't look back to normal. Emily nodded, but tears had filled her eyes, and she couldn't speak for fear of beginning to cry. Sharon looked at her with concern, as she was quite familiar with her daughter's 'I'm trying not to cry' face by now. "Em?"

Sharon sat on her bed and pulled Emily into her arms, and that was all it took for the tears to spill over. She wasn't surprised. She'd be emotional herself right now without the lingering excitement from the wedding and the distraction of pictures and Emily still being home. They both knew she would most likely be fine, but with radiation starting the next day, the situation felt more real than it had before. Her first instinct was to assure Emily of her favorable odds, but that would probably just annoy her or make her feel like her emotions weren't justified. She didn't need assurance, she just needed release. Sharon silently held her and rubbed her back as she cried, and tears were soon filling her own eyes.

Emily had no idea how much time had passed by the time she calmed down. "Sorry, Mom. I know you're going to be okay. I just..."

"I know, baby. The closer it gets, the more real it seems." Sharon gently wiped Emily's tears away and kissed the top of her head.

They sat in comfortable silence for a few more minutes until Emily spoke up again. "Do you ever regret marrying Dad?"

"Absolutely not," Sharon answered without hesitation. "I wouldn't have you guys, Rusty, or Andy otherwise. I probably would've gone to law school, may or may not have gotten married to someone else, and I might be happy, but I can't imagine being happier than I am right now. Your dad and I had some good times, too, as hard as it may be to remember them sometimes."

The next morning was more calm than usual. Having just wrapped up a case, Sharon opted to do her paperwork at home until her radiation appointment, Andy wasn't in a huge hurry to get to work, and Rusty was taking Emily to the airport before going to campus to study for the day. Sharon hugged Emily and kissed her cheek. "I love you, honey. Text me when you land, and I'll call you tonight, okay?"

"I will. Love you, Mom."

"Love you." As Sharon kissed Rusty's cheek, a thought occurred to her. "Have you made an appointment for your physical?" She'd been on him for the last couple of weeks, knowing he was due for one, and she had a feeling he still hadn't done it.

Rusty bit his bottom lip as a guilty expression came over his face. "Uh, come on, Emily, we better go! Love you, Mom." He made a quick exit, and Emily quickly hugged Andy before picking up her bags and following Rusty out the door.

Sharon rolled her eyes. "He is going to make me crazy! I'm not doing it for him this time. I'm..." Her voice trailed off as she picked up her phone and started scrolling through her contacts.

"You're calling his doctor's office right now," Andy said with a smirk.

"Ugh, he can be a grownup next year." Sharon quickly made the appointment and hung up. "I'm going to threaten to tell him what happens at my appointment every year if he won't make his own." And hope the threat was enough, because she'd never actually do that.

"Yeah, he has about twenty or thirty years before his appointments get really embarrassing," Andy said.

"Oh, please," Sharon scoffed. "Your doctor grabs you for a few seconds and tells you to turn your head and cough. My doctor's seen me from angles you've never even thought about."

Andy laughed. "Yeah. Because that's what happens during a prostate exam. Challenge accepted on the 'angle' thing, by the way. And at what point during your exam does your doctor have his finger in your ass?"

Sharon's eyes widened. "What?! You can't be serious."

"Oh, yeah. Women may have it harder in just about every other area of life, but we win with the yearly doctor's appointments. After the age of forty or fifty, anyway. Before that, they're nothing."

"Of course they are."

Andy gathered his things and kissed Sharon. "Are you sure you don't want me to come take you to your appointment?"

Sharon nodded. "I'll be fine to drive home, and..." She had a feeling she'd want to have that time to herself, but she didn't know how to say that to Andy without him feeling like she was pushing him away.

"Yeah, but...What?" Andy asked when Sharon started laughing.

"The 'prostate' talk reminded me of one morning when Ricky was a teenager. I went in his room to make sure he was awake for school, and...Well, let's just say he was being a fifteen-year-old boy." (A/N: I've tasked CommanderRaydorSass with expanding upon that scene, because I know she'll do a much better (and funnier) job with it than I could, so it should appear in a chapter of Then and Now at some point :))

Andy cackled. "No way! How have I never heard thatbefore?!"

Sharon shrugged. "It's not the most pleasant memory, I guess. I'd forgotten about it until just now."

Andy nodded. "Well, let me know if you change your mind and want me to come take you. I love you."

"Love you." Sharon kissed him one more time before he left. Still in her pajamas, she poured a second coffee and settled at her desk to work until she had to shower and get ready to go.

Sharon arrived at the Radiation Oncology Department at Cedars with a sense of dread later that afternoon. She felt a little better by the time she was in a gown and the radiation therapist came in to greet her. She'd had an appointment the week before where she'd had a simulation of what would happen and was reassured of her favorable outlook. The therapist helped her get as comfortable as she could get lying down with her left arm over her head and placed a couple of soft pads behind her to rest her arm against. "All right, Mrs. Raydor, I'm going to put the immobilizing device over you to help you remain still. I can see you through the window, and I can hear you through an intercom, so speak up if you need anything." Sharon nodded and thanked her, and by the time the machine was whirring, she was feeling a little better about everything again. The main thing on her mind at that point was actually her last name, after hearing it from the therapist. That topic was still "under discussion." Especially with retirement being on her mind, she definitely planned to remain "Raydor" at work. By the time people in other departments figured out who "Commander Flynn" was, she'd probably be retired and it wouldn't matter. She was okay with being known as "Sharon Flynn" socially without that being her name on paper, but Andy didn't feel the same way. She didn't have any attachment to "Raydor" except for the fact that it had been her last name for over 35 years and that legally getting your name changed and changing records everywhere else after so long would be a royal pain in the ass. Given the events of the last few weeks, that "discussion" had come to a screeching halt, but it would eventually resurface at some point. It wasn't that she absolutely didn't want to change her name, there were just pros and cons to it that she was still thinking through. After being so lost in her thoughts, the treatment seemed to take no time, and she was soon getting dressed again and heading home.

When Sharon got home, Andy was cooking dinner. "Hmm, thanks, honey. That smells wonderful." Andy kissed her a little longer and more slowly than he usually would have on a day where they got home at different times, but made himself pull away after a few moments. All she'd asked of him was to treat her normally, which should be easy enough. He understood, as he would want the same thing, but it still felt wrong to act like it was just another day. She probably wouldn't have any side effects for a few days, and even then they wouldn't be bad. He was definitely happy about that, but it left him with little to do for her.

"You okay?" Andy couldn't help asking. He was relieved when she didn't look annoyed.

"Yes, it wasn't so bad." Sharon knew how he felt, wanting to treat her normally without seeming insensitive, as she'd been in that position with him not so long ago. He pulled her into a hug, and she rested against him for a few moments before going to call Emily and Ricky. She answered a few texts first, as her phone had been dinging like crazy from her siblings and close friends while she drove home. It was all the good kind of annoying, though. It was the kind that meant she had a lot of people in her life who cared for her.