Warning: Just a warning that this does get dark later in the chapter and deals with topics like miscarriage.
"You know I think I would rather throw up than be nauseous all the time," Sharon says with a small huff as she sets her blow dryer down and runs her fingers through her hair. Andy steps into the doorway of the bathroom, buttoning up his shirt as he watches her get started on her makeup.
"You've got…two three weeks left before you're in your second trimester?"
"I know," Sharon sighs, "It's just never been the constant rolling stomach before. I'd throw up a couple times and feel better."
"You said that tea you've been drinking is helping."
"It is," Sharon nods. Andy finishes buttoning his shirt before stepping behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist. He rests his hands on her stomach and presses a soft kiss to her neck as he squeezes her gently. Sharon sets down the brush in her hand and leans into his hold as she covers his hands, "Or you could just do this all day."
"Would if I could, my darling," Andy smiles against her neck, "We should tell the kids soon…"
"I was thinking about that earlier," Sharon says as she steps forward again, resuming her application, "We have Char and Nic next weekend, let's do it then."
"Okay."
"And you are calling and telling your mother before then."
"I'm never going to live any of that down am I?"
"Nope," Sharon grins and winks at him in the mirror before she hears her pager go off in the other room. She sets her makeup down before heading out into the bedroom and grabbing it off of her dresser. She looks at the number and message before picking up the phone and dialing in. Andy finishes getting dressed as he listens to her side of the conversation, nodding when she looks at him and says she can be there in 30 minutes. Sharon hangs up the phone and sighs with a shake of her head as she goes back to quickly finishing getting ready.
"Where do you have to go?"
"East Compton," Sharon says as she swipes on some lipstick before grabbing her shirt off the hangar and pulling it on. She grabs a pair of shoes from the closet and pulls them onto her feet before pick up all of her things off the dresser. After pressing a quick kiss to Andy's lips she makes her way down the hall, stopping to kiss Emily and Ricky goodbye before heading out to the car. Andy makes his way down to the kitchen and ruffles Ricky's hair as Emily looks up from her cereal.
"Where's Mommy going?"
"She got called into work a little early," Andy tells her as he finishes packing up their lunches, "So you are stuck with me this morning."
"Oh…" Emily says, sitting in thought for a moment, "Can we have tacos for dinner?"
"Sure," Andy laughs as he lifts Ricky out of his highchair and sets him down, "We can have tacos for dinner."
"Awesome," Emily says, taking one last bite before Andy takes her bowl from her and rinses it out in the sink along with rinsing off Ricky's tray. He was finally starting to get most of the food in his mouth so hopefully they could move him to an actual chair soon.
So the baby can have the high chair, Andy thinks to himself with a shake of his head. He was happy, but he also realized they were nuts. Having three of them all the time was going to be rough, and then occasionally having five of them was going to be even more crazy.
"Daddy!" Emily says, breaking Andy out of his reverie.
"Yeah baby?"
"Are we going?"
"Yeah, yes we're going," Andy nods handing her her lunch as he puts Ricky's in his bag, guiding the boy towards the door. He gets Lily into her crate and grabs his keys before telling the kids to get into the car as he locks up the house. After dropping the kids off at school and getting the car parked Andy makes his way into the office. He stops in the break room for a cup of coffee, sipping on the scalding liquid as he makes his way to his desk.
"Flynn, I've got a double for you, fresh off the press," His CO says, handing him a piece of paper, "Patrol is already there."
"Thanks," Andy says, taking the paper before turning on his heel and leaving again. He meets his partner at the scene getting a description from the patrol officers there before they start to look things over. After a couple hours of working the scene his partner lifts his sunglasses up as Andy kneels next to the body, taking some notes.
"Are you ignoring someone?"
"Huh?" Andy asks, looking up and squinting as his eyes catch the sun.
"Your pagers been going off for like 20 minutes straight."
"Shit," Andy curses as he notices the beeping finally, grabbing the pocket sized box off his belt before looking at the display and flipping through the messages. The first couple were 911s from Sharon that she had only tagged herself in before sending that she was at St. Francis, "Fuck, I gotta go, I'll meet you back at the office."
"Sure. Everything okay?"
"I don't know," Andy says as he runs back over to his car and climbs into the drivers seat before turning on the lights and speeding away. He'd been sent over to West LA and was facing a trek across town to get to the hospital she had indicated. He pulls into the emergency parking almost an hour later and jogs inside to the check-in desk.
"Can I help you?" The nurse drawls, not looking up from the paperwork in front of her.
"My girlfriend came in…probably bout an hour and a half ago."
"Name?"
"O'Dwyer, she's with the LAPD."
"One second," The nurse says before flipping through the charts that she had at her desk, "She is in bay 6, straight back on your left."
"Thank you," Andy murmurs before moving back to the ER area, glancing into the curtained off cubicles before he finds Sharon sitting alone in a bed, hooked up to a few monitors, "Hey. I'm sorry I just got your pages, what happened?"
Sharon only manages to give him a sad look and lift her hand from the bed, her fingers still lightly stained with blood. Andy pulls the curtain shut and steps closer, sitting on the edge of the bed before taking her hand in his.
"What did they say?"
"I'm waiting on someone to come down from Maternity but they couldn't find a heartbeat when they did the first ultrasound…" Sharon whispers. Her head tips back and her eyes slip closed as she lets out a slightly pained sound, her fingers wrapping around his tightly. He presses a kiss to the back of her hand as he sits with her, waiting, unsure what to say or do. It's only a couple minutes later that the curtain is pulled open again and a couple doctors step inside. Andy stands up from the bed but keeps a hold on her hand as he listens to the conversation.
"Sharon this is Doctor Benson from the Maternity ward. She's going to take you upstairs for another ultrasound and get you settled into a room," The ER doctor explains, "Does that sound alright to you?"
"Yeah," Sharon replies quietly, nodding. The doctors open the curtains wider, letting a nurse and an orderly step in to get her disconnected from her monitors before unlocking the wheels on her bed and starting to move her.
"Once we get upstairs I'll show you to her room while we take her back for the ultrasound," The doctor tells Andy.
"Can I go with her?" Andy asks.
"Of course, if that's okay with you Sharon?" Doctor Benson asks.
"Please," Sharon nods, squeezing Andy's hand. The group makes their way down to the ultrasound rooms on the maternity floor and the doctor pulls the door closed before dimming the lights. She rolls back Sharon's gown and drapes a towel across her hips.
"I was looking at your paperwork, you're 9 weeks?"
"Nine and a half," Sharon says, "We found out a few weeks ago."
"No pain, cramping, bleeding up to this point?"
"I had to have an IUD removed at the time, but besides some light spotting that day, no," Sharon shakes her head.
"Okay," The doctor nods as she grabs a bottle of gel and squeezes some out onto Sharon's abdomen. She moves the wand back and forth over her stomach, pressing down to get better glimpses on the fuzzy monitor. Andy watches the doctor's face as Sharon lays with her eyes closed, her hand occasionally reaching up to swipe away a tear. After a little while she puts the wand away and turns off the machine, grabbing a couple kleenex for Sharon, "So I'm not confident in what I'm seeing. Growth is on the low side and I'm not picking up a heartbeat. However it could be early for that. I'd like to keep you for a couple more hours and monitor you. Provided things don't progress, you don't experience any cramping or heavier bleeding, you should still follow up with your personal OB in a couple days, see where things are at. This could be a fluke, and everything could be fine."
"What are the chances of that?" Andy asks when Sharon doesn't speak up.
"Based on my experience…not high."
"Thanks, Doc," Andy says. The doctor nods and buzzes a nurse to wheel Sharon to her room. Once the bed gets settled Sharon gets hooked back up to a few things and the nurse marks down some readings.
"Can I get you two anything?"
"No. I think we're good," Andy says, offering her a small smile before moving to take a seat next to Sharon's bed. He pauses and walks over to the sink in the corner of the room, pulling out a few paper towels before wetting them. He walks over to her bed and takes her hand in his, gently wiping the warm, wet paper over her skin to clean off her hand. Sharon watches him with wet eyelashes and greying eyes.
"I'm sorry…if I had…" Her breath hitches, "If I had wanted this earlier…"
"This isn't your fault," Andy tells her as he tosses the paper towel into the trash before lifting her hand to his lips and kissing her knuckles, "Don't think that this is your fault."
"How can I not?" Sharon whispers. Andy sits down and squeezes her hand with a soft sigh.
"Because no matter how you felt when we found out…you didn't feel that way today," He reminds her.
"I don't want this to happen…"
"I know."
[TBC]