Chapter 13 - Distractions

"Look who I found outside," Andy said, grinning as he entered Sharon's room, one boy on his arm, another one holding his hand.

"Grandma!" Joey yelled out at the sight of her, trying to get out of his grandfather's hold, while Ben, having only had to let go of Andy's hand, already walked away to reach her.

"Hi, grandma," he told her. He stopped right in front of her bed, but was careful not to touch it as if worried he might hurt the person sitting on it.

"Hi, you two," Sharon told them on a wide smile, giving Andy a surprised look, but pulling both boys into a one-armed hug. "Shouldn't you two be in school?" she asked, letting go of them.

"Grandpa picked us up early," Joey explained, shrugging.

"He asked mom if we could visit you," Ben added, lifting his head to look at Andy over the top of his head, since he had followed the boys to stand behind them and put a hand on each of their shoulders, "so she called our teacher to let us go a bit sooner."

"We thought it was a great idea," Joey said, swaying lightly on his feet to bump into Andy behind him.

Sharon's smile only widened. "Oh, I think so, too," she told them, giving Andy a knowing look. "Where's your mom though?"

The two boys looked around the room, then exchanged confused looks. "Er," Ben said, "I don't know."

"Grandpa said she's meeting us here," Joey said, a little frown forming on his face as he tried to untangle the mystery that was his missing step-mother.

Andy chuckled, squeezing their shoulders. "She went to grab us lunch, she'll be here in a few," he told them.

"Oh," both Ben and Joey let out. "I am hungry," Ben added as if only just then realizing that.

"Starving," Joey confirmed.

"Well, food's on the way," Andy told them, letting go of their shoulders and rounding Sharon's bed. "Where's Rusty?" he asked as he dropped into the chair next to her.

"Restroom," Sharon replied. "You just missed him actually."

Andy only managed to nod, when, clearly not paying much attention to their exchange, Joey asked, "What happened?" He gently touched Sharon's sling.

"Grandpa said you got hurt?" Ben said, seeking confirmation for Andy's claim.

"Does it hurt?" Joey asked. "Oh," he then said, quickly pulling his hand away in case he was hurting her.

"Not anymore," Sharon told them. "You didn't hurt me either," she added, smiling warmly in reassurance at Joey.

"The dirtbag hurt you, right?" Ben asked, making Andy gasp.

"Ben!" he called out sharply.

"What?" Ben asked, giving him a puzzled look. "You said it was a dir-"

"Yes, yes, I did, you're right," Andy said loudly, getting the boy to stop talking. When Sharon laughed at him and his bad influence over the little man, he gave her a bland look and added, quieter now, "Just don't use that word in front of your mom and dad."

"What word?" Joey then asked. "Dirtbag?"

Andy just groaned and looked heavenward, making Sharon laugh again, while the boys exchanged confused looks.

"Oh," Joey said as it finally dawned on him. "That's another bad word, grandpa, isn't it?" he added, grinning smugly now.

Andy nodded. "It is," he confirmed on almost a groan.

"You know, grandpa, you should stop saying those words then," Ben told him seriously. "Or we'll just keep saying bad words even when we don't mean to!" He was shaking his head at the end of his little admonishment.

"You are absolutely right about that," Sharon told Ben, while Andy could only give him a look of utter disbelief.

"See," Ben told him. "Listen to grandma." He waved a hand at her.

"She's always right, you know?" Joey added in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

When Sharon, of course, laughed at that, Andy could only join her. "That she is," he agreed, shaking his head.

"Hey, look who I found," Rusty suddenly said, opening the door.

"Uncle Rusty!" Joey and Ben were on him before he could say much more.

"Careful," Nicole warned the boys, coming into view as they crashed into Rusty to give him a hug, "you'll knock him over."

"Don't worry about it," Rusty waved her off, feigning losing his balance for the boys' benefit.

Nicole shook her head at the trio, but walked over to Sharon. "Hello, Sharon, how are you?" she asked, putting the take out food down into one of the empty chairs.

"Much better now," Sharon told her, sweeping a look over the room.

"A hug won't hurt you?" Nicole asked, giving her shoulder a look.

In response, Sharon only pulled her into one.

When they pulled apart, she shot the boys, still all over Rusty, a quick look and said, "Thanks for the surprise."

"Oh, it was dad's idea, he said you could use some distraction," Nicole waved a hand through the air. More quietly, careful to not be overheard, she added, "They don't know exactly what happened, we didn't want them to worry," she gave Andy a quick look, who nodded, "so we only said it was a work-related injury."

Sharon gave her a grateful smile. "Thank you."

"Dad also said you might be hungry," Nicole said, effectively waving off her thanks again as she started digging through the contents of her bags.

"I might," Sharon confirmed, smiling.

"Hey, Andy?" Rusty asked, pointing his hands at the two boys using him as a toy. "I really should get to the airport, Emily and Ricky will be landing soon."

"Right," Andy got to his feet. He kissed his daughter's cheek on the way over to them, giving her a quick "Hi." When she smiled, he addressed his grandsons. "Ben, Joey, get over here, I thought you two were hungry," he told them, waving his hand in a circular motion to get them moving.

It got their attention and they let go of Rusty in search of food in their mother's bags.

"I'll be back soon," Rusty told Sharon, walking over to her bed to give her a quick hug. "I'm bringing them over here as soon as possible," he told her.

"Okay," she said. "Drive safely," she added before he could walk out.

They only heard his laugh in response, before the door behind him was shut closed.

"Dean and Charlie say hi, by the way," Nicole informed her, handing out the food she got them. They were both out of town on business, or else, as both Sharon and Andy knew, they'd have stopped by as well.

"They're coming back tomorrow, right?" Sharon asked, as she started eating.

"Yes, they made sure they would be for the wedding," Nicole said. "Although," she shrugged, "I guess, it doesn't really matter anymore," she added, somewhat ruefully.

"Oh, the wedding's still on," Andy told her, munching on a piece of vegetable he fished out of his paper container.

Nicole's eyebrows shot up, "Really?" Slightly flustered now, she added, "I mean, I just thought, with everything tha-"

"Oh, I thought so, too," Andy said, only adding to her surprise. "Apparently not even the slimiest of dirtbags can derail Sharon once she sets her mind to something," he added, giving his fiancee a rather impressed look.

Sharon offered him a warm smile but before she could add anything to the conversation, Ben interrupted.

"Grandpa!" he called out loudly.

Surprised by the boy's exclamation, Andy gave him a wide-eyed look. "What is it?" he asked while Nicole frowned at her oldest step-son's little outburst.

But Ben only focused on Sharon. "Does he ever listen to you?" he asked her, sounding rather exasperated all of a sudden.

Sharon started laughing again, having realized where his sudden agitation was coming from.

At Andy's still puzzled look, and Nicole's puzzled look now, too, Joey gladly explained, "You're using bad words again, grandpa." He shook his head at him in emphasis.

Now even Nicole laughed. "They did not pick up on something again, now did they, dad?" she asked him.

Andy rubbed a hand over his face. "Don't," he told her sarcastically, preempting any of her other smartass remarks. "It's not funny," he told Sharon.

"It is a little," Sharon argued, her laughter slowly dying down.

Joey however, frowned, his brother not looking too amused either. "You know, grandma, when we don't listen," he pointed a hand at himself and his brother, "mom and dad never laugh."

"Yeah," Ben confirmed, rather unimpressed by her display. He shot Nicole a narrow-eyed look, then added, "They yell."

"Or worse, ground us," Joey added, the mere word sounding horrifying to him.

"Well, your grandpa is an adult so I can't ground him and I don't care much for yelling," Sharon told them seriously even though she was smiling a little.

Ben scoffed, stabbing his plastic fork rather forcefully into his vegetables. "You should change those rules," he told her.

"Why? So that you can ground grandpa?" Nicole asked, sounding rather amused.

"Of course not," Ben told her, taken aback by her apparently incredibly foolish suggestion. "So that you stop grounding us, mom!" he told her heatedly.

"That's a good idea," Joey said, impressed as he nodded his head at his mother, supporting his brother's words.

Unfortunately, the adults in the room only laughed at it.

"Or you can start listening better," Nicole quipped, the words effectively deflating her two eager sons.

"I'll let you in on a little secret though," Sharon told the boys conspiratorially.

They perked up at that. "Yes?" Joey urged her on.

"I can ground him at work," she told them on a wink.

"Ah-uh," Andy interjected, shaking a finger, while the boys and Nicole grinned. "Not true. She can only punish me for when I don't listen at work, not for what I do here," he clarified.

Sharon shrugged, feigning resignation. "He's right," she told them on a sigh. "He must listen to me at work," she added, "everything else though," she trailed off, shaking her head.

"Is a discussion," Andy smugly finished for her, earning himself a laugh from Nicole and a bland look from Sharon.

The boys however, considered them for a moment in quiet. "So if you say the dirt-word at work," Ben finally started, "grandma grounds you?" he finished, giving his grandfather a wide-eyed look.

"Or yells at you?" Joey added, mirroring his brother's look.

"No, I'm allowed to use bad words at work," Andy told them, puffing his chest out proudly.

"Oh, but I think that's an excellent idea, you two," Sharon said, smiling somewhat wickedly at Andy. "Maybe I should change the rules at work, what do you say?" she asked them.

"Yes," both of them said, sending Nicole and Sharon into another fit of laughter.

Andy however let out an offended, "Hey, whose side are you on?"

The boys just snickered and replied simultaneously, "Grandma's!"

Andy shook his head at them, but had to smile at the laughter they sent Nicole and, more importantly, Sharon into again.

...

Nicole, Ben and Joey left right after they all ate their lunch, not wanting to intrude on Sharon and her children when they arrived. Sharon had tried assuring Andy's daughter that she was welcome to stay, but Nicole had made up her mind and had left with promises to drop by the next day, if she was released from the hospital, to give her a hand with the wedding that was still happening on Friday.

Andy had walked them to the door and when he closed it behind him, Sharon tapped the left side of her bed inviting him to sit down.

Not needing to be told twice, he immediately obliged. He turned towards her so that he could grab hold of her hand and put it on top of his thigh. "Hi," he told her, leaning down to quickly kiss her.

"Hi," she said in reply. "Thank you," she added.

"It wasn't too much for you?" he asked, somewhat worriedly.

"No," she assured him on a smile. "They are exhausting," she added, "but it was lovely seeing them."

"Good," he said, nodding his head.

"Is that what Rusty's text was about?" Sharon then asked. Just before he decided he needed to use the restroom, he had received a text. She didn't think much of it at the time, now, however was an entirely different matter.

Andy grinned. "Maybe," he told her, the smirk on his face giving her an answer in the absolute affirmative though.

"Where's Rusty?" she mocked his earlier question, shaking her head.

"What?" Andy let out defensively. "I had to make it look good. Besides, you know how they get around him," he waved a hand through the air, "I had to get him out of the room."

She smiled. "I know," she said.

The two were always quite enthusiastic, but whenever Rusty was around their enthusiasm doubled. As was demonstrated to them a while earlier. It warmed her heart a little to see that Rusty didn't seem to mind. He had been a bit surprised by their energy when he first met them, but he had taken quite a liking to them early on. The liking only growing as they saw each other more often.

"You get some rest?" he asked, already knowing the answer, since he had asked Rusty for updates.

Sharon read him like a book. "Like you don't know," she told him teasingly.

Andy didn't even bother covering anything up. "Well, I'd like to hear it from you," he told her.

"I did, not much, but it'll have to do for now," she finally told him. "How about you?" She ran a hand down the side of his face. "You shaved, I see." She ran her hand down his shoulder and arm. "Changed, too."

"I did," he confirmed, grinning. "Talked to Nicole, called my sponsor, catching a meeting a bit later and I was working on a little something for you, but that's a secret," he informed her, quirking an eyebrow at her.

"You're full of surprises, aren't you?" she asked, shaking her head in amusement.

"That I am," he confirmed smugly. He changed the topic before she could start grilling him about his current one. "Have you talked to the doctor again? Or a nurse?"

"The doctor's coming in later to check on me, he's off the clock at the moment, to decide whether to release me tonight or not," Sharon replied. "The nurse said it looked all good for now and that somebody will come by later to get rid of these," she pointed to the tubes still attached to her, "but she's not too impressed about the number of visitors I'm having," she added.

"Great," Andy told her eyeing her IV as well. "I don't see them complaining," he added, looking at the door as if a nurse would walk through it to do just that.

"You wouldn't," Sharon told him, suddenly sounding somewhat amused. "Apparently, an old, grumpy Lieutenant flashed his badge and threw around some threats earlier this morning."

Andy chuckled. "I can always count on Provenza," he said, nodding his head, more than happy about his partner's little stunt.

"To throw rules out the window?" Sharon asked, although she still sounded rather amused.

"Exactly," Andy quipped.

The door burst open before Sharon could reply, startling them, her two oldest children practically running inside, a relieved, "Mom!" on their lips.

"Oh, Emily, Ricky," Sharon let out excitedly. She pulled them each into a clumsy hug due to her shoulder. When they made a move to let go, she only tightened her hold on them. "Not yet," she mumbled. "I missed you," she added.

When she was finally ready to let go of them, she noticed another person standing in the room. "Oh, hello, I thought you were not coming till Friday morning!" she told him, extending her healthy arm to pull him into a hug as well.

"Well, I got plenty of overtime and thought I'd join Emily today already," Ethan told her. "It's really good to see you, Ma'am," he added as they pulled apart.

Sharon laughed. "Sharon, Ethan." She shook her head. "Call me Sharon."

"Right, Sharon," Ethan shook his head at himself. "I'll try," he promised.

"How are you, mom?" Emily asked, carefully taking a seat on the side of Sharon's bed, doing a fine job of ignoring her boyfriend in the process.

Andy slid off the bed, so that Ricky could take his place on Sharon's other side. "Yeah, mom," he looked pointedly at her shoulder, "he did that to you?" he asked.

"I'm fine, they fixed me up," she assured them. At their unimpressed looks, she admitted, "Shaken up a bit, yes," she pinned Rusty, who had made his way to the foot of her bed with a look, "but I'm so much better with you here now."

"Andy asked us not to come," Emily said.

"Or else we'd have been here yesterday," Ricky added.

"No," Sharon interjected before they could go on, their tones of voices holding the faintest trace of an accusation. "I'm glad you didn't, you'd just have been another thing to worry about," she told them.

Ricky shook his head. "That's what Rusty said."

Rusty grinned. "Was I wrong?" he asked in response.

"You really okay, mom?" Emily asked worriedly, ignoring her brothers, her eyes sweeping over her mother's form, fortunately not seeing her needle marks but not missing those left on her throat by the taser or her faint ligature marks around her wrists.

"I am, honey," Sharon grabbed ahold of her daughter's hand and gave it a firm squeeze. She would, of course, be sparing her children of the details of her ordeal and everything she would probably still have to deal with.

Emily hugged her again. "I was so worried," she mumbled thickly into her hair. "The idea of you-" she started, pulling away again, but not managing to finish her sentence as tears finally spilled out of her.

"I know, I know," Sharon pulled her back into her embrace. "I didn't like that idea either, honey," she mumbled into her daughter's hair.

When Sharon looked past Emily's hair and saw the teary-eyed look on her oldest son, she lifted her hand, inviting him into her hug as well. When he instantly wrapped his arms around both of them, it started tugging painfully on her shoulder, but that pain was much more manageable than the one that went through her at the sight of them so worried.

"I'm here now, I'm not going anywhere, okay?" she told them soothingly.

They only held on to her more tightly so she asked again, "Okay?"

This time they finally pulled away, wiping the tears off their faces. "Okay," they both mumbled, sounding nothing like the adults they had grown into and sounding every bit the little kids they used to be decades ago.

When Rusty suddenly sniffed, apparently holding back a sob, surprisingly, it was Ricky who reacted first and reached for his hand, pulling him, into a, probably uncomfortable, hug over the foot of Sharon's bed.

They pulled apart when Andy's phone suddenly went off. "Sorry," he said reaching for it quickly, already walking to the door. "Provenza," he muttered on his way out.

"You alright?" Sharon asked all three of her children, not minding Andy's interruption.

"We're supposed to be worrying about you, mom," Ricky told her.

"And cheering you up, not the other way around," Emily added.

"Oh, she's been doing that all day," Rusty assured them, a touch of humor to his words now that he had managed to pull himself together.

"You know, I really don't know why it's so surprising," Ricky said, shaking his head.

"Yeah," Emily agreed, catching his drift. "She is a-"

"Mother, after all," Rusty finished for her on an eye roll.

"That I am," Sharon confirmed. "It'll take more than a kidnapper to keep me from worrying about you three," she added on an affectionate smile.

"Okay," Emily's tone of voice made it clear she was about to change the topic. "So what is this I hear about you still getting married in two days?" she asked her mother.

"I am, and you're all still invited," Sharon confirmed on a warm smile.

"What about your sho-" Emily started but was interrupted by Andy re-entering the room.

He offered all four of their guests an apologetic shrug. "Sharon," he gave her a look, "Provenza said he and Morris were on their way to take your statement. I tried fending them off, but-"

"They've bent the rules as much as they could, I know," Sharon said. Under less privileged circumstances, Sharon knew the FBI would have been there to take her statement the moment she was lucid enough to make one.

"Statement?" Ricky asked puzzled.

It was Ethan who explained. "As the victim, your mom will be asked to give her account of things."

"Oh," Ricky let out.

"You up for that?" Andy asked Sharon a bit worriedly, walking to her bed again.

"Well, whether I am or not, I'm getting it out of the way now," Sharon told him, shrugging her healthy shoulder.

"You're also itching to find out what the guy said, right?" Andy asked, giving her a knowing look, as he dropped into his chair again.

"Well, yes, especially since your partner couldn't be bothered with filling me in, or you for that matter," Sharon had no problem admitting to it. "I would also like to know what my kidnapper's motive was, wouldn't you?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, me, too," Andy immediately agreed, ignoring the looks being exchanged between the rest of the room's visitors. "Only I'd forgo that if they'd let me knock the daylight out of him." He scowled and added more menacingly, "Permanently."

Andy's sentiment clearly did not surprise Sharon and instead of offering him a response, she addressed her visitors. "I'm afraid I'll have to do this on my own." She sounded apologetic.

Ricky shot Andy a look, but when he said, "It's only protocol." he said, "Okay, we'll wait outside then when they get here."

"No," Sharon gently disagreed.

In support, Andy suggested, "Go home, unpack, we'll let you know when we're done."

"Yes, that would be great," Sharon said. "You haven't seen the house yet, anyway," she added on a more optimistic note.

"True," Emily confirmed, although she didn't look ready to leave so soon.

"I'll call you, guys, don't worry," Andy assured them, noticing not only her reluctance, but Ricky's slight frown, too.

Both of them finally nodded so Rusty said, "I'll give you a ride then." He knew, just like Ricky and Emily probably did, that the real reason their mother wanted them to leave was so that they did not accidentally overhear anything she thought they shouldn't know. Arguing would have been pointless.

When they finally did leave, Sharon reached for Andy's hand. When she entwined their fingers together, she said, "You stay with me." It wasn't a question.

She had already recounted her story once, but it did not surprise Andy that she wasn't looking forward to going through it again, and probably with a lot more additional questions than he had had when she woke up in the middle of the night.

"I do listen to you, you know?" he told her, his voice a bit lighter than what the change in her mood probably called for.

She raised an eyebrow in askance.

He met her raised eyebrow with one of his own. "You said not to let go of you." He squeezed her hand. "Well, I won't. Don't worry."

TBC