Sharon relaxes on the sofa in her daughter's living room, the lamp dim above her, allowing her only enough light to read. The baby awake on her chest, sucking on a pacifier. He doesn't make any moves to grab the papers from her, just leisurely watching what she's doing. "Rhys, be sure to keep the specifics of this case to yourself. I can't deal with another leak in my department." She smirks, amused with herself.

Slowly opening the door from the bedroom, Quinn takes a few slow steps toward them before leaning on the wall in a vain attempt to keep the attention from herself. She takes in the sight of her mother and son. This looks like a common occurrence, she thinks.

Slowly lowering her papers, she sees the vision of her daughter. "Hello, sweetheart." She places them onto the table, motioning the young woman closer. "Glad to see you out of bed."

"I didn't think you would still be here." After her talk with Lieutenant Provenza, she had just enough energy to shower, but not enough to face everyone in the living room at that time.

"I'm here every night, honey." Sharon adjusts her posture from the lounging on the sofa, to sitting up, a hand moving to the baby's belly as to hold him against her, "Rusty was going to take over for the night, but Rhys just wasn't having it."

Quinn moves closer, taking a seat next to her on the sofa. "Where is Tate?"

"He is asleep with Finn. The boy kept getting up to check on the baby, which kept Rusty from being able to calm Rhys down. I think it's his cologne that made that an issue."

"And Sam?"

"Honey, Sam left a few days ago. He wrote you a letter. It's on my desk at home." Sharon reaches a hand out, placing it onto her daughter's cheek, "I'm so happy you're out of bed."

The young woman offers a faint smile, "I tried...I couldn't do it earlier." Quinn tilts her head to the side, away from her mother's touch, when she realizes the baby is looking at her, "He has his father's eyes."

"Which are a slightly different shade from your own." She continues to stare at her daughter though, "Your eyes sometimes turn this color sometimes. You just don't realize it." When her daughter doesn't respond, she continues. "Is there anything I can do to help you, honey?"

"You've already done more than enough, Mom."

"That doesn't answer the question."

Quinn swallows, "I don't know what you mean." Of course she knows what her mother means. Of course she knows that her mother would do absolutely anything to make sure the young woman felt safe and comfortable in her own skin, in her own home, around her family. "There's nothing."

"Because, you see, there's going to come a day where I won't be able to do this...and Rusty or Sam or even Tate won't be able to be here. I need you to be comfortable enough to be able to watch over the children." Sharon says softly, "I'm not rushing you along. I don't want you to think that. I am, however, asking you if there's anything I can do to help you maneuver the path." She adjusts the boy on her chest, holding him up a little more to face them, "The twins are at school most of the day and you only have this little one to deal with. He simply likes to be held most of the time...I believe it's because he likes the sound of a heartbeat."

"Does he cry when you put him down?"

"Not all the time." The elder of the two shakes her head, "At night, however, he isn't one for the crib yet. Naps, sure. He'll stay in there for a few hours to sleep...as long as Finn doesn't wake him. Overall, though, he doesn't like to be alone."

Quinn smiles softly, reaching a hand up to run her finger along his cheek, "I'm just...I just feel too tired to do anything."

"I understand. How about, while the children are at school tomorrow, I see if I can get you an appointment with my old therapist?" Sharon remains even toned, "I know you don't like to talk much about things, but...let's just try it, okay? I'll even stay in the waiting room if you'd like."

The young woman swallows, "Just coming out of that room was a big step for me today. Can we just-"

"One day at a time, sweetheart. Just tell me how you feel tomorrow." She can tell her daughter is in a mood where she doesn't want to be touched and though it bothers her, she accepts it.

"I want to feel the urge to hold him. He's so beautiful and all I can think of...I don't know. I feel nothing and that's wrong on so many levels." Quinn licks her lips, slight tears forming at her lower eyelid, "I've never loved someone as much as I love Tate and...I just feel numb. Numb in regards to everything."

"I've been there before...and the only way out of that hole is to accept help from those that love you."

"I accept it, but that doesn't mean I can't hate myself for requiring it. If it weren't for you, my kids would starve."

Sharon rolls her eyes, "They would not starve."

"They would be on the street in little boxes with hats turned over, asking for money. Let's be honest though, Harper would be making Finn dance for money while she sang some song she made up at the last second." The young woman teases her mother, "Screeching it at the top of her lungs while wearing a tutu and offering to paint everyone's nails while asking fifty dollars to do so because she has no real concept of money except the difference between having it and not having it."

"We were having a moment and you go and change the subject like that." She attempts to keep a laugh line from her face.

"Because it's the truth, mother." Quinn smiles softly, receiving a playful backhand to the arm from her mother.

Tate held his girlfriend's hand as they walked about the tree lined path of their nature hike. "I love this. I love being away from the hustle and bustle of the city. This is nice. I mean, we have to be careful because you're...you know, but other than that."

Quinn rolled her eyes, "That was almost romantic."

He snorted, "You know what I mean." He moves his hand from holding hers, to wrapping around her waist, "It just...makes you realize how insignificant we are."

"Don't go all philosophical on me. We're going on a hike, not having existential conversations about the fucking trees and how big they are." She moved from his grasp, taking a deep breath, "Fresh air is nice. That's about it."

"How could you say-"

"I grew up here and I spent a few years in New York and a couple of other cities when I was younger. I like the city. I like the hustle and bustle you complain about. It relaxes me." She nodded, "You want to talk about insignificance, stand in the middle of Times Square and just look around. Look at all the people constantly moving. Look at the bright screens that were hoisted onto the sides of buildings with the bare hands of humankind, people performing wherever just to maybe catch an ear of someone who can further them along in their pursuits, people from all over the world just coming to sit at the top of the ruby red stairs and to see a show. Not actually doing anything, just looking. Then checking your watch and realizing if you don't book it now, you're going to be late for your next performance."

Tate watched as she zoned out slightly, "Performance?"

Quinn shook her head quickly, glancing back to him, "A story for another time. Let's just...enjoy this. Shall we?"

Rusty jogs on the treadmill, ear-buds in his ears, his eyes closed. This, this time to himself, this is what helps him relax. The pounding of his Adidas trainers against the rubber coated belt of the machine, keeping rhythm with his heart, except for the occasional sprints. He's in control.

Tate watches his almost brother-in-law. In his zone. Quinn has always alluded to the fact that Rusty's had a tough past, but will never tell him what happened, he'd never ask. He wonders if it has something to do with why he doesn't look like his siblings. Granted, not all kids have to look exactly like their parents, but Rusty didn't even come close. He takes the treadmill next to the younger man, throwing a towel on top of the monitor. He never likes to know how fast he's going.

Opening his eyes, the younger man wasn't expecting his sister's boyfriend. He trips, nearly falling off the machine before being able to recover himself. He yanks his ear-buds out, "Didn't see you there."

Doing everything in his power not to laugh, Tate tilts his head to the side, "You alright there?"

"Yeah. Needed a break anyway." Rusty pushes the button on the machine for it to turn off, taking his water bottle from it's caddy, "You off today?"

"Yeah," He nods, "Figure it's early enough to do this before I go and take care of the kids. They'd still be sleeping."

"Sharon will probably be on your sofa when you get back up there." He wipes his forehead with the white towel in his hand, "Didn't come home last night."

Tate furrows his brow, "I didn't notice her when I left. I slept in Finn's room. Boy keeps getting up in the middle of the night to check on his brother...sometimes waking him up in the process."

"That's good." Rusty runs his hand through his hair, "Sharon's been exhausted so..."

"I know. I want to do something nice for her since she's done so much for us since Rhys has been born...and even before that."

"Thing is, she wouldn't have it any other way. She'd have done it regardless if you needed her to or not. That's just how she is."

"I know it. Do you have any ideas of what I could possibly do? I mean...I'm here tonight, so she should be okay, but with Quinn still laid up, it's...it's hard." Tate leans an arm against the large machine, "And I can't do anything to help my girlfriend so...it's even harder."

Rusty begins to shake his head, "She's always been a little crazy, man. Like...not in a bad way or anything. Sometimes she doesn't like for people to touch her, Sam says that has something to do with college or something. I don't know though. Point is, you can't take what's going on with Quinn personally."

"I don't take it personally." He answers quickly before giving himself a few minutes to think about the idea, "I just...I can't make her want to hold her son. I can't make her want to spend time with the twins. I can't..." He pauses again, "I can't make her want to talk to me."

"How long has it been since you've really talked to her? Or just...tried to?"

Tate blinks before slowly shaking his head, "Don't know...a week or so." He takes a deep breath, "Shit..."

"Yeah, so..." Rusty watches him a minute before standing from his chair, "It's early and she doesn't like to wake up early anyway. Trained the twins to get up at nine because of it. Nine is early, but not as early as, say, seven. Let's run, then you go upstairs and try to talk to her, alright?"

"I don't know if I can right now."

"Come on. She's never going to marry you if you lose that body of yours." The younger man starts to grin, "If you ever get around to it."

Tate chuckles, "When she gets out of this funk, it's the first thing I plan to do."

Andy stood in the kitchen of his girlfriend's daughter's apartment, having just reheated some pasta from the night before for himself, using only his one arm, the other in a sling.

"You know, you can ask for help once in a while." Quinn smiled softly, amused as she watched the man.

"I thought you were napping."

She shook her head slowly as she walked up behind him, helping him, "You have a torn rotator cuff. You're supposed to be taking it easy."

"This isn't hard." Andy watched as she took over.

"Look at you. Pitiful as hell." Quinn motioned to him to go to the living room, "I know you'll be more comfortable on the sofa, so go ahead."

"You're bossy, you know that?" When he received a look from her, he continued as he obeyed, "And I appreciate that about you."

She hummed a soft laugh, "That's what I thought. Does Nicole put up with this?"

"Nah. I just make you do it. I shouldn't...I don't mean to, but you-"

There was something in his tone, something she could tell was in the back of his mind that struck a chord with her and she knew exactly what it was, "Can I tell you something?" Quinn pulled the tray table over, careful of her six-month pregnant belly.

Andy kept his eyes on her, "Yeah."

"As you probably know, my father was never there for me. Not really. Not in the capacity that a father should be. He just tried to play at our heartstrings. He always wanted to look like the fun one, the one that wouldn't discipline us, the one that would buy us what we wanted. He didn't care though. At the time, we didn't understand that our mother was working her ass off to provide for us. We didn't know that he would occasionally take something and hock it. We just saw fun dad that would come and go."

He waited a moment, watching her, "Are you getting at something here?"

"My point is, he didn't try. He still doesn't. He just doesn't care. Sammy and I are old enough now to see that." Quinn leaned back against the sofa as she sat, "Nicole can see that you're trying. She can see that you love her and that she could call you at any time and you'd be there in a heartbeat. She knows you're the same way with your grandkids. You don't have to always be the fun one, or the strong one. You're allowed to show weakness and if she knows that you love her enough to be willing to put those defenses down in front of her, that will only strengthen your relationship."

Andy understood exactly what she meant. He swallowed, "Yeah." He answered softly.

"Same with me. You don't always have to be stubborn as hell. I'll still take care of you, Andy Flynn."

"Thanks, kid." He smirked, keeping himself from chuckling.