Notes: Thanks again for all your reviews and comments! I will remind that I'm not a lawyer and never had to go through a custody battle, so everything that I'm writing about has been from websites (and maybe Mrs. Doubtfire)
Sharon hands Andy a glass of soda water before sitting down on the couch next to him. She leans her elbow against the back of the couch and rests her head on her hand. Andy takes a sip out of the glass before sighing and dropping his head back against the cushion.
"I take it it didn't go too well?" It had been a couple weeks since Andy had been served updated papers from Vicky. He and Gavin had met with her and her lawyer a few times in order to try and work on things. From what Sharon had been hearing, things hadn't been going too well.
"No," Andy mumbles, taking another drink, "After the meeting this morning, Gavin doesn't think that she's going to accept any bargain…We'd be better off taking what she's offering and we can reevaluate custody after a period of time."
"Where did you guys end up?"
"Every other weekend, I pick them up at two on Saturday, I drop them off at noon on Sunday. Holidays are at Vicky's discretion. If I can't make a pick up at the specified time, she can insist that I forfeit my weekend with them. I am required to meet with a social worker every other month to make sure that I am maintaining a residence fit for children, if I should fail an evaluation I forfeit visits until I can bring myself back up to standards," Andy relays, his eyes closed, "I pay standard child support along with education and child care expenses, quarter of the mortgage, and they stay on my insurance. Standard alimony for 10 years or until she remarries. So, basically I'm broke until the kids turn 18."
"Oh Andy," Sharon murmurs, reaching out to run her fingers through his hair, scratching her fingers along his scalp.
"Less than 24 hours…twice a month. How am I supposed to be a father to my kids in only 44 hours a month?"
"I know you'll use every minute you can with them," Sharon tells him.
"I don't even know how I'm supposed to afford a place fit for kids after all of the money goes out…"
"I can help you run the numbers tomorrow before you go in," Sharon offers, "Worst case scenario you end up living in the guest room."
"You'd do that for me?" Andy says, looking over at Sharon.
"Don't sound so thankful yet, you haven't heard me sing in the shower," Sharon smiles, "I'm sure if it came to it we could work something out."
"Thanks," Andy smiles back slightly.
"How was work?"
"Same old, picking up scum on the streets under the pretense of making LA safer. Oh wait, I'm not actually doing that because my qualifying exam isn't until Friday. I'm a glorified desk monkey."
"You are making LA safer," Sharon tells Andy, "Don't doubt that. And you're not a desk monkey."
Sharon looks over at the coffee table as she hears Ricky's cries filter through the baby monitor. She puts a hand on Andy's shoulder as he moves to get up, waiting for a moment to see if he was going to fall back to sleep. Andy continues standing up and sets his glass down, "I'll get him."
"Thank you," Sharon murmurs, watching as Andy lumbers down the hall towards her bedroom. She looks over again when she hears his voice filter through the baby monitor.
"Hey buddy, what are all the tears about? Hmm?" Ricky's cries quiet to whimpers as Andy picks him up, "There you go. See you're fine. I bet Mama even fed you just before I got here too, hmm?"
Sharon smiles as she hears his voice get a little quieter as she assumes he walks over to the rocking chair.
"Did you have a good day today? Your sister didn't drop anything on your face again did she? Gotta watch out for that one, she's sneaky like your mom." Sharon smiles as she hears a happy coo from Ricky as Andy talks to him. Andy continues to talk in a quiet voice to Ricky until the little boy falls back to sleep. He reappears in the living room a couple moments later and Sharon smiles at him.
"Crisis avoided?"
"Yeah," Andy laughs, sitting back down on the couch. He looks over at Sharon and lets out a soft sigh, "How have you been doing? I feel like we've been focusing on me lately."
"I'm doing okay," Sharon nods and smiles, "Things are finally looking up. I don't feel like there's such a…weight on my chest."
"Good," Andy smiles.
"Letterman should be on, if you wanted to hang out for a bit and watch," Sharon offers, "I get a way better signal down here than I did in the last house."
"Sure," Andy nods. Sharon gets up from the couch and walks over to the tv, turning it on before adjusting the rabbit ears on top once she gets it turned to the right channel. She makes her way back over to the couch and sits down next to Andy before picking up her drink again. Andy rests his arm on the couch behind her and settles in to watch.
By the end of the episode Sharon was passed out against Andy's shoulder, sleeping soundly. He slowly disentangle himself from her and turns the tv off before clipping the baby monitor onto his pants and lifting her carefully into his arms. He carries her down the hallway to her room, settling her in bed before turning the monitor off and setting it on her bedside table. He pulls the blankets up and presses a soft kiss to her head, checking on each of the kids before heading out of the house and locking the door behind himself.
Andy tears his eyes away from the ceiling of his apartment and looks at the clock as his phone starts to ring in the middle of the night. He reaches out to pick up the receiver, pressing it to his ear with a soft grunted greeting.
"You tucked me in," Sharon says in absence of a greeting.
"You fell asleep on me," Andy replies.
"Sorry," Sharon apologizes, "I don't remember the last time I made it all the way through Letterman without falling asleep."
"It's okay. What are you doing up?"
"I just fed Ricky and put him back down," Sharon answers, "It took me a bit to realize I didn't get to bed on my own."
"How's he doing?"
"Fine, just his usual middle of the night feeding," Sharon says, "Are you coming by before work tomorrow?"
"Yeah, did you want me to bring anything?"
"No, I went to the store yesterday. Just yourself, and your checkbook if you did want some help looking over those numbers."
"It would be nice to have another eye look over it," Andy says, "I'll see you around 830?"
"Sure, see you then."
"Night, Shar."
"Night, Andy," Sharon murmurs before hanging up the phone. Andy hangs the phone up and drops his head back to his pillow with a sigh, looking at the empty side of the bed. It was so quiet.
Andy makes his way into Sharon's house the next morning, just a couple minutes after 830. He hears Emily babbling away in the kitchen as the smell of pancakes and coffee assaults his nose. He shuts the door behind himself before heading into the kitchen, setting his duffel bag down on one of the empty chairs.
"Morning," Sharon greets from the stove, throwing a smile in Andy's direction.
"Morning," Andy smiles. Emily's eyes widen and a grin spreads across her face before she climbs down from her stool next to Sharon.
"Dada!" She squeals as she runs over to him, coming to a halt after a moment after she realizes what she'd said, "Oh…I didn't…"
"It's okay," Andy assures her, taking a couple steps towards her and picking her up. He cradles her in his arms and presses a kiss to her cheek, "You can call me whatever you want."
"I can?" Emily asks as she settles into Andy's arms.
"Mmhm," Andy nods, squeezing her close, "Whatever you want."
"Do you want to be my dada?" Emily asks, her brow furrowed much in the way that Sharon's did when she asked a question.
"I would love to be your dada," Andy says with a smile, "Do you want me to be your dada?"
"Ah huh!" Emily nods enthusiastically.
"Sounds like we have a deal then," Andy smiles and sets Emily on the counter before peaking over Sharon's shoulder, "Pancakes?"
"Emily's request," Sharon smiles and pours out another pancake into the pan. Emily reaches her hand into the blueberries and sprinkles them over the wet batter, "Good job baby. Um, coffee cups are above the pot. There's half and half in the fridge."
"Thanks," Andy says, pressing a kiss to Sharon's temple before going to grab himself a cup, "Did you need a top off?"
"Sure," Sharon says, "I think I left my mug on the table."
Andy pours himself a full mug before going over to the table to top off Sharon's. He puts the pot back and takes a sip of the hot liquid as he pats Emily on the head.
"You're a pretty good helper."
"Mama says I put the blueberries perfect!"
"They look pretty perfect to me," Andy smiles, "Did you sleep good last night? You looked pretty cozy when I checked in on you."
"Mmhm," Emily nods, "I didn't get up once."
"Well good for you," Andy says. Emily grabs his hand after a moment, her nose wrinkling as she studies his palm and fingers, "What are you looking at?"
"Why are you wearing a ring? Boys don't wear rings."
"They do some times," Andy says as Emily studies the gold band around his pinky, "And you know what it reminds me of?"
"What?"
"A pinky promise I made a cute little monkey," Andy whispers in her ear. Emily grins up at him as she continues to hold onto his hand.
"Really?"
"Really," Andy nods. Emily presses a kiss to his ring and giggles before letting his hand go. Andy pinches her cheek playfully before getting plates down to set the table. Ricky was snoozing away in his rocker, suckling lazily on his pacifier. Andy sets the plates down before leaning down and kissing his cheek. He grabs a juice glass for Emily and fills it part of the way with orange juice for her.
"Emily's getting picked up at 930 by a friend for the morning," Sharon tells Andy, "If you brought your stuff with you."
"I did," Andy nods, taking the plate of pancakes from Sharon and carrying it to the table, "What are you doing with your friend Em?"
"We going to the park!" Emily says as she climbs up into her chair before frowning and attempting to push Ricky's chair further across the table. Sharon rolls her eyes as she walks over with the bacon, pulling Ricky closer to her side of the table. Andy arches his eyebrow as he sits down.
"We're having one of our I don't want to be near the baby days," Sharon explains as she sits down, tucking her foot under herself, "Their co-existence is still very much a work in progress."
"Ah," Andy nods. He gets Emily a pancake and a piece of bacon, putting a little syrup on the pancake.
"Thank you," Emily smiles before picking up her fork and knife, attempting to cut into the pancake by herself.
"Do you want me to help you?" Andy asks as he gets his own pancakes.
"No, I got it," Emily says.
"They have been working on using utensils at her preschool," Sharon tells Andy, grabbing a single pancake for herself and a couple pieces of bacon, "It's…a bit of a mess some times, but she seems to be getting the hang of it."
"No kidding?"
"Nope," Sharon smiles, "They teach them a lot of practical skills and really advocate for independence."
"I thought that was just something she got from you," Andy teases. Sharon laughs and rolls her eyes. Emily slowly manages to cut through her pancake by the time the doorbell rings. Sharon wipes off her face with a damp rag along with her hands before walking her to the door. She puts her backpack on and presses a kiss to her head.
"Have a good day at the park, pumpkin," Sharon says.
"I will. Bye, Dada!" Emily calls out. Andy sticks his head around the corner and waves at Emily.
"Bye, Em." Sharon shuts the door behind Emily and makes her way back to the kitchen.
"More coffee?" Sharon offers.
"Sure," Andy says as he cleans up their plates, bundling the leftovers to go into the fridge. He sits back down at the table with Sharon and sighs as he digs out the financial items he'd brought with, "You sure you don't mind giving me a hand with this?"
"Not at all," Sharon shakes her head, taking a seat next to Andy, "Would it surprise you to find out that I enjoy numbers? They don't tend to lie."
"No," Andy shakes his head and smiles. He opens up his checkbook and sorts out the papers, "Here is what I have right now, this is my last pay stub, no overtime. This is what we agreed on with Vicky. These are my general monthly expenses."
"Okay," Sharon nods, reaching over to grab a pencil and a clean piece of paper before starting to go through the numbers with Andy. After combing through everything a couple times Sharon scratches the top of her head with the eraser of the pencil and sighing as she looks at Andy.
"Doesn't look good does it?"
"Not really," Sharon says as she looks back down at what they'd come up with for final numbers, "You'd have to clock overtime every week in order to make all the ends meet."
"I could pick up a second job somewhere…" Andy suggests, "Security, delivery…"
"You already work forty hours a week minimum, if you add another twenty on top of that you're never going to have time for the kids," Sharon tells him as she grabs her own checkbook before typing a few numbers into the calculator they had been using. She writes down a few more things before turning the paper towards him.
"What's this?" Andy says as he looks at the number she had circled.
"If you did move in here," Sharon says, "And split the mortgage and utilities with me, that's what you would have left over."
"That's half of your mortgage payment?"
"My parents helped me out with the down payment," Sharon says, "I wouldn't be opposed to it. It would take some work, but..."
"Sharon, I can't ask you to do this."
"You're not asking me," Sharon says as she leans over to pick Ricky up as he starts to fuss, "It would take some getting used to, but I don't think it sounds completely insane. We'd basically just be roommates."
"Still," Andy says, sighing as he looks back at the paper. Sharon presses a kiss to Ricky's head and rubs her hand up his back gently, as she watches Andy.
"You don't have to say anything right now, think about it," She tells him. Andy sighs again and nods, folding everything up and putting it in his bag. He looks at his watch before getting up.
"I should get going."
"What time are you off?" Sharon asks as Andy drains his coffee before leaning down to kiss Ricky's head.
"Seven," Andy says as he rinses out his cup before putting it in the drying rack.
"You coming by after?"
"We'll see what time I actually get out of there, I was going to grab a meeting tonight if I could," Andy says as he picks up his bag and sighs, looking down at the floor. Sharon looks up at him with sympathetic eyes, reaching out to touch his hand. Andy's lips were pursed and a frustrated look had settled over his face.
"Hey," Sharon murmurs. Andy looks up at her, raising his brow, "Breathe, go to work, think about it. This all doesn't have to get solved in a day."
"I know, I just want things to go back to normal."
"I think normal is changing," Sharon tells him before Ricky lets out a frustrated yell, not wanting his pacifier anymore. She stands and presses a kiss to his cheek, "I'm going to go feed him. Have a good day at work. Thank you for coming by this morning."
"Thanks for breakfast, you two have a good day," Andy says, leaning down to kiss Ricky's head once more before heading out of the house.
[TBC]