Thanks to those of you who have let me know you're reading this story for the first time! And to those of you who seem to have given my other stories a try recently.
Sharon looped her arm through Emily's as they walked down the block for dinner. "Have you guys talked about a date? What are you thinking? L.A.? Do you want to use the church—"
"Hey, Mom, I just got a fiancé and a fetus in the same day," Emily interrupted with a smile. "I'm a little overwhelmed." She gave Sharon a suspicious look. "You didn't seem that surprised about the engagement."
"Oh, I've known about that for a couple of months. Now that I can finally talk about it, I—"
"You have?" Andy gave her an incredulous look. "You never said a word!"
Sharon nodded. "Emmett said 'don't tell anyone,' so I didn't tell anyone."
Emily snorted. "What, did he, like, call you to ask your permission or something?"
Emmett shrugged. "Well, your mom seems a little old-fashioned—"
"You have no idea," Andy muttered. Sharon elbowed him in the ribs. "Ouch!"
"It was sweet," Sharon spoke up in Emmett's defense. "We're still negotiating your dowry, but—"
Emily rolled her eyes. "Oh, good lord."
"How far along are you?" Sharon asked.
"About seven weeks. I skipped my last two periods—"
"Ewww, we're about to eat!" Rusty whined.
"Get over it, baby brother. I skip periods a lot because of ballet," Emily said in Rusty's direction, "so I didn't think much of it when I skipped a couple of periods. I've been a little nauseous a few mornings in the last couple of weeks, but I never got sick, and it went away after I ate something. I bought a test just to make sure, but I still didn't really think I was pregnant. Baby Baker will be here at the beginning of September, though!" Emily gave Rusty an evil look. "And then I'll start getting periods again—"
"Mo-om, make her stop!"
"You're lucky it's only Emily," Ricky spoke up. "Before she went to college, I had to hear it from her and Mom all the time." Ricky shuddered. "Em'll get graphic about it in a heartbeat."
"Emily always started it!" Sharon clarified. "And by the time she wasn't too shy to talk about it in front of anyone besides me, you were too old for us to shield you from it, anyway."
"As interesting as this conversation is, we're here," Andy said, nodding at the restaurant where they had reservations.
"So, how is this going to work?" Sharon asked once they were seated. "You'll need to be established with a doctor in L.A. before long."
"I told my doctor I was moving, and he said I should try to be in L.A. before I'm twenty weeks," Emily answered. "Emmett's aunt and uncle will probably let us live with them until we find a house, but I hope we don't have to do that for too long."
"I hope we'll find a house before then, and you guys can stay with us," Sharon said.
"Thanks, Mom, but you hate cats. You know I'm bringing Petey with me."
"Petey?!" Andy couldn't help but exclaim. He knew Emily had a cat, but he'd never heard his name before now.
"For Pete Carroll," Sharon and Ricky explained in unison.
Andy's face was twisted in confusion for a few moments while he tried to recall the significance of the vaguely familiar name. "Wait, you named a cat after one of USC's old football coaches?"
"He was still at USC when I got Petey," Emily defended herself.
"You just think I'm obsessed with football. I've been trying to tell you that Emily's so much worse," Sharon spoke up. "And I think I can make my peace with a cat since I'll have a grandchild soon! And because it means we'll be on the same coast again, of course."
Rusty rolled his eyes. "Oh, god, Mom's going to be sappy as crap for the next few months."
"That'll just be the beginning of 'sappy as crap,' kid," Andy added.
The rest of the weekend was more laid-back than usual. On Sunday evening, Sharon was unpacking when she heard a suitcase lid slam and Rusty scream for her. "Mom! Come here!"
Sharon rushed through the bathroom and across the hall to Rusty's room. "What's the matter? Rusty?!"
"Look what your daughter did." Rusty lifted his suitcase lid to show Sharon its contents. There were a few tampons scattered over his clothes. Sharon laughed helplessly. Emily must've managed to do that while they were at her apartment for the couple of hours between checking out of their hotel and having to leave for the airport. "This isn't funny, Mom, it's disgusting!"
"For heaven's sake, Rusty, they won't bite." Sharon began to gather them in her hand.
"What are you going to do with them?!" Rusty still looked horrified.
"Hold on to them and slip them into your bed or pockets of your pants when you aren't looking," Sharon deadpanned. "My god, Rusty, I'm going to take them to work and add them to the ones I already keep there...For Amy and Cami," she clairified when his expression turned more confused. "It's not like Emily will need them for a while."
"You have to, like, give them that stuff?" Rusty asked.
"No, but I know how easy it is to use the last one in your purse and forget to replace them, then get stuck at work without anything, so I keep some in the break room for when they need them." Sharon remembered how sparsely equipped the break room had been in general when she took over Major Crimes. There hadn't been a woman besides Brenda in the division in a couple of years, so the lack of spare tampons wasn't a surprise, but there wasn't even any kind of medicine or basic first aid equipment or anything for day-to-day small injuries or mild pain. Brenda looked out for Brenda and no one else, there was no question about that. The break room supply budget had probably been mostly untouched for anything besides coffee and paper towels during her tenure.
"I'm about to start a load of laundry, so put your dirty clothes in the hall." Sharon turned to leave the room. As long as Rusty folded his own clothes, she didn't mind otherwise doing his laundry from time to time.
"Wait, make sure there's nothing else in here first."
Sharon sighed as she started sifting through Rusty's suitcase, but the exasperated sigh soon turned to giggles. Emily had gotten him pretty good. There were tampons in his shoes, pants pockets, toiletry case, and pretty much any other nook or cranny where one would fit. "There. Now you're all safe from the big bad tampons."
"Thank you." Rusty was completely oblivious to the fact that she was making fun of him.
"Should I check under your bed for monsters now?" Sharon couldn't help but ask.
"You're funny, Mom."
Sharon started a load of laundry and went out to the balcony with her phone and a glass of wine. She settled in one of the lounge chairs and tapped out a text message to Emily. I just had to de-tampon Rusty's suitcase. Do you happen to know anything about that?
Who, me? Was Emily's innocent response.
Yes, you, rotten child.
You seriously got them out for him? You can't coddle the kid his whole life!
Sharon rolled her eyes. That sure is big talk coming from someone who had the flu over Christmas at 25 and took advantage of the coddling of a mother, aunts and uncles, and grandparents!
Stop, Mom, you're getting off topic.
The following Tuesday, Sharon was watching an interview with her remaining team as Mike and Provenza interviewed a person of interest and Cami entertained the woman's three-year-old daughter, Maddie, in the murder room. She had seen enough of the interview to confirm her intuition that the woman shouldn't be under suspicion, but that she probably had some information that could point them in the right direction. At one point in the interview, Sharon decided it was time to subtly step it up a little bit, and Amy and Cami were the people for that job. She'd heard the little girl with Cami whining for the last few minutes, anyway, so she decided to give Cami a break and take over baby-sitting duty for a while. That was the unfortunate part of needing information from people on whom they didn't have enough dirt to formally hold in custody. The murder room had functioned as a daycare more than once in the past to encourage suspects and/or witnesses to come talk to them.
As Sharon snagged Amy and left the murder room, she could hear Maddie's cries growing louder and a little panicked, and she was now fairly certain she knew what the problem was. After working together for several years, Amy had an idea of what Sharon wanted them to do, so she began to fill Cami in while Sharon gathered Maddie in her arms. "You guys go see if you can encourage our witness to talk a little more, and I think this little one is due for a trip to the bathroom. Please tell the others to come get me if it gets interesting." Maddie resisted Sharon as she was being taken from Cami, as she'd been sitting with her for a while and had warmed up to her, but she seemed relieved at the mention of the bathroom. "It's just around the corner, okay?" Sharon assured the squirming girl as she walked quickly in that direction. She remembered Emily being shy about needing the bathroom if Sharon wasn't around and she wasn't familiar with the adults who were with her. She also remembered that once the whining and fidgeting started, she didn't have much time before she had a wet hip, so she got to the bathroom as quickly as she could and set Maddie down in a stall. "Do you need any help?" Maddie shook her head, so Sharon held the stall door closed until she was finished and helped her wash her hands. Maddie yawned and reached for Sharon to pick her up. It was 1:30, which was probably a little past her nap time. "I think it's time for a little...rest," Sharon said, careful to avoid the word nap.
Maddie grasped Sharon's hair with her little fingers and lay on her shoulder. "Is it my nap time?"
"I believe so, honey." It obviously wasn't going to be hard to convince the little girl to try to go to sleep. Ricky had been the same way. By the time he was a toddler, he'd take himself to bed if Sharon was too busy to put him down for a nap or bedtime when he was ready. Getting Emily into bed for any reason had been like wrestling a tiger at this age. Sharon sat in Amy's chair in the murder room and adjusted Maddie in her lap. Gently spinning the chair back and forth, she hummed softly and rubbed her back until she was sleeping in her arms. God, she couldn't wait to be a grandmother and do this more frequently. And then give the child back when she'd had enough. Once Maddie felt heavier against her shoulder and her breathing was deep and even, Sharon carried her into the electronics room. Mike and Julio about fell over each other in their haste to stand up so she would have a seat. She sat in Julio's chair and ran her fingers through the little girl's hair as she watched the interview. God, this woman. She didn't seem to have done anything wrong herself, but she'd gotten herself tangled up with some terrible people. Maddie seemed happy and well taken care of, but the thought of sending her home with this woman made Sharon want to vomit. Years ago, the well-dressed and obviously pretty well-off woman on the screen would've surprised Sharon as being involved with criminals, but if she'd learned anything in the last nearly four decades, it was that criminals and their cronies were a diverse lot.
"One of us can hold her if she starts to get heavy, ma'am," Julio offered.
"She's fine. Thank you." As the interview progressed, Sharon could see that sending Amy and Cami to tag in had been a good call. The woman's defenses had been entirely too high with Mike and Provenza, but she now seemed oblivious to the fact that she was probably revealing more information than she'd intended. Despite her usual blunt behavior, Cami could establish a false rapport with tight-lipped witnesses and get them talking like they were old friends. She was always entertaining to watch in an interview room. Amy was being politely agreeable and friendly, but was waiting to come in for the kill when they started to get somewhere. They truly made a great team.
A couple of hours later, Amy and Cami had managed to get a good bit of information from the woman, who was now crying after being frightened and falsely threatened with criminal action by Amy into finally revealing everything she knew. They were simply confirming details and tying up loose ends, and Maddie would probably be awake soon, so Sharon carried her back to the murder room before she woke up, not wanting her to see her mother like that. "Hey, did you sleep good?" Sharon asked softly a few minutes later. Maddie was stirring and struggling to open her eyes. She was a little startled when she looked up at Sharon, but then she seemed to remember her.
"Mm-hmm." Maddie lay back down, still clutching Sharon's hair. She'd had a death grip on it since before she'd fallen asleep. Sharon scratched her back and gently swayed from side to side in Andy's chair until the little girl could properly wake up. She remembered how much she'd loved the drowsy post-nap snuggles with Emily and Ricky when they were small. Maddie sat up again a few minutes later, looking more alert. "Where's my mommy?"
"She'll be back soon. I bet you're thirsty after your nap, aren't you?" Sharon took Maddie to the break room and got out one of the Capri Suns she kept in the refrigerator for Mark. She usually had a little wiggle room in the break room supplies budget, so she kept snacks and drinks on hand for days he came to the station after school. "Are you hungry?" Maddie nodded, so Sharon poked the straw through the top of the Capri Sun, put a handful of goldfish on a paper towel, and settled in a bar stool with her in her lap. They were in the middle of a serious discussion about Doc McStuffins when Cami came in with Maddie's mom. The woman quickly thanked them and left, looking embarrassed.
"I think Amy scared her pretty straight," Cami commented once the woman and Maddie were gone.
Sharon nodded. "I hope so. That poor little girl."
They were able to close the case on Friday afternoon, so Sharon sent everyone home early after a long week of late nights. The weather was warm and pleasant, so she changed clothes when they got home and watered the flowers on the balcony while Andy cooked dinner. Just a few weeks ago, she'd been too tired when she got home most nights, so Andy or Rusty had taken care of that on the evenings when she had gone straight to the couch without passing go. Her fatigue hadn't completely faded, but it had improved, and she'd been told that some fatigue would probably linger for a few months after her treatment ended. Music was playing from her phone, and she sang along and sipped a glass of wine as she made the rounds with the watering can.
"Some say it's a sign of weakness for a man to beg
Then weak I'd rather be
If it means having you to keep
'Cause lately I've been losing sleep
Baby, I need your lovin'
Got to have all your lovin'
Baby I need your lovin'
Got to have all you lovin'
Lonely nights echo your name
Oh, sometimes I wonder
Will I ever be the same?
Oh yeah, when you see me smiling
You know things have gotten worse
Any smile you might see has all been rehearsed
Darling, I can't go on without you
This emptiness won't let me live without you
This loneliness inside, darling
Makes me feel half alive
Baby, I need your lovin'
Got to have all your lovin'
Baby I need your lovin'
Got to have all your lovin'"
Sharon was settling into a lounge chair with a refilled glass of wine when her phone started ringing. It was Anna, her nephew's wife. They didn't talk on the phone often, and she worried that something might be wrong, so she answered right away.
"So listen to this shit," Anna demanded before Sharon got "hello" completely out of her mouth. "Huff did an interview with Parade, and just when I thought he couldn't have been more of a condescending asshole, he outdid himself."
Sharon took a long sip of wine. "What did he say?"
"Well, first of all, the beginning of the article described Huff as patiently explaining why both he and May McDonald felt Sherry needed to be laid to rest. May McDonald has said several things about it since that episode aired, but nothing about being involved in the decision. She said she was informed of the decision before they started filming the last season, but she didn't seem to agree with it or to have actually been involved with it. Maybe she was involved, but she hasn't said anything that suggests she was. I think Huff's just trying to share the blame, as usual."
Sharon rolled her eyes. "Patiently explaining?! That sounds like code for making shit up and saying it in a patronizing tone."
"Oh, it gets better. Huff is 'sorry that we're having an emotional reaction to a television drama.' What the hell did he expect?! And then he said later in the interview that 'it was his job to provoke emotional reactions.' I guess he only considers that to be his 'job' if he likes the emotional reactions. Oh, and angry fans aren't Badge of Justice fans, they're May McDonald fans. He threw 'irrational' in there a few times, too."
Sharon slammed her wine glass down on the small table beside her a little harder than she intended, and some of it splashed on her hand. "He has lost his damn mind! I'd never even heard of May McDonald before I started watching the show. I wouldn't have been angry if her death had made any sense or if it served a purpose for the show, but he just erased her like she didn't matter!"
"Oh, but it did serve a purpose," Anna said mockingly. "Dusty couldn't have straight-up murdered Strom if she had been alive. He was 'accommodating' by making the Strom ending one that couldn't have happened on Sherry's watch."
"That ending had to do with lazy writing, not with giving Sherry's death a purpose!" Sharon hadn't paid much attention to the last few episodes, but she'd paid more attention the last episode, which had been described as "defiant" multiple times by Huff earlier in the season, according to Anna. Spoiler alert: there was nothing defiant about a 21 year old getting away with murder, no questions asked, after a lackluster and boring-at-best "pursuit" of Strom.
"Tell me about it. He made the decision to kill her off, and he won't own up to it. If he's not blaming his own decision on the network for canceling the show, he's making up bullshit reasons for it and expecting people not to get angry. Get this. He said 'next to doing something truly spectacular, there's nothing like rising above something absolutely ridiculous. That's what I'm doing at the moment.'"
Sharon's eyes widened. "The only thing ridiculous about all of this is his excuses for a badly-written final season! And there's no way he would've written the same storyline for a male character. You're right. He's outdone himself."
They talked for a few more minutes before hanging up, and once Sharon's blood pressure was back under control, she relaxed and looked over the city as the light of day slowly faded and the city began to light up for the night. Okay, she'd listen to one more song before she went inside to help Andy finish up with dinner.
We're gonna move it slow
When lights are low
When you move it slow, it sounds like more
And it's all right, whoa, it's all right
Now listen to the beat
Kinda pat your feet
You've got soul and everybody knows
That it's all right, whoa, it's all right
When you wake up early in the morning
Feelin' sad like so many of us do
Hum a little soul, make life your goal
And surely something's got to come to you
And say it's all right
Say it's all right
It's all right, have a good time
'Cause it's all right, whoa, it's all right
Now everybody clap your hands
Give yourself a chance
You got soul and everybody knows
That it's all right, whoa, it's all right
Someday I'll find me a woman
Who will love and treat me real nice
Then my woe's got to go
And my love, she will know
From morning, noon and night
And she's got to say it's alright.
Sharon's phone rang again as she was walking inside, and this time it was her realtor calling with a listing she thought they might be interested in. Laura insisted that the house would probably be sold quickly, so she wrote down the address and assured her that she and Andy would meet her there the next morning.
On Saturday morning, Sharon knew that they'd finally found their house the second they walked inside. As they walked through it, she loved it more and more. There were three bedrooms and an office that could function as a small fourth bedroom, and every room in the house was spacious and open. The smaller bedrooms were at the opposite end of the house from the large master bedroom, and the kitchen was big and held new appliances that were being left in the house. The back yard had a pool and a hot tub and there was an outdoor fireplace, and there was an outdoor fireplace on the enormous back porch. It seemed too perfect to be true. "It's like someone built this house just for us," Sharon commented.
"It was built three years ago by a couple around our age," Laura answered. "They had just retired and gotten their last child through college, so they sold the house they'd lived in for twenty years and built a smaller house that had everything they wanted."
Sharon nodded. That made sense. One level in anticipation of approaching older age. The bedrooms on the opposite end of the house to keep visiting children from overhearing things from the master bedroom. The comfortable-looking swing on the back porch where she could imagine reading book after book and drinking glass after glass of wine. The basic floor plan with fewer, larger rooms. That laundry room was definitely the biggest one she'd ever seen. "And they're selling it now because..."
Laura gave her a sad smile. "The wife was killed in a car accident a few weeks ago. Her husband has been too sad living here alone, and he's going to move to San Diego to be closer to two of his children."
Sharon's breath caught in her throat as tears filled her eyes. "That's terrible!"
Laura nodded. "He wants it sold as quickly as possible, so it's not listed for as much as it could've been."
Sharon looked up at Andy. "I was sold before I even saw the fireplace outside."
"And I was sold before I saw the pool and realized how much more often I'd be seeing you in your swimsuit."
Sharon rolled her eyes. "It's a deal."
Thanks so much for reading! I always love seeing your thoughts.