I know I said one more chapter, but I decided to end with two shorter chapters. I guess I wasn't quite ready to say goodbye, either. The next one will definitely be the last one, though. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing!
Rusty woke up again at 10:00 on Tuesday morning. Sharon and Harper were still unconscious, so he decided to cook potato soup for lunch. He didn't know if Sharon would be going to work at all, but, if she did, she'd probably be working through dinner, and soup would be easy for her to heat up and eat quickly. By 11:30, the smell of the soup cooking had filled the condo and woken Sharon up. Harper was pressed into Sharon's side, and she felt like a hot water bottle. She was starting to stir, so Sharon waited a few minutes until she woke up.
"Hi, sweet girl, how are you feeling?"
"Yucky," Harper pouted.
"I know you do." Sharon felt the toddler's forehead. "Goodness, you feel hot. Let's go get my baby girl some medicine, and it smells like Rusty's cooking some potato soup for lunch! That's one of your favorites!"
"Tay-ta sooooooo!" Harper agreed.
"I knew the mention of food would perk you up, little piglet!" Harper lay on Sharon's shoulder as she carried her into the kitchen. Rusty had heard them moving around, so he met them at the end of the hall with a dropper of medicine and a sippy cup of Pedialyte. "Thanks, honey. I'm excited about that soup, it smells great!" Sharon kissed his cheek and went to the living room to change Harper's diaper.
Rusty stirred his soup and joined Sharon and Harper in the living room. "The soup is ready whenever you're ready to eat. Are you working today?"
"No," Sharon answered as she quickly changed Harper and zipped up her pajamas. "I told everyone I would check in with them this afternoon, but they won't need me unless they hit a dead end or get a new lead. If that happens, it probably won't be until this evening. I don't want to leave Harper when she's this sick. I trust you to take care of her, but-"
"I know," Rusty interrupted. "I'd rather you be here, anyway. She's never been this sick before, and I would probably be a little nervous with her by myself. But if you feel like you should go-"
"The team can handle it, honey. If they work tonight, then I'll go in once Harper's asleep, but that's just because I'll feel guilty about sleeping when everyone else is working." Sharon was starting to understand what Chief Taylor meant when she'd called him out about Chief Pope's promise to promote her to commander a couple of years ago, and he'd responded that the transfer to Major Crimes, in itself, should be considered a promotion. She certainly wouldn't have been able to leave her team in FID unsupervised for hours at a time in the middle of an investigation.
Harper's patience lasted just long enough to get her diaper changed before she let her desire to be fed known. "Eat!" She demanded, looking from Sharon to Rusty expectantly to see who would react to her request first.
"Come on, Harps, I'll feed you. I've already eaten a little bit, but, Sharon, I'm sure you're starving." Harper usually liked to feed herself, but Rusty knew that probably wouldn't be the case today.
"I am hungry. I didn't eat breakfast. God, this smells amazing."
Rusty started to put Harper in her high chair, but she whimpered and squeezed her legs around Rusty when she realized he was going to put her down. "Okay, okay, Harp, I'll hold you." He sat at the table with Harper in his lap while Sharon made bowls of soup for Harper and herself. Sharon put a bowl and a spoon in front of Rusty and sat down to eat her own.
After lunch, Sharon sat in the rocking chair with Harper while Rusty sat on the couch with the adoption papers that he was finally going to read, so Sharon would get off of his ass about it. Harper lay drowsily in Sharon's lap, wrapped up in a blanket, and watched Frozen while Sharon was texting furiously, no doubt checking in with her team. Harper was over Frozen less than an hour into the movie and cuddled into Sharon, ready to go back to sleep. Sharon put her phone down and wrapped the blanket more tightly around Harper as she lay on her shoulder and nuzzled into her. Her forehead burned against Sharon's neck. She started coughing, so Sharon patted her back, gave her a few sips of pedialyte, and got her settled again.
"Sweet Harp," Sharon murmured. She patted Harper's back and hummed softly as she rocked, watching Harper as her eyes began to close. "Mommy doesn't like it when her baby doesn't feel good."
"She's pitiful," Rusty noted.
"I know." Sharon looked down and brushed Harper's messy blonde curls back from her hot forehead. "Dr. Walker said she would be today, but she should start feeling a little better tomorrow. She still won't feel great on Thursday, but she should be much better, so we can probably go through with the adoption ceremony as planned." She resumed humming, and Harper's breathing slowly evened out as she began to feel heavier against Sharon.
"My God, Sharon, you're going to put me to sleep." Rusty got up to get a second bowl of soup and returned to the couch, eager to find something lacking princesses on TV. He was more well-versed in Disney princesses and their drama than a guy his age should ever be. He watched as Harper slept in Sharon's arms without a care in the world, and he couldn't help but feel a little jealous. This motherly love and care from Sharon was all she would ever know. She would grow up, expecting Sharon to drop everything and take care of her when she was hurt or sick, never knowing anything different. Of course, he wouldn't want her to have to know anything less, but he sometimes wished that he and Sharon had found each other a little sooner. Not too much sooner, otherwise he probably wouldn't enjoy being taken care of by Sharon as much if it had been the norm for most of his childhood, but just soon enough to avoid Gary and living in the streets or with an abusive foster family. He did have to admit, though, that he had caught himself taking Sharon for granted before. The last time he was sick, he'd been kind of excited about it when he realized he was starting to feel bad, knowing that a couple of days of Sharon's sympathetic looks, comfort, and coddling were forthcoming. He hadn't thought twice about telling her the second he felt bad enough to whine about it. As usual, she'd delivered.
After dinner that night, Sharon bathed Harper while Rusty cleaned the kitchen from dinner. When he heard her coming back down the hall, he put some Motrin in a medicine dropper, figuring that was why she was coming back to the kitchen. "Thanks, honey. I think we're going to need to do the saline tonight, too. Her congestion isn't much worse, but I think she'll sleep better tonight if we do it." Sharon felt Harper's forehead and peered at her with that concerned look Rusty loved. "She's still burning up."
Rusty grimaced. Harper kicked and screamed like they were trying to kill her any time they had to give her saline, so they only did it if her congestion was bad enough to keep her from sleeping. It was a two-person job, no question. "All right..." He got the saline and suction bulb from the medicine cabinet and dampened a wash cloth while Sharon gave Harper the Motrin. Sharon laid Harper, wearing only her diaper, on the living room floor and straddled her. She held herself just low enough to keep Harper from moving too much, but not so low that she was putting any weight on her. Rusty transferred the saline and suction bulb to Sharon and quickly crouched behind Harper to hold her head still. Harper started wailing before she even saw the saline, knowing what it meant when Sharon and Rusty had her in this position. Sharon squirted the saline in Harper's nose and suctioned it out as quickly and gently as she could. She knew she wasn't hurting her, but that didn't make her cries any less heartbreaking. The worsening coughs that resulted when she was finished didn't help, either. (A/N: This reaction to saline may seem a little extreme, but this is exactly what my two year old niece does every time my sister has to give her saline, which I was reminded of over the weekend. That's where the inspiration to incorporate that into this chapter came from.)
"All right. All done." Rusty wiped Harper's face with the cloth before Sharon picked her up and held her close. "You have a yucky nose, Harp, and this will help. You know we wouldn't do this to you if it didn't help you feel better. That didn't even hurt, did it?"
"It yuck," Harper pouted, as her sobs finally started to abate.
"I'm sorry it's yuck, but your nose is yuck, too. It's over, now, and your nose will feel a little better. Let's go get your jams on." Rusty took Harper from Sharon so she could get off of the floor. "Ugh, my knees are getting too old for this." The first time they'd given Harper saline, Sharon's and Rusty's roles had been reversed, but Harper had gotten too strong for Sharon to hold her head still enough for Rusty to administer the saline.
"Night-night, Harps." Rusty kissed Harper's forehead and gave her back to Sharon.
"Ni, 'ussy," Harper pouted, with a poked-out bottom lip.
Rusty rolled his eyes at Sharon. "D-R-A-M-A...Oh, my God, I bet kids learning to spell is, like, one of the worst things ever."
"It's up there," Sharon agreed. "But what's even worse is forgetting that your kids have learned to spell, and spelling out a word in front of them that they can decipher. I can hear sassy, five-year-old Emily now. 'Mommy! I can spell now, you know. And you just spelled a bad word!'"
Rusty laughed. "I'm sure she kept you on your toes."
"She certainly did. I'm sure this one will, too," Sharon said, cupping Harper's cheek as she lay on her shoulder. "Come on, baby girl, it's time to go night-night." Sharon carried Harper to her room and zipped her into some footie pajamas. After reading and singing to her, Sharon continued to rock Harper until she fell asleep, but still couldn't bring herself to get up. She loved rocking her babies, and Harper was growing up so fast. And was definitely the last baby. Her four children, both adult and otherwise, were plenty for her. Being in her fifties with a teenager and a toddler had never been in Sharon's plans, but she wouldn't have it any other way. With her arms and her heart full with joy and love, Sharon continued rocking Harper for a while longer, enjoying holding her and listening to the sweet sounds of her soft baby snores.