First of all, let me start by screaming: OH MY GOD! IT IS ACTUALLY OFFICIAL! OUR TWO IDIOTS IN LOVE ARE NOW TWO ENGAGED IDIOTS IN LOVE!
Okay, so that being said, can I also just say how much I loved this episode in terms of it actually being about an ensemble cast? Sure, it was very Shandy oriented (and obviously I LOVED that), but everybody had their moment, literally everybody. Julio with Mark, Provenza and his memory (or lack of it), Buzz and proving Provenza wrong, Amy's interactions with Provenza, Julio yelling apologies at pedestrians during the car chase, schooling Wes, being excited for Shandy, Rusty actually serving a purpose that benefited someone else other than him, Wes cutting short Mike's rat poison explanation, and of course, Sharon and Andy and Ricky. Seriously, this is the kind of episodes I wanna see more of. The last episode was close to this ensemble format as well.
Anyway, in my last add-on to 5x17 I said I'd probably have to adjust or re-write it depending on how ep 18 turns out. Well, I think it still works canon-wise, so I just decided to expand it with a morning after scene which kind of ties in to stuff addressed in 5x18.
It's simple really and mostly written for purposes of keeping this set of scenes canon-compliant. Hope you like it, since I was also trying to wrap my head around this whole annulment business and Andy apparently being completely clueless about it.
My next add-ons will be about 5x18 and might address this annulment business more, but expect a bit of Julio and Provenza in them as well. :)
Oh, before you start reading, and since I think I just don't say this often enough - thank you so much for reading and taking a moment to review these! Hearing your thoughts on these can really make my day and keep me going! So thank you! :)
"Morning, future Mrs. Flynn."
She smiled in her sleepy state, stretching as she turned to her side to face the source of the words. She could not recall the last time she had woken up to such a feeling of utter blissfulness.
She hummed, opening her eyes. Andy was there, lying on his side, wide awake, his head propped up on an elbow as he watched her with a dopey grin on his face. She smiled back. "We'll see about that," she mumbled sleepily, scooting closer to him and closing her eyes again once her forehead found a relaxing place on his chest. She may have been blissful, but unlike Andy who currently, albeit unwillingly, had the benefit of shorter workdays, she was also exhausted and longed to catch up on some sleep. And judging by the rather low light in the room, it was way too early for them to be up already anyway.
She felt him move, her head slipping off his chest and flopping onto the mattress as his unexpected movement caught her unawares. "Uh, you're not taking my name?" he grumbled. She looked up at him, becoming more alert now that she detected a bit of hurt in the words, but he continued talking before she could interject. "I mean, I guess it could get awkward at work." He raised an eyebrow then frowned. "Huh, haven't really thought about it." Now he just sounded surprised. "I guess, that's u-"
Maybe she would not be going back to sleep just yet.
She cut his rambling off by pressing a kiss to his lips. She hummed as she pulled back, happy to see the return of his earlier grin to his face. She spoke as she propped herself on an elbow like him. "We can discuss that later." She smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry about it."
That only made him narrow his eyes at her, apparently that was easier said that done. But he reached for her left hand and changed the topic. "You know," there was a bit of smugness to his words as he went on, "we haven't really talked much about this," he told her, looking at her hand as his thumb fiddled with the ring he placed on her finger.
She chuckled, her gaze on her hand as well. "We never even got to dessert," she told him, looking at him over an upturned eyebrow.
He shot her a bland look. "That's not what you said last night."
She laughed, but spoke more seriously once her laughter ebbed away. "But you're right. We have a lot to talk about actually." He nodded and, on a smile, she added, "And my surname is not too high on that list of topics at the moment."
His gaze dropped to her hand again as he laced their fingers together over her hip and he nodded. "Topics like how we wanna do this and when." He looked at her. "When and how we'll tell our kids." He shrugged to add, "Or the squad."
"Mhm," she hummed, nodding slightly. "I'd like to hold off on telling the squad," she told him.
His eyebrows went up. "Why?" he asked, then gave her an incredulous look. "You know Provenza's gonna be all over me the moment we step back into the murder room, right?"
"Oh," she let out on a sympathetic sigh, "I know. I just-"
"I guess, we don't have to make a big announcement," he interrupted, suddenly sounding concerned a little. "Just flash the ring," he smirked, "they're detectives, they can put two and two together on their own."
It was her turn to frown. "What?" she asked, sounding mildly offended that he seemed to think she didn't want to make a big deal out of it. "I want a big announcement," she said, giving him an incredulous look. "And, if memory serves, you wanted to shout it from the rooftops not so many hours ago yourself," she pointed out.
He grinned. "Damn right I did." Over a firm nod of his head he added, "Still do."
She squeezed his hand. "But not yet," she added seriously, even though his little interjection put a smile on her face.
"Why not?" he asked just as seriously as the grin disappeared from his face.
"Because you're right," she said, letting out a soft breath of air. "We haven't talked about this, and I'd really like to before we bring it into work. And as you so nicely pointed out, they are detectives." She gave him a knowing look. "And detectives have questions." Suddenly she shifted to sit up against the headboard. "And a lot of them," she added, letting go of his hand and watching him sit up as well. "I don't want it to become awkward if they ask questions we don't have answers to." She shot him a wide-eyed, mostly exaggerated look. "Or worse, if we have different answers to them."
"Questions like what kind of wedding we're having," he said, nailing one of the more predominant matters on her mind right on the head.
On a small smile, she slowly nodded. "Among other things," she said diplomatically, not exactly certain she wanted to discuss any of those questions at the crack of dawn much less that particular one.
He sighed, clearly intent on discussing it anyway. "You'd like a Catholic union." He sounded resigned, slightly disappointed even.
"Well," her voice took on a slightly higher pitch, "maybe." She found his hand and, smiling reassuringly at him, she added, "But not having one is not necessarily going to be a deal breaker."
He nodded a few times, absentmindedly, then suddenly gave her a wide-eyed, almost panicky look. "Uh," he swallowed, "'necessarily'?" He frowned and his voice raised defensively. "What's that supposed-"
"That's not what I meant," she interrupted gently, patting his thigh. "This," she put up her left hand, wiggling her ring finger, "is a yes, even if I can't marry you in a church, Andy," she assured him, smiling.
That however, only managed to confuse him all over again. "But," he dragged the word out and gave her a puzzled look, "you said 'maybe' on a Catholic union?"
"Yes, I did," she confirmed on a nod.
He narrowed his eyes slightly. "So you don't really know if you want to have a Catholic wedding or not?" he prodded.
She shrugged and took a breath. "Well, of course I would like to have it," she finally said. "But I think I need a moment to wrap my head around probably not being allowed to have it," she added somewhat ruefully.
He turned his hand palm upwards and wrapped it around hers that was still on top of it. He took a deep breath. "Okay," he told her quietly. "We figure that and everything else out, then we break the news at work."
She indicated her ring with the tilt of her head. "So I don't wear this to work just yet?" she asked just to make sure of it.
"Not if you don't want to," he told her, giving her one of those understanding smiles of his.
She nodded. "Yet," she reiterated, squeezing his hand.
His smile went from understanding to confident and reassured, and he nodded, squeezing her hand in agreement.
"Thank you," she said, leaning toward him to kiss his cheek.
He smiled when she pulled away. "But," he said, making her raise an eyebrow at him, "you look like something else is on your mind." It was most definitely not a question.
She sighed. Because, yes, there was something else on her mind.
A glimmer of hope called annulment.
It did not surprise her that Andy clearly had not thought of it. He simply never lingered on his faith as long and as intensely as she did on hers. It just wasn't a priority of his. It was no wonder then that the idea would probably be the farthest thing on his mind, even if he could easily recognize that she did not like the idea of entering a marriage with him while, in the eyes of God, still being married to someone else.
And she wouldn't bring it up. Part of the reason for it was probably just good old-fashioned Catholic guilt. It was bad enough that she was the reason for an annulment possibly becoming a topic in the first place. She could not also be the one suggesting it to him. And, if she was perfectly honest with herself, a part of her maybe worried he wouldn't want to do it.
Truthfully, she wasn't sure she wanted to do it herself. It would mean facing Jack again. It would mean opening old wounds. And she just knew he would drag it all out, too, to make the most of the opportunity to make her life a bit more difficult again and she wasn't sure she had the energy for it. Not yet, anyway. She would probably have to talk to her biological children about it as well.
And while Sandra wasn't nearly as difficult to deal with as Jack was, she would expect Andy to have similar qualms about it.
Despite it all, and whether he really wanted to or not, he would probably do it for her without question. That she did not doubt. After all, wasn't she, in turn, considering doing it for him?
Nevertheless, she felt he needed to consider annulment himself. That was the only way to make sure it was really done for the right reasons, even if one of those reasons would still obviously be her.
"Yes, there is," she admitted, because she could never lie to him. "But I have to think about it myself before I can tell you anything."
She knew he would sigh and nod before he ever did. It wasn't the first time that she had asked him to wait for her to sort her thoughts (and feelings) out. She also knew he would change the topic before he ever opened his mouth to actually do so.
"What about the kids?"
She felt guilty that the question left him in such a hesitant manner, so she offered him a bright, genuine smile and turned slightly to face him. She ran a hand down the side of his arm. "Well, I won't have too many answers for them either," she chuckled softly, almost nervously even, "but at them," she said, suddenly feeling almost giddy at the prospect, "you can shout the news as loud as you want."
His face lit up and his mouth stayed open for several moments as he looked at her before he actually spoke again. "I can?" he asked, disbelief evident.
She laughed. "Of course."
Although, even if she were against it, which she really wasn't, Rusty had probably already told Emily and Ricky about the proposal, so there was no way to avoid telling them anyway. She was also sure that, if she were to check her phone, she would find proof of her assumption in the form of plenty of missed texts or calls from the both of them. And she doubted Andy's children had no inkling about what he had in store for her either. He had been far too excited about this. He was bound to either have let it slip in front of Nicole or to have his excitement give him away all on its own.
Andy smirked. "I guess it helps that only one of them actually lives here and knows not to pry?"
She put her hands over her mouth and shrugged guiltily. "Yes," she admitted pathetically.
"You know," he started, chuckling, "if it weren't for this," he reached for her left hand and pried it away from her face, "I don't think my ego would be able to handle you putting on the breaks like this."
She sighed and tilted her head sideways as she looked at him. She dropped her free hand into her lap. "It has nothing to do with your ego, Andy," she said honestly. "I'm not putting on any breaks either," she said defensively, "I just," she took a breath, "need to-"
"Think about it. Talk about it," Andy interceded. He waved his hand, the one holding hers, at her. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered, "I know." He was no longer muttering and his tone softened considerably when he added, "Sharon, it's just how you operate." He pinned her with a hard look and reiterated, "I know."
She smiled.
She knew Andy Flynn was not a patient man, but in moments like these she thought he had the patience of a saint. He could have just insisted on telling the team anyway. She knew he didn't like keeping things from them, especially happy news like this. Especially from Provenza. Although she had a feeling her second in command would somehow find out before anyone else anyway. Or he could have insisted on answering any of their (or, for that matter, their children's) questions with a simple "We don't know yet." or "We haven't really thought about it yet."
So the fact that he didn't only warmed her heart more and made her that much more certain of this, of them. Even if it frustrated him, and it did, she knew, he understood her need to somehow prepare for it. And she was incredibly grateful for it.
She extricated her hand from his hold only to reach for his face and kiss him in another form of thanks. By the time they pulled apart she found herself in his lap, straddling him, his hands above her hips holding her in place. "I'm actually thinking about a little get-together to announce this to the team," she informed him happily.
"Like a party?" he asked, surprised.
"Yes," she confirmed on a smile. At his still surprised look, she added a bit blandly, "I will soon shout this from the rooftops as well." Her air quotation marks made it clear she was speaking metaphorically. She then shook her head at him. "I don't plan on just thinking and talking about this forever, you know?"
He gave her a lopsided smile. "Nah, you just plan on living with me forever," he quipped before quickly kissing her again.
"And loving you," she said softly, kissing him back.
"And driving me nuts," he added, feigning exasperation by rolling his eyes at her. "For all eternity," he drawled.
She snorted, resting her forehead against his as she laughed.
He chuckled and tried to get a better look at her face. "Is that a yes on that?"
She looked at him. "What was it you said earlier, damn right?" she asked rhetorically, pretending to have to think about it. She then smirked and said, "Damn right it is!"
On a laugh, he asked, "And this party of yours won't, by any chance, have anything to do with your sense of occasion?"
"Maybe," she quipped, throwing a coy smile his way.
It was his turn to smirk. "And would your sense of occasion mind another round of a more," he paused to peck her on the lips, "private celebration?"
"I don't know," she said, doing her best but failing terribly at keeping a straight face, "maybe you should ask it."
In response he just kissed her.
She was most definitely not going back to sleep now.