At the End of the Day

by Still Lost in Translation

Filling in the gaps after the credits roll. Picking up where 4.17 #FindKaylaWeber left off, after a horrible couple of days Sharon was in need of a little TLC (Update: Chapter 43: The morning after Ch 42 - Sharon battles to get ready for work while dealing with a rejuvenated Andy after his all clear from the Doctor. Takes place six weeks after the end of White Lies Part Three 5x13)

25. Chapter 25

Once again thank you to everyone who read the last chapter and in particular thank you to xbleeple, walkerdude1, seaford71, maidenpride, Elaine Huang, eelise187, GrammyIda, Imperfect Being, ilovedesserts, HeiBeSo and the three guests for leaving reviews. I must also say thank you to Angie for continuing to encourage me on Twitter even though she sends me clown gifs and causes me to spend all night hiding under my bed. If you'd like to leave a review for this chapter I'd appreciate it or you can get in contact with me on Twitter at DHPLover.

This is another long chapter (it was supposed to be a fairly short but has somehow turned out to be the third longest, so bring plenty of tea) and I've got bad news for those that prefer shorter stories, these chapters are always going to be long. I love dialogue and I always have done. I love conversations that go nowhere, that do nothing to enhance the plot but do reveal a lot about the characters and that's all you're going to get here. When a first draft is finished I always ask readers on Twitter if they want me to make it longer or shorter and the answer is always longer so blame them if you don't like it.

This chapter takes place part of the way through episode N.S.F.W. 5x2 before Sharon tells Rusty about his Mom and the baby. This chapter came about because as Sharon waits for Rusty there is a second place setting on the table and since the table is only set when they use it and Rusty wasn't home, that can only mean Andy was there before going to work, so this is what I came up with. I'll be honest I like this chapter a lot because I like some of the back story to it although usually when I like a chapter that means no one else does so I'm not expecting a lot of reviews. Some of this is true, some of it is based on friends and some of it is based on myself and it might well be the fluffiest thing I've written to date.

As usual I don't own any of these characters etc etc.

Enjoy.

At the End of the Day - Chapter Twenty Five

Sharon walked out of her bathroom fully dressed and ready for work (with the exception of her shoes and jacket) and sat on the stool in front of her vanity to leisurely put on a pair of earrings as she hummed merrily away to herself. Behind her Andy lay in bed fast asleep, sprawled out in the centre of the mattress on his back in a starfish pose, snoring quietly and completely dead to the world. As usual his legs and his feet hung out from under the sheet with it just covering his waist and revealing that for once he wasn't wearing a t-shirt in bed. With her earrings in place Sharon looked in the mirror and checked herself, playing with her hair a little. Satisfied with her appearance she looked at her watch that lay before her on the table and noted the time. She sighed as she realised that she had left Andy asleep for long enough and she now needed to make a concerted effort to finally wake him up, something that was not an easy job on a good day. On that particular morning she had opted to let him sleep a little longer while she got ready for work (knowing that she wouldn't accidentally wake him unless she fired her gun in the air) because if they happened to dress at the same time he always found a way to distract her and ultimately made them both late for work, but aside from that she liked to watch him sleep as she pottered about the bedroom.

Sharon swivelled on the chair to face him. "Andy" she called at a relatively quiet volume, as always trying to wake up him as gently as possible in the beginning although that hardly ever worked. When that first call had no effect she raised her voice slightly. "Andy! Andy!" As she expected his snoring continued unabated. She sighed, more than used to the time and effort it sometimes took to wake him up by now. "Andrew!" she shouted loud enough to make it echo around the four walls of the bedroom.

Realising that she needed a much more 'hands on' approach to the task at hand Sharon stood and walked over to the bed. She knelt on the very edge of the mattress and leant over him, kissing him on the lips a couple of times as her hand stroked his face, still trying her hardest to wake him up as gently as possible before opting for something more drastic and potentially painful. "Andy wake up. Come on." She kissed him again and studied his face for a moment. There had been many mornings in the past where Andy had pretended to still be asleep simply to see what else she would do to try to wake him, usually something he rather enjoyed. However much to his annoyance she had begun to notice that he couldn't help but smile as her nails raked up and down his body for example. Satisfied that he was in fact still asleep she sat back down at her vanity, tickling the sole of his foot as she went past with her fingernails for good measure but she still got no response, not even a flicker or even a change in his breathing. She sighed again. "This is worse than attempting to wake a teenager. Andy. Andy!" she cried, already getting fed up with the time such a simple task was taking.

With still no response she thought for a moment of what to do next as she put her watch on, noting the time again and turning to him with a sense of real urgency. "Andy, Sandra is here" she called. "She's left Michael and she wants you back. It'll be hard for me but you're clearly meant for one another." She paused for a moment to see if any of that seeped into his brain and would wake him up. "Andy! Andy I'm completely naked. Andy! Andy! I'm naked!" she shouted as she reached across and grabbed hold of his big toe, pulling on it a couple of times. "Andy!" she cried again before again sighing with frustration. "I'm leaving you and taking your suspenders with me!" she announced.

She sighed again and left him for a moment as she slipped her shoes on and pulled on her jacket that was hanging from her closet door. She sat back down and glanced at herself in the mirror, moving a stray piece of hair that had somehow escaped and was now dangling across her face before turning back to her snoring boyfriend. "Andy I'm pregnant" she shouted. "We're having triplets." She stared at him and quickly realised that he was no closer to returning to the land of the living than he was twenty minutes ago. She sighed as she stood and walked back over to him, bending over to talk closer to his ear. "Andy! I've been asked to join Mike as a technical adviser on Badge of Justice. I've said yes."

Realising that he wasn't going to wake up with her taking some seriously drastic measures and with time quickly becoming a factor she opted to use the last resort of holding his nose and his mouth closed. Putting the palm of her hand over his mouth and holding his nostrils closed with her thumb and forefinger, she kept one eye on her watch to ensure that she didn't actually kill him this time. After no more than fifteen seconds his eyes opened and practically bulged as he began to suffocate. She instantly let go as he gasped for breath. She smiled at him for a moment and then bent down and kissed him on the lips. "Good morning sunshine" she said sweetly as if she hadn't just been one step away from murdering him.

"Are you crazy?" he asked as he stared up at her, still gasping for air very melodramatically. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"Not today, just trying to wake you up and since nothing else seemed to be working you left me with no other alternative."

He propped himself up on his elbows and smiled at her, still gulping in the air. "I liked the way you woke me up earlier" he practically growled with a wink.

When Rusty was out for the night they always tried to take advantage of the empty condo and that very often spread to the morning, especially since Sharon was definitely more of a morning person. She had woken him up suddenly and very easily about an hour earlier with his hips instantly bucking upwards towards her mouth and the words 'Jesus Christ Sharon!' escaping from his lips as his hands vanished into her hair before his eyes had even had chance to fully open and his brain to comprehend what was happening to him. But aside from Sharon being a morning person and it being an extremely rare chance for them to be completely alone in the condo without a teenager who might overhear them and immediately call his therapist, they also currently couldn't leave each other alone. It was not that things had got stale between them of late, far from it, but things had certainly settled down nicely and they were just enjoying their life together. However since they'd decided to move in together it was like they were in those first few lust filled weeks around Christmas again and in the midst of what could only be described as another honeymoon period, expecting the exact same thing to happen when they did eventually move in together before the real honeymoon period that was at the back of both of their minds for the distant future if they did indeed end up getting married.

She laughed, expecting that kind of answer from him. "Tough luck" she replied bluntly as she tapped her watch. "You've run out of time. You've got to get ready for work and I need to make sure you eat first before you leave."

Andy looked around the room for a moment, still a little disorientated and sleep addled as he struggled to wake up properly, blinking rapidly as she eyes adjusted to the brightness coming through the window. "Did you say something about being naked just now?"

She laughed. "I was just trying to wake you up. I also told you I was expecting triplets but it's nice to know you've got your priorities in order."

"I do try. I always knew I had Super..." he started, never failing to bring up how fertile he assumed he was simply because his Father was and knowing it irritated Sharon a little bit every time he brought it up.

"Don't!" Sharon cried with a glare, cutting him off. Andy laughed as she flopped back down on the bed, his hands covering his eyes as he battled to adjust to the harshness of the sunlight. "Don't say it" she warned as she stood over him menacingly given his rather vulnerable position. "Now are you getting up today or not?"

"Do I have to?"

"Yes" she confirmed before she kissed him on the lips. "Funnily enough you do."

"I'm calling in sick" he announced before he rolled over onto his front and buried his face into his pillow, hugging it as he closed his eyes and he got comfortable.

"Really?" she asked as she watched him with her hands on her hips. "And what will your Captain have to say about that I wonder?"

"She won't care" he replied, his voice muffled by his pillow. "She won't find out."

"Really?"

"Really." Sharon nodded at him, a smile on her face. After a moment she opted to play along with his little game and walked to the vanity to retrieve her cell phone. She opened the screen, going to her list of favourite numbers straight away where her children and Andy's number were located and pressed her finger to his name. She brought the phone to her ear just as Andy's phone started to ring on the nightstand. Andy's head immediately snapped up as he blindly groped around for his cell. After his eyes adjusted enough to read the caller ID on the screen he turned to face her. "You called my Captain on me?" he shouted as if it was a completely different woman to the one standing in the room with him, a completely different woman to the one who had been screaming his name not an hour earlier. He answered the phone and brought it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Get out of bed!" she shouted into the mouthpiece before she hung up the phone and slid it into her jacket pocket.

"Fine" he grumbled. He dropped his phone back on the nightstand and then sat back up on his elbows again, looking her up and down a couple of times when settled. "You're dressed."

"Well spotted Lieutenant" she said dryly as she slotted her gun and her badge on her hip for her journey to work (where they would inevitably end up in the drawer of her desk until she needed them). "You're a much better Detective than I give you credit for."

"I can't believe you showered without me" he said with genuine disappointment.

"If you wanted to join me you shouldn't have gone back to sleep" she informed him as she walked back over to the bed and dropped another kiss to his lips.

"You wake me up like that, wear me out and then complain that I've gone back to sleep?"

"I'm sorry" Sharon replied as she crossed her arms. "Should I not have woken you up like that?" she asked with a smile.

"Are you kidding?" he winked. "Surprise sex is always the best thing to wake up to…unless you're in a federal penitentiary and then not so much."

Sharon laughed. "I'm not complaining that you went back to sleep, I'm just stating a fact about the reason why you've missed out on round two" she pointed out before she sat on the edge of the bed and kissed him. "If you wanted me to scrub your back and other things then you should learn to keep up" she added and then kissed him again.

"What time is it?" he asked. She smiled at him and that told him all he needed to know but he still peered past her to look at the clock on the nightstand anyway. "Oh come on!" he cried before he collapsed back into his pillow, clearly frustrated and a still a little tired.

"You are worse than a teenager. I need to make sure you've had something to eat before you leave."

"Are you mothering me?"

"Yes" she said bluntly, putting her hands on her hips and letting him know that he was in a little bit of trouble for complaining. "Have you got a problem with that?"

"No ma'am. Just asking."

"Good. Now come on. It's time to get your backside moving." Neither of them were late for work, in fact it was still relatively early even for a work day but she wanted to make sure that he ate a proper breakfast before sending him off to join the rest of the division staking out Lisa Cornell but aside from that she had something she desperately wanted to talk to him about over their coffee and to ensure they had the time to do that she needed him up and dressed as quickly as possible. The previous morning Sharon Beck had been to see her, with Andy bringing her up to her office unseen by the rest of the division, where she had revealed (much to Sharon's initial shock) that she was pregnant with Gary's baby. With the request that she be the one to tell Rusty for her because she was simply too frightened by his reaction to do it herself (not that she could blame her), Sharon was all prepared to break the news to him the night before, that was until Rusty opted to spend the night with Gus instead. Likewise she was yet to tell Andy but wanted to do it before she told Rusty with Andy almost being her practice run before she had chance to sit down with her son and break the 'bad news' for real.

"Okay, okay. It's moving. It's moving." Andy swung his legs around and pulled himself to the edge of the bed, planting his feet on the floor as he leant forward, his head in his hands as he yawned and rubbed his face. Sharon stood in front of him and kissed the top of his head before running her hands through his hair and then holding her hands out to him. He took them gladly and allowed her to pull him to his feet. The moment he stood up the sheet fell from his body and revealed that he wasn't wearing a single stitch of clothing since Sharon had removed his boxers and his t-shirt just an hour earlier (for once not needing to put them back on since Rusty was out and he wouldn't be knocking on their door at some point and asking what they wanted for breakfast). He quickly looked around for his discarded clothes only to realise that Sharon had probably already put them in the hamper before she got dressed. He kissed her on the lips and then slowly made his way towards the bathroom but not until Sharon had smacked him on his bare backside with the palm of her hand. "Hey! Cheeky!" he said over his shoulder.

Sharon laughed. "I'm going to start the coffee."

Sharon left the bedroom and went straight into the kitchen as Andy slowly dragged his sleepy form towards the shower. After putting the coffee on to brew she grabbed two mugs from the cupboard before stopping dead in her tracks. She thought for a moment and then smiled before walking back towards the bedroom door and just stood there listening to Andy in the shower as he loudly murdered Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys. Her smile slowly started to grow as an idea took shape in her mind. She closed the bedroom door behind her and walked towards the main bathroom, creeping as she went as if he might be able to hear her. Once inside she walked straight towards the toilet, her hand immediately coming to rest of the handle. She paused, waiting for a moment as the demons and better angels did battle in her mind before deciding to go ahead and do it anyway. She flushed the toilet, laughter already erupting from her before anything had chance to happen. Within a matter of seconds she heard the sounds of Andy shouting emanating from the shower, a mixture of her name and angry four lettered words, as the ice cold water suddenly and unexpectedly hit him. She laughed hysterically as she went back to the kitchen, almost sprinting past her bedroom door in case Andy suddenly put in an appearance and decided to seek early vengeance upon her. Still laughing happily away to herself she leant back against the kitchen counter and waited for the coffee to brew and then poured them both a cup. With a coffee in each hand she walked back into the bedroom and put them down on the nightstand nearest the bathroom on Andy's side of the bed. She listened for the sound of the shower but it had long since stopped. After a moment to summon up the courage she slowly opened the bathroom door and poked her head inside to see what he was doing and more specifically just how mad he actually was. She found him standing in front of the sink with a towel wrapped around his waist while he dried off his hair with another. He froze when he saw her, shooting her a glare as she just smiled and tried to contain her laughter.

"Come here" Andy instructed with his eyes sparkling with mischief.

"No" came the instant response since Sharon knew him and that look far too well to trust him at that particular moment in time.

"Come here."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't trust you" she said bluntly as she folded her arms in front of her defiantly.

"You don't trust me?" he asked, beyond offended.

"No. You're all wet," she pointed out while simultaneously ogling him, half turned on, half concerned by what he could do to her since he was dripping wet and she was already dressed for work, "and I know you and your tendency to overreact far too well to come anywhere near you." Without warning and before she'd even finished speaking Andy lunged towards her with menace. Sharon's immediate reaction was to squeal and run from the bathroom, shutting the door behind her and holding onto the handle for dear life so that he wouldn't be able to open it. He pulled on the door handle trying to get out and grab her but in all honesty he didn't try very hard. "Andy don't you dare!" she warned. "I've made you coffee."

"Is that a bribe?" Andy asked on the other side of the door. "It's not a very good one."

"I offered you a bribe this morning and now I thought you needed a cold shower."

Andy stopped pulling on the door handle and took a step away from it, not that she would be able to see that. "Can I have my coffee please?"

"Only if you promise not to touch me."

Andy chuckled to himself, feeling like he'd been in this position before when his marriage first started to break up. "Have I gone back in time? Sandra is that you out there?"

Sharon laughed as she picked up his coffee and very slowly and carefully opened the door just wide enough to be able to pass him his cup through the small gap, keeping her distance at all times. "Here" she said as she handed it to him before taking a step back should he suddenly be about to lunge at her again.

"Thank you" he said gratefully as he took it and swallowed that first tempting but ultimately too hot first sip. "Come here."

"No" she replied, keeping her hand on the door handle should she need to close it again.

"What can I possibly do through this small gap?"

"I'm sure you'll think of something." After a moment she relented and moved towards him but while still keeping her hand on the handle. She pressed her face between the gap of the door and the frame. "What?"

As quick as a flash he stepped towards her and planted his lips to hers through the small gap, surprising her. "I'm going to get you for that Raydor" he warned as he turned his attention back to getting ready for work.

Sharon laughed at him, knowing he would get her back eventually and she'd be essentially walking through a mine field of her own making until it happened but in the great scheme of things she felt that it was worth it, just to hear his cries as the cold water hit him. As Andy got to work getting ready in the bathroom Sharon took the opportunity to do a couple of things to help him along, once again her eyes on the prize as the sooner she had him sitting down for breakfast the sooner she could tell him about Sharon and the baby. First she made the bed, pulling the sheet and the comforter straight just to make it look neat and tidy for the day despite the fact that she would change the bedding when she returned from work (should someone break into the condo while they were at work and pilfer her jewellery they would at least think she wasn't a complete slob who kept an untidy home). With the bed made she turned her attention to the mountain of decorative pillows that festooned the floor from where they'd been unceremoniously dumped the night before as they fell into bed together. Once the bed was made she moved to the closet and opened the doors before pulling out the outfit she knew Andy had selected for his morning in the field. She kicked the door closed with her foot and shook her head as she put his clothes on the bed. On the hanger was a pair of dark blue jeans (oh how she loved to stare at his backside in a pair of tight dark blue jeans) and that same grey and white patterned shirt that she had lovingly nicknamed 'The Little Shirt of Horrors.' The last time it put in an appearance was the night of Lieutenant Provenza's bachelor party and the rest, as they say, is history. With the blood that covered it from the cut to above his eye Sharon had hoped that the shirt had died a dignified death and she was never going to have to see it again but with more lives than a cat it had come back once again to send her cross eyed if she stared at it too long and to probably bring trouble onto the shoulders of its owner as it so frequently did. With nothing else left to do she picked up her coffee and kicked open the bathroom door again. She leant up against the doorframe as she watched Andy with a smile on her face as he stood shaving in front of the sink, half of his face covered in shaving cream, a towel still wrapped around his waist. After a moment he noticed her watching him in the mirror.

"What are you looking at?" he asked her reflection as he cleaned off his razor in the sink.

"You" she replied as she sipped on her coffee and blatantly ogled him for all he was worth. "I like watching you shave."

"Why?" he questioned as he set to work on his other cheek.

"I don't know. It's kind of sexy" she admitted as she smiled. She really didn't know why she liked it but it did make her all hot and bothered as she watched him but then again she'd be getting all hot and bothered watching him do a ten thousand piece jigsaw puzzle of the Great Wall of China the way she currently felt about him and the life they were starting to build together. "You didn't have a very long shower" she grinned after a few moments of silence.

"Yeah funny that. The water suddenly got very cold" he pointed out like it was a complete mystery as to what had happened. "Almost as if Darth Raydor herself put her cold hand on the pipe and froze it solid."

"I'll put my cold hand on your pipe in a moment" she warned.

He turned and winked at her. "Promises, promises" he muttered before they both laughed.

Sharon continued to watch him in silence as he shaved the rest of his face. It was only when he dropped his razor into the sink and pulled the plug to drain the water that Sharon noticed the large blob of shaving cream still left on his chin. "You missed a bit."

"Where?"

"Right there" she said, pointing at his chin from her safe position by the door.

"Where?" he asked again, but since he'd left it there deliberately his ignorance was very well acted since for once it fooled Sharon perfectly.

Rather naïvely given what she had done to him not ten minutes earlier Sharon walked towards him to show him the area of his face that he'd missed with his razor. "There" she pointed out. Andy nodded and made quick work of shaving it before turning to face Sharon and seeking her approval. "Perfect" she announced. Before she had chance to move away from him again he lunged at her and wiped all of the excess cream remaining on his face all over her cheek. She squealed as she fought to wriggle out of his grasp and push him away from her. "Andy!"

With enough cream rubbed on her cheek he let her go and laughed. "Revenge is sweet" he winked. Sharon just stared at him with her arms folded, looking incredibly unimpressed as her cheek looked like Fozzy Bear had attacked her with a cream pie. "Oh come here" he said kindly as he pulled her towards him and very carefully and gently began to remove the cream with a hand towel. Once finished he dropped his lips to hers and kissed her very sweetly. "Perfect" he announced, just like she had seconds earlier and winked.

"What would you like for breakfast? Cereal or I've got some fruit in the fridge?"

"I don't mind" he shrugged.

"Fruit salad okay?"

"Sounds perfect." Sharon nodded and turned to leave. "Hold on." He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back towards him, his suspicions growing by the second. "What's the matter?" he asked, thinking that something was clearly going on with her that morning given the very close attention she was paying him, more so than other mornings when they were alone.

She looked at him puzzled for a moment. "What do you mean?"

He leant his hip against the sink and crossed his arms in front of himself. "There's something wrong. What is it?"

"What makes you think something is wrong?" she asked while chomping on her bottom lip in a clear indication to him that (when she wasn't using it as a tactic to get him into bed) there was obviously something bothering her and she was ever so slightly nervous.

"Well aside from how early you've woken me up, you're hovering this morning. You clearly want to tell me something. What is it?"

She laughed but nervously so, simultaneously pleased but also irritated that he seemingly knew her so well to be able to notice these things when she thought she'd hidden it so well. "Nothing. Nothing at all" she maintained. She'd wanted to tell him about Sharon and the baby since the night before, seeking his advice on how to handle the situation when she broke the news to Rusty. In truth although they were immediately distracted when Andy learned Rusty was staying the night with Gus she had still had plenty of chances to tell him before they went to sleep, as usual talking for a good hour before nodding off but she was growing increasingly worried about his reaction. Sharon Beck was a car crash of a person and she hated dragging Andy into it with her since she was battling the same demons he himself dealt with on a daily basis but with a greater degree of success. Rusty's Mother having a baby was clearly going to have an impact on their lives, in the very least having Rusty's baby sibling over at the condo (or hopefully their house) from time to time and although it obviously wasn't going to be the end of them, it was something he would need to decide if he was comfortable living with before they moved forward.

"Okay" he nodded although he didn't believe a word of it. "Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Nothing to do with yesterday? Nothing to do with what Sharon wanted to speak to you about?"

"Oh that? No" she shrugged almost flippantly. "I told you yesterday that was nothing, she just wanted to know how Rusty was doing lately" she lied. She realised that it was the perfect opening for her to tell him what was going on but had already decided she was going to wait until they sat down to eat or at the very least he had a pair of pants on.

"Okay. You sure?" he asked again, a little concerned.

"Absolutely" she smiled. "There's nothing to worry about." She walked back over to him and kissed him tenderly on the lips, hoping beyond hope that he would drop the subject until she was ready to reveal all. "But thank you for helping me with her by the way, I just didn't seem to find the time to tell you yesterday."

"It's was my pleasure, as always."

"I'm going to get the fruit out of the fridge."

"Okay" Andy nodded. He watched her with huge amounts of suspicion as she left. He knew that something was clearly up with her but he also knew that he wouldn't get it out of her until she was ready, if you tried to pry information out of her she would only clam up more and virtually shut down. With that avenue closed to him he decided to let it go for now and try again later, assuming that it must have something to do with Sharon Beck given the timing and expected another arrest to be on the horizon, suspecting that Provenza would probably be handling things as usual since the situation was already convoluted enough without Rusty's would be Step-Father wading in during interviews and when deals were being made with her. Still, at the back of his mind he worried that she might had changed her mind about the move and she was trying to find the right time to break the news to him but given the last twelve hours they'd spent together, most of which was spent with lips and hands exploring the other, he hoped that he was reading far too much into it.

While Andy brushed his teeth and began to get dressed, Sharon went into the kitchen and retrieved several boxes of fruit from the fridge and put them on the kitchen counter. She then got two bowls and the cutting board and knife out from the cupboard in the corner and assembled them next to the fruit, all of it ready for them to cut up together a little later (although not until she'd eaten three strawberries first). With everything laid out she went back into the bedroom and found Andy coming out of the bathroom in just his boxers, his coffee in his hand and a smile on his face but clearly holding in his stomach a little around her and not for the first time. As he moved he kept one eye on her, expecting her to tell him what was bothering her very soon or at least hoping that would be the case. He put his coffee down on the nightstand and moved to the bureau to get out a plain white t-shirt. Sharon sighed as she moved over to the vanity, clearly fed up. He moved to follow her as he found the bottom of his shirt.

"What's up?" he asked, giving her another little prod to open up to him.

Sharon sat on the edge of the vanity with another unhappy sigh and give him a very weak smile. "Oh I just really don't want to go into work today, that's all" she admitted with a shrug, something that was very unlike her and something that she would only ever say to him.

"Oh yeah? Do you want to play hooky with me instead?"

"Oh definitely." As she smiled at him she couldn't help but notice that he was continuing to hold in his stomach, it altering his posture slightly. "Stop holding your stomach in" she all but instructed him as she reached forward and ran her fingers back and forth his flesh just below his belly button.

He nodded and reluctantly let it go, not making that much of a difference to be fair but it was the principle of it that bothered Sharon. "Better?" he asked with his arms out stretched like he was showing himself off.

"Better" she confirmed before she grabbed his hand, pulling him towards her and kissing him on the lips. She was forever telling him to stop sucking in his stomach when he was around her, especially when he didn't have a shirt on. Sharon really didn't care that he carried a little extra weight around the middle, after all she was hardly perfect herself but it clearly bothered Andy with him often suddenly becoming very vain about it in her presence and it was her mission in life to try and stop him.

"You used to be able to do your washing on my stomach" he said sadly about the abdominal muscles that vanished around the same time as his life also disappeared into a bottle.

"Yeah but I have a machine for that and I have much better uses for you" she joked before she kissed him again.

He smiled. "I know you do."

He leant in to kiss her back with Sharon allowing it to linger for a moment before she managed to utter "Get dressed" while their lips were still pressed together.

"Yes ma'am." He pulled his t-shirt over his head and down his body before asking "Where shall we go?" as he planted a hand either side of her on the vanity and leaned in close.

"Go?"

"When we play hooky."

"Oh anywhere" she replied as she put her hands around the back of his neck, her change in mood at not wanting to go to work at odds with the speed she kept encouraging him to dress. "Anywhere as long as it isn't here."

"Well in that case pack a bag. I can see us spending tomorrow afternoon riding on a gondola."

"In Venice?"

"Las Vegas" he corrected. She laughed at him before kissing him again. "What's brought this on all of a sudden?" he asked as he went back to the bureau to get a pair of socks out of the small drawer he had in it. There were occasions in the past when Sharon didn't particularly look forward to work, as much as she loved her job and helping people, when they were in the midst of a particularly nasty case that involved children for example and she would subtly express her desire to call in sick but she had never seemed this down by the idea of it before.

"It's this case" she said simply. "I hate this case. I hate it. I can't stand to be around that revolting man a second longer with nothing to charge him with" she added with a shudder, having felt her skin crawl just looking at Bo McLaren the day before.

"We've got to be able to find something."

"Well his alibi is rock solid" she reminded him regretfully. "I have an idea but it's going to take an awful lot of ducks to line up in order to achieve it. But that's a problem for another day when we don't have a murder to solve." She shuddered again with contempt and disgust. "He's beyond grotesque."

Andy laughed. "Oddly enough sweetheart your feelings on the guy had been noted."

Sharon looked at him confused, often trying to keep her opinions on a suspect to herself and well-hidden so that it didn't impact on their case. "What do you mean?"

"The way you opened the door to the interview room yesterday evening portrayed your true feelings perfectly." She frowned at him, still confused by what she was hearing. "I assume you did it deliberately" he added as he sat on the edge of the bed and began to pull his socks on.

She shook her head, still at a loss as to what he was talking about. "Did what deliberately?"

"You are kidding right?" he laughed. "You slammed the door so hard against the wall as you entered yesterday you scared the crap out of everyone in there. You scared the crap out of everyone in Electronics for that matter."

She again looked at him completely puzzled. "Did I really?"

"Yes. The whole building practically shook."

"You're making that up" she laughed, not realising she'd done anything other than opened the door and walked in with a certain amount of purpose.

"I'm not. You don't remember?"

"To be perfectly honest I was more focused on going in there and rattling that creep than anything else" she admitted, her sole focus being on the revolting creature sitting next to his lawyer rather than herself.

"Well have no fear about that because it was definitely mission accomplished. You rattled all of us. Before Taylor left he pulled me to one side and said 'Hey whatever you do Flynn, don't ever piss her off.'" For once he wasn't exaggerating for comedic effect. Once they had all finished listening to what Sharon wanted from Bo in order to set up their upcoming morning surveillance operation they filed back out into the Murder Room until Taylor grabbed hold of Andy by the shoulder and offered his words of wisdom for the sake of his own safety, getting a nod of agreement from everyone else in close enough attendance to hear.

"Oh you're exaggerating."

"I'm not. Everyone was terrified of you for about an hour afterwards." Andy stood with his jeans in hand and started to pull them up. "I don't know what that door did to irritate you but I sure as shit hope I never do the same thing."

Sharon smiled at him with a glint in her eye. "Don't worry you have your own little ways to irritate the hell out of me without needing any additional help."

"Well I do try" he said modestly.

"You most certainly do."

They both laughed before he asked "You really didn't do it on purpose?"

"No."

"Figures," he shrugged casually, "even unintentionally Darth Raydor is still the scariest badass in Southern California." They laughed again. "You're right though. Can you believe girls actually post applications to sleep with that asshole?"

"It doesn't bare thinking about" she replied, still disgusted by both Bo and his website.

"For their first time as well" Andy said with disbelief as he started to do up his belt. "Why? Why would you do that? Your first time sleeping with someone is supposed to be special, with someone special."

She looked at him with a fair amount of surprise as she crossed her arms. "What?"

"You don't think so?" he asked with just as much surprise as he sat back down on the bed.

"Yes I do but I just didn't think you would feel that way Mr Dating Three Girls at Once."

"You should know by now that you shouldn't believe everything you hear about me at the station."

"Oh believe me I don't but I do believe everything your sister tells me" she informed him with glee. "What about you and the…the Wilshere sisters I think they were called? Is that right? Something like that?"

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "They tricked me" he claimed as he pulled his shirt on and started to button it up.

She laughed at him and the ridiculousness of his statement. "They tricked you? Three sisters tricked you into sleeping with them in space of less than a month when you were eighteen years old and clearly far too horny for words?"

With his shirt buttoned he grabbed his watch from the nightstand and slid it on before nodding. "That's what I'm sticking with yes." She laughed at him as he stood up and moved to stand in front of the full length mirror in the corner of the room. He looked himself up and down for a moment, his hair still slightly wet. "How do I look? Inconspicuous?"

She smiled at him before crossing towards him and running her hands around his waist from behind. "Oh very. In fact I'm struggling to see you you've blended in so well with my décor" she joked.

"Like Waldo?"

"Indeed," she confirmed before she kissed the back of his neck, "and not just because your shirt looks equally as ridiculous as his does." She laughed to herself and the overly offended expression she knew he'd be pulling at her and sat back down on the edge of the vanity with her cup of coffee.

He turned to face her. "Are you mocking this shirt again?"

"Well I'll be honest I had rather hoped it died after Lieutenant Provenza's bachelor party. It was the sole shining light to come out of that whole catastrophe. I thought it was going in the trash because you couldn't get the blood out of it."

"It was until my dry cleaner thankfully managed to work some magic on it."

Sharon rolled her eyes. "Oh yes thankfully. I really must send them a 'Thank You' card" she replied with heaps of sarcasm.

He stood in front of her with his arms folded. "Why do you hate this shirt so much?"

"Other than it makes me go cross eyed when I look at it for too long? Have you ever worn it and not got yourself into trouble?" she asked, genuinely expecting some sort of disaster to befall him by the end of the day.

"Yes" he nodded, full of confidence.

"When?"

"Lots of times" he confirmed before trying his hardest to think of something specific to tell her. "I just can't quite think of one right now." She laughed at him. "But I'm sure it's happened and it's going to happen again today" he confirmed with great authority before he dropped his lips to hers.

"I certainly hope so" she told him as almost a warning before she stood, pushed past him and headed towards the door. "I'm going to make a start on breakfast."

"I'll be right there." Once Sharon was gone he pulled his shoes on after finding them at the foot of the bed and then opened the closet door. His eyes scanned it for a moment, it full to the rafters, until he spotted his suit squeezed on the very end. He pulled it out, it being the suit he was going to change into once he returned to PAB later in the day. Before he'd had chance to close the door again he noticed that although his tie and suspenders were still on the hanger along with his suit, his shirt was missing. He sighed as he closed the closet and then turned towards the door, his suit still in his hand. "Hey Raydor! Get your ass back in here" he shouted after her.

After a moment or two Sharon appeared from around the corner, a confused smile on her face although she secretly knew what was going on. "What's the matter?"

"Where's my shirt?" he asked as he shook his suit at her.

She smiled at him sheepishly. "How should I know? Where did you put it?"

"Where did I put it? On the hanger with my suit and tie and suspenders and then I hung it in the closet. Now it's mysterious vanished…yet again, like all of the others."

"Well it is like Narnia in there" she joked, not expecting him to understand the reference.

"I know but I doubt very much a flute playing goat man would want my shirts to protect him from the snow." Sharon frowned at him, completely flabbergasted by what she was hearing. "I watched it with the boys a couple of weeks ago" he explained.

She smiled at him again. "Never say never."

"Well?"

"Well what? Why are you looking at me?" she asked defensively.

"Oh I wonder why?" He dropped his suit on the bed and walked over to the bureau, never taking his eyes off Sharon since he knew exactly which drawer he needed to open and look inside. Sharon flinched for a moment, wanting to stop him but realising that it was far too later for that. "Ah ha!" he cried as he pulled the very light grey shirt that went with his suit from the drawer. "Oh my God! How many of my shirts do you have in here?" he asked after he heaved his shirt towards the bed and then plunged his hands into the drawer to find what other treasures laid within.

"Just one or two."

"One or two?" he cried as he started to count the vast number of his work shirts that had vanished without him noticing. "More like...seven...eight...nine. You've got ten of my shirts in here! Ten! It's a wonder I've got any left to actually wear, to you know, go to work in" he complained at volume.

"I can't help it if they prefer to live in there rather than your closet" she justified.

"Really? Well I'm sorry to disappoint them but I'm liberating one back." He moved back over to the bed and took his coat off the hanger in order to pull his shirt on beneath it. "You're a thief Raydor, a thief!"

"No I borrow. There's a distinction" she corrected him.

With his jacket back on the hanger above his shirt and his ensemble complete he moved back to the drawer to close it, that was until he spotted something else hidden in there. "Wait. Are these my socks?"

"Maybe" she shrugged.

"There's like ten pairs in here."

"Well they're warmer than mine. It's almost as good as having my feet on your stomach."

Not really listening to what she was saying he continued to dig through the drawer. "And four t-shirts and...oh my God these are my shorts too!"

Sharon looked lost for words for a moment as Andy just stared at her, shocked that she had stolen so many of his clothes and he had been so completely oblivious to it. "Well you did want to move in with me" she shrugged again.

"Yes but oddly enough I was hoping that I'd arrive at the same time as my clothes, not that half of my wardrobe would come here first on a reconnaissance mission before I followed weeks later."

"There's just no pleasing you sometimes" she laughed.

He smiled at her. "Is that all you've got to say?"

"What else do you want me to say? You've pretty much covered all the bases there, I'm a 'thief' and you're being a big baby about it."

"Are you going to give me anything of yours to wear in exchange?"

"Sure but they're going to bunch up around your crotch something fierce beneath your pants and you won't like it" she joked, wondering if she might be able to trick him into something of hers for her own amusement.

He frowned. "Then it's not happening."

"Oh I don't know" she said as she slowly approached him and put her arms around his neck, pulling him close to her. "It would be kind of sexy to be sitting at my desk and knowing just a few feet away that you had my panties on under your suit all day long" she teased, hoping that he would believe her as she crashed her lips against his.

After they broke apart he stared at her for a few seconds, unsure if she was joking or not. For a brief moment he realised that he would actually do it for her if she asked him to but then knowing with his luck he was likely to have a heart attack or something in the middle of the Murder Room on the day he did and then everyone would find out. Eventually he laughed at her but nervously so. "You almost had me there for a minute."

She laughed and let go of him. "I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you can fit into any of my clothes my beautiful boy then I may need pharmaceuticals to ease the pain."

"Just so you know when we do move in together I'm taking these back" he said as he pointed towards the big pile of clothes in the open drawer.

"That's fine because by then I'll have your entire wardrobe to pick and choose from."

"I'm going to buy a padlock."

"Like that'll stop me."

"I see, what's mine is yours and what's yours is yours huh?"

"I'm so glad you finally understand how this works." She walked back over to him and kissed him on the lips. With him fairly distracted with their lips locked together she made a valiant attempt to close the drawer without him noticing or seeing what else was in there until he caught her almost immediately.

"Not so fast Raydor." He looked back in the drawer to see what she was so eager to stop him from seeing before very slowly pulling out a fairly small (given the size of his shoulders) and old looking grey and blue Giants t-shirt. Andy looked at it with utter amazement, a real and unexpected blast from the past and something he genuinely never expected to see again. "Oh my God! Where did you get this from?"

She bit down on her bottom lip, suddenly a little anxious. "Liz gave it to me while we were in New York."

"Liz gave it to...," he started before becoming really quite animated, "you know I'm starting to be very pleased that there's a whole country between you and my God damn sister." He examined the shirt closely for a moment like he'd just stumbled across the Holy Grail lurking beneath an old mattress in a yard sale. "Why did she give you this? Where did she even get it from in the first place?"

"In your Mom's attic when she cleaned out her house. She said your Mom hung onto it after you went to college because it was your favourite shirt and so Liz thought I might like it" she explained as he continued to look at her stunned.

"I always thought my Mom donated it to a clothes drive at the church."

"Evidently not. Looking at it, your shoulders and arms are twice the size they were when you were a teenager so you're not wearing it again" she went on to let him know why Liz had opted to give it to her rather than back to him, although Liz had no idea that Sharon was likely to wear it when he wasn't spending the night with her, thinking she'd just keep it as a memento.

"But you can fit into it?"

"I can and I do" she confirmed. "I like it. I like that you loved it so much. It's a little bit of you, a little bit of old Andy that I missed out on that I can keep with me, for always."

"I've got news for you, you've got all of 'old Andy' as your play thing right now to keep with you, for always."

She laughed. "Okay maybe I should have said young Andy instead." She watched him in silence as he carefully folded the shirt and put it back into the drawer, treating it like you would a new born baby. "You don't mind?"

"Of course I don't mind" he told her before he kissed her. "I look forward to seeing you in it," he confirmed with another kiss, "and nothing else."

She laughed. "I'm sure you do."

"But do you realise what that is?"

"It's a Giants t-shirt."

"No it's not just a Giants t-shirt" he said with a sigh as if she was missing something really quite obvious. "It's so much more than that. That is a shirt from the 1956 NFL Championship game between the Giants and the Bears at Yankee Stadium" he explained.

"Did you go?"

"Are you kidding? We couldn't afford anything like that, my parents couldn't afford to buy me shoes much less go to the football."

"So?" she asked, expecting the worst to fall from his lips imminently.

"So we snuck in" he shrugged.

She laughed. "Of course you did."

"It was one of my best memories as a kid, just me and my Dad, one of a very few times that I got to spend some alone time with him," he started to explain as he rested against the bureau, "where for once he wasn't smacking me for something I'd done the day before. It was so cold, I'm not kidding I nearly got frost bite it was so cold and the team wore sneakers to play in it was so icy." She smiled at him, enjoying the way he looked as he reminisced about a memory that was obviously very dear to him. "The Giants won forty seven to seven and they were amazing. To see the likes of Webster and Brown and Gifford, future Hall of Famers, to see them up close like that with my Dad standing next to me, to a seven year old boy was truly breath taking. It was once upon a time the best day of my life."

"Was?"

"Yeah well you know I've had kids since then and seeing them born, I guess that was pretty special" he joked and making her laugh. "And then there was the day you agreed to go on a date with me. That was pretty special too" he said before he kissed her again.

"Then I can see why you were so attached to it but that shirt is a bit big to buy for a seven year old boy isn't it?"

"Well it wasn't so much bought for me as it was..."

"Stolen?" Sharon suggested, knowing that was the most likely response he was going to give.

"I was going to use your word. My Dad knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy who 'borrowed' it for me" he said with a wink.

"Oh I see. It was 'borrowed' for you?"

"Yes it was. It was the only size they had and it practically drowned me as a kid but it was my favourite shirt and one of my favourite memories so I wore it from when I was seven until well it seems my Mom stole it before I went to college and I don't know, used it as a pillow case or whatever as she cried herself to sleep at night" he grumbled.

"I'm sure it was just a little memento and a good one for her to keep as well since you didn't go home again after college" she explained, understanding his Mother completely since she herself had maybe stolen one or two of Ricky's favourite shirts when he went away to college. "Are you sure you don't mind that I've got it?"

"No" he confirmed with a kiss. "I don't" he added, kissing her again. "But just to be clear, has Liz given you anything else? A lock of my hair from my first haircut for example? Baby teeth? That picture of Raquel Welch I used to keep under my pillow?"

Sharon laughed. "That's for me to know and you to worry about my beautiful boy." She smiled at him before giving him one final kiss on the lips and then headed back off towards the kitchen to resume organising their breakfast.

He smiled after her for a moment and sighed with utter contentment. "God I love that woman" he said to himself, in honesty not realising that he'd said it out loud.

"I'm glad to hear it" came the instant reply from the vicinity of her desk in the living room.

"I wasn't talking about you big head! I was talking about Raquel Welch!" he shouted back.

He heard Sharon laugh before she replied with a dismissive "Of course you were."

Once more he waited until he was sure she was gone and in the kitchen and then again said to himself "I'm going to marry her someday."

Again the response was instant but this time it was much closer to the bedroom door as if she had been waiting for him to do it again. "If you're very lucky!"

"Will you stop eavesdropping on me and start breakfast!"

She laughed again. "Then stop talking to yourself."

Choosing to keep his thoughts to himself for the rest of the morning he moved to the nightstand and put his cell phone into the pocket of his jeans before looking at himself in the mirror one final time. After playing with his hair a little he picked up his coffee cup and his suit by the hanger and walked out into the living room. He hung it up on the hook by the front door next to the jacket he was going to leave the condo in, smoothing out his shirt slightly with the palm of his hand. His next job was attaching his gun, badge and cuffs to his belt before he joined Sharon in the kitchen who was busy cutting up the fruit and putting it in the two bowls. "What can I do?"

"You can cut that melon for me and then set the table if you like."

"Yes ma'am." Andy stepped into the kitchen and took the large kitchen knife from Sharon before he got to work cutting through the skin of a small but tough honeydew melon. After a moment he smiled. "Have you been talking to Patrice?"

"What about?"

"About putting me and Provenza on the same diet?" he suggested as he pointed towards their very healthy breakfast. She laughed at him. "After all the years I've had to endure him making fun of what I eat and then he turns up at work with a box full of the saddest looking salad I've ever seen in my life."

She laughed again. "The things people do when they're in love like putting up with horrible shirts for example." She kissed him on the cheek as she laughed to let him know she was only joking. "Don't you say anything to him" she warned.

"To who?"

"To Lieutenant Provenza about his diet. Don't you discourage him by making fun of him."

"I wouldn't dream of it" he replied, clearly lying.

"Yeah right. You should be taking him to the gym with you."

"Provenza at the gym? You're kidding right? He hasn't been the gym in days. Two thousand five hundred and eighty nine days, that's over seven years" he joked and making her laugh very loudly. "Anyway I'd much rather go to the gym with you" he said with a wink before he kissed her.

"I know you would but that's not going to happen again."

"Why not?"

"Because if you weren't glaring at any one who just so happened to look in my direction you did nothing but distract me while getting yourself all hot and bothered in the process. You didn't even use a single machine the entire time we were there" she pointed out. That single time they'd been to the gym together was one time too many with her feeling like he was her own personal bodyguard rather than her boyfriend and someone to work out alongside. She appreciated it but just the way he looked at her with his tongue virtually hanging out was enough to distract her from what she wanted to do.

"But I got all the exercise I needed when we got home precisely because watching you bending over when you were all sweaty got me so hot and bothered." She laughed at him. In truth that was another reason why she would never go to the gym with him again. She was already tired with all the exercise she'd done while they were there without returning to his house and discovering that the whole experience had made him as horny as a stoat and he wouldn't leave her alone, not that she was complaining since there were much worse ways to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Andy finished slicing the melon and handed it over to Sharon, he then wiped his hands on a paper towel before picking up the place mats for the dining table. "Your first time should be special and is definitely worth waiting for" he stated again as he put the mats on the table, Sharon's at the head as always and his on her left.

Sharon looked at him confused. "What are you talking about?"

"These girls submitting applications to sleep with that asshole. It's their first time, it should be special, with someone special, not caught on camera for the world to see with that dirt bag. In fact any first time with someone should be special and is worth waiting for."

She smiled at him as she continued to cut up the remaining fruit. "You have to say that because I made us wait so long."

"Maybe but it's still true" he confirmed before he kissed her again and went to retrieve the forks from the drawer at the third attempt, once again forgetting which drawer the cutlery was kept in.

"But you wish we'd done it sooner?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

He paused. "I'm going to take the fifth on that until you answer first."

Sharon laughed at him. "Yes. Yes I wish we'd done it sooner but I wouldn't change anything that has happened between us for the world. Not one thing."

"Good me too." He kissed her again on his way back to the table with the forks and napkins.

"So when was it?" she asked after a moment.

"When was what?"

"Your first time?"

"Are we really having this discussion?"

"Oh I think so" she said with a smile and enjoying putting him on the spot. "It's about time we discussed some of the many other women in your life. I'm going to assume you were young the first time you slept with someone."

Andy sighed as he sat down on a stool on the other side of the bar and watched as Sharon continued to cut up the fruit. "Yes I was."

"I'm guessing very young" she grinned, enjoying teasing him and liking to imagine him as a baby in a smoking jacket and a martini in hand as he lay on a large bed, trying to seduce the children of his Mom's friends when she knew full well that he wore Liz's old clothes and spent the first year of his life sleeping in a desk drawer placed at the bottom of his Mom and Dad's bed. "Like five years old and hitting on your babysitter type young" she added as she laughed to herself.

"Where do you get that idea from?"

"Other than just knowing you?" she said dryly. "Those photos your sister showed me while we were in New York."

"Oh God!" he cried as he hid his face on the counter, cringing to the point that his skin started to crawl. "See I knew I should have kept you apart until the day I died." In the great scheme of things Liz showing Sharon photo album after photo album was nothing compared to some of the stories she told about him but he still found the whole thing beyond torturous, despite how much Sharon loved it.

After a moment he looked up at her, a pained expression on his face. Sharon laughed at him and grabbed hold of both of his cheeks, squeezing them like you would with a baby. "In your little jacket and tie with your hair all slicked back" she said in an incredibly babyish voice. "You looked like you oozed charm even back then. The Cary Grant of toddlers."

"What?" he laughed.

"I can see you now, six years old and standing outside the school gates talking to a little girl with pigtails and knee socks while your Mom waited for you" she started, picturing it in her mind as she spoke. "I can almost hear you. Your Mom shouting 'Hurry up Andy Pandy' and you replying," she paused as she cleared her throat and then spoke in this most God awful Cary Grant impression the world had ever heard, "'Not now Mother. Can't you see I'm talking to a lady?'" She laughed to herself merrily as a stray strawberry bypassed Andy's bowl and inevitably ended up in her mouth.

He looked at her with complete and utter shock, his mouth hanging open and his eyes blinking with an almost dramatic flair. "What the hell was that?"

She shrugged. "A Cary Grant impression" she said, assuming that although she was no Tony Curtis it was at least passable rather than sounding a little like Ghandi with a hangover.

"I thought you were having a stroke" he joked as he clutched his chest like it had really frightened him. She smacked him across his shoulder. "Give me some sort of warning before you do that again please."

"I'm going to frame that photo Lizzie gave me as soon as I find where you've hidden it" she told him with it sounding more like a warning to him than a fact. Liz had given her the photo, a shot of a ten year old Andy in a suit on the morning of his eldest brother's wedding (taken early before he had chance to get himself dirty), before they left her house since Sharon was so enamoured with it aside with it being the kind of keepsake of his youth that she desperately wanted but he simply didn't have any of (in fact she hadn't seen a single photo of him before the age of twenty-five and without his children until that weekend). She still wasn't one hundred percent sure but she thought he had probably stolen it from her before they left the hotel to travel back to the airport with him really on edge with where she might choose to keep it, her office desk being the most obvious and frightening option, desperate that the likes of Provenza and Julio not see it. Sharon knew that he'd never destroy it because his Mom had taken it and treasured it and he still loved her dearly but finding it was proving to be harder than she imagined with Andy getting better and better at hiding things around his house since she was essentially a fiend, taking on all the qualities of a blood hound when it came to Christmas and birthday presents.

"Too late. I've burnt it."

"No you haven't. You forget if we're going to move in together in the very near future you're going to need help packing up your house and then I'll find it along with all your other deep dark secrets" she told him as her eyes twinkled.

He smiled at her as a little bit of blind panic started to appear behind his eyes, his nostrils flaring as his ears seemed to twitch suddenly. It was in that moment that he suddenly realised that the engagement ring that he had safely stashed in his sock drawer, the beautiful emerald cut ring he had bought after less than a month of them being together (which was possibly ill-advised at the time but it was now clear that's where they were headed) needed to be hidden as soon as humanly possible, perhaps in his safety deposit box where Sharon would never find it before he started to pack up and get ready to move in case she wanted to help him. "What other deep dark secrets do you think I have?" he asked after he swallowed hard, hoping that she hadn't noticed the way the wheels had been turning in his mind but little did he know she had already caught a glimpse of the ring box before Christmas.

"I'm not sure but if I find any more inflatable dolls lying around your house don't think I won't stab them to death as well" she warned him with an added gesture with her knife for good measure before she put the rest of the fruit in the two bowls.

Andy stood and picked up his coffee mug. "Top up?"

"Please." Sharon took both of the bowls to the table as Andy started to refill their cups with coffee. "So come on, when was it? How old were you?" she asked as she sat down at the head of the table and put her cell phone in front of her where she could see it.

"Really?"

"Oh yes, really."

Andy smiled and sighed, realising that he had no choice but to tell her this particular rather embarrassing tale from his youth unless he could think of something more sedate in the next thirty seconds but since she could tell when he was lying, he knew that would be too hard to pull off. "If you must know I was fifteen."

"Wow! You managed to wait that long?" she joked although she was actually surprised, assuming that he was probably younger than that. "How did you not explode before then?" she asked as she laughed. "I assume it wasn't your little prostitute friend."

"No it wasn't." Andy put their coffees on the table and sat down, immediately picking up his fork to dig into his breakfast. "I didn't need to pay for it. Lizzie showed you photos of me from when I was a teenager" he said with a hint of arrogance.

"Oh I see" she said as she suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at him. Andy had always been handsome and still was but boy did he know it as well, not making him overly arrogant as such but just more confident than most. "You had them lining up around the block huh? Did they have to take a number like at the deli counter?" she laughed to herself.

"Very funny."

"What was her name?"

"Why are we so focused on me? Why aren't we talking about you?" he asked, trying to end it before she discovered yet another reason to laugh at him until her sides hurt.

"Because I don't have all the information yet and anyway whenever my past with gentleman callers is mentioned you pull a face like you've just walked in on your parents having sex and quickly change the subject." Andy could be very jealous about her at times much to her own amusement and as such he didn't want to think of her having ever been with another man, even those before they met. "So come on, spill, the name of the girl who stole your innocence and probably had your Mother sobbing herself to sleep at night was?" she encouraged as she started to devour all of the strawberries in her bowl first.

Andy paused and sipped his coffee for a moment, realising that he had to tell her the truth no matter how much she was going to laugh at him because if there was anyone who was going to hear this story, it was only ever going to be Sharon. "Martha Schmidt."

"Schmidt?" Sharon repeated. "So neither Irish nor Italian?"

"Nope. German."

"Catholic?"

"Protestant."

"Oh my, my, my" she responded with surprise. "And your Mother?"

"Utterly inconsolable. She cried so hard she practically dehydrated."

Sharon laughed, relieved that she hadn't been the same way with that horrible, vile Rosie Hall girl that stole Ricky's virtue on his prom night and then left him completely heartbroken as she flounced off to Europe for the summer. "Your Mother was far too obsessed with protecting your innocence and virginity than what's healthy if you don't mind me saying."

He smiled and rolled his eyes. "Tell me about it. It was like she'd had a vision of the future and saw what I was going to get up to and wanted to stamp it out early."

"It's a wonder she didn't die instantly from the shock. So go on, tell me what happened."

"With Martha?"

"Yes. Come on" she encouraged as she popped another strawberry into her mouth. "Give me all the gory details of fifteen year old would be lothario Andy Flynn beginning to ply his trade with the ladies."

"Ply my trade?" he laughed.

"Yes, you had to start somewhere and from personal experience I know how you've now got it down to a very fine art" she said before she leaned towards him to kiss him on the lips.

"A fine art?" he asked, enjoying the compliment before he kissed her back.

"Oh yes."

"Thank you" he said before he kissed her again. "I do try" he confirmed as they laughed.

"But of course there's always room for improvement just so you know" she teased as she smiled at him.

He looked at her surprised, pretending to be offended. "Is that so?"

"Oh definitely."

Andy dropped his fork and took her hands in his, squeezing them. "Would you care to give me another crack at it right now maybe?" he said as he waggled his eyebrows at her and nodded towards her bedroom.

Sharon laughed. "Another crack at it?"

"Oh yeah."

"Careful boy," she laughed, "when you turn on the charm full blast I get a little weak at the knees."

"You know what I mean. Come on, Sharon Raydor come on down" he cried like she was a contestant on The Price is Right.

She laughed again. "Not without being very late for work, so no" she said but giving him a long and searing kiss anyway. "But I'll definitely take a rain check. Are you coming back here with me tonight?"

"Well I am now" he told her enthusiastically before he kissed her again.

"I thought you might" she laughed. She wanted him there that evening because firstly she wanted him there every evening, feeling like a piece of her was missing when he wasn't snoring next to her but secondly she wanted his support since she'd invited Sharon over to speak to Rusty, something she was still building up to tell him as a dry run for telling Rusty. "So come on."

"Do you really want to hear this?"

"Out of some sense of morbid curiosity yes I do. I'm fascinated and because of how you're stalling I'm guessing things weren't exactly straight forward."

"You could say that." He paused as he thought for a moment and decided how best to start. "Okay, we'd been building up to it for about three or four weeks when we decided Sunday afternoon was the day, the day it was finally going to happen and I was going to not only get past first base but score a home run."

She looked at him unimpressed. "I hope you didn't say that to her."

"Oh course I didn't. I used all my charm."

"Mhmmmm….I'm sure."

"So anyway Sunday was the day…" he started after another forkful of fruit.

"Wait. On a Sunday?" she gasped melodramatically. "What would you Mother say?"

"You'll find out and oddly enough I wasn't thinking about my Mom when I was planning it all."

She laughed. "I'm very glad to hear it."

"So I got my bedroom ready, filled from top to bottom with every candle I could lay my hands on to set the appropriate romantic mood" he explained, making out that his room looked like something out of a romantic comedy rather than looking like he was one pentagram away from trying to summon to the devil.

"And where did these candles come from like I didn't already know?"

Andy shrugged. "I may have liberated one or two from the church."

"Just as I thought, go on" she laughed, listening with intent as she ate her breakfast.

"So I lit all the candles, snuck Martha into the house and into my bedroom and well..."

"Smouldered?"

"On you have absolutely no idea how much I smouldered and was about to smoulder for that matter" he said as his eyes bulged for a moment. "Well anyway one thing led to another..."

"As they so frequently tend to do with you my beautiful boy" she said before once again leaning over to him and kissing him on the lips.

"Right" he smiled. "Well my pants were hanging around my ankles but I couldn't get them off because they were stuck since I hadn't taken my shoes off" he explained, having been so eager at the time to get on with it that other that taking his shirt off and pulling his pants and his underwear down, he had very little time for anything else.

"Oooh sexy" she laughed.

He laughed along with her, knowing all about her socks in bed rule. "Yeah I thought you'd like that. So there I was getting my thing on," he said as she started to laugh uncontrollably at him already, picturing it all perfectly, "doing my very best and doing everything my brothers had told me to do in preparation and if I'm honest some of what I'd seen the local prostitutes get up to with their customers when I suddenly noticed that my feet felt like they were on fire."

"What was wrong with them?"

"They were on fire" he said bluntly, his hands gesturing like dancing flames. "Literally they were on fire. I'd somehow managed to knock one of the candles over with my foot which had then fallen onto my pants and set them on fire" he explained with him since being very thankful that he hadn't set fire to the bed but again because the young man was in such a hurry to get 'the show on the road' so to speak as he later told his brothers they had landed right at the foot of the bed with his feet still on the ground where most of the candles were situated. In hindsight it was an accident waiting to happen but at the time he had other things occupying his mind.

Sharon started laughing hysterically, holding her sides as tears streamed from her eyes. "What? You set yourself on fire during your first time?"

"I most certainly did. I always told you I was smoking hot." She continued to laugh at him, grabbing hold of his arm as she did. "So anyway after I noticed my pants were on fire I was faced with a dilemma. Let my feet burn a little while I…'finished my business' or stop and put the fire out."

Sharon covered her mouth with horror. "Andy please tell me you stopped and put the fire out immediately" she said although knowing him like she did she already knew the answer.

Andy smiled, looking as cheeky as she imagined he did back then. "Not exactly" he said rather proudly which made her roll her eyes at him. "I tried to finish what I was doing," he started to explain as Sharon shook her head at him with disbelief, "for her sake as much as mine when Martha saw the flames rising from over my shoulder and started screaming incredibly loudly." Andy shook his head and put a hand to his ear as if he could still hear her screams rattling around his head all these years later. "I naturally tried to shush her because under the circumstances I thought she was screaming for other reasons entirely and for a fifteen year old virgin I was actually really rather talented."

Again Sharon started to laugh at him. "Oh Andy! You are such an idiot" she said as she put her head on his shoulder. Suddenly her head snapped up as realisation hit her. "Wait is that why you've got those little scars on your ankles?" Andy smiled and nodded, having thankfully only caused minor damage to himself considering what could have happened. "Oh my God!" she cried as she laughed again.

"Then she screamed 'FIRE!' and I knew the jig was up so I got up and tried to put it out by stamping my feet while I also tried to stop Martha from screaming the place down. Sadly her screams combined with my fire dance alerted my Mom to our presence so she came bursting into my bedroom to see what the hell was going on in there." By now not only was Sharon crying with laughter but she was also banging her hand on the table, the occasional uncontrollable snort thrown in for good measure. Andy smiled at her, his humiliation worth it to see her laugh like that. "So there I was, my unmentionables on display, my pants on fire around my ankles and a screaming half naked girl on my bed as my Mom opened the door and began whaling." Sharon reached over and put her arm around his shoulder, needing to touch him as she continued to laugh hysterically. "I'm so glad you find it all so incredibly funny."

"So you've never had a good history with candles then?" she joked as they both laughed with once again the way he accidentally set fire to his menu on their first date coming into the conversation. "Okay so you're telling me that on top of everything else you were caught by your Mother during your very first time?"

"Oh yeah" he nodded, almost proud of himself. "Well I had a big family and privacy was at a premium so it was always likely to happen, I just wish it had been one of my brothers rather than my Mom."

"But what about Martha's place? Why couldn't you go there?"

"I wasn't allowed over there" he shrugged as he took the opportunity to eat another forkful.

"Why not?"

"I was a Flynn. Why do you think?" It didn't matter where his family moved to in order to keep the boys out of trouble, their reputations always seemed to come with them. More often than not Andy could be playing stickball in his new neighbourhood quite happily until someone's parent would spot him, ask 'You're one of those Flynn boys aren't you?' and that would be the end of that and he wouldn't be allowed to play with them ever again.

Sharon laughed again, her hand running down his cheek with some sympathy. "Of course, I should have known. But didn't your Mom, with everything you've told me about her, have any suspicions of what you were planning to get up to alone with a girl in your bedroom? I'm surprised she let her in the house to begin with."

He smiled. "Oh she didn't know. Like I said I snuck her in."

"How?"

"Up the drainpipe."

"What?"

"I helped her climb up the drainpipe" he explained. At the time it had taken about fifteen minutes, her foot in his face several times and his hand up her skirt, almost turning her into a human glove puppet to achieve it. As the battle continued he began to wonder if the whole thing was worth the effort and again in hindsight given what had happened and that they were interrupted by the flames before he could finish, it really wasn't.

Sharon laughed again. "Oh Andy! You old romantic!"

"Hey I wasn't always the cool, calm, confident and romantic guy you see before you" he said with his arms outstretched before he pushed his lips to hers.

"Did she know when you invited her over that she was going to have to climb up a drainpipe? And no that wasn't a euphemism before you ask" she said quickly.

Andy laughed. "She did when I had to put my hand up her skirt and push to help her."

Sharon shook her head at him. "So what happened then?"

"Well as Martha continued to scream and everyone in the house came running to see what the hell was going on, my Mom chased me around the kitchen, my smouldering pants still around my ankles and hindering me as she kept repeatedly hitting me."

"What did she hit you with?"

"My Grandfather's wooden leg and let me tell you that thing hurt" he said as he rubbed the back of his head. "If I could have pulled my pants up I may have been able to outrun her but as it was she nearly gave me a concussion" he went on. What he didn't tell her was that she chased him around the table, muttering in Italian and hitting him over the head with the leg so many times that he was almost sick from the dizziness. As his brothers and sister watched on and laughed, the only thing missing was the Benny Hill theme tune music.

"Wait. His what? Your Grandfather had a wooden leg?"

"Yes. Have I not told you this before?"

"No. I think it would be something I would remember."

"Oh yeah" he said, happy to change the subject slightly from his disastrous first time with a member of the opposite sex. "Why do you think he looked so miserable in all of those photos Lizzie showed you?"

"Why? Because your Grandmother was the most frightening looking woman I've ever laid my eyes on. She looked terrifying." Sharon had never been disturbed by a photograph before (ignoring the obvious traumatising crime scene photos that had crossed her desk) but Andy's Grandmother had eyes that seemed to follow you around the room and burned right into your soul.

"She was nothing compared to you."

Sharon laughed. "I'm glad to hear it" she said before he kissed her. "How did he lose his leg?"

"World War I. He was lucky to be alive."

"Was he shot?"

"Oh no he wasn't a soldier. He was run over by a truck running away from the police." With that Sharon once again collapsed onto the table in a fit of uncontrollably laughter. There were times with the way Andy told stories that made him and his family seem like the most ridiculous people on the face of the planet and she loved him all the more for it. As he watched her laugh he couldn't help but join in with her. "What? He may not have been a soldier but it still happened during World War I."

"Oh Andy!" she cried once she was capable of speaking again. "What have I let myself in for?" she mused as she laughed again. "Have you ever thought about writing some of these stories down?"

"I can't say that I have."

"Why was he running from the police?"

"I don't know. He claimed it was a case of mistaken identity but I doubt that very much" he said with a shrug. "Whatever happened it can't have been good."

"I'll say and then his wooden leg got used to beat his horny Grandson around the head as he ran around the kitchen with his smouldering pants around his ankles." She laughed again, never expecting this kind of story from Andy but then felt foolish because if anyone was ever going to tell a story like that, it would only be him. "So once she calmed down and stopped hitting you what did your Mom do?"

"Martha was asked to leave as politely as possible and I was dragged down to the church by my ear so that the priest could give me a good talking to about the dangers of 'pleasures of the flesh.'"

"Well it clearly worked" she scoffed as she laughed again.

"Oh yeah. I'm a reformed character. I haven't been near a woman since."

Sharon laughed again as she shook her head, running her hand through his hair. "Setting the house on fire and being deflowered by a girl who wasn't Catholic or Italian. No wonder your Mother was so upset."

"Yeah but that's not the sole reason my Mom was upset about it all" he explained before he paused for a moment. "Have you ever heard of Mannie Luca? He was a mob enforcer in New York during the sixties? Luca the Ligature? He liked to strangle people with his hands?"

She laughed, as if Andy assumed she knew every dirt bag in the whole of the country. "The name doesn't ring a bell. Why?"

"Yeah well he was Martha's Step-Father" he explained casually.

Sharon's mouth hung open as she began to realise once again how lucky she was to have him, especially since it now appeared he could have been 'clipped' as a teenager. "You slept with the daughter of a mob boss when you were fifteen years old?" she said finally.

"Mob enforcer. He was just an enforcer. There's a difference."

"No there isn't!" she cried, not giving two hoots about the distinction he was trying to make to make it seem not as bad as it actually was. "Anyway it doesn't matter, he still worked for the mob. How were you not murdered?"

Andy shrugged dismissively as if it really wasn't that big of a deal where as in reality if it hadn't been for Martha's desperate and overly dramatic cries of 'But Daddy I love him' like she was Ariel in The Little Mermaid, Andy would probably be missing more than a finger as he ate breakfast that morning. "More by luck than judgement. As first times go it was rather eventful."

"Now there's an understatement but I must admit that it's nice to know you weren't always as smooth with the ladies as you are right now" she told him with great pleasure as she took his free hand in hers.

"Oh I was smooth alright, right up until the moment I caught on fire."

"Like on our first date" she joked before they both laughed. "Well I'm very pleased to tell you that you have improved dramatically since then" she confirmed before joining their lips together. "Both on your first time and on our first date" she added as she kissed him again. "In every way imaginable."

"I'm glad to hear it" he growled, kissing her again. For the second time that morning while Andy was fairly distracted with his eyes closed and putting his lips to another use other than telling embarrassing stories about himself, Sharon stole three strawberries out of his bowl and placed them in her own but once again she was caught. "Hey! I saw that. What is it with women and stealing men's food?"

"Yours always look and taste so much better than mine" she offered before laughing. She then popped one of the stolen strawberries into her mouth and began to chew on it, pulling a face of absolute bliss as she did and making her eyes close and a hum escape her lips.

Andy slipped on his coffee and just stared at her as she ate, feeling more and more hot under his collar with each passing second. "Unless you want to make me very very late meeting the others you need to stop pulling that face and be quick about it" he warned. She laughed and continued to munch blissfully on her stolen fruit. "Is there anything you wouldn't do for a strawberry?"

Sharon shrugged. "I don't know. I guess it's your job to find out" she replied with a very sultry smile.

"Mission accepted!"

She laughed. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Aren't you going to ask me?"

"Ask you what?"

"About my first time?" she said as she polished off the final strawberry.

"About the night Emily was conceived?" he joked. "No I don't need to know about that Halloween horror story thank you very much."

Sharon looked at him very unimpressed. "That was not my first time I'll have you know. Men! Why do you have such a problem about this subject?"

"Why do you think? Because we're possessive" he explained. "We don't like to think that anyone else has ever had their grubby little paws on the loves of their lives that's all" he added, making him sound like a little boy who was jealous of a friend playing with his toys when his back was turned.

"So what? I was a virgin before I slept with you that first time?"

He smiled at her. "Thank you for confirming that sweetheart" he joked before he kissed her and she laughed at his idiocy.

"A virgin with two adult children?"

"Hey it worked for Mary."

Sharon laughed at him as she shook her head. "So you're under the assumption that I what? Found Emily and Ricky floating down the river in little baskets one day?"

"I was going to say hidden behind a gooseberry bush but whatever works for you."

She laughed again as she prepared to break the bad news to him. "I was in college."

Andy nodded and sipped of his coffee, expecting her to have been well past the age of eighteen before she slept with someone given the way she was raised. "How old?"

"Twenty."

"Twenty?" He took hold of her hand again and kissed it before he smiled at her. "Oh I see, you were one of those girls that suddenly went wild the moment they got to college were you?"

"It sounds to me like you've got an awful lot of experience with girls like that."

"I do aim to please."

She laughed at him. "Don't I know it" she said before she kissed him. "No. I didn't exactly go wild as you say the moment I got to college but that's not surprising. Let's be honest with my upbringing it's still a surprise I've ever had sex in my life or at the very least didn't attack you in your unmentionables with a knitting needle the first time you removed your pants in my presence" she joked.

"Excuse me? Me remove my pants?" he asked as he cocked his eyebrow at her with surprise. He would never have expected it before that first night they spent together but Sharon could be very aggressive behind closed doors and she'd removed his pants more times that he had over the last few months, not that he objected in the slightest.

"Yeah okay" she nodded.

He laughed at how quickly she admitted he was right, something that very rarely happened away from work. "But who needs to be armed with a knitting needle when you can just stab me in the unmentionables with a sowing needle in the bathtub?"

"Do you have to drop that into every single conversation we have?"

"At least until the wound has completely healed."

"Healed?" she said with another eye roll. "You can hardly see it."

He sat back in his chair and huffed, giving the impression that he was really quite upset and offended by her words. "And yet you swore to me that size didn't matter to you."

She laughed. "And indeed it doesn't" she informed him before she kissed him and his jokingly bruised ego. "Have you told Lieutenant Provenza about what happened?"

"You bet I did, just for my own protection should you try it again or something worse."

"Oh you big baby."

"Me? What about him? He's worn a cup to work ever since I told him as protection" he told her much to her amusement. "Have you not noticed how nice he's been to you recently? He's worried you might try to stab him if he pisses you off."

Sharon laughed. "Men! What did he say to you? Let me guess 'That's what you get for dating the Captain'?"

"Almost. He told me 'It was only a matter of time before Darth Raydor tried to neuter you.'"

Sharon moved close to his ear and whispered while her hand travelled up his leg from his knee and dangerously close to his groin. "Trust me Andy if I wanted to neuter you, I'd already be wearing your testicles as earrings by now" she warned.

He stared at her with his mouth hanging open again. "Is it wrong that I'm incredibly turned on right now?" he asked, never taking his eyes off her.

She laughed. "Yes it is, you pervert." She kissed him again, despite the fact that his mouth was still hanging open before she sat back in her chair and started to drink her coffee. "Ryan Marshall" she said with an almost dreamy expression on her face.

"Who?"

"Ryan Marshall. Majoring in English literature and Quarterback on the football team" she said of the first young man to ever see her naked. "He had a chiselled jaw like it was carved out of marble and the most beautiful pair of blue eyes I've ever seen" she drooled much to Andy's clear irritation.

"Jeez! I hate him already" he grumbled and making her laugh. "So what did this asshole do? Get you drunk and make a move on you in the back seat of his car" he asked, determined to see the worst from a man who essentially 'got there first' in his childish eyes.

"Do I strike you as the kind of person who puts out in the back seat of a car?" she asked like she was above such seedy trysts. The moment the words left her mouth she smiled as she remembered the little incident that had happened a few weeks earlier when they drove up the coast together one Sunday afternoon and stopped to watch the sunset before things quickly escalated and the glass steamed up like a scene from Titanic until Sharon accidentally opened the window with the back of her head as she climaxed.

He smiled and nodded. "Yes you do actually" he said before kissing her.

"Oh shut up" she said as she pushed his face away from her with the palm of her hand and he laughed. "He took me out for dinner and a movie."

"Oh how original."

"Yes much better to just pick a day at random on a calendar and push a girl up your drainpipe." The phrase hit them both immediately as they started laughing at her completely accidental innuendo.

"You've got such a filthy mouth on you at times Raydor. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!"

She smacked his arm as he continued to laugh while she blushed slightly. "You know very well what I mean, the drainpipe on the outside of your house." She took a moment to compose herself before continuing. "After dinner and a movie he invited me back to his dorm room."

"Sneaking you in?"

"Of course but not through a window, through the front door. His bedroom with was filled with candles and flowers and balloons with Colour Me Barbra playing on his stereo" she said with that same dreamy smile coming back to her face.

"Using Barbra Streisand to seduce you? No wonder you fell straight into bed with him."

"I admit I was a little eager to finally get it over and done with but in truth he didn't really matter to me. That jaw and those beautiful eyes aside there was no hope of a long term relationship there" she said casually as she started to play with his fingers. At the time, although she liked him it was more a case of 'All of my friends have done it and he'll do' than anything else. "It seems it's only when things start to get really serious and I plan to spend the rest of my life with someone that I start to drag my feet a little for fear of ruining it" she added almost shyly as they smiled at each other.

"I like that you drag your feet with me. It makes me work harder and be even more thankful for every single moment I get to spend with you." He leant forward and kissed her, letting it linger for a few moments. "But this Ryan Marshall sounds like a complete moron. What was he doing letting someone like you go?"

"Well that may have been my fault" she admitted, having to force the words out.

"You dumped him?"

"No he definitely dumped me but only after…" she paused as she debated if she was going to tell him or not. After a moment she thought she might as well especially given what story he had just told her. She sighed. "After I gave him a hernia doing...well you know."

"WHAT?!" Andy cried as he erupted into laughter. Sharon hid her face behind her hands as he continued to laugh at her. "You broke the guy?" he asked with utter shock.

She finally looked at him again. "A little bit yes" she admitted as she started to bite on her bottom lip. Very much like what had happened to Andy, when Sharon first heard cries come out of her lover's mouth as she straddled him, she assumed that they were cries of passion. Sadly they weren't. They were cries of utter pain as tears started to run down his cheeks. To that day she had no idea what she'd actually done to cause it to happen but word soon got around college and anyone who asked her out on a date after that knew they were taking their lives into their own hands. "He needed an operation."

"They had to operate on him?!"

"Sadly" she said with a sigh.

Andy laughed again, just as loud and just as hard as Sharon had a few moments earlier. "What the hell were you doing with him to give him a hernia? Riding him like Seabiscuit?"

She shrugged. "Something like that."

"Seriously?"

"It was nothing I haven't done with you dozens of times before" she said as she tried to make it clear that she hadn't jumped off the closet and onto him like a gymnast dismounting the beam or something to cause his injury. "He was just...fragile."

"Clearly" he laughed again. "I can't believe you broke a guy...well no I can believe it. It's very easy to believe in fact but for it to happen to someone my age not a kid in college."

"I'm glad you find this so funny" she said with a frown as her lips began to curl, seeing the funny side herself.

"How could I not find this funny? Who knew I was taking my life into my own hands every time you got your grubby little paws on me?"

"It was a freak accident. It's never happened since and never will" she said sternly.

"Because you're now gentler?" he suggested but knowing otherwise as he smiled.

"No" she said flatly as she blushed, not particularly liking to talk about herself and sex like that even if it was with Andy. "More by just closing my eyes and hoping for the best at all times." With that Andy started laughing again, unable to stop himself. "Stop laughing, it isn't funny" she maintained before eventually succumbing to laughter herself.

"I beg to differ. You are amazing Sharon Raydor" he said with genuine awe in his voice as he gazed at her. He kissed her again. "Do you know that? You are utterly amazing" he said again as she blushed.

She pointed a finger at him and with all seriousness said "Do not tell anyone that story."

"Now would I?"

"Yes you would."

He took her hand and squeezed it again. "Seriously sweetheart I'm not the sort of person to kiss and tell, ever" he assured her and hoping she would believe him, that he would never ever say a word to anyone, least of all someone they worked with about anything overly personal that took place between them or in her past.

"Really? Not even Lieutenant Provenza?" she asked with surprise since she'd told Andrea certain things about him (some of which caused her to drink an extra glass of wine out of sheer jealousy since it had been so long since the man-made orgasm train had passed through her town) and had expected the same from Andy and Provenza to a lesser extent since they were guys after all.

"Definitely not Provenza. I promise" he said before confirming it with a kiss as if it was a matter of honour that he never said a word to anyone about such things. "So he dumped you huh?"

"He did" she nodded. "It wasn't long after that I met Jack." As she said his name she pulled a face of utter horror and disgust like the man in question was the single worst thing to ever happen to her when that was anything but the truth. Without Jack she wouldn't have Emily or Ricky and regardless of how she felt about him now and how their marriage ended she would always be grateful to him for blessing her with them. "Still that first time..." she started, again with an almost far away and dreamy expression on her face.

"Not the night you broke him?"

"No," she replied with a mild glare that made him laugh, "that first time with him was a very romantic evening." Andy looked away from her and scoffed into his coffee. "What? What's wrong with a little romance?" she asked as she grabbed his chin and pulled his face back so he would look at her.

"Nothing. Nothing at all" he said a little shyly as he looked at their joined hands on the table. "It's just…," he started before he met her eye and shrugged, "I wish I could have given you a little more romance than I did that first night we spent together that's all."

"What are you talking about? It was plenty romantic."

"Really? That was romantic?" he said with more than an air of disbelief, thinking the whole evening was quite possible the best and most surprising evening of his entire life but it was hardly what you'd call romantic, not compared to the evening he had planned on giving her in his head in the months that came before it. "We ate a revolting meal, fell asleep on the couch during a movie, you asked me if I needed Viagra and then we had to sneak around so that Rusty wouldn't scream the place down if he knew I was staying over and what we were getting up to. It wasn't exactly the perfect romantic evening I had planned out in mind in the weeks that led up to it."

"Okay but aside from the Viagra incident that still sounds pretty good to me" she joked as they both laughed although she was still mortified by her error but at the time she wasn't exactly thinking with her brain, at that moment her crotch had both hands on the steering wheel and there was very little time for rational thought that didn't involve getting Andy into bed as quickly as possible. "Andy" she said quietly as her hand stroked his face. "Look the way I see it is this, my utterly fabulous, charming, handsome and incredibly patient boyfriend saw that I was having an unbelievably rotten day at work and after some encouragement from his best friend got me to leave early so that he could drive me home, get me something to eat and take care of me." Andy smiled as she spoke, never taking his eyes off hers for a moment. "He then spoke to my son on the phone as we drove and calmed and reassured him in a way that I nor anyone else had been able to do for days. He then remembered something so small, something so completely insignificant but oh so important to me that I felt compelled to tell him that I loved him for the very first time in admittedly not the most perfect of surroundings but still, I said it." Again they both laughed with Andy still wondering how the shock of it all didn't send his car straight into the nearest street light. "He then produced a letter he'd been carrying around with him for weeks that he'd written for me when he thought he was on his death bed, saying that I was the love of his life. Once we got home he played chess with my son all night long without complaint and didn't exert a single ounce of pressure on me to move our relationship forward before I finally plucked up the courage and decided to ask him to stay the night with me for the very first time. He again read the situation perfectly, calmed my obvious and very sudden bout of nerves and took everything so slowly, took everything at my pace so that I could relax and made me feel like the most beautiful and loved woman in the entire world." He lowered his head and kissed her hand. "To me, that was pretty romantic" she finished with a contented sigh before joining their lips together in a rather prolonged embrace.

"And then you punched him in your sleep and gave him a black eye" he said quickly.

She laughed as her fingers danced underneath the eye she had attacked so brutally in her sleep. "It was an elbow but yes, admittedly I did give him a black eye. Up until that moment it was the best and most romantic night of my life and one that I will never forget" she informed him and then kissed him again.

"Really?"

"Really" she confirmed as she smiled at him. "We didn't need a fancy meal or candles or music or a hotel or whatever else you might have had planned in your head when you were thinking about it. All I needed was you to have the most perfect evening of my life."

"Yeah" he grinned after their lips met again. "I guess it was pretty special but you were there so that was never going to be in doubt." He kissed her again, letting it linger and then regretfully admitted "I still wish I hadn't brought up contraception though."

"Well that makes two of us" she nodded as they laughed, both of them having had 'slips of the tongue' so to speak during the heat of the moment that first time as their nerves and more than a touch of lust got in the way of all rational thinking. "So, my utterly beautiful boy don't you ever think you're not romantic" she said categorically and then kissed him. "Because you've definitely got a soft little underbelly," she started as her hand darted under the table and tickled his stomach, "going on under there and you're the most romantic guy I've ever known Andy Flynn...with the exception of Ryan Marshall obviously."

"Oh obviously but I'm not as easily broken."

"At least not by me" she added making them both laugh. For a time they just sat in silence, holding hands and smiling at each other, eating the occasional piece of fruit. "I love mornings like this. Just you and me while we enjoy a lazy breakfast before work."

"Me too. We need to get the kid a paper route" he joked. Sharon laughed, knowing it was a joke but opted to swat his hand anyway. "I'm kidding. I like it when Rusty here's too. Being part of a family again at breakfast time, it's nice."

"Which is why you should get your backside out of bed quicker in the morning and then it'd happen more often."

He nervously ran his hand up and down the back of his neck for a moment before speaking. "You know another way it'll happen more often is if we hurry up and find a house and move in together" he pointed out, still not one hundred percent sure that Sharon would move in with him as agreed, those doubts always at the back of his mind.

Sharon laughed, choosing to ignore the way in which he said it. "Agreed. Have you found yourself a realtor yet?"

"I have indeed. I have a guy and my house has officially been put on the market. Now we just need Mrs Williams to go away for a few days and arrange an open house" he joked, genuinely fearing that his elderly neighbour, who appeared to love him more than Sharon did at times given the way she all but threw herself at him, would sit on her porch naked while shouting abuse every time someone came to look at the house in an attempt to prevent him from moving and leaving her. "What about the condo?"

"Erm...no. Not yet" she said a little hesitantly, fearing his reaction. As she expected Andy seemed to almost flinch as he sat up straighter and prepared himself for the bad news he'd been expecting for days. "Calm down it's not what you think" she told him quickly.

"How do you know I'm thinking anything?"

"Because you look like you do when I inform the squad that there's a mandatory sexual harassment seminar on the horizon." She squeezed his hand and made sure he looked her in the eye, listening to everything she had to say. "I spoke to one of my neighbours on Thursday who is on the verge of moving. Their condo was on the market for approximately four days before it sold and at the asking price as well so I don't think we're going to have any issues whatsoever selling this place on when the time comes" she explained as his shoulders began to relax a little. "After hearing that I then thought perhaps it would be for the best to wait until we find somewhere to move into before listing it. I just haven't had chance to discuss it with you yet."

"Okay."

"I'm not backing out of this move or anything like it," she said very slowly to make sure that he listening but also took it all on board, "but rather I am trying to think sensibly about it and since there's a very good chance it'll sell quickly we don't want to be completely homeless before we find somewhere new to move into. Right?" The truth was she hadn't found time to talk to him about it but if they were going to keep one place as a Plan B then the most logical, and not just because of how easy it would be to sell but also location wise, had to be the condo.

"Right. Fair point" he nodded. "Good thinking."

"Then maybe you could tell your face that and you know start breathing again" she said as she laughed. He nodded and laughed along with her, making a deep and exaggerated breath to show her he was doing it as instructed. "I am still moving in with you Andy but I was just trying to think logically. Plus as a backup I thought you could always move in here temporarily if your house sells before we find somewhere we like."

"That's true. I guess it wouldn't hurt to put my stuff into storage until we decide what we want to keep. And that way I get to move in with you sooner" he suggested as he smiled, which at the end of the day was all that he really wanted, he just wanted to move in with her so regardless of finding somewhere new he realised that the quicker he sold his house the quicker he'd have no other option but to move into the condo.

"I had a feeling that would be the tipping point" she nodded before she felt his lips press against hers. "So it's okay?" she asked, regretting not finding the time to tell him of her plan before now.

"Of course, it's okay" he said as he nodded and sipped his coffee. "Thank you for continuing to be the grown up in this relationship" he joked. Andy had always been a jump in feet first and think about the consequences later type of person. Thankfully Sharon was the complete opposite. Had he been making all the decisions then there was a very good chance that he'd accidentally make the three of them homeless with nowhere to move into so once again he was thankful that Sharon liked to plan and overthink practically everything.

"Well one of us has to do it" she said as they laughed. "We can't all be a bull in a china shop" she informed him as they laughed again. "What have you told your realtor?"

"What we agreed. Ideally we're looking for three bedrooms, at least two baths, pool, a bit of privacy for all concerned as far as size goes. As a starting point I told him to go from work and Nicole's house and work his way out. We'll see what he comes up with from there."

"Good" she replied with a smile as she pulled his arm towards her and wrapped her own around it, practically hugging it. "I have to admit I'm really starting to get excited about it all, about the process" she admitted with real enthusiasm.

Her words were music to his ears and he smiled, a ridiculous, goofy smile that made her chuckle. "Good," he said almost proudly, "and I promise I'm going to do all the leg work here."

"You don't want my help?"

"Once I've sorted through all the dross sure but until then let me take of it" he said with a kiss, not wanting her to get bogged down with the stress of it all and becoming turned off by the idea. As far as he was concerned as long as he could keep her focused on the positives like how to decorate it and the lazy days they were going to spend in it while he did all of the work then he would achieve his dream of living with her and Rusty for the rest of his life as soon as possible. "You relax and keep thinking about your Christmas angel possibilities and I'll find us some contenders."

She laughed. "Okay but take it easy please. Moving house can be stressful enough on its own, without the stress involved with moving in with someone" she warned, not wanting him to spread himself too thin.

"Now why would moving in with you and Rusty make me stressed?"

"Oh I don't know, I'm pretty stressed just thinking about all the new ways you'll find to irritate me" she joked with Andy almost seeing it as a challenge. "Seriously Andy I don't want you taking too much on yourself."

"Have no fear. The idea of moving in with you only makes me happy and anyway I don't get stressed, I never have done."

"Oh yeah? Then why do your earlobes look bright red some days?"

He shrugged. "Coincidence."

She laughed and shook her head. "Okay I believe you but thousands wouldn't. Just promise me that if you won't let me help with this part then you will at least pace yourself and tell me if it's getting too much."

"Yes ma'am" he nodded but knowing full well that there was a less than a one percent chance he would tell her if moving was causing him even the slightest amount of stress should she pull the plug on the whole endeavour. "So have you spoken to your kids yet?"

"About what?"

"About moving in together?"

Much to his relief she smiled with him believing that if she'd told Emily and Ricky of their plans then she was indeed very serious about the idea and it would definitely happen. "Yes I have."

"And?"

"Mixed reactions to be truthful."

"Okay" he said, dragging out each letter of the word, uncertain what that actually meant.

"Emily screamed for about half an hour and nearly burst my eardrum, beyond thrilled that I'm moving in with my 'boy toy' as she likes to call you" Sharon laughed. In truth it was the reaction she was expecting from her daughter. Emily was absolutely thrilled for her, that she finally truly was completely moving on from her Dad after all those years of heartache and with a man who, from what she had seen with her own two eyes, didn't just love her Mom more than anything but practically worshipped the ground she walked on. It was the news she'd been waiting for since she was eight years old for the sake of her Mom and her future happiness and the fact that Emily liked Andy so much was simply the icing of the cake.

"'Boy toy'?" Andy laughed. "She does know I'm over a year older than you right?"

"Yes but she still thinks of you as my little play thing. Like a cat with a new scratching post."

"Well she's got that right" Andy confirmed into his coffee cup.

Sharon laughed as she ran her hand through his hair, it still slightly damp from his shower. "Ricky was also pleased for me but was a lot more reserved about it." Reserved was perhaps the wrong word, he was more manly about his response. Like Emily he was so happy for his Mom and Andy for that matter too but whereas Emily made a noise like a dolphin having some sort of seizure, Ricky simply said 'Congratulations' and offered his assistance in any way they may need it.

"But they're both okay with it?"

"Absolutely" she confirmed. "More than okay. It's just..."

"What?"

"It's also a little…weird for them as well I guess" she suggested.

"Weird? How so?"

"I know there were times when he came back but Jack and I first separated when they were so young that they hardly remember him living with us at all so the idea of me living with a man is a very alien concept to them but then so was me dating at all for that matter."

"Dating? What?" he asked puzzled. "Are you telling me you never introduced them to a single guy you dated between Jack and me?"

"No" she stated plainly. After a moment Andy smiled. He was surprised. In reality he had never really introduced Nicole or Daniel to anyone he dated in the past (other than Sharon) but at the time they didn't want to speak him much less the next young blond he had taken to 'dating.' As he thought about it his smile grew, not realising before that moment what a lucky guy he actually was, not only to be dating her but that he was the sort of guy she wanted to introduce to her children. "What's that face for? Who was I going to introduce them to exactly? The guy who neighed in the bedroom or the guy who cried over his dead Mother after we slept together?" she asked with a shudder and the roll of her eyes, since as casual acquaintances to satisfy your need for a man-made orgasm go, she certainly picked from the bottom of the barrel in the past.

Andy blinked at her dramatically a couple of times, his head swimming with new and very intriguing information. "Wait! What? So many questions."

"But you don't want to know about any of the other men in my life" she shot back with a grin.

"Unless they're complete losers and then I have to know all about them."

"Too late."

He frowned at her but that quickly turned into a beaming smile. "But you told them you were dating me."

"Well that was different" she shrugged. "When I told them I was dating you I already knew I was going to spend the rest of my life with you" she said very matter-of-factly. They smiled at each other again in silence, Andy feeling slightly overwhelmed by what he was hearing.

"So the kids are really okay with it?"

"They are. More than okay in fact."

"What about the idea of buying somewhere new together rather than me just moving in here?" he asked, very conscious that he didn't want to tread on their toes if they were particularly attached to the condo although neither of them actually lived there or ever had done aside from vacations and holidays.

"Well as expected Ricky and Emily are still thrilled about it, Emily in particular. It was all I could do to stop her from flying straight over here to help us look for somewhere right away." Andy smiled, glad that he could always count on Emily as an ally very much in the same way Sharon felt about Nicole. "I'm not kidding. She wants an input on where she'll be spending Christmas and Thanksgiving from now on."

"What about Ricky?"

"Well he also wants to at least have some say in where the Christmas village will go but he was more pleased for me than he was excited." She looked around her for a moment at the condo she loved so much with a slightly sad smile on her face. She was excited about starting a new life with Andy in a new home, a home of their own but she'd be lying if she didn't say she was going to desperately miss the condo. "This place has never exactly felt like home to him like it has me and Rusty so as long as I'm happy..."

"Which you are?" he asked, always liking to get confirmation on that particular subject.

"Which I am. Deliriously" she added and confirmed it with a kiss. "So as long as I'm happy and it's what I want then he's pleased for me, he's pleased for us." They both fell silent for a moment as they both noticed the obvious elephant in the room in the shape of Rusty Thomas Beck.

"I'm almost too frightened to ask."

She smiled at him kindly. "Well you didn't think it would be that easy did you?"

"For a moment, yeah, I kind of did" he nodded.

"Look at it this way, he wasn't so keen on the idea of you being in his life more permanently at all in the beginning but he soon came round to the idea" she reminded him with as much optimism as she could muster.

"And all it took was for me to nearly die in my bathrobe" he joked. "I'm not pulling that trick again just to get the kid on board with the idea of moving house."

"I'm very glad to hear that." She looked at their joined hands for a couple of seconds before grabbing the bull by the horns and breaking the bad news to him. "Look he's not on board with it at the moment." After they had gone out to dinner together and by the end of the meal Andy had managed to convince Sharon that moving in together was the best possible decision she would ever make and she agreed, the next step was telling Rusty. So that she did the next night without Andy being there in case his presence perhaps altered and muted the response Rusty might have. After she told him that they had decided they were going to move in together but that it wouldn't be happening quickly she set about reassuring him time and time again that he would be coming with them wherever they ended up because they were a family, the three of them and Sharon wouldn't be going anywhere without him. She then switched tactics and did the same thing that Andy did and essentially tried to paint the perfect picture of the house they were going to buy, having a pool, having more space, and having a spare bedroom so that he'd never again have to give up his bed to a visiting relative and even making some promises to him. Despite all of that Rusty still seemed resistant, not telling Sharon that although he was not keen on the idea of moving, he obviously would for her but also that he suddenly felt in the way, that he was perhaps the reason that she wasn't doing it immediately and his reluctance may call the whole move off so tried his best to appear excited. Sharon however knew better and saw for herself that he wasn't yet overly keen and it would be a hurdle they would overcome given enough time. "I don't think he has any issues with us moving in together or you moving in here..."

"He said that?"

"Not exactly but it seemed to be far down on his list of problems."

"And what's number one so we can work our way down from there?"

"I just don't think he wants to move" she said plainly, seeing no point in sugar coating it.

"Ah" was all he could say in response, not really sure how that issue could be overcome.

"I'm afraid so. This is the most stable home he has ever had and for a kid who moved around as much as he did that's a very big deal" she explained in an attempt to make him understand, not that she needed to. Andy had been there from day one with Rusty and like everyone else in the division could easily anticipate how he was going to react to certain situations which he felt would threatened the stability that he craved so desperately.

"I understand but what do we do about that?"

"For now you need to do what you're best at my beautiful boy." Andy smirked at her, as he so often did, his mind jumping straight to the bedroom. "Not that" she said as she laughed at him and slapped him across the back of his head. "I meant be patient just that little bit longer." Andy nodded, understanding fully. "I know this isn't what you want to hear but Andy I'm sorry we need to be really careful and patient with Rusty as far as this move is concerned. He needs to be included and reassured that he is coming too. That we're not about to just drive off one day and leave his bag packed outside."

"Okay. I can understand that" he said with a smile, having anticipated all of this with Rusty's reaction actually being better than he expected in truth. "Do you want me to try to speak to him? Let him know that I expect him to come with us and I'm not trying to snatch you away from him?"

"No. I don't want him to think we're applying any undue pressure unless he comes to you to speak about it of course. He'll get there, I promise, it'll just take some time" she said with full confidence, knowing that Rusty would get there with enough time.

"Okay. Not a problem." He smiled at her and then began to laugh. "I suddenly feel like I'm in the middle of a love triangle."

She laughed with him, feeling that way herself sometimes but with Andy and a certain little someone else. "And not for the first time I'm sure since you've always been Lieutenant Provenza's 'other woman'" she teased. "Thank you. Thank you for being so understanding" she said before she kissed him.

"It's not understanding, its determination. I want to live with you, both of you and I know in order to achieve that goal I need to tread carefully and not spook either of you too much."

"Oh how I love being compared to a horse, do it again" she crooned.

He laughed. "So what exactly did you say to him to try to convince him to move?"

"I said basically the same thing you said to convince me over dinner."

"Ah!" he said with exaggeration as if she had pimped him out. "So I need to cuddle with him on Sunday afternoons in the hammock too?" he joked.

Sharon laughed, willing to pay money to see that. "No. Not quite that. I talked about having more space and a pool and a bedroom far away from ours" she explained.

Andy smiled, suddenly very pleased that he wasn't party to that particular conversation. "And how long it did take for him to stop screaming after you said that?" he asked, knowing that Rusty would put two and two together and know exactly why having a bedroom some distance from his 'parents' was a good idea and therefore having the appropriate disgusted teenage boy reaction.

"Almost as long as when I said he'd have more privacy for Gus to stay the night from time to time as well" she admitted as they both fell about laughing, with Andy picturing Rusty trying to stuff cheese in his ears so he didn't have to listen to Sharon talking anymore as he locked himself in the bathroom and began to rock back and forth.

"Has he called Dr Joe yet?" Andy joked.

"Not yet but I'm sure it's coming" she said as they again fell about laughing. "While we were discussing it in theory I had to agree to some concessions before we went any further."

"Concessions? Like what?"

"Well when I said 'I' I actually meant you. You were going to have to agree to some concessions regardless of where we end up as a family."

"Okay. And what am I agreeing to exactly?" he asked, fearing he may be kept outside in a kennel and would not be able to attempt another joke at Rusty's expense for the rest of his life.

"I promised him that when we bought a house I would attempt to make you wear pyjamas outside of the bedroom" she informed him with a huge smile.

Andy laughed and nodded. "If that's all it takes to get the kid to move then it's a deal."

"Well it's a start and as much as I'd miss your legs in the kitchen late at night," she purred as she ran her hand up and down his thigh, "I think it's worth it. More than worth it in fact. He will come around to the idea eventually, I'm sure he will. Once he realises that home isn't a place so much as it is a feeling. As soon as he grasps that concept everything will be fine."

"And if that fails I'll sedate him and take him to the new house in the trunk of my car and then lock him in his bedroom until he turns twenty five" he joked although if he had to, he would.

"Okay but just so you know that's called kidnapping and false imprisonment and as such we'll definitely call that plan B."

"Are you sure there's nothing I can do to you know, help him along a little?"

"Not right now no because I suspect that'll only make matters worse" she told him while still trying to maintain her optimism. It was clear from Andy's face that he wasn't too thrilled by the news although he had anticipated it and despite his attempts to hide it he had failed miserable. "But look at it this way, time is on our side here since we haven't even started looking for a house yet but he'll get there I promise and then you, me and Rusty will move into a place that's ours, together" she reassured him before she kissed him on the lips. When she thought about it she wouldn't have much time to house hunt with Andy with the other miracles she had to perform. Job number one was trying to get Rusty excited about the move and constantly reinforcing the fact that he wasn't about to be left behind. Job number two was reassuring Andy that despite that small bump in the road, that the move would happen and nothing was going to change that. She smiled at the thought, the thought that two of her boys were so alike in some many ways and both needed constant reassurance and stability.

He smiled at her. "I can't wait" he said simply, like a boy waiting for Santa.

She smiled back, enjoying seeing his excitement. "Me either."

"So you're really excited by the idea now?"

"Andy I was always excited by the idea of it even when I was completely terrified by it" she told him as they both laughed. There was no denying that when Andy first brought up the idea of moving in together she was shocked and more than a tad worried by how much could go wrong but beneath that there were high levels of excitement in the pit of her stomach that were waiting to burst out. "Yes I'm very excited for this to happen."

He smiled at her. Not only did she look happy but she looked relaxed with a glow about her, a glow that seemed to set his soul on fire when he looked at her. "It looks good on you."

She nodded. "I like how it feels" she freely admitted and kissed him almost as a thank you, he being the reason that she felt that way to begin with. "Have you told Nicole that we're going to move in together?" Andy went to respond but she quickly cut him off by putting her hand across his mouth. "No wait let me guess, you already told her we were doing just that six months ago and she thinks you've already moved in here?" she teased before laughing herself silly.

He looked at her incredibly unimpressed for a moment as she just laughed at him. "Very funny" he said finally with a huff.

"Thank you. I do try."

"No not yet" he admitted with a shrug.

"Not yet?" Sharon asked surprised. "I thought this was the sort of stable image of yourself you'd be desperate to expose her and Daniel to even when you're telling a big fat lie about it." She laughed again, enjoying teasing him especially when it came to the lies he'd told his family all that time ago.

He looked at her shyly. "A couple of years ago maybe but things are better between us now, thanks to you" he said, offering the credit where it was due.

"No, no, thanks to you" she insisted, thinking he was always too hard on himself.

He smiled at her. "Well anyway I just thought I'd wait until we found somewhere and then tell her. I don't want her and the kids getting too excited by the idea that we might be moving right into their neighbourhood if we end up further away for example" he explained. "Plus you know how she gets."

Sharon laughed and nodded. Having spent quite a lot of time with Nicole since they started dating Sharon had become to know just how excitable she could be when it came to her sudden appearance in her life and the relationship she had with her Father, and that was before Nicole came perilously close to squeezing Sharon to death on Christmas Day. "Can you imagine Nicole and Emily in a room together if we ever gave them some good news? It would be like The Beatles had just arrived in the country" she joked as they laughed and imagined their synchronised screaming causing nearby birds to attack each other.

"They were bad enough when they met each other at that barbecue at my house" he laughed.

During the previous summer when they'd been together a matter of a few short months, Emily and Ricky came to visit for a few days to see Sharon and Rusty and also to give Andy a quick once over now that he was officially their Mom's boyfriend. It was quickly decided that Andy should host a barbecue in his yard and invite everyone along so that they could meet each other for the first time. Daniel was invited but as expected he didn't go which left Nicole, Dean and the two boys to represent the Flynns. Emily and Ricky had met Andy before of course but since the change in their relationship Ricky arrived with his chest puffed out and feeling like he should be protective towards his Mother when faced with the man who was 'defiling' her (if only he knew how long that was actually going to take). The whole thing was actually just bravado and lasted about thirty seconds with him overjoyed to see his Mom so happy. The real excitement however was when Emily and Nicole first came into contact with each other. Having both been brought up with 'irritating smelly brothers' they were delighted at the prospect of finally having a sister and they realised that was clearly going to happen as they looked at Sharon and Andy interacting with each other over the course of the afternoon. Emily and Nicole got on like a house on fire from the very beginning (as did the boys when they got to meet a real ballerina who was also a member of their family) and that only grew as the day went on.

"They were just excited, as girls who wanted a sister but only ended up with brothers tend to be when they meet a female step-sibling" Sharon offered, still delighted that they had got along together so well.

"And then you go and inflict Emily with another brother" he joked. "I swear their joint screams could shatter glassware" he said in all seriousness as Sharon laughed. "Plus if I told Nicole we were looking for a house to buy together she'd be calling me every day to see if we'd made an offer yet."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"No. But..."

"But what? But you'd rather keep it a secret for the time being?"

He bowed his head slowly and kissed the back of her hand before he leant his head on the palm of his hand and gazed at her adoringly. "But you still make me as nervous as hell Raydor" he admitted albeit a little reluctantly. She blushed as she smiled at him. "And I'd rather have your name written on the dotted line before I tell her about it" he said, still not sure that she wouldn't change her mind at any moment.

"Andy" she said tenderly as she ran her hand down the side of his face again. "Why? Do you honestly think I'm going to change my mind about moving in together?" Andy just smiled at her and shrugged. "Oh Andy" she said, cupping his face and kissing him on the lips a couple of times. "Okay boy let me get this straightened out right now for the sake of your blood pressure. There is no changing my mind about this, I assure you of that. You find us the perfect house and I am selling this place and moving in with you" she stated clearly before she kissed him again. "I promise you that" she added until their lips met again. "Okay?"

He nodded, still unsure but taking her at her word. "Okay" he said quietly, kissing her back.

"But I've still absolutely no idea where you'll be keeping your clothes when that does eventually happen because I'm never splitting my closet with you" she teased although she sounded deadly serious. He laughed. "I'm not joking" she added with a straight face. "You're either sharing Rusty's closet or your clothes are staying in garbage bags in the garage. Your decision." She kissed him before finally laughing and then sighing. "You really need to stop being so nervous with me Andy Flynn."

"Oh I don't know it seems to have worked out pretty well for me so far. I was nervous to ask you to the ballet. I did it eventually and it went swimmingly right up until Nicole came to see you and forced my foot into my mouth" he said regretfully as she laughed. "I was nervous to ask you out on a real date but that turned out okay right? I mean aside from the fire and the dead fish and being sort of banned from there."

"It did. It most certainly did."

"I was very nervous to tell you how I felt and yet writing that letter was also one of the best things I could have possibly done although I wish you'd take it out of that frame" he cringed, worried that one day someone other than immediate family may see it sitting proudly in her bedroom.

"It's not going to happen, get used to it."

"The only time I haven't been nervous with you is when I asked you to move in with me and you reacted like I'd just told you I try on your underwear while you're in the shower."

"I did not" she cried.

"Yes you did" he laughed.

"I did not. I reacted like it was a complete surprise which it most definitely was and that was it and nothing more. I did not run from the room screaming or immediately fall over like a felled tree or anything else you dream up in that little mind of yours and I never will. I am moving in with you and the sooner you and your realtor find somewhere that's perfect for our little family the sooner it'll happen" she stated yet again before pushing her lips very firmly to his as if that was now the end of the discussion. "Okay?"

"Oh that is most definitely okay with me" he winked.

"What did your little friend have to say about us moving in together?"

"Little friend?"

"Yes."

He frowned as the penny dropped. "I assume you mean Provenza?" he asked grumpily.

"I do, your BFF" she joked before laughing.

"Little friend! We're not children you know."

"That has not been my experience in dealing with you both so far" she said, doing anything but joking about the matter. Chief Pope and Chief Taylor had warned her (not that she really needed one) before she took over Major Crimes that dealing with Flynn and Provenza was like dealing with two unruly children and yet that turned out to be an understatement.

"We haven't been in trouble for weeks" he protested.

"Ah yes granted but it's the fact that the wife of your little friend has to phone me every now and then to make sure you've not had a falling out over something silly at work which makes you both children and him your little friend" she stated with a grin.

"Yeah okay. Why does mine and Provenza's relationship amuse you so much?"

"Because you fight like cat and dog, do nothing but abuse one another and yet you'd lay down your lives for each other in a heartbeat."

Andy shrugged. "He's my partner."

"A little bird told me he actually ran to you when you had your argument with the pavement last year."

"Did he? He ran?" Andy asked, if he was honest not really remembering that much in the immediate aftermath of arriving at the airport and climbing out of the car until the ambulance arrived.

"So Mike told me the next day."

"I was too busy bleeding on the floor to notice."

"Of course had I been told that he'd ran to help you when you didn't return from the airport I would have known just how serious it was rather than finding out much later" she all but shouted as she poked him in the ribs, still annoyed that the full extent of the damage was kept from her until he returned from the hospital.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah" he mumbled.

"Don't 'Yeah, yeah, yeah' me" she said as she poked him in the ribs again, determined that never again would he keep health problems to himself.

"You're never going to let this go are you?"

"What? Holding your hand in hospital while I waited for you to wake up from surgery because your impression of James Bond went so spectacularly wrong? Probably not" she admitted, that wound and the fear that came with it never likely to heal in a hurry although she had certainly stopped mothering him like she was before Christmas. She kissed him, not for the first time relieved that he was still there with her. "So have you told him?"

"I've told him we were going to talk about it before we went out to dinner but not that I'd managed to convince you to buy a place with me" he admitted much to her surprise.

"Why not?"

Andy shrugged again. "I wouldn't put it past him to try and talk you out of it."

"For your sake or mine?" she asked as she laughed.

"Yours, definitely yours." He didn't actually know why he hadn't yet told Provenza that they were going to move in together. He knew he'd be pleased for them, more than pleased, he'd probably even offer assistance (as long as it didn't require physical activity and he got to be in charge) and yet he'd still kept it to himself, beginning to enjoy that no one else knew about it. "In fact I'd go so far as to say he now likes you more than he likes me."

She laughed. "That can't be true."

"Oh I think it is. The moment he realised that you hadn't eaten me after 'mating'..." he went on before she smacked him across the shoulder. "Ow! Why are you hitting me? This is him not me. I was fully confident you wouldn't eat me" he winked. "But once he was sure you hadn't and wasn't about to devour me whole..."

"There's still time" she threatened with a glare.

He laughed, thinking there were much worse ways to go. "Then he was much more on your side than he was mine as proven by the statement 'If you ever hurt her Flynn I'll shoot you myself.'"

"Oh I'm welling up" she joked. "What time is it?" she asked after a sip of her coffee, very aware that time was ticking by and she still hadn't yet told him about Sharon and the baby as a test run for how she was going to break the news to Rusty.

"Don't worry Captain I've got another twenty minutes before I should make a move."

"Where are you meeting them?"

"I'm going straight to the Fontenot Hotel with Mike just in case but I have a feeling that's where we all need to be anyway."

"I suspect you're probably right."

"Yeah, although it's actually like returning to the scene of the crime for Julio."

"I'm so glad he's trying to date again but what kind of woman stands him up?" Sharon said with utter disbelief since Julio was not only a very handsome man but also one of the sweetest people she had ever met (when his temper was under control anyway).

"Someone who doesn't know him. Someone who doesn't know what they're missing out on but it may help the guy if he finally took his wedding ring off before he went out on a date with someone new."

"Yes but you've got to understand that it's different for him" she said kindly. "It's going to be very hard for Julio to take it off one day."

"When did you take off your wedding ring?" he asked as he strained to remember if she was still wearing it when they first met all those years ago. "I don't remember if you had it on when I first met you."

"I did, briefly. I made sure I waved it in your face," she explained as she did just that, waving her left hand right in front of his eyes, "the first time I had you in my office."

"'Had me' in your office?" he asked. "I don't remember that. How drunk was I?" he joked.

She immediately pinched the back of his knee. "To reprimand you Andy."

He laughed as he grabbed hold of her hands so that she couldn't go near his knees again. "Why did you wave it at me?"

"I didn't like the way you were looking at me and in particular at my legs and you appeared to be so hungover that my death stares were having no impact whatsoever" she said with a slight glare and making him laugh.

"So when did you take it off?"

"The last time he left" she said, very deliberately opting to not use his name. "I'd taken him back once too often before then and I quickly realised that if I was ever going to break that cycle and avoid breaking his neck I needed to make a change and since divorce really wasn't going to be an option it was the most obvious decision to make, to end it in every way except for on paper" she explained.

Andy smiled as he looked at her ring finger. "Divorce really wasn't going to be an option huh?" he asked almost smugly.

"Oh shut up. You know very well that was about Rusty and not about wanting to date you."

He laughed again. "I know."

"But you just enjoy taunting me?"

"Amongst other things."

She laughed and kissed his cheek. "What about you?"

"Well it was much more straight forward for me. Sandra ripped it from my finger and hurled it at my head so I figured it was pretty much pointless putting it back on again after that. It was clear how she felt about me and our marriage and that it was over."

"Really? You managed to work it out from that? That'll be the Detective in you."

"Very funny. Well it was that and the fact that she sent me divorce papers the day before which was why I went to see her in the first place" he explained, with the choice of when and where he took off his wedding ring literally being taken out of his hands.

"Were you hoping to change her mind?"

"No, I knew it was over by that point because I'd done too much damage to her and the kids but I hoped we would at least be able to act like adults for the sake of Nicole and Dan."

"And what happened?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

"You've seen for yourself how much she likes me to this day" he said as they both laughed.

Sharon picked up her coffee cup and began to slowly sip on it, using it as a way to pause the conversation for a moment and compose herself before finally plucking up the courage to tell him what she'd wanted to for nearly twenty-four hours. She put her cup down and cleared her throat. "So I have some news" she said rather nervously.

"Okay." Andy looked at her a little cautiously. He had known she had something she wanted to tell him from the way she had been acting all morning but he knew her well enough to realise that he wouldn't get it out of her until she was ready. "Is this what you've wanted to tell me from the moment I opened my eyes this morning?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I know you Sharon, I know you far too well. You've been desperate to tell me something all morning and probably last night too but since it's not about the move and there's a zero percent chance I've knocked you up I knew there was something going on."

"Knocked me up?" Sharon asked with equal parts disgust and mirth as she laughed. "That charm school you attended right after college really paid off didn't it?"

"You're stalling. What's going on? Wait this has nothing to do with Jack does it? Because I think Provenza and I have found a way to knock him off without getting caught if you're at all interested" he asked, only fifty percent joking.

"For your sake I hope you're kidding" she warned.

"I am...kind of. So is it about him?"

"No. No. Goodness no! It's nothing like that."

"Then what?"

"Just brace yourself" she instructed, knowing he wasn't going to like what she had to say.

"The last time I was told that the Doctor was just about to check my prostate. Am I going to like it less than that?" he asked, feeling his buttocks clench as he spoke.

"I really have no idea." She paused and closed her eyes, not seeing that Andy was sipping on his coffee. "Sharon Beck is pregnant" she said quickly, forcing the words from her mouth.

Almost immediately Andy did an honest to God spit take, showering the table in front of him with coffee. Sharon looked at him with disbelief, a little bit of coffee covering her hands and her cell phone screen but thankfully not on her face since she wasn't sitting opposite him. "I'm sorry. What?!" he said, almost choking as he attempted to mop up the coffee with his napkin.

"Well that's pretty much the reaction I was expecting but from Rusty not from you" she said a little bit stunned as she wiped the coffee from her hands and the area in front of her.

"I'm sorry" he kept repeating as he mopped up the remaining coffee. When he was done he dropped the napkin on the table and looked to Sharon with an almost wide eyed alarm. "She's what?"

"You heard me."

"She's pregnant?"

"Yep."

"As in she's having a baby?"

"That's usually how it works."

"An actual baby?" Andy asked, still struggling to comprehend what he was hearing.

"No Andy, a ferret" she shouted sarcastically. "What part of this is confusing you?"

"How has this happened?" he asked, still looking and sounding utterly dazed and confused.

Sharon folded her arms and sighed, slightly irritated that Andy's completely idiotic response was not the best preparation for telling Rusty who she knew would react in a very different way. "How do you think it happened? Of all people I didn't think I'd have to try and explain the birds and the bees to the likes of you."

"Oh my God!" he cried as he put his head in his hands, immediately thinking of Rusty and how he was going to react to this news.

"My thoughts exactly. That's what she came to my office to tell me yesterday."

"And you're only just telling me this now?" he asked as he realised that she'd been keeping secrets from him yet again although this one wasn't of the size of the NFL job offer and at least she had told him a hell of a lot sooner than before.

Sharon looked at him a little sheepishly, half expecting this reaction but only after they had fully discussed the matter at hand first. "I was going to tell you last night but the moment you found out Rusty was staying the night with Gus you had me otherwise occupied" she said as an attempt to fully justify her actions. The previous evening when they arrived back at the condo Andy was all ready for a game of chess with Rusty in front of a movie until he realised that he was out for the night and then he quickly scooped Sharon up and that was that, telling him being the furthest thing from her mind as he had her otherwise distracted.

"And after that?"

She sighed and chomped on her bottom lip. "I just didn't seem to find the time."

"The time?" he said with bewilderment. "You yammered my ear off for over an hour before we finally went to sleep last night" he pointed out since she had more than ample time and opportunity to tell him before they finally went to sleep. "We spoke about everything! We spent ten minutes on Provenza's vile new cologne alone. You even found the time to tell me you found unicorns the most disturbing of all mythological creatures but you had no time to tell me that Rusty's other Mom is pregnant?"

Sharon shrugged. "Well unicorns are disturbing. You could almost say they're terrifying. They can do some real damage with that horn if they stab you with it and at least you can have a proper conversation with a centaur" she rambled as she again stalled the conversation.

Andy sighed with frustration. "Sharon!" he practically shouted, his anger over the way she hid things from him clearly evident.

Sharon took to her feet suddenly and carried her bowl and her cup to the kitchen, appearing beyond nervous and anxious. "I'm sorry okay? I'm sorry. I can't deal with you yelling at me right now on top of everything else." She sighed as she hung her head down over the sink and closed her eyes. She had been worried about it not just because she knew Rusty was going to react badly to the news and rightly so but she was also worried about Andy. They had spoken over dinner a few nights earlier that if they moved in together he wouldn't just be getting her and her kids, he'd also be getting the likes of Sharon and Jack and all of that baggage. Rusty's baby sibling was bound to have an impact on their lives, after all Rusty would be it's next of kin if anything ever happened to Sharon and he wouldn't be able to cope on his own. If the worse did happen then Sharon and Andy would have to help him, help them both but with the pair of them over sixty it would be a lot of take on. With all of that added together how could she not be fearful of Andy's reaction to it all.

"I'm sorry" he said remorsefully, instantly regretting that he raised his voice for that fraction of a second despite his frustrations about Sharon and her secrets. "I didn't mean to raise my voice it's just this is a bit of a shock."

"I know and I'm being overly sensitive about it, I'm sorry" she said as she turned back around to face him.

"So why didn't you tell me?"

"I was worried about your reaction."

"My reaction? Why?" he asked utterly confused. "Why would my reaction to it matter?" He thought for a moment before his shoulders visually slumped. "Hold on you're not going to adopt this one as well are you because that's something we really need to discuss as a family first if we're still moving in together?" he joked.

"Andy that's not even remotely funny."

"I know, I know." He jumped from his seat and crossed to meet her. "Come here" he said as he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed as her tight as possible. She instantly responded by doing likewise. "I'm sorry" he said as he kissed the top of her head. "I'm sorry I raised my voice. I'm just surprised by it that's all."

"That makes two of us, three actually if you include Sharon as well" she mumbled into his chest.

"I take it this pregnancy wasn't planned." Sharon just lifted her head and stared at him with a look that screamed 'Idiot.' "Yeah right, stupid question." He sighed and then began to laugh to himself. "It's never a dull moment with you and Rusty is it?"

She clung to him tightly and sighed. "Oh how I long for something approaching a dull life at times. A dull life must be utter bliss" she said dreamily, having had her fair share of strife with ex-husbands, hospital visits and serial killers after her son on top of everything she had to deal with on a day to day basis at work.

"And the Father is?" he asked with his lips pressed to the top of her head.

"Take a wild guess?"

"Gary?"

"How did you know?" she joked.

Andy's head dropped to her shoulder. "Oh God!"

"I know. I mean she seemed as shocked about the whole thing as you are and she's had a couple of months to process it all but she's determined to keep this baby. Aside from the obvious its extra motivation for her to stay sober I suppose."

"That's no reason to have a baby."

"Maybe not but it's too late now" she shrugged. "This baby is coming whether anyone likes it or not but she did seem sober and more importantly stable yesterday. Probably the most stable that I've ever seen her. What did you think?"

"Well I only spoke to her briefly when she stepped off the elevator but it won't be the first time I've heard this story. I've known people in AA get sober because of a baby only to fall off the wagon again later" he said, wanting to be optimistic but being a recovering addict himself he knew better.

"But if anything is going to keep her sober this time than surely this is it" Sharon replied, desperate to see the bright side while at the same time fearing the worse.

"I'm sure Rusty thought the same thing about himself from time to time and my kids about me for that matter and yours about Jack. It doesn't work like that" he said, not wanting to burst her bubble but needing to tell it how he saw it with his experience. "An addict is an addict and you never know when or what you're going to be set off by, all you can do is try and deal with it when those things happen and do your best not to relapse."

She met his eye, looking to see if some of that fear for himself was hidden beneath his words. "Do you ever worry about that? About drinking again?" she asked. Despite his big promise the night they decided to move in together he had yet to stay the night after one of his AA meetings or even talk to her about it at all since. She knew it was hard for him and it would take some time and given that work had prevented him from going to his regular meeting since then she had opted to let it slide for now unless opportunity presented itself.

He nodded. "Sometimes. Sometimes I do but then I think to myself I've got you now," he said before kissing her on the lips, "and a good relationship with Nicole finally so why would I give that all up for a bottle of bourbon and a killer hangover the next morning?"

"I'd be here for you regardless" she told him emphatically. She sighed and smiled up at him. "I love you."

"I know. I love you too." He pushed his lips to hers and started a long lazy kiss. When they eventually broke apart silence descended as he processed all the new information he'd been given while again thinking about Rusty. After a moment he sighed. "I blame these novelty condoms, they're just not up to the job" he joked. Sharon immediately started laughing hysterically, laughing harder than she did as Andy told her about his history with fire, it being the perfect tension reliever she so desperately needed. As she held her sides and the tears streamed down her cheeks he couldn't help but laugh along with her, kissing her on her cheek. "Sharon and Gary huh? There's a gene pool that could use some extra disinfectant and maybe a security fence and armed guards."

"She says he's not going to have anything to do with the baby obviously."

"Well he's not got much of a choice in the matter" he pointed out. "He's locked away for life on a third strike so regardless of what she wants she's not going to have his support anyway unless she was planning on digging a tunnel to help him escape." After Sharon had wiped her eyes a final time he pulled her back against his chest and cuddled her, kissing the top of her head again. "Jeez poor kid" he said after a moment, not sure himself if he was referring to Rusty or the baby.

"I know."

"I mean if it's a boy I hope to hell he gets his Mom's hairline rather than his Dad's."

Sharon tried not to laugh at him although she desperately wanted to. "Is that all you got to say about it?" she asked in a rather stern tone.

"At the moment other than to ask why were you worried about my reaction to tell me about it sooner?"

"Because you didn't sign up for something like this" she told him and not for the first time. "Best case scenario you're going to have to put up with Rusty's baby sibling here from time to time and if anything were to happen to Sharon, well..." she said, unable to even say the words.

"Hey I like babies," he said kindly with a smile, not wanting her to think about him for even a second in this scenario, "and don't worry about me sweetheart." He kissed her on the lips. "You've got a whole other teenage hurdle to overcome first."

She sighed. "Don't remind me."

"I assume she hasn't told him yet otherwise I'd have heard the screaming and seen him flail around the place like a lunatic."

"No," she paused, "she wants me to tell him."

"Oooh good luck with that."

"She's terrified of his reaction if she does it."

"And with good reason" he replied, fearing that a cattle prod and some heavy duty sedatives might be needed and that was if he took the news fairly well.

"I don't want to let her down, she seemed so excited and despite her fears so optimistic that Rusty would be excited about being a big brother."

"You never know he might be or then again he might completely freak out about it."

"Any suggestions on how I go about telling him?"

"Have a butterfly net on hand to stop him from hitting the roof or jumping off the balcony?" he said very unhelpfully since he was at a loss of what to actually suggest.

"That's not funny."

He laughed regardless and rubbed his hands up and down her back by way of a little apology. "Why does she want you to tell him?" he asked although once again he knew the answer but couldn't think of anything else to say at that moment.

"Why do you think?"

"He's not going to take it well."

"Well that's an understatement" she said, putting her face on his shoulder, not wanting to leave his embrace for the time being. "He's going to freak. I'm trying to think of a way to slip him some Valium without him noticing before I tell him."

"He's going to take it a lot better from you than he would direct from her" he pointed out.

"Do you think so?" she asked, looking for any positives.

"Oh without a shadow of a doubt. Don't get me wrong I think the kid is going to go nuts and you're probably going to have to give him a quick blast with a stun gun to get him under control but you can make him act a lot calmer and think more rationally about things than she can" he assured her. There were times when Rusty felt in the way when Sharon and Andy were in the condo together but that was nothing compared to the amount of times that Andy felt in the way when in the company of Sharon and Rusty. Some people on the outside were often surprised by the bond that Sharon and Rusty had considering that they weren't actually blood related and had only known each other for less than five years but to anyone who knew them, they understood. Sharon had saved him and in return Rusty had filled a hole in her heart that she didn't even know was there. They loved each other unconditionally and had an unbreakable bond meaning that if anyone was going to keep the young man calm and get him thinking rationally before reacting, it was Sharon.

"I'm not so sure" she said a little nervously, knowing she had the greatest influence on Rusty but doubting her effect on this occasion. "I am going to tell him that the man who beat him and left him at the zoo and forced him into a life of prostitution to survive has impregnated his Mother. I can't imagine anything worse to tell him."

Andy smiled, making her anticipate what he was about to say but being unable to stop him. "Other than my Superman sperm had managed to knock…"

"Don't. If you know what's good for you just don't" she warned with her very best Darth Raydor glare coming out and almost burning its way into his soul.

He laughed. "Yes ma'am."

"How do you suggest I start?"

"Sorry sweetheart but I have absolutely no idea" he said honestly. "I think speed and complete honesty is your best bet. When he comes back tell him you have something to say to him and then spit it out as quickly as possible...and then lock yourself in your bedroom until he calms down."

She glared at him and pushed herself out of his arms, clearly annoyed at his sense of humour even though she knew why he was doing it. "Thank you, you're a real help."

"Come here" he said as he pulled her back towards him and wrapped his arms around her. It was easy to see how stressed it was making it and despite his best intentions his jokes really weren't helping. "He's going to be upset yes," he said as he pushed his lips to the top of her head, "there's no denying that but he's not going to be upset with you about it and whatever he says, he's not saying it to you."

"She called him 'our son.' Can you believe that? Our son" she said with a roll of her eyes.

"Yes I can" he nodded, not surprised in the least. "She didn't lose the kid. She threw him away and because of that she's just grateful that someone else, someone so utterly wonderful and selfless was on hand to pick up the pieces but who she has to accept that he calls 'Mom' now."

"The thing is I feel for her I really do" she said, thinking purely as a Mother. "He can be so mean to her, the things he says."

"Which is clearly why she wants you to tell him." He kissed the top of her head again as he continued to hold her in his arms. "Look I don't want you to stress about this. Yes this is going to be a difficult conversation and yes he's not going to take it well and yes we've got a very long road ahead of us…"

"If this is a pep talk it isn't very peppy."

He nodded. "Okay but despite all of that we will get through it."

"We?"

"Yes we" he stated with a smile and then dropped a kiss to her lips. "It's not going to be easy but I'm here for you throughout."

"Except when I tell him" she said with a frown although in truth she didn't want him there when she broke the news to Rusty. It was something she needed to do on her own and as quickly as possible the moment he walked through the door to just get it over and done with.

"Well I do have a stake out to get to" he justified before they both laughed. "It'll all be okay, I promise."

"You say that but there's more."

"Oh jeez" he said with a look to the heavens. "Do I need to sit down?" he asked, wondering what else there was left to tell him, since he assumed she would have already told him if Sharon was expecting twins.

"No. It's nothing bad" she said quickly for the sake of his blood pressure. "I've invited her over tonight so that she can talk to him about it herself once he's had time to digest the news and calm down a little."

"Okay" he nodded. "Which is why you've got to break the news to him this morning?"

"Exactly." She paused for a moment before she asked "Will you be here please?"

"When?"

"Tonight. While she's talking to Rusty, will you be here?" she asked, her eyes pleading.

"Okay but how would that work exactly?" he asked, immediately feeling like he'd be an interloper in the situation. "I don't want to get in anyone's way while all of this personal..."

"But I thought we were on the verge of becoming a proper family, of moving in together and sharing our lives together completely" she said to him before reaching up and pecking him on the lips. "I'm not asking you to speak to Rusty or speak to Sharon for that matter or get involved or even be in the same room when they speak to each other" she explained before pulling out of his arms and taking his hands in hers and squeezing them. "I'm asking you to be here for me, to support me, to distract me while they talk. I want you here, please?"

He smiled, knowing full well that it was a very stressful situation for her and she wanted him there to not only distract her while Rusty and Sharon were talking but also to keep her calm so that she could be calm for him. "Not a problem" he said simply before he kissed her. "I'll be here if that's what you want."

"It is" she said with a smile. "Thank you. And just one more thing. Don't let on that I told you first. If he mentions it to you today, please act surprised."

"Of course. I'll do my best." He pulled her back to his chest and cuddled her again for a few moments in silence. "I knew you were keeping something from me" he said smugly.

"Oh Andy let it go" she said with a sigh, working hard to try to stop keeping secrets from him but it wasn't like he didn't struggle with the same thing. "Speaking of which," she said as she stepped out of his embrace and looked at her watch, "you'd better get a move on if you're not going to be late." Andy nodded and set off towards the front door with Sharon following close behind. "I may be a little late getting into work myself depending on what time Rusty gets home so have Lieutenant Provenza keep me up to date please."

"Will do but I'm sure you'll be at PAB before we are." Andy pulled on his jacket before picking up his suit and draping it over his arm. "Good luck" he said before he kissed her goodbye.

"You too" she replied as she walked him to the door. "Please be careful."

"I will."

"Put a vest on" she instructed only for Andy to roll his eyes at the way he was being mothered. "I saw that. Don't roll your eyes at me buddy."

"But Mom, none of my other friends will be wearing a vest" he said in a very whiny voice like a little boy being forced to wear a bike helmet.

"Andy."

"Fine," he sighed, "I'll put a vest on but I don't think it's likely either of these assholes are going to take a shot at me so I think you can relax."

"As you've already proven, people don't need to take a shot at you for you to spend several weeks off work and in the hospital."

He nodded. "Okay. Point taken" he said reluctantly as he opened the door.

"Please be careful."

"I will. I promise" he said, kissing her a final time.

"I love you."

"Love you too." With that Andy headed out the door, closing it behind him while Sharon walked back towards the kitchen. A few seconds later she was surprised to hear the door open again, assuming he'd forgotten something until she heard "Hide your gun and lock the balcony door before you tell him" before the door closed again.

"Put a vest on" she shouted after him, knowing he'd probably just be able to hear her on his way down the corridor. She shook her head as she picked up his bowl and coffee cup and carried them to the dishwasher. "Idiot" she said to herself as she made herself a cup of tea before taking up her position at the head of the table and waited for Rusty to return home and break the news to him.