The Pregnancy Ship

This is an A/U story

Disclaimer: These are not my characters they are fully James Duffs. I just love them so much and love to play with them.

Chapter 36: A Sense of Occasion

The reception/christening/birthday party was a wonderful success. Sharon and Andy enjoyed being surrounded by their family and friends. There was music and laughter all around. They did all the traditional wedding dances. This time around, although it was included, instead of Forever and Ever Amen being the first dance. Sharon and Andy danced to Fall With Me by Meredith Lockwood, then they danced to Can't Take My Eyes Off of You by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and The Way You Looked Tonight by Frank Sinatra. Then Forever and Ever Amen.

After a short rest and a glass of ice tea. Sharon and her dad did a dance medley, starting out with My Little Girl by Tim McGraw, Butterfly Kisses by Bob Carlisle and I Loved her First by Heartland. As Sharon and Sean danced to Butterfly Kisses, Eileen and Andy stood side by side watching and talking quietly. She's a real daddy's girl isn't she?" Andy commented.

Eileen smiled as her husband and daughter danced. "Oh yes, I mean Sean loves all of his children, but Sharon is his favorite. Always has been, ever since she was born she's had him wrapped around her little finger. He was a mess when we almost lost her to appendicitis when she was eight."

"She told me about that. Doesn't it make her sister's jealous?"

"I don't think so. Mary's always been closer to me. When she was a baby and a toddler, Sean was gone a lot, working and going to school at night and she adores Sharon, in spite of the age difference they've always been close. Sharon was Mary's baby doll and she could never be jealous of her. Judy and Jan were always wrapped up in each other until they found their partners in life. Even after Jan's husband left, after they had their fourth child, and her health issues started cropping up one after another. Judy and her partner Lisa have been there for her and now that Lisa is gone, Jan and Judy are even closer. We try to help, but most of the family is on the West Coast these days. Jan and Judy are the only ones in New York. Jonny had his own relationship with his dad being the only boy. When Sharon and Sean locked horns over Jack, it broke his heart. They were estranged for about three years. We don't blame her. She was young, impressionable and as stubborn as her father. Jack was a charmer to her, but I think he knew we could see his true colors. He seemed to feel threatened by us and made sure to take her across the country to separate her from us. When she called after Ricky was born and Jack had left them practically destitute, Sean couldn't get on the plane fast enough." Eileen shook her head fondly as her husband started dancing to Daddy's Little Girl with Sharon.

"I guess they are trying to make up for the wedding we missed with Jack and the one last year, when he was recovering from prostate cancer and she was very pregnant and blind." Eileen said fondly. They watched as Sharon and her father finished dancing and were wiping each other's tears away and laughing at each other. Then the music started for My Girl and Sharon and Sean surprised them, by dancing to it as if they hadn't just danced three dances already. "It's hard to believe she's in her fifties, and he's eighty-nine," Eileen said proudly. "She looks and moves like she's in her twenties or thirties. Mary's the same way. They both take after their father who seems to have forgotten that he's in his late eighties!" Eileen's eyebrows rose at a particularly fast step done on her husband's part. Oh my goodness! I hope somebody is taking pictures. I forgot my camera and when Sean asks me later why his back and legs hurt so much I'll want to show him."

"Yeah!" Andy chuckled as he looked around for Buzz and found him. He pointed him out for Eileen. "Buzz is our videographer for the LAPD and for this shindig. He's been filming this whole thing. I'll ask him to email everything to you."

"Good. Thank you, Andy and thank you for being so good to Sharon." Eileen sighed, "she never had that with Jack."

"Well, she's good to me too and she deserves it, and I will always try to cherish her like she deserves. Quite frankly we have dubbed Jack, he who should not be named. We were finding that his name was coming up too much in our lives and so once he died we started using that moniker for him and we try to limit that. We know that he will come up in conversation sometimes, she was married to him for close to thirty years before she divorced him and like it or not, he's the father of two of her children, but Sharon doesn't want to make a habit of speaking ill of the dead and would like to forgive and forget."

Eileen chuckled, "he who should not be named sounds like Voldemort from Harry Potter. Very fitting moniker, I think."

"You know about Harry Potter?" Andy asked, surprised and impressed.

"Andy, I have grandchildren, of course I know about Harry Potter," Eileen said amused. "All of my older grandchildren read Harry Potter at some point in their lives and they were all excited to share it with me and their grandfather. It got so that we ended up reading it ourselves just to understand what they were talking about. It was a good series and we found we enjoyed it almost as much as the children did. In fact, when they'd come to visit us for the summer they'd make up plays about it and other stories they'd read. Of course, Olivia was the ringleader such an imagination that girl has. She'd write songs and apply them to all the stories they acted out, turning them all into musicals." She told him, mentioning that Olivia and Mike, Mary's children were now pursuing music careers and were currently touring Europe. She also mentioned her other older grandchildren that were all grown up and going to college all over the states. "Jon, Sharon's brother who lives in Chicago, owns and operates a restaurant. He was unable to come because of scheduling issues. He has three children, Ryan who's twenty-five, Brandon is twenty and Alannah, Allie for short is eighteen, the youngest two are still in college. Jan has four children, Faith, Blake, Shania and Trace. She loves country music, and named her kids after her favorite artists." At this Eileen shook her head and rolled her eyes almost exactly like Sharon did. "They are all in school, either in high school or college on the East Coast. They chose their schools to be close to their mother Jan who was recovering from a stroke."

Andy nodded as he watched as his wife kissed her dad's cheek and gave him a heartfelt hug after their spirited dance medley. Sean kissed her back and made his way over to his wife who handed him a plate of hors d'oeuvres and a glass of punch the led him to a lounge chair on the covered porch out of the sun. All the time fussing good-naturedly with him about acting like a teenager. "Here Sean, drink this and sit down here in the shade. Honestly, I've never seen a man your age dancing and carrying on like he was a teenager."

"Eileen, stop hovering! You act like you think I'm going to keel over or something! For Heaven sakes woman it's not like I don't still jog at home or garden. I'm fit as a fiddle and that hasn't changed just because I had a little bout with the big C last year!"

"The big C as you call it isn't what I'm worried about, it's warmer here than in Northern California where we used to live or Upper state New York before that. You're eighty-nine not eighteen. Heat stroke is a factor!" His wife argued back.

"Oh, fiddlesticks! It's evening and getting cooler, just admit it Eileen you wanted to get me out of the sight of everybody so you can jump my bones. I turned you on with all my sexy dancing and you can't wait to get your hands on me!" He leered at her and wiggled his eyebrows at her suggestively.

Eileen was unable to hold back the peal of laughter that bubbled inside her. She let it loose and then smiled indulgently at her husband. "You know Sean, I think you're right. Kiss me, you sexy old fool." She leaned down intending to give him just a quick peck, but Sean had other ideas. He pulled her onto his lap and gave her a real kiss. Eileen made a surprised squeal which was quickly silenced by their kiss.

Overhearing this exchange, Sharon chuckled as she made her way over to Andy who handed her a glass of ice tea for her to refresh herself with. She hugged him and buried her face in his shoulder amused by her parents banter. "Are they like that all the time?" Andy chuckled.

Sharon slapped his chest, "Andy! You know they're not… always like this," she giggled. "Although, now that I think about it maybe they have been all along. It would certainly explain why there were five of us and it gives me hope for us when we are their age."

Andy wiggled his eyebrows at her. "I'll second that, but seriously I think it's cute. Kinda reminds me of... of the Chief's parents."

Sharon pointed a finger at him and smirked. "Don't let my mother hear you call her cute. I get my feminist sensibilities from her," Sharon said with mock sternness. "Yes, they do remind me of the Johnsons or maybe I should say that the Johnsons remind me of them. I think it's one of the reasons why I was drawn to Willie Rae and Clay." She took a shuddering breath overcome for a moment with sadness at their passing. She was feeling very emotional today. So, needing to get control of her emotions she buried her face in Andy's chest and inhaled the scent of his cologne, which never failed to make her feel better. Pulling back, Sharon took another sip of her iced tea and laid her head back down on Andy's shoulder.

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head, they swayed together to the background music for a moment. She had long ago taken her shoes off, so her head fit right below his chin. "Tired?" he asked softly.

She nodded and made a humming sound. "Hmmm, but happier than I've been in a very long time." Sharon lifted her head from his chest and beamed at him, "Andy, this has been so wonderful! Thank you for planning this for me!" She reached up and put her arms around his neck and pulled him into a long lingering kiss.

Andy smiled back at her. "You deserve it! Besides, I didn't do it alone. I had help. Speaking of which, why don't you go sit with your sisters. I'll be back," he said as he removed her arms from around his neck and gave her another kiss.

Sharon looked at him confused. "Andy wha... what .. what?"

"Trust me." He gave her a lopsided grin, "I'll be back."

Sharon shrugged and seeing her sister's sitting on the patio closer to the house holding her daughters, she walked the few steps over to the group of patio chairs they were sitting on. She leaned down and gave each of her sisters a kiss then sat down next to them in a loveseat swing, closest to Mary. Judy was holding Madison who was asleep sitting straddling her lap with her head on the older woman's chest. A light blanket lay over Judys shoulder and lap to shield the baby from the sun. Mary was holding Natalie who was wide awake and playing with Mary's necklace. The Aunts had stolen them from Nicole and Julio, who were holding them earlier and had given them each a bottle, and had changed their diapers, putting them in cooler outfits. Sharon held her hands out to Natalie who was trying to get to her from Mary's arms. At first, Natalie's little face was a study of consternation as she tried to figure out why both the lady who was holding her and the lady next to her had almost the exact same face. Her mommy's face. After looking back and forth for a moment, and then hearing her mother's voice she finally reached out to Sharon, who took her as she chuckled. "Remember when Emily and Ricky had trouble telling us apart?" Sharon asked her sister Mary.

"Oh yeah, so did Olivia and Michael!" She snort laughed and it sounded so much like Sharon that Natalie turned her head and she stared at her aunt and then back at her mother as if she was rethinking her choice. Mary giggled again, "it's so funny to see them trying to figure out which is which." Judy smiled, it had always been amusing to the family that Mary and Sharon looked more alike than she and Jan. She and Jan were fraternal twins while Mary and Sharon were ten years apart. Jan was short and plump, while Judy was tall and thin. Their facial features were different as well. Jan had dark hair and blue eyes and Judy was a strawberry blonde with grey eyes.

Sharon settled Natalie onto her lap, with her head resting on her chest and started running her fingers through her curls. She murmured to her daughter lovingly, kissing her on the forehead. For as young as she was, Natalie had an impressive amount of hair. She had soft silky auburn ringlets all over her little head and huge green eyes that rivaled her mother's, framed by long eyelashes. Her complexion was pale peaches and cream with a little bit of pink from the sun. Sharon was glad Mary had changed her out of the christening gown, but she needed a hat to shield her from the sun. She reached into the diaper bag and found a little pink bucket hat that had flowers on the rim that matched her pink and white sun dress. She slipped it on her, with the rim folded up in the front so she could see and tied the ribbons under her chin to keep it in place. She then reached in and found the sun screen. She applied it liberally to Natalie's face arms and little chubby legs. After she was finished she handed the tube of sunscreen and a matching hat to Judy. Madison was still asleep, and still under the blanket shielded from the sun, but she took them for when she woke up later.

Sharon was about to try to catch up on her sisters lives, but suddenly a microphone screeched and who was standing behind the clear podium but Brenda Leigh Johnson Howard. She held her sleeping nine month old daughter Willie Rae on her shoulder and looked around the crowd as it began to gather. She and little Willie Rae wore matching sundresses with white backgrounds, pink flowers with green stems and leaves and navy-blue piping. Brenda's reached to mid-calf and had a matching pink shrug; Willie Rae's was shorter and had a green shrug. The short little skirt had ruffles, and matching bloomers. Both Brenda and Fritz looked happier, than they had in a long time. Fritz stood to the side holding Matthew. They wore navy blue and green, Matthew wore navy shorts, and Fritz wore long navy blue pants. Each of them wore Hawaiian patterned shirts of blue and green.

Brenda cleared her throat and started talking with her strong southern accent, "Well, hi ya'll. Wow! There are a lot of people here. My name as some of you know is Brenda Leigh Johnson-Howard and if you're shocked to see me, think about how shocked Ah am. If you had told me eight years ago that Ah would be celebraten' that woman's birthday, ah'm sure Ah would have had you committed," she said with a smile. Everybody laughed, and Sharon even snort laughed. Brenda smiled at her, "but after several years of working with 'that woman' Ah finally figured out what mah husband knew all along. That Sharon wasn't out to get me, as Ah had thought in the beginnin', she had my back and that she truly was and is my friend… Sharon. Of course, it took a while for me to catch on to that," she said self-deprecatingly, rocking her head back and forth to indicate incredulity. "Ah was so busy fighting her every step of the way, but Ah'm not fightin' anymore. Ah recognize now what an extraordinary person Sharon is and what a good friend she is. When Ah needed her to tell me the truth nine months or so ago she told me and didn't pull any punches. Ah came away from that meetin' with a new appreciation of Sharon as a person and Ah realized that she was quick witted and way smarter than Ah had ever in my ignorance given her credit for. Before we sing Happy Birthday is there anyone else that would like to say a word or two?"

Several of her family as well as her team wanted to share. Ricky was the first and Brenda gave her spot behind the podium up to him. She sat down in a patio chair close to Sharon's loveseat swing. Each of the speakers had a touching or funny anecdote to tell. When it was Provenza's turn he came to the podium like Brenda with his baby daughter cradled in his arms. Kayla was awake, and playing with her daddy's keys. "You all know me so I won't introduce myself. I'm ashamed to say that for years I thought of Sharon Raydor as the Wicked Witch of FID, and treated her as such. I can't begin to tell you how many sensitivity training courses she sent me too…"

"Complete waste of time if you ask me," Brenda whispered out of the side of her mouth.

Sharon giggled. "Oh, he's improved over the last several years," Sharon said in a low voice.

"Hmmmm," Brenda said disbelievingly.

"Yeah, I was mad when she first took over Major Crimes. After all I was under the mistaken impression that I wanted to be in charge." Chuckles rippled through the audience. "But then I watched as she took an angry young street kid who was a witness in the Philip Stroh case, and turn him around. Made him feel worthy of love and gave him a future. Now that angry young boy is no longer angry, he's a son to be proud of, even if he did go against my advice about being a journalist."

"That's still under discussion Lieutenant, I'm thinking about Pre-Law, now," Rusty smirked.

"Out of the frying pan, into the fire," whispered Andy loudly enough to heard by the audience. He had settled into the swing beside Sharon His arm was draped over the back and his hand rested on her shoulder pulling her closer.

Sharon could be heard chuckling, saying, "no no…"

"Well, whatever he eventually decides on, Sharon's influence will help him to do it well and by the book! Ye Gods! Did I just say that?" Provenza paused again as the audience laughed and clapped in appreciation for her work with Rusty. He leaned against the podium conspiratorially and continued, "I also watched as she made a cohesive team out of a bunch of rogue detectives. The clincher though was almost immediately after giving birth to twins herself, she opened her home and her heart to my son Mikey while we were wrapped up in our surprise baby Kayla's medical issues." Seeing the confused look on some of the faces of the audience, Provenza went on to explain, "In case any of you didn't know, Patrice and I knew we were having Mikey. It was a complete; well to say it was a surprise would be an understatement. It was a shock but we were pleased when we found out. However, we didn't know about Kayla till she was born, she was tiny, only about 3½ lbs and was hidden on the ultrasound by her brother. Anyway, she had to have two very serious surgeries and Sharon and Andy took care of Mikey several times while we were at the hospital. I know what you all are thinking. This guy is a bit long in the tooth to be having babies. Well, no one was more surprised than I when a group of us older detectives, Sharon and Andy, Patrice and I, DDA Hobbs and Paul, her husband, and our former chief, Brenda Leigh and Fritz all boarded the pregnancy ship together, some of us kicking and screaming."

"Ye Gods, I'm seventy some years old, did anybody see this coming?" He quieted for more laughs, "but seriously, I wouldn't change a thing, well maybe a few things could be changed, Kayla's ordeal, I'd change that… but you know," Louie swallowed around the lump that was forming in his throat. "Kayla's ordeal kinda cemented the feeling that… Sharon Raydor ne Flynn is not just a friend she's family. Happy birthday, and congratulations both Sharon and Andy on renewing your wedding vows and thank you for… for letting Mikey and Kayla be christened with Natalie and Madison, thank you, for… everything." Provenza was really getting choked up and hurried away from the podium.

His wife Patrice, a beautiful stately African American woman, met him holding Mikey. They exchanged babies, she took Kayla and he took Mikey from her. She saw Kayla with Louie's keys and took them away, handing her a set of her own toy ones. "Louie, how many times do I have to tell you not to give her your keys to teeth on? They're full of germs!"

He huffed, "they aren't full of germs, I cleaned them off Patrice!"

With a glare that could rival of his boss's his wife questioned him. "You did? What did you use, hmmm?"

Provenza stood strong as he explained, "first of all they're not my regular keys. I found a ring of old keys from my old car and boiled them like you showed me and then I put them through a couple of runs through the dishwasher. She always wants my keys and when I try to give her own keys, she drops them and try's to grab mine so, I made these for her."

Patrice smiled at him lovingly. "You do realize she has you wrapped around her teeny-weeny finger, don't you?"

"Yeah of course, they both do and so do you!" He looked down for a moment and then back up, "and I wouldn't have it any other way." He kissed his wife tenderly and then started to laugh when Mikey grabbed his nose.

When Provenza left the podium, Brenda sat there a little stunned. She hadn't been around the squad in a long time so she hadn't realized just how much Sharon had changed her team's feelings toward her or that the old curmudgeon that was Lt. Provenza had softened up so drastically. All though she figured, age, his children and Patrice had as much to do with it as Sharon. Fritz had mentioned a few things, but it didn't really compute until today. She saw the signal that the cake was ready so she shrugged and stood up to go back to the podium. When Andy had called her to tell her about the vow renewal/christening/birthday party, and asked if she would be interested in joining the festivities, she had volunteered for mistress of ceremonies. It was an attempt to cement the fact in her mind as well as everyone else's, especially Sharon's that she no longer felt threatened by Captain Raydor and they were friends.

As Brenda got behind the podium, she said into the mic, "So, on that note and without further ado, let's all sing Happy Birthday to our birthday girl and congratulate the happy couple. Andy stood up and helped Sharon stand too. He took Natalie from her as a young woman, who Sharon thought looked familiar but couldn't immediately place, with shoulder length ginger brown hair and blue eyes wearing a chef's cap, apron, jeans, a blue t-shirt and black boots walked through the crowd pushing a cart that held a huge peach colored sheet cake with sparklers and candles. The words congratulations Sharon and Andy Flynn and Happy Birthday, Sharon was written in elegant script in white, came to a stop in front of Sharon. She was followed by a woman Sharon knew as Linda, her daughter's neighbor, who had helped her when Emily hurt her ankle, a redhead she had never seen before, and a little girl about nine years old with white gold hair and blue eyes. Then everybody began singing happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Sharon. Happy birthday to you and maaannnyyy moooore," the young girl sang sweetly in a thick German accent, along with everyone else.

It was than it suddenly it clicked and Sharon realized who they all were, Stefanie Wilderman, and her daughter Ciara, Linda and Sue, but she was distracted by everything else that was happening and filed it away for later. She clapped for the singers, and then leaned down holding her hair out of the way and blew every single candle out. They all clapped and whooped. Her face flamed at the attention, she was getting, but she smiled at Brenda and everyone else. Her beautiful green eyes full of unshed tears.

"Speech! Speech! Speech," could be heard from her team, Dr. Morales, and a few others.

Sharon made a 'don't know what to say but here goes' kind of face. She looked everyone in the eye as she began, "Thank you, everybody for a wonderful birthday celebration. I can't think of any other way I'd rather spend my birthday, slash wedding renewal day, slash baby christening day." She waggled side to side to indicate her amazement at her good fortune. "Than with friends and family. I'm truly blessed to have so many people to love and who I know love me," she stopped to swallow back tears. They fell anyway and she wiped them quickly away. "We've all come a long way, haven't we? A very, very long way. Brenda Leigh was right, if you all had told me five years ago that we'd be… well… here, five years later as a family and as a team, getting married, christening babies, and celebrating my birthday, I would have thought you were ready for a room with padded walls and rubber ceilings. Especially since two of those babies are Andy's and mine." She shrugged her shoulders and made a incredulous face, to indicate incredulity of the circumstances. "Who knew the Wicked Witch of FID had it in her?" she quipped sardonically.

There was a ripple of laughter heard from the audience. "Seriously, though we went from being adversaries to a family, not just a team. I can truthfully say I am the happiest I've ever been in my professional life as well as my personal one. Thank you for making my wedding renewal, my birthday and Andy's and my daughter's christening a very joyful memorable day. The memories of this day, I'll hold… in my heart forever, thank you, again! Now, let's have some of this beautiful cake, that Stefanie made."

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