"So, you're sure it's a boy?" Andy asked, looking at the ultrasound tech and down toward the screen. He didn't know why he was bothering to look at the screen; he couldn't make out anything on it except the head.
"Lieutenant, how about I do my job, and you do yours? I don't come in there, asking if you are sure someone is guilty, do I?" the tech joked. Andy looked to Sharon and rolled his eyes. The tech meant well, but he was driving Andy crazy. He was a little too happy and wanted to tease in this important appointment. Granted, the tech did do this all day, but Andy and Sharon both had been a nervous wreck.
Andy calmed down when he felt Sharon's hand on his, as she sat up a bit to get a better look herself, "Boy?" she asked again.
The tech nodded, "Looks like it. Ahh, your first?" he asked.
"Sixth," the two said in unison, causing the tech to grow wide-eyed.
"Oh, wow, I-ah," he stammered.
Sharon's gaze met his, "This is my third pregnancy. We have a combined family, and this baby, I guess now this boy," she smiled, "makes number six."
"Wow, a real-life Brady Bunch," he grinned. Andy rolled his eyes again.
"So, everything looks okay?" Andy asked again.
The tech looked up at him, "Well, lieutenant, I told you that I'm the tech, so I can't say for certain. The doctor will give you official information, but congrats."
"You don't have to keep calling me lieutenant," Andy sighed. Since they'd come in the tech had seen his badge on his pants and gone from there. Apparently, the tech watched a lot of cop shows and wanted to impress them with his legal knowledge. "You know," he grinned now at Sharon, "she's a police captain."
Sharon threw a glare at him; she'd been annoyed at the tech too, but she hadn't let it show. Honestly, she needed the guy for one task-to look at their baby, take measurements to make sure all was okay, and tell them if they were adding a boy or girl to the family. She didn't want to engaged in police chatter with this guy.
"No way!" the tech said. "You're a captain? That's awesome. That means you outrank your husband."
Sharon smiled brightly, looking up at Andy, "That's right; I do," she smirked at him. Two could play this game, and if Andy turned her loose on this guy, she could get a little laugh herself. Andy sighed, knowing he'd opened the door on that one.
"I'd love to talk about what you do," he started to say.
"Tim, was it?" she asked. "So sorry, but we do have to get back to work. Lots of important work to do," she nodded.
"Especially her," Andy pointed to Sharon. "She's head of Internal Affairs, so she makes sure the rest of us stay in line."
Sharon turned to Tim, "How do you think we met? This guy was always in trouble," she grinned.
"Really? Great story for your kids," he said.
"Well, that's how we met, but not how we started dating," Andy started to say, and Sharon sent him a death stare to shut his mouth or they would never get away from this guy.
"Andy, duty calls," she remined him. The tech stood and nodded to them.
"Great meeting two police detectives," he said. "Made my day. Congrats on your boy."
Once he left the room, it seemed to finally hit the two. Sharon turned to look up at Andy, "Andy, another boy," she smiled brightly. "I really didn't care if we had a girl or boy, but a boy will be great with Rusty."
Andy grinned, "It will," he smiled, before he said, "I must admit I was excited at the idea of a little beauty who might look just like her gorgeous mom, but yes, Rusty and a baby brother-that will be great."
"And, I'll be in a house full of boys," she smacked her head. "What am I going to do with all of you?"
"Love us," he grinned. "Let us pamper you. We can handle that. I've got my hands full with my girls-you, Nicole, and Emily. We need a lot of boys around to keep you ladies all pampered," he smiled and leaned down and kissed her. "I'm so happy, Sharon."
"Me too," she leaned up and returned the kiss, putting her hands on both sides of his face. He reached down and patted her ever growing stomach.
"Hey buddy. We can't wait to meet you. Good job on being healthy so far. Keep it up, and keep your mom healthy too so we can get through all this.
Staying healthy was the operative word. It was now the first week of April, and Sharon was just over 20 weeks along. Things were going very smoothly, except that she felt the size of a house already. She was gaining weight, plenty of it. It concerned her how much, and she'd even asked about it at her last appointment. Her doctor assured her she was doing great, nothing out of the ordinary, but Sharon wondered why this was so different than Emily and Ricky had been. At 20 weeks, she had just been getting into maternity gear, whereas now, she was dusting off her regular clothes, as she hadn't worn them in weeks. Her doctor explained a couple factors could account for the difference. One was age, and the other was genetics. Andy wasn't Jack, thank goodness in Sharon's mind, but the point being that this baby had a different father than her previous two had. Andy was much taller than Jack, all making it possible for her to just have a very different pregnancy. Whatever it was, she was already feeling miserable with her size. She'd take it though because now Baby Boy Flynn was healthy and doing well overall.
"Oh, I can't wait to tell the kids," she grinned, as Andy helped her up and collected her stuff.
Andy raised his eyebrows at her, "Yeah, because they've been so thrilled throughout this. Since we told them, what six weeks ago, we've almost had complete silent treatment from them.
As they walked out of the office, Sharon swatted at his chest, "It's not that bad. If you look at the statistics, ¾ of my kids are thrilled," she smirked as she rubbed her side. The baby had really started kicking the last couple weeks, and Andy had been able to feel it finally last week.
"3 of 4? You can't count the baby!" he exclaimed, clearly irritated with Sharon's thinking.
"I would think you'd want me to count the baby. It gives you better odds. Saying 2/4 for you sounds better than saying 1/3 if you don't count the baby," she grinned.
"Rusty, he doesn't care either! He'll probably hate the baby too, saying we added him to the family only to turn around and create our own kid," he scowled.
"He will not hate the baby! He'll be so excited to grow up with a little brother. I can see them now, running around, pushing the trucks and police cars," she grinned. "And, after our reveal dinner with the kids, I consider it a victory Ricky is so excited. He's home the most, so if he's on board now, that's a win."
"That's because Ricky has discovered the only thing better than being a grown-up child is actually playing with a child. He loves playing with Rusty and is probably realizing he can continue to live out his inner child with this one too," he added.
The two got situated in the car, smiling like idiots at each other. Andy reached over and put his hand over Sharon's on her stomach. They continued to smile.
"This little guy is going to need a name," he winked to her.
Sharon bit her lip, "I was serious when I said I'd love to name him after you. You can be Andy, and we could call him Drew?" she offered.
He looked to her, "You really want to do that? I'm not worth naming a kid after. Name carries too many screw ups to remember," he sighed.
"Hey," she used her free hand to caress his arm, "You are a good man, Andy. Our son would be lucky to be named after you. I'm okay, though, if you want him to have his own name."
"I like Drew a lot," he smiled. "I just want you to be sure."
"I'm sure," she nodded. "Drew," she patted her stomach.
After their prolonged announcements with the pregnancy, they decided to be straightforward with the baby's gender. The team knew Andy had gone to the appointment, so when he returned, he chuckled at the sight on his desk. There sat a ballerina Barbie and a baseball bobble head. He looked to Provenza who suddenly, seemed to be very interested in staring at his computer.
"Hey Provenza," he yelled out, and the whole team looked up. They'd all kept their mouths shut, knowing that Provenza wanted things to play out in this manner. Provenza looked at Andy, as he tried to appear irritated for the interruption. Andy knew that was just an act. "We won't be needing this," he took the Barbie and chucked it across the room toward Provenza. "You can throw that away."
The team watched the Barbie fly through the air, and they all got wide-eyed, looking back to Andy, as he placed the new bobble head prominently on his desk. He sat and started to get back to work.
The team looked to Provenza, seeing if he would call the bluff. Provenza tried to act cool, but he couldn't stand it.
"That's it? That's all we get?" he asked, agitated.
Andy turned in his chair, acting surprised to answer more questions, "Oh, so you want to know? Baby's good, healthy," he grinned. "Name's Drew." The rest of the team smiled at him, nodding, and Provenza tried to hide his smile as he nodded too.
"Another Flynn," Provenza sighed.
"Another Flynn," Andy grinned. "Let's not forget Rusty becomes one officially right after Easter," he grinned.
"They are multiplying!" Provenza put his head in his hands, and everyone got back to work. Andy smiled, amazed that his life had taken such a positive turn.
The kids started filtering in for Easter by the middle of the week. They weren't going to have all the kids all weekend, but they would have them all together at least on Saturday. Nicole and Nathan were going to spend Easter with their mom. Emily, Ricky, Rusty, Sharon, and Andy would spend that day together. Family was family, and truth be told, they were glad to get any family time they could. The real celebration would come Monday morning when Rusty was officially adopted. The kids couldn't all stay; school papers and tests were an issue, but they were all going to be together for the weekend.
Emily, Nathan, and Nicole weren't thrilled about the baby, but they weren't being rude about it. They just weren't excited and really interested. It bothered Sharon, but Andy kept reassuring her they would eventually come around. Oddly enough, as time went on, Sharon became content in knowing the kids would come around, and Andy got increasingly agitated. They hoped that now they knew they were having a boy, it would sink in with the kids this was really happening, and morale might improve.
By Saturday, Sharon and the girls had worked on making an Easter dinner, while Ricky worked on dyeing Easter eggs with Rusty. Andy and Nathan were doing some yardwork and getting in some father-son time.
"Mama, eggs!" Rusty squealed with delight as he watched the eggs turn colors. "Mama, Ricky make eggs colors!"
"I see that baby," Sharon smiled brightly at him from the other side of the kitchen counter where she was working on a salad for their meal.
"No, Mama baby. Rusty no baby," he stated. The kids all met each other's glances and started to laugh. Rusty looked at them, in question.
"Nik-o," he called her, not quite being able to fully say Nicole, "why you laugh?"
"Oh, I'm happy, Rusty," she said. Rusty wouldn't understand that Sharon calling him baby was just a nickname. He called the baby, 'Baby' and it couldn't be used for anything else.
"Mom, remember when we were little, and Ricky asked who Pumpkin was?" Emily giggled. She turned to Nicole to explain, "Mom called both of us Pumpkin all the time. Obviously, she likes little nicknames. Ricky thought it was a real person."
Nicole laughed, "That's funny. All I ever said to my mom about Nathan was for him to go away. I was probably just a little older than Rusty, but I told her to make him go away. It's still one of her favorite stories," she smiled.
"I guess to help Rusty I probably need to start calling the baby, Drew," she smiled, rubbing her side.
"So, that's going to be his name?" Emily asked, the first interest she had shown in the baby.
"Yes," Sharon smiled. "We decided to name him after Andy."
Nicole nodded, "Dad told me. Mom will be so mad. Sorry, Sharon, but she hates that he's stable and remarried. Now, Rusty and the added baby, she just can't believe it. She keeps saying he won't be able to handle the pressure. We keep sticking up for him. I've been really impressed over the last year or so how well he's doing, and I know you are a lot of the reason why. I think Mom just can't believe it."
Sharon offered a small smile at the information Nicole revealed, "I sometimes can't believe our life, myself, Nicole, but," she shrugged, "life happens, and I'm very happy. Your dad has come a long way. Don't forget that I knew him back then too. Honestly, if Nathan and Emily hadn't dated briefly, I might still be turning him down as he tried to repeatedly hit on me at work," she grinned. Looking to Ricky and Rusty hard at work, she added, "And, there certainly wouldn't be a Rusty Flynn come Monday."
"I Rusty!" he grinned, smiling at Ricky.
Ricky looked up, "I vote we keep him. Baby can stay too," he shrugged, "since you'll probably be a little emotional about wanting to keep him around."
Sharon bit her lip to keep from laughing, "Well, thank you, Ricky, for the approval. No, we certainly wouldn't have a Rusty Flynn without all this in motion. I hate to think of where he might be, what foster home he might be stuck in. Things happen for a reason. Now, let's check that ham and see how close we are to eating."
Within the hour, the growing family had sat down to their Easter meal. They were not even halfway through eating, when the doorbell rang.
"Ahh, geez, I'll get it," Andy sighed, as he tossed his napkin and headed to the door. The rest of the family listened for the guest, and some immediately recognized the voice.
"Where's my family? I want to see my wife and kids!"
Sharon closed her eyes, sighing, as she started to stand "Jack," she sighed again, heading toward the door.