A couple of tumblr drabbles from October I forgot to post here. This nonsense is a result of a line from a Friends episode. Sorry if it's too cheesy. And for purposes of this story, we're suspending reality and the Dodgers haven't lost out yet :)

October 2019

"I never knew it could be this way."

"No, baby, not in your mouth." Sharon knelt beside thirteen-month-old Marie and pulled her keys out of her mouth. In a maneuver she'd perfected when Emily and Ricky were babies, she sneaked her keys away and replaced them with a toy that lit up and made noise. Always an instant crowd-pleaser. With Marie distracted and staying in one place for a rare moment, Sharon returned to her perch in the large, comfortable chair on the back porch. The mid-October evening was growing cooler as the sun started to go down, and Sharon sipped her wine and kept an eye on Marie as she watched the autumn shadows begin to lengthen over the pool. The cool air and scent of tea olive drew her out to the porch with a glass of wine and a book most evenings during the fall, but there was no reading to be had when Marie was around.

"She gets up and pours herself a strong one,

And stares out at the stars up in the sky,

Another night, it's gonna be a long one…" Sharon softly sang along with the porch speaker. "You can't hide your lyin' eyes…"

"Hey, you're not watching the game?"

Sharon jumped when Andy appeared beside her. She'd gotten home late that morning after spending a few days in Galveston with her close friends from the neighborhood where Emily and Ricky had grown up, and Andy had been on the second week of a Major Crimes case when she left. They hadn't seen each other for longer than a few minutes at a time in almost three weeks. "Nice to see you too, honey."

"Sorry." Andy leaned down to kiss her, but he noticed Marie out of the corner of his eye.

Marie saw him at the same time and unsteadily stood up before happily toddling over to him, her light brown hair messy and her green eyes shining. "Ba!"

"Hey, my wild girl!" Andy scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder, making her squeal. "You have got to stop looking so much like your Gammy. It's starting to creep me out." He held her for a few moments before placing her back on the floor. "Where'd she come from?"

Sharon adjusted herself in her chair. "Well, when a mommy and daddy love each other very much…"

"I know that part."

"I'm kidding. Emmett's parents were supposed to come keep her this weekend while Emily and Emmett are gone, but they couldn't come at the last minute…I've been checking the game on my phone, there's no score yet," Sharon assured him as he turned the outside TV on and scrolled through the guide for the game. She liked to go to Dodgers games, and she didn't mind watching them on TV with Andy or with friends, but she didn't care enough about it to watch them on TV by herself. "Nobody out, and Muncy just got to second base."

"Ah, second base," Andy lamented with a resigned sigh, in reference to their lack of intimacy in the last few weeks. "Lucky bastard." He thought for a moment, the metaphorical rules of baseball going through his head for the first time in decades, and he could remember them all except for second. "I can't remember what second base was now, and it's going to drive me crazy."

Sharon scooted over in her chair. "Come here and I'll show you."

"Don't mind if I do." Andy settled beside Sharon in the large chair and finally kissed her. "I've missed you. I'm glad you're home."

"I've missed you, too." Sharon sighed happily into his chest and let her hand wander up his thigh and fondle him between his legs. "That is second base."

"By the time this game is over, it'll be a grand slam."

Sharon raised her chin and looked up at him in confusion. "I thought it was just a home run."

Andy leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers. "With you, it's a grand slam."

"Oh, that's a line."

Andy grinned. "A line that's working, is it not?"

"I didn't say it wasn't working, I just said it was a line…We'll let Marie play for a few more minutes and put her to bed, and then it's Gammy's and Papa's turn to play."

Andy rested his chin on Sharon's shoulder as they watched Marie play and start to get drowsy. They had moments like this often, but there were still times where he couldn't believe that he and Sharon were married and sharing grandchildren and having peaceful evenings on their back porch in the suburbs. And now they'd thrown talking in baseball metaphors into the mix. His life had taken a turn he'd never thought possible.

Sharon sensed a shift in his mood and turned toward him. "Honey? What is it?"

"Nothing." Andy tenderly stroked his hand down Sharon's arm and laced his fingers through hers. "I just…I never knew it could be this way."

Sharon's lips turned upward in a loving smile. "I know. I still can't believe it sometimes, either."

A little while later, Sharon folded laundry while Andy bathed Marie and put her to bed. With Rusty at his new boyfriend's house for the weekend, they had the house to themselves. "Is she down?" Sharon asked when Andy came back into the living room.

Andy nodded. "Batter up."

"You keep me warm." (This was posted on AO3 a couple of months ago).

Andy watched as Sharon idly tossed an absurd amount of panties into her suitcase. "We'll only be there for five nights, are you expecting to shit yourself twice a day or something?"

Sharon gave him a disbelieving look. "I won't know which ones I'll want while we're there, I have to have options," she explained patronizingly, like he should've already known that.

Andy rolled his eyes and finished his own packing. Once that was done, he started dinner and talked to a neighbor who stopped by for a few minutes before going back to their bedroom. "Are you seriously still packing? You were already packing before I even got home, and I'm finished now."

"Are you seriously still asking questions?" Sharon looked over the contents of her suitcase. She and Andy were going to Oregon for a few days with some friends from her old neighborhood, and she couldn't wait to trade the 80 degree early October LA weather for real fall weather. Looking at her comfy leggings, sweaters, and warm pajamas had her ready for chilly, foggy mornings and evenings, pleasant, crisp afternoons, colorful leaves, hot tea and coffee, crackling fires, and needing Andy to warm her up. Sharon gently grasped his suspenders and pulled him closer to her to kiss him. "I'm almost finished."

Andy eyed her things strewn across the bed. They'd traveled together several times by now, and he still didn't understand why trips for less than a week required so much damn luggage. "Leave it to you to push the luggage limit on a five-day trip."

Sharon bit her bottom lip and sifted through her suitcase for Andy's favorite chemise. "I guess you're right, this is too much..." She dangled the navy, lacy garment in front of him. "Maybe I should leave this home. It'll be too cold for it, anyway—"

"No, no, take all you want," Andy quickly amended. He took the chemise from Sharon and put it back in her suitcase. "You won't have to worry about being cold, I can promise you."

On their third morning in Oregon, Sharon had set her alarm for 6:30 so they could go down to the lake and watch the sunrise. Any time she was in the mountains, she liked to watch the sun come up over the peak at least one morning.

"Why's it so early?" Andy pulled a pillow over his face, trying to muffle the sound of Sharon's blaring alarm.

Sharon turned off her alarm and snuggled more closely to him, pressing her cold feet against his legs. "I told you last night I was going to watch the sunrise. You coming?"

"I guess," Andy grumbled.

Sharon pulled on the thick leggings and warm, oversized sweater she'd laid out the night before while Andy rubbed his eyes and struggled to make himself get out of bed. A few minutes later, she went to the kitchen and put a coffee pod in the Keurig. By the time she heard Andy stepping into the kitchen, she had some hot tea brewing for him. He grabbed a couple of blankets and accepted the mug from her. "Thanks, honey."

Once they were on the dock and squeezed together in one of the lounge chairs, Andy settled the blankets over them and wrapped his arm around Sharon. She curled into his side and lay against his chest, enjoying the silence and stillness of the early morning. Fog was drifting across the water and mountains, and the scent of smoke was in the air from a nearby house's fireplace.

"To quote Rusty, it's cold as balls out here," Andy whined. He usually griped when Sharon dragged him out of the house at the crack of dawn in Park City, and even in the middle of August, it always managed to be cold there, too. Too cold for his liking, anyway. Admittedly, he did love the peace and serenity of a mountain lake early in the morning, especially now with the vibrant leaves peeking through the soft grayness of dawn. Such moments of peace were also appreciated the times when they were with Sharon's loud family, where silence for half of a second was hard to come by.

"It is..." Sharon agreed. "Whatever that means."

Andy rested his chin on top of her head. "Why do I always get roped into this?"

"You keep me warm." Sharon released a contented sigh and sipped her coffee as the sun's first rays started to streak over the mountain. The grayness around them slowly grew brighter as the sun slowly ascended over the mountain to the east until the fiery ball glided up from behind the mountain and pierced through the dawn with its brightness. With morning in full swing, they started back for the house. Sharon looped her arm through Andy's and held his hand as they walked up the few flights of steps. "Whatever will we do to warm up?" She murmured.

Andy pressed his lips against the sensitive part of her neck that always made her quiver, smiling against her skin when he felt her react. "I have some ideas."