TWENTY-EIGHT

Andy's eyes took a moment to adjust to the dim lights in Sharon's hospital room, but when they did, the sight made his throat feel tight. Sharon's eyes were closed and her face was paler than he had ever seen it before. There were two IV-lines connected to her left arm, a blood bag mounted on the IV stand next to the bed. For a moment, he thought she was unconscious, but she opened her eyes when she heard his approaching footsteps.

The moment a faint, but serene smile appeared on her lips, he released a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding.

"There you are, boys," she croaked. Her hair was all over the place, its waves and tangles a far cry from the perfect hairstyle she had sported at the ballet. The ballet - he thought back to the elegant dress and understated jewelry, the elegance of the dancers and the power of the music. It seemed like it had happened months ago rather than mere hours, his more recent memories occupied by the sudden flurry of activity in the delivery room, the sheer amount of blood staining the bed and the nurse's worried gaze when she shoved him aside and placed Henry in his arms. He shuddered inward, very much intending to concentrate on the moment he was in right now since it was far more pleasant.

"How's he doing?" Sharon asked softly, the lines around her eyes deeper than usual. She looked completely exhausted, but her lips were curving into the most beautiful smile at the sight of her son.

Andy bent down and gently placed Henry in her outstretched arms, watching as she pressed her lips to the baby's forehead in a soft kiss. The little boy opened his eyes and looked at her, then they fluttered shut again. Sharon got him settled in her arms, then looked up at Andy and pulled her eyebrows together in a frown.

"You look beat, honey. Are you okay?"

Andy chuckled despite himself. It was so like Sharon to ask him how he was feeling when she was in a hospital bed, short of almost half of the blood in her body. He felt jittery, starved, too, because he hadn't really eaten a lot at dinner. Somehow, on top of it all, he was cold and couldn't seem to get warm for the life of him. Maybe he was still in shock, but he wasn't about to tell her that. No need to upset her when she still looked so ill.

"Sorry, I think I'm a little out of it," he explained when she looked at him quizzically, surprised by his reaction. "How are you feeling?"

Sharon ran her fingertips over the fluff on her son's head.

"I guess I've felt better," she said slowly, then shrugged. „Also worse, though, so so much for that."

"You are awfully blasé about the whole thing," Andy pointed out, a little irritated. "You almost died."

"I think that is a little dramatic, Andy," said Sharon. "Just a little complication compared to what could have been. You might want to insert some red meat into your cooking when we're back in Boston, though."

It was then that Andy slapped his face with his palm and groaned.

"Uh, sorry," Sharon hurried to say, eyes wide. "I thought you said you were okay with cooking meat even though you are a vegetarian. If that has changed…"

Andy lifted his head. "No, no, that's fine. I'll cook you anything you want, you know that. It is just that I just realized that I was even more out of it on the phone with Nicole earlier."

Sharon gave him a cautious smile, much like you would a vaguely threatening crazy person on public transport.

"You spoke to Nicole? How did it go?"

"Great, Sharon. It did. It's just that I told her we were in Boston right now."

Sharon snort-laughed, her hand over her mouth. "Really? You forgot that we are actually in New York City?"

"That's not funny. She'll think her old man lost it!"

Sharon chuckled and put her fingertip on Henry's nose. "Your daddy has lost it."

Andy failed to see the humor in it. "I was frantic out there, Sharon. They practically threw me out when they got you ready for the ER!"

„I blacked out there for a moment," Sharon said in a way that suggested that she had forgotten all about it until now. "When I came to, you were gone."

Andy had been able to pull it together out in the hallway, had made a rambling call and given the wrong location, but now that he didn't have to stay calm anymore, now that he knew that Sharon was fine, all that frantic energy wanted desperately to emerge.

"I was so worried about you," he said, suddenly almost too choked-up to speak. "I thought we'd lost you, Sharon. The way you told me to look after Henry if anything happened, the way you looked when you lost consciousness there in the delivery room." He ran his hand through his hair, clawing at his scalp.

"Hey, honey," Sharon reached out her free arm. "Come here."

He sat on the side of her bed and leaned into her, wrapping his arms around her as best as their awkward position allowed. Sharon tilted her head up and sought his lips with hers.

"I'm fine, Andy. I'll be grumpy and weak for a few days, but I'll be okay."

A little noise from Henry drew their attention. He screwed up his face for a moment, but then went back to sleep.

"Can you believe that we even considered…" Sharon trailed off, not willing to finish her sentence and actually say the words. "It was such a terrible time. I don't think I've ever felt more relieved than when they told me they could manage my bloodwork and I could keep him."

"It was a terrible time," Andy agreed. "With all the shit that was happening and Provenza's needling."

Sharon rolled her eyes. "Don't remind me! I would have killed him if I'd had any energy left for that. To be honest, though, other than that, he was being pretty great about the whole thing. I mean, the way he made sure I wouldn't be alone with Sergeant Elliott during the interview, or that time when he stole Chief Johnson's soda for me. He must like you very much if he is ready to do that for the Wicked Witch."

Andy smiled, albeit sadly. Provenza was an asshole, but he was also a pretty great friend. The best one he had ever had, in fact. Leaving him behind in LA seemed unthinkable even now that he had already made the decision and was ready to stand by it.

"You can ask him to come visit soon, you know." She touched his cheek affectionately. "I don't mind."

Andy kissed her again and looked down at their little boy. Four days ago he had been on a steady decline, on his way to plunging headfirst into clinical depression, maybe on the road to relapse into addiction eventually as well. Now he was here in a hospital room in New York City, the glittering lights of the city outside the window and his family in his arms. He did owe Provenza. Big time.

The next few days held a lot of surreal experiences. For one, Andy would have never envisioned himself in a small, cluttered kitchen in New York City, surrounded by Emily and her roommate Abby, holding wineglasses and chattering while he tried his hand at beouf bourguignon to smuggle into Sharon's hospital room later. The nurse caught him, though, but waved him through with an eye roll and a grin. Maybe it was that secret food supply, but Sharon was released only three days after Henry's birth, declared fit to go home to Boston. Both she and Henry fell asleep in the backseat on their drive back to Boston, Andy thanking his lucky stars that Sharon had not practiced the same restraint with her car as she had with the nursery. The baby seat already being installed had saved him from having to brave New York City retail and buy one.

Back in Boston, they began to settle into their new normal, getting to know their new son. It seemed that Henry was quiet and content as long as he was not hungry. And hungry he was often, so Sharon spent most of the first few days on the sofa, feeding him. Andy never got tired of watching her with their son. It was yet another side of her he was discovering and it warmed his heart. Exhausted from the past few days in New York City, they spent most of their time snuggled together on the couch, sleeping or watching movies while Henry ate or slept on Andy's chest. He was fast becoming used to the tiny, warm body resting there, sometimes snuffling in his sleep. Even the O'Dwyers were staying away after a brief, affectionate visit, presumably giving them some space. So life was quiet in their first week at home.

Until the doorbell rang one lazy afternoon, that was.

Sharon lifted her head from Andy's chest at the sound, looking drowsy with sleep. Getting over the blood loss and constantly feeding Henry made sure she was tired most of the time and Andy found her snoring away on his chest more often than not.

"Are we expecting anyone?" she brushed her hair away from her face and took Henry in her arms, so Andy had a chance to get up and answer the door.

"Not that I knew of. Maybe your mom finally snapped. She didn't look like she wanted to leave when they were here."

Sharon just shrugged with an enigmatic little smile, so he got up to investigate.

The door, once opened, revealed Provenza, red-faced and sweating profusely despite the icy temperatures as he was wrestling a large object wrapped in what looked like a thin plastic-sheet and pulling a suitcase on wheels.

"Fuck's sake, Flynn. Why did you have to scare Raydor off to the middle of nowhere?" he complained by way of greeting and trudged into the hallway past Flynn without acknowledging the fact that his visit came as a bit of a surprise, to put it mildly. Before Provenza could make an attempt at ruining Sharon's cherished wooden floors, Andy snatched the object from him and froze.

"Is that what I think it is?" he asked, voice thin. Provenza disposed of his coat and threw it over a chair as if he was not a visitor barging into someone else's home.

"Yep, Flynn. Don't ask how. Just be grateful forever."

Andy carefully removed the plastic sheet that turned out to have been haphazardly wrapped around the very rocking horse he had all but given up on. Stunned by the sight, he almost missed Provenza walking into the living-room, but then hurried after him.

"Well, hello there!" Provenza boomed and marched over to the couch where Sharon was waiting.

"Hello, Lieutenant," she said, smiling and looking way less surprised than she had any right to be. Provenza surprised everyone in the room, possibly even himself, when he bent down and kissed Sharon's cheek. "I hear you took a bit of a beating there. You okay now?"

"I'm okay," Sharon assured him. She slowly got to her feet and held the baby out for Provenza's inspection. "Meet Henry."

Provenza inspected the little face for a moment, then turned to Flynn. "Looks like you except for the eyes, Flynn. You're lucky. Martinez isn't the father after all."

Sharon slapped his arm playfully. "As if you hadn't been waiting to crack that particular joke for months," she admonished.

Andy lifted his hands. "You two seem awfully chummy and you, Sharon, should be way more upset by someone just coming here unannounced!"

Sharon smiled and patted his arm. "If I had told you he was coming, it would have ruined the surprise."

"Yeah," Provenza raised an eyebrow. "If you move half across the country for her, the least she can do is let an old man make the road trip with a shitty rocking horse in the trunk."

There was a moment of stunned silence during which Andy frantically tried to figure out how Provenza was feeling about the whole moving thing that he had just addressed with such ill grace.

"How on earth do you know that, Provenza? Sharon, did you…?"

Sharon shook her head, adamant that she wasn't the one who had filled Provenza in.

"Come on." Provenza rolled his eyes dramatically. "As if anyone expected you to come back from this trip! We talked that one over and decided that getting you a return ticket would have been a waste of money. And, I must say, you have it good here. Nice house."

Andy could tell that Sharon was trying very hard to hide her amusement. At least if her lifting Henry up and kissing his head to hide her smirk in his soft hair was any indication. Andy was still waiting for Provenza to elaborate on how he felt about the news, but found himself disappointed.

"Before I forget," Provenza said and reached into his pocket. "Captain, when Chief Johnson heard the news, she got you a card."

Sharon's eyes widened in surprise, but she accepted the slightly crumpled envelope. "Really? And I am not a captain anymore, so you can call me Sharon."

Provenza snorted. "Fine, but since you don't outrank me anymore, there is no way you may call me Louie."

Sharon didn't reply as she was busy opening the envelope and pulling out the card, suspicion written all over her face. Brenda Leigh Johnson was not a card-sender, even though her mother had tried so hard to drum it into her. It was a testament to Sharon's life as a single mother how much she could accomplish with one hand while the other was supporting her son against her shoulder. Andy would have offered his help, but he had learned the hard way how she felt about that. At the sight of the card, Sharon shook her head and laughed.

"Oh, God." The card was a single sheet of glossy paper with a cartoon bug on it. Next to it, Chief Johnson had scrawled the words „Congratulations on the stomach bug". "At least it doesn't say 'congratulations on your recent health issues'," Sharon commented dryly once she had calmed down.

Against her shoulder, Henry began to fuss, once again in search of food. Sharon didn't seem to mind. In fact, she seemed content to have an excuse to leave them alone for a bit. Once she had left, Andy and Provenza sat down at the dining table, the latter nursing a glass of juice. They exchanged a few words about Major Crimes' latest case, the details of which were hazy to Andy once again and the fact that they had had no problem solving it without him. Once that was done, silence descended on them. They were so used to sharing their day-to-day lives and never really being apart that words evaded them once they had more than one important issue to talk about.

"So, how is being a dad treating you? Regret it yet?" Provenza asked gruffly, but his tone betrayed his affection.

"Not at all," Flynn said. "It's been nice. When Nicole and Jimmy were born, I celebrated their births and the bar. It is nice to be here with Sharon and Henry and get to know him this time."

Provenza nodded. "Good for you." And then he added in a tone that sounded more sincere than Andy had hard him in a long time, the usual banter completely absent: "I was hoping that it would turn out this way. You got a good thing going there, Flynn."

Andy nodded. "I know. Thank you, for setting me straight about what's the right thing to do."

Provenza shrugged, once again awkward in the face of honest gratitude. Now it was Andy's turn to ask the all-important question.

"How do you feel about my moving to Boston? I thought you'd kill me, to be honest."

"Never said I wouldn't," Provenza said. "I hope you chose carefully, Flynn. They have seasons here. Big inconvenience if you ask me."

Andy laughed, relieved and saddened at the same time. Having his best friend here was making the consequences of the move a lot more real. He thought of the house in LA that he had grown to like even though he had moved there out of sheer necessity when Sandra had finally thrown him out. He thought of the job he was good at, the team he had been a valued member of until most recently. Then there was the family he was leaving behind. It was a huge step and it would be painful. And yet he knew it would be the right thing to do, that he could make it work. He couldn't imagine not being with Sharon and Henry even after only a few days as a new family. He loved watching Sharon sleep with Henry in her arms, loved carrying him around to calm him down, loved waking up and knowing that he was not alone. He cherished the fact that he had grown closer to Emily during his time cooking for Sharon in her kitchen, loved that they had shared more than one laugh, that he had seen her bent over her mother in her hospital bed and had seen them share a smile and then look at him. He had a place here, even though he had to give up another place in return.

"Don't look so dramatic, Flynn. Next time, when I don't have a rocking horse to drag along with me, I'll just hop on a plane. It will be easy."

"Don't tell me you missed me, old man," Flynn deadpanned.

"Come on!" Provenza threw his hands up. "I was glad that I didn't have to see your ugly face for a few days!"

It was strange to see Provenza here in Sharon's living-room in the flesh. Boston was a different world, almost like a parallel universe to Andy, that seemed impossible to exist alongside his former life in Los Angeles.

"How did you get that rocking horse?" he finally asked, because he couldn't fathom for the life of him how Provenza had accomplished that.

"Your daughter Nicole might have had something to do with it, okay?" Provenza admitted. "But you can ask her yourself when she visits."

Andy's heart felt even lighter. Nicole was planning to visit him as well! Maybe his confused call in the middle of the night hadn't scared her off. In fact, she had sent three emojis crying tears of laughter when he had cleared up the confusion regarding Boston and New York City via text. He had been truly and completely out of it in the face of losing Sharon. Sometimes even now when he woke up in the morning and found her sleeping next to him, he couldn't help but flash back to her pale face in the delivery room and the way her eyes had rolled back into her head all of a sudden.

"Anyway, I hate to break it to you, Flynn, but you seem to be doing the right thing for once. I'm impressed. Now tell me all about the Cap… my dear friend Sharon giving birth at the ballet."

"She didn't-" Andy began, but Provenza waved him off. "You look like you need to get the details of that night off your chest and I suggest you do it before she comes back."

Faced with Provenza's no-nonsense attitude, Andy refused to show just how grateful he was to have his best friend to talk to about this and everything else in his jumbled, crazy life.

"Okay, but before I do, I wonder, could you possibly imagine moving here as well and starting a private detective agency with me?"

Provenza huffed and snorted all in one. "Okay, Veronica Mars, I'll think about it."

A/N: Thank you for your patience with me. I hope to get the last chapter out a little more quickly. Thank you also to the reviewer who pointed out that Andy was in fact not in Boston, but in NYC. It was an error, but I just decided to roll with it, because it is easy to imagine Andy being completely out of it in that situation! :-)