She opened the door and scanned the scene, spotting him. She sighed and walked over, putting her purse down on the adjacent chair as she sat down in the empty chair next to him. She gave a nod to the bartender, and he walked over to her.

"Coffee please," she said with a sad smile and a head nod next to her. He had been sitting there hanging his head and looked up at the sound of her voice and grunted, dropping his head again.

"I haven't had a drink," he grunted.

"No," she nodded pursing her lips, "but you have thought about it."

He sighed and turned his head to look over at her. He frowned and then shook his head, noting it looked like he'd dragged her out of bed, not that he specifically had, but here she was, sitting next to him. He gestured with his hand, his eyes meeting hers, "You didn't need to come here."

Sharon pursed her lips and nodded, sitting forward on the bar stool. She folded her hands on the bar top, and she turned to face him, her hair falling around her face, "It's 2:00 in the morning, and you are sitting here in a full suit, an alcoholic in front of all that alcohol," she gestured in front of her, "and apparently have no plans to drink."

"I'm not going to drink," he grumbled.

Sharon nodded again, "That's good because it would void your lease agreement."

He frowned and shook his head, "We never had anything official, and honestly," he sighed, "the least of my worries."

"Funny," she said in a calm and collected tone with her hands still folded there, "it should be your biggest worry, losing your housing, or at least one of your biggest. Losing your sobriety would be worse, but losing the roof over your head wouldn't be a walk in the park either. The way I see it, you've been working really hard to get your life on track. I see it; your boss sees it, and Provenza sees it. Why in the world would you waste all of that, throw it all away tonight of all nights? What happened at Provenza's wedding?"

"It's just, just, life," he finally said, finding his words. "One step forward, five hundred back."

"Ahh, so we are feeling sorry for ourselves tonight," she said with a small nod of thanks to the bartender for the coffee. She pushed it toward Andy. "Drink this."

"I didn't have a drink," he told her again.

"You're going to have coffee," she said in a firm tone. "I remember not long ago having to deal with you under slightly different circumstances, and I can easily jump into my 'bad cop' routine if you prefer. Since we've become well, friends maybe and share a house, I was hoping to come here tonight as your friend."

Andy finally sat up and rested his elbows on the counter, folding his hands up under his chin. He looked straight ahead, not at Sharon.

"I'm not sure where to start," he said.

She shrugged, "Start with what brought you here tonight. You've been doing well, Andy. I get a call from Lieutenant Provenza because you left his wedding without a word, and he was worried about you. He said you disappeared for some of his reception, reappeared and looked upset before he finally lost sight of you."

"How'd you find me?" Andy grumbled.

"Habit," Sharon said easily. "In my job, dealing with issues like this, I know where to look. You're a creature of habit, Andy. I knew you wouldn't go back to the bar where you got into the fight, but this was one at the top of my list. It was my second stop."

He sighed and shook his head, dropping it again. He finally turned to her, giving her the respect he knew she deserved. She was offering to be his friend and sitting next to him in the middle of the night.

"Where are the kids?" Andy asked.

Sharon eyed him, "Mrs. Harris is watching them, my normal middle of the night sitter. Thankfully, she lives just down the street and is used to my middle of the night call outs. I just didn't tell her it was someone I was going to drag back home. I really didn't feel like I needed to show up here with a baby in a bar, let alone two kids in a bar. Spill it," she said. She looked over and got the attention of the bartender and raised her finger toward him, "I'll take a cup of coffee too."

"You can have mine," Andy said, pushing it toward her. Her hand momentarily met his as she pushed it back to him.

"Drink up, Buster. If you are going to sit in a bar in the middle of the night, you're going to drink something, even the terrible coffee," she said again in her firm tone. He just gave a nod and took a sip, making a face as he tasted the coffee.

"It's terrible," he grumbled.

"You act surprised," she sighed. "Coffee in bars is often terrible. Drunks don't notice. Welcome to the sober club. So?"

"Fine," he waved. "It's just been one of those days, a day that I reflected back on my life too much on top of getting bad news."

"What news?" Sharon eyed him.

"Sandra still won't let me see the kids. I'd called her about it now weeks ago, over a month ago, just after Emily's birthday," he told her. It was now nearing the end of June. Things had been moving along for Andy, for everyone really. Andy had been working around the clock between his jobs with little time for anything else. Sharon barely saw him; he barely saw her or the kids. As far as the housing situation, it was working okay. If he wasn't at either of his two jobs, he was working on Sharon's house. She'd even told him it wasn't necessary to work so hard on two different occasions, but the work everywhere kept his mind off of the mess in his life. Today, though, his thoughts had caught up with him.

Sharon just nodded, but then, she cleared her throat, "Okay, Sandra hasn't let you see the kids. What changed to land you here tonight after Provenza's wedding? I thought you might have enjoyed your evening."

"I did for a few hours," he admitted. "Too much maybe," he said with a low grumble. "One of the bridesmaids, a friend of Sharon's," he started to explain, "she and I were sort of put together. I think Provenza and Sharon thought we could hit it off. We fooled around after the wedding."

Sharon raised her eyebrows at Andy, and he rolled his eyes at Sharon. She just nodded, not saying anything and trying to listen as he continued to explain.

"It was almost like it was expected," he sighed. "That's no excuse, and whatever, it's done. It was a wedding on the beach with the reception up from the beach at this little restaurant. Perfect evening down there on the beach. It just happened. She and I excused ourselves from the circus the wedding reception had become and found better things to do in the dark there at the beach."

Andy grew quiet after that, and Sharon waited, pursing her lips. When it appeared he wasn't going to say more, she gestured with her hands, "I'm trying to figure out how fooling around with a bridesmaid landed you here and how it relates to not seeing the kids."

Andy sighed again and sipped on the bitter coffee. Sharon looked over as the bartender finally delivered her coffee. She nodded to him, and then, she started to sip on hers, hoping Andy would further explain the situation.

"Earlier today, before the wedding, my lawyer called and said the latest paperwork, paperwork he just received, still stipulates I can only see the kids with supervised visits. It was to be reevaluated after my rehab, which now, it has been, and that's the finding. I don't want supervised visits. The couple times I've tried that, it's been awful. I've had horrible experiences with the court appointed supervisors. I feel like they stare at me like I'm the worst human being ever. The kids cry because they don't know what is going on. They want to do fun things, and I've been stuck at whatever neutral meeting site Sandra picks or the court picks. I swear I'm getting a rotten deal."

"Okay," Sharon nodded. "Not to pick apart your words, but that is different than not being able to see the kids. The terms on which you can see the kids are not ideal, but you can see them."

"Yeah," he waved. "I suppose."

"So, you started the day with this and ended with a girl on the beach. Now, you're here," she stated.

"I realized taking Heidi down to the beach was my coping mechanism and not a good idea. I'm trying to better myself, and that was just the latest distraction. Bottom line is I'm still a screw up. I find anything or anyone to take my mind off the lousy life I have. It used to be alcohol. Tonight it was Heidi. None of that is working for me."

"It's good you see that," Sharon stated.

"The program tells you not to get into relationships this early," he sighed. "I was an idiot tonight."

"You recognize that," Sharon nodded as she listened. "Progress."

"I guess in the middle of fooling around tonight, it hit me that I was just using another outlet for my misery. I don't want to do that. I want to see my kids. I don't want to be an alcoholic. I want to be a regular guy."

"Well, in my experience, we can't always get what we want out of life. We have to make the best of things and recognize the things where we have control. Sounds like even with the circumstances tonight, you have made some wise decisions or revelations," Sharon explained. "You are an alcoholic. That you can't change. You can adapt to it, deal with it. I can't change that my image of a happily ever after died when I caught my now ex-husband in bed with a woman, that my slime of a husband abandoned me along with two small children. I can't change that my kids are going to grow up without their dad around, without their dad even interested in them. It is what it is. All I can do is adapt, just as you have to adapt to the cards you've been dealt. You can fight this alcoholism as you have been doing. There's no cure, just hard work day after day. You put in that hard work. Right now, you can't change the court stipulation with the kids. It's a fight, Andy, a fight worth fighting."

"I can't replace alcohol with women or anything," he stated. "I know I'm trying to do that. I turned to alcohol because my marriage was falling apart, and the excessive alcohol is what finally was the last straw with my marriage. That ruined things with my kids. It's like this vicious circle of stupid decisions."

"Good points," Sharon said. "You're right."

"I just want to see my kids," he told her. "I want to see them on my terms without some judgmental person watching. It pains me to see your kids, to see you with them and know what I'm missing with my own."

Sharon nodded, and the two grew silent, sitting there sipping on their coffee. After several seconds, Sharon turned toward him, "I have an idea."

He raised an eyebrow at her, "Last time you said that, you took me by surprise. You idea for me to move in came out of left field."

"This might work," she said, biting her lip. "It's something to run by your lawyer and hopefully, by Sandra's lawyer.

"Sandra will do anything to keep me from the kids," Andy said in a grunt. "She's got a pit bull for a lawyer too who hates me and anything I suggest."

"Maybe," Sharon shrugged. "However, you are able to see the kids with someone appointed by the court."

"Don't remind me," he said, sighing.

"Andy," she said with a small frown, waiting for him to look at her, "I'm head of a division. I could see about petitioning on your behalf, as an officer of the law. It's a little unusual, but it's not outside of the legal parameters. It might work."

"Wait, what?" Andy said, now confused.

"Maybe we could get supervised visits even at the house. It's worth a shot. I'm in my position. I've got kids, and you have a stable home environment," she said with a small shrug.

Andy just shook his head and looked to the ground, unable to come up with a response. Sharon finally reached over and patted his hand, "Let's go. Let's get you home. We aren't going to fix everything tonight."

He eyed her as she stood. She gestured her hand at him for Andy to stand and follow her, and when he didn't move, she crossed her arms, "It's late. Not only did I get out of bed and get a sitter to come and haul you home, I have offered to help. Get up and move it," she waved her hand and pulled out a few bills to pay for the coffee.

"I'm coming," he sighed as he stood. He made eye contact with her and nodded, "Thanks. I really wasn't going to drink tonight."

"Good," she said with a firm nod before she continued, "because I didn't want to throw out my tenant. I have come to rely on him for things, and in the strangest twist," she said with a slight smile, "I've come to call him a friend."

Andy returned the small smile, "I can't believe I was as stupid as I was tonight."

Sharon shrugged, "Probably won't be the last time, but I'd agree that some self-reflection and self-control would be in order. Let me also suggest that if I ever have to come and haul you out of another bar that it not be in the middle of the night when I'm paying for a babysitter."

Andy groaned and nodded, "Noted. I'm sorry. I'll cover the babysitter."

Sharon hummed, "Yes, you will. Maybe a new household project is in order," she said in a teasing tone.

As they walked to the door, Andy dropped his head and nodded, "Just name your price. Thanks for having my back. Least I can do is help you too."

"Well," she said opening the door with Andy behind her, "best get the house in tip top shape if we are hopefully going to petition to get your kids a visit."

"I don't know, Sharon," he said, dropping his head again. "Maybe I'm just too broken, too much of a screw up. Look at the idiot I was tonight."

"When you pull yourself out of your pity party," she said, walking beside him, "maybe tomorrow or the day after, you will have to tell me about this crazy wedding. You haven't even started to tell me about Lieutenant Provenza and this latest wedding. Right now, let's go home."