A/N: Usual disclaimer here, yadda yadda yadda. Okay, so "old-fashioned dating" my ass. They definitely should have kept the deleted scene in this season when Sharon talks to Rusty about overnight guests at the condo. And I never bought that "Andy sleeping in Rusty's room" when he stayed with Sharon after his injury actually stuck. So here's my rewrite.
Rusty could admit when he was wrong. Or, well, he was getting a bit better at it, anyway, thanks mostly to Sharon's constant guidance and Provenza's kick in the pants when warranted and the looks that seemed to come over everyone else's face when he said something self-centered or idiotic or unreasonable. And as weird as this all was to come to terms with, for so many reasons that really needed to be hashed out with Dr. Joe, it hadn't taken Rusty all that long to come around to the Flynn situation, as he had taken to thinking of it.
It didn't take too much of Dr. Joe-influenced insight and therapy skills for Rusty to recognize that this wasn't such a bad thing, Sharon and the Lieutenant. They'd certainly spent enough time together over the past two years, between the movies and the dinners and the random meet-ups that eventually transitioned into family outings and holiday events. Sharon deserved a nice guy, and while Rusty certainly didn't know Flynn like he knew Provenza, he could definitely say, without any doubt, that Flynn was generally nice and not a jerk and clearly thought that the sun rose and set on his mother. And Rusty, like he had been doing for years now, could remind himself when needed that his life with Sharon Raydor was in no way like his life with Sharon Beck and there was no way that his current Sharon would ever, ever throw him over for a guy like his other Sharon would have. And did, regularly, with truly disastrous and life-altering results. But it still didn't make it less weird.
Rusty had cringed so viscerally and obviously during that first talk with Sharon about "overnight guests" that he was surprised that he didn't have permanent damage from the shudders. It embarrassed him a little, looking back, since the only thing Rusty tended to not be squeamish about was sex, given his troubled history - abuse history, as Dr. Joe had encouraged him to correctly name it as part of his ongoing trauma therapy - and the topic had honestly come up so often with Sharon Beck that he should be desensitized to parents and sexual relationships. But it was different with Sharon Raydor. Rusty knew, of course, that she had been married and had children and clearly had had some sort of sex life, but it had never, ever been on display at any point so far in his years as Sharon's bonus child until Flynn came along. And the thought of...closed doors and whispered words and morning after breakfasts and oh my god Rusty was going to have to invest in some serious ear plugs. And maybe make sure to go to the bathroom way early in the evening, because passing one of them in the hall in the middle of the night was likely going to put Rusty on Dr. Joe's couch in a fit of complete anxiety. How does one prepare, exactly, for the sudden restart of one's parent's sex life? Rusty didn't know, and maybe he didn't want to anyway. This was all so revolting, even though Rusty felt completely juvenile as he stewed in his discomfort and awkwardness.
And then Flynn managed to get the absolute bejesus beaten out of him at work. And then he'd collapsed and there had been a complete scene and Sharon was, like, truly panicked, which was something considering she'd made it through the whole Stroh situation without even a tear shed in front of Rusty and there she'd been sitting in the hospital waiting room, her leg bouncing and her hands twisting in her lap, when Rusty had shown up and done a double-take at his suddenly too tiny-looking, fidgeting mother. And to top it all off, after all of Rusty's worrying about the eventual morning that it would happen and Andy Flynn would be at the breakfast table in a bathrobe, now Flynn had been promoted to permanent house guest and Rusty was out a room. Although to be honest, he wasn't sure where this put them in terms of the whole sex situation. Not that he wanted to know, really. Not at all.
In hindsight, Rusty could admit that Sharon having "overnight guests in the condo" - or, to be specific, a certain lieutenant, was actually preferable to giving up his room to his mother's convalescing boyfriend. Although privately Rusty did have to wonder how long this whole "separate bedrooms, old-fashioned dating" nonsense was actually going to hold, especially given the absolute insanity he'd been witness to since Flynn's quasi-homecoming. Between Flynn being an actual medical case and Sharon hovering somewhere around mental case, things in the condo had been anything but dull.
But still, Sharon was keeping up this "Andy is sleeping in Rusty's room" charade. Rusty was torn between relief that he would be spared secondhand embarrassment for a bit longer, annoyance that he was sleeping on the couch because Sharon had suddenly pumped the brakes, and amusement because how long did either of them think this would possibly last?
As it turned out, Rusty didn't have to wait too long for an answer.
It started off innocently enough. Major Crimes had closed their case and hadn't picked up a new one yet, so Sharon was working lighter hours in what seemed to be an attempt to monitor Andy without driving either Andy or Rusty nuts with quality-time overload in the condo. And Rusty could admit that both of them were clearly making an effort to not be weird and to include him, so they'd eaten together for a couple nights now and exchanged pleasant conversations and catch ups that didn't stall out or venture into awkward territory. And then came movie night.
Not that it was that formal or anything. Rusty had come back relatively early in the evening from class and found the two of them on the sofa. Not fooling around, he noted immediately, and there wasn't even a blanket in sight or a collar out of place. They seemed to just be...watching a movie? Rusty could work with this.
"Hey," Sharon called over the back of the sofa in his direction."How was class?" Flynn hit a button on the remote and looked over at him also.
"It was pretty good," Rusty said carefully, but tried to loosen up. They had paused the movie for him, hadn't they? They were trying. "The professor let us out early so he could make it to his kid's soccer game or something, so that was nice."
"Any time you can get out of class early is good," Flynn agreed. Sharon must have poked at him because he suddenly was smiling at her, and even though Rusty couldn't see the look on Sharon's face, it made him want to run for the hills.
"Well, I should, like, go to study until you're ready for bed so you can watch your movie," Rusty said hurriedly. "Don't stop on my account. Just come down when you're ready, Lieutenant, uh, Andy."
"Rusty, wait," Sharon called before he could get too far. "You should watch this, you'd like it."
Rusty respected Sharon too much to completely blow her off. "What is it?" He hoped he didn't sound too rude or reluctant.
"Argo," Flynn answered. "Have you ever seen it? We were just flipping through channels and caught it. It's interesting. Guess it won awards and crap."
Rusty smirked as Sharon shook her head at Andy. "Uh, oh," he said, trying to be casual as he walked over to one of the armchairs. Sharon shot him a smile as he sat down, which he returned a bit cautiously as he noted that Flynn definitely had his arm around her shoulders. And was...Sharon rubbing his knee? Rusty sighed internally. This was the first test.
Surprisingly, the movie was pretty decent, and even more surprisingly, none of them - not the exhausted college kid or overworked police captain or recovering walking wounded - fell asleep. Rusty tried not to look too much at the mild PDA happening across from him, but movies on cable had commercials which meant talking and general politeness. But Rusty was surprised to find that things stayed just...fine. Light. Natural, even. Like this could work. And he did notice, as much as he tried not to, that Sharon tucked herself more and more against Andy as the night wore on, eventually hooking an arm around his waist, and Andy seemed all too happy to just hold onto her. He did have a way of looking at Sharon as if she was the best thing in the world, Rusty noted, and that was sort of nice. Jack had mostly looked at Sharon like she was an annoyance or someone to help him out of his hole of the week. Sharon Beck's asshole boyfriends had looked at her like a piece of meat or access to a good fix. But Andy looked at Sharon like he was proud of her and in awe of her and like he adored her and just...valued her. It was different, Rusty could acknowledge, but certainly not bad.
But this old-fashioned dating excuse for work had run its course. Rusty much preferred his own bed and he was pretty sure at this point that Andy, as grateful as he was, would much prefer a bed with Sharon in it. Although that was as far as Rusty wanted to go on that topic.
Rusty grabbed the first opening he had when the final scene played and the credits began to roll. "I'm, uh, just going to look at some notes in my room for a little bit," he offered as he stood as quickly as he dared. "Are you guys going to be up for a while?"
Sharon and Andy exchanged a quick look which was a sudden reminder to Rusty that perhaps headphones in his room might be a good call. "Yes," Sharon answered, a bit haltingly. "I'm still pretty wide awake. Do you want some tea, Andy?"
"I will if you're having some." Andy looked up at Rusty then. "Glad you stayed out here, kid. It was a good movie, right?"
"Yeah," Rusty agreed easily. "I liked it. I'll have to go back and watch it from the beginning now. It was really good." He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. "Thanks, uh, for asking."
"You don't have to be asked to watch TV in your own house," Andy pointed out just as Sharon called from the kitchen.
"We'll have to make this a regular thing," she offered over her shoulder as she reached for the tea bags. "It's probably not a bad idea to destress a bit." She shot a look at the back of Andy's head that made Rusty full on snicker before making his exit.
"Sounds fun," he said. "Night." He wondered how long it would take for them to catch on that Flynn was going to need a bed. He hoped that they'd at least knock if Sharon got cold feet; he'd actually feel like an ass if Andy ended up on the couch because of his conniving and Sharon's idealisms.
Rusty settled in at his desk with a pile of notes as promised, but proceeded to get exactly nothing done. What were they doing? His curiosity eventually beat out his trepidation, but Sharon had ears like a bat and would be on him if the door opened. And with the door closed...Rusty strained to hear. He crossed the room quietly and flicked his light off. Were they..talking? Making out? Oh, that was definitely the couch squeaking. Rusty winced. Making out it is. Or could Flynn even...you know...given his injuries? And would Sharon really make out on her sofa with Rusty down the hall? Who the hell even knew? Maybe they were just, like, casually kissing. No, like, tongue or like, serious touching. And then Rusty was skeeved all over again, and frustrated that his only way of knowing if his subtle efforts had been successful would likely scar him for life.
Goddamn it all. He was stuck.
Oh, crap. That was definitely the couch. And it definitely sounded like...two people getting up. But, like, with more effort than one usually needed to simply stand up from sitting. Rusty didn't even want to know the mechanics of all of that. And...footsteps. Coming toward the bedrooms. Rusty hurriedly leapt back to his desk on his literal toes and threw earbuds in. He was glad that Flynn actually wasn't keeping anything in his room or this would be so much more awkward. Now for the moment of truth.
The footsteps paused outside his door.
"Do you…" Even through the earbuds, Rusty could make out the shyness in Sharon's tone. "I could knock. He may still be up."
"What do you want to do?" Andy was patient, Rusty would give him that.
Sharon was quiet for a moment, probably deep in thought. "Just...come to bed," she whispered finally, and Rusty nearly fell out of his chair at the strain to hear her and his own surprise.
Andy seemed equally shocked. "Are you sure? I don't...I don't want you to feel like we're hurrying this along because I got injured at the wrong time."
"Or the right time," Sharon answered. "I like having you here. And...if you're going to be here, and we're going to be...it should be all the way. No half-measures."
"So Rusty gets his bedroom back?"
Sharon mmm-hmmed in response and Rusty could have fist-pumped had it not been for what came next. "We might have to put some things on hiatus for now until you're all clear."
Wait. Hiatus? Rusty was so flummoxed he nearly gagged. They had already been sleeping together? Where had he been? On second thought, Rusty did not want to know. Not at all.
"That's fair," Flynn agreed. Rusty could hear the flirting as clearly as if it had been shouted into his ear canal. "We'll, uh, make due, I suppose."
"I suppose so." And then there were noises that Rusty tried desperately to block out. He was ready for this to continue anywhere other than outside his door. And luckily for Rusty, it all seemed mercifully brief because then Sharon's bedroom door was closing and whatever else was going on, Rusty was none the wiser. He put his music on for real now and settled in bed, feeling very accomplished but also very blech all at once.
And in what had to be the best kind of irony Rusty had yet to experience so far, he found the next morning that he was the first one, fully dressed and everything, to the breakfast table. Rather than stumbling upon Andy in a bathrobe and cringing over the ensuing awkwardness, Rusty found himself a bit triumphant when Sharon and Andy emerged together from the bedroom, both still in casual pajamas and clearly not expecting Rusty to be up for quite some time.
"Good morning," he greeted brightly. He deserved to get some good-natured teasing out of this whole thing. "Sleep well?" He made a point of looking them both up and down casually and zeroed in on their clasped hands.
Sharon narrowed her eyes at him, but suddenly smiled as Andy chuckled beside her. "I could ask you the same thing," she commented lightly. "Happy to be back in your own bed?"
Rusty couldn't resist the opening. "Yep," he said cheerfully. "I think everyone's happy."
Flynn laughed outright. He moved behind Sharon to step around her toward the kitchen, gently squeezing her waist with both hands as he went. "Do you want coffee," he asked, and kissed her temple when she nodded. "I'll make you some."
"There's half a pot," Rusty offered helpfully. He couldn't keep the shit-eating grin off his face. This was fun.
"Thanks, Rusty," Sharon said with a warning smile of her own. She turned a little toward Andy. "I think I'll go get dressed. Do you, uh, want to meet me in there with coffee?"
Andy stammered a bit, his mouth frozen into a small "o" for just a moment before recovering. "Sure," he said gamely, looking over at Rusty to see what the hell was happening. Rusty grinned back.
"Great. Thank you, Andy. Rusty." Sharon shook her head at Rusty in both amusement and wonder before retreating and Andy busied himself with the coffee pot.
Rusty turned back to his notes, still unable to wipe the smile off his face. Sharon was dating, among other things, a good guy. He had his room back. And there was an arsenal of material waiting for him to unload on his unsuspecting roommates. Definitely the lesser of two evils, Rusty thought. He could live with this.