It had been a long weekend for Andrea, as she had alternated between drinking while crying and looking at Sharon's picture and eating way too much food that was completely unhealthy for her. That seemed to help kick a few of the demons that were chasing after her go dormant, and she woke up Monday morning feeling less despondent.

As she took a shower, she found that rather than feeling sad, there was a small burning coal of anger replacing the coldness of her sorrow. It wasn't something that she had planned on, but in the back of her mind, she was reminded that one of the stages of grief was anger, so Andrea decided to allow herself to feel that emotion, since it wasn't healthy to hold things in. She had learned that quickly enough when she'd joined the DA's office twelve years prior.

When she finally felt clean, Andrea turned off the water and wrapped a towel around her body as she stepped out of the shower, rubbing another one over her head to dry her hair before applying her facial moisturizer and then continuing on with her morning rituals by rote, finding herself ready to head into the office right on time. It was only when she stepped into her office that she realized she'd left her phone at home, and Andrea let out a frustrated sigh as she slouched down into her chair.

Opening her briefcase, she pulled out her notes on the case that was going to court on Wednesday, knowing that she needed to prepare for that while Rusty worked on the other twenty four cases that were also weighing on her. The docket had seemed to fill up so quickly after she had returned from her bereavement leave, and even though her boss had understood that she was not quite up to snuff, he was demanding that she pull it together, now that she was back. Shaking her head a little to clear the cobwebs of thoughts away, she opened her legal pad and went over her notes that she had made the previous evening, trying to organize them into a coherent and compelling opening statement. She knew that this was going to be a difficult case to prosecute, since the defendant was too damn likeable.

Sighing a little, Andrea continued to make notes as Rusty ambled in fifteen minutes late, whistling a jaunty tune. "If you think you're going to be a lawyer, you need to learn to be on time," she said shortly as she watched him take up his usual spot on the sofa in her office, setting up his workbooks and laptop and notepads.

"Sorry, it's just that Gus made us a really delicious breakfast, and then Andy wanted to talk a little bit about Sharon, and what my plans were for the day. I tried to get here as soon as I could."

She just raised an eyebrow before focusing back on her work. There was no point in chastising him so early in the morning, since it would just further derail her work. So, she swallowed down her irritation and forced the words to come out of her mind and onto the paper. This seemed to be the entirely wrong this to do, since everything just ground to a halt as she looked over at Rusty, who had an LSAT Preptests book open on his lap and was clearly doing anything but his intern work. "Were you thinking about getting started on the workload here anytime soon?" she asked peevishly, and Rusty looked up at her in shock. "What? This internship is to learn how to navigate the DA's office, so that when you come back here, you have a good understanding of how things are run. You can't do that by shirking off your duties just because you didn't study like you should have over the weekend."

"But Andrea, if I don't pass the LSATs, I won't ever be coming back here, and I won't be able to make good on what I promised Lieutenant Provenza."

He tried to give her a puppy dog stare, but that had no effect on her. Letting out a frustrated puff of air, she shook her head before gesturing to her desk. "Does it look like I want to hear excuses this morning, Rusty? No. I have twenty five cases that are demanding my attention in court, plus countless others that will require me to strike deals in the near future. I have a finite amount of time, whereas you have the luxury of only being here mornings to help me out. If you want to end this internship, by all means, the door is over there."

Rusty's eyes widened as he shook his head slowly. "I didn't realise that you were under such pressure," he finally said as he closed the workbook and set it on top of the pile in front of him. "What do you need me to do?"

"Here." She rummaged through her briefcase and pulled out the list she had made over the weekend for him to research throughout the week. Andrea thrust it out to him, and he nodded before taking it from her hand and then getting to work on it while she sank down in her chair, all the fire and anger leaving her body as her thoughts turned to Sharon. She missed her friend so damn much, and hearing Rusty say her name brought all her sorrow back to the forefront, ruining her concentration.

Somehow, she managed to make it to lunch without breaking down, though her opening statement was still woefully unprepared. Shaking her head a little, Andrea stuffed the notepad into her briefcase and stood up from her desk, grabbing her purse before making her way towards the door. "Hey, why don't we go to Gus's new place? And then we can come back, and I can put in a full day today. I really didn't realise that you were drowning in all this work."

"This is normal," she said in a flat voice, watching as he gulped as he quickly stood up. "But if you're offering to give me the whole day, I won't turn you down."

Rusty gave her a small smile as he nodded and then scurried over to her side. "Great!" They walked together towards the elevator, and she waited for him to speak once more, knowing that he couldn't help himself, talking came naturally to him. "So, you're going to have to drive, I let Gus take my car today, since his is in the shop."

"That's fine," she said, letting out a little sigh. "Have you heard from Ricky or Emily lately?"

"Emily and I Skype whenever we can, but Ricky is so busy with his job that neither of us really hear from him. Emily seems to think that that's because he's burying himself in work to keep his grief at bay. I just think that we remind him too much of Mom, but that's just me."

Andrea nodded absently, wondering why she had asked that question, since it just dredged up hurtful memories in her. They both went quiet as the elevator continued heading downwards, Andrea getting lost in her memories of Sharon, and a time when things had looked so much brighter for them all.