A/N: Thank you all so much for the reviews and messages. I'm so glad you're enjoying this story and the exploration of Sharon and Rainie's relationship from different angles as well. This chapter is something I wish we had seen on the show, and I think that it captures the more fragile end of the relationship between Sharon and Rainie and exposes some emotions that weren't expressed or discussed in the show, but probably should have, to some extent.

I'd like to thank blossom-of-snow who's doing a wonderful job beta-reading and editing my chapters.

Rainie leaned against Sharon's car and kicked a pebble. Sharon could see the way the girl's shoulders slumped after the visit at Signal Hill. Even though Sharon tried to stir a positive conversation between Rainie and her mother, it still didn't go well. The moment Rainie asked her mother why she had lied about being sentenced to rehab, Sharon Beck began spewing excuses that the girl refused to accept. Sharon knew that it wasn't that particular lie that really annoyed Rainie, but all the lies that came before it. How could this girl trust the words that came out of the mouth of a person who had lied to her about everything but her own name?

"Hey," she walked down the pebbled path towards Rainie.

"We shouldn't have come," Rainie muttered. "It's a waste of time."

"I know it's hard to visit your mother in rehab," Sharon started. "But think of how much better she must sound and look compared to how she used to be when she took drugs." She leaned against the car by Rainie's side.

"It's all lies, Sharon. She only went to rehab because her alternative was jail," Rainie kicked another pebble, and it rolled into a neglected flower bed.

"It doesn't mean that she won't try to stay sober after she gets out of here," Sharon said.

"You don't know her like I do," the girl replied stubbornly. "Why are you protecting her anyway?" She pushed herself off the car and turned to look at Sharon.

"Rainie, I'm not saying that she was a good mother to you, but I think she deserves the chance to prove herself," Sharon explained. "And I know how hard it is to see a person you love in a place like this, but – "

"You don't know shit, Sharon! You live a sheltered life in your 11-story castle, and you don't know what it's like to be lied to over and over and over again. So don't pretend like you have any idea what I'm feeling right now!" She grunted and kicked the car's wheel.

Normally, Sharon would ask her to tone down her violent reaction, but she couldn't judge the girl for feeling this way, not after she has been in that exact position with Jack.

"Why don't we go home?" she suggested and unlocked the car.

Rainie huffed and yanked the door open, slamming it shut after she took the passenger seat.

The drive home was quiet, and Sharon felt suffocated by the silence and the anger that were radiated off of Rainie who was staring out of the window. She considered turning the radio on, but she had a feeling Rainie would keep changing the stations just to annoy her. And if the tension wasn't enough, they got stuck in traffic.

When they hit the tenth red light, she decided that Rainie could benefit from the pain Sharon was suppressing.

"The first time I visited a rehab center, I couldn't stop crying," she said.

Rainie turned to look at her, a mix of shock and anger on her face.

"Jack was still going through detox. He was shaking and coughing, and he was pale and unshaved. He looked like he was dying."

"Jack is an addict?" The surprise was evident in Rainie's voice.

"He is," Sharon sighed. "He's been sober for twelve years or so."

"Did he do drugs?" Rainie still examined her suspiciously.

"He drank," Sharon replied and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. Even so many years later, talking about Jack's addiction still stung. The night before Jack agreed to go to rehab for the first time was one of the scariest experiences in Sharon's life. Jack's friend had carried him home after a night of heavy drinking. That he didn't remember her name or that she was his wife wasn't unusual. But his uncharacteristic stuttering and the excessive vomiting made Sharon suspect he had one drink too much. She tried to convince him to let her take him to the hospital, but he insisted that he wanted to sleep. When his breathing became wheezy and irregular, Sharon called 911, and Jack was taken to a hospital. The uncertainty of whether he would even make it through the night was so daunting that at some point Sharon wondered if it maybe would be better to start praying that he will pass on quickly and with minimal suffering, rather than survive this ordeal.

"Why did you keep visiting him?" Rainie wondered.

"Because I loved him, and because he needed my support and my belief in him in order to keep going. I even took the kids to visit him on the day he earned his one month chip," Sharon explained.

"Why didn't you tell me about this before?"

"I don't know. Those aren't my happiest memories," Sharon admitted.

"I'm such an asshole," Rainie buried her face in her palms. "I'm sorry about what I said to you, Sharon. It was rude and mean."

"Don't worry about it," Sharon replied. She knew Rainie's outburst at her was a result of her fear for and frustration with her mother.

"I'm scared."

Sharon knew how Rainie felt. She remembered how terrifying it was to hope that Jack would stay in AA, that he would work towards maintaining his sobriety and that they would be able to restore their family. Hope was strong, but so was fear of disappointment.

"I know, sweetheart. There's a lot of uncertainty in situations like this. And it's terrifying," Sharon acknowledged.

"Do you think she'll stay sober after leaving rehab?" Rainie asked.

"It's hard to tell, but I will keep her in my thoughts and prayers and hope that she can maintain her sobriety," Sharon answered. She decided not to tell Rainie that it took Jack three attempts to finally remain sober for longer than three months and that he had exchanged his substance addiction with a gambling addiction and left her almost penniless with two young children before he fled to Vegas. Revisiting those memories hurt even more than thinking about his substance abuse.

"Thank you for coming with me," Rainie said. "It means a lot, knowing that you don't hate me for wanting to see my mom."

"Oh, honey, I could never hate you," Sharon said. "And I encourage you to stay in touch with your mother, now that she's sober. I think it will be good for both of you." She took one hand off the wheel and found Rainie's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. Rainie squeezed it back, and when Sharon turned to look at her, she saw the corners of the girl's mouth curving upwards in a soft smile. She smiled back, knowing that if both Rainie and her mother worked on it, they could have a good relationship. The idea of sharing Rainie's love with Sharon Beck and her was not her favorite, but she knew that sometimes having half of someone's heart was better than not having it at all.

-TBC-

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