Here's a somewhat silly piece that, for a second, turned a bit serious before I made it silly again. I guess, along the way, I got reminded how annoyed I am by the little to no mention of Andy's heart attack...

Anyway, this takes place after dinner with Provenza and Patrice.

I hope you have fun reading it! :)

"Wow, he was grumpier than usually," Andy told Sharon once he closed the door behind Provenza and Patrice.

They were more or less alone now. Rusty had barricaded himself in his room soon after Provenza had joined them after his little search for fresh air and, after mostly Patrice chipped in on wedding invitation options, the duo took their leave.

Sharon laughed, walking toward the kitchen to clear the bit of a mess they've left behind on the dining table. "You're only saying that because he badmouthed your cake," she teased as he traipsed through the condo after her.

"Sure," Andy muttered sarcastically. "Speaking of cake," he added, stopping in front of the dining table to eye the cake in question. His piece still stood on a plate, untouched. "I should watch myself around you," he smirked when Sharon looked at him in question, "or your sense of occasion might just starve me to death."

A strange look crossed her features, but then she chuckled softly, watching him for a moment as he sat down at the table. "I believe it was your partner who stole your attention, not my sense of occasion," she said pointedly, reaching over the table to collect the plates no longer in use.

"Technically, it's your sense of occasion that brought him here so it's still your fault," Andy said, pointing a finger at her over a smug grin, clearly satisfied with his quickly uncovered logic.

Actually, upon returning from the balcony, Provenza had quite matter-of-factly announced that if he was going to suffer through looking over wedding invitations (something he had barely done for his own wedding), he might as well be doing it in the comfort of the living room couch. With that he had flopped down on the couch and waited pointedly for the rest of them to join him. Andy had been just about to finally give his guilt-free cake a taste when his partner's announcement had come but, immediately getting irritated, he had instead made an attempt to give him a piece of his mind and, if necessary, quite literally drag him back to the dining table. However, Sharon, quite enthusiastically, agreed to Provenza's 'suggestion' and shot Andy a look that said "Be nice." With that, his appetite had plummeted and he had begrudgingly joined their guests in the living room, forgetting all about his precious cake.

Sharon's reaction to his logic came in the form of a mock glare. "Eat your cake," she instructed, then graciously walked into the kitchen, carrying a stack of plates and a couple of wine glasses.

"Yes, Ma'am," Andy said enthusiastically, rubbing his palms against each other over the plate, eager to give his little culinary experiment a taste.

The bite of cake that was already on his fork, left over from earlier, he scraped over the plate's edge before scooping a fresher mouthful onto it. He gave the scoop a whiff. It smelled rather deliciously so without further ado he brought the fork to his mouth.

The moment he bit into the cake his enthusiasm, however evaporated. He wasn't sure if it was really possible, but the moment its taste spilled into his mouth, and more importantly over his tongue, he felt as if his taste buds shrunk and shriveled up in response. It tasted bland, yet bitter. And the texture of whatever mixture he baked into this semblance of a cake left behind a grainy, mouth-drying aftertaste once he forced the mouthful down his throat.

He shot Sharon a wide-eyed, horrified look. "Jesus, Sharon, you ate an entire piece!"

She had her back turned to him, loading the plates and glasses into the dishwasher. When she turned around to look at him she wore a sympathetic grimace.

"I did not have the heart to tell you," she told him on a shoulder shrug.

Andy frowned, looking at the offensive piece of fake dessert in front of him in disgust for a moment. When he looked back at her she was standing there just looking at him, clearly suppressing an amused smile, so he said, dead serious, "Provenza's right, it's not too late to call this entire thing off."

And just like that she did not only start smiling but she burst out laughing, too. Making her way back to the table, she teased, "Oh, I know it's not."

Andy huffed, watching with narrowed eyes as she lowered herself into her previously occupied chair. He pointed a fork at her. "Life was simpler before you and Provenza," he waved the fork to where his partner was sitting earlier tonight, "started liking each other."

She chuckled. "Which I'm sure he says about the two of us."

Putting his fork down, Andy shrugged. "True," he grinned, "but I don't mind making his life complicated."

"Mhm," she let out, chuckling.

Circling back to his earlier bewilderment, he leaned forward in his chair and, giving her a both shocked and impressed look, said, "I can't believe you ate this piece of crap." He rubbed a hand over his face and groaned. "And Patrice, too!"

Sharon laughed and sobered, putting a hand over his forearm on top of the table to give him a genuine look of disbelief. "I think she might have actually liked it!"

Andy shook his head, looking in confusion across from the table as if Patrice was still sitting there. "No way," he said in a low voice, giving his cake an affronted look. "This is," his voice went up again, "disgusting!"

Sharon shrugged. "She asked for the recipe, Andy."

"What?" Andy's eyes went wide. "You're kidding, right?"

"No, I am not," Sharon said, shaking her head. "Actually," she suddenly stood up and found his phone on the bar counter, "I promised you'd forward it to her."

"Oh," he let out, surprised. But when Sharon offered him his phone, he took it and suddenly smirked. "Provenza's gonna love this." With that he eagerly unlocked his phone to forward the link that contained the recipe.

Leaning her back against the counter, she watched him type away almost giddily and rolled her eyes at him in amusement, Andy's and Provenza's antics an only too common occurrence to her.

"Do promise not to make that," she waved a hand at the so called cake, "thing again." More ominously, she went on with, "I love you, but your partner might be onto something." She smirked when Andy looked up at her at that. "This could be a deal breaker."

Andy laughed and, done with his message to Patrice, put his phone down on the table and stood up. "Scout's honor," he said mockingly. Approaching her, he added, "Although next time just tell me if my baking sucks." Putting his hands on either side of her on the counter, effectively trapping her in his personal space, he smiled crookedly and added, "I'm a big boy, I can take it."

She snorted a laugh, only barely able to move a hand to cover her mouth. "Well, next time try it yourself first and I won't have to."

He shot her an offended glare. "And poison myself?"

She gave him an unimpressed look. "Is that what you were trying to do?" She quirked an eyebrow teasingly. "Poison us?"

Andy snickered. "Not you." He pecked her on the lips. "Just Provenza," he clarified jokingly.

"Well," she patted his cheek in mock condescension, laughing softly, "I think you need to work on how you administer your poison then." She failed to hide the grin that spilled over her face. "You're leaving too many collateral victims in your wake."

"Hmm," he pretended to consider that. "I should switch to bullets maybe," he suggested, laughing.

She snorted again. Growing more serious though, her earlier pat on the cheek turned into a sympathetic caress and she said, "I'm sorry your heart healthy cake didn't turn out quite the way you hoped it would."

His shoulders slumped and he scoffed. "Quite the way?" he repeated incredulously. "Sharon, healthy or not, that cake alone could have given me a heart attack!"

She pursed her lips at him. She hardly ever laughed at his heart attack jokes and this was one of those times when she wouldn't. She let her hand trail down to his shoulder and down the side of his arm and said, "We'll eventually figure out something healthy we both like."

He scoffed. "You don't have to like it," he straightened a bit, but kept his hands on the counter. "You're allowed to eat whatever you like," he added and whatever good mood he was in a second ago now vanished.

She sighed. "Don't," she said, firmly. "You're stressing over food again." She kissed him. "We'll figure it out," she reiterated.

"I know," Andy said on a sigh of his own. "It's just that," he groaned and instead of finishing his sentence leaned his forehead against hers and sighed again.

It's just that he hated the situation he was in. And the situation that put her in. He worried. She worried. While it wasn't always this prominent on their minds, not when months had passed since his heart attack, it was hard to overlook that he was still not on full duty and that they still did not exactly know whether he would ever be again. He was putting an effort into making the best of it, they both were. They were following the doctor's orders to the letter. They went about work (which, with this chief business, was even more stressful than usually) just as they always did, sans his current restrictions. It really wasn't as if his health issues had completely taken over their lives. But at times like these, when a silly cake reminded them of the efforts they were putting into getting back fully on track, they, or rather Andy, would be painfully reminded that this was not what he had expected to be happening a few months ago.

At times like these, he simply felt helpless and she couldn't fault him for getting angry or irritated with the situation. Truthfully, she rather admired him for dealing with this as well as he was. He wasn't one to just sit idly by and wait and that was precisely what it felt like they were both doing right now.

"I know," she repeated.

It was probably the sad, understanding tone of her voice that had him lift his head and say, "Sorry, I didn't mean to ruin the evening by moping around now." He finished the sentence on an eye roll.

She shook her head, effectively waving his apology off. On a smile she instead said, "It was a fun evening, wasn't it?"

Andy perked up a bit at that and when he spoke, his earlier more humorous notes were back. "Yes, even if I had to put up with Provenza the entire time."

She rolled her eyes playfully. "Yes, despite that," she confirmed sarcastically.

He smiled and shrugged before lightly pushing off the counter and straightening up. He tilted his head toward the table. "What do you say we finish up here and call it a night?"

"Yes, please," she agreed eagerly, pushing off the counter as well. "And get rid of that horrid cake," she added, feigning a shudder.

"Yes, Captain," he quipped and leaned in to give her a quick parting kiss.

Only, the Captain had other ideas and she grasped his face between her palms not letting it be as quick a kiss as her Lieutenant intended.

It was the sound of somebody clearing his throat that had her put her hands down and finally let go of him so that they could both turn to the source of the interruption.

It would seem that this was not the first time Rusty walked in on them like this, for he just shrugged and eyed the cake. "Oh, nice, I was hoping there was some left over." He grabbed the plate with still half of it on it and walked past them into the kitchen.

Gus had called him before they moved on to dessert earlier and, since he made a hasty retreat after his phone call instead of rejoining them at the table, he hadn't gotten a taste of Andy's cake then. Apparently, he wasn't as skeptical about its ingredients as Provenza was and was more than happy and in the mood to try it now.

"Uh, Rusty?" Sharon said, turning around to watch her son rummage through the cabinets. She wanted to advise him against eating it, but abruptly closed her mouth when Andy took a step to stand next to her and got her attention by squeezing her forearm.

"Let him try," he mouthed, his exaggerated shrug adding that he thought it would be incredibly unfair of them to take this opportunity away from Rusty.

"Yeah?" Rusty turned around, having found himself a plate.

"Uhm..." Sharon threw Andy an amused look, not as convinced as him, however that Rusty should suffer through this. Her uncertainty lasted barely a second though, and the moment her next words left her, she decided that, while she could call this a bonding opportunity, fact was that Andy was a much too terrible influence on her. "Why don't you put that away," she eyed Rusty's plate and tilted her head toward the cake-laden one, "and just grab a clean fork?"

Rusty's eyebrows shot up and he looked at the cake, fortunately missing the smug look that crossed Andy's features at her suggestion. "Uh, you sure?" He looked up. "There's a lot left over."

Sharon bit her lip to keep herself from laughing when Andy waved a hand through the air and nonchalantly said, "Yeah, sure, knock yourself out. I can always make some more."

"Cool." Rusty nodded. "Thanks," he added, already looking for a fork.

Sharon shook her head at herself, not believing she was actually participating in this.

Andy wasn't battling any guilt though and asked, "Before you disappear into your room, would you give it a taste here and tell me what you think?"

Unconcerned, having found a fork, Rusty stabbed it into the cake and said, "Sure."

She bit the inside of her cheek to refrain from laughing this time when, at the taste of the cake, Rusty failed miserably at hiding his disgusted grimace. Had it not been so funny she might have even felt proud of him for not immediately making fun of Andy and his obvious baking debacle.

"So?" Andy said expectantly. Only the fact that he folded his arms across his chest was a sign of him fighting laughter as well.

"Uh," Rusty shot Sharon a startled look, "it's, uhm," he forced himself to swallow, "interesting."

That was as much as Sharon could take and her laugh finally escaped her. And when she started laughing, of course Andy started laughing, too.

For a split second Rusty looked at them in confusion. "Come on!" he then exclaimed on a groan, pushing the plate to the far end of the counter behind him.

"Oh," Sharon was laughing still, "I am so sorry, but you were so clueless," she trailed off, burying her face in the side of Andy's arm, her laughter growing quiet but her shoulders still shaking with the force of it.

"How could you?" Rusty asked, seemingly hurt. "This is awful!" He shot Andy, who was busy laughing at Sharon's reaction now, an incredulous look. "What in the world did you put in this?" He waved a hand at the discarded cake.

He looked at Rusty and shrugged. "Doesn't matter, I am not ever making that again!"

Rusty frowned. "But you'd feed it to me," he muttered in a huff.

Sharon finally looked up, having sobered somewhat. "Well, Patrice seemed to like it." She shrugged. "There was a chance you would, too."

"Patrice actually liked this?" Rusty looked horrified.

Sharon chuckled. "It would seem so, yes."

"Urgh," Rusty let out, opening and closing his mouth briefly. "What is this aftertaste?" he asked, swallowing in an attempt to get rid of it.

Andy shrugged. "Was wondering pretty much the same thing."

When Sharon laughed again, Rusty accusingly narrowed his eyes at her. "This was totally uncalled for, mom."

Sharon did not seem too fazed and shrugged. "I ate a whole piece, Rusty. That," she waved a hand at him, "was nothing in comparison."

Andy grimaced, still feeling somewhat guilty about that, but Rusty's jaw dropped and, incredulous, he asked, "You ate a whole serving?"

"Yeah. Patrice and Lieutenant Provenza were there," she looked to her side at Andy, "and I just didn't have the heart to embarrass him in front of them."

Andy rolled his eyes at her, but Rusty suddenly laughed. "The Lieutenant tried this?" Suddenly he wasn't so concerned about what the two just put him through. "Oh, I wish I could've seen his face."

"Rusty," Sharon warned while Andy just started chuckling.

"What?" Rusty said defensively. "If you can, like," he shot the both of them an offended look, "prank me, I can laugh at the Lieutenant."

At that, Sharon's warning glare promptly disappeared, but it quickly reappeared and was aimed at Andy when he started laughing at her.

He ignored it though and turned his attention to Rusty. "Sorry, but you were too easy a target."

Rusty just shook his head at them. "Well, goodnight, guys," he finally said, neither accepting nor refusing the apology, and started walking out of the kitchen.

"There's some chocolate if yo-" Sharon started, but Rusty interrupted.

"No, thanks," he waved a hand through the air, "I lost my appetite."

Sharon and Andy exchanged a slightly guilty look, but watched Rusty walk past them toward his bedroom in silence.

When he suddenly muttered, "I can't believe I entered this family willingly," they instantly dissolved into laughter again.

"And I can't believe," Sharon turned to face Andy fully, crossing her arms over her chest, when Rusty reached his room, "that I'm agreeing to enter yours."

Andy shrugged, knowing she had had as much fun teasing her son as he had. "I don't know about you, but I feel much better now," he said cheerfully and walked toward the dining table to do what he intended to do before Sharon had derailed his plans a few minutes ago. "Besides, Rusty had it coming for interrupting us."

Sharon shook her head at him in amusement and joined him to help clear the table. "Maybe," she smirked, "but still, I think you're nothing but trouble, Lieutenant."

Walking into the kitchen, his plate and empty glass of water in hand, Andy said, "Well, Captain," he raised an eyebrow and looked at her over his shoulder, "isn't your job to keep me out of trouble?" He grinned and added, "Because it seems to me you're not very good at it."

Sharon suppressed a smile and followed him, having collected the rest of the glasses and napkins from the table. "Well, maybe I like your brand of trouble," she admitted.

Andy stopped, waiting for her to catch up, then bumped his shoulder against hers to quip, "You love my brand of trouble."

In response she only hummed noncommittally and went on with her task.