A/N Thank you for the reviews and messages, and thank you ila9182 for your continued encouragement! Disclaimer: still, the mistakes are definitely mine, but the characters are not.
Conversations Overheard Chapter 2
Sharon closed her bedroom door quietly, resting her forehead against the frame. She could hear Jack boisterously greeting their son on the phone, and she smiled softly to herself. When he was on, he was on. Pity he only worked under ultimatums, but at least that was something. The kids deserved something.
Taking a step back she turned to face her room with her hands clasped together in front of her. Yesterday's outfit was still laying out on the chair in the corner, the towel from her brief moment home to clean up and change clothes still was hanging on the bathroom door handle. The last 48 hours had indeed been a whirlwind; Jack was back, she had overhead a conversation that made her cringe, Rusty had lost all of his toothpicks in a game of poker, and the team had caught a ghost. Sure, not too much more than a typical day at the office, it had just been more emotionally draining than normal. Jack's presence alone would have been exhausting. Never mind everything else, the normal day in and day out stuff.
A muffled chime drew her out of her thoughts, alerting her to a new text message. She crossed the room to dig her phone out of her purse.
"Andrea: A little birdie told me you had a guest."
Sharon read the message twice and groaned. She did have a guest: a large, loud, and uninvited guest.
"Sharon: As a matter of fact I do. Scared the crap out of Rusty the other night. He was about to attack Jack with a lamp..."
"Andrea: And you stopped him?"
"Sharon: It did take a great deal of restraint... Jack answered the phone though when Provenza called about the case."
"Andrea: Well, that's an update. How did that go?"
"Sharon: Fine. That is until the Lieutenant butt dialed me later and I heard him and Andy discussing it..."
"Andrea: Oh, so he's Andy now?"
"Sharon: Stop."
"Andrea: Sounds to me like you need a night out."
"Sharon: Not with Jack here. I don't want him getting too close to Rusty. That will only end in trouble."
"Andrea: True... What if Buzz needs to help him study? Could you come for a couple of hours?"
Sharon sat down on the side of her bed, contemplating the logistics of that idea. She stared down at her phone as she weighed her options. She really did not know how she felt about everything: Jack, the team, Rusty. As nice as a night out with her friend sounded, she did not think she was ready to talk about all of the events that had occurred since Jack's return. She was not sure how she felt about Jack these days, or if she was truly alright with how everything in her life was muddling together at the moment. It was fine when Jack was a distant idea, but now that he was here, in her home, things were going to need to be addressed.
"Andrea: You are not getting out of this Sharon. I just texted Buzz, he will take Rusty out for burgers. They will go over his tutoring stuff or go see a movie."
She fell back against the headboard and slowly exhaled as she read her friend's text. Realizing she was going no matter what, she replied,
"Sharon: Fine."
"Andrea: Great! Gavin will pick you up tomorrow at 7."
Sharon dropped the phone to her side and looked up at the ceiling and repeated, "Tomorrow."
—
Gavin held the restaurant door open for Sharon as she walked in and scanned the area for their friend. The waiting area was full, but not overly crowded with a bar set up just beyond the host stand. Andrea waved them over from a high top table in the corner of the bar area.
"Hello, darling." Gavin greeted as he kissed Andrea's cheek and pulled out the chair for Sharon.
Sharon smiled at the other woman as she took her seat, "Thanks for getting the table. This is a lovely place, and it's really pretty crowded this evening."
Andrea waved her hand in the air, "Oh it was no problem. I know the manager, so it was easy to get in. I am so glad you were able to find the time to join us."
Sharon rolled her eyes before looking pointedly at Andrea, "Well it is not that I did not want to come. Things just feel a little bit, um, unstable at the moment. As much as I love you both, I am a little nervous about being away from my home right now."
"Yes, good old Jackie is back," Gavin crooned. "You would think after all of these years he would at least have the decency to not barge into your home in the middle of the night. He's lucky you didn't shoot him."
Sharon smirked at the man, "Oh believe me, I was ready. Actually, I guess it is a good thing he answered my phone. Otherwise I wouldn't have recognized his voice, I am not entirely sure how that would have gone."
Andrea waved to the waitress and indicated that they were ready for their drinks, before turning her attention back to the table, "Yes. It would have been poor Jack taken down in not-his kitchen with the gun or the lamp."
Sharon dropped her head into her hands, "That sounds like a bad game of Clue... ugh. He does have a knack for making his visits memorable."
"Indeed," Gavin agreed. The conversation was put on pause as the waitress delivered their wine glasses and uncorked a chilled bottle of Sauvignon Blanc for the table. The trio smiled in thanks as the woman left to attend to her other tables. Gavin lifted his glass and slowly swirled the liquid, "So what is Jackie in town for now? Obviously cash, but did he lose his car? His home? Or are the bookies after him again?"
Despite herself Sharon left out a light chuckle, "I don't know about any of that, but he did somehow get himself on the court appointed attorney list -"
"Oh no," interrupted Andrea. "So he's staying? And we are all going to have to deal with him?"
Sharon exhaled, "Yes. We are all going to have to deal with him, but I am currently the only one having to deal with him on my couch." Her friends gave her sympathetic looks as she continued, "I don't know why this always happens. Well, I guess I know why. I still wish he could be the old Jack. The one I married. I see glimpses... then I end up feeling sorry for him. Even though he has done it all to himself. I mean, I know it takes two for things to fall apart, but is it wrong I haven't completely given up? I just wish I could stop caring. Just when I think I have, he comes back. Then I help him, and then he leaves. Definitely not what I had imagined."
Gavin reached out and put a hand on her forearm, "Shar, it's okay to care. He was important, or is important. But honey, it has been decades. Maybe it's time to change things up. He is always going to be around, but he doesn't have to have a key to your life."
"Is it really a marriage if you almost shoot him at 3am?" Andrea reasoned. "Wait scratch that, that does seem to sound like some marriages."
Sharon smiled at her friend's joke, "I know. I know. You're both right. I mean I tucked the ring away a long time ago, but what if he is really back? Is it worth it to wait it out and see what happens? Sometimes people change."
"Sometimes," Gavin nodded in agreement. "But how many times have we thought that? And has he done anything to suggest this time is going to be different?"
Sharon rolled her eyes, "Well, he just got back. He's searching for an apartment... that is a start in the right direction."
"Well, then it is your choice, just like always, but honey you took that thing off years ago. And if he is wearing one it isn't the original. You know that one was lost in a poker tournament early on. Why are we still even flirting with the idea of a marriage? I drew up the separation agreement myself. You're the most unmarried-married person I know." Gavin looked at her with a slight twinkle to his eye, "And mind you darling, I know everyone."
Sharon laughed lightly, "True."
Taking the last sip of her wine Andrea picked up the bottle and refilled her glass before topping off the other two. "So, changing the subject to a different kind of stress... You said Jack answered the Lieutenant's call?"
"Yessss," Sharon drawled. "And that would probably have been alright. I mean not alright - alright, but alright in that I would have just waved it off as my husband was in town. Of course, that didn't end up happening. After I got everyone resettled at home and found my cell phone I noticed a voicemail from the Lieutenant." Sharon pulled her phone out of her purse and placed it on the table. "Apparently my Lieutenants had a discussion about Jack and I as they were wrapping up their end of the crime scene."
Andrea moved forward in her chair and reached for the phone, "Oh, are we going to get to listen?"
Sharon cringed and reached out to protect her phone. She had planned to share the recording, but now that the moment was here, it felt too raw. It was one thing for everyone to know Jackson was in town, it was another to have him, and by extension her, be the talk of the town. It was incredibly difficult for her to have her private life pulled out into the public, especially now that she felt so settled in with the team and everything was going so well with Rusty.
"Oh come on Shar," Gavin begged, pushing his bottom lip out to pout. "Let us hear what they had to say. And just so we are clear on the they, is this a conversation between the Lieutenant and the pretty one?"
Andrea snorted into her glass as Sharon glared at Gavin, "The pretty one?"
"You know? The silver fox, the hot head, the dirtbag beater." Gavin listed as Andrea bent over onto the table laughing so hard she nearly knocked over the glasses.
"Lieutenant Flynn," Sharon stated pointedly "was, or is, the other party in this discussion, yes."
Gavin cocked on eyebrow over at Andrea, who was now sitting up again and attempting to control her amusement with even breaths, before returning his eyes to Sharon. The man lifted his glass in the air as if he was giving a toast, "Ah, there she is. Thought we lost Her Darthness there for a second."
"Very funny, Gavin. But this is not really a joking matter. It's hard enough knowing that they could be talking about my husband, without actually having to hear what they are saying. I mean, I would probably have been okay if they had just said Jack was an ass and then gone on with their morning. But then Andy started defending him? That felt strange to hear. However, then he started defending me, I guess, or they both did, in a way. That is what felt even stranger." She dropped her gaze to her fingers as they twirled the stem of her wine glass. After a moment she sighed, "According to the voicemail, Andy seems to think I was after a fairytale, and then he also went on to say something about Jack being no Prince Charming. Obviously, that part is accurate."
Her two friends stopped their teasing. Andrea turned calmly to Sharon, "When did he say that? Or I mean, how? How did he say that?"
Sharon reached for her phone once again and entered her passcode. She placed the phone back on the table and looked between Gavin and Andrea, "Here. I didn't delete the message."
The pair held the phone in the air between them; their ears close to try to listen over the sounds of the restaurant. Sharon watched their expressions change from at first casually listening, to then listening very intently as the discussion between the Lieutenants got more serious. Andrea looked back at her friend with soft eyes as she heard Andy discuss how people could change, and that the Captain deserved a happy ending. Sharon looked away, feeling even more uncomfortable now that her friends were in on the story.
When the phone was set back on the table Sharon turned glossy eyed back to her friends. "See," she stared. "It's not just the fact that Jack is back. I can handle Jack. It's everything else. It's him, it's work, it's Rusty, it's..."
"Life," Gavin interrupted her. "It's life my dear. And for the first time in a while it's not fitting nicely into your neat little boxes." Sharon placed both of her hands on the edge of table, bit down on her bottom lip, and stared into her wine glass. Gavin reach across the table and gently tapped her hand, "Sharon, there is nothing wrong with any of that. Not even you can control everything. Every now and then life throws you a curve ball. No matter how well you compartmentalize - and we all know you are a queen when it comes to that - sometimes life gets messy."
Sharon sighed and looked back at her friends, "Oh, I am well aware of life's ability to be messy. I've done messy. I can do messy. I just, This is just," she gestured down to the phone. "This is just almost too much. It was fine when they were yelling, fine when I was on the other side, or just above their reach. It was fine when it was just speculation. I could ignore rumors, but this. This is two people who once could not care less, now all of the sudden caring a lot. And Andy, Andy?" She stopped to make eye contact with each of them. "Yes, we work together. He's a great asset to the team, but I wouldn't expect this. He used to go out with Jack. I knew they drank together. I was sure I was the subject of a conversation of two. I had a feeling he fed the grapevine with rumors about my crumbling marriage and cold heart. But, he was never stupid enough to bring that into an argument, into an investigation. Sure he seemed to enjoy pushing me to the brink, but it never got personal. Everything was different back then, or it is different now, I am different now. Andy is not the same person either; he has been sober for about the same length of time we have been separated. He has clearly changed." She looked up at her friends, "Why hasn't Jack?"
"Sweetie, no one can answer that question, probably not even Jack. No one can force someone to change either. This is just how life is playing out. Maybe it's time to embrace it." Gavin turned to Andrea as he shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe it is time to just let everything be messy again, or at least for a little while as this all plays itself out."
Andrea nodded in agreement, "Yes, Sharon. Maybe overhearing them has made you see that life can be different. We don't have to put up with things just because we made a decision when we were twenty and have to stubbornly stick with it no matter what. We do not have to keep being available for the people in our lives who do not shot us that same respect in return. It isn't fair to anyone, including yourself, if you continue to hide behind your title, your rules, and a wedding ring that you no longer wear."
Sharon looked down at her ring finger and brushed her thumb against the bare skin, "Well, I am not sure what to do at the moment, but thanks for this. Thanks for forcing me out of the house. I probably need to get back though, make sure Rusty has not beaten me home." She smiled softly up at them, "You know Jack was "teaching" Rusty how to play poker last night. Of course he was cheating. Rusty, sweet child that he is, thought it was hilarious. I'm not so sure he will think so later on though if Jack ups the stakes from toothpicks to real money."
"Toothpicks?" Andrea asked, "You would think pretzels or popcorn or something. Why would they use toothpicks?"
Sharon picked up her phone and stood before shrugging, "I guess because I had a few of them stored in the kitchen." Gavin lifting an eyebrow pushing her to further explain, "I used to take them with me to the office. They were a good substitute, or distraction, for someone when they were trying to stop smoking. I could always gauge the level of someone's anger by the number of toothpicks they grabbed at and chewed on during a meeting. I had a stockpile at home just in case."
Andrea rolled her eyes and pointed to the phone, "On that note? What are you going to say to them? Or are you just going to pretend you didn't hear any of that?"
Sharon cringed at the thought, "I don't even know. I think he noticed me partnering up with Julio more for the last case. I needed a bit of space. I'll probably just go back to our usual arrangements and go from there. Maybe he won't notice, or maybe he will, but at least he won't be pouting around the Murder Room."
"Or," Gavin tapped his finger against his chin feigning deep concentration. "Or, you could always have a bit of fun with knowing something that they don't know that you know..."
Andrea turned to Gavin, and leaned in conspiratorial to cross her arms on the table, "Oh, now that would be entertaining. She could..."
Sharon waved a hand in the air and rolled her eyes as she turned away, "You two seriously need help. Some friends..." With her back now to the table she found herself considering the idea. That could be a fun distraction from worrying about what Jack had planned.
TBC
