No Such Thing as a Perfect Family (26)

Emma liked Mondays.

She knew that she was probably the only person on Earth to feel that way, but it was true. There was something about the thrum of the new week, the promise of new challenges and clashes and successes that sent adrenaline pumping through her veins, and Emma loved that. She'd been told it had something to do with her personality, and it rang true enough: she thrived on the buzz of Monday mornings and the way everything seemed to be in motion. That was when she was at her best.

This Monday, however, held conflicting prospects.

She'd been out of bed by six-fifteen, and had deviated a little from her regular routine by choosing to have her coffee before showering and getting dressed. As she sat at her small kitchen table, steaming mug in one hand, her phone in the other, she allowed herself a small moment of trepidation for what she knew was coming.

It was going to be a battle.

Her contacts at the airport had notified her as soon as Rusty Beck's name had appeared on a passenger list. He was scheduled to arrive around ten a.m., and she'd been tempted, oh so tempted to send an armed escort after him, because if he slipped through her fingers one more time…but that would've been overkill, and in any case Raydor could've easily ordered any number of officers away if they showed up. And then thrown a fit over the whole thing.

Ugh.

This entire situation had been just one major headache, from beginning to end.

But this time, this time they'd gone too far. This time, they'd crossed that line and Emma had had it and she'd spent the last three days preparing her case and damn it, her underage witness and his bull-headed guardian had run their last trick by her. There couldn't be a single sane, law-abiding authority in the courthouse who'd turn her down, not after everything. The forms were filled, the motion written and ready to be filed, and this time, law and rules and common sense were all firmly, unquestionably on her side...

...oh god. It was going to be brutal.

The past few days had felt like an eternity, yet the moment to leave came too quickly.

"Are you sure you don't want a ride? That rental car isn't big enough for five people."

Sharon smiled at her brother, and for the fourth time refused his offer. Truthfully, she'd have loved to have Paul accompany her to the airport, the way he did each time she visited. The quiet time with just the two of them in the car was something they both valued… but this time, they'd have to forgo it. She was at least grateful that he'd come to the house so early in the morning to see them off.

"We'll be alright," she assured him, and Paul shook his head and passed on his wife's good wishes one more time.

"You be good, now." Stephanie winked at her, though there were traces of tears in her eyes. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do." They shared a small smile and she pulled Sharon in for a quick hug.

Another time, maybe, Sharon would've responded with a joke of her own, but saying goodbye to everyone felt a little too overwhelming to leave her much humor. She squeezed her sister's hand tight in hers once they broke the hug, then side-stepped Stephanie and walked over to where her mother was waiting at the foot of the staircase.

"You should take a jacket for the plane," Elizabeth murmured. There were dark circles under her eyes, and having woken up a lot earlier than normal she seemed a little woozy. But she'd insisted to be up at five-thirty when the rest of them had begun moving about the house, and she'd stood silently by their side as they'd finished getting ready.

Sharon was almost afraid to hug her, her mother felt so small and frail in her arms. She let go carefully and kissed her forehead instead. "I love you."

"Be safe." There were tears in Elizabeth's voice, like never before when they'd said goodbye.

"Always." Sharon pulled back slightly to meet her mother's eyes. "You know I'll come right back if you need me to."

The older woman nodded, swallowing hard, and Sharon gently caressed her cheek, and they leaned closer together until foreheads touched.

Everyone walked them out to the front of the house. It was still mostly dark out, with the day overcast and sunrise barely a lightening of the sky somewhere in the distance. Paul and Lt. Flynn had just finished warming up the car and loading Katie and Ricky's suitcases and Rusty's Sharon's children were finishing their goodbyes, Paul closed the trunk and walked around the car, stopping by his sister.

"Sharon, are you sure –"

She rose on tiptoes and put both arms around his neck. "Thank you," she told him quietly, and felt his arms around her for a moment, before they both let go.

"Call when you get home," he told her as he held the front passenger door open for her.

"I will." She was planning to call every day, anyway.

Stephanie had walked around the front of the car, and caught Sharon in another quick hug just before she got in. "I'll miss you. Who'd have thought?" The note of humor in her voice still failed to disguise the sadness.

"I'll miss you, too." Sharon closed her eyes briefly. "Please… take care." Of herself, and of their mother; it pained Sharon that she couldn't stay longer, but she was glad that Stephanie would spend another few days, and Julie was planning to stay much longer. And with Uncle Peter living there, too, her mother at least wouldn't be alone in the house. Paul and Mary-Anne lived nearby, as well… Sharon hoped from all her heart that that would at least make things a little easier on her mother.

In so far as things could even get easier.

There was a heaviness around her heart, different from the icy numbness from before, but more pervasive. It didn't shut out all other emotions, but it did tint them. She couldn't help but wonder if it would ever fully go away.

They pulled out quickly once everyone was in the car, waving one last time before the long driveway curved and the house was lost from view. Sharon leaned her head against the seat and took a slow, calming breath, trying her best to keep above the sudden assault of emotions. Saying goodbye was just the hardest thing.

In the back seat, Ricky and Katie began making light small talk, drawing Rusty in after a few seconds; with a quick glance in her direction, Andy joined in as well, and the four of them kept up a steady chatter that did very well in masking her own pensive silence. Slowly, the anxiety that tightened her chest began to recede, and the dark thoughts faded bit by bit, until Sharon found herself following their conversation instead. When she was ready, she even made a few comments of her own, and felt ever so grateful for the way they all tried to keep her mind at ease.

Saying goodbye to her children was every bit as heartbreaking as all the times before. Sharon doubted it would ever get easier. But it did help that it was her getting on a flight first, and she didn't have to watch them walk away. Instead, they'd accompanied her all the way to the gate and had only stepped aside at the last minute, when there had been nothing left to do but board.

"I love you," said Katie, her arms tightening around Sharon's neck. "Please take care of yourself. Please… please be okay. I love you so much."

Ricky seemed reluctant to let go, when he hugged her. "Mom… call if you need me. I can always drive down. Any time, okay? Just… let me know what's going on."

She smiled at him lovingly and he really looked extremely hesitant to step away, even when the airline employee at the gate gave them a pointed glare.

Katie gave Lt. Flynn a brief hug, as well. "Thank you, for bringing Mom," she echoed the same thing she'd told him the first time they'd met. "And … for everything."

When she hugged Rusty, she held on a little tighter, and she whispered in his ear, "Good luck. Let us know if you need anything." And she smiled a little as the boy stammered through an awkward thanks.

He looked even more taken aback when Ricky repeated the offer as they shook hands.

"Uh –okay, yeah, err, thanks." He cleared his throat and glanced at Sharon, then lowered his voice. "And…don't worry… I'll… make sure Sharon's…uh… eating properly…" Hardly a great reassurance, but it was one thing he felt he could promise with absolute certainty.

"I love you," Sharon told both her children as she finally pulled her and Rusty's tickets from her purse.

Then after a couple of reminders for everyone to text when they boarded and landed, and one last quick hug from Katie, she walked up to the woman at the gate and handed the tickets over for scanning. She and Rusty then followed Lt. Flynn into the jetway, and Sharon deliberately guided the boy to walk in front of her, affording herself a few seconds to rein in her emotions and compose her expression before she had to face them again.

Rusty surveyed the plane seats with a doubtful gaze – this cabin looked a lot less comfortable than what he and Katie had flown in on the way to Minnesota. There were like, a hundred seats and really it kind of looked like a very long, weird bus. There must have been at least thirty rows; seeing the one referenced on their tickets, row number eight, he paused.

Right behind him, Sharon stopped as well and turned to Lt. Flynn: "Andy, seriously, I can take the other seat –"

The man held up his hands. "No."

"But…"

"Sharon, I don't mind economy and it's an exit row. I'll have more leg space than you. I'm winning here," he pointed out with a playful eyebrow wriggle. "Don't worry about it."

Frankly, Rusty couldn't see why they were having the debate at all. After all, Flynn was only a couple of rows behind, and the seats looked absolutely identical, except in the lieutenant's row there were three of them next to each other, and in theirs there were only two. Other than that they really looked the same.

Sharon must have realized that too, because she eventually stopped arguing and turned her attention to Rusty: "Would you like the window or the aisle seat?"

Remembering the queasiness in his stomach as he'd watched the ground tilting and getting smaller on his first flight, the boy decided aisle, and moved over a little to let her get into the window seat. Once she'd settled, she looked up and directed him to put his schoolbag in the above compartment (which honestly, he could've figured out for himself). Rusty did so and then sat down.

The aisle now clear, Lt. Flynn made his way further down to his own row. "See you in LA," he smiled as he walked past.

Sharon shifted slightly and pushed her bag under the seat in front of her, then glanced over again. "Seat belt," she instructed quietly, reaching for her own.

Rusty still thought that airplane seat belts were weird, and they didn't seem useful at all, but he clicked his shut anyway because apparently it was some big rule.

Looking around, he was once again struck by how different this plane was from the one that had flown him and Katie over – different and nowhere near as nice. On the other hand, it looked just enough like a bus that maybe it wouldn't feel as scary, being in the air. In any case, at least Sharon was there this time, and for some reason that alone made it less scary. It was embarrassing to admit, but it did.

She met his eyes and smiled. "Everything okay?"

Did he really look that queasy already?

"Yup. Great. Uh – how long is this flight again?" He tried to sound casual, but from the way her eyes softened in sympathy, he might have failed.

"A little under four hours. Don't worry, it'll go by quickly – and it's very safe."

Four hours in the air sounded like a year, but he did believe her when she said it was safe. Sharon wouldn't just say that.

The familiar ding of a text message rang out, and she reached into her pocket to pull out the phone. When she smiled a little sadly, he could tell it was probably one of her kids; she shot off a quick text back, and a minute later got another reply. People were still filing in, in the meantime: it seemed to be a pretty full flight, which was weird, who knew there were so many people flying from Minnesota to LA at eight a.m. on a Monday? But... there were. Sharon and Lt. Flynn had seemed pretty happy to have gotten the tickets so last-minute, even if they hadn't been able to find three seats next to each other. For his part, Rusty was just happy that he at least got to sit next to Sharon, because it did help his dancing stomach slightly.

It didn't help that much when the engines started revving right before take-off, however. It was so insanely loud, and he could feel the vibration in his chest and then the plane started moving so fast and there was a sudden void in his stomach when they lifted off…and okay, maybe he was gripping the armrests a little tighter than strictly necessary.

He glanced surreptitiously at Sharon, who didn't seem to mind the noisy, jittery, scary take-off at all. She was leaning back, eyes half-closed. One of her hands patted his knee soothingly, and she smiled and he was a little embarrassed again. But – flying was weird, okay? And like, anything could go wrong at any second and there'd be nothing he could do… Rusty didn't like feeling out of control like that.

Sharon smiled again and reminded him that everything was fine and airplanes were very safe, and he let out a slightly easier breath. Alright. Fine. But if they started rolling in midair or crashed to the ground in one big fiery ball, it was all going to be her fault.

To be fair, Sharon didn't seem overly concerned at the prospect of crashing. She'd settled in her seat, arms crossed leisurely on her lap, and how she managed to look so relaxed was beyond him… Maybe it wasn't relaxed, though, maybe she was just exhausted. When he looked more carefully he could see it, in the way she was leaning a little too heavily against the back of the seat, the way she was breathing a little too slowly and not moving that much at all.

It really had been the longest weekend.

Now that they were in the air and not rising anymore, the jitteriness was winding down somewhat, and Rusty realized that he was kind of tired, too. The whirring of the engines sounded almost soothing – almost, because it was still awfully loud and scary. But… not so bad anymore.

Except now he was stuck in an airplane seat for four hours and it felt like they would never pass.

He could feel himself start to fidget, when from a few rows back came a shrill young voice complaining: "…but Mommy it's so long and I'm bored!"

Sharon gave him a knowing look, her lips pressing together in a small smile, and Rusty couldn't help a smirk back because hey, that kid had it right.

"I'm sure the flight attendant has some extra coloring books," she said helpfully after a few seconds.

His tight-lipped grin widened, even as he wondered at which point he'd stop feeling so incredibly relieved to hear her make a joke. "You know, if I had an iPad now…"

Sharon rolled her eyes, still smiling. "Nice try. Much better than 'my laptop is too heavy'."

"Does that mean I can have one?"

"No."

"Hey, you said if I can 'demonstrate circumstances under which there would be a need for an iPad'. There." Rusty waved a hand at their surroundings. "Circumstances. If I had one now, I could do something useful."

She hummed doubtfully. "Such as…?"

That gave him momentary pause, since everything that occurred to him wouldn't technically be interpreted as 'useful' by Sharon. "Schoolwork..." he said half-heartedly, then inspiration struck: "They have apps that explain math and bio and stuff, you know."

Sharon gave him that look of hers. "Rusty. All the schoolwork you could do on an iPad, you can do on your computer," she said firmly. "And I'm not getting you an iPad just so you can spend even more time killing zombie plants."

So unfair.

"The plants aren't zombies, Sharon. The plants kill the zombies," he sighed. "How would zombie plants even like, make sense?"

"Of course. I stand corrected."

He gave her a sideways glance. "You really need to catch up on this stuff."

To which she hummed thoughtfully, her lips curling ever-so-slightly again. "Maybe I should get an iPad."

And again Rusty was entirely too happy to hear her making a joke.

At least he thought that she was joking. Maybe. It was hard to tell with Sharon, sometimes. Like, didn't they already have tablets at work? Well maybe those were only for work. Would she really get an iPad? Maybe she'd let him use it. She'd probably never use it, anyway. Hmm, maybe she should get one…

He told her as much and she just returned a wry look. They had to pause the debate briefly while the flight attendant came by to offer them drinks, and Sharon got a glass of water and stopped him from getting a Coke.

"I can't have an iPad, now I can't even have a proper soda," the boy sighed in exasperation, sipping grumpily from his ginger ale. He cautiously glanced over to make sure Sharon wasn't taking it seriously, but she still had that vague smile on her lips and he thought that she knew he was just talking, so he went on: "What am I supposed to do while we just sit here?"

"Well…this might be a good time to discuss your class schedule this semester, see if you have any questions."

Rusty rolled his eyes, because she would. "That sounds fun."

She nodded thoughtfully. "You could also tell me the plan for your latest English assignment. Have you thought about what you're going to write?"

The boy gave her a disbelieving look. "Wow, Sharon, really? It's nice that you're trying to make me stop worrying that the plane's gonna crash," he informed her, "but you don't have to make me wish that it does."

They kept up the light chatter for another few minutes, and Rusty was half-surprised to find himself far less worried about the fact that they were ten thousand feet in the air in a metal box, basically. Even the occasional bump didn't scare him so much.

He did notice that Sharon was contributing less and less to the conversation, content to listen to him go on about whatever occurred to him. She really did look very tired, and he hated seeing that. When her eyes kept drifting shut he eventually stopped talking, but she seemed to feel obligated to entertain him because she kept prompting him whenever he shut up, and he didn't know how to tell her that he didn't mind being bored for three hours if she wanted to get some sleep. Finally he resorted to pulling out one of his textbooks, and trying very hard to look like he was doing something…

The effort worked, because about two minutes into him silently browsing the same paragraph ten times, he glanced over to see that her eyes were closed, her features a little more relaxed. It didn't seem like the most comfortable position to sleep in, though, and she kept fidgeting. Honestly it didn't look that restful at all.

"Don't these seats like, lean back or something?" he grumbled, in one of the moments when she'd opened her eyes again.

Sharon nodded, and after looking to the seat behind to make sure she wasn't disturbing the person there, she leaned her seat back fractionally. That seemed to make her a little more comfortable, and a few minutes later Rusty was surprised to feel her weight pushing against him slightly, as she'd shifted positions to have a little more room. Eventually the side of her head came to rest against his shoulder, and he could tell that she was actually asleep, and he was scared to move because what if that woke her up?

He could also tell that she was cold, but there was nothing to do about that. He wasn't wearing a jacket and she'd had no luggage to begin with… The problem was unexpectedly solved when Lt. Flynn came by their row to check on them. Reading the situation, the lieutenant shrugged out of his suit jacket and handed it to Rusty – and the boy wondered a little what all that was about, but at the moment it was a solution to a problem so he just went with it. Somehow he managed to cover Sharon with the jacket without moving too much, and then he leaned his own head back and closed his eyes and realized that okay, he could probably sleep for a week too.

He was too nervous to actually doze off, but he sat there quietly, eyes closed, and thought back on everything that had happened. It was hard to believe that it had only been a few days, it had felt like a lot longer. And he'd avoided thinking about what was waiting for them back home, but now they were almost back, and before he knew it a voice was coming over the intercom telling them to switch off electronics because the plane would start its descent soon, and Rusty knew that this was it.

The consequences of what had happened and what he'd done were about to catch up. He glanced over at Sharon who was still asleep, and he squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists and wished really, really hard for them both to get a break.

Even though life didn't really give breaks.

He knew that he wouldn't get his wish when they got off the airplane and followed the exit signs to a set of wide automatic doors, and there was Lt. Provenza waiting on the other side. He wore a pleasant enough expression, but there was just a hint of grimness in his gaze when his eyes landed on Rusty, and that couldn't be good news.

It took Sharon a few seconds to notice him, and then her eyebrows arched in surprise. "Lieutenant!"

"Captain," he returned the greeting in his usual gravelly voice. "Again, I'm very sorry about your loss."

"Thank you…" She still looked taken aback; Rusty could tell that she had definitely not been expecting the one-man welcome party. By his startled look and slight shrug, neither had Lt. Flynn.

Provenza, on the other hand, seemed perfectly casual and unbothered by their obvious confusion. He brought up the folder he'd been holding, and adopting his most agreeable mien, handed it to Sharon:

"Since we're both here...could you please sign this?" he asked nonchalantly.

Her expression turned instantly suspicious. "Lieutenant…" She gave the man her what-did-you-do-now look, then glanced at Flynn, who raised his hands defensively.

"I have an alibi!"

Provenza rolled his eyes. "You don't need an alibi, Flynn. Zip it." His smile returning, he made a great show of pulling out a pen and pleasantly holding it out to Sharon. "If you please… last two pages."

Her brow furrowing in a dubious frown, Sharon took the folder and opened it. As she scanned its contents, her look quickly turned to one of dismay, and her head snapped up to glare at the older man. When Rusty craned his neck to see what was inside the folder she took a step back and warned him off with a harsh look.

"What is this." Her voice was sharp.

"Leverage." said Lt. Provenza. "You just sign it and let me worry about the rest."

Sharon started to shake her head, but he took a step closer, put one hand on her arm and offered the pen with the other.

"Trust me. You're gonna want to sign that. Trust me, Captain," he said again when she still pulled back. "Sign."

"Lieutenant, I have no intention of –"

"And that's exactly why we're going to need your signature on that." He held up the pen again. "Both pages. At the bottom. Make it legible," he added as an afterthought.

The cornered look in Sharon's eyes made Rusty's heart start pounding.

Aaand, we're back in L.A.! There are a handful of scenes I left out of their Minnesota trip, but I think the bulk of my 'meeting Sharon's family' vision made it into the story. Hopefully you guys liked them as much as I enjoyed writing them :).

Now that everyone's back in familiar surroundings, we get to see them deal with the backlash from their (or at least, Rusty's!) abrupt and unorthodox departure. After all, you didn't *really* think Emma had just been sitting on her hands ;) that's not the DDA Rios we love to hate! So... sorry about the cliffhanger. More drama coming!

(but not much more. we're about 2-3 chapters from the end.)

Thank you for reading, and huge thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter. Your comments make me happier than those counterfeit designer bags made Andrea and Sharon!