DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.
A/N: Here is the second part to the story. I hope you are all enjoying reading this one. And can you believe it, we get to see Andy and Sharon kissing in just 9 days! I'm so excited...okay, back to the story.
Chapter 2
When they arrived at their car, and sat inside, Andy paused a moment and looked over at Sharon. She looked at him, wondering why he paused. "Is everything okay?" she asked him. He moved his head towards her. "I can't believe I'm going to officially become a father again. Who'd of thought this would happen?" Andy said to Sharon as he smiled at her. She grabbed his hand in hers and gently began rubbing her thumb over his hand. He glanced at her and then started the car. They drove to pick up Matthew from school.
Andy parked in the school parking lot and they went inside the building. They made their way to the office where Matthew was sitting, waiting for them. "Hey Matthew, are you all set?" Sharon asked him as she stepped inside the office. "Yes!" Matthew said to her. The Principal stepped outside with them and Andy shook her hand. "Thank you" Andy said to the Principal as Sharon and Matthew headed towards the car. "Oh, no problem Lieutenant Flynn, I'm just so glad Matthew has such a nice family in which to be adopted" Mrs. Gottardo said to Andy. Andy joined them at the car and opened the doors.
"So what's going to happen this afternoon?" Matthew asked as they drove over to the family court house. "Well, there's going to be a judge in front of us and he's going to ask you if you understand that we want to adopt you. And then we all sign a document, and that's how you get adopted, more or less" Sharon said trying to explain to Matthew. "Too bad we couldn't have Judge Richwood do Matthew's adoption like he did Rusty's" Andy said as he glanced over at Sharon while driving. "Yes, that would have been nice, but Cynthia said that it had to go through the family courts instead" Sharon replied back to him as she looked out her window.
"Matthew, I brought some nice clothes for you to change into once we get inside" Sharon said to Matthew as they pulled up to the building. They all exited the vehicle and made their way inside. Provenza was waiting for them at the entrance. "Oh good, you're here!" Provenza said to them as they walked in. He was holding a 'It's a boy' balloon and handed it to Andy as he walked up to him. Andy smirked back at Provenza as he took the balloon from him. Sharon looked around the lobby of the court house and saw the rest of the team, plus Nicole and Rusty standing to the side. Nicole came up to them, followed by Rusty. "Oh Nicole! I'm so glad you were able to make it today" Sharon said to Nicole as she gave her a hug. "Oh, I wouldn't miss this Sharon" Nicole said as they broke apart.
"Everything okay at the house?" Andy asked Rusty. "Yes, everything is set there" Rusty answered quietly before Sharon could hear them. Sharon then came over to them and Andy quickly changed the subject. "Rusty, your class didn't run long?" Andy asked him. "Oh, no it didn't. Um Gus wanted to be here but he couldn't get out early" Rusty told him and Sharon. Andy nodded. "Are you still taking Matthew out tonight with Gus?" Andy asked him. "Well, Gus decided that he doesn't want to go out, so instead he's coming over to the house and we are going to order pizza with Matthew" Rusty said to Andy and then he hugged Sharon. Andy handed the balloon over to Rusty to hold.
Cynthia walked over to where everyone was standing. "Captain, Lieutenant, Hello Matthew" Cynthia said to them. Sharon and Andy both smiled at Cynthia. "Are you guys ready?" she asked them. "Oh, yes we are but first I wanted Matthew to change his clothes" Sharon said as they made their way through security and then over to the bathrooms. "I can go with him Sharon" Andy said as Sharon handed the bag over to Andy and he went inside the men's bathroom with Matthew. Sharon was a little nervous and Nicole squeezed her hand and smiled at her.
Andy pulled out dress pants, a shirt with a collar, and a suit jacket for Matthew and handed it to him. "Go change and I'll wait right here" Andy told him as he walked into one of the stalls. Provenza stood next to Andy and gave him a look. "What?" Andy asked him. "Nothing" Provenza said as he continued to look at Andy. "Now you have that glow of a proud father on your face" Provenza said to him. Andy smiled back and shook his head. He was proud of this moment. It was funny how life could throw you a lot of curve balls. Matthew came out of the stall all dressed and walked over to where Andy was standing. "Here" Matthew said as he handed his school uniform to Andy and then went to wash his hands. Andy rummaged through the bag and pulled out a red striped tie for Matthew. "Come here" Andy said as Matthew walked over to him and Andy then tied the tie around Matthew.
"Ye gods even the kid is matching the both of you now!" Provenza said as he looked at Matthew and then Andy. "What?" Andy said smiling to Provenza as Provenza left shaking his head. Matthew and Andy followed him out to where everyone was waiting. Sharon walked over to them. "You look very handsome Matthew" Sharon said as she fixed the collar of his jacket. "Just like Dad" Matthew said to her. Sharon nodded. "Oh yes, just like Dad" Sharon said as she glanced at Andy. "Okay everyone if we just go this way over here to this room, we should be all set" Cynthia said to the group and everyone followed her inside the Judge's chambers. Sharon and Andy glanced at each other but they didn't know what was happening.
"I thought we were going to be inside a court room, Cynthia?" Sharon said to Cynthia. "I worked it out so that you could have a private adoption ceremony with Judge Rivers in here" Cynthia explained to Sharon and then proceeded to let the Judge's secretary know they were there. Everyone was situated in the room. Sharon, Andy, and Matthew sat in front of the judge's desk and waited for the judge to come in.
A minute later, Judge Rivers walked in and came to the front of the room where Sharon, Andy, and Matthew were now standing up. Judge Rivers shook Andy and Sharon's hand and then knelt down to meet Matthew. "Hello Matthew. I understand these nice folks are adopting you today" he said to Matthew. Matthew nodded his head as he was a little nervous speaking to a judge. "Well, it looks like they love you and you are surrounded by a lot of people who care about you" Judge Rivers said to him and then he took a seat behind his desk and proceeded with the adoption process and ceremony.
Andy signed a piece of paper and then handed it to Sharon who also signed it. Sharon handed Matthew the pen and showed where he needed to sign the paper and he did. Sharon then handed the paper back to Judge Rivers and he signed it and stamped it. "Congratulations Matthew, you are officially adopted!" Judge Rivers said to Matthew and everyone clapped. Matthew gave Sharon and Andy a hug. Rusty and Nicole walked up to them and gave him a hug. Provenza shook Andy's hand and Andy also shook everyone else's hands as they came up to congratulate Matthew and Sharon. Andy moved closer to Sharon as Matthew was busy talking with Julio and Amy. He placed his arm on her back and leaned in to give her a kiss. "I'm so happy" he said to her as they broke apart. "Me too" she said to him and smiled.
"Oh, before I forget, there's something Sharon, eh ah, your Mom and I would like to give you, Matthew" Andy said to Matthew as he went into the other bag Sharon was still holding and pulled out a present for Matthew. Matthew took the bag and opened it, revealing a Dodgers baseball jersey. He was so excited when he opened it. "Turn it around" Sharon said to Matthew and he did. He saw that it was personalized with 'FLYNN' and the number 1 on the back of it. Matthew started to cry tears of joy, he had never been this happy before. "Thank you so much" he said muffled into the arms of Sharon as she hugged him. "Oh, you're welcome sweetheart" Sharon said to him as she now had tears in her eyes. "Come on before everyone starts crying" Provenza said to Patrice and the team as he ushered them out of the room back into the hallway.
"Can I wear it now?" Matthew asked as they walked outside the court house. "Uh, sure it's nice out" Andy said as he took the suit jacket from Matthew. Sharon held the paperwork from the judge and also from Cynthia as they walked down the sidewalk. "Let me get a picture of the three of you here" Nicole said to them as they stopped. Andy, Sharon, and Matthew posed for the picture. "Perfect" Nicole said.
Sharon walked over to the group. "We were going to go have some ice cream, if you want to join us you can. I'm not sure what your plans are" Sharon said to everyone. "Oh I think we can make that work, Captain" Provenza said to Sharon as he looked around at everybody. It was still early enough in the day that everyone would still be able to get to their plans if they had any for the evening.
They went to the local ice cream parlor shop and everyone was sitting outside on the shop's patio. Matthew had a scoop of superman ice cream in a cone and Sharon had to wipe his hand as the ice cream was starting to melt. "Sorry" Matthew said to Sharon. Patrice laughed at Matthew's blue ice cream face and handed some more napkins to Sharon. "I'm just glad we didn't catch a case today, otherwise I'm not sure when we would have been able to reschedule this" Andy said to Mike and Provenza as they sat there, enjoying their ice cream.
Nicole walked over to Andy. "Dad, I'm going to go now. I need to go pick up the boys and then head home" Nicole said to Andy as he stood up and gave her a hug. "Thank you for coming, sweetheart" Andy said to Nicole. "Be safe Dad" Nicole said to Andy as she turned around and walked over to where Sharon was sitting with Matthew and Patrice. "I need to go pick up the boys now" Nicole told Sharon who started to stand up but Nicole gestured for her to remain sitting. "Matthew, welcome to the family, officially. If you ever need someone to talk to, you can call me" Nicole said to Matthew and then she left the ice cream shop.
After they were all finished, Andy, Sharon, and Matthew said their good byes to the rest of the team in the parking lot of the ice cream shop. Provenza stopped Andy before he got into their car. "Good luck with everything tonight, Flynn" Provenza muttered to Andy so only he could hear him. "Same to you" Andy said as he knew what Provenza had planned for Patrice later tonight. Andy got in the car and waited for Sharon and Matthew to be ready before he pulled out and drove over to the doggie day care place to pick Moxie up.
"I want to have a formal ceremony for Moxie's adoption as well" Matthew said as they pulled into the parking lot. "Oh, well we could do that when we get home, Matthew" Sharon said to him as Andy got out of the car to pick Moxie up. A minute later, Moxie jumped in the backseat and Andy shut the door. Andy glanced at the clock in the car. 3:30 it said. He still had plenty of time for them to get ready and head out for the evening he had planned.
By the time they got home, it was closer to 4 o'clock as they had run into some traffic. Andy pulled up in the driveway and turned the car off. Sharon and Matthew got out of the car and Moxie jumped out after Matthew. Sharon waited for Andy and walked into the yard with him. "So where are you taking me tonight?" she asked him as they held hands. "Hmm, it's a surprise, but I will tell you that whatever you plan on wearing tonight, bring a shawl because we will be outdoors" Andy said to her as he unlocked the back door to the house.
Matthew came inside with Moxie and headed for the kitchen where Matthew saw all of the roses that were in vases placed around the kitchen. Sharon followed him next and then stopped when she saw the roses. She gasped as she placed her hand over her mouth. "Andy" she whispered as she turned around, watching him walk in behind her. "Too much?" he said as he walked up to her and grabbed her hands. "No" she said as she turned back around to look at the roses. Sharon wiped a tear from her eye and walked over to smell one of the roses on the island counter. Matthew went in to the den and grabbed a sheet of paper from the printer and some markers and came back in to the kitchen. He quickly drew up something and then presented it to Sharon and Andy. "This is the formal adoption for Moxie" Matthew said as both Sharon and Andy looked at the piece of paper. There was a place for both of them to sign their names and the paper said that Moxie was being adopted by them. "Okay, but who is going to preside over this adoption?" Sharon asked Matthew. "I am" Matthew said smiling at Sharon.
Matthew stood in front of Moxie who was sitting looking at Matthew. Sharon and Andy were at the side of the dog. "Moxie, you are being officially adopted today! Congratulations" Matthew said and started clapping his hands. Moxie barked a couple of times and wagged his tail. Both Sharon and Andy signed the adoption sign Matthew made for Moxie. "Okay Moxie, you're officially a Flynn now, just like Matthew" Andy said as he petted Moxie on his head. Andy walked over to where Sharon was standing in the kitchen. "Why don't you go upstairs and get dressed first" Andy said to Sharon as she was admiring him. Sharon smiled and gave him a kiss. "Hmm, I wonder what I'm going to wear" she said as she made her way to the hallway and then went upstairs.
Andy grinned watching her leave the kitchen. He checked his phone to make sure the reservations were set. He reread the confirmation email he was sent over a week ago. "Dad?" Matthew said to Andy. "Yes buddy" Andy said as he looked up from his phone. "What time are you leaving tonight?" Matthew asked. "Oh, well, hopefully Rusty will be here soon, but we are going to leave around 5-ish, why?" Andy said to Matthew. "I was just wondering if we had enough time to set up that pitching machine you got me" Matthew asked him. Andy hated to disappoint Matthew, today of all days but he himself needed to change his clothes to get ready for their date tonight. "Oh, um well, I don't think we will have enough time tonight to do that" Andy said to Matthew, who immediately pouted and sat down on the kitchen chair. Andy walked over to Matthew and knelt down next to him. He pick Matthew's chin up. "You know, we could set that up in the backyard, maybe tomorrow, after you come home from school" Andy said to Matthew. Matthew just shrugged his shoulders. He stood up from the chair and then ran upstairs. "And so it begins" Andy said to himself as he followed Matthew upstairs.
TBC