This is shortish. I'm sort of anxious to get to a different for a planned storyline (no spoilers! =D) and this episode didn't in and of itself lend itself to much action for my fic. Hope you're all still with me and many apologies for my continued slowness!

"Don't be concerned about this witness protection business. It's not going to happen." Sharon said, approaching Rusty as he started copying the letter.

Rusty took a deep breath, trying to keep his emotions in check, afraid to look up at Sharon. "Okay. I won't worry about it then." He hit his notebook with frustration and looked up at Sharon finally. "At all."

Sharon looked at him with sympathy. "I'm probably going to be here for a while but I bet Brenda would be happy to take you out tonight for something fun."

"I'm not a kid, Sharon, an ice cream cone isn't going to fix all my problems."

"Oh, I don't know. It seems to work pretty well for Brenda." Sharon smiled, earning a small smile from Rusty. "Besides I'm not advocating that it fixes ianything/i - it's just fun to do and it can be a nice little distraction."

"Yeah, okay." Rusty nodded.

"Just don't have too much fun without me or I'm liable to get jealous." Sharon gave him a playful warning glare.

Brenda accepted her three scoop hot fudge banana split and turned to Rusty who was already working on his chocolate swirl frozen yogurt in the plain cone.

"You sure that's all you want?" Brenda spooned a large mouthful of ice cream and fudge into her mouth.

"Yeah, I'm good."

"You wanna go see a movie?"

"No."

There was silence for a while. Brenda and Rusty were used to spending evenings alone at the house but they always had their own things going on and the only times they'd gone out to do something it had included Sharon.

"I'm not a mother. You know that."

"Yup."

"I don't iget/i kids, like on a fundamental level."

He quirked a small smile.

"So I don't know what you want to do." Brenda held up her credit card. "So why don't we go to the mall?"

Rusty chuckled, "without Sharon?"

"iWithout Sharon/i." Brenda grinned, "meaning we can get whatever we want and we don't have to get pre-approval on anything."

"Okay, I'm in." He grinned back.

Angela opened her front door and Max grinned and held up the cardboard coffee carrying tray.

"Damn, boy," Angela smiled, "you iget/i me."

He brought the coffees in and set them down on the counter. "One's a straight up latte the other's our new latte: the Caranilla – caramel and vanilla melded together in perfect harmony."

Angela captured his lips and he dragged her closer. Angela wrapped her arms around him, her hands trailing down his back when she felt something hard in his back pocket. She pulled the toothbrush out and regarded it strangely. "What's this…"

Max grabbed it back with a smirk. "I'm staying over tonight."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." He started walking backwards to the bathroom. "We've been fucking for a year and I think it's about time we actually spend the night."

"You do, do you?"

He smiled. "Yeah. Drink your coffee. I'm going to slip into something more comfortable and I'll be waiting in your bed."

He disappeared into her room and she wasn't sure whether she wanted to sigh or smile. She picked up the caranilla and took a big swig.

"Oh that is delicious…"

Sharon walked into the house, uncharacteristically throwing her purse and blazer into a heap by the door. "What is that noise?" She wrinkled up her nose gesturing in the general direction of Rusty's bedroom and the raucous music from therein.

"That, my Captain Raydor, is bribery." Brenda laughed. "Come sit, I'll pour you some wine."

Sharon nodded, "won't say no to that."

"Long day?"

"Oh, the usual." Sharon joined Brenda on the couch, wrapping an arm around her and leaning in for a kiss.

Brenda grinned against her lips, leaning back, taking Sharon with her. Sharon giggled a little, "god, I love you."

"I love you too." Brenda whispered. "Sometimes I think how close I was to losing this with you…"

"Don't go getting all mushy on me now," Sharon purred.