If I owned these characters, I would not be working a full-time job while finishing a full-time graduate program. I am just borrowing them for the day…

Real life, aka more doctor appointments, hospital visits, "babysitting", and driving than I care to admit, got in the way the last two weeks and left me with very little time to write. A special thanks to gingersnapped907 for dealing with my random ramblings over the last two weeks as well as reading to make sure I wasn't missing words. Happy Shandy Sunday!

Chapter 6: Dinner and a New Beginning

Later that evening

Andy picked a little place by the beach for dinner tonight. It's a small café that we have frequented before that is small and intimate. He knows how much I love the food and view here as we order our usual dinner options and ask for extra plates as we split the entrees like usual. He's trying to keep the conversation light as we eat dinner. We spend the time catching up on everything that the kids have been up to over the last month. It seems like just a normal dinner to him… little does he know what I have planned for after dinner tonight.

As the waitress comes by and picks up our plates, Andy asks for the check. Like normal, I reach for my purse to pay my share.

"Sharon, please, let me cover this tonight."

"Ok." I don't put up a fight. He raises his eyebrow at me questioning the fact that I am not fighting him like I usually do. "Well, I told you that some things were about to change," I continue.

"Alright," he smiles.

"Do you want to come back to my place for dessert and some tea? I made your favorite the other day. I don't think Rusty has finished it off yet."

"Sure. How about a short walk first? There is something I want to talk to you about that I doubt that Rusty should overhear us talking about."

As I get up from the table, I nod. Before I notice, Andy is behind me helping me back into my jacket. I shiver as his hand gently brushes against my neck as he moves my hair out from underneath it. One little touch and I feel like I'm going to melt. I smile at him and he moves away. As we walk out of the restaurant, I notice that he keeps moving away from me as I move closer. I know the last months have been really hard on him, but I'm hoping by the end of the night that we have resolved the tension that has been building since I asked him to back off in order to take the time to deal with the issues that came up for me once Stroh escaped. Before I know it, we have found the little pathway to the beach that Andy and I discovered about a year ago. It's well-lit, but very few people actually use it in the evenings.

"So what exactly made you decide to drop the security detail, Sharon?" The quiet way he asks tells me that he is not fishing, but is actually curious about my thought process behind dropping something that I had kept insisting had to happen in order for me to be ok with Rusty not being by my side.

"A lot of different reasons. Lisa, the victim of our last case, was so controlling that she didn't let her kids do what they wanted to do and it wound up destroying both of their lives and she lost hers. I kept wondering if I was doing the same thing with Rusty. While he didn't know that I had the protection detail, I was still trying to control what was occurring in his life by providing one separately. Also, I really hate lying to him. I promised him in the beginning that I would never lie to him. I might withhold information if it was in his best interest, but I would never lie to him. I've been feeling really guilty about that especially over the last few days when he figured out that someone was following him around campus – and it was his protection detail. I caused him to worry without him needing to because I never told him about the detail. Cooper offered to put another team on him, but Rusty just would have had other strangers following him around. He would eventually figure it out that I asked for the detail. Lastly, most of the sightings for Stroh have been in various countries in Europe for the last two months so it is not likely that he will return here without someone noticing. I need to start living my life again and not let his escape define how I live my life any more. I have started understanding what Rusty was saying back in January about living in a prison while Stroh runs free. Especially, I need to make sure that you know that my feelings towards you haven't changed in the last few months. Are you willing to give me a second chance?" I barely whisper the last question to Andy as I hold my breath to wait for his answer.