Everything We Are - Chapter 15
by Kadi
Rated: M
Disclaimer: It's not my sandbox, I'm only visiting for a time.
It was late when Sharon got home. She had gone with Rusty to take Charlotte to the airport. Ricky had flown out early that morning. Her eldest children were returning to their lives, and with the weekend over, having blended into Monday and finally Tuesday, the entire family was leaving the horror of the weekend behind them. It wouldn't leave them completely, not for some time, but they were working at it.
Rusty was going back to work the next day, and Sharon reflected that she should probably send Andy back too, although she had at least another day before she could begin convincing a doctor to release her. She was thinking of that when she entered the house. The lights were dimmed, but she heard the television playing. Sports highlights, of course. She smiled as she made her way into the living room, through the closed baby gate in the foyer.
She found them in the recliner, kicked back and looking entirely too comfortable. Ian lay against his father's chest, sound asleep and Sharon soon realized he wasn't the only one. Andy was snoring quietly, one hand lay draped against his son's back, holding him in place, the other was tucked behind his head. Sharon glanced at her watch and drew her lip between her teeth. They were both completely at rest, and for once, Ian didn't have his fingers tucked in his mouth. Instead, while one arm lay beneath him, he had the fingers of one hand curled loosely in his father's shirt. She didn't have the heart to wake either of them.
Sharon bent and quietly removed her shoes. She held them in one hand as she approached the chair. She pressed the fingers of one hand against her lips and then lightly brushed Ian's hair back from his face. Her baby slept on, so at peace, he noticed nothing. She stood watching them for several long minutes. Was it possible to love anyone more? It was an emotion which warmed her through. When finally she drew away, it was so that her presence wouldn't disturb their quiet time together.
She checked the locks and set the alarm before making her way up the stairs. Once inside her bedroom, she undressed quietly. She ran a bath and sank happily into it. Steam rose, filling the bathroom, along with the light scent of the bath oil that she used. Sharon leaned back and let her eyes close. The house was much quieter with the kids gone, and she ached more keenly for them in those first moments of silence. They were living their lives, however, and she was proud of them. All three of them, and the people that they had become, and were still becoming. She pressed her fingers against her lips when they trembled, she could only hope to witness the same of Ian. In the absence of certainty, they could only do their best to give him enough to be well on his way if he had to do it without them.
A slow, slightly shuddering breath was drawn. Them. When had he become so apart of her that she couldn't imagine even a day of her future without him. She could live alone. She had already experienced that, and knew that she could be what her children needed her to be, even without a man at her side. But this man. Sharon ached at the thought of being without him. She could wish that they'd found this sooner, but if wishes were horses… she could only live in the now, knowing that she loved and was loved in return.
She must have drifted for a while. She started slightly at the feel of a hand against her leg. Her eyes fluttered open and a smile curved her lips at the sight of her husband kneeling beside the tub. The water had gone lukewarm, but when she shivered, it wasn't from the lower temperature. It was the fingers gently caressing the inside of her calf. He was smiling down at her, and there was a softness in his gaze that few ever witnessed. He could be so rash, so hot-tempered, and even approaching sixty, he was quick to act first and think second. Those who questioned them didn't see him as she did. They remembered the temper, the playboy, and the troublemaker. They had never watched him hold a child with such gentleness that the heart threatened to burst at the sight. When his other hand came up to brush a lock of hair away from her face, she trailed her fingers along his forearm in a light caress. "Ian?"
"Tucked into his bed." His thumb stroked her temple. "Hardly even moved."
She hummed quietly. Their gazes remained locked. "Good," she said quietly. "You were both out. I didn't want to wake you."
It was his turn to hum. "I had the same thought. If the water were warmer, I wouldn't have." His fingers stroked the back of her calf, his thumb swept the inside of her knee. He watched the color of her eyes darken. The gold in the green became brighter. "Ready to get out?"
She nodded quietly, and took his hand when he offered it. She stood while he reached for the plug. Sharon smiled, the expression full of affection. His eyes never dipped below her face, even when he drew the towel around her as she stepped out onto the soft rug beside the tub. His hand caressed the length of her arm as he drew away, and she watched him turn to the vanity and lift the bottle of lightly scented lotion she used after bathing. Sharon walked past him into the bedroom and drew a nightgown from the bureau. She draped it across the foot of the bed, and stood, waiting quietly.
He rubbed the lotion between his hands to warm it, and then lightly traced his hands across her shoulders. Her skin was smooth beneath his hands, and his touch gentle as he rubbed it into her shoulders and upper arms. As he moved down her back, he watched the towel slowly move lower. When she shivered as his finger traced the length of her spine, his jaw clenched. He fought for control, even at the hitch in her breathing. The towel fell to pool at her feet when he turned her. His hands moved along her arms, while he watched her face. She was looking back at him, face relaxed, a smile at her lips.
When he prompted her to sit, she did. Andy knelt before her and drew the towel down her legs, drying them. Then he reached for the lotion again and paid careful attention to both, first one and then the other. With his task complete, he stood. He reached for the nightgown and stepped back, holding it for her.
Sharon rose in front of him and reached for it. She tugged the soft material out of his hands and let it fall back to lay on the bottom corner of the bed. She stepped forward, until she was close enough to feel the warmth radiating off of him. She felt the muscles bunching beneath her hands as she ran them up his chest. His eyes had grown dark, and she watched the muscles of his jaw twitch when she drew her hands back down and caught the hem of his red pullover. Her fingers skirted his sides as she drew it up, and knowing her intent, his arms lifted and it was tossed aside.
They continued to watch one another, even as her hands slid down the bare warmth of his chest to rest at the clasp of his jeans. She undid them slowly, and they both drew a breath as she lowered the zipper. His eyes flashed, and she felt him shudder. Her thumbs caught the edge of his boxer-briefs and she drew and the denim down the long length of his legs. He stepped out of them and they were kicked aside. They stood, entirely bare, and not quite touching, with scant centimeters between them.
The light caress of her fingers against the outside of his thighs made him shake with need. The evidence of that need strained toward her. When her nails scoured lightly over his hips as she drew her hands up his body, he groaned quietly. She seemed in no hurry, and her hands moved slowly up his chest until she wound them around his neck. His cupped her sides, his thumbs brushed the undersides of her breasts and her lips parted in a quiet gasp. His fingertips barely touched her as he slipped his hands to her back, and gently drew her against him.
Without her heels, she had to raise up onto the balls of her feet to kiss him. She tipped her face toward him as one of his hands moved to her lower back. The other came up to cup the back of her head. Their lips were barely brushing, breaths mingling, eyes still locked. Sharon shivered against him, from the intensity of the gaze. His name formed a quiet, ragged sigh on her lips. Their noses brushed at the answering nuzzle from him. "Love you," she whispered.
"Always," he rumbled, in a voice thick and ragged with emotion. He lifted her against him and moved the two steps to the bed behind her. His knees sank into the mattress, and she slid slowly back as he crawled up the length of her.
It might not be perfect, their aging bodies and stressful lives. The years which lay beyond them might be few, and uncertain. They were marked with scars, emotional and physical. They had that moment; they had right now. They had a quiet house and a sleeping child. They had each other. If they could fill those moments with enough love to last the rest of their lives, then it was enough. It was everything.
~FIN