The Pregnancy Ship

Chapter 19: When it Rains it Pours part 2

This is an A/U story

Disclaimer: These are not my characters they are fully James Duffs. I just love them so much and love to play with them.

"Oh okay," he made a grimace. "See you in a little while, Ricky's in the kitchen starting the food. Should I like, keep him from listening to the radio?"

"Maybe you had better. The press are not cleared to announce anything until the family is informed but you know there are always leaks." Andy was pretty sure that Rusty had guessed that Jack had been murdered. Perhaps not the way he had been murdered but he knew. Rusty had grown up in Major Crimes at PAB, he was pretty savvy about their jobs understanding the pressures for time and the responsibilities of their jobs and the priority order. He knew that if Major Crimes was called in somebody had been murdered.

After finally having the tea he had prepared earlier, Andy and Sharon spent the next hour trying to cover the bruises and the stitches with makeup. He put a flesh colored bandage over the stitches, then applied foundation over the bruises. He let her apply lipstick herself. Andy then helped her with straightening her wild hair into something more manageable. Once it was straight they decided that letting it stay down was best. It hid the bandage that way. Finally, they decided it was time.

As they walked out of their bedroom, Sharon placed her hand on the wall to guide herself in the right direction. She immediately began counting to herself steps that would get her to the dining room. She was concentrating hard so she didn't realize at first that Ricky was standing in front of her. He had been watching her making her way from hers and Andy's bedroom to the living room. Both marveling at how fast she was learning to navigate around the house... and realizing how vulnerable she looked... blind. He couldn't wrap his mind around it, his beautiful mother, blind. They kept saying it was temporary and he really hoped it was, for her sake and everybody else's as well. He couldn't imagine trying to raise a baby much less two, blind. "Hey, Mom."

Sharon stopped in her tracks, "oh! Ricky! You... you s...scared me again," she placed her hand over her heart.

"I'm sorry, Mom that was the second time today. I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact you can't see me." Ricky said, contrite.

"You'd think after this afternoon he'd get it," Rusty said and shook his head.

"Why what happened this afternoon." Andy asked.

"We were leaving to pick up Em and Linda when Mom came in with her low vision therapist. She was a bit unnerved by her experience at the mall. Ricky tried to give her a hug without warning her. She freaked a little bit," Rusty explained.

"To his credit, Ricky held on and talked to me until I calmed down and could pick up on clues to his identity beside his voice. Such as his scent and his height and the familiarity of his arms around me." She said fondly. "However," she turned back to him and in true Darth Raydor style she pointed at his general direction and said, "but young man it's not nice to keep sneaking up on your blind mother. I do know self defense and I want to have grandchildren someday." She allowed the threat to hang in the air.

Ricky's eyebrows rose, "Mom!" He said laughing. He knew she was just playing with him.

Sharon smirked at him and then she remembered Emily and Linda were in the room. Her face turned red, "I...I wouldn't re...really. I..." she swallowed any other protestations at the sound of Linda's and Emily's laughter.

"Sharon, don't worry I'm in full agreement. Your son needs to learn how to approach you without scaring you to death." Linda got up from the table and continued to speak as she approached Sharon. "Hello dear, I'm glad to see you are looking so much better than when we saw you on Skype the other day."

When she got to Sharon, she reached up to give her a hug. Sharon could hear her voice coming closer, so she was prepared; she bent a bit to hug Linda back. There was a bit of a height difference between her 5'6 frame and Linda who was all of 4'10. "Hello Linda, and thank you. I'm so glad you and Em are here. Speaking of Emily, where is she at the table?"

"I'm at the end of the table closest to the hallway where you are Mom. We're glad to be here too. The flight was full of turbulence and crying babies." Emily turned to her friend, "sorry Linda, don't want to sound ungrateful."

"That's okay Emily, I agree. Unfortunately, our tickets were in coach. My nieces ability to get free tickets doesn't include business or first class," Linda said apologetically. "But they were free so," she made a palms up gesture and a shrug.

"Well you can't argue with free. Where did you sit, Emily?" Asked Andy.

"In the bulkhead seats. There was no one beside me so I rested my leg on the seat beside me. Linda sat in the seat across the aisle from me. She had a toddler and a crying infant along with their mother next to her, but she was a trooper. She read to and played with the toddler while the children's mother was trying to feed the baby brother."

"That was sweet of you Linda, " Sharon said as she began to make her way over to Emily.

Linda smiled as she watched her young friend's mom find her way to her daughter and said happily, "I love children. Always wanted them, never was able to have them. These days I enjoy them and enjoy giving them back to their parents. It was nice being able to help the poor woman. She was a young Army wife going to live with her parents, while her husband is being deployed to the Middle East."

Once Sharon made it to the part of the table where Emily was, she reached out for the wheel chair that held her precious daughter. Emily saw her hand searching for her. She took it and kissed the back of it. "Here I am, Mom."

Both Sharon's and Emily's eyes were moist with tears at being reunited. "Honey, how is your leg?"

"It aches like a toothache. I need to take my meds after dinner on a full stomach, but I'll live," Emily said through the pain she was in. "How are you?"

"Doing better. Being home makes all the difference in the world. I was a basket case at the hospital." Sharon said ruefully.

"Well, that was understandable," Linda, said. "Waking up in the hospital to find out you can't see, even if the situation is temporary would unnerve anybody."

Kissing Emily's forehead and hugging her as best she could. Sharon then began to make her way to her own seat as Rusty announced, "dinners ready."

Sharon found her seat and sat down and was served by Rusty who was eager to tell her what he had made for her. "Mom we have eggplant Parmesan ala Andy at the 1-5 side of the clock and on 7-11 side are the medium size shells with marinara sauce. At 10:00 there is a bowl of salad, with your favorite salad dressing and a glass of ice tea is at the one on the clock."

She pressed her lips together, and smiled towards Rusty's voice, "wow, thank you so much Ricky and Rusty. You've gone to a lot of trouble. You've made all my favorites and arranged them, so that they are manageable for me! Thank you, everything smells delicious."

"You're welcome," the boys said together.

Sharon then picked up her fork and knife and began cutting her food. Melinda and her had worked on that quite a bit over the last couple of days. She took a bite, and hummed, "mmmhmm it tastes good boys!" Rusty and Ricky smiled at her appreciation of their culinary skills.

Meanwhile Emily was watching her mother eating as if she wasn't blind, and was amazed. She opened her mouth to mention it, but Andy shook his head no, not now, and he indicated with his head Linda's presence. He knew that if her eating blind skills were called attention to, in front of Linda, Sharon would become self conscious and uncomfortable. "However," Sharon sensed she was being watched and said, "Am I the only one eating? Dig in everybody. It's really good."

Conversations started to flow after a few seconds of awkward silence. After dinner was finished Andy stood by her as Sharon announced, "we need to have a family meeting. We have some bad news. Would you like to talk in the living room or here?"

There was a profound silence for a moment. Then Emily spoke up, "the living room would be better for me, that way I can be more comfortable on the loveseat. The chair becomes uncomfortable after awhile. Ricky would you help?"

"Sure Em," Ricky said and started pushing his sisters wheelchair.

As the siblings went to the living room, Linda said softly, "I'll leave you to your meeting," and started to pick up her handbag go out to the cottage.

Andy whispered in Sharon's ear about her actions. She was surprised and was quick to amend the situation. "I'm so sorry Linda, you're more than welcome to stay in fact, you are officially part of our family now, having been so helpful to Emily over the last few days since her fall. Not to mention, providing the means to get her here. I was just trying to qualify the seriousness of the conversation we're about to have."

Linda turned and said, "well if you're sure. I don't want to be in the way."

"You're not in the way. I'm... not sure how Emily will react to this news so she may need a great deal of emotional support from us. She always has had a soft spot for her dad, no matter how much he hurt her."

"I'm here if she needs me, don't you worry," Linda said squeezing Sharon's forearm. She then moved to the living room to find a seat near Emily.

Andy walked behind Sharon, allowing her to find her way to the couch, but close enough to catch her in case she stumbled. She reached out for the arm of the couch and sat down, Andy sat beside her. Emily had been settled on the loveseat with her broken ankle resting on a pillow in her brother's lap. Rusty and Linda had taken the chairs.

"Okay, Mom, what's the bad news?" Ricky asked.

Sharon swallowed and closed her eyes trying to prepare herself for the delivery of this notification. "Ricky, Emily, I'm sorry to have to have to tell you that your father has...

gotten himself... I...I mean to say your father was...um...killed this morning."

Ricky and Emily looked shocked. "This Morning? When? How?" Ricky asked.

Andy took over the notification since he had more of the facts. "At 6am this morning, he was shot by two alleged goons of a mob boss name Vince Gardelli. We think he owed money to the guy but didn't have it to give, so he was shot."

"That was kind of dumb wasn't it? I mean he'll never get the money now, will

he?" Asked Rusty.

"No he won't," said Andy rolling his eyes. "But it's been my experience that most criminals aren't all that bright."

Emily said softly, "it's all my fault. I killed him."

"No, it isn't your fault, and you didn't kill him, Emily. Your father made a lot of bad choices. He's dead because of them but you are not at fault," Sharon said, her voice was low and full of sadness for her daughter.

"But you don't understand, he contacted me. He texted me and I ignored him. Then he called me the day I fell and I answered. He was all sugary sweet at first. I could tell he was drunk. He asked if I could spare my old dad some cash, he was sorry he had to ask but he was in trouble. He owed somebody some money." Emily shook her head as she explained the rest, "he then told me he needed $25,0000 dollars! He said he knew about the trust funds our grandparents had set up for us, and $25,000 was a drop in the bucket compared to what was in it. I was floored."

Appalled that Jack had stooped so low as to go to their children for money. Sharon asked, "Has he ever hit you up for money before?"

"I've given him a couple of hundred before a few times. I only have a big amount like he was asking for in my trust fund and I knew Pop Pop would never release that much to me unless I told him what it was for. If he knew it was for my...father he definitely wouldn't give it to me. Pop Pop has told me how my father almost drained our trust funds when we were babies. So I decided to use tough love on him. I told him I couldn't help him. I didn't have the money to give him. He'd have to find someone else to get it from. Then he got really nasty, and he said... He said...some...some terrible things!" Emily's voice was full of the hurt and feelings of betrayal from the man she had idolized as a child. She didn't want to repeat her father's words to her mother, for fear of hurting her too.

"What did he say, Darling? You can tell me, it isn't like I haven't heard them before." Sharon said in a voice choked with grief for her child. Andy squeezed her hand to show his support and she squeezed back.

"He said I was just like you, a miserly bitch who likes to keep her money to herself and thanks for nothin," Emily burst into a bout of fresh tears then.

"Emily, is that why you fell? Were you crying because of what he said and you fell?" Sharon asked and stood up to try to make it to Emily. She wavered a little, dizzy from getting up too fast. Andy caught her and walked her over to Em. She sat down beside her daughter and took her in her arms.

"Yes, that's how I fell. I couldn't see where I was going because of the tears and I fell down the steps. I should have tried to get the money. He'd be alive, if...if I had given him the money."

"I doubt it Em," Ricky said. "He asked you for $25,000, he asked me for $50,000. He owed a total of 75,000 grand. Even if you had given him the 25,000, he would have needed my share too. He knows...um he...knew I could give him that without touching my trust fund, but I decided to do the tough love approach too. I told him I wasn't the bank of Ricky, and he would have to look elsewhere for a patsy. I also told him that if he were to have given me the time of day when he didn't need to hit me up for money, I would have given him everything I had. But since the only time he ever willingly called me was if he needed to ask me for money, he'd have to find it somewhere else. I started to...to hang up on him, he called me a heartless bastard who probably wasn't even his. He said I looked more like Andy, then him. Is it true?" Ricky asked hopefully.

Sharon reached out and found her sons cheek, she caressed it lovingly, but her face held a sad expression. "I wish it were true. Andy would make you a wonderful father, but no. You resemble my mother's side of the family. You are the spitting image of her brothers Richard and William. That's who you're named after. I was faithful to your father. Which is more than he was to me." She swallowed with difficulty, emotions tying themselves in a knot and making it difficult to speak. "Oh, I wish it were true! I wish that Andy were your father. You'll never know how much I wish it. I'm so very sorry I gave you such a poor excuse for a human being as a father. I can only say that, I was young and starry eyed and he was very charming. I fell in love, with what turned out to be an illusion. I can accept the fact that I probably deserved what I ended up with for defying my parents and not listening to their dire warnings. What I can't accept is that you ended up paying the price. I'm so sorry."

The three of them hugged and cried for a moment then Sharon regained her composure.

"I feel terrible for encouraging you to speak ill of your father now that he's dead. For all Jack Raydor's faults, and poor life choices, he didn't deserve to die for them, but the responsibility for that is squarely on the shoulders of whoever pulled the trigger. Do you understand? It's not your fault Emily and Ricky. Do you hear me?"

"Yes, Mom. We hear you loud and clear and just for the record, we want you to know that the stuff about you deserving what our father did to you. You are wrong Mom you didn't deserve it. You may think you shielded us from our father's shortcomings, but we saw and we heard a lot more than you think we did. You were and are a wonderful mother and you deserve to be loved and cherished. Now you've got someone in your life that truly loves you, and cherishes you. We hope that you will go through with your plans for tomorrow. Don't let him spoil your wedding, Mom."

"We won't. Thank you for giving us your blessings." Sharon and Andy said together and smiled at each other. They decided to not mention that was their plan all along.

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