Chapter 7

Screaming Peanut! and Sharon! and Oh God NO! over and over again, Andy jerked awake soaked in sweat. He was bolt upright in the bed. The first thing he saw was the "It's a Girl!" balloon tied off on the foot of the bed. Provenza had been there already. Then he thought he saw familiar glasses on the tray table.

Sharon leaned further over him, "You're awake! Thank God! The fever finally has broken. Sweetheart, I was so worried about you."

She had just emerged from the bathroom where she had just instilled more eye drops to soothe the red and burning from days of sitting with Andy and trying to cool his body when she heard his shouting.

As she had been doing for a week or so, Sharon bathed the sweat away with a damp washcloth. Andy was breathing hard with his chest pounding, partly from fear and partly from sitting bolt upright. Panting, Andy pulled her closer to himself and gazed with awe into her loving eyes.

"You're alive," he finally choked out.

Sharon smiled at him, "Yes. Why do you ask?"

"Peanut?" Andy asked desperately.

Sharon looked around the room, "I think I ate the last bag of them last night for dinner."

Andy was now completely disoriented and flopped back on the pillow. He looked around and shook his head. Her glasses, her rosary, and her well worn breviary were sitting on the tray table right where he'd first seen them. However, now he really saw them. His panting was slowing and returning to normal breathing as her hand rested on his chest.

"Where am I?" he huffed.

"At St. Catherine's," Sharon stroked his face tenderly.

Andy reached his hand out to touch his wife's belly, "The baby?"

Sharon looked genuinely puzzled, "What baby?"

"Our baby. Peanut. I mean Maire," Andy's eyes grew wild with worry again.

Sharon stopped wiping his sweat off and gave him a most concerned and tender look, "Honey. I'm not pregnant. I can't be pregnant ever again. Jack...Jack brought home a gift that keeps on giving after one of his escapades in Vegas. Not everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. It was after Ricky had been born. I had two ectopic pregnancies that ended my childbearing days and nearly my life the second time. I guess I never got around to telling you that bit of my medical history. We spent so much time on yours."

Andy worked to control his breathing. Then he pulled the sheets back and started to hunt for bullet holes. Sharon watched him bewildered.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm a cop. I got shot. Where?"

"You weren't shot..."

Andy looked at Sharon with just the hint of an accusation in his eyes, "Then what am I doing here?"

"You were bitten by a mosquito, at least that is what the doctors think," she began.

Andy's face wrinkled in puzzlement, "A mosquito?"

"On our honeymoon. On Tupper Lake? Remember?" Sharon was now the one with questions on her face.

He snorted, "Which one? There were so many on the pier where I was fishing."

Then Andy breathed a sigh of relief. At least he had not dreamed their marriage, "So we really are married?"

Sharon smiled, her eyes began the smile that quickly spread to all of her face, "Yes. You were delirious with fever for the last week, but not that delirious," she held his ring finger next to hers so he could see.

"Delirious?"

She nodded, "It took them forever to diagnose the encephalitis. It came on like the flu then it just kept getting worse and worse until we admitted you. They were not expecting it since we don't live on the East Coast where this kind of encephalitis is most prevalent. Then they had no treatment except support. Go figure: Horses can get vaccines, but humans don't have one."

"A mosquito!"

"You've been so sick, incoherent with fever for over a week," Sharon began to tear up. "I was so afraid that I was going to lose you, not to a cop-thing but to a honeymoon mosquito bite."

"Encephalitis?"

"Yes," she nodded.

"Catch me up. Is Stroh dead or alive?" Andy tried to gauge how much was real and how much was dream.

"Dead," Sharon answered unequivocally. "He died in the condo just before you got so sick. He came after Rusty and me. Rusty shot him with my backup weapon," she continued, "We can talk about it later. Just rest for now. Get your strength back."

Andy agreed, "At least that was not a dream. He's finally gone and out of our lives forever. I'm hungry," Andy noted flatly.

"Let's change the subject. I can imagine you are famished. So far, these last few days all you have had to 'eat' has been through an IV," she nodded toward the bag hanging above the IVAC machine. "They were considering a feeding tube if you did not awaken soon."

"So when did I get sick?"

"About a week and a half after we got back from the Adirondacks. As I said, we thought it was just the flu until your fever hit 106 and would not go down."

"So it's still summer?"

Sharon nodded, "Um-hum. Today is May 5th. Why?"

Andy smiled, "It's dark outside. I thought it was early December. You were very pregnant in my dream."

Sharon looked at her watch, "Yes. The sun set an hour or so ago."

Andy flipped the covers back again, "Climb in. I need you next to me."

Sharon slipped out of her shoes and obliged, "Scoot over and let me hold you for a change. Now, tell me about 'our baby Peanut' or was her name Maire? Did I ever tell you my mother's middle name was Maire? I thought it the most wildly exotic name. Tell me about your dream."

She tucked in behind her husband and wrapped her arms around him, holding him close. He took hold of her arms and would not let go.

"Oh the end of it was nothing less than a real nightmare," Andy said as he felt her arms wrapped around his middle hold him for dear life. "And Sweetheart, you have no idea just how beautiful before it all went swirling down the drain," he chuckled and began to tell her the story of Peanut.

A/N: James Duff has said that there would not be a Sharon pregnancy story in his universe. So I will now give him back his Shandy not a whole lot worse for the wear :-)