Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or M/C, but if I did, this is what would happen.

A/N: So, I realized that I made a huge goof. I didn't think the name of Nicole's husband had been mentioned on the show, so I made up a name and had been referencing him as Adam. Well, it turns out in 3x13, Nicole mentions that her husband's name is Dean. It was honestly difficult to tell whether she said he or Dean from the YouTube clip, but I ended up playing the scene with the subtitles on the DVD just to be sure of what she said and she does in fact say his name is Dean. So, from this point forward, the guy I've been mentioning as Adam will now be known by the right name, Dean. Hope this doesn't throw people off too much. I'm so sorry for the goof. Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 7: Gratitude

The next morning, Sharon woke up fairly early. She wanted to make breakfast before it was time to start cooking all of the food for Thanksgiving. She opted to let Andy sleep a little longer and quietly slipped out of her bedroom and down the hallway before making her way to the kitchen. She began getting all the ingredients out to make pancakes and went about making breakfast for everyone. It wasn't too long after she began that Emily walked into the kitchen.

"Morning, mom," said Emily.

"Good morning. I was trying to be quiet. Sorry if I woke you up," Sharon told her.

"No, it's okay. It was the smell that woke me up actually. Those pancakes smell amazing," said Emily as she went to grab a mug and poured herself a cup of coffee.

"Well, since you're the first one up, you get the freshest ones. Here," said Sharon as she handed Emily a plate with two pancakes on it.

"Thanks, mom," said Emily.

"You're welcome," Sharon replied.

Emily poured syrup over her pancakes and grabbed a fork before leaning against the counter as she began eating.

"So, it seems like you and Andy are pretty happy," Emily commented.

"We are. Very happy. You know, I was a little scared at first, making the jump from being just friends to dating, but it was surprisingly a fairly easy transition to make," Sharon replied as she smiled at Emily.

"Well, I guess it doesn't hurt that you guys were basically dating for a year before that," said Emily.

"Emily…" Sharon trailed off warningly.

"What? It's true. Believe me, Rusty kept us well informed. I think it's cute, actually," Emily replied.

"What?" Sharon asked.

"That you guys were basically dating a whole year before actually dating and neither one of you really realized it until shortly before it happened," Emily replied.

"I wouldn't necessarily say that neither of us realized it," said Sharon.

"What she would say though is that I noticed it before she did. And she would be right. It turned into a bit of an awkward situation actually," said Andy as he walked into the kitchen and put his arm around Sharon's shoulders.

"Oh, do tell," Emily replied.

Andy looked over at Sharon for confirmation before he turned to Emily and said, "Well, last Christmas, I invited your mom and Rusty to go to The Nutcracker with me, my daughter, her family, and my son. The awkward part was that somehow, when I had taken your mom with me to my daughter, Nicole's wedding the year before, some people in my family got the impression that we were dating," said Andy.

"I wonder where they got that idea," said Emily as she looked over and smiled at Sharon for a moment.

"So, when it got around to last Christmas, my family wanted me to bring your mom along because they thought we were dating. Which we weren't. So, I eventually ended up asking your mom and Rusty to go because I didn't know what else to do," said Andy.

"And also because in the back of your mind, you were wishing it was true," Sharon interjected.

"I never would've admitted to that before, but there's a strong possibility that you're right about that," Andy said to Sharon.

Sharon smiled at Andy before she looked back over at Emily and said, "So, Andy and Nicole come over for dinner that night. Mostly so Andy can clear up any confusion about us dating."

"Except when it came time to tell Nicole the truth, I sort of tripped over my words and your mother had to step in and tell her the truth," Andy continued.

"And then your brother picked what I thought was an excellent time to interject and save all of us. Except, instead of saving us he decided to add fuel to the fire by pointing out certain social situations that Andy and I had experienced together over the past year that could be misinterpreted as dates. So, what does this one do? He starts agreeing with Rusty that we do spend a lot of time together outside of work," said Sharon.

"Needless to say, neither Rusty nor Nicole believed a word we said and the rest is history," said Andy.

"Including Nicole's twenty bucks that she owed Rusty," said Emily.

"Yeah," Andy replied.

"Here," Sharon said as she handed Andy a plate with a couple of pancakes.

"Mmm. Thank you," said Andy as he reached for Sharon's hand and lightly squeezed it for a moment before letting go.

"You're welcome," said Sharon as she shook her head and smiled at him.

Emily walked over to the sink and rinsed off her plate before sticking it in the dishwasher as she said in reference to Rusty and Ricky, "Well, I'm going to go wake up the gambler and the interrogator. It's about time they got up anyways. So, if you guys…you know…wanna say good morning to each other, you've got at least a couple of minutes before the masses descend."

"Emily!" Sharon exclaimed.

Andy laughed as he asked Sharon, "Can we dub her the new favorite?"

"Stop. Don't encourage her," said Sharon as she lightly smacked Andy with a dish towel as Emily made her way down the hallway towards Rusty's room.

Andy made his way over to Sharon and wrapped his arms around her waist before he said, "Good morning,"

"Good morning," Sharon replied before leaning towards Andy and kissing him.

Taking advantage of the bit of alone time they had, they stood there lazily making out for a few minutes before they heard someone cough loudly behind them to get their attention and they quickly broke apart.

"Rusty, I had no idea you were living with a couple of teenagers," Ricky joked.

"Oh, that? That's pretty much standard procedure at this point," Rusty told him.

Emily shook her head as she said, "I don't get what the big deal is. They were making out. So, what? People in relationships do that. You should try it some time."

"Ha ha," said Ricky.

"Okay, enough. Would the two of you like some pancakes?" Sharon asked Ricky and Rusty.

"Sure," they both replied as they made their way over to the stack of pancakes.

After breakfast, Sharon told Andy it was now or never with the shower because once the kids got in there, there was no telling when the bathroom would be free again. Andy went down to his car and grabbed his overnight bag out of the trunk before making his way back up to the condo and into the bathroom to shower. Sharon decided to take advantage of this and figured it was a great time to let her kids know about the surprise she was planning for Andy.

"So, now that he's in the shower, I should probably let you guys in on the big surprise I have planned for tonight. So, Andy's kids are spending the day at their mom's house, which is one of the reasons I invited him to spend Thanksgiving with us. Anyways, tonight around 7pm, Nicole, her family, and Andy's son, Brandon are coming over, but Andy doesn't know anything about it. I just wanted to let you guys know, but please don't say anything to him about it," said Sharon.

"Aww…that's so sweet. So, you're surprising him with his kids for Thanksgiving?" Emily asked.

"Yeah. He's gonna be so excited," Sharon replied as she smiled widely.

"Don't worry. They're both cool. Nicole's super nice and we've seen Brandon a couple of times and he seems like a cool guy," Rusty told them.

"Yes. They're great kids," Sharon added.

"The Uno cards are so coming out tonight. We'll get to know each other real quick that way," said Ricky.

"How did that even get started? It seems like we randomly just started playing that one time when we came home to visit mom," said Emily.

"I think we used to play it when we were kids, but I rediscovered it in college. We used to play it at the fraternity house all the time. I guess I brought a deck with me when I came home once and I've been corrupting people with it ever since," Ricky replied.

"I am so proud. My children: Corrupting the world with Uno, one person at a time," said Sharon mockingly.

"Hey, at least I wasn't the kid betting money on your love life," said Ricky.

"Really? How did I all of a sudden get thrown under the bus?" Rusty asked.

"By being part of this family," Emily replied jokingly.

As her three children continued to fight good naturedly in the living room, Sharon made her way down the hall towards the bathroom. She figured she'd leave them to it and wait for Andy to come out of the bathroom. She had a great idea that she was eager to test out.

A minute later, Andy walked out of the bathroom and saw Sharon standing there.

Andy stopped in front of her and asked, "What's going on out there?"

"Oh, they're just arguing about which one of them is corrupting the world more. I have an idea about how to get them to stop though. Wanna test it out?" Sharon asked Andy.

"What did you have in mind?" Andy asked as he wrapped his arms around Sharon.

"Something I think we can both agree is mutually beneficial," said Sharon as she began kissing Andy.

They stood there making out in the middle of the hallway for a few minutes before anybody took notice of them.

"Oh my god! Why does this always happen to me?" Ricky asked.

"Cause when you guys aren't here, it usually ends up happening to me. Last week, I had to remind them it was called a bedroom for a reason," Rusty replied.

"The difference between now and then though is that this time it was entirely intentional," Sharon told them.

"What?" Ricky asked her.

"Basically, your mother did that to get you guys to stop arguing," said Andy.

Emily started laughing before she said, "That's pretty good, actually."

"I thought so," said Sharon.

The rest of the day was spent busily making preparations for Thanksgiving dinner, which was served around five that afternoon. Everyone enjoyed all of the fixings prepared for the meal and had more than enough to eat that afternoon. When everyone was done, the kids volunteered to clean up as Sharon and Andy had prepared the majority of the meal themselves. Sharon and Andy took advantage of their offer and decided to escape out onto the balcony for a few minutes. Sharon stood at the railing looking out at the view while Andy stood behind her with his arms wrapped around her waist.

"Well, I'd say that was a success," said Andy.

"Mmhmm," Sharon hummed and sniffled as a few tears began streaming down her face.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Andy asked Sharon as he turned her around to face him and began wiping away her tears.

"Nothing's wrong. In fact, I am so utterly happy with how things have gone over the past couple of days that I don't think I've stopped smiling. Just when I think I can't love you anymore than I already do, you go and do something even more amazing that makes me love you that much more," Sharon replied.

"I'm not sure I did all that much besides be myself, but-" said Andy before Sharon's fingers pressed against his lips to cut him off.

"Your wonderfully amazing self. Andy, I don't want you to downplay what you've done over the past couple of days, or all that you've done over the past almost five months for that matter. Not every man would stay around and do what you've done. Ever since we started dating almost five months ago, I've seen all of the effort you've been putting into forming a bond with Rusty. Speaking from experience, that isn't the easiest thing to do, but the progress you've made over the last five months with him is astounding. He respects you and I think your presence in our lives is even starting to grow on him a little. Then, just what you've done just over the past couple of days and the effort you have put into getting to know Ricky and Emily, it's been amazing. They may not be as difficult to get through to as Rusty can be, but I assure you they are not always a walk in the park to get close to either. Somehow though, just over the past couple of days, you've managed to gain respect from both of them. You clearly have Emily's seal of approval and you've been patient with Ricky, even when he insisted on questioning your intentions," said Sharon.

"Like I said before, you've got great kids, Sharon. You should be proud. They may have their hang ups, but who in this world doesn't? None of them are going to just let some guy waltz into their mother's life without pausing for a moment to question him and his intentions and that's something I can respect. All three of those kids love you so much and none of them wants to see you get hurt again. That's something I can totally get on board with because I don't want to see anybody hurt you either. If someone ever does, they'll have me to answer to," said Andy.

"Just another reason why I love you, Andy Flynn," said Sharon.

"Well, good thing, cause I love you too, Sharon Raydor," Andy replied right before he leaned in and kissed Sharon.

A couple minutes later, there was a loud coughing noise coming from the doorway of the balcony. Sharon and Andy broke apart at hearing the noise and turned to find Rusty standing in the doorway.

"I hate to interrupt your little make out session, but mom, the big surprise is on its way up right now," said Rusty.

"Okay. We're coming in right now," said Sharon as she grabbed Andy's hand and led him inside.

"What did you do?" Andy asked her.

"Who? Me? I have no idea what you're talking about," said Sharon jokingly.

"Yes. What did you and your sense of occasion decide to do this time?" Andy asked her.

"You'll see," said Sharon just as there was a knock on the door.

"I think you should get that. It could be an intruder coming to steal all of our leftovers," said Sharon sarcastically as Andy made his way to the door.

As he unlocked and opened the front door, Andy was completely surprised to see his two children standing there in the doorway.

"Happy Thanksgiving dad," said Brandon.

"Surprise," said Nicole.

Andy shook his head and his face broke into a huge smile before he reached out and hugged both of his kids. After a minute, he took a step back to look at them for a moment, still in shock that they were even there right now.

"Come on in. Wow, this is such an incredible surprise," Andy told them as he moved to let them enter Sharon's condo.

"Well, you have Sharon to thank for that. She put all of this together," Nicole told her father.

"Yes, and I am very grateful for that," said Andy as he looked across the room at Sharon and smiled widely at her as he mouthed thank you to her.

Nicole and Brandon followed Andy across the room to greet Sharon.

"It's good to see you again, Sharon. Happy Thanksgiving," said Nicole.

"Happy Thanksgiving to you, too. Where are Dean and the boys?" Sharon asked Nicole.

"Oh, the boys were so worn out from the day and all of the activity. They fell asleep before we even left my mom's house. So, I just had Dean take them home in our car and rode over here with Brandon," Nicole explained as she pointed at Brandon.

"Brandon, it's nice to see you again," said Sharon as she hugged him.

"Good to see you too, Sharon. Hope you're keeping this guy out of trouble," said Brandon as he pointed towards his father.

"Most of the time," Sharon replied as she looked over and smiled at Andy.

"Yeah. Barring that whole Dodger game thing of course," Brandon joked.

"This guy and I are gonna get along just fine. Ricky Raydor," said Ricky as he stuck his hand out towards Brandon.

Brandon shook Ricky's hand as he said, "Brandon Flynn. Good to meet you. We've heard a lot about you from Sharon."

"All good things I hope," Ricky joked.

"Totally. This is my sister, Nicole," Brandon said to Ricky.

"Nice to meet you, Ricky," said Nicole as she shook his hand.

"This is my sister Emily. And of course you guys already know my little brother, Rusty,"

"Nice to meet you, Emily. Sharon's told us a lot about you too," said Nicole as she held out her hand to Emily.

"It's great to meet you too, Nicole. Mom's told us a lot about you. Then, of course Rusty informed us of the little bet the two of you made regarding these two," said Emily as she pointed towards Sharon and Andy.

"Yeah…it was one of those sorry not sorry moments," said Nicole.

"Oh, I thought it was hilarious," Emily replied.

"Yeah, that's my sister, the comedian. Brandon," said Brandon as he stuck his hand out towards Emily.

"Emily. Good to meet you," said Emily as she shook Brandon's hand.

"Okay, now that we've got all of the introductions out of the way, do you guys like Uno?" Ricky asked them.

"Sure," said Nicole.

"I'm down," said Brandon.

"Okay, then. Let's get down to business," said Ricky as he headed towards the dining room table.

Nicole, Brandon, Rusty, and Emily followed Ricky and each took a seat at the table as Ricky began dealing the cards.

Meanwhile, Sharon had made her way into the kitchen to brew some coffee for everyone. Andy stood in the dining room for a minute smiling at the scene in front of him before making his way towards the kitchen. He wrapped his arms around Sharon from behind and placed a kiss against her right temple.

"What was that for?" Sharon asked as she turned around in Andy's arms.

"For being the most wonderful woman in the world. Sharon…what you've done tonight…it's nothing short of amazing. Four or five years ago, none of this would have happened. It wasn't until you came into my life that I was able to even begin to repair the damage I had done to my family. You have been a buffer, a great advice giver, and everything in between when it came to helping me repair my relationship with my children. It's because of you that my relationship with them has so vastly improved over the past few years and it's because of you that they're sitting here right now and for that I don't know how I could ever thank you enough," said Andy as he smiled at her.

"You already have. I may have been your buffer and given you advice on how to repair your relationship with your kids, but you're the one who put that plan into action. You did all of that and seeing how excited you were when they showed up tonight and how happy they were to see you…well that's all the thanks I need," Sharon replied as she smiled back at him.

"Well, I can think of one other way," said Andy.

"Really? What would that be?" Sharon asked him.

Andy answered Sharon by taking her face in his hands and kissing her lips passionately. She returned the kiss until they heard a whistling noise coming from the dining room, which turned out to be from Nicole. Sharon and Andy quickly broke apart and turned towards the dining room.

"No wonder you guys ended up on the kiss cam," said Brandon.

"Seriously, though. It's like they're a couple of teenagers or something," said Ricky.

"I don't get what the big deal is, Ricky," said Emily

"The big deal is that every time we turn around, we find them making out somewhere. Like, I'm glad they're happy, but jeez," Ricky replied.

"Well, I think it's really sweet. You can tell that they're ridiculously in love with each other. Especially in light of that video Rusty sent us last week," said Nicole.

"You saw that?" Sharon asked.

"Yeah, we both did," said Brandon.

"Wait, you saw it?" Rusty asked Sharon.

"Yeah, Andy showed to to me last night," Sharon replied.

"Ricky, really? Nobody was supposed to know about that," Rusty told him.

"Yeah, well when you send the video out to multiple people, it's bound to get out eventually that you were the one who shot it. Hell, I'm surprised it hasn't ended up on YouTube yet," said Ricky.

"That's not a bad idea, actually," said Rusty.

"Don't," both Sharon and Andy said at the same time.

"Oh, alright," Rusty replied.

"Hey, mom, Andy, do you want me to deal you guys into the next game?" Ricky asked them.

"Sure," said Andy.

"Yes, but before we start, the coffee's done. There are mugs on the counter and the coffee creamer and sugar are sitting next to the coffee maker. So, help yourselves," Sharon told them.

Everybody helped themselves to some coffee and Sharon put some more on to brew while they all began what was sure to be a fierce game of Uno.

A couple of hours later, after the Uno cards had been put away for the night, Sharon made her way into the kitchen to clean the mugs from everyone's coffee. Emily and Nicole followed her, while Andy and the guys made themselves comfortable in the living room. Sharon glanced in the living room for a second and smiled before turning her attention back to the dishes and Emily and Nicole.

"You've done it again, Sharon," said Nicole.

"What?" Sharon asked her.

"The Sharon effect continues," said Nicole.

"Oh god! Are we still talking about that?" Sharon asked her.

"It exists, I'm telling you," said Nicole.

"Yeah, your dad told me about that awkward night," Emily said to Nicole.

"Well, it may have been awkward for them, but I think both Rusty and I can agree that the night was rather amusing for us," said Nicole.

"And this is how we know you're your father's daughter," Sharon interjected.

"I bet it was amusing. It's not often that mom gets all awkward like that. I told Rusty he should've got it on video for Ricky and I. Oh, and the several times a month part was priceless," Emily said to Nicole.

"Wait, I must have missed that part. Rusty, come here for a second," said Nicole.

"Oh god! What are we going to do with all of you and your unique brand of shenanigans? Andy and I are at more than a slight disadvantage here," said Sharon.

A few seconds later, Rusty appeared in the kitchen.

"What's up?" Rusty asked Nicole.

"Do you want to tell me about the several times a month story?" Nicole asked him.

"Oh, yeah. That was great. You see, right before we all went to the Nutcracker, after you and your dad walked out into the hallway, Sharon proceeded to tell me that her and Andy weren't dating. I proceeded to tell her that they were quote unquote not dating several times a month. Then I walked out into the hallway very proud of myself because I knew I was right," said Rusty.

"Yeah, after that night, I was pretty sure that they were both just in denial about it, too. I mean, it was kind of obvious," said Nicole.

"Care to enlighten me?" Sharon asked Nicole.

"Well, dad never correcting my assumption that the two of you were dating until it got him in trouble with you was a dead giveaway that he liked you. Plus, when Rusty was asking all of those questions, dad didn't dispute the insinuation Rusty was making," said Nicole.

"Okay, I'll give you that. Cause when I talked to your father the day after you came by the PAB and suggested that he tell you the truth, he was very reluctant to do so. At the time, I thought it was because he didn't want you to be mad at him for misleading you, but looking back on it now, I think it might have been a bit more than just that. What I don't get is how I was obvious about it. I think I have a pretty good poker face," said Sharon.

"Mom, I wasn't even there and I can tell you that it was most likely your awkwardness at the situation that gave it away," said Emily.

"Oh, totally," said Rusty.

"Sorry, Sharon. It kind of was. As more and more of the truth came out, you looked like you were going to kill my father. Plus, the way you stepped in and helped my dad when he was fumbling his words and tried to clear up any misunderstanding I may have had was kind of a dead giveaway that you liked him more than you were mad at him in that moment. Even if he had completely mislead me when it came to his relationship with you. Oh, and not to be crude, but I'm sure you don't pull out the dress you were wearing that night for just anybody. Even if it was completely unintentional at the time, I'll have you know that I don't think my father took his eyes off of you for more than a minute that whole night," said Nicole.

"And that's my cue to leave," said Rusty as he walked back out into the living room.

"Aren't they the cutest thing ever?" Emily asked Nicole.

"They really are. Like two little lovebirds," Nicole replied.

"Okay, I get it. We were more than a little obvious about it and you think Andy and I are the most adorable thing you guys have ever seen. There's really no denying it now since, as you pointed out, Andy and I are ridiculously in love," said Sharon.

"How does she do that?" Nicole asked Emily.

"What? Turn things around on you like that? You should hear what she did this morning," said Emily as they walked off towards the living room.

Meanwhile, as Sharon looked towards the living room, she caught Andy's eyes and smiled at him as he smiled back at her. Yes, this was definitely the best Thanksgiving ever. All of their children were there with them and they had each other. Really, what more could two people ask for?

A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! As always, let me know what you thought of it by leaving me a review. Thanks for reading and reviewing!