A Series of Unfortunate Events

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

Chapter 11

At 10:50 am Sharon and Andy made their way out of their bedroom. She was wearing a fuchsia tank top with her favorite green sweater, paired with black Capri leggings and tan sandals on her feet. Andy wore a fuchsia and green polo shirt, black Bermuda shorts and sandals as well. Rusty was on the couch talking to someone in a skype chat. Bella had fallen asleep in the swing but was starting to wake up.

Sharon kissed Rusty's head and squeezed his shoulder on her way over to the swing, but Andy had beat her to it and was lifting Bella out of the swing himself. Sharon bit her bottom lip as she watched the man she loved holding the tiny infant in his arms, talking in his deep voice to her as he made his way over to the changing table. She found it incredibly sexy to see him with the baby. Her attention was split as she heard her name called a couple of times. "Morning Captain, Sorry, I mean Commander! How are you?" said a bright cheery voice belonging to Amy Sykes.

Sharon turned with wide eyes startled to hear the voice of the youngest member of her team at Major Crimes. She sat down beside Rusty to greet Amy. "Ooh! Hello, Amy?! Is anything wrong?"

"No, at least not here. I was just trying to extend our, the team's and my condolences to Rusty, about… his mother and I wanted to see how you were doing too."

"Oh, well that's very sweet of you. I'm doing well, I suppose. Still a bit stiff but that's to be expected after being knocked off my feet at the cemetery and slammed into a wall at the PAB." Amy nodded sympathetically. "As far as what's been going on here in Cathedral City, that's been a bit of a... shock. Um…"

The rest of what she was about to say was cut off as Andy handed her Bella, freshly changed from the inside out. She was wearing a fuchsia and green onesie with black leggings and pink socks, that happened to match Sharon's own scoop-necked t-shirt, sweater combo, and black pants. "I'll get her bottle ready, okay?"

"Yes, thank you." Sharon nodded and blew him a kiss, then looked down at the baby and ran her finger alongside the baby's cheek and smiled lovingly at her. "Hello Bella, how are you this morning?" The baby smiled back at her making a squeaky cooing noise. "Ohh, sweet baby you are still hoarse! Rusty honey, get her meds please, they are in the diaper bag."

"I already gave her the baby Motrin at 8."

"You did?" Sharon asked surprised. "What about the ear drops?"

Rusty nodded, "see, here? I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget and since you gave her the antibiotic at 1:00 this morning, she gets it again at 1:00 this afternoon."

Sharon smiled at Rusty. "Thank you, honey."

Amy looked at the two of them, a shocked expression on her face. "Commander is that... a… a baby you're holding? I thought you were in Cathedral City for Rusty? Where did the baby come from? I mean, it's actually none of my business but…"

"I'm sorry, Amy. I got distracted. As you can see a lot has been happening." Sharon adjusted her hold on the baby so she could be seen by Amy. "Meet the soon to be Isabella Esme' Beck- Flynn. Bella for short. She emphasized the Beck part of the baby's name, to indicate where the baby came from.

A light of understanding came on in Amy's eyes as she realized what her commander was trying to tell her. "Oh, well um… she's Rusty's baby sister, then? She's beautiful! Um sooo are you and the Lieutenant… adopting her?"

Sharon nodded, "yes. We will officially adopt her after we're married because we want to add Flynn to her name. We're her legal guardians until then."

"Oh, well that was… fast? I thought it took a lot longer than that. Um... um… Oh, I'm sorry, I'm being terribly rude and nosy. I just… it's just a shock seeing you with a... a baby." She shook her head and sat back, a reddish tint on her cheeks.

Laughter bubbled out of Sharon as she witnessed Amy's confusion and discomfort wanting to know but not knowing how to ask without being intrusive. As she was about to answer Amy, Andy handed her Bella's bottle and she concentrated on getting both the baby and herself situated so that she could feed her comfortably before she answered. "Amy, it's okay. I understand your confusion. I'm sure you can imagine, that we're shocked as well. We only just signed papers yesterday morning that stated that we agreed to take custody of Bella, in the event that something were to happen to the Lewises and Sharon Beck. As far as we all knew it was just a precaution to protect Bella from being put into the system. We all thought of that scenario as a very very very remote possibility! None of us could have imagined in our wildest dreams that it would be our reality within less than twelve hours! Understandably we are beyond shocked, not only to find ourselves, parents of such a young child, again, but also of the tragic circumstances that led to this situation." Sharon tilted her head very slightly to indicate Rusty who was still holding his iPad so that Amy and Sharon could converse.

Amy got the hint. "I'm so sorry, Rusty. I can't imagine what you must be going through, but you seem to be handling it well." She said sympathetically then realized her statement might sound judgmental. "Gosh, I'm sorry…"

"It's okay, Amy. I'm feeling like it's all surreal you know? For all intents and purposes, I lost my bio-mom to drugs, alcohol, and her boyfriend's years ago. I'm sad and angry this happened, but honestly, I'd be way more wrecked if I lost my adopted mom, Sharon." He reached out to stroke Sharon's shoulder and squeeze it. She didn't have a free hand but she reached her lips to the hand on her shoulder kissing the tips of his fingers. She then looked up at him and smiled a bittersweet smile. Her eyes were full of emotion at hearing his words. "She may not be my biological mom but she is my real mom. I guess it sounds terrible to say that after all Sharon Beck was trying to get her life back on track, and she died yesterday, but as Mom says if you hang out with criminals you'll either be a witness, a suspect, or a victim and she ended up being all three. That being said, concentrating on taking care of my little sister and focusing on getting her well, seems to help to deal with… everything else. We're all kind of shocked to have a baby to take care of… It takes some getting used to."

Andy, who was hanging over the back of the couch to be part of the conversation, mumbled audibly, "kind of shocked doesn't even begin to cover it," he mumbled sardonically.

Sharon smiled tenderly up at him, silently agreeing. She was still reeling with incredulity, even though she already loved the child to pieces. She knew it was going to be quite an adjustment for all of them. Although she knew Andy loved Bella as much as she did, she also knew from their earlier discussion while they were getting dressed, that he was very nervous about telling his older kids about his second chance at fatherhood. She remembered the look on Andy's face as they were getting ready for brunch, he had suddenly stopped what he was doing and stared into space as if he had suddenly become gobsmacked at the realization that he would have to explain Bella to his children. Walking over to him she had snapped her fingers in front of his face three times before he acknowledged her. "Andy, Honey, what's wrong?"

"Oh nothing," he had said unconvincingly.

She wasn't buying it. "A..n..d..y, what's going on? You know you can tell me anything right?"

He gave her a smile but it didn't reach his eyes "Yeah, I know." It's just… well, I'm worried about telling my kids about Bella. You and I both know I wasn't a very good father to them when they were kids. I wasn't ready for the responsibility of being a father. Now I'm going to adopt a baby with you, and I'm giving Rusty my name as well. I'm afraid of their reactions. I'm afraid they will think I'm trying to replace them."

"Andy, it's not as if you got me pregnant with Bella after taking my virginity in the back of your father's Ford pickup, like Jack did!" Sharon's eyes got wide when she realized what she had just revealed. She bit her lip and looked down for a second in an attempt to get her emotions under control.

His eyes got wide at her reveal. "He did what? Is that how… that bastard!"

"Andy focus..."

"But Sharon…"

"I promise we'll talk more on that particular subject later. The point I was trying to make here is we didn't get pregnant with Bella, accidentally or on purpose or at all. We're adopting her, and you may adopt Rusty if he decides to take your name, because their biological mother and Bella's grandparents are dead, murdered in their own home. We want Bella and Rusty to feel like part of our family by giving them our name. It's not even as if we had been seeking to adopt a baby. Bella quite literally dropped into our laps!" Sharon reached out to place her hand on his arm as she said sternly, "So no, you have nothing to be ashamed of and if they make you feel like you do, then shame on them. Do you hear me?"

"I hear you, Sharon, but are you gonna be my buffer, when I tell them?" He smiled.

This time it was the smile that never failed to melt her from the inside out and made her feel like she wanted to haul him back to the shower and ravish him again. She smiled back, "Yes, of course, I will always be your buffer, but Andy I'm sure Nicole will be okay with this once we explain how Bella came into our lives. Brian might be a bit harder to convince, he's got a stubborn streak that outdoes yours, by a long shot."

Andy harrumphed. "You have no idea! What about your kids? Will they be upset?"

"Well, the short answer is that they are okay with it."

"And what would the long answer be?"

She had rolled her eyes and explained, "Emily and Ricky brought this subject up to me once Rusty told them his bio mom had had the baby early. Emily basically told me that if "I ended up with the baby," she was okay with it. I could tell Ricky wasn't as keen. He's just getting used to no longer being the youngest sibling because of Rusty and he worries that you might leave me if I took on another child, like Jack did when he found out I was pregnant with Emily and later Ricky."

"They brought up the idea that Sharon Beck would get murdered by the baby's father? Are they psychic?" Andy asked, incredulously. "Wait, was he not listening when I told him I was emotionally ready for you? That I loved you and would never purposely leave you?"

"Yes, he was listening, Andy. Ricky told me about that conversation, the night before he left to go back to Palo Alto. However, as he pointed out, you said 'you were emotionally ready for me.' Of course, since it wasn't even an issue at the time, you never mentioned you were emotionally ready to adopt Rusty's sister, in the event that Sharon Beck would end up falling down on the job!" Sharon hoped Andy would understand it wasn't personal toward him. "Andy, he's only ever had Jack and his failings as a parent and... well as a human being if you want to be totally honest, to compare everybody else too. I set him straight. I made him understand that you were not Jack and that I could count on you for support under any circumstances."

Andy agreed, "Yes, you can. For as long as I am able I will be there for you, but going back to my earlier question, are they clairvoyant?"

Sharon slapped him on the chest. "No, my children are not psychic or clairvoyant, Andy." She sighed heavily and continued her explanation. "They just know from... rather repeatedly experiencing it, with Jack, that some addicts, not you, not all of them, but some find it nearly impossible to give up their addictions and if they are in certain trigger circumstances repeatedly they could backslide! They were thinking along the lines that Sharon Beck wouldn't be able to hold it together any better as a mom to Bella than she was to Rusty. They had no idea that Sharon Beck and the Lewises would be murdered by their own son, who was supposed to be locked up in prison for life! There was no way anybody could have predicted that! No, their predictions were based on the idea of Sharon Beck falling back on old habits. Emily and Ricky wanted to know what I would do in that situation and of course, I explained, at the time that we weren't even in the equation. The Lewises were supposed to be there for Rusty's other mom, to help her both as support for Sharon Beck and to take care of Bella themselves should she fail to stay sober and drug-free."

Andy was curious to how that conversation went with Sharon raising her children to be as headstrong and independent as she was. So he asked inquisitively, "and?" There was a pause in the air as they waited for her reaction to her older kid's upfront opinions.

TBC...

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