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 27

"Don't leave me alone with her, please." Sharon said looking him in the eyes and willing him to understand her plea.

Andy nodded. "I've got you covered, Sweetheart. You won't be left alone with her, at least not until you're over these withdrawal reactions." She visibly relaxed and he continued to run his fingers through her hair. Her eyes fluttered closed and she slept undisturbed for about a half an hour. Andy didn't sleep. He just watched her sleep. He hadn't really needed her to tell him not to leave her alone with the baby. At any given moment, she could experience another reaction to the withdrawal, either hallucinations or something new. He wasn't going to chance it with a fragile infant. He just hoped these side effects would be over for good once the 48 hours were up.

After a half hour of undisturbed sleep, Sharon was awake again and in need of a bathroom break. Andy helped her take off the oxygen tube and turn off the oxygen machine. Then he walked her to the bathroom, turned his back so she could have privacy, and then helped her stand up to wash her hands. While she was doing that he grabbed her robe from the hook on the bathroom door, helped her put it on along with a pair of moccasin slippers and a pair of Capri pajama pants. Together they untangled her curls and put some order to them. Then he helped her walk out into the living room.

Provenza was napping in the Barcalounger and he didn't wake up when they came in the room. Patrice was sitting at the kitchen table, across the room in the kitchen alcove talking on the phone. She waved but continued to talk. A notebook and some printouts were in front of her. Rusty was sitting on the couch studying and the baby was in her bouncy chair on the floor. Her eyes were focused on the toys in front of her and she was trying to reach for them. She didn't appear to be aware Sharon and Andy were in the room at first. She seemed happy and content though. Andy helped Sharon sit with her back to the arm of the sofa. He put a pillow behind her back and a smaller one under her knee. "Are you cold, do you need a blanket? The oxygen? Andy asked concerned.

"I'd love a light blanket please and I think I'm okay without the oxygen for now," Sharon said trying to ease his worry.

Andy nodded as he went and got her a blanket from the bed. Then he got her a bottle of water and brought it over. "Thank you," she said and kissed Andy on the lips. He kissed her back and indicated he'd like to sit with her. She leaned forward so he could get behind her. Once he got settled she sat between his legs like they did at the condo, when they watched movies together.

Rusty was concentrating on his studying so hard he didn't react at first to their voices. It took the feeling of the sofa shifting to make him realize they were sitting beside him on the couch. Rusty dragged his head out of his books and got up from his seat to hug Sharon and squeeze Andy's shoulder, happy to see them. "Hey."

"Hey," Sharon answered back, smiling at their favorite way of greeting each other.

"Soo," Rusty said, and waved a hand indicating her sitting on the sofa with Andy. "Does this mean things are getting back to normal?" he asked hopefully.

"Hmmm," Sharon hummed not knowing how to answer him without deflating his bubble of hope.

"Umm, let's just say that for this moment, I feel a little more rested and a little better. I'd rather not speak of anything beyond that, because well, I have no idea what the next day or even the next moment will bring, really."

"That sounds scary," Rusty said.

"You have no idea," Sharon said smiling tremulously up at him.

Rusty nodded, realizing that she was as freaked out by the situation as he was. He watched her watching the baby. "Would you like to hold her?"

Sharon swallowed. "I… I would, but… I'd like to watch her play for a moment. She's content and I don't want to disturb that."

"I guess, I know what you mean, it doesn't happen very often," Rusty said wryly.

She smacked him on the arm playfully. "Rusty, she's a baby who has been through a lot. She can't help it."

"I know, Mom. I know she can't help it. Thank God, she's been fever free for a whole day. The antibiotics seem to be working and her sniffles seem to be over, but when she's not feeling well, she's a lot of work!"

"Good. I'm glad, because I don't need any more health issues and young man, babies are always a lot of work whether they are sick or well, but they are always, always worth it!" Rusty nodded his agreement. Sharon watched the baby play and knew the moment she realized that she, Sharon was in the room. She had become bored with her toys and turned her head. When her eyes found Sharon, they got big as she stared at her, her hands and arms started moving and her little legs kicked. Her back arched, she smiled and made a sound like a coo. At the same time, her little fingers reached as if to grab for Sharon. Her eyes teared up and she reached for the baby. Rusty put her in her arms and she held her close. She murmured to her even though she knew the baby didn't hear her. She kissed her and smelled her baby scent. "She remembers me," she said with wonder.

"Of course, she does," Rusty said matter of factly. "You were the first person who rocked her and held her so lovingly. My other mother didn't get to hold her till she was a month old and when she did, she was stiff, and didn't really bond with her. I know she loved her, but I also think she was afraid she was going to lose her so she was afraid to get close to her. Plus, she was pretty sick herself right after giving birth. The Lewises didn't really hold her much or if they did they didn't really concentrate on her, like you do, they were too busy talking to each other or other people. Then, because they figured mom wasn't going to live and they were going to be raising her, they named her what they wanted to name her instead of the name my mother picked out."

Sharon looked up at Rusty. Her memories of that time were only vague. She had been dealing with the aftermath of Andy's heart attack and had been so busy caring for him and so terrified she was going to lose him, she'd only been peripherally aware of Rusty's other mother's situation. She hated that he had had to deal with all that on his own. "What name was that?" Sharon pressed her lips together and asked inquisitively.

"Olivia Jane Beck," Rusty answered.

Sharon looked at him in shock. "Really? Your mother wanted to name her Olivia Jane?" She asked with wonder.

Rusty replied, "yeah. Why?"

"It's the name I wanted to name, Emily. After my younger sister, Olivia and I had an Aunt Jane that I was very fond of, but Jack wouldn't let me. He insisted we name her after his mother. They weren't close and I think Jack was always trying to make his mother take notice of him. He thought if he named his first born after her, she'd take notice and… she did for a… a moment." Sharon rolled her eyes. "She sent a letter thanking us for naming the baby after her and then added something like, hopefully she'd be a better person than her father, meaning Jack."

Andy harrumphed. "Sounds like a real piece of work. Did she at least like you?"

"I suppose she liked me better than him," she said with a shrug, "which isn't saying much. I suppose I should have taken the hint and run the other way when I realized his own mother didn't like him, but no, I felt sorry for him. Then there's the irrefutable fact that, if we hadn't gotten together I wouldn't have Emily and Ricky. If I hadn't moved across the country with him, become a police officer and eventually separated from him, we wouldn't have even met let alone be together. So, you know, like they say everything happens for a reason."

"Yeah, there's that," Andy said and kissed her as she looked over her shoulder at him.

Rusty waited for them to finish their banter and their kiss, and then explained his mother's choice of names. "My mother had a friend that helped her during her last stint in rehab. Her name was Jane and she died of breast cancer right after my sister was born. Hers was the house-mom, stayed in last year when Gary was looking for her. Also, she, my mother had an aunt that was going to take her in after she found out she was pregnant with me and her parents kicked her out. The aunt died in a car accident right before I was born. My grandfather was the executor of the will, because she was his sister. When she died, he gave my mom the money she'd been willed but sold the house out from under her and told her to leave. Her aunt's name was…Olivia."

She frowned thinking of all Sharon Beck and her son had been through. "Oh Rusty, that's so sad. My sister, Olivia is a social worker in New York. She lives across the country, but at least she's alive and we Skype occasionally."

"Were you close?" Rusty asked.

"Very. She was born when I was eight. It was like having a live baby doll. My mother had to have a hysterectomy after she was born and so I was the one that cared for Olivia for her first three months of her life. Then my Aunt Jane came to help when I had to go back to school. I grew up, went to college and she was just starting middle school. I met Jack in my Sophomore year and we dated all through the last two years at college, so I wasn't home much. She graduated high school with honors but, over that summer she fell in with a bad crowd and ran away when my parents forbid her to see them. I guess while she lived on the streets she saw a lot of homeless kids, little ones as well as older ones. So, she decided she wanted to be the solution to the problem rather than part of the problem. She went home and began college, switched her major from Art to a dual in Sociology and Psychology. She became the head of the DCFS chapter in, Manhattan after she got her Masters in both Sociology and Psychology." Sharon spoke of her sister's accomplishments proudly.

"Sounds really smart. Did she get married, have kids?" Rusty wondered.

Sharon explained, "Well, she was in love with someone that was... unavailable to her, he was married, but she got pregnant with twins a son Noah and a daughter named Sharon Rose, and then he ended up going back to his wife. She finally found a man that had two children of his own, a daughter whose name is Libby short for Elisabeth and a son named Liam and then they adopted several children that were in the system that were considered unadoptable. I think if it were up to Livvie alone, she'd adopt them all."

Rusty was surprised. "Wow, she sounds a lot like you. I know you feel the same."

"Hmmmm." She hummed and nodded, looking down at the baby in her arms and smiling tenderly at her. The baby had been watching Sharon's face as she spoke and when she stopped speaking, the baby reached up, put her fingers in Sharon's mouth, and tried to lift her head, squirming trying to get in her favorite position. At first Sharon wasn't sure what she wanted, but then Andy helped her understand, by positioning the infant so that her left side of her head was laying in the middle of Sharon's chest near her throat and her bottom rested on Sharon's arm, which lay across the upper part of her stomach. Sharon's other hand then rubbed her back and patted her bottom. This position allowed her to feel the vibrations in Sharon's chest and throat when she spoke.

Rusty watched as Sharon cuddled his baby sister. Rubbing her back and pressing light kisses on her forehead. He cleared his throat and plunged into the subject he'd been thinking about ever since he realized what had happened to his adoptive mother and how it happened. "Anyway, um I was thinking, that since your experience in the hospital with the name Isabel was so bad and she…" he pointed to his sister," is too young to know what her name was and we know now that she's never heard it. I thought… well maybe, we could change it to Olivia Jane. I mean you're going to change the last part, why not change the whole thing?"

Sharon looked up from the baby to ask, "and... you wouldn't mind, if we did that?"

"No, of course not. I'm the one suggesting it and it's not like I have a particular fondness for the name, Isabella," he said pausing as he saw Sharon shudder involuntarily and her face had a pained grimace, for a fleeting moment when he said his sisters name. He knew she was not doing it voluntarily. It seemed to be a knee jerk reaction. Rusty continued, "especially knowing my mother's choice was Olivia Jane. Don't get me wrong, the name she has now is a beautiful name and if my biological mother had chosen it, I'd feel differently, but she didn't, her choice was Olivia Jane and…" He bit his lip before continuing, "that being said, seeing you flinch like you've been slapped every time you hear the name. My feelings aside, I'd probably suggest it anyway, because you don't normally flinch like that, Mom. I mean that time when that guy punched you, the next moment you were like talking to Andrea about being able to make his arrest stick, before you would even allow Andy to put ice on it. I knew then you were a badass!"

Sharon heard the pride he had for her in his voice and the concern. She smiled at him. "Thank you, Rusty. A badass huh?"

Rusty nodded. "You were… are awesome."

Sharon pressed her lips together at his slip of the tongue and decided to go back to the subject of changing the baby's name. She turned to Andy. "What do you think? Would you have a problem with the idea of changing... Isa… her name to Olivia Jane?"

"No, not at all. Like Rusty said, it's not like she's ever heard her name." He stroked the baby's cheek with the back of his index finger and altered his voice as well. "All she cares about right now is the basics of existence. She cares if she's loved, cuddled, fed, and changed when she's wet or messy. That she's not in pain or too cold or too hot or scared or lonely. Her name is something she'll care about when she's older and by that time she'll be Olivia Jane Beck-Flynn."

"Doesn't it seem wrong to you, that we're changing her name because I can't bear to hear her name let alone say it?" She said with a guilty conscience. She felt herself shudder yet again as she remembered being called Isabel and not Sharon. Not even being allowed to say her real name without being given a painful shot and experiencing all the side effects of the drug. The memory was so fresh it made her body shake. She leaned into Andy to try and stop the tremors.

TBC...

Thank you to all that have taken the time to leave a review they are truly appreciated. A special thank you to my devoted readers and repeat reviewers. Reviews really do help keep the motivation flowing.