A Series Of Unfortunate Events

Chapter 43

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

Andy and Sharon walked side by side into the family room, where all the guests were congregating.
The room was done up with pink and blue balloons for Olivia and Rusty, and wine colored balloons for Sharon and Andy. There was a big sign over the fireplace that said Congratulations Flynn Family and their new additions. Olivia and Rusty Beck-Flynn. Although Rusty had already been adopted by Sharon he was being adopted by Andy today. He'd thought about it since they'd spoke in the desert and had decided he definitely wanted to be a Beck-Flynn.

As Sharon and Andy looked around they saw Judge Richwood, Judge Grove, Hobbs, Amy and Chuck, and the rest of the team. They all waved and Sharon and Andy waved back. Julio and Mark, Wes, Mike Tao and his wife Kathy, Provenza and Patrice waved at them too. They didn't go over to speak to them because they didn't want to overwhelm Sharon or the baby who had woke up and was looking wide-eyed at the crowd. Rusty was in the kitchen with Eileen, Emily, and Ricky were serving hors devours. Buzz pointed his camera at them as they entered the room. "Say cheese and crackers!" he said. Sharon and Andy posed for the picture with him holding Olivia on one arm sitting up against his chest facing out, her little legs dangling over his forearm. Sharon was turned into his side and tucked under his other arm which circled her waist. One of her arms was around his back and the other on Olivia's chest to keep her steady.

"Cheese and Crackers," they said smiling widely. Sharon chuckled as she caught the look on Olivia's face after the flash went off. She pursed her tiny lips and blinked pushing back into Andy's chest. She blinked again and her bottom lip started to quiver uncertainly, she looked like she wasn't sure whether she wanted to laugh or cry. Sharon took her from Andy and held her close, letting her see her smiling. She kissed both her cheeks and made a raspberry sound on her neck. Olivia made a delighted sound, a mix of a chortle and a hoarse chuckle. Then Sharon looked around the room for somewhere to sit. Fortunately, Andy was well versed in reading her body language, he could tell she was starting to have pain from standing too long.

Their sons, Rusty and Ricky had moved the sofa and coffee table out of the family room to make space for their guests. There were several folding chairs with padded seats scattered around the room, but the red overstuffed easy chair was for Sharon. He began guiding her to the chair which was in the middle of the room so she could be in the middle of the festivities but not have to be on her feet too long. Her back and knees and shoulders were still painful from everything she'd been through recently and she got fatigued quickly. Once Sharon was seated she arranged Olivia on her lap so she could see the crowd.

Kathy Tao, dressed in a navy blue and white skirt and blouse set, Amy, dressed in a short black and white sleeveless dress, Andrea, in a pair of black silky slacks and a white pearlescent button down blouse with a black jacket to match her pants, and Patrice in a sleeveless electric blue sundress that reached her knees, all came over bringing chairs with them. They each sat down facing Sharon and the baby. Andrea said without preamble, "My goodness, isn't she adorable and she's so tiny! She really must have been early!"

Sharon nodded. "Her and Rusty's birth mother, Sharon Beck suffered from preeclampsia when she was six-months pregnant, Olivia was born at twenty-eight weeks. She's not even on the charts for size in her age group. She's also hearing impaired and yet, in spite of that, although she should only be only three- months adjusted. She has so much personality, she seems to be behaving very close to her gestational age, which is one week short of six months."

Andrea and Amy stared back at her, a blank look on their face. Neither knew anything about babies, never having had any of their own. Before Sharon could explain what she meant, Kathy Tao spoke up,
"three months adjusted means that even though she is close to being six-months-old. She should be performing in some ways as if she were three or four months developmentally because if she had been born on her due date that's how old she would be. She will most likely be caught up by the time she's around two or three . My youngest son was born at thirty weeks, so I know the preemie language. She's adorable, Commander. It's actually remarkable that she's not behind given everything she's been through not to mention the challenge of being hearing impaired."

"Kathy, call me Sharon, I'm only the Commander at… at work." Sharon turned her face away and swallowed the lump in her throat, blinking back tears that were forming behind her eyes. She had thought she was prepared emotionally to be called Commander, given the guest list but she realized a little late that she wasn't as prepared as she thought she was. Being called Commander reminded her of her loss, temporary or not. She missed her job and her team so much. Her friends noticed the unshed tears and politely looked away to give her time to pull herself together. Kathy felt like kicking herself for opening up that can of worms. She should have realized Sharon would want to be called by her name not her title at home.

Patrice reached out, squeezed Sharon's hand and gave her a sympathetic smile. Sharon squeezed back, took a deep breath and pressed her lips together. She was about to go on with her explanation when a gesture Olivia made caught her eye. Her mouth dropped open in amazement. She followed the baby 's line of sight and saw that her mother and Andy were on their way over to her with a bottle for Livie and some glasses of punch and hors devours for her and her guests. Olivia was starting to squirm in her excitement at seeing her bottle. She made a sound like a hum and made a loose fist with her thumb stuck out touching her lips as if she were going to suck her thumb and then she bent her head back as if she was drinking from her thumb. Sharon explained, "She's very smart, very observant. She watches everything very closely. We've been exposing her to baby sign language and apparently, she made the connection for at least one sign. That's the sign for drink. Look Andy, Mama, she's signing drink!"

"Sharon darling, I told you she'd catch on quick!" Said Eileen the proud Grandma.

"Hey! That's my big girl," Andy said and grabbed the bottle from the tray Eileen was carrying to give It to Olivia. Her reward for signing. He squatted so that he was eye level with Livie. He kissed her cheek. She patted his face and grabbed his nose, uncoordinatedly but with affection. Then he gave her her bottle, and she popped it into her mouth.

Sharon watched them, she could never get enough of watching Andy with Olivia. He could be a tough detective on the job but he was putty in hers and Olivia's hands. Sharon then caught herself and made the introductions in the order in which they were sitting. "Mama, I'd like you to meet some friends of mine. This is Kathy Tao, Lieutenant Mike Taos wife, and Amy is a detective in my division, Andrea Hobbs is the Deputy DA, and last but definitely not least, this is Patrice, who is also Lt. Provenza's wife. Everyone this is my mother Eileen O'Dwyer."

Eileen smiled shyly at the four ladies and said, "I'm so glad to meet friends of Sharon's. Although Sharon, Patrice and I already know each other. We met… at The Three Palms. Remember?"

Sharon's eyes darted from side to side as she searched her memory. Events from that time had been shoved to the back of her mind for the sake of her sanity and weren't all that easy to access. She did remember that her parents had arrived at the Three Palms shortly before she and Andy had after her stint in the psych ward and that Patrice and Provenza were already there too, so they would have had time to meet. She nodded briefly, embarrassed that she had failed to remember before.

"Nice to meet you too Mrs. O'Dwyer," said the other three women.

"Nice to see you again, Mrs. O'Dwyer," Patrice said.

Eileen shook her head, "Oh no, don't call me that. We're all adults, call me Eileen or Leena," she said in an inviting way.

All four women smiled at Eileen but eyed Sharon to get a clue as to whether that was alright with her.
Sharon shrugged and made a go-ahead gesture, smiling.

Then Eileen started handing out drinks and plates of hors devours. "Thank you, Mrs… um... Eileen."

"Thank you, Mama," said Sharon and the other ladies.

"You're welcome, ladies. Eat up! The ceremonies will be starting shortly. We're just missing Nicole, Dean and the children, and Gavin," she said a little worriedly.

"They'll be here Eileen, they're just stuck in traffic. It'll be at least another fifteen minutes," Andy said, putting his cell phone in his pocket after receiving a text from Nicole.

"Yes, I'm beginning to see that traffic in LA is an entity in itself and a valid excuse to be late," Eileen said jokingly.

The four women nodded vehemently in agreement and turned their attention back to Sharon and Olivia who had taken the bottle out of her mouth when she saw Sharon's plate of hors devours.

"Do you want some, my little darling?" Sharon asked in that voice you use when you are talking to an infant. Opening her mouth like a little bird Olivia made noises indicating she did, in fact, want some, in fact she was demanding it. She was kicking her little legs a mile a minute. Sharon took a little bit of the custard from a crème puff on her finger and put it on the baby's tongue. Olivia rolled it around in her mouth testing it, making humming noises. "There you go, my little minx. Do you like it?"

Kathy Tao said, "it looks like she's got you wrapped around her little finger."

Sharon snort laughed. "Ya think?" She joked ironically. "Kathy, on paper I'll be listed as her adopted mother but really, I'm old enough to be her grandmother several times over. Raising a baby this late in the game was not on our radar but since my children don't seem all that interested in making me a grandmother any time in the near future. Nicole's children and Olivia are the closest I'll probably ever come to being a grandmother… in my… in my… lifetime.. so I feel… justified in spoiling her a bit," Sharon said, swallowing the lump in her throat. Why, oh why must everything she thought or said have to be an emotional minefield? She wondered. Sharon pressed her lips together and took deep cleansing breaths. Trying not to be obvious, she blinked back the tears she refused to allow to fall.

Patrice patted her hand and told her," you can never really spoil a baby. They need all the love and care they can get. This little one is very lucky to have you and Andy to love her no matter how old you are."

Once that was said everybody turned their gazes on Olivia trying to give Sharon a moment to compose herself, once again. Olivia, realizing she was suddenly the center of attention was suddenly overcome by a powerful case of shyness. She popped her bottle back into her mouth and tried to curl into Sharon, peeking at them from over her tiny shoulder. Amy, Kathy, Andrea, and Patrice made a collective, "Awwwww," sound.

"She is is so adorable. If I thought mine would be that adorable I'd give in to Coopers nagging me to have a baby," Amy said, wistfully.

"If I thought mine would be that cute, I would have had one too. Wait… who am I kidding? No, I wouldn't have! They're only cute if they belong to someone else," Andrea joked ironically. Everybody in their little circle laughed heartily. All of them aware that the DDA's gruff exterior masked a soft heart.

Andy had left the girls to talk and had been over talking to Provenza but he was suddenly at Sharon's elbow. He bent and whispered in her ear, "Judge Richwood is on his way over here."

Sharon followed Andy's line of sight and saw the judge picking his way through the crowd. She turned to her friends and asked apologetically, "ladies could you… um… give us a moment? Please?" The women looked up and saw the judge making his way across the room toward them. Assuming correctly that he was coming over to finalize things with the soon to be Flynn's, they nodded and taking their chairs over closer to the patio they sat together to talk. Sharon watched them leave and wished she hadn't had to dismiss them. She just wanted to focus on what the judge had to say incase he had concerns they needed to address.

Looking she saw the judge standing before her in a dark grey suit a pink shirt, and a pink and gray striped tie. He was not wearing his robes. He held a glass of punch in his hand and a plate of hors devours. "Good afternoon, Sharon, Andy. You are looking beautiful, Sharon and this must be Olivia." Sharon smiled at him and started to stand but he shook his head, "No, don't get up I'll sit down here beside you, so we can talk more comfortably." He pulled up a chair and sat down.

TBC...

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