While You're Making Other Plans
by Glistening Sun and Miss Shannon
9
"You're late, Mister." The unexpected sound of his mother's voice along with the equally unexpected sight of her sitting on his bed made Rusty jump. For a moment he just stood in the doorway, staring at her. She was leaning against the headboard, ankles crossed prettily and hands resting comfortably on her swollen stomach. Like this, it looked too prominent to be hidden under all the flowing dresses, loose blouses and smartly-cut blazers she had bought with Gavin, but he knew that come tomorrow morning, it would be well-camouflaged again and nobody would be any the wiser. One the one hand, it was hard to believe; on the other hand Sharon was simply in the wrong age group to be suspected of being knocked-up. And maybe, just maybe, nobody could really imagine Darth Raydor pregnant. Right now, she looked just that and - or so he had to admit with surprise - quite cute in her leggings and cashmere sweater. However comfortable she looked, her expression was grim.
"Where have you been?" Her voice sounded considerably higher and more airy than usual, so he could tell that he had upset her.
"Sorry, Sharon. We all went to grab a burger after practice and the place had bad reception, so I guess my text didn't get through." The stern look on her face softened a little when she heard that he had actually tried to let her know that he would be late.
"You know I worry," she told him, one corner of her mouth curling into a sheepish half-smile already. Then she reached out for him and ruffled his hair, which was something she didn't do all that often. Or hadn't been doing all that often - back when she hadn't cried about kittens either.
"Is that why you're in my bed?" he grinned in an attempt to lighten the mood.
She cocked her head. "On your bed. That's a big difference. It does not invade your privacy as much." He could tell from the way she tilted her chin that she was a little embarrassed, though.
"Semantics, Sharon," he said. "You and Lil' Peach have made yourself comfortable in here because Flynn isn't home and you're lonely. Admit it."
Sharon rolled her eyes in a manner that looked as if she had unwittingly borrowed it from Flynn and hit Rusty's arm lightly with the back of her hand. "Don't call her that! She's going to be a strong, successful woman someday. She doesn't need a nickname like that."
"What she needs is to be common knowledge," Rusty murmured. "Look at yourself, Sharon. You need to tell people!"
Sharon pursed her lips and snuggled back into Rusty's pillows. "That is where Andy is tonight. He is telling Provenza. Best friend and all, he needs to be told before we tell the team on Monday."
"Figures," Rusty said. "He is going to mad enough as it is."
Sharon grimaced. "I know. I'll never hear the end of it. Somehow he is going to give it a spin that makes it all my fault. He is going to tell everyone who'll listen that I lured his best friend into my bed and made him-"
"I think I get the point!" Rusty quickly interrupted her, slightly worried that she was about to say something that would put unwanted images into his head. He had quite enough of them in there already and he was not so sure whether he would be able to take any more of them. That baby had gotten in there in a way he had never had any attention of thinking about and yet it haunted him daily.
Sharon pursed her lips in that little pout that she always gave him when she was onto something she disapproved of, but she did not elaborate. Looking around the room, she gently rubbed her stomach with one hand.
"Hey!" Her eyes widened slightly when Rusty almost barked at her. "You're scouting my room as a nursery, aren't you? I could tell from the look in your eyes that you were thinking about where to put the crib!"
Sharon looked guilty instantly. "I wasn't, Rusty," she said. "Not really, anyway. This was a nursery when I was first looking to buy the condo. The previous owners had bought a house because they were expecting their second child. That's all, I swear!"
She sounded sincere, almost upset at his accusation, and Rusty wasn't cross with her for thinking along those lines. He had been thinking of moving to a college dorm room for a while now. Unbeknownst to her, of course. After he moved out, he figured, it would be only natural for them to remodel his room into a nursery sooner or later.
"Don't worry about it, Sharon," he told her. "I was just teasing. Actually, I have been looking at dorm rooms. They're not as expensive as I thought and it would be kind of cool to live there."
"Oh Rusty!" Before he knew it, he was enveloped in her arms, face inevitably ending up in her hair. "You don't have to go. I don't want you to go."
He was still not used to her being so emotional, he decided. "Sharon, I may actually want to go," he told her through a mouthful of hair. She drew back to look at him, her eyes expressing pride and hurt and love all at the same time. It was almost overwhelming to see how much she loved him and the little part of him that had been quietly worrying that she would lose interest in him with the arrival of her brand new baby was finally silenced.
"If you want to, we can look at those rooms together," she said with a sad smirk. "And don't worry about the costs. It'll be fine."
"Sharon, you don't have to-"
"Uh-huh!" She held up a finger, now all Darth Raydor again. Nowadays Rusty was almost relieved when she turned up after a prolonged episode of cute Mommy Raydor. "This is not up for debate, Mister." She softened a little and placed two fingers against his cheek, her head tilted and her gaze so very fond. "Just promise me that you let me help you pick a dorm and get you moved there."
Rusty gave her a tentative smile, uttering the first joke he could come up with in order to be able to laugh to chase that feeling of being choked-up out of his throat.
"I doubt that Andy will let you carry any boxes."
She smiled right back at him. "I will leave the hard work to him then, but, Rusty... one more thing."
"Yes?" He reached out and took her hand because she looked so devastated all of a sudden. She squeezed it back much more firmly than he would have expected her to. The gesture helped both of them clear their minds and Sharon looked him straight in the eye.
"Promise me that you will let me know immediately, if you feel like you're being followed or if something is off. Even if it turns out to be a false alarm, Rusty, I need to know that you'll let me know if you think that Stroh is on to you, okay?"
He nodded. "I promise, but it has to go both ways. I need to know if you feel threatened, too, okay?"
Rusty could tell from the look in her eyes that she was not happy with that idea at all, that she would always prefer to keep him in the dark in order to not upset or worry him. But then she nodded, albeit hesitantly.
"Deal."
Before their conversation could turn anymore tearful, they heard the key in the lock. Given the fact that they had just been discussing Stroh, they both tensed before they heard Andy swear as he bumped into the table in the hallway as he did almost every night. They shared a smile at their clumsy new family member.
"I hope Little Peach is going to be a little more graceful than her father," Rusty pointed out and Sharon was still chuckling when Andy came into the room. He looked a little worse for wear, hair ruffled in that way that it always was when he had been running his hand through it in that exasperated manner of his. His eyes were red-rimmed and his tie hung askew. With a sigh, he sat down next to Sharon on the bed and leaned back against the headboard as well. Had he been any other guy, Rusty would have screamed bloody murder at the sight of him making himself so comfortable in his bed, but this was Flynn. He was the closest thing he'd ever had to a dad and he found that it was okay for these two to be in his bed as long as they didn't make out.
"Honey, how was it?" Sharon asked, scooting closer to Andy who had closed his eyes and was responding only slowly to her presence, his arm finally coming around her, hand resting on her waist.
"Terrible," he informed her vaguely then opened his eyes. "Sit up."
"Excuse me?" Sharon wasn't used to commands, least of all by Andy, so she raised her brows challengingly.
"Just do it, woman," Andy groused and she was so surprised that she actually obeyed. Following suit, Andy sat next to her and splayed his fingers wide over the swell of her belly. "There you are, little guy," he said softly, giving Sharon a sheepish smile as he looked up at her again. "Provenza insisted that you couldn't possibly be pregnant. He was so convincing that I almost started believing it myself."
"Oh, honey." Sharon reached out to cup his cheek and stroked it gently with her thumb. "That little foot that just kicked my bladder tells me otherwise."
"He said that we were both crazy and that you were far too old to have babies and that we should stop talking bullshit and start preparing for grandkids. He also said to get medical help for those hallucinations."
Sharon made a strangled sound, but Rusty wasn't sure whether it was meant to express amusement or horror.
"Andy, honey, did you show him the ultrasound images?" Sharon asked softly, using that tone of voice that still baffled Rusty. It was unlike the tone she used with him and her other kids and also unlike the one she used when she talked to her unborn baby. It was certainly different from how she spoke to Jack. It was silky and soft, as if her love for that man affected her speech patterns and Rusty found it horrid and pathetic and also very beautiful all at the same time.
"Of course, I did. I am not stupid. He still didn't believe me. Said that blurry blob might as well be a fractured knee."
Sharon snorted and Rusty rolled his eyes. Even he had been able to recognize the shape of a little human in the pictures, as much as that freaked him out. He was still not entirely convinced that Sharon was not carrying a little alien.
"A fractured knee," Sharon said sarcastically. "Are you sure he hasn't lost his mind?"
"God, he certainly has. Even more so after the seven beers he had tonight. Don't expect him at work before eleven. He knocked over half of his furniture when I got him home and then fell asleep in a kitchen chair twice before I managed to get him into bed."
Sharon put her head on Andy's shoulder and nuzzled his neck slightly.
Rusty put his hand over his eyes.
"Don't worry, honey. He'll come around. You know how he is. Once he comes to terms with truths he doesn't like, he is actually quite good about them."
Andy ran his thumb over a particular spot on her belly, looking pensive. "Have we met the same Provenza?"
Rusty lowered his hand and put his hands on his hips instead as he watched Sharon close her eyes. She was pretty amazing at drifting off to sleep within seconds nowadays and Andy looked pretty beat as well. As cute as they looked snuggled into each other and enjoying their tiny child's kicks, there was one big problem he had with the whole situation.
"Guys, seriously. This is my bed!"
The way they snapped out of their dreamy state told Rusty that they had indeed forgotten about that tiny little detail.
He was most definitely doomed.