While You're Making Other Plans
by Glistening Sun and Miss Shannon
21
"Sharon? Honey?" Andy's chest felt constricted with the panic that was starting to grip him. The sheets around him were wet and Sharon was making sounds of discomfort, holding on to him for warmth in her semi-asleep state. Her gaze focused when he spoke to her and she blinked sleepily.
"I'm cold," she said pitifully, her voice heavy with sleep which led to her slurring her words slightly. Andy would have found it cute if he hadn't been that worried.
"Sweetheart, the bed is wet," he whispered, his voice weak and flat with fear. "Is it the baby? Is it coming now? Did your water break?"
Sharon was awake with a start, her eyes widening in fear. "Oh my God, Andy. I don't feel like I'm- no. No! This can't be. We have a few months to go yet!"
Andy was still paralyzed with fear, but Sharon reached over and switched the bedside lamp on. For a moment they both blinked against the bright light then Andy froze. The sheets were absolutely soaked. Even though he knew from dreadful experience that there could be a hell of a lot of amniotic fluid, this could not possibly be it, because there would have been no rational explanation for it dripping from the ceiling.
Sharon was sitting up in bed, staring up at the ceiling in horror, her wet pajama top clinging to her.
"Oh my God," she whispered, then got louder. "Oh my God, I told them to fix the goddamn leak! I didn't tell them once. I TOLD THEM FIVE TIMES!" She threw back the wet covers and got to her feet more quickly than Andy had previously believed her still able to be. Before he had even recovered from the shock of believing that their child would be born so early that its chances of survival were close to zero, Sharon had already grabbed her cell phone from the dresser.
"Mr. Peters, this is Sharon Raydor. I would apologize for waking you in the middle of the night, but I am far too mad for pleasantries. I told you several times - even in writing - that there is a leak in one of the pipes belonging to the pool up on the roof. Now guess what! It is three in the morning and I am in my bedroom which is absolutely soaked in water with more water dripping from the ceiling. My fiancé almost had a heart attack!" She calmed down and listened for a moment. "Damn right, you will. I might even sue you! Goodbye!"
Andy stared at her, speechless. Now he vaguely remembered being amused by Sharon's continued harassment of the building super because she was convinced that the leaking pipe under the pool would burst one day and release the floods into her condo. He had laughed at her then, but she had once again turned out to be right. She put her hands on her hips, her wet hair sticking to her forehead and neck, her wet top nicely accentuating the outline of her breasts.
"And you were making fun of me for insisting that the leak must get fixed," she accused him, eyes blazing. Damn, he had kind of hoped that she would let that one slip.
Andy untangled the wet sheets from his legs with some effort and opened his arms. "Come on, admit that you've always wanted to make love in the ocean!"
"I am not in the mood," Sharon growled and turned on her heel. The wet carpet made sucking sounds as she walked into the hallway, presumably to assess the damage to the rest of her condo. It turned out that the bedroom was the only room that had been affected while a very sheepish-looking Mr. Peters and his team could stop the flow of the water before any other rooms could turn into shower cubicles.
Early morning found Sharon and Andy on the couch both wearing sweaters and sweatpants Ricky had left on his last visit, snuggled together under a blanket for warmth while Rusty was in the kitchen making coffee and laughing so hard that tears were running down his face and he was doubling over from the pain in his stomach.
Sharon, on the other hand, was far from amused. Andy had seen her grumpy on quite a few instances during her pregnancy, but today took the cake. And understandably so. She was following Rusty's movements with her eyes, arms folded in front of her chest.
"This is not funny," she said for the third time, her voice now less angry and more worried. "The bedroom is uninhabitable and will be for a few weeks at least." She leaned back against the back of the couch and sighed dramatically. "Why does this have to happen now?" she lamented and placed both of her hands over her swollen belly.
Rusty tried his best to stop laughing, but the sight of his wet and dripping mother and her fiancé wearing Ricky's weird Star Wars hoodies that Rusty was sure he had left with them on purpose was just too much. They looked like idiots. He did feel sorry for Sharon, especially now that she was so eager to get everything ready for her baby, but he just couldn't help himself.
She shot him a dirty look as she went to make herself a cup of tea while Rusty wondered whether she was aware of the fact that there was an image of the death star splayed across her baby bump. With Ricky having been socialized in the nineties, his sweaters were baggy enough to still fit her despite her obvious pregnancy. Sharon rubbed her belly and winced.
"You okay?" Rusty inquired quickly. Despite the hilarity of the situation, he was aware that all the stress that came along with having a pool empty itself upon you through your bedroom ceiling was not exactly what the doctor ordered for a high risk pregnancy patient. (Not even Doc Cottle who they all knew had a highly questionable sense of humor.)
Sharon's expression softened a little. "I'm fine." She sighed again. "It's just that I am pregnant and grumpy and I don't have a place for my Little Peach to sleep now that my bedroom is flooded with pool water."
"You can have my room," Rusty offered, sensing an opportunity. "I could, like, totally get a dorm room."
Sharon smiled indulgently. "That is very sweet of you, Rusty, but I won't drive you out of your home. Besides, it is very hard if not impossible to find student housing in the middle of term."
She patted his cheek and walked past him to get some honey for her tea. She looked so cute in her hoodie and with the slight waddle that had snuck into her walk lately. He knew that she would never have him sleep on the couch even if he offered, but he couldn't imagine her and Andy fitting on it even if it was pulled out. And she could hardly stay at hotel for an undisclosed amount of time while renovations were under way...!
She turned around and narrowed her eyes. "What is it, Rusty?" He knew that tone. Her voice always went up like this when she was pretending to be innocent while she was actually dead suspicious of someone. He didn't care right now, though. He just wanted his Mom to be able to rest comfortably and be able to live out her nesting instincts to the fullest.
"You know what, Sharon? I kind of have a dorm room already. The one I wanted to take a few weeks ago? I've been paying for it for-"
He knew that he had made the wrong call when he saw the look in her eyes. This was Darth Raydor at her finest and the death star hoodie did nothing to distract from it.
"What?" she asked in that low dangerous voice of hers that everyone who knew her came to fear sooner or later. "Why would you have that kind of money?"
"Eh..." Rusty began and made another mistake: He looked over at Flynn for help.
"Andy," Sharon's voice had dropped almost an entire octave. "What have you done?"
Andy ran a nervous hand through his hair and shot Rusty an angry look. "Sweetheart, you were so upset with your blood pressure and all, so I asked Rusty to hold off on the moving out thing and paid for his room, so he would have it once you've had the baby."
Sharon put her hands on her hips. "You've been doing this behind my back!"
"I told you we shouldn't lie to her!" Rusty said stupidly and then wished that he hadn't.
Sharon's face had frozen and turned into an impenetrable mask. "At least we know where you are going to sleep tonight, Andy," she said, then stabbed his chest with her finger. "In the doghouse."
And with that, she marched off.
/
"Your man will get jealous if you cuddle up to me like this." Sharon just groaned and buried her head in Gavin's shoulder. He smelled good. Comforting and familiar and so did his guest room in which she had regularly stayed over after their monthly Chardonnay nights when she had been no longer safe to drive. Gavin had raised an eyebrow at the wet heap of clothes she had handed him upon her arrival, but had then wordlessly washed and dried them, so she had a clean pair of her own pajamas to wear and was no longer confined to her son's atrocious Star Wars hoodie. They were stretched out on the queen-sized bed in Gavin's ridiculously lavish guest room eating little treats from his favorite Italian deli and drinking champagne and orange juice respectively.
"Don't you think you're being a little hard on the poor guy?" Gavin probed gently. He understood why she was that upset, but he also suspected that it had more to do with the fact that her bedroom had been flooded than with Andy Flynn's perceived betrayal.
"He's overbearing, Gavin," Sharon groaned. "Yes, I do feel more comfortable with Rusty around while Stroh is still on the loose. Yes, I do appreciate that Andy is trying to keep all kinds of stress away from me, but I am so sick of being treated like a child."
"A child you are not," Gavin poked her stomach playfully.
"Ouch," Sharon complained and rubbed the spot. "Don't do that."
"You'll have to decide what you want for yourself, dear," Gavin told her wisely. "He's not going to change."
Sharon rolled onto her back and looked at the ceiling. "No, he's not." She turned her head and looked at her best friend. "Why do I love the idiot so much? It makes everything so very complicated."
Gavin took a sip of his champagne then toasted her with the flute. "Life is funny that way, Sharon Raydor. I do remember you complaining about him and his countless misgivings and insisting that you did not find him the least bit attractive when you were still in FID."
Sharon pouted. "I didn't."
"'course you didn't, Little Miss Prim and Proper."
"He meant well what with the whole dorm room scheme," Sharon said after a moment of silence. "I know that, but he needs a night alone to think about it."
"And you need to figure out the sleeping arrangements while the builders are there."
Sharon groaned again. "Why can't I stay with you forever?"
"Because, my precious little snowflake," he patted her stomach gently. "You are in for some little feet making an appearance and I am so not game for that."
Sharon was laughing and Gavin could feel the baby react to it underneath his hand. It was a curious thing, this pregnancy of hers.
"This apartment is not designed to host children and that you know. In fact, my ears are not designed to suffer through any prolonged bout of crying, my furniture is not designed to-"
"Okay, okay, I get it." Sharon was still laughing. "Fair enough."
Gavin lay on his side next to Sharon and left his hand on her belly where she was still on her back. She smiled at him and placed her hand on top of his.
"Does he make you happy, that Andy?" he asked her softly. These two were so different and sometimes he worried that it would not work. Her smile told him that his fears were unfounded.
"He's an idiot, but he is my idiot. I'll take him back tomorrow." She closed her eyes and yawned. "I got far too little sleep last night. Even Little Peach is tired."
"Night night then, Little Peach," Gavin said lightly. He was about to get off of the bed to leave Sharon to her dreams when her phone cut through the comfortable silence, the vibrating sound loud and ominous on the wooden bedside table. Sharon blinked sleepily and grabbed the phone, inspecting the screen. She rolled her eyes and answered it.
"Lieutenant Provenza, I was just about to turn in for the night," she said sharply. While she listened to her lieutenant's voice on the line, her face suddenly looked drained of all color.