A very very sorry for the long delay but grad school, mommy's life ... kept me quite busy. My new year resolution, once more, is to managed to finish all my WIP, starting by this one. If you have ideas, prompts, scenes you'd like to see... let me know ;)

A gigantic thanks to theshadowsedge for her tremendous help.

Hope you'll like it

What was supposed to be a nice and joyous day was … turning to anything but that. Sharon woke up to a message from her boss. She couldn't believe the Pope was asking her to work and even dared to suggest that she shorten her holidays to come back to LA. She hadn't taken a holiday in at least 5 years! It had completely derailed her morning, and her day. Today was their last one in Montreal. They had planned to pack and then to go explore the city some more. She really wanted to visit the MAC and, of course, see the beautiful St Joseph oratory. But thanks to her uncaring boss, she had spent her morning making phone calls while Andy and the kids packed her stuff and went for a quick last visit into town. She didn't even know where they had gone.

She managed to free herself just before noon and meet them for lunch. Then, they took a taxi to go to the uphill church. She missed mass though, so she did not get the chance to walk by Mont-royal cemetery and say a last good bye to her sister.

She tried to keep her irritation to herself but she had to admit she was doing a poor job. She could tell the kids were wondering what was going on with her. At least Andy, as always, knew. She felt so lucky to have someone who knew and understood her so well. He offered her a long hug and a few chosen words about their boss.

But as soon as they got back to the hotel, her mood took another drastic turn. They were late to get Ricky to the airport before leaving for the ski resort of Mont-Tremblant. It stressed her to no end. She knew it was ridiculous. Her boy was not a baby anymore and he traveled all over the world without her. He would be fine waiting for them. She just couldn't help herself. She wanted to be there when he arrived and have a nice and smooth trip.

Alas, it was not going as planned. The car they rented was not returned yet by the previous renters and the company did not manage to contact them. They had chosen a big SUV, large enough to accommodate them all, with a four wheeler drive to be safe on the snowy road. Instead, the company was offering them a minivan. It was not the same, not the same at all. What infuriated her even more was to see Andy so accommodating. He did not even raise his voice a single time on the clerk and even marveled at how nice and luxurious the car was. She couldn't care less that it had a magsafe charger and a warming steering wheel. She wanted a four wheeler and she wasn't having it. Her anxiety rose some more. Would they be able to reach their cottage? She took a deep breath and got in the car.

Ricky's flight had already landed. She just wanted to go and see him now. The GPS said it would take them about 20 minutes to reach the airport and she figured it would take him about that time to go through the border and get his bagages. Of course, in not even fifteen minutes they were already quite close to the airport, Andry was driving like a maniac. He was going from one lane to the other, accelerating, braking. She hated when he was driving like that. She knew it was partially due to her anxiety to see Ricky. She closed her eyes for a moment, the bad energy of the car flooding her senses. When she opened them, she nearly screamed : "You missed the exit!" pointing to the GPS. Andy did not even look at her and just said. "Yeah, well, it must be a mistake because the signs say to go over there to enter the parking lot. Look, there's major roadblocks," he said calmly while driving the car past the first exit ramp. Effectively there was a lot of construction and he was right. Still, it pissed her off some more.

Finally, they ended up waiting for Ricky. The airport hallway was gigantic and the outside wind was blowing through it. Sharon was frozen but, happy to see her big boy. The problem was, with the fatigue and the fact they had to go back to a very cold car after facing the icy winds, she couldn't warm up. Of course, her seat was not working properly and the seat warmer wouldn't turn on. Her irritation was growing and growing. In the back seat, her three kids were starting to be wary of her mood. They wondered if something happened between her and Andy, they were not used to such a temper from her. "damn it, Andy, can't you drive safely?!" She snapped a few minutes after they left the airport. they all froze, bad memories from their childhood coming back. All of them had seen their parents fight way too many times. To their surprise, the lieutenant did not say a word but cast her a challenging look.

The next hour was filled with tension. Rusty was trapped between his brother and sister on the backseat and they were quarreling to know who was taking too much room, pushing each other. "Are you done?!" Hissed their mother, turning around. They all stopped dead in their tracks, her gaze menacing. When she turned back in her seat, she snapped shut the radio. No one dared to move or say a word, all fearing what was to come. Ricky and Emily had witnessed enough disputes between their parents to know how mean their mother could be. They remembered yelling and stomping around and drinking, lots of drinking from their father and then even more yelling. Rusty had rarely seen a couple quarrel, his mother going directly for yelling and hitting, before being hit herself. It was not something he wanted to witness ever again, not something he thought could happen with Andy and Sharon. He felt extremely worried because he had never seen them like that. They had some differences but nothing to that extent, never.

The GPS said in its robot voice to merge on the right but Andy did none of it. He stayed right where he was, in the middle of the highway and passed past the highway intersection. "What did you do?" asked Sharon, her voice cold and angry as she sat straighter in her seat. "Can't you listen to the GPS for once? I wonder why you put it on since you never ever …"

"Are you done?" asked the older man, his tone aloof. "Look Babe, I'm the one driving... There's a sign right there that says the exit is closed, but if you want to drive, be my guest. We can switch places, no problem" Without adding anything else, he signaled and took the nearest exit. No one dared say a word, not even Sharon who was fuming, to her kids' concerns. He parked and stopped the car. When no one made a move, he said : "Let's go eat." The kids gathered their stuff and dashed out. The car wasn't sound proofed enough for them not to hear Andy when he said: "You're really a witch when you're hungry, good thing I love you and there is a restaurant just there."

The meal was good and Andy didn't seem fazed at all. He made small talk with all of them, asked about Ricky's trip, talked about Emily's projects. Sharon barely said a word until the end of the meal. Her kids still felt very uneasy but since Andy was talking, they talked too. As the white haired man got up to pay the bill, Sharon followed him.

"I'm sorry. You're right, I've been a …" she started.

"A handful?!" he asked with his boyish smile. She couldn't help but laugh and lean into him. He welcomed her in his arms and let her kiss him. "I'm sorry everything was not like you wanted but you can't take it on me, or on the kids, babe." He told her gently, looking her deep in the eyes while holding her face between his big warm hands. "But at least, we're sure Wonder Woman is human." He teased her. She elbowed him gently just as the cashier arrived. She kissed him once more and went back to their table.

"Hum.." she started, feeling her cheeks heat up. She could see how worried they all were, especially now that she was talking to them by herself with unease. "I… I shouldn't have acted like that. I'm a bit stressed out and…"

"You were cold, and hungry." finished the kids for her.

"Still not a reason." She said, "I'm really sorry."

"We're not the ones you have to apologize the most." Said Ricky, unsure of what was happening with his step father was not coming back just yet.

"It's already done. And I plan to make it up to him" she finished, love in her eyes as she spotted Andy coming back to them.

"OMG Mom!" Screamed Rusty, making them all laugh and forget about the tension