Promises and Pain- Ch 7

Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine; James Duff, et al, has that lovely distinction.

A/N: Those scenes with Jack and Sharon were quite powerful. Tag to 3.17. I'm always happy to hear comments of any kind. Hope you enjoy!

A/N 2: Really wanted fluff and happiness to round this whole thing out so here it is. Thanks for your reviews, favorites and follows. They were a bright spot during these last few snowy days.

~~~~~PT~~~~~

It had taken them three times to get to this point, this place where they now were. It had taken anger, harsh words, whispers and caresses. It had taken tears together and separately for them to reach their final understanding of what they were. More than friends, so much more, lovers in fact, but it had taken them three times to get that settled between them. To be comfortable with their new relationship beginning and their pasts put where they belonged.

That night they had spoken with Rusty about their relationship and informed him that Andy would be around more often; starting with spending the weekend with Sharon. Of course, he was happy for both of them, but mostly Sharon, and not the least bit surprised about this new development. While they were eating dinner together, he noticed the new looks, the smiles and touches. Most importantly, to him anyway, was the way Flynn looked at Sharon, his mother. Even he could tell they were in love and happy. Sharon was happy.

Sharon had asked Andy to text Provenza before she called out again for the next day. He had showed her the exchange.

She loves me too. Take yourself out of the bet. Oh God. I mean good for you, Flynn. No! It's based on dates you guys started not when I found out.

Thanks. We're good. You have a conflict, my friend. Glad to hear it. Don't want to see it though. No mushy-mushy when I'm over to watch the games. No conflict. I guessed too early anyway. So I've lost.

I'll make sure I really kiss her during the game just for you. I'm gonna be sick. You coming in tomorrow or you too busy being in love?

I'm out tomorrow. The kids showed me how to do that. Okay, have a good weekend. Damn smiley face. Love. I'm gonna be sick.

When he had seen her name calling him, Provenza answered with, "You fixed it."

"I did," she answered softly. "I'm glad I could."

"Me, too. You out tomorrow? Flynn's staying home to be in love so I guess you are too."

"It would only make sense, Lt Provenza, that I stay home too."

"Gah, don't put nightmarish images in my head. Have a good weekend, Captain."

"Thank you, Lt, you do as well."

"Oh, and Captain? He sounds happy. Stupid smiley face text. Keep him that way."

"I certainly intend to and the smiley is cute."

"Gah," he said as he hung up.

They snuggled up on the couch, Sharon reading while Andy watched a game. Sneaking in kisses throughout the plays, he was glad for instant replay and rewind. Not that he minded snuggling and kissing during the game, he admitted to himself, even when he missed the best play of the night because he couldn't break away from her. They had come pretty close to making love on the couch until they remembered Rusty was in his bedroom and might come out for something to drink. He had trouble concentrating on the game after that though he pretended he was.

Friday she took him for a thorough tour of her neighborhood. He knew her favorite places to eat and to do some of her food shopping. He had discovered these as her friend. But this tour included everything including the dry cleaner she used. He had suggested that maybe sometimes he could handle some of the errands.

Smiling, she had told him, "Of course, that's why I'm showing you all the mundane parts of my life you never knew about as my friend." Kissing him, she had asked in follow up, "Are you still sure you want to spend an entire weekend with me, Andy?"

His response was to grab the items she had just picked up and place them in his trunk. "You ain't getting rid of me that quickly. I can handle errands." As he turned on the ignition, he said, "Oh speaking of errands. We gotta stop at my place. I only brought enough to get me through today. I'm wearing a damn suit on my day off, Sharon."

Laughing, she watched as he merged into traffic, cutting someone off. She decided to ignore it. He already knew what she thought of his driving habits sometimes. "The things you do for me, Andy. You can show me your neighborhood then."

"Uh-uh, first of all, I already have and second of all, I'm gonna be at your place so I gotta know your neighborhood."

"If you keep talking like that, it'll be our neighborhood soon enough."

Taking her hand, "That scare you?"

She thought before answering. "Before it would have. Now it doesn't. We're okay, Andy."

"Good, let's go get me some more clothes."

"After that I'm taking you out to dinner. I'm hungry."

He started to argue about paying until she teasingly reminded him he's wearing a suit on his day off and he'd be wearing it the next day too if she didn't pay. He reluctantly relented. Then it occurred to him that he was driving his car so he'd be able get his clothes. "I'll focus your energy on other things and you'll forget why we went there." He had happily agreed to let her pay then though he still wanted her to focus his energies elsewhere when they got to his place.

Saturday they spent the day cleaning house before he took her out to the movies. He couldn't help but notice that it was pretty easy to clean her place when it's already clean to begin with.

Most of the time was spent rearranging her bedroom. She had to make space for him in her closet and her dresser as well as set up the other bedside table for him and make some room in her bathroom for his personal items.

It had occurred to her the day before to ask him why he had so much stuff but she hadn't wanted to start anything. Plus she was hungry and the sooner they left his place, the sooner she would eat. But today, as she was helping him put his belongings away, she got the nerve to ask. "Is this all of your clothing, Andy?"

He looked nervous. "No, but is it still too much?"

"I think you might be running out of here before you wear it all but it's fine with me."

"I managed to get you to include me in your most precious of places, your closet, you really think I'm not planning on spending as much time here as I can?"

"I just think after two weekends and a whole week in between, you'll see that my life is pretty normal and boring, according to Rusty."

"I'm good with normal and boring. I'm also good with errands and cooking and cleaning." He pulled her to him. "I'm also good with kissing and making love whenever we want to and saying I love you in person, not over the phone." He had kissed her then, passionately, and when she responded with everything she had, he had thought of moving her to the bed. Instead he had pulled away slightly. Just enough to tease, "I not only made that our bed but this our room."

He smiled at her and she melted but then reality reared in her head. "You work very quickly, Andy, I'm just afraid that as quick as it happened, that's how quickly it'll burn out."

"Because that's what happened to both of us with our exes. Not gonna happen to us. We know better. And, Sharon, seriously, we happened quickly? Cuz I seem to recall a little white lie to Nicole that lasted about a year."

"That was our friendship becoming more. Our feelings deepening over time. But this…this is fast."

"I'm not moving in. Yet, anyway. I'm not trying to scare you, Sharon. I'm actually trying to show you that I'm not gonna be running off the first time you're reading some boring book while one of the best games is on TV. Which, wait, that already happened and I'm still here." He kissed her. "If you want me to take the stuff back,…"

"I don't," she cut him off, "let's make this our bedroom before we leave for the movies. I get to pick."

"Don't you always?" he smirked.

Raising her eyes to the ceiling, she replied, "Normally, yes, but you always seem to enjoy them as well in the end."

"Yeah, you do have good taste. You picked me to date after all." He smiled as he grabbed more clothes to hang up. "You sure you're good with this? Cuz I can…"

"I'm fine, I'm good, whichever word will reassure you that I have no qualms about you moving in or rather your stuff moving in."

"One foot in the door," he called from the closet. "We ain't as young as we used to be, Raydor."

"Stuff it, Flynn," she laughed.

"Oh, it's been years since you've used that one on me." Popping his head out, he asked, "Do you realize we could make love in this closet of yours? I'm just saying."

"You are bound and determined to make love everywhere in this condo, aren't you?" She smiled despite herself.

"Slowly making it our place. Give me a few months, Sharon. If you can still stand me by then and aren't chasing me out the door with a rolling pin, it'll be our place."

Standing with her hands on her hips, "A rolling pin? Really?"

"You bake so you've got one of those."

"Yes, but it doesn't mean I'm going to chase you with it. I've never once done that, with anyone."

"Even those who deserved it?"

"Yes, even those," she said as she sat on the bed.

"Good, I'm safe then." Picking up the last suit, he announced, "Thanks for helping me, I'm done. We are free to go fulfill your occasional taste for theatre popcorn."

"And the movie itself."

"Oh, I've discovered your secret, Sharon," he teased coming back into the room, "you secretly want the theatre popcorn and the only way to get it was to make these movies sound like the greatest thing on earth."

"Not true," she pulled him onto the bed with her now. Kissing him, she whispered huskily, "Do you know what I want more than theatre popcorn right now?"

"I can't imagine," he smirked as her hands moved over him. "You might have to be more explicit."

Laughing, she whispered in his ear enough details to make even him flush with excitement. "We might be going to a later movie," he said as they began working on removing each other's clothing.

Sunday she had invited him to join her and Rusty at Church. He'd have felt guilty if he said no, nervous if he said yes. It had been a while since he'd gone there and there was always that odd little worry about the building collapsing on him. In the end he joined them.

He was halfway through the Mass when he held her hand. Hearing the lady behind them muttering something about bringing a new man with her to Church, he turned around and whispered At least she's got a man, a man who loves her causing Rusty to softly chuckle and Sharon to glare at all three of them. "What? We can hold hands in Church, Sharon, they changed the rules, ya know."

Pursing her lips, she knew that wasn't an argument she'd win. She looked around. The younger adults were doing it all the time. "You win, Andy." She took his hand in her own.

After having breakfast at the diner, Rusty had plans so they had the rest of the day to themselves. After making love in parts other than their room, they were settled down eating lunch when the call from Provenza came in. "Weekend's over, Captain. I'm not even bothering to call Flynn. You can update him on the way over here."

"Thank you, Lt, text me the details of where I'm going and why I'm going to a crime scene when you are perfectly capable of handling it yourself."

"Taylor's here."

"Enough said." She hung up her phone, kissed Andy, and said, "Weekend's over, Andy, duty calls and Taylor's already there."

"Oh for crying out loud," he grumbled.

"We'll have the whole week and next weekend together if your clothes are any indication," she smiled as she got ready to leave. "We'll take one car. It's Sunday, our day off, I really don't care right now."

"This is gonna be our place in no time." He smiled and kissed her once more before opening the door for them.

Back to reality but home life was nice, very nice.

[The End]