This is really something wonderful. The Sharon/Rusty relationship is the non-case thing I think the show does best, but there is still a lot left to the imagination. You've fleshed the episodes of a pivotal season out into something lovely on its own, and completely believable given what made air.

Firstly, I feel the need to apologise for all the typos in my reviews. Auto correct gets me every time. Sorry!

But that last paragraph? Seriously! That killed me. Poor Sharon :-(

I actually imagine this is how things went down after this episode. Perfect post EP fic. So much for Sharon yo deal with at the moment, and so son after the divorce ( I didn't make that connection earlier, but hey, let's just lad more guilt onto her shoulders lol)'. But the utterly stupid part, I actually felt sorry for Jack in that final scene. It in no way cancelled out my empathy for Sharon, but I have experience with gamblers and it's hard not to want to believe them when they apologise. Anyway.. I digress...

Awesome as always,mthankyou!

I read that one with a big stupid gun on my face. It's so. Ice to see her so happy, and the. I re,embered what's to come, and I'm wondering if that's why you emphasised the happiness so much?

Oh and I loved the Provenza divorce stuff too, for a man who hated her a few years ago, good Ol Louie always seems to go out of his way to consider her feelings. I love him so much :-)

When I was watching this episode and Sharon told Rusty she wasn't going to try to explain. I literally said out loud to the TV "but oh how I wish you would"

And YOU did. :-) it's like you heard me lol. Bang on perfect.

Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou.

Oh, and the line where Rusty thinks to himself how he must ask Sharon how she breaks in the car so well. That's exactly what I live about your many layers :-)

Seriously? You are breaking my heart. You are just so darn good at the. I admit, I wanted a hug, but I will be content with the implied "I know you love me" at the end.

Bravo!

Was he even a lawyer?
Oh that line did make me chuckle... Poor Jack

I'm starting to feel like a broken record. But this is just the best. I love inner dialogue and from you I just can't get enough.

"I know." He saw her smile. "This is a new experience for me too. I've never had to share my children with anyone before."
- it's ironic given I myself am a foster parent in that I never thought about this from Sharon's perspective, but yeah, I guess she would think that. Loved that line.

whatever happened with his mother now, part of him was thankful that she hadn't shown up on that bus, because Rusty was pretty sure that he would never have let Sharon love him if she had.

These two lines hit me right in the feels. Awww Rusty!

So I just watched this episode for the second time and this time round I noticed Provenza follow Sharon at the end (somehow I missed that the first time round)
Yours was the second post EP I read tonight fir this episode and although I enjoyed the other, thus was the one I was looking for. I love anything with Provenza and Raydor, and the little Rusty interaction at the end topped it off just nicely. I also liked the awkwardness of Flynn too. He annoys me no end and well, thus story captured that perfectly ha!

Thanks :-)

Rusty. What are you doing. RUSTY. STAHP.

Okay, I totally understand why he doesn't want to live under house arrest and be followed around by a security detail again. That sucks. Absolutely massively. But GOD CHILD DO YOU SEE WHAT IT'S DOING TO YOUR MOTHER PLEASE STOP AND RETHINK YOUR LIFE. (Or lack of life if you don't stop being a dipwad and START PROTECTING YOURSELF.)

That being said, I loved this. You hit the perfect emotional tone here, tense but honest and emotion-filled, and it's absolutely wonderful. I'm going to say it again: POOR SHARON. First she has to deal with her crazy ex-husband, and now she has to watch her baby walk out the door while knowing that there's a psycho out there who's trying to kill him? How is she still functioning? I would totally be catatonic by now. Let no one say that Sharon Raydor is not Superwoman. Even if she doesn't have a cape, I'm thoroughly convinced she has more powers than just that magical unicorn hair.

Ugh. Do we really have to wait til the summer for more? This should be illegal! I hope you know I'll be needing fanfic fixes to get me through... *wink wink*

Fantastic as always! I adore this and I adore you. Keep it up dear!

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME. Oh Sharon. Oh, baby. Please let me hug you and pet your hair and kill your husband for being a horrible specimen of manhood.

Ahem.

Well, now my heart is broken in the best of all ways. I couldn't wait to read this having finally gotten to watch the episode, and dear God, I am dead. Rusty... *whines and hugs him* He has learned so much. I want to give him all the hamburgers and horror movies ever for being this wonderful. And more importantly, I'm sure Sharon wants to do all of the above for him since he hugged her and didn't tease her about being old and was just generally a perfect human being. I love their relationship so much. And honestly, the thing that makes me so happy is that even though watching after your mom's drunk ex-husband is a totally awful job, Rusty VOLUNTEERED for it without even thinking about saying no because he loves Sharon THAT MUCH and he doesn't see it as any kind of inconvenience. He is becoming so selfless when it comes to her and it makes me melt into a puddle of feels EVERY. DAMN. TIME. Just...aagghh. *weeps and flails* I am so happy. And I still have the tag to read for Special Master, so there's more goodness on the way!

Absolutely beautiful job, dearie. I love it so much!

That's a great idea! The perfect way to keep an eye on him while the psycho is on the loose.

Okay, see now I feel extra bad for the thing that I did. Because here is this wonderful sweet hopeful thing with hugging and love and I am appropriately ashamed, okay?

But this was so nice. I really loved that little bit from Rusty about 'Home was wherever Sharon was.' Because I have an entire spiel on that sort of thinking and it just fit so perfectly here. I also really loved the way you gave Sharon all that terrifying concern and upset throughout all this, but still let her have some hope. That's just some beautiful writing there, my friend.

And don't even get me started on the way she just holds onto him at the end. So many feels, girl. So many. Can't wait to see what you've got for us during the hiatus!

I like it. I agree by the way: I thought that he was attracted to those two cops too.

:( everything about this is perfect, and also the saddest. It's so sad to watch Sharon try to convince Rusty like, three more times by the end of that day alone, and him being all guilty and feeling bad about it, but sticking to his guns. And the worst part is, I totally see his point, and his reasoning is pretty mature (and much better than the "I can take care of myself GEEZ SHARON OMG" from season 2.) But you can STILL tell from his thoughts that he's actually a terrified kid, too, and... just... how did you make everything so perfect and so heartbreaking?

"Sharon was unhappy" - ha. No kidding, Rusty. I snorted a little, at that, despite the TERRIBLENESS of everything else. Yes, I think it's safe to assume that Sharon is unhappy. (Another gigglesnort scene: "But I could try to get you those hot SOB officers for your security detail...? Yes? Please? Deal?" OH SHARON YOUR PRECIOUS SNOWFLAKE LET ME HUG YOU FOREVER)

In conclusion, I am the unhappiest over Stroh's great escape, but this story was a little bandaid on my cracked and broken feels! I really loved their conversation, and how they are so obviously (again) on different sides of the security detail argument, but we can see how different the discussion is from a year ago. *sob* Poor babies, why must you always go through these terrible things! Why can't you just be happy and go shoe shopping and play chess?

(Side note: the first line is GENIUS. That's such a great one to call back to - because GOOD POINT. Sharon can't stay inactive, right? As upsetting as the ending of this episode was, itself, I'm even more upset by the possibility (read: almost-certainty) that when we pick up again in June, this Stroh thing will be largely ignored. And we'll just have a case and whatever personal drama and maybe there will be like, a casual mention of how Rusty is continuing to courageously ignore the fact that his serial killer is still out there :P. But the way you write Sharon's thoughts is EXACTLY what I think she'd be thinking, and she can't possibly just go on with her merry life without doing SOMEthing, right? *bangs head against wall in frustration*)