More Than Luck

By: Kadi

Rated: M

Chapter 19

Rusty watched while Sharon moved around the kitchen. It was a lot larger than the one at the condo, but she seemed to have it already completely figured out and never missed a beat as she moved from oven to stove, then to a cupboard to pull down a stack of plates. Normally, at the condo, while Sharon cooked he would sit at the bar, well out of her way, or at the table. Here, he was able to lean against one of the cabinets and watch. Rusty worried his bottom lip between his teeth and picked at his finger nails.

"Sharon." He'd finally decided it was better to just ask. Here they were on a weeknight, and she was making dinner like she always did if she wasn't working late, but this wasn't their kitchen, and it wasn't their house. But she was wearing the same comfortable yoga pants and sweater she would be wearing at home. He waited for her to finish pulling several plastic containers out of the fridge and look at him. "Why are we still here?" The question surprised her, but Rusty could tell when she tried to cover it. He watched her set the containers slowly on the counter and continued, even though he could already see her struggling with the answer. "I mean… we've been here for like a month already. I'm back in school, and you go back to work in a few days. Those guys you hired to clean our place have been done forever, and even the contractors who did all the painting and stuff are like, seriously, long gone. So why are we still here? It can't really take that long to get rid of the smell of paint and… I don't know, whatever it is that you put on wood floors. And don't get me wrong, it's not that I totally don't appreciate that Lieutenant Flynn let us stay here, but we've sort of been here a long time."

"Yes, I suppose we have." She was meticulous as she opened each container and took out fresh vegetables for a salad. "Rusty, I'm not sure that I can explain it… but I will remind you that Lieutenant Flynn has asked you numerous times since we've been here to call him Andy."

"Yeah, well," he shrugged. "That still feels weird to me." Rusty walked over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of juice. "I'm like, working on it, but it just doesn't feel right when I start to say it. Sort of… disrespectful, I think."

"I understand," she smiled proudly at him. How far he had come. It never ceased to amaze her. "But it isn't disrespectful when you're asked, and I think it would mean a lot to him."

"I'll try harder," he promised. But he realized she dodged his other question and fixed her with a look. "Sharon."

"Hm." She chuckled quietly. "That doesn't work on you anymore does it?"

"It stopped working after the second week." Rusty leaned back against the cabinet again. "I stopped pretending it worked after the first month."

Sharon picked up a chopping knife and considered the colorful array of vegetables in front of her. "To tell you the truth, Rusty, I'm not sure that I can put it into words for you. I've been back to the condo several times since that first visit with Andy, after the attack, and it just hasn't felt… I wasn't comfortable. I was hoping that once the repairs were complete that I would feel better about it, but I haven't. It isn't even necessarily that being there frightens me, it's just that overall sense of not being safe that I can't stand feeling in my own home. I suppose I just thought that if I felt that way, you would too. I didn't want to inflict it upon either of us."

"So…" He couldn't imagine that was a good thing. "What are we going to do?" Rusty wasn't really thrilled about the idea of going back there. He had gone, a couple of times, with Sharon and Andy and once with just Sharon. He got what she was saying. The place just really felt… wrong, now. Like it had been tainted, poisoned.

"I've been thinking about that." She sprinkled chopped vegetables into a salad bowl while she spoke. Tomatoes, cucumbers, and fresh chunks of carrot. The knife clicked rhythmically agains the cutting board while she worked. "Andy asked us to stay," she told him. "I've been thinking about that. I promised him I would at least think it over. I didn't want to mention it until I had some idea how I felt about the idea. I've also been thinking about just selling the condo and getting another one. Maybe something closer to the beach. There are some nice pieces of real estate out in Santa Monica that are just inside my budget. We'd both have a little bit of a commute on our hands, but… it's workable."

"What do you want to do?" Anxiety filled him, knotting his stomach. He picked at the label on his juice bottle. He was almost afraid to hear her answer.

"It really isn't entirely my decision anymore." Sharon shrugged. "I'm not saying it's an entirely equal decision either. You'll be off to college soon, but in the mean time, it is still the two of us. Wherever I go, I'm going to need to make sure that there's room for all of you to visit. I can't imagine it would be very logical to have three kids fighting over a spare room and two camp beds… because no matter what, pal, after next Tuesday you and I are a one-hundred-percent legally packaged deal. There will be no getting rid of me."

Rusty rolled his eyes at her and leaned forward against the bar, chin in his hand. "Sharon, no offense, but there's been no getting rid of you since day one."

"Hm." She shrugged. "True." A smile tugged at her lips. In less than a week the adoption would be final. That was one thing out of the entire Douglas Grand affair that she could not regret. Even with the ordeal over and behind them, and life looking more or less normal now, they had decided to push forward with the adoption. In just a couple of weeks Rusty would be turning eighteen, but it had turned out to be about more than providing a home for a minor child. It was giving Rusty the one thing he never had before, a family that would never abandon him, even when they drove him crazy and he wanted to be left alone. They still had the trial to get through, but even that didn't seem so bad anymore. It was annoying, that it was just right there, out of reach, close but not quite as close as they wanted it to be.

"Alright, fine," Rusty twisted the bottle in his hands. "So what do you want to do? Do you even know, because… we can't really stay here forever. Right?" He saw the way her hand faltered, and then she tugged her bottom lip between her teeth. It all lasted maybe a second before she was back to chopping vegetables as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening at all. "Oh. My. God." Rusty stood up and walked around into the kitchen to watch her more closely. "That's what this is all about isn't it?"

"Rusty." She sighed at him, put down the knife and turned away. Sharon walked to the stove and stirred the pan on top. Then she glanced into the oven again. After she closed the oven door, she stood there with her back to him. Sharon stared at the granite surface of the counter beside the stove. "Would it be so terrible?"

The question was asked so quietly that Rusty almost hadn't heard it. He almost felt bad for reacting the way that he had. Only almost because this was Sharon, and after everything that they had both been through - especially her - he didn't want to see her get hurt again. Jack had hurt her, and while Rusty really didn't think that Lieutenant Flynn ever would, he had a pretty good idea that when Sharon married her husband, she didn't think he would either. Of course, you never really knew what people were going to do. It was this whole predicting the future thing. If he could do that, he'd be rich. Or a really funky SyFy show.

Rusty thought about it, really thought about it because she wouldn't be asking if she didn't want him to tell her how he actually felt about it. He thought about the room he was sleeping in upstairs and all the built in shelves by the window and how he wouldn't mind filling them. Then he thought about what she said about him going to college soon, so he would be moving, because Sharon insisted that he have the whole experience. Unless he really just wanted to live at home for the first year or two, she wanted him to have a completely normal life, and normal was going away to college. But not too far away, because she wasn't ready for that yet, and he and to come home and visit, and not just on holidays, but on weekends, and holidays, and just to get clean socks. He didn't know what he wanted to do about that yet, the college thing. Rusty wasn't ready to leave either, and that made this whole where to live situation even more important.

In the end, the fact that she wasn't looking at those other properties in Santa Monica, but was standing there in Lieutenant Flynn's kitchen with her hair pulled away from her face, in her most comfortable pair of yoga pants… and that she was asking him, and in that way she had of wanting him to agree, but leaving it up to him anyway. He could see that she was braced for his answer, like she thought he would say no, that they had to leave. Of course, what she said about it not being an equal decision was true too. Rusty knew that if he said no, they'd leave. They'd find a place for just the two of them, and life would go back to the way it was before. Because that's what she did. Sharon took care of everyone else, but no one ever took care of her. Except maybe Andy, and Rusty realized that was the first time he'd thought of him by his name and not his title. Andy took care of Sharon, even when he wanted her to stay, he had brought home paint chips for her to look at for the new wall color. He had gone by the condo to check on the contractors, when she still wasn't able to drive herself those few weeks ago. He wanted her to stay, but he had done all that, had volunteered, as Rusty recalled, because if that's what she needed… that's what she'd get. He'd done such a good job, that Rusty hadn't realized that he wanted them to stay. And it wasn't just her. Sharon had said us. They watched sports on the big screen television in his living room, and there had been that guys night out in the newly cleaned garage that had involved bad card games, more sports, too much pizza and all the guys from the squad. Hadn't Andy drug him out there, away from his books, and told him that he was one of the guys too?

"No." Rusty realized it probably wouldn't be. So far it had been fine. It really had, and it wasn't just him agreeing for her sake. Although that was a big part of it. How much had she given up for him? Holidays with her kids? Visits with her parents? He hadn't even met the rest of her family yet, and he knew that had to happen at some point, and it scared the crap out of him, but if they were all like Sharon it couldn't be so bad. From the little bits of conversations he overheard, and the stories she told, he gathered they were pretty close. But here she was, having not seen them in at least two years except for this past Christmas with her kids.. all for him. Even till, that wasn't the only reason that Rusty shrugged his shoulders and added. "It wouldn't be so bad. Sharon, if that's what you want to do, I'm okay with it. Really."

It wasn't what she expected from him, not after the lengthy pause in which he had taken to arrive at that conclusion. Sharon had grown accustomed to all the ways in which Rusty could surprise her on an almost daily basis. He surprised her now. In many ways he was still a typical, selfish, teenage boy. Her reticence at mentioning their current living arrangement had come from a place where she expected that he would push for them to go back to the condo, or find another. "Really." She gave him a warm, affectionate smile. "What is it that you want to do, Rusty. That's important too."

"I know." He shifted where he stood and drug the bottom of his sneaker against the tiled floor. Rusty thought about that and shrugged again. He pushed his hands into his pockets and kept them there so that he would pick at his nails. "Sharon, where we stay, that's like… it's four walls and a roof, right? Just… you know, if you're there. That's all I really care about. Okay?"

Yes, he had a tremendous ability to surprise her. "Okay." Speaking wasn't easy, but she forced the word out past the sudden tightness in her throat. Sharon blinked rapidly because it always unsettled him when she became too emotional. That and they were very much the same. She didn't cry in front of people. She turned away from him to check the roast again and then turned the burner off under the glaze she was making for the steamed asparagus. She knew that Andy was a vegetarian, but she and Rusty were both healthy carnivores. They had found a steady balance between the two. "Did you finish your homework?"

"No." Rusty rolled his eyes and smiled. How did he know that question was coming next. "I just have some trig left."

"Then I suggest you get it done, dinner will be ready soon." Sharon smiled when he turned, using greatly exaggerated reluctant to go back to his work.

"But Sharon," he drew out her name. "It's trig. When am I ever going to use that. Ever."

"The sooner it's finished, the sooner you can stop asking yourself that." She returned to the salad she was making. "Go on." Sharon watched him, laughing softly when he trudged up the stars. Once he was out of sight, she exhaled quietly and felt herself relax. Her eyes closed. She needed to make a decision, and soon.

The aroma of a home cooked meal greeted Andy at the door when he stepped into the house. It was not the first time in recent memory that he came home to find that Sharon had been busy in his kitchen. Andy dropped his keys by the door with a smile and shrugged out of his suit jacket. He carried it with him into the living room and dropped it over the back of a chair. He was already loosening his tie as he stepped into kitchen to look around. He spotted Sharon placing a bowl on the small table in the corner. He didn't use his dining room, it was full of old boxes. It drove Sharon crazy when he ate on the sofa.

"A guy could get used to this." He pushed away from the entry and walked over to slide his arms around her. Andy pulled her back against him and pressed his lips against the side of her neck. "Hey."

"Hi." She turned in his embrace to kiss him. "How did it go?"

"We got him," Flynn shrugged. "He made his deal. One more off to Lompoc." His hands slipped down her back. "Where's the kid?"

"Upstairs. Homewor—oh!" She was lifted and sat on the counter before she could draw her next breath. In the next moment he had his hands in her hair and was kissing her so thoroughly she no longer cared about breathing.

"Been thinkin' about doing that all day," he muttered against her mouth, when the need for air became too great.

"Hm…" She smoothed her hands down his chest and straightened his shirt, where her fingers had fisted in it, drawing him closer. "Not the kind of thing you need to be telling your boss."

"Not my boss for at least a few more days," he reminded her with a grin. Andy lifted her off the counter and let her slide down his body. Heat danced in her eyes and he felt the answering ache settle low in his gut. "Hate not seeing you all day."

"By the end of next week you'll be wishing you didn't have to put up with me all day," she told him with a smile.

"Sharon, trust me, that's not what I wish while we're at work." He winked at her and walked over to take a cold bottle of water out of the fridge. He drained half of it while watching her flush a delightful shade of red.

"Andy." She shot an embarrassed, but amused look at him. "You're going to have to learn to control yourself."

"Oh… I control myself just fine, Sharon, believe me." He let his eyes move down her form and back up while he leered. "Your desk is still pristine. I am incredibly controlled, sweetheart."

"Damn." Her blush only deepened. Sharon had to lean against the table and take a breath at the image that produced. "Andy, really?" She shook her head at him. "I have to sit at that desk now and work, with that in my head. You really are impossible." She lifted a piece of steamed asparagus and bit the tip off, chewing thoughtfully. "I mean, personally, I was more interested in the electronics room, there is less sound carry there, but my desk? That isn't one that is going away anytime soon."

"Hell." Usually when they were crowded into the electronics room there was little enough room that he was forced to stand or sit near her. More than once the scent of her perfume or shampoo had been nearly too distracting to ignore. "You win," Andy gritted out. It was already difficult enough watching her bend over that table, now it was going to be damned impossible.

Sharon had the satisfaction of watching the flush of heat rise up his neck. "Work stays off limits?"

"Way off." He drained the rest of his water bottle and tossed it into the recycle bin.

"Thank you." She smiled sweetly and went back to tossing the salad. "Will you give Rusty his ten minute warning. I'm just about finished here."

"Sure." He kissed the back of her head as he walked past. "I'm going to jump in the shower, get this day off."

"You've got time." Sharon lifted the bowl and carried it to the table. "Oh, Andy…" She gripped the back of kitchen chairs and half turned. "After dinner, we really need to talk about what we're going to do with all of those boxes you have stacked up in the dining room."

Andy leaned over the bar and gave her a puzzled look. "What about them?" They were old books, mostly, some odds and ends. Things he'd been meaning to go through after he moved in and either do away with or put away.

"After dinner," she told him with a smile.

"Yeah, alright." Andy frowned as he headed up the stairs. "Hey, kid," he called when he got to the top. "You got ten minutes. Wrap it up."

"I've been done," Rusty called back. "I didn't want to catch you two making out. Again." He appeared in his door and started toward the stairs. He passed Andy when he made the turn. "We have got to talk about those ground rules again. There are some things that I am not meant to see. Ever."

"So we'll buy you a bell," Andy stated. "Stop sneaking up on us and you'll stop seeing things you shouldn't."

"Yeah, yeah… rules." Rusty jogged down the stairs.

Andy snorted as he walked toward his room. "Just like his mother," he muttered.

"Heard that!" Rusty grinned as he leapt down the last few steps.

After dinner, while Andy flipped through the sports highlights on the television, Rusty volunteered to clean up the kitchen while Sharon took the book she started reading during her forced time off and got comfortable on the sofa. Andy smiled and drew her legs across his lap. His hand settled against her ankle, rubbing gently while he moved through channels. It wasn't so different from any other night, and they had found quite a routine the last several weeks. The longer Sharon and Rusty stayed with him, the harder it was to imagine having the house to himself again. Especially stepping into his bedroom and seeing her things mixed with his, the way her robe was draped across the chair in the corner of the room. Or her cosmetics arranged neatly on the vanity of the master bath. At some point she had taken over a shelf in the corner of his shower, and he hadn't minded at all. It was different, living with someone again. He had lived alone for so long that he had forgotten what it was like to walk into the house and smell dinner or to open his closet and find her dresses hanging next to his suits. He didn't even mind hearing Rusty's music playing in the morning while he drank his coffee and the kid got ready for school. Cohabitation wasn't so bad, and while he knew things would change when Sharon went back to work, he couldn't imagine them changing that much.

Thoughts of change reminded him of the brief conversation before dinner. Andy stopped flipping channels and turned the volume down low, leaving a faint murmur of background noise. His hand stroked up Sharon's leg to her knee. "What did you want to talk about?"

Sharon looked up at him, over the top of her book and smiled. She marked the page and closed it, allowing it to rest against her lap. "Oh." Her hands continued to hold it, toying with the edges. She glanced at the kitchen briefly when she heard the rattle of glasses in the dishwasher. "I was thinking that maybe… if you were still interested, Rusty and I might… stay for a while. I'm a packaged deal, Andy." She sat up a little more and smiled at him. "I come as a two for one deal, and if we're going to stay, there are going to have to be some changes."

"You've thought about it?" He wasn't sure what surprised him most, that, or that she was bringing it up. He understood her reluctance at going back to the condo. She was making noises about selling it. He had heard her talking to Gavin about contracting and other things that made his head ache. When she hadn't mentioned his asking her to move in again, he let it go. He wouldn't pressure her, and part of him started expecting that she would leave eventually.

"I said that I would," She smiled warmly at him. "The longer I stay the harder it is to leave, but we really have to talk about this."

Andy nodded slowly. "That's what you meant about moving the boxes out of the dining room."

"Yes." She shifted toward him. Sharon laid a hand on his arm and slid it down to clasp his hand. "If that offer is still good, I think I'm ready to talk about it."

"It's good," he told her thickly. "Stay, Sharon. It's worked this long. I know I get you both, and I can deal with that. The little pipsqueak grows on you after a while." Andy pulled her to him, until she was near enough that he slipped an arm around her waist and lifted her across his lap. "We'll figure it out."

"What about our kids?" She smiled indulgently. "What if they hate each other? This has the potential to be absolutely disastrous for both of us, do you understand that?"

"Your kids are great, and they adore you," Andy pointed out. "They'll mind their manners because you raised them to. Nicole already loves you, and Tony…" He shrugged. "It's a work in progress. Rusty's going to have issues with all of it, but we'll work that out like we always do. He'll wrap his head around it and then he'll be okay, because that's how he does things. He'll talk to Buzz, or he'll talk to Provenza. Rusty will be fine."

"You hate the church," she pointed out. Sharon wasn't trying to talk either of them out of the idea, but pointing out all the little differences that might make living together an issue.

"You still go to mass when you can," Andy shrugged. "I go to meetings instead. We don't have to do everything together." He slid his hand up her back to toy with the ends of her hair and tilted his head, as if asking her what was next.

"I like to keep a bottle of Moscato in the fridge for really hard days," Sharon pointed out, since he had mentioned his AA status. "Is that going to bother you?"

"I was a bourbon man, but the answer is no. It never bothered me at your place. I've been long enough without a drink that I can handle being around it fine. I usually play designated driver for the guys when they go out after a hard case." Andy grinned at her, pleased that she was comfortable enough to ask. "I'll let you know if that changes. When you want to have one of your giggle-fests with Gavin, I'll go to a game with Provenza."

"Giggle-fest?" Sharon raised a brow at him.

"Like schoolgirls," Andy told her. "It's going to drive you bat crazy when I leave my shoes laying in the middle of the floor, but I'm sure we'll figure that out too."

"Rusty will be going away to school at some point," Sharon said. "It will just be the two of us…"

"So we'll throw a swing set in the back for the grandkids. I doubt we'll get bored." He stretched his long legs out in front of him and leaned back on the sofa, still smiling at her.

"You make us sound so old," she shook her head at him. "But I can tell you right now, my father may take issue with me moving in with a man that is not my husband."

"After meeting Jack, your old man is going to love me," Andy said without pause. "He's not going to care about that, and we are old, Sharon. But if a ring will make this easier for you, I'll get you one."

"One major change at a time," she said, poking him lightly. "What about the logistical nightmare of combining two households? We both lived alone long enough that we are set in our ways."

"I'll stop eating on the sofa if it really makes you nuts," Andy replied. "But I'm not giving up my recliner. I'll clean out the dining room. I think that table of yours would look really good in there, with that cabinet thing."

"The credenza and hutch," she smiled. "The baseball collection has to go."

"I'll put 'em in the office," he shrugged. "Unless you want it. I hardly ever use the thing."

"No, I spend all day in an office," she said. "You can decorate it however you like."

"Is that it?" Andy arched a brow at her. "That all you got?"

"I think so." Her lips pursed and she thought it through. "Yes, that was everything. It's not going to be easy, I hope you know that. It may seem simple, but we may end up asking ourselves why we ever considered any of this."

"Sharon, I think we agreed a long time ago that there wasn't a damned thing about us that is easy." He grinned at her. "It just all boils down to one really simple question. What do you want? That's all you need to figure out. We'll work the rest of it out like we always do." Andy reached up and flipped her hair back behind her shoulder and stroked the side of her neck. "I know what I want. She's sitting right here."

"Andy…" She leaned forward and kissed him, lips soft. "I want to stay."

"Good." He hadn't dared to hope, but what began to blossom under the surface during their negotiation bloomed bright and fully. He pushed his hands into her hair and drew her down against him. "It's about time."

"Hm." Her lips curved against his mouth. "Love you."

"Hell of a thing," he muttered. Andy drew back and looked at her. The slightly swollen lips, the glazed, moss colored eyes. The way her mouth curved into that slightly crooked, completely naughty smile. "No idea how I ended up so lucky."

"It wasn't luck." Sharon slipped off his lap and stood in front of him. She took his hand and tugged him with her toward the stairs.

"You don't say." He turned off the television and tossed the remote onto the coffee table. "Then what do you call it?" He looped an arm around her as they started toward the bedroom he was already thinking of as theirs.

"I call it life, Andy. Just life."

Hell of a life, he thought. Hell of a good life.

~FIN