Raydor/ Flynn Fic ~Such Is My Life pt.2
“Danny, get a move on,” Sharon yells toward the stairs as she grabs her jacket and briefcase. Coffee tumbler in hand, she does a last minute check in front of the foyer mirror while waiting on her sleepyhead of a son to tromp downstairs. “Let’s go,” she calls again, holding out pack of pop-tarts when she hears his steps on the landing.
“I’m up, I’m moving, stopping yelling,” he yawns out in rhythm with his heavy footsteps as he comes down the stairs. Dressed in khakis, t-shirt and hoodie, Daniel has a good foot in height over his mother. She grins, ruffling his hair out of his drowsy green eyes.
“You’re getting that cut today right?”
“Mom, really? This again?”
“Daniel, I don’t care if the latest trend is to have your hair in your eyes like a girl. Do you want to look like a girl?” Her son frowns, grabbing the pop-tarts from her and wrapping whatever comeback he mutters around the food. “Today, I mean it.”
“Fine. I’ll get it cut after school. Are you working late?”
“I don’t think so, but if something comes up…”
“You’ll call, I know. Did you schedule my driving exam?” He shuffles to the door, holding it open for her.
“Um, about that.” She pauses, waiting for him to settle into the passenger side before continuing. “I thought it would be a great opportunity-”
“No, Mom,” Danny huffs, tossing his hair from his eyes before reaching for his seatbelt.
“You haven’t even heard what I was going to say.”
“I know what you’re going to say and no. He hasn’t come to any of my games this year, so why to you think he’ll remember to show up for that?” Sharon backs out of the garage, hits the ‘close’ door button, and pulls into the street, all the while contemplating her response. “And you can stop trying to defend him. Sometimes makeup babies just don’t bring on the makeup. It’s cool, okay; I’ve dealt with it. You just need to get over it also.”
“Excuse me? Makeup baby?”
“Really, Mom, I’ve done the math. You and Dad,” Danny says, his voice dripping with sarcasm on the word ‘dad,’ “had a little fling before calling it officially quits. I’m good. I have you, Lily and Kate so I’m good. If Dad doesn’t want to be around, screw him.”
“Daniel!” Her son sighs heavily, turning to look out the window as they drive toward his school. She could again go into the speech about how his father really does love him and would be around more if he could, but they both know it isn’t true. Rick’s communication began to dwindle the day after he left them high and dry. “Fine, then I won’t call him, and I’ll set up something today. Do you have money for lunch?”
“I’m covered. Oh, the guys want to go out tomorrow. Is that cool?”
“Who, where and how much?” she asks, not taking her eyes of the road.
“Matt, Tyler and Drew, to a movie and $20.” He turns to catch her eyeing him before he rolls his eyes. “It’s PG-13, Mom, I swear.”
“You remember I’m a cop right?”
“You don’t let me forget it.”
Sharon smirks, pulling up beside her son’s school. “Fine, but home by-”
“Curfew, I know.”
“And get your hair cut!” she yells out as Daniel walks away. He tosses up his hand as acknowledgement. Sharon smiles, thinking her kids turned out all right despite their dad being one of the biggest jerks to walk the earth. Glancing at the clock on her dashboard, Sharon shifts her Aston into gear. If she wants to make it downtown before the worst of the traffic hits, she’s got to get a move on.
While Sharon Raydor may not give him any credit for it, which truthfully he couldn’t give a rat’s ass about what she thinks anyway, Flynn thinks he deserves a small medal for giving her the chance to get fully in her office before showing up for their unscheduled meeting. Arriving earlier than anyone other than the janitors, he’d asked Becky at reception to give him a call when Raydor got in. Then he’d waited a good five minutes after he got the call that she was in before heading to the elevator and up to FID.
Sharon hangs her bag and jacket on the hook just behind her door. At the sound of a light knock, she barely gets out a “just a minute” before the door swings open. Thankfully her reflexes are good and she dodges out of the path of the door. “Excuse me,” she starts, then frowns, “oh hello, Lt. Flynn.”
Andy tries hard not to glare at her, but he can feel the blood rushing to his ears. On the way up, just the thought of her holding out on him, of keeping his kid, yea probably his kid, from him made him all the more angry. The little voice of reason in his head that sometimes squeaked out a warning was shouting at full blast at the moment, however Flynn gave no weight to it. Emotions fully in charge, he spits out the first thing that pops into his brain.
“I don’t know what you were thinking, but I’m calling you on it. If you think I’m going to let you get away with this any longer-”
Sharon holds up her hand to silence him, sidesteps the detective and closes her office door. She gives him a hard stare before walking toward her desk. She doesn’t sit, knowing that doing so will infuriate him even more over whatever he’s decided she’s done. Instead, she continues to stand, allowing the desk to be a buffer between them.
“Now, Detective, if you’d like to start over by maybe explaining what it is that you think I’ve done that would be welcomed. Because I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage. Seeing as all my paperwork with Major Crimes has cleared, I’m not sure as to why you have stormed into my office.” His eyes go harder, which Sharon hadn’t thought possible until the second it happens. She lifts her foot to take another step back, but fights the urge. She didn’t get into her position by showing weakness, and she isn’t about to show the slightest hint of unease to Detective Lt. Andy Flynn, one of the biggest alpha males in the precinct.
“Oh you’d like it to be business so you could dismiss me and toss me out on my-” Flynn stops himself, making a desperate attempt to regain his composure. He always did have a way of putting his foot in it when he let his emotions rule him. He takes a deep breath and lowers his voice, “You and I have matters to discuss. I don’t think we should do so here, but I have things to ask you and you will answer my questions.”
Raydor crosses her arms, her chin going up in her little condescending way. “Oh I will?”
“Yes, you will,” Flynn says, eating up the space between them in two methodical steps. “If you want to keep our little secret a secret, then you certainly will.” His words, full of venom and not lacking in substance considering the conviction in his gaze shake Raydor. Confused, she inadvertently takes a step back. Flynn advances with her, coming around the corner of her desk so there is nothing but air between them. “I know the truth, Sharon,” he hisses out her name so hard that his breath brushes against her hair like a breeze.
“The truth?”
“Tonight, 6 p.m. at O’Grady’s. I’ll give you this chance to explain away from work. If you don’t show-”
“You better consider your next words very carefully, Lieutenant. I’ve been very patient with your conduct here, but if I were you-”
“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. I know what happened. I remember what happened. And if he’s mine and you kept him from me!”
“Kept? Excuse, I don’t know what you think you know, Lieutenant.” Flynn ignores the complete confusion in Raydor’s face, waving her off with a sideways glance to her door. Movement catches his eye, letting him know her officers are coming in for work.
“Police officer’s ball, 1994. Think it over and I’ll see you at O’Grady’s tonight,” Flynn says, contempt plain in his words. “And I’d advise you to carefully consider showing up.” Silent and working hard to control her anger, Sharon Raydor watches the Lieutenant flash one last glare at her before leaving her office.
If she were in a giving mood, she’d give him credit for not slamming her door on his way out. But instead, the second he is gone, she falls into her chair, her emotions welling to the surface. Anger, fear, confusion and dread flow over her all at once. The Police Officers’ Ball in 1994? What the hell was he going on about? Sharon racks her brain, trying to remember what possibly could have happened between them during that time to make him so angry. However, before she can give much thought to Flynn’s outburst there’s another knock at her door.
“Yes?”
“Hi Captain, there’s been an incident.”
“Where Jimmy?”
“Twenty-first and Lex. Officer making an arrest had another perp circle back. Blows exchanged but backup helped him get the second one into custody.”
“Witnesses?”
“Suspect’s family.”
“Great,” Raydor sighs, “this is going to be such a fun day.”
“Want me to drive?”
“That’d be great, just let me grab my coat.”
Once inside the car with Jimmy, Raydor is swept up in her latest investigation. She makes several phone calls to locate those arrested, one in lockup and the other at Cedars. Between coordinating her officers and examining the police officer’s dash cam video, her morning and most of the afternoon is fully devoted to clearing the rookie cop. Thankfully his dash cam was working and caught everything.
“I love it when it’s cut and dry,” Jimmy says after their third viewing of the video.
“Let’s get the report typed up and I want copies of that video.” Raydor looks at her watch, thinking if she hurries she can get everything squared away in time to get the video to the media for the early evening edition. “The sooner this is out the better.”
“That mother was very vocal. I saw channel 12 interviewing her.”
“I know, we need to get them a copy right away. Jimmy, I want you to stay here and wrap things up. I’ll get Sarah to drop me at the station. If I hurry I can catch Commander Thomas and have this cleared up by 6.” The mention of the time makes Sharon pause; Flynn’s summons hitting her like a mental slap.
“Captain, you ok?” Jimmy asks, noticing Raydor going suddenly pale.
“Um, haven’t eaten much is all,” she says, waving him off as her early morning confrontation replays in her mind. “Sarah, let’s go,” she moves from the rookie officer’s car and toward the silver Crown Vic belonging to Sarah.
Raydor is silent on the drive back, but Lt. Sarah Mathers doesn’t mind. She focuses on the road, giving her captain some peace, not knowing there is turmoil raging behind Raydor’s jade eyes.
“1994, Officer’s Ball…” Raydor runs over the phrase in her mind as she stares out the passenger side window. On her lap is a file folder, which she occasionally flips through to prevent Sarah from thinking she’s in a talking mood. But her mind is no longer focused on her case, a fact that contributes to her growing annoyance and also anger at Detective Lt. Andy Flynn. How dare he ambush her like that! For all she knew, he had hit the bottle again and used her as a scapegoat for some twisted regret he’d conjured up while in his stupor. But he didn’t smell like he’d been drinking, Sharon points out to herself. She sighs, a tension headache forming.
“You okay, Captain?”
“What, oh I’m fine, Sarah. Could use some aspirin.”
“Glove box. Want me to stop for water?”
Sharon catches the next street sign, noticing they are about twenty minutes out from the station. “No, I’ll make it, thanks.”
“So, I hear Danny’s getting ready for his driving test. I didn’t realize he was almost 16.”
The mention of her son brings a smile to Sharon’s face, “yeah, some days I can’t believe it either.”
“My baby brother’s a summer baby, so he’s already begging to drive anytime one of us has free time.”
“Daniel is a fall baby.”
“95? Right, when you were pregnant? Man, that was a hot summer.”
“1995,” Sharon blanches, “the officer’s ball in 1994…was it in December?”
“Wouldn’t know, Captain. I was just in training,” Sarah replies, but Raydor isn’t listening, her mind already clicking together the threads of evidence.
With her mind reeling, Sharon has to struggle to get her report finished and to Thomas. However, compartmentalizing is a specialty of hers, as well as delegating. It helps too that the case isn’t a difficult one for her to get through. As soon as Thomas signs off on the video, Raydor leaves it to Sarah to get it to the media before heading out. She holds her emotions in check until she is in the parking garage and in the privacy of her car. Sharon leans her head on the leather steering wheel, allowing the memories of that crazy year to return to the forefront of her mind.
Lily was ten, Kate just about to turn eight, and her marriage had finally reached the breaking point. When Danny had quipped he was a makeup baby, he wasn’t wrong. She’d been vulnerable at Christmas, and Rick had actually showed up to spend it with the girls. A little too much nostalgia and a little too much wine, combined with Rick’s charm, and oh he could be so charming when he wanted out of the pre-nup. The clear light of the next morning along with a massive headache had slammed her back into the reality of the hopelessness of their situation. She knew Rick could never change and that their time together was over. It didn’t stop her from wanting to reach out to him a few months later when she could no longer shrug off the missed periods as anything other than her being pregnant, but it did prevent Sharon from doing a head dive into a total meltdown. Instead she picked herself up and decided having a nanny for a while wasn’t such a bad thing. Thanks to her inheritance from her Grandmother du Pont, Sharon had the means to do as she pleased career wise.
But the implosion of her marriage couldn’t be what Andy Flynn was going on about. She barely knew him back then.
“The Police Officer’s Ball…what happened at the ball…” Sharon sinks lower into the driver’s seat of her car, tossing her head back against the headrest. She has a tight grip on the wheel, her eyes closed shut as she blocks out everything to concentrate on that night. The ball was in early December that year, she remembers, because it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that it was moved to before Thanksgiving.
She’d had another round with Rick that day, his lawyers working overtime to get him out of the pre-nuptial agreement her father had wisely insisted that she make him sign. She remembers that Jameson, her hairstylist, had worked overtime to pamper her into a better mood. Jameson was the only reason she tolerated the flashy events being a part of her family required her to attend. The ball was not nearly as a highbrow affair, but the stress brought on with the political maneuvering at such an event seemed similar.
At some pointed she’d settled at the bar, deciding a daiquiri sounded nice. Then she’d had another and started feeling a bit more relaxed. She was debating a third when one mysteriously appeared.
“He sent it,” the bartender had explained with a nod down the bar. “Too pretty to be drinking alone, I think he said.” Sharon smirked, tipping the glass toward her admirer before taking a sip. The drink was a little stronger, or she just didn’t have as much tolerance for liquor. She really wasn’t much of a drinker anyway. A cocktail here and there when required, perhaps wine now and again with dinner, but that was all. The beep of a nearby car being unlocked startles Sharon. Glancing up, she catches her reflection in the rearview mirror. She’d been in the lady’s room, her head feeling light. She’d decided to call it a night, head up to the room she’d rented for the evening. When she came out, he was there, waiting.
“Wanna get out of this zoo?” He’d asked, a lopsided grin forming as he caught sight of her room key. She’d said something she thought was clever and he’d chuckled in reply. It was more than nice to have an attractive man laugh at one of her jokes. When he’d offered her his arm, she didn’t hesitate. In the elevator up, he’d loosened his tie, and she’d noticed his suit was an old one, fraying some at the cuffs, but he looked good in black. It brought out his eyes, rich and dark.
Sharon gulps back a cry as a wave of nausea rushes over her. “No, no, no,” she murmurs, catching the reflection of her panicked eyes in the mirror. The images, once unblocked, hit her in waves - the sloppy kiss that started in the elevator and continued well into her room, his suit on the floor along with her dress, their drunken laughter, passionate cries, and such a restful sleep afterward. Head in her hands, Sharon thinks her brain will explode. “It couldn’t be, that night it didn’t happen. It didn’t…” Sharon stares at her reflection, knowing she can’t lie to herself any longer. One look at the clock pulls a curse from her lips. Sharon takes a deep breath, turning over the ignition and shifting into reverse, knowing exactly what she has to do now.
“I’m up, I’m moving, stopping yelling,” he yawns out in rhythm with his heavy footsteps as he comes down the stairs. Dressed in khakis, t-shirt and hoodie, Daniel has a good foot in height over his mother. She grins, ruffling his hair out of his drowsy green eyes.
“You’re getting that cut today right?”
“Mom, really? This again?”
“Daniel, I don’t care if the latest trend is to have your hair in your eyes like a girl. Do you want to look like a girl?” Her son frowns, grabbing the pop-tarts from her and wrapping whatever comeback he mutters around the food. “Today, I mean it.”
“Fine. I’ll get it cut after school. Are you working late?”
“I don’t think so, but if something comes up…”
“You’ll call, I know. Did you schedule my driving exam?” He shuffles to the door, holding it open for her.
“Um, about that.” She pauses, waiting for him to settle into the passenger side before continuing. “I thought it would be a great opportunity-”
“No, Mom,” Danny huffs, tossing his hair from his eyes before reaching for his seatbelt.
“You haven’t even heard what I was going to say.”
“I know what you’re going to say and no. He hasn’t come to any of my games this year, so why to you think he’ll remember to show up for that?” Sharon backs out of the garage, hits the ‘close’ door button, and pulls into the street, all the while contemplating her response. “And you can stop trying to defend him. Sometimes makeup babies just don’t bring on the makeup. It’s cool, okay; I’ve dealt with it. You just need to get over it also.”
“Excuse me? Makeup baby?”
“Really, Mom, I’ve done the math. You and Dad,” Danny says, his voice dripping with sarcasm on the word ‘dad,’ “had a little fling before calling it officially quits. I’m good. I have you, Lily and Kate so I’m good. If Dad doesn’t want to be around, screw him.”
“Daniel!” Her son sighs heavily, turning to look out the window as they drive toward his school. She could again go into the speech about how his father really does love him and would be around more if he could, but they both know it isn’t true. Rick’s communication began to dwindle the day after he left them high and dry. “Fine, then I won’t call him, and I’ll set up something today. Do you have money for lunch?”
“I’m covered. Oh, the guys want to go out tomorrow. Is that cool?”
“Who, where and how much?” she asks, not taking her eyes of the road.
“Matt, Tyler and Drew, to a movie and $20.” He turns to catch her eyeing him before he rolls his eyes. “It’s PG-13, Mom, I swear.”
“You remember I’m a cop right?”
“You don’t let me forget it.”
Sharon smirks, pulling up beside her son’s school. “Fine, but home by-”
“Curfew, I know.”
“And get your hair cut!” she yells out as Daniel walks away. He tosses up his hand as acknowledgement. Sharon smiles, thinking her kids turned out all right despite their dad being one of the biggest jerks to walk the earth. Glancing at the clock on her dashboard, Sharon shifts her Aston into gear. If she wants to make it downtown before the worst of the traffic hits, she’s got to get a move on.
While Sharon Raydor may not give him any credit for it, which truthfully he couldn’t give a rat’s ass about what she thinks anyway, Flynn thinks he deserves a small medal for giving her the chance to get fully in her office before showing up for their unscheduled meeting. Arriving earlier than anyone other than the janitors, he’d asked Becky at reception to give him a call when Raydor got in. Then he’d waited a good five minutes after he got the call that she was in before heading to the elevator and up to FID.
Sharon hangs her bag and jacket on the hook just behind her door. At the sound of a light knock, she barely gets out a “just a minute” before the door swings open. Thankfully her reflexes are good and she dodges out of the path of the door. “Excuse me,” she starts, then frowns, “oh hello, Lt. Flynn.”
Andy tries hard not to glare at her, but he can feel the blood rushing to his ears. On the way up, just the thought of her holding out on him, of keeping his kid, yea probably his kid, from him made him all the more angry. The little voice of reason in his head that sometimes squeaked out a warning was shouting at full blast at the moment, however Flynn gave no weight to it. Emotions fully in charge, he spits out the first thing that pops into his brain.
“I don’t know what you were thinking, but I’m calling you on it. If you think I’m going to let you get away with this any longer-”
Sharon holds up her hand to silence him, sidesteps the detective and closes her office door. She gives him a hard stare before walking toward her desk. She doesn’t sit, knowing that doing so will infuriate him even more over whatever he’s decided she’s done. Instead, she continues to stand, allowing the desk to be a buffer between them.
“Now, Detective, if you’d like to start over by maybe explaining what it is that you think I’ve done that would be welcomed. Because I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage. Seeing as all my paperwork with Major Crimes has cleared, I’m not sure as to why you have stormed into my office.” His eyes go harder, which Sharon hadn’t thought possible until the second it happens. She lifts her foot to take another step back, but fights the urge. She didn’t get into her position by showing weakness, and she isn’t about to show the slightest hint of unease to Detective Lt. Andy Flynn, one of the biggest alpha males in the precinct.
“Oh you’d like it to be business so you could dismiss me and toss me out on my-” Flynn stops himself, making a desperate attempt to regain his composure. He always did have a way of putting his foot in it when he let his emotions rule him. He takes a deep breath and lowers his voice, “You and I have matters to discuss. I don’t think we should do so here, but I have things to ask you and you will answer my questions.”
Raydor crosses her arms, her chin going up in her little condescending way. “Oh I will?”
“Yes, you will,” Flynn says, eating up the space between them in two methodical steps. “If you want to keep our little secret a secret, then you certainly will.” His words, full of venom and not lacking in substance considering the conviction in his gaze shake Raydor. Confused, she inadvertently takes a step back. Flynn advances with her, coming around the corner of her desk so there is nothing but air between them. “I know the truth, Sharon,” he hisses out her name so hard that his breath brushes against her hair like a breeze.
“The truth?”
“Tonight, 6 p.m. at O’Grady’s. I’ll give you this chance to explain away from work. If you don’t show-”
“You better consider your next words very carefully, Lieutenant. I’ve been very patient with your conduct here, but if I were you-”
“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. I know what happened. I remember what happened. And if he’s mine and you kept him from me!”
“Kept? Excuse, I don’t know what you think you know, Lieutenant.” Flynn ignores the complete confusion in Raydor’s face, waving her off with a sideways glance to her door. Movement catches his eye, letting him know her officers are coming in for work.
“Police officer’s ball, 1994. Think it over and I’ll see you at O’Grady’s tonight,” Flynn says, contempt plain in his words. “And I’d advise you to carefully consider showing up.” Silent and working hard to control her anger, Sharon Raydor watches the Lieutenant flash one last glare at her before leaving her office.
If she were in a giving mood, she’d give him credit for not slamming her door on his way out. But instead, the second he is gone, she falls into her chair, her emotions welling to the surface. Anger, fear, confusion and dread flow over her all at once. The Police Officers’ Ball in 1994? What the hell was he going on about? Sharon racks her brain, trying to remember what possibly could have happened between them during that time to make him so angry. However, before she can give much thought to Flynn’s outburst there’s another knock at her door.
“Yes?”
“Hi Captain, there’s been an incident.”
“Where Jimmy?”
“Twenty-first and Lex. Officer making an arrest had another perp circle back. Blows exchanged but backup helped him get the second one into custody.”
“Witnesses?”
“Suspect’s family.”
“Great,” Raydor sighs, “this is going to be such a fun day.”
“Want me to drive?”
“That’d be great, just let me grab my coat.”
Once inside the car with Jimmy, Raydor is swept up in her latest investigation. She makes several phone calls to locate those arrested, one in lockup and the other at Cedars. Between coordinating her officers and examining the police officer’s dash cam video, her morning and most of the afternoon is fully devoted to clearing the rookie cop. Thankfully his dash cam was working and caught everything.
“I love it when it’s cut and dry,” Jimmy says after their third viewing of the video.
“Let’s get the report typed up and I want copies of that video.” Raydor looks at her watch, thinking if she hurries she can get everything squared away in time to get the video to the media for the early evening edition. “The sooner this is out the better.”
“That mother was very vocal. I saw channel 12 interviewing her.”
“I know, we need to get them a copy right away. Jimmy, I want you to stay here and wrap things up. I’ll get Sarah to drop me at the station. If I hurry I can catch Commander Thomas and have this cleared up by 6.” The mention of the time makes Sharon pause; Flynn’s summons hitting her like a mental slap.
“Captain, you ok?” Jimmy asks, noticing Raydor going suddenly pale.
“Um, haven’t eaten much is all,” she says, waving him off as her early morning confrontation replays in her mind. “Sarah, let’s go,” she moves from the rookie officer’s car and toward the silver Crown Vic belonging to Sarah.
Raydor is silent on the drive back, but Lt. Sarah Mathers doesn’t mind. She focuses on the road, giving her captain some peace, not knowing there is turmoil raging behind Raydor’s jade eyes.
“1994, Officer’s Ball…” Raydor runs over the phrase in her mind as she stares out the passenger side window. On her lap is a file folder, which she occasionally flips through to prevent Sarah from thinking she’s in a talking mood. But her mind is no longer focused on her case, a fact that contributes to her growing annoyance and also anger at Detective Lt. Andy Flynn. How dare he ambush her like that! For all she knew, he had hit the bottle again and used her as a scapegoat for some twisted regret he’d conjured up while in his stupor. But he didn’t smell like he’d been drinking, Sharon points out to herself. She sighs, a tension headache forming.
“You okay, Captain?”
“What, oh I’m fine, Sarah. Could use some aspirin.”
“Glove box. Want me to stop for water?”
Sharon catches the next street sign, noticing they are about twenty minutes out from the station. “No, I’ll make it, thanks.”
“So, I hear Danny’s getting ready for his driving test. I didn’t realize he was almost 16.”
The mention of her son brings a smile to Sharon’s face, “yeah, some days I can’t believe it either.”
“My baby brother’s a summer baby, so he’s already begging to drive anytime one of us has free time.”
“Daniel is a fall baby.”
“95? Right, when you were pregnant? Man, that was a hot summer.”
“1995,” Sharon blanches, “the officer’s ball in 1994…was it in December?”
“Wouldn’t know, Captain. I was just in training,” Sarah replies, but Raydor isn’t listening, her mind already clicking together the threads of evidence.
With her mind reeling, Sharon has to struggle to get her report finished and to Thomas. However, compartmentalizing is a specialty of hers, as well as delegating. It helps too that the case isn’t a difficult one for her to get through. As soon as Thomas signs off on the video, Raydor leaves it to Sarah to get it to the media before heading out. She holds her emotions in check until she is in the parking garage and in the privacy of her car. Sharon leans her head on the leather steering wheel, allowing the memories of that crazy year to return to the forefront of her mind.
Lily was ten, Kate just about to turn eight, and her marriage had finally reached the breaking point. When Danny had quipped he was a makeup baby, he wasn’t wrong. She’d been vulnerable at Christmas, and Rick had actually showed up to spend it with the girls. A little too much nostalgia and a little too much wine, combined with Rick’s charm, and oh he could be so charming when he wanted out of the pre-nup. The clear light of the next morning along with a massive headache had slammed her back into the reality of the hopelessness of their situation. She knew Rick could never change and that their time together was over. It didn’t stop her from wanting to reach out to him a few months later when she could no longer shrug off the missed periods as anything other than her being pregnant, but it did prevent Sharon from doing a head dive into a total meltdown. Instead she picked herself up and decided having a nanny for a while wasn’t such a bad thing. Thanks to her inheritance from her Grandmother du Pont, Sharon had the means to do as she pleased career wise.
But the implosion of her marriage couldn’t be what Andy Flynn was going on about. She barely knew him back then.
“The Police Officer’s Ball…what happened at the ball…” Sharon sinks lower into the driver’s seat of her car, tossing her head back against the headrest. She has a tight grip on the wheel, her eyes closed shut as she blocks out everything to concentrate on that night. The ball was in early December that year, she remembers, because it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that it was moved to before Thanksgiving.
She’d had another round with Rick that day, his lawyers working overtime to get him out of the pre-nuptial agreement her father had wisely insisted that she make him sign. She remembers that Jameson, her hairstylist, had worked overtime to pamper her into a better mood. Jameson was the only reason she tolerated the flashy events being a part of her family required her to attend. The ball was not nearly as a highbrow affair, but the stress brought on with the political maneuvering at such an event seemed similar.
At some pointed she’d settled at the bar, deciding a daiquiri sounded nice. Then she’d had another and started feeling a bit more relaxed. She was debating a third when one mysteriously appeared.
“He sent it,” the bartender had explained with a nod down the bar. “Too pretty to be drinking alone, I think he said.” Sharon smirked, tipping the glass toward her admirer before taking a sip. The drink was a little stronger, or she just didn’t have as much tolerance for liquor. She really wasn’t much of a drinker anyway. A cocktail here and there when required, perhaps wine now and again with dinner, but that was all. The beep of a nearby car being unlocked startles Sharon. Glancing up, she catches her reflection in the rearview mirror. She’d been in the lady’s room, her head feeling light. She’d decided to call it a night, head up to the room she’d rented for the evening. When she came out, he was there, waiting.
“Wanna get out of this zoo?” He’d asked, a lopsided grin forming as he caught sight of her room key. She’d said something she thought was clever and he’d chuckled in reply. It was more than nice to have an attractive man laugh at one of her jokes. When he’d offered her his arm, she didn’t hesitate. In the elevator up, he’d loosened his tie, and she’d noticed his suit was an old one, fraying some at the cuffs, but he looked good in black. It brought out his eyes, rich and dark.
Sharon gulps back a cry as a wave of nausea rushes over her. “No, no, no,” she murmurs, catching the reflection of her panicked eyes in the mirror. The images, once unblocked, hit her in waves - the sloppy kiss that started in the elevator and continued well into her room, his suit on the floor along with her dress, their drunken laughter, passionate cries, and such a restful sleep afterward. Head in her hands, Sharon thinks her brain will explode. “It couldn’t be, that night it didn’t happen. It didn’t…” Sharon stares at her reflection, knowing she can’t lie to herself any longer. One look at the clock pulls a curse from her lips. Sharon takes a deep breath, turning over the ignition and shifting into reverse, knowing exactly what she has to do now.