A/N: And with this, I literally feel my own trauma around this series resolving. This attempts to correct the tragic and heinous end to Major Crimes, so there's some happier, healhier implications for the rest of the series following this fic. Thanks for reading. Also, yeah, there's a few minor adult references ahead so yeah sorry if that's not your thing.

"What's gotten into you," Andy murmured wonderingly as he traced patterns on her bare back. Sharon was stretched out contentedly on her stomach while Andy lay on his side facing her. "Not that I'm complaining but this wasn't really what I was expecting."

Sharon propped herself up on her elbows and rested her chin on her hands as she arched an eyebrow at Andy teasingly, aware that her slight change in position gave Andy a straight view down her cleavage. "And what were you expecting, exactly?"

Andy grinned at her. "Well, old-fashioned dating in my experience doesn't usually involve...that."

Sharon rolled her eyes. "It isn't like we haven't slept together before," she pointed out. "And by 'before', I mean that very first night. Remember?"

"How could I forget?" Andy let his hand dance lower on Sharon's back until she squirmed a little.

"I warned Rusty right after that, you know. About the possibility of overnight guests in the condo. He thought I was dropping hints about him and TJ but once he realized what I was really getting at…" Sharon chuckled softly. "You should have seen the look on his face."

"I'll bet." Andy moved his hand to Sharon's cheek instead, gently stroking at the hair that curled against her skin. "But that's still not what I meant."

"Well, what did you mean?" Sharon turned her head to kiss his palm, half-hoping that she could distract him - and herself, even - with another round.

"You're like a hurricane," Andy observed carefully, watching her face for signs of trouble. "We might not be too far into this whole official thing and sleeping together and whatnot, but I know you, Sharon. And trust me, it's not that I'm not enjoying it. But you're...it's like you're moving so fast that you're trying to get away from something. So what is it? What's bothering you?"

Sharon dropped her eyes from Andy's, suddenly and unexpectedly overwrought, and rolled onto her back, shifting her troubled face to the ceiling and out of Andy's piercing gaze. She could feel Andy shifting to sit up beside her and gently pulled the sheet up to the top of her breasts. The shift in position and her own nervousness had cast a sudden chill on what had been a warm, comfortable evening.

"Sharon," Andy said from his position above her, and Sharon closed her eyes for a moment to try to gather herself. She felt Andy reaching for her under the covers and let him stroke across her stomach as she took a few deep breaths. She inhaled sharply as Andy lightly brushed the sensitive skin around her belly button, opening her eyes and smiling in spite of herself as she noted Andy's own small smile as he looked down upon her.

"I'm okay," she reassured him easily. "Just...have had a lot to process is all."

Andy hummed and continued with his ministrations. "Does this have anything to do with you and Rusty meeting up with the Chief?" He watched as Sharon's face tensed then relaxed then tensed again. "Sharon. What is it? I thought it went well."

"It did. It really, really did."

"Then what are you thinking about?"

"Rusty." Sharon swallowed, ready and not ready to let it all spill out. "He said something after we left that I've had trouble getting out of my head."

"So," Sharon asked Rusty later that night, after the highly anticipated meet up and once they'd both returned home to the condo. "What did you think?"

Rusty looked confused. "Of Trails? It was fine. Hasn't really changed much." At Sharon's pointed look, he hastily corrected himself. "Oh, like in general? It was nice. It was really, really good to see Brenda. And she seems happy."

"She does." Sharon debated with herself for a moment before continuing on. "Brenda's going to have a baby, actually, so I think that she and Fritz are especially happy these days."

"Oh." Rusty looked a bit uncomfortable, but also like something finally made sense. "I, like, had sort of a weird feeling about that today but she didn't say anything. Especially since, like, I thought she looked like she was pregnant, a little, but still. I figured I shouldn't ask."

"Oh, no, definitely not," Sharon agreed quickly. "You should never ask."

"Not ever? Even if it's like, more obvious?"

"Not ever. No matter how obvious." Sharon smiled at Rusty's oblivion. "So you did well, if you suspected and you didn't ask. But, anyway, Brenda's pregnant and she does seem very happy. Although I think she would still be okay - happy, even - even if she wasn't pregnant."

"I guess even with Stroh getting out these last few years have been good for everyone," Rusty observed. "My life is definitely much better than it was. And Brenda's seems to be. And yours…"

"Most certainly is too," Sharon finished firmly. "Most notably because I have you."

Rusty shot her a teasing look. "And Lieutenant Flynn," he pointed out. "And a new division that you like. And you're down a…" He broke off suddenly, looking embarrassed.

"Alcoholic, gambling addict husband?"

"Uh, you said it, not me," Rusty answered, looking relieved. "But it does seem like we each got another chance. In our own way."

"I would agree with that." Sharon played with the pillow next to her, more than happy to leave it at that. It had been a good thing, just like Fritz Howard had predicted. She could even see, now that the first barrier had come down, the possibility of seeing Brenda Legh a bit more frequently, and she found that even as she sat on the couch considering it, she welcomed the possibility.

"There's just one thing." Rusty's voice broke through her untroubled thoughts to give her pause. "Not a bad thing, but just...something."

Sharon looked up from the pillow, suddenly unnerved. "What is it?"

"I don't know if I can say this right, but...don't be like her. Please." Sharon barely had time to wrap her head around the odd statement before Rusty was swooping in to try to clarify. "I mean, like I said that first night, Brenda's...fine. She's nice and she's smart and she's definitely a lot happier and her life is like, a lot better. But...she messed some things up that it took a long time for her to fix."

Now it was Sharon's turn to be confused. "Like what?"

"Like how she was, like, all focused on work all the time? About getting the confessions and locking people up? And how it took her losing so much for her to realize that her life shouldn't be all about the police and the law and hearing about the terrible things people do."

"You're not wrong," Sharon said carefully. "I think that Brenda learned a pretty hard lesson. She said as much to me before you got there today. But I think, like you said, she's gotten a second chance. She has a new job with more distance, and Fritz, and a baby on the way. She's going to be just fine." She eyed Rusty from across the room. "But what does that have to do with me?"

"Sharon, getting out of Major Crimes was Brenda's second chance. She got away from it all and it helped her to get better. And I'm not saying that Major Crimes is the problem but...Major Crimes was kind of like your second chance. But I don't want you to get burned from it the way she did."

"Brenda and I are different people," Sharon insisted, not liking the way that this conversation was going. "If you're worried about me turning into Brenda, Rusty, you don't need to. First of all, that's necessarily a bad thing and two, we're much too different."

"But you're not. Not like you think that you are. Brenda was all about confessions and you're all about deals. And you both are so, so good at what you do. I just…" Rusty broke off suddenly to look at her very seriously. "Brenda basically ran herself into the ground. She needed a second chance to get away and dig herself out. I'm afraid that you'll do the same thing but you'll be out of second chances."

Sharon was aghast. "Rusty, that will never, ever happen," she promised, even as her voice shook from the impact of Rusty's sudden rant. "I will never let this job run me instead of me running it. I promise you. Truly."

Rusty looked a little less worried but not entirely convinced. "Good," he said evenly as he lined up his final move. "I only just got you as my mom. I don't want to lose you too soon to a job that's already got a body count. I just...as nice as Brenda is and as happy as I am that she's better, I just...she's like a cautionary tale, isn't she?"

Suddenly Sharon's heart, which had been full all day since their meet up and her heart-to-heart with Brenda and Brenda's unexpected happy news, ached in a way that it hadn't for quite some time. "I suppose she is," she agreed softly. "And I hear you, Rusty, I really do." She thought quietly for a moment before speaking again.

"Brenda was just telling me today how unexpected it's been for her, to love someone so much that she hasn't even met yet. But even that pales in comparison to how I love you, and Ricky and Emily. I wouldn't do anything to put myself in harm's way, to risk losing even a minute of your lives before I absolutely have to. I promise you, Rusty. From the bottom of my heart."

Rusty crossed the room to sit by her on the couch. He very gently put his hand on Sharon's and let his fingers curl around hers when she held tight. "I already basically lost one mother," he said seriously. "I can't lose another. Especially not you."

Sharon paused at the end of her recollection, her emotions catching up to her as Andy seemingly was turning everything over in his own head beside her. Suddenly desperate, she sat up quickly and curled into Andy's side, feeling instantly relieved as Andy's arms came around her and held her close to him.

"That's a lot for you to be carrying around," he commented. "First with seeing Brenda again after all this time, on top of worrying about Rusty and Stroh, and then hearing about how worried Rusty apparently is about you." He shifted them a little so that he could look down into Sharon's face. "But that's still not it. Is it?"

Sharon shook her head. "What if he's right? Rusty, I mean, about Brenda and me. Fritz said it, too, about us being alike. I never saw it before, or let myself see it, but maybe it's true. I am like her, Andy, and that scares the hell out of me."

"Sharon," Andy brushed her hair off her face and held both of her cheeks gently in his hands. "Listen to me. No offense to the Chief, because she had her good parts, and maybe you both have those good things in common, but you are nothing like her. Major Crimes now...it's nothing like it was. And that's not because she was bad. But she isn't you. And you aren't her."

"Maybe not in some ways," Sharon argued. "But in other ways, yes. Rusty's right. Brenda chased confessions and I chase deals. And Brenda got burned so badly by just...everything, but she got out. She got a new beginning and a second chance. And I did, too, with Major Crimes. But, and I never thought about it until Rusty said it, what if it burns me, too? What if it burns me and then I'm out of second chances?"

"Come here." Andy tugged at her gently, rearranging them so they were under the covers now, laying down nearly nose to nose, arms and legs entangled. Sharon could feel her heart rate start to settle as Andy kept a comforting grip on her, grounding her to him and to his bedroom and to reality rather than her fears.

"Listen to me," he said gently, making sure to look Sharon fully in the eye. "You aren't doomed to go down the same path as Brenda. You just aren't. The thing is, everything is a choice. Brenda had hers, you have yours. Some of Brenda's choices were pretty terrible and cost her a lot. And maybe someday you'll find yourself having to make a similar choice but you'll choose differently. You'll choose better. That's all you can do. You have to be willing to choose."

"Choose what," Sharon whispered. She reached over to trace Andy's lips as he answered.

"Happiness, for one thing. Or to push forward on some things or to let other things go. To weigh all of the options and risks and things at stake rather than to put blinders on with everything but the confession. Or the deal. But mostly, I think in Brenda's case, the people she loved rather than the people she hated. Or wanted to punish, anyway. I think that in the end, you need to choose love."

"So love always wins?" Sharon wasn't sure how to feel about the introduction of the "l word" to their bed and the conversation.

"Maybe not always," Andy countered. "But it certainly doesn't hurt."

Sharon leaned over to kiss him fully, letting him tug her completely against him as he moved above her. She sighed happily against his lips, eagerly letting him explore her mouth and stroke his hands up and down the length of her body. She sighed again as he moved his lips to her cheek, then her neck, eventually trailing to her collarbone.

"I...I," she cut off, suddenly shy.

Andy stopped his progress on her neck to pull back and look her in the eye. "I know," he said gently. "It's too soon to say it, but I know. It's...it's always been you, you know. For me."

Sharon hugged him forcefully then, pressing her whole body against his and shivering a little at the contact. "Promise me," she said fiercely. "Promise me that no matter what, you won't let me go down that path. That no matter what, you'll help me remember that it's a job and not my life and I have my kids and I have…"

"Me," Andy finished for her. "You'll have your kids and you'll have me. And none of us are going to let you go. I promise you, Sharon, no matter what, I won't let you go. I want you right here, with me. With us."

"And that's where I plan to be. For a long, long, long time."

"Good." Andy kissed her forehead sweetly before shooting her an amused look. "Can I assume that this is the end of Hurricane Sharon, now that you've gotten all of that out of your system?"

Sharon smiled coyly. "Maybe she'll make an appearance every now and again. To keep things interesting." She moved ever so slightly against Andy and smiled when she felt him responding in kind.

Andy dipped his head to kiss her, but paused for the briefest of moments. "It's not a bad thing, you know," he said distractedly. "To have a connection with her. You two share the kid, in a strange way. You've both saved his life how many times, in how many literal and figurative ways? She brought him to you. And I know that means something, especially to you."

"It does." Sharon tried to inch his hands toward her breasts, getting more and more eager to focus on the pleasures of now rather than the fears that she was now confident wouldn't even come to be. "I used to hate her and feel so much affection for her, sometimes all at once, and wonder how that all could be. But I love Rusty, and Brenda will always be part of Rusty's story. And mine. So in some strange way, it's a bit like loving her too. Or at least feeling fondly toward her. But as much I do, I don't want to be like her, or like she was. Not in the slightest. She suffered so much. I don't want that for myself, or for any of you."

"So let that be it then. Let her be a connection and a friend and whatever else you want her to be. But you're not Brenda, Sharon. You're not, and you won't be. You won't need another second chance. I'll make sure of it."

"Promise?" Sharon pressed Andy's hand to her heart, holding tight.

Finally, finally Andy leaned down to kiss her, his lips finally meeting hers. "I promise. In every single way, Sharon, I promise. I'm not going to let you lose your way, not ever. I don't plan on ever letting you go."

Sharon felt the last bits of tension finally washing away. "I'll hold you to that," she said softly as she tangled her lips again in his, wrapped up in her new beginning. "Second chances are best not wasted.