Their bedroom is bathed in sunlight and Andy is still lying in the same place she left him in. She takes a good look at him and her heart jumps at the knowledge of just how well he knew her. He left her one last love letter, one last last goodbye, and in all that he gave her forgiveness before he even knew she needed it.

I love you, Sharon, even if you need your distance to figure things out. I promise you I'll never give up on us.

He has given her absolution for her self-centredness and the way she retreats into herself. With his last words he has given her key to living on without drowning herself in guilt. She loves him so dearly and for that last gift of forgiveness she may even love him more.

She will miss him, she is already missing him so badly. Her heart is breaking at the thought of spending her life without him. She has lost so much. She has lost something she'll never be able to recover: the pure and unselfish love of a truly kind soul that perfectly matched hers.

Sharon takes a deep breath. She knows what to do now. Her heart fills with warmth and assurance that this is what Andy would want, that he would want a proper goodbye and a few hours spent alone with his love. She will take that time to say goodbye, the time to be alone with him before letting go of him forever. Time just for the two of them before she'll let everyone else know of the loss the world has suffered overnight.

Because she isn't the only one who will miss him. She is the one who will lie awake at night tossing and turning, desperate for his warmth and company. She is the one who will wonder how she ever managed to live without him and how she can do it again. But there are others who will miss him too, who have lost a part of their life today. His children and grandchildren first. His best friend, who will be lost without his buddy and sparring partner. Their team. They will look at the empty desk, they will miss his sarcastic remarks and laughter. And Rusty, her son Rusty who Andy has started calling our son when they are alone, will never know just a wonderful a father Andy would have been. And she, she will miss the man who made her whole in a way she never knew she could be.

"Goodbye, my love. Goodbye, Andy."

She picks up his hand, the one she so carelessly discarded last night, and covers it with her smaller one. His finger joints are already stiff, but she gently coaxes them into a fist, then stretches the digits out again one by one. She would recognise this hand anywhere, the lines of the veins running across are as unique as a fingerprint and the small marks and scars a lifetime have left tell her a story.

Some of her warmth has transferred onto his hand as she lifts it to her lips for a kiss. His familiar smell assaults her senses: the hand cream he uses every night without fail, traces of the hair growth serum he rubs into his scalp every night with equal predictability.

"Oh Andy, how can you be gone? How can you leave me alone already? You promised me years and we got so very little."

It is as though his hand moves a little, the typical tiny caress he has picked up from her because she can never just hold his hand, she always has to caress him and actively touch him. She always has to be in movement. Andy is perfectly content with being still, with holding her. Maybe that's why he was able to bear waiting for a her, because he, who used to be one of the most impatient, impulsive officers on the force had grown into a patient man in his old age.

It doesn't stop her wishing she had made him wait less long, it doesn't stop her wishing she had taken the leap earlier, it doesn't stop her wishing she had turned around last night when he touched her.

Sharon takes a deep breath and rolls towards Andy. She cuddles herself into his embrace and pulls his arm around her. She will take a nap, she tells herself, one last nap with Andy and when she wakes up, she will say one last goodbye and make the necessary calls. But before they come and take him away she will give them this last moment together.

She closes her eyes and her thoughts begin to drift, but sleep evades her. What comes now are the memories and soon she notices that she is talking out loud, laughing and squeezing his hand, lifting it to her lips again. Then she turns around to look at him once more and caresses his face as she talks about them and their life and how much she loves him. She takes the truffle out of its box and pops it in her mouth, relishing the sweetness. His brown eyes look at her intently and she leans in for what she knows will be their very last kiss.

It tastes like love.

Author's Note: I wanted to express my thanks to all of you who read and commented on this story.

I know some of you hoped for a happy end or a different kind of happy end. This story was never going to be a dream that Sharon could wake up from, but an exploration into a how she might deal with the immediate aftermath of Andy's death. The latter chapters of this story are inspired by Diane Broeckhoven's novella 'A Day with Mr. Jules', but I decided to stick with Sharon and Andy's happier backstory!