Chapter Text
Eleven months later
October 31st
“It’s been awfully –” Velasco started; but Amanda threw the pen she’d been using to fill out DD-5’s at him before he could finish that sentence.
“Ouch,” he said, rubbing his temple.
“I know exactly where you were going with that,” Amanda pointed her finger at him. “And don’t you even dare jinx us, Velasco.”
It had been an oddly smooth Monday morning, and even smoother afternoon, they were just finishing up paperwork from their last case. Her shift was almost over unless they got hit with a case; and she wasn’t about to let her big mouthed partner ruin that for her.
“If he does,” Dodds said, walking through the squad room from the breakroom. “I could just send you home and make Velasco deal with it alone.”
Amanda chuckled, leaning back in her chair. “Leave him with all the newbies?" she scoffed, shaking her head. "Yeah, that’ll be great.”
“I’m not that bad,” Velasco tried to defend as he slid Amanda’s pen back onto her desk and she picked it up with a smirk.
Amanda turned towards him before flicking her gaze towards the breakroom, where two of their new officers stood. “When you and Tamin aren’t bickering at each other, you’re not.”
“I just don’t think she likes me.”
“Yeah,” Amanda responded with a snort. “Well I wonder why.”
“I’ve grown on you over the last few months, Rollins. Don’t even try to deny it.”
Amanda sucked her teeth, tapping her fingers across the edge of her desk. “You’ve got your days, I guess. And you’re not the worst partner I’ve ever had," she paused, letting her mind drift back to those days down in Atlanta. "Hell, you’re not even the worst cop I’ve ever worked with.”
“Does that fall under my old Captain?” Dodds asked her.
“It falls under APD,” Amanda responded, almost immediately. The old SVU Captain when she was just a consultant may have been an aging, asshole; but he had nothing on Reynolds and Patton and the slew of good ole boys she was around down in Atlanta.
Like he always did, Dodds never pushed for any extra tidbits on Amanda’s past with APD - seeming to know that she just wanted to keep it behind her. In fact, Amanda hadn’t thought about them in the half decade she’d been gone - hadn’t even been back to Georgia except for a handful of times to see her mom, Kim, Jess or Mabel.
Dodds looked down at his watch before glancing over at Amanda. “Why don’t you just go ahead and get out of here, Rollins?”
“You can’t keep showing favoritism my way,” Amanda grumbled. “People are gonna start talking.”
“You’re all new,” Dodds reminded them about all the changes in Manhattan SVU over the past six years. “But even then, you are technically the most senior officer in this squad room; but if you’d rather skip your daughters first Halloween, I guess that’s fine,” he called across the room as he slipped back into his office.
“I’ll never hear the end of it from my sister if I do,” Amanda pushed back from her desk.
“You’ve got a family costume planned and everything?” Velasco teased, a smirk on his face that maybe hinted at more that he wasn’t saying as he glanced over at her while she gathered her things.
Amanda narrowed her eyes at him. “Absolutely not.”
“I don’t know, that husband of yours seems exactly like the type.”
“Do you know something that I don’t?” Amanda glared at him before opening the bottom drawer of her desk and reaching for her bag.
“Maybe.”
Amanda rolled her eyes. “I regret the day I ever introduced the two of you.”
Sonny had been known to drop by the precinct on his way to the restaurant since she’d come on full time, dropping off lunch - always something homemade, or coffee for Amanda, stopping long enough to pick up a conversation with Velasco as if he’d known him forever. It always left her gaze flipping between the two of them, a gob smacked look on her face.
Her husband - the damn social butterfly when she was anything but. Though maybe she shouldn’t begrudge the idea of her husband actually getting along with her partner. There was worst things after all.
“Nah, you don’t.”
“What, are you two best friends now?” Amanda asked, tossing her bag over her shoulder.
“Maybe,” he smirked. “If he keeps bringing me coffee; it could be a great friendship.”
Amanda rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well then keep me safe on the job and you can keep your coffee.”
“Sonny!” Amanda called, closing the front door of their apartment but was met with silence which didn’t really bode well.
With an eleventh month old in the picture, quiet wasn’t usually what Amanda came home to. She paused in the entryway just long enough to toe off her boots and lock her badge and Glock into the gun safe in the front closet.
Frannie popped her head up from her perch on the couch as Amanda walked around the corner. “Hey girl… where’s daddy and Jesse, huh?”
As if understanding her, Frannie hopped off the couch and walked down the hallway, Amanda on her heels. Amanda walked into their bedroom and didn’t fight her smile at the sight in front of her. As quietly as she could, she pulled out her phone to snap a picture - however the sound of the camera shutter gave her away and alerted her husband’s presence.
He turned towards her with a grin on his face, one matching their daughter’s as she perched on her father’s shoulder. Sonny decked out in a full on chef’s costume and Jesse wrapped into a mouse onesie - ears and all. It was almost too reminiscent of Ratatouille, and made her laugh.
Amanda stepped forward, reaching out a hand towards Jesse’s knee. “A little too on the nose, don’t you think?”
“Well she is my future sous chef.”
The way Jesse’s gaze always went towards Sonny whenever he was in the kitchen - whether she was in her mom’s arms or her pack n play, how she’d try to crawl towards him if she could; how Jesse seemed so at home whenever she was strapped to Sonny’s chest while he was cooking.
Amanda had no qualms that as soon as Jesse was old enough, their daughter would be right in the kitchen with him.
Sonny’s grin turned more cheeky and Amanda raised an eyebrow. “What –” but she trailed off as her gaze fell on the second chef’s costume laid out on the bed behind him. “Oh, absolutely not ,” she grumbled, flashing back to Velasco teasing comments.
“Come on Amanda,” Sonny pleaded. “It’s for Jesse.”
And maybe it was the childlike grin that lit up Sonny’s entire face or the matching grin and excited babbling from Jesse as he tickled one of her legs, that had Amanda relenting. She reached for the chef’s costume, fingers sliding over the edge of the material.
“You’ve definitely had this planned for months, haven’t you?” Amanda asked, raising an eyebrow as she glanced over at him.
“Jesse and I have, yeah,” he said, grinning and he pulled Jesse off his shoulders to hold her.
“She’s eleven months old, I don’t think she had a say in this.”
“I mean you’ve seen her face light up when I put Ratatouille on the tv, so that’s plenty of say,” he said, turning towards Jesse and tickling her. “Ain’t that right?”
Jesse just giggled in response.
“You’re lucky you two are cute,” Amanda muttered as she shrugged out of her blazer and tossed it on the bed next to the costume. “But I swear to god, you better not take pictures for Velasco.”
She’d never fucking hear the end of it.
“You just want more candy,” Amanda teased him as she slipped out of the car, standing in his parent’s driveway. She glanced at him over the top before opening Jesse’s door.
“It’s for Jesse.”
“Right because she’s going to be eating the whole pile we have back at the apartment,” Amanda tossed back, a teasing lilt to her voice. This past weekend, he’d dragged both of them, Jesse draped into a pumpkin onesie and hat to match, out to St. Peter’s trunk or treat, where they’d met up with Tommy, Bella and Grace.
Sonny walked around the car, leaning against the back of it. “We’ll just share it with Noah.”
“Right, because a two and a half year old needs that much candy either,” Amanda said, laughing as she lifted Jesse out of the car seat.
“Oh he didn’t.”
Amanda turned her head towards Bella walking down the driveway as Sonny shut the car door. “He did.”
“Well, she is an adorable Remy.”
Jesse immediately started reaching for Bella and Amanda gladly gave her away, Bella easily scooping up her niece. Amanda and Sonny fell into step beside Bella as they walked towards the Carisi’s front door. “You, on the other hand, seem a little too on the nose?”
Amanda laughed, reaching for the doorknob and holding it open. “That’s what I said.”
If Amanda thought that a normal Carisi family gathering was loud and chaotic, there was nothing on a Halloween get together. They were barely through the front door before Amanda heard Halloweentown coming from the television in the living room and overlapping voices she knew had to be Mia and Elena. Serafina was in the kitchen as they walked further through the house, Tommy off in the connecting dining room, setting the table.
“Finally,” Serafina said, not turning around. “Dinner’s almost ready.”
“We had a little bump in the road,” Sonny responded.
“More like you forcing me into a damn costume,” Amanda grumbled as quietly as she could.
Serafina finally turned around and smiled when her eyes landed on Jesse; before flickering between Amanda and Sonny - nothing but warmth radiating from her.
Serafina turned towards Amanda, waving her hand at Sonny. “I’m tellin’ ya, they get older, but they don't grow up.” .
Sonny’s shout of ‘Ma’ had Bella and Amanda cackling, Bella also enticing a giggle from Jesse with a comment about how silly her father was. There was always some kind of teasing, playfully bantering back and forth.
Amanda was only vaguely aware of being ushered into the dinning room by Bella, leaving Sonny to help bring the food in. Her gaze fell on Dominick Senior, sitting at the table, Grace in his lap who was enthralled with the toy he held in his free hand.
He turned towards the two of them, just as Mia and Elena joined them in the room and smiled. “There’s my girl’s ... well, some of them anyway.”
If there was one thing, Amanda always felt at home at the Carisi’s, had since the first moment she ever set foot in their house, how easily both Serafina and Dom had welcomed her into their family - just because she made their son so happy. Almost as if Amanda was always meant to end up there - not that she really believed in faith, mind you.
“Ma, how many more pictures could you possibly need?”
Amanda’s head flew in Sonny’s direction. “This coming from the man whose camera is glued to his hand most of the time.”
Amanda thought back, just a few months ago - a trip to a carousel with Olivia, Elliot and the kids. Sonny took all kinds of pictures; but she wouldn’t begrudge him. One of her favorite pictures - of her and Jesse sitting on a carousel chariot was currently on her desk at work; and a picture of Amanda and Jesse and Olivia and the kids was currently her lock screen on her phone.
“You’ll thank us for these later, Sonny,” Dominick Senior said as he finally handed Grace back over to Bella.
The sounds of laughter and a camera click had Amanda flipping her head around because she knew that laugh anywhere. And her gaze fell on Olivia, holding a traffic cone draped Amelia, Elliot holding Noah and Calvin standing between them with a raised phone.
“Seriously?”
Olivia chuckled as Calvin just shrugged. “I’ll send you the picture if you want; but I was told to take it.”
Olivia placed the hand not holding Amelia on Calvin’s shoulder. “I did not.”
Amanda took in the sight in front of her and their matching family construction worker costumes. “I think we need to return the favor though,” she nodded towards Noah referring to his miniature version of Elliot’s vest.
As if on cue, the sounds of a shutter could be heard behind them, and Amanda knew Serafina was still taking pictures. She made a mental note to definitely get a copy of that one.
“He’s the boss man, though, right?” Amanda asked, gesturing towards Noah.
“Maybe,” Elliot responded with a laugh.
“Amelia does make a cute traffic cone, doesn’t she?”
“And they even dragged you into it?” Amanda turned towards Calvin. “No wild high school parties for you tonight?”
“Amanda..”
“What? I’m just saying, even Mia is going to a party tonight.”
“She’s hanging out with her boyfriend,” Elena said with a teasing grimace. “But I’d rather have free candy, honestly.”
“Yeah, I’m going to milk the free candy for as long as I can,” Calvin said, shaking his head and Amanda knew he was probably trying to make up for lost time. “Besides, that’s more Kathleen’s scene anyway.”
Amanda turned towards Elliot with a raised eyebrow.
“I know where she’s going, who she's supposed to be with,” Elliot said, letting out a breath. “And she knows she can call in an emergency. Same with Maureen - who is probably at her own college party tonight.”
“She’s probably been at them all weekend,” Amanda said as they all fell into step, walking down the sidewalk.
Calvin and Elena ran ahead, Bella and Tommy walking in front of them while Olivia and Elliot walked behind them, each holding a kid; Amanda and Sonny bringing up the rear. She couldn’t help the smile that broke out on her face despite the ridiculous costume she’d let her husband talk her into.
“You okay?” Sonny asked, wrapping a hand around her shoulder as they walked.
“Yeah,” Amanda responded, almost immediately as she glanced at Jesse. “I’m good.”
She was more than good, really. She’d had her sister back in her life, she was married to a good man, had a daughter that was gonna grow up in the exact opposite way she had and a job she liked. Things she never thought would have been in the cards for her.
If you had told her seven years ago, when she put in her papers at APD, walked out on the job she’d worked so hard to get to and ended up at her grandma’s diner - she never would have dreamed she’d end up here.
Amanda gaze fell on Amelia - her niece, glancing at her over her mom’s shoulders and she realized she was exactly where she was supposed to be.