Chapter Text
“This has gotten completely out of hand,” Barba said as he buttoned the vest of his three-piece gray wool suit. Four days before Christmas, he and Benson were heading down to City Hall to get married, or, as Barba had put it several times in the last two weeks, ensuring that Liv had plenty of legal recourse to revenge if necessary.
“No kidding.” Benson was deciding between her dress blues and a blue dress.
Barba’s mother was in their living room. “You have six guests,” Lucia said. “This is not “out of hand.” You have six guests.”
When they’d applied for their marriage license online, they found out they would need to bring a witness with them when they appeared before a judge at City Hall. Barba called Eddie, who happily agreed.
“Shit,” Barba said later that evening, “I didn’t tell Eddie that we were keeping City Hall a secret.”
Lucia called the next morning and threatened that if she wasn’t invited to join them, she would tell a hundred more people.
They’d waited until two days before to tell Noah. Benson didn’t believe in asking children to keep secrets, so she figured 48 hours would give him enough time to process the news, but not enough time to share it.
Later that day, Benson had to work late to close a case and Barba was interviewing at a law school up in White Plains; with Lucy still recovering from the flu, they’d had to ask Rollins to pick up Noah. Just their luck, Noah immediately told Rollins that his mom was marrying Uncle Rafa and that he really, really wanted her and Jesse to come to the wedding. Rollins cringed.
Noah, who hadn’t asked any of the questions Benson expected him to ask, was singularly focused on getting Rollins and her daughter to come with them. “We can invite Carisi and Fin and make it a very small celebration,” Rollins suggested.
“Really, Amanda?”
“I thought we were your family.”
“You lay on the guilt as thick as family does,” Benson said.
That was how, in a matter of days, they wound up with five more guests than they’d intended. Six guests. Completely out of hand indeed.
They met Eddie and Benson’s senior squad at City Hall, where they were married in a simple ceremony in front of a judge, and then headed further uptown to raise a glass of sad weekday brunch diner wine to the couple. “Thank you for being here today, even the four of you who invited yourselves,” Benson said. “Jesse’s cute, she’s exempt.”
“I’m offended!” Carisi said.
Barba’s 360-degree eyeroll was followed with an announcement from Rollins: “Okay, okay, since having all these guests is clearly too much for the bride and groom, you guys go for a walk in the park or something, and we’ll watch Noah.”
So, they found themselves walking through Central Park, long winter coats buttoned up to their chins, gloved hands linked, on their wedding day, if you could even call it that. (Barba and Benson wouldn’t call it that.) “It’ll be okay,” Barba said, seeing that Benson was a little overwhelmed by the uncertainty that happiness after tragedy, fright, and bad luck brought too, “tomorrow will be the same as yesterday.”
“After these last few years, I want so much to be bored and happy and working and annoying you and nothing else.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice.”
For a good minute, they walked in silence. “Liv,” Barba said, “McCoy called me a few weeks ago because —“
She made a face at the mention of the DAs name.
“No,” he promised. “This is good. “McCoy —“
She made the face again anyway.
“The governor wants to appoint me to the 10th District — Nassau County — as a family court judge.”
Her eyes lit up as she stopped in her tracks. “That would be wonderful.” She touched a gloved hand to his cheek. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”
“Has to get past the state senate first.”
“When?”
“Retirements are usually announced in January. Don’t look so hopeful. It’s not getting past the state senate. As soon as the Ledger announces that the governor appointed the “Baby Killer ADA” to family court, there’ll be outrage, there’ll be politics, and the state senate will say no way.”
She nudged his arm as they started walking again. “I’m proud of you, though.”
“Why? The appointment’s not going to be approved.”
“You kept your name in the running.”
“The outrage and the embarrassment, I’ve been through that with the Ledger before. What’s one more round?”
“You said this was a few weeks ago. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It was the day you got your exam results. I wasn’t about to steal your thunder, Captain.”
She put her arm around his waist and squeezed him towards her. “See,” she said, almost as if to reassure herself, “we keep moving forward. We’ll do all right.”