A/N: While we won't know the fate of Amanda's baby until after the New Year, I'm going to proceed on the happy thought that she doesn't lose it. This story is loosely in the same universe/timeline as my other work, "Kitchen Nightmares"...just some light and silly fluff for the holiday season.
I also know there's debate on the actual origins/which-came-first of a particular phrase used in this story, but I like to think of it the way Fin does. So that's what I'm going with.
Disclaimer: All characters property of NBC/Dick Wolf. This story is purely written for fun and not for profit.
Chaos had descended upon the Benson household as the Christmas dinner hour drew nearer. Amanda and Sonny were in the kitchen, voices growing louder by the minute as they argued over the relative merits of candied yams versus roasted potatoes as the better side dish for the prime rib. Noah, increasingly hyper from all the noise and activity, careened around the apartment like a tornado of destruction as only a toddler who'd only recently discovered walking could manage. All of this went on as Olivia tried her best to set the table for five-plus-high-chair in an attractive manner, when she realized all of her place-settings were for four.
"Marshmallows in anything other than hot chocolate is a crime against humanity!" she heard Sonny yelling from the kitchen. She knew she was going to regret having picked up that half-gallon of spiked eggnog last night. He seemed determined to drink most of it before the rest of their dinner guests had even arrived.
The buzzer rang and Olivia temporarily gave up her creative efforts at tablescaping to answer the door.
"John, Fin, so glad you could make it."
She gave John a hug first, happy to see her old friend. She missed his regular presence at the precinct since he'd retired from SVU, and she'd become so busy in her role as head of the unit now—and as single mother—that there was rarely enough time for social visits.
"We come bearing beef lo mein and General Tso's chicken." Fin held up their take-out bag.
"The traditional feast of the Jews on Christmas," John explained.
"I thought you were taking up cooking, John." Olivia took their coats to hang in the hall closet.
"He is, but I convinced him to leave the culinary creations at home tonight. No one needs to have their Christmas dinner ruined by food poising." Fin's comment earned him a wounded look from John while Olivia laughed.
"Uncajohnuncafin!" Noah came barreling at the two men, and John knelt down to scoop up the toddler before he knocked anyone or anything over.
"Hey, how's my favorite munchkin?" John placed a kiss on Noah's forehead as Fin grinned and squeezed the little boy's hand.
"Overexcited and on his way to pre-dinner timeout if he doesn't slow down. Watch out underfoot for toys, he's been making sure his gifts from Santa have ended up everywhere."
"How about you show me some of your booty, kiddo." John carried the boy off toward his bedroom, bending over to scoop up a stray Minion doll that lay sprawled on the floor like a dead body at a crime scene.
"I take it we have a full house?" Fin asked Olivia. The argument in the kitchen had escalated from potatoes into a debate over green bean casseroles and whether they were mandatory on the holiday table or somehow the work of Satan himself.
Olivia nodded. "If they stop yelling and get back to cooking, we might actually eat before midnight tonight."
Fin grinned. "Let me go catch up with my partner and play mediator. Haven't seen her and baby Ro' for a while." Amanda was still on maternity leave after her difficult delivery, but fortunately mother and child had both come through just fine.
"You do that. I'm going to finish setting the table and open the wine." And pour myself a really, really big glass while I'm at it...
The holiday table was finally ready with an overflowing display of food, far more than five adults and a toddler could ever hope to consume in one sitting. Besides the prime rib roast and two styles of potatoes, they had green beans (in garlic and oil, no canned fried onions in sight as Sonny had won that argument), salad, John and Fin's take-out offerings, and two trays full of leftovers from the Carisi family's annual Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner the night before. The pies that Olivia had ordered from her favorite nearby bakery awaited in the kitchen for anyone who still had room for dessert.
"This is almost obscene," Amanda said, taking in the eclectic spread.
"Almost?" Fin wondered.
"Nah. This is just like Sunday supper at my grandma's house." Sonny eased into the chair next to Amanda, holding her baby who had somehow managed to drift asleep despite all the noise and arguing in the kitchen.
"Before we dig in to this multicultural orgy of obesity, isn't someone supposed to say a few words first?" John asked while Olivia poured the wine for everyone except Amanda, who was sticking to sweet tea.
"Yeah, I got a few things I'd like to say," Fin announced. He waited until Olivia had made the rounds and had taken her own seat.
"The floor's yours, Fin," Olivia said.
"All right then. I got everyone's attention? Good. You know there's that old saying about how 'blood is thicker than water.' That people who are your blood relatives, your family, you're always supposed to put them first in your lives. Always excuse them no matter how they treat you now," he glanced toward Amanda, "what hell they've put you through in the past," to John, "how many times they let you down, unable to put their family before their own demons." His eyes fell upon Olivia at that. "Well, I think most of us here tonight would agree with me that that's a load of bullshit."
"Language!" John interrupted, mocking a horrified look and putting his hands over Noah's ears. Noah giggled.
"My apologies. The thing is, 'blood is thicker than water'? I read recently that wasn't even what the original proverb said. It's all been misconstrued with time. That the original saying goes, 'The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.' That which we pledge ourselves to—or as I see it, the people we pledge our loyalty to by welcoming into our lives by choice and not by the accidents of nature? That's what really counts in life.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is...most of us here tonight don't have the kind of family that ends up on picture-perfect holiday cards. But we've made our own family, right here, and it's one I wouldn't trade for no one else. You all might not be my family by birth, but I'd give my blood for any of you here tonight in a heartbeat."
"I'll drink to that," Amada said.
Sonny raised his wine glass with a hearty, "Cin cin!"
"L'chaim," John added with a smile, the kind of smile that made Fin glad he was sitting down because it still made him weak in the knees after all of these years.
"To family," Olivia agreed, taking in all of those around her tonight and knowing she couldn't have said it any better herself. "Now, for God's sake before this all gets cold, let's eat!"
They clinked their glasses and descended upon the feast.
"Subway or cab?"
"Subway. And let's walk up to the 96th street station from here," John said. "I could use the exercise after shoveling food in my face for the last few hours."
"Sounds good."
The night air was chilly but not unpleasantly so, not when Fin had John at his side, arm slipped into the crook of his own as they walked along the outer edge of Central Park. The city was quiet, the way it only ever was on major holidays when most people were at home with their families or out of town. Fin was thankful there had been no emergency calls to disrupt the evening, no requests for SVU to catch a case. Guess even the pervs took the night off, thank you baby Jesus.
"That was quite eloquent, what you said earlier about family."
"It's the truth. The way I see it after all of these years, everyone in that room tonight is more family to me than my own flesh and blood." Fin sighed, the remnants of an earlier light snow crunching beneath his winter boots. "I wish Ken were closer but I can't push things. It's better than it was before, but...it ain't never gonna be what I wish it was." His son had called him, earlier that day, which was at least something. Ken and Alejandro were enjoying Christmas in the Caribbean with friends; they talked about getting together for New Year's, maybe, we'll talk when we get back home.
"One never knows for sure. You might still have that sweet day, someday."
"We'll see. You know, speaking of kids..."
"You are not putting that on the table, Odafin!"
"Naw, I'm not talking about us. Not exactly. I'm talking about Noah. He loves you, man."
"And I love that little bundle of snot rags and manic joy too, but that doesn't mean I want one of my own. Especially not at this age."
"No, but Liv could use some more help with him, I bet. Actually, I know she could. She was just saying this week how much she hates having him in day care or with a sitter all the time while she's on the job. Even when he's in preschool soon that's still only gonna be part of the day, and..."
"...and..."
"...and I think maybe it would be good for you—and for Liv and Noah—if maybe you spent more time with him. A day or two a week, you know? That special investigator gig at the DA's office isn't taking up that much of your time."
"Yeah, it's a joke assignment, something to keep an old man like me from going slowly mad from the tedium of retirement. But tell the truth, my love, you just want me to stay busy with something other than cooking."
"You know what the landlord said: one more kitchen fire and he's gonna terminate our lease."
"I'll talk to 'Liv next week about it."
"Thank you."
"No, thank you," John said, stopping and bringing Fin to a halt as well.
"For what?"
John smiled. "For all the usual reasons."
Fin reached up to tilt John's fedora, at just enough of an angle that he could kiss him without denting the brim. It was a lovely kiss on a lovely night, the muted surroundings of Manhattan on a Christmas evening enveloping them in its sweet embrace.
"I'd promise to jingle your bells when we get home," John quipped when they pulled apart, "but I'm afraid I'm going to slip into a food coma the minute I hit the bed."
"That's all right, baby. You jingle my bells every day already."
"Yo ho ho." As they started walking along again, John asked, "Hey, did you even get any of that eggnog tonight?"
"No, last I saw Carisi was clinging on to the bottle like he'd found the love of his life."
"I thought that was Rollins."
"You tryin' to play matchmaker?"
"Just being a nosy yenta."
"Then you should know I think Carisi's got bigger moon-eyes for Barba than for Rollins."
"Oooh, juicy. Now you've given me something to specially investigate once the ADA is back from holiday break."
Fin laughed. "You pull that one off and I'm gonna really start believing in Christmas miracles."
"Just you wait, my good man. Just you wait..."