AN: Here's the last of it! There will be more Rollisi in the near future for those of you interested in these two!
Eight days later and she was still running late.
"Rollins, so nice of you to join us," Barba greeted her in his dry, bored way as she raced into the squad room, sunglasses still shielding her eyes and her hair in disarray.
"I'm sorry I'm late, it's like havin' two kids at-" Amanda stopped abruptly when she caught sign of Fin's expression, which was wordlessly telling her to keep her mouth shut. "Sorry," she concluded, mostly to Liv, who she felt like she was constantly apologizing to.
"We were just discussing the Jasmine Ortega case," Barba went on to explain.
She began to unpack her handbag at her desk as the squad hovered around her. "Okay..."
"Carisi, is he up to testifying?" the counselor asked.
She looked up at him over the rim of her sunglasses, which were still resting on her nose. "Why are you asking me?"
"He's still at your apartment," Barba stated, his expression unflinchingly benign.
Liv and Fin eyed her expectantly.
Of course everybody knew where Sonny was, but it still made her itchy to hear Barba announce it to the entire squad room. She pulled off her sunglasses and resumed organizing herself for the day as she replied with a sweet smile, "he didn't get shot in the head. Ask him yourself."
Amanda managed to get home by six o'clock that night. When she walked into her apartment, she found Sonny and Jesse putting together a large puzzle in the living room.
"Mama, look!" Jesse called immediately.
She set her bag down on the kitchen counter. "Hey guys," she said, walking to stand by the coffee table they were huddled around. "Wow, Jess. You did such a good job," she cooed approvingly. "Looks like it took you-"
"-all day," Sonny finished her sentence matter-of-factly.
Amanda wiggled her eyebrows in amusement as she made her way back to her purse to begin digging around for her phone. "What do you wanna do for dinner? I'm starving."
"My parents are bringin' something over," Sonny responded.
She stopped what she was doing, hoping she misheard. "What?"
"My mother made lasagna."
"They are coming over for dinner? Here? Now? When were you planning on letting me know?" she sputtered, eyes wide in horror.
"I just did," Sonny said innocently.
Glaring at him, Amanda moved farther into the kitchen. She grabbed a bottle of red wine that was sitting on the counter and uncorked it before dumping some of its contents into the nearest clean juice glass. "I could kill you," she told him before taking a large sip.
"That's not nice!" Jesse chirped.
"What's the big deal? You love lasagna," Sonny said, eyes still focused intently on placing a puzzle piece.
"Not this kind of lasagna. I'm being ambushed by this lasagna," Amanda explained over the rim of her cup.
"I have never met a person who has been sad about free lasagna," he said, then a victorious "ha!" once he found the correct spot in the puzzle. Jesse clapped excitedly in response.
Another gulp of wine. "This isn't actually about lasagna, Sonny! This place is a mess, I look like crap-"
"That's a bad word!" Jesse interjected.
"I think you look nice," Sonny offered.
She sighed, annoyed. "You always say that, Sonny. You said that while I was in labor. You've set the bar pretty low."
"Jesse, use your fork, please," Amanda murmured to Jesse.
"I am," the little girl replied as she used her fingers to put a piece of lasagna on her utensil.
It didn't really matter: ten minutes into dinner and Jesse was covered in red sauce. Whether or not Amanda had wanted lasagna, it had showed up at her door anyway. She was initially overwhelmed by the Carisis' intensity; it was a lot of energy in one small apartment. Yet she was struck by their obvious warmth rather than the tone of their voices: Dominick engaged Jesse on the floor and his wife fawned over Amanda's hair (which was hardly worthy of any praise at the moment), and most notably they both looked genuinely pleased to be there.
Sitting at a table with them for dinner, watching them all talk and laugh, Amanda realized how foreign the experience was to her. While the Carisis all teased and nagged one another, the spirit of their interactions was rooted in love. Amanda's childhood family dinners were rare, but when they happened they were tense, failed attempts at normalcy. She experienced a sudden twinge of jealousy as she imagined what Sonny's youth must have been like: he must have felt so cared for, so safe. His parents probably hung his tests on the refrigerator and framed his scribbles, just so he knew that he was special, that he was adored.
"So, Amanda. You're from Atlanta?" Mrs. Carisi asked her from across the table.
She didn't realize she had been staring blankly at her half-empty plate, lost in her envy of the fantasy world she had concocted of Sonny's life. She looked up suddenly, embarrassed. "Sort of. Loganville, it's..." A minuscule town filled with trailer parks, Amanda thought to herself. "It's a small town near by."
"Your parents, are they still there?" Dominick asked curiously.
"My mama is," Amanda answered simply. Please don't ask about the rest of my crazy family, she silently pleaded. I don't how to make my parolee sister, gambler father and drama queen mother sound good.
"Don't you miss it? Georgia seems so... pleasant, in comparison to here. Why'd you ever leave?" Mrs. Carisi said dramatically.
Amanda studied Sonny's mother's face. She looked so eager to learn about her life, which made Amanda wish she had more dinner-table-appropriate stories to share. "I needed a change."
Mrs. Carisi gave her a kind grin. "Well, it sounds like you're doin' real well here. Sonny tells us you're a great detective."
Wine glass halfway to her mouth, Amanda glanced over at Sonny. "So is Sonny."
He gave her a small, appreciative smile.
His mother's eyes darted between the two of them, like she was looking for something. "Thank you for havin' him here. I know he'd rather die than come recover with his poor, old parents."
"Ma, please..." Sonny grumbled before taking another bite from his plate.
"We're happy to have him here, for as long as he wants to stay," Amanda said honestly, speaking for both herself and Jesse.
Beneath the table, she felt Sonny's palm rest atop her thigh. She covered it with her own hand.
Declan knocked on Amanda Rollin's door, but it was Sonny Carisi who answered it.
Sonny looked mildly confused in the threshold. "Lieutenant. Let me get Amanda, she's just givin' Jesse a bath-"
"No need. I'm here to talk to you, Detective," Declan explained.
"Oh. Okay. What's up?"
"How are you doing?"
"Me? I'm fine. Hurts like hell, mostly at night, but I'm managin'."
"Good, that's good," Declan said with a nod.
With an eyebrow quirked, Sonny asked, "you come over here to check up on me?"
"Not exactly. I wanted to let you know that I'm leaving. I'm going back to Serbia," the lieutenant explained.
"No offense, Lieutenant, but shouldn't you be tellin' Amanda this?" Sonny said slowly.
"I will," Declan assured him. His eyes searched Sonny's features before saying carefully, "I care about Amanda a lot, you know. I know she's had her struggles but she's sharp and she's passionate. She's a good detective and a good person. Jesse's lucky to have her."
His brow furrowed. "I know..."
"And they're both lucky to have you, Carisi."
Sonny's eyes widened slightly as he replied quickly, defensively, "I'm not tryin' to step on any toes here-"
Declan shook his head and held up a hand, silencing the younger man. "I just wanted to let you know that whatever life you have here with Amanda and Jesse... I can tell it's a good one. I'm not looking to interfere with that. But Amanda's been jerked around since she was a kid and I don't want that for her, or for Jesse." He looked at Sonny and lowered his voice, "so all I ask of you, Detective, is that you take care of them."
He could see the wheels in Sonny's head turning. After a moment, he gave Declan a small nod of understanding. "Copy that, Lieutenant."