Title: Best Laid Plans
Author: ZombieJazz
Fandom: SVU
Disclaimer: I don't own them. Law&Order: Special Victims Unit and its characters belong to Dick Wolf. The character of Jack, Benji and Emmy have been created and developed for the sake of this AU series.
Summary: Olivia Benson and Brian Cassidy continue to work at regrouping from the trauma and challenges of their year by taking some time away from New York City. They take their kids on a family vacation to visit Cragen and Eileen in Florida. The story is set in the Hello Goodbye, Welcome Home and Facing Forward AU.
***5 CHAPTERS PRIOR TO THIS — CHAPTER 5, 6, 7 and 8— WERE POSTED IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS. SO IT WON'T HAVE BUMPED AND MIGHT NOT HAVE ALERTED. PLEASE GO BACK AND READ IT IF YOU MISSED THEM.****
It'd been another predictable outcome. Brian had gone back into the Ant-Man ride with the full expectation that Liv would still kick his ass. It was a given. She'd pulled – and shot – her weapon a whole lot more over her career than him. With the kill shots and the recertification process and mandatory pysch reviews in her jacket to prove it. But Cassidy still had hoped he'd improve his standings a bit with Ben at the wheel for their car – and Em steering Liv astray.
Hadn't quite worked out that way, though. Em's dosey-doe of the DAG-R cart – and Liv's lose of Ben as a partner – definitely impacted the overall score. But him and Big Man still hadn't bested her. Though, at least his standings were considerably improved. Not improved enough for Liv to not keep jibbing at him, though. She'd make sure to point out that loss until death did them part. She was matrimonies that way.
And her fucking competitive streak was definitely another thing that had rubbed off on the kiddos. Wandering over to the whole Cartoonist's Academy thing, the kids had spotted there was a climbing wall set up. A real urban on done up to look like an alley of a New York City – sorry Metropolis – street. Spiderman right up at the top hanging off a balcony. Rather than a bell to ring, the climbers were scurrying up the wall to slap Spidey's hand and it was setting off a spray of webbing – AKA water – down onto the onlookers.
So obviously the kids wanted to do that. And obviously before they'd even gotten to the front of the line they'd decided it was a race to see who could get up to Spidey first.
Ben seemed pretty confident that he would. Seemed reasonable. He still had some height and strength on Em. But both the kids loved the whole rock climbing, parkour, Ninja Warrior stuff. And both had just come out of summer camp that let them improve on all that shit. So, honestly, compared to the sort of courses he'd seen the kids take on over at the sports plex – this looked pretty basic, even if it was eye-catching themeing again.
And, actually, the themeing making it look like a brick wall between two buildings? Fire escapes? Window ledged? Potted plants? Fire alarms? Store front canopies and grates? Likely not the best choice for their kids. Likely was only going to put ideas their heads. And, really, the kids climbed the fucking walls enough in the back of their garden lot.
Fuck. Brian loved having that 'garden' – as small and cramped as it was. Smaller and more cramped with two kids and all their junk and Liv's attempts at making it an actual garden and an actual patio. And his attempts to make it a place – and space – for the kids to actually do some of their sports and outdoor shit. Basketball. Street hockey. Kick a soccer ball around. Some sand and dirt to dig in. A hose. Water guns. Basically a fucking suburban oasis in their Brooklyn square footage. But their neighbors did NOT love having kids in the back lot next to them.
The cranky old fucks on the one side of them were constantly complaining. It was like they'd never heard a basketball bounce before or the pure glee of a brother and sister kicking balls at each others heads and making dirt volcanoes erupt while flooding out their Mom's flowers.
So, yeah, likely didn't literally need them trying to climb the walls between the row houses. But might be fun. Until someone got hurt. Or he had to fucking have it out with the old bugger again. Old neighborhood type. Italian. Fucking Mother Mary in his garden out front. Likely a whole lot of vine tomatoes growing in his back. Apparently the sounds of children were disturbing the growth of the plants. Or some shit.
And using the grill? Apparently that smoked too much and always smelled like 'the house is on fire'. Seriously, guy? Fuck off. The ass-hat would stand in the back lot and cough like he was hacking up a lung like he was in the middle of a forest fire or some shit – ever fucking time Brian tried to cook anything. And that's real appetizing listen to that epidemic waiting to happen next door while you're trying to make your family a meal.
One time the fucker literally called the fire department on them. Now that was a thrill for Big Man. Almost made it funny. Ben had been out there wanting to look at everything on the truck. Following the guys around while they did their little safety and wellness inspection of the grill. Was almost sure Ben might've written it up as the highlight of his summer if they hadn't gotten on this trip. But it's also just mostly pissed Brian off.
Not mostly. It entirely pissed Brian off. It was going to be a showdown of if this ass-hat would die off before the kids hit eighteen and moved out. Who was going to win? There. Another fucking competition.
Liv had decided she was going to go up with the kids. But she was good at that kind of stuff. She'd had an interest for years. She'd gotten Jack into it. Still went with him sometimes too. Took the kids over to some of the open climbs and open gym stuff for all these 'sports'. Just wasn't really Brian's thing. Not that he'd actually tried it. But also didn't think right now was the time or place to try it.
"I'll hold the stuff," he said, sticking out his arm to claim the SLR camera she'd been toting around all morning. "Take some shots."
"That will be a flattering angle," she raised an eyebrow at him.
He made a minor amused noise and took the camera with enough grip to twist her hips just a bit. Purposely gave her ass a look and looked her in the eye.
"Looking good," he provided.
She gave her eyes a bit of a roll and her head a bit of a shake but moved away to go and get into the harness with the kids.
It was a tease – but it was truth. He was still pretty happy with the woman he'd ended up with. Didn't have any problems with Liv being where his dick would be stopping for the rest of his days. Reality was he'd pretty much clued into that if that scenario ever did change – he wasn't sure his dick would work for him in any kind of enjoyable way.
And he'd always been more interested in Liv's ass than her chest. Not that he'd said that – but pretty sure she knew. Fuck with the jean shorts she had on that day – she must've more than known. It was a fucking tease. Shorts and tanks, swim gear, sundresses? This was going to be a long, dry couple weeks. He – and his balls - were already feeling it. Though when he'd said anything to Liv about it, she'd made clear that, "The only one cutting you off, Brian, is you." So, yeah. Message clear: Get over yourself, accept the limitation and adjustments and post-haste factor and it didn't have to be a long, dry couple weeks. But still wasn't sure that would happen. Maybe watching her from this angle would change his perspective on that.
Though, Liv hadn't gone up right away. Had been watching the kids from the ground too – like the staff wasn't enough to keep the kids safe. That was pretty par for the course with Liv too. She'd given the staff a bit of lip too when they'd tried to send Ducky up the clearly easiest route. The kid would've been all of maybe six feet up before she couldn't just grabbed a fire escape ladder and clambered right up. Not much fun there after the wait. Apparently Liv was frightening and forceful enough that they'd strapped Em in for a different route. Big Man got locked in for the route at the opposite end of the wall.
Brian didn't even do the whole grappling thing – but he could see it was likely the hardest of the collection. Over-confidence much, Big Man?
There was a pull-down store front security grille for the first about ten feet of the climb and then not a whole lot of obvious footholds or grips for the rest of it. At least not obvious ones. It was definitely the parkour, urban adventure way of climbing. He'd definitely need to be grabbing at signs and fire alarm boxes and window ledges and air vents and flower pots and light fixtures to make his way up.
But it definitely had been over-confidence. Or maybe a whole lot of self-consciousness when they were waiting in a line and on display to a whole lot of strangers? But Ben had basically managed to curl his fingers around the grille links and get to the top of the security gate but then was acting all kinds of stuck. He hung there trying to figure out where to go next for so long that Em had already scrambling right up her ropes like she was Spider Girl – had met Spidey, given him the high five, sent the webs spraying (and cooling off) all the onlookers and then rappelled back down.
"Ben-gee, I beat you," she said proudly. Maybe a little too proudly. There was some smugness to it.
Liv had hushed her. That had only helped so much when the one attendant had brought off some little plastic bracelets for Em to pick out of a bucket. She eagerly picked the yellow one and called over, "Daddy, it say I a super hero. Ben-gee! I super hero!"
Ben had glanced over his shoulder to take a look at her – and the held up prize. But it only caused his curled toes to slip a bit. The poor kid had made a little sound and ran his feet against the low-ridged metal trying to find a grip again. He scrunched up his body and looked down at his mom.
"I can't do it," he murmured at her.
Liv had moved closer to the wall and looked up at him. She pointed up to the signage above the grille. "You can. You're going to jump and reach – and grab right there."
He shook his head hard.
"Benji," she nodded at him patiently, keeping his eyes. "You aren't high. You've done maneuvers way, way harder than this, Little Fox. You're going to need to trust yourself – and just push off really hard."
"I can show you, Ben-Gee," Em said, nudging up to their mom and pointing too. "Dat where you go next."
Liv shook her head. "Ducky, Mommy's helping Benji. You need to give us some space."
She caught his eyes and Brian gestured for her. "Em," he called. "If you aren't going a different line, come here."
Em huffed at him and pointed to the ladder route – that would take her all of thirty seconds. "I'll do dat one."
Yea. OK. Fine. Whatever. The staff got her strapped in and she was back up the wall like a shot. Doing some showing off too – dangling from the rungs.
"My legs hurt," Ben whined at his mom now that Em was out of sight.
"I know," Liv said. And that's when Brian knew that Liv had been picking up on some extra body language out of Ben. She wasn't doing the wall climb for kicks – she'd likely suspected this could happen. "But, you can push through it, Benj. You can do this."
"But I'm not gonna be able to push off hard enough," he told her.
"OK," Liv said and looked back at the attendants. "I'm going up," she informed them.
Brian worked at keeping his line of sight split between them and Em. She really was just goofing off now. She was likely up there waiting for her brother to make it to the top. Right now she was dangling off the side of the ladder, trying to look into the flower pots on one of the window sills.
Liv easily got up to Benji's level using the rope next to the routing he'd picked. She walked across the wall with her feet so she was hanging next to the upper corner of the security grill.
"Benj," she mouthed at him. "What don't we do in this family?"
Ben kept adjusting his legs, scrunching them up more and more in trying to find his foothold. "Give up," he whispered.
Liv nodded at him. "We don't give up," she said. "Mommy hasn't given up. Daddy hasn't given up. Not when we were hurting or scared or sick. Right? You push through. It's something you're going to have to do lots and lots in life. I know you're hurting a bit. But you wanted to do this. And I know you can do this. You just need to push hard – jump and grab right here." She pointed again.
Ben stared at her. And she stared right back at him.
"You can do this," she assured him again. "No giving up."
Liv was such a good mom to the kids. Just so fucking good. Brian knew she had a lot of times she worried she wasn't good enough. Fuck – some of the whatever the fucking conflict her and Amanda were having lately – definitely had Liv coming home sometimes feeling like … she was fucking lesser in some way. But just fuck that. She was so good with the kids. Ben and Em were so lucky to have her. And Brian made sure to tell her that too. All of them were lucky she was a part of their lives. She was a good mom.
Ben still hesitated for a long beat. Brian thought there was still a chance he might just let go and drop back to the ground. Call it. But he didn't – not with his mom right there being his cheerleader.
His feet scrambled again but then his toes curled firm and that leap was made – his arms stretching out and his hands managing to snag the sign and pull himself up to the next foothold.
"Good," Liv said and examined the route around her.
"There," Ben told her – pointing to a brick that was sticking out.
"Thank you," she allowed and maneuvered to get herself up there.
And it went like that – all the way up. Liv spotting for Ben and helping guide him through his route and him returning the favor whether or not Liv actually needed it. But you could just see Ben's confidence grow more and more. Him moving faster and faster between the obstacles and needing Liv's help less and less – until he finally got up to the top to meet his sister and Spiderman.
"Wait for Mom," he informed Em – halting their group high-five so they could all set off the webs together.