December 21 - 2036
"I still don't see why we had to leave it so late," Jake complains. He's at the island, swivelling back and forth on the barstool and kicking his feet against the cabinet.
Kate feels irritation rising in a great tide and she opens the refrigerator, sticks her head inside. It's looking alarmingly empty, actually. They haven't done their holiday grocery shop yet and they've been trying to eat up all of the random things in the pantry and fridge to make space.
"We had to wait for your sister." She closes the refrigerator door and fights the urge to rest her forehead to it.
"Which one?"
"Lily," Kate turns to see her son. He must read how close she is to losing it all over her face because he straightens and stops his kicking. "To come back from college. And Alexis to have a free night."
They're taking a family photograph, all in matching sweaters. It was her father's idea, actually. He told Kate he wanted to do it so he could have it blown up and hang it in his living room. Jim is well into his eighties, now. He told Kate that he wanted to seize life while he still could, that he didn't know how many more Christmases he has left. She's so utterly unable to handle that concept that she agreed just to end the conversation.
"Kate!" Her husband's yell startles her and she whips around to see him. Rick strides out of the office with a whole stack of sweaters in his arms. "Want to put them on now?"
She considers it, for a moment, but it's not smart. "I don't trust any of you not to get it dirty before pictures. Can I put you in charge of them?"
There's a flurry of activity then. A naive, younger Kate thought that once her kids weren't toddlers anymore, it wouldn't be such a trial to get everybody out of the house. Now that they're teenagers though, it's that much more difficult.
Lily comes thundering down the stairs at last. Her makeup and hair are perfectly done and she does look lovely, but they were also supposed to leave ten minutes ago.
"Dad," she swings around the end of the bannister and jumps from the bottom step. "Reece needs you. Cut himself shaving."
"Oh, my God." Kate presses the heel of her palm to her forehead, and for a moment considers cancelling this whole thing.
Rick heads upstairs to help their son. Jake and Lily hook one arm each through Kate's and walk with her to the front door.
"It's okay, Mom. Chill."
Being told to chill by her son makes her bristle, but she lets it slide. When the boys finally emerge from upstairs, Reece has a wad of toilet paper pressed to his cheek. Kate lets the kids go in front so she can snag her husband and grill him.
"Is it that bad?"
"No, just being dramatic. It'll be gone by the time we get there."
They meet Kate's father, and Alexis and her family, at the studio. They took the car service here. It was an indulgence, really, no reason they couldn't take the subway. Rick likes to make use of it though, since he's paying for it, and it was nice to just slide in to the back and not have to worry about it.
"Grandpa!" Harry and Charlotte yell the second they see Rick, and they charge at him. He's laughing and bending down to hug them and tugging teasingly on the end of Charlotte's waist-length, white blonde braid.
"Hi Katie, sweetheart." She gets a bristly, whiskered kiss to her cheek from her father.
When they were first arranging to do this photoshoot, Kate hadn't been sure whether she should invite Alexis or not. Although she and Jim care very much about each other, they're not actually related. Eventually Kate had sucked up the courage to ask her dad, and he'd told her he wanted Alexis' whole family present. The kids call him Pops, consider him their great-grandfather. He said he wanted all of his family, made sure there was no more room for misunderstanding.
Rick hands out the matching sweaters to everybody and they start pulling them on. They're goofy, red with reindeer on the front, but it's cute for a picture. It was the only thing Rick could find that came in varied enough sizes to fit his broad shoulders, nine year old Charlotte's skinny frame, and everybody in between.
Their photographer is an enthusiastic smiling woman who makes friends with Rick immediately. She arranges them in the studio for a serious portrait first, Jim in the centre with everybody else gathered around him. After that, she takes pictures of various groups. All of the kids, then just Jim and Kate, then Alexis and Tom.
"How about you and Rick get some, Katie?" her father suggests.
Kate turns to look for her husband and finds him right beside her. He lifts one shoulder in a shrug, as if to say he doesn't mind either way. It would be lovely, actually, to have some pictures of the two of them. Kate tangles her fingers with his and leads him onto the white background.
The photographer lets them have fun with it, encouraging them to be handsy and look at each other instead of the camera. In one of the shots, Kate has her arm curled up underneath his so her hand rests at his shoulder, her body mostly behind him and her lips flirting with his cheek.
"Get one with the kids, too," Alexis says. She nudges Lily and the twins and they shuffle into place, crowding around Kate and Rick.
Someone has the idea to photograph fathers and daughters, so Kate and Jim, Rick, Alexis and Lily, and Tom and Charlotte all crowd together. The twins and Harry hang out all surly at the periphery of the room until the photographer lets them have a picture together with just the three of them.
Once they've exhausted every possible combination they thank the photographer and she tells them she'll email watermarked versions so they can choose their favourites to have printed. They spill out into the street, all ten of them, laughing and shivering in the bitter cold.
"Got a text," Rick waves his phone as if any of them are going to be able to read it. "The Ryans and Espo are at a diner. Wanted to know if we'd like to join them."
"I think we're gonna head home, Dad. Got a rough drive ahead of us."
The snow has made everything so treacherous for weeks now and they'd worried that Alexis and her family wouldn't be able to make it tonight at all. Everybody exchanges hugs and kisses to cheeks and Alexis and Tom herd their kids into their car, parked just across the street from the portrait studio.
"Jim, up for dinner?"
"Absolutely," her father smiles. "It's been a long time since I've seen Javier, and Kevin and his family."
The diner isn't too far away, so they decide to take the subway. Everybody except Rick has changed out of their Christmas sweater, and Kate carries the bag with all of the rest of them inside. Her husband looks so cuddly that she finds herself clinging to his side, holding tight to his hand while they walk.
Lily is up ahead with her grandfather, telling him all about her time at college. Now that she's in her sophomore year she's really found her groove, joined a bunch of extracurriculars, and Jim listens intently while she tells him all about it.
The boys are jostling each other while they walk, roughhousing the way they do. Only one more year, one more Christmas, and then they'll be in college as well. Jake wants to go into medicine so he's already started looking, and his aunt Lanie has been giving him a ton of advice. Over the summer, he's interning at the morgue with her just like Alexis did all those years ago. Reece is clueless, as Reece so often is. Every time anybody brings up the idea of college with him he scowls and storms off and says he's not sure that he even wants to go.
"I can hear you worrying," Rick tells her. He tugs on her hand so that she falters a half step, putting enough distance between them that the kids won't overhear. "What's the matter?"
"Just thinking about the future. Peanut's future, really."
Rick hums and his thumb circles slowly against the back of her hand. She hardly feels it through the gloves, but she feels the tenderness in him all the same.
"He's only a junior, honey. Give him a little bit of time. Alexis had no idea what she was doing at this point either. Come to think of it, neither did I. I don't think Lily and Jake are exactly normal, with their game plans."
That makes her laugh, and he kisses the corner of her mouth as if to taste some of that amusement for himself. "I just want him to be okay."
"Of course he'll be okay. You're his mom."
"Yeah, okay." Kate rolls her eyes, but she does feel warm inside hearing that from him. Being a mom to teenagers is harder than she thought.
Up till now, she's been able to remember how her mom was with her and she's had that to turn to when she's been unsure. Now, though, Lily is nineteen years old. Kate has no idea what comes after this, feels herself staring into the future of motherhood as if it's an abyss.
Sarah Grace turns twenty three in January, and Nicholas twenty one in April. The Ryan kids are just a touch older than Kate and Rick's children, and so they've been able to consult Kevin and Jenny for advice when they've struck out. Rick's experience with Alexis hadn't really prepared him to raise sons, or a Beckett daughter, and Kate came in to being a mother mostly blind.
They make it to the diner and fill up another booth next to the one already taken. The boys are loud all in their booth together. Javi, Kevin and Rick crowd one side, with the twins and Nick squeezed in opposite.
It leaves Kate and her father to sit with Jenny. Sarah and Lily congregate together in one corner to chatter away. Sarah Grace has graduated now, and she gives advice to Lily about what happens afterwards.
"It's so lovely to see you, Mr Beckett. How are you?" Jenny asks. She has a way of making you feel as if she's genuinely interested in the answer, and Kate could swear she sees her father blush. It's hard to tell with the insect hum of the fluorescent strip lighting.
Everybody gets their orders in, and then the food comes. There's a lot of noise and laughter and shifting seats while people catch up. Kate finds herself shrinking. She's become more comfortable in social gatherings since she became a senator, but she has always been happier in a one-on-one situation.
Still, this is her family. The people she loves most in the world. Lily, her sweet, smart girl, is old enough now to recognise when her mother needs to be drawn in to the conversation. She asks her questions, sets her up in conversation with Sarah Grace, and then wanders away to chat to her uncles.
"How's your new job treating you?"
"It's really good!" Sarah Grace launches into an explanation of her work. It's fascinating actually, to see what it's like to be just starting out in your career a generation after Kate herself did so. The two of them form a little bubble that everybody else skirts around the edges of, not wanting to disrupt.
Rick has always been the one person who is unafraid to get into Kate's personal space. He leans over the back of his bench seat and kisses her earlobe. "Try not to be too serious, Beckett. Let the poor girl forget about work for a while."
"Oh, shoot, am I-"
"Not at all," Sarah Grace shakes her head. "Leave her alone, Uncle Rick."
"Sorry, sorry." He shows them his palms, and Kate can't help herself. She snags his fingers and draws them in so she can kiss the tip of his index and then his middle finger.
There are various noises of revulsion, and Kate catches something from Nick about thinking his parents were gross, but she doesn't care. Her own father is here, and she still feels no shame in openly loving her husband.
Not when she does so fiercely. Not after how hard she fought for it.