It felt good to sweat, Esposito thought as he pushed himself through his cardio routine at the precinct gym. He loved these moments because he could find a little tranquility by crawling inside his own head, particularly now that the New Years were done and holiday crush of visiting had ebbed back to normal. Not that he didn't love his wife or his daughter beyond all reasonable measure, but he had a life full of talking - interviewing suspects, culling information from financial and phone records, dealing with the press on cases from time to time; his friends and family were all noisy people, and to boot, Tessi was on the verge of saying her first words as well. She babbled and imitated him and Meredeth in speech all the time now, it was a matter of days.
He hoped he would be there for that momentous occasion, but knew inevitably it was unlikely because of his job. That was part and parcel of being a cop with a family, he'd come to realize. He'd been late for dates with Meredeth, had them interrupted, they'd even had to cut their getaway weekend for their first anniversary short because a new case he was assigned to had cropped up. But Esposito also knew that Meredeth held nothing back with him, no matter how tough or painful so he knew when she said it was okay, it really was okay.
He focused his power on the barbell in his hands, mentally picturing his muscles flexing and extending as he listened to his latest episode of Dallas, Lieutenant Eve on his iPod. He was still playing catch-up on it, and had discovered unlike Heroes, this was a series that he and Meredeth both loved. However seeing as it was in season 3 airing and he was still in the first half of the first season, he was using the personal time to fit in watching the episodes; he'd gotten hooked when Tessi couldn't settle one night when she had another tooth coming in - she had four in total now - so he'd flipped on the DVD with subtitles and discovered the futuristic NYPD cop series was not only a gritty cop drama but also appealed to his inner sci-fi nerd. Now, the sultry tones of Lieutenant Eve Dallas and the Irish ones of her lover Roarke had his attention as he completed his chest presses.
Only when he felt a tap on his knee did he open his eyes to see his partner and Gil Mazzara standing by his feet. With the barbell on its rests, Esposito sat up plucking out his earbuds, remembering to pause the track.
'Hey big daddy,' Gil grinned, dressed in his sweats. 'Just got finished telling your partner some big news.'
'Robina's pregnant.'
'No, better.'
'Better than another spitfire like Kelley?' Esposito mopped his face with his towel. 'That'd be pretty huge.'
'Robina and I are getting married.'
Esposito smiled, thrilled for his friend and popped up from the bench to pull him in for a manly hug. 'Congrats bro, when is the big day? You doing the full church thing or like what Mere and I did?'
'Well, that's were it gets weird,' Ryan explained, pulling the weights off the barbell Esposito had finished using to adjust it for himself. 'They're calling it a marriage but it's not going to be in front of a judge or priest or anything.'
'I'm confused.'
'We've been together for like two years, right?' Gil reminded them both. 'We decided on our three-year anniversary, we're going to exchange vows and rings but no paperwork.'
'Ah, so like a commitment ceremony,' Esposito said.
'Exactly. Robina and I both knew we'd never get married when we moved in and had Kelley but she's my wife, you get me?'
'Obviously, she's your wife. What about TJ?' Ryan asked.
'TJ and Robina and I all talked and he's decided to take my name, because it's his sister's name too, so both will be legally mine.'
Esposito knew that TJ had long ago become Gil's boy, from the first Christmas they'd had after Robina and Gil had started dating. They'd bonded in such a way that a young boy in need of a positive male authority and a man looking to become a father only could, and there were occasionally times when Esposito had to remember that TJ was biologically another man's offspring. 'Sounds like it'll be a great day, man.'
Gil's pager beeped on his hip. 'Yeah, yeah, I'll be there,' he muttered. 'I gotta jet, but I'll see you tomorrow night, Castle's for poker?'
'Sure.'
Esposito thought to slip away then, but remembered he also needed to talk to Ryan; despite his need for a solo chill during his workout sessions, he was too much his mother's son to avoid talking altogether. 'You and the fam still coming for dinner tonight?'
'Yeah, we're doing court prep while the women chat and the babies play. And Meredeth's cooking, so kinda hard to go wrong.'
When both men arrived at the Chelsea townhouse, they were greeted with a cacophonous assault on the senses - the sounds of Arturo barking punctuated with Tessi babbling as Dell used that sweet, patient voice with her, the scent of Meredeth's homemade pasta sauce combined with roasted meat, all wrapped up inside the warm glow of the fire roaring in the hearth.
'Daddy!' Dell had heard the front door open, and raced over to hug his father around the knees. 'You are home! Hi Javi! Tessi and I are playing Suh-pell-Master with her blocks and learning words!'
'Can she say any yet, or do you do all the talking?' Ryan asked, picking his son up for a hug himself.
'She's babbling away like you wouldn't believe,' Honey-Milk said, following her son out of the living room and holding onto Tessi's hand to walk her over to see her daddy. 'Mere's just checking on dinner. She finally charmed Dave's stuffed shells recipe out of him and is testing her version on us tonight.'
'Hihihihihi,' Tessi giggle, dropping Honey-Milk's hand and walking with arms outstretched towards Esposito. 'Dadadadada.'
'Hi princess, let's go find Mommy.'
Winter outer-wear stowed, Esposito didn't give a damn about his suit jacket getting wrinkled as he hoisted his daughter up and made her squeal excitedly as he blew a raspberry on her cheek; he laughed when she tried to do the same to him and it came off more like a fart. They sauntered into the kitchen together to see Meredeth in her apron adding shredded cheese to a casserole dish. Her smile was luminous as she looked up and saw he'd arrived home, and for a brief fleeting moment, Esposito felt his world become absolute perfection - the gorgeous loving wife who loved him outrageously and understood him so astutely, the beautiful baby girl they'd made together who had the best of both of them in her personality, the friends in the living room equally happy in their domestic bliss.
The need for solitude seemed like a distant memory.
'Hello Detective.'
'Hello Chef.'
'These need another fifteen minutes or so, but we can always keep them warming, I know you don't like to eat when you first get home,' she greeted him with a loving kiss, then rubbed noses with Tessi. 'No, Daddy's not hungry just yet is he?'
Tessi babbled a string of incomprehensible syllables both parents knew was her version of making sentences at this point, and Meredeth tickled her. 'And Mommy got to use Dave's recipe for dinner tonight, didn't she?'
'What made him give in?'
'That I had to promise on pain of death not to put it in my next cook book.'
'Book.'
Both Espositos looked at Tessi, who was blinking her dark blue eyes at her parents. 'Book,' she repeated.
'Oh my god, did she that?' Esposito looked at his wife in wonderment. 'Did I hear that right?'
'You heard? It wasn't just me thinking it?' Tears of joy and pride shining in her eyes, Meredeth stepped closer to watch her daughter's face. 'Tessi, what did you say?'
'Book.'
'Can you Mommy?'
'Ma-my.'
'What about Daddy?' Esposito asked excitedly.
'Da-dy.'
'Say Arturo, princess,' he added, pointing to the dog under the table, since Meredeth was too overcome with emotion to say much more.
'Ah-du-woh,' Tessi repeated. gesturing like her father did.
'Jenny! Kevin!' Meredeth raced into the living room, where they were enjoying a quiet chat on the couch as they kept an eye on Dell. Both blond heads whipped up at the urgency in Meredeth's voice. 'Tessi's talking, she's talking!'
They leaped off the sofa, Dell trailing in their wake, where they saw Esposito pointing to things in the kitchen and Tessi was repeating them as best as she could.
'Fork.'
'Fohk.'
'Plate.'
'Pit.'
'Tessi, can you say Kevin?' Ryan pointed to himself and to his delight, Tessi patted at his chest.
'De-vin.'
'Close enough. How about Jenny?' Honey-Milk asked.
'De-nny.'
'Me too!' Dell stretched to his tip-toes, tapped Tessi on the leg. 'Can you say 'Dell', Tessi?'
'Dell.'
Esposito and Meredeth looked at each other, shaking their heads and laughing. 'Of course she gets that one right.'
R&R&Enjoy.
