23x09

I'm in my missing Rollisi hours, guys. I know the show will never be super focused on their personal lives, but I need something more substantial than these crumbs.

"You can't be serious." Dominick Carisi said into his phone as he shuffled around Amanda's kitchen, looking for the container of Christmas sprinkles he brought over a few days ago and had to hide from small, curious hands.

Amanda and her two very impatient daughters were sitting at the table with a tray of sugar cookies waiting to decorate them.

"Ssh. Ssh," came Amanda's occasional reminders. "Uncle Sonny's on the phone for work."

Carisi sighed. "Well, why not? Yeah, optics," he muttered as he rummaged around the cabinet, pulling out the container of sprinkles much to Billie's delight. "Thanks for letting me know."

"YAY!" Bille screamed. "Sprink-nols!" She exclaimed happily, clapping her hands loudly before her mother could calm her. "COOKIE TIME!"

"BILLIE!" Jessie shouted. "Momma said we had to be quiet!"

Amanda shot an apologetic look in Sonny's direction. He smiled at her and shrugged it off, his attention still focused on his phone call.

"Uh, yeah," he chuckled into his phone. "It's sugar cookies and gingerbread houses tonight. Haha, yeah, well, I can't promise they'll make it to Monday," he laughed. "You, too. Have a nice weekend." He finished as he ended the call and walked over to the table with a sigh.

"Everything okay?" Amanda asked. A beat went by and Sonny didn't say anything. "Here, girls," she began as she slid a few cookies and some frosting in front of her daughters. "Work on this carefully while Uncle Sonny and I talk for a minute. Okay? Jess, can you help your sister?"

"Yes, Mommy."

"No help!" Billie protested.

"You might need help eventually," Amanda replied, "and Jessie will help you, okay?"

Billie nodded; her attention already solely focused on using her fingers to spread icing on a Christmas tree sugar cookie.

"Was that Baptiste?" Amanda asked as she and Sonny stepped over to the island.

"Yeah."

"Does he know about this?" She waved her hand around the room. "Are we in trouble? I thought we'd be okay waiting until the new year like we planned. I'm sorry if I caused more trouble for you, Dominick."

He shrugged. "It's fine, Manda. He heard the chatter in the background and said to enjoy the rest of the night with my family. He didn't ask the details..." he trailed off for a minute. "But, umm, maybe you should take the girls to your mom's for Christmas, after all."

"What?" She couldn't mask her surprise. "I thought we agreed to go to Staten Island? I thought you were really looking forward to it. I was." They spent a lot of time in Staten Island this summer – it was the only place where they were free to be a couple – and the idea of spending Christmas there didn't send her running like it would have a year ago.

"I was-I am. It's just that..." he sighed heavily at the hurt look on her face as he touched her shoulder affectionately. "Something happened in court the other day and I didn't say anything before because I didn't think it was a big deal, but now..."

"Just spit it out, Carisi. Please."

"Wheatley threatened me in open court when he was on the stand."

"He what?"

"It didn't seem like that big of a deal at the time. I baited him."

"You knew you'd bait him along if you had the chance, didn't you?" She asked, the realization dawning on her. "Is that why you didn't want me in court?"

"Come on, Manda. We both know exactly why you couldn't be anywhere near Wheatley's trial. Barba would have seen right through us even if you weren't on the stand."

She ran her fingers through her hair as she gathered her thoughts. "Okay, so let me make sure I am following this. Wheatley threatened you in open court, and you're just telling me about this now because..." she prompted.

"Because there's been a new development. Baptiste just said that the DA's office decided to not retry Wheatley after the mistrial, so he's being released tonight." He watched Amanda's eyes grow wide – a mixture of several emotions swimming in them. "I really don't think Wheatley is stupid enough to carry through on his threat," he tried to soothe her worries, "but until there's been a thorough investigation into whether or not the threat is credible, I won't do anything to put you and the girls at risk. So, if that means separate Christmases, that might be what we have to do..." he finished sadly.

Amanda opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to find the words to speak, but she couldn't. Instead, she took a step forward, wrapped her arms around his waist and held on for dear life. "You promised you aren't going anywhere," she reminded him. "So, watch your six since I won't be around to watch it for you all the time."

"Oh, so that's what you did when spent all those shifts, together, huh? Watched my six?" He teased. Her laughter sounded muffled against his shirt and he snaked his arm around her back to hold her closer. "And for the record, we're still partners...always."

"I know. That's why we're gonna talk about this later – after the girls are in bed. We'll figure something out. Jackie Kennedy wouldn't leave JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and we aren't leaving you, either. It's going to take more than Richard Wheatley to keep us apart. It's our first Christmas – together like this – and we're going to come up with a way to all be together safely."

Carisi wrinkled his nose, swaying lightly to nudge her hip. "Hey, Manda...maybe you shouldn't compare me to JFK, right now..."

Amanda winced. "Point taken." She replied, standing on her tip toes to kiss his lips.

"Close your eyes, Billie! They're kissin' again!" Jessie exclaimed from the table with a giggle.

"Kiss, kiss, kiss!" Billie chanted, waving her frosting covered hands around.

Amanda and Sonny laughed as they stepped away from each other and returned their complete attention to the two little girls who already made a complete mess all over the table.

"This is the best Christmas ever," Jessie offered, casually, with a dreamy sigh.

"Oh, yeah? Why's that?" her mother asked.

"'Cause this year my last year wish came true," she replied as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. "I wished for it on my birthday and Christmas cause I really, really wanted it to work. I'm not even sad I had to wait forever for it to come true," she finished dramatically.

"Really? What was your wish last year?" Carisi asked curiously as he reached over to help Billie scrape the icing off of her hands with a dishcloth.

"Well, you aren't 'posed to tell what you wish for 'cause it might not come true...but if it already came true, I can say it? Right, Momma?" She asked curiously.

Amanda nodded. "I think so." She smiled, turning to Carisi. "What does the law say about that, Counselor?"

He pretended to think about it for a second. "I have it on good authority that it is definitely permissible under New York State law," he nodded in agreement.

Jessie grinned and then looked up. She brought her gaze from her mother to her godfather. "My wish was that you and Mommy would fall in love like Cinderella and Prince Charming. I wanted that more than I wanted a pony or another puppy or a baby brother!"