Title: Beauty in the Mundane Moments
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: A series of stand-alone, non-chronological ONE-SHOTS set in Hello Goodbye, Welcome Home, Facing Forward, Best Laid Plans, A Step At A Time, The Night Before AU. Olivia Benson navigates the job, parenthood and marriage while trying to find the difficult work-life-family balance that comes with being a cop.
PLEASE NOTE: These chapters are stand-alone SCENES or one-shots. This is not a chronological story and there is no purposeful continuity. It is just a collection of moments. Some will reflect random ideas or potentially fun, humorous, heavy scenes to write with these characters. Others will expand on a scene from an episode (past or present) or recast the way a scene went while imaging it in this AU. Others will take a kernel from an episode and use it as inspiration for how these characters might've interacted with it going forward. Wherever possible, a year, season number or episode name will be provided to give some context of the general timeframe of the scene — to provide some guidance on where the characters are at mentally/emotionally and the ages of the children.
TIMEFRAME: Early March 2020
"Her boots are here," Big Man exclaimed basically as soon as the kid pushed the front door open. Had barely even stepped into the house. Em pushing by to get in the door too – ahead of anyone. Always fucking first through the door, that kid.
"MOOOOOOM!" Ben called out as soon as he'd done his low-key detective work there – and made a move like he was about ready to bolt off out of the foyer and through their main living space in search of his Ma.
"Hey," Brian rasped at the kid real quick, as he got in the door in the back of the fucking stampede. He was always taking up the rear with these kids. "Your boots stay here too. Take 'em off."
That got a real huff from their fucking Hufflepuff anymore. Fucking huffed and puffed like he was going to blow the whole world down. Everything seemed to earn a huff from the kid. Supposed it was better than a full-on groan and eyeroll, which probably were the next step in this tween-to-teen thing Big Man seemed to be slowly trying to figure out. But at least the boots got kicked off. Not untied. Just wriggled and kicked and stepping on the heels to pull his feet out – and pull his socks half off his feet in the process.
Not that Ben seemed to care. He just danced and stepped around him and his lil' sis. Coat still on but unzipped and hanging half down his arms like maybe he'd thought about taking it off and was in too much of a hurry. More like it had just conveniently slide partway off as Ben tried to shimmy his backpack off for easier access when he did get himself planted in front of Liv.
"MoooooOOOOM!" he yelled out again as he took off.
And Ducky took of too. Right at his heels. Tossing her coat to the ground to make sure she kept up with Bubba. Always right there with Big Man with a quack, quack, quack. "MoooooOOOOOM!" she copied too.
But Brian grabbed at the hood of her hoodie, gently giving it a tug before she went tracking half of Brooklyn across their floors. Not that it entirely mattered. By the end of any given week the place was bordering on a disaster zone measured near solely based on just how fucking busy their work lives had been. Still, didn't need extra dirt dragged in by the kids. And Em still made sure to act like she'd just been yoked by a cane and pulled off stage-right.
"Hang up your coat. Take off your boots," he nodded at her bluntly.
That got another copycat huff but she listened. Actually giving Brian a sec to shed off his layers too. Gathered up his work duffle and Em's backpack that he could tell she wasn't going to remember to bring any further inside the place than the foyer that evening. On a mission. So was Ben.
"MOOOOOOOOM!" was hollered again inside. Could tell he was calling up the stairs at that point. But Brian could already tell that wasn't where Liv was. That she'd been home long enough to likely get changed and settled. Could hear she had some of her folksy-bluesy-acoustic 'rock' on that was heavy on the trumpet and banjos. Could also smell that she definitely had dinner started.
"Benji, I'm right here," Liv called way more quietly and evenly than Ben was yelling. "You don't need to be yelling across creation."
"Mom! Did you look at my portal yet?" Brian could hear Ben demand. Clearly having joined his Ma in the kitchen at that point.
"Well, hello," Liv responded – with the gentle but still pointed sarcasm that she was starting to lay on the kid more and more now that he was getting old enough to pick up on it. Sometimes it was kind of funny to watch Ben churn in that head what his mom was getting at or if she was just being witty and pulling his leg on something. "Nice to see you too."
Could almost hear Ben sigh from there. Briefly. Because Em was done with her boots and off like a shot to get in on this action. Brian had already gotten the breaking news and talking points on the way of getting the kids home.
"Hi," Ben huffed. "Have you checked my portal?!"
Brian smiled a bit. He pretty much knew the exact look that Big Man was getting. Somewhere between unimpressed by manners and amused by the antics. It was a fairly standard Liv look with the kids – when they weren't pushing her toward her patience point or breaking her heart. But they were usually somewhere in between those two extremes.
"Jah! Have you checked Bubba's port-ill?" Em interjected getting full-on in on the action now.
"Not yet," Liv said. "Should I have?"
"Yes!" Ben pressed.
"Jah! Jes!" Em added again for him.
"But it's OK. I brought the letter!" Ben added.
Brian followed after the kid. Found the whole fam-damily at their island counter top in the kitchen space of their living space. Kids up on the stools staring at their Mom at the stove. So pretty much staring at her ass. Brian took his own look too – because she was in those jeans again. The ones she'd gone out and bought in the fall.
When Liv had bought them she'd made some crack about Emmy officially being in the First Grade and Ben officially starting Middle School she'd felt like it was time she officially graduated to "Mom Jeans". Brian wasn't entirely sure what that meant. He assumed it was some kind of thing. But he was sure that stress and diet (and likely some middle age) had done its thing to both their bodies that year. For better and worse. And for better – whatever label or cut or whatever-the-fuck those jeans were, they hugged all the right places and hit all Liv's right curves. So, as far as he was concerned, Liv should likely be going out and investing in a couple more pairs of these 'Mom Jeans'.
She looked good, though. That blue sweater of hers that hit the right places too. And, always just nice to see her in more casual shit than some of her work attire and fucking lighter colors, even though he was one to talk. Sometimes it seemed like their whole family was dressed like they were headed to a funeral. But not that night. Looked relaxed. Looked like she was already in full-on weekend mode – and like she seemed confidant that it wasn't going to get derailed by work shit. Semi-turned to the kids while she was working that skillet that was emanating mouth-watering awesomeness. And she was smiling at them.
Ben had his backpack on the one stool – full on rooting through it. Big Man's fucking backpack was always a fucking disaster zone. Fucking rat's nest. They seriously had to dump it every weekend and clean it out just to keep that hoarding-Doomsday Preparedness pack under some kind of control. Em was up on her knees staring at a bit of a charcuterie board Liv had sitting on the countertop. Nay – Em was all out circling it like some sort of ravenous buzzard. Also pretty much par for the course for their kids after a school day. Even more so on a Friday night. But Brian wouldn't fault Emmy for having her sights set on the aperitif there. His own eyes had definitely shifted there too when he was done checking out his wife's ass.
"A letter sent home from school?" Liv said with a bit of one of those eyebrow raises. But she caught sights of Brian and he shook it off. So "That can't be good?" she teased Big Man a bit.
"It's good," Ben assured firmly.
"Jah, it good," Em reaffirmed.
"Dad!" Ben demanded as he dug. "Do you still have it?"
"Nope," Brian said. "Watched you shove it back in there, Kiddo."
Another giant huff and more digging.
"Mommy is dis snack?" Em asked, elbows so far over on the counter and face hovering over top of meat-cheese-fruit board that she looked about ready to go at it head-first as soon as she got the go-ahead.
"You can have some," Liv approved and Em was into it in an instant. Grabbing as many cheese cubes as her little left hand could take and snagging a bunch of grapes with the right. You'd think they starved them. Liv looked over at him and gave a small eyeroll and a little headshake but she pointed at the board. "It's OK for everyone," she said. "The meats are all gluten-free and it's goat cheese. You too, Benji. Go ahead and snack." But Big Man just gave the food another little glance and kept on searching.
Brian tilted his head in some question. But Liv just gave him a little smile. Start to turn back to her cooking.
"Smells amazing in here, Babe," Brian said, rounding the counter.
Sometimes Liv sold herself a little short on the whole cooking thing. Jack still made sure to regularly remind everyone that Liv had pots inhabited by cobwebs when she first got Ben home. But that was another fucking lifetime for all of them. Brian would definitely give that Liv still wasn't exactly a homecook even in this new lease on life they'd all got. He wasn't sure she got a whole lot of joy out of cooking for the most part. Just wasn't her thing most of the time. But she still wasn't bad at it. She still had meals the kids asked for – over and over. And she definitely had some dishes that Brian would take her whipping up over some restaurant's spin. Wouldn't tell his Ma this, but there were some of the comfort-food basic weeknight family dinner type sheet pan meals and casseroles that Liv did way, way better. And when she wanted to actually cook up a scratch meal – fuck, Liv could do a mean Italian almost anything. So Brian definitely had his own list of dishes that he looked forward to her actually whipping up those couple times per year. His own little list that sometimes he'd work at buttering her up to actually get her at the stovetop and making it on his request.
He hadn't submitted a request this time. But he could tell this was her take on chicken marsala. And he sort of wanted to think that that might be for him. Because it sure as hell wasn't for the kids.
"It smells like mushrooms," Ben affirmed. "I don't like mushrooms."
"Mush-im's fungus," Em provided with her mouth full of cheese. Brian wondered if he should remind them that the cheese was basically fermented milk, bacteria and mold. But he didn't need to stir that pot.
"I like mushrooms," Brian said, as he rested his hand in the small of Liv's back and leaned in intending to put a kiss against the back of her head while she worked. But she turned toward him before he managed it.
"I know," she said and her mouth found his. It was brief. But he could feel them both smile into it. And it was good enough that as they separated they met sightlines and tilted back in for another peck. That was brief too, because:
"You're being gross," Ben informed them.
"Oh, so gross," Liv agreed but gave Brian another little smile. He knew he was still looking a little confused and intrigued by this. Definitely wasn't complaining.
"Definitely don't taste like the marsala," he smiled at her – still measuring this.
Thought they were entering that whole flirty without being overly flirty realm. That whole fucking foreplay without the foreplay while you sent the next like three hours counting down to getting the kids in bed. And then another forty minutes or more just fucking praying they'll pass out quick and hard. Because you're at the point you figure the whole thing is going to end up quick and hard after the green light finally went on.
Only it wouldn't be. Because it was also pretty clear that if they were going to do this – Liv was setting of the long and slow game. But he could definitely buy into that too. Though, maybe should be dumping in a bit more marsala into the sauce and not cooking it down as much. Make sure there was enough to knock out the kids real good. So they could take it as long and as slow as they wanted. It'd definitely been a while since they'd had much opportunity to hazard more than a quick run at things in their epically limited privacy.
Liv pointed off behind him at the opposite side of the counter. Another bottle of wine – a Pinot Noir – open. Two glasses were out. And could see she'd already been working on the one.
"You should definitely have some," she murmured at him, "because you definitely taste like you put back about a whole pot of stale coffee."
He made a small sound of amusement. Wasn't inaccurate. He muttered a quiet sorry and went and poured a glass. He brought her glass closer to her and got a quiet thanks. And grabbed a piece of cheese while he leaned against the counter next to the stove watching her work a bit and watching the kids.
"What can I do?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I've got it under control."
"You sure?"
She hummed a bit. "Spinach – sautéed or salad?"
Ben made a gagging noise and squinted at them. "NOT SAUTEE!"
"Peanut gallery's spoken …" Brian provided.
Liv made a quiet sound. Inevitable annoyed-amusement that came with kids. "If we don't have some of the lemon poppy seed dressing in the fridge can you just whip something up and toss it quickly?"
Brian allowed a nod and went to open the fridge. Turned out he wasn't going to have to do much. The dressing bottle still had enough in it. But still took it over and sat it next to the colanders she had the spinach already washed in and went over to the sink to wash his hands.
"Feel like we're celebrating something here?" he commented as he shook his hands off.
"Ahh …," Liv shrugged behind him, as he moved around to find his own spot on the counter to just toss the salad a bit real quick. "About ten minutes before calling it, my inbox – completely cleared out."
Brian gave her a look. "What's that even look like?"
"I know," Liv said with a smile. "Want to risk that it was a momentary optical illusion. So shut down and left. And haven't looked at my phone since. Didn't want to jinx it."
"That's worth celebrating," Brian allowed.
She shrugged. "And we got through February."
Brian allowed a little nod. "OK," he agreed. "I'll drink to that."
They both held up their glasses from across the kitchen in a little salute.
"First Friday of March," Liv said and took a sip.
"First Friday of March," he managed. He'd definitely take it. Out of their self-ordained annual rough period. Hopefully. If it could really realistically be contained to those two months. Wasn't sure it quite worked that way most years. But maybe if you believed it hard enough you could turn it into fact.
"If we're celebrating, we should celebrate with take-out," Ben said. "Friday we get take-out."
"Well, this Friday, Mom used the take-out money to buy and cook you a nice meal," Liv nodded at him.
Ben made a face. Brian could tell he was about to inform them again how much he hated mushrooms and spinach and how gross their whole house smelled while the meal cooked.
"Not a restaurant, Big Man," Brian warned.
He got some of the squint-eye. "Well, whadda 'bout if I have something real to celebrate? Then can I have take-out? 'Cuz every March has a Friday. How's that a celebration?"
"March is good," Em said. "My biff-day is in March. So I tink I should getta pick how we sell-i-brate."
"You get to pick how we celebrate on your actual birthday weekend," Ben pushed at her. "It's not your ACTUAL birthday weekend."
"I getta pick to eat or pick to do?" Em squinted.
"Both," Ben said. "Unless you pick a party again. Then you only get to pick that."
That got a real squint-eye. The two kids could give it to each other so well it almost always ended in a prolonged stand-off.
"Rock Bugs," Em said.
"There's no such thing," Ben said.
"Jes," Em pressed. "Rocks and bugs. They both real."
Ben stared at her. "You want a rock and bug … party? Or to what like eat them? Bugs?"
"You don't eat bugs," Em protested.
"Some people do," Ben said.
It was fucking hard not to laugh. But Liv still held up her hand. "Enough," she said. "We'll start working out the logistics of your birthday another night, Emily. But … thank you both for the … insight on all the potential possibilities."
Brian did let out an amused sound at that and rubbed at his eye a bit as the kids both looked at him. He wondered how Liv would decide they were going to pull that one off if the 'rock-bug party' was what stayed logged as Em's birthday wish. The kid couldn't ever pick something simple like … Frozen. But maybe she really wouldn't be theirs if she ever did. They'd be looking around to see what had happened and where their girl went when they started getting requests like that. At least this, if Liv could accept the idea of not having all of creation track through their house, they might be able to get away with taking the kid to the park and calling it her party.
"You and Dad still aren't celebrating anything real tonight with your fungus eating," Ben mumbled.
Liv rolled her eyes a bit. "OK, Benji, take-out isn't happening. But – maybe, MAYBE – if someone eats their whole dinner without complaining and making faces and he actually has something to celebrate – MAYBE – since it's Friday, we might be able to go and pick out some dessert. Maybe."
"I'll eat my dinner for ouce-ceem!" Em said.
"Maybe," Liv stressed again. "I still haven't been told what we're celebrating."
"BEN-GEE made dah team!" Em provided, jumping up higher on her knees for emphasis.
"EMILY!" Ben barked at her and then pouted more than a little.
"Hey, c'mon, Big Man," Brian chastised him a bit. "You're taking an eon to find the permission form. Give that to me. Tell your Ma about it."
Ben still did some of his nose flare and stink-eye at his sister. But he let Brian take his backpack and start his own eye-rolling as he worked at pulling all the crap that had been stowed and collected in there that week. With all the digging Ben had done the fucking permission slip was probably in a crumbled ball at the bottom of the thing by now. Do better just printing a new one out on the school's portal.
"What team did you make, Benji?" Liv asked. "Basketball?"
Brian could tell she was kind of confused. But he'd been a little confused when Big Man had come flying out of his after-school program saying the same damn thing.
"NO!" Ben said, sitting a bit straighter and looking excitedly at his Ma. "BATTLE OF THE BOOKS!"
"JAH! BATTLE OF DAH BOOKS!" Em added for further emphasis.
Brian could tell that she was still confused. But Liv put on her congratulatory face.
"Oh, wow," she mouthed. "Tell me more about that?" In other words: Tell me what the hell that is? Brian's reaction had been about the same.
"MOM!" Ben interjected, pulling his knees up on the stool to lean across the counter and almost yell this news at his Ma. "Only four grade sixes got picked! And only twelve kids! In the whole school! I got picked! Ms. Caputo says she picked me 'cuz I know all the 'Classics' like all the old books you read us! And I'm real good at knowing all the myths! And I told her that's 'cuz we read Percy Jackson and Magnus Chase and that I got all the Kane Chronicle books for Christmas so now I'll know about Egypt mythology too. And she said that's even better 'cuz it means I know all about Rick Riordan's stories and he's a real good author to know for Battle of the Books!"
"JAH!" Em added. "And we watch PERCY too! And the light-ing feef!"
"And I told her that Captain gave us the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew sets for our library! And she said it's so awesome that we have a 'library' and that she bets there will be questions about the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew too! And I told her that Grandma was a BOOK PROFESSOR! And she said that was amazing and she bet Grandma would be a real good helper for our team! But I told her Grandma is dead and in Heaven and stuff but that you know all about books and reading too! And so she said she bets you'd be a great volunteer for our team too! Instead. So … I can be on the team … right?"
"ME TOO?!" Em asked, gazing between her mom and big brother.
Ben shot her a look. "No, Ducky, it's for big kids. Middle school."
Ducky crossed her arms and looked at him. "I as good a book reader as you!"
"You're too little," Ben pressed at her.
"But I know Percy too! And I know FR-ENCE! You don't know Fr-ence!"
Ben glared at her. "You barely know FRENCH. You can't even say the word right. And there's not French books in the battle anyway."
"MOMMY!" Em protested. "Ben-gee not lettin' me play too!"
Liv held up her hand. "Emmy, I'm standing right here. You don't need to be tattling on your brother. And, Benji's right. This sounds like it's a … competition …? For bigger kids. You'll have to wait to tryout until you're in middle school too."
Em let out a huff at that. "NOT FAIR!"
"It is fair," Ben said. "I didn't get to play when I was in Grade One either."
Em still pouted.
"So … Benji …," Liv weighed. "This is a competition? At school?"
Ben gave her an exasperated look. "No, Mom," he sighed at her. "It's a team. At school. We only practice at school. We have to play other school and then go to the whole city tournament! At the lion library! There's even prizes. Like medals and trophies! And even like books! For our school and us and gift cards for book stores and stuff! We even have uniforms! Well … we have tshirts …"
"Wow …," Liv mouthed. But she was smiling at the kid. And she gave Brian a look and another mouthed 'wow'. But he knew what she was thinking. Their dyslexic kid was on a fucking book club team thing. It took a couple minutes for that to kind of sink it.
"Here," Brian said, smoothing out some the clumped up sheets of paper he'd managed to retrieve from the kid's bag.
Liv looked at it, flipping pages. Brian knew what she was looking at then too. A fucking long list of the books that MIGHT get asked about in this contest. She shook her head a bit.
"Benji, do you have to read all these?" she said. Brian could hear the gaping in her voice. The near impossibility of them being able to achieve that.
"No," Ben said. "Ms. Caputo is figuring out which ones no one on the team has read. And then she said we'll all hafta be experts on four new books we've never read before. But she said she knows about me and reading. And she said we can pick books that are audio books. And that she knows you and Dad help me and read to me all the time. And she can help me become an expert on my books too. And like I said like she said I'm already prolly gonna be their old books expert! And their myth expert!"
"Wow …," Liv allowed again. But that was more real. Brian could see she was beaming a bit at this … fucking achievement. No just for Big Man. But – fuck – there was achievement wrapped up in all of that for them too. "Well … I definitely think this deserves a Friday Family Date Night to—"
"Farm-icy!" Em provided.
"How 'bout we let Bubba decide," Brian said.
Ben was pulling his thoughtful face. Had a feeling they'd be getting a lot of shots of him looking like that over the next while if he was going to be on this team.
"But wait …," Ben said after thinking on it. "Are you gonna be our parent volunteer? 'Cuz then it can be like a real celebration for you too, Mom! So … you can pick."
Ben gazed at her expectantly.
"So … are you, Mom? I mean … volunteer?"
And Liv looked like a deer caught in headlights at that one. Them and parent volunteers didn't go together too often. Or at least it hadn't. The job and their schedules made a good excuse for avoiding it when the PTA minions popped those kinds of requests on you. But this was different. This was their wide-eyed little boy talking about a hundred miles an hour and nearly falling off his chair with excitement.
But all Liv could get out was an "Ahh …."
