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The sounds of Billie's cries coming from the baby monitor caused Amanda to jolt awake and race across the hall.
"Hey, baby. What's the matter?" She asked, flipping on the light and hoping Jessie would sleep through it.
"Yucky," Billie mumbled, tugging at her ear.
"You feel yucky?" Amanda asked while she rummaged around for a thermometer.
"Yeah," she sniffled.
"Okay, it's okay. Ssh," Amanda said gently as she took Billie's temperature, frowning slightly, but not at all surprised that she had a slight fever.
"Want Unca Sonny!" Billie cried. "Unca!"
"I know, Billie," her mother soothed, lifting her from her bed. "But Uncle Sonny has to be at court very early tomorrow morning. He's sleeping at his house tonight."
"Want Unca now!" Billie continued protesting, grabbing a fistful of her mother's shirt in her tiny hands.
"Ugh, is Billie ever gonna stop crying, Momma?" Jessie asked from her bed as she dramatically threw her hand over her face after Billie's complaints went on for at least a solid ten minutes.
Amanda shifted Billie in her arms to better rock her in the rocking chair. "You can camp out on the couch if you want to, honey. I'm sorry we woke you up."
"Is Uncle Sonny here?" Jessie asked, rubbing at her eyes. "He sleeps here a lot now. He can just come in and then she'll stop being loud."
"No, baby. He is sleeping at his house tonight."
"Why?"
"Well, he has to be at work very early tomorrow. He needed to rest."
"But can't he just live with us? Cause you kiss him now and smile when he's here and he makes us breakfast and you loooooove him. And he looooooves you…you tell each other all the time! I bet he'd say yes if you asked him to. He loves all of us."
Amanda sighed softly. "It's not that simple, baby. Things are a little more complicated than that."
"I want Unca Sonny!" Billie repeated, not at all amused that he hasn't magically appeared in her bedroom yet during this conversation about him.
"I am going to sleep on the couch." Jessie finally declared as she grabbed her blanket and stuffed animal from her bed with a huff. "I need my beauty sleep."
Amanda bit back a chuckle. "I love you," she told her. "I'll come check on you once Billie settles down. I promise."
"Okay, Mommy." Jessie mumbled in her half-asleep state as she stumbled out to the living room.
Jessie had no way of knowing how much time had passed, but Billie's cries continued constantly. Suddenly, as she looked around the room, she saw the Echo Show on the bookshelf. She remembered during quarantine when they used it to call Aunt Liv and Noah, Grandma, and Uncle Sonny when they weren't able to see each other in person, and then an idea was formed.
"Alexa, call Dominick Carisi." She said slowly so she wouldn't mispronounce her Uncle Sonny's full name.
Sonny rolled over in bed at the sound of his cellphone vibrating against the night stand. He picked it up and frowned in worry when he realized it was an Alexa video call from Rollins. The detective part of his brain was already trying to figure out why she wasn't sending a Facetime call instead and what would warrant a video call in the middle of the night. He quickly flipped on the light. As his eyesight finally came into focus, and he answered the call, he realized it was 1:27AM.
"Jessie?" He said when the call connected and he saw her little face barely staring back at him from the darkness of her living room. "Is everything okay? Where's Mommy?"
"With Billie in our room. Billie's been crying forever. "
"Is she hurt?"
Jessie shrugged. "Billie said she felt yucky."
"Oh, so she's sick."
"I guess so. She wants you, but Momma told her you had to sleep at your own house cause you had to be at work early." Jessie said with a yawn. "Billie didn't like that."
"Why don't you try to fall back asleep?" He suggested as he was already getting out of bed. "I love you, Pumpkin Pie. I'm sure Mommy is taking good care of Billie. She'll be okay. She's probably just a little bit scared about not feeling good."
"Love you, too." She said sleepily.
Sonny watched as she trekked back over to the couch before he finally ended the call after one more, "Sweet dreams; I love you."
Then, he quickly put together an overnight bag, grabbed his suit for tomorrow, tossed it into a garment bag, and triple checked his briefcase before he loaded up his car and drove across town to Amanda's apartment.
He entered the apartment silently, nearly an hour after Jessie had called him. He carefully kicked off his shoes, and hung his suit on the coat rack and his briefcase on the hook by Frannie's leash, before he crossed the living room to check on Jessie. She was sprawled out on the couch, her blanket only half covering her body.
He kneeled down to brush her hair away from her eyes, and then adjusted her blanket before placing a kiss on her forehead.
"Oh!" She gasped after she opened her eyes. "You're not Mommy!"
"No, I'm not Mommy," he chuckled.
"You're really here?" She patted his cheek – checking to make sure she wasn't dreaming.
"Of course, I'm here. I'll always come when my girls need me." He nudged her cheek with his nose. "Always."
"Billie's gonna be so happy." Jessie managed to say before her eyes fluttered closed again and she quickly fell back to sleep.
Sonny pushed himself up from the floor and made his way to the girls' room – hearing Billie's faint cries and whimpers the closer he got.
"Hey," he said softly as he opened the door.
Amanda nearly jumped out of the rocking chair. "Jesus Christ, Carisi! You scared me!" she exclaimed before she took a few deep breaths, attempting to slow down her racing heart.
"I'm sorry! I texted you, but I figured you probably didn't have your phone with you when you never replied."
"Unca Sonny! Hold me! Unca Sonny!" Billie exclaimed at the sound of his voice as she rubbed her fists at her eyes.
Sonny walked into the room and carefully took Billie from Amanda's arms. "Hey, Itsy-Bitsy. It's okay," he soothed. "You're gonna be okay." He bounced her gently – reminiscent of the way he soothed a newborn Jessie on their lunch time walk all those years ago- as he paced around the room with her. "I hear you feel yucky, huh?"
"Yeah." Billie sniffled.
"What are you doing here?" Amanda asked. "You have to be at court in a few hours!"
"Jessie used the Echo to call me," he said simply with a shrug. "I figured I'd come and help out."
"I'll have a talk with Jessie about appropriate hours for using the Echo. I'm so sorry she woke you up. You didn't need to come."
"You're delusional if you really think there was any way I wouldn't come after I hung up with Jessie. When I told you I was all in, I meant that. I'm not just here for the fun things, I'm here for the rough things, too. I'm not gonna clock out on this during certain hours. The commitment I made to you and these girls is 24/7."
"Dominick..." Her heart was racing for a completely different reason now.
"Did she have a fever?"
"A slight one," Amanda confirmed. "She took her medicine after four attempts, but I'll call the doctor in the morning. I think she has an ear infection."
He nodded.
Amanda studied him carefully – the man who drove across town wearing his pajamas in the middle of the night for her daughter. The man who was holding her and murmuring comforting words to her as she drooled and wiped her snotty nose against his t-shirt. The man who had to be at work super early in the morning for a day filled with nonstop arraignments and still did all of that.
"I love you." She blurted out. It may have been less than four weeks since that fateful night at Fin's not wedding, but she had never been more sure about anything in her entire life. She didn't know how to label what they were to each other – dating didn't seem like the right word when the life they had already built together without even trying was already so much more than that.
He stopped pacing and spun around with a now sleeping Billie in his arms to look at her. He had the biggest grin on his face. "In case it wasn't obvious, I love you, too."