It's one of the idyllic September days that New York does so well; sunny and warm with the absence of the oppressive heat that makes July and August so much less enjoyable. Central Park still makes him as happy as it always has, it's still one of the things that almost makes him miss calling this place home. He's not sure when he started thinking of the city he now lives in, three thousand miles away, as home but if someone were to suggest it was around the time he fell in love with Harry they would probably be right. Home now is her, his wife, sitting on the blanket next to him, and the perfect little girl sitting between her legs concentrating hard on trying to grab her own toes. He shifts slightly so he can roll the small, soft ball across the blanket towards his daughter, smiling when her hand comes to rest on it and she attempts to roll it back.
"That's it, baby girl." Grace looks up at him and the grin he gives her is returned by one so similar to his own that it never fails to amaze him. "I can't believe in a week she's going to be six months old."
"If you're about to say she'll be all grown up before we know it, please don't." Harry smiles at him and runs her hand gently over the baby's head. "Actually, there's something I wanted to tell you."
"You're pregnant again." He knows that's not it but he doesn't see the harm in testing the waters for a reaction.
"We have a six-month-old baby, Dempsey." She raises her eyebrows at him and he thinks she's aware that he wasn't being serious. He's pretty sure she knows too that he'd be delighted. "Do you really think I'd look this calm if I was pregnant again?"
"You looked pretty calm last time." He grins, remembering the day in the locker room when the realisation began to dawn that what was making her sick definitely wasn't a stomach bug, and how far from calm she was.
"I think we both know that's not quite true. I was calm when it came to giving birth though and that's all that matters." He can't argue with that, she was more impressive that day than he's ever seen her and he's seen her take down criminals twice her size with her bare hands. "So no, it's not that. It's just...I've been thinking a lot about this, and I don't think I want to go back to work yet. I know I was going to go in and talk to Spikings when we get home next week, but I really think I'd like to take a little bit longer, I don't...I'm not ready to leave her yet. Is that ridiculous? It is, isn't it? Maybe I'm being stupid, maybe I should just...what do you think I should do?"
"I think if you want to take some more time, you should take some more time. If you don't want to leave her yet then don't." He knows that sounds simplistic but it's how he feels. "It's not ridiculous, or stupid, Harry. I know you, and if your gut is telling you you're not ready then I'd go with it."
"You're okay with that?" She sighs and he stays quiet, knowing she has to work it through aloud as she often does. "I know you were looking forward to having me back at work, but-"
"Yeah, I'm looking forward to having you back, but am I okay with you staying home and being an amazing mom for a while longer?" He glances down at Grace, who seems to have decided the pattern on the blanket is more interesting than the ball she was playing with. "Of course I'm okay with that."
"Right, good." She smiles at him, looking relieved, making him wonder why she might have thought for even a minute that he would object to her staying home a little longer. "I'll go in and talk to Spikings anyway, but I'll tell him I'm not coming back just yet."
He nods and watches as she lifts Grace up off the blanket and into her lap, kissing the top of her head and rocking her softly back and forth. The last few weeks have seen the baby realising she can make all sorts of noises beyond just crying and he would never have believed her babblings could be so fascinating to him. Harry looks out across the grass and he watches her as she points out a dog to Grace, smiling as the baby kicks her legs excitedly as the puppy walks by.
"Do you miss it?" She looks over at him, curious. "New York. Do you miss being home?"
"I used to when I was first in London. Everything was strange then, you know. You drive on the wrong side of the road, your coffee is terrible, I had a partner who thought I was a real pain in the ass and made no secret of it." He grins and knows she won't argue with that point. "Now though? I miss it sometimes, I guess, yeah. New York is where I was born, where I grew up, but home is London now. Home is you and Grace, Harry."
"Sometimes I forget what a pain you were when you first got here." She smirks at him and he remembers their early days, days that were filled with bickering, with animosity, with irritation, all underlined with a constant stream of flirting. "You know I wondered at first if Spikings had given you orders to argue with me about everything, I thought maybe it was some kind of test, and then I realised you don't actually follow orders so that couldn't be it."
"Nope, that was all me. Pain in the ass by design, not by instruction." He shrugs, thinking back to how he struggled at first to reconcile the way she looked with how tough she was, grudgingly admiring her strength, the way she stood her ground and took none of his crap from day one. "Rakishly handsome and completely irresistible though, so it all worked out in the end."
"I could argue with the irresistible part if it weren't for the rings on our fingers and the evidence sitting in my lap." She smiles and looks at her watch. "We should get moving soon, shouldn't we?"
"You sure you're okay with this?" He frowns, wondering what he was thinking, agreeing to lunch. "We don't have to eat, we could just have a drink and say we have plans, you know, if-"
"Unless you're planning to run off with her and send the two of us back to London alone then I'm fine with it." She smiles a little wider and he nods, realising he's worrying about nothing. Things are so different than the last time he saw her, when things were so new between him and Harry that he worried her arrival would send everything to hell. "It'll be nice to see her, Dempsey, and she wants to meet Grace. And I'm hungry so we're definitely staying for lunch."
They arrive before she does and take an outside table with enough shade for the baby and enough space for the pushchair and all the paraphernalia that the smallest person in their party brings with her.
"I'm going to go inside and change her. Can't have her meeting anyone new unless she's smelling a lot fresher than she does at the moment." Harry screws up her nose as she lifts Grace out of the pushchair, clearly oblivious to the stench coming from her own little rear. "I'll be right back."
He's looking over the menu when he feels her slip into the seat opposite his, catches her familiar scent, the same perfume she's worn as long as he's known her, and God knows that's been more years than he cares to think about.
"Hey Mona." He looks up and finds himself surprised by how well she looks, her eyes brighter than he remembers seeing them in a long time, the absence of tired circles under them notable. "How've you been?"
"How have I been? I'm not the one who got married and had a kid since we last saw each other." Her grin is the same, full of mischief, of unpredictability, and he feels a surge of relief that he's no longer the one liable to be dragged into her craziness. "How the hell are you, Brooklyn?"
"I'm good." He smiles, thinking of Harry and Grace as he answers. "I'm great."
"So, where's your girl? Both your girls, I guess." Simone looks up and around before pointing at the pushchair beside their table. "You know you're meant to put the baby in that thing, right?"
"Really? We've just been pushing it around the city hoping people might throw money into it." He grins at her. "They're inside, the baby was starting to smell like a dumpster on a hot day. Harry's changing her."
"You look good, Dempsey." Her grin softens into something more thoughtful. "Who would have thought settling down would suit you so well."
"I got to say there's nobody more surprised about that than me, Mona." He never thought of himself as the marrying type, couldn't imagine himself settled at all until he met Harry and she turned all that upside down.
"Here's the lion tamer herself." Simone nods and he looks up to see Harry walking towards them, a smile on her lips and Grace looking happy in her arms. "Hey, Harry's here! And mini Harry."
"Here you go, baby, go to Daddy." Harry smiles and hands Grace over, the baby's hands reaching for him as she does. "Hi Simone."
"Hey there, baby girl." Simone smiles at Grace and gets a wide grin back in response. "Oh, she's beautiful, Harry."
"Hey, I had a little something to do with that too!" He grins and pulls Grace's hands back from where she's about to grab the fork on the table in front of her.
"Yeah, yeah, but those aren't your baby blues this little one is staring at me with, so…" Simone shrugs and he knows she has a point, Grace's eyes are pure Harry.
A waiter arrives and he's fully prepared for Simone to order something that will render her loud and bordering on obnoxious by the time they finish lunch, so when Harry orders an iced tea and Simone asks for the same he can't hide the surprised raise of his eyebrows.
"I know what you're thinking, Dempsey." Simone smirks and shrugs slightly. "But I haven't had a drink in almost ten months. I go to the meetings and everything."
"Wow, that's great, Simone, really." After so many years thinking she wouldn't ever try to get sober, he's genuinely pleased for her.
"Yeah, I just…you know, I figured if Jim Dempsey can move to a whole other country and be living like a fully functioning adult with a wife and baby and all, then I can try to stop drinking myself into a stupor every day, right?" Her eyes shift to Grace again and she smiles at her.
"He is mostly fully functioning, I suppose." Harry grins at him and hands him a small fluffy rabbit, no doubt hoping it will distract Grace enough to stop her apparent plan to destroy the table completely. "That's wonderful, Simone, honestly. You look really well."
"Thanks, yeah. It's one day at a time but you know, all good so far." Simone frowns slightly and he wonders what's coming next. "I need to apologise to you, Harry."
"Whatever for?" Harry frowns too, clearly as confused as he is.
"I know I gave you a bit of a hard time when I was in London, and I know it's because I'm an idiot who thought I'd get there and this one here wouldn't have changed a bit." Simone has the good grace to look like she regrets landing unannounced, and he wonders what she said to Harry that she now thinks warrants an apology. "Instead I got there and he was calmer, happier, and there was you, this gorgeous English girl who he was clearly madly in love with, and I realised I shouldn't have shown up like that and gotten in your way."
"You weren't in the way, Simone. You had every right to visit, and you don't have a thing to apologise for, really." Harry's tone makes it clear she considers the subject closed, and other than when she does it when they're fighting he does admire how she always manages to do that. "Now, what are we eating?"
It's a much more relaxed lunch than he was expecting because Simone is more relaxed than he's ever seen her. As they eat she tells them she's moved to Queens, she decided getting out of the old neighbourhood and making a fresh start somewhere would be good for her, and she's seeing someone new too, a mechanic from Long Island City. He keeps Grace on his lap so Harry can manage an entire meal uninterrupted, and somehow manages to eat his sandwich around her, passing her into her mother's arms when she starts to grumble and reach for her. As they get ready to leave, he realises this feels like the last time he'll see Simone, and he thinks she knows that too, he thinks it's probably why she asked if they wanted to have lunch today. He has a life he loves now, a family he loves, and she's making a fresh start and moving on. The complicated, unhealthy, downright dysfunctional dance that went on for far too long is finally over, and as she walks away and Harry straps Grace into her pushchair he feels a slow swell of relief rise up inside him.
"Are you ready to go?" Harry smiles up at him and he nods, smiling back at her.
"Yeah." He leans in to kiss her, running his thumb slowly and tenderly across her cheekbone as he pulls back. "I'm ready to go."