Thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm for this story. It means a lot to me. I also must acknowledge the Columbia Law School website, which provided the order of the graduation ceremony, and video and transcriptions of the speeches and the graduation ceremony for the law school Class of 2017, on which the majority of this chapter is based.


The graduation ceremony for Columbia Law School was scheduled to take three hours and 15 minutes. This prompted Rick and Kate to immediately decide against Lily, Reece and Jake attending Alexis's law school graduation upon learning how long it was going to be, because they knew it would be impossible for the kids to make it through a ceremony that long, being as young as they were.

Alexis had been talking about graduation to Lily, though, and Lily was very upset about not being able to attend Alexis's graduation, especially when she found out her beloved Gram and Grandpa Jim were going, along with Mommy and Daddy and Uncle Javi.

Luckily for everyone, Alexis nipped Lily's tantrum in the bud when she suggested a party for Pops and all of the aunts and uncles and Sarah Grace and Nick and Will, since none of them would be attending the ceremony either, and watching the graduation ceremony on the computer.

And so it was that on the night of Alexis's law school graduation, the Ryans, the Masters', the Gates', and Earl gathered at the loft with Lily, Reece, and Jake, the boys to be doted on by their Pops, Aunt Lanie, Aunt Jenny, and Aunt Victoria, while everyone streamed the graduation ceremony live from the Columbia Law School website.

Lily parked herself in front of her father's spare laptop, which was plugged in to avoid losing battery power, and sitting on the coffee table. The loft had been decorated with bunches of light blue and purple balloons and a large "CONGRATULATIONS, ALEXIS!" banner, also in light blue and purple. Alexis told everyone to consider the gathering her law school graduation party started early, and enough food and drinks were on hand to feed an army, which was about what they had.

Will Masters kept things interesting because he was not only walking but also running, since he was now 13 months old. He was also adding new words to his vocabulary every day, having long ago gotten "Mama" and "Dada" down pat. Nick wasn't too interested in the goings-on online since it wasn't a cartoon or a game, so he played with and chased Will around until Will was shrieking with laughter and delight. Sarah Grace was interested in the graduation, so she sat with Lily and Lanie, while Alan and Kevin chased the boys around, and Jenny and Victoria each took charge of one of the twins, Jenny with Reece, and Victoria with Jake.

On the Columbia campus, Rick, Kate, Martha, Jim, and Javi were in the family section, Jim with the video camera to capture the ceremony for posterity. Since he was on sabbatical for the semester, he wasn't participating in the ceremony with the rest of the law school faculty.

The tolling bells at 5 PM signaled that the graduation ceremony was finally about to begin. Martha sent a quick text to Earl informing him of that fact, so that those at the loft wouldn't miss a moment. Indeed, Lily, Sarah Grace, and Lanie were already at the computer and on the website, and the tolling bells on a closeup of a building of the Columbia campus had Lanie announcing, "Okay, everyone, it's starting!" The others gathered as close to the laptop screen as they could get, and Nick and Will knew to quiet down.

On the Columbia campus, Jim started filming when the beginning of the ceremony was announced. Representatives of the 50th Anniversary graduating class, the Columbia Law School Class of 1970, appeared first, three of them carrying a banner that said COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL 50th REUNION. They were followed by the Dean of the Law School, the law school faculty, and the Senior Administrators of the law school, everyone decked out in their academic regalia.

The family silently watched the parade of academia pass by the section where they were seated, and just as Rick was about to lean across Kate to ask Jim, who had been to Columbia Law School graduations before as one of the faculty, how much longer before they could start looking for Alexis among the actual graduates, the band struck up "Pomp and Circumstance."

"Here they come!" Jim exclaimed, swinging around with the video camera in his hand.

A sea of people in light blue gowns began ascending down the steps of the Butler Library: the Columbia University Law School Class of 2020.

Rick reached for Kate's hand and threaded his fingers through hers. Javi was watching the crowd intently for Alexis, and Martha dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief as the graduates filed past in their tams and doctoral of law graduation gowns, the baby blue of the graduation gowns accented by the purple hoods, the three black chevrons on each sleeve of the graduation gown, and the dark sashes with white crowns on them on either side of the gown's front zipper that each graduate wore.

"There she is!" Javi exclaimed suddenly.

"I see her!" Jim added, zooming in on Alexis, who was on the end closest to them. Instead of looking straight ahead, Alexis was scanning the crowd for her family. When she spotted them, she blew them all a kiss, then gave a big smile and a wave, seeing Javi beaming proudly and holding up his phone, probably taking pictures of her, since Jim had the video camera at his eye, and Gram blew her a kiss back, while her mom and dad were beaming proudly and waved back at her, and she was sure they were both crying. In addition to the purple hood, black tam with gold tassel, and the chevrons and sashes accenting her gown, a gold cord trailing from her left shoulder signified that Alexis was graduating law school with honors.

"Where's Alexis?" Lily kept asking at home.

"Look at all those people," Sarah Grace said, in awe because she had never in her life seen a crowd of people that big all in one place.

Kevin's phone buzzed, and he plucked it from his pocket. Javi had sent him a picture of Alexis, correctly figuring that she wouldn't be easily spotted on the live stream feed. "Here's Alexis," Kevin announced, going over and holding his phone so that Lily could see her big sister.

"That's her!" Lily exclaimed, and she began jumping up and down. She didn't really understand what graduation meant, other than they got to have cake when Alexis got home, and everyone was very happy for Alexis.

Everyone passed Kevin's phone around to look at the picture Javi had sent.

The procession to seat all the graduates took twenty minutes, after which the Dean and the faculty and senior administrators took their places on the dais, along with the student speakers, the graduation keynote speaker, and the co-chairs of the Graduation Committee, who, after everyone was seated, introduced themselves and welcomed the Class of 2020, with the male speaker saying how delighted they were to celebrate with everyone present this huge milestone in their lives. Then the female speaker garnered a few laughs when she spoke of celebrating, at last, the completion of their educations, and everything they had learned in the last three years, including the importance of punctuality ("That is, if a box lunch starts at 12:10, you show up at 11:55."), and that footnotes add a full two pages to any final paper. Then she put the joking aside and spoke of the responsibility of being a part of the legal and Columbia Law School communities, a responsibility each graduate would carry with them for the rest of their lives. She acknowledged the debt of gratitude each graduate owed to their fellow students, the alumni, the faculty and staff, and most importantly, the family and friends that continued to support them as they completed this journey and prepared to embark on a new journey. "You listened to our ramblings about EIPs and The Blue Book, without knowing what either of those things were-"

"We knew," Rick murmured.

"We're the exceptions to the rule, babe," Kate replied.

"-and you have helped us believe in ourselves and our dreams. Beyond just your support, we thank you for showing up to celebrate with us."

Everyone applauded for several seconds before she concluded her speech. "Finally, thank you to the Class of 2020. You've taught me the importance of supporting one another, from my closest friends to the person who unknowingly let me use their empty locker all year, you inspire me to work harder and to be better." She concluded by welcoming the dean to the podium.

Jim chuckled softly when he saw that Professor Charles Brighton, the man that reminded both him and Alexis of John Houseman's character in the movie The Paper Chase, scowling from the stage.

The Dean then addressed the crowd, welcoming everyone and thanking the assembled friends and family for attending. Then she addressed the graduating class, telling them, "There have been a lot of long days and late nights. You've worked hard. But the day has arrived, and you have earned all the pomp, circumstance, and celebration that goes along with it. Congratulations." Then she beamed at them as she led everyone in a round of applause. She went on to acknowledge the roughly 5,000 loved ones and friends flanking the stage, "the people you've turned to for encouragement, support, and guidance. They are with you today, as they have been with you throughout this journey. All of us owe them recognition and gratitude." More applause followed.

The Dean went on to talk about the graduates of the Class of 1970 and acknowledge them, asking them to rise, and thanking them for their fifty years of service to the legal profession and to Columbia Law School.

After acknowledging the Class of 1970, and the round of applause that followed that acknowledgment, the Dean continued. "Graduation addresses often focus on the theme of change. After all, graduation is a time of closure, transition, and new beginnings. Change is inevitable, and the future is full of possibility. What more apt message than an exhortation to seize the day, embrace the new, and find opportunity in what lies ahead? Well, I believe in all those things. I believe in being brave, and in taking risks. I believe in the power of reinvention. I believe in a full and spirited embrace of new experiences. In fact, I once delivered a speech that said all of those things—on September 11, 2017, when I gave my first speech to a class at Columbia Law School. That class was the J.D. class that sits before me now. The occasion? Your 1L Dinner.

"But today, I don't want to talk about things that will change, or the changes that you yourselves will shape in the years ahead. Instead, I want to talk about the things you should try not to change, the things you must preserve." She then went on to talk about the acquisition of knowledge they had achieved in law school, and how the new graduates should continue to seek knowledge, and to preserve their curiosity, and the humility that enabled them to open their minds.

"Here's another thing that mustn't change," the Dean continued. "Most of you came to law school in pursuit of some goal or ideal. You believed that legal training would help you do or fix something. Maybe you wanted to bring justice to a community you care about."

At this, Rick and Kate exchanged a look, and Rick slid his arm around Kate's shoulders, and she rested her hand on top of his hand on her shoulder, both of them remembering their years with the NYPD, the community of murder victims and their loved ones that they served so long and well, that they achieved justice for in so many cases. Now Alexis would be following in their footsteps in her own way, her main career goal being to become a prosecutor, someone who put criminals away, took them off the streets, stopped them from breaking laws, harming or killing others, disrupting or ending innocent lives.

The Dean continued talking about other career paths the graduates could take—working across borders, becoming great litigators, fixing the tax code. "Now you have the tools to do whatever it is that brought you here in the first place," she summed up. "The problem is that law school made you wiser about how hard it may be to accomplish that vision. Perhaps it's more complicated than you had thought, so, maybe you need to adjust. But that doesn't mean you should abandon the idealism or the inspiration that drove you to study law. Embrace it. Take it on. Realize the promise of the tools we have given you and rise to meet the challenge."

Alexis had been paying attention to the Dean's speech, but on this segment, feeling herself get emotional, she looked to where she knew those members of her family who were in attendance were sitting, and she looked at her parents, the father that had loved, encouraged, and supported her all her life, and the mother that came into her life when she was 15, that she spent too many years resenting for tying her beloved father up in knots and leading him to put his life on the line before she understood what their relationship really was, before she saw what their relationship ultimately became, before she realized that Kate loved her father, and loved her, more than either of them had ever been, could ever be, loved by Meredith, or Gina, or any other woman.

Her dad had his arm around her mom's shoulders, and Alexis had the feeling that they, like she, were remembering their NYPD days, getting justice for murder victims and those they left behind, and Alexis briefly remembered the way that her father dropped everything to help her as an undergrad when she had only three days to prove that a man on Death Row hadn't committed the murder that put him there in the first place, even though at the time she was, she saw now, foolishly immature about his reaction to her then-boyfriend Pi. Lanie and Javier and Kevin had helped as well, and so had Kate, and Alexis remembered talking to Kate at the Precinct, thanking her for rallying everyone, and for helping her, Alexis, after even her professor, the prisoner, and, at one point, her dad, had thought it was hopeless and were ready to give up.

"It's what we do," Kate had said, including everyone in that blanket statement. "But there's nothing in the world I wouldn't do for you, Alexis. Not just because you are the daughter of the man I love more than life itself, but because you're an incredible young woman in your own right, and I know that you're going to do great things in this world, and I'll be right there next to your father, cheering you on and being proud of you."

Alexis and Kate had hugged then, and that was when Alexis realized that her dad had told her the truth when he had said that Kate makes him happy, and that was also the moment Alexis finally realized that Kate was going to be the one who stayed with her dad for all their lives. That was when Alexis finally began to truly accept their relationship, and began to look forward to their wedding and to having Kate as a part of their family officially, because if Alexis were brutally honest, Kate had been an unofficial part of their family at least since the night she showed up at the loft when Gram's face was covered in a green cosmetic mask, and Alexis and her father were in the middle of an epic Laser Tag battle, shortly after meeting Rick.

Javier, and Jim Beckett, and Kevin and Lanie had all inspired Alexis as well, each of them in their own way. Law was a calling for all of them; even Lanie, the doctor, had come to the Medical Examiner's office instead of working in a hospital or going into private practice, and was using her medical knowledge and skills to help solve murders. Law was Alexis's calling too, and she was about to embark on her own career with no small amounts of excitement, and of pride that she was joining this profession.

At the loft, Lily was getting restless. "Is it just going to be a bunch of grown-ups talking a lot?" she asked.

Sarah Grace said, "If you think this is bad, wait until you get into first grade. The teacher talks all the time. And it isn't always about fun stuff, either, like it was in kindergarten or preschool."

Lanie, Victoria, and Jenny all turned to glare at Alan and Kevin when they failed to smother their laughter at Sarah Grace's observation. They sobered as quickly as they could, and Alan even plucked Will off the floor for a diaper check in another room to escape the womens' glares.

"I'm afraid so, Lily," Earl told her.

Lily looked up at Earl. "Do you think Alexis would be upset if I played with Sarah Grace and Nick and Will instead of watching this?" she asked, biting her bottom lip just like Kate did when she was uncertain about something.

"I don't think Alexis would mind at all," Earl assured her.

Before the girls made a beeline for the playroom, Lily said, "You'll call us if you see Alexis?"

"We sure will," Lanie promised.

"Thanks, Aunt Lanie," Sarah Grace said.

"Thanks, Aunt Lanie," Lily echoed, and then the girls were off, dashing through Rick's office to the adjacent playroom.

Alan returned with a freshly diapered Will, and Nick asked if he and Will could go into the playroom with the girls. No one wanted to leave four children between the ages of one and six without any adult supervision in the room, so Alan and Gerald Gates both went with the boys to supervise the kids, knowing that their wives wanted to continue watching Alexis's graduation. (And it wasn't that Alan and Gerald didn't want to see the graduation, but they knew someone needed to be watching the kids, and they hadn't known Alexis nearly as long as Lanie and Victoria had.)

Reece began to fuss then, and Jake soon echoed his brother's cries, so Jenny and Victoria fed the boys and burped them, and that quieted them.

On campus, the Dean continued her speech, talking about how the graduates would, with the degrees they earned that day, become guardians of our most vital institutions. "You have a responsibility to protect the rule of law, and the core values substantiated in our Constitutional order, rights and freedoms that protect equality and expression, due process of law, and the rules of ethics and accountability that preserve trust and stability in society. This will not always be easy. The world is a tumultuous and unpredictable place, and the very foundations of our democratic institutions will sometimes be shaken. But these are precisely the times when society will turn to you most urgently. This is not an argument against change in the law. It is an argument about the preservation of the integrity of the law. Even as law evolves to meet the standards of a changing society, you must safeguard its legitimacy and the fairness of its application.

"Finally...Finally, cherish and preserve the relationships you formed here at Columbia Law School. In the time you've been here, you've made friends among classmates, professors, and staff members. They have stood beside you, cheering you on and supporting you at every juncture. Don't let the passage of time sever these bonds. These friendships, the ones you form in law school, these will be the friendships that sustain you for the rest of your life.

"In fact, as some of you may know, this year's Reese Teaching Prize honoree is someone that I met in law school." She smiled as she went on, "Twenty-four years and three children later, I couldn't be more proud to share the stage with him today.

"Now, I know that I said I didn't want to talk about the things that will change. But let me leave you with this: Preserving these essential elements of your time at Columbia Law School—your commitment to learning, your guiding vision, your professional obligations, and your solid friendships...These are the things that will anchor you as you navigate the changes that lie ahead.

"Class of 2020, on behalf of all of us here at Columbia Law School, I salute you and I wish you the best of all things in the years to come."

The Dean having finally concluded her speech, everyone applauded.

The Student Senate President made a brief, self-deprecating speech then, after leading the graduating class in a round of cheering for having made it through law school. He said he didn't want to talk about himself, because nobody was there to hear him talk about himself, including his family, and after 25 years, he was even sick of talking about himself, and that he didn't want to give advice to his fellow graduates, because what if he led them astray? So he gave shoutouts to some of his fellow graduates who had amazed and inspired him, including a woman who won the Food Network's Cooks vs. Cons competition, "proving Columbia Law students can walk and talk at the same time," and two students who won asylum for a refugee as law students. He concluded with the highlights of each year, the best part of 3L being looking across the table while cramming an entire semester's worth of learning into one night and realizing his closest friends were right there with him, doing the same. After his thanks and one more "Congratulations, Class of 2020!", he introduced the student J.D. speaker.

The student J.D. speaker thanked everyone's families, all of his classmates, all of the faculty and staff at Columbia, and he finished by quoting LeBron James.

The L.L.M. class speaker went next, and Kate and Rick both texted home—Kate texting Lanie, and Rick texting Ryan—to check on the kids. Alexis caught Javier's eye, and he exaggeratedly mouthed "I'm proud of you." She read his lips and smiled at him, mouthing back, "Thank you."

At the loft, everyone but the kids got into the food and drinks, and Reece and Jake both needed diaper changes, and after the boys had their diapers changed, Jenny and Victoria took them into the playroom with the older kids during the presentation of the Class Gift, the awarding of the teaching prize to a senior professor who was also the Dean's husband and his speech, and then came the announcement of awards and prizes.

Alexis was announced as one of the recipients of the Ruth Bader Ginsberg Prize as one of the J.D. degree candidates who earned honors for outstanding academic achievement for all three years, and she was also the recipient of the Milton B. Conford Book prize for writing the best examination paper or essay (examination paper in Alexis's case) on jurisprudence. Everyone both on campus and at the loft in Alexis's family applauded and cheered, and Javier let out a long whistle when Alexis's name was called for both of the prizes.

Reece and Jake went to sleep, and Will also fell asleep on the rug in the playroom. Lily, Sarah Grace, and Nick wandered back out to the living room, and they got to have a bedtime snack and drink while at the graduation, the keynote address was delivered by a female member of the Columbia Law School Class of '74 who was a former chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a litigation partner at the firm of Debevoise & Plimpton.

Finally, two hours after the graduation ceremony had begun, it was time for the graduates to be called up by name and walk across the stage, shaking hands with the Dean and the Keynote Speaker. (Their diplomas would be mailed to their homes of record.)

Jim had dutifully filmed the entire graduation, and Kate, Rick, Martha, and Javi all texted those at the loft (Lanie, Alan, Earl, and Kevin, respectively) to be watching for Alexis.

Her name was called near the beginning since the names were called in alphabetical order. "Alexis Harper Castle." Cheers and applause erupted from her family on campus, and in a more subdued manner from her family at the loft, because by now all of the kids had conked out—Lily was asleep on the couch with her head in her Aunt Lanie's lap, Will was still asleep on the playroom rug, and Sarah Grace and Nick were both asleep on their father in a chair, while the nursery monitor was on the coffee table next to the laptop so everyone could listen for Reece and Jake, who were asleep in their cribs in the nursery upstairs—since it was after 7:30 PM.

Jim put the camera away a few students after Alexis, and Javi had gotten plenty of pictures of Alexis with his phone.

When the graduation ceremony finally ended, the graduates were directed to follow their class marshals to the bleachers in front of Kent Hall for the class picture, and with one final, "To the law school Class of 2020, congratulations on being done!", the ceremony was over.

Rick, Kate, Javi, Martha, and Jim made their way over to Kent Hall to wait for Alexis to be done with the class picture. When she was finally finished, she made her way through the crowd of her fellow graduates, clutching her graduation program, and when she spotted her family, she rushed over to them. Javi saw her and shouted, "Alexis!" She flew into his open arms, and he picked her up and swung her around as she laughed happily, her tam getting knocked askew in the process.

When Javi set Alexis on her feet again, she rushed over to Rick and threw her arms around him in a big hug. Rick closed his eyes and hugged his firstborn tightly, absorbing the fact that she was now a law school graduate, that she was getting married in three months, that she was, indeed, "all grown up."

"I did it, Dad," Alexis said, pulling back to look at her proud father.

"You sure did, pumpkin," Rick agreed. "My daughter the lawyer."

Alexis hugged Martha next, and then Kate, and then Jim. Everyone congratulated her.

"You have parties to go to tonight?" Rick asked.

"No," Alexis said. "Everyone is celebrating with their families. And right now, honestly, I want to sleep for about a week before diving into studying for the bar exam and finishing our wedding plans."

Everyone returned to the loft, and Alexis received another round of congratulations and hugs. Lanie and Alan, and Kevin and Jenny, wanted to get their kids home and into bed since it was after 9:30 PM by then. "We got you a gift," Kevin said, hoisting Sarah Grace higher in his arms. Jenny had her arms full of Nick, who was almost too big for her to carry.

"So did we," Lanie said. "We left them here. You can open them tonight, tomorrow, whenever."

"You guys didn't have to get me anything," Alexis said, and she meant it.

"You graduated from law school tonight. Of course we did. That's a big deal," Kevin said. Jenny agreed with him.

"A very big deal," Lanie said.

"And we saw your graduation," Alan added. "Well, bits and pieces of it. Some of us saw more than others."

"It didn't really hold Lily's attention, did it?" Alexis asked.

"She was bored by all the grown-ups she didn't know talking," Victoria admitted.

"Well, we'll show her the video of Alexis tomorrow," Jim said.

"And I promised her she could try on my 'graduation hat,' as she calls it," Alexis said.

After the Ryans and the Masters' left with their sleeping children, and Rick and Kate had checked on Lily, Reece and Jake, they settled down in the living room with Alexis, Javier, Martha, Earl, Jim, Victoria and Gerald. They had a quiet celebration with cake and punch and sandwiches, and Martha and Earl, and Victoria and Gerald, and a little after 11 PM, the Gates' left, and so did Martha and Earl.

After everyone had said their good nights, Rick and Kate said good night to Alexis and Javi before heading to their own bedroom. "Alexis is officially a law school graduate," Rick mused as they got ready for bed.

"And Lily starts preschool in the fall," Kate replied.

"And Alexis gets married to Esposito in August," Rick said.

"It will be Reece and Jake's first Christmas," Kate said.

They got into bed. "And before any of that, we're all going to the Hamptons for Memorial Day weekend at the end of this month," Rick said. "In between baby wrangling and precocious preschooler raising and City Council work and Alexis's accomplishments and brainstorming ideas for my next novel..."

"Yeah, it's quite the life we have," Kate said. She reached to turn out the light, but Rick took her hand, stopping her. She turned back and looked at him, giving him her full attention.

"I'd do it all over again," Rick said. "All of it. Even the worst moments, both before and after we met, just to be here right now with you, with all of our kids asleep, and me being amazed at how our life is turning out."

"I'd do it all over again too," Kate replied before leaning in to kiss him good night.

Upstairs, Alexis and Javier were settling into her room, Alexis too tired to go anywhere else. "I'm so proud of you, Lex," Javier said. "You're gonna make a great lawyer."

"That's one of my goals," Alexis replied. "The other one is being a great wife."

"You will be," Javier assured her. "And I'm gonna be the best husband I can. I'm gonna make you so happy."

"You already do," Alexis replied.

"I've only just started. You don't know," Javier replied, gently pulling Alexis into his arms before they got into her bed and settled down to sleep.