Marry Me
Outfit | Beckett Archibald Graves

Olivia knew that twenty-three years was a long time to be together, anyone knew that, but until recently she hadn't thought anything of it. There had been times, every couple of years or so, where she thought about planning a wedding. She knew that the first time that she had really thought about it was when she had found out that she was pregnant with Callahan, but then she had decided that she hadn't wanted to be pregnant when they got married. She didn't want a wedding like that, and so they had waited, and then Lyla had come along less than a year after Callahan was born, and she had had two bitty babies, and actually getting married was the last thing on her mind. Olivia didn't think anything of pushing it, they were together, neither one o them was going anywhere, it didn't matter that they weren't actually married... But lately it had started to feel like maybe it mattered a little more, and so when she had gotten the idea in her head this time she had run with it. She wasn't going to let the rest of their life get in the way this time, and so she had started thinking about it. She thought that a wedding, a real wedding, after all this time was just ridiculous, and so she had opted for something else. She had opted for something a little... Quieter. 

When she had left the house yesterday she had told Beckett she was running into the office for something, and that was true, she had gone to the office, but it was the pitstop at the dress shop on the way home that she had failed to mention. Olivia had a closet full of dresses, and heels, and why she could possibly need a white one would have confused Beckett to no end, and so she had simply left that part out. She had left it out, and she had gone to get the paperwork that she had had one of the younger lawyers in the department draw up the day before, and she had gotten the dress, and the heels, and she was going to do this. They were going to do this. Because after all of this time she was done pushing it off. She was done with judgements, she was done correcting herself when she said husband, because they were. After this long they were husband and wife, they just didn't have some piece of paper to prove it. Right now though, all she needed, was his signature, and they would. They would have that piece of paper, because someone out there, some time in the past, had thought that had piece of paper made something official, and Olivia thought that if they had to be officially married, this might have been the only way that would have fit them to do it. 

She had made sure that Beckett got dressed and left their room first this morning... It wasn't often that Olivia didn't get dressed before breakfast, but today she had gone downstairs in her pajamas, because she didn't want him to see it. She wanted to surprise him, and really she thought that that wouldn't be too hard given what she was intending to do right now. And so she had gone back upstairs, and she had put on the dress, and the heels, and she had done her hair, and her makeup... things that she normally wouldn't have bothered with on a Sunday, but she did them anyway. Maybe it wasn't a full on wedding, maybe there weren't any guests, or music, or gifts, or parties, but they didn't need that. She didn't need that. She didn't want that. She wanted him, and she knew that after the last couple of days, after the last week really, it was time to prove that. There were a lot of reasons that she wanted to do this, and there were a lot of reasons that she wasn't about to share with anyone but Beckett... Still, her decision was one that she wasn't about to go back on, and she thought that she was pretty sure he would come through for her. He was the spontaneous one, he was the one that did spur of the moment things like vacations, and buying quidditch teams... But Olivia had decided it was her turn, and she had gone with this. 

Getting married was something that hadn't been spur of the moment. It had been twenty-three years in the making, but it was spontaneous to just drop it on him, and that was what she was going to do. Taking a deep breath she headed for the study, because she thought that she had heard him tell Anderson to go play, and that he would be there to join him in a minute... And she smiled when she saw him sitting behind his desk. "Hey." There was something in her eyes that said she had something up her sleeve, and one look at her would tell Beckett something was going on. White wasn't really a color that Olivia donned very often... Without pausing she made her way around to stand behind his chair and draped her arms around his shoulders to peek at what he was working on. Whatever it was though, Olivia thought that what she had to say right now was more important, and so she leaned down to whisper it directly in his ear... "Marry me?"

Marry Me
Outfit

World Cup Qualifying matches meant that there was always a match to go to over the weekends. Whether it was Wales, or England, or Scotland, or Ireland, they would have no shortage of matches to go to throughout the year. Today, both Wales and Scotland played. Both of them were doing decently so far this year. Scotland was doing a hell of a lot better this year than they had the year before, and he gathered that had more to do with the coaching than anything else. Having a former professional player as a coach was a decently big deal, after all—especially one that had made it to the World Cup himself. Granted, Bulgaria had lost that year, but Viktor Krum had still caught the snitch, and that alone put him in the record books. Losing the World Cup but catching the snitch… that wasn’t something that happened every day, and even though it had technically been a loss, Viktor Krum was still a very successful and well known Quidditch player. Having him coach the Scottish team was a feat—he wouldn’t have wanted them to go against the Bulgarian team with him coaching them, but luckily, they didn’t have to. He had heard that he’d moved to the area, and he knew that he owned the Quidditch museum, so it only made sense that he’d rather work with a team nearby. He just hoped that they continued to do as well as they had been so far.

They would find out today, with their match. He didn’t have plans to go to it, or to Wales’ match either, because he didn’t need to go to every single game. Of course, there was no paperwork that he had to do that couldn’t wait until tomorrow, if Liv wanted to go see Wales or Scotland play. It could definitely be arranged, but it wasn’t something that they’d actually discussed yet. Beck thought that he should at least attempt to get through some of this work before his mind went there. He would be more curious to see Scotland play than Wales, but he would really be up to going to either game. There was never really a day when he would turn down a Quidditch match. Sometimes, he would rather sit at home and just relax, but he still thought that there was truly never a bad time for Quidditch. There was a reason that he loved the sport as much as he did, after all. There was a reason why he had grown up with it, and played it in school, and now practically dealt with Quidditch for a living now. There were other aspects of his department, but there was no denying that Quidditch made up a good portion of it. He very literally dealt with the sport for a living, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. But there were plenty of other ways to spend their weekend. But Merlin knew that even Anderson would probably talk his ear off about going to match. It was a trait that happened to run in the family…

But Liv came into the room, and it seemed like there was something on her mind. She was wearing white, that was what he noticed first. She owned a lot of clothes, but that particular color was not something that he saw all that often. “Hey.” He said in response, before his eyes flickered back to his paperwork. She seemed like she was up to something—and last time she’d come in here with a look like that one on her face, they had ended up on a spontaneous trip to the Maldives. That had been too recent for him to think that was on her mind, but something clearly was. He figured that he would find out eventually, and so he might as well try to at least finish the paragraph he was reading before that happened. Her arms moved over his shoulders, and he didn’t let his focus waver just yet. It wasn’t until she had spoken that he stopped reading, and shifted his position to look at her. “What was that?” Beck asked, finding it impossible to think he’d heard her correctly. They had been engaged for a hell of a long time. That worked for them. They didn’t need some piece of paper to tell them what they were, but he could admit that there were times when he had wanted to just make it official already. He already slipped up and called her his wife more often than he’d care to admit, and so sometimes, he’d thought about it. But mostly it worked for them. He hadn’t thought that they necessarily needed to change that, and he had thought that she had really felt the same way—more so than he did, even.

When Olivia had said yes to Beckett all of those years ago now, she had thought that they would get around to actually getting married eventually. That one of these days she would just sit down and plan a wedding and they would be done with it. And then there had been babies, and jobs, and moron bosses, and they had had so much to do, and it had just never happened. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to do it, but they had started existing in this state of being married anyway. The only thing that they didn’t have was a piece of paper and a couple of rings. They didn’t need them, not really, or at least she hadn’t thought that the had, and then things had started to feel different, not with Beckett, but just in general, and she had run with it. This time when she had thought about the need to get married again, she had just had the papers drawn up, and she had bought a dress, and they were going to do this thing. She was going to do this. She was already wearing his ring, he had already proposed to her, years ago now… But Olivia was going to ask him to marry her again anyway. She was going to do this, they were going to do this, because she didn’t want to have to feel the way that she had felt. She shouldn’t have to defend him like that, she loved him, she loved him and her not marrying him had nothing to do with wanting an escape route. The red headed witch still wasn’t sure what she thought about that, but she was trying not to dwell on it too long. She was trying to make it all be okay in her mind.

Thinking like that was only going to make her angry at her friend again, and she knew that the other witch didn’t mean any harm. She knew that she had been through a lot, but that wasn’t Beckett, and she knew Beckett. Olivia knew Beckett, and hurting her, however anyone thought that she was being hurt right now, was out of the question. Not that she would every wish for anything to happen to any of them, but if it did, Olivia thought that Beckett would be the kind of man to try and save them. He wasn’t the one that was going to hurt them, she thought that she and the kids would come first, and maybe they wouldn’t, maybe she was being naïve or something, but Olivia truly thought that… That he would prioritize his family over everything else… There were times when she knew that the fight was going to come before them. She knew that, she knew what a relationship with a Death Eater meant. It meant that the call came and he went, but she didn’t think that it would be a leave them behind forever sort of call. Things were different now, things were different all around. They still had the same things to believe in, the same things to fight for. Getting rid of the muggleborns was something that they still all wanted, something to make the rest of them better, safer… But Olivia thought that it was different… It was different, because there was more to lose this time. It was different because there was something more to fight for. Still, she had decided that it was going to happen. That they were going to get married, and really it didn’t seem like it was going to take all that much convincing, but here they were anyway. And she was wearing white…

It was unlike her, but not enough to make him question it outright… Still Olivia had no doubts that what she wanted to accomplish here today she was going to take him by surprise. Marriage was something that they had talked about, but it wasn’t something that she thought, that he thought, that she was ever going to get around to. That wasn’t the way that things were going now though, and Olivia was ready. She was ready, and she thought that Beckett was always ready before she was most of the time with everything… They were going to do this… She smiled though, when he questioned what she had just said. Olivia had thought that he would react in a way that was rather shocked, but turning around was more than she expected, still she chuckled lightly and nodded at him. “Marry me?” She just gestured to her white dress, and tilted her head to the side to emphasize her question. She was serious. She was asking him to marry her… Something that she should have done a long time ago really… Something that she wanted to do more than anything right now. And not just because of what had happened with Aurora… It was more than that. It was that she really wanted this. She wanted to be able to say that she was his wife this time around. She knew that that had done all of this before, but she wanted to be there, she wanted to stand next to him. She wanted to belong, officially belong, in a way that no one would question anymore. The questions were annoying to her, they shouldn’t need a piece of paper, they didn’t need it… But she wanted it now. Just to make everyone shut up about her having a way to run. No one was going anywhere.

He hadn’t thought all that much of the fact that they’d never gotten around to actually getting married. They had been together for a long time—they had three kids together, they had a house, and they had a life. They didn’t need a piece of paper to tell them that they were married, to make that official. They didn’t need validation from the Ministry that they were properly married. They had never needed that. It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted to get married, because he did. Beck had proposed to Liv thinking that they would probably be married in about a year or so, since that was about how long it took to plan a wedding. Or at least, that was what he’d learned from Eliza and his mother. That weddings took time. But the planning never came, and they had never really thought all that much of it. Then Liv had been pregnant with Callahan, and then Lyla, and they had just settled into a routine that they didn’t need a piece of paper to change. They were a family, and that was that. He’d always been okay with that. There had never been a time in his life where he had second-guessed what they had just because they weren’t married. He’d never had to. Everything had just worked the way that it was. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t wanted to make it official, because he had, he just knew that Liv hadn’t seen a point in it even more than he hadn’t.

But he had never thought too much into that. He had never been the one to think that had to mean something more than what it was. It only meant that she didn’t see the point in planning a wedding, which he agreed with. It was a lot of work just for a piece of paper that proved that they were in some way officially together. That didn’t need to be proven. They were together. They had been for decades, and would be decades more. He understood that the concept of it was all a little silly, if he really thought about it. Beckett had never thought that it had meant that Liv wanted an out, even though he knew that plenty of people might have seen it that way. Plenty of people might have thought it just meant that his fiancée wanted to be able to run if it came down to it. Engagements were easier to break than marriages, after all. Less confident men would have thought that was her way of keeping one foot out the door, but he had never seen it like that. He had never worried about that, because he had known the logic that she really had behind it, and he had understood it. He’d agreed. They didn’t need a sheet of paper to tell them they were married, that they were official, that they were real. What did a piece of paper prove?

Recently, though, he’d been second-guessing himself a bit more than normal, which was odd for him. Beck wasn’t the type of person that really doubted himself at all, but what he had been told recently had changed that. He and Liv didn’t really keep anything from each other—except for when they respectively handled something that the other one shouldn’t know the details of. But other than that, they didn’t really hide anything from each other. So it wasn’t surprising when she had told him what Aurora had said. What had surprised him was the fact that she’d said it at all. He had never had any problem with the witch before. She was Liv’s best friend, and she and her kids had always been around. The fact that she thought such negative things about him was what had come as the shock, and he hadn’t known what to think about any of that. Liv had told him what she had said, and he hadn’t even said anything—he hadn’t known what to say. But it was weighing on his mind still, which was why he had been certain he’d heard her wrong. Until she repeated herself, and he convinced himself that he couldn’t mishear her twice. “Right now?” He asked her, his eyes moving over her outfit slowly, before his gaze returned to her eyes.

She had always planned on marrying him, in the beginning it was just that other things kept cropping up, and then they had been comfortable the way that they were, and there were plenty of people that thought that they were married. It didn’t matter that her name didn’t match his, and a glance at her hand showed a diamond, and no one looked further than that. She was his and he was hers and she hadn’t doubted him. She had never doubted him, she thought that if anything he was probably the one person that she trusted more than anyone else in the world. She had been the other woman, and she didn’t think that he was going to do something like that again. Beckett could be gone all night for something, and she wouldn’t have questioned it. She would have asked him where he had been, if he was okay, but she never would have doubted him. She didn’t have doubts when it came to him, and she was tired of listening to her best friend gripe at her that she was in danger, and that he was going to hurt her and all of that other nonsense. That wasn’t Beckett, and for however much that she thought that she knew him, her best friend knew nothing about the man that after today Olivia was accurately going to be able to call her husband. She knew that there was no guarantee that he was going to go through with this for her today, but he had never let her down before, and she didn’t think that he would now. She knew that things had changed, that they were more complicated now than they had ever been before, but she loved him, and she was serious about this, and she didn’t think that he would disappoint her.

It had never made sense to Olivia to have all the pomp and circumstance… That was all for show. All about telling the rest of the world what they already knew. She was his, he was hers. That’s all there was to it. And they didn’t need a needlessly expensive party, and a hundred people there to watch him kiss her and someone to officially declare them man and wife. That was pointless. They had declared that themselves when he had left Eliza and come after her, he had chosen her, and she had welcomed him. That was when the choice had been made. Because you didn’t leave your wife for something that you weren’t going to commit to. And you didn’t have a man’s children, and not expect to stick around for forever. Olivia was in this, and she was in this so deep that there wasn’t even a pinprick of light that she was looking for to get out. She though that he had her heart in the palm of his hand, and she hoped that he knew that. She hoped that he knew that she loved him… that she wanted to be everything for him, the way that she had been these last two decades, she didn’t want to change a thing. Not really, but she was tired of this never having planned a wedding. She was tired of people thinking things that weren’t true. She was tired of everyone thinking that she was going to run. Olivia wasn’t running. No one was going anywhere.

Sharing with him what Aurora had said Olivia had thought that she was going to cry. It wasn’t true, none of that was true. Beckett would never hurt her and she knew it. She was safe with him, no one would hurt her while Beckett was around and Olivia truly believed that. He wasn’t Dominick, and really Olivia didn’t think that Dominick could have been that way either… But that was the difference between herself and Aurora. And she knew that. She knew what it took to live this life. She knew what it meant to belong to a Death Eater, and she didn’t think that her friend did. She didn’t know what it meant, and Olivia knew that even for them it was different. She knew that they were halfbloods, but there were still rules to follow. There were still things that they were going to need to do in order to make sure that everyone was making it through this the way that they were supposed to. She knew that there was a difference in Beckett and a pureblood, but not like that. Not to the point where Dominick was a monster. Sure he was a bastard, and he had run off, and abandoned them, yes, that made him awful, but that didn’t make him a monster… There was a difference in a bastard and a monster. And Beckett… Beckett was neither. He had never left her… She had thrown him out, and he had come back. He wasn’t the kind of man that was going to leave, and he wasn’t the kind of man that Aurora kept trying to make him out to be. He was her man, and Olivia smiled at him. “Unless you’re busy… Yes. Right now.”

Beckett knew that he wasn’t perfect. He was nowhere near it, but when it came to Olivia, and when it came to their children, he tried to be. He knew that he was a Death Eater, he knew what that meant. He supported what they believed in, and he would kill people to enforce it, but he wasn’t that man all the time. When he was with his family, they were all that mattered to him, and even then, he knew that he made mistakes sometimes. He wasn’t infallible, especially when it came to having kids. He had been pretty content not to have any, or at least to only have one and let Eliza take care of them. The parenting thing was never something that he had leaved. It was something that had to just come to him as he went along, and he just had to hope that he didn’t make any mistakes that were too horrible in the process. But as of late, he had been second guessing a lot of what he had doing, and there was only one person that he could call responsible for that. His fiancée’s best friend. She was the one that had called things into question, and usually, that sort of thing wouldn’t get to him. Usually, he would say he didn’t give a damn what she thought, but he cared what Olivia thought.

He cared what his fiancée thought, and her best friend was putting thoughts in her head for a reason that was completely unknown to him. Beckett had no idea what he had done to her, because he honestly thought that they had always been fine. She wasn’t his favorite person in the world, and she wasn’t his least favorite person in the world. She was just there, and yet for some reason, she had decided it was necessary to tell his fiancée that it was unhealthy that he wouldn’t let her sleep in another room when she was sick, or that he bought her too much jewelry—because somehow, even that could be spun into something negative. It was frustrating. It was annoying to him, that she could look at her own situation, and then project that onto Olivia, and make her feel like something was wrong with her relationship too. Frankly, it was bullshit, and he wasn’t one to get pissed off at his fiancée’s friends all that often, but he thought it pretty lucky that Aurora wasn’t around right now, because otherwise, there might be some problems. And he thought that Ares might get a little bit pissed off if he accidentally cursed his pregnant wife.

When it came to him being irritated, and being faced with that object of irritation, Beckett didn’t always have the greatest self-control, so he thought he would need to be far away from Aurora Wentzell for a while. It had put him in a weird place in his mind, second-guessing whether or not it was normal to get his fiancée jewelry—because here he bloody thought it was, and whether or not it was actually unhealthy to want her to sleep with him even when she was sick. She slept better in her own bed, and he didn’t get sick often. If she really wanted to sleep in the guest room, with complete seriousness, then he obviously would let her. He just knew his fiancée. He knew when she was playing around, because she wanted to get a reaction out of him—he knew when she wanted to run off to the guest room because he wanted her to chase her. It was only her friend that was making it into something wrong, just because she wanted to make her own life as horrible and dramatic as possible. He had been worried, worried where Liv’s mind was going with all that, so when she asked him to marry her, he hadn’t quite known what to make of it. It didn’t take him all that long to realize that she was being serious. “And usually I’m the spontaneous one…” He said, a smirk forming on his lips. “No, I’m not busy… let’s get married.”

You didn't need prove, or a piece of paper, to love someone. You didn't need to be 'married' to belong to one another. A piece of paper didn't seal a commitment anymore than actually committing to one another would. Olivia knew that. That was logical. You didn't need a party, and a white dress, and a cake, and all of a sudden that meant something more official than what you had had before. You didn't have to change anything about their relationship to make it something that it wasn't. But if she thought that it would make a difference, there was one thing that she was more than willing to change. Her last name. If that was the problem. if the fact that they weren't married was enough to cause people to think things that were just so wrong that they hurt, then Olivia would go through with the pomp and the circumstance, and everything else. She would sign the paper. She would ask Beckett to sign the paper. Because she didn't have doubts. She didn't doubt how much he loved her. How much he cared for their children. Olivia was sure. And she didn't like the way that Aurora was talking about him. Beckett wasn't Dominick. He wasn't any one but him, and there was nothing wrong with him. He was perfect. To her, at least, he was perfect.

And it wasn't picture perfect all of the time. There were moments when she was sure that he got just as fed up with her as she did with him. There were moments when one of their kids went to bed, that she was confident that they were his children. And there were moments when one of them was having a temper tantrum in public, that she was sure that Beckett had thought that they were her children. But that was normal. They were normal. And Olivia was proud of the fact that with everything about their lives, and the way that they conducted their lives. They were normals. They were as normal as a family could get, and they had existed that way for years. They were the ones that were going to have to try and make sure that they were in this together. They were in everything together, because married or not, they are partners. They had agreed to be partners when he had left Eliza for her. When she had told him that he had to make a choice. That she wasn't going to go on living her life that way, and that he needed to choose. She had braced herself to never see him again. Because really, who walks away from the wife? But he had. He had left Eliza and he had come after her, and Olivia had thought that that was pretty much it. There was no going back after something like that. You didn't leave your wife for a fling. You left for forever. And it was then that she committed to being his forever.

No matter what Aurora said, no matter what anyone questioned, she was his, he was hers, and the rest of it didn't matter in the least. She wasn't going to listen, she wasn't going to let it bother her any more than it already had, because that wasn't fair. That wasn't fair to Beckett. To how wonderful he had been to her for decades now. They add been together for decades, and she didn't plan on anything changing that any time soon. The world was changing around them though, and she was trying her best to try and figure out what it was that she was going to have to do to stay ahead of it. It wasn't just the weight of their world on their shoulders though. Olivia knew that she carried the weight of the Ministry of Magic on her back as well. There were a lot of pressures associated with everything that was login on, and everything that they were going to have to they and balance with this new life that she was asking him to live with her. But really, nothing was going to chance. Her last name... That's what she wanted to change today. "Really?" Olivia's lips turned up in a smile, she hadn't realized she was nervous that he was going to say no until he had just agreed.

He had married Eliza in practically what felt like a different life entirely. He had wanted to rise through the ranks of the Ministry, and he’d needed the right wife to do that. It was how he had always been taught, so getting married with politics in mind wasn’t strange to him in the slightest. It just made sense. It had worked out fine for a little while. Eliza wasn’t the easiest person to get along with, but she had been good with the people that he needed to impress, and that was what mattered to him. That was what Beck’s focus had been, and then he had met Olivia. Right off of the bat, she had been different, and he had been… intrigued. That was one word for it anyhow. She had gotten his attention, and getting her off of his mind had not been an easy feat in the slightest. Her kissing him was quite the introduction, but she had been excited that Ireland had won. Honestly, he’d enjoyed watching her watch that game, even if he’d tried to be subtle about it. Eliza didn’t like Quidditch. Really, he thought that his wife had been a little bit irritated that that was the department he wanted to grow through the ranks in, because she had to pretend to like Quidditch and had to know enough to get by in conversations. But she hadn’t hesitated in figuring out an excuse to get out of going to that World Cup match.

It was a seat that a lot of people would have killed for, but he was glad that it was Olivia that they had invited into the Top Box that day. They would have met anyway, in the aftereffects of the Cup. The Death Eaters’ fun had resulted in a lot of meetings, and so eventually, he would have come across her even if she hadn’t been the one sitting next to him during the match that day. But luckily for him, it had been her, even if he hadn’t considered it luck at the time. He had thought that it was… frustrating. She was frustrating, because she was distracting, and he wasn’t someone that got easily distracted. Beckett knew what he wanted, and he knew how to get there. He had plans. Eliza was a part of those plans; she was good at those parties, she knew what to do and when to do it. She had been very good at the political game, and he had been irritated by the added complicated of another woman not leaving his thoughts. Beckett had never thought that he was going to do anything about it. Then they had gone to that ball, and he had seen Olivia dancing with Bagman. His wandering hands were well known at these Ministry functions, so he had tried to tell himself that cutting in was just the nice thing to do.

They all did it often. His colleagues usually took turns cutting into a dance where a woman looked uncomfortable, but it hadn’t been his turn to do that, that night. And he had anyway, because he hadn’t liked Bagman touching her like that. It had led them to a coat closet at the party, and then… there had been no turning back. Even though they’d had an unconventional start to their relationship, he was happy about the way it had turned out. They had a beautiful house, three kids, and he knew that she was the person he was going to spend the rest of his life with. She’d had the engagement ring on her finger for years now, but when she hadn’t planned a wedding, he had understood that. He wasn’t going to push. They didn’t need a piece of paper to prove anything, so if she wanted to stay engaged, that had been fine by him. People could judge all they wanted—and they did. Apparently her best friend did. The woman was apparently projecting her own insecurities out on Olivia, which he didn’t care for, but he just tended to ignore Aurora Sloan-Wentzell-Sloan-Vesili-Wentzell-Wentzell for the most part… She was not in any position to judge other people’s relationships. He had hoped that Olivia wouldn’t let the woman’s words get to her either, but her coming in, in white, and asking him to marry her, was a good surprise. “Yes really…” He would have married her years ago, when he’d actually proposed, but this had just worked for him too.

Maybe she was the foolish one. Maybe, she should have married him years ago. Thinking about it, Olivia was sure that there was no maybe about that one at all. She should have married him years ago. But things kept getting in the way. Babies, that turned into toddlers, that turned into actual children, that took up their time. If it wasn't the children, then it had been something with work. They had both worked their way up to heading their respective fields. They were the best of the best, and there wasn't a doubt in her mind that they had been that way on purpose. That they had pushed each other to keep climbing. To keep working for things. They had gotten what they were after too. He was the Head of his department, she was the Chief. Things had worked out for them just the way that they were supposed to, and Olivia thought that there was something to be said for that. That they were so good together that it hadn't mattered. That no one's reputation had faltered for the fact that they weren't married, and that she had been the other woman.

No one seemed to even remember that anymore. No one except for Eliza, but Olivia thought that it was rather amusing to her that they were going to have to deal with that for the rest of their lives, but that after this it wouldn't matter anymore. She had been Olivia Drake for forty-six years. She had been his for half of those. Even when she hadn't been his, when she had just been the girl that he had shagged in the coat closet, Olivia thought that there was a part of her that had just known that this was where she belonged. Graves Hall was the one place that she really felt at home, and it wasn't the house. It was the man that she shared it with. Aurora could say whatever it was that she wanted about their relationship, she could project her own shortcomings onto Olivia, but the red head wasn't going to let it bother her anymore. She couldn't. She had already let her have too much of an influence on her, she wasn't going to get this too. She wasn't going to let her get to Beckett any more than she already had.

Olivia loved him, and she loved him in the kind of ways that people didn't talk about. She loved him in the ways that sounded like she was a teenager gushing over a boy that had never even looked her way. She loved him for the early mornings, when her back was pressed to his chest, and his arm was heavy over the top of her. Possessive in the way that meant, you're mine, and I will protect you. She loved the kiss to her shoulder when he thought that she was asleep, or the brush of his lips across her forehead before one of them fell asleep. She loved that to him she was worth the chase. That she was always worth coming after. Olivia didn't think that there was any comparison at all between the way that she loved Beckett, and the things that Aurora had gone through in her life. There was so much that could be done to show just how different things were. They were happy, and they were stable. There was a sense of trust, and of comfort, just being around one another, that Olivia thought that maybe, just maybe, Aurora was jealous.

They had started out a lot alike, and then their choices had made them drift apart. Aurora had married the boy right out of school. She had studied, she had worked, and she had done it all while having to raise a baby too. She had done it with a partner that wasn't interested in what she wanted to do too. They weren't equals, and Olivia thought that that made all the difference in the world. She felt like she was equal to him. That she could hold her own right in line with him. Perhaps not in a fight, she knew that he would far best her in a physical fight, in a duel, but this, this was different. This wasn't a fight, this was a marriage, a life, she wanted him to know that she trusted him. That she was, and had always been, all in on this. She summoned the marriage license that she had had drawn up, and then she reached out her hand for him, "I had one of the lawyers at work write one up, all we have to do is sign it…" It wasn't fancy, it wasn't a real wedding or anything, but it was more them than anything else would have ever felt like it could have been. There was only one part of a wedding that she actually thought that they were missing, vows.

They had been engaged for years. He had proposed, and she had said yes. But they had never gotten around to a wedding. He would have married her--he would have married her that month, or the next. But he had also been okay with waiting years. Eventually, he realized that they didn't honestly need a piece of paper to officially say that they were together. They didn't need the validation that a marriage gave them. Beckett knew that he loved her. He knew that she loved him. He knew that they had a damn good life together, and they didn't need to be married to prove that to themselves, or to anyone. If she didn't want to get married for the rest of their lives, then she would be his fiancée until they died, and that would be just fine with him. As long as they were together, he didn't much care about the word that they put on it. He could admit that sometimes he accidentally called her his wife already, even though they weren't married. It was just a slip, just a thing that he said sometimes without even thinking all that much about it. But he was okay with it, if they never got married. They just didn't need that piece of paper.

What did that paper even prove? They had been with each other for years. They had three beautiful children--Callahan close to graduating Hogwarts, Anderson close to going to Hogwarts. Lyla right there in the middle, but she was growing up too fast too. She would be out of Hogwarts too before they even know it. They had this house, they had their place in the Maldives. Their life was pretty damn perfect, and they didn't need to officially be married for it to be any better. It wouldn't change them, or who they were. They didn't need that. He knew that. And he could honestly say that he didn't give a damn what anybody else thought--that included Aurora Wentzell, and her judgments. He didn't need to prove anything to anybody, and that meant her too. As long as Liv was happy, he didn't care if the rest of the world thought that they were insane. He didn't care if they thought that it was strange that they were still engaged, or if they thought it meant that they had one foot out the door… that they wanted an easy out, without having to deal with a divorce. They could think whatever the hell they wanted.

As much as that was true, however… as much as he really didn't give a damn what anyone thought, his fiancée's best friend's words had gotten to him. He hadn't wanted them to, but they did. He didn't believe that they were true. He knew that they weren't. She had come up with ridiculous accusations to throw at him. She had called it controlling that he wouldn't let Liv sleep in the guest room when she was sick. He knew that she was trying to keep him from getting sick by doing that, but he knew that she was going to get a better night's sleep in their own better than in the guest bed. If anything, he would sleep in the guest room if she was trying to be stubborn about it. But more than anything, it had become a game and apparently Aurora thought that it was controlling. She thought there was something odd about how many gifts he got her too, but he wasn't sure where she was even going with that one. He liked getting Liv presents. What in Merlin's name was wrong with that? Money wasn't an object to him, and he liked making her happy.

But he wasn't going to worry about the woman that was projecting her own problems onto his fiancée. She didn't matter to him. Yes, she was Liv's best friend, but he still wasn't going to give her a second thought. He didn't need to--because now apparently Liv did want to get married. He didn't want her to do it just because she wanted to prove a point, though. He wanted her to do it because she really wanted to be married to him--because she wanted to seal the deal, once and for all. Beckett watched as she pulled out the license, and gestured toward the desk so that she could put it down on it. "Livvy…" He didn't want to do this just because her best friend's words were getting to her. He did want to do it, but not if that was the only reason. "We don't have to do this--if you're just trying… to prove something. We don't need a piece of paper to validate anything. I love you. Some paper doesn't make that more real than it already is."