Moving Forward (Completed)

Chapter Thirty Eight

 Katherine was pacing in front of the bedroom window, back and forth, again and again, having a whispered argument with herself. She was completely dressed and ready for the day, nothing dressy, just jeans and an army green sweater, but her hair looked nice... one of those effortless good hair days that happen so rarely.

Rafael had spent a good chunk of the morning working in his office, taking a much later shower than his wife. When he emerged from their bathroom he silently watched her for a moment, more amused by her behavior than concerned.

"Care for a third opinion?"

Katherine turned to face him and blurted what she had spent the last ten minutes debating on bringing up at all. "I want to keep my name."

"Ok." He was clearly fighting back a smirk as his shoulders lifted into a shrug.

"Ok?"

"I assumed at this point that you were." They had been married a month now, over a month... He had been curious, but also feared if he mentioned something that she would think he expected her to change it and that wasn't the case.

"Is that ok?" Meek Katherine was back, staring at the floor and her shifting feet instead of looking at him.

"Katherine, you should be called what you want to be called, Morgan or Barba, it doesn't matter to me. The only thing I care about is how you feel about me."

She took a breath and moved closer to him, the tension visibly lifting from her shoulders. "I love you."

"And I love you." He smirked.

"I really like being Katherine Morgan, I've always known who she was and it felt nice to finally be her again." She relaxed into his arms as he pulled her against his chest. It was calming to be tucked that close to him.

"I really like Katherine Morgan too." He was still smirking as he kissed her head and started to detach from their embrace.

"Uh huh." Her head shook as best it could against his chest as her arms tightened around him.

"I thought we were going to eat." He chuckled and constricted his arm around her again.

"We will... in a few minutes."

"They're your friends." He shrugged, laughing when she pulled back just so he could see the slightly amused frown on her face.

"You can deny it all you want, but you and I both know you like them."

"You have absolutely no proof of that."

"I don't need it." Katherine smirked, taking his hand as he guided her out of the apartment.

The restaurant was closer to Rafael's office than he would have liked, but it did give him the opportunity to drop by the files he was working on off and pick up a new batch. This would have to take place after their lunch given how short on time they already were.

"This is too weird." Rafael grumbled when he spotted the couple fawning over the infant between them at the corner of a table for four.

"What is?"

"We're doubling with Rollins and Carisi..."

Katherine chuckled at the grump she had happily married and squeezed his hand tighter. "We're having lunch with Sonny and Amanda. It might help if you start attempting their first names."

"Sonny isn't Carisi's first name..."

"It's what he likes to be called."

Rafael rolled his eyes and dragged her to the table. "Carisi. Rollins." He nodded at each of them and took a seat, smirking when Katherine rolled her own eyes and took the seat adjacent to him.