When Carisi runs into Barba somewhere unexpected, he's more than a little suspicious of what, exactly, Barba's up to.

“I read something interesting in the case file today,” Barba said, deliberately casual as he carried both glasses of wine over to the couch and handed one to Carisi, who accepted it gratefully. “Something you said.”

Carisi groaned before taking a quick sip of wine. “If I said something stupid—” he started, but Barba shook his head and laughed as he settled down next to Carisi on the couch.

“For once, no, you didn’t say anything stupid.” He paused before adding, “Well, not too stupid anyway.” Carisi elbowed him sharply and Barba smirked before finally getting to the point. “You told the perp that you don’t ask questions that you don’t already know the answers to.”

Carisi just left the precinct. Good luck!

Barba couldn’t quite contain his grin as he looked down at the text message from Olivia. He wasn’t usually in the habit of grinning like an idiot at his phone just because Liv texted him, but today was special.

Today, he was going to propose.

“Barba, would you just spit it out?” Carisi asked patiently.

Barba looked borderline panicked as he blurted, “Will you have Christmas dinner with my mother and me?”

Carisi was pretty sure his mouth dropped open in surprise. Wherever he had thought Barba might be headed with this, it was not there. “Well, sure—” he started, but Barba cut him off, if possible looking even more distressed than before.

“To be clear, you’d be — well, you’d be posing as my date.”

“I want you to find someone, Sonny,” his grandmother said urgently. “Someone who makes you laugh and makes you think, someone you love with your whole heart. I want you to have a family. I want you to find someone to give my ring to.”

“I can’t take your ring—”

“You can and you will,” she said firmly. “Six months.”

Sonny blinked. “Six months what?”

“You have six months from the day I draw my last breath to find someone to give my ring to,” she said, reaching with a trembling finger to twist the diamond ring that had been on her finger for almost seventy years. “Someone your parents and your sisters love as much as you do. Someone you want to start a family with. And if you do, you’ll get your inheritance. If not, it’s going to charity.”