#even marcus watching them argue and he looking at them like: hmmmm

[drrav3nb]

Carmy & Sydney being married af/fools in love in and everyone noticing

Bonus:

[introvertbookshelf]

Happy Halloween

This is for @wentworthfan who asked for a Halloween bash in the Berena household and @wonkots42 who appealed to my love of messi g with perceptions with her couple costume idea. I’m sorry if this takes up loads of space, I don’t know how to put it under a read more on mobile.

Bernie comes back from Sudan in late September, stays longer than she ever planned to but is glad of it, as much as she missed Serena and the kids she feels better for the time away, refreshed in a way she hasn’t felt since before Serena’s sabbatical, since before Ellie’s death. Serena meets her off the flight looks better than she did when she visited her in France, happier and lighter and Bernie is glad, hopes that now they are both back to themselves they can focus on the relationship that got lost in amongst it all but that is still very much important to them both.

They keep to themselves for the first month or so, Serena is back to working at the hospital but only part time and in a more clerical position than she had in the past and Bernie is still deciding what she’s going to do next so they spend as much time as they can together and, once Bernie is doubly sure that Serena is ok with it, with Cam and Charlotte and Jason. It’s hard to believe that they have come full circle, from Bernie running away to Kiev to now and have survived it but Bernie is determined that the chance won’t pass her by, that they’ll neither of them run again.

It’s half way through October when Serena announces that she is planning a party, part Halloween, part welcoming Bernie home, but mostly an excuse to put an end on the last nine months, a way to start fresh. Bernie doesn’t argue, doesn’t particularly like Halloween but knows how much Serena enjoys putting on a party and just wants to see a smile on her face, doesn't think much about the logistics, definitely doesn't consider the fact that she'll have to wear any kind of costume.

Because she doesn't think about it she's surprised when, on the day of the party, Serena announces that her costume is in the master bathroom, gawps at her like she's speaking a foreign language.

"Ok darling?" Serena asks from where she's sorting out trays of food on the dining table, Bernie has paused in sorting the drinks station and knows she is probably looking at her blankly, had just assumed she'd be wearing her usual jeans and shirt combo, hadn't actually planned to get changed.

"Costume?"

"Bernie it's Halloween, of course it's a costume party." Serena offers her a smile, slips up beside her and presses a kiss to her cheek, “but I promise it isn’t bad, go up and start getting dressed, I’ll be up in a minute.”

She does as she’s told, troops up the stairs to their shared bedroom, she’s moved in completely now refuses to spend any time away from Serena now they are back together, and passes straight through into the bathroom. Her costumes is hanging on the back of the door in a suit bag but she ignores it for now, opts to have a shower first so she has as little time as possible to think about what she’s going to be made to wear as possible. She takes longer in the shower than she probably needs to, tries to remember the last time she wore fancy dress for Halloween and comes up blank, Marcus wasn’t big on the holiday and with the kids she was away for more than she was home. If she thinks really hard she’s sure she wore her uniform to go trick or treating with Cam one year but can’t remember if that was a choice or whether she had just got home and he had insisted before she had time to change.

The suit bag is an ominous presence at her shoulder while she adds little make up to her face and dries her hair, she assumes Serena would have mentioned if she was supposed to bed dead or bloody, would have probably followed her upstairs to do the make up herself if she wanted anything special, so she sticks to what she knows, a small amount of foundation, mascara, blusher. She takes a deep breath before she opens the bag, frowns at what she finds inside, isn’t sure what she expected but knows it wasn’t this, wonders if Serena has mixed their bags up.

“Darling,” she says as she opens the bathroom door, she can hear Serena moving round in the bedroom, “I think you got our...oh...” Serena is standing in front of the mirror buttoning up a heavily starched white shirt, the rest of her costume is still on the bed, a pair of pressed black pants, matching blazer and, if Bernie isn’t much mistaken, a plastic revolver. But that’s not what catches her eye, not completely anyway, she’s at least half distracted by the hold ups and the hint of garter she can see under the shirt, thinks Serena might be trying to kill her.

“Everything ok darling?” Serena asks, turns to face her and smirks at the darkening of her eyes,

“I just. Hmmmm. The costumes, when I opened the flapper dress, I thought you’d got the bags mixed up.” She says, tries and fails to keep her eyes on Serena’s face and not wandering over her body.

“Nope,” Serena grins, “they are exactly where they are supposed to be, you’d don’t get to be the macho one all of the time, now go on, get ready, people will start arriving soon.”

“Just one thing first,” Bernie closes the space between them in two long strides, claims Serena’s mouth with her own, trails her fingers over the straps keeping her hold ups in place the. Up over her backside, pulls away before she gets carried away. “Ok. Now I can get ready.”

By the time she makes it downstairs the first of their friends have started arriving and she can hear the Fletchlings fighting for Serena’s attention in the kitchen before she hits the bottom of the stairs.

“Fletch,” she smiles when she rounds the corner and finds the man in question hanging up coats in the under stair cupboard, a plastic parrot teetering on his shoulder and an eye patch covering his left eye.

“Bernie,” he grins, pulls her into a hug that she doesn’t resist, she has learnt to appreciate, even enjoy, this rag tag family she has found herself with, “its good to see you,”

“You too, the whole gang here?” She follows him into the kitchen and her question is answered, Mickey is clearly a vampire, his hair spiked on end, fake blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth, Ella is wearing a princess dress and tiara and Theo is dressed as the little boy from The Gruffalo, a paper grown at a jaunty angle on his head. “No Evie?” She asks once she has cast her eye around the room and found the eldest missing.

“In the dining room with Charlotte and Cam putting the finishing touches to her costume,” Serena smiles handing her a drink. They chat while they wait for the others to arrive, Theo ends up on Bernie’s knee and she watches him twisting the tassels of her dress around his pudgy fingers, not caring what the adults are talking about. She watches Serena too, thrills at every smile, every laugh, is astounded as always that she falls more in love with her every day. Mo arrives with Hector toddling behind her, him in his dinosaur onesie and her in a red dress topped with devil horns. Bernie finds herself pulled into a tight hug, hasn’t see Mo since she left Holby for her new consultants position and is kept talking as others arrive and move around the space. Her attention isn’t drawn again until she hears Cam’s voice announcing that Evie is ready, he’s wearing some scrubs from work, has whited out his face and smudged black round his eyes, undead doctor, she thinks, or maybe the reality of the medical student. Charlotte appears behind her brother grinning, Bernie has no idea what she has come as, will be told later that she is a character from a movie, Bernie thinks it was just an excuse for her to stick to her jeans, and the Evie is amongst them, she’s wearing trauma centre blue scrubs, Bernie can’t even begin to imagine where they came from, and a full face of special effects makeup including what can only be a scalpel blade protruding from her neck, blood dripping from the ‘wound’. Bernie knows from the proud look on charlottes face that it’s her handy work and is proud of her daughter too.

There is food and laughter and wine and Bernie feels light and carefree, happiness blooming in her chest every time she catches Serena’s eye across the room, heat spreading across her cheeks each time Serena winks and she is reminded of what she is wearing underneath her costume, of what she has to look forward to later because she has no doubt that Serena intends the night to end with Bernie’s face buried between her creamy thighs.

Once the games are done with and most of the food eaten the conservatory becomes a makeshift dance floor and Bernie finds herself with Hector balanced on her hip as she sways, then Theo and even Mickey who blushes through his white face paint when he asks her for a dance. It’s not until the kids have fallen asleep, tucked into the spare bed upstairs, that Bernie is able to snag Serena’s hand and pull her close for a dance and she breathes a sigh when Serena’s body curls into hers, her arms settling around her waist and her head settling against her shoulder.

“Everything alright?” The brunette asks and Bernie smiles, presses a kiss against the top of her head.

“Perfect,” she murmurs, “just perfect.”