Case 11 - A BBQ with the Dunphy family

<Events after The Rookie S1E11 and at the end of SWAT S1E7, but before Modern Family S9E13>

<SWAT S1E7 {Death of Luca's grandfather}>

Ben came home alone after the service held in Jack Luca's honor, first generation SWAT team leader, and grandfather of Dominique Luca. He had offered his mourning colleague to come over to just hang in his backyard, but Luca had declined, stating that he wanted to spend some time with his father.

Still dressed in his ceremonial blues with the long sleeves, Ben began to clean up the kitchen a little. Emilia was not the cleanest house guest - or just a little overwhelmed with everything as she left the house for hours on time.

"What are you all dolled up for? I thought your first day back was Monday?" Emilia asked as she entered the house with Anna in tow.

"Oh, it is. I attended a memorial for one of my friend's grandfathers who passed this week. He was an LAPD legend..." Ben offered while minding his words around Anna.

"I see," Emilia mumbled and gently touched Ben's shoulder as she passed him to prepare a light snack and something to drink for her daughter.

"Did you spend some time at the park?" Ben asked Anna as he squatted down to give the girl a hug. Something she had asked for for the first time the day before.

As the little girl gave a small nod and hummed in his arms, Ben stood up and moved the girl to his hip. The uniform he was wearing didn't come with a clunky utility belt, and his gun was already in the little safe he had near the entrance of the house. He had also reluctantly bought a second gun for upstairs that was in a second safe on his nightstand. Even more reluctantly, Ben also owned a third gun hidden in the basement - with a small girl in the house, he didn't want to be caught off-guard. Especially with what happened in the mall. The safes had a code and biometric lock requirement anyway, Anna could never get to them.

"I got you some strawberries on my way home. Last ones of the season, the guy told me. You want some?" Ben asked as he walked over to the fridge.

Emilia watched it all with a melancholic smile.

-----

Ben just came home from a short run where he had a brief encounter with some kids from the community center he was helping out at. One of the kids had gotten into trouble with the police, so Ben started making some calls as he went to wash up before his guests arrived.

Emilia, Zofia, and Anna were outside prettying the place up for the guests, though they would eat inside since it was 20°C [68°F] weather.

'Maybe we should have just cooked inside instead...' Ben idly thought after hanging up the call.

He placed his phone on a dresser next to his door and started to undress.

Once he was finished, Ben changed into comfortable clothes - a thin hoodie with a wide collar and slim fit sweatpants that looked more like chinos than workout gear.

Down in the kitchen, he started to put finishing touches to the salads he had prepared and watching Zofia and Anna play around with some of the plants in the garden.

"Hmm, a small greenhouse might be nice for her?" Ben thought out loud as he saw the fascination in Anna's eyes for anything green. "I could ask Phil what I need to keep in mind when getting one..."

A good hour later, the doorbell rang. Anna, who was watching Ben and Zofia with critical eyes in the kitchen, cried for Emilia to come quickly - but Ben washed his hands and picked up the little girl to calm her down.

"These are just some friends. Don't worry, they are all very nice people," Ben reassured the girl and she quickly calmed down after clutching one of the cords of his hoodie like a lifeline and pressing her head into his chest to hide.

[Haley Dunphy commentary scenery change]

"I had everything prepared. My outfit was on point. My hair never looked better, same as my makeup. Dad told me all about how nice and caring Ben was at home, so I prepared a salad with mom's help to show him my gentle side."

Haley stared at the camera for a while before her frustration burst forth, and she complained, "Why didn't dad tell me about his wife and kids!?"

[Commentary ended]

"Hello Dunphy family, right on time! You must be Misses Dunphy?" Ben greeted with a wide smile as he ushered Phil at the very front inside and greeted the rest one by one.

"Please, call me Claire. Everybody who saved my girls from a gun...kerfuffle has that privilege. And who is this little angel?" The mother of the family asked with a warm expression as she walked forward to greet Ben - mindful not to say something inappropriate in front of the small girl.

"This is Anna. Phil didn't meet her last time because she was asleep," Ben introduced and put a reassuring hand on the back of Anna's hand to soothe the girl who still had her face hidden in Ben's clothes. She slowly peeked out and looked at Claire, who immediately awwed.

"Aww, such a pretty little girl! She looks just like you," Claire praised with a smitten look.

[Haley and Alex Dunphy commentary scenery change]

"Damn whatever hussy got her claws into Ben before. That was the cutest child I had ever seen," Haley complained with a pout and mumbled, "At least I quickly found out they aren't married. Neither of the two had a ring on..."

"Yeah. What was up with that?" Alex joined with an irritated expression. "How can Anna look so adorable?"

[Commentary change: Phil and Claire Dunphy]

"Slight snag in my plan. I didn't know Ben already had a kid. He didn't say anything about Anna being his when I visited him - that can only mean it's complicated," Phil seriously considered. "I'll have to win that kid over if my daughters are to stand a chance..."

Claire looked at her husband for a moment before asking, "And the mother of the child? Or what about if Anna is just a relative, like the daughter of his brother or something?"

"Emilia is not important in my schemes. She looked at Ben like he was a teddy bear, not like he was a man. There's a story there surely, but that's not important," Phil waved away and looked back to the camera. "Now, will I win little Anna's heart with funny jokes? Juggling? Pranks?"

Claire shook her head a little and mumbled, "Oh, Phil..."

[Commentary ended]

Anna was giggling on the kitchen counter, where Phil was doing small, harmless magic tricks for her. Alex and Zofia were talking in the living room about this, and that, while Haley tried to casually find out more about Ben by snooping around, and from Zofia after finding out she was more or less his younger sister. Claire had somehow found some wine to drink and was mingling with Emilia as they were watching Ben and Luke at the grill.

Luke wasn't actually helping with the cooking but was instead playing around and asking the weirdest cop questions until he found a soccer ball that Ben had gotten out of a box for Anna and was now laying around in the yard.

"Oh shit, watch out!" Luke suddenly shouted after he had accidentally sent the ball in Ben's direction, but the man at the grill surprised both Luke and the women inside watching the two.

Instead of using his hand or the tongs he was holding, Ben stopped the ball with his chest, let it fall to his feet where he caught it under his sole without a dribble.

"Gotta watch out around the grill, mate," Ben quipped and lobbed it back towards Luke at a speed and height so he could catch it easily.

[Alex Dunphy commentary scene change]

"Zofia told me that Ben speaks at least four languages. So he isn't just a badass. He is a genius! I gotta find out more... but how can I play it off real cool so he won't find out I'm fishing for how smart he actually is?"

Alex stared next to the camera deep in thought.

[Commentary ended]

"Hey, Zofia told me you speak English, German, Spanish, and Polish. How many languages do you speak?" Alex blurted out the moment Ben brought in a plate with everything that was ready already and ushered everyone to the dinner table.

[Alex Dunphy commentary scene change]

"Wow. Real smooth, Alex," the young woman sarcastically commented.

[Commentary ended]

"Oh? Hmm, are we counting programming languages? I'm a computer science graduate, sooo~" Ben drawled while thinking about it for a moment. "If we do, I 'speak' Python, but I'm not a Parselmouth - as well as C and C#, and I'm not even counting HTML or anything connected to Java. For human languages, I speak English and German, and while I understand it to a high degree, I only speak okay Hebrew, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and Polish. I know some Russian, French, Japanese, and Mandarin, but barely enough to ask for directions. If that. And not a lick of the written word... maybe for French."

Most people at the table stared at Ben with an open mouth. Luke even managed to drop his glass, which made Phil react by trying to catch the glass.

However, Phil only managed to make more of a mess as he spilled Ben's drink all over him.

Claire and Zofia zoomed into the kitchen to get towels as Phil profusely apologized to the host, but Ben just waved it off. He just stood up, took off the hoodie, dabbed a bit of the mess away with it and went away to change upstairs.

[Haley and Alex Dunphy commentary scene change]

"Oh my god! He's such a hunk AND a nerd!? And it's not just the IT stuff. He plays three instruments according to Zofia! And he talked about Harry Potter in a casual conversation!" Alex squealed, and sudden realisation struck her. "He looks like Draco Malfoy!"

Haley looked at her sister a little annoyed before she sighed with reluctance.

"My English teacher in high school once told me I barely know the English language enough to get through life. And if Gloria hadn't done my Spanish homework for me for three years, I would not have even graduated," Haley admitted with a small pout.

Both girls bit their lips in remembrance as Haley continued, "His tattoos looked really cool, though. I kinda wanted to give Luke a thumbs up for getting Ben undressed like that. Too bad he still had that tanktop underneath..."

[Commentary ended]

"Sooo, Ben? We brought you a little something to thank you for saving Alex and Haley," Claire claimed as the meal was coming to an end as Ben also finally had the chance to eat. "Uh, Cam and Mitch, too..."

She looked to her husband, and Phil excitedly went over to a bag the Dunphy's had brought and handed over an envelope to Ben, who opened it gingerly under the eyes of everyone present.

A small, laminated piece of paper fell out first, followed by a nice-looking card.

"'Coupon for Free Best Friend of the entire Dunphy family for life. Non-refundable. Non-transferable. Valid upon reading out loud,'" Ben read from the smaller piece of paper that landed near his plate.

Every Dunphy family member looked at their father/husband with either smiles or a roll of their eyes.

[Phil Dunphy commentary scene change]

"Hahaha! Got you, sucka!" Phil playfully shouted with a huge grin.

[Commentary ended]

"So sorry about that," Claire apologized with a strained smile while Phil was celebrating. "The other one is an actual coupon with monetary value..."

"Oooh, a Pritchett closet free of charge no matter the model? Nice, I really like the one you installed in the master bedroom. Uhhh, the 'Continental', I believe?"

Claire, immediately in her element, started listing all the renewed items they added to their product list since then until Haley threw a small dinner roll at her mother to shut her up.

Claire glared at her eldest daughter for a moment before Ben asked in curiosity, "I don't mean this to sound offensive, but you don't consider a greenhouse a closet for plants by chance? I was thinking about getting one before spring."

"Sadly not," Claire answered with a strained smile.

"Ah, no matter. I still have two rooms without a vaunted Pritchett Closet," Ben waved away.

"We really didn't know what else to give you. Phil was entirely unhelpful after he got that coupon idea," Claire sighed in exasperation.

"Thank you, but it really wasn't necessary. I may have been off duty, but saving people is my job," Ben thanked with a heartfelt smile. "Doing just that was the reason I joined the police in the first place."

[Phil and Clair Dunphy commentary scene change]

"He's such a hero! If I was unmarried and 20 to 30 years younger, I would totally throw myself at him," Phil declared with a swoon.

Claire was about to agree when she suddenly thought about her husband's wording and looked at him strangely.

"Okay, 20 years younger, unmarried, and born a girl," Phil clarified with a sheepish grin.

[Commentary change: Luke Dunphy]

"Finally: A guy good enough for my sisters. I don't even care which one, take both for all I care," Luke expressed with a serious expression.

"He's already an actual hero cop, I've read some articles on the way over. Plus, he looks super cool. He knows a ton of important people. He can do literally anything."

Then he gained an impish grin and admitted, "Just as I can do anything with him as my brother-in-law. 'You want to arrest me for stealing this koi fish? Excuse me, sir, but could you call Detective Weiss first to see if you even can?'"

A little lost in his own fantasy, Luke just nodded along with a grin for a moment.

"Suckas won't know what hit them."

[Commentary change: Emilia Caster]

"Oooh? I get one of these as well? Delightful," Emilia extolled with an enchanted expression as she looked around the empty house around her. Ben's house.

"The Dunphy's are a really nice family. I mean, Claire might have a bit of a drinking problem but she was pleasant to be around nonetheless. Luke tried to hit on me five times until he got the message that I wasn't interested. At least his father told him to stay clear of poor Zofia - I don't think she would have liked getting woo'ed by such a dullard with her history. Then there was Haley, who stared daggers at me the entire time I was in her line of sight, and Alex, who might be a bit of an oddball," Emilia drawled until she focused once more. "But Phil is such a nice man."

She looked around for a moment until she whispered, "I mean, I know why Haley looked at me like that. But messing with her is so much more fun than telling her I had no interest in Ben."

[Commentary ended]

Anna was sitting on Ben's lap at the dinner table with Phil and Emilia flanking them both. Haley had tried sitting next to Ben, but Emilia swooped in at just the right moment to take the chair from her.

When they were done eating, Emilia and Claire started bringing the dishes and food back to the kitchen and Emilia used every chance she got to brush against Ben 'by mistake' just to trigger Haley who was openly pouting the entire time - even missing her chance to actually talk to Ben.

Zofia and Alex both wanted to help clean up initially, but were told by the other two older women to take it easy, so they excused themselves back to the living room where they were talking once more.

Her English might not have been the most fluent, and she was usually more reserved, but Zofia was by no means stupid. Her current pursuit in education made her an easy and comfortable conversation partner for the Caltech student Alex who chronically lacked friends.

Interrupting the conversation at the dinner table because Anna needed to use the bathroom, Ben accompanied the little girl on her wishes and helped her wash up. Once she was done, she ran to the kitchen to her mommy as Haley waited at the bathroom for the two.

"Ah, sorry. Next time you don't have to wait. You can just use one of the bathrooms upstairs," Ben apologized and made room for Haley to enter while he opened the door wide for her.

She walked past him, but in the last moment, she dragged him with her, closed the door, and grabbed Ben's head for a kiss. The detective was initially shocked for a moment before he simply played along.

[Haley Dunphy commentary scene change]

"That's how it's done! Haley: 1. All those other bitches: 0," Haley declared with a cocky smirk that faltered a short moment later. "At least I hope that's the score. Still not sure if that Emilia woman is still interested in him. They do live under the same roof..."

She turned thoughtful for a moment before shrugging, "He's a boy scout like Andy. No way he'd cheat on me... okay, we're not technically a couple yet so it wouldn't be cheating. But we got a date on Tuesday. My chance to lock him up."

The last sentence was spoken with a playful gesture.

"Hehe, get it? Cause he's a cop?"

[Commentary ended]

"Alright, don't be a stranger, Ben!" Phil shouted with a wave as he loaded his family into their minivan and walked to the driver's seat.

"Yeah, no worries! I got the coupon and all. You're not getting rid of me now," Ben answered with a good-natured smile that had Phil grinning like a child on a sugar rush. "And don't forget to look up 'Rolladen' for your blinds division at Pritchett's Closets and Blinds, Claire! I'll send you a link on the phone! Germans really know their stuff and it took me ages to find a retailer here in the US for my bedroom windows!"

As they drove off, Emilia appeared behind him and gave Ben another jumpscare at the door.

"This Haley girl, she's into you," she declared and smelled him a bit. "Oh, you already know?"

"Wow, are you thinking about joining the K9 unit?" Ben joked back as he walked into the kitchen to continue clean up.

"Did you just call me a dog?" Emilia asked in mock outrage.

"Never mind. She showed interest and I'm not seeing anyone at this moment. Why not give it a try? She's a nice girl," Ben answered with a shrug.

"Hmm, must be nice going for such a young girl," Emilia highlighted with a raised brow.

"Well. I admit, she'd be my youngest partner or rather the one with the highest age difference yet. Then again, she's 24, not 18, or something. At least I didn't go for her college girl sister?" Ben argued back with an unsure smile.

"You sure you aren't? She's into you, too," Emilia taunted with a small grin.

"Ugh, I guess. But I don't think it's in the stars no matter how pretty and smart she is," Ben countered with a shrug.

[Emilia Caster commentary scene change]

"There's something I haven't told Ben yet. Something I don't think he can ever know... I'd probably have to tell him for the sake of Anna... but I still have time to decide. Anna's recovery will take until spring, at the very least."

Emilia pondered in silence for a moment, her expression turning more and more solemn.

"I don't know why he won't tell her that he is her father. He looks at her with so much love and affection - even before he found out that he was truly the father... Is he waiting on something? Her full recovery?"

[Commentary ended]