A Life After the Troubles

Spoilers: All Episodes

Disclaimer: I only own Katie and Luke

Audrey laughed as she watched Nathan running after the new dog they'd just gotten. Duke and Jennifer stood beside her as they both laughed as well, it was quite a sight to see as the detective ran after a dog and had fallen twice. Jennifer shoved Duke in the direction of the two and told him to go help.

"So…five years and going." Jennifer with her addictive personality couldn't help but smile. "I mean, since we solved The Troubles."

The cop turned to her best friend, "yeah, the whole time everyone thought that the answer was outside the Barn when it was inside." She shoved her hands into her pockets and laughed as Duke and Nathan tried to corner the dog. "Who do you think is going to win, the guys or Patton?"

"Oh definitely Patton!" Jennifer laughed as Duke fell on his face, missing the dog by inches.

"Mama!" Audrey turned to see her daughter running out of the house with her stuffed cow and tears in her eyes. "Benji broke!"

"Katie, hey it's going to be okay." Bending down beside the little girl with a tear-stained face Audrey took her in safe arms. "Let me see him." She pulled back and took the stuffed cow to look over the damage, the cow had a hole in it and seemed to be losing it's stuffing.

"Can you fix him?"

The cop couldn't keep a smile off of her face as she reassured the blue-eyed blond beauty in front of her. "With some surgery he will be just fine I promise." She pointed to Nathan and Duke, "why don't you go help Daddy and Uncle Duke try to catch Patton since they can't do it, Patton likes you more anyways."

The girl took off and Audrey shook her head as she clutched the cow in her hands. Jennifer rolled her eyes as the dog immediately went to Katie and let the guys catch him. "You know that's just wrong, I mean she goes out there and twenty minutes more of fun is lost."

"Yeah well it's getting late anyways." Audrey looked at her friend, "I should get started on dinner."

"I got him." Duke was dragging the dog to the dog run they had in the backyard as Nathan walked over with Katie on his back. "Jennifer and I should be headed home anyways. Hey Katie where is Luke at?"

The girl shrugged, "I don't know."

Jennifer put her hand up, "I'll go find him."

Nathan deposited Katie on her feet in front of Audrey, "you want me to cook tonight?"

"Nah, I'll take care of it." She poked his chest, "besides you have reports to catch up on so it'll be the girls cooking tonight." Looking down at Katie she smiled, "wanna help me make dinner, we're having pancakes tonight?"

"Yeah, yeah!" She practically ran inside the house and both parents shook their heads. Nathan pulled Audrey to him and kissed her shoulder.

"Five years today."

Leaning back against her husband Audrey nodded. "Yeah, five years today." Her hand caught his as he rested it against her growing belly, their second (third) child would be making his entrance in three months. "Jennifer and I were talking about that earlier, about how we were all wrong and the answer was inside the barn not outside."

"Well I think we did good. We ended The Troubles, got married and have two kids and maintained our careers as Haven Police while both staying alive."

Jennifer walked out of the house with a toddler in her arms, Duke immediately took him. "Hey there Buddy, ready to go home and have dinner?"

"Yeah." The two year old tried to speak with his hands in his mouth.

"Okay well say goodbye to Uncle Nathan and Aunt Audrey so we can go."

Audrey leaned in and kissed the little boy's cheek, his black curls falling all over his head while brown eyes stared at her. "Bye you, see you soon okay?"

"Bye!" He waved to both of them and Nathan just reached up to ruffle the curls.

"Bye, we'll see you next playdate."

Jennifer and Duke headed out with their son and both proceeded inside to find Katie looking at the family photo album that was more history than memories. She looked up at her mother and pointed to the picture of Sarah.

"Mama why does she look like you?"

Audrey sat down and took the album to place aside before pulling her daughter into her lap. "Well she is just family, she's Aunt Jennifer's grandma."

"But why does she look like you?"

Nathan chuckled and sat down beside his two girls, "well I promise you that just because she looks like Mama doesn't mean she is. She just happens to look like Mama a little bit but Miss Sarah is part of Aunt Jennifer's family." He leaned in and looked Katie in the eyes, "gonna fix those pancakes before the hunger monster arrives?" He put his arms up and Katie ran from Audrey's lap to the kitchen, Nathan following as he pretended to be a monster. "I want pancakes, I want pancakes."

"Kids!" Audrey stood up and headed after her child and husband (second child), she stopped as she looked at the album and realized that one day Katie would have to know all about the family history. However that wouldn't be for years and by then The Troubles would be nothing more than stories to scare kids into behaving.

As for Jennifer being their granddaughter inadvertently, they all four agreed that Jennifer's family history was just history. She had her own parents and grandparents and didn't need same age grandparents trying to be parental figures so everyone agreed that friends would work. So Jennifer and Duke became Uncle Duke and Aunt Jennifer to her daughter and they became Uncle Nathan and Aunt Audrey to Luke, but to them all they were family. Nathan had even grown fond of Duke being his grandson-in-law…after five years Audrey consider that an accomplishment up there with ending The Troubles.

A/N: Just a 'after Troubles fic' that ends happily.