There was stunned silence before a cacophony of sound erupted.

"You're engaged?!" Jaye cried. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Congratulations," from Beach Head in a rather solemn tone as he looked to his first sergeant.

Duke, for his part, maintained a rather studious silence for those few moments. Scarlett couldn't help but enjoy the strained calm on his face. She held up a hand and shot a glare to her brother. "Calm down. He's not really my fiancé."

Patrick put on a pouty look, "I'm not? You wound me."

"Patrick, stop," she couldn't help grinning as she said it though, "they don't understand the whole arranged marriage thing -"

Before she could continue, shouts were again pouring forth from her friends. She shot them a glare. "Stop getting your panties in a knot. It's not that big of a deal, guys." She rolled her eyes as she shook her head, apparently her brother and Patrick were immensely enjoying her friends' distress.

"It's not the Middle Ages Shana - you don't have to get married if you don't want to." Duke's voice was quiet and dangerous. She had to admit that she was delighting his discomfort and was touched by his concern that she was being forced into something.

"Since it is obvious now that Brian can't keep his mouth shut, I'll explain quickly so we can get out of the terminal and I can go and take a shower. Patrick's family is very close to mine; we've been friends since we were little. Everyone always expected us to get married, kind of in a sweet, aren't they cute way,"

"And sort of in a pushy, 'why don't you call Shana and invite her to the movies' sort of way." Patrick broke in with a grin.

"So, while they were kind of joking that they expected us to get married, they were kind of not. Patrick and I realized their pressure a long time ago and everyone kind of likes to tease us and say we're engaged." She smirked, "Of course, if you stay single much longer, your mother may bring a shotgun to my house and demand a wedding!" She laughed as she nudged her childhood friend.

He blushed as everyone laughed and put his arm back around Shana, "Why would I get a real girlfriend when my fantasy one is so much better?"

"Ok, if you're done making fun of me, let me introduce everyone. This is Allie, Wayne and Conrad. They all work with me." Everyone shook hands politely, though Conrad's grip on Patrick's hand was especially strong.

The tension was finally broken between the two groups and they gathered their bags and split up into two cars to head to Shana's house. Shana and Allie and Patrick drove in one car; Brian, Conrad and Wayne in the other. Shana leaned her head back against the headrest as they drove away. "I'm going to kill Brian for bringing that up."

Jaye smirked, "You did a fair enough job yourself creating more uproar. Did you see the look on Conrad's face?" The brunette giggled madly.

"Oh yeah," Shana grinned, looking back at her friend. "I wish I had a camera."

"Boyfriend?" Patrick inquired innocently. "Ex-Boyfriend?"

Shana shook her head emphatically, "No, no and no. Never will be boyfriend."

"Really." His tone indicated that he didn't believe her at all.

"Really." Her reply was firm.

"Well, he didn't seem like that to me."

"Patrick Michael Brendan Frances Grady, don't start in on me," she warned. He knew she meant business when she used all of his names. Not even his mom threw in his Confirmation name.

Jaye just laughed at the two of them, "I don't know Shana, I might be inclined to believe Patrick here. He seemed a bit upset about the whole thing."

"And I think he broke a couple of bones in my hand when we shook!" He winked at Jaye through the rearview mirror.

Shana rubbed her eyes, "Guys, stop. Enough for today. Let me at least get showered before you start in on me again, ok?"

Her friends nodded, properly apologetic the rest of the way home.

O o o o o o o o o o o O

Wayne sat in the back with Conrad, leaving Brian in the front. He whispered quietly to his friend trying to not draw attention, "You alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Conrad did his best to sound off-hand.

Wayne arched an eyebrow, "You are a shitty liar when it comes to her, you need to work on that." Conrad gave him a sharp look but he continued, "You aren't fooling anyone you know."

"There's nothing going on between us." Conrad crossed his arms in front of him, unhappy with not only this conversation but the witness driving the car. Wayne opened his mouth to speak again and Conrad glared at him sternly, hissing, "Any more discussions on this matter will be held in private."

Wayne knew when not to push the other man so he backed off and watched the scenery fly by as they neared their destination. "So, you have a lot of family come in? Do they all stay at the house?" The question was clearly directed to Brian.

"Too many people showing up. We get a group rate at a hotel, then if it's warm enough, we can all head over for a dip in the pool." He chuckled as he turned into a driveway.

Shana's house was a beautiful old Georgian style home. There was a tent set up in the back and they could hear music coming from speakers closer to the action. Duke was amazed at the amount of people there. They all seemed to be swirling through the area, going from backyard to backyard. Shana hadn't been exaggerating the size of the party in the least.

"Here we are. Looks like the girls are right behind us, so I'll trust Shana to get you to your rooms. I've got to go grab Da and tell him I'm back. Nice to meet you both!" Brian hurried away from the car in search of his father.

As the girls pulled up, Wayne whispered, "So you have no problems with Patrick?"

Keeping a stony exterior, he said, "Why should I? He seems like a nice person and is a good friend of Shana's." He tried to keep his voice non-committal.

Wayne just shook his head as he went to greet the girls. The man was clueless or as stubborn as the redhead; whichever it was, it was annoying as hell. He sure as hell wasn't going to play therapist and try and pry it out of him.