Semper Fi

By Ann3

Writer's Note: Those who have seen The Return already will know that TPTB have brought some of Paul McGillion's real life into Carson's background. I thought it would be rather nice to bring it into this story too. After all, you can never have too many Becketts !!

Chapter Ten

The Becketts Are Coming !!

Until ten seconds ago, Laura Cadman had been sure there was no bigger mother hen in the galaxy – no, she dazedly corrected himself, no bigger mother hen in two galaxies, than Dr Carson Beckett. Still wrapped in a rib-crushing hug, that theory was coming in for a somewhat groggy re-think.

For the ultimate experience in good old fashioned mother-henning, you needed… well, a mother. And Gracie Beckett couldn't just write a book on that subject, she could write an entire library.

She packed a mean hug too, one that was making it increasingly tricky for Laura to catch her breath. If not for some timely, highly amused intervention, she'd have been in real danger of being suffocated.

"Och, easy up, mum…! I havenae brought Laura all this way for ye to break her ribs…!"

"Dinnae be so cheeky, ye wee scamp…" his mother scolded him through still helpless laughter – another motherly threat wiping the wicked grin from Carson's face with instant, cringe-causing speed.

"Och, lass, all the tales I could tell ye, about the scrapes this wee boy o' mine got into…"

"Really…?"

Still laughing at Carson's priceless, scandalised expression, Laura's eyes gleamed with mischief – earning her another hug of approval as Gracie favoured her son with an equally playful grin.

"Och, come on, son...! Ye cannae expect me no' to tell your lassie at least some o' your secrets...!"

Leaving Carson to ruefully digest that horrendous thought, she then turned back to Laura and smiled – the words which Laura had prayed to hear now answering their hopes beyond her wildest dreams.

"An' Laura, lass... you're every bit as bonny, every bit as lovely, as this boy o' mine told me..."

Even Carson was smiling again now, proud relief lighting up his face as he re-met Laura's eyes. Remembering, with bittersweet pride, when she'd seen that same look of devotion from the man she had loved for so long, and still missed so much, Gracie smiled too

She had to admit, too, that it had surprised her, to see her youngest, still favourite son, so utterly smitten. Who would have thought it...? Her sweet, shy, sensitive Carsie, so completely and utterly in love.

Then again, she mused, leading that unsuspecting son down the hall, two could play at that game.

"Sur-priiiiise...!!!"

If not for Laura's arm around his waist, Carson Beckett may well have jumped clear up to the ceiling. As it was, the shock that had sent his heart rate into triple figures escaped in time honoured tradition – a tumbling flurry of softly incredulous words, gasped out in the very broadest, thickest Glaswegian.

"Alex...? Rab...? Jamie...? Wha' the hell are...? I – I mean, how...? When did ye...? Och, holy crap...!"

Three pairs of eyes, bright blue eyes that could only come from one family, traded mock-affronted glances.

"Holy crap...?" one of their owners finally grinned, setting lines of familiar dimples into his cheeks. "Now, Carsie... wha' kind o' greetin' is tha' for yer favourite big brothers...?"

As Carson continued to stare back at him, utterly stunned, so that brother turned back to his cohorts – the mischief on his face now so intense that both Gracie and Laura took an instinctive step backwards.

"What do you think, Rab...? Jai...? Are we really goin' tae let wee Carsie here get away wi' that...?"

Apparently not, since Carson now disappeared onto the couch in a fourway tangle of arms and legs

Watching this glorious, if rather raucous reunion, Gracie Beckett then smiled and shook her head – noting, in approving amusement, that Laura was enjoying it every bit as much as she was.

"Aye, it jus' goes tae show ye, hen..." she said at last, slipping a motherly arm around Laura's waist. "Ye can take the boy oot o' Glasgow..."

The invite for a future daughter-in-law was there for the taking. Laura wasted no time in accepting it. She just hoped all that time she'd spent playfully mimicking Carson's accent was going to pay off.

"...but ye cannae take Glasgow oot o' the boy..."

She'd evidently succeeded, since Gracie now hugged her closer, joining her in helpless fits of laughter.

Completely buried now under a scrum of brothers, Carson's face still broke into an albeit winded grin. The two most precious ladies in his life were clearly getting on like the proverbial house on fire. And that, he mused through howling yells for mercy, would make that question so much easier to ask.

"Aaaaaaaii-eeeeee...!! For Go'ssake, Jai, are – are ye tryin' tae bloody kill me...?!?!?"

Assuming he lived long enough to ask it, of course.