Okay here's the next chapter in the chronicles of George Rossi and Spike Scarlatti. It takes place directly after the last chapter. Oh and it is a little kitsch so beware...

Nervous glances were exchanged between George and Spike before they got up together and Spike said, "Ma, Dad, Mr. Rossi you'd better sit down for this."

As the three member of the older generation sat down on Spike's raggedy old couch. Spike began to pace, trying to figure out what to say. Watching his every move Frank Rossi suddenly collapsed into his hand crying. Everyone looked at him, surprised.

"Frank, what is it?" asked Maria, touching Frank's shaking knee.

"She's pregnant. They are here to tell us that she is pregnant. I've seen this set up before. I watch my soaps" He wailed. Maria and Joseph looked scandalized.

"Dad! I'm not pregnant", shouted George over the din of Frank's continued sobbing. "We got something to tell which does not involve me losing my virginity." Spike almost laughed at the idea of George being a virgin, considering they had copulated only a few metres away. However, he held it in feeling that it might not look good if that came out at this moment.

"Ma, here is what is going on..." started only to be flummoxed on how to continue. All of a sudden he had a brain wave. Much to everyone else's dismay he went over and started rummaging through his vinyl collection, extricating a beat up record called "Paradise, Hawaiian Style". He placed it on the turn table and put the needle down towards the centre of the record. When he started up the stereo a deep male voice and a young girls voice sang a duet:

Datin' is a game that grown-ups play
Datin' means acting in a silly way
Datin' makes girls start wiggle walking
Datin' makes a guy start baby talking

Dizzy like children on a merry-go-round
Grown-ups are the biggest kids I've found
You'd think they belong in a baby carriage
They're doing things that lead to marriage
But don't you laugh at what they do, oh no
'cause some day you'll be datin' too

Datin' makes a guy comb his hair just right
His girl can mess it up when they kiss good-night
Datin' makes you quarrel and say you'll break up
And just because it's so much fun to make up

Children can't wait to grow up but then
They're datin and they're acting like kids again
You'd think they belong in a baby carriage
They're doing things that lead to marriage
But don't you laugh at what they do, oh no
Some day you'll be datin' too

When the needle stopped at the end of the record all the three parents could do was look cryptically at Spike and George. Spike spoke up, "Well as Elvis and the little girl said dating makes you do silly things and one of those silly things is marriage. Ma, Dad, Mr. Rossi. I proposed to George and she said yes. We are going to get married." He breathed out deeply waiting for the kafuffle that was sure to follow.

Maria Scarlatti was the first to 'speak'. She squealed loudly and ran over and pulled both Spike and George into a suffocating hug. The two fathers sat, dumbstruck, on the couch before getting up to congratulate the couple.

"Oh Michael. George. We'll have the biggest wedding you can imagine. It'll be at Immaculate Conception as soon as we can get you in."

Spike looked nervously at George and she gave him a nervous look back, "Uh Ma... we were thinking about this weekend..."

"What about this weekend?" bubbled Maria.

"Getting married this weekend. Saturday to be exact." answered Spike. The silence was deafening. Spike looked pleadingly at George.

"You know Maria we just want a small wedding. You know my cousin Max well he's a priest now and he's coming to visit this weekend anyway so we thought we could hold it in..." she paused for the briefest of moments, "...your backyard. It is so beautiful with all of Joseph's plants."

Maria looked down cast. "Are you sure you don't want to have it in a church?"

"Yes, Ma we're sure."

"We'll then I'd better get cooking. Saturday is only four days away. Joseph you phone the relatives." She barked turning to her husband, then to Mr. Rossi, "Frank would you be a dear and help me in the kitchen." Finally she turned to the couple, "George have you got a wedding dress?"

"N-no" stammered George.

"Come with me then dear. Michael, clean up this place it looks like a pig-sty. We are going to have guests over." And with that she dragged George upstairs and left Spike in the middle of his lair, bemused at what had happened over the last hour.

~*~

With smirks across all of their faces Wordy, Ed, and Lou got out of the Wordy Express the next morning. Spike nervously followed them into the SRU, seeing as his 'two weeks' were still due.

When the morning meeting started Greg was instantly suspicious of the Cheshire Cat grins that the team, save Spike, were wearing; however, experience had taught him better than to search out what they were planning and to simple let it blow up in his face and laugh when they did.

After the meeting Spike went to take an inventory of the weapons and ammunition, as he was riding a desk for another week until he could get another crack at the polygraph. As he counted the remaining shells in the open package he remembered the events of the previous night.

Once his mother had dragged George away to see if her old wedding dress could be modified to fit her, an earth shattering scream had come from Spike's parent's room. As the three tired males sprinted up to the bedroom, they met Maria on the landing clutching her heart. After they had made her a strong cup of tea Maria had regained her voice. It turned out the dress was a backless affair with cream folds and intricate beadwork and when George had tried it on Maria had seen the telltale circles of the cigarette burns. George had come down by that point and was trying to calm the parents down but she and Spike had ended up staying up until almost 4:00 AM, telling them about their days as the bully's bulls-eyes in high school. Needless to say, Spike was exhausted and after three separate attempts to count the bullets he averaged out his counts to 106 shells.

When lunch finally came around Lou and Spike went out to eat at the picnic benches across the street from the SRU so that they could talk without the possibility of Greg overhearing. They started drafting wedding vows that Spike could say at the wedding and Lou started scratching out his best man speech, as Spike would have no other best man than Lou. As they sat and talked with their scraps of paper and pens they were oblivious to Pete, the new officer at the front desk, listening to their every word. As Spike and Lou finished their lunch and headed back inside Pete smiled to himself as he finally saw a way into getting into active duty.

Couldn't help but put a true jerk into the mix (after all Greg is just parroting the rules) so I am sorry to all you who liked Pete in "Exit Wounds" but I couldn't do it to any of the major characters.

Oh and another thing, please don't say anything about how unbelievable it is that they used an Elvis song to tell their parents about their marriage. That's exactly how my fiancee and I told our parents that we were getting married.