Donna and Winnie were deep in conversation at the desk but looked up in time to see Jules walking into HQ, Ed lagging a few paces behind. Checking the clock Winnie looked confused. "You two are back kind of early…"

Jules frowned. "Officer Lane here forgot how to drive," she said, pulling off her jacket to expose the large coffee stain on her shirt.

Donna's eyes widened. "Eeek, you need to borrow an extra shirt?"

"No, I'm sure I have one in my locker, thanks though."

As Jules went to the locker room to change, Ed reached the desk.

Donna shook her head at Ed. "Quite a number you did on her uniform… how'd you manage that?"

"She told me, it surprised me, the brakes were hit, the coffee flew."

Sam came around the corner and joined the group, trying to catch up on why Ed was there when he had heard team one was on patrol.

Donna and Winnie looked at each other in confusion. "Told you what?" Winnie asked.

Ed shot a look at Sam. "Apparently, they're getting married."

The girls' jaws dropped, then Donna shook her head. "You proposed? You couldn't have waited another 2 weeks? Dammit, I owe the boss like $50…"

Jules had come out of the locker room in time to hear Donna's last comment. "You were in on that too? !"

Sam furrowed his brow. "In on what? $50 for what?"

Jules rolled her eyes. "There was a bet."

"A bet?"

"A bet. When you switched teams they took bets on how long until you proposed."

"And the Boss was in on it?"

Jules shrugged. "Evidently he won."

After spending the afternoon at a hot call at a shoe factory, Team One decided it was a good night to stop by the Goose. Jules sat at a table with Greg while Spike stepped outside to call to see when Natalie would be arriving, and Ed, Raf, and Nick were in the process of ordering another round at the bar.

"I've got to say Boss, I was shocked that you would be in on a bet like that."

Greg smiled. "People were taking guesses, and I didn't think any of them were close so I figured why not? Paid for the nachos didn't it?"

Jules laughed. "Fair enough… what did everyone else guess?"

"Hmm…" Greg thought for a moment. "Eddie said something like 6 months, Donna had 2, Spike said 7, and I think Raf had 1 month so thats why he was in sort of a bad mood a few weeks back - first one to lose and all that."

"How did you know he was going to do it?"

Greg took a sip of his coke. "Well, he gave up a spot on team one, gave up working with you everyday all so you two didn't need to sneak around anymore… generally speaking, you don't do that unless you want something more."

Jules nodded, and was about to say something in reply but was interrupted by the arrival of Natalie. She came in with her purse full of bridal magazines, insisting that she and Jules get to work ASAP. Jules stared in horror, unsure of how to respond. As the rest of the team returned to the table she looked around for help, but they all just smirked as Natalie began to ramble about venues and dresses and centrepieces.

Natalie excused herself briefly to go to the bar, and Spike laughed at the pile of magazines she had thrust upon Jules.

Jules glared at him. "Laugh all you want Scarlatti. Just remember she's your girlfriend and sooner or later..."

Spike stopped laughing, swallowed somewhat nervously.

As Jules walked into her house later that night the exhaustion of little sleep the night before, a long day on shift, and an even longer evening at the Goose, caught up with her. She dropped the pile of magazines Nat had forced on her on the kitchen table and dragged her feet upstairs to her bed. Too tired to look very far, she put on the first of Sam's shirts that she found and climbed in to bed.

When Sam arrived home he wasn't surprised to find the house in darkness - he had, after all, woken Jules up at 2:30 in the morning, and she didn't get a whole lot of sleep after that. Not wanting to wake her, he decided to leave the lights up while he walked up stairs. He used his cell phone to light the way to the washroom and back, determined to make it to bed without a sound. He was doing quite well until he didn't see her pile of clothes on the floor, and stumbled slightly, hissing out a curse or two as he regained his balance.

Jules opened one eye in search of the source of the sounds that had awoken her. "Sam?"

"Yeah… fell over your clothes… How was the Goose?"

She yawned. "Pretty good. Natalie showed up with a billion magazines. She's dubbed herself wedding planner and was going on and on about what's in style and what's not…"

"How does she know we're engaged?"

"She said your mom called her… And I guess that means you called your mom?"

"Yeah… this morning after you left for work… she lost her mind." Seeing Jules start to frown he added. "In a good way. She's very excited. Anyways about Natalie, just stand your ground and do what you want, don't let her talk you out of anything."

Jules nodded slowly. "And if I don't know what I want?"

Sam squinted a little in confusion. "Don't girls plan their weddings when they're like 12?"

She let out a sigh. "I didn't."

"I thought you wanted to get married…"

"I do, its just… this is going to sound stupid…" She sighed as he looked at her curiously. "I always wanted to get married, still do. I just don't think i connected getting married with having a wedding…I have no idea what I want in a wedding…"

"We'll figure out what we want," he told her reassuringly, climbing in to bed beside her. "So… living arrangements…"

She smiled. "I've been thinking about it and I don't think I want to live in an apartment, not when I've been in a house for so long."

He nodded. "I agree, I'm not a huge fan of apartment life, but I don't think I want to live here. I want a real backyard, and yours is tiny."

"Thats fine, I don't think I want you living here anyway."

"What?" Sam looked disappointed.

"No no not like that… I just meant that this is my house, and I was thinking I'd rather we find somewhere that would be our house."

Sam grinned. "Sounds good to me."

A/N: whoa. Ok, seriously sorry about the wait on this one... School has been kicking my ass and work is being a miserable beast this week too... I know, I know, excuses excuses. On top of that, every time I sit down to write I end up spewing out yet another chapter of Memories, and this poor story gets neglected. :(
I'm even more sorry that this is more filler than killer, so to speak. Basically just bridging from the engagement to other stuff... *hopefully* I will be posting another update tomorrow night/monday morning :) assuming it's ready, of course.
The plan from now on is to try to update at least one a week. I'll write as much as possible each week, and post as much as is finished because, well, once its written I have to share.