Author's note: Another step closer to the end! Tmtcltb perfectly described this stage of writing as bittersweet - it's a great feeling to be tying up the loose ends and bringing the story to a close, but I'll miss this story very much when I'm done.

This penultimate chapter is a little interlude really, and an excuse for me to imagine our leading men with their shirts off. Enjoy!

Thank you for reading, following, favouriting, and particularly reviewing.

Chapter 34 – Enjoying the View

"Now that's what I call a view!" Nina grinned, leaning back in her lawn chair, and Sasha and Rachel laughed.

"Can't disagree with you." Sasha smirked, "I'm trying to work out how we incorporate it into the wedding."

"Dress code?" Rachel asked with a raised eyebrow. "Dress whites on the bottom, nothing on top?"

"Except the cover. I'd keep the cover." Sasha laughed.

On the scaffolding platform halfway up the side of Tom and Sasha's farmhouse, Mike grunted.

"They're looking at us."

"They're perving on us." Tex corrected. He turned and gave a strongman pose to the three women on the lawn below, their laughter carrying upwards.

"I'm putting my shirt back on." Mike reached for his t-shirt, but then couldn't help laughing at the loudly exaggerated groan of disappointment from his wife.

"Give in to it." Tom shrugged, and Tex agreed.

"Three beautiful women want to watch you paint a house? Worse ways to spend a weekend."

Mike sighed and put the t-shirt down again, picking up his paintbrush. "I've got a new house of my own to take care of as well, don't forget."

"Ah, but since you quit your job, you have more time, right?" Tex grinned.

"I did not quit my job-" Mike started, but Tom interrupted.

"He only quit one of his jobs. I still have to put up with him all day, even if the recruits don't."

"I could just retire, if it's such an inconvenience having me around." Mike retorted, and Tom held up his hands.

"Not even as a joke, Mike, please."

Mike turned his head and looked down at Rachel. "So long as I'm home for dinner, I'll keep saving your ass from the paperwork."

Down on the lawn, Rachel was watching as Ashley helped Jamie toddle a few steps towards the house before he plopped back to a sitting position.

"When did that happen?" Sasha asked in surprise.

"The week after our special weekend." Rachel smiled. "Mike came home and said he was giving up his role at the training camp, and Jamie decided to walk over to congratulate him."

Sasha smiled too, her eyes on Ashley as the teenager made faces at Jamie, inciting giggles.

"How do you think Ash will be with a new brother or sister?" Nina asked.

"I want to say she'd like it, but honestly, I suspect mainly jealous." Sasha said slowly. "Then again, she's really surprised us the last couple months. She's been so mature about the engagement, the house..."

"Maybe Kat's rubbed off on her." Nina commented. "She's been so relaxed about everything - new stepmother, new baby, moving plans... It's hard to believe she's only sixteen."

"Survivors." Rachel said. "Lissy's the same, sixteen going on thirty. Mike panics about her moving too quickly with Aaron, but actually I think she's more sensible than we were."

"Kat's the same with Ray." Nina agreed, "She's barely let the poor kid hold her hand, and he's like a lovesick puppy. She says her preparation for joining the Corps is too important to be disrupted by a boy. Would that we were that smart."

"Speak for yourself!" Sasha protested, "Tom isn't disrupting anything."

"Oh really?" Nina looked at her sceptically, "Don't see you hurrying to consolidate your position at the NIS, and don't think I didn't see those old copies of Martha Stewart Living in your bag."

"Ha ha." Sasha chuckled reluctantly, "I surrender on the job front, but that's more about the nature of what's on offer than Tom, and you know full well those magazines were wedding ones-"

"Gotcha!" Nina crowed, "You admit it!"

Rachel giggled, "You walked right into that one, Sasha." But then her tone turned more serious. "It's okay, you know, to want those things. I love my work, I'd never be without it, but I want my family too. It's a balance; we're still working that out."

"You're doing it well, Rach." Nina said, "With the new house, and Mike cutting back on work."

Rachel's eyes drifted back to Mike, his muscular back already gaining a tan from the sun. "We're getting there."

Sasha took the opportunity to let her own eyes rove over Tom, the way his old jeans hung low, the flex of his arms as he wielded the paintbrush confidently. Sure, she got to see him with his shirt off all the time, but hell, this was hot. No denying it.

"I'm lucky to be freelance," Nina commented, "Makes it a lot easier. And Tex seems pretty happy doing security. Lucky, because the idea of being left alone too much with this one," She gestured to her growing stomach, "Terrifies me."

"You'll be fine." Rachel and Sasha said at the same time.

"Seriously," Rachel reassured, "You work it out as you go along. You said it yourself - keep it alive, the rest follows."

"Him." Nina said, with an uncharacteristic blush. "It's a boy. We just found out. I wasn't going to say anything, but…"

"And now the whole world will know, because you just told Rachel." Sasha said, but she softened it with a grin, and Rachel just shrugged.

"Congratulations." She said, reaching up to squeeze Nina's knee. "Boys are great. Not that I've tried a girl."

"They pee in your face though, right? Boys?" Sasha asked, and Rachel laughed at Nina's horrified expression.

"Afraid so. And in any other direction they choose. Jamie managed to get me in the eye once-"

"No!" Nina cried, half laughing, half horrified. "Now I'm grossed out as well as terrified!"

Ashley wandered over, Jamie in her arms. "What's so funny?"

"You've changed Jamie's nappy." Nina said, "Did he pee on you?"

Ashley giggled, "You mean his diaper? No, he peed on the bench. But I know he peed in Aunt Rachel's eye once!"

"Doomed." Nina dropped her face into her hands dramatically.

"Did you know Nina is having a boy?" Rachel asked Ash, and Sasha smirked to herself. Rachel really was a helpless gossip.

"Sweet!" Ash declared. "What's his name going to be?"

"Not telling." Nina smiled.

"It's weird," Ash said, "Me and Lissy and Kat are all girls, and then there's Sam on his own. And the new babies are all boys, so there should be a girl next." She looked at Sasha, "You and Dad should have a girl. Then we'd outnumber the boys in the house. That would be cool."

Sasha's mouth dropped open, and out of the corner of her eye she could see Nina and Rachel reacting in the same way.

Rachel recovered first. "Good point, Ash. It would be nice to have a little sister, I think."

"And she wouldn't pee in your eye." Nina noted.

"Got a date for the wedding yet?" Mike asked Tom, as they continued to slap paint onto the house.

"Got to get the house finished, plus the contractor says another three weeks at least to finish converting the outbuildings – even with Dad pitching in at every opportunity, and his willing helper, Sam. My son has decided he wants to be a carpenter when he grows up. So more like a couple months before we're ready for a wedding."

"If I can beg a favour," Tex said, "Do it before little Jack arrives."

"Little Jack?" Mike frowned in puzzlement, but Tom caught on.

"You're having a boy?"

"Yup." Tex hesitated for a second, which was unusual enough in itself for Mike and Tom to stop painting and look at him. "We thought Jack Thomas Nolan. If that'd be alright with you, Commodore."

Tom looked at his friend in surprise. "That would be an honour." He answered quietly.

"Honour enough to get the wedding done before he gets here to take over our lives?" Tex joked, but he clapped his hand on Tom's shoulder affectionately.

"Aw, look, they're bonding!" Sasha said, watching the men again.

"Come on boys, have a wrestle!" Nina hollered up to the platform, and everyone laughed, everyone except Ashley, who summed up her feelings in one word.

"Eeeeewwwww!"