AN: Music for this chapter (on repeat): My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion from Titanic Soundtrack, Crimson and Clover by Tommy James & The Shondells, I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash, Porcelain by Moby, Find My Baby by Moby, September by Earth, Wind and Fire, Never Never Going to Give You Up by Barry White, Crazy Love by Ray Charles with Van Morrison, Thoda Resham Lagta Hai by Lata Mangeshkar, Wada Na Tod by Lata Mangeshkar, Punjabi Wedding Song from the Bride & Prejudice Soundtrack.
THIRTY-EIGHT
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One Week Later:
*My Heart Will Go On*
'Near far, wherever you are… I believe that the heart does go on… Once more you opened the door… and you're here in my heart and my heart will go on… and on…'
Celine Dion crooned the song for the ending credits of the film while Irina, Katya and Sydney cried with sleeping babies against them; Irina having just watched the famous sinking ship film for the first time having avoided it and all other romantic films over the last twenty years.
"Well, damn it, that was sad!" Irina smiled with a chuckle reaching for another tissue and sniffling as she handed one to Sydney and Katya as well, "I'm glad I never watched then." Her eyes filled with tears again even as she smiled, shaking her head softly, "I loved it but I just never could have…" She let the thought die on her lips and they knew what she meant.
Katya and Sydney both gave her a simultaneous hand squeeze that made them all chuckle before they leaned into Irina on each of her sides. Katya had Nicholas asleep against her chest, Anya against Irina's and Nadia against Sydney's.
The three of them were lounging around on a Saturday morning while the others were out and about doing various other things. Weiss and Sophia had taken Lena fishing somewhere on the vast property, Julian was with Ash in India while she finished another film after flying to various locations checking in on his business affairs with the clubs; Marcelo, Jack, Sergei and Vaughn were golfing and Mikhail and Bella were taking his mother Talia back to Gyrady. Everyone else had flown back to the States days ago after the Anniversary Celebration and Baptisms.
"Now what should we do?" Irina asked with an exhausted sigh leaning back into the couch and pulling the others with her.
"I think we should make cookies," Sydney giggled her deep giggle, "I'm having a massive chocolate craving for some reason and your Chocolate Chip Cookies are foremost in my mind."
"Mmm, yes, they are rather delicious morsels, Rina, Darling," Katya almost purred beside them with a smile. "I think that's a fabulous idea."
"Okay then," Irina laughed, "Let's make cookies!"
"And vodka, we must drink vodka while we bake!" Katya added with a soft laugh standing as the other two did with babies still asleep against their chests.
"But I can't drink..." Sydney pouted playfully shifting the baby against her and looking at her own sleeping child against her mother's chest.
"Oh, that's right," Katya frowned sadly with her looking from Sydney to the baby she was nursing and then smiled, "That's fine. You bake and we'll drink watching you." She smiled with a giggle making the other two laugh.
"Good plan." Irina smiled kissing her granddaughter's head and trading babies with her daughter, "I'll go put these two down and meet you in the kitchen." She smiled taking Nicholas carefully from her sister as well, very experienced now in balancing both babies perfectly while asleep against her chest.
"I'll get the vodka!" Katya smiled, kissing both of their little heads and then Irina's cheek before disappearing in search of their finest.
Sydney settled Anya in the Moses basket and picked it up, walking out with her mother and departing for the kitchen when Irina headed upstairs.
Irina kissed both of her babies, smiling and running her hand over the soft skin of their bare legs sticking out from their Onzie outfits and over their tiny socks before pulling the little blankets over each, snickering as she did every time pulling the Cowboys and Cossacks one from Weiss over Nicholas. With her babes sleeping in their cribs she bounced down the stairs with a smile meeting Katya at the bottom. "Where'd you get that?" She asked her sister with a smile seeing she was holding one of her finest bottles of vodka.
"In your office, of course." Katya laughed, linking arms with her sister as they walked to the kitchen, "There are some good things about no longer nursing your babies." She added softly knowing how hard it had been on her sister, "Like, being able to drink copious amounts of fabulous vodka while eating chocolate cookies and telling wild stories that make your daughter blush madly!"
"You're terrible." Irina laughed thinking about how Katya taunted Sydney with her sexual references to she and Jack, "But I love you." She kissed Katya's temple and wrapped her arm around her shoulders.
Twenty minutes later, Sydney burning bright red as she stood beside her mother spooning cookie dough onto a sheet while Katya watched from a stool, drinking vodka and making them laugh with her stories.
Their eyes flashed to the nursery monitor when Nicholas began to cry and they saw him pushing himself up on his little arms in his crib with his back to them and then plopping back down doing a face plant and snorting before crying again.
"I'll get him," Sydney smiled licking the dough off the spoon in her hand and throwing it in the sink quickly before running upstairs to get her brother with a smile.
Irina set her own spoon down and reached for the refrigerator door, pulling out one of Nicholas's bottles and setting it in the warmer knowing he would want to eat.
Her heart all but stopped when she heard Sydney scream, "Mom!" through the monitors and looked up with Katya to the screen to see Sydney rushing out of the nursery with Nicholas clutched to her chest and then off camera.
Irina and Katya both bolted for the stairs and met Sydney at the bottom, tears were streaming down her cheeks and it was obvious as to why when she turned the crying baby and he had blood running from his nose. His arms and legs all had deep, ugly dark bruises from fingerprints everywhere they'd touched him before putting him to sleep and marking him with every touch now. His forehead even held a bruise from where Irina had kissed him.
Nadia was now awake and screaming in her own crib upstairs having been violently awaken with Sydney's scream and Katya ran to get her.
"I don't know what happened! I just went to the crib and he was like this!" Sydney cried trying to hold him and pass him to her mother as delicately as possible, "He's not due for his Factor for another week!"
"Call your father and tell him to meet us at the hospital." Irina held back her tears and Dmitri came running to see what was going on. His face went pale seeing the blood coming from the baby's nose in a stream and staining Irina's shirt. His little bruise covered body as she tried to keep him still though he was squirming, most likely in pain on top of hunger.
"Will you grab Anya please and his bottle from the warmer, and another one from the fridge for Nadia and meet us at the helipad?" Irina asked Dmitri speaking calmly though internally she felt anything but.
Dmitri nodded and ran back into the kitchen as Katya rapidly descended the stairs, kissing Nadia's head and trying to calm her niece down.
"Daddy!" Sydney cried into the phone as they rapidly secured Nadia and then Anya into the car seats in the helicopter, "Meet us at the hospital. It's Nicholas… he's bleeding."
Irina held Nicholas in her arms knowing she'd do more damage if they tried to put him into his seat. They were in the air in minutes and Sophia and Weiss felt the wind rush from the blades when it went overhead, looking skyward and wondering what was going on as they sat by the lake but knowing it wasn't good if Irina was leaving in the helicopter that fast on a Saturday.
Weiss pulled out his cell phone and rapidly dialed Sydney, "Hey, what's going on? We just saw your mom leave in the helicopter."
"I'm with her as is Katya, we're on our way to the hospital. Nicholas is bleeding, badly." Sydney cried answering her phone watching the landscape fly by beneath them.
"Shit!" Weiss jumped up, grabbing Lena under one arm and motioning for Sophia to help him grab their other stuff and quickly started running for the house, "We're on our way."
"What's going on?" Sophia asked when he hit 'End' and was running beside him to the palace with fear in her heart seeing it in her fiance's eyes.
"The Cowboy is bleeding. That's all I know and we're meeting them at the hospital."
Weiss and Sophia dropped the gear by the doorstep without going in and raced to the garage to get their car.
"He's okay, Rina." Marcelo smiled, running his hand with a smile down his sister-in-law's arm as he stepped around the incubator temporarily holding his nephew to adjust the settings on the machine beside it. He normally didn't cover this floor but as Chief of Staff and uncle to said patient, he was assisting the head Hematologist.
They'd immediately administered the Factor Irina had banked for just such an Emergency and given Nicholas a light sedation to calm him down while they treated him.
"So what does this mean?" Irina asked the doctor squeezing Jack's hand, "I thought he was supposed to be okay as long as we gave him the factor every six weeks?"
"It was working, but now, we have to change the treatment as he's growing and changing." The specialist gave them a small smile knowing how hard this was on parents, "He's getting more active and the factor is now apparently burning through his body that much more quickly with his activity. From now on, he'll have to start taking the factor more often to avoid incidents like this in the future."
"How often?" Jack asked with a thick voice of concern staring down at his baby boy.
"Four times a week," The doctor replied, "We'll have to start home treatments and you can give him the factor injections at home every other day."
"Every other day." Irina gasped with fresh tears in her eyes looking at her beautiful little boy and imagining him going through what she had to on a daily basis with injections.
"It sounds worse then it is, really." The doctor placed his hand on her forearm where her arms were wrapped around herself, giving her a small smile trying to comfort her, "One injection on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and again on Sundays."
"But he's just a baby…" Irina wiped at the tears falling from her eyes looking over his bruised little body.
"Yes," The doctor smiled sadly, "But he's a tough guy this little one. He's going to be okay, Your Majesty." He smiled and nodded, "I want to keep him overnight for observation but he'll be free to go in the morning when we're sure the factor has begun clotting properly. I'll be back later to instruct you on the injections. In the meantime, you should probably head to the bank downstairs to donate your plasma again," He smiled at Irina, "So they can start manufacturing it into a dry compound for the factor you'll be taking home. They already have about two weeks worth prepared from your past donations but as you can now guess, we're going to be needing more."
Moscow, Russia - Two Months Later - July 21st, 2004
"I miss you." Irina sighed into the phone the moment Jack answered, fingering a strand of Lena's curly hair off her forehead as she slept in her car seat on the way to the airport from the apartment in Red Square.
"I miss you, too." Jack smiled into the phone. Irina and Lena had been gone for two days in Moscow on business and pleasure, attending a costume party at the orphanage just for fun and Irina working on government details, mostly with more intense negotiations with Chechnya, "How's the Peanut?"
"She's sleeping, like the gorgeous angel she is." Irina smiled and then laughed, "She's still in her costume as she went crazy on me when I tried to take it off. "She was running around 'buzzing' everyone with her 'bzzz bzzz' sound screaming 'bee bee." She chuckled thinking about her children's apparent obsessions with bugs and bees at the same age. Her mind flashed back to Sydney and the 'bees' and then to Lena flying around the orphanage today.
Their nicknames of Sugar Bug and Snuggle Bug were highly appropriate in her mind as they were indeed her little 'bugs.'
"You took pictures, of course?" Jack asked with a chuckle looking at the clock and noting the time. It was almost ten, which meant she would be home in an hour.
"Of course." Irina smiled, "How are the babies?" She missed them so much she ached to hold and kiss them to pieces.
"All three are currently sleeping on the bed with me, Nicholas and Nadia beside me in your space and Anya on my chest," His lips brushed over her downy baby hair, "Sydney was exhausted after being up all night with Anya so I gave her some relief and get to spend some quality time with my grandbaby."
Vaughn was in Paris with his parents helping them with some things around the house and they would all be arriving back in St. Petersburg in the morning before leaving for a two-week vacation to some unknown destination Irina wouldn't reveal, as it was his birthday surprise. The only thing he knew was that 'everyone' was coming.
"Of course she's good as gold for me and went right to sleep." Jack chuckled thinking about that irony when he could never get Sydney to sleep as a baby and it had always been her mother who could get her down instantly.
"Nadia hasn't started crawling yet has she?" Irina asked with almost a hint of panic at the thought in her voice of missing a monumental moment in her baby's life. Her daughter had been so very close before she left on this trip.
"No, she hasn't." Jack smiled hearing the tone in his wife's voice and loving the mother in her that was afraid to miss any moment, "She's still rocking like crazy on her hands and knees with a big smile. Sydney really had her going today trying to get her to crawl and down on all fours with Eric trying to show her how. It was quite humorous."
"They can't encourage her while I'm gone!" Irina was aghast and Jack laughed over the line hearing her actually pouting. "I don't want to miss it!"
"You wont' miss it, My Love." Jack smiled still chuckling looking over at his baby asleep beside him, "She's already asleep and hasn't crawled yet and you'll be here in an hour. Here when she wakes up in the morning and starts rocking and rolling again."
"Okay," She spoke softly with a smile, "What about Nicholas?"
"No, he's still happy just sitting there, looking over at her like's she's crazy and so are we." He laughed thinking about the Derevko eyebrow slant his son had already mastered with his mother's eyes and used frequently at only six months old.
"I miss them." Irina sighed feeling tears prick in her eyes staring out the window at the Moscow skyline.
"They miss you, too." Jack added softly with a smile. "We'll see you in an hour. I love you."
"I love you, too." Irina wiped at the single fallen tear and smiled clicking her phone off as the limo pulled into the airport.
St. Petersburg, Russia- Alexander Palace
"Hello Gorgeous," Jack greeted her with a smile when Irina walked in the door to their bedroom an hour and ten minutes later holding Lena with her bee costume still on and asleep against her mother's chest. They were the cutest sight ever to Jack. Irina, in her stealthy, sharp looking black suit of strict businesswoman contrasting sharply with the Winnie-The-Pooh baby bee she held in her arms.
"Hello Handsome." Irina smiled back, stepping out of her heels and walking over to him, kissing him soundly on the lips and leaning over to kiss Anya's little head before walking around the bed and laying Lena down beside her other two; immediately kissing them with smiles before carefully unzipping Lena and removing her from her costume and smiling with Jack at the Cow Jumping Over the Moon Onzie she was wearing underneath thinking about her obsession with the moon and everything about it.
"There was cloud cover in Moscow… we couldn't say goodnight to the moon tonight."
"Oh, I bet she wasn't a happy camper." Jack chuckled with a smile watching, as she lay sound asleep and let her mother remove her costume. He could easily visualize Lena's pouty-lip that appeared every night she couldn't see the moon to tell him goodnight.
"No, she wasn't, but I was able to distract her for a few minutes in the limo by singing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' before she started pointing out the window asking, 'Moon Mama? Moon? Where he go?' with that little eyebrow slant and upturned palms." Irina laughed mimicking their daughter's tiny voice and actions making Jack laugh softly with her. "I promised her tomorrow we'd see the moon and a million stars." Irina smiled sliding out of her own clothes and into the silky pajamas from her armoire. Her smile was coy as she slid into bed behind Lena and pulled her little girl back against her with the twins and Lena now sleeping carefully between she and Jack.
"Really…" Jack arched his own eyebrow curiously trying to decipher this new clue as to where they were headed. He stood and carefully laid Anya in the bassinet beside their bed, kissing her little head before joining the rest of his family in bed, lying on his side with head propped up looking over their babies and then leaning in to kiss Irina cupping her face. "I'm glad you're home. I really missed you. I never sleep when you're not here."
"I can't sleep without you either. Without meditation these last couple of nights, I would have been a zombie in the meetings," Irina laughed softly, running her fingers over his cheek. "Starting tomorrow night, it's you and me, Baby." She laughed softly at the reference.
"And everyone else." Jack chuckled thinking about the small army of people joining them.
"And everyone else. But only for a little while. You're all mine after hours," She winked at him with a naughty gleam in her eyes, "Or should I say, I'm all yours after hours?"
"Well, it is my birthday vacation." He giggled just as naughtily continuing to kiss her lips in a tantalizing way as they spoke, "I'd say you're all mine… though I do quite enjoy when you're running the show as well. We'll just have to take turns being the Ring Master."
"Ring Master?" Irina laughed against his lips, biting and tugging on his lower lip when she pulled away.
"Oh yes, Ring Master. With the crowd we're vacationing with, its bound to be a circus." Jack laughed in turn loving the laughter and light in her eyes.
"But always a fun circus." Irina smiled thinking about those she loved and who always made her smile, "I love you." She whispered against his lips and then kissed them again softly.
"I love you." He whispered back, kissing her once more before they settled down against their pillows, with fingers linked holding hands over their babies and cocooning them safely between as they fell asleep.
Irina had closed all the plane's windows, refusing to let anyone look out and see where they were going for the entire flight and landing and now stood with an enormous smile lighting her face before everyone and nodded with a wink, spinning on her heel with Nadia in her arms and heading for the door of the plane.
The pilot was waiting by the door as he always was, to greet her before she departed and smiled as he spoke, "Welcome to Sydney, Ma'am… Enjoy your stay."
The last time he'd uttered those words to her she was alone and leaving the world she knew and the people she loved, behind. Now as she stepped out of the plane, they were behind her and she smiled when she felt Jack's lips kiss her bare shoulder.
Sydney, Australia
"It's so weird," Weiss looked around the house once they'd arrived, "It looks just like the one in the film."
"That's because it is the one in the film!" Sydney started laughing hysterically, even if she agreed it was a bit 'surreal' to have seen it on film first, and then visit.
"Eric," Irina called sweetly from the kitchen where she was already preparing dinner.
"Yes, Your Majesty," Weiss called back in a sweet singsong voice that made them all laugh.
"Would you like to call your sister and her family and invite them for dinner?" Irina smiled stepping around the corner with Nadia strapped to her chest in the Baby Bjorn sleeping soundly.
"Oh shit! Yeah! I totally spaced and forgot that I'm actually here!" He started laughing looking out over the Harbor and seeing the Sydney skyline, "I'd love to see them if that's okay with you?"
"Of course, its okay! They're family." She smiled with a laugh watching as he grabbed Lena running by him and twirled her around in the air making her laugh.
"Then I'd better call them!" Weiss pulled Lena down to his chest kissing her neck and sending her into hysteria with giggles.
"Look at them," Vaughn laughed watching Lena and Eric's nephew Dominic, who was four, chasing each other around in the grass in the backyard where everyone was now sitting having after dinner drinks.
"He's completely smitten." Eric's sister Kari smiled sipping on her wine and laughing when her son planted another kiss on Lena's cheek and she laughed and pushed him away, running again but looking back to make certain he was chasing her.
"She's already a tease." Weiss laughed a deep giggle with a huff of his shoulders when he met Jack's eyes and shook his head, "Oh boy are you guys in trouble." His Goddaughter was nothing short of gorgeous and was 100% her mother's daughter.
"I've never seen him like this. He's into the 'girls have cooties phase," Kari smiled shaking her own head at the cuteness before them.
"Doesn't seem like that now!" Vaughn laughed when the two tikes repeated the same thing, Dominic kissing Lena and her giggling and running away, making sure he was chasing her.
"It's because she's a Romanov-Derevko woman," Weiss smiled over at Sophia, leaning over to kiss her lips, "They're alluring and you're powerless against them sinking your ship."
"Awe," Sydney and several of the other women cooed over his sweetness watching the lovebirds, who would be married in less then month.
"All right everyone," Irina smiled running her hand over Nadia's head still strapped to her chest asleep when Weiss's sister's family left, "Let's go!"
"What do you mean?" Sydney asked with a funny smile, "You mean we're not staying here?"
"Nope. We're only passing through." Irina smiled with a wide grin and winked at Julian seeing the smile light his eyes when he realized where they were going.
"Holy fecking shit!" Weiss scrambled from the limo onto the dock staring up at the massive ship before him and reading the side, seeing the Romanov Imperial Crest, "So that's Imperial II?" He stared up at the behemoth before them in awe as everyone else gasped, "That's the ship in the film!" He bounced excitedly with recognition, "The one the camera flew past when the two of you were diving in that cave!" He pointed to Julian and Irina and started laughing down the dock, "It's enormous!" He screamed seeing it go on and on, "It's like cruise ship!"
"A cruise ship with seven smaller boats, two helicopters and a personal submarine." Julian smirked over at Irina holding Lena on his arm.
The ship, and that is what it was as the World's Largest Personal Yacht, had gone under the name The Octopus before and only today received it's new title; Irina having done so purposely as to keep it under-wraps as to whom it belonged.
"A submarine!" Weiss screeched and grabbed his head, "Goddamn, woman! You are better then Disney World!" Making everyone laugh still looking up with astonished eyes.
"Shall we?" Irina waved her hand up to the plank where they would board.
Everyone else had begun 'exploring' the moment after they were settled in their staterooms at Irina's insistence to 'make themselves at home' as this ship would be their home for the next two weeks. It had 'everything' one could possibly imagine and Kendall and Devlin shook their heads in awe when they came upon her Strategic Command Center and saw the technology around them as well as a mass of weaponry behind bullet proof glass enclosures; enough to start and finish a small war.
"It's no wonder we could never find her." Devlin laughed about it now while Julian punched in a series of numbers and opened a steel wall revealing the submarine port and dive equipment, "This is astounding."
"I think its more Hi-Tech then our Ops Center," Kendall leaned on the railing watching as Julian led the others down the staircase to get a closer look at the submarine, "She can run her entire empire from here." He laughed with an amused smile.
"No doubt she did just that." Devlin shared the smile.
"We're are you going?" Jack asked coming out of his enormous stateroom with its own Imperial sized bed at the very front of the ship, most of the room was enormous windows giving a spectacular view around them. Sydney and Vaughn flew by him in luxurious white bathrobes with the Imperial Seal on the breast.
"Swimming!" Sydney's smile lit her face as she flew by her father, pegging his cheek with a kiss, "There's an Olympic size pool!" She giggled linking fingers with her husband and Jack could have sworn he saw a flash of naughty race through her eyes for the first time, having seen the same look in her mother's eyes on more than one occasion.
"Where's Anya?" Jack hollered after them, wondering what they'd done with his granddaughter in their wild abandonment.
"With my parents. Sleeping!" Vaughn yelled back and then vanished with Sydney behind the gold elevator doors.
"Sleeping." He repeated shaking his head and wondering where Irina had gone off to with their three littlest ones.
The second elevator dinged and opened and out came Katya wearing a raging smile and the same naughty twinkle in her eye that his daughter had just shown. Something was going on.
"You can go up now." She smiled walking up to Jack and kissing his cheek.
"Go up where?" Jack asked with a hint of wariness seeing her predatory smile. Something was definitely going on.
"Your birthday gift is on the Upper 'Private' Deck." Her eyes twinkled with happiness. "You'd better hurry. She's been waiting… a long time," She added in a softer tone and Jack knew exactly what she was really saying and his heart skipped a beat.
"And the kids?" He asked already feeling his heart begin to race.
"Sleeping like the babies they are in my room. Marcelo is with them. Happy Birthday, Jack." She kissed his cheek, "Go!"
"Go where?" Jack asked with a nervous laugh, "I don't know where I'm going on this behemoth!"
"The elevator access to the Upper Deck has been closed for the evening." Katya smiled with laughter in her eyes. "So you'll have to take the stairs…" She waved her fingers in a slight 'shooing' motion towards the room he just vacated, "It will take you right to her."
"Thank you." Jack smiled and kissed her cheek before spinning on his heel. Katya loved that her sister could still make this man nervous with anticipation of seeing her. Their love would never cease to amaze her.
Jack locked the door behind him and then darted through the massive room to the corner where a winding staircase led up and to where he couldn't see from the bottom. He rapidly began to ascend them and pushed through side door stepping out onto the side of the ship and walking around its corner, his breath catching instantly at the sight of her, surrounded by a hundred white candles lit all over various areas of the deck casting a warm glow. Her back was to him as she gazed over the balcony railing on the front of the deck looking out at the spectacular sight of Sydney Harbor. Her long hair washing in waves down her back and the naked skin exposed of her sexy back from where her creamy white satin dress fell away before hugging her every curve.
Irina sensed his presence with a tingle in her spine and turned with a sexy smile leaning back against the railing spinning her champagne flute in her fingers just as the ship began to move beneath them. A loud horn signaling its departure blew as it steamed forward sailing up the Gold Coast from Sydney Harbor.
Irina's thumb clicked over the small black remote in her hand and the surround sound on the deck began playing the song they'd first made love to.
*Crimson and Clover*
Jack walked with pounding heart and rapid breath over to where she was standing. A small table with more lit candles and a bucket of champagne was beside her and she picked up a flute full of bubbly and handed it to him when he stood before her.
"You're breathtaking," Jack shook his head and stare at her mouth, waiting for Irina to lean in slightly and then closed the distance, his tongue sweeping past her lips and into her sweet mouth tasting of champagne.
"Happy Birthday, Jack." Irina smiled knowing it was now that the ship was moving, her Captain was under orders to set sail at midnight.
"Sydney Harbor," He smiled looking over the city while wrapping his arms around her and spinning her in his embrace to pull her back against him as they set sail and approaching the Opera House and Bridge. "It's perfect," He smiled thinking about the night thirty years ago that they'd created Sydney on his birthday under this same sky, in the same harbor on a much smaller sailboat not too far from where they were right now. It had been their honeymoon on top of his birthday and he couldn't get enough of her then, looking at her now, the same held true. "Dance with me?" He stepped back, holding out his hand hearing the song and she melted into his arms.
Her eyes staring into his as they sway together and a million memories and emotions flooded through Irina bringing tears to her eyes at being back here, with him… her whole family.
"I love you." Irina spoke softly running her fingers over his ear and playing with his hair while they dance and began passing underneath the bridge. "Another dream come true." She smiled thinking about their dream of owning a boat and sailing through Sydney Harbor and up the Gold Coast before kissing him.
Jack tangled his hand into her hair as the kiss deepened his body pressing into her and hand skimming over her hot flesh on the small of her back making her mew into his mouth. The urgency to be one igniting inside them both and flaring the passion; her hands set to work immediately with lips still locking with his, hot tongues probing as she undid his dress shirt.
"Mine. All mine," She panted against his mouth when her hands raked down his arms and the shirt dropped to the floor, his chest pressed against hers with pounding heart to pounding heart, her head tilted an angle to kiss his mouth between her words feeling the possessiveness more for herself than over him at having him, again… here and in this place, under this Southern Sky where she'd cried herself to sleep many nights for years without him. Wishing in her heart to feel his skin on hers' and the muscles rippling beneath her touch, his tongue claiming her mouth in gentle but passionate sweeps and worshiping her body with it's every kiss, his body invading hers' and becoming one. "I've been waiting for this… a long time." She kissed his lips tugging on his bottom lip when she pulled away before plunging back in.
"So have I," Jack swept his arm behind her legs and picked her up, carrying her over to the mass of white throw pillows, sheets and blankets set up in the center just for this purpose and lay her back gently against them staring into her tear filled eyes with his own. "I love you, Irina… with everything I am, I love you." He smiled and leaned down, his weight pressing into hers while he claimed her mouth. His hands began to slowly pull the pieces of delicate fabric over her shoulders while his mouth followed down their trail as he undressed her.
"You know why we're here don't you?" Weiss laughed drinking champagne and looking around at the other couples in the hot tub with he and Sophia. His smile flashed over to Sydney with a giggle, "Thirty years ago on this night, in Sydney Harbor, your father's birthday on another boat… was that magical night!" He laughed as did everyone else catching on with all their' minds flashing to 'that night' in the film and then looking at Sydney's deep dimple blushing grin now. "Happy Conception, Syd!" Weiss raised his champagne glass smiling with a laugh and everyone else joined in his toast clinking glasses, including Sydney with a raging if not embarrassed smile, her heart bursting with happiness for her parents, for her family.
"Well, we should also then, toast to the Happy Conceptions of Anya," Sophia smiled behind her own giggle raising her glass again, "And, of Mitchell… as well as the First Anniversary of Carrie and Marshall!" She began to cheer, as did everyone else with clapping hoots and whistles with their' own flashes to the wild weekend in Vegas.
"I'm surprised the two of you are still hanging out with us instead of getting it on right now like Panama and the Empress." Weiss laughed looking over at the couple and Sydney splashed water at him.
"Eric!" Sydney flushed ten shades of red with a laugh shaking her head and not wanting to 'think' about what her parents were doing.
"What?" He yelped back at her with a splash and smile, "Come on, Syd! We all 'saw' your conception action on film not to mention your sister's smokin' conception in Panama! We'll all be lucky if we're not stranded in life rafts in the morning after the ship bursts into flames from their 'molten hot gravity of love' going on up there." He snickered and they all died in laughter.
*I Can See Clearly Now*
Irina brushed a kiss over Jack's chest where she was curled up beneath the tangled sheets with him, watching the spectacular sunrise in the morning. The smile on her face matching the one on his as she crawled over him, straddling his body and sitting up to look down at him. Jack's hand began to wander up her sides enjoying her gorgeous silhouette against the brilliant colors in the morning sky.
Irina's palms rested over his pecks and she flipped her hair over her shoulder sliding back further on his body and watching him gasp when their heat connected again in the early morning light.
The slight breeze was blowing stray strands around Irina's face and Jack reached up to cup the back of her neck, bringing her head down and kissing her mouth. Her tongue swept into his mouth the same time she bucked her hips up and back, impaling herself onto his morning wood and stealing both of their breath with a smile and small laugh.
"I love you," She whispered unable to stop smiling while her hips swirled under her own guidance and his with Jack's hands planted on either side of them.
"As I love you." Jack answered with a smile rolling his hips up and going deeper the same time his tongue reclaimed her mouth.
Irina stopped mid-scoop of her fruit salad standing at the glorious breakfast her staff had waiting on the Lower Deck when she and Jack joined everyone else. Weiss was humming beside her and when she realized what it was she broke out laughing and shook her head, taking her cup of juice and sitting down beside Jack.
"What?" Jack asked her with a curious smile bouncing Nadia on his knee.
"He's humming," Irina motioned with her head towards Weiss taking a seat across from them and Jack paused to listen a moment, "The theme to Love Boat." She laughed again as did everyone else and Jack shook his head with a smile.
"Highly appropriate, I think with so many conceptions and anniversaries to celebrate last night." Weiss winked at both Jack and Irina and then stuffed a piece of toast into his mouth with eye nodding down to the end of the table where Sydney was feeding Vaughn a strawberry and Marshall smiling madly playing with Carrie's fingers.
Jack swallowed hard with realization that it was also the anniversary of his granddaughter's conception and 'that' was the reason for the naughty twinkle he saw in his daughter's eyes last night. They too, were celebrating the conception of their own glorious first born. He was thrilled with his granddaughter but like Sydney, wanted to hold onto the belief she was conceived through Immaculate Conception. The images of finding them 'in action' at the palace rudely flashed before his eyes before he shook them out with a shake of his head and Irina laughed, knowing exactly what he'd been thinking.
She leaned in and locked her lips with his, her tongue skimming his mouths entrance with the barest of touches teasing and distracting him out of any thoughts other than remembering her warmth and hinting of promise with more to come later in the day when she winked at him and her hand closed over the top of his thigh under the table, skimming down and brushing against his manhood making him jerk slightly.
'Love Boat indeed,' Jack smiled at her with a mischievous grin on his face when his own hand snaked between her own bare thighs and slid up her leg teasing with the gentlest of touches pulling away just before reaching her bikini bottoms, the only thin fabric separating fiery contact.
Jack had set his daughter down on the deck giving her a wide-open space and facing her mother who was looking over the railing with the others. Looking down at Nadia rocking on all fours and lifting her little hand about to take off he shouted, "Irina!"
Irina whirled around startled by her husband who was kneeling behind their baby and her little arm in the air moving forward about to crawl and yelled over to her daughter standing across the deck on her right, "Sydney!"
Sydney dove for the camera bag beside her, pulling out two cameras, and then yelled to her own husband across from her, "Vaughn!" And threw him the video camera while she dove down onto her stomach with still camera posed at her eye in time to captured Nadia's first movement forward.
"Come on, Doodle Bug, that's it! Come to Mama!" Irina knelt down with tears in her eyes as she beckoned for her baby girl and everyone else's movements had ceased with Jack's initial yell and then the subsequent rapid-fire action of readiness to capture it on film.
Nadia gurgled with a smile showing her two perfect little bottom teeth and rocked back and forth some more before moving again with head down and intent to reach her Mama. One tiny hand and knee slid after the other and she began moving slow at first and then took off.
"You did it!" Irina scooped her up immediately when her little Doodle Bug made it to her arms and kissed her head and tiny neck in rapid succession with tears in her eyes while everyone clapped and cheered for her little success.
"See! Your sister can do it!" Jack smiled over at his son, both of them now on all fours and Nicholas rocking and bobbing as well. "Come on Little Man, you can do it!"
Nicholas watched as his mother set his sister down and Nadia immediately started crawling towards Vaughn with the camera in his hands, and beckoning her to him and picked up his own little hand. They all held their breath to see if he'd follow with his knee and he did, only instead of crawling he sat back up and looked at them with his big brown eyes and then smiled.
"I guess he's not interested." Sydney laughed taking a picture of her brother sitting on the deck and her father still on all fours in the adorable moment.
"Boys are always slower than girls in motor skill development." Ryan smiled having experience with his own two boys as well as being a doctor. "He'll pick it up eventually. Right now he's content to have you carry him around." He laughed watching the little baby boy reaching up with his arms and fingers clasping for Jack to pick him up. "We're lazy like that as men."
*Porcelain*
"I'm the King of World!" Weiss yelled standing on the very front of the ship with arms spread and wind in his hair mimicking Jack in 'Titanic' and having a laugh with the others around him. "Get up here, Wild Thing, you have to be my Rose!" He laughed offering his hand to his fiancée and then helped her ever so carefully to stand in front of him. "Come Josephine come flying machine, up she goes up she goes!" He started singing while the two recreated the scene from the film making everyone laugh sunbathing on the deck and lounging in the outdoor pool.
"He's terribly funny." The Queen of Sweden smiled from her lounge chair sipping on her mixed drink.
"He's something alright." Jack shook his head chuckling at the young man who never ceased to make them all laugh. He slid into the pool from the side and motored over to Irina who was swimming with Nicholas.
"Watch. He already loves the water." Irina's smile lit her face as she held her baby boy away from her in the pool and then gently began to put him under the water and pull him towards her. When she pulled him back up the baby immediately started to giggle and coo, chewing on his little chubby fingers.
"He's not scared at all." Jack marveled kissing his little head and taking the boy from his mother to play.
"No fear like his sister," Gustav laughed watching Lena launch herself from the edge into Vaughn's awaiting arms in the pool.
The moment Lena came to the surface she was smiling and laughing and then pushing off Vaughn headed to the edge to scramble back up and do it again. He was holding tightly to her little body laughing with her enthusiasm.
*Find My Baby*
Ten days later they'd slowly made their way up the Gold Coast and were now having fun lounging around snorkeling and diving the Great Barrier Reef. They'd taken the smaller, but still large, boat into the reefs from the main ship and Irina emerged from below after just putting the twins to sleep for their nap. Sydney and Carrie had already done the same and now all four babies were sleeping peacefully in the coolness below aided to Dreamland with the gently rocking of the boat.
Most were partnered up and snorkeling around the reef fascinated by the fish and having a marvelous time, taking breaks in and out of the water. All of their skin now held a beautiful golden brown tint from the endless days in the sun.
Jack had come back in from the water after snorkeling for hours, exhausted and settled in with a drink in his hand under the boats canopy to escape the hot rays of the sun. Irina smiled at him, raking her hands over his strong naked shoulders before sitting on his lap and stealing the beer in his hand to take a drink.
"Hey!" Weiss screamed across the water, "We found Nemo!" Bobbing his goggle and snorkel covered head out of the water and sending them all into hysteria again. He had Lena in her little yellow inflatable boat, tied with a leash to his ankle and was pulling her around behind him as they floated around the reef.
A little window of clear plastic allowed Lena to smash her face into the front of her boat and look down into the water with them and they all marveled and laughed at her fearlessness in doing so. Little holes in the bottom of her boat allowed her legs to hang into the water and she loved kicking them around madly.
She was screaming excitedly with him and clapping her hands yelling, "Feesh! Feesh!" Enthralled with her surroundings of brightly colored fish.
When Weiss plunged his head back into the water and Lena did the same, looking into her little window, Irina kissed Jack on the lips and winked at him. She stood and untied her sarong from her waist and stepped up onto the back of the boat, diving off in fluid motion into the water.
Jack was smiling watching her form glide beneath the crystal clear water in her baby blue bikini and laughed when she swam under Lena, causing their baby to squeal with excitement and yell, "Mama feesh!"
Irina was smiling beneath the water a few feet below Lena, looking up at her through the little window and blew her a kiss before extending her arms in a backstroke and pushing forward beneath Weiss who immediately flew back in the water, startled and choking on the water intake.
"Good God!" He kept coughing with a smile when she surfaced in front of him to tread water, "For a moment there, I thought you were a mermaid!" He laughed as did she, "Or maybe a better term is 'siren." He chuckled under his breath thinking about the other name for the gorgeous women of the sea who lure men to their deaths in their depths. He yelped quickly when Sophia grabbed his foot under the water freaking him out.
The moment was broken when Irina's phone began to ring beside Jack. She immediately began to make a beeline back to the boat beneath the surface and Jack stepped up, offering his hand and pulled her light little body out of the water and onto the small deck. He handed her a towel and the phone with a kiss before resuming his beer drinking with Mikhail and Kendall under the shade.
Irina began speaking in Russian and it was clear she was speaking to Vladimir. The conversation didn't last long and ended with Irina sighing and setting the phone down with a sad smile. "I've got to go back now." She twisted her long hair over her shoulder releasing the excess water into her towel. "The Chechen Rebel leaders are actually in Moscow," She raised her eyebrows still astonished by that fact, "And are awaiting an audience with me." She hated leaving them three days early but she had to do, what she had to do.
"We could all go back or at least I, with you?" Jack offered hating to be away from her at all.
"No, you should stay." She smiled kissing his lips, "Have fun with everyone else. I have to leave quickly and honestly it would take too long to round everyone up and pack."
Jack nodded in understanding though his brows still knit at four days of separation.
"Are you taking the Munchkins?" He asked quietly, hopping she wasn't as he'd really be miserable without all of them.
"No," She smiled seeing the look in his eyes and brushed her hand over his cheek. "I'll leave them in your care. Though I'm going to miss them terribly, instead." She gave him a soft grin, tinged with sadness and Jack felt bad that she'd be without them. "Will you pull Lena out of the water soon, please? She's been out there a long time and I don't want her getting too much sun."
Jack smiled at the way she was 'always thinking,' even with a million things going on around her, she still had focus on the wellbeing of her children.
"You're leaving?" Julian swam up to the boat holding onto the back deck with arm folded and fisting his snorkel and goggles. He'd seen her swimming back to the boat after the phone call and then watched her re-tie her sarong around her hips. The look on his father's face held his answer that she was.
"Yes," Irina leaned over to kiss him goodbye and Julian pushed himself up on his arms leaning forward to meet her. She did the same with Ash just beside him. "Can you get Lena, please? I want to kiss her 'goodbye." She asked her son sweetly and he smiled, turning and plunging back under the water to swim over to where his little sister was 'snorkeling' in her boat.
Sydney had pulled herself out of the water to say 'goodbye' and wrapped her arms around her mother, holding tightly and kissing her.
"I love you, Sweetheart and I'll see you in a few days." Irina pegged Sydney's face with another kiss just as Julian was pulling Lena in her little boat up behind them. He extracted her from the little contraption handing her up to Irina who wrapped her in her soft green towel with the frog hood that sent everyone into hysteria when she yelled, "Fucky!" Excitedly at her favorite beach towel.
"Mama has to go 'bye-bye' my Snuggle Bug," She held Lena close and spoke softly in ear little ear, "I love you." She kissed her little head and then lips.
"Nyet! No Mama!" Lena yelled back sharply in Russian with little hands palming Irina's neck, "Come too! No bye-bye!" She started to cry, "Come too!"
Irina's eyes flashed up to Jack's, who was smiling and gave in, "Okay, you can come, too." She kissed her sweet little neck and handed Lena to Sydney to say 'goodbye' while she went and said her own to the twins, Anya and Mitchell. Irina sat on the Jet Ski and started it before carefully taking her little 'frog' from Jack with a smile and settled the little girl in front of her, holding on protectively with one arm. Her lips connected with his in a lingering kiss, brushing her hand over his cheek as he leaned over to her.
"We'll see you guys in four days. The helicopter will fly you to Cairns from the ship and the plane will be back and waiting for you there."
Jack nodded cupping her face once more and kissing her in the lingering goodbye, always hating the separation and knowing she hated the 'goodbyes' more, especially when they lingered. "I love you." He smiled and stepped back.
"I love you, too." She smiled and used her free arm to push them away from the boat. "My love to you all and we'll see you soon!"
"Irina," Kendall called out from beneath his shaded cabana with beer still in hand, "Be careful." He voiced his concern knowing the potentially dangerous men she was about to meet with and everyone smiled at hearing him speak it.
"I will," A smile lit Irina's face thinking about how much time had changed things between them. "Thank you." She gave him a nod and then held tight to Lena as the two took off across the calm reef waters towards the ship in the distance.
When the smaller black helicopter buzzed low over their heads a half hour later, they all waved and blew kisses skyward, wishing them well and sad to see them go.
Irina leaned back in her leather chair sitting in her office in the Kremlin after meeting with the Leaders, still in shock about the turn of events. Her hand picked up the phone and began dialing Jack's number already missing him and their children terribly after only two days away. Her eyes fell upon the photos spanning across the front of her desk and smiled, running her fingers over their cherubic little faces while listening to the phone ring on the other end.
"Hello My Love," Jack answered with a raging smile on the other end of the phone. His hand slid the phone to his shoulder after answering, freeing his hands once again to finish washing the twins sitting in the tub before him, gurgling and splashing happily around reaching for their brightly colored toys. "I miss you," He smiled swirling Nadia's sudsy hair with shampoo into a little point on the top of her head.
"I miss you, too. How is everyone?" Irina asked smiling hearing the gurgles and splashes in the background knew he must be bathing their babies, "It must be bath time."
"It is." Jack laughed dumping a cup of warm water over Nadia's head and watching her eyes widen in surprise. "They're missing Mama, though. They keep looking around and craning their little heads trying to find you."
"Awe…" Irina wished she could reach through the phone and hold them both, "I miss them too."
"How's the Peanut?" Jack asked doing the same with his son and Nicholas smiled and laughed, splashing around and loving the water.
Irina leaned her chair back further and smiled peering down at her sleeping daughter, "She's sleeping under my desk." She laughed looking at Lena's little form curled up on the floor, little butt in the air lying on her stomach and clutching her yellow bear with thumb in her mouth. "She was playing under there and suddenly it was quiet. I pulled my chair back and there she was," She chuckled, "She's got her little butt in the air. It's quite cute."
Jack was shaking his head laughing and trying not to drop the phone as he pulled Nadia from the tub first, setting her on the tub rug and wrapping her in a fluffy towel before reaching back in for his son.
"You have to take a picture of that. I've just got to see it. Mama's Little Shadow curled up under your desk."
"Olga already took a picture." She smiled thinking back to the moment her Kremlin secretary took the photo.
"Good." Jack smiled and then started laughing when Nadia started crawling away out the bathroom and into their room completely naked and giggling. "Hey you, come back here!" He laughed scooping up Nicholas under one arm and chasing after his daughter, "Nadia's escaping. She's fast and on the move constantly now that she knows she can go where she wants."
The image of Jack chasing their naked crawling baby with another under his arm made her smile, "You sound like you're having fun."
"We are but we really miss you and the Peanut," He nabbed Nadia making her giggle more. "How are things going there?"
"Unbelievable actually. In a surprise turn of events, they've not only offered a permanent cease fire but presented a petition, requesting they be reinstated as part of Imperial Russia." She smiled and heard his breath catch having felt the same way with the news.
"You're serious?" He asked in a gasp with his movements still and eyes wide, "They want to be under Russian rule now?"
"Apparently so." Irina smiled at another step forward in healing the old and deep wounds of her country, "Things have changed, they said, with the change in Russian rule and now want to be part of the Motherland again."
"That's incredible. Have you announced anything yet?" Jack flipped the television on in his room watching CNN.
"No, not yet. I said that before we move in this direction that I wanted to make sure it was what the Chechen people really wanted. So there will be an election. Supervised by outside nations to back up the legitimacy of the vote and then we'll see. If that is what the people want, then we'll take action to make it happen." She twirled slightly in her chair to look out her window at St. Basil's in the night sky with a sigh, "I'm just looking forward to peace, finally."
"You're incredible." Jack smiled with pride, "I love you, you know?"
"I know," Her smile lit her face, "I love you, too. I'll let you go to dress our little Loves, and please give them and everyone my love."
"I will," Jack smiled holding both babies in his lap on the bed in their towels, "Kiss the Peanut for me."
"I will." Irina smiled hating to say 'goodbye, "Goodnight, Jack."
"Goodnight, My Love."
*September*
St. Petersburg, Russia - September 2004
"Look at her! She's an exhibitionist!" Weiss laughed with his bride on his arm as they watched Lena tear around on the dance floor in nothing but her crown and pantaloons with tights and tiny black shoes. She'd some how gotten her dress off and Irina's eyes immediately canvassed the area to see where it had gone to. Continuously surprised at the speed of which her daughter could get undressed.
Jack was not at all thrilled with this 'trait' she'd inherited from her mother.
"Just like her mother." He mumbled shaking his head, trying not to laugh and felt Irina's elbow to his ribs.
"I am not an exhibitionist!" Irina slanted her perfected Derevko eyebrow with a coy smile.
"You're right, you don't purposely try to attract attention; you just do." He smiled and leaned in kissing her lips.
"And Lena isn't either," Sydney laughed carrying the discarded dress she'd found beside the bush near the dance floor set up on the grounds for the wedding reception outside the palace. "She just doesn't like clothes these days."
"You're going to have your hands full with that one, Jack." Ben Devlin laughed sipping on his champagne and watching where Sophia and Weiss were now dancing with a half naked Lena, who looked impossibly cute.
"And that would be different from Sydney, how?" Jack snickered remembering the days his oldest went through her stripping phase and then to the outfits she wore on insane missions that combined, made his blood pressure skyrocket.
Sydney slapped his arm with playful grin, "I wasn't a handful! I was a good kid!"
"You can be a good kid, and still be a handful." Jack argued back playfully, "You'll see." He smiled at his gorgeous granddaughter in Irina's arms bouncing and gurgling happily watching Lena dancing and giggling.
"I wuv dangew, Mommy' comes to mind," Irina laughed remembering her tiny little girl's raging smile after riding her tricycle off the couch. Sydney was certainly a handful, but she was also an amazing little girl that never ceased to bring a smile to her parent's lips.
"So should we try to wrangle her back into this?" Sydney held up the gorgeous little flower girl gown her sister had once been wearing.
"Nah," Irina smiled brightly, "She'll just tear it off again. I'm surprised she kept it on this long." She laughed watching Lena mimicking Sophia and Weiss by wiggling her little body down to the ground and then back up again with non-stop giggles erupting from her tiny form.
"Mama," Bella smiled walking over with a crying Nadia, "The little angel has awaken from her nap and is missing her mother."
"Oh Sweetheart," Irina cooed with a soft smile, "It's okay, My Little Love, don't cry." She smiled as she traded babies with Bella, instantly kissing and nuzzling Nadia. The baby calmed instantly in her arms and bit on her tiny finger with fat teardrops rolling down her chubby little cheeks. "Let's go dance with your sister and the bride and groom." She kissed Nadia's little neck and twirled and bounced gently on her feet out onto the dance floor making everyone smile and laugh when Irina holding the baby joined in the circle with Weiss, Sophia and Lena and wiggled down to the ground on her haunches in her grand grown in full regalia and then back up again making Lena laugh and Nadia smile and giggle in her own baby giggle.
"So we open gifts tomorrow, the kids leave in the evening for their honeymoon, Rina's flying to Chechnya the following morning to finish officially taking over the country, and then the kids fly back and then we're off to India for Julian and Ash's wedding and then after that you're flying back to the States and we're meeting again for Thanksgiving in LA?" Marcelo asked aloud confirming the hectic schedule the next couple of weeks with a smiling ramble to get his point across that it was crazy, "Nothing like… nonstop go, go, go!" He laughed watching his daughter, the bride, and never seeing her happier on the dance floor with her new husband and family. She seemed to be glowing she was so radiantly beautiful.
"Irina told me earlier that you are the ones giving Sophia and the Joker their honeymoon trip?" Kendall asked with a smile to Jack, "She told me with that look in her eyes and smile that said she was up to something. So what is it, Bristow? What are you and the Devil Woman up to now?"
Jack just laughed and shook his head keeping his eyes on his 'devil woman' who looked nothing like anything but an angel dancing and laughing with their little girls.
*Never, Never Going to Give You Up*
"This is your fault!" Sophia swatted her husband on the shoulder before breaking into hysterical laughter looking at the bedroom before them that had been completely transformed.
Barry White's voice crooning loudly the moment they opened the door and drawing everyone's attention from their rooms where they'd all just gone to bed.
Their room was bathed in deep red light with a disco ball hanging in the center of the ceiling reflecting flecks of light around the room as it spun above. The ceiling and walls were all draped with red hanging fabric and their bed had been replaced with a giant heart shaped sized one in the center of the room below the disco ball and currently vibrating. In the corner a mini-stair case led to the top of a giant champagne glass bubble bath. Thousands of red rose petals were thrown all over the floor, on the bed and in the water swirling in the enormous 'glass' tub. An open treasure chest to the left of the bed was overflowing with 'naughty toys' and a bucket with champagne and a sliver tray of chocolate covered strawberries on a small table near the bed completed the picture.
The crowd behind them looking in immediately burst into hysterical laughter seeing the room and Jack and Irina walked up behind them all looking especially pleased and holding hands.
"This is your doing!" Sophia wheeled on them with a wide smile pointing to her aunt shaking her head and burning bright red.
Irina shrugged with a satisfied smile and curled into Jack's body, "It was a team effort." She smiled with her hand snaking down Jack's backside pinching his butt and making him jump slightly, "You can thank Jack for the vibrating in the bed."
"Thought that might help you, keep your stamina up all night," Jack smirked trying not to laugh looking at Weiss who was burning bright red, "Sorry." Jack turned to Marcelo and apologized to the father of the bride but this was an opportunity to get back at them that was just too good to pass up.
Vaughn and Sydney were laughing so hard they were practically rolling on the floor holding each other up with yet another win for her parents in the battle of a hysterical war between them and Sophia and Weiss. It had begun between Weiss and her mother and along the way her father and Sophia had become casualties of that war and now willing participants.
"Come everyone, now let's leave them alone to enjoy their first evening as husband and wife." Irina kissed both of their cheeks and departed down the hallway with Jack, the others still laughing as they too walked away leaving the bride and groom standing dumbfounded in the doorway cast in a red glow of light and sparkles coming from their room.
A roar of laughter ringing out from those down the hall when they heard Jack begin to sing along with Barry White on the way to his room with Irina leaning into his side.
"When in the hell did you two have time to do that?" Weiss laughed taking the last gift box from Sydney as they all sat around opening gifts in the morning. His attention was on Jack and Irina as they'd all just been laughing about the 'room of love.'
"As soon as the procession left the palace yesterday morning for the church I had Iliyah and his team come in immediately and get to work." Irina smiled snuggled up next to Jack on the couch holding both of her babies who were busy chewing on rubber key ring toys in full teething mode and drooling happily with gurgles and smiles, "Jack and I picked everything out upon our return from Mexico." She continued to smile while everyone laughed and Jack kissed her temple.
"Our room is going to stay like that?" Sophia's eyebrows shot up with a flash of horror in her eyes at the thought. The idea was funny for one night but she really didn't care for it permanently.
"No," Irina laughed seeing the look on both their faces, "He's coming back later today with the same team to transform it back to the way it was before."
"Oh, thank God." Sophia sat down beside her husband with a large sigh that made everyone laugh again.
"It doesn't have a card?" Weiss looked at the box in his hands and then to Sydney who had passed out all the gifts.
"Not that I can find. Maybe they put it in the box. We had a couple of gifts like that. Its kind of nice so you don't lose the cards." Sydney sat on the floor and kissed Anya's little fist while her daughter bounced in her play saucer, also teething and chewing a rubber flower for just that purpose.
Weiss tore open the box to reveal another smaller box roughly the same size and shape as a long watch box and found a small note on the ribbon around the box,
"To my Husband, With all My Love, Your Wild Thing." Eric read aloud and everyone awed. "I didn't know you got me something?" Weiss smiled with an anxious tone, "I thought we were going to wait until we were on our honeymoon to find our gifts for each other?"
"It was kind of last minute. I just found it this morning and couldn't wait to give it to you." Sophia smiled nervously with a sigh in a way Katya had never noticed before and in a way only a mother would notice.
Her hand slowly squeezed Marcelo's with her eyes watering already watching her son-in-law opening the box and daring to hope, she was right and already knew what it was.
Weiss pulled out a white stick that looked like a thermometer and read the line in the little window, "You're pregnant." He read aloud without thinking and then it hit him what he was holding and what it was saying, "You're pregnant! You're pregnant?" He flashed his eyes to his new wife holding the stick and feeling his heart pounding in his chest.
"Yes," Sophia smiled with tears in her eyes sitting on her knees beside him on the floor looking up at him in the chair, "I suspected for a few days and finally just took the test this morning."
"You're pregnant!" Weiss shouted in astonishment with an enormous smile and she nodded again, laughing nervously. He jumped out of the chair and swooped her up into his arms, hugging her and twirling her around laughing and crying with her in their shared unexpected joy. Everyone else began to clap and cheer with tears of happiness in their eyes as well as laughter.
"Congratulations, Babushka." Irina leaned over and whispered into her sister's ear, sitting beside Katya on the couch with tears streaming down her cheeks and wearing a stunned smile.
When the congratulations died down and the laughter set in seeing the look of awe and shock written all over Weiss's face Vaughn couldn't help but rib him. "It wasn't on Jack's birthday was it?" He laughed teasing him and everyone else did as well, with Jack just shaking his head and rolling his eyes.
"I don't know," Sophia laughed with tears of happiness in her eyes, really having no idea when, "I guess then it really would be the 'Love Boat."
"And forevermore known as, 'The Cruise of Conception." Vaughn added laughing hysterically seeing both his father-in-law and Weiss burning bright red and adverting their eyes from each other laughing.
"I don't like this." Jack sat on the end of the bed watching the television and CNN showing the images of protestors and some rioters in Chechnya who did not like the fact that the majority of the country had voted to become part of Imperial Russia again.
A small band of people had been showing their disproval outside the governmental buildings there ever since the election was over but the violence of the protestors had increased exponentially since the announcement that Mother Russia herself was to arrive later in the evening to sign the official documents.
Even though she hadn't officially taken over the country yet, Irina had ordered that no harm come to the protestors as long as they didn't harm anyone else. It was the first step in showing them she was not a tyrannical leader and that she believed in their rights to protest their feelings as long as they weren't intruding on other's rights.
"I don't want you to go," Jack spoke again watching as she finished packing her bag, wearing just her black bra and slacks not finished dressing yet.
"Jack," Irina sighed hating having this discussion every time she was faced with going into a potentially dangerous situation without him. "I-" She was about to start her standard comeback when he cut her off.
"I know what you're going to say." He stood going over to her and taking her hands in his, looking into her big dark eyes, "That you have to go, this is just the way it is, these are just the things you have to do; that you'll be fine and safe and home in a few days. That you love me and understand my worry and concern and you don't want me to come with you because you… we," He corrected himself, "Want our children to have at least one parent with them at all times for these prolonged departures, which is why we decided against full-time Nannies." He sighed reaching up to cup her cheek with one hand, "I understand that you have to go, that this is the way it just is and this is something you have to do. I'm just telling you, I don't want you to go… even if I know you have to." He gave her a sad smile and then leaned in to kiss her lips slightly. "I know you're under enough stress and pressure without me adding to it. I told you before we started down this path that I was going to stand by your side and support you in this. I am. But I also can't help the concern I have when, you… 'my heart' is put into questionable situations." He smiled softly brushing his nose with hers, holding her hands between them, "I got something for you." He whispered.
"What?" Irina asked smiling in love with the man who was continuously surprising her.
Jack kissed her lips once more quickly and then went to his closet. He returned with a box and set it on the bed in front of her, below where the oldest of the their three little Munchkins, Lena, was already asleep. Sleeping with Daddy having become the norm, when Mommy was away.
*Crazy Love*
"Something for you to wear close to your heart going into these questionable situations." He smiled and she lifted the lid from the box to reveal a black formfitting, lightweight Kevlar vest to be worn under her clothes.
Irina laughed softly, shaking her head as she lifted it from the box and Jack took it out of her hands, undoing the straps and began to put it on her sensually.
"I also got you one in white and nude," He laughed softly securing the last strap staring into her eyes for a moment before dropping his head and planting a kiss to the Kevlar just over her heart, 'his heart.' "Much better." He smiled looking up at him and then kissed her deeply when she thread her fingers into his hair and pulled him close.
Just before Irina left, she stepped in front of Jack beside the bed, "I'll take good care of your heart, I promise," She smiled, kissing his lips one last time and then dipped her own head, kissing his chest just above his heart and then leaning over to do the same with Lena, pressing her lips over her daughter's tiny chest and heart, "And you take good care of mine."
"I promise." Jack smiled widely watching her kiss Lena's little cheek one more time. She brushed her lips against his one last time and then left their room, stopping by the nursery to kiss both Nadia and Nicholas goodbye in the same way with a smile on her face and then left.
When Irina walked into her bedroom in the middle of the night four days later, she smiled to see her Snuggle Bug and husband snuggled together on her bed.
Lena was sleeping draped over his chest in the same way Irina slept on Jack with little arm flung over him and head over his heart. Jack had one arm and hand protectively over their daughter's little back and his other arm, was flung up around his head.
She couldn't stop smiling quietly taking her clothes off and slipping into a nightgown with her eyes on them. It used to be the other way around, she thought, with Sydney sleeping with Mommy when Daddy was away at work, coming home late at night or in the early morning to find them curled up together in bed and would slip into bed with them. Now she was doing the same with Lena and her Daddy snuggled up together.
Irina carefully slid under the sheets on Jack's side of the bed, snuggling into his side and laying her head on his shoulder smiling at Lena's sleeping face just inches from her own. Jack awoke immediately and pulled his arm down and around his wife, kissing her forehead with a smile and then lips when she tilted them up to greet him.
"Welcome home." He smiled looking at her and then Lena both snuggled against him and fell back to sleep with a smile on his face. Irina stayed awake a few minutes longer, still smiling as she fingered Lena's long hair over her little shoulder and watched her rise and fall in a steady rhythm with Jack's breathing. She kissed his chest and then fell asleep wearing the same smile.
"So we found out when the baby's due." Weiss beamed proudly with Sophia sitting on his lap on the suede sofa on Imperial One, in the air and on the way to India for Julian's wedding.
"April 1st." Sophia smiled excitedly.
"Your baby is due on April Fool's Day?" Vaughn burst out laughing looking at Weiss, "Oh, the irony!" He laughed with everyone else.
"Highly appropriate that the child of the Joker is due on the day of celebrated pranks." Jack smiled with a laugh.
"So it wasn't the Cruise of Conception after all?" Vaughn laughed knowing that if the baby was due that early in the month she was already pregnant when they sailed from Sydney Harbor, "You were already pregnant then."
"Yep, just some random hot night in mid-July." Weiss laughed boastfully, feeling quite proud of himself that he was actually going to be a father.
"It was actually, hot 'day,' My Husband," Sophia corrected her husband with the naughty Derevko gleam in her eyes, "Remember?" She winked at him recalling that hot 'day' very well were they'd basically just jumped each other with hot wild lovemaking in the laundry room.
"Ohhh!" Weiss's eyes went wide with a huge grin recalling it as well, "That day?" He asked in disbelief and then started laughing wildly when Sophia nodded.
"We're obviously missing something." Sydney smirked with a deep giggle looking between the two newlyweds.
"A 'Back In Black' moment, Syd," Weiss winked at her and then turned his raging smirk to Jack and Irina while everyone else laughed and Sydney's mouth fell open at what that song implied in relation to her parents.
"Oh God! Now I have that visual, too!" She clamped her hands over her head laughing and turning various shades of red, "I swear to God, my family's crazy…" she mumbled to herself looking down and shaking her head.
"Oh don't claim to be so innocent of this family's 'craziness,' Sweetheart," Irina teased her back with a raging smile and in a saucy mood, "You little naughty Librarian with your Pool Boy." She laughed and everyone else went into hysteria with Jack and Sydney's simultaneous screams of "Irina!" and "Mom!" while Vaughn's face drained of color and he slid down into the chair before turning ten shades of red.
They all realized Irina had caught Sydney and Vaughn in those 'moments' at least twice, in the library and pool apparently.
"Oh, don't even get me started, Miss Unfinished Business!" Sydney challenged her back burning bright red with a smile and trying to deflect the embarrassment.
"Hmm, that reminds me," Irina draped her leg over Jack's where she was sitting curled into his side on the loveseat, her finger trailing down his jaw with a sexy grin, "We need to watch that tape. We keep forgetting to."
"Mom!" "Irina!" Jack and Sydney both screeched again in mortification.
"You guys have your own porn?" Weiss squealed with laughter hearing they'd kept the tape of Jack driving Irina into the glass cell wall, "That's hot!"
"We do not… have our own porn." Jack quickly corrected him trying to keep his composure though it was hard with Irina playing with his ears burning with a flash of heat and hearing her deviant laughter.
"Stop talking about it! Please!" Sydney squealed covering her ears and squinting her eyes as the flashes of that moment on the monitors raced into her mind and she shook her head violently sending them into another fit.
Amritsar, India
"Wow," Jack gasped softly setting his bag down carefully on the bed looking around Irina's room once they'd gotten to her farm.
"What?" She asked already stripping out of her clothes to change into something lighter for the hot climate. She paused in her closet after taking her shirt off to look at him.
"It's just…" Jack sighed seeing flashes from the film of her lying on the same bed getting extremely drunk and then passing out in so much pain from losing him. "Come here." He began walking over to her motioning with his hands to come to him.
"What? What is it?" Irina's eyebrow slanted in concern seeing the sweeping look going through his eyes. She slid her hands up his back and hung onto his shoulders from behind with her chest pressed to his.
Jack's only response was to capture her lips in a searing kiss, with hands gripping her body and holding her tightly. "I just needed that." He whispered with foreheads resting together. "I love you, you know?"
"I know." Irina smiled palming his cheek and lifting his face to meet her dark sparkling eyes knowing what he was thinking about now, "I never let go, Jack, I never let go…" Her smile brightened when he smiled with a soft laugh from her response in a reworded phrase from the film that had echoed through this house, that night. "I love you," She whispered back to him, brushing their noses before kissing his lips again sweetly, "Why don't we stay here tonight… babysitting while they all go out?" She trailed her fingers down his chest and felt his own pressing into the small of her back, "We'll have the house to ourselves after they're asleep."
"I like this idea." Jack smiled kissing her jaw and then down her neck when she tilted it for better access.
*Thoda Resham Lagta Hai*
"Have I told you how incredibly beautiful you are today?" Jack asked with a smirk while Irina peeled the shirt from his sweaty body. He passed her the bottle of rum as a reward when she completed the task standing in the kitchen having put the babies to sleep hours ago and come inside after sitting in the sticky heat on the porch talking and drinking with their old friend, Indian rum.
"I don't think you have," Irina hiccupped with another giggle when Jack's tongue swirled around on her pulse point.
"You're incredibly beautiful," Jack kissed down her arm slowly walking towards her when Irina kept stepping backwards. "And wearing too many clothes." His mouth hit the fabric of her pink sari shirt and a broad hand slid around her bare stomach around behind her to unzip the barrier.
"I'm hungry." Irina's brain suddenly short-circuited with a giggle, "Maybe we should make some toast." She slurred her speech slightly taking another drink of the liquid and gasping softly when Jack slid his hand under the now lose fabric and thumb brushed over her nipple grabbing its attention.
"No toast." Jack shook his head with a naughty smile and laugh, "The only fire I plan on extinguishing tonight is the one inside me… burning for you." His own speech was slightly slurred, slowly pulling the fabric down her arms and exposing her breasts.
"That was very poetic, Jack." Irina snorted with laughter, her fingernails raking down his chest and leaving a red, welted path in their wake until they stopped at the button on his pants. "Well Captain, with all the alcohol in me, mine is more like an inferno." She giggled and hiccupped again.
"That hot, huh?" Jack's hand began to pull at the fabric of her skirt and slide his hand slowly up the length of her thigh knowing she didn't have any panties on having watched her get dressed, "Like any good fireman, I need to assess the situation before going in."
Her breath hitched when he backed her fully against the wall and his fingers brushed against her heat already slick with desire.
"And what is your assessment, Captain," She asked through seductive eyes while her one hand continued to work on his pants, her other gripping the neck of the rum bottle.
"Well, its definitely hot… raging," He slid his fingers up inside her lifting her to her toes and gasp with thumb pressing against her clit, "All kinds of warning bells going off." He smiled feeling her muscles pulsate around his fingers and her eyes begin to turn black, the pulse point in her neck was pounding.
"Well then, Captain" She gasped again when her fingers brushed against his rock hard cock sliding her hand beneath the boxers elastic and finding her hips involuntarily thrust against his palm towards his cock, "You'd better grab your fire hose, and get in there quick!"
Jack laughed at her quick wit even when drunk and pushed his pants and boxers down just enough to set his 'fire hose' free. Her fingers digging into the top of his exposed ass cheeks bringing him closer while he slowly pumped his shaft with her hot juices still covering his hand and invading his senses with her scent.
His tongue lapped at the drop of sweat rolling down her neck from the stifling heat and tasted the salt on her skin. His hand left his now flaming cock to join the other and push her dress back up, claiming her lips in a bruising kiss before lifting her off the ground with fingers clenching into her ass.
Irina moved her arms and draped them over his shoulders, she gasped loudly digging her nails in when she felt his length spear up and into her with one fast thrust and her body shuddered at the welcomed invasion.
"Oh fuck! You feel fantastic." Jack groaned at being inside her encompassing heat with her tight muscles grabbing greedily at his cock causing him to stretch and lengthen further inside her with the searing blood raging to his groin.
She bucked her own hips in making him go deeper and moan against her neck where his mouth was laving circles and nipping at her flesh. She locked her legs around him and Jack slowly pulled back groaning loudly when Irina gripped him hard internally able to feel every one of his ridges caressing her heat.
He thrust hard and fast again unable to control himself and the urge to pummel into her fast and furiously with the small sounds escaping form the back of her throat and searing heat.
"You're not going fast enough, Captain." Irina laughed and jerked her pelvis trying to speed up his pace, "I just may shatter and cave in around you." She moved her own lips down his neck with tongue trailing in scorching paths following the throbbing veins in his neck.
"That's my plan." Jack pulled rapidly out and slammed into her again stealing her breath and groaning with a hiss when she bit his shoulder breaking the skin. He moved one hand up from her ass and braced himself with it against the wall, and began his pounding pace.
The liquor from the bottle sloshed out onto his shoulder from the vigorous pounding onto the open wound from her teeth making him hiss loudly in a mix of pleasure and pain and capture the arm that held the bottle, ceasing his movements. He threw it back against the wall above Irina's head and then the other pinning her there with a determined look in his eyes to make her shatter and laughed softly with a grunt and groan when he speared her again lifting her higher onto the wall with his efforts and the rum slosh wildly in the bottle in her hand above their heads.
She was dripping wet in a continuous stream and his movements were fluid when he picked up the rapid pace again driving them both towards the edge.
"Is this fast enough," Jack asked with a grunt and sweat running down his face and plunging his tongue deep into her mouth and making her moan loudly again with her every space invaded with his own heat. His mouth moved to ravage her neck and Irina's eyes flashed up to Weiss and Sophia standing in the doorway with wide eyes.
"Hello." Irina smiled with a giggle and a hiccup while Jack continued to pound into her, she bit him again on the shoulder to get his attention making him hiss and when his foggy mind and black eyes flashed to hers she nodded towards the doorway that they had visitors.
Jack immediately stopped his thrust fully inside Irina and dropped her arms, pressing further into her and covering what he could of her naked chest in an instant.
"Oh, you're so busted!" Weiss shook his drunken fuzzy head with a laugh as everyone else came in behind them; Sydney's eyes going wide and unblinking at the sight before her pushing past him in her own tipsy state.
*Wada Na Tod*
Her breath sucked in making a squeaking noise as she stay frozen with the profile view of her father's pelvis pinning her mother to the wall. His bare chest and the arm that was bracing his movements the only thing stopping their full view of her mother's naked torso though the swells of her breasts were clearly visible; the skirt of her sari bunched up around her waist exposing the soft curve of her naked ass cheek and her long legs wrapped around his hips, locked at the ankles and currently clicking her heels against the bottoms of her feet playfully.
Her mother seemed thoroughly amused or perhaps just not caring with her inhibitions gone, lost in the almost empty bottle of Indian Rum she tipped back and took another sip from, some of it running down her chin and onto her chest.
"Sweet, Jesus, Mary and Joseph…" Kendall hissed under his breath and shook his own foggy head blinking hard in disbelief he was really seeing what he was seeing watching Irina lick the rum from her lips; the live action version of the infamous 'toaster' scene being recreated in front of his eyes.
"Oh. My. God." Sydney finally breathed out and heard Katya break out into laughter at seeing them in the dimly lit kitchen amongst the candles, looking all sweaty and the air around them thick with the scent of alcohol and hot steamy passion. The bite mark already bruising and with hints of blood and the red welts from her nails on Jack's body said it all. The Siberian Tiger was in full attack mode this evening.
Ann Peterson, who was trying not to laugh with eyes as wide as saucers looking from sweaty mostly naked couple to her husband who looked like he was having a heart attack staring at his 'Mrs. Robinson' and then remembering he hadn't seen the heart-stopping lap dance Irina gave Jack in Vegas. This was his first Live Action experience between the two and she couldn't help but giggle seeing his reaction.
Jack was frozen in place staring at everyone and then moved slightly trying to cover more.
"No! Don't move!" Sydney gasped horrified to see their pelvic regions moving against each other at all. "Just... don't move!" She covered her eyes fighting through her own alcohol-induced fog.
Julian for the first time ever behind his smile and wide eyes was blushing red having never caught his Mama and father in the act. Never before had he felt the flush of crimson and snickered turning away when he looked from they, who were obviously quite happy enjoying themselves, his mother still looking quite happy for that matter, and then to his sister who was covering her eyes.
"Okay, we won't." Irina laughed with a hiccupping giggle again unable to stop, "How about all of you move instead? Go! You're home early and we're not quite finished. We love you all… and have a goodnight." She winked with slurred speech and blew them a kiss before shooing them away.
Astonishment, wide eyes, laughter and gasps rang through the crowd as they backed up and slowly began to go to their rooms in the enormous house shaking their heads in hilarity and disbelief with mumbles of, "Seriously a good thing she had her tubes tied," and "Do those two know how 'not' to have hot sex?"
"Fine! But nobody goes near the toaster!" Sydney spoke with her eyes covered not wanting any fires and horrified with the slow uptake to realize now what she just agreed to, leaving so they could 'finish.' "Argh!" She screamed suddenly and spun around with eyes still covered being led away by a snickering husband who also grabbed Weiss and Sophia pulling them away from the doorway.
"Now Captain, where were we?" Irina smiled sucking in Jack's bottom lip and thrusting in a circle on his hips.
"You can't be serious?" Jack asked still in state of horrified shock, though mostly numb from the alcohol and yet still burning with fire from her every touch and mewing softly feeling her gripping him again, caressing his member still buried deeply inside her.
"Quite." Irina sucked his tongue into her mouth wrapping her arms around his neck and thrusting herself on his still form, "I'm about to spontaneously combust and either you put this fire out… or I'll be forced to do it myself." She snagged his lip again with her teeth, sliding one hand between their sweat slicked bodies towards her heat and Jack plunged his tongue back in as the thought of Irina 'doing it herself' flooded his mind. His hips piston as they never had before, recapturing her arms and tried to keep their sounds of approaching explosions as quiet as possible quickly approaching the edge.
Irina screamed into Jack's mouth when the blinding tidal wave hit her and she dropped the bottle, the glass and rum shattering at their feet on the tile.
"I guess that means they're finished." Weiss snickered looking around him to where everyone had stopped dead in their tracks in the middle of the house hearing the muffled scream and bottle shattering on the floor.
"Oh God, Irina!" Jack couldn't hold back his scream having tried to with gritted teeth but her explosion had been so violent around him he had been sucked into the abyss caught off guard with its blinding force shooting through him into her.
"No," Katya snickered while her body shook with held in laughter after they all jumped hearing his scream pierce the darkness, "Now, they're finished."
"I'm going to require therapy." Sydney fell against the doorway to her room rubbing her forehead and talking to herself making them all laugh softly, "Lots and lots of therapy."
"Or just learn to accept, you can't fight 'the gravity of love!" Weiss shouted out singing loudly, loud enough for Jack and Irina to hear and laughed when the others chorused loudly with "O Fortuna!"
They were all laughing hysterically when Sophia grabbed him, pulling him rapidly into their own room and throwing him on the bed and closing the door. The feral look in her eyes when she immediately started stripping and walking towards him had him immediately tearing at his own clothes trying to get them off.
"Hot damn!" He breathed just before crashing his mouth into hers and feeling her naked breasts pressed against his own chest.
"Seriously," Sydney lay in bed with arm bent and resting over her forehead in drunken disbelief contemplation, "They've got to be the most insanely in love couple on the face of this planet." Her mind flashed to the fact that they'd been caught, even by their own children, and didn't care, shooed them all away and kept on going, "It's no wonder they hated each other with such an intensity if this is the flip side. They're absolutely mad." She shook her head.
"Madly in love." Vaughn smiled crawling into bed beside her after taking one last look at their sleeping baby in her little crib that Irina had set up and waiting for her. "As I am with you," He crawled over her and rested his weight on his elbows lowering his head to hers and kissing her lips gently before claiming it fully and ceasing any more thoughts of her parents as they became lost in each other.
*Punjabi Wedding Song*
The wedding festivities were in full swing the following day with everyone having a marvelous time. Neither, Jack or Irina said a thing about the moment in the kitchen the night before though neither could tear the smiles from their faces or the glow about them.
The men couldn't help but blush every time they looked at Irina today and the women felt the same flush of warmth and an automatic grin when looking at Jack. Whenever the two of them were together, everyone diverted their smiling eyes blushing madly with snickers.
Weiss couldn't handle it anymore and had to say something to tease them. He walked right up to Jack holding Nadia watching Irina dancing with Julian standing beside Devlin, Kendall and several others. He held his hand out to Jack waiting for him to take it before saying anything.
Jack clasped his hand with a suspicious eyebrow and Weiss broke into a full smile saying, "My God, man. My God." The others chuckled and then broke into laughter when Jack smirked with a tint of red in his cheeks. "How do you keep up with her?" Weiss was bewildered having trouble already keeping up with Sophia and her wild pregnancy surge of passion.
"Lots of V8, Darling." Irina suddenly came up behind Weiss kissing his cheek and curling into Jack's side with a deviant smile having heard the question and guessed what they were talking. "Lots of V8." She teased with a wink and then laughed seeing his eyes widen, she kissed Jack's lips and took Nadia from him. Returning to the dance floor with her adorable baby girl with all eyes on her as the group tracked her back there astonished.
"Was she joking?" Weiss asked with hand held out and wide eyes, "Is she joking? Seriously?" He asked again rambling to himself in question about the vitamin drink V8 and Jack and the others laughed.
"I don't think its hard… difficult!" Ben changed his wording laughing, "To keep up. When you're married to such a beautiful woman." His eyes tracked from Irina to his own wife with a smile.
"Especially when you're madly in love with her." Jack's eyes were only on Irina who was smiling and laughing before them as she danced and had a good time.
"Yes, well there's that, too." Ben laughed shaking his head looking between the two and still seeing the mad intensity and fiery connection that he had thirty years ago. They still looked at each other as if they were the only two people in the room. He smiled seeing Irina's eyes lock with Jack's and her smile grew staring across the floor at them and seeing only Jack even as she continued to move.
AN: I just wanted to let everyone know that I won't be updating again until next week, likely Monday, due to travel restrictions.- Wild