Disclaimer- I don't own 'em...yadda-yadda...you know the drill

A.N.- I just want to thank everyone for all your sweet reviews! Here's the second part, please tell me what you think of it, if you like it, don't like it, you know. If you don't like it, please tell me, although you may be taken off my "favorite people" list, I want to know and I'll stop writing...thanks again!

Abby woke up to her ears popping. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and turned to Carter, who had his arm wrapped around her waist.

"Where are we?"

"We're in California! We're just about to land at the airport."

She nodded and sat up.

"I'm sorry I was such bad company. I can't believe I slept through the whole flight! Did I miss anything interesting?"

Carter shook his head,

"Nope, not really. Susan spilled Cosmo's orange juice all over Chuck and in redemption he threw his pretzels at her, but that's about it. Oh, and Luka and Sam headed to the bathroom together for about an hour..." Carter chuckled, "finally the line for the stall got so long the flight attendant had to knock on the door and ask if they were O.K. It was classic."

Abby smiled and looked back at the two. Sam's head was on Luka's shoulder and their fingers were intertwined as Luka laughed at something Sam had said.

Abby sighed and turned back to Carter.

"They're perfect together. I don't think I've ever seen Luka so happy."

Carter nodded, "You know what else goes perfectly together?"

Abby smiled knowingly, "I think I could take a guess..."

"Pickles and whipped cream."

"CARTER!"

He laughed and leaned down to kiss her before whispering,

"Well, us too of course, but I figured you already knew that..."

Abby pushed him away playfully

"Yea, but couldn't you have picked a better comparison? Like peanut butter and jelly or salt and pepper or..."

Carter smiled and pulled her up to meet her lips with his.

"Shut up."

As the group of 8 walked out into the bright California sunshine, Susan sighed.

"I'm never flying again. Or, if I have to, I'm packing everything into a carry on, that baggage claim was completely ridiculous!"

"Oh but sweety" Chuck snickered , "I think its literally impossible for you to pack the contents of your 20 pound duffle into a carry on..."

Susan playfully slapped his arm and kissed him on the cheek.

"I guess you're right, but I had to at least pretend I was ready to stop flying because of that horrible baggage claim...it makes me look strong"

"Or strong headed..."

Everyone laughed at this as they hailed cabs and headed towards the coast.

40 minutes later, the line of three cabs pulled up in front of a pastel green beach house. It had three floors, a wrap-around porch, dark blue shutters, and a white swing on the front porch. Behind the house was an oval swimming pool, and just beyond that the woman could catch a glimpse of the flat blue ocean that stretched out into the horizon as far as they could see. The women just stood and stared at the house they would inhabit for the next 2 weeks as the men paid the drivers and got the luggage out of the trunks.

"Wow" Sam sighed.

"Yea" nodded Abby.

"It's huge" Susan gasped.

As they were gaping at the house, Alex and Cosmo ran ahead of them and jumped up on to the porch.

"Mom, if you guys don't get up here, me and Cosmo are gonna take the rooms with single beds and leave you guys with twins." He grinned at his mother, knowing that, of all the things he could say, that would get his mom moving the fastest.

"Oh no you don't!" The three women yelled as they ran up the stairs after the boys, leaving the men to carry the luggage in.

Carter turned to the other two men,

"The last time I was in California, I was 18, about to start medical school, and sleeping with every girl who looked at me when I went clubbing."

"And now look at you" Chuck laughed.

"Look at us " Carter corrected. "10, 15 years ago we were all at very different places in our lives...now look at us. We're all in serious relationships, Chuck you're married, Luka you're about as close as a guy can possible get without giving his girlfriend a ring, and me...well, I'm with Abby, I'm happy, and eventually I'm sure we're going to get married."

Carter sighed, "Life is good."

The other two men agreed and all three entered the house with smiles on their faces.

Once inside, Carter was directed by Alex to a room on the third floor where Abby was unpacking.

"Hey" he whispered in her ear as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Hey! Everyone's heading out to the pool. Hurry up and we can go down together."

"Great, gimme like five minutes." He gave her a quick kiss before heading into the bathroom.

By the time they reached the pool, almost everyone was already there. Chuck had Cosmo in the shallow end with floaties, Susan was laying out on a deck chair, and Alex was lecturing his mom on her bathing suit.

"That is NOT a bathing suit; that is a piece of a bathing suit! I've seen guys with more fabric covering themselves than you! Heck, Cosmo has a bigger bathing suit than you do! Are you trying to get attention from, like, every guy in California? I don't know how Luka would feel if he saw what you're wearing..."

As Sam stood with her hands on her hips, being lectured by her 13-year-old on her risque bathing suit, she didn't notice Luka sneaking up behind her until she was flying towards the crystal clear water of the pool. When she finally surfaced, curls plastered to her head, her boyfriend and son were high-fiving.

"Luka! Alex! I can't believe you boys!"

She turned to Susan as she swam to the shallow end, "do you see what I have to put up with?"

Susan looked down at the younger woman who had seen and dealt with so much in her short life, more than Susan could even fathom.

"Yea, but you know you love it."

As Sam looked over at the two men in her life and nodded, Susan could see the love in her eyes. Not the humble, comfortable love that she shared with Chuck, but an untamed, young love that Susan hadn't seen in a long time.

"I mean, who couldn't love 'em?" Sam gave Susan a wicked grin before swimming over to where Luka stood.

"Hey babe," she said, pulling herself halfway up out of the pool to reach Luka's lips. She gave him a long kiss and he was soon too preoccupied to notice Sam's hands had gone to his back until she suddenly pulled away and yanked the tall man into the water. This lead to a vigorous dunking chase which Sam lost by a land-slide before she finally called time out and had Luka pick her up and carry her around the shallow end.

By this time, Abby and Carter had gotten into the pool.

"Hey!" Luka suddenly dropped Sam and she landed with a dull 'plop' into the water, "lets play chicken!"

Carter laughed and Abby nodded.

"O.K." She motioned towards Susan, "Come on! Get in and play chicken with us!"

"That's O.K... me and Chuck will be the referees."

Abby shrugged as she and Sam got on Carter and Luka's shoulders.

"You don't know what you're miss...AHHH!" Sam screamed as Luka stood up suddenly, catapulting her into the air. Luka grabbed her calves at the last second before she went flying over his head.

Carter walked over to them, Abby on his shoulders, and Chuck yelled,

"Fight!"

There you go...hope you liked it! If I get enough reviews, I'll keep going!