Hi all!
Okay, someone mentioned in a review of my last story that all the kids I introduced has become a bit confusing. So here's your little cheatsheet of the Force and their offspring:

Keith & Allura - Cady, Declan, Gideon, Tess, Charlotte, and Nicky

Sven & Romelle -Erik and Delora

Lance & Darcy - Sky

Hunk & Patton - Casey, Mykel, and Natalia

Pidge & Becca -Luke, Tori, and Ben

Thank you all so much for the great reviews, I really appreciate them! You guys are awesome!

Enjoy!

Failte


"Come on, Nick! Run! Run!" Keith stood behind the seat cushion representing home plate, swinging his arm around like a windmill as his youngest pumped his legs and ran toward him. "Come on! You can do it! Almost there!"

Nicky ran as hard as he could before diving to the ground and sliding on his stomach into the cushion.

"Good job, son!" Keith laughed as he took his hands and hauled the boy to his feet.

The first warm day of spring on Arus always brought the gang out for a game of baseball in the meadow behind the castle. This year, Keith was managing his team of Declan, Gideon, Nicky, Charlotte, Lynnai, and Hunk's oldest son, Casey. They were playing against Lance's team made up of Pidge, his son Luke and his daughter Tori, Hunk's youngest son Mykel, Brina, and Darcy. Hunk was standing in as umpire.

Allura, Nanny, and Becca sat in chairs beside the makeshift diamond watching the game. Tess sat beside them cradling Becca and Pidge's one month old son, Ben, while Hunk's daughter, Natalia sat beside her.

"Ach," Nanny grumbled. "Look at how dirty the young Prince is now. It is such a hassle to get him in the bathtub at night."

"Oh, Nanny," Allura laughed. "He's a little boy having fun."

"Strike!" Hunk yelled as Casey swung and missed. "You'll get him next time, son."

"Take the field, guys!" Keith shouted

Declan flexed his muscles as he passed Pidge, "You're going down, Sir!"

"Yeah right!" Pidge snorted. "The score is tied now, this is our inning to take you down!"

"Yea Daddy!" Tori shouted as she jumped up and down, clapping her hands. "Let's kick dere butts!"

Pidge looked at his daughter with surprise, "What did you just say?"

"Let's kick dere butts!" She grinned.

"That's it," he swept the little girl up in his arms. "You're not allowed to hang out with the twins anymore."

"Hey!" Gideon shouted from the pitcher's mound. "We are not the only bad influences in the castle, have you met Uncle Lance?"

"Let's get on with the game folks," Lance called. "Brina, you're up."

The pretty redhead took to home base and accepted the bat Lance held out. She made a show of tapping the inside of both feet with the bat and taking a few practice swings.

"Hey batta batta batta!" Declan called from his place at second base. "Swing batta batta batta!"

Brina pointed at him with her bat and took her stance.

Gideon threw the ball a little wide and Brina stopped herself from swinging.

"Ball one!" Hunk called.

"Good eye!" Lance clapped. "Good eye!"

"We want a batter not a broken ladder!" Nicky shouted from the outfield.

Gripping the bat tightly, Brina prepared for the next pitch. It was a perfect curve over the plate. She swung and the bat connected with the ball in a resounding crack, sending it over Declan's head toward Lynnai.

Cheers and clapping followed Brina as she threw the bat aside and raced toward first base. She rounded it just as Lynnai threw the ball to Declan. He clutched the ball in one hand and stood, feet akimbo, blocking his base. Brina saw this, but she refused to return to first. Putting on an extra burst of speed, she ignored Lance's calls to turn back, and ran full force into her boyfriend.

Declan stood his ground and she bounced off his chest.

He grinned down at her, "You're out."

"The ball never touched me," she replied, quickly crawling around him and grabbing the old throw pillow that stood in as second base.

"She's right!" Darcy yelled. "The hand holding the ball did not come in contact with her and you never touched the base!"

"I was holding the ball when she hit me!" Declan argued.

"You have to touch the base or touch her with the ball or the hand holding the ball!" Pidge called back.

"She's out!" Hunk shouted.

"Waddya mean she's out!" Lance yelled, charging over to where Hunk stood.

"I mean, she's out!" The bigger man replied.

"She was clearly in!"

"She was clearly out!"

"The ball never came in contact with her!"

"He was holding the ball! She's out!"

"In!"

"Out!"

Lance kicked dirt on Hunk's feet, "In!"

"Do that again and you're out!"

"All right! All right!" Keith interrupted. "That's enough guys, let's get back to the game. Lance, we agreed to have Hunk umpire and that we would go with whatever he said. Brina's out."

"If I'd have known he was blind, I wouldn't have agreed to anything," Lance grumbled as he stomped off.

Keith stepped out of the way as Mykel picked up the bat and Brina jogged back to join her team. He watched as Gideon tossed the ball and Mykel sent it toward third base. His communicator sounded as Luke went up to bat.

"Whitaker."

"Commander." Private Util was on duty in Castle Control. "I'm sorry to bother you sir."

"That's all right Private, what is it?"

"We just received a message, sir, concerning the Garrison investigators."

"Okay, we'll be right in," Keith snapped his communicator shut and yelled, "Time out! I need to talk to my team!"

They all jogged over to where he stood. "What's up, Dad?" Declan asked.

"I have to go in and take care of something, so I'm leaving Lynnai in charge."

"What?" Declan gasped. "You're choosing her over your own son?"

"Yes. I know I can trust Lynnai. Get back out there and win this game, I'll be back out as soon as I can." Keith turned and walked over to where Allura was sitting. "We just received a message from the Garrison about the investigation."

She nodded and stood. Almost out of reflex, Keith took her hand in his as they made their way up to the castle. His fingers curled around hers, squeezing gently. Allura smiled at him, knowing that no matter what happened, she had him and together they could handle anything.

"What is it, Private?" Keith asked as they entered Castle Control.

The young man handed him a printout, "This was what was sent, sir."

Allura leaned in to read it over Keith's shoulder. "So we can expect them tomorrow afternoon?"

"Looks that way, three of them are coming."

"I don't recognize any of this names."

"Neither do I," he folded the paper in half. "We'll have to make sure Paton is free to meet with them and have three rooms set up for them."

"I'll have Nanny get the maids working on that today," she told him as they walked from the room. "Do you think we should have had an attorney brought in?"

"We didn't do anything wrong, honey, he has nothing on us."

"I know, I just can't help but worry."

Keith smiled at her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders, "We did nothing wrong, the investigators will see that and clear us and next week we'll go to Terra and makes sure he is put away for a long, long time."

"Sweetie, how do you think Tristan is fitting in?" She asked, changing the subject.

"He is a fine pilot and he has a good head on his shoulders."

"He and Cady have gotten rather close."

"Mm hm," Keith kept his mouth tightly closed.

"I'm thinking that it won't be long before he comes to you for permission."

He glanced at her as they crossed the yard to the baseball diamond, "Let's not hurry things, they've only been together a few months."

Allura grinned at him, "How long did you know me before you wanted to marry me?"

"That's different, we were older."

"I believe I was younger than Cady is now when we met."

"If he wants to marry her, he has to go through the same crap I had to go through to marry you."

"Crap?" She gasped.

"Come on, Allura, of all the hours of studying I had to do, name one thing I learned that I have actually used."

"Knowing the history of Arus has helped in your role as Prince Consort."

"It was just Nanny and Koran's way of testing how far I would go to be with you."

"And you passed that test with flying colors," Allura stood on her toes and kissed him.

"Then we'll have to come up with some fun tests for Tristan," he promised, leaving her at the seat she had vacated earlier before running over to the sidelines. "Come on Hunk! I could see from here that he was safe!"

………………………………………………………………………..

Tristan and Erik sat in the den watching some show on the television, neither of them really paying attention.

Cady had promised that she and Sky would be home before dinner, they were just going to go shopping. That hadn't bothered Tristan. What had bothered him was the fact that she had added, nonchalantly, that Alexis would join them. He had tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn't hear of it. She had promised to go shopping with Alexis and it was important to keep a promise. He hoped that Sky would be able to keep Cady out of trouble.

"Stop worrying, man, what could possibly happen?" Erik asked as Tristan flipped angrily through a magazine.

He slapped the magazine on the coffee table, "I don't know."

"Are you going to tell me what happened with Alexis?"

Tristan sighed heavily and stared at the television for a moment, not noticing what was on the screen. "We dated for four years."

"That's a long time."

"Yeah it is," he stood and paced the floor. "Everyone thought we were going to get married, hell, we thought we were going to get married."

"What happened?" Erik asked quietly.

Tristan ran his hand through his dark hair and hesitated, as though he was trying to think how to answer. "Alexis is a great girl, we had been together so long that we had become comfortable with each other, but I'm not sure if we were really in love. I mean, everyone expected us to be together, so we were. We attended parties together, went out Friday nights, and hung out with the same group of friends. But, I knew something wasn't right. I felt like I was stuck, we weren't really moving forward and when I looked to the future, I saw a life like my parents have and I didn't want that. A recruiter for the Garrison came to our school my senior year and gave a talk. Something about what he said really stuck with me. I researched it and gave it a lot of thought and finally told my family and friends that I was going to join the Garrison and train to become a pilot rather than go into pre-law."

"I take it that didn't go over to well?"

He shook his head, "My mother was furious, I got the 'You're an adult and you need to start acting like one' lecture from my father. They both realized I was serious, so they finally caved, assuming I would go to the Garrison, get whatever it was out of my system and then return home to pursue a career in law, like my father did and his father before him and his father before him and so on. To this day they are still hoping I will hang up my uniform and come back to the practice."

Erik kept his mouth shut and watched as his friend stopped in front of the mantle and straightened a picture frame.

"I realized I had really found what I was meant to do. I came home on leave and took Alexis out. I told her how happy I was and how I had found what I was meant to do. Needless to say, she wasn't happy. We had a long talk and we both decided it would be best if we stopped pretending. I was upset, but I wasn't devastated. The next time I came home, I found out she had told everyone that I had proposed to her and she had turned me down, saying she wanted to wait until after she finished school and after I got this pilot thing out of my system. I realized I didn't care, so I let her tell everyone whatever she wanted to. Owen was the only one who really believed me and the only one I cared about. So, most of our friends from high school think I was devastated by our breakup and never came back from the Garrison. They think I wasn't fair to her, Dory is Alexis' best friend and she is convinced I deserted Alexis when I joined the Garrison."

"And now she's trying to get you back?" Erik asked.

Tristan shrugged, "I don't know. She said she changed, but, well, I mean, I have Cady now. Alexis is my past, Cady is my future."

Erik grinned, "Now you just have to tell Cady that."

"What do you mean?"

"She's a wreck about this whole Alexis thing," Erik explained. "You have to understand that Cady is not very experienced with dating, she has led a very sheltered life, especially when compared to the life you have led. She saw Alexis, and let's be honest here, Alexis is gorgeous, and she became jealous. She feels she's in competition with Alexis."

"That's just stupid," Tristan muttered.

"Yes it is, but Cady is feeling rather intimidated."

"And Dory didn't help the other night, did she?"

"Not really," Erik agreed. "She doesn't feel she fits in with your friends."

"Why is Cady telling you all this and not me?"

"She isn't telling me, she's telling Sky. And, well, I've known Cady a lot longer than you have and I know her pretty well."

"What should I do?"

"Be honest with her, tell her what you told me, especially about her being your future."

Tristan swallowed hard, not sure if he was ready to tell Cady that just yet.

They both heard a car pull up out front and doors opening and shutting.

"Sounds like they're back," Erik said, getting to his feet. "They said they'd be back before dinner and they just made it."

The two of them reached the foyer just as the front door opened and Sky walked in, at least eight shopping bags in her hands.

"Geez, Sunny, how much did you buy?" Erik asked, taking a few bags from her.

"Those two are mine, the rest are Cady's," she sighed, turning to look at Tristan. "I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen to me."

"I figured she would be buying a lot, we're going to be taking a cargo ship back to Arus," he teased with a smile.

"I'm not talking about the stuff she bought."

He furrowed his brow in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"You'll have to see it for yourself," she grumbled, stepping aside.

Tristan went to open the door further, but stopped when Cady appeared in the doorway. His mouth fell open in disbelief as his eyes roamed her from the top of her head to her feet and back up again.

Cady twirled in front of him and asked, nervously, "Well? What do you think?"

Erik let out a low whistle, "You, uh, you look nice, uh Cady. Come on, Sky, let's, uh, let's take this stuff upstairs."

"Tristan?" She asked, her voice shaking slightly as her friends disappeared upstairs.

He started at her feet again, at the black shoes with two inch heels, up her shapely legs to the straight black skirt that stopped just above her knees to the black jacket buttoned up to the deep v-neck that showed a hint of cleavage, past her made up face to her hair. Her beautiful, thick curly blonde hair that had once tumbled past her shoulders and down her back was now cut in a sharp, smooth, straight bob that barely touched her shoulders.

Cady held her arms out at her sides, "What do you think?"