Thanks for all the quick responses! It makes me and my writing feel so loved!

Darkdestiney2000 - I did hear about the sequal! They're going to call it the Brazillian Job and its got the whole gang - Stella, Charlie (drools at thought of him in red shirt and leather jacket again), Handsome Rob, Lyle and Left-ear! I can't wait! There's a few details on imdb, but I've read some brilliant articles as well from other websites.

HockeyGurl - I'm happy that you enjoyed the Stella and Holly talk, it seemed too good to drop, and thank you for your support on the Stella growing up story, I'm going to make a plan for it and start posting it as soon as I've finished this one. Im very glad that you think its cute that Michael likes Holly :) I was worried that people thought it would be weird. But as requested: There is a LOT of Charlie and Stella in this chapter, as well as a bit between Rob and his girlfriend.

Also, I'm not completely sure about the whereabouts of Stella's shop in regards to this or the beach, but lets just say that in my mind, it's close. And I'm still upset that I don't own Charlie's smile. I want that so much. He looks so cheeky doesn't he? So this will be quite a long chappie today, and it took me over four hours to write :D Does anyone else think that he looks cutest at the point in the movie where he is introducing Stella to the guys and he is wearing the red shirt and leather jacket?

Thanx again guys you're amazing!

Sam

xx

Stella had been checking how business was going in the lock and safe store today, and although she had to stop for a while to deal with an awkward customer on the phone, who wanted a safe delivered to his home but wanted one that couldn't be cracked easily and wanted a list of all the ones she had difficulty with, it was a pretty smooth day. The kids had gone to school without a fuss, and after her talk with Holly the night before, she felt amazingly refreshed. There was another reason for her general good mood at the moment though: today was Friday. And later that night, she would find out her suprise from Charlie - finally.

She was amazed that he hadn't given in seeing as he kept on rubbing her face in the fact that she didn't have a clue about it. She knew that Handsome was in on it, but he wasn't spilling the beans either, and she couldn't interrogate him like she could with Charlie, for which she was openly glad. Either way, her suffering was going to end in a few hours. She finally got off the phone after two hours, she hated to think of this guy's phone bill, and looked at the clock. Four o'clock. She said her goodbyes to the others who worked there, and got into her red mini-cooper, which, despite the vast amounts of money she now had, she couldn't bear to part with; Charlie had kept his blue one as well, with repairs from where the chopper blades from Steve's helicopter had taken the paint off the sides and smashed the window. Handsome Rob, who had many different cars, teased them about keeping the old mini's, but they all knew that he had the white one at the back of his garage, kept in immaculate condition. When she had got into the mini cooper that morning though, she found a red rose on the passanger seat, even though going to the office had been a spontaenous decision.

She wouldn't be home in time for when the kids got back, they would have been back over half an hour ago if they walked, and quicker seeing as they had rode their bikes that morning. Charlie had been sneaking around that morning whilst the kids were getting ready. Usually he would sit at the table with them and talk to them while they were eating their breakfast, but he had disappeared into various places, making phone calls to the other guys; particularly Handsome Rob. She couldn't hear exactly what they were talking about because every time she got close he ended the conversation. In the end, she had given up, and instead of chasing him around the house all day, she decided to spend the morning at the office, even though she had spent a lot more time then she had intended to.

Pulling into the driveway, she saw that the kids bikes weren't left outside the house as they would have been. Thinking they had taken them around the back, she shrugged as she got out of the car, locking it automatically over her shoulder. She let herself into the house, calling out as she stood in the doorway for a moment, before shutting it behind her.

"Holly? Alex?" No answer. "Boys?" Still no answer. Usually, their house, though large, was full of the playful arguments and laughter of children - exactly how Charlie had wanted it to be when they had brought it. But today, it was empty, and silent. "Guys? Is anyone here?" She called again, hanging her jacket on the hanger beside the door, so she was stood in her black trousers and white shirt. Her boots made an echoing sound against the wooden floor as she moved to go further into the house. "Charlie?" Still no answer.

She went into the kitchen, to get a drink and found that the kitchen was empty. Pouring herself a glass of filtered water, she went into the living room, and having placed the glass of water on the coffee table beside the couch, she flopped down on her stomach, burying her face in the pillow. Her day had been more stressful that she wanted to say, and would like nothing better than to - have her back massaged?

She was suddenly aware of gentle hands exerting a comforting pressure on her upper back and shoulders. She felt her tension ebbing away with every touch, and though she didn't move her body, she pulled her face out of the pillow and rested her cheek on it instead. She smiled up at Charlie, whom she hadn't even known was in the room, and was not sitting on the edge of the couch, dressed finely in black pants and a red shirt , and massaging her back and shoulders. "Hey," She whispered.

"I was wondering when you'd get in." He thought aloud, continuing the massage.

"So was I, some guy stayed on the phone for 2 hours about an uncrackable safe." She complained. When Charlie hit a particularly sensitive spot on her shoulder she closed her eyes and sighed. "But I don't seem to care any more." She said with content smile. "Where are the kids?" She asked.

"All of them are staying at Handsome's tonight. Something about bringing out an old karaoke machine for them to play around with." Charlie replied distractedly.

"Fantastic." She whispered, welcoming a night to themselves.

Charlie leaned down and kissed the part of her neck which wasn't covered by her shirt. "I love you, you know that?" He whispered in her ear, his lips grazing against her earlobe.

"I love you too." She replied heartfelt.

Charlie's hands stopped on her shoulders, and his thumbs were left rubbing small circles which she could faintly feel through her shirt. "Good." He whispered. "Now, do you want your suprise?" He asked playfully.

"Yes." She replied with a small laugh. "Finally."

"Ok, well, go upstairs, have a bath, get changed, because I'm taking you out." Charlie instructed.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

"It's a suprise." He told her with his trademark cheeky grin. She resisted the temptation to swipe at him playfully for saying that again. He definately had a way with the suspence.

She stood up and went upstairs and went to their bedroom. When she got into the bedroom, the doors to the balcony were open, sweeping a cold breeze through the room. The floor was littered with red rose petals, leading in two paths, the first to the bathroom, and the other to the bed, where a small package was wrapped upon it. She went over to the bed first, curious as to what the package held. Opening it, and discarding the wrapping and ribbon, she saw some folded silk material with a small note upon it. Lifting the note and reading it she smiled.

To the woman I love,

You look wonderful no matter what you wear, but I know that you will look beautiful in this.

Charlie,

xx

Placing the note beside her on the bed, she pulled the material and let it hand before her. She found herself looking at a beautiful red silk dress with halterneck straps and a low backline. It didn't dip too low on the chest, but wasn't too high either, and she was speechless when she looked at it, only being able to mutter, "Oh, Charlie," When she looked at it. This explained why he had disappeared for an hour yesterday.

Laying it out on the bed so that it wouldn't get creased, Stella followed the second trail of rosepetals into the bathroom. He had pulled the blind down over the window, blocking all the light that was coming in, and the room was filled with soft candlelight from about twenty candles around the room. The bath had already been filled, and she could see small tendrils of steam from where it had been freshly drawn, complete with more rose petals floating on the surface. She smiled and undressed, getting into the bath and washing her hair. A while later, when she felt completely relaxed and the water was getting colder, she got out of the bath. Wrapping a towel around herself, she went back into the bedroom, and dried her hair off before changing into the gorgeous silk dress. Naturally, she had a pair of shoes that matched it, and put the spaghetti strap heels on with them. She chose to wear the sparkling diamond necklace that her father had had delivered to her the day he died, directly from Venice, and a pair of closely matching earrings which hung and dangled in the breeze. She didn't put on too much make-up, she never did, nor did she need to. She wore only mascara and a light shine of lip gloss which added colour to her soft lips. Running her fingers through her hair one last time, she went downstairs once again, and saw Charlie standing at the bottom of the stairs by the door waiting for her.

He turned when he heard the sound of her heels on the staircase, and his jaw nearly hit the ground. He had known straight away that the dress was perfect for her, but even as beautiful as it had been on the hanger, it was nothing in comparison to how it looked when Stella was wearing it. He watched her all the way down the staircase and when she reached the bottom of the stairs, he put an arm around her waist and dragged her closer to him and kissed her. He had to contain his urges to make sure that he got through the evening.

"Car's here." Her told her, and led her through the front door. Stella's eyes widened as they stepped outside. Beside their parked mini-coopers was a black limosine.

"Charlie-" She began awefully, but he cut her off with a short kiss.

"Only the best for you." He said cheekily.

The chaufeer opened the door for them and Charlie whispered a few words of direction for him before he got into the car himself. Settling in beside Stella, he put his arm around her shoulders and she leaned against him, their free hands interlocking over the laps. "You've really gone all out on this, haven't you?" She asked with a grin, and he nodded.

"Because I love you." He told her, "And today is a special occassion." Seeing her face panick slightly as if she had forgotten something but couldn't remember what. "It was twenty-five years ago to this day that your Dad first introduced us." He said.

Stella smiled, Charlie always remembered the things that most men didn't; anniversarys, birthdays, but also strange but romantic milestones like this one.

After a while of reminicing what had happened the day they met, they pulled up near a resturant on a boardwalk, overlooking a beach. They had their dinner at an Italian resturant whilst they watched the sunset, and they spent the whole evening remembering what their relationship had been like in the early days, but were unable to find more than a few ways in which it had changed rather than the presence of Alex and Holly. It made Stella realise how lucky she was to have Charlie with her still. After their meal, Charlie and Stella stood on the boardwalk for a while, overlooking the waves lapping against the shore.

"Come on." Charlie said playfully, and pulled her down the steps next to them by the hand and led her onto the beach.

"Here you go kids, karaoke." Handsome said as he put the large cardboard box on the floor. Taking the karaoke machine out of it, he began to set up the wires behind the plasma screen television. The boys looked at it as they would in a museum.

"Dad, how old is this?" Nathan asked curiously.

"Um," Handsome hesistated. "A few years."

"A few?" Alex repeated.

"Ok, smartass, more than a few." Rob said. Smartass was his nickname for Alex like Princess was for Holly. All of the men called Holly Princess, but only Rob called Alex smartass.

"Looks stone age." Nick continued.

"So does this music." Michael said, looking at the various CD's which he had brought down with it. They were the special karaoke discs which would display the lyrics on the TV. "Guns n Roses? Aerosmith?"

"Bon Jovi!" Alex said, rather excidedly. "This stuff is gold!" Handsome Rob sighed. Alex had the same taste in music that Charlie had, loving all of the 'big hair rock'.

After connecting up the wires and having successfully brought it up on the screen he stood up, handing out the two microphones that came with it to the twins.

"Aren't you having a go, Uncle Rob?" Holly asked.

Handsome laughed and ruffled her hair. "Aw, ain't you sweet." He said playfully. "Maybe when I'm drunk, Princess." He told her. "Very drunk."

"Half an hour?" She asked him, the boys all laughed.

"Maybe." He replied, walking off, but they all heard the muttered "More than likely" under his breath as he walked away.

Out on the beach, Charlie and Stella walked hand in hand along the beach before wandering so far from the restaurant and the boardwalk that the beach was no longer lit by the light of the halogens, but rather the starlight and the light of the full moon instead. Stella had taken off her shoes and was walking barefoot through the sand, enjoying the feeling of it between her toes. It was about 10pm now, and the beach was empty except for them. There was a slight chill in the breeze now, and Charlie had taken off his leather jacket and hung it around her shoulders and bare arms, revealing his red shirt. As they walked, they had their arms around each others waists, wanting to be as close as possible. After a while, they sat down on a sand dune above the water, and Stella sat between Charlie's legs, leaning back against his chest.

"This has been wonderful, Charlie." She told him, her head falling back against his shoulder. "Thank you."

"See, I told you you'd like my suprise." Charlie reminded her, and she grinned.

"Yeah, you did."

She looked up at the sky, and where the clouds were completely gone, she could see millions of stars above them. She knew that Charlie was doing the same thing, and he wrapped on arm around her waist, trailing his fingers over the silk that covered her stomach, and used his other arm to hold them up. As they were gazing up at the stars, she saw a shooting star streak across a small patch of the inky-blue sky. "Wow." She whispered breathlessly. "Did you see that?" She asked him.

"Sure did." He replied.

"I've never seen one before." She admitted. "Dad used to take me onto the roof of our apartment, try and show them to me, but I'd always look away just before they came, and I missed them all the time." She remembered.

"Never?" He asked, and she shook her head lightly. The next time Charlie spoke to her, he get no answer, and looking down, he found Stella asleep in his arms.

It was late now, and the kids had gone through most of the discs for the karaoke. Handsome Rob had sat in the kitchen, listening to them, it was rather amusing when they had put a song on, knowing some of it, but then got to a bit that they didn't know and had trailed off into a mumble with some kind of slurred swearing, for Alex, anyway. He only knew that it was swearing because he heard Holly exclaim "Alex!" Everytime he did it, followed by a mumbled "Sorry." When it all went silent for a while, he went into the living room to see what had stopped them. Even though they had decided that they were all going to camp in the living room with their sleeping bags and blankets, the blankets were all still in a pile behind the couch, and all the kids were alseep on the two couches.

At the same time as he entered through the kitchen door, Rob's girlfriend and the twin's mother, Kelly, came in through the door from the hallway. "I told them they wouldn't make it all night." She said as Rob turned off the TV and she picked up some blankets, laying them over Nathan, Alex and Damon. Rob picked up the others, and took them over to the other couch, where Holly, Nick and Michael were asleep.

"Would you look at that." Rob said, glancing down at Holly and Michael. Kelly came over beside him and put her arms around his waist from behind. Holly had her head on Michael's shoulder where she had fallen asleep over an hour ago according to Rob's guessing from the fact that that was how long she hadn't sung for. Michael looked more comfortable in the position, guessing that he had fallen asleep after her.

"Aw, it's so sweet." Kelly said, and Rob raised his eye brows.

"Sweet?" He asked. "What kind of a word is sweet?"

Kelly kissed him. "My word." She replied. "Come on. Let's go to bed."