Thank you all so much for your feedback.
Em-958: Wow, what can I say? Thank you for those comments, and for the other reviews that you posted on my pther fics. I can honestly say you made me blush!
kiefer4ever: You said that you can't wait for the wedding chapter, and I just wanted to warn you that it will be awhile until I post it :)
dandan2300: Hope you had a great holiday.
Sydney sat on the back porch, watching Vaughn who was crouched down in front of Donovan. She couldn't hear what Vaughn was saying but she could certainly imagine.
"Be a good boy…I'll miss you…Don't worry, Syd'll treat you well…Don't eat anything Uncle Weiss offers you…"
"Vaughn," she said, glancing at her watch. "We gotta go, or you'll be late."
"Ok." Vaughn gave Donovan one last scratch behind the ears before getting up and following Sydney inside. "Let's go."
It was Monday morning and Sydney had organized to have her first period off so that she could drop Vaughn off for his big camping trip. (He'd started to panic slightly that weekend. The euphoria of his and Sydney's engagement had started to wear off and he'd suddenly realized that he'd be spending five days with 150 fifteen and sixteen year old girls.)
When Sydney pulled into the car park, it was bedlam. Large groups of excited teenage girls, their parents hovering on the outskirts and the collection of teachers who had been roped into this experience.
Vaughn winced at the sound of a particular shrill shriek and Sydney had to laugh.
"You're going to have so much fun," she said as the two of them got out of the car.
"One more word out of you…" Vaughn started, pointing a finger at Sydney.
"And you'll do what?" Sydney grinned as he opened the boot. "Do something horrible to me in front of all these students?"
"No," Vaughn replied. "But I can't promise that something won't happen when I get back."
"Ok, ok." Sydney held up her hands, laughing in mock defence. "Not another word, I promise."
"Good." Vaughn leant across and placed a kiss on her cheek. Sydney, however, was distracted by something.
"Sydney!" It was Keely, gesturing wildly and almost jumping up and down.
Vaughn, too, had noticed. "What is she doing?" he muttered.
"I have no idea," Sydney whispered back. "It looks as if she having some kind of a fit."
By this point Keely was rushing over to the two of them.
"What's going on?" Vaughn asked her. "They haven't got you to come along as well?"
Keely snorted. "No way. I am not that easily manipulated." She paused, eying Vaughn guiltily. "No offence."
Vaughn grinned. "None taken."
"Good." Keely turned to Sydney. "I'm here to check out this rock of yours."
Sydney obediently held out her hand, which Keely gratefully accepted.
"Ooh, it's gorgeous." Keely sighed. "Now how about some details? Michael still hasn't told me how he did it."
"Oh, hasn't he?" Sydney said, gleefully. "You are going to love this."
The gossip mill went into overdrive the second one of the students saw Sydney and Vaughn pull into the car park. And when they saw Keely dash over, Chloe Perkins was tasked to find out what was going on.
She returned, bursting with news.
"Ok, for some reason they were talking about Dirty Dancing and some party and the living room…" Chloe started.
"And?" the other girls pressed.
"It's official." Chloe paused. "They're engaged."
"For real?" one asked.
"For real." Chloe informed.
It was a dark day for all at Abrams College.
Tuesday afternoon Sydney answered a knock on the door to find Weiss standing there with a backpack.
"What are you doing here?" Sydney couldn't help but ask rather bluntly.
"Wow." Weiss said, wounded. "Gotta love a warm greeting from a friend."
"Sorry," Sydney replied quickly, stepping aside to let him in. "But aren't you usually doing a radio show at this time of day?"
"Yeah," Weiss dumped his bag and headed to the living room. "But they're doing some countdown special, which pushed my show off the air for today."
"Ok. So again I ask, what are you doing here?" Sydney asked, more gently this time.
"Now that's nicer," Weiss grinned, and then sighed heavily, falling into an armchair. "Ainz kicked me out."
"What?" Sydney exclaimed. "Why?"
Weiss looked up at her shocked features. "Oh, it's not permanent, it's just for the next couple of days."
"I don't understand." Sydney said as she sat down on the couch.
"Well, you know how Ainz has been on a bit of a decorating kick at the moment- the lounge room, the bedroom, the kitchen…" Weiss started.
"And?" Sydney prompted.
"And I might have compared the colour she chose for the kitchen to pee."
"Houdini!"
"It was a joke!" Weiss shot back defensively. "How was I supposed to know that she would get all sensitive about it."
"You should have known better. Ainsley has been working on this ages- of course she is going to be sensitive about it."
"Well, I know that now." Weiss said. "Anyway, she told me that if I wasn't going to be productive I could leave until the painting was done."
"And so you came here." Sydney smiled wryly.
"I figured you needed some company. Thought you'd be lonely without Lover Boy Vaughnie here."
"Lover Boy Vaughnie?"
Weiss looked sheepish. "Uh, please don't tell him I said that."
"I won't- on one condition."
"What?"
"That you cook dinner tonight. If you're going to stay here, you're going to need to make yourself useful."
Sydney had to admit that she enjoyed Weiss's company for the next couple of days. She had never been one for living alone, and while Weiss crashing in the spare room was a far cry from Vaughn's warm embrace, there was still somebody to speak to in the morning and say good night to in the evening.
"So, Syd," Weiss asked as his buttered his toast Thursday morning. "When are you and Vaughn going to decide when to get married?"
"When we do," Sydney replied, not looking up from the paper.
"Well, I need to know so I can start planning a b…" Weiss trailed off as Sydney looked up with a bemused grin. "A b-b-bridal shower!"
Sydney snorted with laughter. "Come off it, Houdini. You can mention a buck's night in front of me."
"Really?"
"Yes, really. Of course Vaughn is going to have a buck's night. I want a hen's night after all." She grinned at Weiss. "And I bet that you, Ainsley, Will and Francie are already collaborating."
"Pardon?" Weiss asked, a playful innocent expression on his face.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about. 'We want to go here, so it's off limits for you women'…'Ok, then, you guys cannot make an appearance here…' Am I right?" Sydney looked pointedly at Weiss.
Before he could answer, there was knock on the door. As Sydney headed over, she called out over her shoulder. "And let me guess, there's already arguments over who should get to go to Phase One?"
"Unbelievable," Weiss muttered to himself as Sydney opened the door. How the hell did she do it?
"Hey Houdini, look who's here."
Weiss looked to see a guilty looking Ainsley heading over to him.
"Hello Eric."
"Hey." He grinned and opened his arms. "How's about a little sugar?"
Ainsley accepted his embrace with a relieved sigh. After placing a kiss of his cheek, she straightened up. "I changed the kitchen. You were right, it did look like pee."
Sydney laughed softly to herself as she headed back to her paper. These two were a match made in heaven.
"What colour is it now?" Weiss asked.
"Well, let's just say that you can come home and compare the kitchen walls to snot."
"Good, I like green." Weiss grinned mischievously. "And I like snot a whole lot better than pee."
"What?" Sydney asked, immediately regretting it. Whatever Weiss had up his sleeve, she knew that it would be unpleasant.
"Yeah," Weiss continued. "Pee can't be rolled into little balls and flicked—"
"Ok stop." Sydney help up a hand. "We are not having this conversation."
"Agreed." Ainsley said firmly, wrapping an arm around Weiss. "Come on, let's get you home."
"Well," Vaughn stopped in front of Sydney. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes."
Sydney smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Did you have a good time?"
Vaughn sidled up closer. "Let's just say, if we ever have a daughter, we're adopting her out at the age of fifteen."
"That bad, hey?"
"Actually it was a lot of fun. Full- on, but fun." Vaughn replied. "How was your week?"
"Not bad. I missed you, though."
Vaughn leaned into her ear. "I missed you, too," he whispered.
"And just how much did you miss me?" Sydney asked playfully, wanting nothing more than to be swept up in his arms. But given that they were currently standing in his school's car park, with staff, students and parents milling about, that wasn't really an option
Vaughn, also mindful of their situation, glanced over his shoulder before answering quietly. "How about you take me home and I'll show you how much."
Sydney grinned and grabbed one of his bags.