Thank you all for your feedback

aliasmydrugofchoice: Thanks for your comments, and in answer to your question, I am currently working on a third installment to this fic, so if the interest is there I will be posting another sequel (what exactly do you call a second sequel?...:D)

"So it was a good weekend?" Ainsley asked as she and Sydney sat, watching Vaughn, Weiss and the rest of the team fight it out on the ice.

"Fantastic," Sydney replied. "Just what we needed."

"Hey, are you busy Saturday?" Ainsley piped up after a few minutes silence between the two.

"I don't think so. Why?"

"Francie and I were thinking of doing a little shopping."

Sydney stared at her incredulously. "You got Francie to agree to shopping on a weekend? She is going to leave the restaurant under the care of somebody else?"

Ainsley grinned. "What can I say? After three years with Eric, some of the charm was bound to rub off."

Sydney just shook her head as her mobile began ringing in her bag. As she pawed through it, she was having no luck in retrieving the phone.

"Too much junk…stuff it," she muttered, up ending the bag and emptying its contents on the seat beside her. Spotting the phone, she answered it, ignoring the snickers coming from Ainsley's direction.

"Who was it?" Ainsley asked after Sydney had hung up.

"Tessa," she replied, starting to pick up the mess beside her. "The finishing touches on the dresses are completed and they're ready to be picked up."

Ainsley let out a small squeal. "Can you believe that in about three weeks time we'll be wearing them?"

Sydney grinned. "Scary, isn't it?"

Ainsley said something in reply but Sydney did not hear what she was saying. Something amidst her belongings had caught her eyes. Picking up the card, she looked at it closer.

"Syd?" Ainsley waved a hand in front of her face. "What is it?"

"A business card," Sydney replied, still staring at it.

"Well, yeah I can see that." Ainsley said with a small laugh. "But why is it so interesting?"

"It's from the woman who hit Donovan." Sydney looked up at Ainsley. "She's a caterer."

"She'll do it!" Sydney exclaimed ecstatically as she hung up the phone on Wednesday morning. "She can do it!" She jumped slightly as she threw her arms around Vaughn.

Keira had bee more than happy to take on the job- Sydney had a feeling that she was still feeling really guilty about the whole Donovan incident- and to top it off, her costs were even better than the original caterer.

"You know," Sydney said. "I had completely forgotten about her. If I hadn't have had to empty my bag yesterday, I would never have found that card and would still be panicking over how we were going to feed our guests."

Vaughn smiled. "So I guess we can say that everything is working out."

Sydney rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "Ok, ok. Now is the time that I say that you were right."

Vaughn placed a hand behind his ear. "What was that again? I didn't quite catch it."

"Don't get too cocky," Sydney laughed. "There's still the music to figure out."

"Ah, that should be a piece of cake." Vaughn replied. "If worse gets to worse, we'll get Weiss to sing."

Sydney froze for a second and then grabbed her keys off the kitchen bench. "I am going to pretend that I didn't hear that."

Vaughn was still laughing as they walked out the front door.

"So what's on the agenda for today?" Vaughn asked Ainsley Saturday afternoon. Both she and Weiss had arrived a few minutes before.

"Just a bit of shopping," Ainsley replied as Sydney searched for her keys on the kitchen bench.

Weiss couldn't help but snort. He knew exactly what they had planned and it was not shopping. Sitting next to Vaughn on the couch, he got himself comfortable. There was not a chance that he was going back home.

Vaughn, hearing the snort, turned to his best friend. "What was that?"

"It was nothing." Ainsley interrupted, her voice sweet but her expression fierce. "He's just having a bit of a sinus problem. Right Eric?"

"Uh, right." Weiss shifted uncomfortably under Ainsley's glare.

"Found 'em!" Sydney announced and turned to Ainsley. "You ready to go?"

Ainsley nodded and headed towards the front door. "See you." She called to Vaughn and Weiss over her shoulder.

"Yeah, see you." Sydney added. "Hope you're feeling better soon, Weiss."

Out in the car, Ainsley suddenly gasped and grabbed her bag.

"What is it?" Sydney asked.

"Damn!" Ainsley slammed her palm against the steering wheel and then turned to Sydney. "I forgot my wallet."

"So," Sydney shrugged. "We go back to yours and get it."

"I can't believe I did that." Ainsley muttered as she backed out of the driveway. "We are going to be late picking up Francie."

Sydney laughed. "The amount of times that Francie has made us wait, I don't think that she can really complain."

As soon as the front door had closed, Vaughn turned straight to Weiss. "Ok, spill."

"What?" Weiss's eyes never left the TV.

"If you've got a sinus problem then I'll go jump." Vaughn shot back. "Ainsley obviously isn't taking Sydney shopping. What are they doing to her?"

Weiss sighed. "They are throwing her a surprise bridal shower."

"Oh." It wasn't quite as exciting as Vaughn had been expecting. "Is that all?"

"Is that all?" Weiss repeated in bewilderment. "Is that all? Do you know what I had to go through while they were planning this stupid thing? They reverted back to one of those girly cliques at high school- giggling and gossiping. Oh, and the squealing. It sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it." Weiss looked directly at Vaughn. "It got me thinking. If this is what it's like when girls get together, then perhaps those sleepovers we fantasized about in high school weren't exactly a picture of reality."

"Uh, excuse me?" Vaughn blinked. "We?"

"Do you know what they have done to the apartment?" Weiss asked and then kept going, not waiting for an answer from Vaughn. "It's pretty! There are flowers and tea candles…oh my god, I know what tea candles are." Weiss smacked his forehead. "And helium balloons."

"What's wrong with balloons?"

"Nothing- except that Ainz would not let me inhale one. Not even one measly little balloon."

"That sounds terrible." Vaughn said, attempting to sound sympathetic and keep a straight face.

"And Francie made all this food and it smelled so good…but every time my hand went near one of those quiches it got slapped like a bug."

He looked over at Vaughn and knew straight away that his friend was struggling to hold back his laughter.

"It's not funny Vaughn!" Weiss threw himself back onto the couch. "You have no idea what I've been subjected to. It's like the oestrogen is taking over the house…waiting to take me over."

That was it. Vaughn burst out laughing. A deep loud laugh that soon had his belly aching.

"Oh, Weiss," he said breathlessly, managing to catch his breath for a second.

"Glad that my predicament is so amusing to you, Vaughn."

"Ok," Vaughn sat up. "How about I give Will and Craig a call. Maybe we could do something with them that will help with your, er, oestrogen problem."

"I'm going to be the bigger man-and don't even think about it!" Weiss added quickly, seeing the look on Vaughn's face. "I'm going to be the bigger man and ignore that last dig. But other than that I like what you said. Go give them a call."

"Ainsley, I don't see why I have to come in and get your wallet with you." Sydney said as Ainsley dragged her up to the front door.

"You can help me look," Ainsley replied, putting her key in the lock.

Sydney just shook her head as Ainsley pushed the door open. Sometimes it was just simpler not to question her friend's motives.

"SURPRISE!"

Sydney stopped short, completely disorientated. Ainsley and Weiss's living room seemed to be filled with every single one of her female friends. There was Francie, Amy, Danielle, Juliette, Carrie, Diane Dixon and more. Friends from university, colleague's from Ken Olin…even Francie and Ainsley's mums were there.

"What is this?" Sydney asked, slightly dazed.

"It's your bridal shower." Ainsley replied, grabbing her arm and pulling her forward.

"My what?"

"Your bridal shower," Francie said, walking up. "We thought it was time to throw you one since the wedding is only three weeks away."

By this point Sydney had recovered from the shock. "You didn't have to do this," she protested.

"Yes, we did." Amy said firmly.

"But…but what about the hen's night next weekend. I don't need two parties."

"Oh, next week is going to be completely different from today," Ainsley laughed.

"Yeah," Francie agreed. "Think of it this way. You and Michael didn't have an engagement party, so today is kind of like that- for everybody." She leaned in. "I mean, you have to give everyone a chance to celebrate with you. You can't exactly have Juliette coming to the hen's night. Imagine what that would do to her perception of you?"

"Oh, my perception of Sydney covers the good and the bad, the calm and the wild." Juliette said, coming up behind them and causing Francie to jump. "You seem to forget that I was once in Sydney's position."

Sydney simply smiled as she gave Juliette a big hug. "Thank you for coming."

"I wouldn't have missed it," Juliette replied. "Great food, good wine, some in-depth gossip and my favourite daughter to be. I can't think of a better way to spend my time. Can you?"

Sydney shrugged as she was led to the couch and handed a glass of wine. It never failed to amaze her just how incredible her friends were.

Vaughn and Weiss were just heading out from the front door to go meet Will and Craig when the phone rang.

"Are you gonna get that?" Weiss asked.

"Nah, the machine can get it." Vaughn replied, closing the door as his voice rang out behind them.

Hi, you've reached Sydney and Michael…ouch! What…ok,ok, you've reached Sydney and Vaughn. Leave us a message and we'll get back to you, Thanks.

"Uh, hi. This is Zack from Maquerade. Just wanted to let you know that we have found a new singer, so if you still want us, all will be good for the wedding. If you could please call me back to confirm this that would be great. Thanks."

"Ok, see you. Thanks for coming." Sydney called, waving off some of the guests. She headed back to the living room where Juliette was keeping Ainsley, Francie and Amy amused with tales of the misadventures that Vaughn and Weiss had got up yo when they were younger.

"I don't know who was the dumber of the two," she was saying. "Eric for suggesting they jump off the shed roof, or Michael for going along with it. They still have scars from the incident today."

Sydney, who had heard many of these stories from Juliette before, smiled and sat down as Ainsley let out a peal of laughter.

"Oh," she wiped her eyes. "You are fantastic. Lillian hasn't told me half of this stuff. I've never had so much ammunition- ever!"

"So Syd," Francie handed her another glass of wine. "Did you have a good time?"

Sydney nodded. "I'm impressed that you guys kept it from me."

"And now," Amy clapped her hands together. "We have next weekend to look forward to!"

"Hell yeah!" Ainsley cheered and then proceeded to drain her wine glass.

Juliette turned to Sydney. "I now see why she and Eric get along so well."

Sydney grinned. "A match made in heaven, hey?"

Juliette nodded. "And they're not the only ones."