Tasha kissed Robbie lightly and they hugged. They were married! Both could barely believe it after the events of the past months. At that moment Martha approached them.

"Tash, Robman," she said cheerfully. "This was meant to be an engagement party, not a wedding ceremony."

"Yeah you two don't waste any time do you?" said Jack coming up beside Martha.

"We love each other. We know that now, so what's the point of waiting to say it in six months time?" Robbie replied, and hugged Tasha to his side.

Martha and Jack looked at each other and laughed. "You too are such hopeless romantics," Martha teased.

"You would be too Mac if you'd been through what we have in the past few months," Tasha said.

"Oh I doubt it," Jack grinned. "Martha doesn't have a romantic bone in her body." "Excuse me!" Martha exclaimed. "Like you can talk. The ONLY romantic thing you have ever done for me is to cook dinner on our first date and that was six months ago. And even then you tried to pass off chicken legs as pigs' trotters."

Jack chuckled thinking of the joke he had played at Martha's expense. "The look on your face. 'No, no, just waiting for you'," Jack said mimicking Martha's tone as he recalled her response to his enquiry about whether she didn't like his cooking. "Talk about gullible."

"Oh stop bickering you two. You never know, it might be you guys next up the isle?" Robbie said cheekily.

"I don't think so!" Martha was quick to rebut Robbie's claim. "One, I'm not the marrying kind. And two, I'm waiting for someone better to come along," turning to Jack and giving him a pointed look.

"You and me both MacKenzie," and they turned to face each other, smirking.

"Well in that case, I might go off and start looking for that special someone right now. I suggest you do the same." With that Martha stalked off to get herself a drink. "Someone's in the dog box," Robbie teased. Jack grinned ruefully. "What? She can dish it out but she can't take it?" he asked.

"Jack, you can't tell your girlfriend you're waiting for someone better to come along, even if you are joking," Tasha sighed. "Honestly, guys can be so clueless."

"Hey is that your now newly official in the eyes of the law husband you're talking about?" Robbie asked.

"No Rob. I'm the clueless one in this relationship, thinking how close I came to leaving you for Jonah."

"Hey don't worry about that, it's all over now," and Robbie kissed Tasha on the forehead before giving her a warm hug. Seeing Tash and Rob now absorbed in their post-marital bliss Jack left them to it and went to get a beer and think about how he might get back into Martha's good books.

"Hey babe," Jack said approaching Martha who was sitting on the coach in Irene's living room chatting to Ric.

"Babe? Don't ever babe me Jack, you know how much I hate that vile word."

"Ok, sorry babe," Jack grinned and then seeing Martha's dark look, "ok, ok, sorry Martha. Hey you're not really angry with me about before are you?" Martha couldn't help but think that his concern was kind of cute, but she decided to make him squirm.

"I might be."

"Oh come on, I was only joking and anyway you started it."

"Oh great, I'm going out with a five year old."

"Ok, ok, I'm sorry, but you have to come with me."

"Why?"

"I've got something for you…something romantic."

"What?" Martha's face broke into a curious smile. "You!"

"Yes me, now come on." He pulled Martha up from the coach and she didn't resist.

"See ya later Ric," Jack said and Ric raised his hand in acknowledgement, a slightly bemused look on his face.

"Where are we going?" Martha inquired, as she found herself being dragged by Jack along the foreshore.

"Come on," said Jack, ignoring her question and leading her down the steps onto the beach.

"Woa, slow down Jack, you're practically ripping my arm off," protested Martha as Jack kept pulling her along the sand.

"Here we are," Jack said excitedly and looked at Martha expectantly.

"Mmmmm," Martha glanced around her and wondered what she was meant to be looking at. She was standing on the hard sand near the waters edge a few hundred meters along from the surf club. "It's…lovely…um, I've always loved the beach," Martha said, trying hard to sound impressed.

Jack laughed. "This isn't the romantic part silly!"

"Phew, because I'm really not seeing what's so special."

"Ok, I've got something for you." Jack seemed nervous but excited and fumbling slightly he pulled a small blue velvet box out of the pocket of his black suit pants.

When Martha saw the box come out she felt her heart miss a beat out of sheer surprise and horror. Oh my god, she thought. He's going to propose? I said one romantic gesture, not something completely insane. Oh my god, what am I going to do? I'll have to say no, but I don't want to hurt his feelings. Oh you stupid idiot Martha, why did you even mention romance? If you hadn't pushed the issue he would never have got this ridiculous idea into his head.

While these thoughts were racing through Martha's mind Jack was staring at her expectantly. "Well come on," he said at last. "Take it. Open it." Martha gulped and smiling weakly she took the box from him. "Jack…" she began, wondering how she was going to break it to him. But Jack wasn't listening. "Come on, open it!" he said impatiently and with that Martha snapped the box open, deciding this moment would be like ripping off a bandaid. The quicker she let Jack down the better.