Thank you all so much for your feedback.

specialfrog: I thought that it was about time that I had an Aussie in this story. And I know exactly what you mean about your daily dose of Vegemite- I can't get by without mine either!

Ellie: Sydney is just over seven months gone.

vaughnfan: The colours are actual shades. We had a few paint catalogue's lying around the house,so I grabbed one and just put in random colours.

Five Stories Fallen: Nat's (I'm assuming that you were talking about Nat- Ana is from my other fic :D) story is one that I came up with myself. Not based on anyone I know, or a book character. And of course she will be meeting Sydney and Francie soon.

Tuesday night Sydney and Ainsley were sitting up in the bleachers at the hockey rink, watching as Vaughn, Weiss, Will, Craig and the rest of the team warm up. The plan was that, after the game, everybody would head over to Deep Inside for a big group dinner.

"So, how is everything going with Phase One?" Sydney asked Ainsley.

"Cam and I sign the papers on Friday." Ainsley replied, her face glowing. "As of then I will officially be a partner in the business."

"That's awesome…" Sydney trailed off as she noticed a tall blonde walk in, almost hesitantly. "Ainz," Sydney nudged her. "What do you think?"

Ainsley looked over. "Oh, its gotta be her. The way Will described her."

"But how can we be sure?"

"One way," Ainsley said, cupping her hands around her mouth.

"Ainsley!" Sydney hissed. "No."

Too late. "Hey Nat!" she yelled out.

Nat turned, a surprised look on her face. Ainsley waved her hand, motioning for her to come over, and Nat did so.

"Hi," Ainsley smiled. "We were just wondering would you happen to be Nat Freedman?"

"Uh…yeah." Nat's brow furrowed. "How did you…"

"We guessed." Sydney said. "We're friends of Will." She gestured towards Ainsley. "This is Ainsley and I'm Sydney."

Recognition dawned on Nat's face. "Oh, hi." She sat down beside Sydney. "Finally, I get to put some faces to the names."

"Ditto," Ainsley said. "Are you and Will coming to Deep Inside after the game?"

"I think so. He mentioned dinner. Deep Inside? That's the place that your friend owns, right?"

Sydney nodded. "Yup. Francie. You'll get to meet her…"

"And everybody else." Ainsley added. "Though Syd and Fran are the ones that you're going to want to get to know if you want any juicy gossip on Will."

"Right." Nat laughed, looking out onto the rink. "So do you think that Will's freaking out at the fact that I'm sitting here with you?"

"A little. It would be a lot worse if Francie were here." Sydney grinned. "Which means that we are going to have a lot of fun at dinner."

"I love it when you show your evil side, Syd." Ainsley declared.

"It's not my evil side," Sydney protested. "It's my enjoying messing with other people's minds side."

Ainsley laughed. "In other words, your Eric Weiss side?"

Sydney nodded. "To a point."

Nat, who had been following the conversation with a smile, cocked her head. "Eric Weiss? That guy from the radio?" Sydney and Ainsley nodded. "Do you know him?"

"He's right out there on the ice," Sydney said, pointing. "Weiss has been best friends with my husband since their first day of school."

"And I'm sort of married to him." Ainsley added.

"Oh my god. I can't believe I never clicked when Will spoke about his friend Eric!" Nat turned to Ainsley. "And you're married to him? That guy is hilarious! I have listened to his show since day one."

"Oh, please wait until after dinner before telling him that," Ainsley replied. "It's not a good idea to give him an ego boost before eating."

Sydney nodded. "It gives him really bad indigestion."

"Where is the owner? I want to make a complaint." Weiss said, marching up to the hostess at Deep Inside. She must have been new as nobody recognized her, and Weiss saw this as his opportunity to have a little fun.

"But sir," she said, sounding flustered. "You just walked in."

"So? I've just walked in and already I have a list as long as my arm which means—"

"Eric!" Francie's voice cut him off as she appeared beside the hostess. "How many times do I have to tell you not to harass my staff?"

"Um, maybe once more," Weiss grinned.

"Do it again and I will never give you a free dessert here again." Francie said. "Got it?"

"Yes, Francie." Weiss said, sounding like a reprimanded school kid.

"And you can apologise to Leah before I show you all to your table." Francie said with a smile, enjoying every second of this.

Weiss turned back to the hostess. "I'm sorry Leah."

With that, Francie led the group through the restaurant to the table she had set up for them. "I'll join you guys in a sec," she said as they all sat down. "There's just a problem I gotta sort out in the kitchen. Eric, if I hear that you've been causing any problems, you will be the main dish in tomorrow's menu."

When she walked off, Sydney turned to Nat. "And that was Francie."

"Not at her total finest, though." Will pointed out.

Nat grinned. "You mean that she gets even more awesome than that?"

"Awesome?" Weiss repeated, dumbfounded. "She threatened to put me on her menu. Are you calling that awesome?"

"Uh, yeah." Nat replied.

Weiss's eyes widened as Sydney and Ainsley started to laugh. "Oh, you are going to fit right in, Nat. Which is such a very, very bad thing." He looked at Vaughn, Will and Craig. "There's four of them now," he said in a loud whisper. "We should run while we have the chance."

"Alrighty then, Miss Down Under," Weiss said over dinner. "Say that line from Crocodile Dundee for me."

"What line from Crocodile Dundee?" Nat asked.

"You know the one." Weiss said, holding up his knife. "You call that a knife? This is a knife," he drawled in an extremely bad ocker accent.

The table cracked up, Nat laughing the hardest. "Not a chance you are hearing that coming from my mouth."

"Oh come on. Just once." Weiss pleaded.

"Eric," Francie piped up. "Just because Nat is Australian doesn't mean she should be expected to recite lines from Crocodile Dundee."

"I think the pot might be calling the kettle a little black, don't you think Francie?" Vaughn said.

Everybody turned their attention to Vaughn. "What are you talking about, Michael?" Francie asked, looking puzzled.

"Who was it that, when they discovered that my native tongue was French, asked for me to say the line from 'Lady Marmalade'?"

Craig snorted with laughter. "She didn't?"

"She did." Sydney confirmed. "I was there to hear it."

"Oh yeah." Realization dawned on Francie's face. "I remember now. I also remember that you told me you'd say it another time and I still haven't heard it, Michael."

"I bet Syd has though," Ainsley braved.

Weiss went to add something but Vaughn clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Don't," he said. Weiss's eyes widened in an innocent expression. "Can I take my hand away?" Vaughn asked and Weiss nodded. "You can control yourself?" Again Weiss nodded and so Vaughn removed his hand.

In a split second Weiss's expression changed from innocent to wicked. "And I bet she heard it on regular occasions."

"Weiss!" Vaughn slugged him on the upper arm.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Weiss cowered slightly.

Sydney was shaking her head. "How did we get to this point from Crocodile Dundee?"

"Eric and Francie," Will said. "It's always Eric and Francie."

"What?" Francie exclaimed. "How on Earth did I get implicated?"

Vaughn raised his eyebrows. "Voulez-vous coucher ave moi ce soir."

"All right!" Francie cried out. "Yes!"

Weiss turned to Nat, turning on the puppy dog charm. "What about you? Vaughn just put himself out there."

Nat threw up her hands. "Fine, but I want a song dedicated to me on your show tomorrow."

Weiss nodded. "Deal."

"Well Eric, you call that a knife? This," she picked up her own knife, "is a knife." She buried her face in her hands. "I cannot believe I just did that."

"Yeah," Ainsley said. "And you are going to regret it even more when you realize the can of worms you have just opened."

"All right, let's do this thing," Sydney said, walking out into the lounge room Saturday night. "How do I look?" she asked, turning in a circle. "Because I kinda feel like a marshmallow that has expanded in a hot chocolate."

Vaughn laughed. "You look great."

And she did. For the occasion she had dressed in an elegant white dress that fell just below the knee, with heels, her mother's necklace and her hair up in a simple ponytail.

Sydney smiled. "Yeah, well you're looking pretty great yourself," she said, eyeing off Vaughn's suit.

"It seems a waste," Vaughn commented as they headed towards the front door. "Getting all dressed up for a boring 50th." He pulled a face. "I really, really don't want to go."

Sydney laughed. He sounded like a kid who was on the way to the dentist, or something worse. "Let's just turn up, show this principal what a wonderful employee you are,then I will call the 'I'm pregnant and tired' card and we can get the hell out of there."

Vaughn gave her an admiring look as he opened his car door. "What would I do without you?"

"I'll go get some drinks," Vaughn said as he and Sydney walked into the room. Sydney nodded, scanning the room until she saw a familiar face.

"I'll be over with Keely," she said, gesturing to the other side of the room.

"Ok," Vaughn gave her a quick kiss and made his way across to the bar. Unfortunately he was stopped before he could get to his destination.

"Hello Michael."

"Lauren. What are you doing here?" he asked, feigning surprise.

She gave him a haughty smile. "I think you know why I'm here."

"Oh right. Oscar," Vaughn rocked back on his heels and then leaned slightly in. "You do realize that everybody here refers to you as a home wrecker. Except Oscar. I can only imagine what he calls you."

Lauren's upper lip curled faintly. "Now, now, Michael. This is a public event. I think you should try to civil."

"I believe I am," Vaughn replied. "Oh, by the way, how did the job interview go?"

"They, uh, decided to go with somebody else," Lauren's expression darkened.

"Well, that's too bad," Vaughn said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

"It's all for the best. I didn't realize the type of people I would be working with," she said, looking pointedly at Vaughn.

He laughed. "Like who? Oscar Barrett?"

"…And so we decided- oh god." Sydney stopped short. Across the room, she had just seen Lauren approach Vaughn.

"What?" Keely asked, following Sydney's gaze. "Who is that? Wait; is that Oscar's girlfriend? The home wrecking floozy?"

Sydney nodded. "That's the one."

"So that's Michael's ex-girlfriend. Stupid bloody woman."

Sydney looked at Keely, slightly surprised. "Do you know what happened between them?"

"Yeah," Keely replied. "When the word spread that Oscar was dating Michael's ex, I got him to spill. I cannot believe what she did. To Michael! She must be the most oblivious person on the planet."

Sydney cracked up. Keely was echoing her exact thoughts.

"Though, I guess it did work out for the best," Keely smiled.

"Yeah," Sydney said softly, her hand going to her stomach. "I guess it has." She glanced back at Vaughn. "I think I might head over there, suss out if he needs rescuing."

"Ok, I'm sure I'll be speaking to you later."

"I'm counting on it," Sydney smiled. "Vaughn and I are relying on you for entertainment tonight."

"It's pretty obvious that you're well informed about my relationships, but what about yours?" Lauren asked. "Are you still married?"

Vaughn just looked at her, his eyebrows raised.

"Ok…I take that as a yes. So is everything going well with Sindy?"

"It's Sydney and—" Vaughn stopped, his face breaking into a smile as Sydney came up from behind Lauren and positioned herself next to him. Giving her a peck on the cheek, he turned back to Lauren, who at the sight of Sydney's swelling figure could not keep the surprise off her face. "And things are pretty incredible, actually."

Sydney, biting her bottom lip to stop herself from laughed, looked at Vaughn. "I was just talking with Keely. She wanted to discuss next week with you."

"Right, I should probably get over there then." He leaned in to kiss her on the cheek and when he got near her ear, he whispered "thank you."

"I'll get the drinks," Sydney said and when Vaughn walked off, she turned to Lauren. "If you will excuse me."

"Wait a second." Lauren's voice stopped Sydney. "So…you're pregnant."

Sydney looked at Lauren, trying to gauge where this conversation would be headed. "Uh, yeah."

"And Michael's the father?" Lauren sounded casually, but Sydney knew exactly what she was insinuating, and decided that it was time for a little fun.

"Well, actually…" Sydney paused. "This doesn't go beyond us, right?"

Lauren's eyes widened, almost with glee. "Of course. You can trust me."

Sydney bit her lip, trying not to laugh. Trust her? "Vaughn isn't the father."

"Does he know?"

Sydney shook her head. "No. And he never will."

"So, who is?"

Sydney leaned in to whisper in her ear. "Oscar Barrett."

Lauren's jaw dropped. "What? Are you serious?"

Sydney cracked up. "Of course not. Who do you think I am? You?" She took a deep breath, trying to control her laughter. "Now, I have some drinks to get. Good bye Lauren."

"So the rescue mission was a success?" Keely said as Vaughn approached her.

"Yeah. Apparently you want to discuss next week with me." Vaughn replied.

Keely smiled. "I like it. A nice, unobvious choice. Much better than 'so and so wants to talk about that thing'."

Vaughn laughed. "I didn't care how subtle or unsubtle Syd was, I just wanted out of that conversation."

Keely nodded, looking over to where Sydney was standing at the bar. "Syd is looking great."

Vaughn smiled. "Yeah."

"How long now?"

"About two months," Vaughn replied.

"That day will be here before you know it," Keely said.

"So I've heard," he said, unable to keep the grin off his face.

"And I take it somebody is getting a tad excited," Keely observed.

"Is it that obvious?" Vaughn asked as Sydney came up with glasses in hand.

"What are you talking about?" she asked.

"You, of course." Keely said.

"Only good things I hope." Sydney smiled.

"After that rescue you'll be getting good comments for a week," Vaughn replied.

"Only a week?" Sydney pouted. "I think I just might abandon you next time."

"Now, now, you two," Keely clapped her hands together. "I can't have you turning on each other. We need to stick together in order to make tonight bearable."

Sydney let out a small laugh. "All of us? We were counting on you for entertainment."

"Well," Keely paused, taking a mouthful of her drink and then smiling. "You shout me a few more of these and I'll see what I can do."