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obsessed101: The baby's name will be original.

Early Wednesday afternoon, Weiss walked into Phase One, bellowing at the top of his lungs.

"Where's that big boss redhead? The hot one. The one I'm married to? Come here, my little mermaid. Ainsley! Where are you?"

Ainsley, who had been in the storeroom, came out laughing and shaking her head. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were trying to embarrass me, Eric Weiss."

"Who me?" Weiss gave an innocent look.

"Yes, you." Ainsley shot back.

"I would never do that," Weiss said, planting a kiss on her forehead. "You're too hard to embarrass."

Ainsley grinned. "Like somebody else I know," she said, pulling up a stool at the bar. "So, what do I have the pleasure of your company for?"

"Do I need a reason to drop in and see my lovely wife?" Weiss asked.

"Eric, this is me you are talking to. Cut out the charm act- I'm immune."

Weiss grinned. "Oh, you really think that?"

Ainsley eyed him. "Eric, I am not buying you a Hummer for Christmas."

"Oh!" Weiss exclaimed indignantly. "So that's why you think I dropped by. For your information, I do not have a hidden agenda."

"Really?" Ainsley asked dubiously.

"Really." Weiss affirmed. "I just have something to tell you."

"What?"

"Joey called just before I left the house. He can get those concert tickets for Francie- front row centre."

Ainsley's eyes lit up. "Excellent! She is going to love them." She gave Weiss a quick kiss. "Thank you for doing that."

In four days time it would be Deep Inside's one-year anniversary, and so, of course, Francie was throwing a party at the restaurant to celebrate. The rest of the group had wanted to get her a congratulatory gift and collectively had come up with the idea of tickets to see her favourite band. However,they had sold out almost immediately and so they all turned to Weiss and his connections at the station. Luckily, he had come through.

"Just make sure that Francie knows what I went through to get them." Weiss said. "Cos, I'm gonna want a free soufflé after this."

Ainsley laughed. "We'll see. But right now I gotta call Syd and let her know that there is no longer any need for a back up gift."

"And I had better head to the station." Weiss leaned in to give Ainsley a kiss. "I'll see you tonight."

Ainsley nodded. "Love you."

"Love you, too."

Wednesday afternoon Vaughn got home from school before Sydney and had just sat himself on the couch with some marking when the front door opened.

"Oh," he heard Sydney groaned as she walked in and dumped her bag by the kitchen bench. "I've had it." She made her way over and sat beside Vaughn. "I've had it."

"With what?" Vaughn asked. "School?"

"Nope," Sydney shook her head. "With being pregnant."

Vaughn raised his eyebrows. "Oh really?"

"Yup. I made the decision today. I'm sick of it. I want this kid out- now."

Vaughn had to laugh. "Somehow I don't think it works that way."

"I don't care how it works." Sydney said bluntly.

"So what brought on this decision?" Vaughn asked.

"Well," Sydney manoeuvred herself so that she was lying down, with her head on Vaughn's lap. "Your child decided that it would be funny to kick me- all day."

"My child?" Vaughn said defensively. "Excuse me?"

Sydney just grinned. "No matter what I was doing- proverbs with my year sevens, creative writing with the year tens or Great Expectations with my year twelves, Boo was just kicking. I got bruises on the inside." She looked up at Vaughn. "I think we've go a trouble maker on our hands."

Vaughn laughed. "That would be our luck."

"Tell me about it," Sydney said, as she broke into a large yawn.

"Tired?" Vaughn said as he ran a hand over her hair.

Sydney nodded, struggling to keep her eyes open. Vaughn just smiled and continued to stroke Sydney's hair, as her eyes grew more and more drowsy. It wasn't long before she was fast asleep.

Carefully, as not to disturb her, Vaughn picked up the pile of worksheets in front of him and began to work through them. Immersed in his work, he lost track of time and started a little when Sydney suddenly jerked.

Sitting up, she pushed her hair out of her face and looked at Vaughn, her eyes slightly wide.

"What?" he asked.

"It was E.T." Sydney replied.

Vaughn blinked, unsure if he had heard correctly. "Excuse me?"

"Our baby." Sydney said. "Our baby looked like E.T," she shuddered.

Vaughn clicked. "A dream?"

Sydney nodded. "It was just lying in Boo's cot with those eyes and it pointed at me." She looked at Vaughn, who was starting to chuckle. "Don't laugh! It's not funny."

"Having an E.T baby?" Vaughn said. "I happen to think that it's hilarious."

"You just don't understand how freaky that alien is."

Vaughn grinned. "That's just your irrational fear speaking."

"It is not an irrational fear!" Sydney said insistently, yet was unable to fight the smile that was forming on her face. "Ok, maybe a teeny little bit irrational."

"Teeny?" Vaughn said, giving her an unconvinced look.

Sydney waved the comment off. "But irrational or not, it is still a fear and seeing that…that thing in our baby's cot is not something I want to see. Ever."

"Well," Vaughn shifted closer to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Somehow, I don't think that will happen. But, if it did," he smiled, patting her belly, "you would have some serious explaining to do."

Sydney's last class in Friday was a group of year tens- the same form that she had been teaching for the past three and a half years. She had been their form teacher when they were in year seven. A real affinity had been established between them- the brand new teacher, along with the brand new high school students. By chance, Sydney had been their English teacher every year since and the bond they shared had only got stronger.

Sydney decided against planning any specific classes- there was no way she would be concentrating, and instead the class just sat back and relaxed, talking and gossiping. However, when there was about ten minutes to go, the class quietened down.

"Uh, Mrs Vaughn," one of the girls spoke up.

"Yes, Chantelle."

"Um, we got you a little something," she replied, holding out a wrapped present.

Sydney's eyes widened slightly. "You what?"

"We wanted to get you a good bye present." Chantelle explained.

Sydney took the present, feeling a small lump form in her throat. "You guys didn't have to do this."

"Yeah, we did," the unofficial class clown, Matt piped. "We can't have you running off and forgetting us."

Sydney grinned. "Somehow, I don't think I'll be forgetting any of you any time soon."

"Well, are you going to open it?" another student asked.

Sydney nodded. As she ripped away the paper, a sliver photo frame was revealed. Along the bottom was an inscription:

The world's greatest teacher is now the world's greatest mum

Sydney was speechless. She couldn't believe that her student had taken the initiative to do something so incredibly thoughtful. Feeling a familiar prickle behind her eyes, Sydney let out a short laugh.

"You guys are going to make me cry," she managed to say. "Thank you."

"Hey Syd," Dixon stepped into their office after classes had finished. "I thought I'd give you a heads up. There's a small…well, maybe not so small get together congregating in the staff room as we speak."

Sydney smiled. "I figured something would be going down. I just wanted to get the last of my stuff into the car before I head over."

"You want some help?"

"That would be great," Sydney said, gratefully. "Can you grab that bag? It'll save me from doing two trips."

"Sure thing." Dixon picked it up and the two of them made their way out to the staff car park. "Looking forward to your time off?"

"Actually, I really am." Sydney replied. "I was a little apprehensive about finishing, but it will be nice to have some time to myself, to relax…to start freaking out."

Dixon chuckled. "I know what you're talking about."

Sydney grinned as they reached her car. "I'm just hoping I can hold the freak outs off until after Christmas and New Years. After that, it doesn't matter how terrified I get."

"You've got nothing to be scared about, Syd." Dixon said, slamming the boot shut.

"I'm glad that one of us can be so sure," Sydney quipped.

"How can I not be sure when I know so well?" Dixon asked.

Sydney laughed. "You flatter me."

"Only because you return the compliments." Dixon shot back. "Now, come on. There's a large group of teachers about to be released for the weekend who are waiting for your appearance. Let's go have some fun."