Wednesday afternoon Sydney settled herself on the living room floor, finally getting around to writing the thank you notes. Emilie was on the floor beside, lying upon a fuzzy pink blanket. A gift from Keely, actually. However, as Sydney tried to concentrate on her task she found herself being easily distracted by her daughter, instead.

When she heard a knock on the door, she laughed as she stood up. "I think something is trying to tell me that I am never going to get these done, hey Em?" she said, as she bent over and picked up her daughter. "Ten dollars it's Grandmère," she murmured into Emilie's ear as she walked to the front door.

Sydney was wrong. It wasn't Juliette, but Francie.

"Hey," Sydney greeted her with a bright smile. "Come in."

"How are you?" Francie asked as they settled down on the couch.

"I'm great," Sydney replied. "So what's with the mid-day visit? Aren't you usually playing restaurant boss around now?"

"I left my assistant manager in charge," Francie replied. "It's been way too long since we've had a catch up. Just us two."

Sydney grinned. "Not just the two of us anymore."

Francie returned the grin. "Speaking of which…" she said, holding out her hands.

Obligingly, Sydney handed Emilie over. "I guess that I should get used to people coming over to see Em instead of me, hey?"

Francie let out a small laugh. "I'm here to see you, Emilie is just some extra incentive."

"Right. So what did you come to see me about then?" Sydney asked.

"To let you know that I'm having a birthday dinner thing Sunday night."

"Oh. Where."

"My place."

Sydney looked at her. "You're cooking your own birthday dinner?"

"No way," Francie replied adamantly. "I'm going to order in an obscene amount of Chinese and we are going to have a relaxed night in. that way everybody will be free to focus on the birthday girl…two weeks late or not."

Sydney felt a small surge of guilt. "Francie, I am so sorry you had to push this—"

"Sydney, don't even go there." Francie directed. "It's worked out better this way."

"How?" Sydney asked.

"Well, if you hadn't have Emilie when you did, you would have been the size of a house and grumpy—"

"Grumpy?" Sydney sounded a little indignant.

Francie raised her eyebrows. "Syd, come on."

Sydney bit her bottom lip, trying to stop herself from laughing. "Ok, ok," she said. "Keep going."

"So now, you're back to good, old relaxed Syd and," Francie looked down at Emilie, "this way little Em gets to celebrate her Aunty Francie's birthday."

"So what did you do on your actual birthday? You can't tell me you did absolutely nothing."

"I went out with Craig," Francie said and Sydney could easily hear the change of tone in her friend's voice.

"So, things are going good with him?" Sydney asked, though she was already pretty sure of the answer.

"They're incredible, Syd." Francie replied moonily. "I don't know how to describe it, but everything just feels right. This Sunday it will five months since we first starting dating." She paused and looked to be collecting her thoughts. "I'm almost scared to talk about it in case I jinx it something."

Sydney smiled. "It's good to hear you talking like this, Francie."

Francie nodded. "It feels good to be able to speak this way."

Friday afternoon Sydney got Emilie secured into her capsule and headed off towards Abrams College. The plan was to surprise Vaughn with a visit during lunchtime.

"Sydney!" Clara stood up when Sydney approached the front reception. "What are doing here?"

"I thought I would surprise Vaughn," Sydney explained. "Would you be able to page him for me?"

"Of course. I'll just be a minute." It wasn't long before an announcement requesting Vaughn's presence at the office was heard. Seconds later Clara was back. "He is going to love this."

"So I figured," Sydney grinned, placing Emilie's capsule up on the desk.

Clara peered in. "Oh, she is beautiful, Sydney."

"Yeah," Sydney replied. "We happen to think so."

"How is she at night?"

Sydney smiled. "Not getting quite as much sleep as we would like, but it could be a whole lot worse."

"Well, you are looking great." Clara commented.

"Syd?" Vaughn's voice broke into the conversation. "What are you doing here?"

"Emilie wanted to come and see her dad at work," Sydney replied, tilting her head to accept a kiss from Vaughn. "Surprised?"

"Just a bit," Vaughn grinned. "Thanks for doing this."

"Hey, it was nothing." Sydney said. "I figured it was about time that we start to show off our gorgeous little girl. Who better to start with than the lovely folk at Abrams?" She looked at Clara. "Right?"

Clara nodded as Vaughn unclipped Emilie's restraints and gently lifted her into his arms. "It's a parent's prerogative."

"Hey Em," Vaughn pressed his lips onto the top of her head. He looked at Sydney. "We'd better go see Keely first. She'll kill us if we don't."

"Ok," Sydney nodded and then turned to Clara. "I'll see you on my way out?"

"Ok, I'll—" Clara cut off, distracted by something over Sydney's shoulder. "Excuse me? Excuse me, miss, but you have to sign in."

"What?" An irritated voice shot back. Vaughn's head snapped up and when he saw who it was, his gaze averted to Sydney. Like him, she looked as if she were about to laugh.

"I am here practically here every single day. Why does this place insist on this ridiculous protocol? I am not here to commit any crimes, I am simply here—" Lauren stopped short when she spotted Vaughn. "Michael. Hello."

"Hi Lauren." As his arms were full, he nodded towards Sydney. "You remember Syd?"

Lauren glanced at her. "Yes," she sighed, her eyes falling upon Emilie. "Is she yours?" she asked, bluntly.

"Yes," Vaughn couldn't keep the pride out of his voice. "This is Emilie and she is ours."

Lauren sniffed. "Well, she's cute." She sounded almost sincere.

Vaughn looked at Sydney and saw the amused smile on her face. "If you'll excuse us, Lauren, we need to go."

"Yeah, bye." Lauren walked up to the desk. "So where is this stupid book I have to sign?"

Sydney came up to Vaughn's side and the two of them made their way towards Vaughn's office.

"Come on," he said. "Keely awaits."

"Mmm," Sydney sniffed appreciatively as she walked out to the kitchen early Saturday evening. "Something smells good."

Vaughn grinned, wiping his hands on a tea towel. "Thank you," he replied.

"So what is it?"

"Red snapper in a wine and garlic sauce."

"Nice," Sydney smiled. "We should invite our parents over for dinner every night if you are going to cook like this."

"Well, I'm sure that if maman had her own way she would be here every night…and day." Vaughn laughed. "She called while you were in the shower."

"What about?"

"She suggested that you and I go out for dinner by ourselves. Said that she would be more than happy to take care of Emilie for us."

Sydney grinned. "I can't help but think that there are going to be fights when we leave Em with a baby-sitter for the first time. Either than or we leave her under the care of Juliette, dad, Francie, Ainsley, Weiss and whoever else is banging at the door for the job." She walked over to Emilie's bassinet, which had been placed beside the couch. "Because you are just Little Miss Popularity, aren't you/" she said, lifting her out.

"And why wouldn't she be?" Vaughn asked, stirring a pot on the stove. "How could anybody not love her?"

Sydney looked over at him and smiled. "And you're not biased, of course?"

"Of course not."

"Right," Sydney caught a glance at the clock on the wall. "I'd better get Boo here dressed. Get ready for lots of kisses and cuddles," she said to Emilie as she walked to the nursery. "Because the grandparents will be here very soon."

"What did you just say?" Sydney asked her dad, thankful that she had no food or drink in her mouth. If that had been the case she would have choked for sure.

"I said that I liked that movie as well," Jack repeated.

Sydney and Vaughn glanced at each other. Over dinner the conversation had somehow found it's way to movies. When Vaughn had mentioned that Porky's had been a favourite of his and Weiss's in high school, Jack had piped up.

"I remember that movie," Juliette mused aloud as she rocked slowly in her seat, Emilie's cradled in her arms. "You and Eric were always watching it."

Sydney turned back to Jack. "When would have you seen Porky's?" she asked, grinning. It never failed to amaze her just how full of surprises Jack Bristow was.

"It was on T.V one night. I got sucked in." Jack replied with a shrug.

"Porky's?" Vaughn asked, slightly dumbfounded.

"Yes." Jack had been about to take a mouthful of wine but placed it back on the table. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Oh Jack" Juliette laughed. "Do you even have to ask that question?"

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, his face blank.

"Don't give me that," Juliette admonished. "You know exactly what I am talking about."

A quick smile crossed Jack's face as he raised his glass to his mouth ad Sydney cracked up. She didn't know what was funnier. Her father revealing his love for Porky's or Juliette putting him in his place.

"Any other surprises you want to reveal tonight, Jack?" Vaughn asked, as he stood up and started clearing plates.

"No, I think I'll wait until next time," Jack replied.

Sydney was shaking her head. "My entire perception of you has been completely changed, dad."

"Yes, well the same thing happened to me on your wedding day when your friends revealed your antics on a podium," Jack replied with a dead-straight face.

"Oh!" Vaughn let out a loud laugh. "He's got you there."

Jack turned to him. "And after hearing about your proposal and little fascination with Alice in Wonderland, I have never been able to look at you the same, Michael."

"Stick with me, Emilie," Juliette said. "The rest of the family, they're not normal. I'll keep you sane."

"You sure you want to go there, maman?" Vaughn asked.

"Go where?" Juliette asked innocently.

"Hmm…" Vaughn paused, a cheeky look on his face. "How about my surprise 18th? You drinking a little too much with Lillian and ending up on a table dancing?"

Juliette let out a peal of laughter. "You know, I only have very dim memories of that."

"I wonder why," Vaughn retorted, coming back over to the table.

"Poor Em," Sydney said. "A grandfather who loves Porky's, a grandmere who gets drunk and dances on tables. A mother who gets drunk and dances on podiums and a father with an obsession for a cartoon character. I wonder what she'll grow up to be?"

"Anything she wants to be," Jack spoke up, and Vaughn turned to Sydney, a grin on his face.

"He's right."

"I usually am," Jack said dryly. "So how about we stop this crazy talk before we really start rubbing off on my granddaughter?"

"Ok then," Juliette said. "We'll make sure that Emilie is the sane one in the family."

"Yeah," Sydney smiled and then leaned forward in her seat. "So dad, tell me. Just what was it about Porky's that sucked you in?"

A/N: Only four more chapters to go...

Hey, I normally put this thank you at the start of the chapter, but the site was playing up...I won't go into details, but once again I want to thank you all for your feedback.