Warning: I don't have a beta-reader (yeah that hasn't changed either) and as English is not my main language I'm bound to make mistakes. I hope it's not too bad and you'll bear with me.

If you don't like, don't read. Flames will probably be ignored; constructive critics and other reviews are always very welcome. Read and enjoy.

So here we are with chapter 8. And we're back with our favorite couple but also with Luca. The party hasn't started yet they're just setting up everything. So there will be most likely 2 more chapters for the party and maybe a little smut afterwards if people are interested.

Disclaimer: Don't own, just playing around so don't sue… Belongs to CBS Studios, Sony Pictures Television and many others.


"We have every right to create our own destiny, but none to interfere in someone else's." Martin Rubin. ;)


Chris parked her truck in the driveway f Luca's house. She checked the clock and realized she was earlier than they had agreed to start setting up the house for the party. The boys had started the previous days as they took off the afternoon have all the equipment delivered. She decided to stay a little longer and wait drinking her coffee when she saw the door open and a smiling Luca appeared on the threshold. He gestured towards her with a big grin. She smiled back, grabbed her backpack and quickly exited her truck. He pulled her in a tight hug and laughed.

"Damn I'm glad you're here, Chris." His relieved tone made her giggle.

"What the heck happened?" She quickly looked at the front of the house and things were as planned. "Didn't you get all the stuff you were supposed to?"

"No we didn't…" He shook his head in defeat. "I tried to call the company but the guy pretended they had delivered everything we had ordered."

Chris shook her head in displeasure as they walked back to the house. When Luca closed the door, she looked around and frowned.

"Where is Street? Don't tell me he is still asleep. I know I'm a little early but you guys were supposed to be up and about by now."

She was about to go to his room to wake him up when Luca's hand closed on her wrist. She turned around surprised her eyes squinting at her friend.

"He's worked very late on the kiddie activities." He explained. "He said he was too frustrated to sleep after we called several times and got nothing. Don't be mad at him."

She almost chuckled at his concerned expression and she bit the inside of her cheek to keep her face straight. It seemed Luca had swallowed hook, line and sinker their little stunt a few days earlier with their pretend fight. He seemed genuinely worried and she pondered going on with the charade or simply reassuring him.

"Hey I'm just going to wake him up not throw cold water on him." She told him with a smirk. "Even if he's almost finished out there, the first guests will arrive in three, four hours. He needs to get up we still have a lot to do."

Luca nodded with an evident sigh of relief.

"Or do you want to wake him up?" She offered crossing her arms in front of her.

"Nah I already tried twice and he fell back asleep each time." He admitted bursting out laughing. "But let me show you what he has organized outside before you try again. I think that it doesn't exactly follow the initial plan."

She grunted at the news. They had carefully mapped the backyard considering its limited size and what was needed there for a successful party. Street had been adamant they needed more place for the children and she had flatly refused while Luca hadn't wanted to take sides. She followed him outside and studied the set up from the back porch. Luca took the last few steps down and stood proudly in his yard. Her eyes scanned the place and while it didn't follow the diagram she had left a few days earlier she thought it looked rather good. Street hadn't resisted taking a bigger area but the layout made sense.

"So what do you think?" Luca asked visibly pleased with the arrangement. "We have to review a little the seating and tables but that shouldn't be a problem."

She joined him on the lawn and looking around one more time nodded. She had to grin when she heard his relieved sigh.

"It's not bad. It will be easier to keep an eye on the kids." She agreed. "Let's measure what we have left for the benches and the tables and see how to fit everything in."

"I'll get the measuring tape and I let you wake up Street." He went back to the house. "We'll need him for that… and after all he created that mess."

Chris gave the backyard one last glance already reorganizing in her head a new layout before going back to the house. She resolutely walked towards Street's room. She entered without knocking figuring it would be pointless if he was indeed still asleep. As usual, he was lying face down on the bed, his pillow covering his head. She shook her head and smirked. Usually she would go for a gentle wake up but they hardly had the time and opportunity for that with Luca close by. She walked to his window and brutally opened the drapes before snatching his pillow and throwing it across the room. He jerked awake, rising up on his hands he turned tired eyes her way and grunted.

"I should have known." He chuckled as he turned on his back, running a tired hand over his face. "What time is it?"

"7:20." She moved next to him and placed a quick kiss on his lips. "Get up now. There's still a lot to do, especially as someone did not follow my blueprint for the backyard." She pinched his cheek and he chuckled.

"So you have already seen that. Do I have to run for the hills?"

"No, but I'm thinking about a worthy punishment."

"I like how you think."

"Why do you assume right away that it's going to be sexual?"

"Because I know you and your punishments?" He cheekily answered.

"Get up wise ass." She messed up his hair playfully. "We need to measure the backyard again and Luca is probably already waiting for us. Then we'll need to see how to make do with what was not delivered yesterday."


Several minutes later they had moved a table and a bench in the middle of the yard and they were studying the new layout proposed by Chris.

"Everything fits like this." Luca noted with a satisfied grin. "We have the serving area on one side, the tables in the middle and the kids will have enough room to play and run around. I love it."

"Ideally we should move the wooden block stacking game to the other side of the yard." She explained, drawing a few arrows to show the changes they should make. "This way we'd have all the race and toss games next to each other. We're going to run them one after the other anyway. And I think we should have the giant bubbles on the side of the yard that is the furthest away from the barbecue and the bar."

"Those sound like good ideas." Luca agreed but he turned worried eyes towards Street.

"I don't know." The young officer said, he leaned over her shoulder and immediately felt her stare on him. He schooled his features pretending to dislike the new location. "I thought the stacking game made a nice break where I put it last night."

"It's not practical." She chided him. "Putting a stacking game between toss games is dumb."

"So now I'm dumb?" He feigned outrage.

"No you're aggravating. You know my idea is better but you just want to stick to yours." She crossed her arms in front of her and glared at him.

"Fine, let's have it your way." He sighed dramatically. "I won't hear the end of it, if we don't."

"Good, good…" Luca gave a relieved sigh. "Let me change that right away."

"Nah I've built and destroyed that tower so many times I can do it with closed eyes." Street told him. "Why don't you check with Chris what we are missing and see how to make do?"

"Good idea." Luca quickly ran inside the house and came back as fast as he could with his list. He darted worried eyes to his friends, taking in Chris' pout and Street's frown. "I have listed everything here. There's nothing major, mostly decoration is missing."

"Do we have the Oktoberfest sign?" She suddenly wondered looking around her for the billboard.

"Yeah we have it! It's in my bedroom I think… or maybe in the kitchen." He explained grinning. "I'll locate it, don't worry."

"Well that was the most important thing." She took the list from her friend and started reviewing the missing items. "So we don't have the blue and white paper napkins and flags, the pretzel holders, half of the beer mugs and the hats for the men. But we have the sign, the post with the wreath and several barrels, the blue and white tablecloths, the pretzel and beer stickers and the pretzel balloons. Seriously what those guys forgot makes absolutely no sense."

"We have another issue. We only have one beer tap instead of two… the other machine broke, they gave us a special price on the beer to apologize but it's going to be a pain." Chris grimaced as he talked but didn't say anything. "Deac brought his barbecue over last night and has offered to man it, but I declined. I'll do that myself, it's part of the fun!"

"So the verdict?" Street asked as he finally joined them. He stood next to Chris with his hands on his hips.

"I guess we'll survive. Not having the right napkins is honestly what annoys me the most but we have the tablecloths so it's not so bad. We'll do with white paper napkins."

"I called the place that sells us the sausages and the pretzels and they can sell us a couple hundreds of those." Street smirked at her. "They'll even add about ten big flags and a few pennants. They were very helpful when I said we were LAPD."

"Okay good news." She squinted at him and crossed the two items from the list. "For the beer mugs I think we have enough and if we have the napkins, we can present the pretzels on plates and…"

"They can add about a dozen pretzel holders…" He pointed out once more. "We'll just need to bring them back before Tuesday evening."

"What is your solution for the beer tap?" She narrowed her eyes, guessing he had more up his sleeve.

"I called a friend from Long Beach, he's a huge beer aficionado. He'll come over at noon with his wife and the tap." He explained. "He already offered to take care of the beverage bar."

"Oh my gosh Street, how annoying are you going to be today?" Chris rolled her eyes at him when he smirked at her.

"I don't know… Extremely?"

"You are not going to fight again today, are you?" Luca wondered with a concerned look on his face. Both Chris and Street turned towards him and he raised his hands in defense. "Hey don't start a fight with me!"

"Now just tell me what are we still missing instead of making me lose time!"

"I have no solution for the hats… I tried calling several costume shops with no success." Street scratched his head. "One of them offered to let us look at what they had but I'm not sure we have the time for that today."

"No definitely not." She conceded. "Well it's already 8 am that means we have three good hours to get everything ready before the first guests will arrive. Do I have to go through the list of the things to do or does everyone know where they are headed?"

"Street and I are mounting the big sign and the pillar, and then we'll place the tables and benches." Luca dutifully detailed. "He'll prepare the last outdoor activities while I'll get the beer and the food from our suppliers. Melissa is joining us in two hours tops to help me with the grill and the salads."

"And I'll take care setting all the decoration on the tables and food areas and prepare the prizes for the kids." Chris listed and turned towards Street. "Wouldn't it be more logical if you were the one to get the food? You negotiated the additional purchases. What if Luca forgets something?"

"Hey Luca is standing next to you!" The blond officer chimed in a little outraged they were talking about him as if he weren't there and their eyes turned towards him.

"Yeah he can totally handle that." His roommate confirmed fist bumping him and both men chuckled in good humor.

Chris grumbled and went back to her list.

"She really needs to get some…" Luca whispered to his friend. "It's a shame Julian couldn't make it…"

"What?" Street looked at him disbelievingly.

"What?" He echoed unwilling to repeat what he had said rather thoughtlessly. "Nothing! Let's get the sign up before she bites our heads off."


Two hours later the three of them were admiring the results of their efforts with satisfied smiles.

"Wow this looks really good." Luca walked excitedly between the tables and rubbed his hands with glee. "This looks perfect. The decorations are so good, it's even better than in my wildest dreams."

He had barely finished talking that his phone started ringing and he hurriedly retrieved it from his back pocket.

"Damn it's Melissa. Give me a second." He quickly went back to the house to take his call.

"Is it me or does she have an awful lot of problems?" Chris wondered cheekily and Street laughed.

"We don't know why she's calling. It's too early to tell." He added. "Are we horrible people to lead him on like that? I mean he deserves a little payback for all the plotting he's doing but I really think he is taking all this pretend fighting way too seriously. I saw him go pale several times. He looks at us as if we were ticking time bombs."

"To be honest I'm a little annoyed with you for your stunt earlier with the missing items." She admitted with a smirk.

"Yeah I know." His smile widened and she couldn't help bursting out laughing. A few moments later a rather distraught Luca appeared.

"Melissa's car won't start." He explained as he pocketed his phone again. "I have to go and get her…"

"Why doesn't she just Uber here?" She wondered. "You don't really have the time to finish your tasks and drive her over here."

"She doesn't Uber…" He wrung his hands and sighed. "Look I'll go and get her. From her place, I won't be too far away from where I need to get the food… I won't lose much time and we'll make it up once here. We'll work double as fast I promise…"

"You were also supposed to get the beverages and start the barbecue…" Chris reminded him.

"Yeah…" Luca turned towards Street.

"Hey don't look at me I don't have a car. I can hardly get that with my bike…" He chuckled.

"But you could start the barbecue." He asked hopefully. "I suppose I could grab the beverages. The truck is big enough."

"Okay I'll get them." Chris finally conceded and Luca beamed at her. "And I'm sure Street won't mind helping with the barbecue."

"Oh thanks Chris." He hugged her and then turned to Street to thank him too. "I'll make it up to you guys I swear. And now I'm on my way…"

"You're awfully nice." Street told her when their friend had left and she rolled her eyes in fake annoyance. "When you think he said just a little earlier you really needed to get some…"

"What?"

"I felt insulted for the both of us not that I could say anything…"

"I can't believe he said that…" She looked disbelievingly toward the house where their friend had disappeared.

"That said you have to admit that between work and organizing all this with Luca we didn't really have lots of opportunities lately…" He reminded her. "But as Melissa doesn't have a car today, he'll most likely will have to drive her home after the party…"

A wide smile formed on her lips and they both chuckled.