42. Five years later..

Caution: Happy Endings x many coming up! (Might have gone a little overboard..) ;)

Tom Chandler

He heard the alarm go off as he woke up lying in his bed. He moved quickly to shut the alarm, before he would wake up his wife who was lying beside him. He smiled as he turned to look at her. Her brown hair scattered on the pillow as she was sleeping. He leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek and as he did so, he heard her voice "Love you too." He smiled at her words and got up and went to the bathroom to get ready for work.

He was walking through the improved Norfolk Naval Base when he spotted two familiar faces. Smiling as he changed his direction to walk to greet them.

"Didn't I just send you two on a deployment?" He chuckled a bit.

"I believe that was two months ago, sir." Danny answered quickly.

"If you have hard time remembering, perhaps you need to retire." Burk joked.

"Sir." He heard Burk add and he smiled at the comment.

"Good to have you back." Tom looked at the two of them. Seeing the slight nervous glance Burk gave to Danny. Yeah, he remembered the nervousness he had felt every single time the clock was ticking closer to the due date.

"I trust I'll be seeing you at my barbecue on Saturday?" Tom asked.

"Yes, sir." Danny nodded.

"Wouldn't miss it." Burk said.

"Well, I assume you want to get back to your wives." Tom smiled. Remembering all too well how it felt to come home to your wife, embrace her and kiss her. Give a hug to your kids.

"Say hi for mine, and that I'll be home the usual time." He said as he continued to walk towards the office building.

Danny Green & Carlton Burk

They parked the car on the driveway of a pale yellow two story house with a white picket fence. He glanced around as he saw his home. It felt good to come home. He saw Burk glance towards his own house right next door. Probably thinking the same as he was.

"Daddy!" He saw his son run to him from his house. As he got out of the car he took the little boy in his arms. "Hi you, look at you." He hugged him and he saw Burk's son run right after. "Dad!" Noah shouted as he run to Burk's arms. Looks like everyone was gathered at his house once again.

"Daddyy!" He then heard a longer shout as a dark haired little girl came rushing towards him. "Hi Annie." He balanced his oldest on his other arm as he picked up the little girl on his other.

Walking inside the house, he briefly noticed there were two people working in the kitchen. And a light brown haired little girl was twirling between the ladies, holding a doll in her arms as she was pretending to tend to the doll. A kid's stethoscope around her neck. Emily and Annie were almost the same in age. Emily was Tom's daughter.

"We're home." Burk raised his voice and he glanced at Burk with a smirk "This is my home, you know that right?" He placed his kids on the floor as they were off to play.

"Hi." He saw Ravit appear from the kitchen and give her husband a long kiss. Looking towards the kitchen, he didn't see her but as his eyes wandered around the first floor he then saw her come down the stairs. He couldn't help but smile, seeing her every time he came home made his heart skip a beat. "Missed you." He said as he took her in his arms and kissed her.

"Get a room will you." He heard Burk's sarcastic voice and he just had to put on a show as he kissed Kara even more.

"Oooh." He then heard Ravit say as the kiss did seem pretty hot. And he felt it in his body too.

"We have a room and trust me that I'm going to take full advantage of Commander Green later." Kara chuckled and he laughed at her comment. Leave it to her to be straightforward.

"I think we both have the same idea." Ravit gave a wink to Burk as the two ladies continued back to the kitchen leaving the two men staring at their waddling gait. He shared a look with Burk, they were in on this together this time around as their wives due dates were only three weeks apart.

"Tom says hi and he'll be home the usual time." Danny said as he entered to the kitchen. Seeing that Tom's wife was making preparations for the barbecue.

Hearing a chuckle to his words, he met her eyes as Rachel smiled. "He is punctual as always."

Mike Slattery

He was sitting on the couch of his house, snoring. And then he was suddenly awake. God he was tired after the night, Ravit had called in the middle of the night and said she thought she was in labor. He had driven her to the hospital to get a checkup, and as it turns out it was just Braxton Hicks contractions. He did wonder how she thought it was the real thing, she had after all given birth before. But on their way home, they stopped to buy chocolate ice cream since she was craving for it. He looked at his watch, 10:56 am. Burk and Green were back now, he smiled. Now they could take care of their wives and he could focus on his.

The night before he had been sent to the store to find pickles for Kara. He was sharing this duty with Tom, but since Tom was still working, and he was retired, staying home, he had more opportunities to take care for the two women. Christine had decided to start working after all these years and it was Mike's turn to be the stay at home parent.

As he came back from his thoughts, he looked around at the living room. It was quiet. He could hear the birds singing outside.

And then he realized it. It was too quiet. He could hear the birds singing. He pushed himself up from the couch and began running through the house. He was sure he hadn't slept more than five, ten minutes tops, but it was apparently enough time for his three year old twins to find something mischief to do. His heart was pulsing in his chest as he checked the rooms. The doors were locked so they hadn't left the house.

He paused for a moment in his movements as he heard giggling. It was Julie, he thought it was coming from his and Christine's bedroom. So he walked there and was greeted with a shocking discovery as the twins had somehow managed to get their hands on Christine's make up and used the make up on each other as well as the newly decorated wall with the fancy and expensive wallpaper. Christine was going to kill him now.

It was definitely time to pay a visit to the Green's residence. Perhaps he could talk Green and Burk into babysitting for the night, so he could take his wife out for a dinner to make amends with her.

Alisha Granderson

She was sitting in the bathroom, tapping nervously the floor with her foot as she waited. She glanced at her watch and took a deep breath. It was time.

She turned around the pregnancy test by the sink and gasped excitedly. She was pregnant! Finally, after so many months. After so many tries. But she still felt a little unsure if it was finally happening. It hadn't been as easy as she thought. But she was over two weeks late so the rational part in her brain shouted that she should be happy. This was it.

She rushed out from the bathroom to downstairs and saw her wife packing lunch bags for the kids. She embraced her and whispered to her ear "Guess what?"

She saw her stunned expression and knew immediately that she knew what she meant with the question.

"Is it true?" She heard Maria's voice as they looked at each other.

She nodded and they kissed each other.

They had gotten pretty close to each other on the island and despite that Maria had been together with a man before, she had somehow fallen for Alisha. Realizing that she felt so much more alive then she had before in her marriage.

Andrea Garnett

She was sitting on the living room floor on a play mat with a six month old baby Claire. Lily was on a summer camp with Ashley, Tom's daughter. Andrea was talking and looking how baby Claire was grabbing toys around her. She heard a sound from upstairs as Kat came down the stairs, she was getting ready for going to the Academy. She was going through a summer course at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

"How is she doing?" Kat asked with a soft voice.

"She's an angel, like her mother." Andrea smiled and met Kat's gaze. Claire was the child of Kat and Ray, a young man who she had met on the island. Ray too was enlisted in the Navy now.

"Dad's coming home tonight right?" Kat asked and Andrea nodded.

It was probably Tex's humor that had finally gotten to her. He could be charming when he wanted to be, but it was those jokes that always made her laugh and after it all, she felt laughter was one of the things in life she needed.

"How's my favorite girls doing?" They suddenly heard Tex's voice as he walked into the house with a heavy bag on his shoulder.

"Dad!" Kat went and gave her old man a hug. Andrea got up too and went to kiss her husband.

"I'm glad that you're home early." She smiled at him.

"Are you kidding? We gotta leave soon, if we want to make it to the barbecue the commodore is holding on Saturday." Tex said and then she remembered the annual barbecue.

"You coming Kat?" Tex went and took Claire in his arms. Looking at his third grandchild in wonderment.

"Of course." She smiled and glanced at the clock on the wall. "But I gotta hurry now." She added and gave a kiss to Claire and left the house.

4th of July, 2020

After their first and last joint celebration of 4th of July on the island in the Bahamas, it quickly became a tradition. Rotating the host from year to year. This year it was Tom and Rachel's turn. After becoming close friends, they had slowly found each other, gotten married and had a daughter now, Emily.

She looked around, the large amount of children that was attending the barbecue were being shepherd by her own mother, Debbie and Danny's mom Sheyla, who had survived the pandemic along with her husband Travis. But sadly he had passed away a year ago. Danny's little brother had made it too, now serving in the Navy as well. Annie on the other hand hadn't been so lucky.

She remembered the New Year's Eve they had spend on the island. The chatter, the laughter and the sound of children playing that night. This day reminded her of that particular night. She had wondered if things would be normal ever again and now, five years later, it did seem like the pandemic was forgotten, but she knew it wasn't. As she sat by a table in the garden, she saw the familiar faces of the people they had been with on the island.

Bertrise and Will Mason had recently gotten married and from the looks of it, were expecting.

Eric and Sam were married and had their second child this year.

Repopulating the earth was going on everywhere. She patted her round belly, reminding herself that she too was going to be a mother again. Even Christine and Mike had gotten an addition to their family, still chuckling to the memory when Mike had learned that Christine would be having twins.

"Hey look who came." Danny came to stand beside her and was accompanied by Wolf and a striking looking lady by his side.

"This is Azima Kandie. We met in Marokko." Wolf introduced them to Kandie. He has been traveling around the world lately and looks like he finally might have found someone to hold on to. Now it was only Javier who they needed to match up with someone, she thought.

Even Frankie had gotten himself hitched the year before with a woman named Meghan and now he was a father for a little girl.

Later in the evening as they were all waiting for the fireworks, she was sitting beside Danny feeling his arms tightly around her. Staring at the dark sky and remembering New Year's Eve from five years ago. How the night sky had been so dark that night, filled with only bright white stars. And now as the fireworks began displaying their fervent show on the sky, she looked at the colors and heard the sounds. Thinking back how they had survived, how Dr. Rachel Scott now Mrs. Chandler, had managed to do the impossible.

She had created a vaccine, a cure.

She had saved the world.

x

The End

With this final closure to the story, the journey of Phase Six ends. Hope those who have followed the story from the beginning have enjoyed it. It's been awesome writing it, but everything comes to an end one day. :)

So big thank you for you all!

I do have a small spark for a Spin-Off that would be following Tom and Rachel, and how their relationship would develop for this story. So if that is something you are interested in reading, let me know. Not sure how it would be, or if it would sort of be a Sequel to this story (unraveling what has happened during the five years).

If you're in more need of stories, check out my newest AU - 'A Tangled Web'.