Chapter 59


"We're home!" Kat called out as she and Tex came through the front door. The house was full of people, not unusual for them. Alisha and Val were setting the table while Burk and Cruz were helping Barbara clean up the kitchen for when the caterers would show up. Halsey however free of any task came up to them and greeted them before going for a wander.

"Hey, did you get more milk?" Barbara asked them as she was the second member of the household to greet them.

"Yeah," Tex said wryly as he wondered what was a polite way to ask someone to move out. He knocked shoulders with Kat and gave her a knowing smile as the two weren't a fan of Ms Miller. She was a nice woman but she liked things a certain way and sometimes she acted like the mother and wife one didn't want or need. After a few days, it was starting to grate on their nerves as they were fairly easy going which didn't gel with Ms Miller's need for structure.

"Good, Dinner will be here in a couple of hours. So go get cleaned up and Kat, don't forget to do your homework." Barbara told them, Tex ducked his head and went to the fridge to put away the fridge.

"I did it while waiting for Dad." Kat said to Barbara.

"Oh good, you're more studious than my boy. Getting him to do homework is like trying to pull teeth." Barbara said with a roll of her eyes. Kat felt sorry for Miller, he made it sound like he childhood was awesome but she couldn't see it given Ms Miller tended to make her feel anxious and stressed out like everything was a pop quiz that she hadn't studied for.

"Mom, give it a break. I got me GED what more do you want?" Miller asked her with a wry smile as he came through the door with Wolf carrying chairs to add to the table. His appearance saving Kat from his mother by taking her attention.

"A degree and a job as an accountant or something much safer." Barbara told him with a sweet smile as she adjusted his collar; making it sit just so.

"Next lifetime or you know when I lose a limb that gets me a medical discharge." Miller told her.

"Do not joke about that!" Barbara said swatting his arm, clearly upset by his comment as it could be a possibility.

"Is Larrin home?" Tex asked as he came back to them.

"Yes, she had lunch and went for a lay down. Hasn't been seen since then." Barbara informed them.

"Well, she's going to need time to recover." Tex said diplomatically as he knew Barbara didn't mean to sound so harsh.

"Of course, but I suppose someone not my son will have to wake her up for dinner." Barbara said, she was all for her son dating but she honestly preferred a nice young woman who hadn't been brutalised and was going to stay in the country. Larrin being Australian meant she would have to go back to her country and she frankly didn't want to lose her son or see him completely heart broken when Larrin did run off.

"Kara can wake her up." Tex said, knowing a woman was a safer choice given he didn't know what Larrin wore to be. That and Kat was still worried about not being remembered by Larrin to the point she had talked herself out of seeing Larrin in the Hospital to save herself the pain.

"Andrea, Doc; what do we owe the pleasure?" Tex asked as Andrea and Rachel came through the door.

"Kara said there is Key Lime Pie." Andrea said, it was the second pie to be consumed in payment for her hard work next door. But if Andrea was honest she'd do it for free as the renovations left her too tired to think about the state of her life and who was missing from it.

"I got the ingredients." Tex told her with a proud smile.

"I made the pie because he's hopeless." Kat said as the first pie had been a disaster with Tex trying to make it. Cooking was not his greatest skill. Though he was good at barbecuing and smores. But that was it, luckily Claire had imparted her cooking skills to Kat.

"Good to know, how is school treating you?" Andrea asked her. Kat gave a shrug.

"Doc, what's your excuse?" Tex asked her, she and Andrea were a surprise at the dinner but certainly not unwelcome.

"Free food." Rachel said with a small smile of amusement as she took in his dishevelled and dirty appearance.

"How are you?" Tex asked her.

"Going well, it's rather busy in here." Rachel asked as she looked around for Larrin, she had to admit she felt like a bit of a mother hen around her wanting to protect Larrin as even she felt the anxiety of being in a filled room with everyone looking at her. She could hear their thoughts asking why she was here, how was she coping etc. that was the polite questions.

"You should try being next door during the day. A regular mad house. I'm going to find Larrin." Andrea told Rachel with a smile before she turned to Tex and gave him a once over. "You can go shower." she told him.

"I'll even wash behind my ears if you sit next to me at dinner." Tex said to Andrea with a grin. She cracked a rare smile and shook her head as she walked away.

"Why don't you just ask her out instead of being weird?" Kat asked Tex, she didn't know why her Dad didn't ask Andrea out. He flirted and looked at her backside enough to gross her out but hey if it made her Dad happy then it made her happy.

"What? I'm just messing with her." Tex said dismissively but his cheeks were a deep red giving him away completely.

"Looks awful lot like flirting." Kat told him.

"I agree and I should know given I've been on the receiving end of your charm." Rachel said with a grin, Tex gave her a knowing smile as he didn't refute her claim.

"I'm going to shower. You two stay out of trouble." he told them as he liked Kat and Rachel being friends but wasn't sure he liked them ganging up on him.

"No worries, we'll just be planning your wedding and where we're all going to live." Kat told him in a mockingly sweet manner that made him a little worried but he brushed it off as he did need a shower.


"Larrin?" Andrea called out as she knocked on Larrin's door. She opened it slowly and peeked inside to see Larrin was asleep in her bed, her arm in the cast was resting on the stuffed Snoopy toy, something about it just de-aged Larrin making her seem younger than she was. It made Andrea's maternal side awaken and want to nurture the injured girl back to health.

"Larrin," she called again and this time the young woman woke up.

"Hmm?" Larrin murmured, she cracked a sleepy eye open and saw Andrea. "Is it time to get up?" she asked as she pulled the snoopy doll in and hugged it.

"Yeah, you need to get dressed and downstairs." Andrea said to her as she picked up one of the three lizard statues that sat on the desk in her room. How Larrin could sleep with the creepy things in her room was beyond her but then at least Larrin wasn't in Wolf's room. That room was a real freak show, Andrea could see why the man wasn't getting laid given it had Lizard statues littered everywhere and cobalt blue fur duvet cover and matching pouf with a dog face on it. The only other person that slept in that room so far was Val. But then that girl could sleep anywhere, so it wasn't saying much. Plus Wolf hadn't appreciated losing his bed for the night.

"How many people are down there?" Larrin asked her, she really just wanted to hide upstairs after lunch given that she knew Ms Miller didn't like her and frankly she was still overwhelmed with being in a new place and dealing with her injuries.

"About ten people, might get up fifteen but no more than that. It's just a sit down meal. Very casual, you need a hand getting dressed?" Andrea asked.

"Do I have to change?" Larrin asked her as she was having a real attack of the lazies.

"I don't think it would hurt as Kara has been seeing these things a promo for her and Danny's big day." Andrea said to her.

"I don't think I have anything nice." Larrin said as she pushed herself up right and looked around the room. She really had no clue if the clothes in the room were even hers.

"Well, let's take a look." Andrea told her as she rose up from the chair and moved to the wardrobe.


"It is so nice to have you all here. Thank you for coming-"

"Can't you save the speech for the day? I want to eat." Cruz said interrupting Kara who gave him a look that could kill. Instead of shrinking under her gaze he just smiled. He tried to steal a chicken wing but Val slapped his hand away earning her brownie points with Kara.

"As I was saying, we really appreciate everything you've all done and we look forward to moving in next door and celebrating our wedding with you all." Kara said to them really loving that they were all here together after the last year of craziness. They had all become family to her and hoped they'd have more dinners like this.

"Now we can dig in." Danny told them, the table became a flurry of action as food was passed around and some arguments broke over what was an 'acceptable' first serving. It was mayhem but soon everyone had something on their plate and the room grew blissfully quiet except for the murmurs of people appreciating good food.

"This is amazing. I'm totally crashing your wedding." Doc said from her seat at the table.

"You could be my date." Wolf told her.

"You didn't ask me." Doc replied.

"Hey Doc, wanna be my date? I'd totally put out for you." Cruz said with a wink, Wolf narrowed his eyes at the man as he knew Cruz was being half serious but also baiting Wolf. It was no secret Wolf had a thing for Doc.

"See, there's an invitation." Doc said with a smile to Wolf who was sitting next to her, while Cruz was on the opposite side of the table to her.

"An invitation to Herpes." Alisha warned her.

"Ew." Kat said, something Larrin could agree on as they were sitting next to one another at the table. Their reunion had gone a lot smoother than others but only because Tex had helped put Kat's name to her face in her memories. But she was also happy as all of her 'Kat' memories were intact which pleased Kat to no end too. So their friendship was fairly unaffected by her trauma which was a nice change from everyone else. That and Kat was more interested in talking girl stuff with her than playing 'Can you remember' and 'wow that sucks' topics of conversation.

"Hey, I'm 100% clean of any venereal diseases. You can check my medical history, hell you can do a whole new work up if you want." Cruz told Doc and everyone at the table as they were smiling while Ms Miller looked a little less than impressed with the conversation.

"I heard you have a rash-" Alisha started.

"It's eczema, and it was on my back not my junk so totally unrelated to sex. Anyway why you listening to rumours about me? you ready to take a walk to the dark side?" Cruz asked Alisha in a salacious manner that would make any woman tempted to throw their knickers at him as an open invitation. Alisha however was not interested and snorted.

"Not in this lifetime." Alisha assured him in a rich tone.

"So Doc? You, me, food, dancing, maybe a little something, something?" Cruz asked turning his attention to Doc.

"Sure, but we'll have to see how good your game is on the day to whether I put out." Doc told him, there was no way in hell she was jumping into bed with the hot latino given just like Wolf they were way out of her league and she had no clue if she was dynamo between the sheets. She would be mortified if she was a cold fish. Right now she was just enjoying the fact that she felt good enough in her skin to flirt with men as these men knew her better than patient number 125 who wanted more pain relief.

"I'm already in love, you can meet my sister. You'll love her and my nephews." Cruz told her with a grin.

"If you truly loved me, you'd give me a chicken wing off your plate." Doc told him.

"Ok, I take it back, only half in love. These wings are too good to share for only a half baked promise of sex." Cruz told her at which she and many of the others just laughed.

"See there Kat- if he won't give up his chicken wings for you then he ain't the one." Tex told his daughter.

"I can second that." Kara said as Danny had sacrificed half of his portion of wings to Kara as she claimed the baby was craving wings. She knew it was a little mean to deprive but the food was so good and she would show her appreciation of his sacrifice later when they were alone.

"Do you want a spoon?" Ms Miller asked Larrin.

"No, I'm good." Larrin assured her, she couldn't help it that she sucked at using her left hand when it came to eating. Sandwiches were a dream to eat but salad, mashed potato, even chicken wings were a struggle. So it was a little embarrassing for it to be known to the whole table she was struggling. It was bad enough she probably had wing sauce on her face and she'd accidentally dropped mashed potato in her lap thanks to it falling off her fork.

"You sure?" Ms Miller asked her.

"Yes, a spoon will not help matters but I appreciate the suggestion." Larrin said with a tight smile, wishing or hoping Miller wasn't put off by her inability to eat like an adult at the moment. He sat at the table opposite her while they hadn't spoken that much but he did smile at her which warmed her to no end. She honestly couldn't wait for their date, hopefully it wouldn't involve the need for utensils. But who cared as long as it was just the two of them having fun.

"Have you taken your meds?" Wolf asked from his seat, he had tried to sit next to her but Rachel had managed to snag the seat next to her before he or Miller could have a go at it. Rachel seemed pretty proud of herself for getting in their way as it was comfort in numbers at the moment.

"Yes, so can we talk about the wedding? How's the weather report for the day?" Larrin asked trying to direct the attention away from herself.

"Looks to a little overcast but no rain which is great." Danny said, the man had really become a life saver for Larrin as he backed her up in regards to Ms Miller and Wolf's hovering. He seemed to know that she wanted as little attention as possible and even played up complaints of his own injury to get the heat off her.

"Larrin, Rachel, if you're both up for it. I was thinking tomorrow we could go dress shopping just us girls?" Kara asked her.

"Sure, that would be nice." Larrin said with a smile as she wouldn't mind some time out of the house and the fact Kara said the 'girls' meant an escape from her brother and the house. Even if she didn't like shopping.

"Count me in." Rachel said, given her schedule was wide open and since she did have an invitation to the wedding it was only wise to go dress shopping as she didn't have anything. This time she wanted to put in the effort for herself.

"Great, there's this cute boutique shop that I want to take you to." Kara said allaying any fears they would be dragged around to a million different shops. She'd already taken Kat to it and they'd bought her an outfit. It wasn't a dress as much as Kara tried to coax her into one, but Kat wasn't having a bar of it. So Kat ended up with a navy floral jumpsuit that had rolled cuff bottoms and spaghetti straps matched with a brown belt and strappy flat sandals to match. They found a cream 3/4 sleeve fitted cardigan and some chunky silver jewellery to dress it up. Kat was estatic and Kara was happy to see her so, making it worthwhile trip.

"Is that the shop we went to?" Kat asked Kara.

"Yep." Kara said with a smile before she chomped on her chicken wing.

"It's a great shop, you'll like it." Kat told Larrin.

"Mind if I tag along?" Andrea asked.

"Not at all," Kara said as she was definitely more the merrier when it came to getting it dresses. It also meant she could show them the dress she had on hold and get their opinion given Alisha didn't have any time off for the next few days to see it. But she couldn't bring it up at the table as she wanted to keep it under wraps a little longer.

"Good, you can get a dress for the wedding." Tex told Andrea with a smile.

"In your dreams." Andrea told Tex in an amused manner.

"So, Kara, I'm thinking either blue or green, something slinky, ends just below the knee, v-neck for the Commander." Tex said, Andrea blushed lightly in embarrassment as it was clear Tex had given this some thought. No man had ever given any consideration to her wardrobe.

"This what you've been seeing in your dreams?" Cruz asked teasingly as he beat Andrea to the punch. Tex not embarrassed in the least; gave a nod.

Dinner continued on in the same vein of amusement as they talked about the wedding and what was left to be done. Jokes were peppered into the conversation and when dessert came around; Larrin was ready to call it quits. She really enjoyed herself and the people at the table but exhaustion was slowly taking over. Rachel seemed to be in the same thought as they shared a knowing smile.

"Kat, you're a better pie maker than your father." Andrea announced as she ate another bite of her second serve of pie. Everyone at the table agreed with her as they ate their dessert and tried cake samples for the wedding cake. Kat glowed under the compliments the fact that there were no leftovers spoke for itself.

"Hey, it's the effort that counts." Tex told her.

"No, it's not." Andrea assured him.

"I agree, this pie is much better." Wolf said, as many of the others agreed with him. As they had suffered his attempt at key lime pie and lived to tell the horrible tale to anyone who would listen.

"We all have our talents and skills." Tex said diplomatically. "Also, go for the marble cake. It's a winner." he added to Kara and Danny.