Having lived in New York for almost one year now, the gang was finally becoming acquainted with the pace at which everything functioned. For Jack and Rachel, who had never taken a mere visit to NYC before, it was going to be a pretty challenging task to even find their friends in the airport.

"Wow." Rachel said, stumbling a little as she shouldered a hurried passerby. "Have people here ever heard of something called personal space?"

"I don't think they have enough room to even give themselves any." Jack remarked, trying to guide Rachel and himself through the crowd.

Trying to squeeze through innumerable passersby and avoid knocking over the luggage that rolled behind them, the two of them struggled to locate their friends. All they could see in the waiting area were the unrecognizable faces of strangers, half-hidden by newspapers, their legs crossed as they waited for their flights to board or for loved ones to emerge from the flow of other people.

"Do you see them?" Rachel asked, stretching up on her toes and squinting at the selection of people.

Before Jack could answer, the two of them jumped at the sudden, startling scream from across the airport. It sounded high and crackly, an excited screech that sounded recognizable to both of them.

"JACK!"

All at once, Jack and Rachel both realized who it was, their shoulders and facial muscles relaxing with relief as they saw a familiar figure jumping up and down at a far corner in the airport by the window. Eric was grinning at the sight of his former Pennbrook roommates, waving his hands around until Shawn-embarrassed by the attraction of curious eyes to them all-tried to calm him down.

"RACHEL!" Eric ignored Shawn's efforts to distract him, continuing to bounce up and down and vigorously wave both arms now.

Jack and Rachel, exchanging knowing smiles and eye contact, crossed the airport to their circle of close friends, who began to approach them with outstretched arms and squeals from Topanga (and Eric).

"Ah, Topanga!" Rachel shrieked, wrapping her free arm around her close friend, holding her luggage in the other hand.

Stepping back, she looked up and down Topanga, having heard about the news of the baby a few months ago. "You look beautiful! Aww, look at your adorable baby bump!"

"Thank you!" Topanga replied, smiling as wide as possible.

"Hey, congratulations on the baby!" Jack said, giving Topanga a hug. "What gender is it?"

"It's a girl, due early December!" Topanga said, stretching her arm around Cory. "I thought I'd talk about names with you and Angela when she gets here tomorrow!"

"Can't wait!" Rachel said.

"Jack!" Eric stepped out, clasping his friend's hand and embracing him.

"Eric-" Jack said, patting his back. "Good to see you, my man! It's been too long."

"You know it has." Eric replied with a grin. Without Jack, he had really only had the orphans and Cory, Topanga, and Shawn to spend time with.

After all other greetings and hugs had been exchanged, Shawn stepped out and smiled at his step-brother. The last member of family that he had left had been gone for a year, and next to the love of his life, he had missed him much more than he thought he ever would have.

"Jack…" Shawn said, smiling as he stretched out his arm and grabbed his brother's hand.

"Shawn…" Jack grinned. The two pulled each other into a hug, patting each others' backs roughly.

"I've missed you, man." Jack said as they stepped back, grinning.

"I have, too." Shawn said. "It's good to see you again."

Jack smiled. "Real good."

Awhile later, after stopping at a pub downtown for dinner, everyone headed back to Cory, Shawn, and Topanga's apartment for some dessert. Topanga had taken a chilled cheesecake from the fridge, the creamy, yellow surface drizzled in a red, strawberry topping.

As everyone enjoyed a slice, they all filled the small apartment with more animation and liveliness than it had ever had before that night. Everyone shared laughs and managed to catch up on all the things that had passed in one year.

"So, Topanga, I guess you're going to need that DVD player back, huh?" Rachel said as she cut a bite of cheesecake from her slice.

"Do you guys still have that thing?" Topanga asked, shocked.

"Yeah, we do! We figured it wouldn't be too long before you were actually pregnant…" Rachel said with a sly smile.

Topanga laughed, then responded teasingly, "Yeah, well, my baby shower isn't for a few months, so I can do without it until then."

"Anything exciting happening with the little one lately? When did you find out you were pregnant?" Rachel asked, curious to get the scoop on the baby.

"I found out back in late March when we went into Philadelphia for Easter." Topanga said.

"She was sick as a dog." Shawn added, bringing horrific memories back to his, Eric, Cory, and Topanga's heads.

"Aww.." Rachel cooed in sympathy.

"Be thankful that you weren't there to clean up after it." Cory remarked.

"It was pretty bad. Everyone else thought it was just food poisoning or a stomach flu, but I realized almost right away something was definitely off." Topanga said. "So, we went to the doctor's office, and sure enough, we walked away as future parents!"

"Best-worst Easter weekend of our lives." Cory said with a smile as he finished his cheesecake.

"So, Eric, what's been happening with you since the move up here?" Jack asked, turning his spoon on it's side as he tried to scoop up the remaining traces of strawberry glazing.

"Well, I started working as a caretaker at the orphanage on sixteenth street, just a couple blocks from here." Eric said. "It's been a great experience, I've loved every second of it."

"The kids love him so much." Topanga said.

"Oh, that's so sweet." Rachel remarked thoughtfully. "So, I guess it's been working with kids like Tommy?"

"Yeah, almost exactly like that." Eric said. "Except, I don't think I like any of them as much as I ever liked Tommy."

"He was a special one." Rachel said. "Have you ever gotten any letters from him or anything?"

"Yeah, I have, actually." Eric replied. "As a matter of fact, I just talked to him on the phone the other night, and he told me he was doing really well over in California."

"That's so great…" Rachel said.

"So, Jack and Rachel, tell us everything about your year in the Peace CORPS!" Topanga changed the subject excitedly, eager to hear about their adventures.

"Oh, it was absolutely amazing!" Rachel said.

"It was really an incredible experience." Jack said, nodding. "They flew us out to there on the first of June, and we started out living in a house with all the other volunteers."

"It was located in a small village in Senegal." Rachel added. "Unfortunately, it was a very dirty, poorly part of the country, and a lot of the children there were orphans."

"We started out by learning their language, becoming accustomed with their culture, just mastering the basics that we needed in order to help them out." Jack said.

"We were there to help them plant vegetables and crops that would benefit them, as well as making sure they had pumps that gave them clean water." Rachel said.

"What was your favorite part about it all?" Topanga asked.

"My favorite part had to be the kids." Rachel said, glancing over at Jack for agreement.

He immediately nodded, saying, "The kids were definitely the best part. They were a little shy at first, but once you eased them out of their shell, they were so joyful and fun to be with."

"They seemed to really look up to us, and that really made me feel good." Rachel said. "I just liked that we ended up making a positive difference in their lives. That was definitely my takeaway from our year there-I'm really gonna miss them."

"Well, we couldn't be any happier to have you guys back." Shawn said with a smile. "It was pretty weird not having the two of you around for such a long period of time."

"We really missed you guys, too." Rachel said.

Jack grinned as well. "And we couldn't be happier to be back with you guys."