Riley spent the entire day celebrating and she was tuckered out. She played with the many dolls she had received as birthday presents from her family and had even set up a tea party, forcing some of her aunts and uncles to play. She couldn't stay awake long enough to pour the tea, so Mia and Kevin decided it was time for her to go to bed.

"Best birthday ever," Riley muttered with a smile as she was lifted into Mia's arms and carried off to bed. She was already asleep by the time Mia reached the stairs. Kevin started to clean up some of the toys. He loved his daughter, and knew with a kid around that the house would never be anywhere near as clean as he wanted it, but he could at least keep it tidy.

Mike propped his feet up, not ready to leave anytime soon. He leaned back into the couched, put his hands behind his head to relax and then turned to Jayden, "By the way, you're never going to guess who we bumped into today."

"Who?" Jayden asked and wondered why he was being singled out. He liked to think he had made vast improvements with his social skills since meeting his Samurai family, but there was no one he knew outside the group that the group didn't also know just as well, maybe better.

"Amanda."

Except her. Jayden had a surprised look on his face and then smiled. His relationship with Amanda had been great, their break-up not-so-much, but he had reached out to her and made amends before all was lost and so hearing the news that she was still in town, and still alive was good news.

"We bumped into her on the way here," Emily nodded her head.

"And you'll never guess who she's dating… ow! What, Em? He's getting married to Antonio, I think he's moved on," Mike turned to Jayden with a smirk, "You know my old friends Matthew and Reese?"

"Them?"

"Well, Reese," Mike nodded his head. "I'm not sure how it happened, but dude, isn't that crazy? My best friend and your ex."

"Who is Amanda?" Lauren asked, turning to glare at her brother. Jayden shrugged his shoulders.

"She was my girlfriend before Antonio."

"Jayden's first love," Serena teased and pinched Jayden's cheeks playfully, "Aw, I almost forgot all about her. I'm glad she was able to move on."

"Yeah, me too," Jayden said with a little nod of his head. "But… seriously? How does she go from dating me to dating… well, his best friend?"

As Jayden pointed to him, Mike realized he had a spot of cake stained on his shirt. Instead of dismissing it, he thought he get the stain out (or at least the flavour) by putting the spot in his mouth. Emily smacked him in the chest.

"Hey," Mike looked up at Jayden with a frown, "Reese was never a bad guy. Amanda's really lucky to be with him."

"I'm not saying he's a bad guy. I'm just saying…" Jayden shrugged and smirked, "She didn't upgrade."

"You won that break-up, huh?" Antonio smiled and wrapped his arm around Jayden's shoulder. "I am an upgrade, right?"

"Eh," Jayden waved his hand dismissively and earned himself a shove and a sad pout from his fiancé, "Aw, Antonio, of course I upgraded."

"Well, unless my brother has married or dated any other girls and hasn't told me about it, I think I need to head home," Lauren said, suppressing a yawn as much as she could, "I promised Troy he could spend the day at the dojo so I've got to be there early."

"Maybe we should all turn in," Serena suggested and could hear Kevin has moved his clean-up party of one into the kitchen where he had gotten started on the dishes, "I'm sure the birthday parents are just as tired as the birthday girl. Terran should probably sleep in his own bed anyways."

Serena gestured to the floor, where a tired Terran had made a nest for himself out of blankets and pillows. He was sound asleep, and had been that way for a couple of hours in spite of the noise level in the house. James went to collect his son while Serena led the other Samurai to the door as they all agreed it was time to go home.

Only the grandparents were spending the night, and would be staying until the day of the wedding. The countdown had begun, and they wanted to do all they could to help their children on one of the biggest days of their lives. Noa continued cleaning up the living room a little more while Patrick and Christina helped their son in the kitchen. Mako went upstairs and found Mia quietly working around Riley's room and finding a place for some of the toys that had made their way upstairs through the day.

"She is precious," Mako whispered so as not to disturb the sleeping Riley. Mia had her back to her grandmother and didn't bother turning around.

"Yeah, she's amazing."

"Mia? Is everything okay?" Mako walked over to her granddaughter slowly. Mia shrugged her shoulders.

"When I was getting Riley in her pyjamas, she asked me something. She knows there's something about her grandparents that is a little off."

"Like what?"

"She asked why Kevin had a mother and a father and why I didn't."

"What did you tell her?"

"She fell back to sleep before I could give her an answer. I really wish he could be here, Sobo."

"Your father would have been very proud of you, princess," Sobo wrapped her arms around Mia. "Very, very proud."

"I still… I feel bad about this. It hasn't even been that long since he died and I've done so many things that he'll never know. He'll never know I was engaged when he died, or that I'm getting married. He'll never know the war against the Nighlok is finally over. He'll never meet his granddaughter."

"It is unfortunate," Mako nodded her head, "but your life shouldn't stop because he is gone. He wouldn't want that."

"I know. I just… I really wish he could have met her, even once. Or met Kevin or…"

"He would have loved them both," Sobo assured Mia with a loving squeeze. "Now, dry your eyes, princess. I hear you've chosen a dress and I'd love to have a look."

-Samurai-

"You said we can stay here for as long as we needed, right?"

James turned around and looked down, finding Emily staring up at him with her puppy eyes. He groaned and took a sip of coffee. It was too early for her manipulation.

"Am I going to regret saying that?"

"Mike and I did the math."

"Aren't you both terrible at math?"

"Yes, so I'm about ninety percent sure we're right, but unless he and I feel like moving into a dump, I don't think we'll have a place of our own in time for twins. There's just no way we're going to afford it."

"Alright, so…"

"The basement."

"What's up?"

"Can we have it?"

"You want my gym?"

"We need space, James. Please, pretty please? I'll babysit Terran for a weekend so you and Serena can do something I don't want to think about. Please, please, please, can Mike and I have the basement? You'll still have your whole entire house… except our bedroom, bathroom, and the basement."

"That's almost half the house."

"Please! We have two babies coming at once!"

"Make it a week, and you've got a deal," James sighed. Emily stumbled backwards, surprised he was agreeing already. She had planned out a morning of begging and hadn't even gotten the chance to use her new, extreme puppy eyes.

"What?"

"You're going to get really fat by the summer," James shrugged his shoulders, "And Serena and I plan on getting married then. Asking you to carry your own twins and babysit Terran will be too much, so Serena and I might not get much of a honeymoon."

"So you're going to have your honeymoon before the wedding?" Emily asked. "Isn't that backwards?"

"Technically, Serena and I are already married."

"Technically, you're not, but whatever, if it means we can have the basement, I'll babysit Terran for a week. Just give me a few days heads up. I guess you're planning on honeymooning soon."

"You can convert the basement into whatever you want while we're away."

Emily smiled up at James, "You're the best big brother ever."

"Great! So then you won't mind watching Terran now while I shovel?" James pointed to the living room where Terran was on his mat playing silently with a few of his toys. He was awake, but a little tired still from the party the day before. "By the way, I haven't gotten the chance to change his diaper."

"Where's Serena?"

"Sleeping in. Today's my day with the little monster. Thanks, Em."

Emily sighed and turned around to look at her nephew, "Alright, little stinker, I guess I better get used to this. In a few months, I'll be on double diaper duty."

Terran heard the word diaper and knew what it meant. He looked up at his aunt with a smirk, laughed, and then started to run.

"Hey!" Emily called and started to chase him around the house, "Well, that's new…"