It's been a while, again, I know. I'm sorry. I guess I shouldn't have spent so much time complaining about having nothing to do at work because right now both jobs are kicking my ass. Ah well, I am enjoying reeping the benefits of the extra DJing shifts - and this week should be the last one where I'm doing more than normal... things will finally settle down from Freshers Week (for those of you who didn't know, our terms run sept/oct to may/june).

Oooooh, and before I forget, for all of you in the UK, Universal is showing the third series as of the 17th.

But Who's Going To Save You?

Chapter 16: Save the Date

A small thud awoke Felicity from her restless sleep. "What was that?" she asked Cole, sleepily. "Cole?" she repeated, turning, when she didn't get a response. For the fourth time in a fortnight, his side of the bed was empty. Felicity, yawned and stretched, wiping the sleep from her eyes so she could stare blurrily at the bright green digits that were shining at her. 2.08am.

She stretched again and sat upright, reaching for the lamp and switching it on. Felicity took a moment to allow her eyes to adjust to the dazzling brightness before clambering out of the bed. She made her way into the hallway and peered into the kitchen. "Cole?" she called, flicking on the light.

"It's only me," he told her from the kitchen.

Felicity frowned, heading over to him. "Another late one?" she asked him, rhetorically.

Cole pulled a face. "You could have come," he pointed out.

"I have work in the morning, Cole," Felicity told him, dryly.

"So do I," Cole retorted, marching over to her. "At least I came home."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Felicity demanded.

"It means I could have the pick of any girl out there," Cole explained.

Felicity stared up at him in disbelief. "And that's what? Your explanation for why you reek of perfume?" She turned, heading back for the bedroom, and then turned back to him. "And if you can have your pick of any girl out there, maybe you should have it, because right now, this one doesn't want you. I'm going back to bed," she told him, turning on her heel and slammed the door behind her.

She sat on the bed, giving Milo a small smile as he curled up in her lap, purring away like a 1960s racing car. Moments later, the door opened and Cole walked in.

"I didn't mean it like that," he told her.

"Oh," Felicity muttered. "Because that makes me feel better."

"Three weeks, two days," he said.

Felicity frowned. "Cole, it's 2am. I'm too tired for games."

"That's when we're getting married," he told her, hurrying over to the bed. "I was at the Four Seasons this evening, and it turns out they have a vacancy in three weeks and two days time. So I booked it."

Felicity stared at him, her mouth hanging open in shock. "What were you doing at the Four Seasons?" she asked him, dumbly.

"Booking our wedding, baby. You could at least pretend to be a little more excited," he grunted.

"I'm sorry," she apologised. "It's just so... How on earth am I going to organise a wedding in three weeks?" she asked him, her eyes wide. "What about the rugby?"

"The final is in two weeks. It won't interfere with the wedding, and I will be able to get a couple of weeks for our honeymoon. You said you always wanted to go to Hawaii," he added, stripping off his clothes and dumping them on the floor.

"Cole, that's," she started excitedly. "What about my dad, and my sister?"

"Are you intentionally trying to irritate me?" he asked her, irritably as he climbed into bed. "Your sister will come, and your dad was never going to. Now, are we going to get married, or should I cancel the hotel, because I will lose my deposit?"

Felicity watched Milo scarper from the room before addressing her fiancé. "No, I want to get married," she told him. "In fact," she glanced over at the clock, doing the maths. "I'm going to Skype my sister now and tell her she's going to be a maid of honour."

Lara leant back against the lockers, watching as Dean strode in, whistling a chirpy tune as he did so. "Someone's happy," she noted.

"Zoe cooked breakfast this morning," Dean informed her, opening his locker.

"You stayed at hers?" she asked, surprised.

Dean shook his head, before it disappeared under his shirt. He quickly folded it and placed it in his locker, pulling a clean rescue shirt on. "She stayed at mine. She even cooked for Chase."

"And have you ever stayed at hers?" Lara pressed, chewing at the insides of her mouth as she waited for his response.

Dean regarded her carefully. "Is this twenty questions about my personal life? No, I haven't stayed at hers. Does it matter?" Without waiting for an answer, he headed upstairs.

"What did you say to Dean?" Chase asked her as he took Dean's place.

"Just asking about Zoe," Lara sighed.

Chase beamed. "She cooks a mean fry-up," he told her. Lara rolled her eyes and headed upstairs. "Well, she does," Chase called after her.

"Upsetting the ladies are we?" Lachie asked, clapping a hand on his brother's shoulder.

"You all ready for your first day?" Chase asked, swatting his arm away.

Lachie nodded, unzipping his jacket to reveal the rescue uniform beneath it. "You do realise I look better in this than you do?"

"Yeah, keep dreaming. You're just upset that you missed out on a cooked breakfast." Chase retorted, leading his brother upstairs to Michelle's office. As she was busy on the phone, they held back, waiting.

Felicity hurried into the station, bypassing the lockers to continue upstairs in her civvies, ignored the puzzled Lara and Vince gave her and continued straight for Michelle's office. "Oh, it's your first day," she realised when she found Chase and Lachie waiting there.

"Ah, you see, goldfish," Lachie grinned. "Your memory isn't that bad."

Felicity gave him an unimpressed look as her hands found their way on to their hips. "Seriously, the name is Felicity. Not goldfish, and not Flick. Fel-i-ci-tee," she told him through gritted teeth.

Lachie shrugged. "I do believe you introduced yourself as goldfish," he informed her, lightly. "You know, oh, there's a castle."

Felicity flushed. "I compared myself to a goldfish," she corrected him. "I didn't introduce myself as a goldfish. You already knew my name!" She glanced back into Michelle's office, unable to keep from tapping her fingers against her bag impatiently.

"You look like a girl awaiting the results of a pregnancy test," Lachie informed her, earning a bark of laughter from his sidekick, and younger brother.

"And you look like someone who is nervous for their first day," Felicity shot back. "The only difference is I'm not pregnant," she added with a grin.

"Why are you looking so..." Chase frowned, looking her up and down. "Twitchy. And early," he added. "I didn't think you were due in for another couple of hours."

"How is it you know her rota, but not your own?" Lachie teased.

"I can't tell you," Felicity interrupted them. "Not yet at least. But hopefully in a couple of minutes," she added, ducking into Michelle's office and ignoring the objections from Chase and Lachie as she shut the door behind her.

"You're early," Michelle told her.

"I know," Felicity nodded. "But I came to ask a favour."

"Mmmmm," Michelle murmured expectantly.

"October ten," Felicity started. "Well, apparently Cole has booked the Four Seasons for us to get married, followed by two weeks in Hawaii, and I think I'd quite like the time off, if possible. Plus, you guys are kind of the only friends and family I have out here, so if you could arrange it so that we all had that Monday off, I would love it if you would come to my wedding."

Michelle blinked, before breaking into a wide grin and darting from behind her desk to give her a hug. "Congratulations," she cried, squeezing tightly.

"Is that a yes?" Felicity asked hopefully.

She emerged from the room minutes later with a bright smile on her face. "She's all yours," she told the waiting brothers before skipping away on her mission to find Heidi and Lara.

Heidi was the easiest to find. Since coming back to work the day before, all Vince and Michelle had had her doing was cleaning. Currently, she was working on the small kitchen area, emptying the cupboards and wiping the shelves down. "This kitchen is disgusting," Heidi muttered bitterly as scrubbed at a suspicious looking stain.

Instead of reminding Heidi that all she had to do was go see the psychiatrist (she had nearly bitten Felicity's head off when she had suggested that on a previous occasion), Felicity pulled herself up on the counter next to her. "So what are you doing three weeks tomorrow?"

Heidi shrugged and peered around the cupboard door at her. "Hopefully not cleaning this kitchen again. Why?"

Felicity shrugged, nonchalantly. "I have a bridesmaid quota to fill."

Heidi blinked, took a moment to process what Felicity was suggesting, and then, with a ridiculously high pitched excited squeal, dropped the cloth and launched herself at Felicity.

"Is that a yes?" Felicity asked, struggling to breathe.

"Oh my god, of course it's a yes!" Heidi exclaimed.

"Did you find a spider in there?" Vince asked, joining them.

"I'm getting married," Felicity informed him. "And Heidi has just agreed to be a bridesmaid. I'm going to get some invitations done properly," she added. "But will you be able to come?"

"I suppose I can manage that," Vince responded, gruffly. Then with a sigh, leant over and patted her shoulder. "Congratulations."

"Thanks," she beamed. "Any clues on where Lara got to?"

"Out on patrol with Dean," Vince replied. "Now, while I'm happy you've set a date, I think we should let Heidi continue cleaning the kitchen. And as you've been set the task of showing Lachie the ropes, as soon as he's done with 'Chelle, you can show him them. Literally. They need cleaning and putting away."

"I didn't think you were being serious about that!" Felicity objected.

"You could help Heidi in the kitchen," Vince suggested.

Felicity turned and glanced in the open cupboard and blanched. "No offence, Heidi, but no thank you!" She quickly scarped down the stairs leaving Vince with a very unimpressed Heidi.

"I'm certain this is unethical," Heidi told him.

"Do I have something on my face?" Dean asked, his eyes never leaving the road in front of him.

From the passenger seat, Lara quickly turned her attention to the people on the footpath. "No," she replied. Then, unable to help herself, she found herself, glancing back at him.

"Lara, this is getting ridiculous," he told her. "What's up?"

"Nothing," Lara responded quickly, shaking her head.

"You've been staring at me for the past hour," Dean muttered. He pulled over and turned to look at her. "So what's bugging you?"

"I don't know if it's my place to say," she told him. "I mean you might know anyway, but if it was me, I'd want to know."

Dean shook his head. "Just come out with it."

"Did you know Zoe has a kid?" she blurted out.

Judging from the expression on Dean's face, he didn't. "How do you know she has a kid?" he demanded.

"I saw her in the supermarket with a boy. He must have been about ten or eleven?"

"And what makes you think he was hers?" Dean asked her. "For all you know, he could have been her nephew or something."

"He called her mum," Lara told him, beginning to regret ever saying anything.

"Yeah, well maybe you misheard," Dean snapped.

"You know what, maybe I did," Lara hurriedly agreed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up."

"No," Dean agreed. "You shouldn't have."

"I don't know what to do," Jordan admitted. He, Chase and Felicity were downstairs, getting started on cleaning the ropes while they waited for Lachie to finish his induction.

"Have you tried talking to her?" Chase suggested.

Jordan gave him a look which read duh. "Yes, mate. I've tried talking to her."

Felicity shrugged. "Well, in that case, you're left with blackmail or bribery."

"I'm skint," Jordan admitted. "I can't afford to be bribing her."

"Bribe her with your body," Chase suggested. "Offer sex for counselling."

Felicity couldn't help but laugh. "That won't work. You'd be better off withholding sex."

Chase shot her a look. "That won't work either. Women withhold sex all the time to get men to do things."

"Because it works," Felicity retorted. "It might not exactly be fair, but men can't go longer than a couple of days before caving. The thing is, it work's both ways. Only, men can't last long enough to follow through with their threats."

"It's true," Lachie agreed, joining them with Vince close behind them. "Women want sex just as much as men, but they're better at using it to get what they want." He looked at the three. "Who are we talking about?"

"One of the guys Cole plays with," Felicity answered smoothly, after seeing the brief look of panic flash through Jordan. Although more and more people were knowing about the couple, it was obvious they still didn't want Vince or Michelle to know.

"Mmmm," Vince muttered. "How about you set to showing Lachie what's what, and don't forget the ropes in stores."

"Come on, Lucky," Felicity commanded, ushering him away from the group. "I'll show you where the buckets live."

Miss Deeds - I'm here and gone again! It shouldn't last too much is, thank you. It's a long day, but I love it!

MMC gang - I do, and I feel I might not be as fair to her character as I ought to. Oh well!

meddrama - You know you've put ideas in my head, right? I have developed a bit of a soft spot for Lachie.

Rescuelover - he will eventually, though not by using Chase/Felicity's suggestion. I have six sides of a notebook scribbled with plot ideas and outlines. I fear it could become much longer than I anticipated.

retardedgazelle - I've just started watching Rush (I've just finished season 2). It took me a while to like it, I mean, it's good plots and episodes, but half of the characters annoyed the hell out of me. It helped when they got rid of Grace. Now, I love it. And Rodger Corser is rather pretty to look at. (:D)