"Thank you so much, Kate." Nikki grasped her hands, squeezing them. "If I had to choose between my cousins there would have been blood."

"It's no problem, I'm happy to be a bridesmaid."

"And it isn't awkward?" Nikki was trying to be polite but there was no easy way to reference her fairly recent and very acrimonious divorce.

"It was a year ago, and honestly a relief," Kate replied truthfully. "So unless he's a groomsman, I am here to support you."

Nikki watched her carefully for a moment before sighing.

"Still, I'm sorry about the short notice," Nikki told her, rolling her eyes as she shot a look at the gathering of older female relatives. "Pete's grandmother is actually worse than my mother. If I'd known how seriously they took the marriage before kids thing, I'd have kept it a secret until I gave birth."

Kate laughed, "You seem happy though."

Nikki's irritated face softened. "I am." She smiled. "As strange as I would have found that when we first met."

A woman with Nikki's dark hair and colouring appeared at her elbow and Nikki swore under her breath.

"Fuck, okay, we're running late. Your dress is on the rack over there, follow what Bea and Cat do - we've been in more weddings than I can count - pair off with Swain and then watch us get married." She squeezed Kate's hand one more time and then followed her sister out of the room. Kate froze, watching Nikki walk away. It shouldn't have been a shock, Swain and Buffer had been friends since before she joined the Hammersley. But she hadn't seen him in years, not since Jim's death, not since she had married Mike. All she had heard was that he had taken leave from the Navy.

Kate shook herself, there was no point in speculating. She reached for her dress, a green satiny thing that exposed her shoulders and her back. It slipped nicely against her skin and she was impressed with how well Nikki still seemed to know her size.

Kate was pulling her hair back into a low bun when the woman who had collected Nikki returned.

"Hey, I'm Bea. We've got you a slot with the makeup artist next, it should keep you out of range of the meddling nonnas, at least until after the ceremony." She grinned and Kate could see the resemblance to Nikki's dry sense of humour. Kate followed her raised eyebrow to the gathering of what could only be a mix of Polish and Italian elders. She nearly flinched when she realised that their considering gaze was now focused on her.

Bea turned her back so they couldn't see her smirk at Kate.

"How about we take you now?"

"Good idea."

She recognised the men in the room instantly. Charge smiled and waved at her and she recognised Swain even before he turned, the familiar set of his shoulders and his steady stance. He grinned at her and she walked over, leading Bea for once.

"Fancy seeing you here." Charge laughed, grabbing her into a warm hug.

"I'm surprised you both escaped best man duties." She told him as she stepped back.

"Apparently family got dibs," Swain told her as he stepped into his own hug. His skin was warm and he had lost none of the solid definition in the arms that encircled her. Her eyes caught on some of the silver tracery of scars visible above his collar, the only obvious trace of the explosion that had almost killed him. She surprised herself with how hard it was to step back, his hands firm on her waist, a contact she'd had little of in the last year.

"Uh Bea," She stumbled a little over her words as she stood back. "Have you met Pete's groomsmen?"

Bea's return look was arch and knowing and Kate felt her face heat.

"Briefly." She smirked and offered her hand to Charge. "I believe Andy here is my escort."

Charge bowed theatrically over it, feigning a kiss on her hand. Enough theatrics to distract from her own unexpected response and allow her to force it back under control.

She offered her hand to Swain, only to find his already waiting. His smile was soft and he placed her arm carefully over his own, tucking her hand into his elbow.

"Did Sally come today?" She asked, as much to remind herself as to make conversation.

Swain smiled a little awkwardly. "We divorced in 2011."

"Oh." She wasn't sure what else to say, feeling off centre and horrid about the slight flicker of excitement.

"What about Mike?" He asked as if the universe demanded a full circle of awkwardness.

"Divorced last year." She replied and after a long moment of silence she met his eyes and they laughed at the absurdity of it.

"You two going to share the joke?" Charge asked over his shoulder. Swain grinned at him.

"It's a joke for us singles, you old married people wouldn't understand."

Kate let herself lean into him a little more and felt the answering pressure against her side.

Cat stuck her head in the door and glanced over where they were standing, paired up.

"Excellent." She nodded at them. "Let's get this done before she gets any more pregnant."

Kate felt Swain's laugh vibrate through his body as much as she heard it.

Everything had been so rushed that the first time Kate saw Buffer in this whole process was when she was walking up the aisle on Swain's arm. He looked deliriously happy and she didn't hide her smile, pleased to see how the new lines around his eyes only added to him.

She separated from Swain, her side suddenly cold without his contact and she found she had to remind herself to focus down the aisle rather than across it.

The wedding might have been because of a pregnancy but as Nikki walked down the aisle it was obvious that her annoyance with it had nothing to do with how she felt about Buffer.

Kate had no regret for agreeing to be involved but it was hard not to think of her own wedding. It had been quick. That should have been the first warning, but they'd been waiting so long that the whirlwind felt reasonable. They'd still been shuffling leftover wedding alcohol around the garage when her period stopped. Within two years of him leaving the Hammersley, Kate was at home with her new son and a husband who had found a way back to sea the moment it was offered. She divorced him when Aidan was three and he'd had the temerity to look surprised.

It made her wonder about Swain, the date enough to give her room to speculate. The year he left the Navy, the year he'd nearly died.

She was hyper aware of him as he reclaimed her arm, stepping up beside her as they followed Nikki and Buffer out of the church through a cloud of thrown rice.

"I'm not sure if I would have ever predicted that couple," Swain told her, picking a grain of rice out of her hair. "But I'm happy to be wrong." Kate tried to control her reaction to his casual touch and redirected her smile towards where Buffer was dipping Nikki for the photographer.

"Are you still at sea?" He asked her after a moment of silence. Kate shook her head.

"I'm at NAVCOM, I took a shore posting after my son was born." His face lit up and he grinned at her, wide and brilliant. She laughed, "I'd show you a picture but there's nowhere to hide a phone in this dress." She gestured down herself, feeling rising heat as his eyes followed her. Kate swallowed, forcing down the feeling.

"How's Chloe?" She asked, desperately trying to regain the conversation.

"My outfit does allow phones." He told her, drawing his out of his pocket. Chloe was almost unrecognisable, her face no longer baby soft but her grin just like her father's. "She's nearly ten."

Kate felt incredibly old all of a sudden, even though she was only in her early forties.

"Making you feel old?" Swain asked with a grin, obviously noting her grimace.

Kate laughed at his perceptiveness. "They say having a small child is supposed to keep you young. But it really doesn't feel like it."

Swain threw his head back in a laugh. "Oh absolutely, I've never felt older than when Chloe rolls her eyes and groans at something I've said."

Kate watched the way his neck stretched when he laughed, his scars only adding to the attractive length of it.

"What about you?" She finally asked, after just a beat too long, his eyes meeting hers. "Last I heard you'd taken leave from the Navy."

"I went back to university." He said.

Kate was shocked, she'd been surprised enough that he'd taken leave from the Navy, she couldn't imagine what else he'd have wanted to do.

He smirked at her and she knew he was doing it on purpose.

"I did my medical degree." He finally said, his eyes crinkled with mirth at her annoyance. "The longer I was a medic, the more frustrated I was at the things I couldn't do. So while I was recovering I sat the GAMSATs and applied." He shrugged, amused. "I was almost as surprised as anyone else when I was accepted."

"So, it's Dr Blake then?" She asked, surprised by the depth of her pleasure. She had recognised it in him, his frustration, but she had never considered this as a pathway.

"It is. Dr Blake as of about seven months ago. The Navy is currently trying to convince me to choose a surgical residency rather than emergency medicine but they'll have to be happy. They've already got a new officer out of it, they'll have to be okay without a new surgeon."

Kate didn't stop her impulse to slide her arms around him in a hug. He stepped immediately into it, slotting his arms around her and pulling her towards him until she was forced to rise on her toes, her chest against his. She pushed a little further up, pressing a lingering kiss to his cheek.

"Congratulations, Chris." His arms held her close for a lingering moment before they released her. Kate could feel the reluctance in their withdrawal as she pulled back, his hand still resting on the small of her back.

"X! It's so good to see you!" Buffer was half drunk on excitement and what she would bet was at least one solid glass of whiskey. Kate laughed as he swept her up in a hug, his face almost unable to contain his grin. She couldn't help but notice her lack of reaction to this contact and her still lingering awareness of the place low on her back where Swain's hand had rested.

"Congratulations, Pete!" She told him in reply as he released her. "You and Nikki look so happy, and congratulations as well on the baby." If possible his smile got wider.

"I married the most beautiful woman I've ever met and I'm going to be a father. Life really is worth living." He winked at her and her cheeks hurt with her responding smile.

"I saw you got reacquainted with Dr Blake." His grin was cheeky now and she had the intense certainty that their pairing had not been happenstance. "He's a pretty eligible man now. Someone should nab that while they can." He winked at her again and Kate laughed despite herself, too happy for them to mind the benign meddling.

"Go find your wife, Buffer."

He saluted her and completed a sloppy about face, heading back out into the crowd to be back slapped by Charge.

"That's my husband." Nikki's voice a few minutes later was fondly exasperated. Kate glanced away from where Charge had been coaxing Buffer into taking a shot.

"You're going to have to tell me the whole story of how the two of you go together sometime."

Nikki smiled again across the room at Buffer.

"I'm not going to deny it was a little rocky at first but we found our way." She laid her hand on her stomach and Kate was so pleased, after everything, to see her so happy.

"So," Nikki asked, her voice now matching Buffer's mischievous tone. "Did you like your escort?"

"Ah, so it was on purpose," Kate replied, biting back a smile. Nikki held up her hands in surrender.

"Can't say he's not a catch, and I might be taken, but you're not."

"And you accused the nonnas of being matchmakers."

Nikki shrugged as if to say, 'what can you do?' and Kate shook her head. She wasn't going to deny that they'd been right, Swain had caught her eye the moment she'd seen him and knowing he was single had only made it worse.

Nikki's little smirk grew.

"Well, maybe I'll be returning the favour next time." She winked at Kate's bridesmaid's dress and walked away, holding out her arms for her new husband to sweep her up, her dress trailing behind her.

"I feel like if I'm unaccompanied for too long they're going to descend on me." Swain handed her a glass of wine and slid into the seat next to her, his eyes darting to the small parliament of elders who had settled at a table with a good view of the entire room and were exuding a palpable sense of busybody.

"You're the attractive, single doctor now, you'll have to get used to it." She told him and then winced internally at the honesty of her words. He didn't comment on it but she could see his mouth twitch and the way he leaned a little closer to her in his chair.

"Are you not worried about it?" He asked her, taking a sip of his beer, false casual.

"I'm a 43 year old single mother." She laughed. "I think I'm safe."

"I don't know," Swain replied, his fingers tracing the condensation on his glass. "You're pretty captivating."

Kate felt her face redden. It had been years since she'd been flirted with and when she had been it had felt dangerous, when it didn't just feel awkward. It had been long enough that she actually had no idea what to say back that wasn't just a brush off. Swain solved her quandary by holding his hand out to her.

"Dance?"

She let him draw her away from the table and towards the dance floor, her hand still held in his. The song was slow and the only people on the dance floor were couples swaying. He turned her, pulling her close, one hand cupping her shoulder, the other low on her back. Kate sunk into him, one arm around him, the other on his chest.

"I'm glad you were here." He told her, his gaze on her shoulder. It was only then that she realised how tense he was, how brave it was for him to flirt so openly.

"I'm glad that Nikki and Buffer decided to meddle." She replied, turning up her face to him, meeting his eyes. He grinned at her.

"Does this mean you're going to let me take you out sometime?"

Kate bit her lip and leaned close enough to whisper to him.

"If you keep going like this, I'll let you take me home."

He kissed her then, solidly and without hesitation, his mouth moving against hers, his tongue parting her lips. They separated to Charge's wolf whistle, Buffer and Nikki joining in with cheers that half of the increasingly drunken guests followed. Kate buried her face in his chest, her cheeks red. When she looked up she spotted Charge and Buffer exchanging money and glared at them.

"Don't pretend you aren't grateful!" Buffer yelled back at her.

Kate ignored him and looked back at Swain who was smiling, his cheeks also flushed a little red.

"I feel like it might be time to leave, don't you?"

"Looks like it." He slid his arm around her waist, his thumb smoothing over the satin at her hip.

"Take me home?"

"I'd love to, Kate."