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Author's Chapter Notes:
So in honor of October the 15th (aka MY BIRTHDAY!) I thought I'd get a chapter out to all of you! So the title, kinda cryptic and you won't get it until the last two scenes of the chapter but it's just so perfect for it. lol Anyways lots going on this chapter! Surprise appearances and bundles of joy, baby talk and a possible new budding romantic entanglement (possibly lol). Enjoy everyone!
Chapter Thirty-Three: Matchmaker, Matchmaker Make Me A Match

"Are you sure?" Nick asked for what seemed the hundredth time in the last thirty minutes. It wasn't that he didn't want to have the guys take him out. A sort of pre-wedding last hurrah for him as a single guy. He knew he was already getting a bachelor party from Aaron and his other friends but he supposed that the guys wanted to do something special for him. A final send off as the last one to get married.

Alyssa gave him a look and then moved to place each knee on the outside of his thighs. "Lover, go have fun. Shamelessly flirt with drunk hot chicks it's one of the last times you'll ever get the chance. The guys won't let you do anything too damaging so really I am not worried at all."

Nick gave her a look and grasped her hips as she leaned down their mouths meeting momentarily only to be interrupted by the door being knocked on. Nick sighed and Alyssa got up giggling as she went to the door smiling at the others on the opposite side.

"Come on in..." She said with a sly grin at the three guys. "Where's...?"

"On his way he got stopped by the fans and all their questions as to why he's even here." AJ replied grinning like an idiot. Nick came walking out just then rolling the sleeves on his thin linen button down shirt up his forearms.

"Hey..." He said grinning at them.

"Geez man don't look so thrilled to see us." Brian retorted with a grin.

Nick snickered and shrugged. "Sorry just...."

"Just nothing..." Alyssa interrupted. "You're going out and getting smashed and having fun before you marry me next month." Nick gave her a look but she wouldn't have any of it. "And to make sure you have fun I have a surprise for you." She said just as the fourth and final member of the party showed.

"Sorry got totally jammed up with the fans downstairs, it's so weird to see that again." Kevin said as he entered the room explaining his lateness to the others. Nick stood there in shock as he looked seeing his ex-band mate and close friend standing there before him. "Jesus Nick you'd think you haven't seen me in years." He said with a laugh giving him a hug.

Finally Nick spoke still really surprised at the sight of Kevin being there. "Not that I'm not stoked that you're here...but what the hell are you doing here? Don't you have a kid and an acting career to take care of?"

Kevin laughed at his little jibe. "Ha, funny. No your woman called and said that I better be here since you're the last to get married and all. I mean hell this is momentous. I may not be in the band anymore but still you were at all of our bachelor parties and weddings I think it's only right to be here to do the same for you."

"You don't care about the massive amount of rumors it's going to cause?"

"Let em talk this is more important lil bro." He said with a confident smile.

Nick smiled and nodded and turned to Alyssa who was grinning rather widely at him. "Woman you're insane." He said as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead.

"Have fun, the girls, my mom and I are having a small bridal shower tonight anyways." She replied.

AJ smiled and gave Alyssa a hug. "Call me if anything happens with Kels okay?"

"No problem. I know she's due like any day now so if anything happens we'll be calling all the cell phones so keep them on and nearby just in case."

"We will, you have fun with the girls." Nick said with a short smile as the guys led him out of the room for the night. She smiled and chuckled as they left glad she'd placed the call to Kristin and Kevin a few weeks before hand knowing that they'd want to fly out to see them. Unfortunately Kristin couldn't seem to get away from filming but at least Kevin could make it out for the initial partying of Nick's farewell from single-dom.

A few minutes later Alyssa called Kellie telling her it was all clear for her and the others to come in. Within ten minutes or so, Kellie, Mary, Leigh and Leighanne along with Olivia and Lori were all filing into the hotel room. Room service already ordered and on it's way the girls gathered in the common room on the sofas and chairs as a big pile of presents laid on the coffee table.

"All right ladies food is on it's way let's get this shin-dig started!" Olivia announced as all the women laughed at her announcement.

A little while later...

Nick laughed after shooting back another shot of tequila. "Man I'm glad you decided to chow. I figured you'd be at the wedding and all but this was really cool of you." He said his words slurring just slightly from the alcohol he'd already drank.

Kevin grinned warmly at him as he took another swig of his beer. "You're welcome. Ali said you'd like it if I came so I figured what the hell?"

AJ smiled and shrugged. "It is nice to just party the five of us again." He remarked as they watched Howie and Brian come back over with another round of drinks, beer for Kevin and Nick, Cranberry and club soda for AJ and beers for themselves as well.

"So man are you ready to walk the plank?" Brian asked laughing a little.

Nick chuckled, "Yeah I am it's about time isn't it?"

"Yeah it is. Now enough talking about the women let's at least get to act like we're all single tonight!" AJ remarked again making the other four laugh as they all surveyed the large crowd of beautiful people dancing in front of them.

Meanwhile back at the hotel the girls' laughter rang out in the room loudly. "Oh my God...Lori that's just so wrong!" She said as she put the box full of different flavored massage oils down.

"I know I said it to gross you out. I know how it makes you cringe to hear about your brother in the bedroom. But seriously I was shocked, I mean we'd gotten almost boring and my mother comes to stay and suddenly bam he practically molests me."

Alyssa giggled hard. "Yeah I remember when I was pregnant and Jane came to visit I still haven't forgiven Les and Mike for giving her their room. If they hadn't then she wouldn't have heard us having sex in the bathroom." She replied as she got up and went over to grab another drink for herself, and Olivia followed close behind. Alyssa glanced at her sister and put her arms around her "I'm so glad you could make it. I miss Angie being here too though but I get you don't want her traveling and all."

"Oh yeah well I just want her to take it easy, her pregnancy isn't as easy as Kellie's has been. Thankfully the baby seems really healthy according to our doctor. I'm so excited too being a mom. Was this how you felt when you were pregnant with Noah?"

Alyssa nodded and sighed, "Yeah I was. I'm kind of excited though like after the wedding I really want to start trying to have a family. Like maybe making a conscious effort will make it easier on us. When it's happened by accident it really hasn't worked out so maybe planning for it will make all the difference this time you know?"

"I totally agree. And even better that you and Nick will be all disgustingly cute and married when you do try again so you can annoy all of us with your perfect little straight life." She said with a wide sarcastic grin.

"By the way I've been meaning to ask you..."

"What's that?"

Alyssa chewed her lip barely suppressing her grin. She was happy that her sister decided to come visit her even though her wife was half way around the world and pregnant. "Well I've been meaning to ask you...If you..." She stammered. It amazed her how simple a question as she had would trip her up so much. It wasn't like Olivia would be appalled and say no. Regaining her voice she continued, "You know would be my matron of honor?" She asked getting an almost innocent look on her face.

Olivia's face paled momentarily as slight shock set it. "You want me to..." She said trailing off. She stood there before her baby sister in utter astonishment. She'd never thought that Alyssa would ask her in a million years. Especially when she, in her mind at least, had better alternatives in the form of best friends, her future sisters but the fact that she was asked made her suddenly beam with pride. "I would love to." She said brightly hugging her close. A sudden realization hit her as she broke away for a moment. "Ah man I have to walk down the aisle with Aaron don't I?" She groaned petulantly.

Alyssa giggled and hugged her sister, "Hey at least you know he won't hit on you. Since he knows that you don't like boys."

"Hey I never said I don't like boys, just that I prefer women." She retorted with a sideways grin. "I used to be boy crazy remember, and I've had sex with more men than you."

"Not hard to do since there's only been two." Alyssa replied wryly.

Olivia giggled and flung her arm around her sister as they came back in with their drinks flopping down on the sofa together. "Wait does Kel and Lori know?" She asked making both women look at her with knowing grins.

"Yes we do." Lori said with a large smile. "It's why I was so adamant about you coming. I mean hell we're all like her matron's of honor but you get the title since you're closer to her than any of us."

"I find that hard to believe. I mean we're blood related and all but seriously you two are her best friends."

Alyssa grinned at her, "Yeah they're my best friends, and you're my sister and my best friend hence you out rank them. The only person above you on the list is my husband-to-be. It's how Nick figured out his best man and groomsmen situation. Aaron to him outranks all of his buddies and the band because it's his brother. And then Chris and Brent have been there for a long time.  He was really torn over putting any of the guys in the band in so he put Mike in since he's engaged to Leslie and they've been getting closer than ever. Like any of his other guy friends he didn't feel right with putting them in over any of the guys so he opted for family instead."

Olivia smiled and sighed, "It's craziness Liss. You're getting hitched. I always knew you'd be the last to tie the knot being the youngest and all but dude it's just so weird."

Mary smiled at her daughters and patted her eldest's knee. "Darlin' you said the same thing when you married Angela." She replied making Olivia smile at the use of the word marriage when it applied to her and Angela. For all intents and purposes they were married, sadly just not recognized by any church or law out there.

"Okay next present!" Lori announced handing Alyssa a bag.

Alyssa eyed her suspiciously and dug into the bag seeing a very classy yet very sexy light blue silk nightie. "So is this my something blue?" She asked with a snarky grin.

"No but I figured it would be useful for the honeymoon." Lori replied with a wide smile.

"Psh like she'll wear clothing on her honeymoon. If I know Nick he's probably planning somewhere exclusive where they can be all alone and not have to care about clothing or any other barriers." Kellie retorted with a laugh.

Alyssa rolled her eyes, "Geez give me more credit than that. I do wear clothing around him. And thank you Lori I think I will be using this on my honeymoon now that you mention it." She said giving Kellie a quick glare that did nothing to mask the smile that bubbled from beneath the scowl.

"So I bet you're wondering what I got you..." Mary began with a sly look on her face. "And I know it's tradition for the mother of the bride to buy the bridal lingerie and all but you and Nick did say you wanted something non-traditional for your wedding." She said handing Alyssa a card that held a picture inside it.

Alyssa opened it seeing a picture of a very nice, very modern bedroom set. A king-sized bed not very far off the ground but enough to were you could sit down easily and comfortably, flanking either side of the bed were two long sets of drawers and above that were two, four-shelf book cases that were connected by a long two shelf book case over top that also had small ambient lights positioned over the head of the bed. All of the wood including the bed were darkly colored in a deep mahogany. Alyssa looked at it and smiled. "Is this...for us?"

Mary nodded and grinned. "I know that you two love modern art and architecture and stuff like that so I thought this would be nice for your new home in Monterrey. I know you love your space and all so I made sure it was the largest double pillow top that I could find. Nick approved the frame and dresser/book cases already. He loved the bookcases in particular since you both like to read before bed apparently."

Alyssa hugged her mother thanking her for the thoughtful and elegant gift she'd given to them. "You're the best." She said smiling at her as her mother nodded her welcome.

At that moment Kellie stood up, with Lori's lithe arm to help her up explaining that she needed to get a glass of water. Alyssa protested but Kellie just waved her off. Kellie waddled her way over to the little fridge and grabbed  a bottle of water gently hitting the fridge door closed with her pelvic bone. Suddenly as she turned to go back to the sofa she felt a sharp muscle contraction hit her lower abdomen then a felt a wetness drip down her leg. "Uh...guys..." She said holding her stomach as she hunched over holding onto the back of one of the chairs.

In the same instant Alyssa turned and launched herself over the back of the sofa and to her best friend's side. "What is it? What's wrong is it the baby...?" She asked her voice full of concern and a tinge of excitement that the baby might be coming.

"My water broke..." She said looking up making all of the girls in the room suddenly spring into action.

Alyssa helped Kellie to the elevator as Mary grabbed the overnight bag. Olivia frantically dialed her cell phone to contact AJ, Nick, or any one of the guys. Leigh and Leighanne followed close behind happy to be there for moral support.

Back at the club...

Nick sighed as he flirted half-heartedly. It wasn't that the girl he was talking to wasn't attractive, quite the contrary actually. Flowing hair curled to perfection to be on the prowl for the night, not too much makeup but enough to where it was too much it overshadowed any real beauty the girl had. Her outfit was screaming for someone to push her into a bathroom and have their way with her. The thought made him chuckle to himself at the observation of her inviting ensemble yet ironically enough to him it did nothing to excite his desires or anything connected to it. In another part of his life he would have been much more into her advances and made much more overt ones of his own. "What's so funny?" She asked, her voice was pleasant enough a thick English accent to her tone.

He sighed and shrugged, "Just thinking about how in another time and place that I would be really into you." He said bluntly hoping that she didn't take offense to his words.

Instead of offense she simply smiled at him. "I'm assuming you've already gotten attached to someone?"

Nick nodded, "Marrying her in a month."

"Lucky girl."

"More like the other way around." He said with an air of self-deprecation. He knew that Alyssa felt lucky to have him in her life but a lot of the time he felt like he was the one who should feel that way. As sappy and clichéd as it was it didn't stop him from feeling that way.

"So is this the bachelor party?" She asked frankly and he nodded.

At the same moment Nick felt his phone begin to vibrate in his pocket and out of the corner of his eye he saw AJ come running up a nervous and excited expression on his face. "Dude I'm gonna be a DAD!" he nearly shrieked as Nick looked at him amused at his fervor.

"Yeah I know...she's due almost any day now..."

"No you moron, I'm gonna be a dad tonight! Come on we gotta get to the hospital!" He exclaimed. Nick excused himself politely and left with him as they hurried to the hospital, AJ nervously fidgeting and twitching the entire time.

Nick observed him quietly wondering if he had looked somewhat the same the night Alyssa had been in the hospital. Of course the mere fact that it was a much earlier and scarier experience for him to watch his the entire scene unfold before him made no difference in his mind. The rest of the rush seemed to go by in a flurry. They arrived at the hospital and rushed to the waiting room, AJ disappearing to go into the delivery room. Nick smiled as he giddily accepted the scrubs from the nurse and practically skipped down the hallway.

In all his years of knowing him the idea of skipping and AJ never really ever came into his mind in the same stream of thought. Alyssa giggled a little. "Looks like a kid on Christmas morning doesn't he."

"Oh yeah with the big red bicycle that he's been hoping for under the tree." Nick retorted back as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to sit on his lap as he sat down on a chair. He closed his eyes momentarily just breathing in her scent yet again. "I missed you." He whispered making her grin and rest her body into his.

"Did you have fun?" She asked lightly rubbing her fingertips over the thin skin covering his knuckles.

He shrugged, "Yeah I mean it was great to hang with the guys and all. But I actually tried to flirt to see if I would feel the same as when you and I banter back and forth."

"And what did you discover?" Alyssa asked keeping her voice soft and almost amused at his little anecdote.

"I was bored. I mean I had some pretty hot girls to flirt with and I just didn't care. My ego was more than slightly ruffled that I just didn't give a shit to try to flirt with them. I mean I did and all but it just didn't feel like a flirt should you know?"

Alyssa smiled and kissed the scruffy hinge of his jaw and he turned and grinned  at her. "I'm glad you had fun, albeit short lived." She said chuckling to herself. He joined her as well chuckling softly.

The time they spent in the waiting room seemed to drag on and on. Five minutes felt like an hour as they all sat quietly, some reading, some in quiet hushed conversations as they awaited the news of the birth of AJ and Kellie's son. When the news came just two hours after arriving all of them sighed in relief that the wait was over and that both mom and baby were perfectly healthy.

Everyone went in and out of the room letting Nick and Alyssa stay back and wait to make their entrance to the hospital room. Once everyone was leaving or had already left Alyssa and Nick both went into the room. Alyssa sighed glad she'd made the choice to wait until everyone else had gone. She knew there was a good chance that either she or Nick or both of them would get maudlin at the sight of their best friends and their healthy baby boy. It wasn't that she wasn't happy for them, in fact it was quite the opposite, she envied Kellie, for her pregnancy and taking it in such a stride that she obviously hadn't had the strength to possess.

They both smiled at the little family laying eyes on the little bundle sleeping in Kellie's tired arms. "I'd like you two to meet Cedric James McLean." Kellie beamed happily seeing how both of them were immediately taken by the cherubic face and button nose.

"What color are his eyes?"

"They're gray at the moment, I'm sure that will change either brown or blue probably."

"Gray?"

"Yeah, I think it's just the lighting in here but they look gray to me."

Alyssa grinned, "That would be cool considering he'd be different from you two then. I love his name by the way..."

"Yeah I read it somewhere and it just fit. I know some people are going to be like you named your kid after Cedric the entertainer but I didn't I swear." She said holding up three fingers in a scouts honor. Alyssa giggled and hugged her best friend feeling oddly calm about the situation.

Nick on the other hand was studying the sleeping child's face comparing to the images he still had in his memory of Noah and how strikingly different they were. He sighed and mustered up a good grin for AJ smacking him on the back. "Well done man."

"I know he's just too perfect." He replied beaming at his wife and son. Alyssa rolled her eyes and sniggered as she took little Cedric into her arms rocking him as he stirred from the movement.

Nick watched marveling at how easily Alyssa fell into a maternal role and the infant quickly hushed back into a restful sleep. A knot formed in his stomach to accompany the already large lump in his throat. As far as they'd come in the past few months the sight of seeing Alyssa with a baby brought back his desire to be a father as well, to see her glow the way Kellie had. "You want to hold him Uncle Nick?" Alyssa asked with a cute baby voice whisper to her tone.

Nick nodded and took him from her the four of them chuckling as Cedric stretched and cried a little from once again being disturbed in his slumber. "Demanding lil punk isn't he?" Nick replied chuckling as he saw Cedric reach his hand up to stretch. "Man he's tiny... How much does he weigh?" Nick asked his head shooting up over to Kellie and AJ who sat on the bed holding hands smiling at how Nick, too fell easily into any parental role.

"Seven pounds, six ounces if I'm correct." Kellie replied making AJ nod in agreement. "I'm just excited he was born in Europe. I kind of always wanted that, to have a baby in a different country."

"Damn there go his hopes of being president one day." Alyssa joked sarcastically making Kellie role her eyes.

"No son of mine is that moronic to go into politics." AJ said sternly placing a kiss to Kellie's temple.

Nick walked back over as he played with Cedric's little hand with his finger tip. He shifted and slid Cedric gently back into Kellie's arms and watched the jealousy in him quelled for the moment as he smiled at the little family in front of him.

A few nights later...

Nick awoke slowly growing accustomed to the cold sweat he continually was beginning to wake up in, in the middle of the night. He looked to his side seeing Alyssa still out cold and made his way to take a hot shower hoping to wash away the dream he'd had once again. It wasn't a nightmare that's for sure. But to him the waking up to find out that it wasn't true was what hurt him the most. Ever since the night Kellie had Cedric the baby buzz had been on his mind and his own masochistic nature turned it around to make him wonder what life would have been like if Alyssa had made it through the pregnancy with Noah, what if he'd been a full term baby. The images taunted him with happiness only to wake up and remember that wasn't the case. He cursed to himself and punched at the tiled wall. He looked at it seeing not even a crack had formed and now his hand was hurting, swelling from his angry outburst.

After his shower he came walking back into the bedroom finding Alyssa sitting Indian-style on the bed, wearing his sweater and nothing more, her wild mane of hair tucked behind her ears. She saw the look on his face practically reading the thoughts he was desperately wishing to keep from her. "Are you going to talk to me about it? Or are we just going to go to sleep and act like nothing happened until you have the dream again?" She postulated to him.

He gave a petulant sigh and looked at her. "What do you want me to say? That I'm fucking jealous of AJ and Kellie? Is that what you want?" He asked keeping his voice flat trying to keep his frustration at bay as much as he could.

"It's okay to envy them. Sin as it may be..." She said recalling on her extensive Catholic upbringing. "But you're just a man...and we lost something that was very dear to us that we both desperately wanted even though we didn't know we did until we'd created him." She said somberly. "It's hard I know, I get it. But I've made my peace with losing him...because of you it's made it okay that he's gone. Because I know that as much as it hurts that we lost such a precious piece of each other that doesn't mean that we won't ever get the chance again."

Nick gave her a look and grimaced at her as he sat in the chair just in a pair of long pajama pants, his head in his hands. "Alyssa...it's not just that...I mean why us? Don't we get to have that? You've been pregnant twice and look at the result."

Alyssa got up and went to him kneeling under his face so he would be eye to eye with her. "Nick...lover... I know how hard this is. But it wasn't meant to be. It's what I have to keep telling myself over and over to keep the sadness from consuming me. I promise you will have another chance." She said her face growing more and more resolute.

He gave her a look, "When? A few years after we get married? After your PhD? When do we get another chance?"

"When we chose to." She said a plan growing in her mind. She'd been meaning to talk to him for over a month now about trying again but at the time it never seemed like the right moment to discuss such a volatile topic for them both. "We can discuss when we want to start trying if you want."

"I don't want to wait years to have a family with you Ali. Losing Noah, seeing AJ and Kellie so excited about Cedric, it's made me want to see you pregnant, to see you holding our child and glowing with pride."

Alyssa nodded, "I'll make you a deal."

"Who are you Bob Barker now?" He retorted making her eyes narrow into a look that made him shut up.

Alyssa cleared her throat and leaned in to emphasize her point, to in affect really drive it home to his brain. "I'll stop my birth control after the wedding. Since I'm on such a high hormone dosage it's going to take about a month or so for my body to recalibrate itself. But within a month or two of going off of it, I think it'll be easy to accomplish."

"Like right away right? Like right before the wedding and such...?"

"Yeah I had planned on surprising you that I'd gone off of it on our honeymoon but I didn't know if you even wanted to try to have a baby after everything. But this shows me you want it as much as I do. I'm ready to be a mom and I think you're ready to be a dad too. I just want to wait until after we're married. I think that may oddly tip the scales in our favor. Call me superstitious or emotionally deranged but if Nana's taught me anything it's that everything happens for a reason and maybe it was to tell is we had to get married and really commit ourselves to each other before we could ever have children."

"Plural eh?" He asked with a grin his mood had lifted quite a bit since her little compromise had emanated from her.

"Yes I want more than one. But I'm not have like six or seven little monsters either. I draw the line at three."

"And what if the third pregnancy could be twins?" He asked grinning at her.

"Then you sir are getting snipped or I'm having a hysterectomy that way we won't have anymore."

"So four is negotiable?"

Alyssa gave him a sideways glance, "Three, that's it. You're not the one sacrificing your body to carry ‘em nine months."

"True. Okay three tops unless for some unforeseen thing we have twins or something."

"It's not very common on my side like it is on yours. The only twins in my family are Kate and Kaylee and that's only because Aunt Ginny has like a zillion sets of twins in her family." She explained depleting the possibility with statistics. "Besides three little ones means three chances to fulfill my promise."

Nick gave her a confused look in response, "What promise is that?"

"A long time ago you asked me to give you a daughter that looks just like me...Well given the odds one out of three should look at least a little like me hopefully it's a girl."

Nick smiled and pulled her face closer to his kissing her in pure gratitude. The entire conversation in an of itself made him feel completely at ease with the earlier envy and pain he'd felt. While he'd never forget what happened with Noah, he certainly now had his eyes on his future, to have that family he so desperately craved. A soft knock at the hotel suite's door brought them both back to reality as they broke apart from their emotional conversation. Alyssa smiled and went to the door smirking at whoever it was on the other side. She let him in and Nick stood seeing his little brother standing there, in a beat up sweatshirt, jeans and a duffel bag in his hand. "'Sup bro?" He said with a wide grin giving Nick a hug.

Nick smiled and broke the hug, "Dude, what are you doing here? It's freaking 3 in the morning." Nick said as he glanced at the clock.

Aaron shrugged, "LA was pissing me off, so I decided to come crash the party. You don't mind right?" He asked seeing the attire they both had on he wondered if he'd interrupted something that would normally gross him out to even think of.

Alyssa smiled and hugged him. "Of course we don't mind. Although we don't have an extra bed..."

"S'okay, I got a room just down the hall. I heard about the new little monster as well."

"He's adorable, looks like both of them." Nick added making Aaron grin.

"Sweet, I'll have to see him tomorrow, but anyways I'm gonna go crash, you two do the same!" He said happily hugging them both. "I'm glad I decided to come see you guys." He said as he left making Alyssa smile and make plans with him the following day for them to go sight seeing together.

A week later...

"Lindsay thanks so much for flying out. I really appreciate it." Alyssa remarked as they sat across from each other, grading term papers in tandem. Since her flight had landed just an hour before Lindsay had expressed a very business-like demeanor and suggested that they get right to the massive amounts of term papers to grade and doing so through video or phone conference was going to be a much too laborious task. She had to admit to herself that it wasn't technically all about the work to get Lindsay to come out on the tour. Partially she had hoped that maybe with Aaron being on the tour as well it could give them some time to get to know each other and see if maybe sparks would fly.

When she had told Nick of her little plot he'd given her a petulant glance making her roll her eyes and proceed to convince him that maybe Lindsay was the kind of girl that Aaron could actually find something with. And after 20 minutes of cajoling and coaxing she somehow got him wrapped up into her little plan to play matchmaker for her soon-to-be brother. Thankfully neither Lindsay nor Aaron seemed to notice this early in the game.

Alyssa watched as Lindsay looked over her dark rimmed glasses and smiled, "Well your welcome! I'm happy to get to travel. And to see you of course, I know it may not be all that ethical to become friends with a professor and all but I really do see you that way. You've been a great help with my graduate work and I'm glad I could help you with your research." She replied.

Alyssa smiled happily at her as they continued to work. "Okay question, what do you think of this statement...."

"Shoot."

"While Iago seems to be the one pulling all the strings in this provocative play, really he's only exploiting weaknesses already present in Othello's turbulent character."

Lindsay nodded her head, "I agree with it. I mean it's true that Iago's the villain of the play but at the same time he couldn't have done what he did without the flaws already present in Othello." Lindsay artfully elaborated.

"I thought that too. I love hearing all the differing opinions on literature but it seems like much of the class tends to agree with that statement you know?"

"Yeah because Shakespeare is pretty straight forward in his cryptic-ness." She replied laughing at her own joke. "I mean seriously he's cryptic with his words and phrases that the characters use but at the same time the words illustrate the intention and the action describes the rest really. I think that's why his work is so universally used as inspiration for other authors." She explained.

"Agreed..." Alyssa mirrored smiling at her. Just as they got back into the swing of working Nick and Aaron came into the room talking rather loudly about the basketball game they'd just finished playing.

"Dude it sucks that you're all athletic again...I can't keep up." Aaron remarked as he stopped short seeing the two women sprawled out between the two sofa's sitting on the floor and sharing the coffee table as a sort of desk.

"Yeah but you're the one who just quit smoking again so I think that I have the advantage of having better lung capacity." Nick retorted seeing the girls there. He smiled at them. "Hey Linds. How was your flight?"

"Bumpy, but all right." She said standing as Alyssa had done just a second earlier.

"Lindsay this is Nick's brother Aaron, Airhead this is my research assistant and former student Lindsay Barnes." Alyssa said making the introduction.

Aaron held out his hand and watched her take his, "Nice to meet you, I've heard a lot from Ali here."

Lindsay smiled back, "Cool, nice to know I've been talked about." She replied as she let go of Aaron's hand and moved back to the couch flopping herself down and picking up another paper.

Nick glanced at the papers around the room, "Term papers?"

"Yep." Both girls said in unison as they immersed themselves into their work.

Feeling slightly awkward and wanting to let the two of them get their work done as soon as they could the boys excused themselves. Nick watched Aaron glance back more than once as they headed down the hall to AJ and Kellie's room hopefully to play with baby Cedric or play a rousing round of video games.

"Dude you like her..." Nick said giving him a look.

"Do not..."

"Do too infinity squared..." Nick said challenging him to top it in the most elementary school boy type way.

Aaron rolled his eyes. "Dude you suck."

Nick guffawed loudly at him and sighed, "Oh yeah you have it bad already and you've met her for what like five seconds?"

"I did see her in the hall at Ali's office." He said with a smirk.

"Still she didn't even recognize you according to Liss."

"So? That could be a good thing."

Nick gave him a strange look, "You want me to hook you up don't you?" He asked resigning himself to the role of playing matchmaker.

"No I can handle it. But if I need a wingman..."

Nick smiled and wrapped his arm around his brother's neck giving him a noogie for good measure. "Yeah, I'll be your wing man."

"Like Goose and Maverick?" Aaron asked with a cheesy grin.

"Yes because I'll be there when you go down in flames punk." He retorted making the two of them bust out in laughter. He smiled as they went into the hotel room, and thought to himself that if his brother played his cards right, then maybe he would have finally some luck when it came to his turbulent personal life. He sighed and chuckled to himself, he just hoped that Alyssa was right  in her little plot.

Chapter End Notes:
thank you for reading!