AN: I started this a LONG time ago and then lost whatever had made me start it in the first place until I wanted to say thank you to someone who went far above and beyond for me and finishing this seemed like the only way to try and do that. So - this was finished for someone who is so ridiculously witty and hilarious and who would make the best hockey commentator ever. Tirsh - this really doesn't come close to what I owe you for your awesomeness.

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It's a pretty ordinary night.

Jules is talking about dinner, asking him to please stop just standing in the middle of the kitchen and make himself useful and he's listening, it's just-

Sam's got other things on his mind. Or one other thing on his mind.

He picked the ring up a week ago but in terms of actually asking her? Hasn't quite gotten there yet. It's just not that easy, plus he's spent most of the past week trying to convince her that they should tell Boss, at least, about the fact that she's pregnant and that they should do it ASAP. She's worried about the obvious stuff though, being over thirty-five and a first-time baby incubator, as she keeps calling it, three month marks and trimesters. He went out the morning after they found out, bought every single book about parenting and fathers and babies that he could find, has been sneaking little peeks at them whenever Jules turns her back or takes a shower.

But he's also been thinking about marrying Jules, about proposing, thinking about fancy dinners they can't really afford and dropping the ring into a glass or sliding it under her napkin. Nothing's really seemed right though, not them, not yet.

He fiddles with the box in his pocket and then says, "Hey, Jules, heads up." Whips it right at her.

She catches it in one hand (he kind of knew she would), turns around for a second to glare at him before she turns back to the stove, muttering under her breath about how he's always throwing things at her (totally unfair, he's only done it a few times and he only does it because she always catches whatever he throws, those reflexes and that perfect hand-eye coordination and it always makes him smile) and honestly, can't he see she's in the middle of-

"What is this?"

He drops onto one knee right as she turns around, clears his throat and smiles up at her hopefully. He's always known she was it for him but she doesn't seem to have been born knowing quite the way he was so he's kind of had to ease her into it. Lots of questions about marriage and forever and kids – even before they found out that they were having a baby. He's pretty sure she'll say yes but there's always a chance-

"Sam…"

So this is how he's going to do it, the only way that feels right, while she's in the middle of boiling potatoes, and she reaches out shakily with one hand to turn the stove off, doesn't take her eyes off of him.

Says his name again. "Sam…"

He's never heard her sound like that, like she might cry or something. Suddenly realizes that he might cry.

"Will you marry me?" He kind of trips over the words a little, feels like he has to clear his throat a little.

(He thought about making a fancy speech, thought about telling her that he didn't know this kind of love was possible, that he didn't realize that he'd meet a woman and be willing to give up everything just to be with her, that he hadn't known that he could be weak and she'd show him how to be strong.

He thought about telling her that waking up next to her every day for the rest of their lives sounds like a pretty good deal to him, that she's all he's ever going to want, that he's known from the first time he kissed her that this would be it for him. He thought about telling her that he wants to have a hundred kids with her, that he can't wait to meet this one.

He thought about all those things but simplicity seemed like a good idea. Not like they don't get enough excitement day in, day out.)

"Why?"

He raises his eyebrows at her but he knows Jules, knows her thought process and he almost snorts with laughter when he says, "Because a child needs two married parents." She glares at him and he rolls his eyes at her playfully because they both know that for their kid? For their kid, it's not going to matter. "Because I like the idea of introducing you as my wife. Because I can't imagine being anyone else's husband but yours. Because I love you." He shrugs at her. "You need to hear something else?"

She laughs, this sound like she might need to start sniffling. "I-Sam-I. Yes."

"Yes?" Not that he thought she'd say no but-

"Yes. White dress, both our families, licence, rings, yes." Her voice shakes and if he didn't know her the way he does, if it wasn't the two of them the way it's been, he'd never have heard it, never have imagined it could happen.

He's grinning like a fool, presses a kiss to her finger before he slides the ring onto it, gets to his feet and she throws her arms around him and he stands there with Jules in the kitchen they built together before they knew that they'd be building anything else together, leans down and kisses her and she clings to his neck, kisses him back before she starts laughing into his mouth, this breathless, bright laugh. She stares at the ring, her arms still around his neck and he watches her face, smiles because every inch of his future is going to lie with hers.

"So," he says. "Both our families? Like, all of them?"

"Obviously," she sighs, makes a face. "We have to." She's doing this thing where she looks at the ring and then looks at his face and if he'd known how beautiful she'd look engaged, he'd have asked her the day they met.

"We can't just run off and elope?" God. God. She wants to marry him. He feels three hundred feet tall.

She snorts. "You can try that one. I like being alive."

"Fine. Fine." He huffs, like having a wedding where he gets to make vows to her is such a hardship. (But really? Jules in white. He can't wait.)

She hugs him tightly. "We're engaged," she says, this tone of disbelief and her words muffled by his shoulder.

"You said yes," he says before he realizes it sounds like he's accusing her of something. Laughs. "Dammit."

"What?" She pulls back just enough that he can see her face, how she still looks like she's going to cry but also, she looks happy. Jules happy. That's all he's ever wanted to see.

"I think I owe Spike money."

She snickers, raises her eyebrow. "You wanna tell me why? Or should I guess? I can guess. You been gambling away our kid's college money?"

And it's the first time that she's said that, our kid and he just shakes his head at her. "I love you, Jules."

She looks at him with her face all soft, eyes still full and he's not sure she's ever let him see her so vulnerable. "Forever? Like forever-forever? Cause. That's the way I love you."

It's like his heart does this thing where it breaks open and seals back up in the same moment, how she's always going to be in there, how long he's been hers. He has to swallow a couple times to clear his throat. "Yeah. Forever-forever."

She hugs him hard, pressed up right against him and then she says, "I don't want to be eight months pregnant in a wedding dress."

He doesn't follow her logic sometimes and this is one of those times, so he just nods. "Me either," he says seriously.

She rolls her eyes and huffs at him. "I just-sooner? Rather than when I'm eight months pregnant?"

He rolls his eyes back at her. "I'd marry you yesterday if I could."

"You don't need to convince me, Sam, I already said yes." She's teasing but also, she doesn't look like it's a thing she'd object to. If they could go back in time and do yesterday over again.

He laughs, feels a little lightheaded. "We going to tell the team?" He knows they're waiting to tell them about the baby but he's got to know if this is another thing they'll have to keep a secret or if-

She smiles up at him and he feels something in him settle, like maybe his heart was looking for something and now, it doesn't have to look anymore. "Yeah. Obviously. Right before shift."

He leans down, kisses her, gets her closer and he knows he's smiling into her mouth.

She pulls away a little, smiles at him and he knows he's staring dopily back at her (doesn't care). "Hang on. I gotta call my dad." She smacks a kiss on his lips and then turns around, already looking for the phone and he laughs.

"He's not going to be surprised," he calls after her. "He already knows."

She ignores him and he can hear her sounding all light from the other room (she ducks her head back around the door to smile at him). He's grinning like such a gigantic fool as he takes his cue from her, calls his parents (Nat and Beth already knew – and it's not like he thinks The General and Super Mom are going to say anything bad about it but way back in the day there had been one snide little remark about fraternization. He'd kind of expected more of it after the break up but his Mom had sent him a care package and his Dad had called him up to have a very awkward, gruff chat about rifles. Sometimes, he thinks his Dad and Jules get along better than he and his Dad do) and when he tells them, he can hear his mother's already excited, already wants to start planning.

His Dad takes the phone away from her and Sam can hear papers being flipped through. "Have you hammered out a date yet?"

Sam rolls his eyes. "I just asked her."

"Well then what are you doing on the phone with me?" It's deadpan and the timing's a little off but that's what passes for humour in the Braddock household and Sam's so happy that he actually cracks a smile at it.

He clears his throat, wonders how to phrase the next part. "We won't want to wait."

"No?"

"No," he confirms (it's just – Jules scared him a little bit, about telling people about the baby, and he still thinks everything is going to work out fine but still. She asked him to keep it in until they'd cleared the first trimester. He's never broken a promise to her and he's not going to start now).

His Dad laughs. "Well I've got a free day in the middle of next month," he says jokingly, "and then after that, I-"

"Fine."

There's a pause before his Dad clears his throat. "Are you sure? You know. There's no rush, Son. Not if you-"

"I want you there. And if that's the day you have open, that's the day you have open." Jules may want a wedding – but she's still Jules and Sam knows that she's going to understand this, same way she does everything else.

"It's in the middle of the week."

"I don't care," Sam says and he means it, like suddenly this is the most important thing he's facing now that Jules has said yes, now that he's going to be hers. He needs his father there. Wants it, too.

"I-but what-"

He takes a deep breath. "Dad. Please?" It's not in him to ask his father for things, not for himself, not really in him to call the man 'Dad', but he's not ashamed to ask, not for this.

There's another pause and then a brusque, "Fine, that'll work well for us. I'll speak to your mother about our flights."

And Sam hears all the things that don't get said, all the things he never got to hear when he needed to hear them most and he's smiling when he says, "Thanks."

"I'll hand you back to your mother now. Congratulations, Son. And – tell Jules that too, will you?" He clears his throat. "Okay, here's your mother."

Sam puts his hand over the receiver, walks into the other room and tugs on Jules's elbow, writes the date on the front page of the paper from two days ago that they still haven't had time to read. She stares at it, her mouth slightly open and the smile that spreads over her face does something to his stomach and his chest and his pulse and she cuts off whoever it is she's talking to and says, "We picked a date."

He smiles at her, leans back against the wall and just watches her, wants all the things that are going to keep that look on her face and his mom must be able to hear that he's not really listening to her because she laughs, tells him she'll call him back tomorrow. Jules hangs up too, throws the phone somewhere behind her and pulls herself onto him, legs muscled tight around his hips and her hands on his shoulders.

"You think you're still gonna love me thirty years from now?" she asks teasingly, flicks dark strands of hair out of her eyes.

He slides his arms around her waist, thinks he kind of wants to laugh right in her face at that one. "Probably longer than that."

"Good."

"You?"

"Always, Sam," she says and he heads up the stairs with her clinging to him, kisses against his neck and jaw and when she's wearing nothing but the ring he just placed on her finger, she reaches for him and breathes his name and he thinks if he could do it again – all of it again – he'd still be hers and it'd still be this way and the path under his feet would still be lit by her.

He's so nervous the next morning, like somehow telling Spike and Ed and Boss is worse than asking Jules in the first place. Jules keeps her hand on his the whole drive there and then bounces up on her toes when the elevator doors close, kisses him too quickly on the mouth.

"Relax. This part'll be a piece of cake."

He makes a face at her. Piece of cake? He's just not sure about that, is not naïve enough to think that it'll mean they both get to stay on Team One. He's ready though, ready for what it's going to mean, for the fact that it'll mean he's the one who'll leave so that Jules doesn't have to (it's a price he agreed on a long time ago and the thing is, when he looks at Jules, it kind of doesn't feel like a price at all). But he's scared that maybe what everyone else will say is that they're breaking up the family and this is the only family he's ever had that understood him and he doesn't want it to be gone.

"Sam? Seriously. It'll be fine." She looks concerned and he forces a smile.

"I know." He clears his throat. "But-"

"I'm going to marry you no matter what anyone thinks," she says fiercely. "You just remember that."

It makes him laugh and he nods at her.

She squeezes his fingers. "Copy?"

"Copy."

They run into Spike at the desk (and Sam just wants to know who the guy thinks he's fooling. Not that Winnie's any better with the laughing and the blushing and the looking away – he's wanted to say something badly but pretty much Jules glared at him and said that he had to trust Leah who said that she trusted Spike to be awesome and Winnie to put her rule aside but Sam still doesn't understand why he can't just help). And it's very slightly unnerving, how he just seems to know, but Spike looks at them both carefully and then his eyes search for the ring.

And really, Sam shouldn't have been worried in the first place, not about what he'd say because Spike is suddenly all loud and excited and there are hugs and Winnie gets into things and then Leah walks in the front door and they're all getting filthy looks from Team Six (honestly, who holds a debrief with the meeting room door open, anyhow?). Winnie's grasping at Jules's hand, admiring the ring with a smile on her face and Jules is grinning like crazy and Leah's nudging him in the ribs and saying things like, "Ugh, finally!" and Spike's making these slightly off-colour jokes that Sam's trying his best not to laugh at.

"What's going on?" Boss asks, smiling as he sets a tray of coffee down and Sam's eyes flick to Jules.

Jules isn't looking at him though, she's looking up at Boss and Sam knows she's seeing the man who took a chance on her, who let her on a team when no other SRU Sergeant would even entertain the idea, the man who's her mentor and her friend and Sam knows that she's scared, this gamble she thinks she took with all of their careers (even though he's told her a thousand times over that it wasn't some flash in the pan decision, that they tried the other way and it turned out that there was no other way for them, not at all). "Sam and I are getting married."

Sam's holding his breath.

But again, he shouldn't have been worried, not even a little because Boss doesn't even pause, doesn't hesitate and it's family right down to the bare bones of it, unshakeable and unconditional, a foundation he never dared to hope for. Jules looks like she's tearing up and Boss shakes his head at her, says, "You'll make a good wife, Jules," so softly that Sam barely hears it.

(He gets one of those too. Boss hugs him, claps him on the shoulder and says, "Sam, I'm proud of you," squeezes his arm and Sam feels like he could cry, just a little, the pride that a good man has in him. It just – it matters.)

"All right, all right, enough chatting – Ed's going to walk in here and think I'm letting you all off easy! Gym. Now."

But it's perfect, is what it is, all the things Sam had hoped for but didn't dare to expect and the best part is the look on Jules's face, how she's all proud, tosses her ponytail behind her as she gets on the bike (it's the looks on everyone else's faces too, the kind of happy you can only really be for someone else and Sam thinks he must have done something right, somewhere in this life, to be getting that at all).

When he sees Ed come in though, he pauses in his work out, glances at Jules and she raises an eyebrow back, gaze all clear and yeah, it's possibly a tiny bit annoying that his fiancée (fiancée) is so good at her job.

Ed's sitting on the bench staring into space when Sam goes into the locker room and he swallows hard before he clears his throat.

It's one of those times when Ed snaps right out of it, comes back easily and Sam really hopes that that's a sign of things to come, short term, long term, everything in between and after.

"Hey Sam!"

"Ed."

"How's it going?"

This is the last one. The last time he's going to tell someone and have it count this way. And is it so wrong to want all the people that he loves to be happy for the choice he's made? Is it so wrong to want that future he's been picturing (the one where he and Jules have two kids and they can enjoy the Team One picnics because Winnie grabs one of their kids and plays in the sand with Spike and Leah grabs a book and the other kid and Sam gets to sit on a bench and watch Wordy, Jules and Ed play an impromptu game of catch before he's roped into a friendly football game and then later, he gets to roast marshmallows with both his kids, Jules beside kneeling on the ground next to him)?

"Sam?" Ed shoots him a quizzical look.

"I asked Jules to marry me."

Ed's eyebrows shoot up and there's a pause and Sam's not stupid, knows that Ed-the-man is warring with Constable-Lane-the-cop so he doesn't say anything else. It feels like the silence is going on and on and Sam has to fight the urge to cough just to hear something. "She say yes?"

He finds himself grinning, nods. "Yeah. Yeah she did."

"Ahh well there's no accounting for taste, is there." Ed's smile is big and he looks the way he did before May Dalton. "Congratulations Buddy," he says warmly, hugs him tight and then slaps him hard on the back. "Knew you had it in you."

They walk back out to the gym bickering a little and Ed pokes Jules in the shoulder before he hugs her and Sam takes a breath, takes a step back, knows that he'll hold onto this moment forever, a reminder of all the things he'd never have gotten if he hadn't broken all the rules.

He catches sight of Winnie's smile from behind the desk, really has to force himself not to march right over there and give her a great big lecture about rules.

"Don't even think about it," Jules says in his ear, rolls her eyes at him.

"What?" he defends.

She just snorts, one eyebrow up like he's so completely transparent. "Come hold the bag while I hit it."

And he laughs, follows right behind her.