AN: The above is what Archie is playing on his guitar. I can't believe I found it on guitar, because obviously this is Mozart, and it was written for piano. If you're interested, I humbly believe this particular first movement, played by Daniel Barenboim on piano, is the most beautiful movement of music ever written or performed. Unfortunately, it's followed by the second movement, The Turkish March, my least favorite movement of music ever, so stop after the first movement, which is sublime.

As for what's below, it's the cutest thing ever! This video isn't really part of the epilogue, but it shows a puppy climbing into a chair with a baby (quite a bit older than MJ and Heath's) and falling asleep, and it's so dear that I didn't want anyone to miss it. I'm sticking it in the previous chapter, where at least it's relevant, and I'm putting it here, so you guys don't miss it either. And no one asked me what "detente" meant!! Does that mean you all knew, or did all of you look it up? Either way, WELL DONE! Okay, onward to the end, intrepid readers!

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Two and a half years later.

"No one knows?" MJ asked. Suspicion was written all over her face as she faced Poppy in the kitchen at Tanglewood.

"No," Poppy assured her, shaking her head to make her point. "The few people we've invited think they're just coming to a casual, summer, star gazing party to see you guys because it's so fucking hard to get you lot to come here and see us.

"Which is basically true," Poppy added under her breath as she opened the refrigerator and got herself a drink of juice.

"What?" MJ asked.

"Nothing, I was just saying it's not far from the truth, that's all," Poppy told her, pouring herself a glass of juice from the carton. "You guys hardly ever come and see us," she complained. "Even though you're the richest ones in the family, and could afford to just pop over whenever you wanted."

MJ looked around the gorgeous kitchen and gestured to the lavish grounds. "Yeah, you're really suffering, aren't you?"

"You know what I mean," Poppy continued. "You have those darling babies who're getting bigger practically whilst we look at them, and we hardly do get to look at them."

Her glance fell on MJ's finger. On it was a gorgeous sapphire, surrounded by diamonds, in a plain band.

"Holy shit, I thought you weren't going to do the whole ring thing," she exclaimed.

"I didn't think we were," MJ responded. "Then he just pulled it out of his pocket when we were on the plane and said it was a family heirloom, and that your mother's feelings would be hurt or something equally stupid, and gave it to me." She looked carefully at Poppy. "Don't you want it?"

Poppy shook her head. "The truth is that I'll probably get something equally huge and important to some other family when I get engaged to whatever lucky bloke I choose," she said.

"What about Archie?" MJ asked. "Won't he want it for his fiancee?"

Again, Poppy shook her head. "We've got another one, only with an emerald, that he can have for his lady love. It's all carefully planned out, no worries. MJ, I'm afraid you're stuck with it."

Poppy took her juice and they went into the sunny lounge, where Archie was sitting, all alone, on the floor in the middle of the room.

"Where are they?" MJ asked, looking around.

"Well, I'm sorry to have to tell you this," Archie said, "but I'm afraid I had to eat them. They were just too sweet, and I couldn't resist." As he spoke, he pointed toward the floor length curtains, which were moving, though there was no breeze in the room.

At his words, whispers and giggles could be heard, and suddenly the curtains erupted in a wild flurry of movement, as though they'd been hit by an invisible tsunami, and two sturdy toddlers with wild manes of curly brown hair came hurtling out, shrieking with laughter.

"No you didn't! No you didn't!" they squealed as they launched themselves at their Uncle Archie. They grabbed him and knocked him backwards on the ground, where they laughed and giggled as he tickled both of them as he held them on his chest.

He finally released them before they passed out from lack of oxygen, and they ran to their mother, solid legs thumping on the floor on their way to the sofa, where she'd sat to enjoy the show.

"Mum! He didn't eat us, see? See?" they shouted, patting her legs, as if doing so could get them more than her complete attention, which they already had.

They were wearing short overalls in different colors with white T-shirts underneath. One girl wore a bright red one, and the other, who had a delightful little freckle on her cheek, wore a blue one. Their lips were red like cherries, like the day they were born, their skin the delightful pink white of their mother's. They both had tiny dimples on one side of their mouth, and their eyes were the very dark blue of their aunt, uncle, and father.

"Wonderful, guys, I was really worried," MJ said, kissing each one on the nose. "Now, do you remember when we talked about using your inside voices and your outside voices? Hm?"

Both nodded.

"But why Uncle Archie uses his outside voice?" Lulu asked, pointing behind her to where Uncle Archie was sitting, looking guilty.

Next to her, Kiki was nodding with vigor. "Yeah, Uncle Archie using his outside voice inside alla time," she agreed.

"Well, I'm not Uncle Archie's mother, so that's not my problem," MJ said, giving Uncle Archie a raised eyebrow. "But I am your mother, so you need to use your inside voices, okay?"

Both girls nodded.

"Kiki, Lulu, Uncle Archie doesn't have an inside voice," Poppy explained. "He only has an outside voice in his throat." She made a sad face.

"Girls, your mum's right," Archie agreed. "We need to be quieter in the house. Now come here so I can tie your hair, yeah?"

They nodded and ran back to him, but before they sat to have him tie their hair, they both wanted him to open his mouth.

"What? Why?" Archie asked. He opened his mouth obligingly.

"Wanna see if you really only have an outside voice in there," Kiki explained, pulling Archie's chin down.

Lulu nearly made him gag sticking her fingers in his mouth.

"Okay, okay, enough, you guys, you're going to make Uncle Archie hurl," he said, laughing. "Now turn around and let me do your hair."

He pulled a hair pick, some blue and red barrettes and some hair ties out of his pocket, and went to work.

"So, we all set for tonight?" he asked as he worked.

MJ nodded. "If your brother and our fathers aren't too hungover," she added.

"Yeah, they were pretty pissed," Archie agreed, smiling around the barrette he held in his mouth. "I didn't want to be all hungover, so I folded around midnight. Wanted to be all fresh to play, didn't I?" He smiled at the girls.

"What's pissed?" Lulu asked.

"It means they drank too much and got extra stupid, even for men," Poppy explained.

"So are they all still sleeping?" she asked.

MJ nodded.

"Well should we wake them up or something?" Poppy went on.

"I think we have plenty of time," MJ said. "The judge isn't going to be here until, what, an hour before sunset?"

Archie nodded.

"You know, Heath's chuffed that you agreed to do this," he told MJ.

"I know," she answered with a little smile. "And I know it was a big deal for him not to have a big, public wedding, that he was willing to forego all that for me, and I'm so grateful." She waved her hand around. "I know what all this stands for, the history, the pageantry, the society and all that. For the Spencers to let their oldest son and heir get married without a public ceremony is a huge deal, and I'm very, very grateful. I really need to tell your parents."

Poppy put a hand on MJ's arm. "No you don't." Her voice was gentle. "They love you, MJ, and they love their granddaughters. They don't care a fig about a big, society wedding. Besides, we're having the lovely star gazing party after. Or the shooting star gazing party, I mean. It's going to be catered, smoked salmon, champagne, all that."

She gestured toward Lulu and Kiki, who'd finished getting their hair done, and were now doing Uncle Archie's hair, tying here, clipping there, making him look quite a bit like Pippi Longstocking.

"You gave them those wee ones. What else could possibly matter?"

She pulled out her phone and took a quick photo.

Archie gave Poppy the finger.

Poppy smiled.

MJ had finally caved on getting married, as long as it was completely private. She'd even agreed to a wedding dress, as long as no newspaper or magazine photographers would be there, and it had actually turned out kind of nice. Kiki and Lulu were enchanted with it, and with their own dresses as well.

At first, she'd argued fiercely against a dress.

"Heath! I'll look like some kind of mutant cotton ball, or cotton candy or something!"

"What? Are you mental?" Heath couldn't hold in his laughter.

"Don't you laugh at me, Heath Michael Spencer," MJ had warned.

"But MJ, the girls should see you looking confident and happy in a beautiful dress, don't you think?" Heath asked, smoothing her hair away and kissing her just over her eyebrow. It was these words that had finally changed her mind.

The girls came dashing up to the sofa where MJ and Poppy were sitting. to stand in front of their aunt.

"Aunt Puppy? We finish Uncle Archie's hair, ready to fix yours now," Kiki announced hopefully. Poppy's hair was longer than Archie's, longer than their father's even, and Poppy's hair was straight, which made it even more fun to play with.

Next to her, Lulu nodded, smiling, making her pony tail bounce. She patted Poppy's knee with her chubby hand. "Come on, Aunt Puppy, we're ready, we're ready. Make it pretty, promise!"

"Oh, god, how do you ever tell these creatures no to anything?" Poppy asked rhetorically as she set her juice aside and went to sit on the floor.

Archie took his phone out and got ready to take some pictures.

"Believe me, you become immune to their charms quickly," MJ said, her voice and smile dry.

A few hours later, after Hugh, Tasos, and Heath had been given coffee and paracetamol for their headaches, after everyone had gotten dressed up, after Poppy had helped MJ put on her beautiful dress, and she and MJ had helped the two-year-olds into their pretty, delightful, puffy dresses, it was finally time for the ceremony.

"Honestly, Hugh, I expected it from Heath and my dad, but I thought you'd show a little restraint," MJ said, patting Hugh on the arm.

"That ouzo is something else, I must say," Hugh remarked, rubbing his head. "Quite a kick."

Tasos put an arm around Hugh. "You're a Greek at heart, I knew you were," he boomed in the taller man's ear.

MJ had wanted to put her hair up, because she didn't particularly like it, but Heath had asked that she wear it down.

"Really?" she asked, looking at him.

"Yeah, really," he answered, meeting her gaze in the mirror.

"Okay, but why? It's horrible, it's all curly and boingy and gets everywhere--" she was already messing with it, trying to get it out of her face.

"Because I like it," he replied, pulling her hands away.

"Okay," she said, nodding as she looked at him.

"And please leave the girls' hair down?" he'd added.

So they'd gotten wreaths of pink rosebuds for Kiki and Lulu.

Once the they knew the men were well away, Poppy, MJ, and the babies left the house together, taking the path down to Heath's Meadow, where the ceremony was to take place. MJ saw the caterers arriving just as they were leaving.

Once they got to the path, Poppy kissed MJ, told her she looked beautiful, and went to stand next to Tasos.

MJ had insisted that it be very casual, like Miranda and Steve's wedding in Sex and the City, with people just standing, so the family was just gathered around, chatting. The only one seated was Archie, who was going to play the first movement of Mozart's piano sonata in A major, which MJ loved. Janelle Wren, who had designed MJ's wedding dress, had told her that Tinker Bell Foster, whose dress she's also designed, had also had this music played at her wedding to Theo Shelley a few years before, though she'd had it performed by a string quartet.

She'd also found out that the Shelleys lived just down the road from Heath's parents, at a much larger estate, called Tanglemere. Most of the old estates around this area were called "Tangle-something," since the local village was called Tangleton.

There were two baskets of flower petals waiting for Lulu and Kiki to pick up and scatter, which they did with great enthusiasm, tossing them up into the air as high as they could, the way Pappoús and Uncle Archie had taught them to.

Heath watched his daughters with tears in his eyes, laughing and crying at the same time. MJ watched from the back, waiting until they were finished and came back to hold her hands, so the three of them could walk toward Heath together.

Heath put his hand on his heart and mouthed to MJ that she looked beautiful.

"Thank you," she mouthed back at him. "So do you." And he did. Heath had never looked to handsome. His gray tuxedo was magnificent.

His girls reached him, and they turned to face Judge Davidson, who was an old family friend. She'd been thrilled to receive the call to perform the ceremony for Heath and MJ.

By the time they were to exchange vows, it was sunset, and everything was bathed in a pink glow.

"With this ring, I thee wed," Heath declared, sliding the plain, platinum band on his beloved's finger. He sniffed, and felt for a tissue, but of course he didn't have one.

MJ pulled one out of the pocket of her dress, and gave it to him.

"Blow, Daddy, blow," his girls encouraged.

"With this ring, I thee wed," MJ repeated, replicating Heath's movement with the bigger band.

"I now pronounce you husband and wife," Judge Davidson declared in the summer dusk.

This was what Kiki and Lulu had been waiting for.

"Now kiss, now kiss!" they shouted, jumping up and down in their exuberance. "Hollywood kiss, Daddy, Hollywood kiss!"

The dogs, who had wandered down the path to be with their people, were excited by the antics of the girls and ran around their family, barking with excitement and adding to the happy pandemonium.

Heath took MJ in his arms and bent her back for a Hollywood style kiss, which made Kiki and Lulu clap. He kissed her gently in the twilight, and murmured, "You can never escape me now." He set her up, and said, "I know you'd just as soon have skipped all this, so thank you."

"I know you'd just as soon have made this into a spectacle, so thank you," MJ answered, slipping her hand into his.

Then there was kissing and hugging all around as they all walked back to the house.

"We need to get changed before people start showing up so they don't think they missed anything, right?" MJ asked.

But when they got to the house, people were already arriving, unfortunately.

"Oh no," MJ murmured. "Why are they so early? I thought they weren't supposed to come for another half hour?"

"It's okay, it looks like Charlie and John," Heath said, quickening his step. "They won't mind."

It was his old bandmates, with Jane.

MJ saw the lack of surprise on their faces at MJ, Heath, and the girls' clothes, and looked suspiciously at her new husband.

He looked back at her, shaking his head.

"Congratulations!" Charlie and Jane called, thrusting a gift in their hands. "Where's the champagne?"

"What?" MJ looked again at Heath.

"It wasn't me," Heath insisted, scooping up his daughters, knowing she couldn't hurt him while they were in his arms.

"Poppy?" MJ asked.

"No, I told you," Poppy said, shaking her head.

MJ turned to Archie.

"Yeah," he said, nodding. "Everyone knows, so deal with it."

"Everyone?" MJ repeated.

Archie nodded, adding a grin.

"It's a wedding party, come on, let us be happy, let everyone be happy with you, for you, please?"

"Please?" Kiki and Lulu echoed from their father's arms. "Please, Mommy? Don't keep making your pissed off face, okay?"

Oh my god.

Archie took the girls from Heath, whispering loudly that he'd pay them later, and bore them away, with everyone following him, of course. The girls were the strongest people magnet on earth.

Heath came and put his arms around MJ.

"We're all alone, wife," he said.

"For now, it looks like we are, husband," she replied. She looked at the ring on her finger. "I guess my dastardly plan to make you fall hopelessly in love with me and marry me with no prenup has succeeded." She nudged Heath.

There had been a piece in an online gossip rag with an interview with Meredith saying that obviously MJ had been planning to "trap" Heath for a long time, and that wedding bells were probably not that far off.

"That Meredith, she can read me like a book," MJ added.

"Stop, please," Heath begged. "Don't even joke about that."

"Okay, I'm sorry," MJ answered.

"Kiss me," Heath requested.

"What if I say no?"

"You can't, we're married now."

"Oh ho, aren't we brave."

"Not brave, just horny."

"Well," MJ murmured, "this is your lucky night, because our daughters are having a slumber party in your back yard with their Uncle Archie and Aunt Puppy in the tent, so we'll have the bedroom to ourselves."

"Holy fuck, we should get up there right now," Heath said, kissing MJ's neck comfortably.

"No, first there's this huge party we have to attend. And it sounds like we're going to get a fuckton of gifts, because Uncle Archie told everyone about our nuptials."

Heath considered, then shrugged. "Okay, gifts first, shagging later."

"Sounds like a plan, husband."

"Count on it, wife."

The End

So there is a sequel to this, but unfortunately it's only available on Amazon (I'm sorry, their rules, not mine). It's called Another Slice of Cake and it picks up when the twins are a little older. There's plenty of drama and angst, and lots of sexy time also, of course 😉🔥. If you have the opportunity to read it, you should, and I hope you like it❣️