Katherine stood with Connor and John Clayton at the door of the coffee shop and watched the last of the die hard party hardy ones leave. With a deep sigh of happiness, Katherine and her two friends turned and headed to the table with the stack of empty pizza boxes and other containers. They grabbed trash bags and started to help Katherine clean up the remnants of all the food and drinks that had been brought by various individuals to share. The three of them worked in comfortable silence until everything had been put away or disposed of.

The two men could not help but notice the happy glow on Katherine’s face. The huge turnout of people to come help her get the coffee shop renovated had proved to be a wonderful ego boost for her. All the Clims had made it and Toni had taken some group pictures of them and Katherine. Connor chuckled to himself, remembering how Katherine somehow had got picked up and was tossed up and down repeatedly above the heads of all 18 of them. The feel of so many hands on various parts her body at one time had gotten her extremely flustered and she had to go hide in the bathroom for awhile afterwards. The Highlander had been tempted to go in there with her but he had decided that would have been a little too obvious. Not that they got much privacy anyway with the way Katherine tended to *leak* whenever they were together.

He had been pleased that Katherine and Carol seemed to hit it off OK. They were such opposites in personalities that he had been afraid they would not. Ev had enjoyed herself immensely and had happily bossed everyone around from the comfort of her recliner. It had been a treat to watch Rayden actually do *manual* labor. Connor thought the god of thunder and lightning had left with a new and deeper understanding of what makes humans tick after participating in the work party the *old-fashioned* way.

Doc Adams had made an appearance and had helped Katherine finish painting the kitchen. He had come out of the kitchen with a paint stripe down his nose, a flushed face and disheveled hair and clothing. Connor wasn’t quite sure what the two of them had been up to behind the closed kitchen door but whatever it was, it had made Katherine quite pleased with herself.

Even the ROG himself had showed up along with Fitz and Toni to help with the painting. Methos and Katherine had exchanged some verbal sparring with each other, but there had not seemed to be any *chemistry* between the two of them, which was surprising considering how fond she was of Doc. It would not had bothered Connor if she and Methos had hit if off, but the way it had worked out had made things a little easier for all concerned.

Toni had been everywhere with her camera, taking pictures of everyone working hard or hardly working, depending on the circumstances. It had amused Connor that she had seemed to focus on the ones who had stripped off their shirts. Katherine had met everyone of them and seemed to enjoy the company of each and every one of his dooplegangers.

It wasn’t just the male company that she had enjoyed. Katherine had seemed to have made some very close female friends as well and was delighted when they had showed up to help as well. Gwena and her had giggled conspiratorially in a corner for awhile. Whether they were talking about him or John Clayton or both had not been clear. Then Lilly and Joe had arrived and Katherine had joyfully greeted her. The two of them and little Nicky had disappeared into the shop’s little office for a while had come out hugging each other and glowing with happiness. To everyone’s surprise Lilly had relinquished Nicky to Katherine and Katherine had carried him around, crooning soft little songs to the baby until the Little Prince had decided he was hungry. She gave him back to his mother then but still feeling full of song she then had led everyone is a series of wauking type songs. The shop was soon filled with music as everyone responding by singing the chorus along with her. The songs became a little bawdy and risqué as the night went on, much to everyone’s enjoyment. More than one of the couples had left humming some of the tunes to themselves as they had walked out the door.

Once all the work had been finished and the supplies put up, Father Alec had changed into his robes and performed the ritual of blessing the store and it’s new manager. The way Katherine’s face had lit up with an inner light had made Connor glad he had thought of asking him to do it. Once the ceremony was over, the party had begun and had lasted well into the wee hours of the morning. Katherine had been easily talked into giving several impromptu performances on the new stage, much to everyone’s enjoyment.

The only note of concern had been the sudden departure of Suz in Lou’s arms. Katherine seemed to know what was going on but had not been willing to talk about it. She did not seem overly concerned so he assumed that she would be OK. Ev and Rayden had left fairly early as well. Katherine had given both of them a big hug before they had left. It had not escaped Connor’s notice that Katherine was becoming more comfortable with making actual physical contact with the god. It seemed that it would just be a matter of time before Rayden’s outrageous flirting with the petite immortal turned into something more. Especially now that Katherine was begin to respond with a little subtle flirting of her own.

When the last trash bag taken out, the three of them stood back and admired the work that had been accomplished that night. All that was needed was to stock everything up, to hang the Irish lace curtains she had chosen and to put the pictures she had ordered up. If all went well, it would just be a couple of days before she was completely ready to open. Before Toni had left, Katherine had given her an ad to run in the paper about the grand re-opening.

Katherine sighed happily again as she stood in the middle of her coffee shop with both Connor MacLeod’s and John Clayton’s strong arms loosely draped across her small shoulders. She reached out and put an arm around each one of their hips and drew them closer to her. Exchanging wordless glances over the top of her blonde head the two of them embraced her tightly. They stood that way for a few more moments before they turned off the lights and closed up the shop. Then arms crossed over her back, the two comrades escorted the exhausted but happy Katherine home with them.